Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

As we have studied through this great and frustrating book, written to us by a philosopher/King 3,000 years ago, we have noticed there is a cyclical theme through much of what Solomon has taught us. The reason for this is due to the fact that what Solomon had discovered in his attempt to live as a practical atheist, apart from God, under the sun, left him realizing there are certain truths that are critical for you and I to grasp so that we don’t follow in his steps.

God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, inspired the writing of this book and used Solomon’s sin and subsequent repentance as the launching point for his painful and personal testimony of what life looks like without God giving ultimate meaning, ultimate joy, and ultimate truth.

So, death and meaninglessness pervade this work because that is all he was able to see without the life giving grace of God. Since we are prone to forget these truths, Solomon does us a favor by cutting through the nonsense and speaking right to our hearts. This is one man of God that could confidently say “do as I say, not as I do.” We would do well to listen.

Solomon is going to essentially tell us that if we knew the day of our death, it would change the rest of our days of life. If we knew when our life would be over we would carefully spend every moment until that point. We would spend our money differently, we would love our friends more intensely, we would kiss our wives more passionately, we would work and labor in what matters more vigorously, we would hold our kids more tightly, and we would worship our God more fervently.

Yet because we are unaware of the day of our death, we tend to live our life as if death is not coming. We think because we work out we’ll live long lives. We think that because we take vitamins and eat steroid free beef we’ll live long lives. We think that because we have invested in our 401K we’ll have enough money to take care of our health and live a long life.

So we waste our days, and we waste opportunities that God gives us for our joy. We’re careless with our friends, careless with our spouse, careless with our kids, careless with our job, and careless with our finances because we really don’t believe death is coming for us.

This lack of awareness of how fragile our life is, brings many of us to an end of a life with many regrets because of all the blown opportunities and relationships that we should have invested in and when we take that last breath in, our exhale ensures that we won’t be able to fix anything.

Solomon lived that kind of life. Now he pens this work as a burned out old pervert that blew his life on a myth that he was the master of his destiny. This is why he cries out “vanity” and “futility” almost 30 times. He’s reflecting on his days and thinking how much he has wasted. He realizes that he wasn’t created to make much of himself but to make much of God and it pains him to consider his folly.

His comments are the comments heard on death beds through the centuries-“if only I had invested my life differently.” This is called regret.

Solomon’s challenge for you and I this morning is to take inventory and account of where we are and to invest our days given to us by God for our joy and His glory.

God Knows Your Tomorrow (9:1)

Verse 9:1- For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him.

What he says is this; God is ultimately in control of what comes in our life. The portrait of God painted by Solomon is one of exhaustive sovereign control. God is viewed by Solomon as totally and completely ruling everything in this world and in our lives. Whether you are righteous or wise, your deeds and life are in the hand of God.

By His providential hand we are to see that whether rich or poor, healthy or sick, we can trust God and rest in His hand because it is His hand that has brought our life and circumstances in it.

This bothers us because we only think of grace in very compartmentalized forms. We assume that if we are righteous or

wise, or if we perform good deeds, we can control our circumstances.

What baffles us is the seemingly inconsistent and uncontrollable fact that even the righteous and wise have no guarantee of an easy life.

This fact has baffled philosophers, theologians and the average Christian for centuries. Why aren’t comforts and crosses handed out in a more predictable fashion. Why does God seem to let someone who is wicked receive tremendous earthly blessings while a righteous Christian who loves God, loves his wife, loves his kids, swings a hammer and worships God in all he does, seems to get the short end of the stick?

And since we are not sovereign in this life, our future is filled with tremendous uncertainties. We don’t know when we wake up if we are going to be met with love or hatred by those we are in relationship with.

But think about this for a moment. If God is in control of all things. If God’s hand is over our health, our relationships, our finances, our work, our pain, our suffering, our trials and our tribulations, this must mean that God has a purpose in all that He does. It might just mean that our greatest tragedy by God’s hand can be turned into our greatest joy. It might just mean that our loss of things might lead us to a gain of Him. It might just mean that the deterioration of our health is so that we would more clearly, more intently, more diligently apprehend Him.

If this is true, then Paul was correct in saying “that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

Who is the cause of all things to work together for good? God. How many things does Paul say that God will work together for God? All. Who is this promise for? Those who loved God and are called according to His purpose. God has a purpose in calling us and saving us, and His purpose is good.

Not only does God know and control your tomorrow….

Soon, You Will Die (9:2-6)

Verse 9:2- It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.

Here’s the point; everyone of us here this morning are going to…die. Now this may come as a shock to some of you, but I assure you that 10 out of 10 of us will die. In what way is that coming for you?

How you view death will radically effect how you view life. If you believe there is no God, there is no need to think about death, and there is no judgment, you will live accordingly. If you believe that there is a God, there is a need to think about death, and there is an eternal life to be lived, you will live different than those who don’t.

Hebrews 9:27 says “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” There is no second chance, there is no purgatory, there is no reincarnation, there is no eternal recurrence of life. You and I are going to die, we’re going to be painted up like a circus clown, we’re going to be filled full of preservatives, and we’re going to be shut in a box, thrown into a six foot hole until we’re food for the worms. This is painful, but it is true.

You will either go to everlasting joy or to everlasting punishment. Those are the only two options. And though we don’t like to talk about hell, Jesus spoke more about it than anyone.

You might say, well I don’t like to talk about hell because it sounds terrible. You’re right, it is, don’t go there. The description of hell in scripture should act as a deterrent not inducement. It doesn’t sound pleasant because it is not. I love watching cops because inevitably when a criminal is handcuffed they complain that it is uncomfortable. Well, that’s sort of the point. They weren’t designed with comfort in mind. Hell is not described as a cabana in the Bahamas because you and I aren’t supposed to smile when we consider what it’s like.

You might say “hell’s terrible.” Yes it is, don’t go there. You might say “I don’t like that hell exists.” Well, there is another way. Turn from sin, trust in Jesus, and it won’t be a concern for you.

Look, God is kind enough to be very direct with you and I. He made us, He’s going to take us out, while we’re here, we should love Him and live for Him and if you don’t, He’s going to open a can at the end of ages and it’s not going to be pleasant. I think that’s the most loving thing God could tell us because it’s true! How horrific would God be if He never mentioned this reality to us?

This is his continue prognoses of mankind. Man is destined to die because sin exists, and the wages of sin is death, and we are all sinners, we will all die.

Now, you and I can work out, take our vitamins, drink bottled water, stay away from McDonalds, swear off Krispy Kreme, but even with the best of care for this flesh, it is one day going to give out on us and we will die.

Some of you live as if this is not a possibility for you. You live recklessly. You pursue sexual relationships without care, you blow off your job, you don’t take care of yourself, you spend your money on WWF tickets, you don’t buckle your seatbelt, you just live without a regard for death.

Here is Solomon’s point; since you’re going to die, watch how you live.

Verse 9:3- This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

The reason we hate death is because we were not built for it. Death is an intrusion, it’s an enemy. We shouldn’t go to funerals and sing the Lion King song- “The Circle of Life.” The most ridiculous and pathetic advice you could give someone is “it’s just part of life.” No it isn’t, it’s death! It’s the wages of our rebellion and sin against God. It’s a punishment for turning from Him for something else. It’s cosmic treason and it’s punished by death.

We were created by a living God, to be a living people, who live forever with this living God. The only way to get rid of death, is to get rid of sin, that’s why Jesus died for our sin, so we could live. For us to give some silly platitude or bumper sticker philosophy when death comes is to totally obscure the horrific nature of death.

Solomon, even though he’s angry at the fact that the righteous and wicked die, is at least angry. He’s outraged at death, and so should we be. His conclusions are off, but his frustration is understandable.

As Christians, there is no need for our hearts to be full of evil and insanity. Jesus has defeated death and as good King reigns in our life.

For those of you that don’t want to listen to God and accept this truth, you might be insane enough to assume that your evil will go unnoticed. You might think that what you stole, who you hurt, how you lied, is not going to be seen and you won’t get caught. Let me assure you, you’re already caught. God’s not playing games with sin, he is going to deal with it fully.

If you refuse to accept the only remedy for sin, which is faith in Jesus, then your insanity and evil will be paid out as a wage, and that wage is death. Not only a physical death in this life, which you ignore, but an eternal kind of death that leaves you spent of any hope or possibility of relief.

But, for the living, there is hope…

Verse 9:4- For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Here is some encouragement in all this death talk. If you are alive today, you still have hope. You can still turn from sin and follow Jesus.

Solomon gives us a proverb. He says that it’s better for the mangy dog that lives off of garbage heaps since he’s alive, then it is for the regal lion who is dead.

Even in our condition of alienation from God, even in our insane and evil behavior, if we hear the good news of a King who has defeated sin, Satan, and death, who rules and offers life in His Kingdom through the forgiveness of sin by trusting in His royal blood which was shed for those who love Him, and we place our trust in Him. If we lay aside our attempt of being king of our own kingdom and follow this one true King, we have hope. We have hope because “all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” This King has a name and it’s Jesus. He has done all that is necessary to secure life and peace with God. He has taken our sin upon Himself so that it will be removed from us. He has tasted death for us so that we can taste life. And He calls you to turn from your course and believe and follow Him.

Those who understand this can truly live…

Verse 9:5- For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.

The living who are truly alive understand that they will die and have an opportunity for repentance, but the dead are finished. All they will know for eternity is death. All they will experience for eternity is death. But it is a conscience death. Not annihilation which means that you just stop existing. It’s a death that is all consuming and you are engrossed and consciously aware of it. So, it’s a good time to live!

Plus, when you die, nobody remembers you. Think of all the stars that were huge in their day and many of them we don’t know whether they are alive or dead.

We have relatives that are dead, and even though we loved them, we have almost completely forgotten about them. Once we die, our possibility and opportunity for a legacy and heritage is over.

Verse 9:6- Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

All the petty and ridiculous things we give ourselves to make no difference when we die. Our hatred, our jealousy, our anger towards others that dominated our lives and occupied our time, and caused us pain, will amount to nothing when we die. What is sad, is even the love that an unbeliever has in this life will come to nothing.

Why do we spend so much time on such foolish and petty attitudes and actions when we are all going to die? Is it really worth it to spend all our time and energy angry and bitter towards someone when we have such little time left? Is it a good investment of my time? Some of you here this morning haven’t spoken to family members or past friends for some time because you are bitter and can’t forgive. Is that how you want to go out of this world? Is that the legacy you want to leave behind?

How differently do we treat someone that we know has terminal cancer? Very different. Why? Because we know they are going to be gone soon and so we overlook an offense, we forgive past sins, we wipe clean debts, we love them and listen to them more intently.

Why is it that we don’t do this with one another when everyone of us are going to die. Love is supposed to cover a multitude of sins and yet we spend most of our time in jealous and envious backbiting. We gossip, we cut each other with our words, we treat each other as if we have all the time in the world to make it right. Do we?

What would our lives look like if we not only lived daily with our eyes open to the reality of our death, but we lived with the reality that those we love and know are going to die soon?

How would we evangelize our family members if we really believe that they were going to die at any moment and were on their way to judgment? How would we love our neighbors if we really believed that tomorrow they were going to leave this world and stand before God without hope in Christ? How would we forgive the offenses and trespasses of our spouses and kids if we lived with an awareness of their death?

So, Solomon sobers us up and says that since death is certain, nobody is going to remember you, you can’t do it all over again, we should hurry up and enjoy our life!

Hurry Up and Enjoy Life! (9:7-10)

Verse 9:7- Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.

This is really going to mess you up if you are on the Atkins diet and don’t drink alcohol.

Solomon keeps coming back to this theme of eating with joy. The reason is because it is such a common thing, yet in something as seemingly insignificant as eating, we should do it with happiness.

We should get together with our friends and enjoy a meal with the people we love. We should life out glass of beer or wine or whatever drink is pleasing and toast the living God and give Him glory for our life and the joy He gives us in it. He’s not talking about gluttony are getting drunk, he’s saying since you are alive, go and eat and drink and enjoy it with happiness and a cheerful heart.

You might be thinking since you are going to die soon what should you do? Well, the way Solomon sees this is to start by enjoying our meal which God gave us. Do you know what kind of joy he’s talking about? Have you ever gone out to dinner with friends and had a great steak and a great drink and good company and after the night was over you sat and thought about how pleasant it was? This is the point.

Here’s my question to you- is it possible for you to eat your food, have a drink and enjoy it all to the glory of God? Does it sound as if God is commends this?

You see, for the righteous man, God has already approved your works. Because you know where things have their place. A righteous man realizes that he can enjoy the gifts God gives Him because he never confuses the gifts with the giver of the gifts. A righteous man who enjoys life knows how to gratefully accept God’s goodness in his gifts and instead of taking his affections away from God like an unrighteous man does, it causes the righteous man to be thankful to God, to delight in Him, and to lift his eyes towards God and enjoy his meal.

A fool takes these good gifts and becomes a glutton and a drunkard. He worships things rather then God. He takes what God has called good and twists into evil. That’s not the way to enjoy life.

Solomon continues…

Verse 9:8- Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.

Solomon uses white clothes as a symbol of celebration. During this time, wearing white was a demonstration of purity and celebration. What he’s saying is to have an attitude of celebration all the time. Not some of the time, but all the time.

Usually we look at our life with God as one that is clothed in black. We talk about our failures, we talk about our sin, we talk about our past. But we should be above all people on this earth the ones who have the most to celebrate for. Christ has secured our victory and we are free from death, free from sin, free from self, and free from our slavery to Satan. We should show God off to the world. We should be a people that demonstrate God’s goodness towards us by how we enjoy this life and show goodness towards others.

We should also keep our head with oil on it. Solomon is speaking again of celebration and the appearance of joy. Those who were going out in public would put oil on their head since it was such a dry climate. It would dry out the skin and make you look drawn and gaunt. When we put on oil, we look fresh, we look alive, we look as if we have life in us instead of looking as if we missed our fiber pill. The unbeliever world needs to see that we are about life not death.

There is a beautiful picture in Revelation 19 which speaks about the bride of Christ clothing herself in fine linen which is white and clean, and the great blessing for those that are invited to wedding supper of the Lamb. I believe that we are to show forth that great picture here on earth as we gather with our brothers and sisters and celebrate.

Since we know we are going to die, do we want to spend life alone, bitter and angry? Or do we want to spend it with our friends, eating a meal, celebrating with them, enjoying our remaining days? I want to spend it celebrating. How else should we hurry up and live since we are going to die soon?

The Solomon gets very practical for us men- food, drink, friends and…

Verse 9:9- Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.

What would our relationships look like if we really took our day of death seriously? You can make some smart comment if you aren’t really thinking it through, but I have seen even the most unloving couple crushed by the weight of death when one of them die.

What if we decided to live passionately in our enjoyment of our wife or spouse for the rest of the days we live? What would that look like? What if instead of our courting ending when we get married, we start courting each other again. We start listening carefully, we start kissing deeply, we start loving more intensely?

Some of us men used to get dressed up and celebrate with our wives, now we’re so cheap that we live in our elastic waistband sweats around her, and we have full intentions of finding out the breaking point of our elastic.

We are to rejoice in the wife of our youth. God is clearly teaching us that our days our numbered and life is fleeting, we should see our wives as a gift and hurry up and enjoy her.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22 Do we believe that? Do we believe that our wife is good and that if we have a wife we have found favor from the Lord? Then how should I show my gratitude towards God? I show my gratitude by enjoying her all my days with passion and delight. I show how much I enjoy her by thanking God for her and living as a man who has favor from God, gifts form His hand, and an awareness of my days.

Ladies we know this works both ways. Are you easy to enjoy? I will tell you that if you want your husband to enjoy you, be easy to enjoy. If you want your husband to desire your company, make your company pleasant to be around. Even if we are all public school educated we know how this works.

Men if you want your wife to enjoy you and delight in you, make yourself enjoyable to be around. Make yourself a delight for her.

You might say “this is hard” she needs to show me first, or “he needs to demonstrate leadership.” But guess what…you’re going to die! What are you waiting for? Don’t waste your time enjoying your life. Enjoy it now!

Verse 9:10- Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

This isn’t escapist hedonism or self-deception. This is living with eyes wide open, realizing how fragile life is and welcoming life and death as a whole, real, valuable, and gracious gift of God.

Only in the face of death can we truly live. As William Wallace says in Braveheart; “Every man dies, not every man truly lives.” This kind of expansive and passionate joy is not only possible, it’s demanded. But only God’s grace can make it so.

Since Solomon says there is a time for everything, here he commends that our “now” is a time for joy. Solomon is appealing to his reader life now, to make this present moment significant since we are all peering over the ledge into our grave. Death will bring a stop to all our possibilities in this life. Solomon is saying that we have this great opportunity of life. If you are given a chance to do something that expands your joy in this life to God’s glory, do it now.

His instruction is not only for those under the sun who have no hope of eternal life, this speaks to you and I who’s eternal life does not begin when we die, but rather began when God raised us from spiritual death, breathed into us His life, called us forth from the grave, and caused us to be born from above.

The day will come when death overtakes us puts our labors to an end, so until that day we should be ambitious about our jobs, homes, families, friends, church, and ministries because we have no idea what God may do in us an through us tomorrow.

Much of God’s work may remain a mystery to us…

Don’t Forget Who’s In Control (9:11-12)

Verse 9:11- I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

Every now and again the long shot wins the race. Every now and again the Mike Tyson’s of the world are knocked out by the Buster Douglas’ of the work. Every now and again the guy swinging the hammer gets promoted to manager. Every now and again the high school dropout becomes the boss to those who have more education. God doles out blessing upon whomever He wishes, and just because we are fast, strong, smart, or rich we will never be God.

For Paul, this caused drove Him to God’s divine mercy as he tells us “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Romans 9:16

But for Solomon, as he thinks like a man under the sun, it drove him to frustration.

We should follow Paul and trust in God’s goodness and mercy to give us comfort when we realize we’re not in ultimate control. It should cause joy, not fatalistic determinism. We should realize that God makes us a people that find to lasting purpose, meaning, or satisfaction in life without Him. We should realize the counsel of those under the sun will always lead us to an empty hollow despair, instead a life giving faith that spills out into trust and joy in God’s good hand.

With trust in Him, we can drink our cup of bitterness or blessing and still bless His name. Job said "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21

Unless your trust is in this God of Scripture and not in yourself, you have no comfort in times of nakedness and despair. Job’s trust in God’s sovereign reign caused Him to bless the name of the LORD.

Most of us are trying to live a kind of life that God did not give to us, and since His plan differs from ours, it frustrates us. Trusting in God allows us to be satisfied and find joy in whatever lot He has given to us. But when we try to fight against the circumstances and status that He has given to us, we can’t really live because we refuse to accept that our agenda is not being fulfilled.

If we live a life of continual dissatisfaction in the lot God has given us, we are going to find ourselves at the end of our days surprised that not only did we not fulfill our agenda, but that death came when we least expected it, and in a manner that we had not seen coming. How are you going to live now that you realize your day is set by God?

Verse 9:12- Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

We are clueless and impotent to know or control our time. We are like a fish that is swimming happily along until it is suddenly caught in a net and taken. We are like birds that assume we’re free until we find ourselves caught in a trap. If we ignore our death and attempt to live as if we are sovereign, we are going to be like deer in a headlight when that time suddenly comes.

I am sure if you asked those who have gone before us what shocked them most about their death, it would be that they did not expect it at that time or in that way. For those who have not hope of life in God, all they have is an eternity of regret as they spend countless ages remembering their arrogance and foolishness for trying to live as if they were god. Caught in a snare, they grind their teeth for eternity.

But for you and I, we have so much more we were created for. And, since we have today, we have an opportunity and choice to determine to truly live. Live as we were made to live. Live to make much of God. Live finding our greatest joy in Him. Live enjoying His gracious gifts that He has given us. Live with eyes wide open, fully aware of our frailty, yet placing our faith in Him and savoring our days under in His hand.

Once you have placed your trust and faith in Jesus, and you know God, death is no longer our enemy, but is defeated and we now can look forward to a future hope. We can see death as it really is, a transport from this body into the presence of our King. This is why Paul said “to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.”

Knowing that allows us to truly live. We can live courageously, we can live passionately, we can live aware of our death and yet trusting in Jesus for life now in forever.

What a difference this makes as we open our eyes and see the reality of our existence. How beautiful this is for those who’s joy is Christ.

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