It's your turn in this morning to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Remind you that yesterday, many gathered together in different ways in different places to celebrate what we know as Reformation Day. And today, actually, around the world, Reformation Sunday is being taken place. Reformation Day, you remember, was that great day almost 500 years ago now. In two years, it will be 500 years. Since Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses on the wall of the church at Wittenberg, Germany, those theses were his concern about the abuses that were taking place in the church. And on that day, while I would disagree that the Reformation actually began on that day, I would agree that Protestantism, probably symbolically at least, took place on October 31st, 1517. It began the protest. But the theology that undergirded really what we consider to be the Reformation is found in the Latin phrase, simul justus et peccator. That's the title of the sermon this morning. And I will remind you today that all the Latin I know, I learned from R.C. Sproul in teaching about Martin Luther. I know very little Latin. As a matter of fact, my spelling had to be corrected by one of our men that does know. Latin a bit better than I do. But that phrase, simul justus et peccator, is vitally important, not just for the Reformation, not just for Protestantism, but for our salvation in Jesus Christ. Simul means, in the English, we take our words simultaneous or at the same time. Justus, we translate just or right or righteous. Et is a little easier to understand. It means and. And peccator, we take actually the translation from the Spanish and Latin, peccable, and we translate it sinner. Now, put all that together and the phrase means at one and the same moment, just and sinner. And that was the struggle and the turmoil that Luther fought before he came to faith. in Christ. The struggle was, how can a man stand, again, at the same moment, righteous before God, while still being a sinner? And it was when the Spirit drove home that truth from Galatians 3.11 and other New Testament places, translated from Habakkuk, the phrase, the just by faith shall live, is really the word order in the Greek. Now, some have argued, well, does that mean saving faith? Or does that mean continuing or sustaining faith? I think the answer is yes. That yes, the just must begin with faith, saving faith, in Christ and Christ alone, that will be manifest through their life of faith throughout. That seems to be the greater weight put on it, flowing out of Habakkuk and the way that Paul quotes it in the New Testament. Well, the Council of Trent showed that this phrase, was a serious threat to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church. The Roman Church contended that justification meant making a man righteous in his own person. And the Roman Church then reasoned, how can God pronounce a man to be righteous in his sight unless he is actually righteous? That's a good question. It's the question that Luther struggled with. It's the same thought that he had. The Catholics, therefore, think that a man must be born again and fully transformed, fully sanctified, as we would say it, before he can have right standing with God. It's a convolution, if you will, of the Bible's teaching of justification and sanctification. In this system of thought, a man can have no real assurance of their salvation. He can never be sure whether the Holy Spirit has made him righteous enough to stand before or be accepted by God. In our text this morning, beginning in verse 14 that I'll read, and exposit 15 and following, we see this truth set forth by Solomon. Again, I'm going to begin reading in verse 14 for context of Ecclesiastes chapter 7. In the day of prosperity, be joyful. In the day of adversity, consider. God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. In my vain life, I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make for yourself to be wise. Wise should you destroy yourself. Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Wisdom gives strength to the wise man, more than ten rulers in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. All this I have tested by wisdom. I said I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which has been is far off and deep, very deep. Who can find it out? I turn my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things and to know wickedness, a folly, and the foolishness that is madness. And I find something more bitter than death." Now, let us stop there. What could be more bitter than death? The woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things, which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I found not. See, this alone I found. God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." Here Solomon struggles, if you will, with the very thing that Luther struggled with. You see in the heading, if you have the handout, three verses. There are two verses into three that we observe as the hub for this entire text. Be not overly righteous. Be not overly wicked. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. How can a man be both just and sinner? As Solomon came to the conclusion, the best men on their best days are at best Still men, sinners. It's interesting. As I was driving in this morning, I heard a commercial for the Roman Catholic channel on not the Internet satellite radio, and it closes with both saints and sinners are invited to listen. As if that's the only two real categories that exist, saints and sinners, but that is what the Catholic thing. And yet, we are reminded this morning from our text and others that saints are still sinners in need of God's grace as well. Solomon struggled with that very truth. And everywhere he looked, there seemed to be a gross injustice in the world. Remember last week, we considered verse 14, the prosperity and the adversity. And here this morning, He continues on with that. And while he's limited in his understanding and falls short of the fullness of the truth that we have in Christ, Solomon confessed that while he may not understand all there is to know, God does. And he cast himself back upon God for answers and for promises of God for hope. There are two things to consider this morning concerning wisdom. And by the way, the rest of the book really focuses on wisdom alone. First, the balance of wisdom that we see in verses 15 through 22, where Solomon warns against two extremes. It begins in verse 15. In my vain life, I've seen it all. And he's unpacked that for us over the past messages. There's not much that had escaped his observation. But here in particular, there's one thing that he comes back to in the context of the prosperity and adversity. He entertains this thought in verse 15 from a different angle. Why do the righteous die and seemingly before their time, and why do wicked men continue to live, men who we know to be desperately wicked and bringing wickedness into this world and casting it upon others. I just happened to be walking through Kay's Sunday school class with our children this morning, and they were discussing the question of why men die and why God let death enter the world. And in the context of passing through, I just mentioned to them, I said, The greater question is, why do men live? Why does God allow wicked, sinful men, such as we all are at birth, to live and to not die? That is the greater question. And so for Solomon and his readers, something here doesn't seem quite right, though, about the righteous who die seemingly before their time and the wicked who keep on going on and continuing. After all, God had promised these people long life. If they did what? Kept His commandments. Numerous places, but just Exodus 20. If you honor your father and mother, your days will be long on the earth. And then in Deuteronomy 5.33, the promise for a prolonged life if we obey Him. The flip side of that is the curse that comes upon those that don't. And the people, like Solomon, would have observed that some of God's people lived to be a ripe old age. You can't read the genealogies in Genesis without entertaining the truth of long life. But sometimes they didn't. What about Abel, who brought a righteous offering before God and was murdered by his brother, who continued to live even though his offering was not worthy And he was a wicked man. But what about Stephen, who died at the hands of godless men because of his obedience and faithfulness to Christ? What about Jesus Himself? The most righteous and all-wise man that ever walked on this planet was put to death at the age of 33. And both Stephen and Jesus' executors continued on. Why do the wicked seem to prosper? Why do they continue on? And we've all faced things such as that, and perhaps even wondered the same thing. The good person who gives their life to serve Christ and others. The humble man who demonstrates he loves the Lord, and yet the Lord takes him. And yet hardened criminals, evil men, continue to live on. Again, where is the justice? Man after man after man have asked the question. The psalmist put it this way in Psalm 73, verse 12, Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease. They increase in riches. That's a bit of an overstatement. We know that. But that's the perception. Psalm 73, verse 13, All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I've been stricken and rebuked every morning." You almost get the sense here that the psalmist is just saying, what good is it? All in vain I've kept my heart clean. All in vain I've kept God's law. All in vain I've tried to do the right thing. And what has it gotten me? So the Israelite deduced, and they were aware of this paradox of life. And what is the temptation then that comes with that? If my obedience doesn't gain longer life, as God promised, then why bother? And therein lies the two extremes that Solomon sets forth in this text that we are to avoid at all costs in the midst of the wickedness and the fallenness of this world. The first extreme is that of excessive righteousness. He says in verse 16, Be not overly or exceedingly or too righteous. And do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Now, this is difficult to interpret, along with the wicked passage, text, verse that follows. But at a minimum, we know that whatever this righteousness is that's being pursued can kill them, destroy them. and whatever the wickedness is that they continue on in, likewise, can lead to destruction. So that's the context with which we have to look at this. Certainly, Solomon does not suggest in not being overly righteous that we're not to pursue righteousness. That would be to go against all of God's Word and against what He had already set forth as it relates to wisdom. We are to seek to be holy because God is holy. That's never changed. The righteous one is to live righteously. But what it does say is don't try to be super-righteous. Don't try to be overly-righteous. To do so misses the mark. In soccer, we try to teach our four-, five-, and six-year-olds how to first not play herd ball, because that's what they tend to do. Everybody chases this one ball on both sides. We try to get them to spread out. We also try to teach them that there are boundaries that they have to stay in. Football's the same way. There are rules to be followed, and if you don't stay within the boundaries, we call it out of bounds, going past the mark. And our four-, five-, and six-year-olds sometimes struggle with that because of their physical inability to really control the soccer ball. but in their zeal, if you will, to kick the ball as hard as they can, even though they might be standing right next to the out-of-bounds line. And you can't get through to them, that just means the other team gets the ball. You've exceeded the rules. That's what Solomon seems to be suggesting here concerning righteousness. Going beyond what is required, but maybe think we're doing properly. It's the self-righteous attitude that can so easily creep in and that these very men had taken upon themselves that Solomon's writing about and is expounded upon in the lives of the Pharisees later on by Jesus. It's the idea that we can try a little harder. We can live a little better. And in doing so, in doing more good, then maybe we won't face adversity. Maybe we won't face death before our time. By being more righteous, then perhaps our lives might be prolonged. But notice what Solomon said in verse 15. He said the righteous people perished in their righteousness. Their deaths were not because they needed to be more righteous or because they lacked righteousness. They didn't die because they weren't righteous enough. That's not Solomon's point. Moral righteousness, he says, added to their righteousness would not have added one millisecond to their life. So to try to gain life by moral righteousness is really nothing more than self-righteousness. It's a path to destruction because it leads one down the path of trying to make themselves right before God by their own works, in their own way, according to their own righteousness. And dear friends, when you stand before God in judgment one day, clothed in your own works, you will be damned for eternity. Therein lies the struggle. But notice, Solomon gives a similar thought in relation to wisdom. It's not that wisdom ought not be pursued. This is Solomon who was granted wisdom from God. And longer life was promised him as he obeyed the wisdom given to him. But whose wisdom? Certainly not his own. This entire book is given to us to show the travesty of living according to your own wisdom. What you think is proper, instead of God's wisdom. You see, it's not the wisdom of the world. It's the wisdom of God. Paul addressed that danger in Romans chapter 10. In verse 2 he said, I bear witness of them. Now, the them there is the very group of people that Solomon's writing about and warning not to be too zealous, too righteous, too wise in their own eyes. Paul's writing to his brethren, the Jew. He says, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. He's not questioning that. But not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, seeking to establish their own righteousness, seeking to make themselves right before God, ignoring the righteousness that was theirs only in Christ Jesus, they did not submit to God's righteousness. That's being overly righteous. Excessively righteous. And friends, the only righteousness that's acceptable to God is Christ's righteousness. period, end of quote. What Luther coined the alien righteousness of Christ. In other words, Luther taught, according to scripture rightly, that this righteousness that is ours is not from within us, it's from without. See, Catholicism teaches that it's inane to man. Luther said no! When the Holy Spirit riveted home the truth that the just shall live by faith, then the rights went off. And he began to understand that that righteousness was not in him, it was outside of him. It wasn't his righteousness, it was Christ's righteousness. And it's by receiving that righteousness and that righteousness alone, and to be clothed with that, that makes man right with God. That's what he learned. And that is the truth that we need to take from this text. One, the righteousness of Christ, leads not just to prolonged life, but life eternal. The other, self-righteousness, leads to death. And then in verse 17, Solomon gives the other side of the coin. He says, do not be overly wicked. Literally, do not be very wicked. Neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? Now this is a little bit easier for us to maybe ingest. We've seen many people in their foolishness that die and they deserve it. Right? But he's not necessarily talking about that. He's taking these two thoughts of destruction side by side, righteousness and wickedness, zealousness and foolishness. So people might think, as we've already suggested, If righteousness, my righteousness, cannot guarantee a long life, why not just throw in the towel and live however I want to live and whatever will be, will be. We'll see where I come out. That is foolish thought. Simply live however I want to. But Solomon warns, don't be too wicked. Don't be a fool. To aim to be very wicked, Solomon said, To aim to continue gravitating toward the desires of your sinful heart would be foolish. Now, Solomon does not suggest that we should be just a little bit wicked. Some read that and say, OK, there's some place in between. Too wicked, no wickedness, and I'm supposed to... That's not what he's saying. What he is saying is that he knows that after the fall, and this is important because contextually we'll close with this, After the fall, men are flawed creatures. Paul says all have sinned. Fall short of the glory of God. We're all sinners. No man is excluded from that. Perfect righteousness is beyond us. It's without us, as we've already seen. Even the best of our works on our best day are tainted by sin. Isaiah says all of our works are as filthy rags. Now, I choose to interpret that as being before salvation. There is an element of Christ-ness, if you will, goodness to our works, if we are walking rightly. But even that, we have the residue of sin in our own lives. And we still have that taint, Paul calls it the flesh, that militates against the Spirit in our lives. So what Solomon warns against is becoming very wicked, choosing to sin deliberately as if it doesn't matter. We're not to use our flesh as an excuse or an opportunity to sin. That is foolish and it will lead to destruction. And so he concludes in verse 18, it is good that you should take hold of this and from that withhold not your hand. I agree with those commentators that say the first of these phrases refers back to don't be overly righteous. Don't be zealous, overly zealous. Don't live in self-righteousness. In other words, you shall take hold of this. Don't do that. And then secondly, from that, withhold not your hand. From what? To be too wicked. Two sides of the same coin. How do we overcome both of those things? The danger, the extreme of overly righteous and overly wicked? The one who fears God shall come out or be delivered from both of them. The one who fears God will come out from, be delivered both from self-righteousness and wickedness. That's his conclusion. So, what are we to take from this? Well, we're to live according to a balance of wisdom. And balance is very difficult in the life of a sinner. That's the reason we should ever be casting our cares upon Him. We should be seeking to walk by the Spirit so that we do not fulfill or gratify the desires of the flesh. This is the God, the Spirit, giving us a promise to us to keep us on the right path of righteousness so that we don't veer off. and to keep us from living and gratifying the desires of that residue of sin that remains in the life of the believer. That's the Christian life, in other words. It is good that you should take hold of this, Solomon says. So we see the balance of wisdom. We are to pursue righteousness and flee wickedness. But we're to do so according to the Word that He's given us as the Spirit illuminates that truth to our minds. And who is our example? Christ. Christ. But then secondly, notice not just the balance of wisdom, but he sets forth the strength of wisdom in verse 19. He, in the previous verses, is not meant to negate the value of wisdom. Again, this is Solomon speaking. Wisdom is the only way. God's wisdom provided from Him. And he likens that wisdom to the value of ten rulers in a city. The idea is of a king that might make an alliance with nine other kings. And as they gather together in the center of the city, it brings strength, not just to their numbers, but the numbers of their people as well. Solomon says, as good as that might be, wisdom is better. Wisdom is stronger than that. But a part of that wisdom in the context that we see this morning, or a key to living rightly, right use of knowledge, is being aware of the reality of sin. Not to just act as if it doesn't happen out there in our messed up world, but also not act as if it still resides in us and fights against the Spirit within us. Reform theology, Reformation Sunday, Reformed theology refers to this as the doctrine of total depravity. That is what Solomon shows in verse 20. This is the doctrine of total depravity. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. This same testimony is given by Paul in Romans 3, 10 through 18. Read that this morning, but you remember, he sets forth or strings together six Old Testament passages, mostly from the Psalms, that compose a powerful argument concerning the universal depravity of man. There is none who seeks after God. No, not one. All have sinned. All have been affected by sin from without and from within. Four times we read, there is none. There is none. There is none. There is none. And then in Romans 3, 13 and following, he shows the extent of that depravity. Their sinfulness is said to affect their throat, their tongue, their mouth, their feet, their eyes. From head to toe, man is in rebellion against God because of the sinfulness of his sin. But notice Paul's summary. In verse 18, what is the root of man's problem in Romans 3? It's the fact that he has no fear of God. What did Solomon say in our text? That the way to be delivered from self-righteousness and all wickedness is to fear God. Ultimately, he'll conclude in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, to fear God and obey Him. That is the right way. Paul says the problem with man Ultimately, there is no fear of God in their hearts, which leads to no fear of the consequences of their sin, which leads to think that they can rebel against God freely, which leads to their ultimate destruction. On the other hand, proper fear of the Lord brings with it a corresponding realization of the consequences of sin in our lives. And because of that, our need for Christ. Dear friends, if you're sitting here this morning and you've received Christ as your Lord and Savior, never minimize, never seek to be thankful of the grace and mercy that God has shed abroad in your heart that enabled you to say, and can it be? And why was I a guest? And understand that God's work in you, in Christ, is the only thing distinguishes you from a man that will face all eternity apart from Him. Proper fear of the Lord brings a realization of our sin and our need for Christ. That, Solomon says, is the strength of wisdom. It points you to the Savior. It points you to Christ. In other words, a wise man, to borrow from Luther's statement of the alien righteousness of Christ, a wise man lives outside of himself. in that Christ that is His, because Christ lives in Him. Now, I'm not going to be able to take time this morning to look at verses 21 and 22, but there Solomon illustrates the depravity of man. The illustration that he uses is to not take to heart that everything that people say, either for you or against you, right? People can speak well of us, And they may not be sincere, and that just puffs up our pride. On the other hand, they may speak untruths of you, and it tears you down. He says, regardless of those people, remember, you've cursed others as well. There's the evidence. No matter how good you might think you are, the truth comes out, doesn't it? What's in the heart will come out. And that's the illustration that he uses to demonstrate the depravity of man. the balance of wisdom, the strength of wisdom. But then thirdly, the search for wisdom. I led these words beginning in verse 23. He says, I've tested by wisdom all these things. He says, everything that we've been talking about, prosperity and adversity, the righteous that die seemingly young and the wicked that continue on. All these things. He said, I've put them to the test. I've contemplated these things. I've thought through these things. He says, I'll be wise. But it's far from me. I still don't understand. In verse 24, he says, that which has been far off and deep, very deep, who can find it out? Now, at this point, seeing no answer, Solomon could have thrown in the towel. He could have given up. And the things that he's thinking about are the deep things of God. But just because he didn't find the answer satisfying to his own heart, he didn't quit. Verse 25, I turned my heart to know, and to search out, and to seek wisdom in the scheme of things, both righteousness and to know the wickedness of folly. Why is this? Why do the foolish continue to live foolishly? And why do they continue to go down the path of madness? So he begins to continue to think about these things. In other words, to search or to pursue wisdom. And he mentions a few things that he finds along the way. In verses 26 and following. In his search for wisdom, he comes across the alluring temptations of the world. Verse 26, he says, I found something in this pursuit that is more bitter than death. In other words, I've been seeking answers for death. I found something worse. That in this life, in this world, there's this woman whose heart is a snare, is a trap. You remember in Proverbs, Solomon talks about the adulterous woman. in contrast to the way of righteous living. The harlot, the one who is apparently good and dangles the bait before sinful men, and it's a trap that they take. I don't think that Solomon there or here, in contrasting the adulterous woman with wisdom, is necessarily talking about just adultery or pornography or sexual immorality. That's certainly a part, because all of the lists of sins that are given in Scripture show the depravity and the depth of that snare. They begin with sexual immorality. But in general, it's more the entirety of the trap. that a wall sets before us that is against God. And he says the woman's heart is a snare. He who pleases God escapes her. You want to overcome the wicked woman? You want to be set free from the snare and the trap or never enter into it? Fear the Lord. Please God. But the sinner I would suggest saved or unsaved alike, the sinful man who continues to follow after the desires of his heart, trap. Trap. Again, back to the don't be too wicked, right? The alluring temptations of this world. Now, you can't contemplate this without thinking about the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 10, 12 and following, he wrote these words. Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. In Romans 12, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought. In other words, the moment you think you can stand on your own, the moment you think you've arrived, the moment you think I'm in the Spirit alone, you will fall. You'll fall. Take heed. Warning. If you think you can do this on your own and overcome the snares of the adulterous, the snares and the schemes of the evil one, you're a fool. Verse 13, however, no temptation, no snare, no trap, no bait has overtaken you that is not common to man. Now, this is an encouragement. Paul says, we're all walking in the same mess. You're not experiencing the thing that you think you are on your own. As a matter of fact, we're never alone. No temptation has overtaken you that's not common to all men. Your sin is just like everyone else's. The temptation, the snare, others have gone through it. God is faithful. Hello? God is faithful. In spite of us and our faithlessness, our over-righteousness, our over-wickedness, God is faithful. And He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. As long as you don't stand on your own. As long as you are abled by the Spirit, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape. That's a promise. Men, the last time you were tempted and fell, there was a way of escape. Women, the last time you tempted and got caught in the trap, there was a way of escape. God is faithful. It's His promise. It's happened to all men. They've all been tempted, just as you have. Even Christ. And yet He, without sin, He escaped. He'll provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Along the path of wisdom, there is this harlot that awaits, the temptations of the world, and they look good. But He says in 1 Corinthians 10.14, My beloved, flee from idolatry. He doesn't just tack that on the end. He's saying as you are fleeing from idolatry, you are fleeing to God. And as you flee to God, God is faithful. And although you will face temptation, you will face difficulty in this world because of sin, He will get you through if you will but follow Him and maintain the path of righteousness. First, in the search for wisdom, there's the alluring temptations of the world. Secondly, there are the secret things of God. He says, behold, in verse 27, here's what I found. And then in verse 28, I have not found. Here's what I found, but I have not found. I found while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things, both righteousness and wickedness, which my soul is seeking. I've not found it. In other words, why do bad things, evil things, happened to good God's people. Where is God? How could this happen? Why do these things take place? Adversity. And as he reminded us in verse 14, God's still in control. He keeps coming back to God. But he says, even with that, I've not found it. God's not given me in black and white a clear answer concerning this mystery or that mystery, hence the reason they're a mystery. You see, God is all-wise. God knows what we need to know, and He's given us just what we need to know and nothing else. And the moment we begin to pursue the secret things of God, we're being overly righteous. We've gone out of bounds. We're not to pursue the secret things of God. There are some things that are better left unknown. He says that in Deuteronomy 29.29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us. Once we start chasing things that aren't revealed by Him, it's a trap that we may do all the words of His law. Isaiah 55, Mike will be entertaining in a few weeks. He says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. That doesn't mean that we can't know anything there is to know about God. There's been a recent publication that the moment we try to know God, we're sinning. And his thesis is taken from his thoughts are not our thoughts, so we should not pursue God's thoughts. That's not what he's saying. He is incomprehensible, but that doesn't mean he's not knowable. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts than your thoughts. That's the secret things of God. The depths. the heights, there are things that we cannot know. And Solomon says, in my pursuit of wisdom, in trying to find the answer to this, not in general, but maybe in particular to a child that died or in particular, a catastrophe that's taken place in the lives of a people. He says, I don't have the answer. Didn't find it. But here's what I know. God knows. And even though he spoke more than he knew, he didn't have the full comprehension of Scripture that we still seek. We know that God does those things according to His good pleasure, in His time, in His way. And to question that is to question God. And then finally, in his search for wisdom, he says, there are no upright people. The end of verse 28, he says, one man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I've not found. Now, again, this is difficult to interpret. Some say, look, see, there's no women. The women are going to hell and one man. This is the use of language to bring home a truth. He's not saying that men somehow are more worthy in some way that women are. He's just saying that in my entire search, there were relatively No one that was upright that could be found. He says in Jeremiah 4.22, my people are foolish. This is Jeremiah, through God, speaking of his own people. My people are foolish. They know me not. They're stupid children. They have no understanding. They are wise in doing evil. He says, there's your wisdom. There's the wisdom of the world. There's the wisdom of the religious person apart from Christ. They're wise in their own eyes. But how to do good? They know not. One man among a thousand I found. No one was upright. But he's not hopeless. Because notice how he closes. In verse 29, this alone I found. I didn't find a lot of things. I didn't find the answer to the question at hand, the depth of that mystery, but here's what I did find. Here's what I do know. God made man upright. He had Genesis 1 and 2. It had been read in all of those people's lives from the beginning. In the cradle, they would have known of the Creator God. In all of those things. In the Garden of Eden. that was created just for them so that they had absolutely no need outside of that garden. And God was with them. And they walked with God in that garden. But then came the woman. Not Eve. Satan. Then came the snare. Then came the adulteress. Then came the bait. You can be like God. And what was the temptation? Knowledge. knowing good and evil. He said, see this, this is what I found. He made them upright. They knew better because they were created with perfect righteousness, holiness, righteousness, holiness, and knowledge. That's how they were created. The moment they took the fruit and ate. All of mankind was plunged into wickedness. But God will not be blamed. God made man right. They stood in His presence in the garden. Sin, or seeking out their own schemes, is the lot of mankind ever since the fall. Separated from God. Put out of the garden. not able to take that tree of life upon themselves. Luther recognized that a believer still lives in a fallen world and still, in fact, does commit acts of sin. Simul justus et peccator. There was no need to attempt to redefine sin to make it anything less than it was. Sin. Rather, there's a recognition of that tension. Paul's word, that war that continues to exist in the life of a believer, in their acceptance before God, being justified before Him, while at the same time, sinning. Simul iustus et peccator, at once, just and sinner, describes all believers. And this condition will not change until the Lord returns. In fact, it cannot change in this life, in this world. The believer must always rely on the finished work of Christ for his or her acceptance before God and believe that one day, yes, one day, that peccable, that peccator will be made impeccable. No sin. Not only no sin, but no residue. No even sight. that sin ever existed. And dear friends, that comes on the day that we receive our glorified body. But we can have assurance today of our justification. Not like the Catholic, There can really be no assurance, because you can never know if you're doing enough. If you're good enough, by the way, the plot in the law of the Muslim is the same way. It's works righteousness. How can they ever know if they've done enough to please Allah? How many prayers? How many of these things? How can they know? The Buddhists, the same way. There's no assurance. The only person that can have assurance of their salvation is the one that has salvation by grace. Grace that comes from above. The grace of God that bursts forth in their lives. Yes, we know that we can be declared right, not because of our good works, because our good works, as we've seen, are fatally flawed because of sin, but because of Christ's perfect work for us. That's what we celebrate when we come together at this table. It's both His perfect satisfactory and substitutionary life and death. His good works that we could never accomplish. The work that Adam was given in the garden, he fulfilled perfectly so that we might have life. So as we gather together at the table this morning, we must be reminded that knowledge, true knowledge, is ours in Christ, in Christ alone. And the only way that we can live rightly according to that knowledge, the only way to be wise is to fellowship, commune with Him and with the body of believers. You see, to say you love the Lord and that you've received Him is to say that you love the body and you've received them. To say that you serve the Lord is to say that you serve the body. Pray in the Lord is to say you pray for the body. Take all of the one another's in the New Testament. May we be seeking to do that as a body in Christ. There are no upright people. But we have a righteousness that comes from outside of us. Do you know that righteousness today? Let's pray. Father, we again are grateful as much as we can be in our own sinfulness for your Son, Jesus Christ. I pray that as we come to you through Him today, that we be reminded that our thankfulness for Him is made a pure aroma in your nostrils because He has made it right. That our filthy rags are clean. That we are white as snow. even though our sins were as scarlet. So, Father, may we be reminded as we come together at the Lord's table this morning, that scarlet that was shed for us, the blood that was given. May we be covered in that blood of Christ today. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. Our hymn of Dedication as well as commitment to the Lord's table this morning is found in the inside of your bulletin. Behold the Lamb. Katie, if you would play through that one time for us, and then we will sing this together in preparing for the Lord's table. Let's stand together. Behold the Lamb. Around the table of the King We're no longer bound by sin, but we're bound by peace, by love and by grace. You may be seated. This time, I'm going to read our church covenant, and then I'm going to ask those that have not signed the church covenant since being received in the membership, if they would come forward and sign that for us. It's found on the inside of your hymn book. For the sake of time, you can follow along silently, if you would. I'm going to read this in light of our people coming to sign in a moment. This is what we as a body have covenanted together in Christ together today. Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, We do now, in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ. We pledge, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort, to promote its prosperity and spirituality, to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines, to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, the spread of the gospel through all nations. We pledge also to maintain family and secret devotions, to religiously educate our children, to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances, to walk discreetly in the world, to be just in our dealings, faithful in our obligations, exemplary in our conduct, and to avoid all gossiping, backbiting and excessive anger, to abstain from all appearance of evil, to be zealous in all efforts to advance the kingdom of our Savior. We pledge further to watch over one another in brotherly love, to remember each other in prayer, to aid each other in sickness and distress, to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech, to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, mindful of the rules of our Savior, to secure it without delay. And then if the Lord moves you from this place, you pledge to unite as soon as possible with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant, the principle of God's word when we remove from this place. Let's pray. Father, we confess today that we are sinners. We need your grace to sustain us each and every day. And so, Father, help us in the power of the Spirit to live according to these words in our homes, in our community, in our church. May it all be for the sake of the name of your Son and for your glory, we pray. Amen. At this time, if you've not signed our church covenant, if you would come forward and do so. a a a a a a a Joshua will stay. Our men will come forward for a time of communion. In Revelation chapter 5, we have what is commonly and rightly read at the beginning of worship. Yet it provides for us a wonderful reminder of the shed blood of Christ for us. Revelation chapter 5, he said, Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. That is our Christ that we celebrate. at this table. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing, though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven knives, which are the seven spirits of God sent out unto all the earth. And he went and he took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense. which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." Stephen, would you ask the Lord's blessing on the breath? Father, we are so thankful that you've given us the bread of life. Father, as we take of this bread and his body broken on Calvary for us, we thank you for that sacrifice. We thank you that you raised your son from the dead. We have been justified his righteousness. Yes. Let us do this remembrance of him. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne, to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. Gerald, would you ask the Lord's blessing on the cup? Father, we thank You for this time that we can gather together around Your table. Father, we are forgetful people who need to be reminded of what Christ did for us. Father, we thank You that He went willingly. His blood was spilled. Let us do this. That chapter closes with the words, And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down. and worshiped. Normally, at this time, we would take an offering of benevolence. I'm going to ask if you have one today, if you would give that to Gerald at the end of the service. But I want us to close with an amen today as we stand together and close with the doxology, singing praise to God above for our salvation.