Alright, let's turn in our Bibles
to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Now, I'm going to begin at verse
16 of Ecclesiastes 3. And what we're going to be talking
about is the truth and concept and reality of justice. And that is a missing note in
religion today. It's a missing note in what most
people call gospel today, what they call religion or Christianity
today. Many people like to talk about
the love of God, and I do too. I love to talk about and to consider
and meditate upon God's love, His free, unconditional, unmerited
love towards His people in Christ. I love those scriptures that
talk about His unconditional love towards us, and that when
we were yet enemies, God sent forth His Son to die for unlovely
people, sinners, who deserve nothing but damnation and hell. I love to talk about how God
communicates His love by the power of His Spirit as He leads
us to Christ. And he tells us here in his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. And so we enjoy
this. We take comfort in it. We love
to talk about God's mercy and God's grace. And I hear a lot
of talk about that on religious television. But my friend, in
all of that talk of God's love and mercy and grace, here's the
key issue. You cannot leave out the reality
of God's justice. God's justice. Because you see,
if God's going to love anyone, whoever they are, He must remain
just in doing so. If God's going to show mercy
to anyone, no matter who they are, He must remain just and
righteous and true to Himself. If God's going to show grace
to anyone, He must be just in doing so. He's a holy God. That
means He's set apart. He is morally pure, but He's
set apart and unique, and He cannot pervert justice. The preacher
in Ecclesiastes begins this section with a lament. And what he's
lamenting is man's injustice. And what he's going to show us
in this passage from here to verse 22 is this fact that God's
judgments, not man's, but God's judgments are the key to understanding
the issues and the purpose of life, of death, of judgment,
the final judgment, and eternal life. Not man's judgment, because
man's judgment is always perverted, it's always dark, it's always
wrong in these areas when we consider man in his natural fallen
state, ruined in Adam. No one can be assured of God's
favor justly by pointing to their own righteousness, to their own
goodness. Somebody may accuse you of doing
something you didn't do. Have you ever been falsely accused?
I have. I've been accused of things that I didn't do. But
even at that, and even in that sort of innocence amongst men
and women on this plane, I still cannot expect God to favor me
based upon my innocence in any area. Because in God's sight,
I'm a sinner. In God's sight, I'm guilty in
and of myself. First of all, we don't have any
righteousness before God. We don't have any innocence before
God. The Bible says in Romans chapter 3 and verse 10, there's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. That is in man's relationship
to God. We're not talking about man's
judgments here. How you see me or how I see you. You can take
the best people on earth, and I believe this is what Christ
was doing on the Sermon on the Mount. in Matthew chapter 5 when
he was trying to show those people through the preaching of the
law and the gospel now. And he preached the law too now.
Because that's the standard of righteousness. And you've either
got to come up to snuff or you fall short for all the sin that
comes short of the glory of God. We missed the mark. We've transgressed
the law. We're sinners. All the law can
do is condemn us based on our best works. So what he did is
he picked out the best people on earth in the eyes of the masses.
the Pharisees, the religious, the moral, who outwardly appeared
righteous. And in verse 20, he made this
statement, and it's a startling statement. I wish we could put
ourselves in that place and kind of get the gist of what he was
saying, how that would shock them, you see. And he said, accept
your righteousness. Now, the righteousness, that
word righteousness, you could just as well say, accept your
justness, being just before God. being innocent, being not guilty
before God, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom
of heaven. That's amazing, isn't it? And
that's why he said over in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33 in the
same Sermon on the Mount, he says, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, His justness. You see, his way
of declaring sinners not guilty and innocent and righteous in
his sight, seek his righteousness and all these things will be
added unto you. So we have none before God. And secondly, even
in man's court. Now, I want you to think about
civil courts now. Think about you. You know, I
love to watch movies and TV shows that are like court trials. I
love that. But think about that for a minute.
Even in man's court, Now look at verse 16 here of Ecclesiastes
3. He says, Moreover, I saw under
the sun. Now remember, any time he talks
about being under the sun in Ecclesiastes, he's talking about
how things are here on this fallen, sinful, wretched earth. Alright? And that's why we, for
salvation, for real justice, for real justice, you've got
to look above the sun. You've got to look to God, you
see. But now, moreover, I saw unto the Son the place of judgment."
Now, literally, he's talking about civil courts. And he says,
in that place of judgment, that wickedness was there. There wasn't
purity. There wasn't truth. There wasn't
righteousness and pure justice in the place of judgment under
the Son. He said, in the place of righteousness, the place where
justice should dwell, that iniquity, was there. That word iniquity,
you know, a lot of times you'll see in the Bible it talks about
equity, equalness, things weighing out the same. And that's what
he's talking about. Inequity is an imbalanced scale. That's what iniquity means. In
other words, it's unrighteous. It's not fair. Have you ever
seen somebody get pronounced innocent or not guilty or somebody
pronounced guilty and you say, that's not fair. There was a
technicality in the law. And I tell you something, even
amongst the most well-intended judges and legal counsels, there's
always going to be mistakes. How many times have we seen in
our day where they go back and somebody's been in prison for
20 years and they do these DNA testing and they find out they
didn't commit the crime? You see, that's man's judgment.
Even the best, most well-intended, and I tell you, I admire a judge.
who has a strong sense of justice in our civil courts, who has
a strong sense of right and wrong. But I'll tell you, even the best
of judges are but mere sinful men who don't know the whole
score. And so there's mistakes. And
that's what Solomon is saying here. He's talking about the
perverted judgments of sinful men. And I'll tell you something
else. This idea of man's perverted
sense of justice I believe it's one of the main ways that the
depravity and the ruination and the sinfulness of the natural
human heart is really brought forth in this issue of justice. You can see it in our courts.
Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong.
Man's sinful judgment in these areas show forth his natural
depravity because his judgments are always going to be affected
by ignorance. There are things that he doesn't
know. Sometimes, and a lot of times, his judgments are affected
by greed and selfishness. How many times have you heard
about judges or lawyers or even juries being paid off or being
bribed or being blackmailed? You know what one of the worst
perversions is among men in their judgments? Is that we're all,
by nature, respecters of persons. You see, if you were a judge,
it would naturally make a difference to you if a stranger came up
before your court, or if it was your son, or your daughter, or
your brother, or your sister. And you couldn't help it. And
that's the natural depravity of the human heart. Turn over
to Matthew chapter 7. One of the main ways the perversion
of men's judgment is found and shown and evidenced is in religion. In religion. And that's what
the Lord is speaking of here in the Sermon on the Mount about
judgment. Here's one of them, I believe it was Brother Tim
James, he preached on this verse 1, or this passage in Matthew
7. And he said, Matthew 7, verse
1 is the most misquoted verse in the whole Bible. And you know,
most people normally think, or us, we think that John 3, verse
16 is the most misquoted, and it is misquoted quite a bit.
But I believe Tim was right. This one here, even more. Look
what it says. Judge not that ye be not judged. And so we go
around and you'll hear people say, well, I don't judge. I don't
judge. Well, that's a lie. We all judge. We can't help but
judge. But you know why we can't help
but judge? Because God has given us a conscience, a sense of right
and wrong. You want to do what's right,
don't you? You don't want to do what's wrong. Therefore, you
have to make a judgment between what's right and what's wrong.
And somebody said, well, I'm not going to judge any preacher.
Well, the Bible says to judge preachers in 1 John chapter 4
and verse 10, test the spirits. So right now, as you're looking
at me and hearing me, you're judging me. You're judging whether
or not I'm telling you the truth or telling you a lie. And so
I had a lady tell me one time, she said, well, I don't even
want to hear you. I don't care what you say. And I said, well,
you've judged that what I've said is not worth hearing. You still
made a judgment. So it's always going to be there.
But what's the problem? Our judgments are always sinful
judgments. They're always perverted. They're
always based on a wrong standard. So when Christ says here, Judge
not that you be not judged, He's not forbidding all judgment here.
How should you judge me? Ask to my creature. You ought
to judge me like the noble Bereans judge Paul and Barnabas by the
Word of God. That's how. Is he preaching?
Is Christ lifted up? is Christ preached in his truth,
in his person, in his finished work. That's how you ought to
judge these messages that men preach. And here he's saying,
he's talking about self-righteous judgment. Look at it, verse 2
of Matthew 7. For with what judgment you judge,
you shall be judged, and with what measure you mete out shall
be measured to you again. Why, beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, the little splinter? You see,
what I see of you is just a little part of your sinfulness. But what I know of me is like
a big old beam. I know my thoughts. You don't.
I know what I'm thinking right now. You don't. I don't know
what you're thinking. All I see is that little splinter. But
I don't see what you're thinking, what's in your heart. You see
what I'm saying? So that's what he's saying here.
Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? In other
words, you've got enough to take care of right at home, rather
than going out and trying to get all your neighbors right.
That's what he's saying here. Incidentally, if you'll read
on in Matthew chapter 7, in verse 15, he makes this statement,
beware of false prophets. And I ask you this, how could
you beware of false prophets unless you judged them to be
false? You'd have to make a judgment there. So what's the issue here?
And going back to Solomon there, it's perverted judgment. It's
self-righteous judgment. Turn over to Romans chapter two
with me. You see, we all have a sense
of justice. We want justice, especially when
it comes to us. But many times and most of the
time, if not all the time, our sense of justice is perverted
by revenge. Isn't that right? We just want
to get back at somebody. But look here, Romans chapter
2, he speaks of this. He says, Therefore, verse 1,
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. Now, he's not talking about all
judgment. He's talking about self-righteous judgment. Look
at it. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.
For thou that judgest doth doest the same things." Now let me
give you a sense of what he's talking about there. You may
say, well, I don't do the same things that some of these criminals
out here are doing. No, you don't. But now let me
tell you something. Here's what he's saying. If you ever look
at anybody, I don't care who they are, the worst or the best,
and you make this statement, that person deserves hell and
damnation because they are a sinner. You know what you've just done?
You've just condemned yourself too. You know why? Because you're
a sinner too. I'm a sinner. Anytime I look
at somebody and condemn them to hell for their sins as if
I don't deserve the same thing for my sins, that's what he's
talking about in Romans chapter 2. You do the same thing. You
may not do the exact same crime, but you're a sinner. And let
me tell you something. Now go back to Ecclesiastes 3.
And look at this. Look at verse 17. Now listen to this. He says,
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. All true, perfect, right judgment
is from God. And here's what he's saying.
Now, you look at somebody else and you say, well, they deserve
hell because they're a sinner. Well, my friend, in God's sight,
I'm a sinner too. What do I deserve? What have
I earned? The wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. You
see, in God's sense of justice which begins with the purity
and holiness of his nature. One sin. It doesn't matter. You
see, our problem is not just one sin, but even one sin deserves
justice, which is damnation. If God gave me what I justly
deserved, it would be damnation. And so what Solomon is saying
here, the preacher is saying here, is you can't really get
a sense of justice by looking around under the sun at men. Like I said, I admire judges
who try to do right. I admire law enforcement that
tries to do right. But I want to tell you something,
even the best of them and their best efforts, you really can't
get a sense of God's justice and man's injustice by looking
at them. That's what he's saying. So how can we be assured? Now,
here's the issue. How can we be assured that the
righteous and the wicked will get their just due? Well, first
of all, who is righteous in the sight of God? Listen, God's judgment
is sure. God's judgment is true. Over
there in Romans chapter 2, let me just read it to you here that
we looked at. He said in verse 2 of Romans
2, now he's talking about man's perverted judgment. But he says
in verse 2 of Romans 2, but we are sure that the judgment of
God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
God's judgment is always right. It's always true. He never makes
a wrong judgment about anybody, anyone, any time. When we stand
before God at judgment, the declaration that God gives will be a right
declaration about every one of us. If He takes me into glory,
to be with Him forever in heaven, He'll be right and just in doing
so. And if He sends me to hell, He'll
be right and just in doing so. He'll never make a mistake. There'll
be no DNA test that says, no, you didn't commit the crime,
come out. No, sir. And listen, God looks on the
heart. He doesn't judge just by outward appearance. And, read
on down there in Romans chapter 2 on your own sometimes, it says,
God is no respecter of persons. God is no respecter of persons.
When He looks at me, He has no regard or respect unto my person. He doesn't look at me like my
mother looks at me, or like my wife looks at me, or my children
look at me, and vice versa. He looks at me just in His own
just, holy nature. And that's the viewpoint. So,
if you look at this in Ecclesiastes 3, he's saying, though there
is injustice, and there is, verse 16, that's not the end of the
story. God, he may correct some injustices
right here on earth. Now, he may do that. here in
time. And if he does, that's okay.
But if he does not do it in time, still he's appointed a time when
it will be brought out. It's all going to come out in
the end. God's going to show it. He's going to declare his
justice throughout this universe. The scriptures speak of a time
appointed by God when the reality of justification before him and
of condemnation by him according to his truth and according to
his standard will all come out. All the hidden motives of the
heart will be examined. And that which is spoken in secret
shall be shouted from the housetops, the Lord told his disciples,
and justice will ultimately prevail." So we can conclude this, and
this is what the preacher in Ecclesiastes is lamenting about
this situation under the sun. There's really Think about it.
There's really no true and lasting judgment in this world. But my
friend, where are we going to find any true and lasting judgment?
Only in God. And where does He lead His people?
Where does He lead His people to find the only true and lasting
judgment there is to be found? Now and forever. It's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. I quote quite often
from this pulpit, Acts chapter 17 and verse 31. That's the conclusion
of Paul's message on Mars Hill to the Athenian Greek philosophers
and theologians. And he talks about the God of
creation and the God who put us here and the God who sets
the boundaries of our habitation and our times and everything,
how God is in control. And he said, this same God, you
can't put Him in a box, you can't worship Him with men's hands
as though He needed anything, like the heathen idols of this
world. They need you, but God doesn't
need you. We need Him. We need God. I hear preachers say, you're
the only hands that He has. Well, if that's true, He's got
wicked hands, and weak hands, doesn't He? Paul himself said,
we have a treasure, but we have it in clay pots, broken vessels,
earthen treasures. You see, God doesn't need an
earthen treasure, and yet God is glorified in the salvation
of such weak, sinful, pitiful creatures as we are. That's amazing. Don't ever get over that. Don't
ever let that fly over your head. God is glorified in the highest. in the salvation of such people
and sinners as we are through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
amazing. And here's an amazing thing,
too. God's not only merciful to save me and gracious to save
me, He's just in doing so. You see, the only way a man can
make a judgment about salvation of another man under the sun
without the revelation from God in Christ is to pervert justice. And you'll hear that in religion
today. Oh, I know you're a sinner, but God will look over it. God
will forget it and act like it never happened. Oh, no, He won't.
Justice must be served. And let me tell you the greatest
proof. Christ came and was made under the law to redeem. That means to pay the price,
to buy back, to satisfy the debt, the justice of God. Them that
were under the law. That's why He did it. He came
to satisfy justice. And yes, in Him is mercy. He's the mercy seat. Now, I'm
going to tell you something about that mercy seat in the Old Testament.
It was covered with blood. And you know why? Because of
God's justice. The soul that sinneth must die,
and without the shedding of blood there is no remission, forgiveness,
pardon of sin. Now, I mention Acts 17.31 there.
And it said this, there's no true and lasting judgment in
the world but only in Christ. You see, the issue of God's justice,
the issue of God's mercy, the issue of God's grace is this,
how do I stand in relation to Christ? Because Acts 17.31 says
that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness, justly, not unfairly, not with iniquity as
it is here in Ecclesiastes 3.16. not wickedly, but justly and
righteously and truly. God hath appointed 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." And there's the issue. Abraham, when
he was interceding for the people of Sodom, You remember how, in
his own way, it seemed like he was bargaining with God. He wasn't
bargaining with God. God knew the score. God knew
what was going to take place. But he did make this statement
in Genesis 18 and verse 25. He said this, shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? That's a rhetorical, you know,
there was no answer given because it's a rhetorical question. Doesn't
require an answer. It means obviously. It would
be so sinful and wretched for us to think otherwise, that God,
the Judge of the Ark, would do anything but right. Well, let
me tell you something. If you're here tonight, and you're
saved by the grace of God, do you know that God did right in
saving you? He didn't do anything wrong.
He didn't make a mistake. We read it in Psalm 85. Look back there. It's one of
my favorite psalms, because it brings together. You see here,
here's where we come to face an issue that is a prime, central,
foundational gospel issue. And that's this, how can God
be just and justify the ungodly? And this psalm answers that.
David knew that. He knew this. And Psalm, it says
in verse 10, look at verse 9, it says, Surely his salvation
is nigh them that fear him. Glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together. God doesn't lie to show mercy.
He doesn't pervert justice to show mercy. They're brought together.
Where? At the cross of Calvary in the blood of Christ. All that we deserve justly under
the law of God for our sins was poured down upon the Son of God
incarnate. He was made sin. Christ who knew
no sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. They're
not at odds. They don't cancel out each other.
They work together. How? How? By our works and our
efforts and our relentless? No, sir. By the blood of Christ.
That's how they work together. Justice prevailed on Calvary. How do you know that? The Son
of God incarnate died on the cross. He said, this is my blood
which is shed for you. This is my body which is given
for you. Justice prevailed and mercy came forth for sinners
like us. Isn't that amazing? Mercy left
truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall
look down from heaven. He says, Yea, the Lord shall
give that which is good, and our land shall yield her increased
righteousness, shall go before him, and shall set us in the
way of step. Psalm 89 and verse 14 says this,
Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy
and truth shall go before thy face. It's not love without justice. It's not grace without justice.
It's not mercy without justice. It's all of God's attributes
working consistently together in the height of their glory
and revelation in the face of Jesus Christ. When he was prophesied of in
the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 9, it was said of our
Savior, of the increase of his government and peace, there shall
be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to
order it. and to establish it with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even forever. And he says this, the zeal, the
fervency, the desire, the power of the Lord of hosts will perform
this. He performed it. Behold, Jeremiah
23, 5, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute what? Judgment and justice in the earth. Turn to Romans chapter 3 with
me. Listen to this. He says here that by deeds of
law shall no flesh be justified. God cannot be just and save us
based on our deeds. Because our deeds fall short.
We're sinners. And I've put it this way before.
Even if starting tomorrow morning you could wake up and have a
life of perfection from then on, God still could not be just
in saving you based on your works. Because what about your past
sins? Sin must be punished. God punishes sin, not because
He's mean, Not because he's thrown a temper tantrum, but because
he's just. And if you don't believe sin
must be punished, then don't look to Christ, because that's
what he came here for, to be punished for the sins of his
sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He was bruised for our iniquities. That's what the
scripture says. So we cannot be declared righteous,
justified by our deeds. But it takes the righteousness
of God, verse 21 of Romans 3. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, same message as the Old Testament. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, His faithfulness
to do what the Father sent Him to do, unto all that is preached
unto all, and upon all them that believe. All who believe are
clothed with His righteousness. There's no difference for all
sinning comes short of the glory of God. Being justified freely,
unconditionally, without a cause, by His grace. But it's not grace
without justice. Look, grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. He had to pay the redemption
price. He had to shed His blood. Verse 25, Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation, there's justice again, satisfaction.
through faith in His blood, without the shedding of blood, to declare
His righteousness, His justness in doing this, for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Now go back to Ecclesiastes
3, and let me run through this, because here's what he's saying
now. What I've just told you is the
revelation of God, And I pray that he'll reveal it to our hearts.
This is not the musings or the philosophies or the religion
of man under the sun. This is God's revelation of his
justice in Christ. We cannot have, listen, we cannot
reason God from the ground up. You can't look at the justice,
even the best acts of justice here on this earth, and then
conclude anything about God. You can't do it. Why? Because,
moreover, verse 16, I saw unto the Son the place of judgment,
that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that
iniquity was there. I said in my heart, God shall
judge the righteous and the wicked. There's a time there for every
purpose and for every work. Now look at verse 18 through
20. Here's what He's going to teach us now. He's going to teach
us that without this true sense of godly justice, which is seen
in its height at the cross, We're no better than the beast. That's
right. We're no better than the dumb
animals. Look at it. He says, I said in my heart,
verse 18, concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God
might manifest them, literally test them, and that they might
see that they themselves are beasts. What is he saying? Without
God, without Christ, without His justice and mercy, what's
God showing us? We're no better off than the
beast. He says in verse 19, for that which befalleth the sons
of men befalleth beast. You ever seen a dead dog? You'll
see a dead man and a dead woman too. That's what he's talking
about. No difference. In that sense
now, even one thing befalleth them. As 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. Without God, think about this,
without God, Without Christ, man has no preeminence above
a beast. Ultimately! You know, whenever
I think about that, I think about Isaiah chapter 1. Because, you
know, he's talking about the children of Israel and their
rebelliousness and their religious rebellion. He says, well, even
the ass knows it's master's crib. Even the ox knows it's... In
other words, the beasts are better off than we are in our religion,
in our false religion. Because even a jackass knows
his master's crib. But the people have forgotten
God. No preeminence. Verse 20, he says, all go unto
one place, all are of dust, and all turn to dust again. That's
it. Without God. Without man realizing
the purpose that God has set within his heart. of eternity
that can only be filled and completed and realized in Christ and salvation
by the grace of God. Think about it. That's why from
the standpoint of fallen human nature, we can't really detect
that much difference between ourselves and animals. And I'll
tell you exactly what comes out of that kind of thought. Theories
of evolution. Man coming up from the primordial
ooze, crawling up out of it. developing into monkeys and then
going on further. Not much difference. Verse 21. With Christ, man ascends unto
God. That's what he's saying here.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit
of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? Now, that's in
the form of a question in the King James Version, but literally
it's a statement. Here's what he's saying. Man,
the spirit of man goes upward. And the spirit of beasts that
goes downward, they dissolve in the grave. But you see, man,
there is a life after death. There's a life to live, there's
a death to die, there's a judgment to face, and there's an eternity
to spend. So God reveals there is a difference.
Even though man on his own has no preeminence above the beast,
there is a difference. Man will be held accountable.
So what's our only hope? To be in Christ. To be justified
before a holy God. who has been merciful to his
people through Christ. And so what does he conclude
here in verse 22? Look at it. He says, "...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?" Now again, he's
making statements here. And what he's saying, he's speaking
here of a contentment that man should have in whatever state
he's in on this earth, because ultimately it's all going to
be justly and rightly brought out by God. And so he's saying
God's still working all things after the counsel of his own
will, for his own glory. You look around, there's injustices
now. There's perversions, there's sin. We're part of it too, because
we're sinners. But God is still working for
the good of his people, and therefore we work Like he's talking about
working here, rejoicing in his own works. That's not for salvation
now. That's just how God has put us
on this earth and given us the gifts and the abilities to do
what we're to do, to take care of our families, to take care
of each other. But all as a gift from God, as he's stated several
times here. But whatever we go through and
whatever we do, rejoice in Christ. Trust in the Lord. Lean not to
your own understanding. Because who shall bring him to
see what shall be after him? Well, I'll tell you exactly who.
Only God. Through his word. Through his
judgments. Through his gospel. Alright.