So I'm back to Ecclesiastes chapter
7. I have got to leave after the
service, go back home, my second home, and conduct my aunt's funeral. That generation is about gone
now. I think there's one left in that
family of seven. And I was thinking and prayed
that the Lord give me a message and started working on it a couple
days or so ago, a couple days ago. And I thought, well, I'll
just bring it here this morning instead of working on two different
messages. Someone said it's hard to chase
two different rabbits at the same time. But this was on my
mind, so I just stayed with it. And I titled this message, Lessons
Learned at a Funeral. Lessons Learned at a Funeral.
You say, well, that's a different title. But I want us to look at it.
It is written in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1 and 2. To
everything there is a season and a time. To every purpose,
that's God's purpose, not mine. That's God's purpose. And a time
to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time
to die. a time to plant, and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. Every funeral that I have done,
and ever will do, is on time. God's time. It's time. In Hebrews 9, it is written,
it is appointed unto men once to die. It's appointed. It's
an appointment. When someone dies, They have
met the appointed time that God's given them on this earth and
it's time. God appointed the day of our
birth and God has appointed the day of our death. We are not
born before that time, nor do we die. after that time, go beyond
that time, that times of God. David said, my times are in thy
hand. We do not come into this world
by accident. We do not leave this world by
accident. We might die in an accident,
but it will not be an accident that we died. That's my time. And in between those two dates
on the headstone, there's that dash, and that dash is our life.
Very brief. Our whole life is summed up in
a dash. Isn't that amazing? But verse two is the verse I
want to look at. It is better to go to the house
of mourning, and he's speaking here of a funeral, than to go
to the house of feasting. There's merriment, drinking,
laughter going on. It's the laughter of fools for
the most part. Not condemning feasting, but what he's talking
here about is the laughter of fools, feasting of fools. For that is the end of all men,
and the living will lay it to heart. Now, this sounds like
a paradox, doesn't it? The day of one's death is better
than the day of one's birth. That depends on our relationship
to Jesus Christ, whether it's better or not. So it sounds like a paradox,
though. How can it be better to go to the funeral of a loved
one than to go to a party? No one likes to go to funerals.
It's sad. It's a horrible time, isn't it? It's a sorrowful time. But Solomon
knows what he's talking about here. And the living knows what
he's talking about. Not all those who show up. It's evident they're living.
He's talking about those who have been made alive in Christ.
They are the ones who lay this to heart. They know what's going
on. They're the ones who reflect on this seriously. But now let me say this. Solomon's
not condemning happiness. He's not condemning that he wrote
in chapter 519 every man Also to whom God hath given riches
and wealth And hath given him power to eat thereof and to take
his portion and to rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of
God Enjoy what God's given you Enjoy it Enjoy your youth You
got youth enjoy it. It's leaving real quick. I It
leaves real quick, doesn't it? Enjoy it while you have it. But the ones who learn this lesson
here are the living. They're the ones who lay it to
heart. Those who believe God lay this to heart. They give
serious thought to this. They give serious thought to
what has just happened. This person has just met God. Now why is it better to go to
the house of mourning than the house of feasting? How can this
be? How can this be? I know that if I ask anyone,
pretty much anyone, which they'd rather go to, a funeral or a
party, they're going to say party. That's what they're going to
say. They're going to say, I'd rather go to a party. I don't want to go to a funeral.
We naturally avoid sorrowful times and gravitate to feasting.
It's us, by nature. But it's in sorrowful times that
we have the most serious thoughts of God. It's in sorrowful times
that we give the most reflection to our relationship to God. The
living do. They do. We don't reflect on
life, death, eternity, our relationship to God at a party. That's where
God's name is most taken in vain. That's where most foolishness
happens. That's where most temptations happen, is at feasting. They don't happen at a funeral.
No, not at a funeral. You see, the house of feasting
feeds the appetites of the flesh and does nothing for the soul. The house of feasting tends to
selfishness. It's about me. When you go to
a house of feasting, notice who the people talk about the most.
Themselves and family and so on and so forth. It's about themselves.
It's all about me, mostly. The house of feasting gives a
false sense of happiness. False sense of happiness. It's written in Luke 12, 15. And He said unto them, Take heed,
and beware of covetousness, greed. For a man's life consists not
in the abundance of the things which he possesses. My happiness
is not in feasting, it's not in the material things I possess.
My life doesn't consist in that, and my happiness does not consist
in that. Because those things come and
go, don't they? By the time I joined the age
of 18, and by the time I reached, before I reached the age of 30,
I'd lost three jobs. They went out of business. So
my happiness could not be tied to that. It was like coming home
and saying, I'm out of a job. No happiness there. But if my
happiness is in Christ, that never, that doesn't change because
he doesn't change. He doesn't change at all. My happiness is in a true relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one, no one can be truly
happy and know what that is apart from Christ. No one. And then
the house of feasting gives a false sense of self-worth. People talk about their jobs,
what they've been able to accomplish. That's a false sense of self-worth. But what are some of the lessons
learned at a funeral? What does a living
man learn? Man born of God. Once again, once again, it is
brought before us the effects of sin. We don't die because of old age. We don't die because of a disease. Those are second causes. We die
because of sin. That's why we die. When they
write the obituary of any person sometimes they put the reason
of death the call they'll play they'll say the cause of death
no the cause of death is sin all these other things are second
causes they are the the effects of sin we die because of because
of sin it says in romans 5 12 by one man sin entered the world
and death by sin death by sin. This is original sin and it is
passed upon all of us. For it says all have sinned to
come short of the glory of God. But now listen, infants die and
they've not sinned, they've not willfully sinned. It says death
has reigned over them just like it did Adam. But they did not
sin, it says, after the similitude or the likeness of Adam willfully.
They're infants. They don't even know their name.
They don't know anything. But they die. Why do they die?
Sin. Not a sin they've committed,
but a sin they inherited. They die because of sin. Now,
I have no doubt in my mind, I have no doubt that those infants and
children and people who are mentally handicapped, I believe they're
with the Lord. I do. I believe the Lord redeemed But they die because of sin.
That's why they die. And then we learn at a funeral
the brevity of life. The brevity of life. Life at
its longest is short. It just seems like yesterday.
I'd just turned 68. How'd that happen? It's just
like it sneaked in the back door and jumped on me. I mean, I just,
I can't believe that. My dad said to this, and I know
now what he's saying, what he said, what he meant. He said,
looking back at the, when we lived on a farm and all of us
kids were growing up, he said, that seems like just a dream. He said, it's just like it was
a dream. You know, he passed away last year, almost 92, and
it was just a dream. Even those who lived almost a
millennium in the beginning there, when Adam fell, they lived 900
and some years old. They lived to be Methuselah,
969. They lived to be 900 and some
years old, and you know what it says? And then they died. Then they died. It's over. We
learn the brevity of life. James says this in James 4.14.
Whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow. You know what's
going to happen tomorrow? No. No. If we knew what was going
to happen tomorrow, Israel would have been prepared for the attack
that they just got. They didn't see it coming. That's
because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But what is your life? Look at
it. Look at your life. What is it?
James said it's a vapor. A vapor. A vapor is something
just very perishing, very short, a vapor. That appears for a little
while and then vanishes away. Life is short. And then we learn, the living
man learns the vanity of all things. All things. Solomon gave himself to everything. Let me see if I can find this
over in, it's in chapter one. Let me see if I can get the verses
here. Look in verse 12. I, the preacher,
was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Preacher first, king second.
And I gave my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning
all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given
to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the
works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity. All is vanity and vexation of
spirit. You know, he gave his self to laughter. You look down in verse two, or
chapter two. I said in my heart, go to now.
I will prove thee with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure and
behold, this is vanity. Nothing came of it. I said of
laughter, it's mad, and of mirth, what does it? What use is it?
I sought in my heart to give myself to wine, yet acquainted
my heart with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly till I might
see what was that good for the sons of men which they should
do under the sun all the days of their life. It all ended up
vanity, empty, nothing. Apart from Christ, life is empty. It's nothing. It's void. Life without Christ is empty.
It really is. We learn, we learn the vanity
of all things and nothing, listen, nothing of this life has any
lasting value. I was a machinist for 40 years.
That's totally useless now. What I learned, what I learned
over 40 years is useless. It's useless. It just takes up
a lot of space that I don't need, that I do need now. You know,
if you could just, like a computer, just drain it out and, you know,
give yourself more space. I don't need that no more. It's
vanity now. Let's not be, listen, we take
nothing, we learn that we take nothing with us. Value everything,
put a real value on everything that carries into eternity. That's
what you put real value on. My relationship to Christ. Salvation in Christ, that's what's
valuable. That's what's valuable. And then we learned how to really
pray. The living man at a funeral learns
something about real prayer. Psalm 90 verse 12. Teach us to
number our days. Have you ever asked God to do
that? Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts
unto wisdom. Lord, enable me to apply my heart
to wisdom as I live out my days. Not years, but days. Teach us
to number our days. There are very few. And teach
us to apply our hearts to wisdom as we live them out. I don't want to be like a fool
who says there is no God and live like one. Live like a fool. No God for me. I'll be my own
God. And then we learn to face our
own mortality. Our own mortality. Our own weakness. Boy, if there's one thing that
aging teaches you, it's weakness. I used to think I was a strong
man. No. And I look back, I never was.
I never was. We learn our mortality. We may
be next. We may be next. If I continue
to live, I'll do more funerals. I'll do more. In fact, Vicki's sister called
her a couple days ago and said, whenever her mother does pass,
she's 94, but whenever she does, she said, we want John to do
the funeral. I'll do another one. You know, the disadvantage, I
thought, of youth is it blinds them to their own mortality.
You know, the first time I ever visited someone that had died,
I was just a little boy. I can remember that I was just
a little boy, and there was a family that rented off of a house that
Dad had. It was on the farm. First funeral,
first one I ever went to was that of an infant. It was laying,
back then, they had them in the house, you know, they kept them
in the house. And I walked in, I was just a little fella, and
I saw that infant lying in that casket, and I was like, You know,
it's not supposed to be. It was an infant. And then I
had a friend at 19 years of age killed in a car wreck, 19. We
were both the same age, 19. All those years had gone by.
And by God's grace, he has saved me and called me to preach the
gospel. The disadvantage of youth. It
blinds them to their own mortality. Ecclesiastes 9, 5. Will the living
know that they shall die? This is what we lay to heart.
The living, those whom God has made alive, you know that as Peter said in the lesson this
morning, I must shortly lay down this tabernacle. this body, this
tent. I must shortly do it. Do you know that? Do you know
that? I do. I do. And then we learn that this is
the end of all men. Whatever men accomplish in life,
it ends here. Henry said in a message, once
sign every contract you sign on the lid of your casket. Because
that's where it ends. That's where it ends. It ends here. There's nothing
goes with us. It's written in Psalm 39, 4.
Lord, make me to know mine end. That there is an end to this
life. Not the life to come, not the life I have in Christ, but
there is to this one. And the measure of my days, what
it is that I may know how frail I am. Now isn't that wise? Isn't that a good reflection?
Isn't that a good prayer? Make me to know it. Make me to
get off to myself and contemplate and realize my end. I have a good end. Some of you
have a good end. It ends in eternal life, the
life of God. It ends in eternity, worshiping
God in Christ. Make me to know my end. And to
some that don't know the Lord, Lord, make them to know their
end. It's the opposite. It's to perish under the wrath
of God. You know, all those who drowned by the ark, not one of
them drowned in the love of God. They drowned in the wrath of
God. Outside of Christ, God's a consuming fire. And then listen, we learn to
reflect on our relationship with Christ seriously. We just went
over that in the lesson. Make your calling and election.
Sure. Give diligence. Peter wrote to
the church, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. As I said to the class this morning,
it's just interesting how that those who claim to be saved fight
against the doctrine of election. And Peter said, make it sure. Make your calling and election
sure. Give diligence to it. Don't ignore
it. You see, we reflect on our relationship
with Christ seriously when we attend a funeral. I may be next. It makes me desire to know Christ
even more. I'm His and He is mine. Is there
anything more comforting than that? I'm His and He's mine. Paul counted everything but loss
just to know Christ. You know, the natural man, the
natural man and woman spends their life gathering only to
leave it. Every bit of it. You're penniless
the day you die. And then we learn to show compassion.
The living man learns to weep with those who weep. We naturally
try to avoid those times, don't we? But we learn to be a brother
born for adversity, put our arms around them and say, sorry for
the loss of your loved one. And we learned in closing, we
learned that is the end of all men. You know, when you go and read the
book of Revelation in the very last chapter, you know what it
says? The end. The end. That's what it used
to sign off on TV like. Years ago, you know, the end. A lot of them just, the end,
that's it. Now what? The end, but now what? Now it's all in my relationship
to Jesus Christ. That's it. Go home. And reflect on this. Reflect on your mortality. Reflect
on your relationship with Christ. Go home and lay this to heart. Lay it to heart. Lessons learned at a funeral. All right. And you pray for me tomorrow
that the Lord will give me the ability to preach the gospel,
preach the truth in love.