Let's Get Real
Ecclesiastes: Everything Matters • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
Recap:
Recap:
Last week we discussed the vanity of trying to hoard wealth. Man wasn’t created to hoard wealth… We were created to worship God, and that is where satisfaction is truly found. Solomon’s advise when you don’t consider God in your findings is to try your best to find contentment in a meaningless world.
We started chapter 7 as well where Solomon was looking at good things and better things as well. We won’t go over the list that he gives but there is some wisdom to what he shared. Let’s pick it up in verse 14.
v 14) Consider God
v 14) Consider God
God has ordered our lives says Solomon, permitting times of prosperity and times of adversity. What we mean by talking about prosperity is a form of happiness and welfare too. essentially when prosperity comes we should be glad and enjoy it. When adversity comes you need to except that too.
Solomon’s advise for the reader is, “Take what life gives you, and get along the best you can.” Solomon realize that God sends and allows the good along with the bad, happiness and trouble, so that man will not know what is going to happen next. Now if we were being honest probably frustrates us to some degree, as it can be a mercy or an exasperation. This conclusion is strictly subsolar, and it doesn’t rise above flesh and blood.
For us as believers we will consistently be asked, “If God is good why does He allow evil to exist” or “Why does bad things happen to good people.”
The book of Job was given to us as apart of our Bibles to answer that question. After all that Job went through he still stated:
15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face.
21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job had no idea why God had allowed the things He did, but he knew that God was good and therefore continued to trust in Him. Ultimately, we should have the same reaction as well.
The answer to why is there evil in the world is because there is no such thing as good people, in the absolute sense of the word. All of us are tainted and infected with sin:
20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Even Jesus stated that:
19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Each of us feel the effects of sin in one way or another. Sometimes it’s our personal sin; other times, it’s the sins of others. We live in a fallen world, and experience the effects of the fall. One of those effects is injustice and seemingly senseless suffering.
4 Points about bad things happening:
Bad things may happen but this world is not the end.
Bad things may happen but God uses those bad things for an ultimate, lasting good.
Bad things may happen, but those bad things equip believers for deeper ministry.
Bad things may happen to good people, but the worst things happened to the best Person.
Romans 5:8 declares:
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Despite the sinful nature of people, God still loves us. Jesus loved us enough to due to take the penalty for our sins:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we receive Jesus as Savior We will be forgiven and promised an eternal home in heaven.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
God allows things to happen for a reason. Whether or not we understand His reasons, we must remember that God is good, just, loving, and merciful:
3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
sing to his name, for it is pleasant!
Often bad things happen to us that we simply cannot understand. Instead of doubting God’s goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Family we walk by faith, not by sight.
vv 15-18) Dangers along the way
vv 15-18) Dangers along the way
[15] The expression “Now I’ve seen everything” comes to mind in verse 15. We say it when we witness the unexpected, the paradoxical, the ultimate surprise. And that seems to be Solomon’s meaning here. In the course of his empty life, he had seen every kind of contradiction. He say just people die young and wicked ones live to an old age. Solomon mourns, “that isn’t fair.”
[16-17] Solomon’s solution is wacky. Since he cannot find a correlation between righteousness and blessings and on the other hand sin and punishment. He decides that the best policy is to avoid extremes. This shallow, unbiblical conclusion is known as “the law of the golden mean.” coined by Aristotle. It means for moderation or a balance of two extremes.
Be righteous, but not too much; be wise, but not too much; be wicked, but not too much; be foolish, but not too much. What Solomon has experienced is what a lot of us have seen too. Righteousness doesn’t alway pay. Wickedness sometimes does. Therefore morality is to be a thing of calculation.
This is a really common approach to life, thinking that everything is good in moderation. There is some truth to it, but does not define a wise or good life. Jesus and Paul were not considered balanced individuals in their day. their understanding of eternity and accountability made them- in the view of others- unbalanced.
Avoiding extreme righteousness and excessive wisdom, one might escape premature destruction. Which isn’t true at all. God’s standard is that His people shouldn’t sin, but when they do.
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
What Solomon is suggesting is a middle of the road policy. Extreme righteousness or wisdom can lead to a short life, also extreme wickedness and foolishness can lead to a short life too.
It is as clear as day, that these are man’s reasonings, not God’s revelations. God again doesn’t condone sin in the slightest. His standard is always perfection.
[18] According to the Preacher, the best policy is remain in the middle ground. The one who fears God shall come out from both of them, meaning they will escape from either side’s pitfalls.
This is terrible advice… Because it places God in favor of moderation in sin and unrighteousness. Family living a life for Jesus, I promise you that it will be the greatest life you can live.
Living your life for Jesus is the only life worth living.
vv 19-22) Wisdom for life
vv 19-22) Wisdom for life
[19] A wise man- even with an under the sun premise- will see and appreciate the value of wisdom. And Solomon believes that wisdom gives more strength and protection to a man than ten rulers give to a city, which simply means that wisdom is great than armed might. God is not necessarily on the side of the biggest armies.
[20] The fact that this verse begins with “surely” shows that it is vitally connected with what precedes. But what is the connection?
The connection is that we are all in need of the benefits of wisdom. A wise man understands sinfulness of man- and their own sinfulness. There is no one who is absolutely righteous, all deal with sin externally and internally.
[21-22] A healthy sense of our own imperfections will help us to take criticisms in stride. If we hear a servant cursing us, though he is much lower on the social ladder, we can always be glad he doesn’t know us better, because then he would have more to curse!
When Shimei cursed David, Abishai wanted to cut off head, but David’s reply implied that perhaps Shimei’s cursing was not entirely causeless.
10 But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ ” 11 And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. 12 It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”
And we should always remember that we have been guilty of the same thing. Many time we have cursed others in our heart. We can scarcely expect others to be perfect when we are so far from perfect ourselves.
This is one of the frustrations of a perfectionist. They want everything and everyone else to be perfect, while they live in a world of imperfection, and they themselves cannot reach the goal they set for others.
In his book lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon gave a chapter to this verse, which he titled, “The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear.” In that chapter he gave wise advise to pastors and Christian workers that they should sometimes (if not often) simply overlook unkind and thoughtless things others say and do. We would not want to be judged by our worst moments; we should not judge others by theirs.
vv 23-25) Frustration in seeking wisdom
vv 23-25) Frustration in seeking wisdom
[23] As the Preacher gives wise advice for living, he understood that his desire to be wise and probing into all these different areas of life was not always fulfilled with true wisdom. He wanted to be wise enough to solve all mysteries and unravel all the tangled threads.
But because he was making all his investigations apart from God, he found that the ultimate answers eluded him. Without special revelation, life remains an insoluble riddle.
What is incredible about this admission of failure to find wisdom- watching wisdom recede with every step he takes, discovering that none of our soundings ever gets to the bottom of things- this is, if not the beginning of wisdom, a good path to that beginning.
Explanations of things as they exist are remote, inaccessible, and exceedingly deep. The world is filled with enigmas. The realm of the unknown remains unanswered questions:
15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
[25] In spite of his failure to come up with the answers, Solomon doggedly persevered in his search for greater wisdom and a solution to the human equation. He wanted to understand the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. That is, why people abandon themselves to debauchery and shame.
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—
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
vv 26-29) Man’s sinfulness
vv 26-29) Man’s sinfulness
[26] In that connection to the previous verse, Solomon thought a loose woman or a prostitute- a woman whose influence is more bitter than death. Probably to due to experience he has found that her mind is filled with subtle ways of snaring men, and those in her clutches are bound as if by chains.
Anyone whose desire is to please God escapes her traps, but the man who plays around with sin is sure to cross her path and be ensnared by her.
This really makes us wish we knew more about when Solomon wrote this; at what point in his life. We know from:
4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Surely, Solomon himself was caught in these snares and nets and fetters. Was Solomon one who pleased God in escaping from this trap, or was he the sinner trapped by her.
While I do believe that Solomon is talking about a prostitute here, this could also be correlated with a type of the world or the wisdom of the world:
8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
[27-28] The rest of the verses of our passage seems to suggest that Solomon was generally disappointed with his fellow human beings. When he first met anyone, he had great expectations, but after he got to know that person better, his hopes were dashed. No one met his ideal. Solomon like many of us found that there is no such person as the perfect stranger, and that familiarity does breed contempt.
Solomon decided to total the number of friendships in which he found a measure of real satisfaction and of fulfilled hopes. Out of all the people he had known, how many did he regard as a true friend a brother.
He had sought repeatedly for a perfect person, but had never been able to find a single one. Everyone he met had some flaws or weakness. All that he discovered was that good men are rare and good women rarer still. He found one man in a thousand who came close to his ideal, that is, a man who was a loyal, dependable, selfless friend.
But he couldn’t find one woman in a thousand who impressed him as a reasonable approach to excellence. Such a shocking outburst of male chauvinism is incomprehensible and offensive to us today, but that is because our judgements are based on Christian principles and values.
It would not be shocking to the orthodox Jew who thanks God every day that he was not born a woman. Nor would it be shocking to men of some culture in which women are looked on as slaves or mere property.
Commentators go through interpretive gymnastics to soften the force of Solomon’s stupid words here, I believe their good-intentioned efforts are misdirected. At the end of the day Solomon probably meant exactly what he said. And his conclusion is still shared by men throughout the world whose outlook is earthbound and carnal.
Solomon’s view of women was terribly one-sided.
“The influence of women is most powerful for good or for ill. I once heard one of the keenest of observers say that no great movement for the uplifting of humanity has been generated in human history but that woman’s influence had much to do with it. It is equally true that the part that women have taken in corrupting the race has been terrible. When the womanhood of a nation noble, the national life is held in strength. when it is corrupt, the nation is doomed. Woman is the last stronghold of good or evil. Compassion and cruelty are superlative in her.” G. Campbell Morgan
Solomon later redeemed himself by writing one of literature’s noblest tributes to womanhood- Proverbs 31. In Ecclesiastes he writes from the earthly plane of human prejudice, but in Proverbs he writes from the lofty peak of divine revelation.
With the advent of the Christian faith, woman has reached the summit in her rise to dignity and respect. The Lord Jesus is her truest Friend and Emancipator.
[29] As Solomon pondered his unending disappointment in the people he had met, he correctly concluded that man has fallen from his original condition. How true! God made man in his own image and after His likeness. But man sought out man sinful schemes which marred and distorted the divine image in him.
Even in his fallen condition, mankind still has an intuitive hunger to find perfection. We go through life looking for the perfect partner, the perfect job, the perfect everything. But we cannot find perfection in others or ourselves.
Solomon’s problem is that he is confined in his search to the sphere of, “under the sun.”
Only one perfect life has ever been lived on this earth, that is the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But now he is above the sun, exalted at the right hand of God. And God satisfies man’s hunger for perfection with Christ- no one else, no other thing.
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Verse 1
All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live
Chorus 1
I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee my blessed Savior
I surrender all
Verse 2
All to Jesus I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me Jesus take me now
Verse 4
All to Jesus I surrender
Lord I give myself to Thee
Fill me with Thy love and power
Let Thy blessing fall on me