The Eternity of God and the Transitory Age of Man

"The Eternity of God and the Transitory Age of Man" – Ecclesiastes 1:4 All things on earth are of very little importance. Solomon now shows that the time in which we can enjoy all these things is very short. One generation enters the scene and the previous generation leaves the scene. And while the stream of humanity flows unceasingly, how brief is the enjoyment! The same uniform (does not change, monotonous) mutability (which can change) of human generations also appears in the sun, wind and water; they go through their cycle again and again without ceasing, but the individual man does not have that luck; the man dies and does not get up again.

I. One generation succeeds another with irresistible speed.

A. That's life under the sun.

1. "Everyone dreams of staying forever."

2. How soon it takes for that to be the absent face! (Will H. Houghton).

3. (4) If we lacked revelation, we might think that the present earth will remain forever.

4. Perhaps Solomon's conclusion.

5. But Peter tells us that the earth and its works will be burned up on the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:10).

6. Oh, brother!

7. (Psalm 90:5-6) Seeing man's frailty and vanity even in the midst of his best state, consider human life well and see what the life of a dying man is: "You snatch them up as with a torrent (stream of water flowing with great rapidity and violence) of water."

8. As soon as they are born, they begin to die and each day brings us closer to death. Be careful with your actions, they bring you closer to death, not to vanity.

9. We are swept away like a torrent and yet we are like a dream, which is the image of death.

10. Luxuriant (healthy) in the morning of youth and withered in the afternoon of old age. Sometimes the power of holy death to cut off life, cuts us off in full youth and even in childhood, because death does not warn when it comes.

11. (Spurgeon) "Sown, grown, ventilated, cut and disappeared."

12. (Psalm 103:15-16) Not only is man dust, but he also soon turns to dust.

13. The old saying, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return," finds its fulfillment without fail. (Genesis 3:19)

14. Man is born for such a short time, then as the flower of the field passes and the places he frequented "will never see him again".

15. The flower of the field is not only destined to wither, but it is exposed to the cold winds and the hooves of the animals of the jungle.

16. Man's life not only wears out "by itself” but is exposed to a thousand different accidents.

17. God takes this into account and has compassion on man.

18. His mercy has no limit either in its volume (physical magnitude expresses the extension of a body in three dimensions: length, width and height) or in its time (duration, at the right time, period, determined time): "it embraces all those who fear Him" and it endures (to last a long time, to subsist, to remain in the same state) from eternity to eternity.

19. (Isaiah 40:6) The Lord commands the prophet to "cry out unto men," to tell them how transient (fleeting, transient) they are and how abiding His Word is.

20. (Isaiah 40:7) The Word of our God endures forever.

21. We greatly need simplicity to trust God's Word.

22. There will be difficulties, and the Word may seem like a weak thing to rely on for eternity, but in reality, it is more secure than heaven and earth.

23. (Isaiah 51:12) "I am your Comforter."

24. They had prayed for the performance of His power; God answers with the comforts of His grace, which can be accepted as equivalent (equal, even).

25. Comfort the fearful by repeating to them, "Who are you that you should be afraid of mortal man?"

26. It is absurd to be afraid of a dying person.

27. "How can we be afraid of the man who is to die, destined for damnation, who is like hay?"

28. We are to consider how foolish it is for the servants of the living God to be afraid of mortal men who are among us today and tomorrow are gone.

29. (James 1:10) Let him glory in his fleeting riches!

30. But he who is rich, in his humiliation.

31. It is to live, to exist in humiliation.

32. God humbled Nebuchadnezzar for his arrogance.

33. The king humbled himself and God restored him.

34. God raises up those who humble themselves!

35. Humiliation causes shame.

36. James speaks, "Let the poor boast that he is spiritually exalted, the rich man that he is spiritually humbled."

37. So, grace equalizes both before God and with respect to divine approval they are on the same level; the poor who are too low are exalted; the rich who are too high are humiliated; which is for both reasons of glory or joy.

38. In life there is nothing to judge, all simple, the trials and afflictions, which are charged in life to do in obedience to the voice of the sovereign God.

39. (1 Peter 1:24) All glory of man is like the flower of the grass that withers and the flower falls.

40. Human life is emphasized to be as impermanent "as grass".

41. Physical beauty is like the flowers of the field, the grass withers and the flower falls and dies. Amen