Living Life in the Light of Death

Well, I say it every time, but I mean it every time. It is good to be back in Iowa. I always look forward to when we go on vacation, as soon as we hit the gravel road, turning off the blacktop, it's like, yes, we're home. So thank you for your prayers for us and the blessing it is that you give our family time to spend together on vacation.

So this morning we're gonna be in Ecclesiastes chapter seven. We'll look at verses one through six. If you have your New King James Pew Bibles in front of you, you'll be able to find that on page 591. Page 591, Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Hear now God's perfect and holy word.

Prayer for Illumination

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one's birth. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter. For by a sad countenance, the heart is made glad, or is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools. This also is vanity. Let's pray. Father, your word is perfect and true, and we are not.

Sermon

So Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would please help us deal with uncomfortable truths. Lord, we pray that you would soften our hearts, that we might know what to love. We might know what to grieve over. Father, we pray that you would please help us. Send your Holy Spirit to turn our hearts from the things that we would want to love the ways we would want to live, the things we want to think, towards what are your ways, what you have called us to love, and what you are teaching us to think. Help us, God, we pray. God, help me. These prayers are for me also, Lord, a sinful man with sinful lips and sinful thoughts. God, please help us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Somebody asked me how things went on vacation, and it seemed like, as I was talking to them, there was somewhat of a cloud over vacation. I was wrestling with what was dragging me down for a period of time on vacation, and I realized our vacation, I should have just put away my phone and not looked at things, because one of the things that happened is I opened up my phone to a text message from somebody I love telling me that Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. and just wrecked me.

And I'm not gonna stand up here today and give you a eulogy for Charlie Kirk. I'm not gonna tell you that I agree with every bit of his immigration policies or how he treated people or how he talked to people. I don't have to blanket statement anybody anywhere in any place in the world saying they were a perfect saint in any way. You're not gonna hear me say that for Charlie Kirk or even for you at your funeral. And I hope you won't imagine that somehow I'm a perfect Christian either.

But why has Charlie's death sparked a movement, especially in the soul of thousands upon thousands of young Americans? Why has it lit a fire in people's souls that they thought, this, this is the country we live in, this is where we are? is because Charlie lived a life where he thought what he was doing was trying to reason with people and bring them principled positions, and many of which we may not agree with all the political positions he took, but especially when he talked about matters of faith and shared his gospel with thousands of people at a time, we thought finally somebody's saying it, and the young people are listening. And so I don't wanna come up here and preach to you a passage about Charlie Kirk. I want to tell you what Charlie preached to thousands of people at a time, that your life matters.

That what you do with your life in this moment, how you raise your children, how you love your wife, how you submit to your husband, how you operate in the community that God has placed you in deeply matters. And what you do most of all with your soul matters because someday is it appointed for every man to die once and after this is the judgment. Is your heart right with God? What are you living for?

And I wanna posit to you that what Solomon says today here in our passage is that we must live our life in the light of death. As one theologian wrote, the day you were born it should have been issued to you both your birth certificate and your death certificate because both are certain. You're born and you are going to die.

First Point

So first look with me at verse one, a good name lasts beyond the grave. Verse one, a good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death better than one's birth. This idea of a good name is this idea of a reputation, a legacy, something enduring beyond you. And you know, this is exactly why God gave the ninth commandment about bearing false testimony. It's really easy to gossip and slander and tear down somebody's good name by lying about them, by bearing false witness about them. A good name is a really hard thing to earn and a really easy thing to lose.

And Solomon says a good name, a good reputation is better than Precious ointment is how the New King James puts it here. This is this is similar to in Jesus's life when Mary came to Jesus and and she took the the jar of nard and she broke it and she poured it on his head to anoint him for his death and the disciples were incensed at the provoking of Judas about we could have sold this oil for a whole bunch of money and That's how good your name, that's how precious your name is.

He says a day of death is better than the day of earth because at the end, especially for those, and Solomon saw these things less clearly than we did, right? Old Testament saints saw things in types and shadows, and we still struggle with some of the mysteries, but do you see for those who are God's people, for those who are trusting in the Lord, the day of death is better than the day of your birth.

Because for us, to live is Christ, yes, but to die is gain. This is why Jesus could tell the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise. Because the day of our birth, there is a death sentence hanging over our heads. But when we die in the Lord, we go to be with Christ forever. A good name matters. There's a country song. I got a whole bunch of songs in this sermon. They were just on my mind this week. There's a country song about a guy's last name. The song is literally called My Last Name.

And Berkeley writes, I learned to handle, I learned to write it when I first started school. Some bully didn't like it. He said it so, he said it didn't sound so cool. So I had to hit him. And all I said when the blood came that it's my last name. Grandpa took it off to Europe to fight the Germans in the war. It came back on some dog tags. Nobody wears no more. It's written on a headstone in the field where he was slain.

It's my last name. Passed down from generations too far back to trace. I can see all my relations when I look into my face. May never make it famous, but I'll never bring it shame. It's my last name. But see, the beauty that we have is we don't just carry the name of our family upon us, right? We have surnames, right?

You guys have a German pastor in a Scott Irish church, it's really weird. But there's Schneiders who went before me, some good, some not so good. But none of us wanna ever be the Schneider that people think about, or whatever your last name is, that think about and everybody goes, oh, kids, you don't wanna grow up like Uncle So-and-so, the black sheep of the family. But there's an even better blessing. We don't just bear the name of our parents.

In Antioch, they started to call the people Christians. Because they were in Christ, they were of Christ, they were about Christ, they talked about Christ, they lived for Christ, their entire lives were consumed by Christ, and the word that the people, the Gentiles, the pagans around them put upon them, they said, those people are Christians. You bear the name of Jesus Christ upon you. What are you living for? What will your children remember of you? Will they remember you for being a godly mother, a loving father, someone who brought Christ to them?

One of the most humbling things I've ever heard in my entire life, and convicting as well, is we were with a family out in Indiana, stopping on a road trip, and I was drinking coffee with A lady, and she was, her dad was a seminary professor. He taught systematic theology, and I asked how her dad was doing. He has Parkinson's disease, and so he's deteriorating, and so I just wanted to know how her dad was doing. And she said, well, he's not doing so well. And we kind of talked about him, and then mid-sentence, she just stopped, and she said, you know, if I ever needed to know what my heavenly father was like, I could look to my dad.

I thought, wow, I'm not sure my kids would ever say that of me. And I said, why is that? And she said, he was always so patient with us. How will your children, your grandchildren remember you? What will your community say about you when you take your last breath?

Well, they say, oh, they saw all the luxury in life, they lived the good life, they worked so many hours, they had the biggest fields, they had the best combines, they had the most lucrative business, and they never had time for me. They cared so much about their reputation and so much about everything that they wanted to do that, you know what, they didn't seem like they cared about anybody else. I literally was just for fun this morning looking online and I thought, it'd be fun to kind of look up some bitter eulogies. It's not a very fun thing to do. Because people will pay hard earned cash to write about their relatives.

Forget the lady's last name, we'll call Jay something or another. And they were saying, she went off and had an affair with our dad's brother. And she abandoned me and my sister. She didn't talk to us for 62 years and tried to act like she could just ask us for forgiveness. And it was nothing. And she's dead and the world's not any worse for it. How will you be remembered? A good name is better than precious ointment. The day of death better than one's birth.

That's what Jesus sought in his life, isn't it? Philippians chapter two. Though he was perfect in his heavenly being, yet he gave up all the splendors and the glories of heaven, took on the form of man, and became of nothing. And he suffered, and he died, but he was given a name that is above every name. That the name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus earned his good name. It's a wonderful name. Jesus' name. Yeshua. God saves. God saves us from our sins. That's what Jesus' name means, and it's glorious.

Solomon presses this. He goes further in verses two through four, talking about the house of mourning versus the house of myrrh, or house of partying. Look with me at verses two through four. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow. is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of myrrh.

There's a lot of good, better, good, better, good, better, good, better statements in this section of Ecclesiastes. It's a very proverbial section. And here he's comparing the house of mourning to the house of feeding, feasting. The house of funerals and the house of parties. And there's a reality check that he hits us in the face with in verse two. It's better to go to the house of mourning. Why? For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart. I'm not going to labor this point because I think I've already made it in the first section, but this is where we're going.

You got two choices in your life, two places that people typically want to go to, either the house of frivolity where you party and you just act like everything's great and you just live for your desires and your own happiness. I mean, I remember going to weddings, guys, and it was like, I was wrestling with this in my prayer life this week.

Why did I like going to weddings so much? I mean, I loved our job doing wedding photography. It was a great job. It was so much fun. There was a lot that we got to do. And one of the funnest things is we got to go to the biggest parties of people's lives. weddings that, I mean, people were dropping tens of thousands of dollars for these weddings, and it was like, this is the biggest party this family will ever have.

And they only played happy music. Rightfully so, it's a wedding. But I thought, why did I like so many of those songs so much and want to dance to them? Right, why did I like the song Happy? That's telling me that happiness is the truth. Why was it so catchy? That's because that's where our society wants to live. We don't like the house of mourning. In our culture, the house of mourning is going by the wayside.

People don't even like funerals. You don't want a funeral, you want a celebration of life. And even when there is a funeral, we don't want to talk about somebody dying, we want to talk about them passing away, going to a better place. We don't want the idea of the finality and the grief and the pain that comes with death. We wanna embalm people, we wanna make them look like they're still alive, so when we say goodbye, it's like, but it's this weird thing in American culture, we don't know what to do with death. We don't like kids coming to funerals, we don't wanna sing the dirges, we don't wanna see the coffin go down into the ground, let the gravediggers do that. We have separated ourselves. We wanna sing the happy songs, we wanna hear Frank Sinatra.

But we know deep down in our souls, death is one of the most tangent things to let us know that something isn't right in this world. The sting of death, the pain and the grief that swallows up our hearts, the clouds that cover our souls, the blues that follow it, the tears and the pain and the weakness for days afterwards. We don't like it, and yet we know that somehow it testifies to us that this isn't the way things are supposed to be. And so the world wants to just shove it down and push it away, but Christians look it dead in the eyes and say, death is real, it's caused by sin, and my only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we don't sanitize death. We do grieve, right? Please hear me out. I want you to work through the grieving process in your heart. There is a place for Christian grief, but we do not grieve as those without hope.

For we know that the resurrection is coming. We know that those who died in the Lord will rise again when the last trumpet blows. And so we take to heart Psalm 90, verse 12, teach us to number our days. This is why Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 4, blessed are those who mourn. We learn when we go to the house of mourning.

We're so given over the pendulum swing, so I just constantly have to qualify things, right? I'm not telling you to be nihilistic, remorse, just like, oh, you know that you could die tomorrow, every single day. I'm not telling you when you go to a wedding, you have to sit there, oh, you know the happy music will end in a few hours, and then you better be ready to die. I'm not telling you to be just morbid and joyless people. That's not what this is talking about.

But this is a type of sobriety in living. So where are you in your life? Are you living soberly, knowing that death could claim you at any moment? I remember one commentator was like, well, this is just Solomon, and he doesn't want you to think that you should really seize the day, you should just live in light of death. And I remember writing in my notes, I think he's dead wrong. I think this is the exact opposite. I think this is saying, look, you could die at any moment, and you better be ready to die at any moment, so how are you living today? Who are you telling Jesus about today? What are you living your life for today? Christ knew this. He was, Isaiah chapter 53 would prophesy about him that he would be a man acquainted with sorrows, acquainted with grief.

He knew what it was like when he purposely delayed. This is one of the weird parts in the book, in the Gospels, when Jesus doesn't go to Lazarus' house right after he dies. He purposely lingers for a couple days. And the sisters, I mean, they're weeping and mourning. Jesus, if you had just come, he wouldn't have died. He'd still be alive.

And in our English, the shortest verse of the Bible, he wept. Jesus mourned bitterly for the death of his friend Lazarus. So much so that the Jews standing around him had said, see how much he must have loved him? Jesus knew what it was like to weep and mourn and that it wasn't sinful, because death is inevitable, But it's not the final story, and Jesus showed us that when he spoke into that tomb, Lazarus, get up. And Jesus, who is the light of the world, spoke life into a dead man's corpse, and he got up and walked out.

That is the hope that we have, except our hope is better than Lazarus's, because guess what happened to Lazarus? He still had to die again. He had to live his whole life knowing what Solomon said. Yeah, Jesus may have given him a way to get out of death for a moment. I gotta tell you, I don't know what Lazarus was thinking, we don't have his words recorded, but I wonder if he sat there and was like, why did you do that to me? I just gotta go through it again. And yet what hope he must have had knowing what was going to happen to him.

Because sorrow strengthens the heart. I wanna zoom in here on that middle verse. This is a very important point here, verse three. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by it a sad countenance, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. Sorrow strengthens our hearts. Sorrow works in a Christian's heart like a refining fire. It makes us remember what is real, what is most important. It gives us wisdom, leads us to repentance, gives us perspective.

The parties are gonna fade away, but grief transforms us. And sorrow, going to the house of mourning, is exactly what Romans chapter five, the first few verses are getting at. Because tribulations produce perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope, and hope does not disappoint us.

I remember sitting with somebody, as her husband was dying, she said, I don't see what good could possibly come out of this. Why would God want this? And I'm not gonna bring her to Solomon and say, well, didn't you know this was gonna happen? Right, like, no, that's not what you do.

Pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort, because in the weeks that would come, I would see her strength in the Lord flourish and deepen, as she knew that the only hope she had was Christ. Because perseverance leads to character, and character, hope. Don't run from grief. It shapes you. Work through it. And trials ask, what is God forming in me? Fourthly, look with me at verses five and six.

It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. for like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Notice the song of fools, the house of feasting, the song of fools in verse four, but the heart of fools and the house of myrrh, I think that these are tied together. In the house of the fool, where there's much song, where there's much feasting, there's no place to hear rebuke from others. Why, right? Rebuke from the wise is painful. Nobody wants to be rebuked.

I don't like when Olivia tells me when I'm doing something wrong. I'm always right, what do you mean? But we don't like it, but we know we need it, don't we? Especially when someone takes God's word and brings it to bear in our lives. All scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine, for teaching us. But then we really don't like the middle two. Rebuking and correcting us. But rebuking and correcting when it's done in a loving way is meant to form and shape us because what's the last part of that? That we may be thoroughly equipped, we're trained in righteousness, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Rebukes from the wise are sweet to those who have hearts to take it, to hear. But the songs of laughter from fools is meant to just drown it out.

And I gotta tell you, as I was praying through this passage, I was translating it in Hebrew and working through it, I was just wrestling with my heart, because how often I love the pop, fun, dance songs of this world. I like them, they're happy. They're fun to dance to. Put it on your Alexa and dance with your wife in the kitchen, right? It's fun for about five minutes. Solomon says, but it's like, When you take thorn bushes and you throw them underneath the pot in the fire, and they make a big show, right? Crackle, pop, maybe even send out some embers. They go out into the night sky. And then they're just gone. And dinner's still cold. Didn't do its job. Wasn't worth anything.

And I'm not saying don't dance with your wife. Don't hear me. I'm not saying that, right? Please dance with your wife. Please enjoy the life of your youth. That's a wonderful thing. Don't take it too far. But the point is a life that's consumed by this. And we know this, right? You know what I'm talking about. This is the culture we live in. We live in an affirmation culture, not in a accept rebuke culture.

Started this sermon off talking about Charlie. I'll bring him in again. It's one of the things that I saw time and time again with different debates with young people. They would come for a debate, but not because they wanted to actually hear anything from the scriptures. Not because they actually were really interested in his Christianity. Sometimes it was just they wanted to rebuke him. But they wouldn't, and he, sometimes he would take it, and he would change his stance. But he would give people things, and they would just turn his back, turn their backs and leave.

Right, we live in this culture. I mean, this is, I don't want to get crazy political here. And this may step on some sensitive toes, and I'm gonna deal with that, that's okay. But this is exactly where the trans movement has gone. You must affirm my feelings that I don't feel right in my body. And if you don't, you're contributing to my possible suicide. It's an emotional manipulation. and it is not the highest standard of counseling or medical care. The statistics time and time and time again have shown that this is not good or healthy. often leads to gross amounts, way higher amounts of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, isolation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And what is the people in the world telling us, right? Well, it's because you're not affirming them enough. We've never lived in a society that affirmed so much. And I'm not saying this because I want you to treat those people like enemies, because except by the grace of God, there go I. We're no better. There's nothing that keeps me from going there except for God's restraining grace. But it is not loving to just affirm when we see that things are destroying people's lives and the culture around them. It's not just the culture around them, it's even in the church.

Say this at membership class sometimes, right? One of the vows that we take is that in case you should need correction in doctrine or life, are you going to heed the discipline of the church? It's really easy to take that vow. It's really hard to take the rebuke. It's really easy to say, oh yeah, I'll be corrected when I'm living wrong or when I'm thinking wrong. It's really hard when the elders come to you, maybe even two or three of us, and we say, we're really concerned about this thinking and what it's doing in your life or this way of life and what it's doing to you and to your family. It's really hard.

It's only by the working of the Holy Spirit that somebody's heart will be softened to actually receive that and heed it. Because that's what had to happen in our hearts. None of us can take pride in our repentance. Our repentance is a fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts. And so it is better to hear the rebuke of the wise more than to hear the song of fools. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but one of my, one of the party songs I would hear quite regularly, and I'll clean up some of the language here at parties, was by the Black Eyed Peas.

Tonight's the night, let's live it up. I got the money, let's spend it. Go out and smash it like, I'm gonna finish that line. Jump off the sofa, let's kick it off. I know that we'll have a ball if we get down and go out and just lose it all. I feel stressed out, I wanna let it go. Fill up my cup, mazel tov. Look at her dancing, just take it off.

Let's paint the town, we'll shut it down. Let's burn the roof, and then we'll do it all again. Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it. And then of course, the theologically deep chorus continues. Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it. Let's live it up. And just in case you didn't get it, they're catechizing you. And do it, and do it, and do it, do it, do it. Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it. Let's go out, space out, and lose in all control.

I'm not good at singing, I wish I could sing it, but you would know the song right away if you heard it, because you hear it in supermarkets. I hear it at the gym. And I'm not saying, I'm not going to be criticizing whoever plays the music at the gym, but my point is, right, like, I will find myself humming along some of these tunes, and I'm like, I'm not even thinking about this. I'm thinking about how I don't want to die because of my lungs burning, and yet some reason this is like ringing in my ears. Because it's speaking something to my heart. But we just know that it's loud and flashy like those thorns crackling under the pot. And so I'm begging you, please do not despise correction, lest you despise your own soul. Receive correction humbly. Discern the voices.

Figure out who's just singing the flattering, foolish song to you, and who's actually speaking to you truth in your life. Cultivate friends and mentors who will walk with you in the path of godliness, who encourage you in the way of truth. This is a hard thing, especially for you young people. Some of you young people are homeschooled and you ain't even got much choice in who your friends are. Be careful. Be careful who you're listening to. Some people may say that this doesn't seem very Christian.

Well, I'm going to encourage you to go read through the Gospels a few more times because it was very clear Jesus regularly rebuked people, but he did so in love, grace, and truth, full, kissing together, not out of malice. So I want to wrap this up by calling you again to the main point, to live your life in the light of death. Death is certain. It's the end of all men.

And I just wanna warn you about the pendulum swings, the extremes here that I don't want you to go to and I don't think Solomon is pushing you to. Beware of the morbid and morose legalist who constrains your conscience and steals any joy in the good gifts God gives you. Be careful. That's not what Christ is calling you to. He's not calling you to just live a life of stoicism and depression and not be able to enjoy the good gifts he's given you. That's not what he's done.

Also beware, on the other hand, of the hedonist who's just trying to tickle your fleshly desires, saying that you can just find your ultimate joy in doing whatever is most pleasurable to you, because your truth and your enjoyment and your happiness is the most important. That's not the truth either. Also beware of the person who says, well, life just doesn't have any meaning at all. And so just laugh at the meaninglessness of it. That's not the truth either.

Life has profound meaning. Solomon teaches us here that Christ transforms the reality of death into hope. That the day of our death is better than the day of our birth. This is why I mean, I wept in front of you guys a couple years ago. I was really embarrassed. I do it more frequently than I ought to. It's hard for me. But I remember when my father-in-law died. And we were reading through Romans chapter 8 because we were in Esther, and it was every single week we read Romans chapter 8. And I had read the chapter 5 every other week, but then that moment came when I came to Romans 8.

We're just talking about what cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, right? Neither height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing, not even death itself can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So look to Christ, live your life in the light of knowing that death will come, but even death cannot separate you from him. So take the godly rebukes, conform your life, live for his glory, seize the day to love others and to love God.

We don't avoid the subject of death, but we prepare for dying by living wisely. We have a good name that's been put upon us. He's called us his children. He knows you by name. He has a plan for eternity with you. So live soberly, live joyfully, and live with eternity in view. Christ has modeled this for us, and Christ has purchased its end for us. Brothers and sisters, death will come. But though you die, yet in Christ you shall surely live.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. God, we thank you for the love that you have shown us in your Son, Jesus Christ. God, we pray that you would please help us to live, finding this narrow way in you. You know how slippery our hearts are wanting to go to one extreme or the other. Lord, there's ditches on either side of the narrow road. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would please help us, lead us, guide us, direct us to walk in the paths of righteousness. Lord, we pray that at the end of our lives we would not be blown away like the chaff in the wind. But Lord, we cling to you. Our hope is in you. Please conform our lives. to live for your glory, that we might enjoy you forever. In Jesus's name, amen.