Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 4.20 → restored 4.79
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
I'd like to start this morning, I'd like to quote, uh, it's a quote of a summary of something else. So this is William Lane Craig quoting a summation of the last writings of Blaise Pascal. It says, as man looks around him, all he sees is darkness and obscurity. Moreover, insofar as his scientific knowledge is correct, man's man learns that he is an infinitesimal speck lost in the immensity of time and space. His brief life is bounded on either side by eternity. His place in the universe is lost in the immeasurable infinity of space, and he finds himself suspended, as it were, between the infinite microcosm within and the infinite macrocosm without.
Uncertain and untethered, man flounders in his efforts to lead a meaningful and happy life. His condition is characterized by inconstancy, boredom, and anxiety. His relations with his fellow men are warped by self-love. Society is founded on mutual deceit. Man's justice is fickle and relative, and no fixed standard of value may be found. Despite their predicament, however, most people, incredibly, refuse to seek an answer or even think about their dilemma. Instead, they lose themselves in escapisms. Isn't that true? You know, we find ourselves in a strange predicament of life, and I think we w- if you think about it, we find that what is miraculous becomes mundane when we become desensitized to it.
I, I think about every time I go into Manhattan and you walk around, you can tell who the tourists are because they're the people who are like this, and I'm one of those people. Look how big. But the people who live there, they don't look around. They're like, oh, it's tourists, you know. But we become desensitized very easily, and I think we need to pull back and think about what's really going on here, and I think that's what Solomon's doing in the book of Ecclesiastes. And I have to admit that I was excited when I was assigned to this chapter. I, I really, uh, have enjoyed this study in Ecclesiastes, and I really, uh, actually enjoy the book of Ecclesiastes very much.
And, uh, as it's been pointed out, I think there's two things we have to keep in mind when we're reading the book of Ecclesiastes. First, I think it's easy to play Monday morning quarterback on Solomon. Uh, we have to remember what he didn't know in terms of God's plan of redemption and how much of the Bible there- there wasn't when Solomon was, I mean, he was writing stuff that became part of the Bible, and there was a lot, the most important stuff that, you know, tells us about the Lord Jesus and salvation wasn't available or revealed, the mystery that Paul talks about in the New Testament. And, uh, so, and we've been contrasting that, and I think, again, that's important to keep in mind.
But also, uh, you know, we need to take the book as a whole, and in the end, so the last chapter and several other times through the book, Solomon does come to the right conclusion that we need to fear God and keep his commandments. And I- I think it's a book that has a lot of depth to it. You know, you have to think about it a little bit when you read it, and- and you can't take verses out of context, and much of it requires you to think about what is the point that God is really trying to get across to us by including this book in the Bible. Uh, and really, and I hope to illustrate it th- this, this morning somewhat.
The book of Ecclesiastes, at least when I read it, to me seems like a summary, a very concise summary of a lot of the same arguments and, and lines of thought that you see in the world around us, especially in our secular West, secu- more becoming secular Western culture. It's a lot of this stuff, it's the same stuff that Solomon said thousands of years ago. Uh... and God's put it in a nice, concise package for it, and I, and I think, uh, about what Mr. Gessner said last week, and I think he hit it spot on. He said, Ecclesiastes shows us what life is really like if you try to live it without God.
That's what, that's what's going on here. So I think in terms of that, it's one of the most relevant books, in terms at least of the culture of Western thinking and, and our world around us. And I'd also agree with what Mr. Van Duzer said the other week, that, uh, belief that there is no God is something that has to be learned. I don't think it's the default position. I, I, I'd agree with there's a guy named Alvin Plantinga who said that belief in God is a properly basic belief. It's something that, if left to ourselves, we would have that. It's only when we're introduced to other thoughts and ideas and things that, uh, don't jive with what we think God should be like, that usually this idea of disbelief comes in.
And in that line, I've- I've came across an interesting article that was printed in The Atlantic magazine in June. It's a guy- by a guy named Larry Taunton, and it's called Listening to Young Atheists, Lessons for a Stronger Christianity. I just wanted to share a little bit of this. I think you'll find it interesting, as I did. Uh, it's, he, he runs what's called Fixed Point Foundation, if you've heard of that. Uh, but here's what they, what they did. It says, to gain some insight, we launched a nationwide campaign to interview college students who are members of the secular student alliances or free thought societies. These college groups are the atheist equivalents to Campus Crusade.
They meet regularly for fellowship, encourage one another in their unbelief, and even proselytize. They are people who are not merely irreligious, but they're actively, determinedly irreligious. And, and just the background, the rules for this study were simple. They just wanted them to tell us about your journey to unbelief. They weren't there to debate them or any, just tell us what caused you to, uh, become a non-believer. And it says, slowly a composite sketch of the American college-aged atheist began to emerge, and it would challenge all that we thought we knew about this demographic. Here's what they learned. Number one, they had attended church.
Most of our participants had not chosen their worldview from ideologically neutral positions at all, but in reaction to Christianity. Not Islam, not Buddhism, Christianity. Two, the mission and message of their churches was vague. These students heard plenty of messages encouraging social justice, community involvement, and being good, but they seldom saw the relationship between that message, Jesus Christ, and the Bible. Listen to Stephanie, a student at Northwestern. She says, quote, the connection between Jesus and a person's life was not clear. This is an incisive critique.
She seems to have intuitively understood that the church does not exist simply to address social ills, but to proclaim the teachings of its founder, Jesus Christ, and their relevance to the world. Since Stephanie did not see that connection, she saw little incentive to stay. We would hear this again. Number three, they felt their church, their churches offered superficials, sorry, superficial answers to life's difficult questions. When our participants were asked what they found unconvincing about the Christian faith, they spoke of evolution versus creation, sexuality, the reliability of the biblical text, Jesus as the only way, etc. Some questions of personal significance, purpose, and ethics, uh, were also brought up, others that others hope to find.
Uh, and serious-minded, these students often concluded that church services were largely shallow, harmless, and ultimately irrelevant. Fourth, they expect- they expressed their respect, I think this is interesting, for those ministers who took the Bible seriously. Uh, Michael, a political science major at Dartmouth, told us, I really can't consider a Christian a good moral person if he isn't trying to convert me. As surprising as it may seem, this settlement, uh, is not as unusual as you might think. It finds resonance in the well-publicized comments of Penn Jillette, the atheist illusionist and comedian, who said, quote, I don't respect people who don't proselytize.
I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it's not really worth telling them because this would make it socially awkward, how much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? Comments like these should cause every Christian to examine his conscience and see if he truly believes that Jesus is as he claimed, the way, the truth, and the life. Number five: ages fourteen to seventeen were decisive. One participant told us that she considered herself to be an atheist by the age of eight, while another said it was during her sophomore year to- year of college that he deconverted, but these were the outliers.
For most, the high school years were the time when they embraced unbelief. Number six: the decision to embrace unbelief was often an emotional one. With few exceptions, students would begin by telling us they had become atheists for exclusively rational reasons, but as we listened, it became clear that for most, this was a deeply emotional transition as well. And number seven, the last one, the internet factored heavily into their conversion to atheism. When our participants were asked to cite key influences in their conversion to atheism, people, books, seminars, etc. We expected to hear frequent references to the names of the new atheists.
We did not, not once. Instead, we heard vague references to videos they had watched on YouTube or website forums. Then they conclude the the study by this. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this whole study was the lasting impression many of these discussions made upon us, that these students were, above all else, idealists who longed for authenticity, and having failed to find it in their churches, they settled for a non-belief that, while less grand in its promises, felt more genuine and attainable. Again, I quote Michael, Christianity is something that, if you really believed it, it would change your life, and you would want to change the lives of others. I haven't seen too much of that.
Sincerity does not trump truth. After all, one could be sincerely wrong, but sincerity is d- indispensable to any truth we wish our se- wish others to believe. There's something winsome, even irresistible, about a life lived with conviction. I am reminded of the Scottish philosopher and skeptic David Hume, who was recognized among a crowd of those listening to the preaching of George Whitefield, the famed evangelist of the First Great Awakening. I thought you didn't believe in the gospel, someone asked. I do not, Hume replied. Then, with a nod toward Whitfield, he added, but he does. Interesting, isn't it? Convicting too, for myself.
Uh... So with that brief introduction and exhortation, let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter nine. I'm just going to read the first twelve verses, and then we'll talk a little bit about some of them. Ecclesiastes nine, 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. 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 man 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. 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. Afterward, they go to the dead. For whatever is joined with all the living, there is hope. Surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Indeed, their love, their hate, their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.
Go then, eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. You see what he's saying here? If we're all going to die, you might as well enjoy it now. It's really reminiscent of what he says back in chapter eight and verse fifteen, you know, uh, eat, drink, and be merry. And I, I, when I read this, I, I had to pause at verse eight, and I, I thought, wow, this could be the new motto for the United States. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. You only live once.
For the young people, YOLO. Have you seen that? Hey, max out the credit card, spend it now because we don't have to worry about it. So let your clothes always be white. Let oil be on your head. Enjoy life because we're all going to die. Goes on, enjoy the life of, 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. 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. 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.
Moreover, man does not know his time, like a 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. As we look at this, I think there's two problems that, uh, are being examined in these first twelve verses. One of them is death. It's the, the problem of death, uh, and the other one I'd like to kind of put under the label of fate, that we're not in control of everything that happens to us during our lives. So for, well, I'll get to faith in a little bit, but the the big issue really is death, so I'd like to deal with that, uh, but let's put that question of death into the right perspective.
There's four what are called fundamental questions of life: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. And these questions create what's called your worldview. They're kind of the lenses that you see life through. And if you think about these questions, origin, how did I get here? Meaning, why am I here? What's the purpose of life? Morality, how should I behave myself? How should I live? And destiny, what happens after I die? It's easy to avoid thinking about the first question, because we're here, you know? So you're just like, wow, I'm not worried about how I got here, I'm here, okay? So you can put that out of your mind. The purpose, well, you can kind of come up with a purpose, and if that purpose doesn't work, you just come up with a new purpose, and you keep shifting that.
So that's kind of avoidable. The third one is a little bit more difficult because we run into these moral questions a lot, and so that one is tough to to kind of keep out of our mind, but the fourth one, you actually have to work at it to keep it out of your mind, because from the natural point of view, it's unavoidable. Uh, as Oz Guinness put it, there's a threat in the trio of reality, time, and death that we instinctively seek to deny. You know, I think about, you ever watch one of those movies where there's some kind of tragedy going on, and somebody gets frantic, and they're like, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die. That's true. It's just, it's a long way off, so we're like, calm down, we have time to deal with that, but it's true, you know, unless the Lord returns, we're all gonna die, and so at some point you have to think about that.
Uh, and we- and everybody that's come before us, with the exception of two people, has died as well, right? So, uh, how do we deal with this? Because I think the answer to the fourth question, the question of death and destiny, that actually informs our answer to at least the meaning part of life, and certainly the morality part of life, because if death is the end, well then that answers those two. But if it's not, then you have to go back and rethink your answer to those. Uh, now, again, when you think about these four fundamental questions, immediately the issue of God comes in, because when you start talking about these, you know, pull back, let's look at those big questions, like that quote I read at the beginning, most people don't do this, but we should.
And when you do, immediately, when you talk about how did we get here, how should I live, what's the point of life, and what happens when I die, immediately God comes into the question. And so there's three basic views, right? There's the view that God made all, which is theism, and we're particularly concerned with what the Bible has to say about that. Then there's God is all, which would be the, the Eastern religions, the New Age kind of stuff, and no God at all. Now, there's a lot we could say to show why the God is all point's not right, but we're not going to talk about that today. But Solomon, like we said before, is looking at what life is like if you attempt to live it without God. So that's what I want to deal with.
If you look at no God at all and how you answer those questions versus God is all, or God made all, and how that, uh, works out, uh, I think you'll see a huge contrast. And I think, uh, probably the most influential, I talked about how Ecclesiastes is kind of like a summary of all these ideas that came later, but in terms of modern history, I think the most influential philosopher, at least of the twentieth century, which, since we're early in the twenty first, we probably will surpass this, but the twentieth century was the bloodiest century in human history. If you think about all that happened, uh, and this guy probably had more influence on that than any other philosopher, and that's Friedrich Nietzsche, and he's the guy that coined the term God is dead.
And, uh, he wrote a parable, he wrote a little short story called The Parable of the Madman, which I'm sure some of you are familiar with. But I just want to, I want to read some of this to you, because I think it's, it's... It, it helps, at least from the way I look at it, it helps me understand the disconnect that we seem to see with people who don't believe God, and, and, and if you try to answer those questions without God versus how they actually live their life. So here's what he says. Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace and cried incessantly, I seek God, I seek God, as many of those who did not believe in God were standing round just then, he provoked much laughter.
Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Where is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage, emigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed. The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. Whither is God? he cried. I will tell you, we've killed him, you and I. All of us are his murderers, but how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually?
Backward, sideward, forward, and in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? God's decomposed too. God is dead. God remains dead, and we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood from us- off us?
What water is there for us to cleanse ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed, and whoever is born after us for the sake of this deed, he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto. Here the madman fell silent and looked at his listeners, and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last, he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. I've come too early. Here's the point of this. I've come too early, he said. My time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering.
It has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time. The light of the stars requires times. Deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most stars, and yet they've done it themselves. It goes on, but but that's the point. You see what he's saying there? He's saying that, and I think we see this in our country today, that people want to live without God, but they take for granted, and, and they still want to affirm many things that exist only if God exists. They haven't thought this out to its logical conclusion. Uh, they want to still want to talk about, hey, we have freedom, we have justice, we have equality.
No, you don't, if there is no God. Why would you, why would you have equal? I say this to my kids at school all the time. I think I shared this before. We talk about some of this stuff, and I say, you know, especially I like to do it to the girls because it's kind of shocking. Why should we treat you equally? I'm bigger and stronger than all of you. I could beat you all up. You can't say that. Why? Think about it. Why do you have rights as a person? If there is no God, you don't. That's what Nietzsche said, you don't. There's no freedom, there's no justice, there's no good, there's no evil.
Life becomes meaningless and absurd. But people want to live, what he's saying in this parable is people want to say, I don't believe in God, but they still want all these other things that you only get with God. There's a disconnect in their thinking. They haven't thought about this stuff. There, there were some people who did think about this. Uh, one of them was a guy named Bertrand Russell, and uh, he wrote in the early nineteen hundreds what he called, it was called A Free Man's Worship, and he, he titled this his gospel, right? This, I, I just read a little bit of this, the beginning and the end, but this is, he got it, like, this is the rea- I mean, at least he saw the situation. His conclusion was still way off, uh, but here's what he says.
That man is the product of causes which he had no provision of the end they were achieving. That his origin, his growth, his hopes, his fears, his loves, his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental coalitions of atoms. That no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave. It's kind of what Solomon said, isn't it? That all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system. That's comforting to know. And that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.
All these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only with it, here's his, he says this later, but this is kind of the conclusion that he comes to, which is uplifting, right? This is life without God. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul's habitation hence- henceforth be safely built. That's great. Unyielding despair. Here's how he ends it. Brief and powerless is man's life. On him and all his race, the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.
Again, sounds a lot like what Solomon said. Blind to good and evil. So, lest you s- uh, it always makes me kind of, it's not, it's one of those that's sad, but if it wasn't so sad, it might be funny. When people like, I'm suing you. We were just talking about down downstairs, you know, the same sort of thing, like, you put these Ten Commandments up, I'm suing you, it's a violation of my rights. On your view, you don't have any rights. The only rights you have are because of the theistic view. So if we get rid of that, you don't have any rights. What's the problem? Like, be happy that's there and you're kind of allowed to do whatever you want to do, but it's a disconnect in thinking.
Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way, for man condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day, disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built, undismayed by, listen to this, unbelievable, undismayed by the empire of chance to preserve a free mind, which again, if you really think about, you don't have rational thought or free mind on the view that there is no God either. That's a whole other subject.
Uh, from wanton tyranny that rules his outward life, proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate for a moment his knowledge and his condemnation to sustain alone a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have furnished despite the trampling march of unconscious power. Go get 'em, team, right? And it's interesting that later in his life he wrote, I'm now I'm cynical about the gospel because it won't stand the test of life. Where does this type of thinking leave you? Like, you know, make up your own ideals, forge ahead knowing that it's all pointless and doomed to destruction.
That's the starting point for, you know, Karl Marx, uh, Adolf Hitler. Uh, I mean, I- I'll read another quote here. This is from Viktor Frankl, who was a Holocaust survivor and later became a professor of neurology. He said, when we present, if we present man with the concept of man, which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present him as an automaton of reflexes, as a mind machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drives and reactions, as a mere product of instincts, heredity, and environment, we feed the despair to which man is in any case already prone. I became acquainted with the last stages of corruption in my second concentration camp at Auschwitz.
The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity- heredity and environment, or as the Nazis like to say, blood and soil. I'm absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek were, were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. If you start with the wrong foundation, it doesn't matter which path you take, you're going to be lost, you're going to be wrong. There's a quote above one of the gas chambers in Auschwitz from Hitler. It says, I want to raise a generation of young people devoid of conscience, imperious, relentless, and cruel.
Interesting, isn't it? You, you go back, I'm, for sake of time, won't read it, but you think about what Solomon's saying in verses three to six. He's basically highlighting this position. If death is the end, it doesn't really matter, does it? If there is no judgment, if I'm not going to be held accountable for anything, why should I not just maximize my own pleasure. So Hitler killed a bunch of people. On, on that view, he's not going to be held accountable for it. It doesn't matter. And, and Paul says this, if like, if we look at what the New T- turn to First Corinthians fifteen, if you would.
But what does the New Testament say about this? If you look at First Corinthians fifteen, which is telling us all about the importance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Paul said he, Paul basically echoes what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes eight. He says in verse thirty two, if from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat, drink, eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. If that's what it is, then let's at least be consistent about it. But what is it s- what else does it say in First Corinthians? Uh, look at verses one fifty five to one fifty seven. This is the reality of the situation.
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was the first fruit, and like Mr. Gessner said the other week, if there's a first fruit, there's going to be more fruit, and we will follow him. We'll be resurrected. That, uh, we have historical evidence and proof through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that there is life after, after death, that death isn't the end. And how to, and again, the Bible, we talked about this in VBS, is the truth.
Well, how do we know that's true? You don't need to turn here, but what does John say in First John one to four? What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. These guys were there. They saw it. They were willing to die for it. Jesus, you know, you can say, you, you must stop preaching this or we're going to kill you. If you're, like, if you saw it, you talked to the risen Lord, go ahead and kill me. I can't, like, that's what I saw. He rose from the dead. That's, you know, you, you can't find any more convincing argument than that.
I mean, it's one thing if you believe Allah is gonna, you know, whatever, and you get in a plane and fly into buildings and whatnot. They weren't there with Muhammad, and they didn't see, you know, but these guys were there. They knew whether or not it was true. And they went to their death saying, this is what we saw and what we heard. You can't convince us that this is not true. We saw him, we ate with him, we talked with him, we saw him go ascend up to heaven. And so he writes at the end of that, in the first four verses, he says, these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. What's our joy? In First Thessalonians, it talks about, uh, Paul writes about how he doesn't want us to be uninformed about those who are asleep.
That death isn't the end. That if we die in the Lord Jesus, we're going to be raised again. And maybe we'll hear that shout today, and the dead in Christ will be raised, and we who are alive and remain will be caught up with him in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But it also tells us in the New Testament, in Hebrews nine that insomuch as it's appointed for man to die once, and after this comes the judgment, it does matter how you live your life. It does matter the decisions that you make. You will have to give an account. But it goes on to say in the next verse, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, listen to this, for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.
Amen, huh? Without reference to sin for those who eagerly await him. There's a judgment coming, but our judgment's already passed. It passed on the cross when he took our sins, and so we can await his coming without reference to our sin. Now there's the judgment seat of Christ, we'll have to give an account for what we did, but it's not in reference to sin. That's, that's good news. That's fantastic. Now, again, just a couple little side notes here in these first couple verses. Judgment brings with it the idea of justice. If there's going to be judgment, that means that there's justice, which then naturally leads to the third question, the foundational question of morality, good, bad, right, and wrong.
And if you look back at verses two and three, it's interesting how Solomon phrases it. He, he basically says, after he says that it's the same end for all in verse two, he says, this isn't evil in all that there's is, in all that is done under the sun. Then he talks about the sons of men are full of evil and insanity. Just in those verses, and looking at that third question, brings you also to the existence of God, doesn't it? Again, this is kind of what Nietzsche was saying. Uh, who in, in our conversations and the people we encounter doesn't say that there are right and wrong. You can't live your life without there being a good, bad, right, and wrong at some level.
Everybody will affirm that. It's impossible to live that way. But if there's such a thing as evil, there has to be such a thing as good. Because how would you know what was evil if there wasn't a difference? And there has to be a moral law by which to differentiate them. How can we say that, uh, Billy Graham's better than Adolf Hitler if there's no, like, independent reference point by which to compare them? You have to have some kind of moral law. Don't judge me. Says who? Right? And if you have a moral law that applies to everybody, there has to be a moral law giver, which is God again.
So that's, that's why I read that thing with the madman. You have to follow it out to its logical consequences, and most people don't do that, unfortunately. Uh, now the other question that he deals with is this idea of fatalism. Uh, basically, he looks at fatalism as an evil. If you look also at verses eleven and twelve, he's basically saying that, uh, the race is not to the swift, the battle's not to the warrior, neither is bread to the wise, nor wealth to the discerning, nor favor to men of ability, for time and chance overtake them all. Doesn't... it's not fair. The people who really deserve it don't always get it. It's not fair. Kind of like we're...
you know, like even if we have this idea of God, what if we're just pawns or puppets on a string? If that's the case, uh, where does judgment and morality fit into this? Tough question too, isn't it? I- I'm not going to get into, obviously we have like five minutes left, a lengthy discussion on free will and divine providence, but, uh, that's another time. Uh, but D. A. Carson, in his book Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, he lists four types of references in the Bible to God's providence. Here's what he says, and if you look at passages in the Bible that say that God is in control. one, God as the creator, ruler, and possessor.
two, God as the ultimate personal cause of all that happens. three, God's election of his people, and four, God is the unacknowledged source of good fortune or success. So clearly there's a doctrine that God's in control. The, the Bible affirms that. But the Bible also, he gives nine lines of support for the conclusion that people are free moral agents. Number one, people face a multitude of divine exhortations and commands. Two, people are told to obey, believe, and choose God. Three, people sin and rebel against God. Four, people's sins are judged by God, and they are held morally responsible and punished by God.
five. people are tested by God. six. people receive divine rewards for obedience. seven. the elect are responsible to respond to God's initiative. eight. people's prayers are not mere showpieces scripted by God. And nine, God literally pleads with sinners to repent and be saved. Uh, I think this seems to rule out a deterministic understanding that so it can't, we can't just say, well, I'm, I can't do otherwise than what I'm fated to do. I, I, and I don't, I don't think necessarily that's what Solomon was hinting at. I think he would have known the story if you go back to First Samuel thirteen, You don't need to turn there necessarily, but in verses thirteen, fourteen, remember that story when Saul was supposed to wait for Samuel to sa- seven days to sacrifice before fighting the Philistines, and he didn't?
And s- it says, Samuel came to Saul and he said, you've acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord would have established you, but now it will not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. So it's important to remember that we're responsible, and in the New Testament, we read in Acts seventeen how the Lord has determined our appointed times and the boundaries of our habitation.
It's not an accident that you're alive today, that you're here in the United States, that you're here in this room today. It's not an accident. God knew that you would be here today, and it says that he did this so that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. The two greatest events in your life, like I referenced earlier, barring a natural intervention, are beyond your control, your birth and your death. But we can be confident that God has done all this, knowing that he knows the choices that we will freely make in our lives, and he's put us in a position that we can come to know him if we so choose, because he's not far from each one of us.
And it goes on saying, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that people everywhere should repent because he's fixed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he's appointed, having furnished all proof, furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. Just quickly, let's look at the last couple verses here. Also, verse thirteen, This I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me. There was a small city with few men in it, and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and constructed large siege works against it. But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he delivered the city by his wisdom, yet no one remembered that poor man.
So I said, wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded. The words of the wise heard in quietness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. How about that last line? That's true. One sinner destroys much good. If, if you have time this week, read, go read Proverbs chapter one, verses twenty to thirty three, and, and ask yourself, does that sound like the United States of America? Solomon's writing about wisdom. He talks about wisdom there. Read those verses and, and, and ask yourself, could you apply this to our country today?
In Psalm one nineteen uh or one eleven nine and ten, it says, or verse ten, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments, and his praise endures forever. There's three reasons why a person can claim to reject the gospel, going back to that article. You can say that it's intellectual, emotional, and volitional. If you're teachable, the intellectual is not really a barrier, because really this is the only way that makes sense of those four questions. Uh, so it leaves only the emotional and volitional. And if this is the case for you this morning, if you're building your life on anything else but the Lord Jesus, you're going to ultimately be disappointed, and more importantly, you'll be eternally lost.
The only, the only really, the only way that you can successfully answer these four questions, individually and as a whole, is through what the Bible says, that we were created by God. We were made in his image. That's why we have value. We have meaning in this life. There's a purpose. What's should, what's the purpose of life? It says in Philippians, to know God, that we may know him. Think about what that means, to know God, who is the greatest good. That's why he created us. He wanted to have a relationship with us. That there is a good, bad, and right and wrong. It does matter how we behave ourselves because there is life after this af- there's life after this life.
Everyone's going to be resurrected, but hopefully everyone here will be in that first resurrection because the second resurrection leads to eternal death and separation from God. So, three conclusions. One, the only way you can successfully answer those four questions is from the word of God. Two, there's a God that loves you, and he sent his son to die on the cross for you, and he gives us historical proof by raising him from the dead, and he's given you the free will to accept his offer of salvation today. And if you think about what Peter says in second Peter three, all these things in this world around us, and really it's funny because that's the same thing Bertrand Russell said, all these things are doomed to be destroyed.
Peter says it a little differently, right? But they're all going to be burned up. And he says, therefore, uh, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So hopefully, if you're not saved, hopefully you think about some of these things that Solomon wrote and these four questions of life, pull out and look at a, a, a kind of a bigger view of things, and think about that last part of that verse. Regard the patience of the Lord as salvation. It says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, but he's patient, long suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And the third conclusion is that the wisest life you can live is a life lived for God. And may that be true of all of us, especially myself included this morning. Let's pray. Our God and Father, we just thank you for your word and the wisdom that it contains. We pray that we would apply these ideas and truths to our life, Lord, that we would think clearly about the circumstance and the situation that we're in, that we're all on the edge of an eternity. And for those of us who have placed our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we anticipate eagerly that time when we will see him face to face, but for those who have not yet accepted that offer of salvation, they stand on the edge of an eternity of separation from God.
And we pray that that would burden our hearts this morning, and as we go throughout, uh, this week, that we would be witness and testimony, that we would not be en- ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would live with conviction. If we truly believe that he is who he said he is, the way, the truth, and the life, that we would share that way with others. We thank you now for this food that you've prepared, blessed to our bodies, and we just thank you for, uh, the fellowship that we will have. May it be honoring and glorifying to you. In the Lord Jesus' name we pray, amen.