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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Ecclesiastes 8:11:
Ecclesiastes 8:11-13
Excerpted from: The Sin of Self-DeceptionLet us go back to Ecclesiastes 8, because we see here a principle that is at work in human nature, and we have got to be aware of this. Thinking about what Jeremiah said—the people love to have it so—Solomon says in verse 11, by reflecting on his observations, watching people, thinking about himself, watching events occur in his land:
Just because the penalty does not occur immediately does not mean it is not going to come. Be aware! Adam and Eve set aside the teaching of God because they became convinced that the penalty—death—would not occur. When they sinned and death did not occur immediately, they were even more convinced. But death did occur and other evil things happened in their lives that did not have to happen.
We have got to understand that it is part of the way God operates, that He gives us time to learn lessons; that He give us time to come to a better knowledge of Him; that He give us time to understand cause and effect. If God reacted immediately when we sinned, it would be all over the very first time. There would be no building of character; there would be no learning by experience; there would be no growth in wisdom; there would be no understanding of human nature.
Do not be deceived because the penalty does not seem to fall quickly.
Ecclesiastes 8:11
Excerpted from: Justice and GraceWhen one begins to deeply analyze what sin does, the wonder is not that God occasionally executes justice as He did with Nadab and Abihu, but rather why He allows us to continue to live. Human nature is really tricky. I have given a series of sermons on how it deceives us.
Do you see what that is saying? Human nature is so tricky that it can deceive even one who is converted to begin to take the grace of God for granted. Human nature has the tendency to pull the human being further and further into sin. If God does not execute His wrath and His justice immediately against a person and instead gives him grace, He gives that person an opportunity to continue to live longer in order that grace may be able to work in his life, and that he be led to repentance instead. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?"
Ecclesiastes 8:11
Excerpted from: Eternal Security in the ChurchModern paraphrases of this verse render it in terms of crime, saying that people readily commit crime because they see that it is not punished quickly. That is a true application, although we should understand that it applies more broadly as well.
But crime is just one application. Solomon observes a core principle of human nature that goes beyond crime. Left to itself, human nature will do what it thinks it can get away with. When there are no immediate consequences for a wrong action, that action becomes engrained to the point that a person hardly gives it a second thought, even though at one time there may have been a recognition that the action was wrong. The heart becomes set.
Ecclesiastes 8:11
Excerpted from: Four Views of Christ (Part 7)All too often (and I think you'll agree to this), we hem and haw; we procrastinate about doing or not doing things that we clearly understand God has shown us (that we must change). But this attitude of procrastination or hemming and hawing or putting things off tends to prove Solomon's statement in Ecclesiastes 8:11 where he says, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
Articles'Unless Those Days Were Shortened . . .'
A Tale of Two Complaints (Part One)
Do You Desire the Day of the Lord?
Ecclesiastes and Christian Living (Part Fifteen): Deference
Is God to Blame?
Little Compromises
Playing With Fire
Praying Always (Part Four)
Prophecy and the Sixth-Century Axial Period
Searching for Israel (Part Twelve): The Sign
The Elements of Motivation (Part Two): Vision
The Elements of Motivation (Part Two): Vision
The Fruit of the Spirit: Patience
The Gun Lap
The Seventh Commandment (1997)
The Sovereignty of God: Part Nine
This Body of Death
Three Missing Kings (Part Two)
Where Is the Promise of His Coming?
Why Should Christians Refuse Jury Duty?
Bible StudiesOvercoming (Part Two): Self-Justification
Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
EssaysDeterrence
In What Way Have We Wearied Him?
Is It Salvational? (Part Three)
Time to Repent (Part One)
Time to Repent (Part Three)
Who Is Your Adversary?
SermonsMaintaining Good Health (Part 10)
A Bed Too Short (Part 2)
Deuteronomy (Part 4)
New Covenant Priesthood (Part 11)
God Will Understand
The Longsuffering of Our Lord Is Salvation
Childrearing (Part Six)
Does Doctrine Really Matter? (Part 4)
God and Reality
Sanctification, Teens, and Self-Control
You Have Not So Learned Christ
The March Toward Globalism (Part 8)
Satan's Lies About the Law
The Fruit of Repentance
Biblical Principles of Justice (Part One)
Habakkuk: A Prophet of Faith (Part One)
Without Restraint
The Sovereignty of God (Part Nine)
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Thirty-Three): Ecclesiastes 8:10-9:1
Avoiding Detrimental Assumptions
Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic
Secret Faults and Presumptuous Thoughts
Don't Stand Still!
Honor Before Love
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part 4)
Vanity (Part 1)
Maintaining Good Health (Part 10)
What Is the Church's Work Today (Part 2)
How Satan Destroys Faith
Forbearance
The Fear of God (Part 3)
A Bed Too Short (Part 1)
Ecclesiastes Resumed (Part Thirty-Three): Ecclesiastes 8:10-9:1
The Fear of God (Part Four)
Sovereignty and Submission
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