You Don’t Say? - [Ecclesiastes 8]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

3 views

0 comments

00:01
If all the Bibles were gone, you had no electronic access to any Bible, no books, no
00:07
Bible books, how much of the Bible do you think you could reconstruct just with your own memory?
00:14
Starting with the books of the Bible and then how much do you know about each book and its theme and what it teaches, and then down to the exact verses.
00:21
Could you reconstruct one book of the Bible, five books of the Bible? How many do you have memorized? It's very interesting, back when television was first coming on scene, people were thinking, we are going to become illiterate, we're not going to read anymore because we'll sit in front of what the
00:39
British people called the telly and just absorb. And there was a man named Ray Bradbury and he wrote a book called
00:45
Fahrenheit 451. And if you had a book in your house in that novel, they would come and burn your house down if you had a book.
00:54
So there was a little secret club in Fahrenheit 451 and you could join that secret club if you had books memorized because they'd want to sit and learn.
01:06
And Guy Montag, the man in Fahrenheit 451, memorized two books and he was accepted into the club.
01:14
He memorized, any guesses? The book of Ecclesiastes and the book of Revelation.
01:23
How apropos to see the world rightly, sad realism, but see reality as it is, the book of Ecclesiastes, and then know who's coming back at the very end to proclaim victory and to come and to rule and reign righteously,
01:39
Ecclesiastes and the book of Revelation. And as you know, in this church, we're just marching through the
01:44
Bible verse by verse, whatever God says is true and we need to understand it, Old Testament, New Testament, wisdom literature, doctrinal things.
01:53
And we've been going through the book of Ecclesiastes. On one hand, I've been loving it. On the other hand, it's been so hard for me because it's a difficult book to study.
02:02
It's a difficult book to learn. It's also difficult to preach. And some of that difficulty is because there's themes that keep coming up over and over and over.
02:12
And so I thought I preached on enjoying God's good gifts when you can in chapter two, but then it's in chapter five, and then it's in chapter eight, and then it's in chapter nine.
02:22
I thought I talked about fearing God and keeping his commandments, and it's earlier in chapter three, and it's in chapter five, and it's in chapter eight, and it's in chapter 12, over and over, these themes of how to be wise.
02:34
So before we go to Ecclesiastes 8 today, I want you to turn to John chapter 6, please.
02:39
And I want you, dear Christian, to realize that it is hard to understand the book of Ecclesiastes with joy unless you remember
02:48
Jesus, the resurrected Savior. We're on this side of the resurrection, and I want you to read
02:54
Ecclesiastes through later truth, of course, that we have a Savior, and we have a
02:59
Redeemer, and we don't have to pay for our sins, and we can look at the world rightly, but still look at the world with hope.
03:07
Just like with funerals in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, there's a way to grieve, Ecclesiastes is the only book, and there's a way to grieve with hope, 1
03:17
Thessalonians chapter 4. That is, we can grieve knowing what the world is, but still have hope knowing who
03:24
Jesus is. Look at John chapter 6. I regularly, maybe almost every week, read this section before I come to the book of Ecclesiastes.
03:34
And, of course, the Lord Jesus knew of Ecclesiastes very well. John 6, 28.
03:41
Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them,
03:47
This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.
03:53
People talk about obeying the gospel. This is exactly what they're talking about, believing in whom He has sent.
03:59
So they said to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
04:05
Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness. As it is written, He gave bread to them from heaven to eat.
04:14
Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my
04:19
Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
04:27
They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus said, And here's my template for having joy in the book of Ecclesiastes.
04:36
I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
04:44
But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me
04:52
I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.
05:00
And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
05:08
This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the
05:13
Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise
05:20
Him up on the last day. And of course, when I think of Ecclesiastes, I think of the world, and you look at it, it's full of frustration.
05:30
I certainly don't see that in the Lord Jesus. There's vexation when you look at the world under the sun, the fallen world.
05:36
I certainly don't see that in the Lord Jesus. There's vanity in the world and nothing lasts.
05:42
I certainly don't see that in the Lord Jesus. The futility of life is not found in the Lord Jesus, it's found in life.
05:49
And so as I come to the book of Ecclesiastes, I say to myself, left to myself looking at the world in its fallen state, everything's just vanity.
05:59
But remembering who Jesus is, the one who came to give us life, that we might have it, what? More abundantly,
06:06
I can not only have a hope of eternal life on earth, but I can have some joy in this fallen world.
06:13
And with that introduction, please turn to Ecclesiastes 8. Ecclesiastes, the preacher.
06:19
What does the preacher preach? Well, in Ecclesiastes, he preaches wisdom. You want to be wise in this fallen world.
06:26
After all, we know that the Lord God is all wise and that he gives wisdom to his people.
06:32
And you think of Solomon, he had that opportunity to pray for something. And instead of strong armies, instead of money, instead of influence and fame, what does
06:40
Solomon pray for? Wisdom. And we know we can come to the Lord, James 1 .5.
06:47
God is a generous God, and especially when we're in a trial, we ask for wisdom and God gives it generously.
06:54
So we come to the passage today as Christian people. God, what do you have for us? We would like to be wise because you're a great
07:02
God and we'd like to honor you. We're not going to be wise to get into heaven. Oh, we slipped up and we were foolish.
07:07
We'll never make it. We realize we were foolish. And the fool says in his heart there's no
07:13
God. But we have been redeemed by the righteous one, the Lord Jesus, and out of gratitude we'd like to be wise.
07:20
Our sermon today in Ecclesiastes 8 is basically entitled,
07:26
What Does Wisdom Say? What does wisdom say? What does a wise person say who lives on this earth?
07:35
There's more evil than good. What do you say? As a matter of fact, that was something when we were kids in Nebraska.
07:44
And people would say sometimes when there would be something interesting said to us, we'd say, you don't say.
07:50
People don't talk that way anymore. You don't say. Oh, you know, the Patriots are going to lose some more games.
07:56
You don't say. They're going to win more games. You don't say. Who's the quarterback controversy?
08:02
You don't say. Well, what does wisdom say? The fool is going to say certain things that are the opposite.
08:08
What does a wise person say under the Spirit's inspiration? What does wisdom say?
08:15
If someone comes to you and says, the world is chaos, what do you say to them? If they say, there's so much sin.
08:23
What's going on in the world? I thought God was sovereign. What do you say to them? I mean, the problem of evil?
08:31
What do you say to them? We live in a culture where sin is called good, and good is called evil.
08:40
What do you say to that? Well, today we're going to look at, in chapter 8, we'll see how far we get.
08:49
What does wisdom teach us to say? Four things that you as a Christian, in response to God's saving work, should say.
08:58
And I say the word say because if you look, it's in verse 2, I say, or literally say.
09:07
And in verse 4, who may say to him, what are you doing? And there's this theme, what do you say?
09:13
What does wisdom say? So the outline today, what does wisdom say? It says four things in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8.
09:24
What does wisdom teach you to say? The first thing, congregation, you should say is this, king, rule wisely.
09:32
You should say to the king, rule wisely. King, rule wisely.
09:40
Now, if you take a look at this section, you're going to figure out real soon what I mean by that.
09:46
You should say, if you're ever Daniel, and you have access to the king, you should tell him to rule wisely.
09:53
If you're ever Joseph, and he asks you for advice, the king, the pharaoh asks you, you should say, rule wisely.
10:00
If you ever become the chief of staff for the White House, you should say to the president. How many people have that aspiration to be?
10:08
Now, you say, well, what does this have to do with anything? Well, it has everything to do with the text, and we'll talk about maybe a practical application of that.
10:14
But what's happened is this, chapter 7 ends with everybody sinful.
10:20
The universality of sin, sin affects the foolish, it infects the wise, and you know what?
10:27
It infects people who rule in the government. Didn't we just lose?
10:33
Didn't we just learn in the book of Daniel? Nebuchadnezzar was doing foolish things.
10:40
He paid for it on earth at least. And so sin has so permeated like leaven. It's so affected everything that wisdom says, we want rulers who rule justly, who rule righteously, who do the right thing.
10:56
How many people would rather be under a government form in the United States or wherever you live that's righteous and good and not self -seeking but wants the best for the population?
11:09
How many people would like to live under that? How many people live under that? No, I'm just kidding. We all have that desire because we're thinking about the ultimate king who
11:18
Jesus rules and reigns righteously. And so the preacher is saying to the person that has the ear of the king, you need to be telling him, judge righteously.
11:30
Let's see if that's true and see if you can see that in the text. But let's deal first with this transitionary verse, verse one, that leads us to our conclusion to say, king, rule righteously.
11:44
Verse one, here's some questions in light of what we just seen with depravity in the last chapter, in light of all the sin that affects people in the last chapter, who is like the wise?
11:57
Kind of few and far between. Kind of a rare deal. Kind of a rare commodity.
12:02
It's hard to find. And you're going to see a little glimpse here into things like Daniel and Joseph and dream interpretation.
12:10
And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine and the hardness of his face is changed.
12:21
He's moving from how sin affects to how do we deal with people who are in authority? How should those in authority even live?
12:29
And of course, I like it where it says there in the second part of verse one, wisdom makes a man's face shine.
12:38
Remember the Lord in Numbers 6. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may
12:43
His, what? Face frown at you. I try when
12:51
I'm preaching to smile when it's appropriate, but it's kind of like, well, you know, maybe I need to send a missionary to my face even because wise people have shining faces.
13:00
It's the kind of face where if you have a grandson and you see him during Thanksgiving for the first time and you walk over and you just frown.
13:15
How could you do that to me being in NICU for ten days? What are you doing, you little rascal?
13:22
No, what do you do? Your face opens up and it shines acceptance.
13:29
Wise people have joy in their heart and oftentimes it comes out. I have joy.
13:35
That's the shining face. It's obvious. He's got that inner joy.
13:41
Listen to Psalm 34. I sought the Lord and He answered me and He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to the
13:47
Lord are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.
13:56
When you have a happy face, lots of times in the Bible, it's a sign and testimony of God's favor.
14:05
Proverbs 15, a glad heart makes a cheerful face and wise faces shine.
14:16
Wise faces glow. Remember, Daniel wanted to obey God. I'm so glad we've been reading through Daniel back in chapter 1.
14:25
Remember, he wasn't going to eat the food that they were giving him and everything else, so he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.
14:32
That leader did. And at the end of ten days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food.
14:41
We could say it this way. Instead of being grumpy and down and sour and dour, they were shining in their facial expressions.
14:50
We move to verse 2. I say, the ESV says, literally say, keep the king's command because of God's oath to him.
15:03
So immediately, if you read nothing else, you'll probably think, oh, I better obey the king.
15:09
Should we obey government authorities until they do something that they're not supposed to do and we disobey in light of who
15:17
God is? Romans 13, it teaches that. 1 Peter 2, it teaches that. But this isn't talking about people that are under the king's command.
15:26
This is talking about the person who has the king's ear. Look down in verse 3.
15:33
Do not be hasty to go from his presence. If you're the king's counsel, you don't leave right away.
15:38
Do not take your stand in an evil cause for he does what he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme.
15:44
And who may say to him, including you, counselor, what are you doing? This is not talking about just we're generally underneath God's government system that he's ordained for us, although that's true.
15:56
There's a book written by G .K. Beale and Beale's book is entitled something like this,
16:02
Right Doctrines from Wrong Passages. That's interesting. Take a look at verse 2.
16:09
Maybe I can clear it up with this. Let me read it to you literally from the Hebrew. Say, keep the mouth of the king.
16:18
Keep the mouth of a king. I could say it this way. Protect the mouth of the king.
16:26
Some of you have ESV study Bibles and they're right. It says in the ESV study Bible, keep the mouth of the king.
16:32
The verb keep in this instance indicates not so much obeying as guarding, protecting, keeping watch over.
16:40
And so we have a counselor with a king and that counselor knows that the whole world is sinful including that king and he needs to be saying to that king regularly, be wise.
16:52
Why? It affects a lot of people. What they say goes. He can harm people. He can do good to people.
16:59
And this king, matter of fact, is under an oath. If we ever get a chance to be by kings, we should say to them, be wise.
17:08
You know what? For lots of reasons. Because they're sinful but also because of God's oath to him.
17:15
I don't think this has to do with an oath of a subject. I don't think this is a public vow that the king gave like in 1
17:24
Chronicles 29. I think this is ultimately, there's going to be the oath from God that there's going to be a
17:31
Davidic ruler who's going to come and rule and reign the promise of King David and his son ultimately, the
17:39
Lord Jesus. So there's these oaths. It involves verse 3. Do not be hasty to go from his presence.
17:47
I mean, when he makes a bad decision, it's not time to run. Do not take your stand in an evil cause for he does whatever he pleases.
17:55
Going from presence of somebody, I don't like you. I'm disloyal. I'm deserting. If you're going to give the king advice, you better stick in there and don't go
18:03
AWOL. That's his point. Why would you want to lose influence? The king needs help. Daniel didn't run when the king made bad decisions.
18:13
Of course, we want to wisely and in a godly way live under authority. It's not just for courtiers.
18:20
It's for us too. That's true. But the context here is kings need help. Verse 4.
18:26
The word of the king is supreme. This is why they need help. Who may say to him, what are you doing? I mean, the only person that can say that is
18:34
God. Remember King Nebuchadnezzar? I mean, kings have power.
18:40
And if you just kind of go backward in Jewish history, God was the king of Israel.
18:46
Hey, but we want a king. Everybody else has a king. The Philistines have kings.
18:51
The Moabites have kings. Everybody's got a king. We want kings. Samuel told all the words of the
19:00
Lord to the people who were asking for a king. These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He'll take your sons and appoint them to His chariots.
19:09
He'll appoint for Himself commanders of thousands. And He'll appoint some to plow His ground.
19:14
He'll take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He'll take the best of your fields and vineyards.
19:20
He'll take a tenth of your grain. He'll take your male servants and your female servants. He'll take a tenth of your flocks and you'll be
19:28
His slaves. And in that day you'll cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourself.
19:33
But the Lord will not answer on that day. 1 Samuel 8. But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said,
19:44
No, but there shall be a king over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
19:55
Pastor, what are you talking about? Kings have authority. And kings need to rule righteously.
20:02
Verse 5, Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing. You obey, you're fine. Obey the authorities, you're fine.
20:08
And a wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. Working through when to do the right thing, when to do the wrong thing.
20:17
There's a time, verse 6, and a way for everything. Sounds like Ecclesiastes 3, right? Although man's trouble lies heavy on him.
20:25
He does not know what is to be for who can tell him how it will be? Even the future we don't know.
20:33
No man has power to retain the Spirit. Certainly not a king. Or power over the day of death.
20:40
Certainly kings don't have that power. There's no discharge from war nor will wickedness deliver those who are given it.
20:47
Everybody dies and it is appointed for man once to die and kings to die and then judgment.
20:55
Where is Caligula? Where is Genghis Khan? Where is Henry VIII? They're all dead.
21:02
So I know what you're saying. And before I answer the question, I know what you're saying. Let's read verse 9.
21:08
All this I have observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun when man had power over man to his hurt.
21:21
Well, part of Bible study and preaching is just telling you what the text says. And the text says this, that even kings are affected by the fall and they need wisdom because they affect a lot of people.
21:32
And if we have to obey these kings, we want to do it under righteous rule. And you say, I know, Mike, that's fine and dandy, but I'm never going to be before a king.
21:42
Any application here? Application 1. It's in the Bible. You should know it. See, my face is shining.
21:51
Application 2. You don't have access to a king who needs to rule righteously and with wisdom, so what would be a good application from this?
22:02
What do you think would be a good practical thing? You're never going to have access. You can't be the chief of staff.
22:08
You can't get access to the White House. We say, okay, certainly we don't live underneath a theocracy where our president is sinless.
22:20
Our presidents, all of them, sin. What do you do living underneath a president and senators and other people who aren't ruling righteously to whatever degree?
22:30
What do you do? Answer? You pray for them. That's a great illustration.
22:36
Turn to 1 Timothy 2. That helps us. Okay, I learn a truth. Lord, thank you for teaching me the truth.
22:43
You love righteousness. You love rule. You're the king of kings. You're our ultimate king.
22:49
And what could I do for our government? Complain? Picket?
22:55
Throw stuff? I mean, I don't know. You could probably do a lot of stuff. Here's at the top of the list. If you want a king to rule righteously, 1
23:02
Timothy 2, this pastoral epistle, Paul is writing to Timothy and here's what he says to a pastor.
23:09
You know the passage and this is good for all of us to do when it comes to our leaders is to pray for them.
23:15
First of all, then, 1 Timothy 2, 1, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.
23:28
Boy, that's going to take me a long time. All people means all kinds of people.
23:34
What kind of all kinds of people? Keep reading. All kinds of people that are kings and all kinds of people who are in high positions.
23:44
That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
23:50
This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people.
23:57
Did He desire Judas to be saved? We can argue about the atonement anytime we want but the passage here is the same all kinds of people.
24:05
Do you know what? God wants people in government to be saved. He saves all kinds of people.
24:10
Look at verse 4 again. Who desires all kinds of people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. There's one
24:17
God. There's one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus who gave
24:24
Himself as a ransom for all these kind of people we're talking about. Kings and those who are in high positions. Which is the testimony given at the proper time.
24:32
What's the point? Kings are sinful. Leaders are sinful.
24:38
Prime ministers are sinful. Queens are sinful. And we need to make sure if we have access to them we help them rule righteously.
24:47
We give them advice. And if we don't have access to them which we don't. Maybe there's some government people in Washington DC who would hear this message a little bit differently.
24:57
We have to pray for them. Do you pray for your leaders? Do you pray for President Joe Biden?
25:06
I guess the answer is no to that one. Do you pray for your senators?
25:14
Your governor? God, would you just give them yes, a new heart. If you can save me, you can save them.
25:20
And would you give them wisdom? Would you help them to rule righteously? And judge properly?
25:27
See how counterintuitive this is? We want imprecatory psalms for some of those people.
25:33
And the fool says that. The fool says, hey, basically I'm better than they are and they should get what's coming to them.
25:41
No, no, I'm not better than they are and I didn't get what was coming for me and for me to live a quiet life too.
25:47
I had to just pray for them. So what does wisdom say in this kind of world?
25:53
You should say this if somebody asks you. The king asks you. You should say, king, rule righteously.
26:01
What else does wisdom teach us to say? We're just going verse by verse through the book of Ecclesiastes, the preacher.
26:09
Wisdom also teaches us to say, our father who art in heaven, verses 10 through 13.
26:17
You don't say. Yeah, I say. Wisdom says, say our father who art in heaven.
26:23
What in the world? Let's find out. Subtext, fear God. Wisdom says, fear God. Verse 10, 11, 12, and 13.
26:32
You probably see the sections, the paragraphs in your own Bible and you kind of know where I'm going. The first section is 1 to 9, second section is 10 to 13, etc.
26:41
When I saw the wicked buried, verse 10, they used to go in and out of the holy place and they were praised in the city.
26:48
They had done such things, such wicked things. This is vanity because a sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily.
26:56
The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know, the preacher says, that it will be well with those who, number one, fear
27:11
God because they, number two, fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked.
27:18
Neither will he prolong his days like a shadow because he does not, number three, fear before God.
27:27
You can see this coming back up again. This idea of fearing God. This impetus to holy living where you think, okay, fearing
27:39
God, not as a slave, not as an unbeliever, not in servile fear, but with respect and awe and admiration.
27:47
I have to fear God. He's different. He's transcendent. He's above me. He's great. And in light of that,
27:52
I ought to obey. I entitle this, say, our Father who art in heaven because, remember, when we are coming to God to fear
28:03
Him, and we are even coming to God to pray, why doesn't Jesus teach us to pray,
28:08
Our Father? And then the very next line, Your kingdom come. Why does Jesus teach us to pray,
28:14
Our Father in heaven? And what's the next section even? Does anybody know?
28:21
Hallowed be Thy name. We come to a Father, do we not? But He's a heavenly
28:27
Father. He's an otherly Father. He's a transcendent Father. And we have to be very careful that when it comes to fearing
28:34
God, yes, He's our Father, but He's a heavenly Father. He's a hallowed
28:40
Father. It is said in 1 Peter 1, something very similar to this, and we think, okay, even though our fear is not a cringing fear like the dog that gets kicked too many times we're adopting the family, there still is fear.
28:59
But as He who called you is holy, 1 Peter 1, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.
29:08
Talking about holy living, holy conduct, obeying God. And if you call, even if you call on Him as Father, which we do,
29:17
Our Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.
29:28
That's the Lord's prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Even though I call upon Him with great fatherly care and admiration, there's still this reverence and awe and spectacular exaltation of God that makes me want to obey.
29:45
Now let's go back to verse 10 and kind of pick it apart a little bit. I think you understand this one really simple.
29:51
Have you ever been to a funeral where the person was a really wicked person? What'd they say about him?
29:59
What'd they say about her? Now, of course, for the family to get up and give a eulogy, I understand that.
30:05
But how about if somebody is so ungodly and the pastor gets up there and preaches the person into heaven? The preacher, who sees that?
30:14
I saw the wicked buried. I went to a funeral. It's better to go to a house of mourning, right? They used to go in and out of the holy place.
30:21
Maybe that's the church where they had the place, most likely it has to do with Jerusalem or the temple.
30:28
They used to go in and out of the holy place and they were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.
30:35
The writer is saying, it seems to me on earth that even the wicked people get away with it.
30:43
They're praised. People are saying, oh, wonderful things about them on earth. And even you go to a funeral and they're saying good things about them.
30:53
Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but these people hated Jesus. These people hated
30:59
God. And they're praised. We love God and it's our desire to love God and we're shunned and we're exiles.
31:09
It reminds me of Asaph in Psalm 73. I was envious of the wicked. I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
31:16
They have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're not in trouble. They say, how can
31:24
God know? And then he says, until I went to the sanctuary of God, then
31:30
I discerned their end. Verse 11, because the sentence against an evil deed for those wicked people on earth and of course in our judicial system secondarily, because the sentence against an evil deed, all those wicked things that those people did, they were praised for.
31:48
They should have got justice executed against them. And even if need be executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.
31:59
Now, we see it in our culture. You do something wrong and you kill somebody, you sin, and now you're in jail for 40 years.
32:09
And people go, well you know what, I'm going to kill anyway because I'm going to still live my life. It'll just happen to be in jail.
32:15
If people kill someone and they were found guilty and they died right away, obviously people wouldn't do as many bad things.
32:24
And while that's true, the context here is the context. Verses 10 and 11 are going together. Other people watch these wicked folks and they are praised by people and therefore they're not getting judged on earth and it just makes other people want to disobey too.
32:42
They're seeming to make it out of this life. Unhinged.
32:50
P .S. just for you Christians, there's of course an ultimate judgment and we rest in that with God. People will say, where's the promise of His coming?
32:58
For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning. Do not overlook this fact,
33:05
Peter says, beloved, with the Lord one day is as a thousand years. A thousand years as one day.
33:12
The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise. I mean, sometimes justice is slow on earth, but the
33:17
Lord is not slow. He is patient toward you, not wishing any should perish, but all should reach repentance.
33:26
We know God is slow to anger, He's abounding in steadfast love and that love is supposed to drive people to repentance.
33:35
I read about a Cornell University professor and here's what he said. When you die, you're not going to be surprised because you're going to be completely dead.
33:47
Now if I find myself aware after I'm dead, I'm really going to be surprised. But at least
33:52
I'm going to hell where I don't have any of those grinning preachers from Sunday morning to annoy me. Here's his world view.
34:03
Life on earth, no judgment. There are no gods, no purposes, no goal -directed forces of any kind.
34:10
There's no life after death. When I die, I'm going to be dead. That's the end of me. There's no foundation for ethics, no meaning for life.
34:19
Since we know we're not going to live after we die, there's no reward or suffering in this world. You live and you die.
34:27
What a fool. What a fool! What helps us in all this?
34:35
Verse 12, Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know...
34:42
Do we not know, dear Christian, because of Scripture, we all know that it will be well with those who fear
34:47
God, not just on earth, but in heaven. They're living for today.
34:53
They're parting it up. And they excel. And they seem to have everything going their way.
35:00
And we suffer. And we're persecuted. And we're underneath the hand of the government. And Christians throughout the centuries martyred.
35:07
But we know it will be well with those who fear God. And could we not say with Spafford, it is well with my soul.
35:15
Everybody is not going to get away with it. Because they fear before Him.
35:24
One man calls fear of God for us awe and holy caution, realizing that God is great.
35:32
When you fear God, you're like, I probably should just walk circumspectly. I should walk properly.
35:37
I should obey rightly. Not to get saved. Not because I'm going to earn my salvation. But because I'm a child of God.
35:44
And there's conduct befitting an officer. And I want to walk in a manner worthy of my calling. And I want to fear God. The safe way is to fear
35:55
God. This is interesting to me.
36:03
Think Sinai. When all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, and the people were afraid, and they trembled, and they stood far off.
36:17
They said to Moses, you speak to us, we'll listen. But do not let God speak to us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.
36:33
Did you get that? Don't fear like you're going to lose your life, like you're going to somehow as a
36:38
Christian lose your salvation because you've sinned. Don't fear that way, because perfect love casts out what?
36:44
Fear. But we're still told to fear God. And he says, don't fear, God's going to test you that the fear of Him may be before you.
36:52
So that you might walk in a manner worthy, that you might walk circumspectly, that you might think, I have a great
36:57
God. Yes, He's my Father, but He's in heaven and His name is to be hallowed. And I think I ought to walk in His presence with fear and with godliness and with holiness.
37:09
Isaiah 8, for the Lord spoke thus to me with His strong hand upon me and warned me not to walk in the way of His people, saying, do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
37:25
But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy, let Him be your fear.
37:31
You don't run around like a bunch of pagans fearing God, that He's this angry
37:36
God and is going to judge because you're the people of God. Just like with Abraham, you're justified by faith as an ungodly person.
37:42
That can never change. No condemnation. But now our fear is no longer that. It's a fear that says, walk cautiously because God is so great.
37:55
Do you see chapter 11, verse 9? Does the teacher, does the preacher, does the book believe in future judgment?
38:04
Ecclesiastes 11, 9, Rejoice, O man, in your youth. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.
38:11
Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things
38:17
God will bring you into judgment. Of course there's going to be a future judgment.
38:23
By the way, Christian, how will you fare? Let's fast forward to judgment day for you.
38:29
What's it going to be like for you, Christian, on judgment day? I mean, every word that you've ever uttered is going to be judged.
38:39
Matthew 12 says it. What am I going to do? Judgment day.
38:47
What's judgment day for a Christian? I already know what judgment day is. And by the way, I'll tell you what the Scripture says.
38:53
Because what God has done is He's taken judgment day for the Christian and told us what that judgment will be right now in time.
39:01
Wouldn't you like to know what God's going to say on judgment day? Because I'm like, oh, it's going to be bad.
39:07
Judgment day. Close your eyes and now you meet the Lord face to face and He's a God who's to be feared and He's holy and He's awesome and He's righteous and I know this week
39:18
I didn't love my wife like I was supposed to. I didn't do this, I didn't do that. And it's like, huh, what will your judgment day be?
39:28
Well, I'll tell you this, it won't be based on your sanctification. Praise God. Here's judgment day for every
39:36
Christian. Told to you now in time so that you don't have to worry.
39:43
So that you don't have to fret. So you don't have to spend all your time trying to make sure you're right with God. Because He doesn't need your good works.
39:51
Other people do. The people that serve others the most are those that realize on judgment day
39:58
I already know what I'm going to hear because of what happened to Jesus on the cross. Jesus was judged.
40:04
No judgment for me. And Romans 8 .1 says what? There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
40:13
That's your judgment day. You're not going to be judged for any of your sin. Did you know that? So now you're free to fear
40:19
God in the way that says I'm just going to walk circumspectly now but I'm not walking on eggshells because if I sin
40:26
I'm going to lose my salvation and start up all over again. When you sin say to yourself you're foolish you're sinful
40:33
Lord please grant me repentance I'm sorry and then look back to the Lord to the one whom you're serving.
40:39
When we used to live on the lake over in Sterling Lake I loved that first freeze of the lake and it was so thin the ice you could see the fish underneath swimming.
40:53
But the problem was this I could put a kid on there a child I always remember skating
41:00
Kim would be gone and I think I'm going to make sure I do something with the children today not just sit in the house with some kind of dad who can't get out of the house because the kids are there.
41:08
I'd say we're skating today and so I'd say okay Gracie skates on Maddie skates on Luke skates on Haley had hers about on but fix them getting mine on and Gracie says
41:19
I'm done. No you're not you keep skating you're not done. I pushed Gracie she could go right over the ice and she could see the fish under no problem.
41:28
I got on there and when I stopped I started sinking in. I could hear that crunch. Now the good news is it wasn't very deep and we could live we were not out in Mariana's Trench or anything.
41:41
I had to keep going otherwise I was going to fall in. I was going to break through the glass because it's too thin.
41:48
How would you like to live your life that way? But sadly we do it too we do it to our spouses.
41:57
You do what I want you to do I show love to you you don't do what we want you to do I don't show love to you.
42:03
Guilty as charged. But God's different you see.
42:09
God is to be feared in a reverential way. He is our Heavenly Father yes Father and I want you to know if you're a
42:15
Christian no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. You're not going to fall through. So now spend all your time instead of navel gazing am
42:23
I a Christian or not serving other people? That's the key to this whole thing.
42:33
Remember the thief on the cross? He with the other thief were saying bad things about Jesus and then it says in verse 39 of Luke 23 one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying are you not the
42:46
Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him saying do you not fear God since you're under the same sentence of condemnation?
42:54
And if you're not a Christian today that's the kind of fear you ought to be under.
43:01
You ought to be thinking I'm going to die one day. Has not COVID told us people die regularly and often?
43:07
Some think even mortality rates are up over 15 % from last year and two years ago and three years ago.
43:14
Every one of us is going to die. And if you're not a Christian it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
43:25
God. And you ought to be so afraid you can't sleep at night. But there's hope because as many of us here know we heard the gospel and we realized finally by the
43:37
Spirit's work yes that's true I am a sinner and I have broken God's law and the wages of sin is death but there's a free gift.
43:45
Eternal life is for those not who clean up their life not who figure it all out but simply know about who
43:52
Jesus is. Simply say that's true in their hearts and say I trust
43:58
Him. Like John chapter 6 to lead into all of this Ecclesiastes Jesus is the one who can satisfy the soul and give hope of eternal life and you can know
44:08
Him by faith. So what do you say?
44:14
If you had two books in all the world to memorize would one be Ecclesiastes? Let's pray.
44:21
Thank you Father for your word. We realize that the fear that we have of you is a
44:28
God -given fear. We're not better than anyone else and I do pray for our President for our
44:34
Vice President for the Senators those in Congress. We want them to be saved and some are.
44:40
Thank you for that. And since we can't have access to their ear would you help them to rule wisely?
44:47
Would you give them a generous dose of righteous insight? Even as an unbeliever they can have common grace enough to know right and wrong and good and evil.
44:58
Would you help them? You can just turn anybody's heart any way you wish. People that think it's fine to slaughter an infant in the womb to now protect.
45:07
It happens all the time. Would you do those kinds of things Father in our government so that we might live a quiet life and Godly in this age?
45:15
And Father would you help us to remember we're not better than anyone else because we are sinners saved by you. And it took
45:21
Jesus' death to rescue us we were that bad. But now that we're rescued we praise you.
45:26
I praise you on behalf of this congregation. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. And when the devil comes to say we sin and we lose our salvation there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because of you
45:38
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Help us to live in light of what we know in Jesus' name. Amen.