(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure what I'm doing. 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 for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. 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 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 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 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 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 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