Ecclesiastes 3 (gospel)
ID
ale001
Idioma
EN
Duração total
00:45:56
Quantidade
1
Passagens bíblicas
Ecclesiastes 3
Descrição
Ecclesiastes 3 (gospel)
Transcrição automática:
…
I would like to read a verse before I start, in Ecclesiastes.
We have sung about eternity.
Quite a solemn word.
Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 11.
He hath made everything beautiful in its time.
Also he hath set the world in their heart,
so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
He hath set the world in their heart.
It seems that particular word also means eternity.
He hath set eternity in their heart.
Every human being has some kind of a sense of eternity in his being.
Though we cannot understand or fathom the light of eternity,
nevertheless there is always this little voice in the heart of every man,
that if being frank with himself,
he is always going to be brought to that point of thinking about eternity.
Eternity.
Eternity.
A king has once asked the question,
how long is eternity?
Maybe you've heard this before.
And the answer was something like this.
There is, O king, in a far country,
a mountain of grass,
which reaches high into the heavens,
way above the clouds.
And once a year,
a little bird comes to the top of the mountain,
and he sharpens his beak,
I don't know if that's the right word,
on the top of the mountain.
Once a year he does that.
And he says, O king,
once the mountain has been hewn down to the ground,
that is one second of eternity.
I hope you follow me.
And we might even add that not even a second of eternity.
We would really want, if there is anybody here who doesn't know the Lord Jesus as Savior,
to be conscious of this fact of eternity.
The great reality.
Not just a word, but the reality.
There are three kinds of people in general in the world,
relative to the faith of God.
You have the indifferent heart,
that is those who don't care at all.
But I don't want to talk about those tonight.
I don't want to touch any like that here tonight.
There are those who trust upon their own righteousness.
Now we meet a lot of those.
Maybe there is some here tonight.
Those who confide on their own righteousness.
That's a great class of people.
And there is the other class,
those who don't have any righteousness at all,
but who do see their need for a Savior.
And I would like to consider with you two man scriptures,
which will display more or less these two characters.
It could be in Mark chapter 10.
Mark chapter 10.
Mark chapter 10.
Verse 17.
And when he was gone forth into the way,
there came one running a needle to him,
and asked him, Good Master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, Why art thou being good?
There is none good but one, that is God.
And thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not kill.
Do not steal.
Do not bear witness.
Do not father thy father and mother.
And he answered and said unto him,
Master, all these have I observed from my youth.
Then Jesus beholding him loved him,
and said unto him, One thing thou lackest.
Go thy way and sell whatever thou hast,
and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.
And come, take up the cross and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying,
and went away grieved,
for he had great possessions.
Verse 26.
And they were astonished, out of measure,
saying among themselves,
Who then can be saved?
And Jesus looking upon them said,
With man it is impossible,
but with God,
but not with God,
sorry, for with God
all things are possible.
Turn to verse 46, same chapter.
And they came to Jericho,
and as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples,
and a great number of people,
allowing Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus,
sat by the wayside begging.
And when he heard that
it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out
and say, Jesus,
thou son of David,
have mercy on me.
And many charged him
that he should hold his peace,
but he cried the more,
a great deal,
thou son of David,
have mercy on me.
And Jesus stood still
and commanded him to be called.
And they called a blind man,
saying unto him,
and he casting away his garments,
rose and came to Jesus.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
what wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
The blind man said unto him,
Lord, that I might receive my sight.
And Jesus said unto him,
go thy way,
thy faith hath made thee well.
And immediately he received his sight
and followed Jesus on the way.
The whole purpose of this meeting
is to bring you,
to bring all of us
to the very last verse 52 we have read,
to follow Jesus on the way.
Now,
the rich young ruler,
he's really an image
of so many people today.
And maybe you are one of those.
I know I was.
The self-righteous man.
The one who says,
well, I'm not too bad.
The one who says,
I'm not that bad.
The one who always compares himself,
himself with the worst one.
This young man,
he came unto the Lord.
Now, there is one thing
I'd like to bring up first of all.
The way he approaches the Lord.
He says unto the Lord,
good master.
Now, as we have read,
the Lord sort of rebukes him
in a gentle way.
He says unto him,
why callest thou me good?
There is none good but me,
that is God.
This man
looked upon the Lord Jesus
only as a good man.
The Lord's perfect life
was indeed
revealing his perfection
as a man.
And today there are lots of people
who look upon the Lord Jesus
either as a great man
or either as a great prophet.
But I would like to tell you tonight
that the Lord Jesus
is far more than just a great prophet.
He is a great prophet.
He is far more than a great man.
He is a great man.
He is God
manifest in the flesh.
And if you could just see this tonight,
that this here
is the very God of heaven and earth
in the person of the Lord Jesus
actually walking on the earth
and actually calling you,
not the one sitting beside you,
but calling you.
If you were the only one in the hall tonight,
he would be calling you.
And even if every seat was full tonight,
he would still be calling you.
What shall I do
that I may inherit eternal life?
This man was conscious of eternity.
This word eternity
must have tickled him somewhat.
You know what I mean by that?
It exercised him.
It worked him up.
I was exercised when I used to think about eternity.
I used to lay down in my bed
and I used to start thinking about it
and I got scared.
I stopped thinking about it.
Well, this man was conscious of eternity
and we hope that you are conscious of eternity too.
And not only was he conscious of eternity,
but he was conscious of eternal life.
I hope you are conscious too,
of eternal life.
Not just eternity,
but eternal life.
Now there was one little thing
that this man had to learn,
which was indeed the great thing.
What shall I do
that I may inherit eternal life?
He thought that by doing something
he might get eternal life.
So though he was conscious of eternity,
though he was conscious of eternal life,
there was one thing that was missing.
He wasn't conscious
or he didn't know how to get it, frankly.
He had this notion
that so many of us have
that we have to do something
to get eternal life.
Well,
just want to say
that if you come to the Lord
with this thought in your heart
and in your mind
of doing something to get eternal life,
the Lord is going to answer you
according to that approach.
If you go to the Lord
on the basis of doing things,
the Lord is going to give you
an answer on what you must do.
And if you come to the Lord
with that thought in your heart,
we're afraid that you will be disappointed.
And so this is the only reason
why the Lord answers this man as he does.
He takes him on his own ground.
We will see a complete contrast to this
in the next man.
Jesus said unto him,
Thou knowest the commandments.
If you notice,
he quotes five commandments.
All of those commandments
which have to do with man,
not stealing, not killing,
not bearing false witness, etc.
This man has not even risen
to the level of God.
He was only looking
on the horizontal scale
and the Lord answers him in consequence.
And you know,
this man says,
I have observed from my youth
all these, all these.
You know,
when it comes to exterior things,
it's, I would say, fairly easy.
You know, you know what I mean by that.
Fairly easy not to kill,
you know, not to steal, etc.
The Lord was introducing
the great commandments.
This is the verse that I usually say
when people tell me this thing about,
oh, I forget the commandments.
I usually quote them the first commandments.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart,
with all thy mind,
I mean, this point,
with all thy soul
and with all thy strength.
And beloved,
if you listen to that verse
and if you are frank with yourself,
you will have to admit
that you don't do it.
Nobody does it.
There is only one that has done it,
the Lord Jesus.
Well, the Lord looks to him,
loving him.
He loves him.
This is the love,
the evangelistic love you could say.
The Lord here
loves him.
It is not the love of a relationship.
It's just the love.
He loves him
as he loves every one of us.
And the Lord said to him,
one thing thou mightest.
You've got everything that you need,
but you're missing one thing.
One thing thou mightest.
I just want to use a little illustration.
I heard this a long time ago.
Imagine yourself
having two,
how could I say, two cliffs
separated by a big gorge.
Very deep,
very deep.
I don't know if you've ever been to the Grand Canyon
in the States.
Incredible depths.
And the space between these two cliffs
is 80 feet.
Two men
approach the cliffs.
One of them,
a weak man.
The other one,
an Olympic jumper,
gold medalist.
And you look at the cliff,
you look at the space between the two,
you look down,
hundreds of feet.
He says, well,
I'm going to try.
That wasn't just an illustration.
So the weak man gets back.
He starts running,
tries to jump, of course,
80 feet.
Too much?
He jumps, but he's moving.
Well, now you have the other one,
the Olympic medalist.
He gets back,
gets himself all psyched up,
works himself up,
gets a good running,
he runs,
he jumps,
75 feet.
It was 80 feet.
The distance between was 80 feet.
He had only jumped 75 feet.
You know where he went?
The same place
that the weak man went.
That's just an illustration.
The very best of men in this world
cannot reach
to the heights
of the God of glory.
Remember that verse?
Romans 3, 23.
All have sinned
and come short
of the glory
of God.
You might be a very good jumper,
you might be very good,
you might have good works,
you might have a perfect life,
but don't forget,
the distance between yourself and God
is more than you can ever jump,
more than you can ever do.
When it comes to a question of salvation,
we all work,
we all stand on the same platform.
And the distance
can only be bridged
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know,
in this illustration,
this third man,
a wise man,
comes in,
puts down
a big piece of wood,
whatever you call it, a plank of wood,
and he just walks across it,
quite simply,
gets to the other side.
You know, the bridge
is Christ.
He has bridged the distance
between you
and God.
And all it takes
is to simply
accept what he has done
and to walk through.
You won't be crushed under the body.
You'll get on the other side safely.
Well, one thing thou lackest,
you know, thou lackest five feet.
This man lacked five feet,
but it was five feet which
brought him down to his destruction.
We hope that you don't lack this thing.
And the Lord answers him,
sell whatever thou hast,
give to the poor,
thou shalt have treasure in heaven,
and come,
take up the cross
and follow me.
And he went sad,
as they say,
and went away grieved
for he had great possessions.
Yes.
That was the peg
that searched the heart of this man.
That was the very thing
that brought out
what was really the heart of this man.
Though he did desire
eternal life,
though he did know
about eternal life,
nevertheless his heart was filled
with possession.
And if you read in the other verses,
the Lord didn't say at all
that possessions prevented you at all.
He just said that it was harder
because if they displace God,
then it's impossible.
So,
this man went away sad,
went away grieved.
I think immediately of
another man in Acts 7.
If you remember well,
he was coming up from Jerusalem.
He was going away from Jerusalem.
He had come in Jerusalem
to worship, it seems.
But he had not been satisfied
with what had been there.
Of course,
the Lord Jesus had been rejected,
crucified.
He was coming away,
and he was found in the desert.
And you know,
that man must have been
some kind of a rich man.
He was working in the court
of a certain queen, I think.
That man was sort of rich.
And you know,
I think it's Philemon,
the priest of the hand of Jesus.
And you know what we read
at the end of that circumstance?
It says,
he went away rejoicing.
That man went away rejoicing.
Both were rich,
and he desired to know
what God really was like.
And he found it
in the person of Christ.
He went away rejoicing.
And we would surely like you
to go away rejoicing tonight.
This first rich man
went away grieving
for he had lost a possession.
We hope
that you're not one of those.
And even if you are one of those,
there is ever
the occasion to change.
Let's talk about our second man.
Verse 46.
Now I like this stuff.
I know that the gospel
is concerning
his son Jesus Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know,
we're going to try
and present to you
everything that the gospel
wants to do
in 45 minutes or so.
So although the gospel
is concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ,
in some way
it concerns us a little bit.
I'm not trying to take away
from the precious truth
concerning the Lord Jesus.
But the gospel also
wants to present to us
what we are before God.
And then
it presents to us
the person
of his beloved son,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this is why I'm taking
these two examples tonight.
The second man.
Verse what is it?
They came to Jericho.
Jericho.
I don't know if this is
the first time
that you're in this meeting.
Or
maybe it's the first time
you're exposed
to the scriptures.
Or maybe it's the thousandth
time that you're exposed
to the scriptures.
But I would just like
to show you a little part
of Jericho.
Quite simple.
Jericho in scriptures
represents
that which is cursed
in the eyes of God.
And you know the gospel
like we're just saying
is vast.
It can extend
infinitely.
Why?
We can talk about it
for a long time.
As Michael Tyson
talked about it
for all eternity.
But it also can be
compressed
quite
in a little message.
And I think that this first
part of the first verse
is really
a summary
of what Christ has done.
I just like to read
they came to Jericho.
The Lord Jesus
this is just a picture
came to Jericho.
He left
heaven
the glory of heaven.
He put it aside.
He came down
this world.
You know what
Genesis 3 says
cursed is the ground.
Well not only
did the Lord come
upon the ground
that had been cursed.
But the Lord Jesus
went to the cross
of Calvary
and he died
on the cross
of Calvary.
And you know what?
I think
it says in Galatians
cursed
is the man
that hanged
on the tree.
That's Jericho.
The Lord Jesus
came
to the cross.
You know he says
I'm wearing a crown
of thorns
on my head.
You know he says
I'm wearing the gospel
he said
now is my soul
troubled.
And what shall I say?
Deliver me from
this hour.
And he says
this is why
I have come.
This is why
I have come.
From the hour
of the cross.
But the Lord
went to the cross.
And you know
if your
righteousness
would have been
sufficient
to bring you
to heaven
the Lord
would not have
moved one
AII Yoda
from heaven.
God would have
left you
to work it out
by yourself.
But because you
and I
were powerless
he sent his son
the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came
to Jericho.
He came
to the cross.
And there
he gave himself
a perfect
sacrifice
for righteous
holiness.
You know
God is
perfectly
righteous.
Every little
sin
needs to be
judged.
You know I
remember reading
a book a long
time ago.
A long time
ago.
Four years
ago or so.
It's a long
time for me.
And the
brother was
trying to
tell the
person
how much
he had
sinned.
And he
said something
like this.
This is a
long time.
Let's say
you didn't
sin until
you get to
five years
old.
Let's say
you didn't
sin.
Let's say
you started
sinning when
you were five
years old.
Let's just
say that.
And let's
just say that
you made
one sin a
day.
That's
one
little
sin.
Now I
have to
confess that
I
fortunately
knew more
than that
one day.
More
than many
thoughts come
in one day
you know.
But let's
just say
that in
one day
you do
one little
sin.
Well you
know after
one year
that would
be 365
sins.
If you
reached 65
years old
you would
have done
about
something
like 20,000
sins.
20,000
sins.
That's
just one
sin a
day.
You
think you're
not guilty?
The
word of
God says
the whole
world is
guilty.
The
word Jesus
came to
Jericho
to take
your
sin.
Your
sin.
It
came to
Jericho.
And
as you
went out
of Jericho
this is
part of
the gospel
too.
We're
reminded that
must be
the resurrection
of Christ.
The
Lord Jesus
didn't just
stay on
the cross.
He didn't
stay in
the tomb.
He was
there.
He came
out of
Jericho.
He came
away from
the cross.
And
he came
out of it
with not
one sin
left.
God
was
satisfied.
You
know when
you think
about great
man of
religious,
religious man
you know,
think of,
I don't
know if I
should mention
anybody,
but they
are still
in the
tomb.
They
may not
have great
preaching but
they're still
in the tomb.
The
Lord Jesus
Christ,
he's out
of the tomb
and he's
in heaven.
He's
out of
Jericho.
This is
it.
Came
out of
Jericho.
And
the Lord
Jesus,
as he
came
out of
Jericho,
man
in the
world,
in the
world,
God
came
out of
the tomb
and
the Lord
came
out of
the tomb
and
went
through
the cemetery
and
went
through
the
building
and
went
to the
heaven
and
went
through
it
and
went
out
of
it
and
that is a picture. Try and picture yourself, a man, blind man, sitting in a dark room and
chained. This is about it. This man needs to have his eyes open. He needs to have the
light enter the room and he needs to have the chains broken from sitting. This is a
picture of what we are, every one of us, the first being spiritually, blind, in darkness
and chained to sitting. And the Lord Jesus goes by. That's where you are. Face it. That's
where you are. Just by the wayside. Nothing to offer the Lord. Nothing to offer God. And
he cries out. You know, you don't have to cry out aloud to us. Just cry out to the Lord
in your heart. The shortest prayer in Scripture is three words. Lord, save me. You know when
we usually ask the Lord to teach us to pray. Well, you know the best way to learn to pray
is when you are in difficult situations. When you are in need. Peter was in need. He
was sitting in the water and he said, Lord, save me. You know it had been said that if
he would have made a long prayer, he would have drowned. He just said, Lord, save me.
And the Lord saved him. The Lord doesn't want from you a long prayer. The Lord simply wants
to hear you cry out, Lord, save me. This blind Bartimaeus, you know what he said? He
cried out and said, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. He was conscious
of his needs. He knew what he needed and he looked at the Lord as the one who could satisfy
all that he needed. Have mercy on me. He was conscious of his need of mercy. Standing
before God on any other platform of mercy, he would have been consumed by the holiness
of God. Have mercy on me. You know, many stopped him. You know, many charged him, shut up.
Shut up. That's about what he needed. To give you peace. Shut up. The people here,
the crowd here, you know what it represents? It represents anything and anybody that will
keep you from coming to Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of the woman. The Lord was
going through a certain place and there were lots of people around him. There was a crowd
following the Lord and this woman, she went through the crowd to touch the hem of his
garment. The crowd was not, wasn't any obstacle to her. But the crowd represents anything
that might keep you from coming to Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is it? Maybe anything.
Maybe just a simple cry, you know. Have mercy on me. The crowd would stop him. He didn't
even see. He just went. He just cried. And you know when you cry, the Lord will turn
around. You know what he did? Jesus stood still. He stood still to listen to the cry
of this man. And he commanded him to be calm. They called a blind man, saying unto him,
be of good comfort. Rise. He called him. He called you. I repeat, not the one beside you,
but you. He is the one. You are the one that the Lord is calling. And right now, the Lord
is calling you right now. This is a wonderful thing about what Bartimaeus did. He was so
happy to hear that the Lord was calling him, we read in verse 50, casting away his garments.
You know, Bartimaeus was a beggar. He had nothing to offer the Lord. And the very little
that he had, his garment, he threw away. He even threw away his cup. He came to the Lord.
He rose and came to Jesus. This is what you would like you to do. To rise and to come
to Jesus. Jesus answered and said unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. This man knew what
he needed. And the Lord specifically asked him, what do you want me to do? He knew.
He knew what he needed. And he said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. That I might
see, not just physically, that I might see the truth as it is. You know, I was looking
for the truth before. I was looking for anything. It didn't matter what it was. I thought it
was the truth. And I erred here and there and everywhere until I found the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I stopped. My eyes opened and I saw the truth in him, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what we would like you to realize tonight. The truth as it is in Jesus. All
that he's done, all that he is, all that he said, the truth as it is in Jesus. Well,
Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee well, and immediately he received
his sight. You know, just a little word on this in the evening. You won't have to wait
until eternity. You won't have to eat your nails out to wonder if you're going to have
eternal life or not. You won't have to worry about that. You won't have to worry on whether
or not you'll be saved or forgiven immediately. Right now, tonight, immediately. You can have
forgiveness of sin. You can have that spiritual insight given to you. You can have eternal
life. We're talking about eternity. Eternal life. You can have it right now. This afternoon
was trying to have a nap. And there was some music coming from our neighbors. So, you know,
we have ears so we can hear. And there was a song. And I think it was, I really, and
it just happened that the people were playing the record over and over again, always the
same song. So I had to go into another room. And some of the words that really crashed
me was this. It's now or never. Tomorrow might be too late. Funny. That's what the words
of the song said. It's now or never. Tomorrow might be too late. And that must have played
about ten times. And I went out of the room. It's now or never. Tomorrow might be too late.
When's the better time to come to the Lord Jesus? It's now. Now. Right now. It's that
time. And you see what I mean? We're playing with you. And if you come to the Lord Jesus
right now, He's not going to wait for tomorrow to give you forgiveness of sin. Right now
He's going to give you forgiveness of sin. Right now He's going to give you eternal life.
Right now. Even if you get hit by a car or killed, you'll go straight to heaven with
Him. Oh, dear friend. Immediately, you will see His sight. But He might not bring you
to heaven right now. He might just leave you here for a while. And then you'll see His
mighty hands. He followed Jesus on the way. This is what you want to do. To follow Jesus
on the way. Where was the Lord Jesus going? Verse 32. They were on the way going up to
Jerusalem. And Jesus went before them. Jesus went before them. What a precious love. You
won't be left alone to face whatever the world, its opposition. The Lord Jesus will be going
before you. Oh, there's our two men. The rich ruler. The righteous man. And you know, I
allow myself to read a verse in Philippians. Chapter 3. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, verse 4, if any other man thinketh that he hath reasons for which he might trust
in the flesh, I more. If you think that you have something to offer God, Paul has more
than you. Doesn't matter how much you have, Paul has more to offer God than you have.
It says here, if any other man thinketh that he hath reasons for which he might trust in
the flesh, I more. What does he say after that? He says, what things were given to me,
those I count with love for Christ. And I count all things but love for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but with you, that I may win Christ. If you think your righteousness will bring
you before God, Paul has more than you have, and he counted them as love because of the
excellency of Christ Jesus. Now that's just extreme. Maybe you think you've said too much.
Maybe you think that you've done too much harm against God. Well, that's a good thing.
It's a good thing to be aware of the things we've done against God. This is really a prerequisite
to enjoy salvation. But if you think you've done too much sin against God, let's just
read another verse concerning Paul and 1 Timothy chapter 1. He says, This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. Nevertheless, for this cause I obtain mercy. If you think you've
sinned so much against God, I would just like to tell you tonight that there is one who
has sinned more than you. Paul, he was the chief of sinners. You can't be the chief
of sinners. You are the chief of sinners. You're the second one, if you're that bad.
There was one who was worse than you. And what did he say? I have obtained mercy. If
you have obtained mercy, you're going to have obtained mercy too. He was the chief of sinners
and he obtained mercy. The grace of God is not limited by any amount of sin. Where sin
abounded, grace overabounded. Well, this is the end of my little message. We do pray
and we do desire that the Lord would bless His Word to your hearts, from the youngest
to the oldest, that you might be made aware, first of all, of the solemnity of eternity.
Think of it. Think of how long eternity is. Think of the joy and the presence of God,
Christ, peace, life, light. You may find faith simply in Christ. It is yours for the taking.
Think of it. It is the free giving of God through Christ Jesus and under heaven and
from the solemn thought of being separated from God. Darkness, gnashing teeth, tongue
twisted. Eternity, far from God. And with a thought in your mind that you could have
been God. You could have been with Christ. I don't know if you're going to hear the voices
of joy in heaven, but you're going to hear it in your heart. You're going to hear the
voice in the presence of God. Eternity. Eternity. Well, the dawn has come, but we would like
you to be conscious of this. God is offering eternal life in His beloved Son. …