Message preached in Grove Baptist Church at end of 2002.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7 v 8

As we come to the end of another year once again we see time passing swiftly by. Richard J Needham recalls the seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills, wills.

Our text states something very clearly.

Eccles. 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.”

As we come to the year-end, can we say it’s better than it was at the beginning of the year?

A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch.

"I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What’s your secret for a long, happy life?"

"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise."

"That's amazing," the woman said. "How old are you?'

"Twenty-six," he said.

I think when we look at our hair perhaps missing or grey I think we might argue with this text. Is the end better than the beginning?

1. The end is better that the beginning when it comes to trials.

Perhaps 2002 has been a tough year for you. Have you had many struggles? Perhaps this has been a year of great loss and difficulty for you?

How can the end be better than the beginning?

Could I say that the trials that God has allowed you go through are with one purpose in mind.

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Remember what James says:

James 1:2-3 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; [3] Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

God has used the events of 2002; even our failures to help us become more like our Saviour.

I read somewhere about a girl who saw an eclipse of the sun. She asked her daddy, “Why did the sun go out?” That’s understandable for a child, but an adult knows that the sun will shine again.

If you are in a dark period of your life, don’t despair, the sun will shine again. Take this verse as a prophecy to give you hope and dispel your fears. The end of the matter will be better than the beginning. God is still in charge.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

One possible translation of this reads as follows

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Joseph had to go through prison before he was sovreign but the end of the thing was better than the beginning. Think of Job and his experience what did the Lord say of him?

Job 42:12 So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

Perhaps as you read this you are saying, “Things don’t look much better.” Oh remember this God hasn’t finished yet.

Philip. 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

The trials of life are allowed by God to keep us close to him and to make us more like him and more effective for him.

The believer could look ahead to eternity and as we face trials in 2003 we have this great assurance.

Romans 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

If you know and love Jesus Christ as your Saviour take comfort and be encouraged the end will be better that the beginning

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

As we review another year, perhaps a year for you that has been difficult don’t despair, don’t be discouraged God is working things out for you.

Think of a lump of coal deep within the earth. Only great and tremendous pressure can change that coal into a diamond. And then, once it has undergone that great and tremendous pressure it is mined and a jeweller begins to shape it. In order to shape it, the jeweller cuts away a great deal of the diamond. No doubt this process would be painful to the diamond, only after the pressure and the cutting is the diamond a beautiful gemstone.

If you are under pressure or if your life is being pruned right now, be assured that the end is better than the beginning. It is worth it!

2. The end is better than the beginning when it comes to triumphs.

As we look at this year end perhaps this has been a marvellous year for you. At the beginning of this year you were on your way to a lost eternity. You were heading for hell. You were hopelessly lost with no thought of God and no thought of heaven. Perhaps this next verse describes your attitude.

Lament. 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

However, as we come to this year end 2002 has been marvellous and the end of the thing is much better than the beginning, for you have found the saviour this year.

Perhaps we have a prodigal reading this message. What a horrible beginning you had to the year

Luke 15:15-16 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. [16] And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

You had no joy, no peace and no real satisfaction but praise God now it’s a different story. Just like the prodigal.

Luke 15:17-19 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! [18] I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, [19] And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

There came that point when you caught yourself on and took that step back into the arms of the father.

Luke 15:20-23 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. [21] And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. [22] But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: [23] And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

What joy and what blessing when backsliders are restored. You can say, if this has been your experience, that the end is surely better than the beginning.

3. Let’s put ourselves to the test and see if truly the end of the thing is better than the beginning.

As we come to the end of a year and review it, I wonder what we have achieved spiritually?

A fellow stopped at a rural gas station and, after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his cola and he watched a couple of men working along the roadside.

One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind and filled in the hole. While one was digging a new hole, the other was about 25 feet behind filling in the old. The men worked right past the fellow with the soft drink and went on down the road. "I can't stand this," said the man tossing the can in a trash container and heading down the road toward the men.

"Hold it, hold it," he said to the men. "Can you tell me what's going on here with this digging?"

"Well, we work for the county government, " one of the men said.

"But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling it up. You’re not accomplishing anything. Aren’t you wasting the county's money?"

"You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. "Normally there's three of us--me, Rodney and Mike. I dig the hole, Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts the dirt back."

"Yea," piped up Mike. "Now just because Rodney’s sick, that don't mean we can't work, does it?"

They certainly wouldn’t achieve much have we?

Eccles. 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

I quite simply want to as a few questions to all of us.

Do we love the Lord more tonight that we did on the first of January 2002?

Luke 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Do we know more about the Lord now that we did at January 2002? Do we know more about this book, the Word of God?

1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Is the end better than the beginning? Have we been eating the meat or still at the milk?

What about our walk with the Lord?

We could look at the prodigal from another angle he began in the father’s house enjoying the blessings.

Luke 15:12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

But alas he walked away.

[13] And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

If we stopped here we couldn’t say the end was better than the beginning.

Is this where we find you? Further away from the lord than you were 52 weeks ago?

What about your prayer life?

1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:

Take a look back at January 2002. How much time were you spending in prayer?

Can you say as we come to another year end that things are improving? Is it better in the end that it was at the beginning?

What about our maturity

Have we grown spiritually over the past year?

1 Samuel 2:19 Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Samuel needed a bigger size each year, he was growing. Have you grown over the past year in the spiritual sense?

Is the end better than the beginning?

Did you enter 2002 harbouring any bitterness, any grudges? Did you enter Jan 2002 as a wounded believer with many scores to settle?

As we come to the end of this year. Have you been able to forgive? Have you sorted out the bitterness, the anger? Have you made these things right?

Can you say that the end is better than the beginning?

Have you made a point this year of being more caring, kinder, more generous, more helpful, more loving and more sincere?

Is the end better than the beginning?

Only you know the answer.

4. Let’s look at a tragic case when the end is certainly not better than the beginning.

There could be someone reading this message and you are still not saved. For you the end is not better than the beginning of this year. I will give you four reasons why.

a) Something harder

Proverbs 29:1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

2 Chron. 36:13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel.

b) Something fewer

Your opportunities to trust the Lord are fewer, you have wasted another year. Who knows what may lie ahead this year.

c) Something nearer.

Two things

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

James 5:8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

You are a year nearer eternity and a year nearer the return of our Saviour. Who knows? He may return even tonight and you are not saved.

d) Some terror

The end for an unbeliever is much worse than the beginning.

Rev. 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

What an ending! In fact it’s not an ending it’s a never ending ending.

Hell for all eternity!!

Thank God it can be different it doesn’t have to be this way.

There is still time, there is still opportunity for you to be saved.

For Christ, as he came to the cross it was awful, but the ending is superb.

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

He who died on the cross is seated now at the right hand of the father. What an ending?

What a glorious ending Christ defeated sin and death and Hell.

It’s an ending, which can give you a glorious beginning.

2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The famous last words of W. C. Fields. Who had been flipping through the Bible on his deathbed in 1946 was asked.

“What are you doing?”

He replied, "I’m looking for a loophole."

There are no loopholes, trust Christ now and have a really Happy New Year.