Anthony Gammage – Ecclesiastes 9
Sermon Quotes
Ecclesiastes 9:1
[1] But all this I laid to heart, examining it all…
Ecclesiastes 9:7
[7] Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
Ecclesiastes 9:2-6
[2] It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. [3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. [4] But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. [5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. [6] Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
1 Corinthians 15:54–57
[54] When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written :“Death is swallowed up in victory.”[55] “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“God comes to us in Jesus and says, ‘Trust me. Walk with me. Love me. Put your hand in my hand. Believe my Word. Stop trying to understand everything, to be in control of everything, to tie up all the loose ends, to have perfect pace and wealth and health and happiness. Stop striving for all those things, and stop it now. If you can’t see that life doesn’t always make sense, then something is coming your way that will drive it to you. Death is coming.’”
-David Gibson
Ecclesiastes 9:11-12
[11] Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. [12] For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
James 4:13–16
[13] Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—[14] yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Ecclesiastes 9:13-16
[13] I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. [14] There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. [15] But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. [16] But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.
“This parable is not a moral tale to show what people should do: it is a cautionary tale to show what they are like. If we identify with anyone, it is the poor wise man…we should learn not to count on anything as fleeting as public gratitude.”
-Derek Kidner
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
[7] Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. [8] Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. [9] Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. [10] Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Acts 17:24–28
[24] The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. [26] And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, [27] that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, [28] for “In him we live and move and have our being.”