Ecclesiastes chapter 9. What I'd like to do this morning,
I know I'm not going to get all the way through this chapter,
but I'd like to just give you a running commentary on as many
of these verses as we have time for. Now I know the name for
the book of Ecclesiastes is the preacher. If you turn all the
way back to the beginning of the book, you'll see the title
up there, and underneath it says, the preacher. That's what that
word means. My title this morning is Considering
God in Your Heart. This is my goal as a preacher. That's what I want you to do.
When you leave here, while you're here, while you're listening,
as you leave, throughout the day, throughout the week, I'd
like for you to consider God in your heart. Consider. That's my goal as a preacher.
That's my hope as a believer. My hope. I want to consider Him. He's my hope. And that's my comfort as a dying
sinner. And in order for you to be reconciled
to God, you must be brought to that place in reality, in truth,
in truth, to consider God in your heart. Who He is, what He
is, what He demands, and who we are who are accountable to
Him. We're His creation, we're His
creatures, we're accountable to Him. Now, watch this here
in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 1, For all this I considered in my heart. Now we're talking about a man
of God, a special man, Solomon, the son of David, a wise man. For all this I considered in
my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and
the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth
either love or hatred by all that is before it. Now Solomon
searches here in this verse. He searches in wisdom and though
he cannot comprehend all the workings of God in his great
providence, we can't comprehend all those things. My soul, look
around at just what the day brings. I can't hardly get through the
news, let alone all the workings of God in his providence. He
cannot comprehend all the workings of God in His great providence,
yet there were a few things that he did learn in his looking.
And that's what he's talking about here. He learned a few
things. He looked around. He considered
God in his heart. He considered who he was. And
the first thing that he learned is that nothing happens by chance
or accident. It's all in the hands of God. Now, ain't that what he said? Have you ever considered that? Not a sparrow, that's what our
Lord told his disciples, not a sparrow can. That has to do
with ability, doesn't it? Not a sparrow can fall to the
ground without your father. That's how detailed this thing
is ordered. Every hair of your head constantly
changing. Some for the worst. is numbered. He said, I declare the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done. How many things are not yet done?
A lot. A lot. The things that are not yet done,
saying, my counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. In Ephesians 1 and verse 11,
he talks about all things being gathered. He's going to communicate
to us the mystery of His will, and He's going to show us that
there is an eternal gathering of things, and all of these things
will be gathered in the last day in Christ. Things in heaven,
things under the earth, things in the earth. All things are
going to be gathered together in Christ. in whom we have obtained
an inheritance. Now watch this. Being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh a few things. I don't even want that to say
it. All things after the counsel
of his own will. Our weather, somebody said just
Out of control. That's what I'm watching on there
the other night. All these emissions and all these things, our weather's
out of control. Our government's out of control,
I heard the politician say. Our children, out of control. Out of yours, not out of his. Not out of his. Nothing in this
universe is out of control. By Him, our Lord said, all things
consist. Held together in Him, in Him. Was not created by chance and
circumstance and is not maintained and governed according to that
either. The Lord God Omnipotent reigns. Sometime when you get a chance
to read Job chapter 38 through chapter 40, Job thought he knew
something, and he did. He was a righteous man. He knew
something. But he didn't know near as much as he thought he
did. And God started firing questions at him, and he said, once have
I spoken, yea, twice I've shut up. I won't ever speak again.
I don't know anything. But here's what this man learned,
this man Solomon. He said, the righteous and the
wise. He's talking about the wise men
of this world, those who count the Gospels foolish, ungodly
men. The righteous and the wise and
their works are in the hand of God. That's where they're at.
And then secondly, he found this out. No man knoweth either love
or hatred by all that is before him, by all that he sees. We're just so convinced sometimes
when we see something, boy, I don't know everything, but I tell you,
I know. No, you don't know. No, you don't. The preacher looked hard around
him, and he looked at the kings and the governors and his own
people and the Gentile heathens, and he could not by providence
alone discern Who was and who was not blessed of God? Who was
loved and who wasn't? He couldn't figure it out. You
can't figure it out. And I'll tell you why. Because
all you can see is what these eyes see. God looks on the heart. We look on the outward countenance.
I look on what you do. I look on what you say. I've
got no ability to look past that. But he does. And he looks on
the heart. But Solomon said, I look around
me and I can't discern. I just can't tell. I can't tell. A plane crashes. 75 people killed. One man survives. Does that mean he's loved of
God? Not necessarily. Storm brews out in the Gulf.
Slams into the coast. Destroys one community. Totally
ignores another. Does that mean that one community
was righteous and the other one wasn't? Not necessarily. Suddenly a man is diagnosed with
cancer. Is that the judgment of God?
Not necessarily. Might be a blessing. Might be
a blessing. Verse 2, Ecclesiastes 9, All
things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous
and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean.
To him that sacrifices, that is to the religious man, and
to him that sacrifices not. As to the good, so is to the
sinner. And he that sweareth an oath,
as he that feareth an oath. Every event comes alike upon
all men. And studying a man's life and
what befalls that man cannot show you his end. That's what
he said. Does not show you his end. I'll
give you some examples. Abraham was a rich man. So was
a rich young ruler. One was blessed and one was not.
Joseph, raised up to be second in command over all Egypt. So
was Haman in the court of Ahasuerus. Caleb's strength remained strong
even into his old age. David said the same thing of
the ungodly, their strength held firm to the end. Moses, Solomon,
Daniel, they were all wise men, but so were the Egyptians, so
were the Ninevites. Demetrius had a good report of
all men. So did Chordathin and Abiram
just before God swallowed them up. Consider adversities when you
look. I'm trying to get you to consider
these things. Consider what this man is saying.
You look around and you make evaluations based on what you
see with these eyes. This man says you can't do that.
You can't do that. I've given you those examples.
Consider adversities. Lazarus was dead. He was dead. The leper was forbidden to worship.
The woman with the issue of blood was unclean. and the man at the
pool was paralyzed. Consider controversy. Paul was
beaten within one stripe of his life three times. Christ was
rejected, John the Baptist was beheaded, and John the Apostle
was exiled to an island. Consider circumstances. Paul
was a day and a night in the deep, bitten by a serpent. The apostles were in a storm
at sea. in a desert with no food. Birth defects, blind. Old Bartimaeus sat there on that
blanket for years, blind, couldn't see anything. Deaf, dumb, paralyzed,
demon possessed. Who can look at those things
and determine if they are a curse or a blessing? You can't do it,
can you? All of these things happen the
same to those who fear the Lord. and those who have no fear of
God before their eyes. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 3. This
is an evil among all things that are done unto the Son, that there
is one event unto all. Now, the evil that he's talking
about here is not in the giving of these things, nor in him to
whom he gives them. The evil is in how we interpret
them. That's the evil he's talking
about. We look at prosperity and we
assume it to be a blessing. It's usually not. In Psalm 73, 3, David said, I
was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
He was upset. He was upset. They're not in
trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.
Pride compasseth them about like a chain. covereth them like a
garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness.
They have more than the heart could wish. They are corrupt
and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue
walketh through the earth. And they say, How doth God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly
who prosper in the world. And it's a great evil to try
and determine a man's standing by earthly benefits. And it's
a great evil that men are proud of themselves and think of themselves
as self-made men. I'd like to know how many times
I've heard ignorant men talk about, well, God will bless them,
that he'll help them and help themselves. No, he helps the
helpless. That's who he helps. And most men and women do not
really believe that God will recompense all sin, especially those sins that are
hidden from men, sins of imagination and sins of heart. David said when he looked on
these things, it was painful to him. It hurt him. It caused
him grief. He loved God. He obeyed God.
He was a man after God's own heart. And all he did was suffer. His children turned against him.
The kingdom turned against him. Everything. He suffered. He suffered. But here's these ungodly men
who curse God and take for granted the means and things of God and
the worship of God and ignore these things. And they go on
in their idolatry and all these things. And he said it made him
mad. It upset him. He couldn't understand
it. That's an evil. That's what Solomon talked about.
There is an evil in these things. And then in Psalm 73, 17, he
said, Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I understood
their end. Now, that took care of that evil. That took care of that ignorance. There is a judgment of God on
this earth, an invisible hand plucking men out of the fire
like a brand from the burning. Sum up. Sum up. and giving them over to themselves.
There are principalities and powers and things not seen by
the human eye, things against which no man is a match. I tell you this, and I tell it
to you every time I get up here, because I know that you are full
of unbelief, the same as I am. And we talk about these things,
but we don't really believe them. Satan can take you captive at
his will in a heartbeat. He can turn your whole life upside
down. There's one thing that stood
between Job's perfect life and perfect harmony with his family,
and that's the hedge that God built about him. And Satan knew
it. He said, you take down that hedge,
he'll curse you. How long did it take him to do
it? How long did it take Satan to strip him and put him on that
pile out there and wish him to die? How long did it take him?
Almost instantly. Almost instantly. There's a judgment of God and
most of the time it's invisible. He's given men over. Men who've
had opportunities and men who've heard and set it aside. He's
given them opportunities. There's a season. I don't know
how to explain these things, but there's a season of grace.
And men set it aside. They waste it. They throw it
away. They disregard it. Opportunities
to come and won't come. Drive 400 miles to go to a ball
game, can't drive 20 miles to go to church. You know I'm telling you the
truth. And there's a judgment of God on this earth. It's an
invisible hand and it plucks men out of the burning. It takes
men who are deceived and opens their eyes and it takes others
who have no regard, who disregard the things of God and turns them
over to these principalities and powers. And these things,
they grip a man, they take over a man. What possesses the man
becomes the man. And they find satisfaction in
all kinds of things. They find satisfactions in life
and satisfactions in jobs and families and all sorts of things.
And all those things come to an end all too soon. And then reality sets in. It's
just you and God. Just you and God. There's a judgment
of God, and it's not way out yonder. It's right here. It's
right now. Right now. Oh, that judgment out there is
sure. This judgment here is too. You just can't see it. You just
can't see it. These things are deceitful things. Things that appear one way, but
in truth, they're another. And apart from an intervention
of God, we'll be swallowed up by them. swallowed up by our
natures, by false religion, by lust and pleasures of this world.
You don't have to live in Sodom and Gomorrah to be a reprobate.
Did you know that? Judas was a reprobate and walked
with the rest of the twelve. That's right. Demas walked with,
he was Paul's fellow laborer. Went with him everywhere he went.
Reprobate. Ecclesiastes 9.3, the very last
verse. Yea, also the hearts of men is
full of evil, full of evil, and madness is in their heart while
they live. And after that, they go to the
dead. And because of the absolute depravity
of man's nature, he lives out his days in madness. That madness,
that gathering, all of these people that the Lord did miracles
upon, every last one of them is a picture of our condition
before God and how God saves sinners. He gives us eyes to
see the same as He did to the blind. He opens our mouth to
speak right things of God, same as He opened the mouths of those
who couldn't speak. He gives us ears to hear. He
directs our paths. He cleanses us from all uncleanness
like He did the woman with the issue of blood. He cleanses us
from our leprosy the same as He did that leper who fell down
before Him. All of these things. And that
old Gadarene demoniac, he was a madman. That's what Solomon
is saying here. According to the dictates of
our nature, we live out our days in madness, insanity. Any sin, all sin, every sin is
madness. It's shaking your fist in the
face of omnipotence. It's madness. Surely any man who do that is
mad. Sin defiles the authority of
God that forbids it. It defies the power of God that
enforces it. It defies the holiness of God
that hates it. It defies the justice of God
that will revenge it. And sin ignores the wrath of
God that's been poured out on so many occasions and poured
out in such a way as to fall upon his own son. Ignores it
like it never happened. It's madness to ignore the wrath
of God poured out on God's darling son and somehow believe that
we're going to escape. How are you going to escape,
Paul said? If the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience received a just, recompensive
reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by those that heard Him, God Himself bearing them witness
with signs and wonders and miracles." It's madness to bring on, to
hang on to old religious tradition over plainly declared truth.
Madness! Why do you do it? Open this book and you read,
God chose a people. Why don't you believe that? You're
mad! You're mad. You have to be mad.
You have to be insane. To deny what you know to be the
Word of God, you must be mad. That's what he's talking about.
We live out our days in madness. We deny these things. Deny. It's madness to ignore God's
commandments, to repent and believe. Well, I'll get around to it.
No. No, you won't. It's madness to reject the means
and methods of grace that's been laid down in the Word of God.
It's madness to find some place of satisfaction in something
other than Christ. They live out their days in madness,
and after that, they go to the dead. That's what our Lord said. He said, suffer me to go bury
my father. He said, let the dead bury the
dead. Verse 4, for to him that is joined
to all the living, there's hope. Now I love this example. For
a living dog is better than a dead lion. Look at that lion, boy, he's
formidable. He's something. I mean, six, seven, eight hundred
pound cat, that thing with mane sticking out. Ain't nothing we
know of gonna stop him, is there? Huh? We have respect for him
and all that. Well, he said, he said, a living
dog better than a dead lion. After you live out your days
in madness, you go to be with the dead. You might have been
something here. You might have been a lion here.
I'd rather be a living dog, wouldn't you, than a dead lion. For the living, verse 5, the
living know that they shall die, but the dead know not nothing,
neither have they any more reward. The memory of them is forgotten.
Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished.
Neither have they any more portion forever in anything that is done
under the sun. Brethren, there is a season for
grace. The season is in this life. There
is no grace after this life. If you don't find grace here,
you are not going to find it there. If you don't find mercy
here, you are not going to find it there. If you don't find comfort
here, you are not going to find it there. You see what he is
saying? There is a season for grace,
a season for hope, a season in which man can consider his God
in his heart. It is appointed unto men once
to die, and after this the judgment. And I tell you this, my hope
must carry me beyond this world. It has to. My hope must enter
beyond the grave, go beyond the very judgment of God. Paul said,
if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all
men most miserable, because I'm going to die. Now, he said the
living know that. They know that. Everything in this world ends
with death, except that vital union of Christ and the believer.
He that believeth in me shall never die. And then skip down
to verse 12 there in Ecclesiastes. For man also knoweth not his
time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as
the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of
men snared in an evil time, when it falleth upon them. Death always comes when it is
unexpected. Did you know that? We don't really think we're going
to die, do we? Huh? We don't really think we're going
to die. Death comes when it's least expected, especially upon
those that know not God. Suddenly, I don't know how many
times he uses that word in Scripture, suddenly, without warning, should
be cut off and that without remedy, taken out of the fog of deceit
into the presence of the living God. And he says in Proverbs
1, I called and you refused. It was there. The grace was there.
The promise was there. The truth was there. Christ was
there on every page. I called. You refused. I stretched
forth my hand. No man regarded. You said it
not on my counsel. How sweet and gracious were the
words of Christ. And He stood on that hillside
and preached to them. And when He was done and saw
their reaction, He said, How oft would I have gathered you
like a hen would gather her chicks. But you would not. That's what
he's talking about here in Proverbs. I stretched forth my hand, no
man regarded. You said it not all my counsel. You would not heed my reproof. Now, he said, I'm going to laugh
at your calamity. I'm going to mock when your fear
cometh. You're going to be screaming,
and I'm just going to be looking like I don't hear you. I'm out. When fear takes hold as a desolation
and destruction, like a whirlwind grips your heart, then you're
caught. He said, I won't answer then. I'm not going to answer.
You'll seek me, but you won't find me. Why? Because you despised that season
of grace. That's why. Because you treated
the gospel as foolishness, because you did not choose the fear of
the Lord. Therefore, he said, shall they
eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their
own devices. The righteous and the wise and
their works are in the hand of God. You see what he said? Do you believe that? I believe that.
In His hands. In His hands. Salvation is of
the Lord. It's of the Lord. then my heart
ought to cry out, Oh God, don't leave me to myself. I don't want to be myself. Just
be yourself. I don't want to be that. Don't
leave me to myself. Don't leave me to my own devices.
I don't want to be filled with my own devices. Fill me with
grace. Don't leave me to my own understanding.
Don't leave me in this fog of religious tradition. things that
seem right, that appear right. Don't leave me in the darkness
of this world. Give me mercy, give me grace,
give me a sight of your goodness, your loving kindness in Christ
that will turn me and cause me to repent. Did you know it was
the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance? It's the
goodness of God. Oh, cause this sinner to see
his sins, and seeing those sins, not just the sins of my doing,
but the fact that I am sin, that I am the chief of sinners. Cause
me to see that, and seeing that, to cry for mercy. You know the
Lord said, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. He said, you go
learn what that means. Every believer will learn it.
They'll know it. They won't cry out. They won't
cry out, Lord, here's my sacrifice. No, they're going to cry out
for mercy. I tell you this, don't you wait.
Don't you wait. Do it now. Do it now while you
have a season of grace. Take advantage of it. Seek Him
early. Didn't I tell you what He said? Seek Me early. Those
who seek Me early will find Me. And that day He said, you'll
seek Me, you won't find Me. Don't put it off. Do it today. Our Father, we thank Thee for
the precious, precious revelation of Christ. Make it more precious to us. Apply it to our hearts, to our
minds, to our ways. impart it into our very nature. Show us that grace in such a
way that we'd be gracious. We'd be gracious. That we don't
know anything else except to be gracious. And make it the first response
of our heart, for Christ's sake. Amen.