Wisdom And Death - [Ecclesiastes 6:10-7:14]

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Well, one of the most famous missionaries of all time was a man named Adoniram Judson. Our friend,
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Evan Burns, of course, is an expert in Adoniram Judson. And he didn't come into this world as a
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Christian. He was born in 1788 and his dad was a pastor and his dad was a faithful preacher here in New England.
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And at 16, Adoniram Judson decided to go to college down in Rhode Island, Rhode Island Christian College, as it was called, and he went there at 16 years old to go to school in Providence.
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By the time he hit 20 years old and school was done, he was an atheist. He said,
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I don't have anything to do with God. There was a group of atheists there at school. One man named Jacob Imes especially influenced him.
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And so he graduates and says, I'm gonna start going around New England and just travel. Well, one day he was traveling and couldn't find a place to stay.
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And so he goes to a country inn and the innkeeper said, you can stay here, except I only have one room left.
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I'll give it to you at a cheap price, but it's next door to a man who's dying. And Adoniram Judson said,
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I need a place to stay. I'll pay and go upstairs to sleep. Well, the walls were thin and the moaning started happening.
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Over and over, there was a man next to Adoniram moaning as he was dying.
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And Adoniram started thinking to himself, is that man prepared to die? Where would he go?
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Is atheism true? What about Christianity? Was he a Christian? Was he a sinner?
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And then Judson said, you know what? That's a bunch of hogwash. I can't even believe I'm thinking those thoughts about eternal life.
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This is the world. I mean, what would my friend, Jacob Imes say of all things? Well, he finally fell asleep and he went to the morning and finished paying the rest of his bill.
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And he thought, you know what? I might as well ask. And so he asked the innkeeper, whatever happened to that man next door to me?
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And the innkeeper said, he's dead. Trying to make some small talk,
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Adoniram said, do you know who he was? Yes, replied the innkeeper. He's from the college in Providence.
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His name was Ames, Jacob Ames. He couldn't move.
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Adoniram couldn't think. Later, he thought about that time and he thought these words, lost.
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In death, Jacob Ames was lost. Utterly, irrevocably lost. Lost to his friends, to the world, to the future.
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Lost as a puff of smoke is lost in the affinity of air. If his views were true,
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Jacob's views, neither his life nor death had any meaning. But suppose his views were mistaken.
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Suppose the Scriptures were literally true and a personal God is real. Adoniram mused, for that hell should open in that country inn and snatch my friend,
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Jacob, my dearest friend and guide from the bed next to me. This simply could not be a coincidence.
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And later on, the Lord rescued Adoniram Judson and he went on to leave Salem to go overseas to be a
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Christian missionary. Now, while death is hard, death is an enemy, death is horrible, death is unnatural, it does preach.
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Death has a megaphone. Death, as some say, is an evangelist.
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And death preaches solemn sermons. And you can even think here, dear congregation, in our small congregation, many deaths in the last year.
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What do we do? How do we think about it? Don't we, as a church, need wisdom when it comes to thinking about death?
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After all, our loved ones die and one day we'll die. What's the wise way to think about death? Is it
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I don't wanna talk about it? Or is the wise way thinking from the lens of Scripture so that we don't become foolish when it thinks about death and think about death like the world thinks?
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If you'll take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter six, we're going to talk about wisdom in many areas, but especially today when it comes to death.
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There are no favors in ignoring this. You're gonna have to think about it sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner.
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God gives us, thankfully, wisdom about all kinds of things, life, eternal life, and also death, an eternal death.
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As you know, the book of Ecclesiastes is a book about wisdom so that you can be wise, because left to ourselves, the default is foolishness.
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So we need wisdom. Matter of fact, Solomon used to say the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom. We wanna be wise about things and not be the fool.
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We don't wanna play the fool. And it says in chapter one, as you know, vanity of vanity, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
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And so when you look at the fallen world, you see the consequences of Adam's sin.
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You see that the world, while there's still wonderful things, Niagara Falls and beautiful fall foliage and beautiful things, it's still, as some people say, it sings a tune, but it's a minor tune that it sings in.
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And so we look at the world and we realize, yeah, there's still beauty and there's still some joy, but something's wrong with the world.
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And so Solomon says, everything's vanity. And I love the word vanity because it can mean several things.
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It's like that thing, kids, you get for your dad on Father's Day. You don't know what else to get him.
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So you go to Marshall's and they have that section for Father's Day there. And you get him a multi -purpose tool.
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And it's got a cheap little hammer and a cheap little screwdriver, works once and breaks off, but you're thankful that your kids gave it to you anyway.
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Good doorstops, it's a multi -tool. This word for vanity in the Hebrew, it's like a multi -tool because it has so many different facets to it.
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And they're all true. One of the facets is life is frustrating. There's a vexation, things just don't work the way they're supposed to.
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That's one of the multitasks of this word, vanity. Another definition of vanity is things just don't last.
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They're fleeting. It's a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow. They just, it goes by too fast. And the other thing when it comes to multi -tool words, this word habel in the
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Hebrew, it's puzzling. Life is like a riddle.
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When I grew up, I loved the Riddler, right? And that green suit. Life is a riddle. There's these enigmas and it makes me think, what is going on in the world?
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And everything's vanity, the writer says. So if we're living in a world where there's vanity, it's perplexing, it's vexing, it's difficult, it's fleeting.
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Can we have any wisdom in that? Can we have any joy in the midst of such a world? Are there answers to be found? And so the writer is wanting you to ask the right questions.
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What about life? What about death? What about eternal life? How do I see the world through the lens of media, through the lens of entertainment, through my own eyes, or from the scripture?
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We know as Christians that wisdom must be seen through the lens of the risen
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Savior, Jesus. Jesus is alive. 1 Corinthians 1, and because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.
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That is righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We come to the book of Ecclesiastes, and we're on this side of the cross, and we realize we know as Christians that Jesus in revelation is called the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth.
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We know as we come and approach this world full of all kinds of vexation and trouble that Jesus loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us a kingdom, priest to his
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God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. We know as Christians that this world, though it is in chaos, that Jesus is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.
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We know Jesus is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega. We know he's the son of man, revelation says, clothed at the long robe with a golden sash around his chest.
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His hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flaming fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the voice of the roar of many.
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We know that Jesus died, and he says, I'm alive forevermore. And we know
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Jesus and trust in him is not fleeting, it lasts forever. It's not full of vexation and frustration, because it's
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God's promises, not our promises. And it's not puzzling, because it makes perfect sense in the plan of God.
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So we come to Ecclesiastes 6, and if you're new here today, we're just going through chapter by chapter, just going through verse by verse.
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What does God have to say? God, I come to your word today, typically by myself, a fool, and I'd like to be wise about life and about death.
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Can there be any satisfaction in life? The answer is no, but you can have satisfaction in the one who gives life.
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So last week, we finished chapter six, verse nine, if you remember. And by the way, we come to the second section of Ecclesiastes.
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We're halfway through. It's been hard to preach, probably been hard to listen to, but we're becoming more wise by the grace of God.
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You're gonna see a lot more imperatives in this second section. Probably five times as many as in the first section.
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Some of the people that first made copies of the Bible had a little note in the margin saying, this is the halfway point.
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Chapter six, verse nine ends, chapter six, verse 10 begins, second half begins. And with the second half, you could probably anticipate maybe a little bit different style of writing.
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Maybe you could see in your Bible that it looks like there's a lot of spaces in chapter seven. It looks like it's maybe more proverbial.
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That's true. There's a bunch of Proverbs now. It's as if Solomon wrote this book and put some
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Proverbs in. And so he goes like Proverbs does from one theme to the next to the next, maybe not the same theme all the way through like a
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Romans eight chapter, but we've got kind of a break here. And the break is going to be expect more
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Proverbs, expect a lot of commands and expect him to talk about death.
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Because only a fool ignores death. The outline for today in chapter six, verse 10 through as far as we get in seven,
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I kind of like saying that. Lord willing, we'll be here next week. I actually hope the Lord comes back and I don't get to finish part two.
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Wouldn't that be good? It'd be perfect. How do wise people act?
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How should you act? Let me give you five ways in this section. Maybe we're going to get through a few, maybe the whole.
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Five ways to live wisely in this fallen world. In light of God's choosing you and the
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Son redeeming you and the Spirit sealing you, how do Christians live? What's the wise way to live in this fallen world?
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We need help. We need wisdom. We need to be educated. And it doesn't matter if you're 10 years old or you're 80 years old, we all need this wisdom.
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The first way to live in a fallen world, according to Solomon, is found in verses 10, 11, and 12 of chapter six.
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Trust a sovereign God. Trust a sovereign God, verses 10, 11, and 12.
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Now I'm going to read 10, 11, and 12 and see what word pops up four times if you're reading the
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Hebrew or in the ESV and probably other translations. What's the word that dominates by repetition? Whatever has come to be has already been named and it is known what man is and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.
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The more words, the more vanity and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life which passes like a shadow?
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For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? And with my emphasis as I was speaking, you can tell that the word used four times there is what?
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And the Hebrew word for man here is Adam. Adam. You're going to see in the book of Ecclesiastes and in many other books, a hearkening back to Genesis, a hearkening back to that first Adam who was our federal head.
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And of course, we as Christians know we have a better federal head who didn't disobey in the garden but obeyed in the wilderness, the
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Lord Jesus. He's our captain. But if I were to read verse 10 to you this way, whatever has come to be has already been named and it is known what
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Adam is. What would you be thinking? Naming an Adam. Who's Adam and what is all this naming?
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Your mind would begin to think Adam had all those creatures, all those animals paraded before him and what did
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Adam do? Like every good hunter, he shot them and mounted their heads. No, it was before the fall.
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Just making sure you're paying attention. He named them. Genesis 2, now out of the ground, the
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Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heaven and brought them to man to see what he would call them.
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Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man,
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Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and every beast of the field.
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But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. And so Solomon is just reflecting in poetic form.
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Remember Adam who named things? That's a pretty big deal when you get to name things. It pretty much means you're sovereign, does it not?
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Right, you're a parent and you have a new baby and you get to choose the name of that. Adam was sovereign in the sense that he named things, but is there anyone stronger than Adam?
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Is there anybody who not just names things but creates things that he named, Adam named? You can see it in the text, can you not?
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Verse 10 of chapter six, whatever has come to be has already been named and it is known what
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Adam is and that he, Adam, is not able to dispute with the one stronger than he.
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We're talking about the sovereignty of God in poetry, that God is sovereign. Adam names, but God creates.
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We learned a little bit about that in Daniel chapter two today, right? How sovereign God is and his dominion is an everlasting dominion.
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His kingdom endures from generation to generation. No one can say to him, what have you done? Verse 11, knowing
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God's sovereign, we learned a lot about that in chapter three and knowing we're weak and mortal and sinful, do we need to argue with God about his sovereign hand and what he's doing?
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We see things, God, what are you doing? How could you do that? Verse 11 helps us. The more words, the more vanity and what is the advantage to man?
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Do you really think it's gonna help when you start arguing with God about anything? It's not going to help.
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It's not going to help you. It's not gonna help your friends. It's not gonna help other people at church. Stop disputing with God.
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God is sovereign. Verse 12, for who knows what is good for man while he lives a few days of his vain life?
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Who knows what's good for Adam while he lives the few days of his vain life? By the way, did Adam live a few days? How many days did
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Adam live? A few? My dad died at 55. My mom died at 66.
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Were those a few? How about Adam? The few days of his vain life? For us, there's a lot of years that Adam lived.
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How many? 900 or what? 930, I think. Plus or minus 10.
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I'm sticking with the 930, but I could have a typo. But in God's eyes, that's like a shadow.
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He almost lived as long as Methuselah did. 969 years, and it's just a shadow. This whole section here is talking about a repetition of chapter three,
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God is sovereign. And what's our response to God's sovereignty? A trust, an embracing, thankfulness, a praise.
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Not I've got a bunch of questions for you, Job -like. We saw that a couple of weeks ago. It's this whole put off, put on argument, we could say.
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Instead of arguing, you trust. Instead of complaining, you praise.
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Because last time I checked, Adam was better than we were. And he was made perfect. And he lived a long time, and he had all this intelligence and wisdom.
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And now, thousands of years after the fall, I don't think we're as smart as Adam. I think we're less smart because of the fall.
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And if Adam shouldn't be contending, should we? We don't know, who knows? Isaiah 45, oh man, who are you to reply against God?
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Will the thing formed to him who formed it say, why did you make me like this? Our lives pass like a shadow.
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Who can know, who could tell? So what do we do instead? We trust the Lord. I can't exercise control over my own destiny and my own death.
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So I'm gonna argue with God. And by the way, people wanna know when they're gonna die. Why do you think they go to the astrologers and all these people and the numerologist and the, what do you call, the palm readers?
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I loved the story about D .L. Moody when he was preaching this evangelistic message.
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And of course, people back in those days used to heckle. Matter of fact, way before Moody back in England, you were told that if you were street preaching, don't stand against the wall of a building because people above you who lived on the second floor would pour oil down on you, hot oil.
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And Moody's preaching, he's getting heckled. And so his campaign manager comes up and hands him a note and he opened it up and he finds one word.
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And the word is, remember, fool. Moody replied, this is most unusual.
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I've just been handed a message that contains but one word, the word fool. I repeat, this is most unusual.
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I've often heard of those who have written letters and have forgotten to sign their names. But this is the first time
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I've ever heard of anyone who signed his name and forgot to write the letter. And then he opened up the
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Bible to a different passage that he hadn't planned on preaching. But because of that note, the fool has said in his heart, there's no
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God. And for us, the fool says, God's not sovereign. The fool says,
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I need to be the worry wart. I need to be the proverbial biting my fingernails like that's gonna change the outcome of the world.
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We don't wanna do that. God's a good father, he knows what's best for us. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all, including your life, including your marriage, your children.
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Westminster Shorter Catechism, God's eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory, for ordains whatsoever comes to pass.
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God is sovereign in your life without exception. God is sovereign in your life concerning everything about your life.
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If you've got cancer in your body, God's sovereign over it. If you're healthy,
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God's sovereign over it. You cannot say God is sovereign, but. You cannot say accidents and chance and luck.
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Isaiah 14, the Lord of hosts has planned it and who can frustrate it. As for his outstretched hand, who can turn it back?
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Isaiah 46, truly, I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it. And so for all of us in the midst of a chaotic world full of this multi -tool word, habel, that means frustration and fleeting and vanity and enigmas, we have to say to ourself,
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God's sovereign. And you go, wasn't that a sermon a few weeks ago? Wasn't that a sermon a month ago? Yeah, and do we not need that sermon every single day?
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God is sovereign, we're not sovereign. We can trust him with our whole heart. Well, he's kind of hinted where he's going next.
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We're talking about a few days and passing like a shadow. And now we come to the second way wise people should act in a fallen world, how you dear
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Christian should act. Not just keep trusting a sovereign God, but learn from death. Wise people trust themselves.
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Wise people trust the stock market. Wise people trust only their friends. Wise people learn from death.
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I mean, I think about the funeral we had this last week. It's difficult, it's tear inducing, but it's wisdom and it's the next section of verses here that I know
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God wants all of us to know. And instead of using the last section and talking about babbling after words and just having kind of regurgitation of word after word after word, it's better to just sit and listen.
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What does God say about this? Not what I think, not what society thinks, but what does God say? My life passes like a shadow.
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By the way, after a shadow is gone, is there any trace left? No. So how do
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I live? What can I learn? 12 leads into it, verse 12 of chapter six.
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Who knows what is good for the person during the few days of one's enigmatic life? Learning from death found in verses one, two, three, and four.
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Let me read those for you, please, in chapter seven. A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of birth.
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It's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting for this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart.
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Sorrow is better than laughter for by sadness of face, the heart is made glad. The heart of the fool is in the house of mourning.
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Excuse me, the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Let's look at verse one.
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A good name is better than precious ointment. Now, I haven't thought about little babies being born this week at all or anything but just supposing that that would be true.
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Back in the day, what mothers would do is they would have some ointment and they would rub it on the baby.
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And you can just think about babies now that are born and you've got to clean them off and you've got to do all this stuff. And so you'd have a birth and you would rub some of this ointment on the baby.
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This is a good way to start the world by rubbing this ointment. And it's not kind of like a desitin, it would be more like myrrh.
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And so they would rub some myrrh on their fine ointment. That was one of the treasures listed in King Hezekiah's second
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Kings chapter 20. It's a luxury item. But what does he say?
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It's interesting. A good name is better than precious ointment. As good as the ointment is, as wonderful as the precious ointment is, as needed when it comes to birth, a good name's better.
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Proverbs 10, the memory of the righteous is a blessing but the name of the wicked will rot. I mean, what good is it if you have wonderful cologne or perfume on and your name is bad?
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Your reputation is horrible. A wise old man said, everyone has three names.
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The one his father and mother gave him, one others call him, and the one he acquires for himself in life.
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And so the writer is making you think, okay, life's fleeting. I'm trusting God's sovereignty, but I'm gonna die one day.
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And I would like to live out the fruit and evidence of my Christian faith. We're not trying to make a good name to be better in front of people and to say, oh,
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I'm better and you're not. It's not a selfish thing. It's because we wanna have a good name, a name that reflects the work of God in our lives.
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We're new creations in Christ Jesus. Old is what? Gone, new has come. And so we think,
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I'd like to have a good name. This makes me think of Jesus.
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Remember the story? Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment.
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And she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant. Why this waste?
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For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman?
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For she has done a beautiful thing to me. You always have the poor with me, but do you not always have me?
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In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.
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Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
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As the gospel is proclaimed today, we are reliving through Jesus's words, a good name about this woman who did a sacrificial thing for the
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Lord Jesus. Jesus saying, your name is going to be honored every time
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I talk about this because it was done in sacrifice, self -sacrificial sacrifice out of gratitude for your sins forgiven.
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On the other hand, you think about a name, somebody who watched this very thing. When I say the name
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Judas, what do you think of? I mean, the second to last book of the Bible is named what?
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Jude, but his real name's Judas, but we can't even say that anymore because it's such a bad name.
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I've known people that have named their dogs Diabolos. Some probably named their dogs
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Hitler and Stalin and Lenin, but I've never met a dog named Judas. Although there may be as a band name something after that.
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And they deserve that band name. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
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He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag.
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He used to help himself to what was put into it. Think about I'm living and I'm gonna die and what's my name going to be?
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Like Mary who self -sacrificed for the Lord, showing fruit and evidence of the work of God in her life or somebody like Judas.
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And maybe link then to the second part of verse one with that perfume idea. And the day of death, then the day of birth.
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There's all this better language in this section and it's implied here. And the day of death is better than the day of birth.
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I mean, how can that be? I thought maternity wards were like the happiest place in the world.
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If you're gonna be a nurse, who wants to work in the ER when you can work in labor and delivery? How could this be true?
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How can it be better to be in a morgue than a maternity ward? Well, I can think of a few because at your death, your reputation is going to be revealed.
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When you're born, what reputation do you have? Cute, cuddly, dependent.
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Your birthday is not going to reveal your character, but your funeral will. That's the idea.
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At birth, you think there's so much potential for that little baby. At a death, it's final fulfillment.
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You could think this way, and it's true. At birth, you come into this fallen world and it's very hard and difficult and sin -cursed.
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And at least at death, you're delivered from it. But I also want you to know, dear
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Christian, you believer in Christ Jesus, by faith alone, in Christ alone, your birthday is not better than your death day because on your death day, you see
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Jesus face -to -face. Did you know that? You see Him face -to -face. That's why, and even on Friday, to do the funeral of Scott, who's trusted in Christ Jesus.
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There's pain, yes, and sorrow, yes, but it takes the edge off, does it not, knowing that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
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And Scott's death day, for us, not good, but for him is better. That's exactly true.
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A better world, better perfection, better purity, better friends, not into the arms of man, but in the arms of God Himself.
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It is the entrance. Death is the entrance into glory. If I go to a doctor,
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I wanna go to a good doctor. I search and try to find the best doctor my insurance will allow me to have, and maybe even spend a little bit more if I need that good doctor.
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I want you to know that death is the good doctor. He's the good physician in the sense that he inaugurates you into the comfort and the presence of your master.
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Paul said, neither life nor death can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. I mean, some days you're walking and you sense a sweet communion with the triune
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God, and you think, oh, it's so good. It's like if I could sense God's presence,
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I'm sensing it. I'm just recognizing how great He is and how wonderful it is to be saved. And God chose me in eternity past.
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I can't believe Jesus knew all my sins anyway and still died for me, past, present, and future. I have no condemnation.
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And you just, you think, oh, the peace of God, the past is all understanding. But there's a better communion.
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There's better fellowship. And it's all because the
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Lord Jesus earned that for you, dear Christian. I mean, what we should have been doing is, as unbelievers, trying to figure out,
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God, how can you be reconciled to us? We're your enemies. We're your rebels.
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If we could, we'd kill you. And God knew that we could never reconcile ourselves to God, so what does
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God do? Be reconciled, be reconciled, you're on your own. No, He says, be reconciled.
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And it's God reconciling us to Himself through the death of Christ Jesus. The Belgic Confession talks about the last judgment when
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Jesus comes back and judges with great glory and majesty. Here's what it says.
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Therefore, with good reason, the thought of this judgment is horrible and dreadful to wicked and evil people. But it is very pleasant and a great comfort to the righteous and the elect, since their total redemption will then be accomplished.
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They'll receive the fruits of their labor. You want to know why death is better than birth for the
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Christian? The faithful will be elected and crowned with glory and honor. The Son of God, Jesus, will confess their names before God the
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Father and the holy and elect angels, and all their tears will be wiped from their eyes. And as a gracious reward, the
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Lord will make them possess such a glory such as the heart of man could never imagine.
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So we look forward to that great day with longing in order to fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our
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Lord. How can death day be better than birth day? If you're a
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Christian, that's the reason. Okay, let's think for a second. Birthday, death day, which one's better?
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What about Jesus? Which day's better for Jesus? The incarnation? What day's better for you?
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The incarnation or the death of Christ? Now you say, well, we can't really cut these apart and Jesus is on His way,
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He's born to die. I understand, but Jesus' birth doesn't pay for sins.
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Oh, Jesus' birth and then His perfect obedience gives us righteousness. No wonder we call that day,
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Friday, that Jesus died. Do we call it sad Friday? Maybe some do.
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We call it what? Good Friday. My whole point is this not to parse it all, but you can see in our life, if we're
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Christian, especially death, in the life of Christ, well, we'll take both His incarnation and His death, but great things happened at the death of Christ.
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I'll put it that way so I don't have the theological police after me. I mean, it's
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Jesus, it says in 1 Peter 2, He Himself bore our sins. So we've got a problem and that problem was sin and Jesus' death day.
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Cured that problem. When you're born, well, you know what?
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All potential. When they lay you in the coffin, it's fulfillment. I wonder what people will say about you.
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Oh, she was very Christ -like. Oh, He was sacrificial in His service to the Lord's people.
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She really trusted God through all her trials. He exhibited the fruit of the Spirit or He sure loved the patriots.
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She loved her hobbies. He loved his career. She lived for herself.
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I mean, when I went to the burial on Friday for Scott, I mean, I just kept thinking about this and some of the testimony about the
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Lord's work in Scott's life, even up into the reconciliation with Natalie.
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And I just kept thinking about, what are you known for? What's your name for? Somebody that wants to serve and to do the right thing.
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And then down the way of the cemetery, there are these people with red socks on their cemetery and Celtics, I'm kidding you not, and patriots.
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And one had something about the Yankees, and you know, the Yankees are still bad. I mean, kind of funny, but sick, sickeningly funny.
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Of course we know the fruit of God's work in our life will help us to have a good name. That's true.
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But there's a responsibility for us to say, what am I living for? Why am
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I alive? What's going to happen? What are they gonna say about me when I die? Not because that matters, only what
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God says matters, that's true. And so the writer goes on verse two. It's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting, for this is the end of mankind and the living will lay it to heart.
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In other words, wise people say it's better to go to a funeral than it is a party.
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Funeral versus a wedding. I am not saying parties, feastings or weddings are bad.
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Jesus was at a wedding, of course they're good. But who goes to a wedding and thinks, one day
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I'm gonna die. One day I'm gonna stand before God and then what? My life is going over quickly.
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I should be noticing Ecclesiastes 12 when I look in the mirror, it's telling me every day, brother, you are old.
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Well, if you're not a man, sister. When you go to a funeral, you think it's uncomfortable, it's sad, it's a natural death.
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But you think while death is an enemy, 1 Corinthians 15, it's an evangelist.
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I ought to be more sober about life and death. I ought to be the person that instead of getting into these stupid arguments with my wife and we can't forgive each other and we think the world revolves around this and that, there are life and death things going on,
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I'm gonna die. How should I treat other people in light of that? Death is going to force you to say, you know what?
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You better think about your life. Better think about your death. One man said, death looks us in the eye and asks us to look him right back with a steady gaze and allow him to do his work in us.
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You're not going to get this from the culture because the culture can't say death. Your dog dies, they come and get it.
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There's something to be said for seeing a casket with a body in it and then lowered into the grave and you go, teach me the lesson.
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That's what wise people do. Fools say, I gotta get back to it, I gotta get back to work, I gotta get back to my career, back to my 401k, back to this, back to that, to the other.
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A wise person sits and looks and thinks. That's what Psalm is saying. We're all going there, verse two, this is the end of all mankind.
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And the living, the wise ones, they lay it to heart. Yes, but I don't feel like I wanna do that.
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I know, we're not talking about feelings. Did you know Moses in the first Psalm ever written,
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Psalm 90, he said, teach us to number our what? Years, not bad.
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Teach us to number our days. Did you know Moses in the wilderness, we can argue about exact numbers, but over 38 to 40 years, 12, 1 ,200 ,000 people died.
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You're 20 and up, you're dead. That's 31 ,580 people dying per year, 87 funerals a day.
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And Moses said, you better count your days. Last year in the hospital,
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I'm thinking I'm counting my days. This could be it. On the other side, I'm thinking, I don't want you to have to go through that because it was awful, but there's something to be said for the lessons in Leominster Hospital that I wish you all could go through.
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And some of you have gone through some of those things. The fool says,
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I'm running from this. The wise person says, it's hard. I don't wanna hear it, but I need to learn.
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Eternity is real. My life is but a mere breath and I had to walk wisely.
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I had to redeem the time. I had to not act like an unbeliever. It's appointed for man once to die and then the judgment.
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Am I ready for judgment? I have to be perfect to stand before God. A thrice holy God is so perfect.
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I can't bring any imperfections. And so I better be covered with the righteousness of Jesus that I get by faith because he earned that by obeying the law for me and has paid for my sins.
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I only have a hope in Christ Jesus. Verse three, sorrow is better than laughter.
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By sadness of face, the heart is made glad. It's hard to talk about what we do.
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We're sad to talk about it, but we do. Pastorally speaking, you men need to be bringing your wife and your children to funerals.
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People don't go to funerals anymore. I know why, they're not fun. You need to take them to the calling hours.
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Some of you have over the years, I've watched you learn and grow with this. And I saw some crayons there on Friday.
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The Goddards take their children when they were little and even older, the Beckwiths and others. If it's better to go to a house of mourning, why wouldn't you take your children to these funerals?
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Well, I don't wanna make them upset. Friend, that's a fool. That's foolish talk.
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Now, I took my children and you say, you took them because that's your job, is to go do funerals.
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No, I took them because I wanted them to learn. I want them to learn the same lessons Solomon is teaching.
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And I coached them through and you ought to coach your children through. And here's how I'd coach the children through.
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Kids, daddy's gonna go officiate a funeral today or we're gonna go to the calling hours. There's gonna be a lot of sad people.
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You don't have to say anything. You just give them a hug or say, I'm sorry, or I love you.
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Adults don't know what to say, let alone children. So you just give them a hug. They'll be crying. There's gonna be a line of people there and you just give them a hug and say,
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I'm sorry. We're gonna walk past a casket and it might be open. And you don't have to look at it for a long time, but you're gonna look at it for 30 seconds.
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I want you all to look at that body for 30 seconds. And as you do children, I want you to think of this. I mean,
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I've said this, I don't know how many times, we just say it every single time we go. I want you to think, you know what?
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That person's not breathing. Their soul's gone. Their spirit's gone.
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The real them, the inside of them, the immaterial part, it's gone. It's either getting judged by God or in the pleasures of God.
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And secondly, children, I want you to know something. You're gonna be in that box one day. We can't afford a casket, there'll be a rented one for you, but you're gonna be in that box.
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So you need to be ready. You need to be trusting Jesus. You only get to heaven one way, faith alone.
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And then lastly, I would say, who walks up to such a body? Every part of that body dead, every molecule dead and cold, and could say, arise.
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Who could do that? Who can say, arise, and Lazarus, four days dead, stands up and he's completely alive?
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Who's the resurrection and the life? Who are you trusting in? Because Jesus has power over death and he's demonstrated it.
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He raised himself on the third day. And so we could have hope and we know what the future holds. And even though that person's body's dead, their spirit's alive in heaven with Christ if they've trusted him.
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And we're gonna be in that box one day and everybody's gonna be sad, but you're gonna be in the presence of the Lord. You say, well,
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I don't really feel like doing that. Could I say kindly, that's your problem? Because it has nothing to do with feelings.
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Zero with feelings. Our feelings are sadness and sorrow and crying. In addition, dads,
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I think you ought to take your children to cemeteries. We used to go for walks in cemeteries and we would walk through and I'd say to the children, whoever finds the most
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Bible verses on a tombstone gets the M &Ms with peanuts.
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And they're running around. And with all the Red Sox and Celtics and NASCAR tombstones, there are certain tombstones with death angels that take the person's soul up to heaven.
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Daddy, look at this angel. Remember once Gracie was four years old and I said, Gracie, look at this one.
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It's got a little lady and her name was Elizabeth. And it says 1804 to 1808.
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How old was little Elizabeth? Her older brother interrupted and said, four.
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Gracie, how old are you? Four. Four? Gracie, that's why we need to be trusting in the
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Lord Jesus. That's our only hope. How can we have love, joy, peace in the world full of death and decay and sorrow?
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Knowing we're gonna die, we're close. I'm 63. I'm close.
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The wise ones say it's better to go to a funeral. Yes, to comfort the family, that's true.
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But to think through these issues. Jesus said to Martha, your brother will rise again.
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Martha said, I know he'll rise again on the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I'm the resurrection and the life.
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Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me,
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Scott Hilde included, shall never die. Do you believe this? Yes, Lord, I believe that you're the
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Christ, the Son of the living God who's coming back into the world. I've been to a crematorium once,
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I never forgot it. It makes me not have my focal point there, my ending point there, but in the one who's conquered death.
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Don't just stare at death, that's not wise. I think of the Lord Jesus. He's preaching, he's speaking.
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And someone comes from the ruler's house and said, their daughter's dead. And that ruler goes and Jesus comes to the house of the ruler and saw the commotion and people weeping and wailing loudly.
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And when he'd entered, he said, why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child's not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him and they put him all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.
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Taking her by the hand, Jesus said, touching that little dead body,
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Talitha Kumi, little girl, I say to you arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking for she was 12 years of age and they were immediately overcome with amazement.
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And he strictly charged them that no one should know about this and told them to give her something to eat.
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I remember my son, he'd always say, because I guess you gotta give her some food because death makes you hungry.
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Okay, wise people think about their death because the fruits of that.
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Thank you, Lord, for paying for my sins. I have the hope of heaven. Thank you, Lord, for giving me one extra motivation to be a man in this marriage or to be a wife in this marriage and not let all these other things that are so peripheral go on.
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We're living for eternity. Every one of you is going to die short of the
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Lord's return. Are you ready? Do you ever think about it? It's not morbid, it's wise.
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I was telling the guys at the conference yesterday, I got on a little website, it's called Death Clock. And you type in your name, your date of birth, your age, your
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BMI, do you smoke? And it tells you when you're gonna die. It's not true, but it says your personal day of death,
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Mike Ebendroth, is March 30, 2029. Watch me fall over dead right here.
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What it's trying to do is to prepare you to die and your loved ones and to long.
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What would make you long for the return of Jesus more than anything else? I don't wanna lose my husband.
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I don't wanna lose my wife. I don't wanna lose my children. I don't wanna lose my grandchildren. Lord, come back.
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I'm gonna be living a life thinking about you and your eternal word and how you said you're gonna come back.
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Lord, come quickly. Bow with me, please.
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Father, thank you for these wise words. We're thankful that Paul could write from Isaiah, oh death, where is your victory?
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Oh death, where is your sting? Only because of Jesus. Only because of forgiveness we have, we get to be with you forever.
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Those that have lost loved ones here recently, would you comfort them? Those that have loved ones here that are sick, would you undergird them with your mighty right hand?
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And Father, for everyone else, would you help us to think and talk to our children as well? We're not living forever.
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Father, if there's someone here today and they're not a Christian and they're afraid to die, I pray,
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Father, you'd use that to draw them to yourself. And I pray, Father, if there's someone here today who's not a
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Christian and they're not afraid to die, would you cause that fear in their heart so they run by faith to the
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Lord Jesus, the risen Savior? And Father, I think of those words from Paul, to live is