Get Wisdom and Hold on to It

Transcript

GR 2135
10/13/19
Get Wisdom and Hold on to It
Ecclesiastes 9:7-18
Gil Rugh


We're going to Ecclesiastes in your Bibles, Ecclesiastes 9. We're making our way through this book which is part of what is known as the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Of course, all of God’s word brings us knowledge and wisdom, but the book of Ecclesiastes is particularly focusing on how to live wisely in this fallen and difficult world. Because of sin, God brought His judgment on His creation, all the creation—human, animal, vegetable. The creation is under the judgment of God, and because of that there are difficulties, trials that make life a challenge. How do we navigate through life wisely as God's people? That's what he is talking about in Ecclesiastes. It was written under the direction of the Spirit of God. The human instrument that God chose was the wisest man that He had made, Solomon the king of Israel.

We are in chapter 9. We have already done the first part of this chapter, and Solomon said as he opened the chapter, just to remind you. Verse 1, “I have taken all this to my heart…” And at the end of the previous chapter he talked about the fact that it will never be possible for any human to exhaust the knowledge of God and His work in creation during this brief life. You could spend 24 hours a day trying to find all the answers and all the solutions, but you could not do it. So, “I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.” Remember we have noted two emphases in the book of Ecclesiastes. Number one, everything associated with this physical life is characterized by brevity, it is just a breath. It is here and it is gone. Our physical life itself will end in death, and the older you get the more you look back and say life is short. All the things we do in this life are characterized by that same brevity.

And the second thing we have noted is all the things that take place in this life are out of our control. They are out of our control, but they are under the control of the sovereign God. Verse 1 said “…righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.” Particularly focus on those who belong to Him as His children. We come to righteousness through believing what God has said and what God has promised. We know with the completed revelation from God that the provision God would make would be the giving of His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross, to pay the penalty for our sin. When we believe in Him, God cleanses us, forgives us, makes us new on the inside, and now we are declared righteous by Him and can live wisely. Our lives are particularly in the hands of God. All creation is under His control, but for those of us who belong to Him through faith in what He has promised and done in Christ, He cares for us in a special way. Romans 8, verse 28, we have looked at, “...we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” He causes them to work together for good.


He is at work in this world. And that is important because you'll note, the last part of verse 1 reminded us, “Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him.” So, while we know that God is at work, while we know that we are in the care of His hands as His people, that does not guarantee the outcome of the days of this life. In other words, righteous, wise people can experience just the opposite of what you would expect, not love but hatred, opposition, difficulty. Life in a fallen world is difficult for believer and unbeliever alike.

And then he went on to elaborate on that. We have the same experiences, we experience the same fate, the ultimate end of the physical life for all of us is physical death, unless Christ intervenes at His coming. But that's the end. Now there is something after this physical life that is of utmost importance, but Solomon is not dealing with that. He is concerned with our physical lives during our days of living on this earth. God is not out of the picture at all. In fact, the name God is used 40 times in these 12 chapters as we have it. That is over 3 times a chapter. So, God is there but he is not developing anything about life after death. Just a reminder, we will be brought to judgment before God after this life. But Solomon is primarily concerned with giving us the wisdom of how to navigate life wisely through the difficulties we have.

In this difficulty he reminds us the root of the problem is sin. In verse 3 we read, “Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.” Sin has come in, infected the entire human race and that makes people irrational. He uses the word insanity. We noted it is translated madness in other places in Ecclesiastes. It is irrational often, so it doesn't enable us to be sure of the outcome. Will this result in people loving me or hating me? Will this result in people becoming my friends or my enemies? That’s why sometimes it is with the opposite of what you thought. Often you say, I didn't think it would turn out like this. It's not what I would have expected, not what I hoped, not what I planned. All these kinds of ways of what we are saying. And it shouldn't surprise us, the difficulty in this world. By God's grace we've been rescued from our sin and lostness that controls and dominates us and makes us irrational. But we live in a world, that is their condition. We are in Romans 5 together in our study in the evening, and we’ve noted the Gospel is God's provision to rescue us. And we cannot rescue this world. The problem in the world is not their social conditions, the environment, injustices, on it goes. Those are symptoms or manifestations of the problem, but the problem is greater than that. It is the heart that is full of evil. Insanity is in our hearts, it comes out of a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked. What is coming out of that evil, wicked heart that is in rebellion against God, and refuses to bow before Him, is the irrational. Look around at our world. Look at what is going on in our own country. That is the reality of life and the world in which we live.

We came down to verses 7-9, and we touched on these verses. I just want to walk through them again. In the midst of all that goes on, the irrationality of life here, it is all going to end in death. We are all on that road to death. Again, you are aware of the exception we just sang about, when Christ comes to call us, and we will be bodily transformed by believers. But the general pattern that has been in existence for the millennia since Solomon wrote this, every single person down to this present lifetime has died. We don't have anybody alive on earth from 1850, they are gone. That's the point. But this ought not to discourage us or make us disappointed in the wrong sense, shouldn't depress us. In fact, he says that it is God's plan for His people in all of this. I almost said have a good time, but that may not be the best way to say it. But have joy. Enjoy life. In fact, in verses 7-9 he makes a change. He has talked about this before, we're not going to go back there, we've been to those verses, that we are to experience joy in our work, in our labor. That's part of His plan for us, that we work. But that we have joy.

But here he changes and gives these instructions as commands. There are things not recommended, but that we must do if we are going to be pleasing to God. “Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.” That doesn't mean everything you do God would approve. These are people who are righteous and wise. Their deeds and works are in the hand of God, and we are trying to conduct our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him. And part of His plan for us is to enjoy life.

You remember when He created Adam and Eve and put them in that Garden. It was a beautiful place, it had good things to eat. Adam was to work in caring for the Garden, and so on. But they were to enjoy life, they were to enjoy one another. Even a sexual relationship before the fall, because God told them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. So, when he talks about here, “…eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works…” this is part of God's plan that there be joy, happiness in life. “Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head.” Now he is going to be talking about, and he has talked about work and toil and so on. But the point is they wouldn't wear white clothes all the time because they had to do physical labor and more of their life was involving physical labor in those days. But the point is all the time in our lives we ought to have a life that is characterized by joy, enjoying life. Now some days are going to be more difficult and less joyful times. But really, we ought to be looking for joy in life, and enter into that joy.

“Enjoy life...” Sometimes a believer would say we're here, we're here temporarily. We're going to heaven. All our joy is in the future. That's not so. Greater joy awaits us but enjoy life. That's a command of God. Underline it. When you get down, go and read it. What does God tell you to do? “Enjoy life...” If that's what God told me to do, I'd better do it. And here it is “…with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life...” Again, we know from the rest of the Bible that God plans to bring blessings on someone who stays single. But he is talking about the general things of life. The point is, “Enjoy life…all the days of your fleeting life…”

And we'll say more about that again in a moment. But see “…all the days…” and this emphasis on days is important. You'll note he puts it, “Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days…” Remember sometimes it says in Ecclesiastes “…all the years.” And they have changed the word days to years because it sounded more reasonable. But the point is, you count your life in days, and realize it is brief, it is passing. We would say today, make the day count. This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. “…all the days of your…” Now you'll note here our word hebel was translated “fleeting”. It is the same word translated vanity throughout the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes started out, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” We noted that's not the best translation of this word. The word itself just means a breath, a vapor, something that is brief. It's like your breath, it's here and it is gone. So here they have translated it “fleeting” because it makes sense. I think it makes sense to translate it fleeting, brief, a breath consistently. What he is saying here, enjoy life all the days of your brief life. It is a life that is passing, it is short. “…which He has given to you under the sun…”

This is what we are talking about. He's not saying there is not life after this life, that death is the end of everything. It is the end of everything of this life. We'll talk about that as we go further along. Keeping things in the context here, it is life which God has given you under the sun. This is the life God has given you to live. Believe verse 1, that all our works are in the hand of God. We are living the life He has given us to live. He hasn't given me a life to live for someone else. I can't do that. This is the life I have to live, with its strengths, its weaknesses, its good, its bad, its ups, its downs. We realize that. And I only have limited control over this life. I have a responsibility, but God is in control.

“…all the days of your…” You'll note the margin of your Bible, if you are using the New American Standard, it has a #1 in front of fleeting. Then you go to verse 9 to the left in the margin where it says, literally “a life of vanity.” That's not accurate. Vanity is just a translation of the word hebel which means a breath, a vapor. So, it is literally your life of brevity, your life which is a breath. Fleeting gives you the idea there. In your brief life, your life of brevity “…which He has given you under the sun.” And then after the word sun you have a little #2. And you go over to the margin and it says the Hebrew adds “all the days of your vanity”. I wished they hadn't left that out. Some of the other translations now have put it back in. It's in the Hebrew, it's in the text. I guess they took it out because it seemed like so much redundancy. But that's the point he is making. Enjoy life all the days of your brief life which He has given to you under the sun. This is the life you are living on earth, which is a life of brevity, he says again.

If we going to have what the Bible says as Solomon wrote it, after the word sun you would have all the days of your brevity again. You see these are days. Twice he uses the word for a breath, they are a breath. I look back as being one of the seniors here and you say, where did the days go? You get up in the morning, you work through the day, some days you think . . . We have stages of life and when you are going to school you think the day will never end. And then you get married and have kids and that's great! But you think the kids are going to win and you'll be dead before you get to be able to enjoy life again. And then they become teenagers and life is over for a while. We go through stages.

The days of our life, they change, but they go by briefly when you think about it. Solomon wrote this 3000 years ago. All that happened then and here I am, and my brief life is near its closing days. That's what he is emphasizing. Enjoy these days, they are brief, they will be gone. Youth isn't forever. People try to pretend they are young when they are old, but we are old. The old people get together and talk, I don't feel any older than I did when I was 30. Ask the young people around you what they think. I don't think they look anything like 30, they are living in a fantasy world. We are back to that insanity like in verse 3. It's not the real world.

Enjoy it, wherever your stage is. If you are young and a believer in Christ, you can enjoy this part of your life. It will have its challenges, it will have its disappointments, it will have its failures. And as you move through life, the days of your life, these days are different. One thing about being old, you have some freedom. It is Marilyn and me. If we want to go out to lunch, we go out to lunch. If I get hungry, we are going to lunch. Great. We don't have to say, we need to get a babysitter, get somebody to watch the kids. Certain responsibilities are free but there are other problems. Now we can go out and do what we want but our bodies won't go and it's hard to go without it. Here lately, it's 6:30, and we have our pajamas on. I guess everything is closed in Lincoln. And then once in a while, we have to go out for something, and we find out the world is alive out there at 7 o'clock in the evening. Then I look around. They don't have gray hair. It’s life, enjoy it.

I was reading some stuff in the last couple of weeks, and as believers, what I want to emphasize here, there is in evangelicalism, this idea, a spiritual formation is the big thing. And we have it in our evangelical schools, our churches. And there is often, go back to the monks, St. John of the Cross, back in the 12th century or 13th century, back in that time period. And look at how they deprived themselves and look how they devoted themselves to the Lord. I don't find that in Scripture. You don't have to spend everything you have on yourself, that would not be wise. We want to be good stewards, we want to be faithful in all areas. But God gives me good things to enjoy. Sometimes we as Christians think we have to feel guilty, we almost have to apologize. I got a new house, I know I didn't need it and maybe I shouldn't have it. My question is, could you afford it? Well, if God blessed you with it, and you thought that's what God would have you do, enjoy it. I know, but people are going to think we shouldn't have done that. What does that have to do with you enjoying your life? And they should enjoy their life. I'm not called to live your life, you are not called to live my life. We want to keep things in perspective.

Come to the New Testament. Come to Matthew 6, verse 25. Sermon on the Mount. What did Jesus say? You can't serve two masters. We're talking about serving the right master. “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, …what you will eat, …what you will drink…” For your body is more than what you put on. Life is more than food, the body more than clothing. The birds of the air, God takes care of them, you are worth more than the birds, the end of verse 26.

You can't change your life anyway. Whether you say you can't add an hour to your life, or you can't add a cubit to your height, the point is the same. Same thing as Ecclesiastes, right? It is out of your control. Why are you worried about it? You can't control it, you can't change it. That's His point. You have needs. Look at the flowers of the field, God clothes the flowers with a glory even Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes, didn't have at the height of his glory. And Jesus knows because He was there. Solomon wasn't clothed like that. So, if He takes care of the grass of the field and the birds of the air and you are so much more precious to Him than that, what are you worried about? Why do you have such little faith, the end of verse 30, “You of little faith!”

Don't worry then, stop being anxious about the things of this life. The unbelievers, here the Gentiles, because they are outside of Israel and Jesus is there ministering to Israel. God knows you need these things. That doesn't mean you don't work, work is a key emphasis. One commentator said that is the main emphasis in the book of Ecclesiastes. God created us to work. That doesn't mean we can't take breaks, doesn't mean you can't retire, but life is to be active. Seek first His kingdom, His righteousness, He provides what you need.

So, you live wisely, but I can't control tomorrow. You might lose your job through no fault of your own. As we'll see it may be because a sinner told a lie about you and got you fired and you say it's not fair, it's not just. But it is life. You may lose your health and can't work, something disastrous may happen to one of your family members and it's in the hands of the Lord. Don't worry about tomorrow, verse 34, “…tomorrow will care for itself.” Why? Because God is sovereign over tomorrow. He says it will care for itself, that's not fate, that's not just the luck of the draw. It means it is not something you can do anything about. I have plans. But any number of things could happen. If I had a heart attack this afternoon, my plans for tomorrow would totally change. In fact, there may be no plan for tomorrow if I die of the heart attack. That's life. So, it's tomorrow will care for itself in the sense if you function wisely today, planned, like you can, I have a job, I go to work, or I do this.

“Each day has enough trouble of its own.” You note Jesus doesn't say don't be anxious because God will keep you from trouble. That's not what He says. He says there is enough trouble in today for you to devote your attention to and function wisely in maneuvering through today. All my plans for the tomorrows are tentative. Remember James? Don't say you are for sure going to do this tomorrow, say if God wills, I will do this tomorrow. It doesn't mean you can't make plans, but all my plans are tentative because I don't control the future. Yet I worry about it.

If I can go to the political world for an example, one of our politicians, female, a younger lady said as she is crying, when she is speaking to a group, it's in the news, because she's afraid to have children because climate change is going to destroy the world and those children will grow up in a world that is unlivable and I can't even have children. You have more to worry about than climate change. But for us we don't worry. Why? I know this world is going to destruction. That doesn't mean I won't recycle. If they tell me to recycle, I'll recycle. I do certain things, fine, I want the world to be as livable as possible, but we're not going to fix the world. And I don't have to worry about it. I have to live wisely today. So, each day, sounds like Ecclesiastes doesn't it, the days of our life. What would God have me do today? That's the best preparation for tomorrow, wise living today.

One other passage, then we will go back and finish Ecclesiastes. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, “The Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons...” Don't want to listen to what demons are teaching. “…by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…” Note this, “men who forbid marriage, abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. Foe everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected…” In other words, I can eat what I enjoy. This ascetic emphasis that we would be more spiritual, I look back and I admire those people that gave up things. Paul says he has learned to live with abundance and learned to live without. That doesn't mean that working hard and getting the fruits of your labor, and for some people they get much more than others. That's one of the inequities of life. Sometimes people who work the hardest seem to get the least, but the fact is whatever you have, you can enjoy.

When you hear this teaching from some evangelicals and they are promoting an ascetic life and these principles of “we cut back and we limit ourselves”, Paul was limited by what he had not control over, the preaching of the Gospel. This brought trials and limitations to what he could have and so on. Enjoy life. Now remember we do not live for pleasure, but we have pleasure in living. There is a difference. We are not hedonistic, we do not live for pleasure, that's not what drives us. We live for the Lord and in our living our lives wisely day by day we have pleasure in our life. So, if I enjoy doing something and I can, and God has given me the means, I can do it. Somebody else can't do it. I want to help people, we help one another, but I can't live someone else's life. That's consistent with the New Testament.

Back to Ecclesiastes 9. So here is the point, the end of verse 9, “…for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.” This is what God wants you to do. I know, I have heavenly rewards. I have good on top of good and then the best is yet to come. We were born in this country, we sit here comfortably. I watched on the news, people in parts of the Middle East loading all their possessions on a little box and running for their lives. I can't live their life. It's sad, but I can thank the Lord, thank you, Lord, that I am here in the country where I am privileged to enjoy things and to have things that I do enjoy. I don't want to selfishly use all that I have, but that doesn't mean I have to limit myself to down here that if I live like the monks and St. John of the Cross, that's the way. No. This is God's reward, enjoy it, take a vacation, be here for Sunday.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” That's why many of the commentators note that Ecclesiastes is a book of work. As we work our way through life, here are our instructions of wisdom. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” Why? “…for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.” Let me just say something about that word Sheol. I was reading some Hebrew writers and they observed that it is used 60 or 65 times in the Old Testament, and you can consistently translate it death. The Old Testament does not really develop in any detail a doctrine of life after death. Now it recognizes it, even Job acknowledged that his faith was that even after his death he would stand and see the Lord on the earth. So, there is indication, but Sheol refers to death, and that's what he is talking about here. And his point is, in this life. One evangelical commentator said there is no way you can get around verse 10, there is nothing after this life. And he's an evangelical? Well, you can believe in annihilation and . . . That's not what he is talking about. Some of the cults will take you here. “…for there is no activity, planning, or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol…” He's talking about in the grave, that's where you are going, that's what he talked about. The end of verse 3, “Afterwards they go to the dead.” And verse 4, “…a live dog is better than a dead lion.” He's not talking about what happens after this life. Remember his instruction is how do we live wisely in the days that we have on this earth. Afterwards we will give an account to God. He mentions that but he doesn't go into the detail. Other parts of Scripture do.

So, this is the time to accomplish something, to do something. As believers, part of the body of Christ, we have been given gifts. Don't waste it, this is the time to use that gift, this is the time to apply ourselves to what God intends us to do in this life. And I have the best vacation plan of all, as every believer does, what God has planned in glory. There we will be busy, but all the pain and difficulty and death itself will be gone. So, we are to be busy. He didn't put us here to do nothing. That's where the world is because their life, their thoughts don't include God. That's what everything is built around, we call it the hedonistic life. The beer commercial that says grab all the gusto.

Verse 11. Now here we're going to see, we're going to go back and forth, inequities. Life is not always what you would expect because wisdom is coming into life realistically. We've raised a generation in our country that doesn't have a realistic view of life, they can't handle life. Their self-esteem has made each of them think they are the most important person on earth, and they can do whatever they want. And this doesn't prepare them for life under the sun. How many times does he have to say it? On earth, under the sun, these brief days. “I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability...” Sometimes we may call these ironies, the outcomes are not what you would expect. The swift doesn't always win the race. He'll win it for sure, the fastest person by far. And he has a physical problem, he doesn't win the race, something comes up and you see him buckle. The swift doesn't always win the race, the outcome is not always what is expected. The warriors don't always win the battle. By all accounts this army should have won, but they don't always win the battle. The wise don't always have bread, they're are not always successful. You think a wise person ought to be assured at least of being able to take care of the necessities of life. No. Remember Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, God takes care of those necessities. I can try to plan the best I can, but it doesn't always come out that way.

Discerning might not get wealth. There are some very, very smart and discerning people but they don't get rich. The talented might not be honored. It's just those inequities. Why? The end of verse 11, you ought to have it underlined in your Bible, “…for time and chance overtake them all.” You can't get away from this emphasis, life is not only brief, it is out of our control. The best planning, the best preparation doesn't guarantee the outcome that you thought. Chance, that word translated chance just means an event, a happening. It doesn't have the idea of luck, good fortune, or fortune like that. You could say time and events, time and what happens in the time.

We saw this back in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event…” The time and what happens in the time is under God's control. “A time to give birth and a time to die…” all of that. And time and chance, time and these events overtake everyone, all. Remember down in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything appropriate in its time.” So, this connection of time and the events that go on in time. We'll say it wasn't the right time. It was probably the right thing, but not the right time. Or it was the right time and not the right event. And God brings them together. The problem is we don't. Again, on a level we plan, we all have to plan. We made a schedule and planned to be here today, there are planned things for it. But the reality of it is, things are out of our control. That's the point.

“…for time and chance overtake them all. Moreover, man does not know his time...” Now we're going to talk about how man can get caught. He doesn't know his time, and you don't know your time, you don't know the events in the time. And you can't control the time, you can't control the events. So, no matter what great plans I have made, financially I have arranged everything, we're going to do this tomorrow, nothing can go wrong. I mentioned if I have a heart attack tonight, the plan changed because the time for me was not tomorrow. The event I planned was a good one, but it is worthless now. That's what he is saying. “…man does not know his time…” And then he uses an example from fish, birds. “…like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare…” The bird didn't expect that, the fish didn't expect it. “…so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.” Let's face it, if we knew what was going to happen that was not good, evil, bad, we would try to fix it before it happened.

I got hit by a car when I was young. Ran out of the small grocery store they had there, below my grandmother's apartment, right out in front of a car, got hit, rolled down the street. But I jumped up and got in my dad's panel truck that was there because the crowds were gathering. That was in the day when everybody was in the downtown, and I'm hiding in the back of the pickup, holding my head, and I survived. I could just as easily have gotten run over, and for my parents everything would have changed in their lives. The son that we took to the grocery story is lying in the street dead. They weren't believers then, and it would have been a different world. But those kinds of things. That's the point, you are like a fish that gets caught in a net, a bird caught in a trap. You didn't go out and expect that today. We are ensnared at an evil time and all of us can relate to that in one way or another. It may not always be so severe, but things have come into our life and we say I didn't expect that. And sometimes they are significant things that alter the course of our life. I just didn't know that that would happen. I planned the best I could, I made the provision.

One of the men who wrote a book on discipleship came out of World War II and used this example. His father, he said, had prepared and saved for his retirement all of life but with the events that went on in Germany he said when we celebrated his birthday it took all that was left of his retirement to buy a cake and a bottle of wine. That was it. The currency had been so devalued, it was worthless. The best of planning, we say it is good to plan for the future, but you don't control the future. So that is what he is saying, man does not know his time, “…so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time.” It's an evil time, that's not what I wanted. And it's a result of the fall. If I have heart attack, if it wasn't for a fall, there wouldn't be any heart attacks. If it's a disease my child gets, if it wasn't for the fall, that wouldn't happen. So, it suddenly comes.

Verse 13, “Also this I came to see as wisdom...” You see this is not a sour old man at the end of his life with emptiness, just rooting around. “…I came to see as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me.” I am learning something, Solomon says, about wisdom and living on this earth. And you don't get caught off guard because you always realize something can happen. In one sense you will be, and you have to adjust. But I don't go into a tailspin. I have to stop sometimes and collect my thoughts as we would say. Say Lord, I don't have a clue what's going on now. I don't know what to do next. I'm all but paralyzed here. All I need is You to do, is tell me how to take the next step. I don't go into despair and I'm depressed. My Dad told me, I remember, I was a little kid, he says you are not to be late for any appointments or places you are supposed to be. You are not important enough to have people wait for you. Destroyed my self-esteem. Here I am an old man and I still haven't gotten over it. Everybody is more important than I am. Makes me sad to think about it. It's reality, a good lesson. This is wisdom under the sun, this is Solomon talking.

Here is an example. Now he is going to show the contrast. Wisdom has great benefit, can accomplish great things and it can be totally unappreciated. “There was a small city with a few men in it…” and note the contrast he wants to draw, make it as big as possible—small city, few men who could defend it. “…and a great king came to it…” A great king would have a great army. He surrounds the city, “and constructed large siege works against…” the small city. You see how he wants you to understand the magnitude of the difference. “But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom.” We're not told, because the details are not important, but this is an account for you to see the contrast that wisdom can be victorious over great odds.

There is an account in the Old Testament in the book of Samuel when Joab was coming to conquer a city and there was a man in there he wanted. And he had a huge army around the city ready to tear down the walls, conquer the city and kill everybody. But there was a woman in the city, a wise woman, and she called out and asked, what can we do. He said, throw the head of the man I am after over the wall and we'll leave. So, she told the men of the city to cut off his head and throw it over the wall, and they will go away. And they did. Do you know what that woman's name was? I don't either because it is not recorded. Nobody remembers. But it was one wise person who saved a whole city from an army. Example.

“Yet no one remembered that poor man.” Now there is a principle here. The world has its values and we ought to recognize that. There is this thought, and this is where things like social action and racial justice come in, because then the world sees what good people we are. One man even wrote we have to get into the scholarly world because when they see how intelligent we are, and that our scholarly ideas are better than theirs, then they will be open to trust Christ. They are crazy. Where would he have been told that? The world doesn't have the same values, they can't think like we think. So as believers we ought not to think that these things, as a believer, a righteous wise person exercising wisdom, and it may bring benefit to the company you work for. It maybe has application here or there and you get no recognition because you are a nobody. That's the point.

“So I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength.” Note, he never says folly or lack of wisdom is a good thing. You just understand it is of great value, but it's a value not appreciated in the fallen world in which we have to live. “‘Wisdom is better than strength.’ But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.” You are a nobody, we don't want to hear it, you are not important enough to have an opinion. We see the arrogance that goes on and you sit and listen to a wise man talk about it and you say why doesn't everybody listen to what he has to say. Because he is a nobody. Now somebody has power and money, we want to hear him.

“The words of the wise heard in quietness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.” Doesn't matter, you might have someone who does stand out, he is a ruler, he has power, but he is a fool, and he speaks among fools. That would be the point about him shouting among fools. They will listen to him. But the wise man's words are neglected. However, “Wisdom is better than weapons of war…” Keeps coming back, hold on to wisdom. Remember the book of Proverbs talks about the value of wisdom, in getting everything, get wisdom and don't let go of wisdom. If you haven't done it, read the first 9 chapters of Proverbs at least this week, it will remind you of Ecclesiastes, and Solomon wrote much of Proverbs. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.”

You see he goes back and forth. What happens to Christians and makes us vulnerable and leads us off the track is we take our eye off the ball, as we would talk about, that laser focus on this is what God says. Where does it say that in Scripture? Because we think they are successful, and we are not, we ought to do what they are doing. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.” And we see that all over, one sinner in the right place can turn the whole country up. We've seen it going on in our government, one person says something and suddenly, the whole government is paralyzed because we don't know whether it is true or not. And it may be a total lie and can undermine the effectiveness of the country. I heard some of the major countries we deal with are sort of on hold because they want to see how this will come out. I'm not taking a side on it, I'm just saying we don't know.

A number of years ago, a church I was familiar with was growing, back even to the early days of my ministry. And it prospered. They had a man teaching the Bible there, and it was having hundreds of people come. Well a few years ago, several years ago now, a person from that church stopped in to see me. They had attended Indian Hills in the early years and were still positive toward Indian Hills and they came to talk to me. And they wanted to tell me about what happened at their church. They said their church was flourishing, the Bible was being taught, they had hundreds of people and they were serving. And they had this man come in and he seemed like a strong Bible-believing Christian and he knew the Bible and people were drawn to him. And over time more and more people got influenced by his teaching, and do you know what happened? His teaching began to turn away from the truth of Scripture and it became a conflict with the pastor, but many people became attached to him and his teaching and were following him. Do you know what has happened to their church, to summarize it? This person said it has been destroyed. Hundreds of people have left, they're down with a handful of people. The pastor is gone, most of the people are gone.

Something happened to me that reminded me of this. A couple months ago I'm having lunch and a person came and sat down next to me and said, “Could I talk to you for a few minutes?” And I knew of him, knew his family, and he had attended Indian Hills. Sometimes it seems like half the city at one time or another attended Indian Hills, we're glad for that. And he was very complimentary, talked about how he appreciated the ministry of the Word during his years here and has been a foundation for his life. I said where are you now? And do you know where he is? At that church that I said had been all but destroyed. I said, how is it going? He says, it's tragic. I don't know if you know the history, at one time that church was a flourishing church, but a man came in and the years go by and we're just a handful. It's like you can't recover what is done.

And I thought of this passage. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but…” never forget that, “…one sinner destroys much good.” That can happen in your life personally. We don't live our life fearful of what is going to happen, but we live our lives fixed on the Word. And when tragedy like that happens, we want to be careful. Best thing that church could have done was take the Word of God they had been taught and paid attention. We saw in 1 Timothy 4 the doctrine of demons. That man is a teacher in Roman Catholicism now. Somewhere along the line somebody got off track and somebody shouldn't have been following somebody. It happens in our lives, it can happen to you at work, a drunk driver can kill one of your children. “…one sinner destroys much good.” Can bring sadness to your family. Just don't know. That doesn't mean that we walk with fear—I'm so afraid of tomorrow.

That's what that unbelieving politician does, I can't have children because of climate change. I'm not afraid of tomorrow. We have that other saying, I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future. Same thing. Do I believe the sovereignty of God? Then I am trying to apply myself with as much wisdom as I can to live today as He would have me live, and make plans, as a wise man would plan, for the future. But all my plans beyond concluding this sermon in prayer are contingent. And I'm not even guaranteed to get through that. But you know what I mean. We want to live with wisdom. Anchor yourself in the truth of God's Word, then you have the confidence I am in His hand. I can't control what happens in my life, but I am responsible for my walk, in wisdom in this life. God will control the time and the events that He will bring into my life. I will trust Him for the wisdom and the best wisdom for tomorrow is to live today wisely.

One question, are you a wise, righteous person? The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Until you have recognized your sin, your separation from God, the enmity that exists between you and God, you can't live wisely in this world. You can bounce from here to there but a true wise life with its full enjoyment and assured ending can't be yours. But you can have it free. This is not a sales pitch because I don't have anything to sell, because God did everything necessary, and now He says I give it to you as a gift. You couldn't fix yourself, your heart is evil and desperately wicked. You are crazy, you don't think straight. Stop! Let me get your attention. You are a sinner, My Son died to pay the penalty for your sin. If you place your faith in Him, He will forgive you your sin, He'll cleanse you, He'll credit you with His righteousness. And do you know what? He'll give you a mind that can think straight and then you can begin to live life wisely.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Thank You for the love that You demonstrated to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Lord, we were rescued when we didn't realize how lost we were, and You in grace touched our heart and mind, opened our eyes to see the reality of our lost, sinful condition. And by Your grace we placed our faith in Christ. Now our desire is to live righteous, wise lives, lives that are a testimony that we serve the living God. Thank You for Your grace that is sufficient. That we can enjoy life, we can experience the joy even in the trials and the stress, and the relaxation in times of peace, in times of war. May we live today for You in all we do. We pray in Christ's name, amen.