Everyone who is sitting next to someone with a physical Bible, please put your phones away. Good morning. Please turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 as we continue through our study in Ecclesiastes. And as we do, let's pray and ask the Lord for help. Please bow your heads with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you humbled, That we have Your Word. We have Your Word in its purest form. Although in broken translation often at times, we can still understand the clarity, the perspicuity of Your Word. It is clear. It is obvious to us. Please help us to understand it. That our hearts be softened. And that we would be willing and ready to obey by the power of Your Spirit. Please help me in terms of delivering this word faithfully to my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, your children, in Jesus' name, amen. So this study has been an ongoing study through Ecclesiastes, and I want to remind us of where we're at in terms of the study. So I do believe that the theme of the book, in terms of life under the sun, is to explore the vanity of this life. And this vanity is true for all of us. It's not just the unbeliever. It's for all of us. We have a vain existence in the sense that we come and go. We die, right? And death is the ultimate enemy to be conquered by Jesus Christ. In the end, it's the last enemy to be put under the footstool of Christ. And so what I mean by vanity, in a lot of ways, our life is chasing after the wind. Our life is running after things and working super hard, only in the end to face death, which is hard. It's a challenge. And in some cases, if you think of it this way and you meditate on it too long, which is a tendency of some that read Ecclesiastes, is to just give up and throw your hands up and say, well, why do anything? Why go after anything? Which would be to miss, I believe, the entire point of Ecclesiastes. And in many cases, the entire point of the Bible. There are two people under the sun that live this vain life. There are one that are God-fearers, and there are others who are wicked. And both have an end. Both will ultimately face God, as Solomon concludes in Ecclesiastes 12. One will face God, Receiving a reward in Christ the other will face God in ultimate destruction. And so Today my hope is that in this gospel presentation according to Ecclesiastes that those who are in Christ are encouraged and those who are wicked repent and believe now the structure of the book is It deals with this just to remind us and refresh us kind of where we're at in terms of, I believe, this argument that Solomon is trying to convey to us. There are creaturely limitations according to chapter 1 through 2. There's things that are just impossible for us to grasp, impossible for us to understand, impossible for us to make sense of in some cases, based on our limited perspective of reality. In chapters 3 through 5, we get a clear understanding that we are associated with a sovereign creator, that God is in control over all things, that He rules and is sovereign over all things. In chapter 6 through 8 verses 15, there is a controlled and empowered joy that we can experience in this vanity under the sun. Life can be meaningful and actually enjoyed by those who fear God. And in chapters 8, 16 through 12, 14, which is the conclusion of the book, there is a conflict resolved that will come to a conclusion. Meaning, really more than anything, what I hope to have conveyed up until this point, as it is a matter of perspective. The book is trying to help us have a better perspective of reality. And this is why I say it's a wonderful structure for apologetics. Apologetics is to give it a defense for the hope that lies within us, according to 1 Peter 3 15. That we honor Christ as Lord. And when people look into our lives and they see this joy, this overflowing joy in our life, when maybe we might be experiencing a crushing, a difficulty, a bitter providence, as some like to call it, They look into our lives and they go, wait a minute, how is it that you could be persecuted, suffering, experiencing incredible difficulty, yet experience in some way, shape, or form a joy? Solomon's answering that question. So far, chapters 1 through 7 give us a very clear, distinct answer. If you fear God, you can have joy, because God empowers you to have the capacity to experience joy in the midst of great trials, suffering, tribulation, even persecution. But if you're wicked, you can enjoy nothing, because it's God who gives the power to enjoy anything. So picking up in chapter 7, in this idea of controlled joy and empowered joy, that we recognize that really we have no control over our own lives, that we live under the sovereign rule of God, and God in some cases brings incredible blessing into our life, an overwhelming abundance of blessings, and in some cases the blessing of trial and tribulation. And as we explored last week in chapter 7, We explored this idea of not being overly righteous, or to make ourselves too wise, starting here in verse 16. And he poses the question, if you're doing these things, if you're this overly righteous person, or this too wise person, that you would destroy yourself. If you're overly wicked, you're a fool, and that you would die before your time. And he's saying that understanding these things, it's good that you would take hold of these things. and not withhold your hand from them, for the one who fears God shall come from both of them." And that's a really ambiguous verse. That's a hard verse to understand, actually. You may have different versions in here that express it in a different way. And what I believe what he's saying here in verse 18 is more of, we have to hold on to something and let go of something else. We have to grasp and understand one thing, and we have to be quick to avoid something else. So what he drove at last week, righteousness is not a bad thing, right? Hopefully I got that through. Righteousness is not a bad thing. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is righteous. God is righteous. It's a good thing, right? It's to be right before God, right? to be holy, to be perfect. So he's not saying in the sense of overly, well, how could you be too much righteous? That's not the idea he's getting at. It's a hypocritical righteousness. It's a righteousness, as I described from the garden, a righteousness that is defined in your own eyes. A righteousness that you think you're right, and you're defining that beyond the way God has defined it in His Word. To be overly wise, wisdom is a good thing. We should be pursuing wisdom. Christ is the treasure of all wisdom and knowledge. Solomon's obviously not saying we shouldn't be pursuing Christ. Of course not. What he's saying is you need to pursue a godly wisdom, not a wisdom of what's right in your own eyes, trying to define reality on your own. And the overly wicked, he's not saying, well, be somewhat wicked and that's okay. No, he's saying that if you're wicked and you're overly wicked, meaning you're going off the deep end in your wickedness, you could die before your time. God's actually going to take you out, right? Some of us might have experienced that, right? Of what that's like. We're pursuing a path of wickedness and we're going so overboard in it that our lives almost end. God will take us out of this world because we're destroying it. So what I want to explore today is what Solomon concludes in this argument. This idea of the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. That's an interesting statement if you think about it. Here's what I think he's driving at. We have to understand what righteousness is. We have to understand what wickedness is, and that we can only understand that based on what's revealed in God's Word, right? There are a group of people who have a tendency, to be overly righteous, and there's a group of people who have a tendency to be overly wicked. There's a group of people who have a tendency to be overly wise. Let me give you some examples that I think will help frame this up a little bit. Over the course of the last few years, I have a particular individual that follows me on Facebook and makes it his personal vendetta with me to comment on anything that I say related to the Bible, His name is Jeff Masti, and I hope he's watching. Maybe I'll reference this so I can say, hey Jeff, I brought you up in the sermon this last week. Jeff sees it as like, he wants to mock me, he wants to punk me. I brought up something that if you don't have God's Word, you have no hope in the world. Something along those lines. I just posted it recently. And he posts like a, you know, a care heart, you know, or care face with a heart thing in it. And, you know, it's like, oh, you know, bless your soul kind of guy, right? Situation. And I challenged him. I said, Jeff, you know, what do you mean? Like, why, you know, why do you always seem to point out and want to mock what I have to say when it comes to me quoting about scripture, things about Christianity and whatnot? And I challenged him. I said, well, you know, why don't you believe the Bible, Jeff? And his response to me is like, well, that silly God thingy, whatever, I don't believe in all that. No, I'm like, why don't you believe the Bible and what the Bible has to say about God? And he responds with, well, I have problems with authorship, you know. I have some serious challenges, you know, that not all the authors of the Bible who say they're the authors are the authors, or they might not be. There's questions that I have about those things. So then I asked him a further question, where are you getting your information from, right? Just simply put, where are you getting that information from? What do you mean the authors who say they're the authors clearly? They're the authors, right? Why don't you think they're the authors? Well, there's these schools like Yale and Harvard and Oxford and some, some of you are laughing, European scholarship that would disagree with those things. And I said, yeah, well, they're basing their observation of scripture from their worldview. They're interpreting the evidence from their worldview. When I said that, he said, oh, see, see, You're hammering on the worldview thingy again. You didn't even answer my question. Who do you think it is? Anybody who studied any of Greg Bonson's work would know that evidence does not interpret itself, right? Evidence doesn't say, this is how you ought to interpret me, right? So there's all this evidence out there, and the way we observe this evidence is by what? Our worldview, what we believe about reality. Which means what we believe about ourselves, what we believe about the world that's around us. Right? And so we interpret that evidence by our worldview. It's not just this neutral position where we just go, hmm, that's how it should be and that's exactly what it is. No, no, no. We interpret it through our atheism. We interpret the worldview through our Christianity, our broken Christianity, and whatever it might be. We interpret everything through our worldview, the fundamental beliefs of reality. Then he goes on to say, kind of my personal experience, my limited experience here, what I can interact with is basically all the things that I could know, and I know we exist. Now, anybody who studied Greg Bonson would know the next step, and some will laugh, right? Which is, okay, then, Buckwheat, why are you arguing with me? Why are you mocking me constantly? You notice how you go from, like, so, when I try to engage with you intellectually, and I press your beliefs, And I ask you really hard questions, you go to mockery. That's interesting to me, think about it. All you said, you basically said, all I have is a limited life under the sun and that which I interact with is all I could really know. And then I said, so you can't know really anything with certainty, right? Oh, certainty, there's the big word. No one could know anything with certainty, yet you mock me. You mock me. You make it a point to mock me every time I bring something up that is certain about you having no hope in the world apart from this, the living Word of God. And you mock me. Why do I say that? Well, you must have some certainty that this is not the living God, Word of the living God. Enough to mock me. You know the truth so well that I'm just some silly Christian who believes that this is the Word of God. Yet all you have is under the sun with your limited experience, your mere existence, and then you just continue to mock me, saying that we can have no certainty. Do you see the problem there, guys? Do you see the problem? On one case, he has this certain understanding that this can't possibly be the Word of God, based on what Yale, Harvard, and I added Princeton for him too, because he didn't include them, right, and Oxford and others, and these European scholars, these high, who come from high German criticism, which produced, by the way, liberal theology. Liberal theology, which gives us the ability to excuse ourself away from the authority of Scripture. All authority is a product of the Enlightenment. And that product of the Enlightenment has produced much of the progressive Christianity that we have today. Ones that embrace the LGBTQ community as though that's perfectly fine. It's okay to be a gay Christian, for example. Why? Well, because, you know, we don't know if that's really what Paul meant to say. And does that really apply to our time? It gives us all kinds of opportunity to twist and change around what this, as the authority of all matters of life and faith, has to say. Here's a man mocking me when all he has is his limited experience under the sun, can't be certain about anything, but yet he is certain that this is not the Word of God. That's the one thing he's certain of, right? Well, here's the problem. Anybody who's studied Bonson would know there's one step further. The one step further for you guys, and I hope this clicks some light bulbs for you today. I really do. It's going to be incredibly helpful for you when it comes to building your life upon the Word of God. And what it means to be delivered from destruction in Christ is the impossibility of the contrary. Meaning, you cannot build your life in any other way and expect it not to end in destruction apart from Christ. I'm going to repeat that. You can't build your life any other way. Meaning, you can't build your life outside of God's Word, God's revealed Word. And in either way, and not expect it to end in destruction. It will. To not expect it to end in inconsistency, and incoherence, and ultimately absurdity. And that's not just something that I'm saying like, well, that's a neat claim, but can you prove it? Yes, I can absolutely prove it. I can prove it over and over and over again. It's self-attesting. It makes the claim itself. It says, this is my word. God says, this is my word. And you either follow it or be destroyed. Here's another example. So that would be the overly wise atheist example. He's so wise, he's a fool. And that foolishness could be pointed out over and over and over to him, until really his eyes are open, his ears hear, and his heart turns, and he's delivered from destruction. And then all of a sudden he goes, wow, instead of just embracing absurdity and incoherence and inconsistency, because I love my sin, I love Christ now, who is the treasure of all wisdom and knowledge. And now I can make sense of my life. Why? Because I have the very framework to build my life upon. There's another one. The overly righteous is the Pharisee in examples all throughout Scripture, particularly the New Testament, the Pharisee. The one who loves God's law so much that he creates all sorts of boundaries around God's law just in case we don't break it, just to make sure we don't violate it. It's called creating man's laws according to man's perspective, right? So we're going to create all these extra boundaries around God's law in order to avoid not breaking it or violating it. Again, this person, this overly righteous person, this zealous person, is doing what's right in their own eyes. And it ends, as I shared last week, and I would encourage you, go on YouTube, all of our sermons are there, to look at how we explored what those examples look like. But guess what it does? It ruins you, it destroys you. It's the very text that we read today from Ephesians. It breaks you down, right? It roots bitterness inside of you. You start looking down your nose at people. You're hostile towards fellow believers in Christ. Because you hold and erect these, you have these culturally, what I call culturally defined scruples. These examples that maybe you had experienced in the past of what you considered what a godly church looked like, or what godly people looked like. And what it does is it creates divisions. If you notice, man, I can't, I went through, I listened to quite a bit of the epistles this week. And the patterns in the epistles, it's interesting, Paul's always trying to press people back to who they are in Christ. He's pointing them, look who you are in Christ. Yet then these things happen, like let me give you an example, Galatians. You guys are familiar with the story in Galatians? Galatians was written to settle dispute between Jew and Gentile. And by the way, so was Romans. And really much the New Testament, because the Jews who were born again didn't know how to assimilate with the Gentiles. But Galatians is a special example. We're going to get into that a little bit. What happened? Peter, out of fear of the circumcision of the Jews, the Judaizers, separated himself from Gentile believers, creating a distinction again that Christ broke down, that Christ destroyed. Why? Because there was this idea of righteousness. They had an idea of what righteousness looked like and how righteousness should appear, and we don't associate with those guys because those guys in our association with them could make us unrighteous. Right? And what did Paul do? He rebuked Peter to his face. He said he stood condemned. Peter's a born-again believer. He's an apostle. Stood condemned before the living God. So that's an overly righteous. And then, of course, we don't need to go into the unending examples of what overly wickedness looks like. I believe that this word today has a providential timing to it. When I was reading through it, I'm like, man, I love our church. I really do. I love our church a lot. I love being a pastor at this church. I love being your pastor. As a pastor, one thing that's really difficult is as you're kind of assessing what's going on with the church, sort of putting your finger on the pulse of the church, as you're reading through the word, you're like, how can I appropriately deliver this word to the body in a way that would be understandable to them, that would apply to what we're dealing with right now. Let me kind of help you guys through this, okay? In assessing our church, there are many wonderful things about our church, okay? We have a zealous people here, okay? We're Reformed Baptists, right? Confessional! Second, you know, London Baptist Confession, 1689, okay? And we love the Word. We're passionate about the Word. We're zealous about the Word, okay? And it's interesting, if you guys ever notice, we'll have visitors coming, and I'm not calling out our visitors today. I'm so happy you're here. But we'll have visitors, okay? And then I brought up examples. Visitors have these certain ideas defined in their mind of what a good church is, what a pastor should look like, how he should speak, how he should dress, all that kind of stuff, right? How a church should function. We get this idea, concept of the regulative principle of worship. And if you're unfamiliar with that term, that's okay. See Greg, he'll describe it to you after church. Or Jonathan. Um, regulative principle of worship is the structure of worship. What it should look like from the call of worship to the benediction, okay? And everything in between and how that should be, should go, how we should go about worship. Think about the kind of culture that we have here, the kind of people that we have here today, okay? Very passionate about that. People are attracted to our church for those reasons, right? faithfully deliver the Word, we get after it, we engage with our communities, we're evangelistic in terms of our outreach, we care. But it's interesting. Like, look around you. How many people are here today? We have some missing people, but is this a large sum of people? Am I preaching to a mass swath of thousands of people today? No. Why? Because we're weirdos. in the eyes of others. We are. Why are we weirdos? Oh, man. And I've heard it, guys, and I'm sure you've heard it too. You guys take this way too serious. Man, you guys are hardcore with your communion. Man, you guys are too intense, dude, when it comes to the way you engage with people outside. That whole end abortion now thing where you're working to end abortion and stuff, there has got to be other ways to address this thing so it's not like so in your face. Don't condemn those women, the ones who are determined in their mind to murder their children. Don't condemn them, right? That's hardcore, that's harsh. Then there are people who are attracted to our church. Think about this, the kind of people, what attracted you here? It was like, yes, the love for the word, yes, the confessional thing, you know, the historic confession, that kind of stuff is awesome. Deep theology, you love that, you love the brotherhood, love all those things. But though, Something happened just a few years ago. This tremendous event, this plandemic happened. You heard it here. I said it. A plandemic happened. And what happened? All these churches shut down. They shut down. And some like shut down not just for a few weeks, not for a couple months, some years. They were doing the live stream thingy for years. Live streaming is not church, you guys. This is the fellowship. This is where the people are worshiping the living God together in unity. They're still doing the live streaming thingy and some churches shut down completely. Why? Because people left. People left those churches and came to churches like ours. There are some churches that grew and some churches that shrank and some churches that just shut down altogether, sadly. And I'm not here calling into question those leaders had to make the decision, but I am saying there was a firm stance that was taken and made once we recognized that the wool was being pulled over our eyes by our government. Yes, the government does that. They cannot be trusted. They're run by sinners. And that's why we have the structure that we have where there's rotations in leadership and authority. It's why we're a constitutional republic set up with democratic processes so that we can remove those leaders, those sinful leaders, when they need to be removed. So you have people who are coming here now as a result of that. And these people happen to be very zealous. Some people coming out of cults. Some people coming out of horrible backgrounds. Some people who grew up in Christian homes, and some people who didn't. We have an interesting conglomerate of people here. We also have sojourners and travelers, military folks, right? Who come here every two years or three years, and then they go, they get transferred somewhere else. We gain people, we lose people all the time. They come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different parts of the world, in some cases, and different parts of the US. They all have an idea of what Christianity looks like, too. You notice that? This is what Christianity really is. They all have an idea of what the perfect church looks like. You ever notice that? They come here and they have their critiques. They come, some stay, and some go. The question that I have today, based on this experience that I have now going into our seventh year. and not growing to thousands for a reason, is because some of these people are so firmly fixed in their position on what a good church and what Christianity looks like, they've stayed. And some are so firmly fixed, they've left. And my challenge to you today is, did they do that for the right reason? Are you staying for the right reason? And are you leaving for the right reason, right? How do we sort this out in our minds? That's the next question. There are people who come out of these lives who have been delivered from destruction, they call themselves Christians, they are in Christ. How do we sort through this? First, I would challenge you today, we must fear God. And why must we fear God? Look at Proverbs 9, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's where it starts. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight, for by me your days will be multiplied and your years will be added to your life. Proverbs 8 concludes with, that unless you embrace wisdom, you love death. Fear the Lord is the beginning of that wisdom. In Psalm 19 it says the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is a great reward. With that in mind, we should recognize real clearly from the outset, none of us, none of us have fulfilled that. None of us really, if we're being perfectly honest, have seen it that way and embraced it that way. We still, as I argued last week with Eve, attempt in some way, shape, or form to erect and construct what is right in our own eyes. We come up with our own idea of what purity is. Our own idea of what is clean. Our own idea of what's going to endure forever. Our own idea of what is right. Our own idea of what will rejoice our heart, right? Think about it. We do it. We struggle with this. We don't fully embrace what the Word of God has to say, which really means we don't fear God. We don't. Which is why we need Christ. That's exactly why we need Christ. What can we boast in? I love what Jeremiah says in 9, 23 through 24. Think about this. What can you bring to the Lord? Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and all these other people who are wise in their own eyes, who live this so-called righteous life, completely apart from Christ, what can they boast in in front of the Lord? Think about it. John MacArthur, God bless him, brilliant man, wonderful man, great pastor, walked with the Lord for many years, has what, had a ministry for 40-something? Been a pastor forever, longer than I've been alive, right? That dude has nothing to boast in, in front of the Lord, apart from Christ. Whoever you exalt in the highest level, you think, man, that guy's got it. Charles Spurgeon, you know, old C.H. Whoever you think this exalted person is in your mind, listen to what Jeremiah has to say about them. Thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, declares the Lord. So you have nothing to bring. As a matter of fact, Isaiah says, just everything, all of our righteousness is filthy rags in his sight. Everything. Think about this. Isaiah, brilliant. Could it be considered a righteous man? In the presence of the living God says, Woe is me, a man of unclean lips, who dwells amongst men of unclean lips. We are all impure before the living God, right? So we have nothing to boast in. Think about this. There is a great equalizer among all peoples in the fear of God, okay? Romans 3, 9-19, oh, and those who are taking notes, that was Jeremiah 9, 23-24, sorry. In Romans 3, verses 9-19, Paul says, none is righteous, not one. There's no fear of God before their eyes. He's speaking of all men. There's no fear of God. Why? These people continually come up with what they think is right in their own eyes. They do it over, and over, and over, and over again. They do it with righteousness, they do it with wisdom, and wickedness. They do it with what they think is right, and what they think is wrong. And there's no fear of God. In Romans 3.21-4.12, you can just read that section on your own. I picked this section out. Paul identifies the reality of all men, that we've all fallen short of the glory of God. But all are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And Paul says, and notice he concludes here in verse 27, he says, what becomes of our boasting then? So if we're saved by the grace of God and it has absolutely nothing to do with us, then what becomes of our boasting? He said nothing, it's excluded. There is no boasting. Paul argues in Romans 4 too, he says, if Abraham was justified by works, if anything he could boast in, anything that he did, he has something to boast about, but not before God. He might be justified before man, like think about it, the Gandhi, the Mother Teresa type example. We look at them and we go, but they were really great people. Oh, okay, maybe in the eyes of man, but they have absolutely nothing to boast about before the living God. And why do I say that? I'm going to skip ahead. If you note here that Solomon points that out. He says, surely, in verse 20, in chapter 7 here, there's not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. There's something about the condition, about the reality of what we are. You could be the most righteous person on earth. And what I believe Paul's arguing here in Romans is you have nothing to boast about before God. Men could look in your life and go, wow, man, great guy, great gal, awesome people, good peeps, right? Nothing to boast about before the living God. All have sinned and fallen short from the glory of God. But what does Scripture say as Paul carries on his argument in Romans 4, verses 3-8? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but his due, meaning it's something that he is owed. If he is working, that person is now owed something. We cannot work for our salvation or redemption. We cannot work to be justified in Christ. God owes us nothing. It was 100% a free gift is what he's trying to drive at. The one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, His faith is counted to him as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing to the one whom God counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those who lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. So all who are in Christ, is my argument here, as I continue, are to pursue the treasures and wisdom of knowledge found in Christ. and are justified by faith in such, not by our works." Think about 2 Peter, what he says. The idea of the knowledge of Christ should build things in us like virtue and self-control and brotherly love. And a depth and an understanding of who God is and who we are, right? And we won't be lacking, Peter says. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians about this, chapter 2, verses 11 through 21. Here's this idea of, the total thought is chapter 2, 11 through 21, but this section I wanted to tap on, in verses 15 through 16, he says, We ourselves are Jews by birth, and we're not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because works of the law, no one will be justified. He goes on to say if righteousness were through the law, verse 21, then Christ died for no purpose. If it's something that you could work out on your own, Christ died for no purpose, essentially. Right? Paul goes on to challenge them. He says in chapter 3, verses 2 through 3, let me ask you only this, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? So you're born again. And you're born again knowing that it had nothing to do with you, that all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And now all of a sudden, you're perfecting this through your flesh? How? How are you able to do that? You can't. You can't perfect what Christ is perfecting in you by your flesh. It has nothing to do with you. Christ is the one that promises to work in and through you, to complete what He started in you, all the way to the end. In Galatians 3, 23-29 he says this, But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male or female. for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." And he goes on to expound out this incredible argument of what it means to be a part of the seed of promise or the curse. What it means to be in Christ or apart from Christ. We have been delivered from wrath to life. We have been delivered from division to unity, from a privileged status, in some cases, to equality. We are all one in Christ. Ephesians 2 says that so clearly. It says, you were once dead in your trespasses and sin. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind." Nothing special about us. We're all in this together. We were all once that way. And what does Paul say as he continues on verses 5 through 6? Even when we were dead in our trespasses, we were made alive together in Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's all an act and a work of God. It's a miraculous act and work of God. No matter what background you came from, no matter if you were Jew or Gentile, slave or free, barbarian or Scythian, no matter what, it didn't matter. Think about it. You are all one in Christ. All those things have been destroyed. There will now be unity and equality. And that privileged status, if I could say, is in Christ. It's not about who we are and what we are, what we've attained and what we've accomplished, how much we know or don't know, who we spend our time with and who we don't. He goes on, we are His workmanship, God's workmanship in Christ. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And he goes on in verse 11 through 12, remember that at one time you Gentiles, meaning everybody who's not a Jew, right? A Gentile is everyone who is not a Jew. You were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in the world. That's a pretty dire situation, amen? That's all of us, all of us. But we've been brought near by the blood of Christ, he says. Christ himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two. So making peace that he might reconcile us both to God and one body through the Christ, thereby killing the hostility. So then you're no longer strangers. You're no longer aliens. You're fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. He's saying this to Gentiles. Now you can quite imagine why Peter would have had a hard time as he is associating with them. And here's Paul declaring this about Gentile believers, why Paul would have rebuked Peter so fiercely to his face. These are our brothers and sisters. They're fellow citizens. They're not strangers and aliens anymore. They're part of the household of God, which has been what? Built on the foundations of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. If you remember, Jesus said this in John 4 to the woman at the well. There will come a time when worship isn't going to happen here or there, right? Between the Samaritans and the Jews. But God will be worshipped in spirit and truth everywhere. That's what He desires. Here Jesus is saying we're that temple that He's dwelling in, being built up by the Spirit of the living God. And He's saying that to Gentiles. Can you imagine what kind of hostility would have been between the two groups of people? So we must fear God. Boast in nothing but Christ and work toward the bond of unity and peace in Christ. That is our obligation. And if you're not doing that, you have no fear of God. You have no fear of God. And you are destined for destruction apart from Christ. If this is not your effort, if there's something going on inside of you where you're missing this, you have no fear of God and you're destined for destruction. And you need to repent and turn to Christ. With this in mind, you need to remember this, that God saves, He sanctifies, brings the foolishly zealous, hypocritically religious, and most perverse pagans to glorification in Christ. Let me repeat that. God saves and sanctifies. It is His work. Think of Romans 8, the golden chain of redemption. He predestines these people. Paul says in Ephesians 1, before the foundation of the world was even laid, to be conformed to the image of Christ. And he promises and guarantees the sanctification occurred. Even though when you're looking at them, you might be going, we're not really that sanctified. How long have you been walking with the Lord, right? if you're erecting up in your mind of what sanctification ought to look like in someone's life, and I'm not saying grow sin, I'm not saying that we aren't to call one another out and to hold one another accountable, but be very careful in the way you do that. Careful. Guard yourself. Be diligent in the word. Fear the living God in the way you make these corrections with other people, knowing that they're your brothers and sisters in Christ, if they profess Christ. He promises That those foolishly zealous, those hypocritically religious and most perverse pagans will be what? Glorified ultimately in Christ. They will be brought to their intended end. Let God have His work in people. Push them and turn them to the Word. Think about what we prayed today from the scripture reading in terms of words of edification. The building up of one another. Think about how roots of bitterness might be woven into our hearts. as we're struggling and suffering and walking through this life together. Some people are going to offend you. They're going to say things that bother you. They're going to say things you don't like. I'm not condoning people to just run their mouths. But I'm also not condoning for people to heap up sins and just pile sins on the backs of people that aren't really sins. To hold bitterness in their heart towards people for something that they shouldn't be. Let's look at a few examples to conclude that I believe are blatant in scripture. There is a pagan that was called out of a pagan nation in scripture who could only boast in the promises of God. His name was Abraham. Right? Galatians 3.6, Paul says, Now imagine, imagine like you're an outsider looking into Abraham's life, and we know what Abraham's life looked like. We have his story. Was Abraham's life perfect? Once he believed God and it was accounted to him as righteous, anybody know the story of Abraham? We don't need to go through it today. Lied a few times, gave his wife to be taken as wife for kings. He said, nope, that's my sister, it's not my wife, because he feared his life, right? Think about all the things that Abraham did. Took Hagar as a wife. Oh, this is how God's going to complete the promises that he's given to me. Have Ishmael, right? Sarah laughed. Guys, they were not shining examples of righteousness. Yet, we find that Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. He could boast in what? Not his own works, but what? In the promises of God. There is a righteous man in Scripture beyond comparison who could alone boast in his Redeemer. His name was Job. In the midst of deep suffering, Job had everything stripped away from him monetarily and bodily. Everything. Yet Job looked forward to his redemption. He says here in Job 19, 25-26, he says, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at least He will stand upon the earth. After my skin has thus been destroyed, yet my flesh I shall see God. I'm going to die, but I'm going to see God. I know this. What was Job dealing with? He had some awesome counselors, right? Do you know what the problem with Job's counselors were? After a week or so, they started running their mouth. And they started accusing Job of doing something that he wasn't doing. That Job had to repent. Hey, Job, there's something, man, there's something up. The reason why all this disaster is happening in your life right now, no man would go through what you're going through, Job, unless God had issues with him, right? That's like the condensed version of Job. And in the end, what do we find out? God reveals himself to Job. declares who he is, Job repents because he started accusing God of doing wrong, even though God brought a bitter providence in his life, allowed Satan to sift him. And what was Satan's challenges? Do you guys remember? Or what was his challenges? He had two challenges. Listen, the reason Job doesn't curse you, or he loves you, and he's devoted to you, is because you bless his life. Look at all that he has. He's a wealthy man. Surely strip all that away from him and he'll curse you to your face. So God says, okay, strip him of all those things, preserve his life, spare his life. You're not allowed to kill him. Take it all from him. Guys, invading military tribes and countries. Wiped Job out, killed all his family members, burned his houses down, stole his flocks. I mean, it was bad. And there was like one servant, you know, that came and said, hey, all your kids are dead. Hey, all your stuff got burned down. Hey, a bunch of stuff got stolen. And he, you know, falls to the ground. You know, he's like, naked I've come into the world, naked I shall return. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And then he says, so look, consider Job. Consider my servant Job, God again to Satan. Consider him. Wow. Okay, he didn't curse you, right? This is a Jeremy paraphrase version. But, I know this about man. You strip their health away from him. You take that away from him. Surely he'll curse you to your face. Okay, you could do anything you want to him basically, just like basically bring him to the brink of death. And then, you know, but you can't kill him. He won't curse me. And not until the very end of Job, which Job was going through some pretty dire stuff, did he start thinking, man, what's up? I don't even know what's going on. And his counselors were harping on him. His counselors were what I would consider the overly righteous and the overly wise. They had completely missed the point. And the reason I would make that argument is these men knew. You look at their theology. They had some solid theology. These counselors weren't like stupid men. They were counseling him the wrong way. God called them to repentance. He said, make for them a sacrifice and I'll forgive them in the end. They were in the wrong. Elihu acknowledged that in the very end. There was a prostitute and a Moabite in scripture who could only boast in a great deliverer. By faith, Rahab, according to the author of Hebrews in 1131, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given friendly welcome to the spies. Joshua talks about this in more detail. Joshua 6.25 says, Rahab, the prostitute, and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. Yeah, he saved a life. And she lived in Israel to this day. And because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out in Jericho. Why? Because she feared God. She feared God. She was a prostitute, you guys. How do people treat prostitutes these days? Are we so overly righteous that a prostitute would not be welcome among us? Think about that. Would not be welcome in your house. Maybe you wouldn't even have a conversation with her or him. What about the Moabite? You need to realize that the ancestors of King David are all in the genealogy of Christ were Rahab and Ruth the Moabite. Listen to this. Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab, which is really interesting that those ladies' names are mentioned by name, and it was delivered by them, that these children were delivered by them in the genealogy. And Boaz was a kinsman-redeemer, if you remember that, right, of Ruth. He was the father of Obed. And remember, the Moabites were sworn enemies of the Israelites. Yet, this Moabite was taken in by this kinsman-redeemer, Boaz. There's a whole book devoted to her. which is a really beautiful story of what it means to be a kinsman redeemer, from a foreign nation. This woman was from a foreign nation. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of who? King David. So King David was Rahab's great-great-grandson and Ruth's great-grandson. We need to remember that the Lord is gracious. to prostitutes, and even Israel's sworn enemies. And if you remember, the Moabites, for example, King Balak, who sent out Balaam to curse Israel during the conquest, was a Moabite king, and so was Eglon, who ended up being killed. And so these people were fierce enemies of the Jews. Think about it. Like, just read the story of Ruth. It's an amazing, beautiful story. She says, basically, she's following Naomi back to the homeland, a widow. And she says, you know what? My people are your people now. Like, because she's like, why are you following me? You know, why are you coming back? You should stay here with your people. She's like, I don't know. Your people are my people, and your God is my God. Same idea with Rahab and Jericho, right? No, no, God of Israel is my God. I'm going to wreck this place, I'm going to judge this place like He did every other place on His way here. We're in line for judgment. I'm hiding the spies. They're going to spy out the land and I'll risk my own life knowing it's better to fear this God than the gods of Jericho. Same idea. If anyone had the ability to boast, it would have been the Hebrew of Hebrews, the Pharisee of Pharisees, the Apostle Paul. Paul said he could straight up boast in his flesh. Listen to what he says. I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh. This is in Philippians 4-11. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law, a Pharisee as to zeal, a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Whoa, those are some pretty fair boasts in the flesh, right? He says, though, but whatever I had gained, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead." Whoa. We're not on par with Paul, right? And Paul even says to himself, that's all rubbish, doesn't matter. Paul could even boast in his good works, he said. Compare that with 2 Corinthians 11, 16-12, 12-10. But Paul concludes in this, listen to what he says, even in boasting in these good works, in chapter 12, 7 through 10, he says, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of these revelations that he had received, this insight of being an apostle, right? A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it would leave me. But what did the Lord say? My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, that I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities." Anybody experiencing those things today? Right? Might be. your weaknesses, a thorn in the flesh, difficulties, pain, suffering. Well, you can boast in Christ's sufficiency in you. And I love what he says. Paul says, the Lord gave me these things to keep me from becoming conceited based on all of these revelations and this wisdom that he had given me. Think about that. We know that in the life of Paul, that people despised him for these thorns. That's really interesting, think about it. Like, you have a hard time receiving from me, he said, because of these thorns. In person, I am weak before you, but in word and in letter, powerful. Like some of them looked at him like, oh man, like man, when you write Paul, You're coming at it. You're coming at it hard. You bring it. But when we see you in person, you're just like, is that Paul? Sure. Right? This is Apostle Paul. I don't know. I kind of have zero respect for him now. Right? There's something going on with him in these ailments that he suffered that would cause people to think maybe he's not worthy of respect, dignity, or honor as an apostle. A lot of believe that has something to do with his eyes. There was a thief on the cross. that could boast in nothing but the cross of Christ, if you think about it. Listen to what this thief says. This is in Luke 23-39. He says one of the criminals were hanged and railed at him. This is next to Jesus. He says, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him. This is the other person on a cross next to Christ. This other one rebuked this guy saying, And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds. But this man did nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, listen to what he says, Jesus, remember me when you go into your kingdom. Man, remember me. I recognize who you are, and I need you. I need your forgiveness. I deserve this condemnation, but you don't. And Jesus said to him, what? Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise." What a beautiful thing, right? By the way, this destroys any Presbyterian need for baptism, dude. There we have it. This is why we're Baptists. He could look at this man, Jesus looked at this man on the cross and said, you know who I am, you know what I'm here for, you know what I'm going to accomplish, you're going to be with me in paradise. Two stories of two people types. One on one side and one on the other. One condemned and going to be destroyed. Literally rebuking Jesus saying, save us from this stuff. And the other one's going, he is saving us from this stuff. Hey, Jesus, remember me when you go into your kingdom. This guy, you're missing the whole point of it. The other guy, you get it. You're going to be with me in paradise. Two people. He could boast of nothing but the cross. And then lastly, and I think one of the most pertinent examples for us in light of this text, A tax collector could boast in the mercy and grace of God. Think of this. You guys know anything about tax collectors during this time in the Roman Empire? Any Bible students out there know that a tax collector like Matthew, who was an apostle, was not respected. Why? They were seen as a defector. They were seen as one who was a traitor of the Israelites because they were working for their great enemy, Rome, who had conquered them, collecting money from them as though they had ruled over them when only God was their king. And what were they hoping for? Think about Simon the Zealot. Simon was like eager to overthrow this kingdom. He couldn't wait for the Messiah to show up, which was one of the great expectations at the time, so that these tax collectors These capitulators, these traitors, these defectors would be destroyed along with everyone else. Why? Because they had a zeal for the kingdom of God. And when the Messiah shows up, we're on his side. And look, look how faithful we've been. And then Matthew is brought into the fold. Can you imagine? I always think like, what would that have been like? Simon the zealot, part of the fold, Matthew. Jesus probably had to break up some fights. I'm just imagining that, you know. Think about that. Listen to the way the Pharisees treated these tax collectors in Luke 18, 9-14. Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. And they treated others as a result of that with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But then the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven. Imagine the Pharisee's like this. I'm so thankful I'm not like this guy, right? And the other guy is just ashamed. Think about him. Can't even lift up his eyes to heaven. He's beating his chest. He's saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that the meek inherit the earth. We know that the humble are the ones that are received. It says that you look at those ones who are humble, who are contrite, who are hungry and believe in your Word, who trust themselves to a faithful Creator to redeem them, who recognize who they were. It doesn't matter what kind of background they came from. They might have been raised in a godly home their entire life. but they could die a Pharisee, believing that they are somehow righteous in and of themselves, pointing at others and looking down their noses upon them as though just because they've never been caught up in the kind of destructive pattern of wickedness like these people have, somehow makes them a better choice for you, Lord. When in reality, like all the righteous men of the world ever admitted to being righteous, that you ever sang that they were. I think of David as one of the ultimate examples of a man who, after your own heart, was an adulterer, a convicted adulterer. Men who struggled, who were weak, who often faltered. We all realize that we fall short before you. We are, like Isaiah, men of unclean lips who dwell among the men of unclean lips. We have nothing to offer you with the exception to boast in what Christ has given to us. I pray that, Lord, you would convict those today who struggle with those things. Deliver them of this bondage that they have put on themselves, Lord, that they are struggling. Really, Lord, they need to be set free from it. It's a bondage. They need to experience what it means to be freed in Christ. I pray for them today that they would experience that. We pray for those who don't know You, who are, in a sense, destined to destruction. Lord, we pray that if there were some today that might be in that place today here among us, that You would save them, open their eyes and ears and their heart, that they would turn and love You all the more. In Jesus' name, amen.