Proverbs for Living Wisely

Transcript

GR 2136
10/20/2019
Proverbs for Living Wisely
Ecclesiastes 10:1-20
Gil Rugh

You can turn in your bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, and you should be glad you came this morning because I am going to perform a miracle, (laughter) Lord willing. We are going to do a whole chapter today. (Sounds of amazement). Now, remember I said Lord willing, all 20 verses of chapter 10. I think we will be able to cover it together and move this along in our study of the Book of Ecclesiastes. One reason that this chapter moves a little more quickly is it contains a number of proverbs. You remember Solomon was the writer of Proverbs. At the end of the book in chapter 12, verse 9 we are told in addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. In fact, in 1 Kings chapter 4, verse 32, we are told that Solomon wrote 3,000 proverbs. We have a number of those in our Book of Proverbs in our bible and we have some in the Book of Ecclesiastes of which Solomon is the writer, and there are a number of proverbs. Those little pithy statements that concisely and clearly present a truth, or an illustration of a truth, so we’ll see those as we move along.

Chapter 9 at the end reminded us again that we live in an inconsistent world. There’s instability in the world. There is injustice in the world. There are the ups, and downs. Solomon is writing to God’s people, he is king of the Jews. God gives His word to the Jews, and He has provided the worship system that enabled them to come before Him as we now have Jesus Christ as our high priest, and come before Him as His children. So what Solomon is doing is giving wisdom to God’s children for navigating life in this fallen world with all its unfairness, inconsistencies, injustices, and so on. He talked a little bit about that at the last part of chapter 9, in verse 11. “I again saw under the sun that…” An “under the sun” expression reminder is that we are talking about physical life on this earth. “…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…”

Things don’t turn out the way we might expect. Why? “…for time and chance overtake them all.” We noted that word “chance” doesn’t mean fate or something like that. It means events, time, and happenings. The time and what happens in the time is under God’s control. Verse 12, “…man does not know his time...” Then he talks about how certain creatures like fish or birds are trapped when they are not expecting it. Then the end of verse 12, “…the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.” That’s it in this world. We don’t know for sure. Oh, ultimately as we’ve sung about, we know the future. Ultimately, Christ is coming to take us to be with Himself, and then someday He’s coming back to this earth to establish a kingdom. But as far as the events of our day-to-day life on this earth, they are uncertain and unsure. And as we’ve seen through Ecclesiastes, often things don’t turn out the way we expected, the way we hoped, or the way that seemed fair. Sometimes you’ve done everything it seems you could do as a believer, and yet the outcome was not what you had hoped and prayed for. He’s reminded us of that. We don’t escape the fallen world when we come to trust Christ. Now that we’re God’s children, we still live under the sun on this earth. It’s still under the curse, and still we experience the same things that the unbelievers experience with all that goes on.

When you get down toward the end of that chapter that leads into chapter 10, he said, in verse 16, the first statement, “Wisdom is better than strength…” But strength doesn’t always win, and wisdom even when it is successful is not always honored or rewarded, so again, those inconsistent ups and downs they have experienced. Verse 18, “Wisdom is better than weapons of war…” but as we saw in verse 11 of chapter 9, that doesn’t mean you’ll always win the war. Then there are the problems and the last part of verse 18 which you should have underlined or highlighted in your bible, “…but one sinner destroys much good.” And that leads us into chapter 10, verse 1, “Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.” You see the connection. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war…” but wisdom does not assure the victories. Wisdom does not assure the outcome that you might expect when wisdom is exercised, because “…one sinner destroys much good.” Remember we live in a fallen world, and the whole world lies under the authority, and power of the evil one, 1 John 5 says.

The numbers of those who have experienced God’s redemption and are walking with godly wisdom in the world are very few. They are greatly outnumbered, so when you exercise godly wisdom you know you’re outnumbered, a million to one or something, and one sinner can destroy much good. It doesn’t even take a lot of them, because in a fallen world lies quickly are believed, and destroy much of what wisdom does. He picks up that same point illustrating it in the first verse of chapter 10. “Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink…” Flies were the curse of the Middle East and they were everywhere. You see that here the little flies were just a nuisance. And yet you have something valuable and worthwhile, and perfume can be expensive today if the advertisements are correct. In biblical times, it was a commodity of great value and yet it could be ruined by these little flies. That’s the point. Then he applies it again, “…so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.” So, in this world under the sun, God’s people need to walk with wisdom, and wisdom understands things correctly, from God’s perspective. Seeing things as they are, as God has revealed it.

“…foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor…” We see that in the world around us foolishness, the opposite of wisdom, the disregard of the truth that God has revealed, is given much more weight. Where else? Look everywhere, turn on the news, foolishness abounds, and people are closed to wisdom, what God has to say. They have made up their minds. We live in a world where if you’re going to put it on the scale, the world values wisdom much greater, much more worthy, than true wisdom and honor, and that’s where we are. Now, when we don’t keep that in mind, Christians get crushed by the world. Well, you say, they don’t have any choice. We’re given wisdom to navigate through this world. As Paul puts it, we are lights in the darkness. The same point he wrote to the Philippians, we are lights shining in the darkness.

Obviously, the light is outnumbered by the darkness and the darkness wants to overcome the light as Jesus even talked about in His earthly ministry. So, understand that when we are treated unfairly.
When difficult things come into our life and we say, Lord I prayed about this. I did everything I could. Well, we are not in control. Remember God is in control and even uses the evil things as part of His judgment in the world for accomplishing His purposes. And sometimes that is even the crushing of His saints, and we know that from the prophets. Jesus said, “Which of the prophets didn’t they persecute?” You look at the apostles of Jesus. History would say they were martyred. I was reading this week on the Apostle Paul and what early church history says about him being executed when in Rome and being beheaded. He’s at the center of giving out biblical truth, but in the outcome, the foolishness was weightier than the wisdom and the honor, so that’s our perspective on life. Not that we’re gloom and doom now, we’re just down, we expect the worse. No, we expect the best, we’re living here serving the living God.

We just want to draw on the wisdom He’s given having a correct view of the world. When you don’t have a correct view of the world you get discouraged, depressed, and you feel like you’re overwhelmed. What can I do? Well, that’s what the wisdom here is for, and he’s going to walk us through some of this step, by step. Look at verse 2, “A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left.” Now there’s a practical verse. It tells you how to vote. (Laughter) Now mark it in your bibles. (More Laughter) It also shows the danger of taking verses out of context, I guess. What he’s talking about is opposites. The wise man to the right, the proverbial statement the right hand, the son of his right hand, his strength, and so on, but the point there is opposites. Foolishness is opposite wisdom, so the wise man is going the opposite way of the foolish man. That’s the point, the wise man is going this way, the foolish man is going this way. We understand the difference here, and you’ll note, it’s the wise man’s heart that directs him. The issue is in the heart. This is going to come out again because down in verse 13, we are going to talk about “…the end of it is wicked madness.” We’re back to insanity again, the same word as we saw in chapter 9. We’ll look at that again in a moment. You see the heart is directing the wise man, who is the child of God, to function according to the word going this way. The foolish man, he’s going the opposite way. He doesn’t function with wisdom, he doesn’t have God’s wisdom. He doesn’t have God’s perspective and insight, so that contrast directed by the heart.

Come back to chapter 9, verse 3, the evil “…that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men.” Then note this, “…the hearts of the sons of men.” Remember, it’s the heart that is “…full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives.” We pick that same thought up now over in chapter 10, verse 2. The wise man’s heart directs him one way, the foolish man’s heart directs him the other. Why? The foolish man’s heart is full of evil from his youth. He can’t make a wise decision. That’s why the bible tells us, Old and New Testament, there is none that does good, not even one. There is none righteous, they have all turned aside. Remember Romans 3, quoting from like Psalm 14? It’s the same emphasis. It’s the heart which is deceitful and desperately wicked, so that’s why it’s going that way. But the heart that has been transformed by the power of God’s saving grace is going this way. Now that’s the world we live in and with the bulk of the world and I’m reading sinful conditions. Even believers when they are speaking the truth get hoarse throats. We’re going opposite directions. You were going upstream, as we use another illustration. Now the river is running this way and the current is going fast, because all the world around you is going the opposite direction of you, from a spiritual perspective, and it’s a heart condition. It’s not a superficial thing. Their conduct is revealing their heart, but it’s a heart condition.

This will come up again as we move along, so that contrast set down here. Look at verse 3, “Even when the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking…” His sense, his heart inside, and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool. The problem is because his heart is sinful, referring to what you are in the inner person, your heart, your mind, your soul. Your spirit, what you are, the person within this body is directing you toward evil, because your heart is full of evil continually, as we saw in chapter 9, verse 3. It’s going the wrong direction. “Even when the fool walks along the road…” his heart is lacking. “…his sense…” as it’s translated here. “…is lacking and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool.” What he’s saying is that his conduct demonstrates that he’s a fool, he’s not wise.

We see it, and we look, and we’ll watch the news, and see the move so openly in defiance of God, what His will is, and the direction they go. They just reveal the condition of their heart. There a fool, in the worst sense of that word, they have no knowledge of the living God. Their decisions are made without Him in consideration. Some openly declare it. I saw one member of a political family, who somehow, he felt it necessary to declare in the news that I am an atheist, and always have been an atheist, and do not believe in God. It’s not enough that you hold that view, but you want everybody to know. And in areas of sin and the practice, we see it all around us. One of businesses noted for having a position against homosexual behavior opened a store in London. I was reading in the news, many of you probably read it. They’re going to close when their six-month lease is up because the crowd is opposing them for having a position where they don’t support homosexual activity. It’s impossible to run the mall, I guess, with that store in there.

It wasn’t too long ago that we used to have the Moral Majority back in the 1980s. What were Christians thinking? Had anybody read the bible? Oh well, the majority of people, even if they are not saved, are moral at heart, and we just have to get the moral majority to vote right and such. When Christians get confused on basic foundational truths of Scripture, where are people going to learn the truth? They are not morally good. They are morally corrupted at their very center. It’s only what we call the common grace of God that keeps everything from disintegrating into total chaos, in rebellion against God, so the fool. You see this in different illustrations used. Jesus in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, talked about by their fruits, you shall know them, and it’s out of the heart that proceed. In another passage He talks about all kinds of sinful behavior and so on. That’s the contrast here between the fool and the righteous man.

What he’s going to do? Look back to chapter 8, verse 2, “I say, ‘Keep the command of the king because of the oath before God. Do not be in a hurry to leave him. Do not join in an evil matter…’” Verse 4, “Since the word of the king is authoritative…” You don’t question what he is doing. “He who keeps a royal command experiences no trouble, for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure…” He’s going to talk about now in chapter 10 that issue of the ruler again, because we live in a world where God has established authority and that helps keep order. When the authority and the rule break down you have chaotic conditions, but we live in a fallen world, so we have to deal with fallen rulers and we are fallen people, and now redeemed by His grace. We need to be careful that our conduct is adjusted accordingly to the will of God for us.

Chapter 10, verse 4, “If the ruler’s temper rises against you…” In other words, he’s upset with you. Solomon could write about this and give advice because he’s a king and he’s had people come before him and conduct themselves like fools or conduct themselves wisely. Here is instruction and advice. “If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your position, because composure allays great offenses.” The point is, if you’re conducting yourself wisely but you come before the ruler, perhaps you’ve been unjustly accused or something, but he’s upset with you. Don’t lose your composure, don’t turn into a puddle, nor do you become aggressive against him. You maintain your composure because composure allays great offenses, and if you just go to pieces what good is that? No, if you’re convinced you conducted yourself properly and wisely, and yet this is one of the things you see when you read one of the books on the martyrs. You appreciate the composure they had when falsely accused and so on. They just didn’t disintegrate into a puddle, which might have caused people to think, they know they’re guilty and they’re just overwhelmed. No, nor did they go on the attack against the king or the one in charge. They maintained their composure and their testimony. That’s what he’s talking about here.

You know the same thing if you get pulled over for a ticket, you wind down your window and the officer walks up and you start screaming at him. Don’t you have anything better to do than pull over good law-abiding citizens? Most of the time with all the other bad things that are going on, and drugs are being sent and all, and here you are pulling me over. That’s probably not going a direction you want, but if you respect him you may maintain your composure, the same if you go to court. You don’t need to give a lecture on the injustice of the court system in our country today, and on and on. We maintain every time Paul has to appear before Roman authorities, for example, he shows respect to the king functioning in that portion of Israel; why when he’s there where the Romans are. It’s an honor to present my case before you. I count it a privilege to be able to offer my defense. It’s done respectfully with composure, not ranting on about all the people that lie and the injustice of the Romans. No nothing to be gained by that because God has established the ruling system. We are not functioning with wisdom when we run over it, and that’s behind us and we’re aware. We’ve been through other passages like we’ve done it in Ecclesiastes. Romans 13 says that there are no positions of authority that God has not established. We recognize that we honor them, we show them respect. They may be fools, but we maintain composure.

Now with that, look at verse 5. From verses 5 to 7, he uses this expression, “…I have seen”. “There is an evil I have seen under the sun…” Again, on this physical earth. Then he says this is my observation. Remember God has given him wisdom beyond anybody else on the face of the earth, and now the Spirit is directing him in the recording, so what we have is God’s truth. “There is an evil I have seen…” He’ll pick that up again in verse 7, “I have seen…” I’ve observed this. He’s a good observer, first in verse 5. “There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which goes forth from the ruler…” You maintain your composure before rulers, but the vast majority of rulers that you deal with, will be unbelieving. Ungodly individuals characterized by folly and now common grace means that they don’t make just bad decisions, but you may be in situations, and there is an error. At the end of verse 5, “…which goes forth from the ruler…” I mean there are going to be injustices and you know we can accept those. Why? We know God is sovereign and as long as I live in a fallen world sometimes His purpose and plan for me is not my purpose and plan for me. It is that I be mistreated, that I suffer when I’ve done what’s right.

You say, it’s unfair. I have my rights. Paul claimed his rights as a Roman citizen. I’m a Roman, I appeal to Caesar, but he does that with respect along the way. We have the right to use the law, but Paul when he’s writing his prison epistles, indicates he’s a prisoner but says there’s benefits in this. I’ve had a chance to witness to people I otherwise couldn’t have witnessed to, and he’s going on talking then about the conduct as a believer. He’s not railing against the system. He’s not all involved, I’m unjustly treated here, the Roman system is collapsing just like the system in Israel did, and soon they’ll come under judgment. Sometimes you hear Christians get so caught up. We want to be careful, “There is an evil…an error which goes forth from the ruler—folly is set in many exalted (high) places while rich men sit (humbly) in humble places.” In other words, there are injustices; and often the people ruling are not fit, and the people who should rule aren’t ruling. That’s the point in verse 6, “…folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places.”

This man is viewed as a person like a Job, like an Abraham. All examples of rich people which in and of themselves aren’t bad, but they would have been men who had been diligent, showed wisdom, and be able to handle things, finances, and been prepared. But you’ve got some fool sitting on the throne. Obviously, you’re going to get poor decisions passed down, they are unfit to be in authority. Verse 7, “I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.” Again, it’s a reversal of what would be best for the country. The slave now is free, but he doesn’t know how to use his freedom and his power. And the princes now are being ruled over, and every thing’s getting turned upside down. We note how quickly things could change in an unstable country. We have been blessed, no matter who has been ruling our country. God in grace has guided them, so here we are prosperous with many blessings as a country.

That could change. We could get rulers in that everything the ruler does is just. They are not in positions because God puts only His children in positions of power it’s not this world. Right now, this world is under the immediate direction of the devil and he puts people in power. But God ultimately is controlling it and ultimately, He’s the one who puts them in power, but it’s rarely, very rarely godly people. Were there any godly Roman emperors in New Testament times and afterwards? And then we get to Constantine and we are not going to discuss him, but he becomes his own problem. But the point is, what are we going to do if this kind of people get in power? We’re going to conduct ourselves with wisdom, because we’ll know God is moving. Sometimes it’s His will to put the worst person in power because it’s part of His judgment. We’ll get down to that as we move toward the end of the chapter, so this is the reality.

What this does indicate is, people going into power, we are blessed if they are prepared for that position. That doesn’t guarantee they will use power wisely all the time. You get people who aren’t prepared for that and we see that in our own government. Even unbelievers hold their breath and say, don’t they realize if they come in with these ideas, they’ll destroy the country? But we look at where the country is going, and it is rebellion against God. It might be that God will put someone like that in power. We will still respect them, we’ll still give them honor because they have the position of power. We may disagree with them, and it may become more difficult to hold our position as believers without experiencing consequences, so that’s it. We live in an unstable, unsure, uncertain world where the people that don’t deserve it, and aren’t prepared for it, get in power and the people who could do a better job and a fitting job, are pushed into low positions.

Then in verses 8 and following, 8 to 11, wisdom helps you avoid some of the pitfalls of life. It’s an unjust, unfair world, but you just don’t have to go crashing through like the bull in the china shop. Wisdom enables you to navigate, even like he talked about when you’re before the ruler. Maintain composure. That doesn’t mean you won’t lose your head. Paul did in having it cut off, but you maintain your composure. Navigating, that’s what he talks about. Here are things and you realize they are opposites. What will be key to this is the last statement in verse 10. We’ll read it, then we’ll walk through. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success, so even in this fallen world, if you function wisely you can avoid a lot of trouble, so look at verse 8. “He who digs a pit may fall into it…” In other words, they would dig a pit to catch an animal, cover it over, with things like that used for a variety of things. Well, if you use wisdom you wouldn’t put the pit right where you might have your family trafficking all the time or you might run out when you’re doing something, and you put it right in the path you usually take, and you fall in. So, wisdom would help you navigate that.

You dig a pit you could fall into it. “…and a serpent may bite him who breaks through a wall.” In those days, they had the clay and they’d make the bricks, but they didn’t have the mortar, and everything wasn’t tight, so in the cracks and crevices, poisonous snakes could settle in, and you’re going to take that wall down. You reach in to grab the brick, and there’s a snake that’s got in the cracks. You might get bit. “He who quarries stones may be hurt by them…” Well, in those days, it was all manual hand tools and you’re chopping on this stone, the chips are falling, and they didn’t have all the safety glasses and everything that we do. You could get hurt doing a good thing, with good intentions,” and a bad outcome comes. “…and he who splits logs may be endangered by them.” Again, even today, you see people chopping logs, but there are things to be careful of, to do it right. You don’t want to swing and miss and cut your leg off, or have chips flying up in your eyes. You have to be careful, know what you’re doing. That’s the kind of thing he’s talking about; problems can be there. “If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength.” I even know that.

These are common, everyday examples of how wisdom gives you an advantage. You might tell your child how to cut wood. You give him an axe and he’s going to do it, and he’s out there working, and you go and tell him the job would be a lot easier if you would sharpen the blade. Oh, little practical things. But wisdom is dealing with this life and the practical things of this life. If you didn’t spend all your money on that foolish thing, you would have had it when you needed it for something important. Just the wisdom of life. “Wisdom has the advantage of giving success.” That’s what these were illustrations of. If you dig a pit, you could fall into it, so think when you dig that pit. If you’re going to take the wall down, remember there could be serpents in the wall. Be careful, plan, and in all these things wisdom gives you success because throughout this he talks about the fact that wisdom doesn’t guarantee success, but he never says folly is a better choice. Wisdom is always the right choice, even when it doesn’t turn out the way we want. That’s the point he’s dealing with.

Then verse 11 wraps that section up. “If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.” In other words, you have to think. If I walk over and here’s the guy who knows how to charm the snake, and that Cobra comes up and oh, here move over. I can do that, and I sit down and say, now what do you blow here? On that? What’s that thing you blow on? And I stop in the middle of it to tell him something and the snake—I don’t know what to do!! A person with wisdom knows. You’re going to do that. Here’s how you do it, but the snake has to be in the basket, you have to be here, you do this. If you get bit, and then you decide you’re going to learn, well good luck! The point is wisdom has the advantage. And you see he’s using practical everyday things.

We live in this world and the Book of Proverbs is filled with these kinds of examples and instructions like we talked about in Ecclesiastes. The days of our life take care of today. The little decisions of today if not made wisely can result in big problems for tomorrow. We just don’t want to be bouncing around. We as believers know this can be an unfair, unjust world. It can change suddenly. I want to be careful. I want to make wise decisions that I don’t get trapped where I don’t want to be. I can’t control that I’ll have to live with it, but I can maybe not make certain foolish decisions today that will make problems for me tomorrow in just my normal life.

You come to verses 12 to 15, another section. Solomon moves us into these sections like we saw at the end of chapter 9. Verse 18 led right into the next verse. We have it as chapters, but from one section to another. When he talks about in verse 11, “If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer. Words from the mouth…” for his mouth. The word charmer means speaking with your mouth. It’s not a charmer because in the context of this day, that’s the kind of speaking you’re talking about, the one who could charm the snake. Well, that leads him into a discussion of our words generally, and you don’t be a fool in how you talk and what you talk about, verse 12. “Words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, while the lips (words) of a fool consume him...” In other words, we’re to be gracious in our speech. That doesn’t mean that at times we won’t be firm. When Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple that doesn’t mean there was a time for judgment. That’s why you don’t play one against the other, but our conduct is to be gracious.

Our speech is to be gracious. And I don’t expect it’s going to be regularly from the people around me that don’t know the Lord. You go to work, and for most of you, you work with unbelievers, but you want your speech to be gracious. And that should characterize us in all these situations that we go back to when you’re before the ruler. You maintain your composure. There’s a graciousness about it, a respect for him. You function as you should in that context, but the fool just talks. The words of his lips consume him. He’s destroying himself, he’s self-destructive. Sometimes we say to people, why would they say that? It’s only going to hurt them. He never knows what to say, when to say it, how to say it. “…the lips of a fool consume him.” They destroy him.

Look at verse 13, “…the beginning of his talking is folly and…” then we referred to this earlier, “…the end of it is wicked madness.” You see this is the people we’re living among. Now I don’t mean that, because apart from God’s saving grace we were just like them, but we realize this is where they are. The beginning of his talking is folly and it doesn’t have any wisdom in it to begin with, and you know where it’s going, it ends up in wicked madness. That’s our word we had over in chapter 9, verse 3, “…the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity…” We looked at these words translated earlier in Ecclesiastes as madness, and this one time they translate it insanity. It’s the same word madness, insanity, and we look at that and you see how things started out. Even in your thinking, you look and see things are going crazy. This isn’t rational, this is totally illogical. This is why in our apologetics we begin with a presupposition, the gospel is the only thing that can help them. I can’t reason with them rationally to bring them to this conclusion. Their heart is corrupted, they don’t think rationally, and I realize when we share the gospel that the Lord sometimes works in that heart in such a way that they are drawn to faith in Christ. But some other times, they are hardened and driven further away.

It starts out with folly and its end is evil madness. We want to be careful as we are being told how it works in a fallen world. It starts out with folly, but it’s going to get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and it ends up in evil craziness, madness. It starts out you think, well, nobody would go way over here. I remember when we were talking about gender equality and somebody used the argument, “Well, that’ll end up in making one restroom for men and women. That is so foolish, nobody would ever think that!” And now we don’t even know if they are a man or a woman. It ends up in evil madness, craziness. We have to have wisdom and realize, we don’t even start there because they are going that way, we are going this direction. So, I bring them the truth of the gospel to rescue them, but only God can do that in the heart.

That’s the condition we’re dealing with. That’s why we went back to chapter 9, verse 3. A reminder the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Out of that comes the foolishness of speech. We need to go to one passage. I am limiting the passages going to other places because there are many. But come to the Book of James in the New Testament. He talks about the words, James being the book we usually call the wisdom book in the New Testament because it is much like the Old Testament and does have much wisdom. James chapter 3, verse 2, that familiar verse on the tongue that’s what we’re talking about here. “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” And then you can control horses with a small bit, and ships with a small rudder.

Verse five, “…the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” Just like a match can set a whole forest on fire. We’ve seen this with some of the fires particularly on the West Coast and they just burn, and burn, and burn. That’s what the tongue is like. And though it just starts out as something little, soon it is evil madness that spreads. It’s the same truth, “…the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell, Gehenna.” The devil was a fallen being. My sin nature and what I am apart from God’s grace, and even when I’m saved my tongue is a constant work, because I know I’m not perfected. And He said the last thing that will be perfected is your tongue.

You just take it with you everywhere and just that quick, you can say something, and after you said it you say, “Why would I say that? Well, that was a terrible thing to say!” But once you’ve said it, it’s hard to pull it back in. Then you try to say, “Well, I didn’t mean it!” We see that go on all the time, but we need to be careful of it all the time. Sometimes you don’t even think about it until you’re maybe home, you lay in bed, and you think over the day. You say, “Boy that was a terrible thing to say! That was not very thoughtful.” And it’s worse, verse 8 says, “…it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.”

Come back to Ecclesiastes 10, verse 14. This truth about the tongue and how it will control us, one thing leads to another. You tell a little lie, then you tell a lie to cover up the lie. We get entangled and entrapped. “Yet the fool multiplies words. No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him?” The fool doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We’ve already seen we have no control over tomorrow, or the events of tomorrow, or the time, or the events in the time. That doesn’t keep the fool from jabbering away. He multiplies words, but he doesn’t know what he is talking about. We see this going on. You just watch the political scene, as an example. Promise everything, promise everything, but they have no control. That’s the characteristic of a fool. I can’t assure you of tomorrow. People say, “Where will the church be in 10 years?” I don’t know. All we can do is today be as faithful as we can, and that’s the best preparation for tomorrow. But when the Lord is done, He’s done. So, be careful of the fool.

Verse 15 wraps it up, “The toil of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city.” The guy is incompetent, and you would expect that because he’s insane, he’s crazy. The point is walking from one city to another; in those days that’s common with no problem. He doesn’t even know how to get there, and the point is that he’s incompetent. That’s why we don’t go to the world for our wisdom. Oh, I realize there are times like when you go to a doctor. He doesn’t have to be a believer. God in His grace has enabled His creation to continue to function, but the foundation for our life and the pattern for our life is rooted in the Word. I don’t want to get outside that path of wisdom because then I’m moving out in the realm of craziness, and then I get as confused as the world. Then I think maybe the world has a solution and that only makes me more confused, and then I’m depressed and discouraged. And why? How do I get out of this?

You know it’s like Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress, if you’ve read that. He’s learning through life, and he came to a fork in the road, and he decided I’ll go this road, and it wasn’t the road of wisdom. He said, soon I traveled that road and it was getting further. It was all right to begin with, he said, because I could see the other road, so I knew where it was. So, you know that’s a false security, but he says you get going, and going, and going on, and soon you know it dawned on me. I don’t know where I’m going, and I don’t know where the other road is. You get that kind of confusion. He said, all I could do was take the time to work my way back to that fork in the road again, and then get on the right road. That’s the same idea, the fool he talks, and talks, and talks, and he may be a good talker. But he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he can’t even find his way. So, understand the hopeless condition of men apart from the revelation God gives.

Look at verses 16 to 20. See, we’re going to make this (laughter). He’s back to a king, because those in charge are the overarching theme of chapter 10, and our functioning then under their rule, and in the situations that we are presented. Now we are back in verse 16 to the king, and that’ll walk through the end of the chapter. “Woe to you, O land, whose king is a lad and whose princes feast in the morning...” someone who is unprepared and unfit to be a leader. We’ve had poor leaders as a country, but we are thankful that we haven’t had those that were so incompetent that they destroyed the country. There haven’t been those, we’re thankful for that. “Woe to you, O land, whose king is a lad and whose princes feast in the morning.” The “lad”, that’s for a young person; it’s used of the son of Solomon. He was 41 when he became king, but he was called a youth, a naar, a lad. But don’t think of it as a child 12 years old. It’s somebody who’s not prepared and fitted for the job, not competent to handle it, so in that sense he’s a lad. Then, the “…princes feast in the morning.” Yeah, they were in charge. Life’s a big party, and so the princes that rule with this king who’s not competent, it’s party time. They’re not concerned about taking care of the country, taking care of the people. Their decisions are ad hoc and poor decisions, and they’re enjoying their position and the benefits of the position, while the country is going down.

We do have to jump over to Isaiah. It’s right behind Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the prophet Isaiah. Come to chapter 3. Right at the beginning of Isaiah God says one of His judgments on a nation is to give them unfit and incompetent rulers that will bring ruin to the nation. He said that’s what’s going to happen to Israel. Look at Isaiah chapter 3, verse 4, “And I will make mere lads…” there’s our word “…their princes, and capricious children will rule over them…” You see the judgment of God, those who are incapable of wise decisions, those who are unfit for power, they’re like children. They can’t handle it, they don’t know what to do. But I’m going to put them in charge over you, and what do they do? Make life miserable while they bring ruin.

Down in verse 12, we’re still in Isaiah, “O My people! Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them.” You say, well, that sounds like it’s a putdown of women. God didn’t create the women to be the leaders, so in that sense they are not fit to be the leaders. And God appointed no queens to rule Israel except for one, Athaliah, who usurped the throne by murdering her own family, a godless woman. That’s God’s plan, so women in leadership in the nation are an indication of God’s judgment. Incompetent rulers can be an indication of God’s judgment, so we want to be careful. It is the hand of God in it when we see our nation sliding in its open rebellion against God. Will He put in power those who will be there because they are incompetent, because they are not fit to rule? That’s God’s judgment on the nation and the misery that will bring is part of God’s judgment.

Come back to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 17, to see the contrast. “Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time—for strength and not for drunkenness.” They appreciate the responsibility they have, they’re prepared for it. They make decisions for the good of the people, not just for themselves. Verse 18, “Through indolence the rafters sag, and through slackness the house leaks.” That’s an illustration when you’ve got a bad king. He’s just like when you’ve got a house you don’t take care of. Soon the roof leaks, and then the rafters sag, and things are starting to cave in. That’s what happens to the country, the nation when you have poor rulers. But you’re blessed when you have a good ruler who’s making decisions for the welfare of the country.

Verse 19, we see the consequences of a good ruler. “Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.” You don’t take that verse out of context, so that statement “money is the answer to everything”, but we understand there is benefit. You have enough money to buy the necessities of life, food, clothing, shelter. There are parts of the world that you see poor leadership has bankrupted the country, and people are struggling to find enough to eat and trying to get by. Good rulers are a blessing. We should pray for those rulers and thank God, for the rulers He’s given us that bring us to this day. No matter what we complain about, they have kept the country together, and provided a context under God’s common grace for the prosperity that we enjoy, sitting here comfortably, and then looking forward to going out and eating food that will sustain us, and not fearful of rioting in the streets and all of that.

A word of caution, “Furthermore, in your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound and the winged creatures will make the matter known.” We don’t have time to pursue beyond this, other verses or anything. We ought to be careful what we say about the rulers. I was watching a man on the news the other night and he appears often. He’s the pastor of a large evangelical church. The former pastor there was a great expositor. I haven’t heard this man, but he is much into politics. He’s a great supporter of our President. He’s on their “God has appointed this President”. There’s an element of truth to what he says, but then he goes to town on all the candidates that are running for president from the opposite and all that party and runs them down.

I sit there thinking, what is going to be the attitude toward Evangelicals if one of those is the next President? You’ve said things that shouldn’t be said. We will honor and respect the person that God puts in as the next President, the next ruler. It doesn’t mean we agree with everything they do, but we want to be careful in even the things we say privately. Well, we just say it among ourselves, but that guy… We want to be careful because it comes out and then that marks us. And so, wisdom. What? I respect the king. Solomon is going to have a son who is a fool. Rehoboam chose to listen to the inexperienced youths, those of youth who counseled him and not the wise men. He ruined a kingdom, split it, lost ten of the twelve tribes. It was only God’s grace that let him keep two and it wasn’t because of him, but because of His promises to David and to Solomon.

You can’t guarantee things, but we want to be careful. To a certain extent, I want to be not political. Now, you’ll have the right to vote, that’s fine. For many years I was not registered. I always thought I don’t want them to be able to look and see whether I registered as a Republican or a Democrat. I’m a Christian, I want to be a good citizen. I support whoever is President now that I’m registered, but I think it’s an open thing. I don’t want somebody to go and look at my sermons and say, “Oh, I see you preached against the Democrats or the Republicans or…” No, I don’t. My God is in charge. I pray for peace in our country and the continued opportunity that God will provide rulers that enable us to do what we’re doing today. But be careful, we don’t want our church to be identified as the pro this group or this group. We want the person of God’s choosing for His purposes, and then we want to use His wisdom to navigate through the days of our life. All right, we’ve made it through one chapter. That is a miracle. (Laughter) You can go out and say Gil Rugh at Indian Hills, he performed a miracle today.

Let us pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace. What a rich treasure we have with Your word entrusted to us, Lord, an open book for us. We have Your Spirit to teach us these truths. Thank you for the privilege and blessing that is mine to be a teacher for this congregation. Lord, take the truths that were instructed in not only from this pulpit, but in the classes, in the homes, the various settings. Lord, may the Spirit take this truth and carry it to hearts. May we grow, become more mature, may we function and carry ourselves with wisdom through the various circumstances you bring into our lives. May we be lights in the darkness. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.