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Ecclesiastes 3_14-15 Sermon 6.pdf

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"I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past." (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15, KJV)

God’s Sovereignty and the Permanence of His Works (Ecclesiastes 3:14a)

God's Works Are Eternal

• If God does it, it is secure and unalterable.
• Reformed theology often shifts this verse to mean “everything that has been done” (passive history), rather than the active phrase, “whatsoever God doeth” (i.e., His personal acts).
• The biblical emphasis is on the unchanging nature of God’s direct works.

Boundaries Set at Creation

The natural world was created with fixed patterns and boundaries.

• “Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever” (Eccl. 3:14) expresses this permanence.
• Compare Genesis 8:22: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
• This order and stability is not only theological but epistemological—it forms the foundation of all scientific knowledge.
  • Scientific inquiry assumes the regularity and repeatability of natural laws.
  • If God's works were not consistent and enduring, knowledge itself could not be systematized.
  • The core premise of science—that like causes produce like effects—rests on the immutability of the created order.

Randomness Undermines Science

• A worldview of constant, random change—what evolutionary science calls “random mutation”—undermines the very basis of the scientific method:
  • In neo-Darwinian models, genetic variation is driven by random, unguided mutations.
  • The process is said to be purposeless and undirected, with natural selection merely filtering survivable traits from a chaotic pool.
  • This stands in direct contrast to Ecclesiastes 3:14, where God's actions are intentional, fixed, and enduring.
  • If the cosmos is truly governed by randomness, then natural law, predictability, and reason itself become illusions.
• Therefore, God’s fixed work in creation is not merely a theological truth—it is the essential foundation that makes scientific knowledge even possible.

God Sometimes Alters What He Has Ordained—For a Purpose

God “Doeth It”… Specifically, He Takes Away

• “Nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.”