You Don’t Say? - [Ecclesiastes 8]

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

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isnít for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as weíre called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Hereís our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Remembering Ecclesiastes Through the Resurrection

If all the Bibles were gone, you had no electronic access to any Bible, no books, no Bible books, how much of the Bible do you think you could reconstruct just with your own memory? Starting with the books of the Bible, and then how much do you know about each book and its theme, and what it teaches, and then down to the exact verses.

Could you reconstruct one book of the Bible, five books of the Bible, how many do you have memorized? Itís very interesting. Back when television was first coming on scene, people were thinking, ìWe are going to become illiterate.

Weíre not going to read anymore because weíll sit in front of what the British people called the telly and just absorb .î. And there was a man named Ray Bradbury, and he wrote a book called ìFahrenheit 451î.

And if you had a book in your house in that novel, they would come and burn your house down if you had a book. So there was a little secret club in ìFahrenheit 451î, and you could join that secret club if you had books memorized, because theyíd want to sit and learn.

And Guy Montag, the man in ìFahrenheit 451î, memorized two books, and he was accepted into the club. He memorized, any guesses? The book of Ecclesiastes, and the book of Revelation. How apropos to see the world rightly, sad realism, but see reality as it is, the book of Ecclesiastes, and then know whoís coming back at the very end to proclaim victory, and to come and to rule and reign righteously, Ecclesiastes and the book of Revelation.

And as you know, in this church, weíre just marching through the Bible, verse by verse, whatever God says is true, and we need to understand it, Old Testament, New Testament, wisdom literature, doctrinal things.

And weíve been going through the book of Ecclesiastes. On one hand, Iíve been loving it, on the other hand, itís been so hard for me, because itís a difficult book to study, itís a difficult book to learn, itís also difficult to preach.

And some of that difficulty is because thereís themes that keep coming up, over and over and over. And so I thought I preached on enjoying Godís good gifts, when you can, in chapter 2, but then itís in chapter 5, and then itís in chapter 8, and then itís in chapter 9.

I thought I talked about fearing God and keeping His commandments, and itís earlier in chapter 3, and itís in chapter 5, and itís in chapter 8, and itís in chapter 12. Over and over, these themes of how to be wise.

Christ as the Key to Reading Ecclesiastes

So before we go to Ecclesiastes 8 today, I want you to turn to John chapter 6, please, and I want you, dear Christian, to realize that it is hard to understand the book of Ecclesiastes with joy, unless you remember Jesus, the resurrected Savior.

Weíre on this side of the resurrection, and I want you to read Ecclesiastes through later truth, of course, that we have a Savior, and we have a Redeemer, we donít have to pay for our sins, and we can look at the world rightly, but still look at the world with hope.

Just like with funerals in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, thereís a way to grieve, Ecclesiastes is the only book, and thereís a way to grieve with hope, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, that is, we can grieve knowing who, what the world is, but still have hope knowing who Jesus is.

Look at John chapter 6. I regularly, maybe almost every week, read this section before I come to the book of Ecclesiastes. And, of course, the Lord Jesus knew of Ecclesiastes very well. John 6, 28, ìThen they said to him, ìWhat must we do to be doing the works of God ?î Jesus answered them, ìThis is the work of God.

That you believe in Him whom He has sent .î People talk about obeying the gospel. This is exactly what theyíre talking about, believing in whom He has sent. ÌSo they said to him, ìThen what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness, as it is written, ìHe gave bread to them from heaven to eat .î. Jesus said to them, ìTruly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world .î. They said to him, ìSir, give us this bread always .î. And Jesus said, ìAnd hereís my template for having joy in the book of Ecclesiastes.

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said 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 have 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 in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day .î. And of course when I think of Ecclesiastes, I think of the world and you look at it, itís full of frustration.

I certainly donít see that in the Lord Jesus. Thereís vexation when you look at the world under the sun, the fallen world. I certainly donít see that in the Lord Jesus. Thereís vanity in the world and nothing lasts.

I certainly donít see that in the Lord Jesus. The futility of life is not found in the Lord Jesus, itís found in life. And so as I come to the book of Ecclesiastes, I say to myself, left to myself looking at the world in its fallen state, everythingís just vanity.

But remembering who Jesus is, the one who came to give us life that we might have at more abundantly, I can not only have a hope of eternal life on earth, but I can have some joy in this fallen world.

Wisdom for Rulers and Counselors

And with that introduction, please turn to Ecclesiastes 8, Ecclesiastes the preacher. What does the preacher preach? Well in Ecclesiastes, he preaches wisdom. You want to be wise in this fallen world.

After all, we know that the Lord God is all wise and that He gives wisdom to His people. And you think of Solomon, he had that opportunity to pray for something, and instead of strong armies, instead of money, instead of influence and fame, what does Solomon pray for?

Wisdom. And we know we can come to the Lord, Genesis, excuse me, James chapter 1 verse 5. God is a generous God, and especially when weíre in a trial, we ask for wisdom and God gives it generously. So we come to the passage today, as Christian people, God, what do you have for us?

We would like to be wise because youíre a great God and weíd like to honor you. Weíre not going to be wise to get into heaven, oh we slipped up and we were foolish, weíll never make it. We realize we were foolish, and the fool says in his heart thereís no God.

But we have been redeemed by the righteous one, the Lord Jesus, and out of gratitude weíd like to be wise. Our sermon today in Ecclesiastes 8 is basically entitled ìWhat Does Wisdom Say ?î. What does wisdom say?

What does a wise person say who lives on this earth? Thereís more evil than good, what do you say ?î. And in fact that was something when we were kids in Nebraska, and people would say sometimes when there would be something interesting said to us, weíd say, ìYou donít say !î.

People donít talk that way anymore, ìYou donít say !î ìOh, you know, the Patriots are going to lose some more games, you donít say !î ìTheyíre going to win more games, you donít say !î. ÌWhoís the quarterback controversy, you donít say !î.

Well what does wisdom say? The fool is going to say certain things that are the opposite, what does a wise person say under the Spiritís inspiration, what does wisdom say? If someone comes to you and says, ìThe world is chaos !î.

What do you say to them? If you say, ìThereís so much sin, whatís going on in the world? I thought God was sovereign !î. What do you say to them? I mean the problem of evil, what do you say to them? We live in a culture where sin is called good, and good is called evil, what do you say to that?

Well today weíre going to look at, in chapter 8, weíll see how far we get, what does wisdom teach us to say? Four things that you as a Christian in response to Godís saving work should say, and I say the word ìsayî because if you look, itís in verse 2, ìI sayî or literally ìsayî, and in verse 4, ìWho may say to him, what are you doing ?î.

And thereís this theme, what do you say? What does wisdom say? So the outline today, what does wisdom say? It says four things in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8. What does wisdom teach you to say?

The first thing, congregation, you should say is this, ìKing, rule wisely .î. You should say to the king, ìRule wisely .î King, rule wisely. Now, if you take a look at this section, youíre going to figure out real soon what I mean by that.

You should say, if youíre ever Daniel and you have access to the king, you should tell him to rule wisely. If youíre ever Joseph and he asks you for advice, the king, the pharaoh asks you, you should say, ìRule wisely .î.

If you ever become the chief of staff for the White House, you should say to the president, ìHow many people have that aspiration to beÖî. Now you say, ìWell, what does this have to do with anything ?î.

Well, it has everything to do with the text. Weíll talk about maybe a practical application of that. But whatís happened is this. Chapter 7 ends with everybody sinful. The universality of sin, sin affects the foolish, it infects the wise, and you know what?

It infects people who rule in the government. Didnít we just lose, didnít we just lose, didnít we just learn in the book of Daniel? Nebuchadnezzar was doing foolish things, he paid for it on earth at least, and so sin has so permeated like leaven, itís so affected everything that wisdom says, ìWe want rulers who rule justly, who rule righteously, who do the right thing .î.

How many people would rather be under a government form in the United States or wherever you live thatís righteous and good and not self-seeking but wants the best for the population. How many people would like to live under that?

How many people live under that? No, Iím just kidding. We all have that desire because weíre thinking about the ultimate king who Jesus rules and reigns righteously. And so the preacher is saying to the person that has the ear of the king, ìYou need to be telling him, ìJudge righteously .î.

Letís see if thatís true and see if you can see that in the text. But letís deal first with this transitionary verse, verse 1, that leads us to our conclusion to say, ìKing, rule righteously .î Verse 1, hereís some questions, ìIn light of what weíve just seen with depravity in the last chapter, in light of all the sin that affects people in the last chapter, who is like the wise ?î Kind of few and far between, kind of a rare deal, kind of a rare commodity, itís hard to find.

And youíre going to see a little glimpse here in the things like Daniel and Joseph and dream interpretation. And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A manís wisdom makes his face shine and the hardness of his face is changed.

Heís moving from how sin affects to how do we deal with people who are in authority? How should those in authority even live? And of course, I like it where it says there in the second part of verse 1, ìWisdom makes a manís face shine .î Remember the Lord in Numbers chapter 6, ìMay the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may His, what, face frown at you .î I try when Iím preaching to smile when itís appropriate, but itís kind of like, well, you know, maybe I need to send a missionary to my face even because wise people have shining faces.

Itís the kind of face where if you have a grandson and you see him during Thanksgiving for the first time and you walk over and you just frown. How could you do that to me being in NICU for 10 days? What are you doing, you little rascal?

No, what do you do? Your face opens up and it shines, acceptance. Wise people have joy in their heart and oftentimes it comes out. I have joy. Thatís the shining face. Itís obvious. And heís got that inner joy.

Listen to Psalm 34, ìI sought the Lord and He answered me and He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to the Lord are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed .î When you have a happy face, lots of times in the Bible itís a sign and testimony of Godís favor.

Proverbs 15, ìA glad heart makes a cheerful face .î And wise faces shine. Wise faces glow. Remember, Daniel wanted to obey God. Iím so glad weíve been reading through Daniel back in chapter 1. Remember, he wasnít going to eat the food that they were giving him and everything else.

And so he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. That leader did. And at the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the kingís food.

We could say it this way. Instead of being grumpy and down and sour and dour, they were shining in their facial expressions. We move to verse 2. ÌI say ,î the ESV says, literally say, ìKeep the kingís command because of Godís oath to him .î.

So immediately, if you read nothing else, youíll probably think, ìOh, I better obey the king. Should we obey government authorities until they do something that theyíre not supposed to do and we disobey in light of who God is ?î Romans 13, it teaches that.

1 Peter 2, it teaches that. But this isnít talking about people that are under the kingís command. This is talking about the person who has the kingís ear. Look down in verse 3. ÌDo not be hasty to go from his presence.

If youíre the kingís counsel, you donít leave right away. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does what he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme. And who may say to him, including you, counselor, ìWhat are you doing ?î.

This is not talking about just weíre generally underneath Godís government system that heís ordained for us, although thatís true. Thereís a book written by G .K. Beale, and Bealeís book is entitled something like this, ìRight Doctrines from Wrong Passages .î.

Thatís interesting. Take a look at verse 2. Maybe I can clear it up with this. Let me read it to you literally from the Hebrew. ÌSay, ìKeep the mouth of the king .î ìKeep the mouth of a king .î. I could say it this way, ìProtect the mouth of the king .î.

Some of you have ESV study Bibles, and theyíre right. It says in the ESV study Bible, ìKeep the mouth of the king .î. The verb ìkeepî in this instance indicates not so much obeying as guarding, protecting, keeping watch over.

And so we have a counselor with a king, and that counselor knows that the whole world is sinful, including that king, and he needs to be saying to that king regularly, ìBe wise .î. Why? It affects a lot of people.

What they say goes. He can harm people. He can do good to people. And this king, matter of fact, is under an oath. If we ever get a chance to be by kings, we should say to them, ìBe wise .î You know what?

For lots of reasons, because theyíre sinful, but also because of Godís oath to him. I donít think this has to do with an oath of a subject. I donít think this is a public vow that the king gave, like in 1 Chronicles 29.

I think this is ultimately, thereís going to be the oath from God, that thereís going to be a Davidic ruler whoís going to come and rule and reign. The promise of King David and his son, ultimately, the Lord Jesus.

So these oaths involve, verse 3, ìDo not be hasty to go from his presence .î I mean, when he makes a bad decision, itís not time to run. ÌDo not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases .î Going from presence of somebody, ìI donít like you, Iím disloyal, Iím deserting .î If youíre going to give the king advice, you better stick in there and donít go AWOL.

Thatís his point. Why would you want to lose influence? The king needs help. Daniel didnít run when the king made bad decisions. Of course, we want to wisely and in a godly way live under authority. Itís not just for courtiers, itís for us too, thatís true.

But the context here is kings need help. Verse 4, ìThe word of the king is supreme. This is why they need help. Who may say to him, ìWhat are you doing ?î I mean, the only person that can say that is God.

Remember King Nebuchadnezzar? I mean, kings have power, and if you just kind of go backward in Jewish history, God was the king of Israel. ÌHey, but we want a king. Everybody else has a king. The Philistines have kings, the Moabites have kings, everybodyís got a king.

We want kings .î Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king. ÌThese will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. Heíll take your sons and appoint them to his chariots.

Heíll appoint for himself commanders of thousands, and heíll appoint some to plow his ground. Heíll take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. Heíll take the best of your fields and vineyards.

Heíll take a tenth of your grain. Heíll take your male servants and your female servants. Heíll take a tenth of your flocks and youíll be his slaves. And in that day youíll cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourself, but the Lord will not answer on that day .î 1 Samuel chapter 8, ìBut the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel and they said, ìNo, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles .î Pastor, what are you talking about?

Kings have authority, and kings need to rule righteously. Verse 5, ìWhoever keeps a command will know no evil thing .î You obey, youíre fine. Obey the authorities, youíre fine. ÌAnd a wise heart will know the proper time and the just way, working through when to do the right thing, when to do the wrong thing .î Thereís a time, verse 6, and a way for everything.

Sounds like Ecclesiastes 3, right? ÌAlthough manís trouble lies heavy on him, he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be ?î Even the future we donít know. ÌNo man has power to retain the Spirit .î Certainly not a king.

ÌOr power over the day of death .î Certainly kings donít have that power. ÌThereís no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given it .î Everybody dies, and it is appointed for man once to die, and kings to die, and then judgment.

Where is Caligula? Where is Genghis Khan? Where is Henry VIII? Theyíre all dead. So I know what youíre saying. And before I answer the question, ìI know what youíre saying ,î letís read verse 9. ÌAll this I have observed, while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt .î Well, part of Bible study and preaching is just telling you what the text says, and the text says this, that even kings are affected by the fall, and they need wisdom because they affect a lot of people.

And if we have to obey these kings, we want to do it under righteous rule. And you say, ìI know, Mike, thatís fine and dandy, but Iím never going to be before a king .î Any application here? Application 1, itís in the Bible, you should know it.

See, my face is shining. Application 2, you donít have access to a king who needs to rule righteously and with wisdom, so what would be a good application from this? What do you think would be a good practical thing?

Youíre never going to have access, you canít be the chief of staff, you canít get access to the White House. We say, ìOkay, certainly we donít live underneath a theocracy where our president is sinless, our presidents, all of them, sin .î What do you do living underneath a president and senators and other people who arenít ruling righteously, to whatever degree?

What do you do? Answer? You pray for them. Thatís a great illustration. Turn to 1 Timothy 2. That helps us. Okay, I learn a truth. ÌLord, thank you for teaching me the truth. You love righteousness, you love rule, youíre the king of kings, youíre our ultimate king, and what could I do for our government ?î Complain.

Picket. Throw stuff. I mean, I donít know, you could probably do a lot of stuff. Hereís at the top of the list, if you want a king to rule righteously, 1 Timothy 2, this pastoral epistle, Paul is writing to Timothy, and hereís what he says to a pastor.

You know the passage, and this is good for all of us to do, when it comes to our leaders, is to pray for them. ÌFirst of all, then ,î 1 Timothy 2 .1, ìI urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people .î Boy, thatís going to take me a long time.

ÌAll peopleî means all kinds of people. What kind of all kinds of people? Keep reading. ÌAll kinds of people that are kings, and all kinds of people who are in high positions. Why? That we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way .î This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people.

Did He desire Judas to be saved? We can argue about the atonement anytime we want, but the passage here is, ìThe same all kinds of people .î Do you know what God wants people in government to be saved?

He saves all kinds of people. Look at verse 4 again, ìWho desires all kinds of people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth .î Thereís one God. Thereís one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all these kind of people weíre talking about, kings and those who are in high positions, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Whatís the point? Kings are sinful, leaders are sinful, prime ministers are sinful, queens are sinful, and we need to make sure if we have access to them, we help them rule righteously. We give them advice.

And if we donít have access to them, which we donít, maybe there are some government people in Washington, D .C., who would hear this message a little bit differently, we have to pray for them. Do you pray for your leaders?

Do you pray for President Joe Biden? I guess the answer is ìnoî to that one. Do you pray for your senators? Your governor? God, would you just give them, yes, a new heart. If you can save me, you can save them.

And would you give them wisdom? Would you help them to rule righteously? And judge properly? See how counterintuitive this is? We want imprecatory Psalms for some of those people. And the fool says that.

The fool says, ìHey, basically Iím better than they are, and they should get whatís coming to them .î No, no, Iím not better than they are, and I didnít get what was coming for me, and for me to live a quiet life too.

I had to just pray for them. So what does wisdom say in this kind of world? You should say this if somebody asks you. The king asks you. You should say, ìKing, rule righteously .î What else does wisdom teach us to say?

Fear God as a Heavenly Father

Weíre just going verse by verse through the book of Ecclesiastes, the preacher. Wisdom also teaches us to say, ìOur Father who art in heaven .î Verses 10 through 13. You donít say. Yeah, I say. Wisdom says, ìSay, ìOur Father who art in heaven .î What in the world?

Letís find out. Subtext, ìFear God .î Wisdom says, ìFear God .î Verse 10, 11, 12, and 13. You probably see the sections, the paragraphs, in your own Bible, and you kind of know where Iím going. The first section is 1 to 9, second section is 10 to 13, etc.

When I saw the wicked buried, verse 10, they used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were praised in the city. They had done such things, such wicked things. This is vanity. Because a sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know, the preacher says, that it will be well with those who, number one, fear God, because they, number two, fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not, number three, fear before God.

You can see this coming back up again, this idea of fearing God. This impotence to holy living, impotence, impetus to holy living, where you think, okay, fearing God, not as a slave, not as an unbeliever, not in servile fear, but with respect and awe and admiration, I have to fear God, He's different, He's transcendent, He's above me, He's great, and in light of that, I ought to obey.

I entitle this, say, our Father who art in heaven, because remember, when we are coming to God to fear Him, and we are even coming to God to pray, why doesn't Jesus teach us to pray, Our Father? And then the very next line, Your kingdom come.

Why does Jesus teach us to pray, Our Father in heaven? And what's the next section even? Does anybody know? Hallowed be Thy name. We come to a Father, do we not? But He's a heavenly Father, He's an otherly Father, He's a transcendent Father.

And we have to be very careful that when it comes to fearing God, yes, He's our Father, but He's a heavenly Father, He's a hallowed Father. It is said in 1 Peter 1, something very similar to this, and we think, okay, even though our fear is not a cringing fear like the dog that gets kicked too many times, we're adopting the family, there still is fear.

But as He who called you is holy, 1 Peter 1, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Talking about holy living, holy conduct, obeying God. And if you call, even if you call on Him as Father, which we do, our Father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

That's the Lord's prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Even though I call upon Him with great fatherly care and admiration, there's still this reverence and awe and spectacular exaltation of God that makes me want to obey.

Now let's go back to verse 10 and kind of pick it apart a little bit. I think you understand this one really simple. Have you ever been to a funeral where the person was a really wicked person? What did they say about him?

What did they say about her? Now of course for the family to get up and give a eulogy, I understand that. But how about if somebody is so ungodly and the pastor gets up there and preaches the person into heaven?

The preacher, who sees that? I saw the wicked buried. I went to a funeral. It's better to go to a house of mourning, right? They used to go in and out of the holy place. Maybe that's the church where they had the place.

Most likely it has to do with Jerusalem or the temple. They used to go in and out of the holy place and they were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. The writer is saying it seems to me on earth that even the wicked people get away with it.

They're praised. People are saying oh, wonderful things about them on earth. And even you go to a funeral and they're saying good things about them. Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to speak ill of the dead.

But these people hated Jesus. These people hated God. And they're praised. We love God and it's our desire to love God and we're shunned and we're exiles. Reminds me of Asaph in Psalm 73. I was envious of the wicked.

I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're not in trouble. They say how can God know? And then he says until I went to the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned their end. Verse 11. Because the sentence against an evil deed for those wicked people on earth and of course in our judicial system secondarily because the sentence against an evil deed all those wicked things that those people did they were praised for they should have got justice executed against them and even if need be, be executed speedily the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Now, we see it in our culture you do something wrong and you kill somebody you sin and now you're in jail for 40 years and people go well, you know what, I'm going to kill anyway because I'm going to still live my life it'll just happen to be in jail if people kill someone and they were found guilty and they died right away obviously, people wouldn't do as many bad things.

And while that's true the context here is the context verses 10 and 11 are going together. Other people watch these wicked folks and they are praised by people and therefore they're not getting judged on earth and it just makes other people want to disobey too.

They're seeming to make it out of this life unsinged. P .S. just for you Christians there's of course an ultimate judgment and we rest in that with God. People will say where's the promise of His coming for ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning.

Do not overlook this fact, Peter says beloved, with the Lord one day is as a thousand years a thousand years as one day the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise. I mean, sometimes justice is slow on earth but the Lord is not slow.

He is patient toward you not wishing any should perish but all should reach repentance. We know God is slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love and that love is supposed to drive people to repentance.

I read about a Cornell University professor and here's what he said. When you die, you're not going to be surprised because you're going to be completely dead. Now if I find myself aware after I'm dead I'm really going to be surprised but at least I'm going to hell where I don't have any of those grinning preachers from Sunday morning to annoy me.

Here's his world view life on earth, no judgment. There are no gods, no purposes no goal-directed forces of any kind. There's no life after death when I die, I'm going to be dead. That's the end of me.

There's no foundation for ethics no meaning for life since we know we're not going to live after we die. There's no reward or suffering in this world. You live and you die. What a fool what a fool. What helps us in all this?

Verse 12 though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life. Yet I know do we not know dear Christian because of scripture we all know that it will be well with those who fear God not just on earth but in heaven they're living for today they're parting it up and they excel and they seem to have everything going their way.

And we suffer and we're persecuted and we're underneath the hand of the government and Christians throughout the centuries martyred. But we know it will be well with those who fear God. And could we not say with Spafford it is well with my soul.

Everybody is not going to get away with it because they fear before him. One man calls fear of God for us awe and holy caution realizing that God is great when you fear God you're like I probably should just walk circumspectly.

I should walk properly. I should obey rightly not to get saved. Not because I'm going to earn my salvation but because I'm a child of God. And there's conduct befitting an officer. And I want to walk in a manner worthy of my calling.

And I want to fear God. The safe way is to fear God. This is interesting to me. Think Sinai when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking.

And the people were afraid and they trembled and they stood far off. They said to Moses you speak to us. We'll listen but do not let God speak to us lest we die. And Moses said to the people do not fear.

For God has come to test you that the fear of Him may be before you that you may not sin. Did you get that? Don't fear like you're going to lose your life. Like you're going to somehow as a Christian lose your salvation because you've sinned.

Don't fear that way because perfect love casts out. What? Fear. But we're still told to fear God. And he says don't fear. God's going to test you that the fear of Him may be before you so that you might walk in a manner worthy.

That you might walk circumspectly. That you might think I have a great God. Yes He's my Father but He's in Heaven and His name is to be hallowed. And I think I ought to walk in His presence with fear and with godliness and with holiness.