Please remain standing for the reading of God's holy and inerrant word. This morning I'll be reading from Ecclesiastes 9, one through 12. I will not be covering that passage in Romans on the screen. That was a good idea on Thursday when bulletins were printed, but my sermon wasn't done, and I didn't think you wanted to be here for two hours today, so. Lord willing, we'll get to that Romans 8 passage next week, but we'll stay here in Ecclesiastes this morning. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 1 through 12 here, the word of the Lord. Solomon says, but all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hands of God, whether it is love or hate, man does not know, both are before him. 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 unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil. And all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also the hearts of the children, a man are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die but the dead know nothing and they have no more reward for their memory is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy They've already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. 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 in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are going. Again, I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift nor The battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man doesn't know his time, like fish that are taken in an evil net and like birds that are caught in a snare. So the children of man are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me? Lord, we lift our voice with our Father David who said, open my eyes that I might behold glorious things from this portion of your word. For we ask this in the name of Jesus and for his sake and God's people said together. Amen, you may be seated. Imagine you and I or to take a trip to the airport together so that we could watch incoming and outgoing planes. I know that sounds like a dream day for you, but just imagine it if you would. What we would see if we were together doing this would be certain planes coming in, landing on one runway, and other planes departing from others. And if we were close enough to see the departure and arrival monitor screen, we could have some idea of where the planes are coming from and where the planes are going. But if on that same monitor you saw the words flight delayed or flight canceled, we may not get any explanation whatsoever for why there was a delay or why the flight was canceled. And that very thing happened to me just this last year. in Amsterdam and looking forward to flying home to my family and putting my feet back on the soil of the good old US of A and got to the airport and was in my seat ready to go and the monitor said, flight delayed. And I thought, well, no problem, right? How often do you get to Amsterdam? What kind of fun can a preacher have here, right? So I got an hour, let's explore the airport. this place has to offer. And so I did, but as I watched the monitors, that one hour turned into two. Flight delayed two hours. Okay, settle in, I've got a book. Two hours turned into four. Four hours turned into six hour delay. And then finally, it simply said, flight canceled. And now I'm like, all right, I'm in Amsterdam, I know hardly anybody here except the party I'm with. Flight canceled, and what made matters worse is you go to their lovely people at the information desk and say, hey, what the heck, right? What's going on here? And they simply say, we don't know. OK. So one hour turns into two, two into four, four into five, and then what made matters even worse still is that at some point their ship ended, they went home, leaving us with nothing but questions. What in the heck? How long, is this my life now, right? Do I live here in Amsterdam, what's the deal? We later found out that there was some sort of union strike with those who handle luggage, And we found that out the next day in the paper. But in the moment, we had no information. Nothing was given to us. We were left with loads of frustration. But had we known why there was a delay and that there was going to be a canceled flight, well, we would have changed our plans, right? We never would have went to the airport at all. But as it was, it came at us unannounced and unexpected and left us with loads of frustration. Now, if Solomon were here with us today, and he speaks to us through this book, he would say, well, that's much of life, isn't it? It comes at you unannounced, unexpected, and more times than not, without explanation. And Solomon has time and time again given voice to the frustration that we all feel when we order our lives in a certain way and do the things that we are to do, avoid the things we are not to do, and yet still things come our way without warning, without expectation, and without any explanation. That is much of what Solomon has been doing throughout this book. He is a man of faith. He's not in crisis of faith. He is not taking up the voice of a cynic, he is a man who believes that God is all-powerful, all-good, and all-loving, and has committed himself to his people via covenant, and yet he looks out at the world and he says, I don't understand. I can't make sense of this. Life is full of mystery. And Solomon gives voice to that perplexity that we all often have, if we're honest. But coupled with that frustration and that perplexity, Solomon hasn't left us to despair. He hasn't left us to sort of say, what does it matter anyway? After all, if life is mysterious and it's short and Sometimes we can't discern what in the world is God doing or not doing in this world that just, you know, whatever, let's eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. That's not what he's done. But repeatedly, what he has said is that he comes to describe this world as it is a world that's under curse, a world that is presently under frustration, a world that is horrifically disfigured on account of our sin. And he gives voice to that he describes the world as it truly is and not as he would want it to be. But he gives voice to a realism but coupled with that is not indifference, but a call to joy. Call to joy. to find the God-ordained joys in the midst of this short and enigmatic life that we live, to turn toward the Lord, though we don't often understand Him, and to serve Him with joy. And that's going to come through in this text. And if we are to gain the wisdom that this book has been inviting us to grow in, we have to embrace not only the realism of this book, but also the optimism, the call to joy. Those two things come before us in this text, probably in a way that it doesn't in any other part of this book, both the brutal reality, the ugly reality, of the frustration that we do face, but also this call to know God's joy. How do we do that? How does Solomon counsel us to find this joy that God would have for all of us this morning? First, it comes through relinquishing control. Second, relishing in the present, and then third, readying ourselves for eternal life. Okay, we relinquish control, we relish the present, and we ready ourselves for eternity. First, relinquish control, what am I talking about? What is Solomon talking about more importantly? Let's look at verses one and two again. But this, I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hands of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know, both are before him. It's 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 to him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. So the primary thing that Solomon is saying here, and there's a difficult passage here that we'll look at in a minute, the end of verse one there, but let's focus in on the first part of verse one. What he is saying essentially is this, is that the lives. Sweet mercy. Comes at you unexpected and unexplained. How about we never do that again? Whatever it is that just happened. I think I just lost about two minutes of my life. Okay. Lord, where was I? Relinquished control, which clearly, who has it? Not the guy in the pulpit. What he is telling us here, looking back at verse one, is that our lives are in God's hands and not our own. Now the context here, there's a word here that Solomon uses that speaks of worship. Okay, there is a word here, the word rendered deeds. is the Hebrew word that is always used for worship. And so with that in mind, look again. This I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise in their worship, their service to God, are in the hand of God. Okay, so this is what Solomon is saying here is clear enough. He's saying, What are the consequences of offering up our lives to God? What's the consequence of the righteous man or woman living their lives in obedience to God versus those who do not? And Solomon's first point here is that I see no discernible difference. What difference does it make? That's what Solomon is saying. This is what I laid to heart. What difference does it make whether I worship God and give to him that which is required? Repentance from sin and turning toward him through his son. What difference does it make? Can we control our lives? Can we control our lives in such a way? Or can we orient our lives in such a way that we can avoid suffering? That we can avoid hard things? Solomon's answer is no. No. Again, look at verses two. It's 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. As the good one goes, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. So Solomon here is observing what you and I have observed. All kinds of people get cancer. Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ get cancer, and so do those who are His enemies. The same event, Solomon says, happens to all. Wonderful God-fearing people die in hurricanes and tornadoes right next to people who are enemies of God. The same event happens. Whether your heart is oriented toward the Lord in obedience, or whether your heart is oriented toward yourself and autonomy and living a life for yourself, Solomon says the same things happen. Young lives of Righteous people are snuffed out by car accidents, while reckless drivers live out their lives to the end. And Solomon says, this isn't evil. This is a frustration. I can't make sense of this. Why someone who would love the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, that they would be on the receiving end of the same kinds of trial, the same kind of hardship of someone who thumbs their nose at God all their lives. He said, I laid this all to heart and I considered how God allows the righteous to suffer just like the wicked. And by observation, I can't determine God's attitude towards us. That seems to be the meaning of the second half of verse one. This is notoriously difficult to understand. Take a look there again. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know. Both are before him. See, what he's saying is that, as I look out on man's circumstances, as I look out on the lives of my people, and I see horrible things happening to good people, and good things happening to the wicked, he said, I can't, from observations sake alone, make any determination whether God has favored or rejected this person. I can't look on someone's life and say, oh, they have cancer. They must be in sin. Nor can he say, oh, that man or woman is prosperous and has lots of money. Therefore, God must favor them because Solomon has already described how money often destroys people. I can't with my eyes look out on this world and say God must truly love him or God must be angry with them because The same things happen to the righteous and to the wicked. Why do bad things happen to good people, right? That's a question we're often asked as Christians, and Solomon says, I know. I'm with you. Verse three, he gives voice to our own protest, doesn't he? Look there. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun that the same event happens to all. He isn't charging God with evil here as much as he is describing what we should all feel in this world, and that is the effects of the curse upon this world. The effects of sin within the hearts of men and women, our own sin and the sin of those who don't know Jesus. This isn't the way it should be, is what he is saying here. And not only so. He's saying, I would love to make sense of all of this. If only there was a way that God would rent the clouds apart and come down and tell us, why does he allow this? Why does he permit that? Why did this one get cancer? Why did that one lose their life so young? I want to know. I want to make sense of it. There's a piece of the puzzle that's missing, and you'll recall Solomon said in chapter three, God has put eternity into our hearts that we might desire to know what God has done from the end to the beginning, and yet, God has not revealed it. Solomon's big point here is that to all appearances, the things that matter most to God, to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to turn away from folly, to walk in the ways of Christ, it doesn't seem to make a difference. Because religious or irreligious, moral or immoral, in the end, we all get mown down anyway. That's his point in verses 11 and 12. Again, I saw that under the sun the race isn't to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time, like fish that are taken in an evil net and like birds are caught in a snare, so the children of men are snared at an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. What he is saying is that when it's your time, it's your time. And your hands do not control the time when you will depart. God's hands do that. I mean, we all know the story. Some of us know people that in the peak of their health fall dead on a basketball court. St. Jude's is filled with children with cancer, terminal cancer. We all know people that have died in tragic accidents. Likewise, we all know ungodly men and women who live out their days in mansions on the beach, and we say, why? It's worth noting again that what Solomon is doing here is not having a crisis of faith. He isn't losing his faith, but rather as a man of faith, as a man who believes that God is all wise, all powerful, and all loving. He knows these things not through empirical research, but through revelation, just as you and I know all those things through revelation. He knows those things. He embraces those things unapologetically and that he looks out onto the world and he says, but I can't make sense of it. I have some answers, some big answers that of course we're in a fallen world and things go haphazard. But when I want to know why did this happen to this person or why didn't this happen to someone else? God says, not for you to know. And he gives voice here, doesn't he? He gives voice in 12 chapters to that honest perplexity. Saying, Lord, I do believe. I do believe. Help my unbelief, because what I see here doesn't square. Doesn't square. Why does the same thing happen to the righteous and to the wicked? It doesn't seem to matter. According to what I can see, I know it matters. I believe, help my unbelief. It's okay then, right? It's okay to be perplexed. It's okay to bring these kinds of questions. Why are you not healing me? It's okay not only to have those things, but Solomon is teaching us here to bring them to God. Some of you know the name of Charles Spurgeon, the great English preacher, Prince of Preachers, he's called, and you may also know that he suffered excruciating pain from gout and He was prone to depression and often those two things that physical torment and spiritual despondency would often come together and leave him a wreck of a man. And he wrote an autobiography and in that autobiography, he tells a story of one night where his elders were so concerned for him because he was so broken and hopeless. But the elders came along and They tried their best, but finally he sent them out of the room. And then he says, I prayed this prayer. Let me read you what he prayed. He said, Lord, you are my father and I'm your child. I could not bear if I saw my child suffer as you make me suffer. And if I saw my child tormented as I am now, I would wrap my arms around him to sustain him Why do you hide your face from me? When will I again see a smile from your countenance? The Prince of Preachers. If I had a child, I wouldn't do this, Father. I don't understand why you're letting me go through this. Spurgeon's perplexed. It's not a crisis. It's because he knows he's a good father who delights to give good gifts, and yet he's got this gout and this chronic depression, and he says, dad, why? Maybe that's where you are today. Maybe as you have those wrestlings, the enemy has come along and says, oh, that's not faith. You don't believe? We never would have said that to Solomon's dad, David, right, who penned the words in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's a cry of faith. Because he was a man of faith, he was perplexed. We wouldn't have said to David, how dare you? Nor would we have said it to David's offspring, the Lord Jesus Christ, who took those very words upon his lips on the cross, would we? My God, my God, why? Jesus wasn't showing off and say, hey, I can remember the Psalms, even though I'm suffering. He was experiencing that, why? Why like this? Why is your hand still heavy upon me? Why? Christian, your father, who knows how to give good gifts, he's big enough to say, bring your perplexity to me. Bring your questions to me. I'm not gonna slap you if you say why. My beloved son said why. You bring them to me. Because not only do I love you, but I can sustain you. David wrote elsewhere, Psalm 55, cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. He doesn't say God will take your cares. He doesn't say the same events that befall the wicked won't befall you, but He does say you cast that on Him and He will sustain you. Amen? Much of our lives, Solomon says, fall outside of what we can understand and God's ways remain mysterious to us, but they are not mysterious to Him. God's ways and works do make sense, just frequently not to us. As Isaiah tells us, right, his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. Your life is in his hands now. Solomon doesn't throw in the towel, right? Even though he says we have to, to some degree, relinquish control, you can't, through an obedient life, avoid all suffering, you can't, through diet and exercise, keep death from visiting you. But he doesn't throw in the towel, he doesn't enter into despondency, he doesn't get on meds. What he does do is say, And yet there is so much joy to be found. Look at verse four. And you might think, okay, where is there joy here? Listen to what he says. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. And you're like, oh, okay, thanks, Solomon. Say the benediction, we're out. This is probably funnier to Solomon's first audience than it is to us, because we kind of scratch our heads and say, yeah, it's better to be a living dog than a dead lion. Ha, ha, ha, ha. We all, what? But here's what's going on. It helps to know in the ancient Near East, they didn't see dogs the way you and I do. Dogs were considered the lowest of the low. They were filthy vermin. They were wild. They were scavengers. They were to be avoided at all costs. Solomon would have laughed at us to hear that we've brought dogs into the home, and that some of you bring them to Publix with you. That, to him, he says, now that's a perplexity. That's like inviting roaches into bed with you. You bring dogs to Publix? Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. But they didn't see dogs very highly. And so that helps us there, but also they, in contrast, they held the same view of lions that we do today. They're majestic, they're powerful, they're the kings of the jungle. And so that's Solomon's point here is that it's better to be alive and a scavenger than to be a dead king of the beast. And the reason he gives is in verses five and six. 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. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. So here's the point. Rather simple when you hear it. Why is it better to be living than dead? Because the living still have hope of amending their ways. The living still have opportunity to turn away from folly and to embrace wisdom. The living still have opportunity to turn away from sin and to ask God to bless them with the fruits of obedience. So if you're still alive, you're a living dog this morning, you still have opportunity to make the most of today. For all those areas in which Christ has called you to be faithful and to trust him, your fate, as it were, is not sealed, your work is not done, you still have opportunity to say, Christ, I've been negligent, I have been distracted, I've been in love with the things of this world, help me today to embrace you anew. You see, Solomon's words here are rather sweet. They're put in a proverbial form that maybe you and I wouldn't use. It's better to be a living dog than a dead lion. Okay, fine. But his point here is that if you're alive, there is still great hope for you to serve Christ in a fresh way. For all of those people who you, in cowardice or fear, have refused to share Christ with, Well, you're not a dead lion, you're a living dog. Today is a day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice, be glad in it, and offer to Him fresh obedience. There's hope. Your life doesn't have to be the same as it's always been. The good news this morning is that the Lord's mercies are new for all of us, amen? And maybe that message is just what you need to hear. Maybe this morning you feel like you know you've strayed from God. You know you've been negligent in some area that Christ is calling you to be sacrificial. Maybe you need to repent of something, to ask forgiveness of something. Maybe you need to be more generous with your time or with your wealth, with your service to your church. Maybe you feel like a flea-intesting, infested, tick-covered dog. Solomon would say to you, congratulations. It's better to be a living dog than a dead lion. Maybe what you need to hear today, what I need to hear as a fellow living dog, is this promise from God. Listen to this. I'm calling out, I'm calling out to all the hounds out there. Listen to what God says. The steadfast love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. As a fellow dog, I can attest to you the best part of this Sunday is that God has renewed His mercies to me and renewed His mercies to you. Isn't that great news? Isn't it good to be a living dog right now? Isn't it good? God calls us this morning to be renewed and to be refreshed in the inner man, even as our bodies waste away. He says, come to me, all you dogs, and I'll give you rest. We relish the present for the hope that there is embedded within it, that today is a day of salvation, the judgment has not yet come. But also for the hope it holds out to us for all of the joy, all the joy that is infused in your life even now. Let's look at verses seven and nine together. Go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. 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 in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Again, that English word there, vain, it's not the best. We don't use vain in the way the Hebrews did. He's not saying enjoy your vain life, but rather vanity refers to something that is elusive, perplexing, it's like, a puff of smoke that's here and it can't be grasped and it's gone. It's quick. Your life is short. And often it's perplexing. It's infused with mystery of what is God doing or not doing? Even so, you're commanded to find joy. There's an old story about Martin Luther, you know, the great Protestant reformer who was asked, Dr. Luther, what would you do today if you knew the world was ending tomorrow? And his response was this. He said, if I knew the world was ending tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree today. That gets at the sentiment that Solomon's been pushing us toward from page one of this book. Yes, the times are out of our hands. You cannot control what God sends and doesn't send to you in an ultimate sense. You cannot even predict or determine when your time comes. Death is like a car that its engine is running. Its headlights are on you. It's in drive. So what do you do? Plant an apple tree. That is to say, find the God-ordained joy that He has infused into your life. For Luther, that was an apple tree. I wouldn't recommend an apple tree down here in South Florida, but maybe a mango tree. Plant something. If you knew tomorrow, it's all going to hell and the judgment's coming and in the words of Peter, the earth is going to be burned with fire. Plant a tree today. Why? Because God has given you the joy to do that kind of thing. Solomon once again comes to one of these seize the day, carpe diem slogans that he has return to time and time again. There's five different times where Solomon, in the midst of life's perplexity, says, but don't despair. Don't go into a place of chronic depression, as much as that is a control by your thoughts, but rather joy. See that God has apportioned to you so many gifts, so many joys in your day. And there's an urgency in his words here. There's an imperative. It's a command, go. Solomon doesn't say, you know what would be a good idea? You might want to find some joy out there, surround yourself with good people. No, he says, go. It's a command. You are hereby commanded by God to see that he has infused your life with his joy because he would have you to know it. to relish the present. Let's be clear, this isn't a, you know, Epicurus, the guy that lived centuries after Solomon and long before Jesus, a Greek philosopher, said there's nothing to come after death, so you might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you're, you know, you stuff a coffin and that's that. That's not what Solomon is teaching. Rather, what he is saying here is to receive the good things that God has given to you as gifts, because that's what they are. Eat your bread with joy, recognizing that that bread is God's gift to you. And so have a God-centered joy. as you eat your bread, as you drink your wine, as you do your work, as you love your wife. This is what God has portioned out to you. This is your lot, as Solomon said several chapters ago. Your lot is God's gift. See it as such. Find his joy that he intends for you to know in those ordinary things. And the celebration continues in verse eight, right? He says there, always wear white and let not oil be lacking on your heads. In the ancient Near East, white was the color you wore to celebrate. It's what generals would wear when they won a battle. It's what slaves would wear the day of their liberation. So Solomon says, don't walk around forlorn and woe is me, life is terrible. He says, no, you dress up. God has surrounded you with this joy. Dress like it. Don't be a slob. Don't wear flip flops to church. He didn't say that. That's me. Oil on your head. Oil was fragrance. It's our cologne. It's our perfume. Look and smell nice. You ain't dead yet. Those days of smelling terrible, they're coming, but we believe in the resurrection of the body. Until then, look and smell good. Why? Because God has infused your life with his joy. Suck it up. Take in that joy. It's all around you. You see. If that's His command, and if we're struggling to find the joy within the gifts, then we ask God, help me. Help me to see that my food, my wine, my wife, my job, my house, my lot are gifts intended to make me experience my father's joy. I shared with you a little bit last week what this book has done for me. I think what it's done for me is as it's wrestled with me and rebuked me in many ways, it's caused me to slow down. I'm a pretty future-oriented, goal-oriented guy, and my day-to-day is the strategies for hitting the goals, and there's nothing that's admirable. I mean, it's all throughout the Proverbs, right? But what it's also done is say, son, slow down, slow down, and let me peel back your eyes to see all of the gifts in the ordinary. And this is what it's done for me. So here's just a few examples. When Jen and I walk the dogs at night, one of the things I now do is I listen a little closer to the birds when they sing at sunset. Why? Because that song they sing is a gift. It's not just what they do to establish territory at night and all of that stuff. I know that's all true too. Their song is a gift for me and Jennifer to enjoy together. That first cup of coffee in the morning, I drink it slower now. And they say, God, this is your gift to me right now. Thank you. I hold Jennifer's hand a little longer and tighter because she's God's gift to me. I tell my friends what they mean to me, how important their friendship is. Why? Because they too are God's gift. You see, I entered Ecclesiastes thinking, I want to better enunciate the frustrations I experience with knowing how marvelous and good my God is. But yet I look out in this world and I say, I am perplexed. But what God has done is say, son, fine, but you also are commanded to see my joy and to experience joy in the ordinary. And the ordinary has now become for me extraordinary. This book is not a skeptic giving rise to his anger. It is a man of faith expressing perplexity and yet saying, but there is so much joy to be had if you would just open your eyes. Incidentally, what it has also done is it has caused me to further loathe my envy that when my peers financially are doing better, when my peers are not facing the same challenges that I face, I envy, I covet. What this book has done for me is showed me that I am like a petulant child. You've been given so much, Brent, and it's not enough? So it's actually opened my eyes to see not only how horrible my sin is, my greed and my lack of contentment in the ordinary, but it's also filled me with joy at just how good my father is. How kind he has been, how he has not treated me as my sins deserve, but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for me. It was there all the time. My stupid eyes were closed. I hope you've experienced some of that yourself through this book. That's what Solomon would have for us all? I like how one author summarizes this whole book. Listen to what he says. The goal of Ecclesiastes is this. that believers, feeling the weight of the curse and burden of this life's enigmas, would turn their eyes toward God, resting in His purposes and delighting wherever possible in His beautiful, disfigured world. Believers feeling the curse, And the enigmas of this life would even so turn toward God, trust that he is carrying out his purposes and to find delight in God's beautiful yet disfigured world. That's the message of Ecclesiastes. We are to relinquish control. Terrible things happen to wonderful people. Wonderful things happen to terrible people. And it doesn't make sense to us, but it makes sense to God. So we relinquish control, we relish the present. And then finally, we ready ourselves for eternity. That's what comes to the fore here in verse 10 with this word Sheol. Look there, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. For there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which you are Now sheol is a big word used throughout the Old Testament, and its equivalent is not hell. Sheol is used in a number of ways. Often it's used for just the grave. Righteous people go to the grave, as do the wicked, but it's also a general term for the realm of the dead. So in our language, we might say that Sheol represents either the grave or the afterlife without any distinction of whether that afterlife is one of joy or one of indescribable terrors. Okay, and so what Solomon is saying here is that we are all going to the grave. And when he says there that there's no work, no knowledge or wisdom in the grave, he's not denying that there is life after death. In fact, in the last chapter of this book, we'll speak of the wicked and the righteous being judged and standing before judgment after their death. So he's not denying that there is life after death. What he is saying, though, is that the life that we will know, the experiences we'll have, the knowledge, the wisdom that is on the other side of the grave is not the same as the knowledge and the wisdom and the life that we have now. We do our service and labor for the Lord now in faith. But the day is coming when we will do our service to the Lord in sight, in his presence. We know now in part, but we will know more fully when we see him face to face. We are limited in wisdom now, but we will see wisdom personified when we stand before him. So what Solomon is saying here is not unlike what Jesus said. We must work while it is day, for the night is coming when no one can work. So now is the day of salvation, and the day of judgment is coming. Your grave is coming. The afterlife is coming. Live now in light of that day. The opportunities that you have to bear witness to Christ in a world that is aligned against him, well, those opportunities will cease. The opportunities to serve Jesus by faith, the opportunities to be generous with your wealth, all of those opportunities, they will end at your funeral. And therefore, Solomon says, much like Jesus, now is a day of work, but the night is coming. Or as Paul says, right, make the best use of your time, bless you, where the days are evil. But before them there is the grave. But even in the grave, what is Solomon doing here? It's like he gives up one hand and takes from another. Enjoy the life you have, you're going to the grave. It's like, which is it, pal? This guy's psychotic, no. He actually, would say the grave is coming, but you don't have to be afraid of even the grave. But he doesn't know or he didn't know what you know now, that even though the grave is coming for us, that we don't even fear that now. Do you remember those words of Jesus, Jesus in the book of Revelation? speaks to John and John sees him on Patmos and he's terrified. And Jesus said to him, don't be afraid. For I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I hold the keys to death and Hades. That's the New Testament word for Sheol, the realm of the dead. I hold the keys to the grave. I hold the keys to the afterlife. I have all authority over hell. I have all authority over the grave. I have all authority over the afterlife and who goes where. Therefore, don't be afraid. I have neutered the grave of its power. The grave has been made impotent. What is there to be afraid of? I mean, Solomon, right? I mean, can you imagine if you were standing over Solomon's shoulders as he's writing this maybe in the temple and saying to him, you know what, Solomon? The same God who holds your life in his hands one day would have nails shot through them on a cross. Or Solomon, the same God who perplexes us will one day hang on that cross in perplexity and say, why? And the same God who has appointed unto man death, Sheol, the grave, would one day Himself enter into Sheol and strip it of its power in order to free you from its bonds. Solomon, can you even imagine? And yet, that's the good news, isn't it? It's the good news of the Gospel. That you belong to the One who holds the key even of death in his hands and says to you, Christian, don't therefore be afraid. I was dead. Now I'm alive and I have all authority. Therefore, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. And entrust yourself to him afresh today for the first time or for the thousandth time. because his mercies are new to you this morning and to me. Amen? Amen. Let's pray.