Life Is Hard And Then You Die (Part 4)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes, as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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Mike Abendroth. What's going on around here? What's new? Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

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Not through NoCo. I don't have time to do all the 501c and everything else. What are we going to talk about today?

Well, we're talking a little bit more about life and the meaning of life in the book of Ecclesiastes.

If you have college students, if you have high school students, this is a great book to work through. Basically, every person tries to get satisfaction in life with things, possessions, sex, money, alcohol, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, education, whatever's under the sun.

They try. Problem is, the world's fallen. And since the world has fallen, it's hard to extract satisfaction out of corpse, essentially.

I know all you vampire fans are thinking about things like that now, but it's difficult.

So Ecclesiastes, make sure you read it as a

Christian book. We've got this idea that, well, you know, we're trying to get in the mind of the author and we're not going to bring any presuppositions to the text and what's happening in Ecclesiastes.

What if it's the only book written? How are we to understand the mind of the author? Friends, stop it.

Don't do that. That's the wrong way to do it. You have a canon, 66 books in the

English Bible. You have not only a canon, but you have later revelation to help you interpret early revelation, progressive revelation.

We have later revelation, like what Jesus said on even how to read the

Old Testament. The only infallible interpreters that I ever know in the Bible are the apostles.

We see how they read the Old Testament. If you read Ecclesiastes as just a wisdom literature book in a genre and translate it and try to understand it like any other book in the world, you're going to dog yourself.

That's not wise. It's not like any other book. And it's a

Christian book. Therefore, if you read Ecclesiastes as a Christian, you're not going to say, hmm, only pessimism, only negative.

You're going to see other things. As a matter of fact, you're going to go, hmm, I wonder why the

Jews read it during celebratory feasts. We'll talk about that maybe next time on No Compromise Radio.

What's the reason? And if Jews do that, how much more do Christians, when we realize Jesus came to give us life, that we might have it, what, more sorrowfully, more sadly, more mournfully?

No, no. More abundantly. We are reading the book of Ecclesiastes, yes, with all its honest brutality, yet thinking, hmm, there's something else going on here.

There's more than meets the eye. There is a God who is eternal, who is simple, who is immense, who is wise, who is good.

And He, this great God, can be trusted.

And there is eternity, there is resurrection, there's hope, there's joy, there's victory over death.

And whether you eat or whether you drink, you can have great satisfaction as you do it to the glory of God.

Anyway, we've gone over the last three shows, Ecclesiastes 1 and 2, and we've come up really to this.

If you just tuned in today, good for you because all the negative stuff, you're going to die and everybody's going to take your stuff.

What have you worked for your entire life? All those overtime shifts, sweat, toil, everything else, what do you have to show for it?

Well, whatever you have to show, if you're proud of that, fine to be proud of hard work. You're giving it to somebody else.

Somebody else is taking all of it, right? I about died last year. Everything I have, what do

I have? What are my prized possessions in life outside of people?

Well, I don't know, books, some things that I have on my dad's, like one of my dad's rings and his watch or something like that.

My mom's Bible with her notes in there. I love my mom's handwriting. I mean, whatever

I have, what are my prized possessions? If I have to run in the house and take a few things out besides kids, which they're all older, so they're not in the house.

So take my wife. What else do I bring? What are my prized possessions? They're all going to someone else.

I have four children. My stuff will be divvied up if my wife and I both died at the same time, our stuff would be divvied up by the four kids, 25 % each.

They take all the stuff, some stuff they wouldn't want, right? They just give away. They'd feel bad when they gave it away, but they give it away, donate it or something like that.

And then they'd take it and then they would get a house, they'd be married, have some kids.

They wouldn't have enough room. They'd slowly get rid of the other stuff and it'd go up in the attic and it just slowly dwindled, dwindled, dwindled and everything

I have passed on. So things are pretty bleak if you don't recognize the triune

God. Even when you see life as a gift of God, yes, there's still troubles, but it's not the same, right?

These troubles are redeemed. You know in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, because of the resurrection, your work is not in vain.

The Lord knows, the Lord understands, and you can do things for him and unto him and they last, they count.

Out of graciousness of God, you'll even get rewarded for those things. It's interesting, there's a word in English, enthusiasm, and we talk about enthusiasm often.

I think if people preach or teach the Bible, you ought to preach with enthusiasm. And basically what it means is to be inspired or possessed by a

God, entheos, possessed by a God.

To put God in something. Hmm. Now, I'm not talking about false gods, obviously, but if I could just use this as a little reminder, you can live life that's full of enthusiasm and joy instead of living a life full of hatred, 217, despair, mind racing, soul racing, frustration, vexation, futility.

You can live a life of enthusiasm because when you see God in something, like everything you own, he gives to you, your life, your health, your breath, everything else is

God's gift. Your wife is a gift to you. Your husband is a gift to you if you're a lady.

You start seeing the goodness of God, how it endures continually, Psalm 51.

You realize that this great God just gave you everything. There's no darkness in this God.

This God is light and what God gives, he gives perfectly for your own good and for his glory.

Arthur Pink said, God is originally good, good of himself, which nothing else is. For all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God.

God is essentially good. Not only good, but goodness itself. The creature's good is a super added quality.

In God, it is his essence. He's infinitely good.

The creature's good is but a drop. But in God, there is an infinite ocean of gathering together of good.

He's eternally and immutably good, for he cannot be less good than he is, as there can be no addition made to him, so no subtraction from him.

Now, I misquoted that, I gave that reference to Pink.

It's not Pink. It's in Pink's book, but it's Thomas Manton. But Pink did say this, the original

Saxon meaning of our word God is good. Huh.

I never knew that. I don't know if it's true, but I want it to be true. God saw everything that he made and behold, it was what?

Very good. The whole earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, and when you realize what

I own, what I have, is from God's hand, it changes everything.

There goes the frustration, there goes the vexation, because what do I deserve and what do I get? Do you want to know if God's good?

What did he do? He sends forth his son, made of a woman, made under law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.

The Lord is good and does good. So if you have the entire world and you don't recognize it comes from God, you're going to be full of vexation.

If you have everything in life and you're at the top of your game and you think, you know what? What I have,

I got myself, kind of nebuchadnezzar, then there's going to be trouble.

But if you're like Thomas Brooks who said, the rattle without the breast will not satisfy the child, the house without the husband will not satisfy the wife, and the world without Christ will not satisfy the soul, you're on to something.

You go, oh, I get it now. I see things clearly, and I think that's what

Ecclesiastes wants you to do. I don't think it wants you to just despair. I think if you are despairing and frustrated, you should say to yourself,

I think my mind's on the wrong things. It's kind of like the light that goes on in the dashboard in the car.

Oh, oil. So oil, that's like a little symbol for oil. I think I need more oil.

And so when you see the flashing lights go on in your mind and your soul, your conscience, I'm getting frustrated, vexation, everything else, living in a fallen world.

How can I have any joy in this fallen world? I need to make sure I see everything through the lens of God, the

Father, God, the Son, and God, the Spirit, and how he gives graciously. You see this in chapter three, that everything that someone drinks and eats and their labor is the gift of God, 313,

Ecclesiastes 518, which God has given him, 519, whom God has given riches and wealth.

This is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 815, which God has given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9, enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life, which

God has given to you. God is a giving God. He's not some, as some people call it, a cosmic killjoy.

This is from the hand of God. Did you know every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of lights with whom there's no variation or shifting shadow? You know

God loves to give. You know God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

You know God gives every good gift and every perfect gift. That's comprehensive. It's emphasis in the

Greek in James 1, verse 17. God gives good things, useful things, beneficial things.

He's lavish in his generosity. He loves to give from salvation to food to children to your bodies to your taste buds to enjoyment, laughter, friends, children, clothing, shelter, beauty, music, the ability to hear all from God.

They just keep coming down and coming down, wave after wave after wave. And when

Ecclesiastes 2 .25 says, from apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? Outside of God, without him, how can you enjoy?

How can you literally look upon the good? But with him, the good giver, you can do that very thing.

That's amazing to me. That's wonderful to me. Isn't it to you? Hmm. Okay. Now I understand.

With him, I can have enjoyment under the sun. With him,

I don't have to see life as chasing after the wind. With him, I can have lasting enjoyment and true soul satisfaction.

Do you want your children to enjoy things in life or to be frustrated? Well, you, along with me, are fallen parents, and we want good things for our children.

Well, what does that tell you about the Lord? First Timothy 6, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but instead fix their hope on God who richly supplies us all things to enjoy from the hand of God.

From the hand of God. That's what it says in chapter 2 verse 24.

So let's just make a little catalog list of everything that's in your life. From the hand of God.

My job is from the hand of God. My wife is from the hand of God.

My children are from the hand of God. My church family, from the hand of God.

My taste buds, from the hand of God. My friends, from the hand of God.

My house, from the hand of God. My cars, from the hand of God.

my bicycles from the hand of God. The ability to enjoy from the hand of God.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Show me a thankful person and I'll show you somebody that's not despairing and hating life.

This is guilt, grace, gratitude, is it not? Who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? Well, with Him you can have all these things.

When you run around saying, I deserve this, I deserve that, I deserve everything, and then the world doesn't deliver, you get despair.

But if you think, I don't deserve anything, and look at all this gracious God gives me. He justified me when

I was ungodly. He redeemed me when I was a sinner. And now I get joy and satisfaction because I was supposed to go to hell, and now

I get every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The Father chose me, the Son lavished His love on me, with the

Father, and died, the Son died as a substitute for me, was raised, and the Spirit seals me to the day of redemption.

Then verse 26, for the one who pleases Him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner

He has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and striving after the wind.

Joy, satisfaction. It's amazing. One man said, the problem is not with things, it's with thinking.

I think that's right. Begin to view things in the proper perspective. Here's a hymn.

Heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green. Something lives in every hue.

Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs overflow.

Flowers with deeper beauties shine. Since I know, as now I know, I am

His and He is mine. Just that insight, acknowledging everything

I have is from a gift, is from God. He gives you the greatest gift. Romans 8, what shall

I say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave

Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? From the hand of God.

Did you know Hebrews 11, 6 says this? Without faith it is impossible to please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek

Him. That's who God is. That's the triune God, the rewarder.

Isn't that amazing? He's a rewarder? He's a paymaster? Huh. John Owen, that which these words of the

Apostle hath respect to, and which is the ground of faith here required, is contained in the revelation that God made of Himself unto

Abraham. Fear not, Abram, for I am thy shield, and thy exceedingly great reward.

God is so rewarder unto them that seek Him, as that He is Himself their reward.

Ultimate satisfaction. Ultimate joy found in the triune God. That's why the just shall live by what?

By faith. Okay. Okay. Now I'm getting it.

Dear listener at No Compromise Radio Ministry, when you start feeling frustrated, full of vexation, full of futility, full of meaninglessness, full of purposelessness, all the things that that word habel in the

Hebrew language talks about, you start thinking about life and death and what's gonna happen.

In your life, then that's showing you the dashboard is lit up. It's not yellow, it's red.

Pay attention. Not red like you're gonna lose your salvation, but red like important. And now you back up and go, hmm, what

I've been reading? What have I been thinking? What have I been pondering about? What have

I been thinking about the triune God who loves me, cares for me, provides for me?

Dear listeners, I think you know the answer. When you begin to watch what

Jesus does and He says hmm, I'm the bread of life.

Jesus didn't say hmm, I did. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever shall come to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I say to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me.

And whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me but raise it up on the last day.

This is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes Him should have eternal life and I will raise

Him up on the last day. Life is a gift from God.

You're meant to enjoy it, dear listener. The fall causes all kinds of problems.

I'm not saying prosperity gospel will never have any problems, but do you know you can still have joy?

Right? Whatever your circumstances are, the fruit of the Spirit is love. What's the second one?

Joy. You don't have to earn your salvation, Christian. It's earned. You don't have to keep your salvation.

It's kept. You get to enjoy your salvation. That's right. You get to enjoy your salvation.

You say, yeah, but I'm gonna die one day and everybody's gonna take my stuff. Who cares? Enjoy it now while you're on earth and then in heaven you're not gonna need stuff.

When the perishable puts on imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Paul's happy because he knows Jesus crushed death.

He knows, Isaiah 25 says, He will swallow up death forever and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth.

The Lord has spoken. Swallowed up. When a snake swallows up a mouse, there's no trace of the mouse left over.

It's gone. Oh death, where's your victory? Oh death, where's your sting? This is language of triumph.

This is language of taunting. This is language of, do your worst, death. The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

And ultimately, it's a gateway, death is, to eternal immortal glory.

Therefore, but thanks be to God who gives us victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.

I hope you're encouraged. I hope this is not sad. Okay, if you're frustrated and you've been focused on materialism and Club Med hedonism stuff, repent.

God loves repentance. Repent right today. Lord, forgive me for this. Please reorder my affections.

It's as simple as that. If you have a child and your child does something wrong and your child says, Daddy, please forgive me. What do you do?

Prove it. No, you don't say that. You say, I forgive you. I love you. Come on, let's go. Let's go have an ice cream. Let's go do something fun together.

Let's go skip some stones, something like that. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.