Let's go back to the book of
Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Now the title of the message this
morning is God's Judgment of Our Works. God's Judgment of
Our Works. And I've taken that mainly from
the last two verses of this chapter, verses 13 through 14 of Ecclesiastes. As you know, the book of Ecclesiastes
is Solomon, as Mark pointed out, in his, I think in his dying
years or days, in his old age, setting forth what all he had
learned through all of his experiences as the son of David, as the king
of Israel, all of his sins and mistakes, and then the faith
that the Lord granted him to believe, to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ as set forth as the promised Messiah. And he
certainly in the book of Ecclesiastes, he describes in vivid terms the
vanity of life here on earth from man's point of view, And
you could say it this way, man without God, man without grace,
man without truth, vanity of vanities, it's all vanity. I
remember we were talking earlier about 1 Corinthians 15, when
the apostle Paul said, if Christ be not risen, then we are of
all people most miserable. And I understand that. If what
we're preaching in the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ is not true, then we could describe ourselves as the
most miserable people here on earth. But Paul went on to say,
but Christ is risen. And that's the key. He has risen. We serve a living savior, the
scripture says. And so Solomon describes this,
and then he brings it down in two verses. Some of the most
remarkable verses in the whole Bible. When he says in verse
13, look at it, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
And that's the whole matter that's described from Ecclesiastes 1
on. This is the meaning of life. That's what he's saying. You
don't have to go to Tibet and have a meeting with the high
Lama to find out. It's right here in the book of
God. This is the meaning of life.
This is the conclusion of the whole matter. This is where it
all begins and ends and centers right here. And here's what he
says. He says, fear God. Now that fear
is not a legal fear based on guilt and punishment. The fear there, when the scriptures,
in fact, the Bible tells us In Romans 3 in verse 18, that the
natural man, man by nature, us as we are born naturally, we
have no fear of God before our eyes. And we know even the natural
man will fear punishment. Many fear judgment. Many deny
judgment because they deny God. You know, that's why I'm convinced
that many people who claim to be atheists, their problem is
that they just don't want to be accountable to God, to a God,
any God. But man by nature doesn't fear
God. This fear here is a holy reverence and respect for God. It's the fear that comes from
saving faith. It can be said that those who
fear God worship God, they revere God, they respect God. Not as we naturally think him
to be, but as he reveals himself and identifies himself in his
word. A man wrote an email to us one
time and he said, you keep mentioning a sovereign God. And he said,
the word sovereign's not even in scripture. And I told him,
I said, well, the truth of sovereignty is right there beginning in Genesis
1. God, God spoke, he created the
heavens and the earth. That doesn't deny the sovereignty
of God, but if God says he's sovereign, that's the way we
believe him to be. That's fearing God. He's the
God of all grace. He saves sinners by grace, not
by works. Those who seek salvation by their
works do not fear God. Not this way. They may fear a
God, a God of their imagination, but not the true and living God.
When Cain brought his offering of the works of his hands to
the Lord, he revealed there, he evidenced there, he had no
fear of God. God says, I cannot and will not
save sinners by their works. Their works aren't good enough.
Their works do not equal the righteousness that holy God requires. And God requires holiness and
righteousness because he is God. It's not because he's mean. It's
not because he's unreasonable. It's because he is who he is.
He's a holy God. And here comes Abel with the
blood of the lamb. Abel fears God. He respects God.
He knows that he's a sinner. And that God, he has nothing
to recommend himself unto God, but the blood of the lamb. That's
a picture of Christ. So Solomon says, fear God, believe
God, trust God. And then he says, keep his commandments. Christ said in John 14, 15, if
you love me, keep my commandments. Now, I'm not going to go into
all this about the commandments and all of that because I don't
have time this morning for this subject. But I'll just say this
right off. God has never commanded any sinner
to keep the law in order to be saved. He never done that. In fact,
He's forbidden it. Go back to Cain and Abel again.
brought the works of his hands, expecting God to save him, to
bless him, to receive him and accept him. And God rejected
Cain. And remember what he told Cain
in Genesis chapter four? He said, if thou doest well,
you'll be accepted. What was it to do well? Well,
look what Abel did. He brought what? The blood of
the Lamb. That's what it is to do. We come
before God keeping his commandment to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, pleading Christ, his blood for the forgiveness of
all my sins. His righteousness imputed, accounted,
charged to me for my complete, total, eternal acceptance before
God. I have nothing to bring to God
but Christ in order to be saved or kept saved. He's all of it. Keep his commandment to repent.
Repent of your dead works and idolatry. You think God smiles
on you and accepts you and justifies you because you had a good day
or you did some good things in your eyes? My friend, repent
of that. We're sinners. We're like the
publican. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Be propitious, that's what that
means. I need a righteousness I can't produce. And then yes,
we are to obey the commandments of Christ, not to be saved, not
to earn our way into God's favor and blessings, but because by
his grace in Christ, we're already saved and secure in him. And
that establishes the motive. And then he says, for this is
the whole duty of man. Now you notice the word duty
there is in italics in the King James Version. That means it
was added by the translators. It could be read this way. This
is the whole of man. This is everything. That's what
he's saying. You can call it a duty or whatever. But this
is the wholeness of man right here. And that wholeness is found
not in man himself. That's vanity of vanities. But
that wholeness is found in Christ. Colossians chapter two, verses
nine and 10. In him, in Christ dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete, whole,
in him. My wholeness is Christ. Apart
from Christ, I'm nothing but vanity. And that's where it all
leads to. So this is the conclusion. And
then here's what he says, now listen to this verse 14, for
God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing,
that's the things you can't see about me, what my thoughts are,
my motives, my goals, whether good or whether evil, God's gonna
bring it all out. And what he's talking about is
God's judgment of our works. Now, what is a good work in the
sight of God? That's one of the questions I'm
gonna deal with. What is a good work, listen to
me, in the sight of God? Now that's the key. I'm not asking
what is a good work in the sight of men, how we judge these things. You see, when we come before
God at judgment, we stand before God. The only thing that matters
then is what God thinks, what God's standard is. And people
have a lot of different views of judgment, the final judgment.
Let me just show you some scripture. Look at John chapter 5, in the
book of John chapter 5. And people take a lot of these
scriptures, just like the whole Bible, they take a lot of these
scriptures on judgment out of context and try to fit them in
or make them mean what they don't mean. And it's very clear here,
the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 5, He's talking about
Himself as the salvation of His people. And He says that the
Father has committed all judgment unto Him, Jesus Christ. He says,
look at verse 24, he says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. Everlasting life can only be
found in Christ and based on his righteousness alone and shall
not come into condemnation. There's therefore now no condemnation
in Christ, but they're passed from death unto life. They've
been born again by the spirit. That's what Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again, passed from death unto life. Verily,
verily, verse 25, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. And for as the Father hath life
in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself,
and hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because
He's the Son of Man, and is because He is Messiah. He's the one who
came to earth and united within himself, his deity, a perfect
sinless humanity, the God man. His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted God with us. This
is an earned right for the God-man, for Jesus Christ, as the mediator
of his people. Now look at verse 28 of John
5. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come
forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life.
They that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
Now, the question is, what is good in God's sight? And what
does the Lord say about us by nature? Doesn't he say in Romans
chapter 3 and verse 10, there's none righteous, no, not one.
Even goes as far to say there's none good, no not one. There's
none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. Is that just a certain class of people here on earth? Am I
the exception there? Most people think they are. Certainly
he's not talking about me. My friend, yes he is talking
about all of us by nature. So how in the world could it
ever be said that I've done good? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
five. Look at this one. These are all
scriptures that deal with judgment. You know, if it's inevitable,
and it is, that we're going to face judgment, we ought to know
something about it before we get there, shouldn't we? Somebody
said the four words that we all have to deal with, we all have
to go through, we all have a life to live, we all have a death
to die, we all have a judgment to face, we all have an eternity
to spend. You can't get away from any of
those words. any of those experiences. But look at verse 10 of 2 Corinthians
5. Paul writes, for we must all
appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may
receive the things done in his body according to that he hath
done, whether it be good or bad. In other words, these works are
gonna be manifested. He says in verse 11, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, We persuade men, but we're made
manifest unto God, and I would trust also in made manifest in
your consciences. Now I could go on and on with
scriptures about the judgment, but here's the thing about, here's
Paul saying, he says, we're all gonna stand before the judgment
seat of Christ, and it's gonna be revealed in that day who and
what we are, where we stand. what proceeded from us, whether
it be good or evil. It's all gonna be out in the
open. And then he says, knowing the
terror of the Lord. Now, what do you suppose the
terror of the Lord is? I'll tell you exactly what it
is. The terror of the Lord. And that's this. It's the terror
of a sinner standing before God at judgment without Christ. That's it. Even the hatred of God, the scripture
says. I know people don't like to hear
that, but that's what the Bible says. That's not my word. Standing
before God at judgment. And there'll be some who stand
before God at judgment who live the life of pure debauchery. They'll know the terror of the
Lord. There'll be some who stand before God who lived religious
lives trying to establish their own righteousness before God.
They'll know the terror of the Lord, too. They'll be like those in Matthew
7. Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't we cast
out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works, only to hear him say, depart from me, ye that worketh
iniquity, I never knew you. What do you suppose their problem
was? Preachers will tell you, well, they weren't sincere enough.
Well, are you sincere enough? If you think you are, how do
you know for sure? What is the standard? What is the measuring
scale of sincerity? You see it in the scripture?
Secondly, how do you know they weren't sincere enough? Scripture
doesn't say anything about that in Matthew 7. So what are you
gonna plead at judgment? Your sincerity? Is that what's gonna get you
into heaven? What is the standard of judgment? I always like to
quote Acts chapter 17, Paul standing on Mars Hill talking to the Grecian
philosophers and debaters. And he goes through, he starts
with the God of creation and goes down through and gets to
the God of judgment and he says, that God has commanded all men
everywhere to repent. In verse 31, here's what he says.
It says, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness. That's the standard of judgment.
Righteousness. What is righteousness? It's perfect
satisfaction to God's law and justice. And how do we know the
measure of righteousness? Well, he says, he has appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained. God has ordained a man to be
the standard, the judge and the standard of righteousness. Now,
who is that man? Is it me? I hope not. Is it you? Is it the Pope? Is it some famous
preacher? God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he hath appointed a day, that's the judgment day,
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained in that he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he what? Hath raised him from the dead.
That man is Jesus Christ, the God man. So when the question comes, How
good must I be to pass the standard of judgment? The answer comes
forth, you must be as good as that man. I told a man that one time and
he looked at me with eyes that big and he said, well, nobody
can do that. I said, that's right. We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's why salvation
from beginning to culmination is by grace. through the righteousness
of another. So here's the issue at judgment.
When I stand before God at judgment, here's the issue. Do I stand
before God in Christ as my substitute and surety, as the Lord my righteousness,
or do I stand in myself? To stand in myself is to experience
the terror of the Lord. That's why we know the terror
of the Lord. I know what you're about to face.
I know what I'm about to face. Whether it's now or twenty years
from now. When God comes and calls all
unto judgment, that's the issue. Am I in Christ? Do I stand before God washed
in the blood of Christ? clean from all my sins. Do I
stand before God in his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to
me, or do I stand there on my own? And it'll do us no good
to stand there pleading part Christ and part us. That's the
way some people think it is. Well, he did his part, I did
my part, oh no. Your part will not only make
up or complete what Christ did, your part will contaminate what
Christ did. Now that's right, it's all Christ. So, where do these works come
in? What is this all about, about
our works? The issue of works at the judgment
is not what our works do for us. It's not what our works earn
for us. You know, people say, well, you
know, Christ got me saved, now I do works to earn my rewards.
Oh no, that's not in Scripture. The reward, singular, that the
Scripture speaks of, If you look the word up, that's what it'd
be. The reward singular, which the scripture speaks of, is the
reward of grace earned not by me, but by Christ. The Bible
says that we who are in Christ are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, how many
more do you need? If it's all spiritual blessings,
it's all spiritual blessings. And of course, you know, people
will come back on that and they'll say, well, what's the use of
doing any good works? Well, what are they all about? What is this thing of good works?
It's not what they do for me. It's not what they earn for me.
It's what they say about me. That's the issue. What do they
say about me? Do they evidence? that I'm in
Christ saved by the grace of God to the praise of the glory
of His grace or do they evidence that I'm a sinner trying to establish
my own righteousness before God? Which one? And that's what it's
all about. Let me give you this. God's judgment
of our works at the judgment A good work in God's sight is
one, number one, that is the work of God's power and grace
within a justified, redeemed, regenerated person. The Bible
teaches this very plainly. Look at Galatians chapter two. Paul writes in verse 19, I want
you to notice this. And we could go to so many scriptures,
but I don't have time to go to all these in one message. But
listen to this in Galatians 2.19. Paul writes, for I through the
law am dead to the law. Now, how did I become dead to
the law? Well, he says in Romans 7, by the body of Christ. In
Galatians 2.20, he said, I'm crucified with Christ. In other
words, I became dead to the law because Christ died for me under
the law. To be dead to the law means to
be not guilty. The law cannot pronounce me guilty,
you see, because Christ took my guilt. That's why David said in Psalm
32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
God cannot charge me with sin illegally in his court of justice
because he charged Christ with my sin. He was made sin. The scripture says 2 Corinthians
5.21. Christ who knew no sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. To be dead to the law means that
I'm righteous before God, not based upon anything I am, not
based on anything I do or plan to do or try to do. It's all
based upon what Christ has done. It's finished, you see. He redeemed
me. He paid the full redemption price
for my soul. He didn't just pay part of it.
He didn't make me savable by his death. He saved me by his
death. All righteousness that I had
before God was accomplished by his obedience unto death, not
by my faith or my repentance or my obedience. That's the fruit
of what he accomplished. You see, Christ is the ground
of my salvation. So Paul says, I threw the law,
I'm dead to the law. What does he mean threw the law?
Christ kept the law, he fulfilled the law. That I might live unto
God. That's what Solomon is saying,
fear God, keep his commandments. That's the whole of man. That
I might live unto God. I'm living unto him, you see.
Not selfishly for myself. And he says in verse 20, I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. I died with Christ. Now, what does that mean? He
died for me. He was my substitute. He's my
surety. He fulfilled the debt, paid the
debt in full. And so I'm crucified with him,
but I live. He said, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. Paul's saying here, I live, but
I'm not the source of that life. I'm not the cause of that life.
I didn't earn that life, and I don't deserve that life. Now he's talking about spiritual
life here. But you know that applies to
all life. You know the very next breath
you take, you didn't earn it and you don't deserve it. That's
the truth. The wages of sin is what? Death. That's what we earn. You say,
but I'm trying to be the best I can be. And I'm telling you
that for salvation, the best you can be is not good enough. That's what this book says. I'll
never forget the first time I realized that in reading this book, having
been brought up memorizing scripture, memory verses and all that. When
I first heard that, I said, well, that's not so. And then when
God finally showed me myself, Show me my sins. That's what
the Holy Spirit does in the new birth. He convinces us of sin
because we believe not on Christ. He shows us that without Christ,
even at our best, it's all vanity. Man at his best state is altogether
what? Vanity. You know what this Bible
says? So Paul says, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. It's the life of Christ emanating
through me, and he says, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. That's a good
translation, the faithfulness of, you see, salvation and the
preservation of eternal life is not maintained by my faith
in him, but by his faithfulness to save me and to keep me. And
that's why I have faith in him. He said, by the faith of the
son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, he said, I don't
frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness come by the
law, by my works, then Christ died in vain. If I can be saved
and kept saved by my works, then Christ didn't need to come. He
died. He did all that for nothing,
but he didn't do it for nothing. He saved sinners. Here's the
second thing. Turn to Romans chapter seven.
I mentioned this one. about the judgment of our works. And that's how God judges those
works. Are they evidences of his power, his goodness, his
grace? Not do they evidence your power,
you have none, I have none. Not do they evidence your goodness,
we have no goodness but Christ. They evidence his power. A sinner
saved by grace, is a miracle of the power and goodness and
grace of God. If you believe the gospel, my
friend, it wasn't because you're better than the rest of those
people who wouldn't believe it. It's not because of your free
will, so-called. It's because God gave you his
grace. You're a walking, talking miracle.
If you believe the gospel, if you truly believe this gospel,
That's what a sinner saved by grace is. He's a miracle, the
power and grace of God. But look at Romans chapter seven.
So does it evidence, this is the judgment of our, do my works
evidence God's power, God's goodness, God's grace? Here's the second
thing. Are they the fruit of my union with Christ or are they
just my pitiful attempts to be better than I can be? Well, look
at verse four of Romans seven. He says, wherefore my brethren,
you're become dead to the law. Now remember Paul said that in
Galatians two, dead to the law again. And he says, you're dead
to the law by the body of Christ. In other words, because Christ
died, the law can no longer hold you guilty and condemned. He
says that you should be married to another, united to Christ. It's a spiritual marriage. He
says, even to him who's raised from the dead that we should,
what? Bring forth fruit unto God. You see, a sinner saved
by grace is not a fruit producer. Now, if you go into the grocery
store and you go over where the vegetables and fruit, they call
that produce. Well, we don't produce fruit. We bear it. Who produces it? Christ said,
I'm the vine, you're the branches. He produces it. Now look at verse
five. He says, for when we were in
the flesh, that's when we were unregenerate, unbelievers, the
motions or the passions of sins which were by the law did work
in our members to bring forth what? Fruit unto death. Now,
the law stirs up the passions of sins in unbelievers. And it
does it in one of two ways. In some instances, it stirs up
utter abject rebellion. And you know, the prisons are
full. Abject rebellion. Somebody hears
the law, you shall not, and well, I'm gonna break it. There are
people like that, aren't they? They have no respect for authority,
no respect for society, no respect for the law at all. That's why
we have police forces. That's why we have prisons and
jails. But that's not the only way that
the law can stir up the passions of sins. Let me give you an example. Who did the Holy Spirit use to
write this book of Romans? The Apostle Paul. What was the passions of sins
that were stirred up by the law in him before he was saved? His
name was Saul of Tarsus, you remember? What was he trying
to do? He wasn't going out trying to
kill people. Well, I know he was trying to arrest Christians,
but that was cause of heresy under the old covenant law. He
saw it, he was wrong, but he was trying to be the most moral,
sincere, dedicated religionist he could be. And that's the passions
of sins, which were by the law. But look here, he says, all he
could do then was bring forth fruit unto death. But look at
verse six, but now we're delivered from the law that being dead
wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit
and not in oldness of the letter. Now, are my works fruit unto
death or are they fruit unto God? Are they motivated by love and
grace and gratitude or are they motivated by legal fear of punishment
and mercenary promises of earned reward? Do my works promote the glory
of God in Christ or do they promote me? Scripture says in Matthew
5 and verse 16, let your light shine before men that they may
see your good works and do what? Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. You see the works of believers that are the fruit
of God's power and grace and goodness, that are fruit unto
God, they're not meant to draw attention to ourselves. That
light is not the works, the light is Christ. They're to draw attention
to our Savior. Look to Christ, don't look to
me. Somebody says, well, you're the only Bible some people read.
Well, let me tell you something. If that's the case, there'll
be no salvation for them. You say, look to Christ. Not
to me, not to yourself, not to others. Look to Christ. That
men may glorify God. That's the judgment of our works.
Do they evidence that I'm in Christ, that I stand in him,
that he's my hope, he's my righteousness, that I'm saved by the grace of
God? That's the issue. All right.