[0:00] Friends, please turn your Bibles again to Ecclesiastes 5, verse 10. We're going to be in that passage today, pretty closely.! All the way to Ecclesiastes 6, verse 2.
[0:13] Now, the book of Ecclesiastes is about wisdom. How to grow in wisdom. The book of Ecclesiastes actually tells us about the harshness of life. The harsh realities of life.
[0:24] How things of this world just simply does not make sense a lot of times. That no matter how hard we try to make the things of this world, and to make the places of this world our final home, it continually reminds us again and again that we will continually fail to do so.
[0:41] This place is not our home. And the book of Ecclesiastes emphasizes that to really grow up in wisdom, to grow in maturity, you need to confront yourself with the harsh realities of life.
[0:52] You need to detach yourself from the world. You need to sink yourself much deeper into God Himself. In other words, the book of Ecclesiastes is reminding us again and again, whatever it is in this world that you think would make this world your final home, don't cling on to it.
[1:07] You're going to fail. Don't cling on to it. Whether it's pleasure, whether it be wisdom, whether it be righteousness and the pursuit of righteousness, whether it be this pursuit of toil, for toil's work, whatever it might be, don't cling on to it.
[1:22] And in this specific passage, he's going to talk about love of wealth, the sense of entitlement that you get in accruing wealth, the sense of entitlement that you get in working and toiling. And in chapter 5, verse 10, to all the way to chapter 6, verse 9 actually, it's one central theme.
[1:39] It's about how to deal wisely with wealth. How to get joy, how to not be entitled, how to not be bitter, how to actually sink your hopes, not in money or toil or wealth, but in God and God alone.
[1:52] So in chapter 5, verse 10, all the way to chapter 6, verse 9, there's this one theme. And in between chapter 5 and chapter 6, in verse 18 to 20, you get this soft middle between chapter 5, verse 10, 16, and chapter 6, verse 1 to 9.
[2:08] The soft middle that tells you not just what not to do with wealth, how not to get joy, but the key to joy itself. So that's going to be where we're heading today here. So I have three points that I want to point us to today.
[2:19] First, how not to get joy. Second, the key to joy. Third, the greater gift. So first, how not to get joy.
[2:30] Second, the key to joy. And third, the greater gift. So first then, how not to get joy. How should we not get joy? Well, verse 10 tells us, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income.
[2:47] This also is vanity. First thing, right off the bat here, the author of the Ecclesiastes is telling us here, if you want to grow in wisdom, if you want to know what it is, and how to find true joy and satisfaction, do not look for it in money.
[3:00] Verse 10 is incredibly clear. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. And in this book, this is not actually the first time he's tackled with the temptation of accruing joy by means of money.
[3:18] He's already said this before in chapter 2, verse 20 to 22. So if you've got your Bibles open, just turn there really quickly. Chapter 2, verse 20 to 22, he already says this, So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the tolls of my labors under the sun.
[3:32] Because sometimes a person who has toll with wisdom and knowledge and skill must mean everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is a vanity and a greater evil. And in chapter 6, verse 2, as we read earlier before, it says that a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, that God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them.
[3:55] This is also vanity. It is a grievous evil. So in other words, the book of Ecclesiastes, despite going into different themes and various kinds of temptations, returns to the theme of joy and wealth again and again and again.
[4:09] He's already said it in chapter 2. He's repeating it again here in chapter 5, verse 10 to 16, and then again in chapter 6, verse 2. So, for some reason, he keeps repeating this, right?
[4:21] And interestingly enough, when he tackles the temptation of finding joy and pleasures, whether it be in sex or relationships, he only does that once. He deals with it in chapter 2, verses 1 to 11, and then he deals with it, he leaves it alone.
[4:35] But it's just something about wealth that causes the author to keep coming back to it, just to keep repeating himself. He just wants to make sure that you know not to keep coming back to this. It's almost as if wealth and love of money, it's a perennial temptation, right?
[4:50] So it's not without reason that he repeats himself here. One of the books that I've been reading to prepare myself to preach from the book of Ecclesiastes, is Dave Gibson's book on destiny. And the book of Ecclesiastes is actually right there in the back there.
[5:02] And he actually skips chapter 5 and 6. To his shame. But I did not shame him in person a couple of days ago. I wish I did now. But I think there's something about it because you're sensing, if you're writing a book on the book of Ecclesiastes, you might be thinking to yourself, why is he repeating himself again?
[5:21] He's already tackled wealth and accruing possessions in chapter 2. Why would he come back to it in chapter 5 and then again in chapter 6, some of his hammering it again and again and again. Well, it's not without reason.
[5:33] Wealth is a perennial temptation. We seek pleasure and joy primarily in wealth. And in fact, Luther in his larger catechism, he says that the most common idol that we see in this world, the most common enemy to loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind is precisely in love of money.
[5:51] That's the first thing he tackles. So again in chapter 5, verse 10, he says, how not to get joy? Don't find it in wealth. You're not going to get there. You're not, you're simply not, you're going to be satisfied with it. So avoid it completely.
[6:02] So what is the kind of person who loves wealth? Well, the second part of chapter 5, verse 10 tells us. The kind of person who loves wealth here is he who loves wealth with his income. That's the kind of person he has in mind here.
[6:14] He who loves wealth with his income. The picture and the image here is someone who simply using his wealth to accrue more wealth. Someone who's toiling for wealth, for wealth's sake.
[6:26] So if you're asking this person, why are you working for your income? This person will simply say, well, more income. Why are you gaining and gaining more wealth? Well, he would say, I'm gaining wealth so that I could get a greater income.
[6:38] Why would you get more income? Well, simply to get more wealth. So there's a cyclical kind of toil here where he's accruing wealth and he accrues wealth for wealth's sake. He loves wealth with his income.
[6:49] So he uses his income to gain even more wealth. So this kind of person, it's not the kind of person who tries to look for profit or gain for the sake of love of his neighbor. Because that's a biblical view of work.
[7:00] where you're accruing wealth so that you can actually reverse the effects of the fall, so you could actually alleviate poverty, so that you could empower others, so you could feed others. You can actually give them empowerment by means of employment.
[7:13] That's not the kind of person that he envisages here. Rather, he envisages here a person who accrues wealth not for other people, but simply wealth for wealth's sake. And the author is utterly clear, that is a one-way trip to utter misery.
[7:28] So not only does he keep repeating himself, not only does he have this picture of this person who loves wealth and uses wealth for income cyclically, and income for income's sake, he gives us some implications of what happens here when you love wealth with your income.
[7:45] Verse 11, When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage is their owner but to see them with his eyes. So what's the implication of the kind of person here who loves wealth with his income, who simply pursues wealth for wealth's sake?
[7:58] The implication here is that the owner is going to see that the more income that he accrues, the more wealth that he gathers for himself, the more gain that he has for himself, he's also going to feel a kind of bitterness.
[8:12] Because he's not accruing wealth for other people's sake. When other people enjoy the fruits of his labor, when other people gain from the fruits of his labor, he's going to only look at them and he's going to think to himself, what profit is there to me?
[8:25] So he says again, verse 11, when it goes increase, they just increase who eats them. What advantage is your owner? Because see them with his eyes. So in other words, he's saying here, well, I'm gaining all this wealth, I'm working hard for all the fruits of my labor, I'm gaining all this money, and all I'm seeing here is other people benefiting from it.
[8:41] My employees are getting and benefiting from it. A family member said, I don't like benefiting from it. And he's thinking to himself, this doesn't profit me or anything. This is not giving me pleasure. Right? Again, which is the opposite of somebody who works biblically.
[8:53] The person who works biblically will work and then when he enjoys the food of his labor, is joyous with the fact that other people are enjoying it. I'm sharing this with you. I'm giving this away. Right? I'm generous with my toil, with my labor, with my gifts, with my money.
[9:09] But here instead, you see somebody who ends up bitter, ends up feeding this kind of territorialism. I've worked hard for this and it doesn't profit me in any way that other people are benefiting from it.
[9:21] There's no advantage to my eyes and it only makes me more and more and more miserable. One of the best examples of this that I've seen recently, I've been guilt-watching and binge-watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares just constantly.
[9:37] And I'm in the UK so contextualization here is important. So I'm going to quote a Gordon Ramsay clip here for you. So, I've been binge-watching Kitchen Nightmares and you know, the premise of Kitchen Nightmares is Gordon Ramsay, who's a celebrity chef, would come in to kitchens and restaurants that have been failing, right?
[9:55] And he would come in and he would work with the chefs, work with the owners, make sure that the kitchen turns around, they serve good food, their service becomes better, and make sure that by the end of the weekend that he spends there, they would get their lives up and running and the restaurant up and running again and well, right?
[10:10] Now, it was interesting to me because he probably recorded hundreds of these episodes, just seasons upon seasons, like 12 years worth of it, the American version anyway, right? And there's only one episode where Gordon actually turns away and refuses to help an owner with this restaurant.
[10:28] Every other restaurant, no matter how dirty their kitchens are, no matter how messed up their food is, he stays, he cooks with them, he helps them out, he makes sure that everything is turned around. There's just one episode where he actually gives up.
[10:40] He thinks, I can't help them. I can't help them. But on the second day, he walked away. And it made headline news and became viral on Twitter and it became a sensation and stuff like that. And what's interesting to me is I watched this episode, he left not because the food was so bad or because the service was so bad, he left because of an attitude of the owners.
[11:00] What he found out is he went into this kitchenist and the owner was a husband and wife. The husband was so entitled to his work, he said to himself, I'm the manager of the floor, I work harder than all of my servers.
[11:12] And you know what he ended up doing? He took all of the servers' tips. He took all of it. And in an American context, that's atrocious. That's a sin. That's a cardinal sin, right? Because in America, the waitresses and the waiters and the bartenders, they live off their tips.
[11:27] They don't get a wage outside of their tips. That's what their wages are. It's the tips itself. And what Gordon found was that this husband, his owner, took all these tips every night and so the waiters were getting paid nothing.
[11:39] So there was a turnover of waiters again and again and again. And when Gordon asked him, why would you do this? Why would you take away their livelihood? You know what he said? I work harder than all of them. I work harder than all of them.
[11:51] I deserve this tip. They work for me. When they prove to me that they could get this money, I'll give it to them. But until then, I am entitled to this. This is my view. And likewise, the wife, who was the chef, couldn't take criticisms of her food.
[12:07] She kept saying to everybody who pushed the food back or said that the food was bad and criticized her food, she would simply say, you know what? They've been coming to my restaurant and I cook for them. How dare they critique my food?
[12:19] I work hard at working at this food. There's this deep sense of entitlement with love of wealth that what Gordon's sensing there in these two couples is this, right? I am working hard for wealth and I'm working harder than anybody and it does not profit me what other people are profiting from my labors.
[12:40] Other people are benefiting from it. And this isn't just out there in TV, right? Especially in the context like Asia. I know families who are ripping each other apart simply because they're fighting for inheritances from their parents.
[12:55] Even though deep inside they know that they have done nothing to gain this trust fund or to actually earn any of the parents' inheritances, they're suing one another as brothers and sisters simply to gain this trust fund or to get the inheritance over their parents who are now too old to speak for themselves.
[13:11] I know people who therefore out of a bad venture out of people fighting for particular kinds of properties are fighting to one another simply because of objects and material possessions because they're thinking to themselves I work harder than all of you.
[13:26] I deserve this more than all of you. I'm entitled to this. So because of the love of wealth because of this deep sense of entitlement we rip each other apart.
[13:38] We rip each other apart. And we feel this difference out of our hearts. So it's not surprising in verse 12 another implication of love of wealth. Not just that you get this kind of territorialism not just that you get the sense of entitlement but in verse 12 it tells us sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats little or much but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
[14:03] Sweet as sleep of labor whether he eats little or much but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. I love that verse. In the context of Jakarta where crazy rich Asians is a reality this is a verse that needs to be put up in a lot of homes and in bedrooms.
[14:22] My goodness because if there's ever a reminder that wealth does not give you satisfaction or pleasure. Here it is. Sweet is the sleep of a laborer whether he eats little or much but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
[14:35] There's a contrast here between the sleep of a laborer think of here a blue collar worker who knows simply the day's worth of work. He comes in does his job knows his responsibilities for the day thinks just about that day knows the day's works ahead of him knows his responsibilities for the day knows that he needs to put bread on the table and then he eats and then he sleeps and then that's it that's all he thinks about.
[14:58] He knows the day's worth of work and there's a kind of joy to this minimalism of just knowing your responsibilities for the day not thinking about the future all of your other responsibilities not thinking about a queen wealth for wealth's sake that is in contrast to the full stomach of the rich who will not let him sleep.
[15:16] And look at verse 17 this is not just a case of insomnia in verse 17 it tells us here again that the rich spends all his days he eats in darkness and in much vexation and sickness and anger in other words there's something here about love of wealth love of money that causes a holistic kind of crumbling you see our bodies and souls are deeply connected such that there's a bitterness and a vexation that comes from love of wealth that causes not just lack of sleep but sickness and anger the person just crumbles under this weight of bitterness and entitlement you see and I hope you know that this is true isn't it some of you have actually lived through this right when you've actually felt what it's like to work up the professional ladder and you realize to yourself as you're working up the professional ladder you're not actually getting any happier in fact it might actually be the opposite when you first got your first job and you were getting your suits from
[16:21] Primark and H&M you know you're walking in the subway and somebody rips your suit and you didn't think a minute of it you're like well who cares it's just a suit from Primark ten years later you got a suit from Hugo Boss someone rips it you can't sleep at night vexation anger you see same thing with cars same thing with anything else there's just something insidious about love of money something that attaches us to it that material things seem to weigh us down and bog us up right and again you know this to be true you know we like to think that we're not that rich we like to think oh we're in Ealing London you know we're not in central London we're not the top 1% in the world but hey friends you are you're in London you are in the UK let's face it compared to the rest of the world we're rich and some of you you know despite not having a bank account filled with millions you come home and you know that you've got a couple months worth saved up and you've got food on the table and you're not worrying about what you're going to eat in the next month or two or three or years and yet for some reason you still can't sleep at night you're still miserable and you keep thinking to yourself if only
[17:37] I could just get up the financial ladder one more time if only I could just get one more ring if only I could just get that car if only I could just get that promotion as long as I get one more stage of life up ahead of me get more money I'm just going to be happy well just think back upon your life think back upon your life that wasn't the case when you were poor sure so why think that it's going to change and be any different now in the future so don't don't fall into the trap of thinking that wealth will satisfy you so again think about the sweetness of the sleep of a labor whether he eats little or much think about the day's worth of trouble it is enough in itself right I remember one time my parents and my family broader family they've done quite enough work for themselves so my dad is getting older now and he's hired a caretaker to come in and care for his knees so this caretaker would come in and cook for us clean up and things like that and I remember my parents were not believers there was a fight that we had one day about something particular about the business and I was involved in it because you know as a son
[18:52] I had to be and we were fighting back and forth for hours and hours over the morning right and the caretaker was there the caretaker was there and I remember I was recovering from this conversation that I just had spewed within family and I was having a coffee right afterwards and she looked at me in a quiet moment and she said you know what I can't imagine what it must be like to have to wrestle with these kind of issues I just know that I need to come in I need to cook I need to clean up I need to go home and have my kids and I'm happy and I thought to myself woe is me woe is this family that we have so much more here we are psychologically impaired compared to this person who could have so much more not just about the vexation of richness that causes us to be attached to things that are valuable but it's also I think the disillusionment that comes with richness the disillusionment that comes with realizing that we have everything that we've ever needed everything that we've ever wanted only to find that it doesn't actually satisfy us and so we lose sleep over it and we got to consider the fact that sometimes
[20:02] God gives us everything we've ever Jim Carrey was famous in saying that I wish everybody could be rich and famous so that they would know being rich and famous isn't the answer being rich and famous isn't the answer and you might be thinking to yourself Jim Carrey of course he would say that he's rich and famous but who else would say it who else has the ability and the credence to say so that it would be valid right here's somebody who's telling you I wish everybody could realize that if they got everything they'd ever had they'd still be miserable because now they realize it I've got everything why am I still sad why do I still feel unsatisfied why am I still disappointed why do I still feel this existential angst of living in this world and so they lose sleep again not simply because of their attachment to material things because now they've realized it for themselves because they've experienced it for themselves I've had everything that I've ever wanted in life and yet here
[21:03] I am still miserable that's not the only kind of misery that might happen to you verse 13 tells us all the way to verse 16 another kind of misery that that endangers the person who is attached to wealth there's a grievous evil that I've seen under the son riches were kept by their owner to his hurt and those riches were lost in a bad venture!
[21:29] Here in this passage he's not talking just about the misery of living wealth but how the misery of living wealth also could double your suffering precisely because here whatever wealth you've accrued for yourself the book of Ecclesiastes is reminding you you will lose it again you will lose it again you might in a split second get into a bad venture and you lose everything you've ever had or if that doesn't happen to you in a lifetime in your lifetime one day you will die death is coming it is inevitable and naked as he came and shall take nothing for his toll it may carry in his hand just as from the mother's womb he came so he shall go you can't take your possessions away with you and if you love money you're not just going to feel this loss of this moment of loss in a bad venture or in a moment of death the fact that you can't take these riches away with you but if you love wealth you're going to double your suffering look at what it says in verse 13 losing your wealth one day whether it be by bad ventures or in death but you're also going to feel this sense of distraughtness because you idolized it so when you lose your wealth you're not just going be shocked by the loss of the wealth it's going to utterly destroy you you if you lose wealth but you don't attach yourself to it you're going to be!
[23:16] like Job who loses everything he's ever had and he's distraught about it he's lamenting before God he loses everything he's ever had but yet because he never idolized wealth because he never put wealth first he wasn't destroyed he kept worshipping he was able to say to God and he was able to lament before God he was able to keep obeying God even despite the loss of wealth but if you idolized wealth the moment this loss hits you you're not just going to be sad or lamenting you're going to be utterly distraught that means you've kept your riches to your hurt and that's not the way to go so then that's the first point how not to find joy which is not to find that satisfaction and wealth or money or anything else in this world how then should we the key to joy and this is found in verses 18 to 20 right before chapter 6 starts right verse 18 to 20 the key to joy right so here in this passage it tells us what to do and what not to do right here's how we should get joy there's the key to joy and there's two aspects to this the first thing you've got to understand to have lasting joy and lasting contentment is to realize that everything you've ever gained is due to
[24:57] God and not yourself that's the first thing everything! you've ever gained is due to God and not yourself and it's utterly counterintuitive to us because as modern people we like to think that all of our achievements is something that we recruit for ourselves we were the ones who picked ourselves up in our bootstraps we were the ones that worked hard we were the ones who gained all these things for ourselves right we like to think that we are an self achievements here's all my publications here's all my work experience you've listing all of your individual achievements right and so that gives you the illusion that you're a self made person and no wonder then you feel entitled because if you think of yourself as a self made person if you think of yourself I've accrued wealth for myself I'm the one who worked hard for this I'm a self made man then of course you feel entitled of course you feel bitter when you feel snubbed when people get the reward and not you of course you feel entitled when things don't go your way because you thought to yourself
[25:59] I have earned this I'm a self made person but you see the ancients they were more modest and they were more realistic the ancient form of the CV isn't like the modern form of the CV in the modern form again we list all of our achievements all of our entitlements all of our gains in life and as an individual that's what we've listed in our CV in the ancient world the CV is a little bit different when you open up to the book of Matthew and Matthew provides an argument for why you should listen to Jesus what does he!
[26:31] names names names of who Jesus' lineage names of people who came before him names of people who therefore kept up their lineage and made sure that families were intact so that here is the birth of a Savior coming he was the seed of David seed of the promised one right out of Israel he came here's a long line of people in other words the ancient people understood that who you are today!
[26:59] and why you are the way you are today it's not because of your own achievements it's all because of God's providential plan putting you in your specific families putting you in the areas that you're living in because no matter how talented and hardworking you are if you're living the 12th century under the bubonic plague you're not going to get anywhere and you've got to realize and think back to your own bias about the fact that there's so many chance encounters that you had to go through so many sacrifices that your families had to go through so many ways and circumstances that God had to to a second aspect to lasting joy not just that God is the source of all good there are three phrases here that we should focus on the first phrase is the toil with which one tolls under the sun that's the first phrase and the second is the few days of his life that
[28:07] God has given him and the third is this is his! let's just focus on those! the toil and the few days of his life and this is his lot right so notice what the book is reminding you of suddenly here's what's good here's how you get joy remember that you ought to accept the toil that you have under the sun because you have a few days of life and this is your lot what does that remind you of you have only a few days in this toil and sweat and hard work and you're only going to have a few days because you're going to die and this is your lot and by the way something is your lot it was given to you right something is your lot this is my lot I've got to accept it what does it remind you of Genesis chapter 3 verse 19 doesn't it right when Adam and Eve had fallen right before Adam and Eve ate of that fruit and the serpent tempted them what did
[29:08] God say if you ate of this fruit you shall surely die and Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and they ate of the fruit and what happens did they die they didn't die even though God had every right to kill them right there and there in accordance with this word they didn't die what did God say to them after killing the ram and covering them in their nakedness what did God say here's your lot from dust you came and to dust you shall return and out of the sweat of your brow you shall toil in other words the relationship that you have with this world is broken now you're going to work under the sun in hardship and you're going to have only a few days and one day you will die you will return to the dust this is your lot this is your lot right you see what's the book of the book of the book is reminding you here today that Adam and Eve have any rights to come before
[30:09] God and say to him after God have pronounced! you see we like to think to ourselves again as autonomous self-made people walking around in this life and the reason why we're so disappointed the reason why we're so existentially in misery all the time is because we walked around in life perceiving ourselves not as sinful criminals on death row but as princes who are pure and innocent and little saviors walking around so we walk around!
[30:48] thinking to ourselves what do I deserve how are people treating me am I getting what I'm due am I getting what I'm entitled to because we like to think as princess walking around but what if what if we're not little princess walking around what if we're criminals on death row living under plural capital what if instead of princess being entitled to something we're actually criminals who are supposed to die and yet under the sun and we have to consider looking back upon the fact that we've fallen and we're looking back now and we're saying to ourselves I've received my lot and I should have been dead long ago but here I am alive you know what that does to you you're going to be like the character the main character in Les Mis Jean Beljean right who was a criminal under death penalty and then could
[31:54] John Beljean ever look up to him and say how dare you just give me a bowl of soup I want some chicken I want some meat you gotta shower me now too no if we understand we're not princes entitled to something but rather we're criminals living on death row living a few more days of our lot that God in his gracious mercy had given to us then we would realize that everything is a gift we're here living on borough capital and everything is a gift of God so this is how the text closes in verse 19 closes chapter 5 everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to his toil to accept his fight and rejoice in his toil this is the gift of God that's the key that's what kills entitlement and gives you an utter sense of gratitude and wonder to everything you've ever had you're realizing now that everything you've ever had here is not just from
[32:57] God but it's actually a gracious gift from God everything but friends you know especially in the deep testament every time you hear that something is a gift of God there's a particular other gift that you have to be reminded of there's a greater gift and here's my third point than the gift of God or the fact that you're continually alive the fact that God sustains you in his mercy there's a greater gift than the gift that is given Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 9 here's the amazing thing friends you see in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 9 and 10 the apostle Paul tells us the greatest gift of God not simply of the fact that we are now living under borrowed capital as sinners in front of a just and holy and merciful
[33:59] God but here he tells us of another grace another gift verse 8 9 and 10 some of you probably know this by heart for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which got prepared beforehand that we should walk in them here is the greater gift friends greater than your life right now greater than the wealth and riches and everything you enjoy today by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God what is a greater gift friends what is when Adam and he fell and you and I had fallen with him we were infected by sin right!
[34:52] God didn't simply just give us this borrowed capital this remaining time for us to live here today but rather he came in and he entered into the flesh and he lived under the sun for you and for me and friends the one who had no toil entered into this world under the sun so that he might toil not his own toil but the sinner's toil the sinner's lot he took upon himself because friends even though you and I might die you and I are not going to die under the wrath of God because someone else did and you know what happened with Adam and Eve when Adam and Eve sinned against God and God killed them immediately what did God do he killed an animal in their place he clothed in nakedness what did God do in other words what is God's!
[35:39] greater gift there he provided not just life and breath and clothing but he provided a substitute and a substitute should cause you to ask the question how can the blood of an animal cover the sins of naked and fallen man and the answer now is here isn't it here's the greater gift friends that substitute was pointing to the greater gift of salvation which is in Christ Jesus here's a man who had no lot given to him who entered into our toil under the sun and he worked the work that we should have worked died the death that we should have died worked the righteousness that we couldn't owe for ourselves and he rose again on our behalf so that he would become your substitute here today this is the gift of God that no one may boast the one who never!
[36:39] So now we're not just living in our toil with a sense of the mercy of God that he's given us some more time to live and enjoy this life and to work with our hands now we have a second motivation we're toiling not to prove ourselves anymore or simply toiling out of mercy no we're toiling with the power of God himself in Christ Jesus he was not just our sacrifice he was also our power so we cannot go back now away from Sunday until Monday and be reminded today that our deepest toils was really taken care of by Christ on the cross by grace you have been saved and it is not for yourselves it is from God let us pray