SPEAKER_01: In the classic modern novel, Things Fall Apart, we read the fictional story of the leader of a West African clan as he confronts the encroachments of European colonialism.
SPEAKER_01: And as the story unfolds, I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that the title of the novel comes to pass and things fall apart.
SPEAKER_01: And as the life of the protagonist, Kongwu begins to unravel before him, there's a particularly poignant paragraph about the protagonist's experience that I'd like to read to you.
SPEAKER_01: His life had been ruled by a great passion to become one of the lords of the clan.
SPEAKER_01: That had been his lifespring, and he had all but achieved it.
SPEAKER_01: Then everything had been broken.
SPEAKER_01: He'd been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly, his personal God or qi was not made for great things.
SPEAKER_01: A man could not rise above the destiny of his qi, the saying of the elders was not true.
SPEAKER_01: That if a man said yea, his qi also affirmed, here was a man whose qi said nay despite his own affirmation.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think you would agree with me that culturally, in many ways, a West African village is somewhat removed from cultural experiences that we have in modern Washington DC.
SPEAKER_01: And yet I read that paragraph because I think it captures perfectly a universal human experience that if you have lived in this world long enough, you have encountered yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And that is, if you live in this world long enough, sooner or later you are going to run up against the very disappointing reality that life is unfair and you cannot control it.
SPEAKER_01: There are all kinds of things in life that you can't control.
SPEAKER_01: There are all kinds of dis expectations that you have in life that will go unfulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Life is filled with all kinds of disappointments and tragedies and injustices.
SPEAKER_01: That's the world in which you live.
SPEAKER_01: So the question then arises: how are you going to respond to that?
SPEAKER_01: For some people, the way they respond to it is with despondency.
SPEAKER_01: They become inconsolable and hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: For some people, they respond with anger.
SPEAKER_01: But in the text before us, Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and into chapter 9, we get a biblical way of responding to this reality that in a fallen world you will run into the disappointing reality that you cannot control life, and life is often at times extraordinarily disappointing.
SPEAKER_01: What Solomon says you should do when you encounter that reality is this rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: That is a biblically robust way of responding to the disappointments that you encounter in life, is to rejoice in the midst of life's difficulties.
SPEAKER_01: Now, doing that is obviously more difficult than just saying it, but that is the reality, that is the lesson that we want to learn in the text that we have that the Lord has for us this evening.
SPEAKER_01: So what I want to do is just begin to unpack that, but first I want to show you there is a kind of thesis statement at the beginning of our text in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon lays out his two main propositions that then we will unfold in some detail this evening.
SPEAKER_01: Notice in verse 14, this first proposition, life is, we're going to say, inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: There are things in life you can neither understand nor control.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14, there is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: I said, this also is vanity.
SPEAKER_01: This word vanity, that bookends the verse, both the beginning and the end, Solomon says he has discovered a vanity in the world.
SPEAKER_01: That word vanity, if you have studied the book of Ecclesiastes for a very long, you've discovered that in different translations, different English translations, that word will be rendered differently.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Hebrew word hevel, which means breath.
SPEAKER_01: The sense in which these phenomena, which Solomon is describing, are breath, kind of depends on the context.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: What kind of breath is he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we have to read the rest of the verse.
SPEAKER_01: And what he says is he's talking about this reality that there are righteous people who get end up getting treated like wicked people, and then there are wicked people who end up experiencing the things in life that really only righteous people deserve, and he says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: That is vanity.
SPEAKER_01: That's hevel hevel, that's breath.
SPEAKER_01: That is the way that the world works is it works like trying to catch your breath.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as the breath comes out of your mouth and you try and get hold of it and direct it and control it, you find that you can't.
SPEAKER_01: You can't understand it, you can't control it, you can't grasp it, you can't get a hold of it.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way so many phenomena are in life.
SPEAKER_01: You can't control them.
SPEAKER_01: They're like breath.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to grasp after your breath, good luck, you won't be able to attain it.
SPEAKER_01: So trying to understand the way the world works is like grasping after your breath.
SPEAKER_01: It's vanity.
SPEAKER_01: Life is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: There are all kinds of things in the world that you cannot control, you cannot direct, you cannot even understand.
SPEAKER_01: So, how should you respond to that reality?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says in verse 15, the way you should respond is by rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: And I commend, or literally, I praise, I extol, this is what you should do in light of this difficult reality.
SPEAKER_01: I commend joy.
SPEAKER_01: For man is nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in all his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: I extol joy.
SPEAKER_01: You should eat, you should drink, you should enjoy the blessings that God has given you in this life.
SPEAKER_01: You should enjoy your life.
SPEAKER_01: Life is a gift that God gives.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that this does not exempt us from work.
SPEAKER_01: Work is part of life under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that he says, this will go with you through all your toil and the days of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Life is very difficult, it will involve labor, but God has given you a life at the end of verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: So as long as you have life under the sun, you should enjoy the gifts that God has given you.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that there's two different different phrases in verses 14 and 15 that are repeated.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 14, you have vanity, vanity.
SPEAKER_01: That is, life is so often like a breath that you can't control, you can't grab.
SPEAKER_01: Life is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: And on the other hand, in verse 15, twice we have the repetition of this phrase under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: So Solomon says, if you try and look out at all of life that's lived, all of human experience, all of human business, all of human enterprise, just all of life as it happens in this world, you will find that life is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: It's very difficult to understand.
SPEAKER_01: You can't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: So what you can do is you can recognize that your life is a gift.
SPEAKER_01: That there are all kinds of gifts that God has given you in this world to enjoy, and you can receive them as gifts and enjoy them.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot control life, you cannot understand life.
SPEAKER_01: Life is fleeting, it will be gone very quickly, so as long as you have it, enjoy it as a gift.
SPEAKER_01: And that basic thesis, these three realities, that life is inscrutable, life is, you only get one of them, life is final, and that you can enjoy it are the three realities that Solomon wants to unpack in a little bit more detail through the rest of this text.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to walk through them.
SPEAKER_01: The first of these propositions is up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Life is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: And we see this in verse 16, down through verse 3 of chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: So notice in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out.
SPEAKER_01: Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 16 and 17 are really just a kind of long-winded basic assertion.
SPEAKER_01: Not even the wise can know everything God is doing in this world.
SPEAKER_01: Life is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: There are realities that are just beyond your grasp that you will never be able to get your hands around, no matter how wise you claim to be.
SPEAKER_01: Life is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that he says twice again, what is done under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about not just your life and your experience, though that's included, but everything that happens in this world.
SPEAKER_01: So so far in verses 14 through 17, we've seen under the sun four times, and we're going to see that phrase four times more for a total of eight times in this section.
SPEAKER_01: He is searching out, he even says in verse 16, relentlessly, without sleeping, all of human existence, and what he's found out is it doesn't matter how wise you are, it doesn't matter how many experiences you have, there are realities in the world you'll never grasp.
SPEAKER_01: And it's actually wisdom to recognize that.
SPEAKER_01: It's wisdom to recognize that, as the psalmist says, there are some things too wonderful for me.
SPEAKER_01: There are just some things that go beyond me.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that you stop trying to understand more of the world and more of the wisdom that God will gift you as you continue to pursue wisdom under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: But part of grasping wisdom is understanding that there are some realities that are always going to be beyond me, and it's not my job to unscrew the inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a human being, living in God's world, and I can't understand everything that God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: God is at work.
SPEAKER_01: So Solomon goes from this to a second conclusion about the nature of this inscrutable life in chapter 9, verse 1, where he says, not even a wise man can understand all that God is doing in the world, and so if you try and draw universal conclusions about what God is doing based on your experiences, you will always fall short.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God, whether it's love or hate, man does not know.
SPEAKER_01: Both are before him.
SPEAKER_01: So he says at the beginning, I examine it all, examining how the righteous and the wise in their deeds.
SPEAKER_01: So he's trying to understand the ways of the wise.
SPEAKER_01: And he sees that they are in the hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: That is, God is ultimately in control of all that happens in the world.
SPEAKER_01: But he said in verse 14, and he's going to say in verse 2 and 3, that sometimes even these wise people that I'm trying to understand, the outcome of their life doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I find a person who's really wise and really seems to be walking in the wisdom that God has given us in the scriptures, and their life ends up in misery and ruin.
SPEAKER_01: The things that should happen to the wicked actually end up happening to the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: But all of this is in the hand of God, Solomon says.
SPEAKER_01: So, at the end of verse 1, is it love or hate?
SPEAKER_01: Man doesn't know.
SPEAKER_01: Whose love and hate is he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's just said that all human beings are in the hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: So he's talking about God's love or God's hate.
SPEAKER_01: And what he's saying is, if you try and judge how God thinks about a particular person or how God thinks about you based on your experiences, you'll never be able to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes there are righteous people and things happen to them that should only happen to the wicked, and vice versa.
SPEAKER_01: So you're never able to judge God's disposition towards you or towards anybody else around you based on your experiences in this world.
SPEAKER_01: You, as a finite, limited human being, are not able to draw conclusions about what God is doing based on your finite, limited experiences.
SPEAKER_01: God is beyond you.
SPEAKER_01: His purposes are inscrutable, his works are in unsearchable.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot draw conclusions about what God is doing in your life based on your experiences.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a lesson that in some ways is rather simple if you think about it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we know this even in human experience.
SPEAKER_01: If you have interacted with a child before, which is all of us, even if you don't have children, then you know that sometimes there are things that you would like to explain to a child, but you just can't.
SPEAKER_01: And so you just need to tell the child, you know what, just trust me on this.
SPEAKER_01: My brain's a little bit more developed than yours.
SPEAKER_01: Every parent certainly has had the experience where you need to tell a child you just need to obey your parents right now.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand because you can't understand.
SPEAKER_01: I'd love to explain it to you, child, but you are just not developed enough to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if that's true in this tiny little gap between, you know, a limited development in the child and the still limited development in an adult, isn't that necessarily going to be true?
SPEAKER_01: In the distance between a finite human being and an infinite and incomprehensible God, there are going to be purposes, there are going to be actions that he takes in the world that he has a good reason for, but he's not going to explain it to us because we wouldn't even be able to understand it if he tried.
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe another way of saying this is, let's just look at a text here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at John chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in John chapter 9 is walking by and he sees a blind man who's been blind from birth.
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples ask him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
SPEAKER_01: So you see what the apostles, the disciples are doing.
SPEAKER_01: They're saying, We've had this experience that some people go blind, and we're trying to draw a conclusion based on our experiences that God hates this person.
SPEAKER_01: And the way that Jesus responds is he blows up the presupposition.
SPEAKER_01: He responds by saying, Neither.
SPEAKER_01: It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, your whole presupposition, your whole premise that I can derive conclusions about what God is doing based on my experiences is wrong from the start.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: God has purposes, and God is up to things that you cannot comprehend because God is inexhaustible, and you are a very exhaustible human being.
SPEAKER_01: So if there's evil in the world, either God is not loving enough to prevent it, or he's not powerful enough to prevent it.
SPEAKER_01: In either case, the existence of evil disproves the possibility of there being an all-powerful and all-loving God.
SPEAKER_01: Surely you've encountered this before.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's a number of ways to respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: A very simple way of responding to it is what Solomon does here.
SPEAKER_01: The way that Solomon responds to this in verse 1 is by saying, No, you're not talking about the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Because the God of the Bible necessarily must have another premise added into this syllogism.
SPEAKER_01: God is all-loving, and God is all-powerful, and God is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: His ways are higher than our ways.
SPEAKER_01: You could even say it like this My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: So with Solomon encounters, look at verse 2, it is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice, to him who is good, and the sinner, him who swears, and him who shuns an oath.
SPEAKER_01: The reality that there seem to be things that do not make sense to us, that are disappointing in life, that are really and truly tragic and unjust in life, does not enable us to draw conclusions about who God is or what he is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Our experiences and our cognitive faculties are far too limited to draw conclusions about an inexhaustible God based on our finite capacities.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts higher than our thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what we can do.
SPEAKER_01: The same prophecy in Isaiah chapter 55 says, We can seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near.
SPEAKER_01: Let the wicked forsake his way, and let the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot fathom all his ways, he cannot be searched out, he cannot be pinned down, but he can be found.
SPEAKER_01: He can be known because he's promised through his word and proved it through the death and resurrection of his own son, that he will receive you and show you mercy if you seek him while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: But the prophet is being very serious, and Solomon would be very serious in saying, We should seek him while he may be found, because look at verse three of Ecclesiastes and chapter nine.
SPEAKER_01: There's an evil that's done under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: The same event happens to all.
SPEAKER_01: Also the hearts of the children of man are full of evil and madness in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
SPEAKER_01: That is, the end of every human life is the same.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you achieve most of your dreams or if all of them are dashed to pieces, ultimately, every human life will end the same.
SPEAKER_01: And so the goal of every human life should be the same: to seek the Lord while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: And he is findable through repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_01: He has made himself known in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Christ has revealed that God is a God of inexhaustible compassion and kindness, willing to endure his own righteous judgments in order to take away the sin that prevents human beings from coming into knowledge of the true and living God.
SPEAKER_01: God has revealed himself in the gospel and offers salvation and life and forgiveness for all who seek him while he may be found.
SPEAKER_01: So life is inscrutable, but Solomon also wants to tell us the second reality in verses four through six of chapter nine, and that is that life is final.
SPEAKER_01: And I know it would sound better to say death is final, but the point that I want to make here is that there is a sense of finality that just runs through all of life.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon's constantly describing life as a vapor.
SPEAKER_01: That is, every single moment of life works like this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a moment in time that's coming in five, four, three, two.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there it is, and there it's gone.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how all of your life works.
SPEAKER_01: Every single moment of your life, there's no auditioning, there's no practices, there's just moment by moment that comes and is gone, and you can never get it back.
SPEAKER_01: There are zero mulligans in life.
SPEAKER_01: All of life is final.
SPEAKER_01: Every moment of your life, there's a sense of eternal value and significance because God says your life has eternal value and significance, but that means that every moment of your life, there's finality to it, there's gravitas to every moment of a human life.
SPEAKER_01: So Solomon says, we should seize hold of our lives while we are still among the living under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead line.
SPEAKER_01: And here he's saying something that, I mean, it's very fairly obvious.
SPEAKER_01: A dead line, obviously, a line is more majestic and more impressive of a creature, and a dog is less so.
SPEAKER_01: But it's even more than that.
SPEAKER_01: In the ancient Near East, a dog is not the kind of thing that you would put in your purse.
SPEAKER_01: A dog certainly wouldn't go in your bed because a dog was basically like a rodent.
SPEAKER_01: Dogs are street animals, they're mangy, they're filthy, you keep them away, they're unclean.
SPEAKER_01: They're a little bit more like a rat.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't put a rat in your bed, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some people disagree.
SPEAKER_01: What Solomon is saying is life is of such extraordinary value.
SPEAKER_01: So as long as you have it, there's hope for you.
SPEAKER_01: In what sense is there hope for you?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they will have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's just entirely interesting that he says this, verse five.
SPEAKER_01: The living, why is it so much better to be alive than dead?
SPEAKER_01: Because the living know that they will die.
SPEAKER_01: What in the world?
SPEAKER_01: Do you sit and contemplate your death?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Solomon says that there is a certain value in contemplating the reality that you already know the end of your story.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to die.
SPEAKER_01: But as long as you are joined to the living under the sun, you have the opportunity to respond to that reality appropriately right now.
SPEAKER_01: We saw last week, if you flip over to chapter 7, just for a moment, chapter 7 and verse 2, Solomon says it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it better to go to a funeral than to a party?
SPEAKER_01: For this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a reality that when you die and you will die, all of your dreams, all your accomplishments, all your acquisitions, all your relationships, all your experiences will die with you.
SPEAKER_01: Death is coming, you don't know when it when it comes, it will steal everything.
SPEAKER_01: But as long as you are among the living, you know that that death is coming, so you can take stock and live for what is true and good and lasting in the meantime.
SPEAKER_01: It's better to be alive than dead, because if you are alive, you will you know that you will die.
SPEAKER_01: This is worth emphasizing in the modern Western world, where we live in a culture in which death is probably more hid from our eyes than any other people who have ever walked this earth.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people on earth right now, and so CDC and other agencies say that globally there are two deaths every second.
SPEAKER_01: Which means between six and eight thousand people have died since we read the scripture at the beginning of our worship service this evening.
SPEAKER_01: It's everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: But we tend to be blinded from that.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to hide from that reality.
SPEAKER_01: How often do we live on surges of dopamine from pulsating pixels in front of our retinas, blinding us to the reality that is just there?
SPEAKER_01: There is a holy God with whom we must deal.
SPEAKER_01: There are human beings before us who have souls that will last forever.
SPEAKER_01: There's eternally valuable work that God has called us.
SPEAKER_01: And there are genuinely valuable pleasures that God is calling us to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: God counts your life significant.
SPEAKER_01: So as long as you are joined to those alive under the sun, take advantage of it, as Solomon says in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Their love, their hate, their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: But you're not there yet.
SPEAKER_01: So as long as you are on this side of the grave, seize the moments that the Lord has given you and invest them in eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And part of investing them in eternity means recognizing that life is inscrutable, recognizing that life is final, and so as long as you are here, recognize that life is enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Life is supposed to be enjoyed on this side of the grave.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where Solomon goes at the end of this text.
SPEAKER_01: Having recognized that there are things in life that you cannot control and you cannot change, what should you do?
SPEAKER_01: You should enjoy the gifts that God has given you to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7 and following.
SPEAKER_01: Go, eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
SPEAKER_01: Let your garments always be white.
SPEAKER_01: Let not oil be lacking on your head.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that He has given you under the sun, because this is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Go, enjoy, it's a command.
SPEAKER_01: God is commanding you to eat and drink and be merry, to put on garments that are white, that is, those garments that would be reserved for special occasions.
SPEAKER_01: Let not oil be lacking on your head.
SPEAKER_01: Use the resources and regard the days that God has given you as sacred, as special, because they are appointed by God to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: God has not called us to worry about all the things in the world that we cannot control.
SPEAKER_01: God has not called us to be anxious about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: God has not called us to be angry about all the injustices that we cannot alter.
SPEAKER_01: God has called us to enjoy the gifts that He's given us.
SPEAKER_01: So long as we are consumed with worries and anxiety and anger and grumbling and jealousy, we are disobedient to the command to enjoy your life.
SPEAKER_01: God commands you to be joyful.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, rejoice always.
SPEAKER_01: And again I say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: It is a divine command from the God that made you that your life, if you know the living God, should be marked with joy, contentment, rejoicing, and enjoyment.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the midst of the reality that life is inscrutable and often unjust, God has still given you gifts and he calls you to enjoy them.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's worth just walking through a couple of texts in Ecclesiastes.
SPEAKER_01: I think it is refreshing to see this is not just a kind of one-off in the midst of a sad, gloomy book, but rather this is the refrain throughout the book of Ecclesiastes.
SPEAKER_01: The more you recognize that life is fleeting and life is vain and life is uncontrollable, the more your hands are loosened from this world and freed up to receive the few gifts that God gives you and to cherish them, relish them, and enjoy them, which is what God calls us to do.
SPEAKER_01: So I just want to walk through a couple of texts with you.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll turn over to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, the first of this refrain, Solomon shouts out in Ecclesiastes in chapter 2, in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.
SPEAKER_01: This also I saw is from the hand of God.
SPEAKER_01: For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment?
SPEAKER_01: It's God alone who gives you the things that you enjoy in life, and God has called you to enjoy his gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13 of chapter 3, chapter 3, let's start in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's gift to man.
SPEAKER_01: Who is God?
SPEAKER_01: He is the giver of every good gift, and he has given your life to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 5, and in chapter 5 and verse 18, the Lord says, Behold, or excuse me, Solomon says, Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and accept his lot and rejoice in his toil.
SPEAKER_01: This is the gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: God has given you life to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: And do you know what honors the giver of a gift?
SPEAKER_01: Enjoying the gift.
SPEAKER_01: When you work hard and you are intentional and you think about someone that you're going to give a very special gift to, and you purchase that gift at maybe some cost to yourself, and that person opens it up, and they say, Oh, that's nice.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Life is just so hard.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you're a compassionate person, you'll probably empathize, sympathize with them and encourage them, put your arm around and bear their burdens with them.
SPEAKER_01: But there is going to be a little bit of sense of, like, didn't you notice the thing that I got you?
SPEAKER_01: What honors the giver is to enjoy the gift.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they gave it to you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, part of glorifying God is enjoying Him forever.
SPEAKER_01: And part of enjoying God forever is enjoying the gifts he gives you, even in this temporary fleeting life, in this fallen vain world.
SPEAKER_01: Every time God gives you food and drink and relationships, he gives you garments and oil, what he calls you to do is to receive them with open, grateful hands and say, Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You are a good and gracious God.
SPEAKER_01: Every good gift comes from you, my Father, the Father of lights.
SPEAKER_01: That is what honors the giver.
SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, Solomon is not talking about a kind of wanton, lustful pursuit of pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: It's worth just casting your eyes over to chapter 11 and verse 9, where in chapter 11, verse 9, we get another rejoice command.
SPEAKER_01: But here, Solomon qualifies the rejoicing.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 11, verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Rejoice, O man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So the parameters for enjoying the gifts that God gives you is the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: You are to enjoy your life in the fear of God, and the fear of God is to turn away from evil.
SPEAKER_01: So Solomon is not calling us to or condoning a wanton pursuit of lustful pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, he is calling us to, commanding us to, an honest enjoyment of lawful pleasures.
SPEAKER_01: That is, an honest, thankful heart that enjoys the good physical and relational gifts that God has given us in this life.
SPEAKER_01: Fear of God enables you to enjoy life without relying on created goods to give meaning to life.
SPEAKER_01: God gives meaning to life.
SPEAKER_01: The God that makes your life meaningful gives you good gifts to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: You know, obviously, a second thing that's worth noting in the text in verse 9 is that enjoyment of life obviously does not preclude the experience of disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: You notice in verse 9 the way he describes this enjoyment, verse 9, enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and your toil at which you toil under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Look, your life is going by so fast.
SPEAKER_01: It's vain.
SPEAKER_01: Not in the sense that it's meaningless, though it will be meaningless if you live it for something that won't last.
SPEAKER_01: It's vain in the sense it's a breath.
SPEAKER_01: It's just gonna slip right through your fingers.
SPEAKER_01: If you try and control your life, if you think your life's gonna last forever, it just won't.
SPEAKER_01: Your life is flying by faster than a breath through your fingers.
SPEAKER_01: And your life is filled with toil.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
SPEAKER_01: Life's hard and then you die.
SPEAKER_01: But while you're here, God has given you marital joy, relationships, physical pleasures that are to be enjoyed in the midst of life's real difficulties.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, some of these joys really sustain you through the midst of life's trials, don't they?
SPEAKER_01: I think that is why when he goes through this list of pleasures, before he starts talking about the hard stuff in life again, he mentions marriage.
SPEAKER_01: That kind of relational bond that you develop in the one-flesh union sustains you and grants your life meaning and joy and contentment and happiness, even in the midst of life's real disappointments.
SPEAKER_01: Charles Bridges, the Puritan writer, has a line regarding this reality that I think is worth reading to you.
SPEAKER_01: He writes, conjugal happiness lives in the depths of the heart, even amid the sorrows and trials of life.
SPEAKER_01: So to say that we are to rejoice in our lives is not to say we're not to grieve and we're not to mourn, we are to grieve and we are to mourn.
SPEAKER_01: But there is a kind of solid, lasting real enjoyment of life's pleasures that you are freed up to enjoy when you recognize life is inscrutable, I cannot control it, but God is in control.
SPEAKER_01: And the gifts that He gives me, He gives me to receive with gratitude and to enjoy them with honest pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: Honest enjoyment of lawful pleasures.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, part of enjoying life is recognizing life is fleeting, and so you do still have work to do.
SPEAKER_01: So, in what manner should you do that work?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield to which you are going.
SPEAKER_01: You are called to work, and work can be enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly in the post-fall world, and this is the kind of emphasis, the thrust throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, is you live in a post-fall world.
SPEAKER_01: You live in a sinful, broken, twisted, messed up, unjust, uncontrollable, crooked world, wherein all of work is broken, all of work is corrupted, work is hard.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 10 and verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 10, verse 8, Solomon says, He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall, he who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them.
SPEAKER_01: That is, even those people who engage in honest, lawful, God-honoring professions will experience that work's hard, and it's gonna bite back.
SPEAKER_01: If you try and make work the thing that is gonna give your life meaning and purpose and satisfaction, you'll find that it bites just as much as it gives pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: But in this text, in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 10, Solomon is pointing to the other side of the coin and saying, Work has been cursed, but work is still part of the pre-fall reality.
SPEAKER_01: God made work even before there was sin.
SPEAKER_01: There is a kind of satisfaction and enjoyment that you can derive from work when you recognize that I'm doing my work for the Lord and not for me.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 3 obviously says this most perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians and chapter 3, the Apostle Paul writes, Whatever you do, work heartily is for the Lord and not for men.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
SPEAKER_01: You are serving the Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Solomon is pointing towards.
SPEAKER_01: Work is a vocation.
SPEAKER_01: You are called to it.
SPEAKER_01: Work is an act of worship to the God who makes your life meaningful.
SPEAKER_01: But certainly work isn't limited to just your gainful employment.
SPEAKER_01: But what he says in verse 10 is, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.
SPEAKER_01: And we all have work to do in this world, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: We have vocational employment, and we have spiritual duties, and we have relational responsibilities, and what Solomon is saying, whatever your hand finds to do in this world, do it with your might.
SPEAKER_01: When you pray, pray with your might.
SPEAKER_01: When you encourage someone with a conversation, encourage them with all the muster that you have.
SPEAKER_01: When you're showing hospitality and meeting people's needs, meet them with all your might.
SPEAKER_01: When you're giving to the work of the Lord, give with all your might.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
SPEAKER_01: Because there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield to which you are going, because you're going to wear out.
SPEAKER_01: There's no work where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: You get one chance to do this.
SPEAKER_01: One chance to work.
SPEAKER_01: And then it'll be all be over in the blink of an eye.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you did here will resound through eternity.
SPEAKER_01: One chance to work with all your might while you are still joined to the living, while you are still connected to what is happening under the sun, you have one chance to work.
SPEAKER_01: So Solomon, summing up this text, says, Life is inscrutable and there are things that you cannot control, things you would like to change that you cannot change.
SPEAKER_01: There are things, as he said in chapter 7, verse 13, things that are crooked that you cannot make straight.
SPEAKER_01: But your life is flying by.
SPEAKER_01: So if you spend all of your life trying to fix the things that you cannot change, you will miss it.
SPEAKER_01: As long as you still have breath in your lungs and you're on this side of the grave, take hold of your life and work hard for the Lord and enjoy the good gifts that he has given you.
SPEAKER_01: This is the work that he has called you to.
SPEAKER_01: Not to change the things you cannot change, but to enjoy the gifts he's given you, and work hard is for the Lord and not for men.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the text that I read earlier in John in chapter 9, when Jesus says that, you know, this man, he's born blind, but he is not born blind because God hates him.
SPEAKER_01: He's born blind because God is going to display the glory of God in him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus follows that reality up with this line We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.
SPEAKER_01: Night is coming when no one can work.
SPEAKER_01: You see, what he tells the disciples is not, here are three steps to be able to figure out everything that God is doing in the world.
SPEAKER_01: What he tells them is God is inscrutable.
SPEAKER_01: God has plans and purposes, and he's doing things that you can't understand.
SPEAKER_01: But just know God really is in control of everything, big and small, crooked and straight, everything in the world God's in control of, and God is going to get glory out of everything that happens in the world.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what you need to worry about.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about unscrewing the inscrutable, just worry about this one thing.
SPEAKER_01: You've got a little bit of breath in your lungs, so do the work of him who sent me while it's day.
SPEAKER_01: Night is coming when no one can work.
SPEAKER_01: As long as it's day, do the works of him who sent me.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that freeing?
SPEAKER_01: What great realities.
SPEAKER_01: You are not responsible to control the world.
SPEAKER_01: You are responsible to enjoy the gift that God has given you in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you that you are such a kind and gracious Father, that you have given us life, and that you have given us good gifts to enjoy in the physical creation, in the relationships you have given us, particularly our marriages, our family, and the fellowship that we share with the saints.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you have brought us into one body so that we share one spirit, one baptism, one Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that we are united to you and so united to one another.
SPEAKER_01: And we do pray that you would enable us to enjoy life together while we are still on this side of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we do ask that you would give us energy so that we would work heartily for you.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that you would give wind to our sails and give us power and our labor, that we would be wise stewards of the time and the gifts and the resources that you have granted to us.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that we would be faithful stewards who are investing in eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So make us people who cast all our hope on you so that we are able to rejoice even in the midst of tribulations.
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that you are with us.
SPEAKER_01: One day you will wipe every tear from our eye, free our grip from this world, help us to receive your gifts with gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBc.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this three source is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.