to the last line, when mind and
memory flee, made me think of that story that we've heard many
times about John Newton. When he was older and his memory
was not what it had been, he told William Jay, a fellow pastor,
there's two things I remember. He said, I remember that I'm
a great sinner. And I remember that Christ is
a great Savior. Amen? When mind and memory flee,
and even if our mind flees to the fact we don't remember those
two things, that He remembers us. He sees the blood, whether
we see it or not. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over thee. Let's open our Bibles tonight
to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 7. I began several weeks ago hoping
and trusting to bring several messages to us from this book. And I remember in the first message
I pointed out that this book is a sermon. As Matthew Henry
said, it is a sermon, a written sermon. The preacher is Solomon. His text is vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. And the basic truth that is found
in this sermon is that the things of this world, the things under
the sun, are not able, not sufficient to make men happy. And you know, in most sermons
there's repetition. And the reason for that is, of
course, repetition is the best teacher. And saying that this
is a sermon, a written sermon, there is repetition in this book. It was never my intention to
do anything like preaching through the book. verse by verse, anything
like that. And last week I brought my message
from verse 1, Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 1, and we looked at two
comparisons. We considered the comparison
that Solomon draws between a good name and precious ointment, and
he said a good name is better than. precious ointment, or great
riches. And the second comparison was
the day of a believer's death with the day of his birth. And
the comparison was that the day of a believer's birth is better
than the day, or the day of his death, rather, the day of a believer's
death is better than the day of his birth. Now tonight, what
I hope to do is to look at one other comparison and then say
a few words from a text further down in the chapter. First, here's
another comparison, verses 2 through 4. 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. 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." In these verses, Solomon makes
a comparison between two houses. One house is a house of mourning
and the other house is a house of feasting. And notice he says
it is better to go. He doesn't say that the house
of mourning is better than the house of feasting, but he does
say it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the
house of feasting. In the house of mourning there
is sorrow. And in the house of feasting,
there is laughter. God created man with these different
emotions. We are not robots. We feel, we
experience things, and two of those things that we experience
He names in this chapter, in these verses, laughter and mourning,
laughter and weeping. Sometimes laughter is the result
of extreme joy. Sometimes laughter is the result
of extreme joy. One example is when God told
Abraham, Abraham was almost 100 years old, and his wife was almost
90, and God told Abraham that he was going to have the promised
son through Sarah, his wife. And the scripture says when Abraham
heard that, He fell upon his face and laughed. He fell upon
his face and laughed. He was so filled with joy, extreme
joy, in hearing and he believed. He was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. We know that it was joy that
caused him to laugh because Sarah, his wife, she heard the same
thing and she laughed. But her laughter was not from
joy. Her laughter was from unbelief. But laughter is many times the
emotion that is brought forth because of joy. Let me show us
an example in Psalm 126. If you turn back to Psalm 126. Psalm 126, when the Lord turned
again the captivity of Zion. Now what does this have reference
to? Well, evidently this refers,
this psalm was written after the Israelites had come back
from 70 years captivity in Babylon. Now they were captives. They were slaves. They had no
power. no ability to free themselves,
just like a person who is lost, a person who is dead in trespasses
and sins, doesn't have power to raise himself, to give himself
life, to trust in Christ. When the Lord turned again to
captivity, the Scripture says, of Zion. Zion, of course, refers
to the people of God. And they were in captivity, 70
years' captivity, and lo and behold, by the power of God,
God put it into the heart of that king to grant them liberty,
those whose heart the Lord stirred up, to return and rebuild the
Temple and the city of Jerusalem, the walls of Jerusalem. when
the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. What a work, what a
gracious work, what a powerful work, even in salvation, even
as in salvation, I should say. Of course, it is a gracious work,
but it is also a powerful work. In fact, in Ephesians chapter
1, the apostle Paul tells us that the same power The power
that raised Christ from the dead is the power that is put forth
in saving and quickening a person who is dead in trespasses and
sins. And you hath he quickened, the
scripture says. Man doesn't have that ability.
When the Lord turned again, the captivity was on. We were like
them that dreamed. We could have never dreamt that
such a thing would take place in such a way, such a mighty
way and display of God's grace and God's mercy. Then was our
mouth filled with laughter. Laughter. What am I saying? I'm saying that laughter, the house of feasting, laughter,
is an emotion that is associated with joy. Our tongue was singing. Then said they among the heathen.
The heathen saw this. Lost men, they saw this. And what did they say? They said
the Lord had done great things for them. When God saves a sinner. a wicked sinner, and every sinner
is wicked. Some may be more wicked than
others, outwardly. And his life is just turned upside
down. Suppose he's been a drunkard,
and God saves him, and everyone knew that about him, and now
he's sober. Before he cursed God, took God's
name in vain, and now he's praising God. The Scripture says, ìTherefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new.î And many see that. They see that in the person who
is delivered, who is saved, and they say, like these here, ìThe
Lord has done great things for them.î But notice what we said. The Lord hath done great things
for us. And that's what every sinner
who is saved by the grace of God and delivered, that's what
he says. He doesn't say, I've done great
things or any credit, any glory goes to myself. Oh no, the Lord,
the Lord hath done great things for us, for me. Proverbs 17 and verse 22, the
writer said, a merry heart, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine,
but a broken spirit drives the bones. Sometimes laughter, the
house of feasting, is the result or the expression of extreme
joy. And on the other hand, mourning,
Weeping is often the expression of extreme sorrow. Look at this
example. Turn back to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter
12, verse 21. Then said his servants unto him,
that is the servants of David, king David, his palace had been
turned into a house of mourning. He had been mourning, praying,
weeping for his son who was sick. Then said his servants unto him,
what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and
weep for the child while it was alive. But when the child was
dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, while the
child was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can
tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore
should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I
shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." As we saw last week, the day
of a believer's death, the righteous is taken away from evil. David did. Though he had wept,
his palace, as I said, was turned into a house of mourning. He
had wept and fasted and prayed for his son. But when the Lord
took his son, David knew that he would not return to him. And
notice something here. David didn't pray for the child. The child had left this world. We don't pray for the dead. We
don't. David did not pray for the dead.
He did not say, let's burn some candles here. He didn't call for a false priest
to come in and say a mass, to sing a mass or anything like
that. He consoled himself with the
truth, I shall go to him. He will not return to me. Well,
where was David going? When he said, I shall go to him,
where was David going? Remember that most famous of
his psalms, he said, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life. What then? And I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. I shall go to him. House of Mornings. Solomon's
comparison, if you look back in our text now, Solomon's comparison
is true that it's better to go to the house of mourning than
to the house of feasting. Why? Why is it better? Well, he tells us it's better
because the living will lay it to heart. Notice that again. 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, by God's grace, will
lay it to his heart. What are some of the things that
the living lay to his heart when he goes to the house of mourning,
when he goes to the funeral home, as we would say today? What are
some of the things that the living, those who have spiritual lives,
what is it that they will lay to their heart? There are several
things, there are many things, no doubt. But I've just jotted
down these three things. The first thing the living will
do as he looks upon the corpse of someone that he has known
and loved, he will recognize the faithfulness, the truthfulness
of God. God told Adam, in the day that
you eat the forbidden fruit, you shall surely die. He didn't
say if, he said in the day. Didn't take God by surprise.
It's all part of God's purpose and plan, what God had ordained. God's not the author of sin,
my friends, but all sin is ordained of God. Everything that takes
place is ordained of God. Man's responsible, that's true,
but nothing's Nothing takes place in time that was not ordained
in eternity. When the living lays this to
heart, he sees God is faithful. God is true to His Word. He said
to Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely
die. Adam ate, and now this physical
death that I'm witnessing here before me, is a testimony to
the truth of God. God told Adam, in the day that
thou eatest thou shalt surely die, and physical death is the
result of him eating that fruit. He didn't die physically that
day. He lived for hundreds of years
later. I realize that. But he died spiritually. And the seeds of physical death
immediately began to spring up in his body. It was just a matter
of time. Just a matter of time. The living
will lay it to heart. God's faithful. God's not going
to deny himself. What he has declared is going
to take place. Every threat, every threatening,
every promise is going to be fulfilled. God cannot deny himself. He cannot lie. He cannot change. The second thing a man, the living,
will lay to heart is, I, too. I, too, have an appointment with
death. I read this several years ago,
many years ago, And I've used it before. I've used it in some
funeral messages that I've preached. But one day, this is a true story,
one day a man was walking in a cemetery, and he was just walking
through and glancing down at the various grave markers. And
he looked down at one and read the marker, and it startled him. It startled him. Because as he
looked down, he saw this. As you are, I once was. As I am, you shall soon be. When we lay this to heart, we're
not going to live in this world forever. We know that. There is an appointment. It is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. mention and preaching about death. I'm not trying to scare anyone.
I'm not trying to scare the young people, but I do want to say
this to all of the young people here tonight. If you can understand
what I'm saying, if you go to the cemetery and read those markers,
you will find their grave sites for all ages, for all ages. We just assume that somewhere
somebody got the idea that God had promised man 70 years. That's
not true. That's not true at all. It is appointed unto men what's
to die. And the third thing that the
living will lay their heart is the Lord Jesus Christ conquered
death. He conquered death. He died,
yes. He died just for the unjust that
He might bring us to God. He died to pay the sin debt of
His people, yes. But He was raised from the dead.
I like that hymn we sing sometimes which says, one verse at least,
Lo, in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming
day, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave he arose with
a mighty trunk for his foes. He arose a victor, a victor. He conquered death, a victor
from the dark domain. And he lives forever with his
saints to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah,
Christ arose. Living will lay it to heart. He is our living head, and when
he came forth out of the grave, we were raised too. And as he
ascended as our head, we too are seated in the heavenlies
tonight in union with him. So that's the comparison. The
comparison between going to the house of mourning and going to
the house of feasting. All of us by nature, we would
rather go to the house of feasting, no doubt about it. But Solomon says it's better,
better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of
feasting, but only if the living lay at the heart. Now, if you
will, go down to verse 20. Verse 20 of chapter 7 in Ecclesiastes,
and I want to say a few words to us tonight from this verse.
For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. As we look at this verse, I want
to consider three questions. Three questions. First, are there
just men upon the earth? Are there? Are there just men
upon the earth? And the answer is yes. And Solomon
is not saying that there isn't. If he is saying that there isn't
just men upon the earth, then the Bible contradicts itself.
And we know that is not so. Now, if he is saying that there
are no just men upon the earth, then it would contradict itself. And again, you young people here
today, as you witness to others and testify of your faith, you've
probably already experienced this, but if you haven't, you're
going to. Someone's going to tell you, when you tell them
what you believe, the truth, and maybe if you quote a verse
of scripture, they're going to say, oh, the Bible's full of
contradiction. That's a lie. That's a big lie,
straight out of hell. Now, there may be seeming contradictions
in the Word of God, but there is no contradiction in the Word
of God. Solomon is not saying that there
are no just men upon the earth. If he were saying that, then
there would be. There would be contradiction,
because look with me in Luke chapter 18. Our Lord speaks this parable here
in Luke chapter 18, beginning in verse 9. And he spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Self-righteousness always produces
despising others. Self-righteousness always makes
you believe that you're better than some others, better than
others. The gospel of the grace of God
makes you realize it's a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I'm chief. The Lord spoke this parable to
certain that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Here's the parable. Two men went
up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, that is,
He was a religious man, a very religious man, and the other
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God I thank thee that I am not as other men,
self-righteous, I'm not like other men. The scripture says
that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But the Pharisee said, no, I'm
not like other men. And I'm thankful, Lord, that
I'm not like other men. Other men are extortioners, unjust,
they're adulterers. Or even as this public. Can you
imagine that? Can you imagine that? I can. I can imagine. Self-righteousness
produces this. I'm not like that publican. Look
at him. Look at him. Look at him. I'm not like him. And I tell you why I'm not like
him, because I fast twice in the week. And I give tithes of
all that I possess. And the publican standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. This, I believe, shows he recognized
his unworthiness. He would not even lift up his
eyes toward heaven. He smote upon his breast. Here's
the problem. Here's the problem. It's this
wicked heart. God, be merciful. And that word merciful is be
propitious. God be propitious to me, the
sinner. And look what the Lord said. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified. Well, if he went down to his
house, he was in this world, wasn't he? So Solomon, what I'm
saying is Solomon is not saying that there are no justified men
upon the earth. If you look in Acts chapter 13,
if you're in the New Testament there and look, turn over to
Acts chapter 13 and notice again how the Apostle Paul ends his
message in Acts chapter 13, verses 38 and 39. Be it known
unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, What man
is he talking about? He's talking about the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And before this, he has pointed
out how that He was the promised Messiah, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him, by Him,
by His blood, by His righteousness, by His work of substitution, All that believe are justified
from all things from which he could not be justified by the
law of Moses. By the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. The first five chapters of the
letter of Romans, the Apostle Paul is dealing with this matter,
especially that we are all sinners, both Jews and Gentiles. There's no difference. And he
shows us how it is that we're justified freely by grace through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. What does justification
mean? Listen to this definition by
Thomas Watson. Thomas Watson was one of the
Puritans in England. And this comes from his body
of divinity. And I quote, It is an act of
God's free grace whereby he pardons all our sins and accepts us as
righteous in his sight for the righteousness of Christ only,
imputed to us and received by faith alone. And then he goes
on in that chapter to say, justification is the very hinge and pillar
of Christianity. And then he goes on to say, its
source, the source of justification, the free grace of God. Its ground, The ground upon which
God justifies is Christ's satisfaction to the Father. Its method is
by imputation of Christ's righteousness to us. is faith. And not, he's not saying
there, and he points this out, not the grace of faith, but relatively. As it, faith, as our faith, the
faith that God gives a person. You believe. God gives the faith.
That's true. Faith is a gift. And yet you
believe. When God gives you faith, you
believe. God doesn't believe for you.
I don't understand that. Well, I can't explain it either.
But I'm telling you, this is what the Word of God declares.
Faith is a gift. But we believe. Repentance is
a gift. But we repent if we're saved. The means is faith. Not the grace of faith, but relatively
as it, our faith, lays all upon Christ. It's the end, the end of justification. That God may inherit all the
glory. That God may inherit all the
glory. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. So are there just men upon the
earth? Yes. Notice my second question. Are there just men upon the earth
that do good? The answer again is yes. Solomon
is not saying that there isn't. The Apostle Paul declares in
Ephesians 2 that those who are saved, those who are justified,
are His, that is God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. which God hath ordained that
we should walk in them. All of us, by nature, we bring
forth dead works, dead works. That's all a lost man can do,
is bring forth dead works. He may give, he may pray, he
may do everything that a child of God does, but what he Why? Because he doesn't believe
in Christ. And without faith, it's impossible
to please God. A person who does not have faith
in Christ, who does not love Christ, his works are dead works. He has no real desire to do works
to please God. John Gill commented on this. It is the character of a just
man to do good, to do that which is according to the will of God,
from a principle of love to Him, through faith in Him, in the
name and strength of Christ, and with a view to the glory
of God. So Solomon is not saying that
there's not a just man upon the earth. He's not saying that there's
not a just man upon the earth that doeth good. But my third
question is, are there just men upon the earth that sinneth not?
And the answer now is no. No. If we say, as John said in his
first epistle, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. And I want you to notice that
when John penned that letter, he said, if we, if we, he includes
himself, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, who just before
this, in 1 John chapter 1, had declare that we have fellowship
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. If we who
have fellowship with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus
Christ, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us. Well, someone said, maybe when
a believer, when a person who's justified, maybe when he does
wrong, it's no longer sin. Oh, yeah. It's still sin. It's
still sin. It doesn't change. If it's sin
for a lost person, it's sin for a saved person. It doesn't change. David was just, he was a just
man, but he acknowledged that he had sinned against God, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. His adultery as a saved man,
his involvement in the death of that
woman's husband was sin. If he had been lost, it would
have been sin. He was saved, he was just, it
was still sin. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. Well, does one that is just,
when he sins, become unjustified? Well, the answer, of course,
is no. I love this scripture back in Ecclesiastes 3 and verse
14, which tells us, I know that whatsoever God doeth. Well, who justifies? Well, what
did Paul say? It is God that justifies. Well,
whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put
to it or anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men
should fear before him. What he does, it shall be forever. And it is God who justifies,
and it is forever. The truth is that the just upon
the earth, we do sin. But thank God, as John goes on
to say, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous. And above that, remember he said,
if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth. That's present. It cleanseth
us from all sin. His blood has cleansed us, yes,
and it continually cleanses believers from all sin. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation
that is that one atoning sacrifice that satisfies God, that puts
away the sins of his people. I pray that the Lord would bless
these thoughts and words to all of us here this evening. And
what a blessing is justification. Oh! You know, we can't say one is
greater than another, can we? Anytime God looks at us and does
something for us, it's great. It's great. It's good. It's good. Justification, sanctification,
and one day glorification. It's good. Let's sing a verse
of a hymn.