I'm not sure what I'm doing here.
I'm not sure what I'm doing.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure what I'm doing.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.
Thank you for watching.
Come for a scent
Sing to Calvary's high
There's wonderful
Power in the blood
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the blood
Of the land
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the precious
Blood of the land
Would you be brighter
Much brighter than snow
There's power in the blood
Power in the blood
Sing to Calvary's high
There's wonderful
Power in the blood
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the blood
Of the land
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the precious
Blood of the land
Would you do service
For Jesus your king
There's power in the blood
Power in the blood
Would you live daily
With his praises to sing
There's wonderful
Power in the blood
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the blood
Of the land
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the blood
Of the land
There is power
Power
Under working power
In the precious
Blood of the land
Alright
Great singing. Thank you so much for being here this evening
This is Chris Works Baptist Church
If you did not get a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand
And one of the ushers can get one for you
Some important information on the bulletin there
Our next song will be song number 15
Lead me to Calvary if you want to get that ready
In your songbooks, song number 15
Our services are as follows
Sunday morning is at 1030
Sunday evening is at 5pm
And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock
And we continue this evening with the book of Ecclesiastes
And just as a reminder
Of course we are a family integrated church
And so infants and children
Are always welcome in the service
But for your convenience we do have mother baby rooms
Located in the back of the building
Not outside the building
But in the back of the building
And changing tables are available in those rooms for you as well
And there will be speakers
And screens there
So you can watch and listen to the preaching
You see the Sony times and teams
The list of expecting mothers
Please continue to pray for them
You see those important reminders there
And some of the upcoming church events
This Saturday April 17th
At 11am
Is the first works music training
If you participate in the orchestra
If you're a song leader, if you're a piano player
It is mandatory that you go to that training
I've got some important information for you
But we're going to have lunch for you at 11 o'clock
And training shortly thereafter
And so I believe brother Ulysses Hernandez
Has contacted a lot of you already
And so looking forward to seeing you all there
On Saturday here in the building
On Saturday at 11am
And then on Saturday April 24th
There's going to be a ladies spring activity
It's going to be a tea party
And I've got some information here
Regarding that, our tea
Will be held on April 24th
Tea will be served at 1pm
Please arrive
15 minutes early to be seated
Come dressed in your afternoon
Tea dress
And fancy hat for a fancy afternoon
Of fun and food
Obviously this is for ladies
Guys we don't do all that stuff
You must RSVP by Tuesday April 20th
To reserve a seat
And this is required by the China
Company?
Is that correct?
Ladies must know what that's about
Why are you even worried about that? Hike
Are you even going?
No Asian hate
Sorry
We cannot change the RSVP count
After April 20th
RSVPs will not get a fancy tea
Seating
I believe
RSVP to Mrs. Mejia
Are on the sign up sheet at the Usher station
So make sure you sign up back there
Tea is for the ladies and girls
Families who don't have a babysitter
Are welcome to bring other little ones
But we will not have a fancy place
Seating for them
That's a lot of information for a ladies
Activity for guys
We're going to eat some meat
But it's okay for ladies to do this
We want them to be happy and have a good time
And so
My mouth is dry just from reading all that
All those announcements
So make sure you don't miss out on that
If you have any questions about that
Although I don't know how you can have more questions
I gave you all the information you need
You can see my wife after the service
But make sure you sign up in the back
For the ladies tea party
On April 24th
And then there will be a ladies prayer meeting on Friday
April 30th
And then the big thing we got going on in our church
Is brother Marcos
Miss Ariel's wedding
On Saturday May 1st
Now brother Marcos
He's in the PA room right now
It's at 3 right?
3pm
This is going to be awkward
Is the whole church invited?
Yeah
He's like they are now
If you have any questions about that
You can see him
Looking forward to seeing you guys I think
On May 1st at 3pm
And so congratulations
To them too
It's two weeks
These are going to be the longest two weeks of his life
And so pray for him
And then Sunday May 2nd
We're going to be celebrating the
May birthdays
We'll have a birthday breakfast for all of those who have
A birthday in May
But of course everyone is able to participate in that
And then Sunday May 9th
We'll have a special Mother's Day service
We'll have a gift for all the mothers
So invite your mom, invite your aunts
Invite someone's mom to that service
It'll be geared towards mothers
And we'll have a gift for everyone
For all the mothers who come on that day
Quiet time resumes from 3pm to 4.15
In the main auditorium and mother baby room
And no food or drink allowed
In the main auditorium except for water and coffee
And of course please silence your phones during the preaching
So as to not be a distraction
During the service
We have a prayer sheet
Of course on Thursdays we started to have a prayer sheet
And we'll have brother Maury come up in just a bit
But let me just go over this with you
Some things to keep in prayer
Obviously take this home
Use this on your own prayer time
Just a couple things to mention here
Pray for God's favor upon our church
Pray for a church van that we can use for
Missions, trips and trips that are a little further away
Pray for the new people in our church
A lot of new people came for the Easter service
And so that was exciting to see that
They returned the following Sunday
Which is great and I know a lot of them
Actually are going to get baptized in a couple weeks
And so it's exciting
But please pray for them
Pray for their spiritual growth and help them
To assimilate to our church
And then pray for the innocent in Omani
Of course Omani is in turmoil right now
Over all the wickedness
If you can pray for all the innocent that are there
And we have church members who are actually living in Omani
They live in Omani
So pray for them as well
Pray for that
You see the church families there
Pray for Ms. Franciscini's mom's health
Salvation of eldest son and former husband
And then if you can see there
At the very bottom to the right
Pray for Angela and Claire Lemons health
And to come home from the hospital
And so any updates on that for the mooring?
Okay, so please pray for Claire
And pray that all would go well
That they would come home soon
And so keep them in prayer
And then the church of the month
We're going to continue to pray for Mountain Baptist Church
Pastor Jason Robinson
For his newborn
For the sowing of their protection and the success of the church
If you have a prayer request that you'd like to be put on the bulletin here
All you have to do is put it at the bottom of the sheet
Tear that off
And throw it into the offering plate
And we'll make sure that it gets on there for the following week
And that's pretty much it for the mooring
Why don't you come on up and pray over the list here
If you wouldn't mind
Bow in your heads
For a word of prayer
Dear Lord thank you for allowing us to be able to come to church
Thank you for just giving us a great church that we have
And Lord we pray that we can put down distractions
From our minds so that we can
Just listen and have hearts that are open
To the word
To your word
And Lord we just want to pray for
Your favor on our church
We pray that you bless our church
In the efforts that we're doing in the first works
And all the activities that we're doing here
Lord we want to pray for a church van
We pray that you supply the need
For a van for our church
So that we are able to do greater works
And be able to do
Mission trips to other places
And so many events Lord
We want to pray for the new people
The people that came to our church
If it's from Easter or from any other events
Lord we pray that they
Not only do they come to church and get saved
But also that they come to church
Lord we want to pray for the people that are
Plugged in and assimilated into the church
And adopting some of our culture here Lord
And then Lord we also want to pray for the innocent
In Amonti, there's people in Amonti that
Aren't wicked and
Lord we just pray that you can protect them
And ultimately get a soul winner to them
So that they are able to get saved
And be saved out of that
Wicked place that's going to hell
In a hand basket Lord
Lord we also want to pray for
Mrs. Franscini's mom's health
Lord we pray that you have your hand of healing
Over her and the salvation
For her oldest son
And her former husband Lord
Lord we just pray that
That their hearts are
Open to the gospel and that they can ultimately
Get saved Lord
Lord we also want to pray for my wife
And Angela and Claire
Lord we just pray that they can come home
And Lord we just pray that
There's a hand of healing over her
And over specifically Claire
And Lord we also just pray that
She's able to meet all the qualifications
To be able to go home
And finally Lord we want to pray for
Mountain Baptist Church
Lord we want to pray for
Pastor Jason Robinson that
He continues doing a great work for you
He's a great pastor, great man of God Lord
And Lord we just pray that
We pray for his newborn, we pray for his
Soul winning efforts for his church
We pray that you bless his church and bless
All the aspects of his church Lord
And then we also want to pray for protection
And ultimately for his success Lord
Lord thank you for just giving us
The ability to be able to have a church to go to
And we pray that we're able to
Listen intently to the word of God
We pray this in the name of the name, Amen
Alright if you wouldn't mind
Turning your Bibles to Psalm 15
Lead me to Calvary
Song number 15 lead me to Calvary
Song 15 1 5
Lead me to Calvary
All together nice and loud
On that first verse
King of my life
I crown thee now
Mine shall the glory be
Lest I forget
My Lord, crown, crown
Lead me to Calvary
Lest I forget
Gethsemane
Lest I forget
Thy agony
Lest I forget
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
Lest I forget
Calvary
Show me the room
Where Thou was made
In room for death
When
Angels and rogues
Of light or rain
Are any
Lost outside
Lest I forget
Gethsemane
Lest I forget
Thy agony
Lest I forget
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
Lest I forget
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
Lead me like
Mary through the blue
Come with a gift to me
Show to me
Thou the
Empty tomb
Lead me to Calvary
Lest I forget
Gethsemane
Lest I forget
Thy agony
Lest I forget
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
Lord to bear
Daily
High cost for me
Give me
Thy love of grief
To share
Thou has
Worn all for me
Lest I forget
Gethsemane
Lest I forget
Thy agony
Lest I forget
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
To share
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
To share
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
To share
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
To share
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
To share
Thy love for me
Lead me to Calvary
May I be willing
To share
Good evening, we're continuing our study of Ecclesiastes chapter 3
and the chapter reads
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven
A time to be born and a time to die
A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted
A time to kill and a time to heal
A time to break down and a time to build up
A time to weep and a time to laugh
A time to mourn and a time to dance
A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing
A time to get and a time to lose
A time to keep and a time to cast away
A time to rend and a time to sew
A time to keep silence and a time to speak
A time to love and a time to hate
A time of war and a time of peace
What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it
He hath made everything beautiful in his time
He hath set the world in their heart
So that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end
I know that there is no good in them
But for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life
And also that every man should eat and drink
And enjoy the good of all his labor
It is the gift of God
I know that whatsoever God doeth
It shall be forever
Nothing can be put to it
Nor anything taken from it
And God doeth it
That men should fear before him
That which hath been is now
And that which is to be hath already been
And God required it that which is past
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment
That wickedness was there
And the place of righteousness that iniquity was there
I said in mine heart
God shall judge the righteous and the wicked
For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men
That God might manifest them
And that they might see that they themselves are beasts
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts
Even one thing befalleth them
As the one dieth so dieth the other
Yea they have all one breath
So that a man hath no preeminence above a beast
For all is vanity
And all go unto one place
All are of the dust and all turn to dust again
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward
And the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth
Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better
Than that a man should rejoice in his own works
For that is his portion
For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him
We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible, dear God, for our wonderful church
We thank you for our pastor and we ask that you please bless him with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word this evening
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen
Amen
Okay, we're continuing this evening with the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3
And this is actually part 2
We went over chapter 3 last week
But we didn't get a chance to finish
I didn't get a chance to finish the chapter
And so we're going to do that tonight
Now I'm going to give you, I'm going to review some of the points that I gave from last week
But I'm also going to give you some bonus points
Some things that I discovered actually after the service
When the man and I were having a little pow wow
We're talking about doctrine, we're talking about the Bible
And actually came to understand a couple things, other things in the book of Ecclesiastes
That I want to share with you this evening
And so last week we talked about verses 1 through 10 being the balance of life
And he gives these kinds of things to us
Last week we talked about verses 1 through 10 being the balance of life
And he gives these contrasting statements
There's a time to be born and a time to die
And he says in verse number 1
To everything there is a season
And a time to every purpose under the heaven
He's basically saying look
There's always a time to do everything that is necessary to accomplish
Obviously if there's a time to be born and a time to die
And everything in between
There's a time and a season for everything that's found
Even between those two spectrums right there
Now verse number 5 is the part that I actually spent a lot of time on
And I want to go over that once again
Because there's a couple layers of truth
There's a couple nuggets of truth
That I want to pull out from here
Look at verse number 5
It says a time to cast away stones
And a time to gather stones together
A time to embrace
And a time to refrain from embracing
Go to Leviticus chapter 14
We're going to look at that portion of scripture again
A time to cast away stones
And a time to gather stones together
Now what is that specifically referring to
Look at verse 33 of Leviticus chapter 14
It says in verse 33
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron
Saying
When ye be coming to the land of Canaan
Which I give to you for a possession
And I put the plague of leprosy
In a house of the land of your possession
And he that owneth the house shall come
And tell the priest saying
It seemeth to me there is as it were
A plague in the house
Then the priest shall command
That they empty the house before the priest
Go into it to see the plague
That all that is in the house be not made unclean
And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house
And he shall look on the plague
And behold that the plague be in the walls of the house
With hollow strakes
Greenish or reddish which is in sight
Or lower than the wall
Then the priest shall go out of the house
To the door of the house and shut up the house
Seven days
And the priest shall come again the seventh day
And the priest shall look and behold if the plague be spread in the walls of the house
Then the priest shall command that they
Take away the stones
In which the plague is
And they shall cast them into an unclean place
Without the city
So what do we see here?
God is basically giving some instructions
Regarding sanitation
And in this regard in regards to leprosy
Or an uncleanness that they find
Within the house
So you have someone who is an owner of a building
He starts noticing that there is potential leprosy
In the house
He calls to the priest, the priest comes
And he assesses the damage so to speak
And then he sees well if there is hollow strakes
It's greenish or reddish
What you need to do is vacate the house
For a total of seven days
It's a two fold reason why
He would have them do that
Number one is obviously for the safety of the occupants
You know you want them getting leprosy
And spreading that to their family members
Or anybody else in the camp
But the second reason is to see if this leprosy
Is a fretting plague
It's a fretting leprosy
In other words they want to see if this leprosy
Is going to spread any further
If it's going to corrode into the stones
If it's going to spread throughout the walls
And if that's the case
Then at that point they need to just replace the stones
So the priest comes back
After seven days
He sees that it's a fretting leprosy
He sees that it's kind of spreading all over the walls
And so he tells them
Now you have to take those same stones
Remove them and take them out of the city
Into an unclean place
But then he says in verse 41
He shall cause the house to be scraped
Within a roundabout
And they shall pour out the dust
That they scrape off without the city
Into an unclean place
This is a pretty thorough job
So aside from the actual stones
That have leprosy
He's saying now I want you to scrape the entire house
Scrape it off, sand it down
And all the dust that you collect
From that scraping
Take that and take it out of the city
It's a very thorough job that he wants them to do
Verse 42 says
And they shall take other stones
And put them in the place of those stones
And he shall take other mortar
And shall place the house
So he's basically saying
Sometimes you just need to replace the stones
For the walls
And this is what Ecclesiastes 3 is talking about
When he says there's a time
To cast away stones
The time to do that
Is when there's sin in the house
Of that occupant
If there is leprosy
If there's a plague
Then it's time to replace
It's time to remodel basically right
It's time to switch out the stones
And replace it with something else
Now go with me if you want to 1 Peter chapter 2
1 Peter chapter 2
This is all review here
Now a couple things here
The first thing that we can gather from this
Is the fact that
When he says there's a time to cast away stones
And a time to gather stones
For us it's like well yeah that makes a lot of sense
You know
Gotta replace it gotta replace it
But you gotta think about this
People who owned houses in those days
Probably their father built that house
Their great grandfather
And so it has some emotional tie to them
And so you can see how hard
It would be for someone
To basically renovate their house
And kind of like tear down those walls
And put in new stones
If they have like an emotional tie to it
And what God is saying is this
It doesn't matter if you have an emotional tie
To some sort of inanimate object because of your family
If it's gotta go it's gotta go
Now the application that we can make to that
Is that when people get saved
You know Catholics for example
They might hold on to little idols
Don't they
You know the Virgin Mary
They got this little saint that their great grandmother gave them
They don't even worship it
They don't worship the idols
They don't worship the Virgin Mary
But it's because it has sentimental value
But here's the thing
It has hollow strikes
Here's the thing it's greenish and reddish
Here's the thing it's a plague
Here's the thing it's time to get rid of it
Why? Because of the fact that the priest
Is assessing what you have and he's saying
Hey it's time to replace the stones
Okay
You say well if I'm supposed to replace
The little saint what do I replace it with
Well you've already replaced them with Jesus
The only thing is you don't need an image
Christ in us
The hope of glory the Bible tells us
And so that's probably one of the
Immediate applications that we can get to this
There's a time to cast away stones
There's a time to gather them
And the time to cast them away is when there's a fretting
Leprosy
That is not going away
It's time to cast it out and gather
New stones
1 Peter chapter 2 look at verse number 4
It says to whom coming
As unto a living stone
Disallowed indeed of men
But chosen of God and precious
Ye also
As lively stones
Are built up a spiritual house
And holy priesthood
To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
To God by Jesus Christ
Now the secondary application the second layer
That we can gather from this
Is the fact that you know in the New Testament
You have the house of God
And the house of God
Is made up of believers
Which are known as
Lively stones according to this portion of scripture
You know they're the members of the body of Christ
And the members of the body of Christ
Make up local New Testament
Churches, spiritual houses
Right
The Bible tells us
Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell
Shall not prevail against it. God is the one who builds the church
Right
How does he build it?
By bringing people to the house of God
Now how do we apply this
To what we just saw in Leviticus 14 in Ecclesiastes chapter 3
Well sometimes
Lively stones
Also known as believers
Get sin in their life
Because leprosy is a picture of sin
Leprosy is a picture of iniquity
It's a picture of transgression
And here's the thing
You know the priest which is God
Our high priest Jesus Christ
Comes and he sees
That there is a leprosy
Within that stone
That believer
And here's the thing
That person has to repent
So when they come to church
We find out that they're involved according to 1 Corinthians chapter 5
They're involved in railings
They're involved in drunkenness or fornication
They have the leprosy of extortion
They have the leprosy of drunkenness
They have the leprosy of fornication
They have the leprosy of these specific sins mentioned
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5
What are we to do?
We kind of give them a grace period of 7 days don't we?
To see if it's a fretting leprosy
What's a fretting leprosy?
It's a stone
It's a lively stone that's not willing to get right with God
It's not willing to repent
Right?
And what does God tell us?
When you have people like this in the church
Committing fornication
They're involved in drunkenness
They're involved in extortion, idolatry
The Bible tells us to deliver such a wanton
To save them from the destruction of the flesh
He says put away from among yourselves
That wicked person
What are you supposed to do? Cast it out
And so this is a picture of church discipline
Where someone is involved in this sin
And we don't immediately come
And remove that stone
And just throw it out
What do we do? We give it a grace period of 7 days
Right?
We tell that person, hey this is wrong
You may not have known it was wrong
Because according to the Bible, people who commit these things
Are basically qualified for excommunication in our church
But you may not have known, but now you know
So now you have to either move out
Move out of your girlfriend's house
Or have her move out of your house
Or you guys have to separate
And not be together physically unless you want to marry her
Then that's a different story
Whatever it is, you have to repent
You can't be committing fornication coming to the house of God
Come back 7 days later and they're just like
No
Like I want to stay with my girlfriend
I want to stay with my boyfriend
I want to keep committing this
What is that? That's a fretting leprosy
And here's the thing
What happens if they just permitted that stone
To stay in the walls of that house?
It would spread
Right?
And where would it spread? To other stones
And you know what?
That's the same thing when it comes to sin in the house of God
If you don't nip it at the bud
You know what's going to happen?
A little leaven, the Bible says
Leaven it to hold up
Sin can spread, infect others
And before you know it
The local church is a cesspool
Of sin
Because it's not being cast out
You understand?
Now here's the thing is
A lot of people will criticize that and be like
You're not going to grow a church like that
How are you going to get people to come to church if you're throwing them out?
Well let me just say this first and foremost
This doesn't happen like every week
This happens every month
This happens maybe, maybe a few times a year
Maybe
For the most part it doesn't happen very often
Because what happens is
Because in our church I preach on these things from the pulpit
People hear about it and they're like
Oh man, I got to get married
Or oh man I got to break up with my girlfriend
Or marry her
Or break up with my boyfriend or we need to get married
Or I got to stop drinking, I got to stop smoking weed
I got to stop doing drugs because if not I'm going to get thrown out
And I like this church and I want to get thrown out
Because it's shameful to be thrown out
And two, I like this church
And so they no longer fret
In that sin of leprosy
In that sin of fornication
What do they do? They get right with God
And then they stay here and then we just forgive and forget
And we move on
Which is great, which is what we want
We're not just trying to see how many people we can throw out
You know what I mean?
I can't wait to throw the next person out
That's not the attitude that we have
The attitude that we have is let's restore people
And obviously if they're involved in a specific sin
We need to confront them about that
And again
The sins that we're talking about are the sins of 1 Corinthians 5
Everyone's a sinner, no one's perfect
But there is a difference between
Someone who's committing fornication
And someone who's angry with their brother in their heart
So to speak
They're not really telling anybody
Obviously we're not trying to be thought polices here
Where we know what everyone thinks because we don't
We're talking about outward sins
That are obviously known
And the Bible tells us that we need to deal
With those things
And so people say, well how are you going to grow a church like that?
Well it says in Ecclesiastes 3
There's a time to cast away stones
And there's a time to gather stones
So
As long as we're obeying God's mandate
To keep the church pure
And we're obeying God's mandate to preach the gospel
To preach the word of God
People are going to come to church
New stones will be added
To the house of God
You know, if I tear long
That thou mayest know how the oddest to behave thyself
In the house of God which is the church of the living God
The pillar and ground of truth
More stones shall be added to the church
More people will get saved
More people will be baptized
More people will get converted
And that is the cycle of things
So you see how the lively stone
Can be likened unto that stone in that wall
In Leviticus chapter 14
And this is why it actually brings a new meaning
To Matthew chapter 3
It said
Think not to say within yourselves
We have Abraham to our father
For God is able of these stones
To raise up children
Unto Abraham
Now we often thought about that verse to think
Well the inanimate object of a stone
Which obviously God is able
But what he could be saying is
God can take these Gentiles
And raise up seed unto Abraham
And isn't it interesting that we're the lively stones
And we are the seed of Abraham
The believer is the seed of Abraham
Pretty cool huh?
Go to Hebrew chapter 13
Hebrew chapter number 13 if you would
So the first layer that we see
Of this verse
Is talking about that which
Getting rid of that which
Is sinful but you might have an emotional
Attachment to
The second layer is we see
A New Testament principle
Of church discipline
And how we need to cast out
A new stone that is infected with leprosy
Lest it fret and spread into the church
And we need to gather new stones
But also
This is also referring to
Jesus Christ
Right?
Because Jesus the Bible says
Is the chief corner stone
And in fact in verse number 6 of
First Peter you don't have to turn there
You're in Hebrew chapter 13
It says wherefore also it is contained in the scripture
Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone
Elect precious
And he that believeth on him
Shall not be confounded
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious
But unto them which be disobedient
The stone which the builders disallowed
The same is made the head of
The corner
So we see that Jesus Christ
Is the chief corner stone
Right?
And this is a perfect example
Of what we see in Ecclesiastes 3
And even Leviticus 14
Well again the stone
That makes up the wall of a household
If it has leprosy
It's to be cast out
Well the Bible tells us
That Jesus Christ bore
Our own sins and his own body on the tree
The Bible says that he hath made them
To be sin who knew no sin
That we might be made the righteousness
Of God in him
You know he was tempted in all
Points like as we are yet without sin
He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh
But he committed no sin but what did he do
He took the sins of the whole world
Upon himself
He became that stone
That was filled with leprosy
Not his own but our leprosy
Okay
Now here's the thing
What was the instruction?
Are you supposed to take that stone and cast it out
Well what does the Bible say? He came into his own
And his own received him not
The Bible says that the stone which the
Builders rejected
Cast out right
The same has become the head of the corner
And in fact in Acts chapter 4
It says the stone
Which the builders set at
Not
And if you read Spanish
You read that in the Spanish New Testament
You'll see that it actually says
La piedra reprobada
La reprobada kind of rings a bell
Does it not? It means reprobate
Now it doesn't mean reprobate concern
In the faith
The reprobate as in rejected
Because you know the Bible defines what reprobate means
In Jeremiah chapter 6
Where it says reprobate silver shall men
Call them for the Lord has rejected them
So it actually says that in Acts chapter 4
That he is like the rejected rock
Okay the reprobate rock
The people who they
The person who was rejected
By the children of Israel
Now look at Hebrews chapter 13
Verse number 12
When the stone was taken
Was it just supposed to be put outside the house?
No
It was supposed to be put outside of the city
Unto an unclean place
Look at Hebrews 13 verse 12
Wherefore Jesus also
That he might sanctify the people with his own blood
Suffered without the gate
Let us go forth therefore unto him
Without the camp
Bearing his reproach
So after he bore the sins of the whole world
Upon his own body
Before that he is led unto
The rock of a skull known as Calvary
He is crucified
He is being placed outside of the gate
Outside of the camp
Just as the rock that is rejected
Is placed outside of the city
Unto an unclean place
Pretty amazing little parallel there
Right?
Go to John chapter 11 if you would
John chapter 11
He was that stone which the builders rejected
Because he bore the sins of the whole world
You know he is the propitiation
For our sins and not for ours only
But also for the sins of the whole world
He hath made them to be sin who knew no sin
That we might be made the righteousness
Of God in him
Look at John chapter 11
And verse number 50
Ecclesiastes 3 says
There is a time to cast away stones
But there is also a time to gather stones
As well
And when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross
And he resurrected and he ascended into heaven
Before he did that
He let them know that he was going to come back
One day once again
This is known as the second coming of Christ
And what does he do on the second coming of Christ?
He gathers together the elect
And where are the elect?
The lively stones
In fact John 11 verse 50
This is not a saved individual
Saying this but
What he is saying is true
Look at verse 50
He did not of himself
Of being the high priest that year
He prophesied that Jesus should
Die for that nation
And not for that nation only but that also
He should gather together
And one
The children of God that was scattered abroad
Now we obviously know that the second coming
Of Christ is characterized
That it comes after the tribulation
He gathers together
He sends his angels to gather together
The elect
And he says in second Thessalonians
Chapter 2 verse number 1
It says now we beseech your brethren
By the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
And by our gathering together
Unto him
So you see that third layer
The first layer is this matter
This matter of emotional attachment to a physical building
And the principle there with leprosy
The second layer that we see
Involves church discipline
A new testament teaching
That we see in first Corinthians chapter 5
But the third layer that we see
Is that it pictures Jesus Christ
Because he was that stone
Which the builders rejected
He was cast out outside of the city
Unto an unclean place
And in fact he was cast into hell
When he died
His soul went to hell for three days and three nights
The Bible says that his soul was not left in hell
Neither did his flesh see corruption
And on the third day he rose again
From the grave
He conquered death
And he ascended but before he ascended
He left a promise that one day he would return again
To gather together the elect wife
Because there's a time to cast away stones
And a time to gather them, Amen?
Now go back to Ecclesiastes, I want to share that with you
So last week
We were talking about that first part and then I was talking with the guys
And they were just like, this is even deeper
This goes deeper
Look folks, studying the Bible
Doesn't have to be boring
The reason people think it's boring
Is because they got a boring preacher behind the pulpit
Who doesn't study the Bible
And look, I'm not some great preacher
But here's the thing, at least I read the Bible
And when you read the Bible
You talk about the Bible
To whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required
And if you're faithful in liturgy you shall be faithful in much
A lot of times pastors out there
The reason God doesn't give them these nuggets of truth
Is because they're too busy
Studying a commentary
Going to Paul Chapel Sunday School lessons to get
Some deep biblical truth that's as deep as a cup of water
She needs to stick to the Bible
And look, I'm sure there's like four other layers
To this truth
I don't know of it yet though
Maybe we'll have another powwow tonight
And you know what the neat thing is
Look folks, to prove to you that I'm not someone special
There's times when we have a powwow
And some of the other guys come up with some deep spiritual truth
And I'm like, man I wish I would have known that
And this is what I tell them
Well I'm going to mention that later and I'm just going to take credit for it
But you know what?
Why? Because
God reveals these deep things to all of God's people
Whoever wants it
All you got to do is knock, you seek
And you will find those deep spiritual truths
And so that was reviewed there
And then verses 11 through 13
We find the boundaries of mankind
He says in verse 11
He hath made everything beautiful
In his time
Also, he hath set the world in their heart
So that no man can find out the work
That God maketh from the beginning
To the end
He's basically saying look, within the heart of every man
Is the world
And that's all he will ever know
He will only know the time that he is born
And he will only know up until the point where he dies
He will not know anything outside
Of that boundary there
Unless you have some divine intervention
A man will not know of the eternal
Unless he has a soul
And come to him and preach the gospel to him
He will not know of eternal judgment
Eternal salvation
He will not know of the eternal
Salvation, he will not know of the eternal son
If he doesn't have
An intercessor coming in
Intervening with the truth
Okay
That's why you have people for thousands upon thousands
Of years
Who, you know, they lived
And they died
They might have been noble people, honorable people
But if they didn't have a divine intervention
By a soul winner
All they were going to know is the world
Because that's all, anybody ever knows
The world set in their heart
In order to get outside of that box
You need divine intervention
From a spirit filled man or woman
Okay
So we see there are the boundaries of mankind
The balance of life, the boundaries of mankind
So now we're going to continue with chapter 3
And the third part, verses 14 through 15
We're going to look at the breadth of God's power
Not the breadth
But the breadth of God's power
Look at verse 14, it says, I know that
Whatsoever God doeth
It shall be forever
Nothing can be put to it
Nor anything taken from it
And God doeth it that men should fear
Before him, now isn't that interesting
That the book of Ecclesiastes
Highlights constantly
That everything that we do is vanity
There's an end to it
But here's the thing, when God does something
There is no end to it
When God does something, it's forever
There's something that he always emphasizes
That's forever too, oh yeah, salvation
Right?
He says, I know that whatsoever God doeth
Such as salvation
It shall be forever
He says
Look folks, and here's the thing
When people want to make it seem like you can lose your salvation
Or you know, you can give it back
They come up with all these
You know, cute little phrases
Yeah, yeah, you can't, you know, he's not going to take away your salvation
But you can give it back or something
You know, you didn't even do anything to receive it
It's not something that you can grasp
Don't take the gift illustration too far folks
Or it's just like, well now you can just grab it
You just pull it out of your soul
You just like take it back or something
It doesn't work that way
Anything that God does is forever
And don't you think that if God wanted us to know
That we could lose our salvation
He would call it temporal salvation
Right?
Temporary salvation
The doctrine of temporary salvation
No, there's a reason why he calls it eternal
Life
Everlasting life
Why? Because he wants us to know the recipients
Of this wonderful truth
That it never ends
And so, you say, well how do you know that?
Because whatsoever God doeth
It shall be forever
Like salvation
God has the power
To extend a person's life
Where it has no ending
He's the only one who has the ability
To give you immortality
Think about that
He can grant immortality to any person
Who believes on his son
Exclusively for salvation
It's a wonderful thing, why? Because anything that God does
It's eternal, it's forever
It never ends
Go to Galatians chapter 3
If you would, Galatians chapter 3
Hold your place there in Ecclesiastes
And he's saying, look, men should fear before him
Because of this
Why? Because who else has that ability?
No one else has that authority
To extend your
Ever-existing soul
And give it eternal life
You see, there's a difference
Every soul in this world
Will exist forever
But here's the thing
They will either exist forever
In eternal life
Or they will exist forever in eternal damnation
In a place called hell
He said, well that sounds like they're still living
Isn't that eternal life? No, because the smoke
Of their torment ascends up forever and ever
And the Bible actually refers to that as death
Okay, the second death more specifically
When they're cast into the lake of fire
Forever and ever
And this is why men should fear before him
And what he's saying here in Ecclesiastes is this
It shall be forever, nothing can be
Put to it, nor anything
Taken from it
Doesn't matter how many false prophets you have out there
Perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ
They can say, well you gotta add
Repentance from your
Sin to that, you gotta add works
You gotta add this person
You gotta add this saint, you gotta add the Virgin Mary
You gotta add the Book of Mormon
You gotta add all these things
They can say that all they want but at the end of the day
No man can add to the gospel or take away from it
Because it doesn't change the truth
They can seek to twist and pervert it
But the gospel is still the power of God
And to salvation to everyone that believe it
To the Jew first and also to the Greek
Okay, so what he's saying there is that
God is so powerful
That he can decrease
salvation to be eternal
Never to be lost
And no man can add or take away from that
It doesn't matter how eloquent they are
Doesn't matter how much influence
They might have
Doesn't matter if they have a stadium full of believers
In them
Doesn't matter what they try to do to
Pervert judgment
No man can take away or add to
Galatians chapter 3 verse 14 says
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ
That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith
Brethren
I speak after the matter of men
Though it be but a man's covenant
Yet if it be confirmed
No man does annulth
Or addeth thereto
Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made
He saith not and to seed as of many
But as of one and to thy seed
Which is Christ
And this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before
Of God in Christ the law
Which was 430 years after
It's annulled that it should make the promise
Of none effect
What is it saying? You know it doesn't matter what anybody says
No one can make the promises of God of none effect
No one can take salvation and say
I know that's what God said
But we're going to do a little differently here
We're going to get to heaven through a different way
We're just going to do
We're just going to believe and repent of your sins
To be saved and that's how we're getting to heaven
You can try to add to
That but it's not going to do you any good
Because what you do is not forever
Remember you're under the sun you're under that vanity
God is not and whatsoever he doeth
Shall be forever
Go to Hebrews chapter 6
Hebrews chapter 6
The doctrine
Of salvation is a wonderful doctrine
And it's what makes
True Christianity unique
Not just amongst Christianity
Because obviously there's other pockets of so called
Christianity that teaches a perverted way of salvation
But just amongst the
Religions of this world because every single
Religion of this world
Teaches that in order to get to heaven you have to do
Something you have to work your way
To heaven you have to repent of your sins
You have to keep God's commandments you have to keep the
Sabbaths you have to do X Y and Z
You have to adhere to these tenants in order
To have eternal life the biblical
Way of salvation in Christianity
Is that you don't have to do anything other than believe
That if thou shall confess with thy mouth
The Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart
That God hath raised them from the dead thou
Shall be saved for whosoever shall
Call upon the name of the Lord
Shall be saved for God so
Loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
Believeth in him shall not perish but have
Everlasting life
He that believeth on the son hath everlasting life
And so we see
Over and over again that God is constantly emphasizing
This thing that it's only faith
That's required
And again there's portions of scripture
That will emphasize that
It's not by anything else
Because you'll see that in Ephesians 2 not by works of
Righteousness which we have done
But according to his mercy he saved us
Or I'm sorry
What is that?
That's Titus chapter 3
Ephesians 2 verse 8 through 9 says for my grace are you saved through
Faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift
Of God not of works
Lest any man should boast
The Bible says therefore we conclude that a man is justified by
Faith without the deeds of the law
The list goes on and on and on
So in case you didn't get it though
You know the different facet of the diamond where it says
Just believe okay well there's another
Facet of the diamond that says don't do works
Don't try to repent
Of your sins don't try to use the
Commandments to be saved
Christianity is very unique
In that sense because we're the only ones
Is this are you trying to say
You're the true religion yeah
Yeah we are
Yes absolutely
Jesus said I am the way
The truth and the life
No man cometh unto the father but by me
It sounds like an absolute statement to me
It's very unique
Look at Hebrews chapter 6 verse 16
For men verily swear
By the greater
And an oath for confirmation is to them
An end of all strife
Wherein God willing more abundantly
To show unto the heirs of promise
The immutability of his
Counsel confirmed
It by an oath
Now if you get a man of integrity
And they say
I give you my word
You know men are imperfect
But you would expect that person to keep their word
You understand
If someone tells you I give you my word
It's like okay that's a lot
You're saying that this is very important
You're saying you're not going to lie you're saying you're going to keep your promise
Folks
If God
Which is not a man that he should lie
Confirms something by an oath
What is that called it's called the immutability
Of his counsel
It means it's not going to change
It's like I promise to give you eternal life
But I might change my mind afterwards though
And here's the
Foolish thing about
People believing you can lose your salvation
Because people who believe you can lose your salvation
Are insinuating
That when God saves you
He does not know
Of the future sins that you will commit
You see
God saves you knowing what sins
You're going to commit in the future
And to take it further
He saves you
Forgiving you of those sins in the future
You see he's omniscient
He's all knowing
It's not like your sins might catch you off guard
But it doesn't catch God off guard
He knows everything from the beginning to the end
You don't know all that because
What we have the world in our hearts
We're subject to time
And seasons
Whereas God who dwells in the vastness
Of eternity sees everything from beginning to end
So he says look
Here's the
Immutability of my council
I'm going to confirm it with an oath
Look if God comes to you and says I promise
Just said it
Just know beyond a shadow of a doubt
Alright it's going to happen
Because he promised
And God is not a man that he should lie
He goes on to say in verse 18
That by
Two immutable things in which it was impossible
I forgot to lie
We might have a strong consolation
Who have fled for refuge
To lay hold upon the hope
Set before us
So he's saying look
Knowing these two immutable things
Now we have a strong consolation
Strong hope
You know there's a lot of people out there that doubt their salvation
A lot of people out there
That they doubt it either because
Maybe they stray from the Lord
Maybe they're not very deep in their doctrine
Maybe they're not attending a church where they teach these things
Or they doubt their salvation
Because they're not even really saved
And they still think you've got to repent of your sins
They still think you've got to keep God's commandments
They still think you've got to be a good person
They have these preconceived ideas
That were taught by false teachers
And they don't have a strong consolation
They're serving God out of fear
Fear that God's going to cast them into hell
No folks
What they need to do is read Hebrew 6
And see the
See the strong consolation that God has given to us
The strong consolation
Being that once he gives us salvation
He'll never take it back
Okay
Now why does he say
Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 3
Why does he say
That men should fear before him
Well because the same God who has
The power
To give you immortality
Is the same God
Who can cast your body and soul in hell
Right
And in fact he says
Fear not him which can kill the body
But afterwards can do nothing
But fear him who is able to destroy both soul
And body and hell
You know there's a lot of people in this world
That have the power to destroy our physical body
They can destroy our persons, our property
They can do bad
And evil things to our physical flesh
But they don't
Remember we talked about the boundaries
Of mankind, one of the boundaries is this
They can't touch our soul
The only one who has access
To our soul
Is God himself
He's the only one
He has access to our
Ever existing soul
Okay, now if you're in Christ
If you've been saved
Then that soul will always go to heaven
In fact he gives you eternal life and that eternal life
Begins not when you die
It begins when you believe
So the moment you have salvation
The moment you believe, you have eternal life
That's why he says they shall have eternal life
And they shall never perish
He's not referring to you'll never die physically
He's referring to the fact that you'll never die spiritually
Okay, because obviously
You know, unless Jesus Christ
Comes back in our lifetime
Or unless we die and go to heaven
You know, we
We're always going to have eternal life
No matter what happens, okay
I don't remember where I was going to go at that point
What I'm saying is that men should fear before him
Why? Because of the fact that
God can cast a soul into hell
He's the one who has access to someone's soul
Someone's spirit
And that's a scary thought
It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God
But it's even more fearful if you're not saved
It's a fearful thing
It's a fearful thing to be a human being
In this world to think, man
I wonder what's going to happen when I die
I wonder where I'm going to go
I don't know where I'm going to go
Imagine the moment that they
You know, die, they perish
And they lift up their eyes in hell
No one can rescue that person from hell
No one can save that person from
The eternal, the vengeance of eternal fire
No one can
It's a scary thing
And that's why men should fear before him
Because everything that he does
You know, the most wicked person can torture you
And cut off your limbs
And do all manner of evil against your body
And just abuse you
And do all types of wicked things
But that's as far as they're going to get
They can never touch the inner recesses of your soul
The only one who has access to that
Is Jesus Christ
Okay
So it's a wonderful thing to think that
God is not restricted by time or seasons
He's not restricted by the same boundaries
That we have, you understand
And it reminds me of what it says in Revelation chapter 3
Where he says that
He that hath the key of David, he that openeth
And no man shutteth and shutteth
And no man openeth
You know when God opens up a door for us
No man can shut that door
It doesn't matter how strong they are
It doesn't matter what they try to do
If God opens up a door of opportunity for us
It's ours for the taking
No man can shut that door
But you know, let me say this
God can close certain doors
Where no man can open that thing up
It doesn't matter what type of key you have
It doesn't matter what you do
No one can change what God does
If he opens or he closes
No man can add to or take away from
Think about this
You know in Ephesians chapter 3
When thinking about the breath of his power
The ability, the extent of his power
The Bible tells us
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith
That ye being rooted and grounded in love
May be able to comprehend with all saints
What is the length, breath, depth, and height
And to know the love of Christ
That passeth all knowledge
That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God
Now unto him, verse 20 says
That is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think
According to the power that worketh in us
Here's the wonderful thing about God's power
We can know God's power
The Bible says that I may know him
And the power of his resurrection
And the fellowship of his suffering
Be made conformable unto his death
Look at verse 15 of Ecclesiastes 3
That which hath been is now
And that which is to be hath already been
And God requireth that which is past
Now what does that verse mean?
It's basically
It's giving you a glimpse
Of God's perspective
You see we see things as past, present, and future
God sees them all at one point
And it's basically telling us
That God dwells in the vastness of eternity
He's not bound by time
Or season to him
That which hath been is now
That which is to be hath already been
And God requireth that which is past
It's amazing to think
How he views everything
From his perspective
Now look at verse 16 through 17
We're going to look at the unbiased judgment of God
It says in verse 16
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment
That wickedness was there
And the place of righteousness
That iniquity was there
Now what is he talking about?
Well he's saying look
I've gone to places where there's
A seat of judgment
I've gone to a place of righteousness
And it doesn't matter how righteous they are
Or how much of judgment they display
There's always going to be sin present
There's always some form of corruption
You know
And this is a good verse for every Republican to read
Amen
No matter who you get
To be the President of the United States
Doesn't matter if they pass these bills
That you like
What laws do you want to be passed
You know it could be the place of judgment
But what? You're still going to find iniquity there
Amen
Because our government system is imperfect
Right
You understand? You know for example they call
You know they call where the President is
They call it what the um
Oh man it slipped my mind what is it?
The sacred? No
The sacred office?
No no no
They call it something else
Someone out there come on
Fox News Baptist what you got?
The oval office is known as what?
Just say it Irmana
What?
Sacred office
They call it the sacred office because it's supposed to be a place of judgment
Where
Just things are to be done
Just laws are to be passed
You know the person who has that Presidential office
Is supposed to be doing righteous things
But do we see that though?
It's not a sacred office at all
You know it's a place even though
Yeah you might agree with some of the laws
That are being passed by the Presidents
Of times past
I'm sure you're not agreeing with any President
The President today
I mean isn't today a perfect example of that?
The sacred office
The oval office
Is supposed to be a place of judgment
A place of righteousness
But what do we find there?
We find iniquity, we find wickedness
We find Joe Biden
Which embodies that
Amen
This shows us that no matter how
Just the government can get
There will always be injustice taking place
There
You know that can be very vexing to a lot of people
Right?
I mean people are going to be vexed for the next four years
Let's just be honest
People are being vexed right now
The people who voted for Biden are being vexed right now
Why do we vote for this guy?
This is the worst idea ever
But the reality is that we will always
Have an imperfect government until the millennial reign
Amen
When the government shall be upon his shoulders
And he shall rule the nations
With a rod of iron
Amen
Not with a little flimsy little wand
The Bible says he's going to rule them with a rod of iron
What is that talking about?
It's talking about how strict he's going to be
Yeah
Zero tolerance folks
You know a lot of people will get into these discussions
And they'll think, you know, oh man we're going to be
Putting sodomites to death
I don't even think sodomites are going to be able to even exist
In the millennial reign
They wouldn't even be able to get to that extent
Right
Why? Because he's ruling with a rod of iron
Amen
He's going to be, you know, he's going to nip it at the butt
Amen
He's going to take care of it swiftly
We're going to take care of it swiftly
Because we're going to be extensions of his ministry
Of his government
But until that day, no government shall ever be perfect
So don't put your faith in politics
Amen
And that's the problem a lot of times with Christians
Is that they place too much faith
They place any type of faith
In politics
And they need to read this where it says
The place of judgment, wickedness is there
And the place of righteousness, iniquity was there
And it shouldn't be that way, but it is in politics
So how about this?
The church should be a place of righteousness
Amen
But you'll find iniquity there as well
Where you have false prophets that will
Infiltrate
They'll become the pastor
And they're stealing money
From the offering plate
They're molesting people in the church
They're having affairs
They're doing all types of iniquity and wickedness
Why? Because even though it's a place of righteousness
It's in a sinful world
And there's wicked people out there
Who have that type of agenda
And it can be vexing
To think that there's people out there
That are like that
But look what he says in verse 17
I said in my heart
God shall judge the righteous
And the wicked
For there is a time there for every purpose
And for every work
So he's saying look
Even though there's going to be iniquity
In the place of righteousness
There's going to be wickedness in the place of judgement
Don't worry God will make it right
Amen
The judge of all the earth will do right
Amen
He will judge the secrets of men
He will bring equity
And justice
And he will bring down righteousness
Upon this world one day
Amen
You say when? Well everything is beautiful in his time
Amen
We need justice to be carried out swiftly
But we need to wait upon the Lord
Okay
You know, thank God
The FBI is putting down
The $25,000 reward for the people who bombed
Our church
But I guarantee you they're still not going to get caught
They're probably not going to get caught
And in fact give the $25,000 to some of our people here
They caught them before the FBI did
Right
It's not hard folks
The evidence is right there
Is that vexing to you? It can be
But then I'm reminded that vengeance
Is his say to the Lord he will repay
Amen
And he will judge the people
You know they can hide
They can run
They can bury themselves
They can move away to a different country
They can go into a cave
They can go to an island
They can change their name
They can cut their hair
They can get plastic surgery
Amen
God will bring to judgement
All these things
And that's what Solomon is reminding us of
He's saying look I know it's vexing
To see wickedness in the place of judgement
I know that it's vexing to see
You know iniquity in the place of righteousness
But don't worry God is going to judge
All these things
Amen
And by the way it says
That he shall judge the righteous and the wicked
You know
And here's what people who
Criticize us for believing
Once saved always saved
This is the only thing they don't get
They think that we're saying once saved
Always saved God will never do anything
To you if you're just involved in sin
Well you're just giving people a license to sin
If you save that
If you say you can't lose your salvation
You're just telling people that they can go out and sin
Do whatever they want
Because once you're saved
Yeah you're always saved but now you have God
As your father and God chastises his children
Amen
He brings judgment he chastens his son
And those whom he loves
Understand? He will judge the righteous
Amen
And your judgment will be here upon this earth
It just won't be in the next life to come
Right
Okay
Look at verse 18
By the way 2 Corinthians 5
10 before we read that it says
All appear before the judgment seat of Christ
That everyone may receive
The things done in his body according to that
He hath done whether it be good
Or bad now this is not
Referring to you know the sins
That you've done that God's going to judge you according to that
This is talking about the quality of your work
All the sins that you're going to be doing
Or that you will do in this lifetime
God will punish you for those things
Here in this life
And in fact in Colossians
Chapter 3 verse 24 says knowing
That of the Lord you shall receive the reward
Of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ
But he that doeth wrong
Shall receive
For the wrong which he hath done
And there is no respect of persons
So no one should think well I'm saved
You know I'm good to go
Nothing's ever going to happen I'm going to get involved in robbery
I'm going to go steal
I'm going to go get drunk
I'm going to go smoke weed
I'm going to go do drugs I'm going to go fornicate
Because nothing will ever happen wrong
God is no respecter of people
And he will
Reward you
For the wrong that you have done in this world
We often think of a reward
It's like a reward is a good thing but reward just means that he's going to pay you back
Just like wages
Right? Wage is something that you earn
Something that you deserve
Well the Bible also says for the wages of sin is death
So it's used you know interchangeably
To mean a good thing but it's also meaning
A bad thing okay
You can earn a reward from God
That works for him or you can earn chastisement as well
And look the longer you're a Christian
The more you're going to see
That hand of judgment upon your life
The more you recognize that
God does chastise his children
God does judge us
For the things that we do
If we do wrong in this world
And he hits you where it hurts
Look at verse 18
By the way the previous verse is talking about the
Unbiased judgment of God
I'm thankful for that because
Couple days ago I got my van stolen
By these sodomites
Stole my van
My cheap little van can you believe that
What are you going to do with my van
You're going to drive it like five blocks
And just leave it somewhere
Cheap little van
No oil in it
Barely any gas
Ugliest thing you've ever seen in your life
And it's just like
We got our car seats in there
We got the Bibles in there
We got all these things in there
And obviously if the person takes them
They see all that stuff
They must think like oh this is like a Christian's car
But obviously they know it's a Christian's car
They know who's car it is
And you know I think to myself like
Man this is vexing
Someone just like
Can just come to my house
And just take my van
Just kissing goodbye obviously
But here's the thing God will bring that person
Into judgment as well
He is going to
Look folks if God is willing to
Reward you for a cup of water that you give
To a man of God
How much sorrow will he judge someone if you just steal a van
I know the van is probably worth
As much as a cup of water
I get that
And I don't need everyone making
Comments about my van after church right
Talking about how crappy it is and all that
I already know okay
It got me from point A to point B
That's all I cared about
God's going to bring that person
Into judgment
God sees it all
He's going to take care of it
And he allowed them to do that
And so why?
So they can treasure a wrath against the day of wrath
Look at verse 18
I said in my heart
Concerning the estate of the sons of men
That God might manifest them
That they might see themselves
Are beasts
That they themselves are beasts
That they might see is the bondage of corruption
So he's saying look
When I look at the estate of men
At the end of the day
They're just like beasts
And he's not saying like oh they're just like animals
And they just you know evolution
Or something like that
He's saying that as the beast perishes
And like man or man will perish as well
Verse 19 says for that which befalleth
The sons of men befalleth beasts
Even one thing befalleth them
As the one dieth
So dieth the other
Yea they all, they have all one breath
So that a man hath
No preeminence above a beast
For all his vanity
So you can see this and say well you know
What do you mean no man has no preeminence above the beast
I thought we had dominion over the beast
Of course we do
It's not a contradiction of scripture
The preeminence that we don't have above beasts is that
We're going to die just like they die
Our flesh
Our flesh is corrupt
Just as the beast's flesh
Is corrupt as well
You know when we die our body rots
And when a beast dies
It body rots as well
It has a boundary
Verse 20 says all go into one place
All are of the dust
And all turn to dust
Again so we see the bilateral
Destiny of creation
He's saying look just as a beast dies
Your dog dies your chihuahua dies thank god
You know you hear the monkeys die
You will die as well
You will rot as well
And it seems kind of like
Thanks Solomon
Very encouraging
What he's saying is this
He's saying that the entire world
Think about this
The entire world is just one big cemetery
Right
Earth is just one
Massive cemetery
Every person that has ever existed
From the beginning of time until now
Is still here
Their body is still here
The earth is filled with dead people
I mean unless you could tell me
Otherwise I don't know if someone was buried in space
Or something like that
I don't know if Elon Musk is planning to do something like that
I don't know if they go to Mars or something
They might be able to die over there or whatever
They can change that
But you know what if they die on Mars and they're not saved
God's still going to project them to hell on earth
In the center of the earth
What he's saying is that look the world
Is just one big massive
Cemetery, everyone who's ever lived
Is still here
Every animal that's ever died is still here
They're subject to what's known as
Vanity
Go to Romans chapter 8 and we'll finish here
He goes on to say in verse 21
You go to Romans chapter 8
He says, who knoweth the spirit of men that goeth upward
And the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth
Wherefore I perceive that there is
Nothing better
That a man should rejoice in his own works
For that is his portion
For who shall bring him to see
What shall be after him
So what he's saying, he's saying look
The best thing for man to do is to enjoy
The fruit of his labor
And then he finishes off with the question
For who shall bring him to see
What shall be after him
What he's saying, who's going to tell him
About the afterlife
Because he has the world in his heart
The world that's set in his heart
All he knows is the world
Someone needs to come and bring him the knowledge
Of what shall be after him
Look what the Bible says in Romans 8 verse 19
For the earnest expectation of the creature
Waited for the manifestation of the sons of God
Look what it says here
For the creature was made subject
To vanity
Isn't that what we see in Ecclesiastes?
Not willingly, but by reason of him
Who hath subjected the same in hope
Because the creature was made subject
To the same in hope
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered
From the bondage of corruption
Into the glorious liberty of the children of God
For we know that the whole creation
Growneth and travaileth in pain together until now
And not only they
But ourselves also
Which have the firstfruits of the spirit
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves
Waiting for the adoption to wit
The redemption of our body
He's basically saying look
We're all subject to the bondage of corruption
And you die
But here's the thing
You don't have to die forever
You don't have to die
You can get saved and receive the redemption of your body
But the question remains
Who shall bring him to see
What shall be after him
And even though Ecclesiastes is talking
Constantly about
The things that are subject under the sun
It's constantly reminding us as well
It's for this reason that we need to go out and tell someone
About God
Give someone
Get someone saved
Why? Because unless you do it
They're going to be subject to vanity
Unless you do it when they die
That's it
But if you intervene with the truth
If you bring them the gospel
You bring them the truth
You tell him of what the things that shall be
After him
That there is eternal life and eternal condemnation
Then you can change that person
That person's destiny
Even though they will one day die here
Their life will not be in vain
Because now they become an everlasting being
They can transfer the rewards from here
To heaven
They can invest in eternal things
They can win people to Christ
They can live eternally
Great chapter here
Lots of great truths
And if you get anything from this chapter
Get this
Everyone's subject to vanity
But they don't have to be
Because we can teach them
And show them the right way
We can show them the gospel
We can get them saved
So they can know what happens to them afterwards
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer
Father we thank you so much for your word
Thank you for the book of Ecclesiastes
And such deep great truths
That are found in this book Lord
I pray God that you'd help us
To recognize that you
To constantly recognize that you are a just God
The judge of all the earth will do right
Even though people seem to get away with crimes
And iniquity and wickedness Lord
We know that one day you shall repay them
And I pray that Lord
You would continue to soften our hearts
Towards the lost
And that you would help us
To go to them
And show them what shall be after them
Even though life is vanity
It doesn't have to be vanity
If they can just get saved
Get eternal life
And experience
The millennial reign experience
The new heaven and new earth experience
Heaven experience eternity with you
And we love you so much Lord
And we thank you and we pray these things in Jesus name
Amen
Song number 19
Sing one last song
Song number 19
There is a fountain
Song 19
There is a fountain all together nice and loud
On that first verse
There is a fountain
Filled with blood
Drawn from
Emmanuel's veins
And sinners
Clutch
Beneath that flood
Lose all
Their guilty
Stains
Lose all
Their guilty
Stains
Lose all
Their guilty
Stains
And sinners
Clutch
Beneath that flood
Lose all
Their guilty
Stains
The dying
King
Rejoice
To see
That fountain
In his
Day
And there
May I
Blow wild
As he washed
All my sins
Away
Wash all
My sins
Away
Wash all
My sins
Away
And there
May I
Blow wild
As he washed
All my sins
Away
Dear
Dying
Left
Thy precious
Blood
Shall never
Lose its
Power
Till all
The ransomed
Church of God
Be saved
To sin
No more
Be saved
To sin
No more
Be saved
To sin
No more
Till
All
The ransomed
Church of God
Be saved
To sin
No more
Ere
Sins by faith
I saw
The strength
My flowing
Would supply
The evening
Love has
Been my
Theme
And shall be
Till I die
And shall be
Till I cry
And shall be
Till I cry
And shall be
Till I die
And shall be
Till I die
Redeeming
Love
As it
Might be
And shall be
Till I die
Then
In the
Nowhere
Sweeter song
To say
When
This
Forelisting
Standing
Come
Thy silent
In the
Brave
Thy silent
In the
Brave
Thy silent
In the
Brave
When
This
Forelisting
Standing
Come
Thy silent
In the
Brave