When you come to different passages
of scripture, sometimes the truth of the gospel is just lying blatantly
on the surface, explicitly, as in the epistles. It's standing
there. And in other places it's in types
and pictures and symbolism and allegory. In the book of Ecclesiastes,
It's altogether different again. Ecclesiastes is somewhat like
unravelling a riddle. I don't know if any of you ever
listen to, there's a Radio 4 quiz programme, Round Britain Quiz,
where they get two or three incredibly intellectual people from different
parts of the country and they asked them questions in the form
of riddles and they said, you know, like the riddle about Samson
and what was it, you know, sweet from the fierce or what, excuse
me, I'm forgetting the details, but you know, it's wrapped up
in riddle. And this is almost like that. There's the truth of the gospel
in here. This is God's word. It speaks of Christ. The Holy
Spirit intends that we learn lessons from Christ from it.
But it's a bit like unraveling a riddle. And clever minds without
God's help end up confused. You know I told you I bought
a book because it had the title Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes. there's a lot of intellectual
stuff in it but all he can do this is his view of how you preach
Christ from Ecclesiastes all he can do is make tentative links between some
of the moral teaching of Ecclesiastes and some of the moral teaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ, such as in the Sermon on the Mount.
He just links it like, oh look it says here, oh Jesus taught
something similar to that, therefore he thinks he's preaching Christ.
That's not preaching Christ, no. Without what the Old Testament
calls the Urim and the Thummim, have you heard of them? The Urim
and the Thummim were the thing that the High Priest of God had
to have for the people to have the right understanding of the
Word of God. A right perception of the Gospel
of Christ in all things that he said. They needed the Urim
and the Thummim. What's that in the New Testament?
Paul calls it, we have the mind of Christ. the mind of Christ. God-given faith. Do you know
the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God?
They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because
they're spiritually discerned. Well, where do you get that spiritual
discernment? It's from the Holy Spirit. It's only as God gives
faith. Faith, spiritual sight. Eyes
to see, to discern. Spiritual discernment to discern
the truth of God. With Holy Spirit enlightenment,
we understand what the word of God says. Jesus told his disciples,
John 16 verse 13, when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he
will guide you into all truth. Is that not our prayer every
time we come to the scriptures? Holy spirit of God, let us look
at your word through gospel-colored glasses. You know they say, oh,
you're looking at this through rose-tinted spectacles. Well,
I make no excuse for that. I want to look at the scriptures
through gospel-tinted spectacles. That's what we want to do. So,
let's look at this. My text is verse 7 of chapter
9. And my first point is about works
and judgment. The text says, Eat thy bread with joy, and drink
thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. Did you hear that? God now accepteth
thy works. God. God. Who is God? Holy. Holy. Pure. All-powerful. The creator and
the sustainer of everything that we see. utterly intolerant of
sin, and yet we know what we are, sinners, before him. Sinners, we fall short all the
time. And he is insistent on just retribution,
just punishment for sin. And yet here, in this verse,
we read, God now accepts your works. This God, who is holy,
now accepts your... Is that not an amazing statement? Is that not an absolutely staggering
statement that God accepts your works? But hold on. Who is it talking to? Who is
that verse talking... Who is the thy in there? For God now
accepts whose works? Whose works is he accepting?
Who is it talking to? Be clear. that God condemns man's
works. Let me read you some scriptures.
Proverbs 24 verse 12. Shall not he, that's God, render
to every man according to his works. God is going to pay the
just reward. Do you know what Romans 6 says
about the wages of sin? The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. He's going to render to every
man according to, he's going to pay them their wages, and
their wages for sin is that eternal death of his condemnation. Jeremiah 25 verse 14, God speaking,
I will recompense them according to their deeds and according
to the works of their own hands. Everyone, everyone. Recompensed. Matthew 16 verse 27, the son
of man, this is Jesus himself speaking, the son of man shall
reward every man according to his works. You're going to get
what you've earned. the wages of sin is death. Revelation
2.23 I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Revelation 20 verse 12, the dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
the record of God, of what every one of us has done and thought
in this life, all of our sins are written there. None will
be forgotten and we will be judged according to their works. And
he goes on to say, whosoever, whichever one of them was not
found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake
of fire. Why? Because of their works. Because of their evil works.
Because of their sin. So that being the case, that
God undoubtedly judges sin, and must punish sin, and keeps the
record of sin, and we're all judged according to our works,
is that what God's word says? Yes, I believe it is, isn't it?
We're all going to be judged for our works. How can it be
said to anyone God accepts your works. How can that be said to
any one of us in the flesh? God accepts your works. The answer? This is only addressed to the
righteous. Look in verse 1. All this I considered
in my heart, even to declare this, that the righteous and
the wise and their works are in the hand of God. The righteous
and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. This
promise that God accepts your works is only addressed to the
righteous. But who is righteous? Which of
us is righteous? The scriptures in Psalm 14 and
then it's repeated. If you read Psalm 53 it's almost
exactly the same as Psalm 14. They say, it says, the fool has
said in his heart, no God for me, there is no God, no God for
me. And God looked down from heaven to see if there was any
righteous, and he says, there is none righteous. No, not one. Romans 3 repeats it. Who's righteous? There is none righteous. No,
not one. There is no difference in the
flesh because, as Romans again tells us in chapter 3, all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every righteousness
attempt that we make, every bit of it is all filthy rags in the
judgment of God. The preacher, Solomon, has been
saying in this book there is no difference between those who
try to live righteously and those who blatantly defy God. He's
been saying that, he's been saying it's vanity, it's vanity, because
all return to dust in the end. He says from dust You've been
made, and to dust you shall return. And in that respect, the preacher
says, they're no different to animals, because the animals
die and return to dust. Their bodies decay just like
ours do. But God, in sovereign grace, makes a difference. God makes a difference in his
sovereign grace. Look at chapter 8 and verse 12,
where we began our reading. Though a sinner do evil an hundred
times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall
be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. There
are some who are sinners do evil and hundred times there are those
with whom it shall be well and they are those who fear God. Do you remember we've already
seen you know it's the same preacher wrote in Proverbs that the fear
of God is the beginning of wisdom you want to start knowing things
really about this life You cannot know anything without knowing
the fear of God. And how do you know the fear
of God? You know that you're a sinner. Them that fear God,
they fear God because they know that they're a sinner, and they
know that God is holy, and they know that God cannot tolerate
sin, and that He's all-powerful. And what a fearful thing it is
to fall into the hands of the living God, because He is holy
and we are sinners, and we fall short of His glory. Sinners fear
God. Sinners. Oh, you say, isn't everyone
a sinner? Yes, they are, but how many know
it? I'll tell you this. Those that are made conscious
of their sin and their offense against God. Don Faulkner, in
his bulletins, which I get every week and I know some of you do,
the one for this week, he puts in what his congregation call
his zingers. So right at the start of it,
there's a little one or two line Encapsulated little phrase and
the one this week was this Don said find me a sinner and I will
show you one of God's elect. Find me a sinner and I will show
you one of Christ's redeemed ones who must and shall be saved."
What's that hymn I keep quoting? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Because although all men without exception are sinners, and some
are bigger sinners than others, only those who are the objects
of God's grace know that they're sinners. Only those who are the
objects of God's grace know that they stand before the justice
of God absolutely condemned and destined for a lost eternity.
And they cry out, what must I do to be saved? Show me what must
I do to be saved? For I fear God and I know what
I am. Show me. And those words come
to them that Paul and Silas gave to that Philippian jailer. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. and anybody
else in your household who believes. No. Sinners are those who know
they're sinners. And they're the ones that God
has made a difference for in sovereign grace. Read the article
in the bulletin. I know I don't write something
every week, but I've written something this week. Please,
take the time. It took me some time to write it, so please,
take the time to read it. Those that Christ has redeemed
from the law's curse. That's who. That's what sinners
are. They know they're sinners, and
they come to know, soon, in the grace of God, they know that
Christ has redeemed them from the curse of the law. How? By
Him being made a curse for them. Those are the ones who are made,
made, made the righteousness of God in Christ. Why? Because
he who knew no sin was made their sin and paid its penalty at Calvary. So that the law, the law, which
curses us if we don't continue to do and walk in every step
and every minute of every day, everything that is written there,
he has redeemed us from that curse. How? by becoming that
curse in our place, and making us the righteousness of God in
Him. Look at verse 1 of chapter 9.
For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all
this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are
in the hand of God. Those who are righteous in Christ
Those who are wise in Him. How are you wise in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Because He is wisdom personified. He is made unto us wisdom from
God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. What do you need
to stand on that day of judgment? boldly, with confidence, before
the throne of God. You need wisdom from God, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Where is it?
Christ is made that unto his believing people. We're made
wise in him in whom dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures. He's personified. Read Proverbs 8. And there, wisdom
is speaking, but it's the Lord Jesus Christ, the manifestation
of the unknowable God, the manifestation of the invisible God, the one
who takes the thoughts of God and makes them into words that
we can understand. He stands in human form, the
Son of God. And He, show us the Father. Philip,
have I been so long with you? And yet you have not known. He
who has seen me has seen the Father. Wise in Him. Their works,
the works of those people, believers, are all in God's hands. Their works are in the hands
of God. All their works, unlike the wicked. Look at verse 13 of chapter eight. But it shall not be well with
the wicked. Neither shall he prolong his
days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before
God. What is it? To be wicked? It
is to shake your fist in the face of God. It's to defy God. It's to disbelieve God. It's
to call God a liar. You know, you say, oh, I in the
The elegance and the dignity of my free will and my free mind
have decided not to believe God. No, you've shaken your fist in
the face of God and you've said, God, you're a liar, I don't believe
a word you say. That's what the wicked is. That
is wickedness, truly. Under the word of God, under
what the Holy Spirit reveals, that is what wickedness is. You
say, oh, isn't it to do all of these things? Well, all of those
things flow. from that disbelief of God, from that telling God
that he's a liar, not believing that he's just and judge and
will condemn sin. All of that is to be wicked.
It's to disbelieve the gospel. That's the unforgivable sin,
is to resist the Holy Spirit, to disbelieve the gospel, and
to be under God's just condemnation, bearing responsibility for your
own sin, rejecting the truth of God, believing the lie of
Satan. What's the lie of Satan? We've
seen it in our revelation studies. It's in the world all around
us. It's the philosophy of the beast that comes up out of the
sea, of the false prophet that comes out of the earth. You say,
oh, all that kind of weird Lord of the Rings symbolism that you're
talking about. No, no, I'm talking about scriptural truth that God
has revealed. Satan is alive and working in
this world. And he has his beast, and he
has his false prophet. This is the spirit of Antichrist.
It's his philosophy of the world. It's the philosophy that's followed
by all the media in the world. It's the philosophy that's followed
by all of those outside of Christ in this world. It's rebellion
against God. Rebellion against his truth.
Despising the gospel of his redeeming blood. That's what it is. That's
what it is to be wicked. And for them, it shall not be
well with the wicked. They may live as long as the
righteous, or they may live a lot less. How long you live doesn't
determine whether you're among the righteous or among the wicked.
But God in sovereign grace has made a difference. Now look at
verse 15 of chapter 8. Verse 15. Then I commended Mirth, because
a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink
and to be merry for that shall abide with him of his labor the
days of his life which God giveth him under the sun mirth and merriment
that's what he's commending it it's a good thing mirth and merriment
Do you know there's another place in the scripture in one of the
parables that Jesus told I think I mentioned it last week the
parable of the rich fool you know he was he was a farmer and
he had an extraordinarily good harvest. Why did he have a good
harvest? God was good to him. God caused
the rain to fall at the right time and the sun to shine at
the right time. And was it what he did? No. No. He just happened
to be there. He just picked up the benefits
of it. And he pulled down his barns. And he built bigger ones
because he had such a big harvest he couldn't store. all of his
crops, all of the food that he'd benefited from. And so he said,
I'll build bigger and I'll have so much that I'll give up work
and I'll sit back and I'll enjoy life and I'll say to my soul,
soul, you have much good laid up for many, many years. Sit
back, relax, enjoy yourself. Jesus said, God said to him,
Thou fool, this night your soul shall be required of you, and
what use will those things be to you then? Now, mirth and merriment
is only commended, then I commended mirth, is only commended for
the righteous, because you see the key is in verse 17. Then
I beheld all the work of God. I beheld all the work of God,
that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun,
because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not
find it. Yea, further, though a wise man
think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it. The key
is the work of God. What is the work of God? Do you
see how we're unravelling the riddle? We're unravelling the
riddle. With Holy Spirit enlightenment, with gospel coloured glasses,
we're unravelling the riddle. What is the work of God? It's
redemption. The work of God is redemption.
The Jews said to Jesus in John 6, they said, show us what we
must do to do the work of God. And Jesus said, this is the work
of God. This is God's work. This is the work that God does,
that you believe on the one whom he has sent, that you believe
on his Christ, that you believe on his Messiah, the one that
the Old Testament scripture says was coming, to do what it said
he was coming to do, to save his people from their sins, to
save his people. Not to give everyone a chance
to accept or reject the free offer, no, to save his people
from their sins. The gospel is not an offer that
you have the free will to accept or reject. The gospel is a declaration
of what Christ has accomplished, and he will call all those for
whom he has accomplished it to believe it and trust it. This
is the work of God, that you believe in the one whom he has
sent. It's all in the sovereign hands
of God, as verse 1 of chapter 9 tells us. All of it. All of
it. To know either love or hatred. Love or hatred? Where have you
heard that in the scriptures before? Love or hatred? Jacob,
have I loved? Esau, have I hated? Oh, that's
not fair! it's the sovereign grace of God
that God has chosen in sovereign grace to love Jacob and hatred
it doesn't mean a vindictive setting out to hate it means
a leaving to himself a leaving to his own devices it's works
that are accepted versus at best filthy rags is what we're talking
about works that are accepted verse seven of chapter nine versus,
at best, filthy rags, for all our righteousnesses in the context
of our own works to earn favor with God are but filthy rags
in his sight. And doesn't the rest of that
verse 17 tell us that God's grace is beyond human understanding? God's grace is beyond. It doesn't
matter how wise you are, you seek to know it, but you will
not be able to find it, you won't be able to work it out. No man
can find out the work that God maketh. Ecclesiastes 3.11, what
we were looking at last week. But everything is beautiful in
his time, or the beautiful one makes all things in his time.
So now back to verse 7 of chapter 9. Go thy way, go thy way. He talks about joy and merry,
a merry heart. But the events of life disturb
us. The events of life make us think
like the ungodly. Are you a believer? Well, it's
not uncommon that at times you will find yourself thinking like
the ungodly, those who don't believe the God of scripture.
the writer of Psalm 73, Asaph, was like that. He said, God is
good to Israel, but my feet had well nigh slipped. He said, I
became envious at the wicked, at those that don't believe God.
I see how they prosper in this life. I see all the things that
they get. And here's me flogging myself
to death, trying to be a good believer, trying to be faithful.
And what happens to me? Everything goes wrong for me,
over and over and over again. And there's about 12 or 13 verses
of bellyache bellyache you know
he's really having a go saying how much he really thinks he's
flogged himself to death he's tried washing he's keeping his
life clean and what's it resulted in he looks around and he sees
those that couldn't care less about the things of God prospering
so no bands in their death they have nice quiet peaceful deaths
and and look at all the trouble that's come upon me and then
he says but when I thought to say that to other believers something
stopped me I was brought up short and he said it was then that
I went into the sanctuary of the temple. I went into the sanctuary
and I looked at things there and then I understood their end. How can we as believers who are
starting to think like the writer of Psalm 73, how can we go into
the sanctuary? How can we do that? I'll tell
you. It's in the gospel. Come into
the gospel. Come and have a look. Come and
wander around the gospel. Come and look at all that God
has done for his people in the gospel of his grace. In redeeming
his people from the curse of the law by making his son a curse
for us in our place. Come in there and see what that
has accomplished. In standing before God justified
and accepted in the beloved. And then you'll understand the
end of those who do not believe him. It's to look at things with
a gospel perspective. To seek to view all that happens
through gospel-colored spectacles, as I keep saying. Go thy way,
he says. Go thy way. In other words, live
your life. But what is a believer's way? What is a believer's life? Is
it not Christ? Jesus said, John 14 verse 6,
he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to
the Father but by me. Go your way, what is your way?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the way of knowing God.
That they might know you and that they might know life and
have life in knowing you. This is life, to know you, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. It's the
way of knowing him, and it's the way of having access to him.
How do we have access to God? It's by the Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is the way of access to God. How do we have acceptance
with God? We're accepted in the Beloved,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way of acceptance with
God. He is the way of atonement. Atonement? What does atonement mean? Just
break the word down. At-one-ment. How can you be made,
you a sinner, how can you be made at one with a wholly offended
God? In the Lord Jesus Christ, for
He is the way. He is the narrow way. to eternal
life. The narrow way. Not the broad
way that leads to destruction. The narrow way, meaning you won't
have many people with you on that journey. You won't. The
broad way is flocking with thousands and thousands, crowds, great
It's all leading to a lost eternity, to destruction. But the narrow
way is that which leads to life. It's the way which the world
around, the unbelieving world and the world of religion, the
world of religion especially, in the Acts of the Apostles,
the world of religion called the Christian faith, the way
of heresy, the way that they call heresy. were people of the
way. Those who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ are people of the way. Go thy way. Proverbs 15, 19.
The way of the righteous is made plain. Psalm 1, verse 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. It doesn't just mean that he knows it like an answer
to a question. It means he ordains it. He orders
it. Whom he foreknew. It doesn't
just mean that he knew beforehand what would happen, it means he
ordered things for them. The Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous. He orders the way of the righteous.
Turn with me to Isaiah, if you can. Isaiah chapter 35 and verse 8. Isaiah 35 and verse
8. Listen to this, listen to these
glorious words. Isaiah 35 and verse 8, and an
highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way
of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there.
but the redeemed shall walk there. Is this not talking about the
way which is Christ? And the ransomed of the Lord.
Who's the ransomed of the Lord? The ones for whom a ransom has
been paid to free us from the captivity, the bondage of the
law. The ransomed of the law of the Lord shall return and
come to Zion. What is Zion? Zion, city of our
God. Glorious things of thee are spoken.
Zion! What is Zion? Jerusalem. No,
not physical Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem. The church of the living God.
Where Christ is. With his 144,000. With his believing
people. with songs and with everlasting
joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Sorrow and sighing
shall flee away. That's the way. Go thy way. Go
thy way. What blessedness. in this life,
to walk in the way of God's gospel of redeeming grace and salvation. But also, secondly, go thy way,
eat thy bread with joy. Eat thy bread. This is our daily bread, our
physical, the food that we need, the temporal blessings that we
need from God. You know when he said in the
Sermon on the Mount, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these other things that you need shall be added to you.
Don't worry about them. Take no thought for the morrow,
what you shall eat, what you shall drink, wherewithal you
shall be clothed. Your Heavenly Father knows that
you need these things, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these other things shall be added to you. But this eating
of this bread, I think the meaning is mainly spiritual. For we know
from Deuteronomy, and Jesus quoted it in the Temptation in Matthew
4, man shall not live by bread alone. Oh, how this world thinks
that everything that will satisfy its soul is provided by bread. The food we eat, the things we
drink, the places we go, the money we earn, the cars we own,
the houses we live in. Man shall not live by bread alone. How? How then? but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus said, eat thy bread,
eat thy bread. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. John 6, 35. When they were talking,
they came, he fed the 5,000. And the crowd followed him, and
he said to them the next day, the only reason you're here is
not because you're after the words of eternal life, but because
you had a belly full of bread yesterday and you want the same.
You got bread for nothing. You got fed for nothing. And
you've come back just to get some more. Search for that bread
which is from above. I am the bread which came down
from heaven. He who eats of this bread shall
neither hunger. And then he goes on to talk about
his blood and not thirsting. Jesus is the bread of life. Eat
thy bread with joy. Live, how can I put this? Live
life in the good of the redemption that Christ accomplished when
he came as the bread of life for his people. As a body prepared,
you know when we have communion, we have bread. Why? He said,
do this in remembrance of me. Do what? Break the bread because
my body is broken for you. His body was broken and his blood
was shed that he might accomplish the law's demands for his people. What does the law demand? The
soul that sins, it shall die. He died in the place of his people. When he came in that prepared
body, when he came down from heaven as that bread from heaven,
and we eat it, we eat the symbol as a physical reminder, but the
point is that in our souls we feed on that bread which came
down from heaven. justice satisfying bread that
came down from heaven and then next drink thy wine with a merry
heart you see the bread we need to eat bread for daily sustenance
and we need liquid so it could say drink your water because
water would do the job that needs to be done but look drink thy
wine with a merry heart wine speaks of pleasure Wine here
speaks, it's a pleasurable thing. And we have liberty to enjoy
it. There are those around today
who will try and tell us that our wine is not the wine of the
New Testament that Jesus drank, that the wine that Jesus drank
was so barely alcoholic that he couldn't possibly have done
any harm to him. Why does Paul say, be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess? If it was so weak, you'd have
to drink gallons of the stuff before, your stomach physically
wouldn't be able to hold it before you would have any excess alcoholically. No, it's wine, and we've got
liberty to enjoy it. And don't let legalists, if somebody's
offended, then let us be cautious. If a brother comes in who's offended,
let's be cautious about these things. And let's not ever do
it to excess, because be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but be filled with the spirit. but we have liberty to enjoy
it live life enjoying it but what does what let's get behind
this as we did with the bread drink thy wine what's the wine
You know when we have communion, the bread and the wine speaks
of the blood that was shed for the sins of his people. The wine
speaks of the blood. All this is satisfying to the
soul, it gives us peace with God. All other temporal, physical
things are sanctified and made good in the light of Christ's
atoning body, the bread and his blood, the wine. So then, I'm
nearly out of time, I'll finish. accepted works. God now accepts
your works. What can this mean? Can sin be
made righteousness? Is that what it means? Is there
a license to sin here? You know you're a believer and
God says well whatever you do it's accepted so is there a license
to sin here because all is made acceptable to God in Christ?
What would Paul say to that? Two words. God forbid. Absolutely
not. but in a very real way, the Holy
Spirit is telling us that by virtue of Christ's redemption
for us, by virtue of his satisfying justice for us, by virtue of
his making his people the righteousness of God in him, all of the common
things of life are made acceptable to God. Just read the following
three verses, verses eight to 10. let thy garments always be
white, and let thy head lack no ointment. I love this verse. I hope my wife loves it too.
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the
life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun,
all the days of thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life,
and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy
hand findeth to do, Do it with thy might, for there is no work,
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither
thou goest." It's an awareness of imputed righteousness, of
having thoughts sanctified by the Holy Spirit, so that everything
that we do as believers in this life, in that light, in that
spirit, whether it be marriage, or work or whatever it is. Do
all, how does Paul say it? Do all as unto the Lord. Do it as though you're doing
it for the Lord directly. Do it as you're doing it as a
servant of the Lord. Paul talks of believers, saved
sinners, being well pleasing to God. How can sinners be well
pleasing to God? What makes us well pleasing?
What was the only thing that God ever found well pleasing?
Christ. This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. I am well pleased in Him. Our
faulty worship, because no doubt it is faulty, our flawed service
for God, our secular work, your jobs, your jobs, all of you,
your jobs, the things that you do, your interaction with this
world, your family life, chaotic at times, disruptive at times,
joyous at times, alarming at times, giving us cause for fear
and despair at times, the mundane things, the tedious things, the
exciting things, the interesting things, when you're on a high
and things are buzzing, And when you're in that absolute abject
love, what on earth do I do now? Hiding in Christ, it is all,
what does the verse say? God now accepts your works. It's all accepted by God. Everything, why? Because of what
Christ is and what he has done for us. All the flawed stuff
is accepted by God. Is that not what that verse is
saying? Oh, you can't possibly tell them that. I'm telling you
it because God's Spirit tells us it here. God accepts your
works if you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the article
in the bulletin that I've written. Location, location, location,
they say, is the most important thing, property-wise. It is,
it is. You know, you can't make A good
house worth a lot if it's in the wrong place. Location is
the most important thing. We know that. Well, I'm telling
you spiritually. Location, location, location. Oh, said Paul, that I might be
found in Christ. Found in him. Where? In him. Not having my own righteousness
because there I'm accepted by God. It's that which goes to
heaven with us. Revelation 14, 13. I think what
I've written in my draft book on Revelation, I'd probably change
it now, their works do follow them. There is a respect in which
these flawed works now, because they're sanctified by the substitutionary
doing and dying of our Lord Jesus Christ, they're accepted by God. We were listening to Desert Island
Discs. I'll finish with this. Last week it was Caitlin Moran,
who she writes articles in the Times and she's buzzing, she's
making the most of her life of vanity. And you know they always
offer them at the end, they say, now we're going to give you the
Bible and the works of Shakespeare and you can take another book
with you. And she said, she's the first one I've heard, there
might have been others, but she's the first one, we were listening
to it on Friday morning, she's the first one that said, well,
quite frankly, you can keep the Bible because I don't want that
thing. I don't want anything to do with that. She's without
hope and without God, like so many others who think like her.
She had the bravery to say what the majority that go on there
really mean. When they say you've got the Bible, nearly all of
them say, well, you can stick that somewhere. I don't want
that. I don't want anything to do with that book. Rejecting
God. Rejecting him. rejecting all
hope, following the doctrine of the false prophet, seeming
on the top of her game now in terms of accolades from the world,
but, but, but, it is appointed to man to die once, and then
for judgment. And what will those things, what
will those accolades be to her then, when she stands naked before
the justice of God and the books are opened? Contrast that with
the blessedness, of knowing that in Christ, in Christ, believer,
God now accepteth thy works. Now, in everything. Amen.