Dead-End Righteousness

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Hopson)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 145:1-3)

Prayer of Praise (Mendi Keatts)

Run and Run (Christ is All My Righteousness)

Christ Our Wisdom

Prayer of Confession (Stephen Keatts), Sinful self-reliance

Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 103:8-12)

Gospel Doxology

How Great Thou Art

Scripture Reading (Eccl. 7:15-29)—page _________ in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Hopson)

Prayer for PBC—Help us to resist moralism

Prayer for kingdom partner—Carrollton Baptist (Lee Hess)

Prayer for US—Against culture of outrage

Prayer for the world—Belize

Leader—_________

Social issue(s)—_________

Spiritual issue(s)—_________

Local churches—_________

Laborers—_________

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

They say there's a heaven for those who will wait

And some say it's better, but I say it ain't

I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints

The sinners are much more fun

Only the good die young. [1]

Followers of Jesus know there is a lot wrong with those famous words sung by Billy Joel. But a wise person will also see a glimpse of truth here.

Far too often the good die young.

Think of righteous Abel, murdered by his own brother.

Or Uriah the Hittite, a loyal soldier who was more righteous drunk than David was sober.

Or Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who was killed for proclaiming the truth about Jesus.

History provides even more examples:

William Tyndale, martyred at 42 for translating the Bible;

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed at age 39 for resisting the Nazis;

Jim Elliot, killed at age 28 by the people he was trying to reach with the gospel.

Meanwhile, why the righteous often suffer, the wicked often prosper.

The Psalmist Asaph puts it this way in…

Psalm 73:3–5—For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

All these examples point to an inconvenient truth, one that is especially hard for religious people to accept:

The pursuit of righteousness under the sun is a dead end.

That’s the Big idea the Preacher is trying to communicate in our passage this morning.

So turn in your Bibles (if you’re not already there) to Ecclesiastes 7:15-29.

This far into the book of Ecclesiastes, we have become familiar with how the author, who calls himself “the Preacher,” often says surprising and uncomfortable things.

He’s like a parent sifting through a kid’s candy after Trick or Treating. It might seem like mom or dad is being mean, until you understand that you’re deathly allergic to peanuts.

The Preacher isn’t trying to steal your joy or ruin your fun, he’s trying to protect you from a wasted life. He’s trying to protect you from a life that looks good and feels good, but will ultimately destroy you in the end.

So far we’ve learned about a host of vanities, including pleasure, time, work, and money.

But today the Preacher invites us to consider the vanity of dead-end righteousness.

He gives us Two Reasons why the pursuit of righteousness under the sun is a dead end:

First, in verses 15-19, your righteousness is vain because It Cannot Protect You.

Then, in verses 20-29, your righteousness is vain because It Cannot Perfect You.

Let’s begin. The pursuit of righteousness under the sun is a dead end because…

1) Your Righteousness Cannot PROTECT You.

Ecclesiastes 7:15—In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

In “The Story of the Bad Little Boy Who Didn’t Come to Grief,” Mark Twain describes the mischief of a boy named Jim. Unlike what the Sunday-school books say about what happens to such boys, however, nothing bad happens to Jim. For example, “Once he climbed up in Farmer Acorn’s apple-tree to steal apples, and the limb didn’t break, and he didn’t fall and break his arm, and get torn by the farmer’s great dog, and then languish on a sick bed for weeks, and repent and become good!” Then there was “the time he went boating on Sunday, and didn’t get drowned, and that time that he got caught out in the storm when he was fishing on Sunday, and didn’t get struck by lightning.” After recalling one peculiar providence after another, the story concludes with Jim all grown up. Twain relays how Jim “got wealthy by all manner of cheating and rascality; and now he is the infernalist wickedest scoundrel in his native village, and is universally respected, and belongs to the Legislature.” [2]

This is often what life looks like under the sun.

Being a bad person doesn’t mean bad things will happen to you.

And being a good person doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to you.

We all know of examples in our own day. A young seminary student dedicates his life to the ministry. After years of training, just as he is ready to become a pastor, he is killed in a head-on collision. Or a young, Christian mother who is committed to raising her children well is stricken by cancer and dies. Meanwhile some of the most nasty, evil people on the planet live into their nineties.

How should we respond to this? Look at…

Ecclesiastes 7:16—Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

Do you remember when we began studying this book how I said there are times that the book of Ecclesiastes doesn’t even sound Christian? This is one of those times!

What in the world is the Preacher talking about?

Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). Is the Preacher contradicting Jesus?

I think it becomes a bit easier to understand what he means when you look at...

Ecclesiastes 7:17—Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

Think of the average person who has completely given themselves over to wickedness and folly.

The mobster, the carjacker, the gang member, the pimp, the prostitute, the drug user.

These men and women are persistent rule-breakers. And their lives are filled with the occupational hazards that come with a life of crime.

The Preacher is not saying “a little wickedness is fine, as long as you don’t have too much!”

He’s showing you an extreme. Devoting your life to extreme wickedness does not guarantee your protection.

Now go back to verse 16...

The Preacher is not saying, “a little righteousness is fine, as long as you don’t have too much!”

Again, he’s showing you an extreme. Devoting your life to extreme righteousness does not guarantee your protection either.

Here’s the way Douglas O’Donnell explains it in his commentary...

“If anyone—whether righteous or unrighteous—can die young (which, of course, is true), then do not think that somehow obtaining ultra-righteousness will be an absolute insurance against such calamity. It is not that Solomon is against righteousness—consistent godly thought, speech, and actions. Rather, he is against attempting to tie God’s hands (or open God’s hands of blessing) by our behavior.” [2]

Maybe you’re here in church today because your life is falling apart. And you think maybe trying out religion will fix things. But the truth is, religious people’s lives fall apart too! Following Jesus is not a path to sunshine and roses.

Some people think that God is like a vending machine. As long as you put in the right amount of coins and push the right buttons you’ll get what you want.

“If I come to church, pray, read my Bible, and put a little money in the offering plate I’ll get a comfortable life in return!” Maybe. But maybe not.

God doesn’t answer to you! He cannot be manipulated by you. He is in heaven and He does whatever He pleases!

So what should we do?

Ecclesiastes 7:18—It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.

What does he mean by take hold of this and don’t withhold your hand from that?

He’s asking us to learn from the two extremes in verses 16 and 17.

The ultra-righteous person thinks he can protect himself by his righteousness, but he can’t.

So then he gives up on righteousness entirely and pursues a life of ultra-wickedness. But that doesn’t work out either.

What’s the solution then? To avoid both errors and fear God!

Charles Bridges explains the fear of God like this: “The fear of the Lord . . . is that affectionate reverence by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.” [4]

Don’t try to manipulate God by your righteousness. Don’t complain and grumble when you do everything right and still suffer wrong. Fear the Lord. He’s in charge, not you.

Don’t throw your hands up in the air and pursue a life of wickedness. Just because the wicked often prosper doesn’t mean wickedness is right.

The story is told of an American farmer who wrote to the editor of his local newspaper, who was a Christian: “In defiance of your God I plowed my fields this year on Sunday, I disked and fertilized them on Sunday, I planted them on a Sunday, I cultivated them on Sunday, and I reaped them on Sunday. This October I had the biggest crop I have ever had. How do you explain that?”

The editor published the letter with a footnote that said, “God does not always settle all His accounts in October.” [5]

Just because the wicked sometimes do well in this life doesn’t mean they will ultimately.

If you want things to go well in your life, don’t start by trying to control God with your good behavior. Start by fearing Him.

And you just might find that fearing God—pursuing a life of genuine righteousness—actually leads to blessing under the sun.

One thing you might have noticed already in this passage is how the Preacher uses the word “wisdom” as a synonym for “righteousness.”

In v. 16 he uses the words righteous and wise interchangeably, and then in v. 17 he does the same thing with the words wicked and fool.

With that in mind, look at...

Ecclesiastes 7:19—Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

This verse almost seems to contradict everything we’ve already said.

The Preacher says wisdom—or you could say, righteousness—will protect you better than ten kings in a city.

But in verse 15 he already said the righteous die just like the wicked.

That’s why we said the pursuit of righteousness under the sun is a dead end. It cannot protect you.

To understand what the Preacher is getting in verse 19, we need to consider the second reason why the pursuit of righteousness under the sun is a dead end.

It’s a dead end because…

2) Your Righteousness Cannot PERFECT You.

Sure, wisdom and righteousness can provide a measure of protection in this life.

That’s why the Preacher said in...

Ecclesiastes 7:12—For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

There’s just one problem: Nobody is really righteous!

Ecclesiastes 7:20—Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Followers of Jesus are very familiar with this concept, even if we’re not all familiar with this particular verse.

The Apostle Paul was probably thinking of this verse when he wrote...

Romans 3:10–12—As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

I wonder if you believe that. Really believe it.

The language of sin used to be a normal part of our vocabulary in the Western world. But over the past fifty years it has increasingly been replaced by therapeutic language.

The sin of pride has been replaced with narcissism.

The sin of envy has been replaced with insecurity.

The sin of gluttony has been replaced with a host of eating disorders.

The sin of anger has been replaced with emotional dysregulation.

The sin of greed has been replaced with hoarding.

The sin of covetousness has been replaced with comparison anxiety.

The sin of idolatry has been replaced with unhealthy attachments and codependency.

The sin of lying has been replaced with avoidance.

The sin of disobedience has been replaced with oppositional defiance disorder.

Now here’s the problem: when you change the diagnosis you also change the prescription. If your problem is no longer sin, than the solution is no longer repentance and the pursuit of righteousness.

So many people in our generation think they can achieve some measure of perfection on their own.

They may call it self-actualization, mindfulness, mental health, or emotional wellbeing.

But it’s the same age-old, man-made pursuit of perfection that has been plaguing our world for thousands of years.

Your righteousness cannot perfect you...

A) Because Sin is PERVASIVE

Ecclesiastes 7:21—Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you.

Unlike Solomon, most of us can’t relate to what it’s like to have a servant.

But we can all relate to the pain we feel when we overhear someone speaking harmful things about us.

Maybe you heard someone say something about you around the corner.

Maybe somebody sent you a screenshot of a harmful text message.

Maybe a friend reported to you the painful words of another.

Solomon is not saying those words don’t hurt. But he is encouraging you to look in the mirror before you allow those comments to devastate you.

Look at…

Ecclesiastes 7:22—Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Ouch. What would happen if every foul and careless word you said about everybody else was broadcast for the whole world to see?

Douglas O’Donnell says this: “Together, these verses teach us an even more sobering truth: our tongue is only the tip of the iniquity iceberg. The proof that “all humans are inescapably flawed” is right between our teeth.” [6]

Better still are the words of Jesus in…

Matthew 12:36–37—“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

If you feel like that’s an impossible standard, you’re beginning to get the point!

You can spend a lifetime trying to figure out why God has made the universe this way, or why He allowed us to fall into sin, but you won’t ever find out enough to satisfy you.

Ecclesiastes 7:23–24—All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?

Solomon is not against wisdom per se.

He’s being realistic about the limits of human wisdom.

No matter how much you think and study, you’re never going to figure all this out.

You need to come to grips with the reality that God has a perfect standard, and you’re already guilty of breaking it.

Your righteousness can’t perfect you because sin is pervasive. But also…

B) Because sin is ENSLAVING

Ecclesiastes 7:25–26—I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her.

Here Solomon sees something more bitter than death: a woman. But not just any woman: this is a woman who enslaves people with her heart and her hands.

In the book of Proverbs, Solomon talks about two women: one he calls “Lady Wisdom” and the other he calls “Lady Folly.”

Lady Wisdom calls out to people, offering life, understanding, and the blessings that come from fearing God and following His ways.

Listen to how he describes Lady Folly...

Proverbs 9:13–18—The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

Sin will trick you, deceive you, enslave you, then destroy you.

The Preacher isn’t just speaking hypothetically here.

If Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes and is writing near the end of his life, as many believe, the next few verses make a bit more sense.

Ecclesiastes 7:27-28—Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

Now I don’t think Solomon is saying women are more sinful than men.

I think he’s writing about his personal experience.

He had 1000 wives, and it was through the influence of those women that Solomon turned away from God.

1 Kings 11:3—He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

Solomon was the wisest sinner who ever lived, yet he knew personally the enslaving power of sin.

Do you really think you can free yourself from sin’s captivity by yourself?

Your righteousness can’t perfect you because sin is enslaving. And…

C) Because sin is INHERITED

Ecclesiastes 7:29—See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

After looking at his own experience with sin, Solomon looks back to the beginning.

When God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, they were perfect. They had perfect righteousness.

Yet when they sinned all of us were corrupted.

The Apostle Paul helps us to understand this in...

Romans 5:12—Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

When Adam rebelled against God in the garden, sin spread to the entire human race.

The human race is like a mighty oak tree, Adam is the trunk and we are the branches. When Adam sinned, the entire tree fell. Now if an oak tree falls, do the branches fall too? Yes!

We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.

No matter how hard you try to be righteous, you cannot erase the sins you’ve already committed. You cannot free yourself from your slavery to sin. And you cannot pay off the sin debt you inherited from Adam.

The pursuit of righteousness under the sun is a dead end because your righteousness cannot perfect you.

Now we’re back where we started aren’t we?

If our righteousness can’t protect us and it won’t perfect us, what’s the point?

Why not join Billy Joel and laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints?

Because there is better way.

All morning we’ve been talking about pursuing righteousness “under the sun.”

But what if there’s another place to pursue righteousness? What is there’s a righteousness that can protect you and will perfect you?

Jesus tells us there is in...

Matthew 6:33—But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Here’s the Good News of the Gospel.

Jesus was the only truly righteous human to ever life. He was perfectly good, yet He died brutally young.

But His death wasn’t some sort of cosmic accident. He died on purpose.

On the cross a great exchange happens for all who trust in Jesus.

Your sin is credited to Jesus, and His righteousness is credited to you.

2 Corinthians 5:21—For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Dear friend, have you trusted in this righteousness, or are you still trying to earn righteousness on your own?

Would you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus today?

If you have trusted in Jesus, there’s even more good news!

Because Jesus rose from death on the third day, His righteousness will protect you. Yes, you’ll still face hardship and suffering in this life. But you will be forever protected in the next. When Jesus returns you will be ushered into a world without suffering, sorrow, or death.

And when He returns His righteousness will perfect you. You will battle against sin until the day you die. But when you see Him face to face you will never sin again.

So don’t pursue righteousness under the sun. Pursue the righteousness of Christ!

Prayer of Thanksgiving

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

Benediction (Philippians 3:7-9)