Let's turn back in our Bibles
to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Well, it was just a little over a month
ago that I stood in this pulpit and preached from these very
same verses of scripture concerning the subject of time and eternity
in Christ. Time and eternity in Christ. And if you recall back then,
maybe you don't, I can barely recall it myself. I told you
you'd probably forget what I said, so I'd have to come back up here
and just re-preach that message. So I kind of entitled this message,
Time and Eternity in Christ Revisited. But I'll just call it part two,
because I am going to launch out from that. But this is a
very interesting passage. It's one of the most famous passages
in the Bible. People sing it in poems and they
quote it. There is a time to everything,
verse 1. There is a season and a time
to every purpose under heaven. And you'd be amazed at how many
theologians, supposed theologians, who Take this as Solomon putting
forth a worldview of fatalism. It's like, well, it's whatever
will be, will be. Brother Mahan said one time when
a lady asked him, do you believe whatever will be, will be? He
said, well, I don't believe whatever will be, won't be. But this is
not talking about fatalism. This is not talking about some
kind of of an estranged higher power that just wound us up like
a clock and then just let us go. And the key word, there's
three key words that are prevalent to this passage. And the first
one, obviously, is time. Time. We know something about
time. Because we're creatures of time. In fact, if you really
want to be honest, we're slaves to time, aren't we? It's why
you're wearing a watch. You know, you've got to be somewhere
at a certain place and you've got no choice over that matter.
If you want to keep your job or if you want to please people,
you want to act responsibly in this life. You know, there's
a clock back there and I know it's there. Sometimes you may
not think I know it's there, but I do. I see that clock and
I try to be aware of that clock, you know, and I try to try not
to give you too much at one time, but we're slaves to time. That's
what we are. And God has appointed all times. That brings us to the second
word, and that's purpose. Look at verse 1 again. To everything
there is a season and a time, to every what? Purpose. Under the heaven. This is not
fatalism. This is the sovereignty of Almighty
God, who has appointed all time and times. God, who you might
even say it this way, created time. He created us and set us
in time. And therefore, when we look at
time, we fail to see the significance of time and times unless we see
the purpose of God. How would you define the purpose
of God? I define it this way, that God's
ultimate purpose is to glorify Himself, especially in the highest,
in the salvation of His people, in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the ultimate purpose of God. When it says over in verse
14 that all these things happen that men should fear before Him,
that's talking about worship, that's talking about serving
God, that's talking about believing God. And how are you going to
worship and serve and believe God except through Christ? Seek
the Lord. The Bible says, as our Lord put
it in the Sermon on the Mount, seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things that we struggle
in time to accumulate will be added unto you. How are you going
to seek the Lord and seek His Kingdom? You cannot seek His
Kingdom without seeking Him. Because you see, the Kingdom
is set by the King. The reason that the kingdoms
of men suffer and fail is because men are sinners. That's right. But God's kingdom is a holy kingdom. God's kingdom is a perfect and
righteous kingdom. And so you must seek God Himself
in order to seek His Kingdom. And in order to seek God Himself,
you have to seek Him in a way that He instructs and commands. And God has been pleased to reveal
Himself through His Son, who is the King of Kings, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You can't seek and find God except
through Christ. It's what He said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness. One thing that man should learn
in the process of time is this, that he cannot make himself better. Study history. The history of
man is a history of sin. It's a history of treachery.
It's a history of blood. There may be some times that
we call good, label them good, but hold on, the bad times are
coming. And yet we know, in the process
of time, we're not getting better and better and better. Now, you
know that. All we have to do is look in
a mirror. All we have to do is just see how we feel today. Ten
years from now, I won't feel as good as I do today. I hope I'm improving in some
way from this surgery, but, you know, it's all going to be for
naught in the end if I don't see the ultimate purpose of God
in time and seek the Lord. So this purpose is what sets
forth the value of time. And we see that purpose especially
in God sending forth His Son. That's why I opened this service
reading Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4. In the fullness of the
time. What is the fullness of the time?
That's God's appointed time. God sent forth His Son to be
made of a woman. That's His incarnation. That's
His humanity. Made under the law. That's His
responsibility to save us by fulfilling the law, meeting all
the conditions of the law, making an end of sin, satisfying the
justice of God, bringing in everlasting righteousness. And why did He
do it? To redeem them that were under
the law. To redeem sinners who were under
the curse of the law. Now, you think about God's eternal
purpose having anything to do with us. Now, that's a humbling
thing, isn't it? God's eternal purpose. You know,
when you think about the span of time, which is nothing in
the eyes of God, a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is
a day. We haven't been here hardly at any time at all. And most
of us, three score and ten is about it, isn't it? And anything
else is what the Bible calls a gift. And so you think about
God's purpose in time having anything to do with Wretched
rebels like us. Sinners like us. And yet God
is glorified in the highest in sending forth His Son in the
fullness of the time to redeem sinners. And that's exactly what
He did. Well, here's the third word that's
important here. Eternity. Now, you don't see
the word eternity in your King James Version here. But that
word is down there in verse 11. when it says he hath made everything
beautiful in his time. That is, everything's appropriate
to the time that God has appointed it to. Nothing's out of place.
Nothing's out of kilter. People can talk about chaos and
chaotic theories, but that has nothing to do with the mind and
purpose of God. It's all going according to plan. That's what that means. We may
not look at it and call it beautiful, it may not be aesthetically appealing
to us, but it's all right there where it should be in God's perfect
appointed scheme of things. According to His will, God who
works all things after the counsel of His own will, but it says
also He has set the world in their heart. Now that word world
could be better translated eternity. Man's sense of eternity. God
has put that within every human being, in the conscience, in
the soul. People spend their lives denying
it. Some people spend their times
trying to work their way into it. How can we have eternal life?
You know, I thought about this as I was studying for this message.
We don't know a whole lot about eternity. You cannot explain
eternity to me. We can talk about living forever
and ever and ever. We can talk about the length
of it. It never ends. Never ends. But we can't really
explain much about the quality of that concept that's called
eternity. All we know of eternity we see
in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
let me show you that. I want you to turn in your Bibles
to John 17. This is the Lord's high priestly prayer. Look at
John 17. This is where our Lord is praying
for His people, interceding as the Great High Priest, not for
all without exception, but for His people, His elect, His sheep. And listen to what He says. Now,
I made the point last time about Christ Himself as God-man. Now think about this. This is
something that we stand amazed at. You know, we sing that hymn,
Hallelujah, what a Savior. And we lift up Christ. Joe spoke
of that this morning. That's what we do when we preach
the gospel. We lift up Christ and Him crucified
and risen again. Son of man must be lifted up.
Brother Scott Richardson preached a message on that one time from
that very passage, Joe, that you went from John 3, 14. which
says, Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him may
have, I was going to say eternal or everlasting life. I don't
remember. Eternal life? And that eternal life is in Christ.
And Brother Richardson had three points. He said, first of all,
the Son of Man, that's Christ, He must be lifted up upon the
cross. He must die for the sins of His
people. He must satisfy the justice of
God. You know, the cross is the crux
of all time. That's in the fullness of the
time. And really, if you think about
it, it's the only time, as far as our salvation is concerned,
that really means anything. The Son of Man was lifted up
to die for my sins, and He put them away. He satisfied justice. He paid my debt in full. He brought
in everlasting righteousness. And you can't have eternal life
without righteousness. I'll show you that in a second.
The second point that Brother Richardson has is this. The Son
of Man must be lifted up in the preaching of the gospel. That's
what we must do. Lift Him up as the crucified,
risen Savior of His people. As the sovereign servant. The
King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who saves His people from their
sins. And then thirdly, and this is
the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth, the Son of Man
must be lifted up within our hearts. We must see Him for who
He really is and what He's actually accomplished, or we'll never
bow to Him as King and as Savior. Isn't that something? He must
be lifted up. But listen here in John 17. He
starts off, he says, these words spake Jesus, verse 1, and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Now, when you speak of an hour,
you're speaking of time. There's a time for everything.
Our Lord recognized that. Now, God himself, in his nature,
in the essence of his being, is not subject to time. God suspends
all time. That is why he is immutable.
I am the Lord. I change not, he said. Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He is not subject to time, yet
he created time. And thank God there was a time
that he intervened himself, himself into time, the fullness of the
time God sent forth his Son to accomplish this purpose of the
salvation of his people in and by Christ. And so Christ Himself
as God-man, one person with two distinct natures, deity and humanity,
without sin. What is it the preacher used
to say? He's very God of very God, very man of very man. You can't explain it, I can't
either, but it's so. What He actually did, He brought
eternity and time together. You see, as God, He is eternal.
He's the great I Am. He's the great I Am. Think about
that. He's the One who was, who is,
and who ever will be. That's who Christ is. He's the
Alpha and the Omega. No beginning and no ending. And
yet, as man, He was subject to time. He had to wait for this
hour to come. Isn't that amazing? God in human flesh. And He said,
the hour has come. You remember, up until this point,
He kept telling His disciples, My time has not yet come. Mine
hour has not yet come. But now he says it's come. And
so what does he pray? Look at verse 1. Glorify thy
son, that thy son also may glorify thee. There's the purpose of
all time. To glorify the Father through
the Son. And how's he going to do that?
Well, look at verse 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, for what purpose? Why does he have power over all
flesh? That he should give Now listen,
it's eternal life, whatever that is. Everlasting life, you can
call it that. But eternal life to as many as
thou hast given him, his sheep. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. Why does he have power over all flesh as God-man
now? As God, he already had power
over all flesh. He created this world. But as
God-man, who intervened himself in the time, Why did it? To give
eternal life to His people. If you're saved tonight, the
reason you have, you are a possessor of eternal life. You may not
know a whole lot about it right now. You'll know more when you're
glorified with Him, isn't that right? But you have it. Now why
do you have it? It's because He gave it to you.
And how did He give it to you? Well, look at verse 3. He says,
and this is life eternal. Now, here it is. That they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. I suppose that's pretty close to one of the only definitions
of eternal life the Bible gives. It's to know God. It's to know
Christ. Do you know Him? Whom to know
is life eternal. And how did He give it? Look
at verse 4. Here's how it happened. He says, I've glorified thee
on the earth. In the book of Ecclesiastes,
Solomon talks about all things under the sun quite a bit, doesn't
he? All things on this plane as being vanity. What's he talking
about? He's talking about this physical
realm of existence that we have as sinners without Christ. without
God. Without Christ, without God,
it's all vanity, he says. It's all empty. It's all worthless. And yet God himself intervened
into this world, and on the earth, on the earth, he glorified his
Father. When did he do that? When he
died on Calvary. Oh, he glorified his Father throughout
his whole life. He kept the law. He said, I must
be about my father's business. He said, my meat and my drink
is to do the will of my father. He always did the will of his
father. He glorified his father in every way, every thought he
had, every motive he had, every act he did, every deed he did.
But this glory that he's talking about here is this. Look at verse
four. I finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Now, when
did He finish it? Well, you can read about it in
John chapter 19. I believe it's verse 30. When
He hung up on that cross and He cried, it is finished. That's a time word. Now, what
did He finish? Our redemption. He finished our
justification before God. He did it all. He completed it. Let me just read you some Scripture
here. Romans chapter 5 and verse 21. Talking about eternal life. It speaks of sin. Sin has reigned
unto death. That's the results of sin. That's
the just desserts of all sin. When we think about this thing
about seasons and time, it says there's a time to be born and
there's a time to die. You know why there's a time to
die? Because of sin. Isn't that right? If it weren't
for sin, there wouldn't be a time to die. That's why this body
is dead. This is why we have the physical
problems that we have. We have a lot more problems than
physical problems, don't get me wrong. We have emotional problems. We have moral problems. We have all kinds of problems
because of sin. But the reason this body is dead
is because of sin. That's why we're dying. That's
why we're in the process of dying even as we are here tonight. Sin. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness, the Scripture says. Well, listen to Romans
5.21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. There's no eternal life without
righteousness. There's no time to live forever
without righteousness. And my friend, there's no righteousness
without Christ. Romans 6.23, for the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is what? Eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. And you know, go back to Ecclesiastes
3. You know, one thing that time
and times should teach us all is that we cannot gain eternal
life by our toils, by our labors, by our works. Because we just
keep getting worse. We just keep getting worse. And sin still demands death.
I've talked about Methuselah quite a bit. He lived to be 969
years old. What does the scripture say?
He what? He died. He died. So I tell you, in 969 years,
Methuselah didn't get better. That's right. He died. But the
problem is this. Sinful, fallen men, we cannot
get that lesson on our own. You see, if time alone could
teach us that lesson, then every gray-headed person here tonight
would be born again, would be a believer. But that's not the
case, is it? Every gray-headed person in the
world would be. But you see, time alone cannot
teach us that, and the reason time alone cannot teach us is
because of sin. So where do we have any hope?
Look at verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 3. He asks this question, What
profit or what gain hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? What gain hath the worker from
all his toil? Now you think about it. What
gain is there in all of our labors, all of our toils, all of our
energies? Let me read you back here in
Ecclesiastes 2. Look at verse 24, and I want
to show you some keys to this. First of all, I'll tell you this
much right now, and you know this is so. Brother Joe brought
this out real well this morning. When he says, what profit hath
he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth, I'll tell you what,
absolutely no profit for salvation. Absolutely no gain of salvation. I don't care how hard you work
at it. I don't care how much you labor. I don't care how much
you try. You cannot work your way into
eternal life. I don't care how much time you
spend on it. You cannot earn or deserve your salvation. You
cannot be saved by works, for by grace are you saved. Through
faith, that's not of yourself, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So when it comes to salvation,
you can forget it, as far as works. It has to come through
the work of another, through the work of the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. But look back at Ecclesiastes
chapter 2 and verse 24. Well then, why should we work?
Why should we labor? And I'm talking about in every
way. in our jobs, in our services, in whatever way we do. Now, listen,
there's some keys here that you need to understand. Verse 24
says this, he says, there's nothing better for a man than that he
should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy
good in his labor. Now, does that sound like eat,
drink, and be merry before tomorrow you die? It may sound like that,
but that's not what he's teaching here. Read the next line. This
also I saw that it was from the hand of God." What is he talking
about? He's saying this, that man has
every right to enjoy the things of this world. His labors, the
fruits of his labors, you have a job, you get a paycheck, you
have leisure time, all this, there's nothing wrong with you
enjoying, your families, all of these things, there's nothing,
listen, it is not sinful for a man or woman to enjoy the good
things of this earth. In this case, you recognize that
these things are gifts from God. Be humble. Don't let it make
you proud and puffed up. Don't let it take you away from
seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Don't let
it take you away from worshiping God. He goes on, he says in verse
25 of Ecclesiastes 2, Who can eat, or who else can hasten hereinto
more than I? For God giveth to a man that
is good. Do you know the ability that
you have, that any of us have, to work a job, To think, to enjoy
these things, you know those abilities, those opportunities,
they're gifts from God. And that's how we're to look
at these things. Thank you, Lord. Not to be proud
and puffed up as if we're the captains of our own fate, the
determiners of our own destiny, but to be humble before God.
Here's the farmer. He plants, he goes out and he
prepares the ground and he plants and he waters, but it's God who
gives the increase. It's a gift from God. You say,
well, I worked hard and I built up this business and it's successful.
My friend, you wouldn't have been able to even take the first
step except it were a gift from God. That's right. So what are
we to do? Worship God. Serve the Lord in
every way. Seek the Lord. He says, For God
giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge
and joy, but to the sinner he giveth travail. One who doesn't
have any thoughts towards God. It's trouble to gather and to
heap up that he may give to him that is good before God. This
also is vanity and vexation of spirit. And then look, let me
show you another passage here in Ecclesiastes 3. Look down
at verse 12. of Ecclesiastes 3. He says, I
know that there's no good in them but for a man to rejoice
and to do good in his life. Now, to do good in his life,
not in order to earn salvation, but for the glory of God. Look
on, he says in verse 13, and also that every man should eat
and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. Then stop there,
does it? What's the next line? It is the
gift of God. That's right. It's the gift of
God. Do you know everything we have?
Even the next breath I take is a gift from God. He can take
it away just like that. The next breath you take is a
gift from God. You ever been out of breath?
I was out of breath when I come out of surgery. Had a big old
tube stuck down my throat. You know what that's like. Many
of you do. And you're uncomfortable. Listen, the next second is a
gift from God. But look on verse 14. He says,
I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Now, what
I do is not forever. There's going to come a time
when I'll be gone and people forget me. But if God doesn't,
it's forever. And I'll tell you what, apply
that to salvation. These people go around here talking
about you can be saved one day and lost another. My friend,
the salvation you claim is not of God, because what God does
is forever. And if it's eternal life, if
it's everlasting life, and it's a gift from God based on the
blood and righteousness of Christ and not based on your works or
my works, what could we do to lose it? We can't do anything
to gain it. Just like I tell you all the
time, if salvation could be lost, it would be lost. It is lost.
You never had it to begin with. It's a gift from God. And it's
through the blood and righteousness of Christ, and not through our
labors. So he says, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be forever. And listen to it. Nothing can
be put to it. That means nothing can be added
to it. You see, if you have Christ, what are you going to add to
Him? Anything you try to add to Him in order to attain or
maintain salvation is an abomination before God. Christ is all. You read this this morning too.
Colossians 2 and verse 9. In Christ dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now what that means is this.
It means in the God-man dwells all the fullness of the Father,
all the fullness of the Son and all the fullness of the Holy
Spirit. And then he goes on and says, and you are what? Complete in Him. Now you can't
add anything to fullness or completeness. And if you try to add anything
to fullness and completeness, it's because you don't believe
in the fullness of it or the completeness of it. You think
there's got to be something else. That's why a lot of people Really,
in their own minds, they refuse to be saved. Now, you might hear
them say something like this. You might hear them say, well,
I can't be saved. And really what it is, is not
that they can't be saved. Because if you, listen, if you
really believe you cannot be saved, that is not humility. Because who does the saving?
God does. And so if you say, well, I can't
be saved, who are you doubting? Who are you disbelieving? You're
disbelieving God. You're saying God can't save
me. He doesn't have that ability. That's really what you're saying.
And so they say, well, I can't be saved. Actually, what they're
doing, they're refusing to be saved because they don't want
to submit to the fact that in Christ is all salvation. Paul says, 2 Timothy 1.12, I
know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that what? He is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Now, if you're persuaded that
you're not able, that's a good persuasion, because I'm going
to tell you something. You're not able. Neither am I. I can't save myself. I can't
save you. You can't save yourself. Only
Christ can save. And He's able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto the Father by Him. That's what
this is all about. Look back at verse 14 in Ecclesiastes
3. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor
anything taken from it. Don't take anything away from
it. Christ is my all in all. He that spared not his own son,
how shall he not with him freely give us all things? He says,
and God doeth it. Now, why is it this way? Why
is it set up this way? We talk about all these times,
all this labor, enjoying it as a gift from God, not trying to
earn our way into God's favor, not trying to be a mercenary,
you know, laboring for hire. Why is it that way? He says it,
that men should fear before Him. You could say it this way, that
no flesh should glory in His presence. That men should worship
God. That men should seek God. That
men should trust God. That men should serve God. That's
what he's talking about through Christ. He says in verse 15,
that which hath been is now. That which is to be already hath
been. There's nothing new. You think it's new? It's new
to you. He says, and God required that which is past. God's the
one who controls these things. God's the one who sets all these
things in motion. And here's the mainstay of it.
Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. What gain has
the worker? Enjoying the things of this world
as a gift from God to be used for His glory and for the good
of others, that's fearing God. That's worshiping God. Well,
look at verse 10. Now, he says, I have seen the
travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised
in it. I've seen the business that God
has given to the children of men to be busy with. And he says,
he hath made everything beautiful in his time, everything appropriate,
everything in its right place. Also, he hath set the world or
eternity in their hearts, man's longing for life after death,
man's questioning why, how, why am I here, where am I headed? Those are the things that only
human beings, that were created in the image of God, even though
we marred that image by sin and fell in Adam, ruined by the fall.
Those are the questions that plague us. Think about all the
philosophies of life. Think about religion. The religion
of men trying to answer all the ultimate questions that God has
plagued our hearts with, trying to fill the void. That emptiness. that we all have is, and again,
now some people will, people deal with it in different ways.
Some people deny it and they call themselves atheistic or
agnostic. Some people try to fill the void
up with eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow night. We'll just
party all of our life and then we'll just fizzle out. That kind
of thing. And they try to fill that void
with that. A lot of people try to fill that void with religion.
And ultimately it just leaves them empty. Empty. Let me give you an example that
turned to John chapter 7. I want you to look at this. Here
our Lord, in John chapter 7, He's coming
in and they're celebrating one of the
religious feasts of the Old Testament. John chapter 7. Look at verse
37. He says in verse 37, in the last
day, John 7, 37, in the last day, that great day of the feast,
this is the feast of tabernacles. And you know, all those feast
days that were prescribed and commanded by God under the Old
Covenant, every one of those feast days, like everything in
that Old Covenant, was ultimately meant to point sinners to Christ
in type and picture, point them to Christ for salvation, for
righteousness, for eternal life. And here these people had gathered
together and they were celebrating. They were occupied in religion. And it says, Jesus stood and
cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
Religion that left them empty, thirsty. He says, he that believeth
on Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. My friend, when we have Christ,
Spiritually, we're never thirsty again. Spiritually, we're never
hungry again. Spiritually, we're never naked
again. That's right. We have all that God requires. Everything that God requires
of me, I find complete in Christ. That is, in order to attain and
maintain salvation. Empty, works-oriented, get-busy
religion. That's what man's occupied with.
That's what he takes his time up with. And it just leaves him
empty. There's no fulfillment in it.
There's no completeness in it. Think about it. He said, I've
seen this. Look back at Ecclesiastes 3.11.
He said, He has set the world in their heart. Eternity. So that no man can find out the
work that God maketh from beginning to the end. Now what does that
say? It's saying this. These issues of eternal life,
these issues of salvation, these issues of life after death, these
issues of why and how and what, man on his own under the sun
in his sin and self-righteousness, religion, philosophy, psychology,
economy, man on his own cannot find out the answers. He cannot
find out that which will fill him eternally. He can't do it. You know why? It's got to be
revealed. It's got to come from above.
God has to intervene in our lives to bring us to see this. Let
me close with this. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. You can figure out a lot of things. Man can figure out a lot of things.
I'll tell you what. I've thought about this a lot
since I've had this bypass surgery. I mean, I wonder who's the first
guy that ever did that on? You know? They said, we're going
to lay you back, crack you open like a lobster, and hold your
heart in our hand, and we're going to put arteries from here
down there, you know? Who's the first guy that ever
did that on? I wouldn't want to have been the first. But you
know, that's an amazing thing. It took some smart people to
figure that kind of thing out. And you all know in science,
medical science, and just regular science, the luxuries that we
enjoy today, you know, people invented, smart people. Some
of the most intelligent people on earth, inventors. And I'm
amazed at some of you all, you know, the way you work with your
hands and build things and figure out things. I'm just at a loss. The Lord didn't give me that
kind of mind. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. When
it comes to salvation, when it comes to eternal life, we are
at a total loss in ourselves. We can't figure it out. How can
God be just and justify the ungodly? The smartest man on earth couldn't
figure that one out. How can man who is nothing but
sin, live forever. Nobody can figure that out. Nobody. It's only of God. It must be
revealed. Listen to verse 25 of Matthew
11. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Now, babe there doesn't mean
somebody who's innocent, because none of us are. We're sinners. Babe there means one whom God
has brought to see that he's totally, utterly dependent on
God for all things. That's what a baby is. That baby
can't live unless mom and dad feed him and clothe him and clean
him and all of that. He's totally dependent on mom
and dad. And when it comes to salvation,
really when it comes to everything, I am totally dependent on God
for all things. That's a babe. The wise and the
prudent are those who are wise in themselves, who think they
know it all, who think they know the way, who are trying to work
their way into God's favor. But you see, God reveals them
unto babes. And then he says in verse 26,
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. He says, All
things are delivered unto me and my Father, and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him, it's by revelation, through his word, by his Spirit.
And here's what he says, verse 28, Come unto me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's what
the tired person seeking rest, that's what the one who's been
laboring for his salvation all his life, and he sees he can't
earn it, he can't deserve it, he can't work towards it, what
do you need? Rest. Where are you going to find rest? In Christ. He's our Sabbath. He finished
the work. We labored to enter into His
rest. And he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for
I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest unto your
souls. That's what we long for. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Come to Christ. There's the fulfillment. There's
the reason for time. There's God's purpose. There's
what eternity is to know Christ and to be found in Him. Alright,
let's sing as our closing hymn. What is it, Joe? Hymn number
356, Near to the Heart of God. Let us stand, please. There is a place of quiet rest
near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest, near
to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee near to
the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet
near to the heart of God. A place where we, our Savior,
meet near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, hold us who wait before Thee near to
the heart of God. There is a place of full release
near to the heart of God, a place where all is joy and peace near
to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God, Hold us who wait before Thee, near to
the heart of God.