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

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Adoniram Judson, Death, and the Question of Christian Wisdom

One of the most famous missionaries of all time was a man named Adoniram Judson. Our friend Evan Burns, of course, is an expert in Adoniram Judson, and he didn�t come into this world as a Christian. He was born in 1788, and his dad was a pastor, and his dad was a faithful preacher here in New England, and at 16, Adoniram Judson decided to go to college down in Rhode Island, Rhode Island Christian College it was called, and he went there at 16 years old to go to school in Providence.

By the time he hit 20 years old and school was done, he was an atheist. He said, �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, and so he graduates and says, �I�m going to start going around New England and just travel.

Well, one day he was traveling and couldn�t find a place to stay, and so he goes to a country inn, and the innkeeper said, �You can stay here, except I only have one room left. 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, �I need a place to stay. I�ll pay and go upstairs to sleep. Well, the walls were thin, and the moaning started happening. Over and over there was a man next to Adoniram moaning as he was dying, and Adoniram started thinking to himself, �Is that man prepared to die?

Where would he go? Is atheism true? What about Christianity? Was he a Christian? Was he a sinner. Trying to make some small talk, Adoniram said, �Do you know who he is He was? Yes, replied the innkeeper.

He's from the college in Providence. His name was Ames, Jacob Ames, his best friend. He couldn't move. Adoniram couldn't think. Later he thought about that time and he thought these words, lost. In death Jacob Ames was lost, utterly irrevocably lost.

Lost to his friends, to the world, to the future. Lost as a puff of smoke is lost in the affinity of air. If his views were true, Jacob's views, neither his life nor death had any meaning. But suppose his views were mistaken.

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 Jacob, my dearest friend and guide, from the bed next to me.

This simply could not be a coincidence. And later on the Lord rescued Adoniram Judson and he went on to leave Salem to go overseas, to be a Christian missionary. Now while death is hard, death is an enemy, death is horrible, death is unnatural, it does preach, death has a megaphone, death as some say is an evangelist, and death preaches solemn sermons.

And you can even think here, dear congregation, in our small congregation, many deaths in the last year. 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?

After all our loved ones die and one day will die, what's the wise way to think about death? Is it I don't want to 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?

If you'll take your Bibles please and turn to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 6, we're going to talk about wisdom in many areas, but especially today when it comes to death. There are no favors in ignoring this, you're going to have to think about it sooner or later and it might as well be sooner.

God gives us thankfully wisdom about all kinds of things, life, eternal life and also death, an eternal death. 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.

So we need wisdom. As a matter of fact Solomon used to say the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom. We want to be wise about things and not be the fool. We don't want to play the fool and it says in chapter 1 as you know, vanity of vanity says the preacher, vanity of vanities all is vanity.

And so when you look at the fallen world you see the consequences of Adam's sin. 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.

And so we look at the world and we realize there's still beauty and there's still some joy but something's wrong with the world and so Solomon says everything's vanity. And I love the word vanity because it can mean several things.

It's like that thing kids you get for your dad on Father's Day. You don't know what else to get him so you go to Marshall's and they have that section for Father's Day there and you get him a multi-purpose tool.

And it's got a cheap little hammer and a cheap little screwdriver. It works once and breaks off but you're thankful that your kids gave it to you anyway. Good door stops. 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 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. That's one of the multi-tasks of this word, vanity. Another definition of vanity is things just don't last.

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 Hebrew, it's puzzling. Life is like a riddle.

When I grew up, I loved the Riddler, right, in that green suit. Life is a riddle. There's these enigmas and it makes me think, what is going on in the world? 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, 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. 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? We know as Christians that wisdom must be seen through the lens of the risen Savior, Jesus.

Jesus is alive. 1 Corinthians 1, and because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, 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.

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 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.

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 with a long robe, with a golden sash around his chest. 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 waters. We know that Jesus died, and he says, I'm alive forevermore.

And we know Jesus, and trust in him is not fleeting, it lasts forever. It's not full of vexation and frustration, because it's God's promises, not our promises. And it's not puzzling, because it makes perfect sense in the plan of God.

Trust the Sovereign God

So we come to Ecclesiastes 66, and if you're new here today, we're just going through chapter by chapter. We're just going through verse by verse. 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.

Can there be any satisfaction in life? The answer is no, but you can have satisfaction in the one who gives life. So last week, we finished chapter 6, verse 9, if you remember. And by the way, we come to the second section of Ecclesiastes.

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. You're going to see a lot more imperatives in this second section. Probably five times as many as in the first section.

Some of the people that first made copies of the Bible had a little note in the margin saying, this is the halfway point. Chapter 6, verse 9 ends, chapter 6, verse 10 begins, second half begins. And with the second half, you could probably anticipate maybe a little bit different style of writing.

Maybe you can see in your Bible that it looks like there's a lot of spaces in chapter 7. It looks like it's maybe more proverbial. That's true. There's a bunch of Proverbs now. It's as if Solomon wrote this book and put some 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 Romans 8 chapter. But we've got kind of a break here. And the break is going to be expect more Proverbs, expect a lot of commands, and expect him to talk about death.

Because only a fool ignores death. The outline for today in chapter 6, verse 10 through as far as we get in 7. 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 2.

Wouldn't that be good? It would be perfect. How do wise people act? 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. Five ways to live wisely in this fallen world.

In light of God's choosing you and the Son redeeming you and the Spirit sealing you. How do Christians live? What's the wise way to live in this fallen world? We need help. We need wisdom. We need to be educated.

It doesn't matter if you're 10 years old or you're 80 years old. We all need this wisdom. The first way to live in a fallen world, according to Solomon, is found in verses 10, 11, and 12 of chapter six, trust a sovereign God, trust a sovereign God versus 10, 11, and 12.

Now I'm going to read 10, 11, and 12 and see what word pops up four times. If you're reading the 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.

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. 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? 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.

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 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 Adam is.

What would you be thinking? Naming an Adam. Who's Adam and what is all this naming? Your mind would begin to think Adam had all those creatures, all those animals paraded before him. And what did Adam do?

Like every good hunter, he shot them and mounted their heads. No, it was before the fall. Just making sure you're paying attention. He named them Genesis two. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heaven and brought them to man to see what way he would call them.

Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man, Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.

And so Solomon is just reflecting in poetic form. Remember Adam who named things? That's a pretty big deal. When you get a name things, it pretty much means you're sovereign. Does it not? 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? 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? Verse 10 of chapter six, whatever has come to be has already been named and it is known what Adam is and that he, Adam is not able to dispute with the one stronger than he. We're talking about the sovereignty of God in poetry, that God is sovereign.

Adam names, but God creates. We learned a little bit about that in Daniel chapter two today, right? How sovereign God is and his dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

No one can say to him, what have you done? Verse 11, knowing God's sovereign, we learned a lot about that in chapter three and knowing we're weak and mortal and sinful. Uh, do we need to argue with God about his sovereign hand and what he's doing?

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? Do you really think it's going to help when you start arguing with God about anything?

It's not going to help. It's not going to help you. It's not going to help your friends. It's not going to help all the people at church. Stop disputing with God. God is sovereign. Verse 12 for who knows what is good for man while he lives a few days of his vain life.

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 Adam live? A few. My dad died at 55. My mom died at 66. 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. How many? 900 and what? 930 I think. Plus or minus 10. I'm sticking with the 930. I could have a typo. But in God's eyes, that's like a shadow.

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 3. God is sovereign. And what's our response to God's sovereignty?

A trust, an embracing, thankfulness, a praise. Not I've got a bunch of questions for you, Job-like. We saw that a couple weeks ago. It's this whole put off, put on argument, we could say. Instead of arguing, you trust.

Instead of complaining, you praise. 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. 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. And if Adam shouldn't be contending, should we? We don't know. Who knows? Isaiah 45, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed to him who formed it say, why did you make me like this?

Our lives pass like a shadow. 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, so I'm going to argue with God. And by the way, people want to know when they're going to 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? I loved the story about D .L. Moody when he was preaching this evangelistic message.

And of course, people back in those days used to heckle. Matter of fact, way before Moody back in England, you were told 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.

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 and the word is, remember, fool. Moody replied, this is most unusual.

I've just been handed a message that contains but one word, the word fool. I repeat, this is most unusual. I've often heard of those who have written letters and have forgotten to sign their names, but this is the first time I've ever heard of anyone who signed his name and forgot to write the letter.

And then he opened up the 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 God. And for us, the fool says, God's not sovereign.

The fool says, I need to be the worry wart. I need to be the proverbial biting my fingernails like that's going to change the outcome of the world. We don't want to 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 overall, including your life, including your marriage, your children, Westminster shorter catechism, God's eternal purpose, according to the council of his will, whereby for his own glory for ordains whatsoever comes to pass.

God is sovereign in your life without exception. God is sovereign in your life concerning everything about your life. If you've got cancer in your body, God's sovereign over it. If you're healthy, God's sovereign over it.

You cannot say God is sovereign, but you cannot say accidents and chance and luck. Isaiah 14, the Lord of hosts has planned it. And who can frustrate it as for his outstretched hand, who can turn it back?

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 hubbell, that means frustration and fleeting and vanity and enigmas, we have to say to ourself, 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? God is sovereign. We're not sovereign. We can trust him with our whole heart.

Learn from Death

Well, he's kind of hinted where he's going next. 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 Christian should act.

Not just keep trusting the sovereign God, but learn from death. Wise people trust themselves. Wise people trust the stock market. Wise people trust only their friends. Wise people learn from death. 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 God wants all of us to know. And instead of using the last section and talking about babbling afterwards and just having kind of regurgitation of word after word after word, it's better to just sit and listen.

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. By the way, after a shadow is gone, is there any trace left? No. So how do I live?

What can I learn? 12 leads into it. Verse 12 of chapter 6. Who knows what is good for the person during the few days of one's enigmatic life? Learning from death found in verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. Let me read those for you, please, in chapter 7.

A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of birth. 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.

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. 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 1. 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. Back in the day, what mothers would do is they would have some ointment and they would rub it on the baby.

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. This is a good way to start the world by rubbing this ointment.

And it's not kind of like desitin, it would be more like myrrh. And so, they would rub some myrrh on their fine ointment. That was one of the treasures listed in King Hezekiah's second Kings chapter 20.

It's a luxury item. But what does he say? 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 is better.

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? Your reputation is horrible.

A wise old man said, everyone has three names. The one his father and mother gave him, one others call him, and the one he acquires for himself in life. And so, the writer is making you think, okay, life's fleeting, I'm trusting God's sovereignty, but I'm going to die one day 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, I'm better and you're not. It's not a selfish thing. It's because we want to have a good name, a name that reflects the work of God in our lives.

We're new creations in Christ Jesus, old as what? Gone, new as come. And so, we think, I'd like to have a good name. This makes me think of Jesus. 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, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant. Why this waste? 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? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. You always have the poor with me, but do you not always have me? In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

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. As the gospel is proclaimed today, we are reliving through Jesus' words a good name about this woman who did a sacrificial thing for the Lord Jesus.

Jesus saying, your name is going to be honored every time I talk about this because it was done in sacrifice, self-sacrificial sacrifice out of gratitude for your sins forgiven. On the other hand, you think about a name, somebody who watched this very thing.

When I say the name Judas, what do you think of? I mean, the second to last book of the Bible is named what? Jude, but his real name is Judas, but we can't even say that anymore because it's such a bad name.

I've known people that have named their dogs Diabolos. Some probably named their dogs 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, 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? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Think about, I'm living and I'm going to die and what's my name going to be? Like Mary who self-sacrificed for the Lord, showing fruit and evidence of the work of God in her life, or somebody like Judas?

And maybe link then to the second part of verse one with that perfume idea, and the day of death than the day of birth. 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.

I mean, how can that be? I thought maternity wards were like the happiest place in the world. If you're going to be a nurse, who wants to work in the ER when you can work in labor and delivery? How can this be true?

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. When you're born, what reputation do you have?

Cute, cuddly, dependent. Your birthday is not going to reveal your character, but your funeral will. That's the idea. At birth, you think there's so much potential for that little baby, and at death, it's final fulfillment.

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, and at least at death, you're delivered from it. But I also want you to know, dear 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 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. 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.

And Scott's death day, for us, not good, but for him is better. That's exactly true. A better world, better perfection, better purity, better friends, not into the arms of man, but in the arms of God himself.

It is the entrance, death is the entrance into glory. If I go to a doctor, I want to 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.

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. 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 God, and you think, oh, it's so good. It's like if I could sense God's presence, 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.

I can't believe Jesus knew all my sins anyway, and still died for me, past, present, future. I have no condemnation, and you just think, oh, the peace of God that passes all understanding. But there's a better communion.

There's better fellowship, and it's all because of the Lord Jesus earned that for you, dear Christian. I mean, what we should have been doing is, as unbelievers, trying to figure out, God, how can you be reconciled to us?

We're your enemies. We're your rebels. If we could, we'd kill you, and God knew that we could never reconcile ourselves to God, so what does God do? Be reconciled. Be reconciled. You're on your own. No, he says, be reconciled, and it's God reconciling us to himself through the death of Christ Jesus.

The Belgic Confession talks about the last judgment when Jesus comes back and judges with great glory and majesty. Here's what it says. 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. They'll receive the fruits of their labor. You want to know why death is better than birth for the Christian?

The faithful will be elected and crowned with glory and honor. The Son of God, Jesus, will confess their names before God the Father and the holy and elect angels, and all their tears will be wiped from their eyes.

And as a gracious reward, the Lord will make them possess such a glory, such as the heart of man could never imagine. So we look forward to that great day with longing in order to fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

How can death day be better than birthday? If you're a Christian, that's the reason. Okay, let's think for a second. Birthday, death day, which one's better? What about Jesus? Which day's better for Jesus, the incarnation?

What day's better for you, the incarnation or the death of Christ? Now you say, well, we can't really cut these apart. And Jesus is on his way. He's born to die. I understand. But Jesus's birth doesn't pay for sins.

Oh, Jesus's birth. And then his perfect obedience gives us righteousness. No wonder we call that day Friday that Jesus died. Do we call it sad Friday? Maybe some do. We call it what? Good Friday. My whole point is this not to parse at all.

But you can see in our life, if we're 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. I'll put it that way.

So I don't have the theological police after me. I mean, it's Jesus. It says in first Peter to he himself bore our sins. So we've got a problem. And that problem was sin and Jesus death cured that problem.

When you're born. Well, you know what all potential when they lay you in the coffin, it's fulfillment. I wonder what people will say about you. Oh, she was very Christlike. Oh, he was sacrificial in his service to the Lord's people.