Ecclesiastes 9:1-3

Ecclesiastes chapter 9, I’m going to read the first three verses for our text and study this evening. For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked to the good and to the clean and to the unclean to him that sacrifice us and to him that sacrifices not as is the good so is the sinner he that sweareth is he that feareth and O God this excuse me this is an evil among all things that are done under the heaven or under the sun there is one event unto all yea also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart while they live and after that they go to the dead may God bless to us is sacred and holy word this evening. There was a famous Coke ad that was put out. Things go better with Coke. The basic premise of the ad is that people are motivated to spend money by belief that their purchases are going to bring them some tangible results. It’ll make all your food taste better. So advertising sells hope before you ever buy fulfillment. No one commits himself to something if it’s not going to do them any good. What about the Christian life? What place does hope and reward have in the Christian life? Is there any tangible thing that you gain by being a Christian in his life? Paul, in dealing with those who had doubts about the resurrection, at Corinth pointed out that if Christ is not risen from the dead, then we’re of all men most miserable. We have no hope whatsoever. Why? Well, one reason is because you believe the lie about heaven and eternal life. Suppose there is no God. Suppose there is no heaven. Suppose there is no salvation. Just death, and that’s the end of your existence. There’s no resurrection. There’s not going to be anything beyond this earthly life. Why bother with holiness at all? Why struggle to put to death sinful lust? Why don’t we just eat and drink and be married? Tomorrow you’ll die because you’re going to cease to exist. Yet even the assertion that heaven is real calls forth the criticism of many people who say, well, you’ll just have a pie in the sky by and by. type of religion. It don’t benefit you while here or you’re on earth. You don’t even benefit you after you die. Heaven is real, but what good does it do you now? God who has prepared heaven for his people ought to be doing something now for his people, is what the argument is. Why doesn’t God let his people live out their lives with a great crown of success? Why doesn’t the righteous and the wicked experience completely different things in this life. This is a perplexing problem that Solomon is going to address here when he says all things are alike to the righteous and to the wicked. Why are there injustices and a God-controlled universe? What advantage of the is there to being a child of God in this world. So there’s a sense in which we may struggle with God’s providence as we go through this life. Let me begin by saying this. Be assured that God’s providence watches over you as a Christian. Notice the first part of verse 1 of of Romans, or Eryseaticiastes 9. For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. Let me just stop there for a moment because I think this is an important point that he’s making. You should believe if God has a special care for his people. The ministers of Providence weighed heavily on Solomon’s mind. We saw that at the end of Chapter 8. No man can really figure out all that God is doing. We just were not told all the answers to why God does what he does on this earth. It’s interesting to see in the book of Job. Job is not really told why he went through all this. I guess later it’s revealed by God to to so that we have the book and the information in the book. But he doesn’t explain to him why he’s going through all this when he talks to him at the end of the book. He doesn’t give him an answer to it. It’s not important for him to know that, the point at least. And so, since what God does is beyond human understanding, before delving into this matter further about God’s providence. He lays down, and Solomon does, I think an important principle which undergirds your faith. The principle is this. God has a special care and concern for his people, no matter what it may appear to be with regard to his providence in this life. The righteous and the wise. Here we’re talking about the people of God. We’re talking about those who have been made wise. on the salvation. Those who fear the Lord. They’re in the hand of God. What could be more safe and secure than that? Deuteronomy 33-3. Yay, he loved the people. All his saints are in his hand. Isaiah 62.3. Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. John 10, 28. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. God is in sovereign control of the lives of his people. His hands surround you. They guide you. They protect you. The holding of one’s hand, whether it be a little child by a parent or two sweethearts. indicates love, devotedness. So God is showing that he is devoted, does love his people in this life. Solomon is firmly convinced of this, and he want you to embrace this. Before we get into any more about the providence of God, he says, I want you to understand this. You’re in the hand of God. Don’t let that get lost in this discussion. So God, God, care for his people. Then He says this. You should realize that God, love, and hate cannot be determined by outward circumstances. Now, notice the last. Second part of verse 1. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. Having laid the foundational principle, God cares for his people. Solomon turns back to the question of this providential dealing of God. Doing what is right in the eyes of God doesn’t always result in a wonderful life where you become wealthy and successful and everything goes well. I read a story about a Detroit woman who noticed that there was a continuous flow of water. coming from her neighbor’s house. It was an abandoned house next door. And the water was flowing into her yard. And so she called the water department up and said, hey, you know, this next door, this water’s flowing out from the house. I don’t know what happened. Well, when the water company came and inspected the premises, they found somebody had ripped out the kitchen sink and just let the water run. And it just kept flowing and was running. into her yard, an unusual situation. But they had trouble locating the shutoff valve for the water. So they began to dig. And they made this trench through the neighbor’s yard. And guess what? They had to keep digging into the woman who called the water department’s yard. They finally found a shutoff valve in her yard. But then when they tried to turn it up, it broke and left more water running in her yard. The woman ended up with a broken water line, a plumber’s repair bill for $2,000, and a large pit in what had been a beautifully manicured lawn. You know, sometimes you do what’s right, sometimes you do what is the well-meaning thing, and it ends up in a disaster. It happens. It happens. There are times when doing what is right in God’s eyes causes you get clobbered. Ask Joseph. Ask Daniel. Ask Job. Ask Stephen. Ask Paul about this. Hardships come to the most godly of people. Solomon wants you to know you can’t judge God’s love or hatred by outward circumstances of providence because providence is very very. tricky to interpret. For instance, if prosperity were a certain sign of God’s love and affliction of God’s hatred, then something is obviously wrong. For many of the afflictions of the righteous, the Psalmist tells us. And as Asaph said in the scripture reading for tonight in Psalm 73 that he was envious of the prosperity of the wicked. Doesn’t sound right, does it? Psalm I want to assure you you cannot personally know God’s love or hatred on the basis of all that is before you. Don’t jump to conclusions. Providence may deal both the righteous and the wicked the same hand or even give the wicked a better hand than the righteous. You can’t prove anything like it. It is the inward work of God which provides the real evidence of his love towards you. Has he given you? grace? Has he given you faith? Has he regenerated you? Has he brought you to repentance? The Spirit himself bears witness with us, with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Romans 8.15. It’s not providence. It’s the spirit. Has God granted you grace? Have you evidence of the fruit of the spirit in your life? Do you love God? Is Christ’s precious to you? God loves the righteous even if it seems like his providence is frowning on them. God hates the wicked even if it seems like his providence is smiling upon them. Job is loved by God. Look what all happened to him. And in Psalm 73, the wicked are prospering, but God has said, their feet in slippery places. So he doesn’t love them. He’s going to bring them down. So as a believer, you can have joy and peace and adversity if we can look beyond Providence itself and realize what God has already done for us in the saving of our soul. The wicked may enjoy great prosperity, but they totally lack any true happiness. part associated with it. So be assured that God’s providence watches over you. Secondly, you may be perplexed by the common events dealt by God’s providence. You know, there is a great difference in character between the righteous and the wicked, he tells us in verse 2. All things come alike to all. There’s one event to the righteous, and to the wicked, to the good, to the clean, and to the unclean, to him that sacrifices, and to him that sacrifices not, as is the good, so is the sinner. He that sweareth, is he that feareth and oath. Some people tell us that there are those who can analyze our handwriting and tell something about our character. Experts in the field of graphology, watch for things like the slant of the letters, the way they are formed, how you wash your T’s and dot your eyes, and so forth. And based upon these distinctions, they draw conclusions about you and your character. You’re told that the style of your writing shows whether you’re outgoing or withdrawn, whether you are independent or peer-led, whether you’re a loner or whether you’re sociable, whether you’re bold and determined or shy and hesitant. How hard do you press down on the paper? You write, you know, with boldness, press it down, what do you write real light on the piece of paper? I don’t know how reliable any of this analysis is, but the Bible tells us that Christians are epistles that are known and read of all men. People can look at your life. They can judge your character by it. They can see the way you live. The way you conduct yourself indicates the kind of person you are. So you’re like the letters on the page. The handwriting of your life then can be analyzed. And you as a Christian ought to be very different from the world around you because of that. Now you’re told that the righteous here are clean. They have clean hands and a pure heart. You don’t engage in sinful activities like the unsaved person does who is said to be unclean, impure, defowed in thought, and in deed. The worldling is under the dominion of sin, Satan, the flesh, and various lusts. And therefore, his hands are filthy. They’re contaminated. by sinful activities. His heart is unwashed by regeneration. He’s not been regenerated. Eventually, God will certainly make a difference between the clean and the unclean, between the precious and the vile. But in this life, it often appears that he’s paying no attention. Because the pure and heart and the evil in heart, providence doesn’t always tip you off as to which one of the soul. is which. You were told that the righteous sacrifice here. The people of God are careful to worship God according to the will of God. They bring the sacrifice commanded by the law of God. They’re glad to go to the house of the Lord. They delight in the teaching of the Word of God. You engage, if you’re a true Christian, in both inward and outward worship. Not just a ritual you go through. your heart’s involved in it. In other words, you are not simply going through the motions, but your worship reflects that you love God with your whole heart. The wicked often don’t sacrifice. They often neglect the worship of God, and they see no sense in going to church and even engaging in prayer and praise and so forth. They ignore it. The motto they have is, who is God that I should serve in? They believe they can get along fine without God. God is not in their thoughts. And so we see their problem. Even when they do bring a sacrifice, we know the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination of the Lord because their heart isn’t really in it. It’s all our check. But he’s distinguishing between those who are truly sacrificed and those who don’t. You’re told that the righteous are good here. they’re good in the eyes of God. They’ve been made good by God’s grace. I like what I read about Barnabas in the book of Acts. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and the fifth. Job was like none other on the earth, who we find was completely perfect and upright, one who feared God in a shoe with you. And the righteous do God on earth. The person who loves God, loves his neighbor as himself and therefore he does good things to his neighbor for his neighbor. He’s thoughtful, he’s helpful. The wicked are sinners. They continuously violate the laws of God with impunity. Why should they obey God? They are defiant. And therefore they can be very hurtful and harmful to their neighbors. We read Naboss Vineyards. stolen. He’s put to death because they have once his property. Elijah’s hated and hunted down as the prophet of the Lord. Because the wicked are only out for the satisfaction of their own gratification. That’s their main concern. You’re told here the righteous swear an oath. You know, the law of God talks about they will swear by my name. the godly person uses God’s name of however with great reverence you don’t take lightly any oath that you might make you’re very cautious you know it’s a solemn thing when you call God as a witness he’s going to hold you accountable you don’t wish to incur the anger of God but the wicked doesn’t actually wish to swear enough he wants to avoid swearing enough because there’s no fear of God before he his eyes. So he will not swear by God’s name in any way it would be binding upon him. So there is a great difference between the righteous and the wicked. That’s what he tells us here. There’s the righteous, there’s the wicked. But you know there’s often little difference in the outward condition of the righteous and the wicked. And here’s the problem. All things come a to all. There’s one event to the righteous and to the wicked. And then verse 3, the first part. There is an evil among all things that are done under the sun that there is one event unto all. Is Abraham rich? So is the evil Nabal. Is the godly Joseph favored by the king? So is the perverse Hamid. Is the chosen Jacob? Given a huge prosperity, so is the rejected Esau, given a large family as well. Posterity, I should say. Is the beloved David a king? So is the wicked Ahab king. Is King Ahab slain in battle? So is the godly Josiah slain in battle. Are the prophets of Bail put to death? So are the prophets of Jehovah put to death. Does rain fall upon the just? It also falls upon the unjust. Does the sun shine upon the just? It also shines upon the unjust. Are the wicked carried away to Babylon into captivity? So are the godly and the righteous. All things come alike to all. There’s a vast difference between the origin and the purpose of God’s providence in the life of the righteous and the wicked. The same thing can happen in both of their lives but for a different reason. God has a purpose in sending his providence, through his providence, a similar event to the godly and the wicked. For instance, God may grant wealth to the godly in order that they may help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of the women gave of their substance and some of them were connected with Caesar. household so forth. Why is that? Because God wanted them to support the work. God of Christ’s ministry and so forth. He may grant wealth to the wicked in order that the wicked person may indulge his lust and end up destroying himself. Psalm 73. So think about this. The same sickness that will soften your heart as a Christian will harden the heart. Same disease. The same sunshine which causes the Christian to praise God for his goodness, sending the sunshine and causing my crops to grow. But it may lead the unbeliever to use the day to pursue his own lust and pleasures. He has a good day. He’ll go and do what he pleases. Now there is one event unto all that we could talk about, and that’s death. That’s a certain one for sure. Solomon also notes that whether you are good or bad, clean or unclean, whether you’re a churchgoer or not, you share a common end. You’re going to return to dust. Your body’s going to die. No question about it. The bottom line is that the righteous are not visibly favored by providence and the wicked are not visibly repute by providence. These not on a regular basis. So you know there is, little difference in the outward condition of the righteous and the wicked. Now you should not envy the sinful madness of the wicked. Look at the last part of verse three here. Yea also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Why does he bring up the issue of man’s sinfulness here? Simply because they think it’s impossible to answer. analyze the human condition without looking at man’s true condition. The life of the worldling of the unconverted sinner is characterized by evil. And he even says here, there’s madness in his heart while he lives. That’s an interesting way of describing it. Why does he use the word madness? Because what the wicked does is mad. It’s madness. What you’re doing is madness. doing is destroying yourself by your evil doing. And that’s madness. You’re insane to do that. The problem is that sinners are sinful from the innermost depths of their being. Your heart is corrupt. Their minds are set upon doing evil. Charles Bridges said this in his book on Ecclesiastes. It’s impossible for the sinner to be more dangerously mad than he is except by growing into greater wickedness. The righteous are in the hand of the Lord, but the wicked are like mad dogs roaming about without direction. They eagerly pursue the very broad way that ultimately leads to their destruction. They have madness in their hearts, and you know what, they love to have itself. So don’t envy the wicked and the sinful they enjoy because they are a mere madman. What awaits them is destruction? Hellfire. So don’t envy the sinful madness of the wicked. Think about where they’re headed ultimately in this situation. Well, let me close. I’m saying this. Coca-Cola was selling hope. When they had that ad, you know, things go better with Coke. Is there any hope or reward of the Christian life? and the answer to that is yes. You can be assured that God’s providence is watching over you that his hand of love and devotion rest upon you. Don’t be confused by what happens in this life so that you are misled. God’s love and hatred cannot be determined by his providence alone. There’s a great difference between the character of the righteous, and the character of the wicked, even though there may not be much difference in their outward circumstances. You don’t envy the sinful madness of the wicked, because what hope do they have beyond the grave? This life is all they got, because when it comes to the next life, they’re going to have suffering galore, and it only gets worse after the Great White Throne Judgment when they’re thrown body and soul into the lake of fire. Right now, their soul suffers in the like a fire, in the hell. But later, you know, it’s going to increase the body and soul, the resurrected body and soul are going to be in hell, and that’s going to be even a worse situation for them. Well, let’s close.