All right, let's look back at
that passage that Brother Randy just read, Ecclesiastes 3. And by way of introduction, I'll
just say it this way. I have preached this message
before, but I haven't preached it here. I've preached it in
Kentucky, and I've preached it on television. In fact, this
morning, I always check the TV just to make sure that our program
comes on, because we buy that slot. And sometimes they'll preempt
us, you know, for some sports event, golf or tennis or something.
But today it was on. I believe the message today was
on propitiation, but I was dealing with these verses just in that
message because they are so telling. The title of the lesson or the
message is, May God Fill Our Void. May God fill our void. And this starts out, most of
you are familiar with the first part of this chapter there, to
everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under
heaven. A time to do this, a time to
do that. And as Randy said, this is a revelation, a statement
of God's absolute sovereignty over all things in this world,
in this universe, in this creation. He's even sovereign over time.
Don't you wish you could control time? Well, we can, but God does. God created time. I don't know
how to explain that, but he created time, and he is a God of an eternal
nature, unchangeable, immutable. That's what that means, unchangeable.
God never changes. That's a concept that's beyond
our being able to grasp. and put that in words and explain
it. But God created time and He works
in time. We see throughout the Gospels
in the book of Matthew, when Christ was walking this earth,
He was subject to time because everything was working according
to God's clock. And in Galatians chapter 4 and
verse 4 it says, in the fullness of the time. God sent forth his
son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. So God is a sovereign over time. And we're creatures of time.
And many times when we try to explain the eternal nature and
eternality of God, we're so inadequate. We always have to use things
of time, past, present, future. But all things are at one time
to God. And it's an amazing thing. This
is our God. And we're subject to time. We
walk through this world. And it says, look at verse nine.
Now this is where I want to lead up to. It says, what profit hath
he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? Now we understand
what work, laboring, and what profit comes out of that. You
go to work. You work a 40-hour week or whatever,
however much you work, and you get a paycheck. And that's your
profit. But God is not limited here to
the issues of time as far as our physical time here on earth. And I'll show you that. Look
at verse 10. He says, I have seen the travail which God hath
given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Now that word
travail is very important. A lot of times in scripture,
the word travail is used to describe a woman who's with child and
going through the travail, the suffering, the work, that suffering
to have that child. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ
in his redemptive work on the cross, it's described in Isaiah
53 as the travail of his soul. he shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied." In other words, the suffering that
he would go through, he would see the success of it in the
redemption of all for whom he died. And he'd be satisfied. And that's the picture in your
mind, think about it this way, a woman having a child and at
the end of the suffering, At the end of the labor, she has
a healthy child, and she's satisfied. Not a stillborn child, or not
a sick child, but a healthy child, and she's satisfied. And that's
the way Christ's death is described, His suffering under death. He
did not die for any who perish. Now that's so. I know people
say that all the time, you know, He did this, He did that, and
it's all conditioned on you, but that's a false gospel. He
died for His sheep and His sheep will hear His voice and they'll
never depart from Him because He won't let them, He keeps them.
So this is a travail here. Now look at it again, verse 10.
I have seen the travail, the suffering, the work, the labor,
the pain, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised
in. What's He talking about? Well,
look at verse 11. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time, everything for a purpose. There's a time for this, a time
for that. Also he hath set the world in their heart. Now that word world could be
better translated by the word eternity. He hath set eternity
in their heart. So that no man can find out the
work that God maketh from beginning to the end. Now turn back to
Ecclesiastes chapter one, just one page. Now listen to this,
Ecclesiastes one, look at verse 13. This is the preacher, who
was Solomon? He calls himself the preacher
here. The word Ecclesiastes means the congregation. You've heard
the term ecclesiastical. That means the congregation.
This is the preacher, Solomon, preaching to the congregation.
And it says in verse 13 of chapter 1, I gave my heart to seek and
search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under
heaven, This sore travail which God hath given to the sons of
men to be exercised therewith, see the similarity? And he says
here, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun,
and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which
is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting or
lacking cannot be numbered. Many people, when they think
about the book of Ecclesiastes, they think of that term vanity.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, thus saith the preacher. You
know what vanity is? It's worthlessness, nothingness. It's something that doesn't satisfy,
something that doesn't close unto success, especially in eternal
matters. And what is the theme of Ecclesiastes? Well, it's not just vanity in
and of itself. That's part of it. But the theme
of this book is the worthlessness, the vanity of all life without
God, without Christ, without grace, without truth. That's what it's talking about.
We'll go back to our text, Ecclesiastes chapter three. This is the vanity
of all life, without God, without Christ, without real truth, without
grace. And what he's talking about here
is this thing that God has set the world, set eternity in the
hearts of men, it's a void. It's like a deep, dark hole in
our soul. Because even the unregenerate,
even the unbeliever, understands some notion of, listen, this
isn't all there is, this life here. There's something after
this life. Now I know that people like atheists,
they deny that, you know, they spend their life. But the reason
they deny it is because there's this big, deep, dark, unfulfilled
hole in their soul and in their heart. We know we have a life
to live. We know we have a death to die.
The atheist says, well, after death there's nothing. Really?
Are you sure of that? Think about it. I'm going to
show you something here at the end of this message that'll just
give you some idea about how man naturally thinks. We know
there's a judgment to face. I'm convinced that A lot of people
claim to be atheists because they do not want to face the
fact that they have to stand before a righteous God at the
judgment and be held accountable. They don't want to face that.
But my friend, there is a judgment to face. and there is an eternity
to spend. That's what God has set within
the heart of every person that's ever born on this earth, even
in a fallen state. We know there's something after
death, or we wonder about. That's what sets man apart from
the animals. You know, if you go to, you young
people who go to school, they'll talk about human beings as being
like of the animal kingdom. Human beings are not animals. They're unique. Created in the
image of God. But now we fell in Adam into
a state of sin and death and depravity. And that image of
God has been marred by sin. But that image still abides within
us. In this right here, God has set
within us eternity. A notion of eternity. You don't see the monkeys and
the snakes and the dogs and the cats sitting around wondering
what's going to happen to them when they die, do you? They're not worried about judgment.
But man is. Man's worried about it. And he
goes about it with his motives, his works, his rewards, his punishments,
whatever he says. His conscience. Book of Romans
chapter 2 speaks of the conscience of every man. That God has given
us a conscience whereby we excuse or accuse one another. And what's
the problem with the natural conscious? Well, I read it in
the opening of this service. The natural man, the unregenerate,
the unbelieving man receiveth not the things of God. Man's goals, his ideas of eternal
life, they're all fruit unto death. Psalm 39 makes this statement. Man without God, now this is
the theme of Ecclesiastes, man without God, without Christ,
without grace, without truth, man at his best state in that
realm is altogether what? Vanity. And let me tell you something,
that includes the best of us, the worst of us, and everybody
in between. That's what it is. The heart
of man is deceitful above all things. Wicked, who can know
it? Jeremiah chapter 17. Romans chapter
3 and verse 10 speaks of there's none righteous, no not one. There's
none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh after
God, no not one. And that's, go back here to our
text in Ecclesiastes 3. Look at it again, verse 11. He
hath made everything beautiful in His time. What that means
is that God's made everything for His glory. Everything on
this earth, everything that we are, is ultimately going to redound
to the glory of God. The salvation of sinners by His
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to the praise of
the glory of His grace. But let me tell you something
now, don't hold back on this. Even the condemnation of the
wicked is for the glory of God. And he says, also, he hath set
the world eternity in their heart. Look at the next line. So that
no man can find out the work that God maketh from beginning
to the end. Man on his own, woman on her
own cannot figure this thing of eternity out. You can't do
it. Now, he'll try to do it, and
that's what we call false religion, false gospel. Man has this, Calvin
used to call it the God-shaped void. In other words, it's a
void that God puts in every human being. But man on his own cannot
find out the way to fill that void to the glory of God. And
he'll seek ways to fill that void in ways that dishonor God. He'll seek it in materialism.
He'll seek it in all kinds of worldly things. But the main
way man seeks to fill that void is with false religion. And he'll
come up with all kinds of ways of salvation. conditioned on
himself, thinking that he can fill that void, but it won't
last. It won't last. I've often said
that there's two common things, two things that are common to
all false religions. Number one, man believes that
salvation in some way, to some degree, at some state, is conditioned
on himself. I can do something to fill that
void. I can do something to save myself. And secondly, he always judges
righteousness and holiness on a sliding scale, comparing himself
with others. But look at verse 12. He says,
I know that there is no good thing in them, but for a man
to rejoice and to do good in his life, Rejoice and and do
good in your life here here, but salvation is not by doing
good Salvation is not by works Man can do no good works in order
to attain or maintain salvation Salvation is by grace and so
he says in verse 13 and also that every man Should eat and
drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It's a gift from God
and Whatever labor you do and whatever profit you gain from
it, it's a gift from God. You may not see it so, but look
at verse 14. He says, I know that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. What he's saying here is that
our only hope to fill that void, that sense of eternity, is to
look upward, look to God, not to ourselves, not to our neighbors.
He says, nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it,
and God doeth it that men should fear before Him. Isn't that a
great description of salvation by the grace of God in Christ? Salvation is of the Lord. Do
you want eternal life? Well, John chapter 17, I believe
it's verse 2 or 3, Christ said, this is life eternal that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. If God, by the revelation of
Himself in Christ, the grace of God, how God can be just and
justify the ungodly, if He doesn't fill that void with His Spirit
and His truth, it'll all be vanity. And he says, whatever God does,
listen to him, verse 14, nothing can be put to it, nothing can
be added to it, and nor anything taken from it. What God does
is complete. You remember Christ, before the
foundation of the world, Christ was appointed by the Father to
be the surety, the representative, the savior, the redeemer of his
people. God chose a people and gave them
to Christ and sent Christ into the world to do everything necessary
to ensure and complete their salvation by His suffering unto
death as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, our preserver,
our protector, and our glorifier. And He hanged on that cross and
He said, it's finished. It's complete. It's a complete
work. Hebrews 10.14 says, By one offering,
He, Christ, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. In
that transaction, He brought forth a perfect righteousness,
the everlasting righteousness of God, which He has imputed,
charged, accounted to His people, that ensures everything they
need, every blessing of salvation, which we don't earn and deserve.
But it's all of grace. And he brings us under the gospel
of peace. The gospel that reveals unto
us the complete work of Christ to ensure eternity for sinners
like us. And it's all of grace. For by
grace are you saved, through faith. That not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Such knowledge and fulfillment must come from God. It cannot
come from the world. It cannot come from within yourself.
As I said, the heart's deceitful, desperately wicked. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. It comes
by God revealing Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory
of His person, and the power and success of His redemptive
work. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God,
manifest in the flesh. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power
by the resurrection from the dead. He finished, He completed
the work. It's called the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel. It's His righteousness imputed
to His people by which we are justified before God. And what
is it to be justified? It's to be forgiven of all our
sins on a just ground. And what is that just ground?
It's the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood cleanseth us from all
sin. Now, trying to fill that void
with anything else is vanity. And what is it to be justified?
It's to be declared righteous, just, in the eyes of a holy God. Who shall lay anything to God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather, is risen again.
He fills that void with the righteousness of another because any other
righteousness won't do. The Bible says that God has appointed
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained and that He hath given assurance
unto all men and that He hath raised Him from the dead. It's
Christ. And what does He say up here?
It's the gift of God. An understanding of what God
does and what God freely gives. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter
2, over across the page, in verse 24. It says here, there is nothing
better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that
he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also
I saw that it was from the hand of God. Do you realize, and I
tell the congregation here, for you visitors, I tell the congregation
here, I said, take your next breath. You cherish that. You don't think
about that all the time, do you? You don't go around thinking
about, man, am I going to get to the next breath? But you know that's
a gift from God. And you know you didn't earn
it, and you didn't deserve it. Every breath you take. Now, where
does that leave us when it comes to eternal life and salvation,
the forgiveness of sin? It leaves us at the mercy of
God. Anything less, you may enjoy
it for a while, and you may think it's filling that void, but it's
temporary. It will not last. It's vanity of vanity. He says,
whatever man does will fade away, but whatever God does will last. Whatever man does, you can always
add to it, and you can always take away from it. You can lose
it. But whatever God does, you can't add to it, and you can't
take away from it. It's sure and certain. That's
why David of old prayed on his deathbed that God has made a
covenant with me that is ordered in all things and sure, and it's
all my salvation. Nothing added. And all of it
is passed in the eternal mind of God. In other words, God must
fill this void with the glory he has in Christ. And that's
why I pray, may God fill our void. In the book of Proverbs,
chapter one, Solomon wrote by inspiration of the Spirit, verse
seven, He says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction. In Proverbs 3, 5,
he wrote, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not
to thine own understanding. See, the natural man, it will
not do. It will not last. When he comes
before God at judgment, pleading anything other than the blood
of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, He'll find out that
it's not only vanity, but it's iniquity. It falls short. You know, I've often, especially
when I was in college, I spent time reading a lot of different
people, a lot of whom were atheists, denying the existence of God,
denying that there's an afterlife. And one of the most interesting
things that I ever read, and looking around at people like
that, is what they said, if they said anything, on their deathbed.
There was a man, a French philosopher, back in the, I think he lived
around the 1600s, late 1600s, his name was Voltaire, I don't
know if you ever heard of him or not, but of an avowed atheist,
hated religion, any form of religion, except the religion of atheism,
and my friend, it is a religion. But listen to his last words,
the last words of an atheist. Voltaire said on his deathbed
before he died, he said, I have swallowed nothing but smoke. I have intoxicated myself with
the incense that turned my head. I am abandoned by God and man. And then he said to his doctor,
I will give you half of what I'm worth if you will give me
six months of life. And when he was told that wasn't
possible, he said, then I shall die and go to hell. Think about
that. And there's several of those
I could read to you from different atheists when they died. But
let me show you what happens when God fills the void. Listen
to the deathbed confession of a man of God, King David, 2 Samuel
23, 5. He said, Although my house, my
kingdom and my family, be not so with God, yet God hath made
with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure,
For this is all my salvation, all my desire, although he make
it not to grow. How could David, how could he confidently say
that God had made a covenant with him that's ordered in all
things and sure? Well, number one, because it
was God who filled that void for him. By his grace, in the
person and work of Christ. It's ordered because God ordered
it. I didn't order it. You didn't order it. If we ordered
it, it'd be out of kilter. You ever made plans that fell
through? God doesn't make any plans that fall through. He's
the sovereign God of this universe who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will, and He shall not fail. And especially
when that in the Bible, when it applies to Jesus Christ as
the savior of his people, it says he shall prosper, he shall
be victorious, he shall not fail. His blood is enough to fill that
void for the forgiveness of our sins. His righteousness is enough
to fill that void for our justification before a holy God who knows us
better than we know ourselves. That's how you know. And it was
sure because it was all conditioned on the work, the person and work
of a surety whom God appointed, who was able to do the work,
and who was willing to do the work. And that's Christ. And
so with that in mind, we say, may God fill our void. All right.