Ecclesiastes 9, and we'll be
looking at verse 1 this morning. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 1, and
the title of the message, A Principle of Comfort. A Principle of Comfort. Now here, the wise man Solomon
sets out to declare what he had searched to find out in chapter
8 and verse 16 and 17. Let's go back there and look
at that before we look at verse 1. He said, And when I applied
my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that was done
in the earth. And in verse 17 he said, Then
I beheld all the work of God. Now he said, I set out set my
heart to know wisdom among all the business of men." He looked
out in the world and He wanted to see and set in order for everyone
the things that He saw under the sun. But He said, when I looked, He
says, I beheld the works of God. When I beheld the business of
men and sought out to find the business of men, he could not
help but see the work of God which is His divine providence. You cannot see anything that
happens in this world without seeing the divine providence
of God. Everything that happens in this world is by the divine
providence of Almighty God. who is king and sovereign over
all the works of creation. In everything in creation from
the beginning of time and all that has been done, all that
is happening now and all that shall happen in the future is
according to the divine providence of God. the divine decrees of
God and His counsel. Look at this in verse 4 of chapter
8. He, Solomon, says, Where the word of the king is, there is
power. And who may say unto him, What
doest thou? When the word of the king goes
forth, it goes forth in power. And who is going to stand against
it? Friends, this thought of God
should bring us to such a great awe of Him. God is King and His
Word is not like your Word. His Word is not like my Word. You see, in my Word, there's
no power. In your Word, there's no power.
You may determine to do something, but how many times have you determined
to do something and couldn't? You see, we've all done that.
We've all determined to do something. Somebody can say to me, what
are you doing? And I go, oh, well, I'm doing, okay, well,
I'll change my mind. God doesn't do that. God's not
like that. He is sitting on the throne of
heaven and He decrees something in eternity. What shall stop
it from becoming true in time? Nothing. Who's going to stand
in the way of God's decrees? You see, God. Who brought forth
the universe. How did He bring it forth? By
His Word. He just spoke and the universe
was created. What power is in the Word of
God. We know that God is in charge
of all life and death. We mentioned our brothers today.
I know this, their life is in the hand of God as your life
sitting here is in the hand of God. Not one of you is breathing
without God's specific permission to breathe His air. And when
your day has come, that day is set in stone, where you will
face death. Every one of us will face death.
And who has decreed this but God Almighty? The Scripture says
in Deuteronomy 32, 39, See now that I am He. and there is no God with me. I kill and I make a life. How many times have you heard
the fools of this religious world say, well, God didn't do that. Friends, everything that's done,
God has His hand in it. Not one of us moves without His
specific permission. You see, even the wicked Even
the evil of men is either restrained or allowed by God. And He's not
chargeable with it. My friends, they don't move without
Him. God kills and God makes alive. He said, I wound and I heal and
neither can any man deliver out of My hand. Friends, there is
none that can deliver you out of the hand of God. None. There
is none. God is omnipotent, He's all-powerful,
and He does whatsoever He decrees. And these decrees of God, are
they not eternal? God is eternal, and all of His
decrees are eternal. I had a friend show me this,
and I thought it was interesting. He put his finger down here,
and he said, you see my finger? He says, that's time, and everything
else is eternity. God, from all eternity past. Now see, I said that, but who
can explain to me eternity past? You see, we only have idea of
time. But God's decrees are from all
eternity, and everything that takes place in time is because
of God's eternal decrees. You are sitting here not by chance,
but by the providence of God that has brought you here, which
He has decreed from all eternity, that you sit and you hear this
message at this time, at this day, at this moment. God has
done that. God decrees this. Does God make
up things as He goes along? That's what most religious folks
think He does. They think when they pray, they
change God. No, friends, you don't change
God. God always is perfect. If He had to change anything,
He would not be God. He would not be God. God is eternal
and His decrees are eternal. And everything that happens is
according to the counsel of His own will. Ephesians 1, 11, it
says, He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. All things. The election of God's
people. All things. are after the counsel
of His own will. They happen according to His
purpose, His design. And He is right now, through
the actions of the elect as well as the lost, moving all things
after the counsel of His own will. Everything in the purpose
of God is moving in perfect harmony with history and with the future
and with the present. Everything God has decreed, He
is doing right now. And he will do it. He will do
it. Yet Solomon, he said, I determined
to know everything under the sun. But how can you know the
business of men without seeing the providence of God? You can't.
And so he said, I determined to know the business, but I saw
the providence of God, the work of God. And what did he say about
that? Let's look at what he said about the providence of God.
He said, then I beheld the work of God, that a man cannot find
out the work that is done under the sun. Solomon looked at the
business under the sun, and he knowing God is king and decrees
all things, yet he says a man cannot find out what's done under
the sun. He cannot by his searching. You cannot by your finite minds,
by our finite minds, by our limited understanding, we cannot look
at the business of men and see what God is doing. You can't
do it. You can't see. You can try. You can ask why. How many times have we asked,
why God, have you done this to me? I don't understand. Why is
this happening to me? Why is the world caving in on
me? What are you doing? I don't understand. You won't. You won't be able to find it
out under the sun with our limited understanding. You see, friends,
we look at the circumstances of time and we see what? Chaos.
I look out there and it looks like a mess to me. Does it look
like a mess to you? I tell you, everything looks
like it's random, like we don't know what's going to happen next.
It looks chaotic. Random events happen. Unexplained tragedies and unexplained
victories. Some are born poor and die rich.
Some are born rich and die poor. The righteous suffer with the
wicked, and it seems like that the wicked prosper and the righteous
suffer more than anything else. It seems like to me, when I look
out at the business of men, I don't see justice, do you? I don't
see that men are getting justice. Mighty kings are overthrown by
the weak, and the wicked kings are not just, but oppress the
weak. Why are some born with mental
illnesses and physical defects? Why are children born dead? Why do we have all of these things? What is the purpose of God in
this? We can look for reasons, and
we can ply ourselves to know this, but the wisest of men next
to Christ, which was Solomon, says, you can't. You can't see
what God is doing by the business of men. You can't look out into
the world and see what God is doing. You can't by your reason
find it out. So then let's learn what Solomon
learned. Let us learn from this what we
can, what he will teach us, what he has set forth in the Word
of God to declare unto us. And he's declared this a principle
of comfort. Now look, I don't know what's
going on and I don't know what God's going to do. Do you know
what God's going to do with this nation? I don't know. Maybe God
will bring us back. Maybe God will destroy it. I
don't know. But I do know this. that if I'm ever going to understand
anything about the providence of God, I must learn from His
Word. This is the only way I can determine
what God is ultimately doing. I don't see how God's going to
do it. I don't see how He connects A to B. But I know that He will
connect all the dots of His providence to bring us to Himself. I know
that. I know that. And everything that
happens in this life is for the good of His people. How do I
know that? The Word of God tells me that.
The Word of God tells me that. And Solomon here says, you're
not going to be able to look out there and find anything in
the midst of this chaos, but you're going to be able to get
comfort. And here it is, verse 1. Here's the comfort. For all
this I considered in my heart, even to declare this, that the
righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. There's the comfort. There is
the comfort that the righteous and the wise and their works
are where? In the hand of their heavenly
Father. This should give those comfort.
Now then, this principle. I want us to notice that this
principle is directed to certain people. This principle is not
for everyone. This principle is not for everyone.
This principle is only for a certain people. And the wise man Solomon
expresses to us this, that only the righteous and only the wise
may have this comfort. These are the two people, these
are the certain people that are mentioned. First of all, the
righteous. What is it to be righteous? What is that? Does that mean
you do your best? Is that righteousness? Is that
good enough to qualify for righteousness? No. Righteousness is absence
of sin. That's what righteousness is.
Righteousness means that you are absolutely free from all
sin. That's what righteousness means.
To those who are truly righteous, absolutely righteous, they will
be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be accepted. So then, with that definition,
who here is righteous in themselves? Who here can raise their hand
and take this comfort? in yourself. Is there anyone
by nature righteous? No. The Scripture says that there
is none righteous. No, not one. No, not one. Solomon says in this chapter,
he said that the sons of men are full of evil. That means
they're filled up to the brim with nothing but sin. This is our nature, that we are
full of evil. But this is speaking not to us
by nature, not to those who are righteous in themselves, but
this is those speaking to those who are righteous, that are made
righteous by the Son of God. That's who this is speaking to.
Those who are made righteous by the Son of God. Those who
have the righteousness of Christ, which He Himself alone obtained. Let me ask you, did Jesus Christ
need righteousness? Did He Himself need to obtain
righteousness for Himself? No. He was always righteous. Why then did He come to earth?
Why did He come and unite Himself to humanity? You see, Jesus didn't
just possess a body. He united His deity with His
humanity. He became the God-man, mediator. Why? To obtain righteousness
for His people. To obtain righteousness for His
elect people. And all those that believe on
Him and have come to Christ by faith have the righteousness of God
imputed and imparted unto them, and they are righteous. You see, when Jesus Christ by
His faithfulness obeyed God in every word and deed and thought,
He did that in my stead, in my place, and has given it unto
me so that I may claim that I am righteous as God is in His sight. And you who believe, this message
of comfort in a world of chaos is for you. You are righteous
if you are in Christ. If Christ has dealt with your
sins at the cross. My friends, that was the only
thing that stood in our way from being righteousness, isn't it?
Sin is the only thing that stands in the way of our being righteous.
And yes, Christ had taken our sins, and they were imputed to
Him, and charged to Him, and He died for them. so that God's
justice now is passed. The sin was placed on the scapegoat
and it was carried away. And so our sins have been carried
away as far as the east is from the west. He dealt with our sins and Jesus
Christ has given us the righteousness of God. Number two, this is for
the wise. The wise. Who here is wise by
nature? Oh, there's a lot of wise men
concerning the things of this life. A lot of smart men. A lot of intelligent men. I'm not talking about physical
intelligence or worldly wisdom. I'm speaking about wisdom concerning
the things of God. Are you wise in the things of
God? You are if you've been made wise
unto salvation. If you have been made wise unto
salvation, then you are a wise person. If you have experienced
the saving grace of God, you are wise in the sight of God.
Friends, it is one thing to know the doctrines of grace in your
head. And I know this. that everyone in this building,
every member of this church, every child of a member of this
church, you have heard these doctrines, you have known these
things from your youth. But I'll tell you this, there
are many Calvinists in hell. There are many Calvinists in
hell, just as many Armenians as Calvinists. You see, we don't
come to a creed. We don't believe in a doctrine.
We believe in a person. who is the beauty of all the
doctrines of grace. You see, we come to Jesus Christ. And when the Spirit of God moves
in power on a soul to give life, He's given life by the gospel
of Christ. And these doctrines, which once
seemed cold and indifferent, you see, they glow inside of
us now. We rejoice in these things because I know Jesus Christ. I know these things are true
because I know the person of Jesus Christ. You see, I come
to a person, not some cold theological doctrine. You see, I knew that salvation
was by grace all of my life. I was raised in a church that
believed the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, and
I heard it preached thousands of times. By the age 16, I imagine
I could have been a theologian by then. I knew so much about
it. But you know what? I didn't know
Christ. And it wasn't until the Spirit of God came and He resurrected
my dead soul that I came to the person of Christ. And I knew
Him. And it was then I understood
what all those doctrines really meant. It was then I understood
they pointed me to a person. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I knew the power of God under
salvation. I knew Jesus Christ, which is
the righteousness of God and the wisdom of God. He's the wisdom
of God. I see how it is God can be just
and justify an ungodly sinner like myself only in the person
of Jesus Christ. This is what it is to have wisdom.
This is not my wisdom. I was wise unto salvation above
my years. But by the power of the Spirit
of God, He made me wise unto salvation in my soul to know
Christ." Number three, their works. Let's look at this. The
righteous, this is to who the comfort is given. And notice
this concerning their works. It says, "...and their works."
The righteous works and the wise man's works. Not only are there persons to
be comforted, but also They are to be given comfort concerning
their works. These are the works of worship,
the works of praise. These are good works that follow
every believer in Christ. Every believer in Christ is made
righteous by the works of Christ and His blood. And to all who
by the Spirit of God are made wise unto salvation through faith,
they all shall walk worthy of their calling. They shall. You see, we are created in Jesus
Christ unto good works. which God hath before, remember
I talked about His ordination, before ordained that we should
walk in them. His works of righteousness is
not of us, but we shall walk worthy of His calling. That this
should be the tenor of our life, that we should worship God and
love Christ and love one another. This is the marks of every believer
in Christ. Do you love God? Do you reverence God? Well, see,
that comes natural to a believer. I love Him. I want to love Him
more. You see, my life is not centered
around me anymore. My life is centered around Christ. You see, some people add Christ
to their life. But to a believer, Christ is
their life. Christ is their life. And everything
they do, they want to honor Him in everything they do. Is this
you? Do you trust in Him? Is this
text speaking to you? Are you righteous in Christ?
Has God enlightened your soul to rest by faith in the person
and work of Christ alone? Is the worship of God, the love
of Christ, and the love of your brethren preeminent to you? Or is there something more important? Not to a believer. Not to one
who knows how they have been saved by the very grace of God. We have Christ as our everything. For me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. If so, then this text of comfort
in a world of chaos that we cannot see, understand or understand
the providences of God by what we view, this is our comfort
that He accepts our works in Christ. Do you know this word, hand?
When I looked this up, it was very interesting. This word,
hand, means open hand. Open hand. When you open your
hand to someone, what are you doing? But accepting. You're
accepting them. You see, their person, the righteous,
the wise, and their works are in the open hand of God. They
are accepted of God. by Jesus Christ the Lord. They are accepted of Him. Believer
in Christ. We who have been washed by the
blood of Christ and His righteousness imputed to us, we have come to
Him by faith and are obedient to His Word. And we long for
Him. We long to worship Him and love
Him. And when we do so, we may have this assurance and comfort Your worship this morning is
accepted. Your worship, my worship, though small in our estimate,
yes, our love though tiny and insignificant at times to us,
God says, I've accepted it as though it is righteous and full. That's amazing to me. It gives
me great cause to worship God this morning. for His great love
and mercy to us, to know that our worship and love are accepted.
And this also gives us comfort in this, not only does He accept
our works, but we ourselves are in His hand. Scripture says He
has us engraved upon His hand. Christ said, you are in the hand.
of God. You're in my hand. And I am in
the Father's hand. And no man shall pluck you out
of my Father's hand." Isn't that amazing? That we are kept, no
matter what we see in this life, you are still kept by the power
of God. And this redirects us back to
the providence of God we can see. Believers We will not be
able to see the love of God, but we will never be able to
see the hatred of God by what we see in this life. Look back
at our text. You that are righteous and you
that are wise may take comfort in that you are in the hand of
God who loves you. And it says, No man knoweth either
love or hatred by all that is before him. In other words, you
will never be able to see if God loves you by the circumstances
of life. You'll never be able to see it
there. You won't be able to see if God hates you by the circumstances
of life. You won't be able to see it.
Friends, it's our nature to think that if all is well, then God
loves me. Isn't that our nature? Well, if the sun's shining and
the temperature's right and I'm well and happy and nothing happens
to me, well, God must love me. I must be doing something right.
Look at me. Everything's well. Or when we
get up in the morning and we're grumpy and we kick the cat and
we curse our family where our family's devastated and somebody
dies or somebody is sick, then we say, oh, does God love me? I don't know. I can't see if
God loves me. You won't see if God loves you
by the circumstances. Don't look there. You will not
know love or hatred by what's before you. You can't. You can't
know. We must never strive to determine
God's love based on what we see in circumstance. In verse 2,
Solomon says, we all have this one thing alike. That's why you
look at verse 2. He says, all things come alike. We all will experience both good
and evil in this life. Clean and unclean. Good and bad. Believer and unbeliever. Our experiences and circumstances
of this life may be good or bad. The things do not always work
for the physical appearance of good to those who are called
by God, do they? It don't always look like we're
called of God. It doesn't always appear that
way by what we see. And we know this, that just because
all things are well, that does not mean God is in your favor
either. The observance of the things
we see in this life. You remember Asaph in Psalm 73,
what did he observe? He said, I don't understand God. I know you love Israel. I know
you love your people. But the wicked prosper, and the
righteous suffer, and I don't understand by what I can see
God. I don't understand. Is this not
what we visually see with our eyes as well? Can you not enter
into that experience? I do. I understand that. But believers are not to trust
in what we see. We're to trust God and His Word. This is what we're to trust.
And no matter what we see goes against this, then you need to
go against what you see. Because what you see is not really
what's happening. What you see is not really what's
happening. You trust God's Word. Romans 8, 28. All things. Sickness, pain, death, sorrow,
heartache, joy, happiness. All things. Work together. See, that's the part we can't
see. We can't see how it works together.
But it does. Works together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,
the elect of God. You remember Lazarus and the
rich man. Could you look at Lazarus and
say, well, that's a child of God. Look at him out there being
licked by the dogs. He must be so blessed. And look
at that rich man. Oh, he's a demon. Oh, he's horrible. Look how lavishly he lives. Surely God must hate him. See,
that's not how we see things. But how we saw that is not a
true representation of what was happening. Lazarus was loved
of God and the rich man was hated. Rich man was hated. Friends,
my brother Tommy Robbins is dying right now. He is suffering in
great pain and yet he is a faithful servant of the living God. And I know people who do not
know Christ have been delivered from the sicknesses and diseases
and even death. They've been delivered. But I
can't tell you that God loves Tommy because of cancer and He
hates the other person because He's relieved of it. I can't
see it that way. How do I know God loves Tommy
and hates the unregenerate? How do I know that? The Word
of God. I believe the Word of God. God says, all who are in Christ
are free from sin and they're loved by God and all who try
to come to God by their works and free will religion will be
rejected no matter how they live in this life. I know that. Word
of God. Isaiah 46 verse 10 says, God
declares, that He alone declares the end from the beginning. And
from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand. What is the pleasure of the Lord? If the pleasure of the Lord is
going to prosper in His hand, what is the pleasure of the Lord?
If God is going to do His will that pleases Him, what is it
that pleases Him? What is God doing? He says this
in Psalm 149, verse 4, For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with
salvation. Believer, do not look at the
spokes of the wheel or the circumstances of life and events, but look
to the pleasure of God, and that is that He will save His people
from their sins, no matter what. No matter what, God has purposed
the end at the beginning. He shall save His people from
their sins. This is your comfort. This is
the principle of comfort to you. Praise God! We are accepted in
Christ. May God give us great comfort
by looking to His purpose. in providence to bring us to
Himself and not to question His wisdom. Oh, how many times have we questioned
the wisdom of God in our life? How many times have we yelled
at God and asked Him, why would You do this to me? We must remember that every joy
and trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the Son
of Love. He's doing it because He loves
you. And whatever has happened to
you has happened for your good and His glory. And to question what he's doing
is to question his love and providence for you. And lastly, Solomon gives a warning. Gives a warning. And he says,
yes, trouble comes to us all. But there's one thing we will
experience after the trouble of this life, and that is death. You and I will die. You will die. And you will stand before God. You will stand before God. And if you stand outside of Jesus
Christ, you will stand before God in the filthy rags of your
sin, and God will execute the sentence of condemnation that
is already placed on you. But He gives us hope in this.
He says, in life there's hope. He says, better is a living dog
than a dead lion. Oh, that every one of us would
grovel as a dead dog sinner before God. Now. Because there is no hope
after this life. You see, grace is only extended
in this life. And after this, it is appointed
unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. All who believe in Christ, you
see, you have this comfort. You're in God's hands. And God
is doing all things for your good. If you are outside of Christ,
you have no such comfort. God is doing all things for your
ill. If you're outside of Christ,
come now. Come and bow down now. while there's life. Because there's no hope after
that. But we who have believed, there
is hope. Because we've come as a live dog. And that's better
than a dead lion. Praise God, He has made us dogs. Remember that woman that came
to Him and the Lord said, is it meat to give the children's
bread to dogs? And what did she say? Truth,
Lord, but even the dogs receive the crumbs from the master's
table. I recognize who I am and take
my place before the master. I pray you do so too. And this
principle of comfort is yours, no matter what you see. Let's
get ready. We'll have our next service. We have Mindy and Cheryl, go
back to the back for us, please.