SPEAKER_01: Now this morning, let's turn our attention to Ecclesiastes and chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we'll be putting our minds this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Let me begin by reading from God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at your Bibles and let's read from Ecclesiastes chapter three down to verse fifty fifteen.
SPEAKER_01: God's Word says this.
SPEAKER_01: For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
SPEAKER_01: A time to be born and a time to die.
SPEAKER_01: A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted.
SPEAKER_01: A time to kill and a time to heal.
SPEAKER_01: A time to break down and a time to build up.
SPEAKER_01: A time to weep and a time to laugh.
SPEAKER_01: A time to mourn and a time to dance.
SPEAKER_01: A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones.
SPEAKER_01: A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.
SPEAKER_01: A time to seek and a time to lose.
SPEAKER_01: A time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sow.
SPEAKER_01: A time to keep silence and a time to speak.
SPEAKER_01: A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace.
SPEAKER_01: What gain has the worker from his toil?
SPEAKER_01: I have seen all the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
SPEAKER_01: He has made everything beautiful in its time.
SPEAKER_01: Also he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot f cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
SPEAKER_01: I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.
SPEAKER_01: Also that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil, for this is God's gift to man.
SPEAKER_01: I perceive that whatever God does endures forever, nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.
SPEAKER_01: God has done it, so that people fear before him.
SPEAKER_01: That which is already has been, and that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just read one of the most famous poems in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Time, time, time.
SPEAKER_01: It's a poem that has been referenced many times in popular culture, and so I think it's appropriate as a good Baptist preacher.
SPEAKER_01: I know we're a Bible church, but we're kind of a Baptist church in disguise, right?
SPEAKER_01: As a good Baptist preacher, I think it's appropriate to read another famous poem from world literature.
SPEAKER_01: One you've probably heard, so listen to these words.
SPEAKER_01: Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit, from pole to pole, I thank whatever God's may be for my unconquerable soul.
SPEAKER_01: It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
SPEAKER_01: More famous words, these from the poet William Ernest Henley, also referenced frequently in popular culture.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably why many of you have heard them, but perhaps made most famous by Nelson Mendela, who, inspired by the message of self-empowerment in the poem, memorized it and often recited it when he was serving a prison sentence under the apartheid regime in South Africa.
SPEAKER_01: These two poems speak to the same issue human life and its destiny.
SPEAKER_01: And they both really stand as polar opposites in their perspective on human life.
SPEAKER_01: And they raise this collective question: Can I control my life?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question we want to ask this morning because that's the question that this text of Scripture answers for us.
SPEAKER_01: Can I control my life?
SPEAKER_01: I wonder how you would answer that.
SPEAKER_01: Because we all have an answer to that.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of these big questions in life that even if we never consciously articulate the question, we're all living based on our answer to that question.
SPEAKER_01: Can I control my life?
SPEAKER_01: In some sense, it seems like a simple question.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps eliciting a simple yes or no, and you might say, sure, I can control my life.
SPEAKER_01: And yet as soon as you begin to dig beneath the surface, you see this it really is a more complicated question that elicits age-old dilemmas.
SPEAKER_01: Are you sure you can control your life?
SPEAKER_01: What about people around you?
SPEAKER_01: Can you control them?
SPEAKER_01: Can you control the accidents?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, anybody who has lived through 2020 knows you ain't gonna control 2020.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you can't just dash to the other extreme and say, no, I have no control over my life whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kind of an automated robot.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: You have real moral responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: You are a real person with real decisions to make.
SPEAKER_01: And so we found that we have actually something of a complicated question, which is exactly what we would expect because life is a little bit complicated, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: And that's what the book of Ecclesiastes is given to us to help us think through.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature given to us by God to teach us to live wisely in God's world, in God's way.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter three of Ecclesiastes gives us crucial truth that we need to understand to live in God's world in God's way.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes three teaches us about God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: Crucial to living in God's world is to understand the sovereign power of the God who made this world.
SPEAKER_01: To understand that God is in control of this world.
SPEAKER_01: So this morning, as we look at Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 to 15, we're going to see three crucial truths about God's sovereignty that you need to have implanted in your soul to serve as a compass for living in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_01: Three truths about God's sovereignty, you need to navigate life in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just jump right in.
SPEAKER_01: The first truth that we see in this text is this is that God's sovereignty is exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty is exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at your Bibles at verse 1, and we read this in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The word season, it's a particular word that means an appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, appointed time is how the New American Standard Bible translates it.
SPEAKER_01: An appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: It's used a number of times in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: For example, in Nehemiah chapter 2, Nehemiah tells the king of Persia that he's going to return at an appointed time.
SPEAKER_01: In Esther in chapter 9, Esther and Mordecai appoint a time for the celebration of Purim.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we are at a corporate worship service.
SPEAKER_01: It began at 9 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: That was the appointed time of this worship service.
SPEAKER_01: The crucial thing to notice about the nature of an appointed time is that it implies an appointer.
SPEAKER_01: This nine o'clock worship service didn't just happen haphazardly, it was appointed by the elders.
SPEAKER_01: And what Solomon is declaring in chapter 3 and verse 1 of Ecclesiastes is that everything that happens under heaven is appointed by God.
SPEAKER_01: God is absolutely sovereign and appoints all things in every matter under heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that happens on earth happens by the sovereign appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what sovereignty means.
SPEAKER_01: It means that God is in control of all things.
SPEAKER_01: God is a king, just as a king is limitless in his authority over his dominion.
SPEAKER_01: He is unbounded in his sovereign control over his dominion.
SPEAKER_01: God is the king of the universe and his will is unbounded.
SPEAKER_01: It's absolutely free, it's unchecked, unrestricted.
SPEAKER_01: God does all that he wants in the heavens and the earth and below.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read through a couple Psalms for you that emphasize this point.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 115, verse 3 says this God is in the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: God's will is unbounded.
SPEAKER_01: Naturally, we respond with, yeah, but, and fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_01: But what about my decisions?
SPEAKER_01: What about my life?
SPEAKER_01: What about the bad things that happen in the world?
SPEAKER_01: There are no restrictions according to the Bible on his sovereign will.
SPEAKER_01: His will and his sovereignty and his power and his control are unchecked and unbounded.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that happens in the world happens under his sovereign authority, power, and control.
SPEAKER_01: His sovereignty is exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 135, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the Lord pleases, he does.
SPEAKER_01: In the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all the deeps.
SPEAKER_01: His sovereignty is exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: He is a sovereign king who does all that he pleases, and everything that happens on earth happens by his appointment.
SPEAKER_01: Intentional, wise appointment.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this poem in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 is about.
SPEAKER_01: It's declaring that every human experience, everything that happens under the sun, every matter is by the sovereign appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to look at verse 2 kind of in an overview fashion.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to pay attention a little bit to the structure.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up.
SPEAKER_01: You have these parallel lines that contain two opposites.
SPEAKER_01: This is a figure of speech called a merism where you have one opposite and the other.
SPEAKER_01: It's frequently used in scripture, such as in Psalm 1, when the psalmist says that the blessed man meditates on the law of the Lord day and night.
SPEAKER_01: These two opposites are a figurative way of saying, in total, entirely, comprehensively.
SPEAKER_01: And so what this poem is doing is it's saying death and life are by the appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: Planting and plucking up, the seasons of life are by the appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: Killing and healing, breaking down and building up, all human activity comprehensively is by the sovereign appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: Weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, all human emotion, all human relationships, everything that happens under the sun happens by the sovereign appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what this poem is communicating to us.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely everything happens by the sovereign appointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's right when you read this poem to stand back in awe of the stunning sweep of God's sovereign power.
SPEAKER_01: There are no limits to his exhaustive, majestic sovereignty in his world.
SPEAKER_01: God is infinite in the heights in which he dwells, in the vastness of his being.
SPEAKER_01: There is no electron in this world that orbits without his sovereign decree.
SPEAKER_01: He is infinite in his heights and his depths and his breadth.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing in this world that escapes his sovereign power.
SPEAKER_01: And we are just specks suspended between these infinite extensions under God's sovereign control.
SPEAKER_01: The scope of his sovereignty is absolutely stunning.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that escapes them.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing too small, there's nothing too big, and there's nothing too personal or intimate either.
SPEAKER_01: You might say, sure, God is in control of seasons or large-scale events.
SPEAKER_01: The proverbs say that he turns the king's heart like a channel of water in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, maybe big things, maybe even the small things like electrons, or Jesus says, sparrows don't fall from the sky apart from the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: But what about my will and my life and my decisions and my thoughts?
SPEAKER_01: No, that's covered by the scope of his sovereignty too.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 139, verse 16 says, All my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in our life, there's absolutely nowhere that you can go.
SPEAKER_01: To the heavens or the earth, where will you go to escape?
SPEAKER_01: The sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: His sovereignty is absolutely exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: That's Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 to 8.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't just give us a poem to emphasize this point.
SPEAKER_01: He also concludes the section with the exact same point.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: I perceived that whatever God does endures forever.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.
SPEAKER_01: God has done it.
SPEAKER_01: For all eternity, all things forever, stand by God's decree.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is going to change.
SPEAKER_01: The entire universe is occurring according to plan A, written before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: The response, according to verse 14, is to stand in awe of this sovereign and majestic God.
SPEAKER_01: You had plans for this morning that have already unraveled.
SPEAKER_01: And yet every detail of every year and every country and every language happens by the perfect plan of God.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah in chapter 46 says it like this I am God and there is no other.
SPEAKER_01: I am God and there is none like me.
SPEAKER_01: Declaring the end from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: You see the active verb here.
SPEAKER_01: God actively declares the beginning and the end from ancient times to things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty is absolutely exhaustive.
SPEAKER_01: The scope of it is complete.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that escapes his sovereign will.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I understand that the natural response to this biblical teaching is, as I've kind of alluded to already, yeah, but what about my free will?
SPEAKER_01: What about my decisions?
SPEAKER_01: What about, and I just want us to pause and to recognize this reality.
SPEAKER_01: You're never going to be happy when you're consumed with thinking about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You weren't designed for that.
SPEAKER_01: You know this intuitively.
SPEAKER_01: Your happiest moments aren't when you were looking at yourself in a mirror, aren't when you were contemplating yourself, aren't when you were thinking about yourself, aren't when you were stressing about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: They are when you they are when you had your mind outside of yourself on some other object.
SPEAKER_01: When you heard an exquisite piece of music, when you beheld an incredible athletic spectacle, when you saw a spectacular sunrise, or even when you were just experiencing and witnessing a wonderful quiet moment with your family.
SPEAKER_01: Those are your happiest moments because you weren't made for you.
SPEAKER_01: You were made to enjoy God's creation, and more than that, you were made to know and enjoy the God who created all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: You will be most satisfied when you stand in awe of the God that made you and made everything.
SPEAKER_01: So before we too quickly jump to what about me, we ought to be fixed on enjoying the reality of our God.
SPEAKER_01: So before we get to what about my responsibility, we'll get there this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Before we get there, we need to talk a little bit more about God.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at the second truth that Solomon teaches us about God's sovereignty in this passage, and that is this that God's sovereignty is not just exhaustive, it's hidden.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 9 in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9 of chapter 3 reads, What gain has the worker from his toil?
SPEAKER_01: I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
SPEAKER_01: And we've seen this before in chapter 1 and verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: If you just run back, I'm just going to run through a couple verses to see that Solomon has been reiterating this truth, and he's taking us somewhere when he restates this.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 1 and verse 3, he says, What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
SPEAKER_01: Then verse 13, I applied my heart to seek and to search out wisness, wisdom of all that is done under heaven.
SPEAKER_01: It is an unhappy business that God has given the children of man to be busy with.
SPEAKER_01: This word gain is the idea of some kind of profit, and Solomon is reiterating this point that if you look at the scope of human life and human existence, he's just poetically described the vastness of human existence and human activity.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if this world is all there is, what's the point?
SPEAKER_01: What gain is there?
SPEAKER_01: What lasting profit?
SPEAKER_01: What's the reason for it?
SPEAKER_01: And there isn't any.
SPEAKER_01: If you consider life under the sun, that all human life will inevitably terminate, not just your individual life, but corporally, human life will terminate as though it had never even happened when you consider that reality.
SPEAKER_01: If this is all there is, there's no gain, there's no profit, there's nothing that comes from all that is done comprehensively in human existence.
SPEAKER_01: But then he comes back in verse 11 and says this God makes everything beautiful in its time, and he has put eternity into man's heart.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, if this world is all there is, there's no point, there's no profit, there's nothing to be gained, but we long for more than that.
SPEAKER_01: God's put eternity into our hearts so we know that there has to be more than this.
SPEAKER_01: Even the human being who in a cold dialogue will say, This world is all there is, there's nothing beyond the grave, even someone who will state that in a cold dialogue will not live their life as though they actually believed that.
SPEAKER_01: They'll live their life like there really was such a thing as objective moral values.
SPEAKER_01: They will live their life as though there really was a legacy to be left that would be meaningful, that would last.
SPEAKER_01: They'll live their life as though their mother and their father and their children were more than just accidental collocations of atoms coming from the dust and going back to the dust with no meaning, no purpose, no value, no significance at all.
SPEAKER_01: They will live their life as though eternity were real.
SPEAKER_01: Because God stamped it on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You know you are made for more than this world.
SPEAKER_01: This is why over half a billion people every week Google the meaning of life.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's inevitable.
SPEAKER_01: Human beings know that eternity is real.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we were made for.
SPEAKER_01: C.
SPEAKER_01: S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis said it like this creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.
SPEAKER_01: So if I find myself with desires that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what the scripture says.
SPEAKER_01: God made us for himself to know him and enjoy him infinitely forever.
SPEAKER_01: Sin has separated us from God, broken and severed our relationship and plunged our world into sin and pain and suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God has left his image stamped upon us.
SPEAKER_01: He's left that eternal longing stamped on our hearts so that we know we were made for more than this.
SPEAKER_01: And we live in this tension.
SPEAKER_01: That we look around in this world, seems as though it's going nowhere, and yet in our hearts we know there's more than this.
SPEAKER_01: But that tension can't be undone by human pondering.
SPEAKER_01: That's Solomon's point at the end of verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the end of verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: He says, He's put eternity into our hearts, yes, yet, so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to end.
SPEAKER_01: That tension cannot be resolved on our own.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty and his plan and his purpose and his existence and his person are hidden from us in our sin.
SPEAKER_01: We need revelation to know God, to know his purposes, and to know the purpose for our life.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is certainly true according to the Bible that it is ca human beings are capable, in fact, they can't escape the reality that they know there is a God.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans in chapter 2, Paul says that this tension, the moral law that's stamped on our heart, testifies to the reality of God.
SPEAKER_01: We know there is such a thing as evil, which can't exist unless there's such a thing as good, which can't exist unless there's such a thing as a moral standard, which can't exist without a standard giver.
SPEAKER_01: The moral law, according to Paul, testifies to the reality of a creator, and we're culpable for that knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, Paul says in Romans 1, and the psalmist says in Psalm 19, that the created world testifies to the reality of a God.
SPEAKER_01: Since the creation of the world, his invisible power, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse, the scripture says.
SPEAKER_01: It is certainly possible, and in fact, inevitable, that all people will know that there is a God.
SPEAKER_01: But it is very different to know that there is a God and to know God, just as it is different for me to know that there is a president and to know things about him, to know that there is a quarterback for the Washington football team and know things about him and to know that person.
SPEAKER_01: Those are categorically different realities.
SPEAKER_01: The only way that a human being in his sin can know God is by revelation.
SPEAKER_01: But the thing we need to recognize right here is that the only thing that keeps us from God, it's not our intellect.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that our intellect is incapable of understanding the truth of God or knowing him.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing that keeps us from knowing God is our sin.
SPEAKER_01: In particular, the sin of rejecting God's sovereignty over our lives and trying to seat ourselves upon the throne and be sovereign over our own lives.
SPEAKER_01: And it's only when we will get off that throne and come to God in his terms that we can know God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus says in Matthew in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 11, Jesus says, at that time, Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way we have to come to God.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
SPEAKER_01: All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you want.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just to know things about God.
SPEAKER_01: You need to know God.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way to know God is through Jesus Christ, who in your place endured the punishment we deserve for our sins and was resurrected from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And if you come to him humble and trusting like a child, embracing Christ on his terms, you can come to know the living and true God.
SPEAKER_01: You can have your sins forgiven and be accepted into relationship with the triune, infinite, sovereign God who made the world and made you for himself.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty is hidden, but it is revealed.
SPEAKER_01: Revealed to little children who come trusting Jesus Christ as their Savior.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, the end of verse 11 in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 also speaks of another element by which God's sovereignty is hidden.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty, in a sense, is also hidden even to his people, to the people who know him by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Ecclesiastes 3.11.
SPEAKER_01: Look down in your Bibles once more.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that God has hidden this so that we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
SPEAKER_01: Real simple point.
SPEAKER_01: Even those who know God and know his purposes for the world, that he's going to judge the world and bring a new heavens and a new earth, we still don't know exactly when that's going to happen or how it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: We still don't know the beginning and the end.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know the future.
SPEAKER_01: We know some grand pillars in the future, but we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: So how are we supposed to live in this world?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Deuteronomy 29 speaks to this.
SPEAKER_01: Moses says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's revelation reveals Himself so we might know Him, and He reveals how to live in this world in a way that pleases Him, and we are to trust Him for the rest.
SPEAKER_01: The hidden part of His sovereign will, the hidden part of what's going to happen tomorrow, He's not going to reveal to us.
SPEAKER_01: We'll only know that retrospectively.
SPEAKER_01: But we can live in the world in a way that pleases God and trust Him for the rest.
SPEAKER_01: But then that sets us up for one more thing we need to know about God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: If God's sovereignty is exhaustive, and even to his people, some of it is hidden so that we don't know everything that's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: We need to know one more truth to rest confidently in God, and that's this final truth in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, that God's sovereignty is good.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's somewhere on here.
SPEAKER_01: But it's in the Bible, even if it's not on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Look down in your Bibles at verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: We skipped the first half of verse 11 for this reason.
SPEAKER_01: And this last point is just going to tie together the loose strings in the rest of this text.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, he has made everything beautiful in its time.
SPEAKER_01: That's an incredible claim.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Romans 828 of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: God works all things together for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's way of saying that is that God makes all things beautiful in his time.
SPEAKER_01: That is, in God's time, in the grand scope of God's purpose and his sovereign plan for the world, he will work all things together for his good, for his glory, for our good.
SPEAKER_01: Because for whatever reason, I think I know the reason, every sermon I've ever heard on this text has said the word beautiful doesn't mean beautiful, it just means good or appropriate.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's because there's a particular commentary that just makes this naked assertion that the word beautiful doesn't mean beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: I can't figure out why, because he doesn't give a reason, but every single time the word Yephe is used in the Bible, it means beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: It's mostly used in Genesis to describe Sarah.
SPEAKER_01: She's beautiful, and it's used a whole lot in Song of Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: Song of Solomon, the singer says, Come away with me, my beautiful one.
SPEAKER_01: Now I just want husbands to try to go home and say, Come away with me, my uh good, appropriate one.
SPEAKER_01: See how that goes.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's part of what Solomon is doing is he's he's picking up a powerful word to say, God's sovereignty isn't just acceptable or tolerable, but in the end, when you see things from God's perspective, it will be beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: All things, exhaustively, thoroughly, even the things that are hard, painful, and even truly evil in this world, in the end will work together in such a way that we will say, That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's a hard thing to understand, because there really are genuinely evil things in God's world.
SPEAKER_01: The only way I know to understand that is the way that Peter understands it, and that is to look straight to the cross, where Peter says that Jesus was delivered up by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: That is, that the cross, which is by any objective measure the greatest evil that ever occurred in human history, the crucifixion of the sinless and perfect, infinitely glorious Son of God, the wicked and treacherous, unjust murder of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: If there is evil in this world, there it is, on a cross on the hill.
SPEAKER_01: That's wicked.
SPEAKER_01: And yet it was part of God's definite plan.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in Revelation chapter 13, John says that the saints sing forever, worthy is the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: This was always part of God's eternal plan.
SPEAKER_01: The cross is not an accident.
SPEAKER_01: It's within the scope, it's at the center of God's exhaustive sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, of course, the cross is simultaneously evil and the greatest good in the universe.
SPEAKER_01: It collects a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to God's throne to worship him forever, redeemed, ransomed people, washed of their sins and purified to stand before God and to know him and enjoy him eternally.
SPEAKER_01: That's the greatest good that's ever happened.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if God can turn the greatest evil into the greatest good, then certainly he can turn the evils in our lives into good.
SPEAKER_01: He can turn our tragedies into triumphs, and he can reach into our sufferings and he can bring us to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't have to tell us how or when he's going to do that, but because his sovereignty is exhaustive, and because his sovereignty is good, we can rest in the knowledge that this God will make all things beautiful, not in my time, but in his time.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty is absolutely requisite if you're going to live life in a fallen world where you're not going to be able to escape injustice, evil, sin, disappointment, tragedy, sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: It's a reality in a fallen world.
SPEAKER_01: You have to navigate this world with this objective reality that the God of the universe is working all things together to be beautiful in its time.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I said we'd eventually get back around to human responsibility, right?
SPEAKER_01: So, let's take a moment to do just that.
SPEAKER_01: There's one uh, well, two verses that I skipped intentionally because I think it's best to just come back to these at the end.
SPEAKER_01: There's verse 12 and verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want, as we conclude with these two verses, I want to note that the emphasis of this text has been over and over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: God does, God does, God does, God does.
SPEAKER_01: Five times in the text, God does.
SPEAKER_01: But there is one time that the text tells us something that we do, and it's in verse 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_01: So look at those verses.
SPEAKER_01: I perceive that there's nothing better for them to do than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil, for this is God's gift to man.
SPEAKER_01: How are you supposed to live in a world that God is absolutely sovereign over?
SPEAKER_01: You are supposed to do good and enjoy your life as a gift.
SPEAKER_01: These twin towers of absolute sovereign tr uh divine truth are that God is sovereign over the universe, even your life, and you're responsible to do things.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't untangle that knot.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Gordian knot of Scripture, and there's no human sword, unlike Alexander, to cut it.
SPEAKER_01: You live in this reality, trusting that God's working all things together to be beautiful in his time, and you look at your life right now and you take hold of it as a gift to enjoy and do good.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Be joyful and do good as long as you live.
SPEAKER_01: Eat, drink, take pleasure in your toil, because this is God's gift for man.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot control your life, but you can recognize who is in control and receive this life as a gift for him.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the things that are in it, and seize every moment available to do good, knowing that because God is sovereign and because God is going to judge, none of your labor will be in vain.
SPEAKER_01: The answer to verse 9 is in verse 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_01: What gain does the worker have from his toil?
SPEAKER_01: Well, in a world world where God works all things to be beautiful in his time, there is a reward.
SPEAKER_01: There is a gain, not necessarily in this life, but certainly in the life to come.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that we do for Christ will be credited to us.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that we do for Christ will result in a product, in a gain.
SPEAKER_01: All of our toil will not be in vain, but we'll be rewarded infinitely.
SPEAKER_01: That's human life in a fallen world is trusting in the sovereignty of God who's working all things to be beautiful in his time, and in the meantime, enjoy the things he's given you and serve him with gladness.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that there is only one equally distributed resource in the human world?
SPEAKER_01: Every 60 seconds a minute passes, and that's true for everybody everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't know how much of this resource you have, God has appointed it.
SPEAKER_01: But whatever he's appointed to your account, use it.
SPEAKER_01: Use the seconds and use the moments, because in the world over which God is sovereign, every moment matters, and every time you serve him, it will be infinitely worth it.
SPEAKER_01: What a world to live in.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray to our sovereign God.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we worship you and we thank you that you give life meaning and you give life purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And because we are your servants and your children through the blood of Jesus Christ, every moment matters.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray that you would seal these things to our hearts and give us gladness today as we serve you with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, give us opportunities to encourage those who are faint-hearted.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, to share the gospel with people who need to know the sovereign God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, give us opportunities to trust in you and to pray to you and to lean on you.
SPEAKER_01: And may it be evident in our world, to our neighbors, to our coworkers, that you are you have convicted us of the truth, that our lives belong to you, and you are sovereign and you are good and you are caring for us.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, empower us by the Spirit to entrust you, to entrust ourselves to you this week.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining Emmanuel Bible Church today through this resource.
SPEAKER_00: It's my prayer that if you live in the DC area, I'll be able to meet you on some Sunday at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, you can go to IBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: Or for information on the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource helps you seek God through Jesus Christ, serve the Lord with joy, and share him with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.