"The Heart Of The Wise Is In The House Of Mourning”

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

“The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning”

Our nation has experienced great tragedy this week. September 9, 2001....who can or will forget it. More lives were lost on this one day than any other day in American history.

In our text this morning Solomon advises us to look in the face and learn from it. The wiser, more enduring lessons are to be learned where grief reigns than in the empty and momentary excitement of mirth. In the house of mourning (death) we find occasion for serious and deeply edifying thoughts and reflections; in the house of feasting we seldom return with one profitable thought or one solid impression. God is continually opening to the living the house of mourning that they may consider what awaits them. The house of feasting often shuts out thoughts of God and eternity. The sight of the in the "house of mourning" causes the living to think of their own "end."

“O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!“ (Deut. 32:29). God desires that men should consider what will be the end.

Experience has proved to all wise men that the solid lessons which they gather in the house of mourning are more valuable, more sustaining, more consoling, and so in the end more fruitful than the houses of feasting which merely mask the sadness of the heart, and pass away as in a moment, leaving deeper wretchedness behind them.

C. H. Spurgeon once said, “MEN HAVE BEEN HELPED TO LIVE BY REMEMBERING THAT THEY MUST DIE.” A wise man will prepare for the inevitable.

I. The CERTAINTY of

Hebrews 9:27 “....it is appointed unto men once to die....”

A. Death is sure

“To die” is written over all! If the Lord tarries His coming, each man, woman, boy, , in this auditorium will meet . The question is simply – WHO WILL BE NEXT?

Job 30:23 “For I know that thou wilt bring me to , and to the house appointed for all living.”

Ecc. 8:8 “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of : and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.” As soon as a baby is born, war is declared on . Even though the battle may rage for seventy years or even more, there is no discharge in that war. will fight on until it claims its victim.

Psalm 89:48 “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see ? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.”

Death is no respecter of person! Everybody enters life by the door of birth and exists by the door of . All have an appointment with ! The richest and mightiest cannot buy off .

1. Death is inevitable

2. Death is impartial

Romans 5:12 “Wherefor as by one man......”

B. Death can be sudden

Proverbs 27:1

James 4:13,14 “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

1. The arrogance he condemns (13)

2. The attitude he commends (15)

“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

Death can come suddenly by disease or disaster!

II. The CONSEQUENCES of

Sam Jones went home one day and his wife said to him, “Sam, I want you to go see the old sheriff who is dying.”

Sam answered his wife, “Honey, you know he has never believed in God. He is an infidel.”

Stirred on by his wife’s persistence, Sam went to see the sheriff.

After visiting with the sheriff for a while, Sam asked him if he was afraid to die.

“Sam, I have always told you that I was not afraid to die,” replied the dying sheriff.

Sam then asked him, “But, Sheriff, what about the judgement?”

The sheriff almost threw himself off the bed when he answered, “My God, I hand not thought of that!”

Death is not the end of life, but rather a change of life. is but the doorway to an after life. After , man must face the judgment of God. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” No man who has any sense of justice can believe that wrong will forever go unpunished.

See Acts 17:31. There is a certainty and accuracy in the judgment after .