a somewhat shorter message. I want to speak to us from Ecclesiastes
chapter 4 and beginning in verse 7. Then I returned and I saw
vanity under the sun. There is one alone and there
is not a second. Yea, he hath neither child nor
brother, yet is there no end of all his labors. Neither is
I satisfied with riches. Neither, saith he, for whom do
I labor and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea,
it is a sore travail. Two are better than one because
they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the
one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone
when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up. Again,
if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be
warm alone? And if one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly
broken. In the beginning, when God created
man, He said, it's not good that man should be alone. Man was
created a sociable creature. That's the way that God has made
us. And the wise man here, Solomon,
he says, two is better than one. And this is true in things natural. That is, in our lives in this
world, two is better than one. And it is also true in its spiritual
parallel. Two is better than one. Solomon points out the advantages
of two rather than one in ways that are easily recognized in
work, that is in labor. When there are two, then they
share in the outcome of the labor and the rewards of their labor. Our Lord sent out his disciples
at first by two, two by two, he sent them out to preach the
gospel. If one man falls, if he's alone,
too bad. Two is better than one. If one
man falls, the second man's there to help him up. Same thing in
spiritual truths. One man gets discouraged, gets
down, gets depressed, and then he has a second to encourage
him. Remember the proverb where Solomon
said, as iron sharpeneth iron. So, a man sharpeneth the countenance
of his friend. If one is cold, one man is alone,
and he's cold, well, with a second they share their warmth. And
if one man is overcome, let's say he's on the sidewalk and
someone wants to relieve him of his possessions, two is better
than one. The robber's not likely to overcome
two where he would one. We can see these practical things. And remember in the book of Ecclesiastes,
Solomon is speaking of things done under the sun. You've always
got to keep that in mind as you read this book. Then Solomon
ends, verse 12, after speaking about the fact that two is better
than one, He says, and a threefold cord is not quickly or easily
broken. A threefold cord is not easily
or quickly broken. A man, a father, handed his son,
his young son, a bundle of sticks that were tied together and told
his son, break these sticks. And of course, the son did not
have the strength, the power to do it. And then the father
unbundled the sticks, untied them, and handed them to his
son one by one, and they were easily broken. That's easy. That's a parable that's easy
for all of us to see and understand. The same is true of a threefold
card. Here's a rope, we might say a
rope instead of a card, and it has three strands, not One strand
might be quickly broken, or two, but a three-fold cord is not
quickly or easily broken. I'm going to point out a three-fold
cord that every child of God has that cannot be broken. This is not a cord that can quickly
or may not quickly be broken. This is a cord that cannot be
broken. A three-fold chord. Every child
of God here tonight, everyone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ
is your Lord and Savior. You're not just playing church.
Christ is real to you. He's your Lord. He reigns. He rules. He's not only your
Savior to save you from hell, to save you from the power of
sin, but He is your Lord to direct and guide you through this world. Every child of God has this threefold
cord that is given to us. The first cord, the everlasting
love of God. The everlasting love of God. God's love for his children has
no beginning. It is everlasting. It has no
beginning, which means that it has no end. Jeremiah chapter
31 and verse 3, God said, the Lord hath appeared of old unto
me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with cords of loving kindness have I drawn thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. This is one of the strings of
the chord, one of the strings of the threefold chord that every
child of God has here tonight, that you are loved with an everlasting
love. had no beginning and it certainly
will have no ending. It is like God himself without
beginning and end, eternal, everlasting. This is true of every child of
God. Now there's four things that
we know about this everlasting love that I want to mention. We know that this everlasting
love of God flows freely. It flows freely of its own self-movement
toward the objects. This everlasting love of God,
it flows freely. It flows forth spontaneously
without seeking any cause but its own self-movement or any
other object but that to which it softly and yet strongly tends. In other words, God loves you,
if you're one of His children here tonight, God loves you with
an everlasting love, with a love that had no beginning and will
have no ending, and it was uncaused on your part. It was uncaused
on your part. God loves His people freely. Freely. The Scripture says God
is love. That's His nature, as well as
His name. If anyone asks why? Why God loved
any of the sons of Adam? You know, that's the amazing
thing. Sometimes people, they run across that verse in Romans
chapter 9 that tells us, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And people are bewildered and,
well, how can that be? That doesn't sound like the God
that I know. Probably isn't the God that you
know. But it is the God of the Bible. And people say, well,
how can that be? That God would hate Esau. Where a
child of God says, how can it be that God would love Jacob? That's the amazing thing. that
God would love any of Adam's fallen race. And yet He does. And not only loves those that
He loves, but He loves us with an everlasting love. When someone asks why, we answer,
according to the Word of God. And this is always the best way
to answer. Answer skeptics. Answer those
who do not submit to the Word of God with the Word of God. Don't try to reason and don't
try to explain what cannot be explained. God hasn't explained
it to us. He simply said, I will love them
freely. And so when someone says, well,
how can that be? Then we will answer with 1 John
4 and verse 10. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Should anyone ask
how? How may we know this love? Then our answer again must be
from the word of God. And we have known and believed
the love of God or the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God. 1 John 4 and verse 16. So that's the first thing I point
out to us about this everlasting love. This first cord, or first
string of this cord, God's eternal, God's everlasting love. It's uncaused on the part of
those that He loves. So I just can't see any reason
why God would love me. No, you never will. And you need
to stop looking. You need to stop looking. Because
what you're going to see when you look within is a lot of reasons
why He shouldn't love you. The second thing we know about
this everlasting love, we know that this everlasting love of
God is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to
Romans, Romans chapter 8. We know that this everlasting
love of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 8, the last
two verses of this chapter, we could read more here about His
love, but just these last two verses, for I am persuaded that
neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know, you
hear politicians, and they have to be politically correct, They'll
quote part of this verse about the love of God, how that we
cannot be separated from the love of God, but they, at least
I don't hear any of them, quote the verse in its entirety, which
is in, as the scripture says, which is in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. In other words, they think that
God's love is just a universal love. They do not realize that
God's love is a special love for his people. Those that are
mentioned in this text, those who cannot be separated from
the love of God. God's love is special, eternal,
everlasting, uncaused. And it is in Jesus Christ. The third thing. We know that
this everlasting love of God cannot be disappointed. It cannot
be disappointed. You know, we've probably read
some stories or heard some tales about maybe a young man who met
a young lady and his heart just began to beat real fast. Before he knew it, he experienced
something that we would call love. And he did his best to win her
love. Maybe just did everything that
he could to win her love. But he couldn't. He couldn't. Why? Because he did not have
the power to work in her heart to give her that love for Him. Now God has the power. God has the power and God exercises
the power. His love, God's love, is never
disappointed. When He loves someone, that person
will come to love Him. In fact, John tells us we love
Him because. Why do we love God? Why do you
love God? We love Him because He first
loved us. And His love will not be disappointed. Now a child of God may doubt
that God loves him. That's true. A child of God may
get so discouraged and so despondent and so oppressed in some way,
he may doubt, she may doubt that God loves him. But those doubts,
those doubts themselves imply that you love God. If you didn't love God, then
you would never have any concern about Him loving you. If you
love God, you may be sure He loves you. You see, the truth
of the scripture, we love Him because He first loved us. And if you love God, then it's
because He loved you. You wouldn't love God. And yes,
you may doubt His love for you, but even those doubts and fears
show that you have a love for God. You wouldn't be concerned
otherwise. And the fourth thing about this
everlasting love, we know that this everlasting love was manifested
to us in the death of Jesus Christ. Look with me in Romans 5, you've
already turned here to Romans 8, but this passage of scripture Romans chapter 5, in verse 6, the apostle said,
for when we were yet without strength in due time, the marginal
says, according to the time, that is God's time, when we were
yet without strength According to the time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. That does happen. Prisoners are
sometimes exchanged, released, and sometimes they give their
lives that others may be released. Not often, scarcely. Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commendeth. Now this word that is translated
commendeth, it's a word that we get our word placard from,
placard. You see these people demonstrating
and they've got a poster. That's what that is, a placard. And God demonstrated, He manifested,
He showed His love. As this scripture says, God demonstrated,
manifested His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. We know this about God's everlasting
love. It was manifested or demonstrated
in the death of Jesus Christ, that He would die, not for the
righteous, not for the good, but for the unrighteous. Much more. Oh, I love that term
here in Romans 5. Much more, much more, much more. much more than be now justified
by his blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. That's the first card. Here's
the second. The merits of Christ's person
and sacrifice. The merits of Christ's person
and sacrifice. We say with Peter, When I say
we, I'm speaking of myself and I believe I'm speaking for many
of you here tonight, what it were for everyone here tonight,
hope it is. But we say with Peter when he
spoke to the Lord and he said, we believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. The merit
of his person and his sacrifice. You know, sometimes people say,
well, I just don't have assurance. And I like to remind people who
share that with me of this verse of scripture here, the assurance
that Peter had. We believe and assure, we have
assurance that thou art the Christ, the son of the living And usually
it's a believer who is concerned about assurance. And I ask them,
are you saying you don't believe that Jesus is the Christ? Oh, no, no, I don't have a doubt
about that. Are you saying you don't believe
that he's the son of God? No, I don't doubt that at all.
Well, that's the assurance that Peter had. You know, I think
most people, when they talk about assurance of salvation, they're
talking about some feeling. If I could just have some feeling,
and we imagine, concoct in our minds what kind of feeling it
is that we've got to have, and then we'll have assurance. No. We believe and assure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That was Peter's
assurance. That's my assurance. And I hope
and pray that you never grow weary of hearing and I never
grow weary of saying that Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, is
both God and man in one person. He had to be man because it was
man who disobeyed God. But he must also be God. to give
value and worth, as he said in the Psalms, that I might restore
that which I took not away. He had to restore what we had
taken away by our sins. Augustus Toplady, he wrote Rock
of Ages, we're most familiar with that hymn. But he wrote
this hymn also. Let me quote just a few words. Till God in human flesh I see,
my thoughts no comfort find. The holy, just, and sacred three
fill with dismay my mind. But when Emmanuel's face appears,
my hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish fears. His grace removes my sins. Till God in human flesh I see,
when I see that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Yes, He's man,
but He's more than man. He's the God man. Hebrews 1 and
verse 3 says, when He had by Himself, Didn't need your help,
didn't need my help, didn't need the help of the Baptist church
or the Catholic church, any other church. When he had by himself
purged our sins, you know what that means, washed our sins.
He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high." He's at the right hand of God. That
brings me to the third card. The third card. This card cannot
be broken. These three strands, one of them
couldn't be broken. Altogether, certainly cannot
be broken. God's everlasting love, the merits
of Christ's person and work, And third, the intercession of
Christ. The intercession of Christ. Again,
in Romans 5, in verse 10, the apostle said, for if when we
were enemies, enemies, when we were enemies, and we all were,
we were enemies, enmity with God. When we were enemies, We
were reconciled to God, how? By the death of his son. Now
notice, much more. Much more. Being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. His life of intercession. He
lives tonight. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. Yes, and he's there. making intercession
for all who come unto God by him. What happens when a believer
sins? Does he lose his salvation? Did God take away that everlasting
love? It wouldn't be everlasting if
he did. Not hardly. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world.
He ever lives, his ongoing intercession there tonight. If God judged
us, I'll say myself, if he just judged me for my thoughts and
my actions, Even in a worship service like this, then he'd
have to put me in hell. But I have an advocate with the
Father. You say, well, that's dangerous. That'd make people
just think you can sin and get away. No. When you realize you've
got an advocate and you love Christ, that's the last thing
you want to do is to sin. What you really want to do is
live without any sin. Someone said, well, You're saying
we can just live like we want to live. Well, how do you want
to live? How do you want to live? If you
know Christ, I know how you want to live. You want to live for
his glory. You want to live without sin.
Yes, a 3-4 cord cannot be broken. Well, I pray that God would bless
these thoughts to all of us here this evening. And it was a little shorter,
wasn't it? Had a man here recently, he told
me, he said, Matt, he said, I like those messages that are an hour,
an hour and a half. You heard him, Eric, didn't you? You're going to have to go somewhere
else. I'm sorry.