Ecclesiastes 8:10-13 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
INTRODUCTION
If I asked you to name the most important distinctions there are among mankind, what would you say?
Growing up, I probably would have said something lame (athletic/nerdy, cool/uncool, or attractive/ugly) or more important, but more generic (religious/non-religious or good/bad).
So again, are there any key distinctions to make among people and if so, what are they?
The Preacher has one particular distinction in mind. The world is neatly divided, he observed, between those who fear God and those who don’t. That observation leads to some critical questions. What does he mean by “fear God”? What of those who don’t fear God? What of those who do fear God? And do you fear God?
Those are the types of questions at the heart of this passage and they form the outline for this sermon as well. In considering them, we’ll see that the big idea is that it will be (really and eternally) well with those who fear God and it will (really and eternally) not be well for those who don’t. The main burden that I have for us all is that the Spirit would be pleased to help us grasp this passage well enough to accurately assess our fear of God and all that it means. Worded a bit differently, my main prayer is that we would all grow in proper fear of God in order that we would turn more fully to Him for His mercy and grace.
Before I pray, I want to quickly mention that in many ways this is a sermon I wish I’d heard when I was a teenager. Teenagers, I hope you’re able to hear now what I didn’t/couldn’t when I was your age.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEAR GOD?
Once again, through his many and careful observations, the Preacher saw that the world was entirely divided between those who fear God and those who do not.
(In slinky like fashion) the idea of fearing God isn’t a new idea in Ecclesiastes. The Preacher addressed in chapter three.
3:14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
We saw the idea again in chapter five.
5:7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
And we saw it one more time in chapter seven.
7:18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
We see it a few times in today’s passage once again.
12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
God purposefully works in certain ways to make people fear Him, we must fear God if we’re to live well in this world, God-fearers come from every kind of people, and it goes well with those who fear God and not well with those who don’t. But again, what does it actually mean to fear God?
We typically think of fearing something as an aversion to that which could cause us significant harm—a bad guy or a car crash or a deadly disease or a hostile nation or a monster under the bed. We also think of fear in terms of not wanting to lose something we care about—like a pet or a loved one or our financial well-being or our lives.
Is fearing God like fearing a bad guy or the loss your family dog? Is it like watching a scarry movie? Is it the constant fear that He might backhand you (or worse) for doing something He doesn’t like?
The idea of fearing God has several different senses throughout the Bible and among different people in the Bible. The first question I’d like to address is more specific to the meaning the Preacher has in mind in our passage.
I think the best way to explain what it means to “fear God” (12b) or to “fear before Him” (12c, 13c) in the sense the Preacher means, is by considering a number of other passages from the Bible. To that end, I’d like to point out two sets of passages that reveal two different senses of the kind of fear of God mentioned in this passage.
Standing In Awe of God’s Absolute Power, Majesty, and Splendor
Both sets of passages span the whole Bible. The first begins at the beginning of the beginning and ends and the end of the ending. As we make our way through a number of passages, they’ll help us to see God’s nature. In particular, they’ll help us grasp the idea that seeing God on any meaningful level is to stand in humble awe of His absolute power, majesty, and splendor. Given who God is, there’s simply no place for flippancy or casualness or aloofness in God’s presence. These verses, properly understood, will create or grow in each of us a holy fear, a reverential awe.
(See also Exodus 3:1-6; Exodus 14:19-22; Exodus 40:34-35; Psalm 8:1-4; Psalm 9:7-9; Psalm 19:1-3; Psalm 65:5-8; Psalm 86:8-10; Psalm 97:1-6; Psalm 145:14-20; Isaiah 40:12-14; Isaiah 65:17-25)
Genesis 1:1-26 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…3 And God said, “Let there be light,”… 6 “… Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters…”…“Let dry land appear.” …11 “Let the earth sprout vegetation” …14 “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens” … 20 “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens” … 24 “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds” …26 “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”
And with a mere word, in each case, it was immediately so.
Who can do such a thing? Who can do such a thing with a mere word? Who can stand before such a God and not fear?
1 Chronicles 29:11-13 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
Job 38:4-38 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? … 5 Who determined its measurements… Or who stretched the line upon it? 6On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
12“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, 13that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? …
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness, 20that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home? …
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? 32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children? 33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
… 35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
The answer to every one of these questions for everyone in heaven and on earth other than God is “No!” But the answer to every one of them is “Yes!” for God. Who can stand before such a God an not fear?
Psalm 24:1-2 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
Psalm 29:3-9 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars… 7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness… 9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
Psalm 89:5-11 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, 7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? 8 O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? 9 You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. 10 … you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. 11The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.
Psalm 147:3-6 [The Lord] heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. 5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 6 The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.
Isaiah 6:1-5 … I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim… 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Revelation 4:2-11 … behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne … 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder… 6 … And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures… 8 And the four living creatures… day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
9 And … 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Collectively, for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, these passages describe a God for whom we must stand in awe of His absolute power, majesty, and splendor. Who would ever think of approaching Him for fear of His unmatched glory and sovereign might.
The first and main sense in which the Preacher understood the fear of God is in this sense. It ought to be ever-present in every man, woman, child, and creature on earth as well as every created heavenly being, for this is always who God is.
Oh, Grace, that we might receive the gift grasping this from the Holy Spirit of God. The Preacher wrote largely to help his readers live in the world as it truly is and doing so begins with understanding God as He truly is and the kind of fear that necessarily comes with it.
Falling Down in Terror at God’s Fierce and Holy Wrath
At the same time, there’s another sense of fearing God which the Preacher seemed to feel, even without an entirely above the sun understanding. It is the kind that knows (which we all do according to Romans 1) that in light of who God is (which we just considered) and who we are, we are in trouble. It is the kind of fear that comes from knowing that God’s holiness and our sin are not compatible and that God’s fierce wrath will consume every ounce of our rebellion.
(See also Genesis 3:14-24; Genesis 19:24-28; Exodus 12:29-30; Leviticus 7:1-5; Leviticus 10:1-3; Isaiah 26:20-21; Isaiah 66:15-16; 1 Kings 18:30-39)
Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 6:6-7:23 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land…for I am sorry that I have made them.”… 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth… 7:11 [And God made]…all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights…19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered…21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth…all mankind… 23 [the LORD God] blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens …
Psalm 68:1-2 God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! 2 As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!
Psalm 76:7-8 But you, you are to be feared! Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused? 8From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still,
Isaiah 2:12-19 For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low… 14 against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; 15 against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; … 17 And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. 18 And the idols shall utterly pass away. 19 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
O, what a terrible day!
Isaiah 5:24-25 …they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 13:9-13 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless… 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
Isaiah 63:3-6 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. 6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
Sinners in the hands of an angry God!
Nahum 1:2-10 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers… 5 The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. … 8 with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 9 What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. 10For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
Revelation 19:11-16 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Finally, Hebrews 10:31 offers a perfect summary, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Once again, these verses are a handful among the many which tell of God’s holy wrath against sin and sinners. Since we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), this wrath of God is against us all apart from God’s grace. To grasp this in even the most child-like way will cause a holy fear in everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t appear that the Preacher had a full grasp on this, but it is clear that he got it enough to have some measure of this kind of fear in mind. In 7:20 we read, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” And in 12:14 (the last words in the book), we will read, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
WHAT OF THOSE WHO DON’T FEAR GOD?
So, if fearing God for the Preacher means both standing in awe of His absolute power, majesty, and splendor and falling down in terror at His fierce and holy wrath, what of those who do not fear God? What is life and death like for those who have not learned the fear of the LORD? That’s the second (and main) question our passage for this morning addresses.
The main frame of reference I have for this question, as I mentioned in the introduction, concerns myself until I was nearly 20 years old. Once again, this sermon is what I wish someone had told me back then.
I had only the smallest measure of the fear of God in the first sense and none of the second sense. That’s because growing up, although I can’t recall a time in which I didn’t believe in God, I had no real idea who He was.
I had a kind of fear of God, but it was fairly weak and mailable. I feared God enough, for instance, that I would not go back on a promise I made in His name (the words, “I swear to God,” were legitimately binding for me—bad news once my friends found out), but not enough that there weren’t a dozen + ways around it. The same was true of lying, swearing, stealing, and a number of other aspects of my largely self-concocted sense of morality.
As far as I can recall, I had no real fear of hell because that was for really bad people. Although I knew I wasn’t perfect, I thought of myself as a pretty good person; certainly heaven-bound.
In other words, I had such a tiny understanding of who God really is that I had a correspondingly tiny fear of God. I don’t think any of the passages I read to you earlier ever occurred to me or had any hand in shaping my thinking. The result was that I lived life pretty confident in my standing before God and very free to act as I saw fit.
How does my experience as one without a proper fear of God relate to the Preacher’s description of those who do not fear God? Or, once again, what is life like for those who do not fear before Him?
As I mentioned in the beginning, the Preacher summarized the fate of those who do not fear God, saying, “it will not be well with the wicked…because he does not fear before God” (13). But again, what specifically does that mean? How will it not go well? In answer, the Preacher lists seven things (I’m going to go a bit out of order to make the Preacher’s perspective as clear as possible).
Wicked (10, 13)
The first way the Preacher describes the God-fearless is “wicked.” We see that in v.10 and again in v.13.
It doesn’t always seem like those who do not fear God are wicked—I certainly didn’t think of myself in those terms—but one of the defining aspects of a lack of fear of God is a thoroughly distorted view of everything—God, ourselves, others, and the world around us.
LET THIS BE A SOBERING WORD to everyone here. Believing that you’re OK is not the same as being OK. Thinking that you are fine with God is not the same as being fine with God. Believing yourself to be a good person is not the same as being a good person.
The God we read about earlier (awesome in glory and fierce in wrath) is what we’re measured against, not the god we create with our own imaginations and certainly not the people in our lives. The two key above the sun principles here are that all things are measured against God and none of us measure up.
Wake up, sleeper. Hear the Word of God. We are all born into sin and rebellion against God. The verses we read of God’s wrath are for us. We are all wicked by nature.
Fully Set to Do Evil (11)
Skipping ahead a bit, in order to make the first point even clearer, the second aspect of the Preacher’s perspective on the God-fearless that I want you to see is that the God-fearless always want to do evil. We see that in v.11.
11 … the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.
Again, as an unknowing member of the God-fearless, I certainly didn’t believe this about myself any more than I believed I was wicked. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao’s hearts were fully set to do evil. I didn’t have the purest thoughts, but “fully set to do evil” did not seem to me to describe me.
I’d wanted to do nice things sometimes. I had a heart to buy nice gifts for birthdays occasionally. I’d have some measure of compassion for less fortunate kids every so often. I didn’t want to bully kids all the time. I knew I wasn’t perfect, but there’s no way I was fully set to do evil in my mind.
But Grace, just as my understanding of God was way off, so too was my understanding of evil. Evil/sin is anything apart from a whole-heart longing to fully obey God for the glory of God. I never had that. I never wanted that. I didn’t even know that was what I should want. Which means my heart was fully set to do evil and I didn’t even know it. Teens of Grace, is that you? Hear the word of God and learn the fear of God.
Liberal in Doing Evil (12)
The third thing to see about those who do not fear God is that they not only continually want to do evil, but they continually do evil.
12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times…
This is only to say that those who do not fear God, not only want to do evil, but actually do evil; only evil. Just as every desire we have that is not directed by God for the glory of God is evil, so too is every action we take. And that’s every action when we don’t fear God.
The Preacher saw this as well as he looked around at the people on earth.
Falsely Praised (10)
Backing up to v.10, the next of the Preacher’s observations concerns the response of others to the God-fearless. Given everything we’ve covered so far, the character and actions of those who do not fear God should be lamented and challenged, shouldn’t they? If the verses we just read of God are true, if the God-fearless are wicked (only wanting and doing evil), we would expect that they would be scorned and ostracized, right?
Part of the vanity of this life is that instead, they are, the Preacher saw, often praised.
10 Then I saw [the God-fearless]…go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things.
Those who do not fear God often seem to live lives that are marked by the opposite of what we’d expect. The God-fearless did their wicked deeds, in God’s holy place on top, and were flattered for doing it!
Oh, how often that was the case in my life. I praised and was praised for doing the very things God hates, not the things He loves. I was judged and judged others to be cool by doing the kinds of wicked things that God judges as evil.
Grace, how often is this a part of your lives, praising artists, music, athletes, entertainers, movies, etc. that are opposed to God? How often do you look up to celebrities or successful businesspeople, praising them by seeking to imitate them even though they do not fear God? How often do you want to look like, sound like, and act like those who do not fear God?
The practical result is that the God-fearless grow in boldness in their God-fearlessness when they are praised for it. And that leads straight into the next point.
Delayed in Punishment (11-12)
The fifth thing to see concerning the lives of the God-fearless is that many times their lives seem to go better than those who don’t fear God.
11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life…
The God-fearless are often delayed in receiving punishment for their rebellion. A lack of the fear of the Lord often produces a false sense of security. Those who do not fear the Lord eat drink and make merry with no idea the judgment it’s ever looming. Like Sodom and Gomorrah and those in the world in the days of Noah, the God-fearless go about living lives entirely ignorance of the fire and flood rushing towards them.
The Preacher saw over and over that in this life, cheaters often win for a time, liars often prosper, mean people often get ahead. People who are willing to do wrong things because they don’t fear God often beat out people who are not willing to do wrong things because they do fear God. It seems as if they will get away with it. It seems as if doing what God says makes life harder.
There’s more to be said than this (next point), but there’s not less. Anyone who takes an honest look at the world (like the Preacher) sees this all the time, everywhere.
How many among us today are in the exact same boat? Living lives apart from the fear of the LORD, doing well in various aspects of life, and growing in false confidence that God can be ignored, disobeyed, and mocked without consequence, only to have the wrath of God kindling hot against us?
The Preacher does not say that those who do not fear God will forever escape the sentence of their evil deeds. He says that they are often not sentenced immediately. Eventually they will be found out, either in this life or in the next. That leads to the next point.
Buried (10)
The next-to-last point is a familiar one in Ecclesiastes.
10 Then I saw the wicked buried.
The God-fearless will die along with everyone else. The Preacher has repeated over and over and over the simple fact that we will all die. You may feel fine and live in a false sense of security, but ignorance will not stop what is certainly coming—death and judgment with it. Those who do not fear God, do not fear Him in no small measure because they live in ignorance or denial of this reality.
And that leads to the final observation concerning those who do not fear the LORD. It is the most familiar of all.
Vanity (10)
All of this, everything we’ve seen so far, the Preacher admits, is vanity (at the end of v.10).
10 … This also is vanity.
That things work like this in the world is mysterious. On the surface, it doesn’t make sense. It’s not easy to see why God allows things to be like this. Why not just punish evil in real time so that the wicked can quicky learn to fear God? Why allow the world to seem like God is not there and to be feared? Why let the wicked, evil-doers prosper and the God-fearing suffer? Why let the wicked be praised and God be mocked? The only answer the Preacher could come up with is “vanity.”
Those who do not fear God are wicked, evil-desiring, evil-doing, falsely-praised, punishment-delayed, but eventually buried and judged. All of that is impossible to comprehend for the Preacher and mysterious in some ways still. But what of those who do fear God? What of them?
WHAT OF THOSE WHO DO FEAR GOD?
Compared to those who do not fear God, the Preacher has relatively little to say of those who do. Those who don’t fear God get the better part of all four verses in this passage. Those who do barely get a third of a verse.
In that third-of-a-verse, though, we see that God-fearers have it every bit as good as the non-God-fearers have it bad. For the Preacher, the difference is simple, but powerful in its contrast.
While, as we saw, the sum total of those who do not fear God is that it does not go well for them, in contrast, the Preacher said, “12 …I know that it will be well with those who fear God…”.
While the Preacher, as we saw, expands a decent amount on what he meant by “it will not be well,” he doesn’t expand at all on what he meant by “it will be will.”
But what the Preacher didn’t do, the rest of God’s Word does in abundance. It’s not the primary purpose of this text to expand on this idea, so it’s not the primary purpose of this sermon to do so either. And yet, a simple word from a passage that also speaks to the awesome power and majesty of God will help us grasp what’s at stake.
Isaiah 65:17-25 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. 20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. 24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Death as a door to eternal judgment awaits all who do not fear God. Death as a door to a new heavens and new earth is what awaits all who fear God. That leads to the final question and my conclusion.
DO YOU FEAR GOD?
The last and most critical question for us all is: What about you? Do you fear God?
Of that, let me press in a bit. What specifically would you point to in your life as evidence one way or the other? If an unbiased observer secretly watched you for a few days, what would he/she most likely conclude?
Teenagers especially, wake up. You cannot live your lives more concerned about fun and friends and fads than the fear of God. You cannot waste your lives with video games, social media, sexual immorality, sports and other hobbies, and escape the coming judgment of God.
Learn the fear of the Lord that you might turn to Him for the mercy and grace you need and He alone can offer. That is to say, it is not the fear of God by itself that saves. It is the fear of God that causes us to recognize our ruin and need for rescue. It is the fear of God that drives us to throw ourselves upon Him for mercy and grace.
And as we do, we will find everything we were seeking in everything but Christ – true forgiveness, true satisfaction, true acceptance, true freedom, true joy, true fellowship, true purpose, true identity, now and forever. And when that happens, the first kind of fear of God remains (standing in awe at His glory), but the second (falling down, trembling at His wrath) is gone forever.