Turn back this morning to Ecclesiastes
chapter 7. On Wednesday morning, I awoke remembering that I was going
to attend a funeral that day. And I admit that my first thoughts
of doing so had a certain dread about them. You hate to face the sadness.
You hate to see the grief, the tears. But the truth is, we all look
at these things this way. And the reason is, because the
flesh dreads, fears death. above all things. We try not to discuss it. You
talk about dying, someone says, oh, don't talk about that. We try to conceal it. We hide
it in the flowers and things of that nature. And we try to
avoid it. You see, it interrupts our plans, and it spoils our fun. It interferes with our recreation,
and it disturbs our minds and our happiness, makes our laughter
go away and our mirth, and it causes us to have sober thoughts
that we do not want to have. And we do all these things because
it reminds us of what we know is the reality. But all these things, all this
attitude and these actions, they are so contrary to what God says, and especially here in this text
that we have read, which the Lord brought to my mind as I
lay there on my bed. Look back here in Ecclesiastes
7 at verse 2. It is better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. Look in verse 3. Sorrow is better
than laughter. Can that be? You see, by nature, we cannot
receive these things. We cannot believe them to be
true. Because by nature, we receive
not the things of God. They are foolishness to us. You mean to go to the house of
mourning? You mean that sorrow is better
than laughter? Well, what God says here is foolish
to us for the same reason that the preaching of the cross is
foolishness to us. Here, the wise man, and he is
wise only because God the Spirit has opened his eyes, taught him,
and given him understanding, the wise man is led by the Spirit
to declare that to all. It is better, better to go into
the house of mourning than to go into the house of feasting. Why? Well, he gives us the answer
here in verse 2. First of all, he says, for that
is the end of all men. That is the end of all men. We are all going to this house,
this house of mourning, either as the one mourned for or to
mourn somebody else, our family, our friend, our acquaintance. There will be no exception. This is the end of all men. And so God says to us in His
Word in Deuteronomy, Oh, that they were wise, that they understood
this, that they would consider their latter end. It is wise
to consider our latter end. Because he has set, he says,
the bounds of our habitation, and none will cross those bounds. And our days, he declares, they
pass as swift as a weaver's shuttle. They are moving past faster than
a running messenger. that they are full of trouble
to every one born of woman. And before we ever get out of
the book of Genesis in the third chapter, after the fall, he says,
in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return
unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." We are reminded
of what we really are in ourselves, nothing but the dust of the earth. God brought us forth from the
dust, and we shall, every one of us, without exception return
to the dust. And then by the psalmist he tells
us this, what is man, or what man is he that liveth and shall
not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from
the hand of the grave? He is talking here in sarcasm. What man is there that will not
die? And what man is there who is
able to deliver himself from the grave? And then in Job we
read this, For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to
the house appointed for all living. We are all headed. for the house
of mourning. All go, he says in chapter 3
of this book, all go unto one place for all are of the dust
and all turn to dust again. This is the end of all men, all
women, all persons, every one of the dust of this earth. But not only that, in this we
are reminded of why we will die. We are reminded when we come
to the house of mourning that we will die for a reason. We will all die because we all
died in Adam spiritually. Do you remember what God said
to the first man? He said, in the day that you
eat of this tree, the tree that I have commanded you not to eat
of, the tree that is representative of my authority, my sovereignty,
my right to be God, my right to govern every one of my creatures,
in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And we know that when Adam ate
of that tree, he did not die physically. But by the very thing
that he did next, he proved and showed the kind of death that
he and Eve did die. They died spiritually. They died
at that moment. And that was not the worst of
it. Because Paul tells us much more. in Romans 5, the much more that
man had demonstrated all the way through history down to the
time that Paul wrote this. He said, wherefore, as by one
man, the one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. Before there was sin, there was
no death. But when sin came, death came."
And here is what else he says, "...and so death passed upon
all men." Adam being a representative man,
being called later the first Adam, And standing there as the
head, the federal head of all his race, of all people, it says,
for that all have sinned. That's why Adam died. And when
he died, all his race, which is every one of us ever born
in this world of Adam, All his race sinned in Adam, and that's
why we all die. It is because of sin. And so the Bible says that we
all are born in this deadness. Even when we're brought to physical
life, we manifest that we're in this same condition, every
one of us spiritually dead. He says, dead in trespasses and
sins. He says that we come forth from
our mother's womb speaking lies. And every child demonstrates
this death because we do not have to teach them to do wrong. They do it of themselves because
it is first not something they do, it is something that they
are. James says this, Sin, when it
is finished, bringeth forth death. No sin, no death. So every time we are brought
to the house of mourning, we have in this not only the knowledge
that this is the end of all, but that sin is the reason for
this death. Paul himself again, writing to
us in Romans chapter 6, shows it so clearly. He says, for the
wages of sin is death. If it were not for sin, there
would be no caskets, there would be no graveyards, there would
be none of the things such as sickness that bring men and women
to that death. But because of sin, there is
death. The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. And in this, In this knowing
and in this understanding this, if we are enabled to, we are
also, we find it better because we are confronted with God as
He is. I can tell you this, you may
not ever believe in God, and you may not ever believe God
in this world, but in that hour, if never before, and not to the
salvation of your soul, but to the eternal misery of your soul,
you're going to believe Him in that hour. And you may have this
image of God that religion has put in your mind, and you may
have developed a God just like the one that you want, a God
likened to yourself. But when you die, you're going
to meet God as He is. When we come down to this house
of mourning, we are brought into that reality to know that God
is just as He says He is, a God who is infinitely holy and inflexibly
just. And the God with whom we have
to do at that hour, as we do in this hour, is a God who must
and who will punish sin, who will not by any means devise
by man clear the guilty. He is God. And He is of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity with any pleasure or favor. And He is against all sin, and
our sin is in every way, first of all, against Him. Sin is against God. And the reason why that the death,
that men die outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, the reason that
they die an eternal death is because this God can never be
satisfied, His holy justice could never be satisfied if sinners
live for a gazillion years in a prison place like eternal hell. No way. We come to see God as He is. We see Him as the God of the
garden who cast Him out when sin was found in Him. And this
is why the house wherein the gospel is preached is at the
first sometime itself the house of mourning. Somebody says, I don't want to
go hear that fellow preach. He just talks about God. Or like
somebody said, he's made a God out of Jesus Christ. Or he doesn't
want to talk about anything but about eternity and sin and death
and all these matters. It's just another trip down to
the house of mourning. And you know why? That's why
religion, false religion, has become a house of mirth. That's right. Nobody wants to
go to a house of mourning. So what do we do? We'll make
our church a house of mirth, a house of laughter, a house
of entertainment. We'll sing all the time or we'll
have programs all the time. We'll do anything rather than
confront men and women with the reality of sin and death and
God and eternity because they don't want to hear about it. Look down here in verse 4. He says, the house of the wise
is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth. What's that? Foolishness? Laughter? He says in verse 5, it is better
to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song
of fools. That's what today's preaching
is. It's the song of fools. We're talking about God, he says,
but that's not the God of the Bible. We're talking about the
problems of men, but it's not the problem of man. We're talking
about how he can be better. We're not talking about how his
soul is saved. See what I'm saying? It's the
house of murder. And not only that, but in all
of this, when we're brought to the house of mourning, we're
reminded that death's not the end. It's not the end. Oh, how men sometimes wish it
was. Let's just go take a gun and
blow our brains out, or let's just go and take an overdose
and make it an end of all things. My friend, it is not the end. Death is not the end. Death is
simply the door or way to eternity. We have a body, but we are really
living eternal souls. Every person, as far as existence
is concerned, is going to live forever. And to show you what fools we
are, men jump out and do these things, having not one clue as
to what lies beyond that door called death. I'm ready to die. What a fool. Not outside of Christ
you're not, because death is not the end. And some try to
preach even out of this very book, out of this very book of
Ecclesiastes, they try to preach a kind of annihilationism that
death is the end. No. He says, then shall the dust
return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit shall return unto
God Who gave it? Does that sound like annihilation
to you? We are more than this body. This
body goes back to the dust. But we are made living spirits,
and we have to go and face God, go back to the God who gave it. This is what the writer in Hebrew
says. He says, for it is appointed
unto men once to die. Well, who makes that appointment?
I can tell you this, it's not us, or we'd never die. You would
never make that appointment, would you? But it is appointed
unto men once to die. God makes that appointment. But then it says, but after this, but after this. You can read
this for yourself in Hebrews 9.27. It is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this, the judgment. And the righteous judge of all
the earth. I do not have to tell you even
that there will be a judgment, because the Scriptures say that
God has assured every one of you and me that there is a judgment,
and we will face that judgment. He has assured every one of us
in the fact that He has already raised from the dead the judge. You know, as far back as I can
remember, I mean as a little boy, I mean when I'd lay there
on my bed at night, there were some things that I would try
as hard as I could to deny or to distract myself from, to not
want to think about it, do about anything, but I always knew there's
a God. And that I have to face that
God in judgment. I don't believe what people tell
me, because I know how I was. I know how I am. And here we
are, we are people born in this world, and God has given a witness
in us that we're going to face His
judgment. That's right. And this judgment is not one
such as we might think, in that in that hour He'll weigh our
good against our bad because we don't have any good. We are
nothing but sin. But all that judgment is, is
a pronouncing of the sentence on all, the sheep and the goats. All who stand in themselves and
their own works and in their own righteousness on the one
hand, the goats, and those who stand in Christ and in His work
and His righteousness on the other side, the sheep. That's what it says. The judge himself says. And he
shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And then shall he say also unto
them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." We are reminded that death is
not the end. But isn't that a blessing? Do
we want to live out this brief existence, blinded as to what
we are facing, left to ourselves to confront it on our own? Is
it not mercy to be reminded of these things, to be assured of
them? I think it is. You see, in Adam
all died. And we're born, when we come
into this world, dead in trespasses and sins. And though we're physically
alive, we're dead to God, as Adam became when he sinned, which
is a death to what is really the truth, and to spiritual things,
and to all that is really good, and especially to what righteousness
is. And our only hope and the only
remedy for this death is life. Isn't that right? The only remedy,
the only cure for death is life. And we cannot make ourselves
alive, and we cannot get life. And all the foolish things that
men and women are commanded and invited to do in order to have
life is so foolish they say, take the first step and God will do the rest. Well, that's the dead man's biggest
problem. He can't take the first step
because he doesn't have life. He can't do something in order
to give himself life because he's dead. We can't raise ourselves from this
death. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that doeth good. Why? Because they're dead. But there's something else in
this text. contradictory to what else is said, what we've read.
Look back in verse 2. And the living will lay it to
his heart. Now, think of this verse. It
is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the
house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living
will lay it to his heart." The living? The wise? Who are the living here? Who
are these who are said to be wise? Well, the living here are those
who by the grace of God and in the mercy of God, as you prayed,
Lee, have been given life. Another kind of life. in the One who is Himself called,
the life." That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are quickened
in time by the Spirit of God to spiritual life which is manifested
or demonstrated or exhibited by faith in Christ. Faith in Him as He is declared
in this book. Faith in His work and in His
accomplishment. In His work of righteousness
for sinners. In 2 Samuel it says this, For
we must needs die. and are as water spilt on the
ground which cannot be gathered up again." I'm telling you, when that hour
of death comes, when that appointed time for me and you and every
other one, when it comes by whatever means that God has ordained and
appointed to bring it to pass, When that process, if you will,
that brings us to an end of this physical life, when it begins,
he says it's like water that is poured out on the ground.
You can't do anything to get it up fast enough. It's absorbed. It's gone. That's why men and women who
are going to fight these diseases. I hate in some sense to even
hear them say it. It's so foolish and such proud
bravado. I'm going to fight this thing.
I'm going to win this thing. Well, you fool, you might not
if God's ordained it. You're better off at the house
of mourning being made aware again and assured of the frailty
of your existence and the weakness of your flesh and your need of
the grace and power of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. The only reason that any of us
haven't already died and been part of these short little caskets
that we see and these narrow graves that we have. And the
only reason is because of God's sustaining grace and will. But when he says that, Like water
spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again, neither
doth God respect any person." You know what? In our deception,
we have a notion as sinners that somehow what God says about everybody
else is not true of us. Somehow that what God says He's
going to do to other sinners outside of Christ, He really
isn't going to do to us. And if he does it, it'll just
be for a little while, and he'll change his mind, and everything
will be all right. They say everything's going to
be all right. Not outside of Christ, it's not. It's going
to be all wrong. But listen to this. Same verse
now. Neither doth God respect any
person. He won't accept any of us based
on who we are or what we've done. Yet doth he devise means that
his banished be not expelled from him. There's a way that a sinner can
have the blessing and the favor of God There's a way that a sinner
can enter into life instead of death. There's a way that he
can enter into God's heaven instead of going to hell. And it's a
way that only God has devised the means. And the means is Christ
crucified. His cross death. It's Christ Himself. He's this
way of life. The only life for a sinner is
that eternal life which is in Christ Jesus. And that's not
simply to live forever. As I said, everybody's going
to live forever. This eternal life is to know
God in Christ, to be accepted of God in Christ, to be blessed
by God in Christ. That's what eternal life is.
It's to be made the righteousness of God in Christ. It's to have
our sins put away by the blood that Christ shed on that cross. Is this true or not? And this
is the record. He could say this is the gospel.
This is the good news. And this is the record. that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. Where did it come from? God gave
it. How do we get it? It's a gift. Do you really believe
that? Here we are by nature thinking
that we can do some things, that we ought to do some things to
kind of mend our ways and gain God's favor and do all these. We're trying to do this all our
life, turning over all those new leaves. Do you ever turn
over a new leaf? It is the gift of God, and it's in His Son. I try to tell you as best that
I can, and I find myself over and over just beating myself
up because I can't say it more clearly. I can't explain it more
plainly. I don't have knowledge and understanding
of some of the details and particulars that I really would love to be
able to speak to you, but I'm going to tell you this. God gives the eternal gift, the
gift of eternal life, and that life is in His Son. And that's why I want to make
sure, if I can't explain everything about His Son, I want to make
sure I have His Son, that I believe on His Son. Hebrews, he says in quoting various
passages from the Old Testament, he says, and again, I will put
my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children which God
hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." If it's one thing this generation
is interested in, it's living. And this is living. I can tell you this, there's
nobody who knows anything about living who's in this fear of
death. It's a bondage. You cannot live,
live. while being under this fear of
death. Because to fear death is to fear
and remember the reason for death, which is sin. And to remember
that after death is the judgment. And the God that you are going
to meet in judgment is the thrice holy God. Like Ezekiel, we preach the gospel
of life in Christ to dead sinners. Why? Not because we are able
to do anything, but because the life-giver is. He said, Ezekiel, you go out
and preach to this valley of dry bones. They're nothing but
dead dry bones. They're unmistakably and undeniably
dead. But he said, you go preach to
them. And when he went out to preach
to them, he said, I saw all of a sudden there was a stirring
and the wind came and the bones began to join bone to bone and
sinew to sinew and muscle to muscle and there rose up a living
great army. We preach that Christ's blood
put away the sins of all His people, and it is His blood putting
away the sins of all His people that saved rather than their
putting on His blood. that his righteousness is imputed
to them by God as the one ground upon which he has blessed them
with all spiritual blessing, and it is not their decision,
or their will, or their works, or anything else performed by
them. Salvation is of the Lord. In Proverbs it says, in the way
of righteousness is life. Does that mean in your life,
if you live righteously and you live morally upright and all
these things, you ought to do that. You know that, don't you? But man at his best state, is
altogether vanity. In the way of righteousness is
life. The way of righteousness is Christ
crucified. And in the pathway thereof, there
is no death. No death. Doesn't that sound
good? No death. You see, salvation is in God's
deciding upon us before the world began and not our decision for
Him. I've just got one gospel to preach.
And Paul says, as we preach this gospel, to the one we are the
saver of death unto death. I don't like this house of mourning.
I don't like this gospel of God holy and just and man a sinner
and salvation only in Christ. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death and to the other. the savor or the fragrance of
life unto life. And what a mercy it is from God
to bring us to these houses of mourning, and to not leave us
to ourselves and our blindness and our deadness and our darkness,
and to show us, as he does in Romans 6, that even while the
wages of sin is death, But the gift of God, the gift
of God, not the offer of God, the gift of God is eternal life
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this life is the gift of
His grace to His people because of Christ's life and death as
a gift and work of righteousness. And he'll have to bring us to
spiritual life just like he had to bring Lazarus to physical
life. What a picture. Here's Lazarus
buried dead in the tomb three days. Everybody knew that he
was dead then. And the Lord Jesus stands out
in front of that tomb and says, Lazarus, come forth. Is there
any hope for a dead man, dead woman, in him whose life there
is? He said, Lazarus, come forth. And in that command was life.
And he did come forth. Oh, he still had some of them
grave clothes on him, like we all do spiritually. But Christ
said, Loose him. Set him free. He was alive. Christ gave him
life. Paul says, For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. Oh, the sting of death is sin
and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be unto God who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks
be to God who gives us the victory over death and hell and sin and
the grave and even over ourselves. What do the living know? In Ecclesiastes 9, it says, For
the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything. The living know that if they
remain on this earth, before the Lord Jesus Christ comes again
in his second coming, they're going to die. I'm going to die. If Christ doesn't come before
that hour of my appointment, I'm going to die. You're going
to die. Every one of us is going to die. But the living know it. Know it. And that's why Solomon
says, and the living lays it to heart. That means he takes
real heart consideration of it. But the dead know not anything. The dead can't see the difference
between life and death. The dead can't see the difference
between Christ and antichrist, between truth and error, between
the way of righteousness and the way of death. The dead cannot
see that it's not man's will or decision or works, but it's
Jesus Christ all the way. The living embrace this gospel,
this Christ. and know it to be life itself.
And the dead say, I just don't see the difference. That's true. The dead know not anything. And
if you and I know it, If you and I know that it's Christ,
only Christ, all of grace, all for the glory of God, all through
His death, His bloodshed, and His righteousness, if we know
that, and that's our only hope, it's only because He's made us
alive. And death for the living children
of God, will be the house of joy, the
house of blessing. Our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life. An old preacher said one
time, he's got it. and shall not come into condemnation."
To have everlasting life is to be not condemned. It's to be
justified through the blood and righteousness of Christ. But
is passed from death unto life. When our Lord's sister saw that
he had raised Lazarus from the dead, or was about to, and everything
that was going on, he said to her, after she said, I know we'll
see him in the resurrection, he said, I am the resurrection
and the life. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And she saith, Yea, Lord, I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come
into the world. I believe you're the Christ.
This is the Christ. And like I said, I may not know
everything about Him. But God reveals enough to distinguish
Him from Antichrist so His people say, there He is, that's the
Christ. This is our God. He has saved
us. Let me read you just a few more
verses and I'm done. Paul, when he writes to Timothy
in 2 Timothy chapter 1, He says, Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according
to the power of God, God who has saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, but is now made manifest at the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death. and hath brought life and immortality
to light." He's brought in himself and in his work this life and
this immortality to light. It's been in him all
the time. Now it's brought to life. Where
is it? Through the gospel. Through the gospel. through this
gospel of Christ crucified. Ah, he said it's better. Better
to go to the house of mourning. Better to get off this hallelujah
hayride on its way to hell. Go to the house of mourning,
which the gospel and the gospel church is at the first. But if God bless us, It's a house of joy. It's a house
of rejoicing. It's a house of the kingdom.
It's a house of bread and plenty. It's the Father's house. It's better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is
the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow
is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance
the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." What a merciful God! May we be brought to look to
Him who is life itself. Our Father, this day we give
you thanks for your good grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we thank you, Lord, though we are so often confused and confounded,
we thank you this day for your will, for your purpose, for your
wisdom in bringing these that you have to hear. May it be, Lord, for the good
of their souls. May it be, Lord, for the good
of my own heart and soul that we might know and look to
the Lord Jesus Christ who alone is our life. Our life is hid. in God, in Christ, and we have
no other. Thank you, we pray, and bless
your Word wherever you might cause it to be heard for your
glory and the good of your people. We pray in Christ, Amen.