Let's look again tonight in Ecclesiastes
chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Verse number 1. Appreciate the songs of worship
tonight. That's our desire, isn't it?
To praise our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's why we're
here tonight, and may the Lord enable us to do so. In Ecclesiastes
7, verse number 1, a good name is better than precious ointment
and the day of death than the day of one's birth. I want us
to spend a few minutes tonight considering the second statement
in verse one. We spent last Wednesday night
and looked at the first statement in verse one. But tonight I want
to think of this statement, the day of death is better than the
day of one's birth. Now feel it necessary to do my
very best Before I get to that statement, to make as clear as
I possibly can that this statement applies only to those who are
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those, as we saw last week, who
have been given the name the Lord, our righteousness. This
statement is not true for all in this world. It's for those
who have the Lord Jesus Christ as their righteousness. Those
who have been, as the scripture says, accepted, where? In the beloved. Those who believe
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for all their righteousness,
for all their salvation. Those who trust him as their
representative, that when he walked in this world, he was
walking and living a perfect righteous life for us. And that
when he died upon the cross, it was to pay for our sins. That's
who this statement applies for. It's those who God, for reasons
known only to himself, chose in eternity past, chosen in Christ. Those who, for reasons known
only to him, he made objects of his grace. Isn't that something
to think about? That God would choose to make
us objects of his grace. And as proof that we are objects
of His grace in time, He's called us. This statement is only true
for those who have been called, who've been called to the Spirit
of God, called to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle
Paul, when he was writing to the Corinthians, in his salutation
to them, he said this, he said he was writing unto the Church
of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified,
that is, those who have been set apart in Christ Jesus, called
to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have been called, that's
who this verse applies to. And so I have to ask the question
tonight, have you been called? Have you been called to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't think about the person
sitting next to you. I must think of myself. Have
I been called? And have I called? Have I been
called? And have I called on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ? For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Who are those who call,
those who've been called? We're called, so we call. Lord,
be merciful to us, the sinners. This verse can give us a lot
of comfort and a lot of courage in this ever-changing world,
but it's only for those of us here who believe and trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we're not in Christ tonight,
if you tonight are not in the Lord Jesus Christ, Then I beseech
you. What does that mean, beseech
you? I plead with you. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he is near. I believe that the Lord
is near tonight. He said that were two or three
are gathered in his name that he would be in our midst. I believe
that the Lord is near tonight. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. This is a night when the Lord can be found. It says, let
the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
We have to give up our thoughts, our thoughts about ourselves
and our thoughts about God. Our thoughts that we are good
enough to be able to come to God on our own and be received.
No, we must forsake those thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. Seek the Lord while he may be
found tonight." That's our desire, isn't it? For all of us, for
each other, that we would seek the Lord tonight. Paul said,
we then, as workers together with him, That is, speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we then, as workers together with him,
we beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
What does that mean, to receive the grace of God in vain? It's
talking about to hear the preaching of the gospel of God's grace
in vain. To hear it, but not to call.
To hear of the Lord Jesus Christ, but not to come to him. You know,
it's possible to come to service after service after service and
never call upon the name of the Lord. I'm sure that it's happened
to many, many upon this earth. May that not be true for us. Let us seek the Lord tonight
while he can be found. For he saith, this is what God
has said, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day
of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Tonight, tonight is the day of
salvation. Call upon the name of the Lord.
Then and then only. Will this statement be true for
you and for me if we are in Christ? But you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's removed the sting of death. The sting of death is sin. And
He's removed that sting of death so that the day of death may
be better than the day of our birth. But that is only for those
who are in Christ, for those that He died for, for those who
God in His mercy calls, for those of us who He's called and call
upon Him. He's removed that sting of death. Otherwise, something that I don't
like to even begin to think about, much less preach about, but we
must if we're going to be faithful to God's Word. God's Word teaches
that if we leave this world outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
we shall be cast away into everlasting darkness, that we will be cast
away from the glory of God. If it's possible to describe
it even worse, we will be cast away from all that is good and
holy and all love, all righteousness, to be, what an awful state, to
spend eternity separated from God. See, the only good there
is is God. That's what the Lord Jesus said.
Why callest thou me good? There's none good but God, and
that person did not see him as God. And there's none good but
God, and if we're separated from him, we're separated from all
that is good. That's worse than to think of
being put into everlasting darkness, or it's described as the lake
of fire, and all these horrible, the very worst, the very worst
thing is to be separated from God. That's what our Lord Jesus
Christ bore upon the cross for his people. That separation when
he cried out to his father, oh God, why has thou forsaken me?
The agony of separation. It's a long way around to get
to this statement in this verse, but it's so important. Because
any funeral you go to, everybody will always say, well, that person's
in a better place. Better is the day of a person's
death than of their birth. No, that's not true for everyone.
That's not what God's word teaches. And friends, it doesn't matter
if that's what we would desire or not. That's not God's way.
That's not what he's declared. So you might be asking yourself
or saying to yourself, you know, that statement, that sounds very
strange. It does kind of sound strange,
doesn't it, when you read it? That the day of our death would
be better than the day of our birth. That's not the way we
think, is it? And you might be asking yourself,
I hope so. I hope that you're still with
me. And you're asking yourself, how can that be? How can it be
possible that the day of my death as a believer will be better
than the day of my birth. And that's what I want us to
spend just a very few minutes tonight thinking about. And I
have a few reasons that I want to share with you as to why that's
the case. And I'm sure these are not original
with me. I probably heard our pastor, he preached through Ecclesiastes
a few years ago. I probably heard him from him
or reading something somewhere. They're not original, but they're
still true. And may the Lord bless them. Our death day is
better than our birthday as a believer because about our day of birth
there hangs a lot of uncertainty. There's much uncertainty that
surrounds the birth of any person into this world. Not uncertain
as far as God's concerned, but as far as we're concerned, what
we know about what that infant's life will be like. There's a
lot of uncertainty that surrounds it. And you know, times of the
birth of a baby are usually very, very joyous times. Not always,
but they're usually, they're wonderful times, aren't they?
They're times of celebration and times of joy. And we're so
thankful tonight, aren't we? That God in his mercy has given
our church multi-generations. I've had the opportunity to preach
at a few churches over the years, and I've preached at some churches
where all that were left was an older generation, and I'm
in that older generation now. And thank God for the older generation,
but God blesses the church so much when you see multiple generations. That's the future, isn't it,
of a church. We have several young people
here, and we thank God and we praise God that he's given us
and continues to bless our church with children. May God save them
all, and may he keep his hand upon them, and may this church
flourish for many, many years to come. But what lies ahead
for that beautiful, fresh-born baby? Nobody knows. Nobody in this world knows, God
knows. We know that if God gives them many years of life, they're
most likely going to have a lot of trouble and a lot of sorrow.
The scripture says, man is born to trouble as the sparks fly
upwards. That's true of everybody. Very
few, if any people, ever live through this world without facing
a lot of trouble and sorrow and hurt. That's the curse of sin
that's upon this earth. But when the saint dies, when the believer dies, they
are once and forever done with trouble and sorrow and pain. forever, done with it. Look at
a passage with me. Look at Revelation chapter 7
if you would. Revelation chapter 7. When the believer leaves this
world, all uncertainty is done with. And we are done with forever
with trouble, sorrow, and pain. Revelation 7 verse number 9.
After this, I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man
could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands. You see they're
clothed with white robes, that righteousness of the Lord, our
righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they cried with a
loud voice, saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts,
and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes?
And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. You see,
all of those that are in heaven came out of great tribulation.
That's this world. It's the world of great tribulation. Therefore, are they before the
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.
And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall
the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. When I read those verses there
in Revelation chapter seven, I can enter in a little bit into
why the day of the death of the believer is better than his day
of birth or her day of birth. Here's the second reason. Our
death day is better than all the happy days that God in his
mercy gives us in this world. And you know, it's only of God's
mercy that we have any happy days in this world. We sure don't
deserve any. We don't deserve not even one
single day, but God is merciful and God gives many in this world,
most in this world, he gives them some happy days. Believers
and unbelievers. Why? Because God is a merciful
God. And days of material gain can
be happy days. Our God, he gives us many good
things to enjoy in this world. Isn't that your testimony tonight?
God's given me so many good things to enjoy in this world and my
pilgrimage in this world, but worldly gain cannot and it will
not give our souls peace and joy and comfort and hope. Yes, they're definitely better
than days of want But they cannot satisfy our soul. We've seen
that several times the last few weeks here in Ecclesiastes. Solomon
lists anything and everything that he can think about and stamps
upon all of it vanity, emptiness. Emptiness how? In that it cannot
satisfy our souls. The son of God in prophecy said
concerning his father's house, now listen, here's the distinction. Vanity, now hear what the Lord
in prophecy, the Lord Jesus says about his father's house. He
says, thou will show me the path of life. You're gonna show me
the way of life. In your presence is fullness
of joy. Nothing in this world can give
our souls joy, but in the presence of God is fullness of joy. At
thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. You see, the happy days that
the believer enters into at death are so much greater than anything
that we can ever experience in this world. Have you ever had
fullness of joy in this world? Have you? I don't believe you have. Why?
Because that's only found in our Father's home. It's not found
in this world. It's for this reason that the
Apostle Paul said, he said, for me to live is Christ, but to
die is gain. Yeah, Paul, but won't you leave
everything that you've worked so hard to accumulate in this
life? Oh, he says, oh, to die is game,
is game. For I'm in a straight betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Can we enter into that by faith
tonight? To depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better. And you know, days of health
can be very happy days, but they're fleeting days. We could feel
strong and healthy tonight, We may not be able to get out of
bed tomorrow. Health in this world is a blessing, and it's
a great thing to have, but it's fleeting. But God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. Behold, he makes all things
new. You see, there's no sickness
in heaven. There's no sickness. And since
there's no sickness, there's no death. And there's no sickness
and there's no death because there's no sin. Those things
are passed away. Truly the day of one's death
for the believer is better than the day of our birth. Now I need
to move forward here quickly. Our day of death shall be better
than our day of birth because in that instant that we breathe
our last upon this earth, now listen to this, we're gonna be
done with our frail, imperfect worship of God. That very instant that we breathe
our last breath upon this earth, we're going to be done with that
frail, imperfect worship of God. Don't you look forward to that?
I know that you have a desire to worship God. That's why you've
come tonight. But you're just like me. We come
with a desire to worship, and our mind is running here and
there, and I may be trying to preach and trying to keep my
mind focused. It's our worship. It's imperfect
at best, at its best state. At its very best state, it's
sinful. But when we breathe our last
upon this earth, and we open our eyes in our Father's house,
we'll be done with that. Our worship is going to be perfect. We can't even imagine that, can
we? I can't. But I know it's true. You know,
when we cry, worthy is the Lamb, as we read about, when we cry,
worthy is the Lamb, we're going to really mean it. And we're
going to mean it with all of our heart, with all of our soul,
with all of our being. We're going to worship God perfectly.
I would like to worship him perfectly now, but I confess I cannot. I can't even worship him in the
least bit like I want to. But when I leave this world,
the day of my death will be better than the day of my birth, because
I'm going to be able to worship God perfectly. And you, believer,
this message is for you. Don't we struggle to worship
in this world? Aren't you thankful that when
we read about that next world, there's no struggle of worshiping?
Everyone falls down before the throne and before the lamb. Everyone
that's there. Fourthly, the day of a believer's
death is better than the day of our birth, for it's the day
that we're going to enter into our full and uninterrupted rest
in Christ. Let me repeat that again. The
day of our death is the day, believer, when we enter into
our full and uninterrupted rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. When
God in his mercy gives new life to a sinner, the new birth, in
his grace and mercy, we're born again. He gives us the ability
to trust, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to rest in him. We rest from our works, don't
we? We rest from trying to find a
way on our own to please God and to be accepted through our
works. Thank God for that. But our rest isn't perfect, is
it? Our Savior's perfect. We have
a perfect Sabbath. But we're imperfect, and we're
not able to rest in Him perfectly. And our rest is interrupted at
times. We begin to look around us, and
we begin to look in us. Oh, my. That's the worst. As bad as things are around us,
they're even worse within us, aren't they? For out of the heart
proceed all of these sinful things. And you know the one thing that
we cannot change? It's our heart. Only God can
give a new heart. But that old heart is still with
us, isn't it, the old man? It's still with us. And so our
rest is interrupted, and we get down as believers, and we get
dejected, and we get depressed. Maybe this doesn't happen to
you. I'm speaking for all I can preach is what I've experienced.
I know what it is to get down and dejected and depressed spiritually
because of my failure. But then, like the psalmist would
cry out, return unto thy rest, O my soul, for God has dealt
bountifully with you. God has undertaken to do for
us what we cannot do for ourselves. He undertook to live for us and
to die for us. And we should be able to rest.
And we do at times rest in part, but at death we rest forever. in Christ. Fifthly, and I'm almost
done, the day of the child of God's death is better than the
day of our birth because at death we're going to be done forever.
We're going to be done with forever with all failure, with all disappointment,
and with all regret. Oh, that's some ugly baggage.
Isn't that ugly baggage? I hate carrying that baggage
around with me, the baggage of failure and disappointment and
regret. failure of myself, disappointment
in myself, and regret for so many things that I should have
done better. Any of y'all ever have any problems with that?
I'm sure you do because I'm speaking to sinners, just like me. But the scripture says, beloved,
now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. Boy, you look at us now, it sure
doesn't appear. We don't look to those around
us, perhaps to ourselves, we don't look like sons or daughters
of God. But we are today. Now are we the sons of God. And
it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him
as he is. And how is he? Perfect. Perfect. No failure. No disappointment. No regret. I was thinking this
past week of something I wish I would have said last week.
The Lord Jesus as the perfect servant of Jehovah. You know
the scripture, he said of himself, I delight to do thy will, O God. Not that he just did it. Not
that he just bore it. No, he delighted in it. He loved
to do God's will. That's all that God will accept.
And that's what our Savior did for us. And lastly, turn to this
passage and I'll close. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians
5. Truly, this is not an exhaustive
study of all the reasons why the death of a believer is better
than the day of our birth. But I think this is at least
a taste of why we read that in that verse. 2 Corinthians chapter
5, verse number 1. Read the first eight verses and
we'll be finished. Believers, may God give us the
grace and the faith to speak like Paul tonight, to leave here
and to be able to say, for we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we
groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house,
which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed.
It's not that the believer desires his day of death, not that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be
swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for
this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest
of the spirit. Therefore we are always confident,
knowing that while we're at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with
the Lord. That's my sixth and final reason
as to why the death of the believer, the day of the death of the believer
is better than the day of our birth. Why? Because in that instant
we will be present with the Lord. Isn't that what it says? We're
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the
body to be present with the Lord. Truly the day of the death of
a believer is better than the day of our birth. It's important
that we remember it says for the believer, it doesn't say
for those who the believer leaves behind in this world. It doesn't say that, it's the
day of the death, the day of the death of the believer. For
those who say goodbye to that believer who leaves, oh no, it's
not better than the day. That's a horrible day, isn't
it? It's a day of sadness and sorrow, and we shouldn't kid
ourselves that it's not and it won't be. But for that one, that
child of God that we love that we've lost, They haven't lost
anything. It's been gain. May the Lord
bless His word. Brother Bill, if you would, let's
be dismissed in a song tonight.