Episode Transcript
[00:00:21] Anybody had a good cry lately?
[00:00:25] Yeah, some people raise their hand. Praise the Lord. Thanks, Beth. Archie. Awesome. Yeah. All right, so I don't typically cry. Well, and what I mean by that is ever since I was a kid, I've struggled to do this thing called cry.
[00:00:44] Sometimes my body just doesn't catch up to what I feel. Doesn't respond in the right way. But the other day my body responded appropriately and so small moment, but. And I, I promise you, for those who came last week and heard me talk about my, my, my children. I don't talk about my children every week. But my, my youngest child took 17 steps the other day, so she, she's like starting to walk. And the other day she, Sydney and I were in the living room and she took a step and then she took another step. And by step three, we started counting. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10. And she got all the way to 17. And then she fell down and we cheered and she looked at us and she's like, did you see what I did? And it was just, it was such a. And I just bent down and began to weep and I. It was like partly sad, partly happy, partly just pent up emotions probably for a long time of not doing that.
[00:01:39] And this phrase came to mind that's from a book called Every Moment Holy, which is a book of prayers and liturgies that I would highly recommend. It's wonderful.
[00:01:48] That says that every moment, every moment is holy because every moment in our life is precious and fleeting.
[00:01:58] So I will never experience that again.
[00:02:04] This moment here with you, as I'm looking into your eyes, I'll never get again.
[00:02:10] Every single moment that you experience and live, the beautiful ones and the difficult ones and the sad ones and the devastating ones and the triumphant ones, every single one of those moments is precious.
[00:02:24] It's a gift from the hand of the Father.
[00:02:27] And it's fleeting.
[00:02:30] You'll never get it back again.
[00:02:33] And so for us to live on this side of heaven and the very few, I mean, like, it could be gone tonight kind of a thing. Like really, it could be gone tonight. For any of us, the very few moments that we have on this side of heaven, knowing that they're precious and fleeting require wisdom.
[00:02:57] King David says.
[00:02:59] We talk about King David a lot. He's a man after God's own heart. Not because he always did the right thing. He made just. He made a. Just a wreck of his life on many occasions.
[00:03:11] But King David prayed prayers like this, and it just showed this love that he had for God. Which is why he was deemed a man after God's own heart, because he loved God.
[00:03:23] And he said, teach me to number my days that I might develop a heart of wisdom.
[00:03:33] We need wisdom. We need wisdom to enjoy life.
[00:03:38] So the book of Ecclesiastes, which many would say is, you know, Solomon was having a really bad day when he wrote it, and it's all melancholy and bad. Vanity of vanities. Life is a vapor. This is meaningless. Even the NIV study Bible, which I'm not ragging on, that's, you know, I used it in the study for this. But I remember at one point in my study reading the subtitle that said everything is meaningless, and thinking, I don't agree with that subtitle because I don't think it fully captures what Solomon's saying. Does he say that phrase? Yes, he does. Everything is meaningless. This is meaningless. Work is meaningless. Money is meaningless, et cetera. He says that all throughout the book. Vanity of Vanities carries this idea that life is a vapor. It's what James says in the Book of James in the New Testament, that our life is a mist. It's like if you go out into the cold and you breathe and you see your breath, and then it vanishes. James and Solomon both are saying the same thing. That's what our life is like.
[00:04:34] It just vanishes. It's like, gone like that. It just vanishes like that. So Solomon does say those things. But threaded all throughout the book of Ecclesiastes is this theme of joy and enjoyment.
[00:04:50] And so King Solomon, if you're unfamiliar with him, was the son of David born by Bathsheba. One of the gravest sins David ever committed in his life was taking a woman who was not in his wife, impregnating her, and then killing her husband so that he could cover his own tracks, lying to people. And finally, God sends a prophet, Nathan, to David. Nathan confronts David in a sin. And David, by the grace of God, repents of his sin. And then writes Psalm 51, one of the greatest psalms of repentance in all of the Bible.
[00:05:25] And so. But Solomon is a man who had the opportunity when he became king after his father David died, had the opportunity to pray for anything he wanted to pray for. Power, fame, money, women, whatever. And rather than praying for any of those things, Solomon prays for wisdom. And this pleases the Lord.
[00:05:46] The Lord is pleased by that prayer. Solomon says, I want. I need wisdom from you to govern your people well. And the Lord is pleased with that. And the Lord answers Solomon's prayer he grants Solomon wisdom. So Solomon becomes the wisest man to ever live, at least at this time, the wisest man to ever live. Yet in light of the wisdom God had given Solomon to govern his people, like kings, queens from all over the world are traveling into Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Like, despite all of that, Solomon makes a wreck of his life, marries thousands of women.
[00:06:23] I used to think that was hyperbole. I don't think it is. I think it's a literal thing. Like, he literally married that many different people. And many of those women were pagan women. They weren't followers of Yahweh.
[00:06:36] And so he makes an absolute wreck of his life and of his kingdom in many ways. And this is how he spends many of his years until the very end. It seems like we don't know for certain, but it seems like at the end of Solomon's life, as he's old and aged and weathered and he's gone through sin and suffering and failure and triumph and all the things that life brings, he pens the book of Ecclesiastes. So, in my opinion, my humble opinion, if you want to read a book that's going to encapsulate the human experience, look no further than the book of Ecclesiastes.
[00:07:09] It's profound. I read through the whole book this week. It's. It's a. It's a profound expose of the human experience.
[00:07:19] And what Solomon's saying as he gets into this idea of everything is meaningless and everything is vanity, and all of these things is not to say that all of life is actually meaningless.
[00:07:30] Quite the opposite is true.
[00:07:33] All of life has great value and great meaning and is meant to be enjoyed greatly by you and I.
[00:07:41] Marriage is a gift. Parenting is a gift. Food is a gift. Drink is a gift.
[00:07:46] All of these things are gifts from the Lord, as we've talked about over the summer. But when these things become preeminent things, when they become the supreme thing in our life and we do what he talks about in chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes, we forget our Creator in the midst of them. That's when vanity of vanities and everything is vanity.
[00:08:07] So when marriage becomes the most important thing in our life, the sole purpose of our existence, of course it's going to be vanity. It can't give you what only the Creator God can give you. Does this make sense?
[00:08:22] So this is the book. This is the theme throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. And when we get to chapter 12, verses 9 through 14, we really get to the summary statement of Entire book. And this is.
[00:08:33] This is where we want to end our series in discussing the pursuit of wisdom for us as a church.
[00:08:40] What does it look like to pursue wisdom? How do we cultivate wisdom? So we're just going to go through the text and I want to discuss a few things from the text in regards to what it looks like to cultivate wisdom in our life. That by God's grace, we might enjoy life more to the glory of God.
[00:08:59] Not enjoy life less, but enjoy life more to the glory of God.
[00:09:06] So, number one, how do we cultivate wisdom to enjoy life more fully to the glory of God? Look at verse nine. It says, he that being what we believe to be Solomon, he taught the people knowledge. The preacher taught the people knowledge. Weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care the preacher sought to find words of delight. And uprightly he wrote words of truth.
[00:09:34] The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd.
[00:09:46] My son, beware of anything beyond these, of making many books. There is no end.
[00:09:53] And much study is weariness of the flesh.
[00:09:58] So we'll talk about all of that. But here's the first point to be made and how you and I, by God's grace, are to cultivate wisdom. The first point to be made is this, that you and I must meditate on Scripture.
[00:10:13] Meditate on Scripture.
[00:10:16] Psalm 1 says, Blessed or happy is the man or woman who meditates on the law or who meditates on the Word. They will be like what? Like a tree planted firmly among streams that will not be moved.
[00:10:37] Solomon taught the people knowledge.
[00:10:41] That's knowledge of God and knowledge of life. If you want to know, if you're here today and you're unfamiliar with the Bible, what a wonderful thing that you're here. That's amazing.
[00:10:52] The Bible is about God.
[00:10:56] Genesis chapter one has 31 verses. You know how many times God's name is mentioned? 27 times.
[00:11:04] It's almost like Moses is saying, this is what the whole book's about.
[00:11:10] The Bible is about God.
[00:11:13] It's the creator of the universe's revelation of himself to you and to me. In a language that we can understand.
[00:11:25] Christ Jesus is the personification of God's word, even more so in a language we can understand in a person. This is who God is.
[00:11:38] In all of the Bible, all 66 books that are given for the sake of knowledge are intended that you and I might have knowledge of him.
[00:11:51] Not just so that knowledge ends in our brains.
[00:11:54] But so that by the power of the Spirit, it moves into our hearts and we love him.
[00:12:02] And so if we're going to cultivate wisdom in life, we have to be meditators on Scripture. The Proverbs, as is all of scripture, are collected teachings written by roughly 40 authors inspired by the Holy Spirit over the span of about 1500 years that in an insane way tell one story.
[00:12:28] Ever think about that? 1500 years, 40 different human authors inspired by the Spirit.
[00:12:34] One story.
[00:12:36] No inconsistencies, no contradictions. Only God could do that.
[00:12:41] It's amazing.
[00:12:42] This book that you and I have, the Bible contains words that are both true and delightful. Just like, just like Solomon's proverbs, they're true.
[00:12:56] I'm. This is what the. I almost say the Lord used to hook me into Christianity. That's not what happened. This is what the Lord used to save me.
[00:13:04] When I was in college, I got point in my life where I was like, I don't really care what people think. I want to know what's true.
[00:13:13] I need to know what's true.
[00:13:17] That's, that's all I need. It doesn't matter what this philosopher thinks or this religion thinks or that person thinks. I need to know what's true. And if Christ really rose from the dead and there's historical precedent to say that he did. He's true.
[00:13:31] He's true.
[00:13:33] So then all of reality, everything that we've talked about all summer, marriage and kids and singleness and work and all of these areas of life, food and drink and enjoyment and partying and laughter and sadness, and all of these kinds of things have to be seen through the perspective of Christ, who is true. And that's what this word is.
[00:14:00] So we, we view the world through the lens of this book as Christians.
[00:14:10] These words are both true and they're delightful.
[00:14:16] This book contains delightful words.
[00:14:20] Not just true words.
[00:14:22] Beautiful words, soul satisfying words. Think about the way Jesus talked about the Bible.
[00:14:30] So if you're like, well, I love Jesus, but I don't really love the Bible, then you haven't read Jesus, friends, because he loved the Bible.
[00:14:40] When Jesus is quenched of thirst in the wilderness, 40 days without food, that's crazy. Crazy town. 40 days without food and he's dying of thirst.
[00:14:54] And Satan's like, hey, take those rocks and make them become bread. If you're really the son of God, he could have done that.
[00:15:01] But what does he say? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. As if these words have the ability by the spirit of God to satisfy you, not to just teach you stuff.
[00:15:18] You any. Yeah. Anyway, gosh, okay.
[00:15:22] Like, I.
[00:15:25] I have an addictive personality. And I will get cravings sometimes for specific things. And I've had to be really confronted lately with this reality that, like, whatever that thing is, cannot satisfy the craving.
[00:15:42] Have you ever felt, even for a moment, the satisfaction that comes when you open this book? There's something the spirit of God does in our soul that sometimes catches us off guard, that you just feel full.
[00:15:55] It's weird.
[00:15:57] Like, even if you fast for a day and then you spend some time in this, you study it and you think about it, you chew on it, you meditate on it. You let it kind of seep into your bones and your soul a little bit. You're like, I don't really feel hungry right now for food.
[00:16:11] That's crazy.
[00:16:13] It's because these words are both true and delightful.
[00:16:24] Augustine, in his work on the Confessions, writes of a student that he had.
[00:16:35] Alypius.
[00:16:37] Alypius, I think, was his name.
[00:16:39] And I just want to read a quote from the book in regards to this particular student because it really, I think, resonates with our time. I heard somebody talking about this, and I was like, oh, my gosh, that's crazy. Just talking about this reality that human nature doesn't really change. Human nature hasn't changed for millennia. Right? He says this. He says Olympias was. Oh, okay, here's the story. Sorry, the quote won't make sense. All right.
[00:17:03] So some of Olympias friends wanted to invite him to the Coliseum in Rome.
[00:17:10] So they're in Rome there. He gets invited to the Coliseum, and he doesn't want to go.
[00:17:16] He doesn't want to go see the gladiatorial fights because he knows it's gruesome. And it's. It's. It's. He. He doesn't want to see it, but his friends talk him into going. And so Olympia sends up going to the Coliseum.
[00:17:27] And as he walks in, his friends lead him by the hand because he refuses to open his eyes.
[00:17:34] He's like, I won't. I won't watch it. He refuses to open his eyes. And so they walk to their seats and they sit down. And the gladiatorial fights begin.
[00:17:42] And he can hear sounds and different things. And at some point, one of the gladiators falls, gets killed. And there's an uproar in the crowd. The crowd just goes crazy. Just hot uproar in the crowd. And Olympias opens his eyes.
[00:18:00] He Opens his eyes and he looks upon the death of this particular gladiator. And this is what Augustine says happens in the heart of Alypius. In that moment, he says Alypius was wounded more deeply in his soul than the man whom he desired to look at was wounded in his body.
[00:18:25] As he saw that blood he drank in savages. At the same time, he did not turn away, but fixed his sight on it and drank in madness without knowing it.
[00:18:41] He took delight in that evil struggle and became drunk on blood and pleasure.
[00:18:47] He was no longer the man who entered there, but only one of the crowd.
[00:18:54] And the reason I bring this up to you is because Jesus says that the eyes are the lamp of the body.
[00:19:01] Shakespeare said that the eyes are the window to the soul.
[00:19:08] What you and I see, what we choose to set our eyes on.
[00:19:15] And right now, friends, it's violence porn.
[00:19:21] That's what the crowd's roaring at. We're no different than they were back in the Coliseum.
[00:19:26] Except for now. We have access on our phones all the time.
[00:19:32] Death sells. Suffering sells.
[00:19:36] There's something in our sin nature that just feels inclined to that kind of thing.
[00:19:41] And yet the invitation we have with this book that contains both words of truth and delight is to keep our eyes closed to the things that are only going to deaden our soul.
[00:19:56] And as we open this book to pray, prayers like what David says in Psalm 119, open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of your law.
[00:20:13] We're to be meditators on the word.
[00:20:17] You are a meditator. You don't. You and I don't. It's like you being a worshiper. You don't choose to worship or not to worship. You and I do worship.
[00:20:27] You're created to worship, so we will worship something. We'll either worship the Creator or the Creation. Those are the two options.
[00:20:37] And the same is true with being a meditator.
[00:20:40] So as the puritans used to say, if you don't know what it means to meditate, do you know what it means to worry?
[00:20:46] Because if you know what it means to worry, you know what it means to meditate. That is meditating.
[00:20:51] You're just meditating on the wrong things.
[00:20:55] The invitation is to come to the word of God and to pray. Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things in your law. Paul says in Philippians 4, 8, 9. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's Anything worthy of praise. Think about these things. They're actually showing now that Bible study creates some sort of neuroplasticity in the human brain.
[00:21:26] It's like Paul said that over 2,000 years ago, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
[00:21:35] And so maybe for some of us, when we open this book and we're like, I don't feel anything.
[00:21:40] Feels boring, doesn't make any sense.
[00:21:44] Maybe it could be a variety of things. I don't want to oversimplify, but one thing I will suggest as a possibility, maybe we have not because we ask not.
[00:21:55] We take that statement that Jesus made to mean, you know, I'm not going to get sick. I'm not going to get. And we should ask for those things.
[00:22:03] But how often, friends, when you and I open this book, do we pray, open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things, that I might be satisfied.
[00:22:13] I might see your word not just as true, but as delightful.
[00:22:18] And so the first thing to be said is to cultivate wisdom.
[00:22:24] We have to meditate on the Word, to meditate on God's word. It's precious. And it's true.
[00:22:32] He talks about not studying many books and how, you know, endless studying leads to weariness of the flesh. And all of that's true. Obviously, what Solomon is not saying is he's not saying, don't read any books outside of the Bible.
[00:22:48] Sometimes that's all cult start.
[00:22:51] So you should read church history, you should read literature, you should read science, you should read history, you should read all of these things.
[00:22:57] Do as Spurgeon said, make friends of many books, but make your home in one number. 2.
[00:23:07] To cultivate wisdom, you and I have to cultivate a fear of the Lord.
[00:23:13] He says, the end of the matter, all has. This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God is the first thing that he says. So Solomon kind of transitions into this statement where he's not only defining the book of Ecclesiastes, but now he's defining for you and I our sole purpose in life.
[00:23:36] Why are you here?
[00:23:38] Why am I here? Well, the Westminster Shorter Catechism would say, and I agree with this, that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
[00:23:50] That can be stated in a different way. Fear the Lord.
[00:23:55] That's what fear the Lord means, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is what Christ came to purchase for you and for me.
[00:24:06] Not just forgiveness of sins, as we'll talk about in a moment, but reconciliation to God, reconciliation to the one to whom you and I were created for that in him we might glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is what it means to fear the Lord. A couple of things about the fear of the Lord I just want to this this is a my definition, my understanding of the fear of the Lord. What does it mean to fear the Lord? As a Christian, fearing the Lord means acknowledging God as your creator.
[00:24:40] So that's acknowledging who he is as your Creator and trusting God as your Father, acknowledging God for who he is as your Creator, and trusting God as your Father. The fear of the Lord leads to many benefits in life.
[00:24:55] The fear of the Lord leads to wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 15:33 says, Wisdom instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor.
[00:25:13] Isaiah 33:6 says, he that being God will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
[00:25:26] So the fear of the Lord leads to wisdom. The fear of the Lord leads to contentment and happiness.
[00:25:30] Psalm 34:9 says, Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.
[00:25:37] The fear of the Lord actually leads to contentment in life.
[00:25:42] Fear of the Lord diminishes lesser fears.
[00:25:46] Matthew 8:26 27 Jesus replied, you have little faith, why are you so afraid? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him. So in this scene, the disciples are terrified at the storm, and the only thing that diminishes that fear, that terror, is the fear of the one who calmed the storm that surpasses it, who's on the boat with them.
[00:26:14] So the fear of the Lord, awe and amazement and reverence for who God is, and the fact that that God is your Father in Christ because of the cross, leads all lesser fears in our life to begin to diminish.
[00:26:33] The fear of the Lord cultivates love in our life. Psalm 118, verse 4 says, Let those who fear the Lord say, his love endures forever, and the fear of the Lord keeps us on the narrow road, which is what in large part, I think Solomon is getting at here. Matthew 7:14. For the gate is narrow, Jesus says, and the way is hard that leads to life. And those who find it are few.
[00:26:58] Believe the gate is in reference to himself.
[00:27:01] There's only One way to the Father. And it's through faith in Christ, not faith plus works, not faith plus obedience. Faith in Christ, but true faith in Christ empowered by the Spirit leads one to follow Christ, to receive him as Savior, to follow him as Lord.
[00:27:23] Listen, Christ is king is a modern day political statement.
[00:27:28] Christ is Lord is a theological statement. And they're two different things.
[00:27:34] Christ is king.
[00:27:37] But as Christians, Christ is Lord means when we receive him as Savior, we acknowledge him as Lord over everything.
[00:27:46] Not just politics, everything in our life he's Lord over.
[00:27:52] And the fear of the Lord.
[00:27:54] This healthy, good, gospel centered grace fueled fear of the Lord keeps us on the way with Jesus as we journey by the grace of God together to the celestial city.
[00:28:11] So we cultivate wisdom by meditating on his word, by cultivating a fear of the Lord, and number three by obeying his commands.
[00:28:22] He says, and this is again, we're back in Ecclesiastes 12 and keep his commandments.
[00:28:31] So the chief and a man fear God, fear the Lord and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
[00:28:43] I was talking to Christian and Nikki this morning in our counseling meeting, and we were talking about this idea of Christian obedience. And this is a very discussed, debated topic.
[00:28:53] What place does obedience to commands have to do with the life of the Christian? If everything is about. Drew's looking at me like, why is this a debate? I'm with you, man.
[00:29:03] So here's the thing. When the New Testament talks about obedience, whether it be Jesus or the apostle Paul or John or Peter or Jude or whoever, when the New Testament talks about obedience in the Christian life, nowhere in the New Testament does it say that obedience leads to your salvation. It does not say that. Why? Because Romans 3 says that all of us, like sheep, have gone astray.
[00:29:32] The works of the law and works of the law cannot justify you. They were given by God to serve as a mirror so that you see your sin and run to the Savior.
[00:29:45] So the law can't justify you.
[00:29:48] And so we recognize our sin, we turn from evil.
[00:29:53] We trust in Christ and the sufficiency of his perfect life and his obedience to the law in his death, in our place, in his resurrection from the grave.
[00:30:05] That's how salvation happens.
[00:30:08] Turn from your evil way, look to Christ and believe, full stop.
[00:30:14] That's how salvation happens. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the Dead, Romans, chapter 10. You will be saved. Full stop. You can take full assurance in that. If you feel like you're not saved because you're looking at your life and you're like, ah, but you believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead. And you've confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Your hope is in his promise, not in your obedience.
[00:30:38] So that's. We have to understand the law in that way. But the way that the New Testament describes this idea of a life of obedience to Christ is within the context that you and I now are in Christ.
[00:30:53] And so when Paul or whoever, even Jesus in John 15, when he talks about abiding in him and him abiding in us, it's the same idea that out of union with God, now our life is hidden in God with Christ. What an amazing thing.
[00:31:08] So you are redeemed, but you're redeemed in Christ. You are forgiven, but you're forgiven in Christ. You are adopted, but you are adopted in Christ. You're righteous, but you're righteous in Christ. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, according to Ephesians chapter one, that you and I have is in Christ.
[00:31:26] The Father loves you as you are today in Christ.
[00:31:31] And so out of that union comes spirit empowered obedience.
[00:31:38] And so, yes, the aim of our life, fear God, keep his commandments in the context of what it means to be in Christ. Does this make sense?
[00:31:52] And so we as Christians don't see the commandments of God as a burden, but a blessing.
[00:32:00] We don't see them as confinement.
[00:32:02] We see them as freedom.
[00:32:05] It's like I've given the example before of my kids early on, when some of my kids would say stuff like, I wish I could just do whatever I want. I would just kind of let that road go a little bit, probably more than I should, and say something like, well, what if I just took you downtown Fort Worth and I just dropped you off and I let you go, you do whatever you wanted to do. I'm like, no, that's not freedom.
[00:32:36] But I let him loose in the backyard with a big fence and plenty of room to play. And mom and dad are there, we're watching over them to protect them and keep them safe. Like that's freedom.
[00:32:45] This is what the good law of God, the moral statutes of God are intended to be for us.
[00:32:54] And so we should never disregard them as Christians. We should delight in them first. John 5:3 says, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
[00:33:10] They're not burdensome.
[00:33:12] What are generally the commandments of God, as Jesus says in Matthew 22 and then Paul says in Galatians 5, Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:33:28] This is our chief end.
[00:33:33] And then the final point to be made for how we cultivate wisdom is to anticipate Christ's return.
[00:33:42] So Solomon ends the book of ecclesiastes in verse 14 by saying, For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
[00:33:56] God will bring every deed into judgment. That's the final judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. This word used could mean either. Judgment could mean either condemn, or it could mean discern.
[00:34:20] So for Christians, according to Romans, chapter 8, verse 1, those who are in Christ by faith, there is no condemnation for you.
[00:34:32] You'll never taste the condemnation that our sin deserves.
[00:34:38] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. So we don't. We ought not, we must not think about the return of Christ as if there's impending punishment or condemnation due us because of our sin.
[00:34:53] All of that punishment and condemnation was poured out onto Christ over 2000 years ago. You and I will never taste it.
[00:35:00] Remember, we're in Christ now. There is no condemnation for us, but there is judgment.
[00:35:06] There is judgment in the sense that there is going to be a final judgment when Christ returns. And there will be a discernment of actions, both good and evil, and motives, both good and evil. So, friends, your life matters.
[00:35:24] The decisions that you and you and I make matter.
[00:35:27] All of these things matter.
[00:35:30] There will be no secret thing.
[00:35:33] There's going to be no stone unturned at the return of Jesus.
[00:35:37] So if you look out at the world and you're like, I can't believe judgment isn't happening, you're not thinking about the return of Christ. Judgment will happen for all of us.
[00:35:50] Matthew, chapter 25. Jesus says that all of us will appear before the white throne judgment of Christ, and every action, every word, every thought, every motive will be revealed.
[00:36:10] And you think about that, and you think, that's unbearable.
[00:36:13] That's how I feel. That's an unbearable thing to imagine.
[00:36:18] And then we get to be reminded together of the sufficiency of the cross of Jesus Christ, that at that moment where everything is laid bare in all of the world, nothing is hidden, nothing, no stone is left unturned at that moment because of the grace of God. For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, you and I will be clothed in white and welcomed into the kingdom of God without any fear of condemnation, only acceptance, only love, only forgiveness because of Christ.
[00:36:52] And so as Christians, we don't look forward to the Day of Judgment in dread, but in delight.
[00:37:00] We anticipate the return of Jesus. I just want us to end with this question that I want you to consider.
[00:37:13] How would you live in love today if you knew somehow that Jesus was returning at 7pm tonight?
[00:37:24] So we don't know this. I don't know this.
[00:37:28] Jesus himself on earth said, no one knows the day or the hour, only the Father in heaven knows the day. Right?
[00:37:34] So.
[00:37:37] But. But it is an interesting thought exercise for us to consider. How would you live and love today if you knew Jesus was returning at 7pm and again, I hope that doesn't bring dread to you if you're a follower of Jesus, but delightful excitement.
[00:37:55] Because in Isaiah 35 it says that the people of God will enter Zion on that day with singing.
[00:38:01] Everlasting joy will crown their heads and gladness and joy will overtake them.
[00:38:08] You ever feel overtaken by worry?
[00:38:10] Remember, you have to do something that you don't want to do. And then all of a sudden you like just feel that sinking feeling in your gut.
[00:38:16] On the day of Christ, you and I are going to be overtaken with gladness and joy and it's only going to get better for all of eternity.
[00:38:29] The best day ever for you if you're a follower of Jesus, is just around the corner.
[00:38:35] And so I wonder, how might we live in love today if we knew Christ was coming back tonight?
[00:38:43] Who would you forgive that you've been harboring bitterness against?
[00:38:50] What would you say to your spouse?
[00:38:54] What would floor time with your kids look like?
[00:38:59] Who would you share Jesus with?
[00:39:03] How would you pray?
[00:39:07] What would you lay aside that maybe it hasn't been sin but it's been a distraction to you?
[00:39:14] What would you do? How would you live if you knew that Jesus was going to come back at 7pm tonight? Not saying he is, but I'm also not saying he isn't.
[00:39:23] We don't know.
[00:39:25] But by the grace of God, we can cultivate wisdom by meditating on the Word, fearing the Lord, delighting in his commands in Christ, and gladly anticipating his return. For those of us who are in Christ by faith, let's pray toward that end.
