Life Is Hard And Then You Die (Part 1)

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

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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

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

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isnít for 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 weíre called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Ebenroth.

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Ebenroth. Did I say Eben -broth? Still a little under the weather.

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You could pray for me. Who knows what my lungs are like after the COVID stuff. Iím on some antibiotics.

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Now, I was hoping to be out and ride bicycles in the nice weather. This weekend is supposed to be like 95 or something.

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I love riding when itís super hot and just, you know, go out and ride three hours and lose three pounds.

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Thatís what I like. If I were to play something for you, what would you think of if I played this? You know what

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Iíd think of? I would think of last night when my wife and I were at rumba class. Every Thursday night, 7 to 8 oíclock, we have ballroom dance lessons.

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Iím still not really any good. You know, theyíll say things like, ìDonít do this robotic thing and act like you have no hips .î

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And then I usually just blurt out in class, ìWhy are you looking at me ?î But it gives us something to do, and itís fun to dance with your wife.

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And you know what, husbands? Wives like to dance. You probably want to have a happy wife, right?

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I know you want a holy life. More than a happy life. A wife and life. But you have to lead on the dance floor.

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Men and women, you have to follow. Isnít that hard in marriage? Itís hard to lead if youíre a man. Itís hard to follow if youíre a woman.

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So we do the dance. And so at least for an hour a week, Iím leading properly, sheís following properly, and then many other times.

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You can always write me, mike at nocompromiserradio .com. Hopefully the assurance book will be out soon.

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Doing some more American Gospel stuff. Planning things out, but you never know. If you donít have any lungs to do it, how does that work?

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Hopefully make it to California this summer, and this fall see the new little baby.

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Finally a grandpa. I wonder what kind of grandpa Iíll be. I was crazy dad when the kids were younger.

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Kim was a much better parent when the kids got older, i .e., how to take them to driving lessons.

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How to give them driving lessons. Oh, man. Well, I want to talk a little bit today about the meaning of life.

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Just a short, small little subject. Doesnít really translate into relevance into your life.

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Just a tiny little thing, you know. The meaning of life. Okay, let me ask it this way.

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Do you, dear listener to No Compromise Radio, I didnít say pactum listeners, I didnít say heidel cast listeners.

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Sometimes I, well, I listen to all the heidel cast, but sometimes I listen to heidel cast, and then

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Iím on the intro saying something. Tell me something good. Anyway, you never know.

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Might make it back. Might make it back to heidel cast. Maybe one day if Scott Clark is minding his manners weíll have him back on No Compromise Radio, but Iíll have to call his agent.

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Whatís the meaning of your life? Why are you on this planet? There are a lot of people on this planet.

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Why are you? Why do you exist? Why were you created? I could put it this way.

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Does your life matter? To whom does it matter? Important questions?

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I think right up there. If not the ultimate questions, penultimate questions.

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Source unknown. Lifeís but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.

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It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury.

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Ouch. But a lot of truth to it from a certain perspective.

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Mark Twain. You like Mark Twain, donít you? Most of it, maybe some of it. A myriad of men are born.

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They labor and sweat and struggle. They squabble and scold and fight. They scramble for little mean advantages over each other.

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Age creeps up on them. Infirmities follow. Those they love are taken from them and the joy of life is turned to aching grief.

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Death comes at last. The only unpoisoned gift ever had for them by the earth.

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They vanquish from a world where they were of no consequence. A world which will lament them for a day and forget them forever.

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Man. Thatís sobering, isnít it? Thatís why you turn to this radio station, this podcast, these iTunes.

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Because itís positive. Itís encouraging. Itís uplifting. While thereís no answer between those two men, at least theyíre admitting the problem.

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Theyíre honest. So many people today in this world try to mask the problem of the meaning of life and the frustration of life by fake smiles, white picket fences as it were.

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You ask them how theyíre doing. ìGood. Good. How are you ?î ìGood. Good and you ?î

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Thatís what we say in New England. ìHow are you ?î ìGood and you ?î ìGood and you ?î ìGood and you ?î What does the

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Bible say? If you had to pick a book of the Bible that would address this, that you could get some answers from, you would go to the book of Ecclesiastes.

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Good thinking. Weíre going to talk about the book of Ecclesiastes today. And I want you to know my thesis statement from the very beginning.

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ìYour life can have meaning, but that meaning canít be found in life .î

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There it is. Probably stole it from someone. Your life can have meaning.

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It should have meaning. But youíre not going to get the meaning of life from your own life, in your own life, or in this world.

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Itís going to have to be from your creator, the triune God. You see the world, you see the problems, you feel the pain, frustration, vanity, futility, and you think, ìYou know what?

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I despair .î But I donít want you to stop there. I want you to keep going. Let your despair drive you to the

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God who made you. I think you will be able to find, because of the resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus, that your life, even though hard, and probably will get harder, can be full of joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, because of the triune

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God, because the Father sent the Son by the Spirit. I think youíre going to be able to do that.

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And I think thatís what Ecclesiastes is going to teach us. I think really, in the midst of all the vanity of vanities, itís going to teach us to have our eyes go higher than this world.

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To really look up and not within. Not to look just out, but up. And if your life is basically not looking above the horizon, itís going to be really, really bad.

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And this happens to all of us, and so thatís why itís good to go to the book of Ecclesiastes, which really helps kind of reorient you, rightly.

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Is there more to life than what life gives? Is this it? And I think Ecclesiastes answers it.

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Ecclesiastes 1, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. The preacher.

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You could look at the Hebrew word, kohelet, and it means somebody who preaches.

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They gather information, they gather stuff, and they give it to a congregation.

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They teach. They gather and proclaim.

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This is not a name of a person. This is a title. And Luther translated this as ìpreacher .î

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It goes back to Martin Lutherís day. We use the word for this book, Ecclesiastes, and you think about ecclesiology.

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It has to do with a local church, right? The assembly. This is someone, given a title, who speaks to the assembly.

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Who speaks to the assembly? The son of David, king in Jerusalem. You can argue all youíd like about, ìIs

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Solomon here, the writer ?î ìWhy is Solomon writing ?î

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ìShould Solomon even be the writer ?î ìHow can this be Solomon ?î

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And simply it says in verse 1, ìThe son of David, king in Jerusalem .î

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So technically speaking, thereís not a personal name, so you could call this book anonymous if you want, technically speaking.

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But this person, they obviously knew what they were talking about. They were very wise.

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They were prosperous. And I think you could probably say, Solomon was those things, and he was the son of David and king in the

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Middle East, right? King in Jerusalem. Some people think Solomon, when he was a young man, wrote ìSong of Solomon .î

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When he was raising sons, he wrote ìProverbs .î And then after he had a lot of problems and repented, he wrote ìEcclesiastesî later in his life.

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Iím not sure. It doesnít matter to me because the Spirit of God wrote this. Thatís not my main problem.

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You know, you start studying the Bible, and then you start going down rabbit trails that you donít need to go down. Should you be affirmed and confirmed in your mind, ìHey, yeah, this is the

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Bible .î Yes, but weíre not talking about, ìOh, the Jews didnít recognize it, and it wasnít in the

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Septuagint, and Josephus said it wasnít in the canon .î Weíre not talking about canon. Weíre talking about, ìOkay, who wrote it ?î

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So, do you care if Solomon wrote it or not? I personally think Solomon wrote it. But Iím not going to die on that.

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Is Ecclesiastes in the Bible? Yes, of course. And when you come to Ecclesiastes, probably the best thing you can do is you can say, ìHow do

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I interpret this genre ?î Thatís the best thing to do. How do I interpret this genre?

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Where itís provocative, thereís lots of wisdom stuff here. Remember, itís wisdom literature. He gives some specific instances compared to the

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Proverbs, which might be general, and so donít let that catch you off guard. Heís got pithy sayings and sarcastic things.

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When you come to any book of the Bible, you should say, ìOther parts of the Bible that speak to the same thing will help me interpret things that are difficult .î

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Thatís the analogy of Scripture. You look with the passages of Scripture, comparing the clear, comparing the difficult with the clear.

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You say to yourself, ìThereís one divine author with all the books of the Bible. He doesnít contradict himself, and therefore, the general sense of the meaning of Scripture, knowing that thereís a theological system involved, you canít come to the

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Bible without presuppositions .î And then you say to yourself, ìThis is all driving me to the

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Lord Jesus. This is the scope of Scripture, scope of scriptura .î And you think, ìOkay, what does this have to do with Christ, and what kind of Christocentric interpretation does the

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Bible even have ?î The best interpreter of the Old Testament is the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the

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New. Latter texts shed interpretive light on earlier texts. And so we donít just stop with Ecclesiastes, in other words.

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We say to ourselves, ìThere are more books of the canon .î And thatís how weíre going to interpret the book of Ecclesiastes.

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Certainly inspired, certainly in the canon, written by a king who knew what he was talking about.

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And if I were to look at the first chapter or two, youíre going to see all kinds of problems. Thereís an analysis, thereís a diagnosis, and itís pretty bleak.

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There is going to be a solution toward the end of Ephesians, Ecclesiastes chapter two.

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But at the beginning, trouble, trouble, trouble. Why do they say trouble in Denmark? Thereís supposed to be no trouble in Denmark?

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Why does it say trouble in Denmark? ìVanity of vanity ,î says the preacher, Ecclesiastes 1 .2.

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ìVanity of vanities .î ìAll is vanity .î 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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ìVanity .î Now, that word ìvanityî is ambiguous.

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It has ambiguity. And I think the writer knew that.

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So, weíre going to have to look at different contexts to know what he means by what he says using that word.

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Itís used a lot, 35, 40 times in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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In one sense, it means like a riddle. Itís a puzzle.

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You look at whatís going on in the world and youíre like, you scratch your head. This is, somethingís not right.

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And thereís a struggle with it. Thatís one of the ways you could translate it. The other way you could translate it, thereís three ways.

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The second way is things are futile. Theyíre frustrating. Theyíre vain.

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Thereís no profit. And hence, ìVanity of vanities .î Itís a meaningless world, an empty world, a frustrating world.

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Nothing seems to go the way itís supposed to go. And, is it going anywhere?

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The days are consumed in futility. And then lastly, the word, kind of its origin too, its root, it means transient.

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It means fleeting. It means vapor. Transience, passing away, things that donít last.

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Like breath. And itís like a wind. Right? Itís here today, itís gone tomorrow.

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Like a little puff of wind or if you have, what are those bubbles that you would get at the dollar store?

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And itís got a little ring around the stick. You take the stick out and thereís a little bubble, a round area and you blow into that with all the goop on there.

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And you blow bubbles. And then the bubble floats for a second or two and then pops. Thatís the idea here.

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So it could mean perplexing, frustrating, or temporary.

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Thatís what we have to understand. And here in chapter 1 verse 2, he says all of life, itís vanity.

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Everything. Itís all vanity. Itís meaningless.

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Wow. Vanity of vanities. That kind of repetitions should make you think, hmm, serious.

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It expresses absolute. Right? Behold to the Lord your

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God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens. Thatís everything. Jesus is the

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King of kings and Lord of lords. So this is vanity of vanity. Just one big clump of vanities.

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Whereís the answer found? Everything is vain. Everythingís vain.

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Everythingís frustrating. Everythingís fleeting. Then weíre not going to get answers there. Heís giving us a little hint.

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Heís giving the preacher, the teachers, giving the class a hint. Youíre not going to find the answers in life.

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Youíre not finding the answers to life in life. Theyíre not going to be found here.

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Youíre going to have to go somewhere else. You kind of have my attention, Solomon, preacher, as the

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Message Bible calls him, the quester. Heís on the quest. Thatís verse 3.

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I ask you the question if youíre listening. All the work youíve done, think about the jobs youíve had. I started off, what was my first job?

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Catching crawdads. What we called affectionately Crawdad Creek. We had to wear shoes because it was stuff that would poke your feet.

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You couldnít go barefoot. But you had to make sure you had socks on too because the leeches, if you didnít have socks on, would grab ahold of you at Crawdad Creek.

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Thatís how bad we wanted to make money, catching crawdads. Then I became,

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I worked on a farm. We would clear out bean fields and troughs and stuff like that, cattle troughs.

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Then I worked for the phone company. Then, and then, and then, all these. What use is it?

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I want to ask you the question. What do you gain by all the toil at which youíve toiled under the sun?

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What do you have to show for it? What do you have? Has it contributed to the meaning of life in any way, shape, or form?

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What advantage do you have in all the work that you do under the sun? Enea says. I think we get a little hint here.

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Under the sun. Used regularly, at least 25 times in Ecclesiastes.

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On this earth, on this fallen earth, what happens?

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I donít think this has to do with secular or sacred. I think this has to do with fallen, under the sun, fallen.

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This world has been affected by the fall. Thereís vexation. We believe in the reality of original sin.

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Creation, Romans 8, waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subject to futility.

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Thatís the exact word translated in the Old Testament. Greek. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it.

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Under the sun. Remember the sin in the garden? I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.

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In pain you shall bring forth children. To the woman, he said, your desire shall be contrary to your husband.

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He shall rule over you. To Adam, God said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and eaten of the tree of which

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I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

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Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field.

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By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

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Under the sun. Hmm. Whatís the gain? By the way,

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I love the Bible for lots of reasons. One of the reasons I love the Bible are these questions. These dissecting questions.

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These question of all questions. These $64 ,000 questions. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

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Questions like that in the Bible. Those are important. What can a man give in return for his soul?

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Probing questions. How can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of a woman be pure?

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How shall we neglect, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? Good questions.

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And the question here is, hmm, what does it, what does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun in this fallen world?

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Hmm. Rhetorical question. The Chicago Cook County sewer employee used to say something like this.

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Allegedly. Allegedly. I dig the ditch to get the money to buy the food to get the strength to dig the ditch.

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What's the gain? What's left over? What's the extra? What's the positive advantage?

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If you're not looking anywhere else, if you're just looking at this world and you don't have a divine perspective, you're smoked.

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Solomon, or the writer, goes on to talk about just cycles of vanity, cycles of futility, what some call sad rhythms, just back and forth and on and on.

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Nothing seems to have any gain. No gain. A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

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Whether you believe the earth is 6 million years old, 6 billion years old, or 6 ,000 years old, the earth stays.

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Generations come and go. Vapor. Meaningless. Sun rises, the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

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Wind blows forth to the south, goes around to the north, around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

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Comes around, goes around. It's like it's mocking us. It's like it's a broken merry -go -round.

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It's not so merry at all, is it? Sun rises. It doesn't even go anywhere.

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Back and forth, it goes back to where it was at the beginning. Same, same, same. All the streams of the sea, they run to the sea.

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The sea's not full. I mean, you think it'd fill up by now, don't you? To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

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All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

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Probably even better that I'm a little sick as I go through this because my sickness can add to the just vanity of it all, the wearisomeness of it all, the tiresomeness of it all, the laboriousness of this all.

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How are we to find satisfaction here under the sun in this fallen world? Can you have joy and satisfaction here?

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Jean -Paul Sartre said, things are entirely what they appear to be, and behind them there's nothing. What has been is what will be.

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K. Sarasra. And what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

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If there is a thing of which it is said, see, this is new. It already has been in the ages before us.

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And that's how verse 10 of chapter 1 ends. You think, wow. History's going nowhere.

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I'm going nowhere. We're all going nowhere. No wonder Karl Marx said, history is a farce.

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It's a tragedy, then a farce. Whew. Well, I have to give you a sneak peek, because it can't end with the bad news here.

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When you recognize life as a gift from God and see everything from His good hand, you realize there's a

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God who works all things together for our good, for His glory, that He's going to make all things new,

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Revelation 21, that His mercies are new every single morning, that He loves sinners, sent

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His Son to die for sinners, that there's a resurrection, your bodies will be raised, what you do on earth matters.

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When you work under the Lord, it matters. When you do dishes under the Lord, it matters. When you serve at the local church under the

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Lord, it matters. And everything changes. And so that's what we're going to talk about next time on No Compromise Radio.

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My name is Mike Abendroth. You can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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