Consider the Work of God

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual morality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

To gratify its desires. That's Romans 13, 13 to 14. This morning, who do you listen to? There's a beauty here of what Augustine is telling us. There's a great God who's speaking and calling. Praise God for his mother who's praying for him. The testimonies, it's the word of God, ultimately, that saved him. Are we taking the word and making sure we're hearing God? Or are we coming to God and asking, help us sit under your word to hear what's true, to hear what's good? Church, I want to make sure we understand a principle together as to why we gather and what we do. The only thing we can do is come together and sit under Christ's Word together. The only person over Christ's Word is Christ. It's His Word. And He's at the right hand of the Father. He's given us all His Word so that we can come together and instruct one another, encourage one another, rebuke one another, train one another. This is the source. Who can tell us God alone and God has spoken? Praise God for his word. Now this next section seeks to start answering the questions. It's the third poem in Ecclesiastes, the first one, vanity of vanity is all is vanity and well you're gonna die and you're gonna be forgotten. It's not the most encouraging poem in scripture. The second one is actually discouraging as well. Time keeps moving. It's a harsh master. It is indifferent towards us. This one's getting more encouraging. There's something more instructive here. Notice the word better is the tool the author uses, the preacher uses to continue teaching us. Better continues to ring loud in this poem. Now, again, our preacher, I think, is telling us what's better. He can't quite tell us what's best yet, and we'll get there, Lord willing. But the key is what's better. Our second point, there's a better way to learn. There's a better way to learn. This is the poem in the first half, verses one to six. I believe there, this is all vanity, is a halfway point through this poem. Better. The repetition is significant. I want you to hear the things we avoid are better than the things we normally want to be drawn to. As I hear it, listen for that.

A good name is better than precious ointment.

That one's unique, we're gonna put that away, but now listen to this string.

And the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

I'm gonna skip down to verse three.

Sorrow is better than laughter.

Verse four,

the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. The heart of the fool is in the house of mirth or amusement. It is better for a man to hear rebuke of the wise than to hear the songs of fools.

Those are those declarations of what's better. To go to the house of mourning, to lament, The sorrow is better, the house of mourning is better, rebuke is better. We could think, well, this guy is just kind of despondent, a real Debbie Downer, but he's teaching us something important. If we look at the second half of verse one, and the day of death is better than the day of birth, it is not better to be dead than alive. God created us to live. I believe as we think of what's going on here, death is a better teacher than the day of birth. Because death teaches us something. You might be next. The day of death is a day of learning. The day of death is instructional. The house of mourning is more helpful, is better than the house of feasting for really understanding life and what is good. To be rebuked is better than to laugh with fools. You'll learn from the house that gives you rebuke. But remember, the end of the matter of Ecclesiastes is to fear God, obey His commandments. He will judge us. I believe what our preacher is telling us in this poem is all the difficulties that we really avoid in our culture, they're the things that God uses to instruct us in what life is really about. Let's walk through these. It's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. And notice, they have a for, they have a rationale, and I think that's gonna help inform us. Why would the house of mourning be better than the house of feasting? Because death is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay at the heart. If you wanna live well, you have to realize you're gonna die. If you wanna live well, you have to realize you might be next. It's important to recognize how our culture treats death. We're entertained by it over and over again in movies, and yet we avoid any real serious contemplation of it, like a funeral. The funerals I go to, it's sad to me that the average age is 60 and above. I think this one shows how we have too much of a divide between the older generation and the younger generation. Young folks, where are you going to really think about death? What are the opportunities you have to really contemplate the end so that you know how to live now in this fleeting world? Verse three, sorrow is better than laughter. Why?

For by sadness of the face, the heart is made glad.

Now, this is no way saying the heart isn't sad. It's soon you'll be forgotten. To face this reality, the way to make the heart glad is to recognize and see death is coming. That's the only way I'll truly know how to live in a glad way. Verses five and six,

it is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.

This is one long section. The crackling of thorns under a pot, it seems like we're trying to cook something. And if you cook something, you want it to get hot. But if all you're doing is putting thorns and thistles under the pot, it's gonna make a lot of cracking, it's gonna have a lot of sparks, but it's not gonna produce any heat. It's vanity. So too, if you're trying to find substance with just foolishness. Better is the rebuke. Better is sorrow. Better is the house of mourning. As we consider the challenge, we all would much rather be invited to a wedding than to plan to try to figure out how to go to a funeral. It's fun, and we enjoy getting together with friends and a laugh, but we need to take seriously the call here. There's a better aspect to contemplating difficult truths, difficult realities, difficult conversations. A friend lost his job. Someone grieving the loss of a loved one. grieving the loss of our own loved one. I believe he's telling us these are more instructive for how to live the wise life. At the end, he says this is all vanity. Let's go back to the house of mirth. I fear Neil Postman's book, which I have some copies, and if you're interested, Amusing Ourselves to Death is only more true today than it was when he wrote in the 80s. We're amusing ourselves with busyness, we're amusing ourselves with isolation, but mostly we're just amusing ourselves to death. We're not truly thinking about the importance of what God has given us. And this is why church, we wanna make sure we're singing contemplative songs. I want you to understand, we're intentionally trying to train you with the way we're singing songs. That's why we sang, God moves in a mysterious way. To contemplate the challenges that we always don't understand what God is doing, but he's always good. Yes, there's a frowning providence, but there's a smile behind it. There's the reality we have to face the difficulties of a good Friday before we go into the Lord's day. There's a better way. There's a better way to see wisdom. It's by remembering death. Funerals teach us an important lesson. If you missed the funeral yesterday of Michael Sprinkle, They showed a video, and the last words we considered there after that video were Michael's own words, and let me challenge you with his words.

It went fast. It all went so fast.

We're not gonna know how to live this life well if we don't realize this life is fleeting. As we consider this, church, we need to be always aware there are three enemies, sin, Satan, and death. The gospel is only good news as we really consider these three enemies. And the enemy at the forefront here is death. Death, if we see it as it is, it's terrifying. Death, if we see it as it is, is destructive. It's the grand consequence of our sin. If we let it do what it's supposed to, it should lead us to fear so that it would also lead us to Jesus.

God so loved the world that he sent his only son so that whoever believes in him shall not die but have everlasting life.

And the horrifying thing about death isn't just that your life here is that you're gonna stand before a God who's perfectly just and he is going to judge you for every sin unless you believe in Jesus. who died for our sins and rose again to give us new life. This doesn't mean you don't seek to live the happy life. The happy life is one where we're contemplating the seriousness of sin, its consequence of death. Church, we have to be thinking and talking about these things together. I wanna take the opportunity here and just give a pastoral comment. Right now is a uniquely blessed time in our church. There was a birth with the devils. There was a death of a family of our church. There was a funeral yesterday of a member of our church. There's engagements. There's baptisms. Praise God, we have full life. I encourage you, don't be a member who's observing these things from outside. I wanna encourage you, come in closer to enjoy what God has designed to be the fullness of life. Thinking about life, birth, death, enjoying these different celebrations and changes. We're supposed to be thinking about these things together under Him. Come in closer. As we're coveting together, participate in each other's sorrows and joys. That's what makes life full. So the first part is, Think about death more. Find ways to think about death more so that you might know how to live. Well, the second half of this poem is a better way to live, verses seven to 13. He turns the emphasis, and notice it goes from better, it's better to be in the house of mourning to the house of feasting. He starts giving more instruction, more what we consider proverbial wisdom. And I want you to see something that's important as we consider seven to 12 especially. The whole focus here is our sinful acts towards others do more damage to us. It's how our sinful actions against others do damage to us. Verse seven.

Surely oppression drives the wise into madness and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Now, our author has given us numerous warnings and recognized the dangers of oppression, but notice the danger he's focused on here. It's not the one who is oppressed that he says there's no comfort for them out of concern, but no, here it's the one who is oppressed, the one who's corrupting. The one who does a bribe, it corrupts the heart. If you're actually acting in oppression, You're going into madness. Sin changes you. Sin hardens the heart. Your sins against other are doing more damage for you. Verse eight, better again.

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning.

Now that's a grand general declaration that can mean anything and that's why we have the second line that informs it.

And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Okay, the end is better than the beginning. Well, I believe the whole idea of patience is key there because the goal is that you're gonna be patient enough to get to the end. Anybody can start a project, it's ending the project. And notice the contrast. The patient is contrasted with the proud. There's a way in which the patience of trusting God, the patience of pursuing on, the patience of persevering, it's better than the pride that might not actually finish the job. Verse 9, be not quick to anger.

Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.

Again, the danger is what we're doing to ourselves with our anger. If you want to become a fool, allow yourself to be easily angered. You might say, well, this person just makes me angry. I have to ask, why do you give them that power? If you think somebody makes you angry, why do you give them the right and the power to stir that up in you? I don't believe there's things that should make us angry, but if you give somebody the power to actually make you angry, you're giving them power over your own heart and your soul. You're letting them choose your life. This is why we want to be committed to being slow to anger. One of the most important measures of Christian maturity is how easily, regularly, or intensely we get upset. Let's pause here when it comes to anger. There's a command, do not murder. It's a clear command in the law of God. Jesus helps us think through what that command means when he says, if you are angry, you're guilty of murder. And the whole point of the law, do not murder, which Jesus makes it clear, if you're angry, you're guilty of murder, is to help us see we're sinners. We've fallen short of the glory of God. We need forgiveness for this sin. When we see the anger inside, or the lust inside, or the coveting inside, the idea is we're supposed to see how out of control our sin is, so that we might actually call out to a Savior. So we might call out,

wretched man that I am, who delivered me from this body of death. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

There's a way in which the law helps us see how helpless we are, how sinful we are, so that we then cry out to Jesus. So if you're oppressing, you're leading yourself into madness. If you're not patient, you're not really fulfilling what you're committed to do, and there's pride. If you're angry, well, you're embracing foolishness. Then verse 10,

say not, why were the former days better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

" Now, what is that question really getting at? Why were the former days better than these? These are that rose-colored lenses we put on as we get older. Oh, back then, how much better it was. Really, you gotta avoid asking any comparison questions. As we try to tell our children, if you're keeping score, you're bound to lose. That kind of comparison, oh, it must have been so much better back then, and we usually remember it better than it was. The preacher says this is foolishness. As I wrestle with this, I fully feel the temptation to say today seems more out of order and more embracing chaos than in previous days. But this verse tells me that's foolish. You know, we used to have an old men's Sunday school class, and I remember sitting in there, and they'd talk about how much better it used to be, because at UVA, the men wore coats and ties. And I always thought, how is that better? Today, we live in a world that embraces and promotes LGBTQ+, and if I forgot a letter, forgive me, I'm having a hard time keeping up, plus, We see this and it's terrifying and it's confusing, but can we really look back and say it's better? Let's wrestle with that. I'm a child of the 90s. We're latchkey kids. Where most of my friends had divorced parents, had very little parental oversight. Sex and drugs were celebrated regularly in culture. We go back a little bit further to the 60s and the sexual revolution. Sex is completely removed from any kind of covenant relationship. It's just meant as something to be enjoyed. Children become a consequence of sex. Sex is not meant to enjoy and celebrate a relationship. We should find that terrifying. You see, yesteryear wasn't better. It was just bad in a different way. If we're being honest, The, I feel this way, therefore I must be right, that's generational sin. I don't know how long ago it started being taught, but it was taught in the 60s, and the 70s, and the 80s, and the 90s, and the 2000s, and 2010, and we're just getting more consistent with it. There's nothing new under the sun. If we want to get frustrated with the generation, get frustrated with the older generation that's teaching them this stuff. We've been teaching and embracing in our culture that if your heart tells you it's good, it must be good. Today, homosexuality being promoted is bad. But guess what? The previous generation that bullied homosexuals, that's bad. Neither one of them are good Christian activities. Generations are just bad in a different way. I say this to make sure Older folks, as you look at the younger folks, don't do so with suspicion. Do so with compassion. Do so knowing that they're facing the same struggles you faced in a different way. Do so wishing that they would have somebody who would come alongside of them and walk them through the same difficulties, similar difficulties with the very word of God. We're supposed to be practicing a Titus 2 kind of discipleship. So my challenge this morning, we happen to have a older generation fellowship, which we're calling the OG fellowship. I have two questions to ask. I have two questions I want you to ask. First one is, where am I wrong? And what I just said, where am I wrong? I respect my elders. If you all come together and you say I'm wrong, I'm recanting first thing next Sunday. Next question is, where am I right? This generation is suffering from what our generations have promoted. And the only way to fix the way the next generation's gonna go is to come alongside and make disciples of Christ. Verses 11 and 12.

Wisdom is good with an inheritance, an advantage to those who see the sun, for the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

Notice their wisdom is a treasure. Wisdom is something to be protected. Wisdom is something to be pursued. 612, who knows what's good who can tell us? This poem is telling us two very important things for us to know how to find wisdom. One, where to find it. It's in contemplating death more than contemplating amusement and celebration and foolishness. The second one is this, if you're seeking to live and practice foolishness, you will not find wisdom. If you're embracing anger. If you're embracing oppression, if you're treating others poorly, if you're somehow thinking yesterday used to be better, all of that is foolishness, and there's no way to find wisdom if you're practicing foolishness. Now finally, verse 13, you get a command, what we've all been waiting on. Here's the command.

Consider the work of God. Who can make straight what he has made crooked?

We've wrestled here with who knows the good life and what does it mean to live the good life and how do we pursue this wisdom? Now let's consider the work of God. And that question that qualifies it is so important because there are things that are crooked. I believe here we're referring to the adversity we face. You could be thinking of the folks in Mississippi who are asking, what is God doing? Where is God in this? Why would we lose all our homes? Why would we lose our neighbors, our friends, and our family? Many of you are asking, why is God bringing this adversity, the crookedness, as we call it here? Well, the first reason we consider the work of God is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If we're going to pursue wisdom, if we're gonna know wisdom, we must first know God. And wisdom recognizes that God allows and even offers adversity, what is crooked. We must know and learn how to consider the work of God. Our first question was who can tell us? Good news this morning, verse 14, tells us God can tell us. Our last point, God can tell us. And I want you to hear how 13 is the end of the poem, but 14 continues the thought with a clear declaration.

In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider.

Two different kinds of days, two different kinds of commands and actions. Joyful and prosperity, consider adversity. Why?

God has made the one as well as the other.

It's a significant thing we've got to wrestle with, but this purpose statement, whew, get ready,

so that man may not find out anything that we'll be after.

God can tell us, but here in Ecclesiastes, he's not. We gotta really wrestle with that. God makes both the day of adversity and prosperity. Praise be to God, he's sovereign. But here, we gotta wrestle with the purpose so that we may not find out anything. Let's first look at these two days. The day of prosperity, the day of goodness, the day of pleasure, the day of celebration, the day of a full storehouse that we get to enjoy. And then the day of difficulty, when we're called to consider, to contemplate. We get to go back to that philosophy class that some of you took and wrestle with what we call the problem of evil. But let me just go and reframe this. It's not the problem of evil, it's problems of evil. Let me explain. There's problems of evil. Here's a couple options. If you do not believe in a good God, you don't have a definition for evil. If you don't have a good God, you have no rationale for declaring anything evil. The second problem of evil, if you don't believe in a powerful God, you have no ability to trust that evil will be punished. He must be powerful and just to punish it. But here's the classic problem of evil as it's stated. If God is all good and all powerful, Why does evil exist? Why does adversity exist? Well, the Bible doesn't answer that question directly, but I believe we can have a framework for how to start getting some truth. The Bible opens very clearly. God spoke things into existence. If you want to think about how powerful it is, try it. Nobody wants to try? Make the sermon shorter. Didn't work. Might have the opposite effect, actually. God spoke this beautiful earth into existence. Think about the power. He's all powerful. And then, if we want to know what kind of God He is, we just have to look at what kind of earth He created over and over again, once repeated. It was good. It was good. It was good. God is all-powerful. God is all-good. And He created us with the opportunity to live in His good world under His good rule, according to His good commands, or to invite evil in. And that's what we did. See, the real problem isn't that the good, powerful God permits evil. It's that the good God and powerful God allows sinners to exist. And here's the solution that God tells us about that problem. He's merciful. He's merciful. When we rebelled against God, he came pursuing us. Not to smite us, not to destroy us, but to promise he would bring about help. He would bring life where we introduced death. He would use all of his good power, all of his powerful goodness to reverse the curse that we introduced. You see, we can come to the text with questions, and God is more than happy for us to ask these questions, but as we read Scripture, He actually gives us the framework to ask a better question, because He might ask, well, why did God allow sin at all? You know, the more we see God and His mercy, the more it isn't, why did God allow sin? But how is God so patient? How is God so loving? How is God so kind? We need to be clear about something. God is not responsible for evil. He does not cause evil. He cannot be tempted with evil. He gives good gifts. But at the same time, he is sovereign over the day of adversity. That can be confusing. I wanna appreciate that. There's many conversations we can have about that. But you see, that's what makes God awesome. Not like awesome rad, but awesome awesome. He's perfectly good. He's perfectly powerful. Even to use our evil to accomplish what is for our good and His glory, and if you wanna wrestle with this, you wanna have a conversation piece for lunch, just look at Acts 2.23. Where we consider the cross and how according to the definite plan of God, We murdered his son who was sent to save us. We're fully responsible, and God is fully sovereign, to even use the most evil act to bring about what is for our good. As we consider the works of God, we could ask, why doesn't he want us to know what's gonna come after us here? As I wrestle with that, I have an answer, and you can tell me later how helpful it was or unhelpful. We too often want to put our faith in a certainty of the promises of what God says is going to happen. God doesn't call us to trust exactly how the life is gonna happen as He promises. No, God calls us to faith specifically in something else. It's faith in Him. We're not called to have faith in whatever understanding we have of our circumstances. We're called to have faith in him who's with us, no matter our circumstances. We're called to trust him, not because of some description of how he tells us what our future is going to be. No, it's that we trust him, who's shown himself over and over again as a merciful, faithful, loving God. You see, what God invites us here is not to know what comes after us, necessarily, but to know He's God, who's sovereign over the day of celebration, over the day of prosperity, the day of adversity. And as we ask the question, who can make straight what God has made crooked? Well, there is a question to that. There is an answer to that question. It's God. Who can undo the work of sin and Satan? Well, only God. Who knows what's good for man? It's God. Who can tell us what will come after us? Oh, it's God. I believe as we left last time in Ecclesiastes 6, complete dependence, complete despair if you don't know God, but complete dependence. Now we see he is the one God who creates all things, knows all things, is sovereign over all things. I'm gonna make a big leap here because of time, not because he spoke shorter sermon to existence. We started with who knows, it's only God. Who can make known, only God. Our calling is to trust God. I wanna jump all the way to John 1.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And the Word, who is also the only begotten Son from the Father's bosom, he came to make God known. He didn't come primarily to tell us what the future is and to tell us what is gonna happen after the Son. He came first and foremost so that we know God as our Father. We know God who promised mercy and brought mercy, the God who promised forgiveness and he himself accomplished that forgiveness. We could go to 1 Corinthians and see that Jesus is the wisdom in the power of God. This morning, if you're looking to hear from who can tell you what is good, here is the message of Jesus. Repent. He says, for the kingdom of God is at hand. I'm gonna say, repent, the king has come. Repent, the king has come. Repentance means we see how foolish we are in the way we're running, we're foolish in the way we're trying to get wisdom, we're foolish in everything we do and it's vanity of vanities, but he says repent. Turn from our foolishness, turn to his wisdom. Turn from our death, turn to his life. Turn from our darkness and turn to his light. The first step we must have in faith is repentance. He's turning away so we can turn to God. God ordains all our days. Verse 14 is challenging here. The day of prosperity, be joyful. The day of adversity, consider. God ordains all our days, and there are difficult days, and we want to make sure we're clear about that. There are difficult days, and this is why we remember the promises of God, like we've already sung.

The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet as a flower. Behind every frowning providence he hides his smiling faith.

What truth can calm our hearts? God is good. God is good. For Jesus' own invitation,

come to me who are weary and I'll give you rest.

Here's the hope I hold out for you. God doesn't hide what we need to know forever. It's always a temporary hiding. We can always ask why would he hide anything at any time, but he's hiding it temporarily for our good. Know for sure he is his own interpreter and he will speak. As we close, I want us to be encouraged this one simple Christian truth. Our God has spoken. Our God speaks. He tells us what is good for us. He tells us where to find truth. He tells us how to live a life where we can enjoy that truth. He tells us all that is good so that we might know how to live in the prosperity or in the adversity. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you for your kindness, that you did not leave us alone in despair after we rebelled against you, or as we still rebel against you, but you are patient, you are merciful, you are kind, you are the God who is able to make promises of salvation, and you have kept those promises. Lord, as we consider and contemplate our need to hear truth, and wisdom. Lord, help us to submit to your word that guides us with light, that guides us to you. Help us, Lord, to hear your invitation, to know you, to consider you, to rejoice in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.