Good evening. I invite you to
turn with me back to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. As we sang that song, I was just
thinking how I'm nervous. And singing that song just reminded
me, no matter how we feel when we get up here, we just desire
to praise Him. Jesus, our blessed Redeemer,
praise Him. That's my desire tonight, may we praise Him. Ecclesiastes
chapter 3, our text is going to be the last half of verse
7. Ecclesiastes 3, middle of verse 7, says that there is a time to
keep silence. and a time to speak. That's what I'd like to look
at tonight. Now, where it says a time to
keep silence, what that means is to be silent, but it also
means to be inactive and to be still. I didn't know that until I looked
at it, looked it up. And I sincerely pray God might teach us what
this means. Religion, we're here at a church
service. It's what the world calls religion. Religion is so
busy. They're doing so much, and they're
making so much noise. As a church, what we say and
what we're doing matters. It really does. People think,
oh, well, you go to church. Well, you must be saved. No.
No. God's word tells us otherwise. It's not enough. The message
we preach is of utmost importance. False religion says, ultimately,
here's what they say, if you will, fill in the blank, you
ultimately are going to do something here. You've got to make a decision.
You've got to do this or quit doing that. It's all up to you.
It's in your hands. God says it's not of him that
willeth. People lost in religion are running,
running to the law, running to do things, running away from
things by which they hope to be saved. They hope to find themselves
in heaven one day. But God's word tells us it's
not of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
What salvation? If we're gonna have any hope,
it's of God and his mercy. False preachers point men and
women to the law. They see God's word and they
see law. We gotta keep the law. And they
do so, they center their message around that, not knowing God's
law. Not truly understanding the purpose
behind God's law. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three. This is so important. Romans chapter three. And this right here has everything
to do with being silent. Romans 3, verse 19. Romans 3, 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God hear the law speak. Here's what the law says. Guilty. Guilty, that's it. Guilty. God's law will shut our mouths. Look at verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. If we ever
truly hear, if God ever enables us to truly hear God's law, we
will shut our mouths, we will be still, and we will cry out
to God for mercy. If we ever truly hear God's law,
I thought of Moses. You know, Moses represents God's
law, right? You remember when the Egyptians were coming after
him? They'd hit a dead end. There was nowhere to go. There
was no escape. What are we going to do? Moses
said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which
he will show to you today. And that's exactly what happened. And that's my prayer for us tonight,
that God would cause us to just be still. Stop trying to save
ourselves. What in the world could those
children of Israel have done to escape the Egyptians? There
was nowhere they could go. They couldn't walk on water.
There was nothing they could do. They were completely dependent
on God to deliver them. And He did. They stood still
and they saw the salvation of the Lord. Have we seen the salvation
of the Lord? Are we just running about trying
to do this and that and hoping God at the end of our life will
have done enough to be accepted by God? Or have we seen, has
God stopped us and shown us his salvation? I pray that he has. I mentioned
our message is so important. What's our message? in Christ
alone. That's where our hope is found.
Look to Christ. Trust in Christ. Don't trust
in ourselves. We're not trustworthy. Trust in Him. Rest. Be inactive. Be still. Rest in Him. In Him alone. There's a time
to be silent. Time to keep silence. Turn back to Ecclesiastes, this
time chapter 5. Ecclesiastes 5. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 1. Ecclesiastes 5, 1. It says, keep
thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready
to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not
that they do evil. First, we would do well to come
to the house of God, that's where we ought to be. I'm glad we're
here. I was glad when they said, let's go to the house of the
Lord. I'm, by God's grace, always glad to be here. Anticipating
hearing a word from our God, there's nothing better, is there,
to hear from Him? But we must acknowledge that
what we're doing is a fearful thing. When I talk about our message
and what we're doing and why we do it, why it's so important
is so many people are just lost in religion, caught up in playing
church. I don't want that for us. I don't
want that for anybody. It's too serious. It's far too
serious. Many people are coming to church
services and they're just giving sacrifices of fools. You remember
what our Lord said? He won't have sacrifice. He's
not interested in our sacrifices. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. There are many, and I wrote this
deliberately, there are many who forsake not the assembling
of themselves together. Many who attend every church
service. They're very faithful, as the
world would say. who by their religion, by what
they're doing in their church services, they're doing nothing
but just making a mockery of God. And I tremble to even say
that, but we know it's true. This world is so full of false
religion. They go and make it all about
themselves and put on a big show, but it's nothing but pretense.
It's fake, it's phony, not giving God the praise, all the praise.
glorying in self, not worshiping God in spirit and in truth, thinking
that God is altogether such and one as themselves. God's not
like us. Who is like him to the Lord our God? There's none like
him. He alone is God. I'm telling you, I don't ever
want to walk through these doors with any desire other than to
praise him. Glory in him, hear of him, rejoice
in him. I'm not here to make a show in
the flesh and get you to look at me and whoa. Oh God forbid
we do that. We've come into the house of
God. Where two or three are gathered together in his name. We've come
here in his name. Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven. There's no other name like his
name. We've come here and we've opened His book. We've got His
book in our hands or on our lap. God's word. See how important
this is? See how important it is that
we're not coming here making a show and giving the sacrifice
of fools? Look right here at verse two.
It says, Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart
be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and
thou upon earth. Therefore, Let thy words be few. Let thy words be few. As I read
those words, I can't help but just feel so insufficient to
stand here before you. Because I know that in my flesh,
I am a fool. I know it. I know God has, God
in his grace has caused his holy law to shut my mouth. I'm only
standing here because I was called upon to do so, and all I have
for you is what God has for us. His word. I don't have my own
words. I have His word. Nothing else I have any interest
in saying. I'm not here to glory in myself. I'm not here to glory
in you. I'm here to glory in the Lord. I'm here to give Him
all praise, honor, and glory. You know, this matter of getting
up and preaching, it seems foolish, doesn't it?
The foolishness of preaching. The only thing I see foolish
about it is that someone like me might be truly caught upon
to do it. It's not a foolish means, otherwise God wouldn't
have ordained it. This is something God ordained by which to save
His people from their sins, reveal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ
to His people through His word, through the preaching of it.
That's why we do it. That's why I'm standing here
right now. God's ordained means. Look here
at verse three. For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of
words. You ever known someone who just
won't stop talking? Again, I can't help but feel convicted here.
But according to God's word right here, a person who won't stop
talking is a fool. A fool. And likewise, let's put this
in a spiritual perspective, to think that what I have to say
must be so important. Listen, if what I have to say
is anything other than God's word, he said, don't add to it,
don't take from it. If what I have to say is God's
word, then it's important. But nothing else is. Nothing
else is. May our words be few. And as
verse one said, may our hearts be ready to hear. More ready. May we be more ready to hear
from our God. Turn with me to Zechariah chapter
two. Your Bible's like mine, page 1171. Zechariah chapter
two. Zechariah chapter 2, look at
the last verse here, verse 13. Zechariah 2.13 says, Be silent,
O all flesh, before the Lord, for he is raised up out of his
holy habitation. We must be silent. before the
Lord. Now, the word be silent here
means hush and keep silence. We need to be silent before God,
silent in our heart, silent before him. I'll say it again. I don't
need to be heard. I'm not that important. I don't
need to be heard. Well, you need to hear what I
have to say. There's just one we need to hear. There's just
one we need to hear from. And it's not me. And it's not
Gabe. I love Gabe. But we need to hear from our
Lord. We need to hear from the Lord, our God. I want to mention
a couple passages here. You remember the Mount of Transfiguration. What a wonderful account that
is. And Peter, when he first spoke up, he started off okay. Lord, it's good for us to be
here. But then he kept talking. And let's make three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, one
for Elijah. And God wouldn't have that. God won't have that.
It thundered. God spoke from heaven. He said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. He's the one, the only one. We need to hear him. And I love it. It goes on to
say, they fell down sore afraid. The Lord came and touched them.
And they stood up. And they saw no man save Jesus
only. He's the one we need to hear. He's the one we need to
see. You recall when our sister Mary
sat at our Lord's feet and heard his word. And it tells us that
Martha was cumbered about much serving. Understandably so, Martha got
a little frustrated. She said, Lord, do you not care
that my sister's left me here to serve alone? You bid her,
therefore, to come help me. And he said, Martha, Martha,
oh, you're careful and troubled about much serving, he said,
but just one thing is needful. Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from her. There's just one thing
needful. What's that? You mean to tell
me serving's not important? Of course it's important. Of
course serving the Lord's important. But we can't serve him if we
don't know him. We can't serve him if we haven't heard him.
The one thing needful is to sit at his feet and hear him, hear
his word. We need to stop working. I told
you. Where it says keep silence, be
still and quit talking. Salvation's of the Lord. He does
it all. We sit down. We stop talking.
We're at his feet and we listen to him. That's it. I love this
verse, John 5, 25. It says, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. Oh, that we might hear Him speak
in power to our hearts. Pray we might hear Him tonight.
Turn with me to Job chapter 40. Job chapter 40, just before the
Psalms. I want to briefly consider God's
providence in our lives, okay? When it comes to speaking and
being silent. Let's consider God's dealings with us in this
life, okay? Now I couldn't help but think of Job because Job
endured a lot of suffering. the Lord, by means of the adversary,
Satan, afflicted Job. Now, no, it was the Lord that
afflicted Job. Now, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. We know that. We know that God
does all things well. We know God performs all things
just for His people, for the elect's sake. We know that. All
right? Now, when the Lord afflicted
Job, Job said some great things at first. The Lord gave, the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Job sinned not with his lips. He said some great things, but
it didn't take long, and his miserable comforters didn't help,
but it didn't take long for Job's sin and his foolishness and his
just wrong thoughts towards God to Come in. And it doesn't take long for
us, does it? For us to start questioning our God, replying
against Him. It doesn't take long. But God
in mercy, as He does for all His children, rebuked Job. The Lord gave Job some strong
rebuke, and he needed it, and so do I. So do you, if you belong
to Him. Now look here, Job had a response
here in Job 40. Look at verse one. Moreover,
the Lord answered Job and said, Shall he that contendeth with
the Almighty instruct him? Job, do you think you know better
than God? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. We know better
than to try reproving God, don't we? Now look here, verse three. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer, yea, twice, but I will proceed no further. What else
can I say? Oh, what a fool I am. What a fool I've shown myself
to be. Who are we to doubt our kind,
loving God's gracious dealings towards us, honestly? And I feel
so convicted to say this because I am so guilty of this. I'll
give you an example. Apply for a job, interview for
a job, and think, oh, I'm going to get it. This is it. And then
I don't get it. And then here I am. What in the
world happened? Why? I can't tell you how many times
I've been in that specific scenario. But there are so many more. Oh,
God forgive me. How has God dealt with us? He
hath not dealt with us after our sins. He hath dealt bountifully
with me. What about you? There's a time to be silent.
Oh, may we learn this. There's a time to keep silence.
God forbid we murmur against him who does all things well. He does all things well. Way
back in our text, Ecclesiastes 3, verse 7. Ecclesiastes 3, 7,
there's a time to keep silence and a time to speak, there is
a time, brethren, to speak. Now, we do a lot of speaking. We do a lot of speaking. Religion
does a lot of speaking, but what are we speaking? There are some
who may get up here and boast of their wonderful works, boast
of things that we've done, or I'm not as bad as I used to be.
It's not so with me. I find myself becoming worse
and worse, or so it seems. That's how I feel. Like Paul,
oh wretched man that I am, I feel like that's growth and grace
as we grow more weary and loathsome of ourselves. There are some
who may stand in boasts of things that we do and things that we
no longer do, the way we are. That's not the kind of growth
we need. If that's us, it's time for us
to be silent. May God silence us. May God reveal the truth
to us. May God speak to us. Well, what is this time to speak?
Turn with me to Psalm 145. Psalm 145, verse one. This is David speaking, but I
believe by God's grace it's us too. I will extol thee, my God,
O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every
day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness
is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy
works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous
works. And men shall speak of the might
of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall
sing of thy righteousness. What are we gonna speak? It's
time to speak. What are we gonna say? Speak
of our great God. Praise His wonderful name. Declare
His mighty acts. Speak of the glorious honor of
His majesty. There's no other majesty. Declare
His greatness. Abundantly utter the memory of
His great goodness. Sing of His righteousness. Look
here, verse 21, last verse. My mouth shall speak the praise
of the Lord. Speak that. And let all flesh
bless His holy name forever and ever. Amen. Let's speak these
things. Turn back to Psalm 71. Psalm
71. Psalm 71, look at verse eight. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise. and with thy honor all the day. Look at verse 15. My mouth shall
show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day,
for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works." Oh, brethren,
let us speak his praise. declare his righteousness and
proclaim his salvation. You know, there's no other righteousness.
I've mentioned several times tonight, people lost in religion
and just what they're doing is they're going about to establish
their own righteousness. They've not submitted to the
righteousness of God, who is Christ. Not known Christ, have
not learned Christ. Oh, may Christ himself reveal
himself to us. That's what we need, brethren.
We need to hear Him. May we speak of Him. Speak of
Him who spoke, He spoke, and He spoke not like you and me.
He spoke as one having authority, not as those scribes, not as
those people who thought they were somebody. I love the fact
that there's a verse that says, never man spake like this man.
Don't you love that? Wouldn't you have loved to have
been here when He walked this earth? Wouldn't you have loved
to be one of those when there would be a multitude that gathered
to hear what he had to say. Wouldn't you love to have been
there? The Lord still speaks to multitudes today in places
like this, through his word, through the foolishness of preaching.
Oh, may we speak of him, may we praise him, praise him, and
as we just sang, tell of his excellent greatness. Speak of
him and him only. Come with me to Isaiah chapter
53. Just read this a couple weeks
ago, familiar text. When I studied this verse in
Ecclesiastes, this right here is the prevailing thought that
came to my mind. Isaiah 53, okay? Look with me
at verse six. Isaiah 53, six, all we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is done, so he openeth
not his mouth." That right there is the greatest Most amazing
silence this world will ever know. No silence like that. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
God manifest in the flesh, led as a sheep to the slaughter,
and he opened not his mouth. He who spoke the world into existence
hung on a cross in silence while being mocked. If you be
the Christ, come down. Hail, King of the Jews. They
didn't believe him to be anybody. But he's the only somebody, the
only anybody, the only one worthy of any praise, worthy of all
praise. That's who hung on that cross. He who alone deserves
to speak remains silent as his sinful creatures nailed him to
a cross and spat on him and plucked his beard and beat him. Our Lord humbled himself. You
think of the humility that that took. We don't know anything
about humility. Our Lord hanging on that cross,
that's humility. Not saying a word. He opened not His mouth. He died
for sin, but He did no sin. There was no guile found in His
mouth. He was reviled. He did not revile again. He didn't. He suffered, but He threatened
not. How? Honestly. Let's try to enter
into the cross and what happened there. How did He open not His
mouth? When someone wrongs us, are we
not ready to just unleash the worst words we know on them? Honestly. And however anybody
could wrong us can't come close to comparing to what we did to
the Lord of glory. And he opened not his mouth. How can he remain silent? Scriptures
tell us he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. And here's the conclusion, okay?
As our substitute, and that's who the Lord Jesus Christ is,
the substitute of sinners, as our substitute, it was His time
to keep silence. His appointed time, according
to the eternal purpose of God Almighty, it was His time to
be silent. Now, as he was silent physically,
he was working salvation. He was accomplishing something.
It wasn't a passive thing. He was saving his people from
their sins. He was burying our sins in his own body on that
cursed tree. Oh, but he opened not his mouth. Our Lord, he bore our sins. made sin, he was made a curse.
Hebrews tells us, he became us. And having become us, Having
traded places with us, he was guilty, became guilty, and therefore
he had nothing to say until he bowed his head and gave up the
ghost and cried, it is finished. Oh, praise God. It was his time
to keep silence, but it was also his time to speak. Oh, praise
his name. So when we speak, let's speak
of him. Nothing else worth speaking.
There's no one else worth speaking of. I want to close with this
verse. Turn with me to 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4, verse 11. If God ever reveals to us that
Christ is all, and all in all, will be resolved to hear Him
and Him alone, to speak of Him and of Him alone. Sing His praise
and His praise alone. Look here, 1 Peter 4, verse 11. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth. that God in all things
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. There's a time to keep silence,
brethren, and there's a time to speak. To Christ be all the
glory forever and ever. Amen.