402 God has already approved what you do

Sermon adapted from, Discovering Christ Day by Day, David Fortner

1. “God has already approved what you do!” Sermon adapted from, Discovering Christ Day by Day, David Fortner July 11 Today’s Reading: Ecclesiastes 5-9

2. Ecclesiastes 9:7 NIV Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.

3. These words are not addressed to everyone. They are specifically addressed to the righteous and the wise, those whose works are in God’s hand, those who, being the objects of God’s mercy, love, and grace, have been made righteous and wise in Christ.

4. Ecclesiastes 9:1 NIV So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. Matthew 10:16 NIV "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

5. How often we are brought low and downcast by distressing providences, outward temptations, and inward sins! Here we are urged to set our hearts on our God and His grace and march through this world with triumphant joy. “Go”

6. The admonition carries with it a sense of joy and victory. That is how we are to live in this world. That is how we ought to walk through the earth, joyful, triumphant, and confident in faith.

7. If Christ is our Way, we have no reason to live with fear. Though our way is the way of the cross, “the way of the cross leads home.” So let us walk with joy.

8. Proverbs 15:19 NIV The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway. Psalms 1:6 NIV For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

9. Our way is the way appointed by our blessed God and Savior. He is with us in the way, holds us in the way, and carries us all the way. Our way is the Highway of Holiness, by which the ransomed of the Lord return to Zion.

10. Isaiah 35:8 NIV And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there.

11. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

12. Next, the wise man urges us, by the Spirit of inspiration, to eat our food with joy. That encouragement certainly refers to the bread of daily providence. Ecclesiastes 8:15 NIV So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. “Eat Your Food”

13. Christians ought to be the happiest, most cheerful people in the world. Everything we possess is blessed to us by Christ; and our God has promised that we shall be blessed in basket & in store, blessed in lying down & blessed in rising up, blessed in going out & blessed in coming home, blessed in time & blessed to all eternity!

14. But we have other Bread to eat; and we are ever to eat that Bread with joy. Christ is our Bread. He is Manna for our souls. He is the source of all our blessedness. Let us go our way and eat our bread with joy, for Christ is our Way and He is our Bread.

15. Ecclesiastes 9:7 NIV Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. How kind, how gracious, how good our God must be, if He commands His children to be cheerful! Like bread, wine is here set before us as a part of our daily diet. Bread represents that which is necessary. “Drink your Wine”

16. Wine represents that which is pleasurable. Both are to be used freely and enjoyed by us. But Solomon’s admonition reaches far beyond eating bread and drinking wine. Solomon urges us to enjoy the bounty of God’s providence and grace in this world. Christ is our Way; so let us go our Way. Christ is our Bread; so let us eat our Bread with joy. Christ’s love is better than wine; so let us drink our wine with a cheerful heart.

17. As we make our pilgrimage through this world of woe, we ought to eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with a cheerful heart, because God accepts our works. God accepted us in His dear Son before the worlds were made; and here the Spirit of God assures us that the Lord our God accepts our works. “Approved what you do”

18. Imagine that. “ God has already approved what you do .” Mark that word “ already .” “ God has already approved what you do .” This is much more than an assurance that God will accept our works in eternity, or that God accepts some of our works.

19. Rather, it is an assurance from God Himself that He presently accepts and perpetually accepts our works, just as He accepts us in His dear Son. Because God my Father accepts me in Christ, I should, Rejoice in the Lord always I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4 NIV

20. May He teach me and give me grace to Rejoice in what I have; Rejoice in what I expect, Rejoice in even what I want, for those very wants will bring me to my Savior. Do I have fears? Yes, just as you do; but even our fears should not destroy our joy.

21. Our fears keep us clinging to our Savior, depending upon Him for everything. When we suffer, our light afflictions are sweetly blessed to our souls’ good, when they are made renewed occasions for the Lord Jesus to come to us and soothe our hearts with love. In His time He will deliver us from our troubles.

22. If we suffer loss, let us still eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with a cheerful heart, for lose what we may, we cannot lose Christ. We cannot lose His love, His favor, His grace, His Spirit, the effectiveness of His blood, and the merits of His righteousness. Oh precious security, precious salvation in the Lord our Righteousness!

23. Romans 8:33 NIV Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

24. 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

25. Isaiah 3:10 NIV Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. As God now accepts our works, 1 Peter 2:5 NIV you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

26. John 5:26 NIV For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

27. Revelation 20:12 NIV And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

28. Our works shall follow us to glory. Revelation 14:13 NIV Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

29. In free justification the righteous works of Christ as our Surety have been imputed to us. And because the death of Christ demands for us the non-imputation of sin, God now accepts our works, — all because…

30. Ephesians 1:7 NIV In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

31. In our joy eating & drinking let us not become fat, dumb & happy & neglect what God has prepared for us to do! Ephesians 2:8 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

32. You’re not saved by works, but by God’s grace so you can do good works! What if we neglect doing the good works prepared for us? I think Jesus explains what happens to unproductive members of His body.

33. John 15:1 NIV "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.

34. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

35. What’s the fruit we should be producing? The Apostle Paul writes to the saints in Galatia & mentions fruit after warning about sins of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 NIV So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

36. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

37. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

38. Jesus lays out some of the good works we should be doing and they’re not that difficult! Matthew 7:21 NIV "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

39. Matthew 25:41 NIV "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

40. 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46a "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, In the previous verses we find what happens to those who are doing the good works God has laid out for us to do.

41. Matthew 25:34 NIV "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me,

42. I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

43. John 12:26 NIV Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Our Lord Jesus wants you with Him, serving Him by imitating Him doing the work God The Father prepared for His people to do!

44. What GLORY there will be when He says, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

45. HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS?

46. Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

47. He was buried and rose on the third day.

48. When He did this He solved 2 problems we all have. He solved our sin problem because He nailed our sins to the cross; & He solved our grave problem when He rose from the dead because it proved we could also rise from the dead.

49. Jesus said, if we want to get in on of all this we must . . . BE BORN AGAIN. FOLLOW HIM; &

50. ISN’T THAT GREAT NEWS? WHO ARE YOU GOING TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS WITH TODAY?

51. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15,16 NIV   This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

52. "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people." "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him." "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope." May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Romans 15:10b,11bc,12bcd-14   NIV  

53. Numbers 6:24 NIV '"The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."'