The End

Notes
Transcript
How many of you, in order to truly enjoy a book or a movie, you need to know the end of it?
I will try not to hold a grudge against ya’ll. Some people try to tell me what is going to happen, and I don’t want to know.
I take that back. There are somethings that I do want to know before hand.
Like, the end of time: I want to know that Jesus ultimately wins and every knee will bow before him and every tongue will confess him as Lord. That’s comforting to know as we live this life right now.
I want to know that all things work together for good to those who love Jesus and who are called according to his purpose. That’s helpful in the midst of the chaos of this life.
And truthfully, I do want to know the end of the book of Ecclesiastes before he starts the beginning, because it colors everything that he wrote before this time.
We didn’t start with the end, because Solomon left the end until the end. But, I did allow the end to influence how I interpreted the beginning and the middle.
So, let’s read the end.
Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
In this passage, Solomon explains the benefit of truth, the danger of falsehood, and the conclusion of everything.
Before we dive in, will you pray with me?
1. The Benefit of Truth
1. The Benefit of Truth
Solomon writes:
Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
In these verse, he refers back to the title he gave himself at the beginning of the book.
The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
Some might think that this title was pretty haughty. However, it was a gift of God.
During the early days of his rule, God promised to give Solomon whatever he wanted, and Solomon asked for wisdom.
So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
God was pleased with that request and granted it. Solomon became known as the wisest person of all time. People traveled great distances just to sit and hear his wisdom.
He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.
So, as the teacher, with wisdom given from God, he wrote down something that was true, this book.
He describes the truth in this book in two ways:
The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd.
He says that truth are like goads. The goad is used by a shepherd to keep sheep going in the right direction. It’s a stick with a point on it, and when necessary, the shepherd will poke the sheep with this stick when the sheep is balking.
Have you ever balked at doing something right? Yeah, I have. God had to use a 2x4 to get me to start dating Maggie. But, that’s a story for another time.
God uses truth to poke us sometimes and it’s uncomfortable and sometimes it hurts. But, it’s necessary to keep us going in the right direction.
Solomon says that truth is like nails, firmly embedded. This speaks of building something secure, immoveable.
When we take the truths of God and use them to build our lives, our lives will be secure, immoveable.
Jesus told a parable about this:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Truth from God has benefit, because we will go in the right direction and we will have a sturdy foundation in our life.
2. The Danger of Falsehood
2. The Danger of Falsehood
Just as truth has a benefit, so falsehood has danger.
Solomon writes:
Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
God, the one shepherd, the creator of the universe, is the giver of truth.
Jesus said in
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
The author of hebrews says
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.
The enemy is the father of lies.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
So, on the one hand we have the Word of God, which is completely true. And on the other hand, we have everything else.
Interesting fact, in 2010, Google counted all the of the books that had been published since the invention of the printing press in 1440. They figured around 129,864,880. Roughly 2.2 million new titles are published every year, currently. So, that brings our grand total to around 158,464,880 unique books that have been published since the printing press.
Can you guess how many of these books add to the truths of Scripture or try to take away from those truths. How many books say: follow what I say you will have peace, joy, prosperity, relational happiness, etc. And they all have their own keys, their own push, apart from Scripture.
And God says: I have truth. Don’t turn from my truth.
Jesus said:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Why spend our time trying to search for truth in this world, wearing our body, when the truth is right there in front of us.
3.Conclusion of Everything
3.Conclusion of Everything
Which brings us to the conclusion of everything.
Solomon brings us back to the core nugget that he has been trying to hint at for the whole book.
He has examined life under the sun and he has seen that it is meaningless. No matter what we have been chasing to find satisfaction, or worth, or logical, or purpose, nothing in this world, nothing under the sun, will provide that.
He lists three things in his conclusion that he discovered as he sifted through the truths and falsehoods around him.
A. Fear God
A. Fear God
The first is to fear God.
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon has investigated the situation of humanity. “Now surprisingly, he affirms that the whole of humanity consists not in it’s morality or ignorance, whether it is good or whether it knows the right things, but it’s dependence on God.”
At the beginning of time, God created all things, including humanity, and he designed us to have a relationship with him. But, Adam and Eve, and all of humanity after them, disobeyed God and our relationship was broken. They thought in that moment they might become like God. But, in that moment “they lost the one thing that made them truly human.” We are who we are because of our relationship with God. Once we remove that relationship, we are nothing, doomed to be nothing for all eternity.
What is the solution to the state of meaninglessness that all of humanity finds themselves in?
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs 35. Conclusion (12:8–14)
Everything Ecclesiastes has affirmed up to this point—the sovereign freedom of God, the limits of human wisdom, thoughts on the use and abuse of wealth and power, and the brevity and absolute contingency of human life—all lead to the command to fear God.
Pascal wrote four hundred years ago:
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
All of humanity has a God-shaped hole that can only be filled by God himself. We try to fill it with all sorts of things and we justify and rationalize those things. But, they don’t work.
Solomon pleads with his readers: Fear God. Fill that hole with him.
B. Keep His Commandments
B. Keep His Commandments
The second conclusion is to keep His commandments.
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
As we look at the meaningless world around us, we could despair, throw up our hands and say: why try! or we could rub our hands together and say: well, I’m just going to do what I want to do.
But, Solomon says that instead of those responses, seeing the insignificance of all that is done under the sun should leave us awestruck and silent before God.
He has spent all the book talking about what is happening under the sun, the world from our perspective. Then he takes the snow globe and turns it upside down and says: let’s look at God’s perspective.
And the contrast of the meaninglessness of the world and the purpose and holiness of God should leave us awestruck and silent before him.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs 35. Conclusion (12:8–14)
His inability to control or predict the future provokes him to dependence on God. The futility of attempting to secure his future through wisdom or acts of religion (e.g., making vows) leads him not to impiety but to an understanding of the true nature of obedient trust.
Remember that God’s truth are firmly embedded nails. So in a world that is chaotic, we take that truth and we hold firm to it. By holding firm to it, we obey it. We do what he says.
Jesus said:
“If you love me, keep my commands.
If we fear God, we will keep his commands. The first being to approach him in the way that he has called us to.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And then living our lives as a follower of him. When we do, life makes so much more sense.
Solomon pleads with his readers: fear God, keep his commandments.
3. Prepare for Judgment
3. Prepare for Judgment
The final conclusion is to Prepare for Final judgment.
Solomon writes:
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
As we studied last week, judgment is coming.
The Lord reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
He rules the world in righteousness
and judges the peoples with equity.
Everyone who has ever lived will stand before the judgment seat of God. Everything that they have done, said, and thought will be judged. Even the hidden things that we do not want anyone to know about. Whether we consider them good or evil. They will be laid out, bare, for the righteous, holy judge to weigh.
John describes this as books being opened with everything written down, recorded by an eternal scribe. And a last book will be opened, the book of life.
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Those whose name is found in the book of life are brought into the eternal city.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
How does one get his name written in this book?
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
When we turn to Jesus in faith, trusting not in our works, but in him alone, following him as one who fears God does, obeying him by coming through Jesus alone to God, our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. And nothing can ever erase us from that book, because our names were written by the blood of the lamb. Those who are his remain him.
The just shall live by faith.
Judgment is coming. We prepare by turning to Jesus.
The whole book of Ecclesiastes, the truth revealed, and the falsehood warned about, comes to this ending: Fear God, Keep His Commandments, Prepare for Eternal Judgment.
Where are in this process?