The Persistent Power of Joy | Ecclesiastes 7:25-8:17 (10-29-2023 Mark Evans)

The sermon is focused on the book of Ecclesiastes and the main idea is that true joy and fulfillment can only be found in fearing the Lord. The speaker discusses the dangers of sexual sin and emphasizes the importance of pleasing God to escape temptation. He also mentions the story of Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451 who memorizes Ecclesiastes and Revelation. The speaker concludes that although life may seem vain and discouraging, true joy can be found in God alone. If you have your Bible, do make your way to the book of Ecclesiastes as we continue our sermon series through this wonderful book. And for today, we'll be finishing chapter 7, which we start in verse 25 and going through all of chapter 8. And to get us going this morning, I'll read chapter 7, verse 29 through chapter 8, verse 9. And these are the words of the almighty, all-wise, all-powerful God. I turn my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness, and I find something more better than death. The woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are fetters, he who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. Behold, this is what I found, says the preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things, which my soul has sought out repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found. Only this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. Who is like the wise, and who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. I say, keep the king's command because of God's oath to him, and be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, what are you doing? Whoever keeps the command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. For there is a time and a way for everything, although a man's trouble lies heavy on him. For he does not know what is to be, and for who can tell him how it will be. No man has power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death. There's no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. All this I observe while I apply in my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. The grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, indeed, as we just read, who can know what the saying, who can find out what comes after him? And so here we are as just frail children of dust, entirely dependent upon you, so we know on our own we cannot see, on our own we cannot hear. And so here we are, Father, praying that by the way of your Holy Spirit you would give us eyes to see, that you would give us ears to hear, that we might behold your word, that even more we might behold the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, and find our deepest, most satisfying joy in him, in him alone. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, if you had access to only two books of the Bible, which two books would you pick? The great novel, Fahrenheit 451, tells of a dystopian America in which all books are outlawed and even burned. In fact, your entire house would be burned to the ground immediately if it was found to be with the contraband of books. However, in the story, this secret underground society emerges to have access to the great books, because in the group, and to be in the group, you have to have memorized a classic. And so the main character of the story, whose name is Guy Montag, he is accepted into this secret society because he has memorized two books of the Bible, the book of Revelation and our book today, the book of Ecclesiastes. Now you might think, well, you couldn't pick two books that are more different, that are further apart from one another than Ecclesiastes and Revelation. At the end of the story, after a nuclear bomb has destroyed his city, Guy Montag has memorized his books and so he cites from the book of Ecclesiastes, he cites this verse, a verse which we've covered, that for everything there is a season. And then he immediately pivots from that and he cites from the book of Revelation that on either side of the river was the tree of life, this tree that has healing in its leaves for all the nations. And that's an odd combination, isn't it, to go from such gloom to such joy, to go from such defeat to such a victory. But so is the Christian life and it is this very joy that Solomon has us consider this morning, that as the righteous walk in the fear of the Lord, they live in the light of God's joy. Because let's just remember where we are in the book of Ecclesiastes as a whole. Solomon has clearly shown us that life under the sun is a life of vanity. Recall those opening lines of the book, all is vanity, vanity of vanities. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter who you are, no matter how hard you try to seek for pleasure, fulfillment, satisfaction, you will not because it's all just a vapor, it's all just a mist. In fact, you are just a mist. And at first blush, that sounds like nothing other than discouraging and depressing news. But we've seen as much as Solomon will have us stare at the vapors, we've also seen it's only for the purpose of getting a heart of wisdom. So we might know where is the true, where is the everlasting joy. And so we'll look at exactly that this morning and we'll walk through this text and we'll look at three parts, we'll look at wisdom's escape and secondly wisdom's evasion and thirdly wisdom's enjoyment, wisdom's great joy. All with that main point that the fear of the Lord blooms and blossoms in joy. Fear and joy might seem like complete opposites to you. You might think, well, the more I fear, the less joy. The more joy I have, the less fear. But surely these two things do not go hand in hand. But just remember what the psalmist says, how blessed, we might even say how joyful is the man who fears the Lord. As we fear God more and more, the more and more we start to find our rest, our security, our contentment, our deepest happiness in Him and in Him alone. And it is this wisdom that Solomon has to show us this morning. And we'll see it right away as we look at such fear of the Lord when we consider wisdom's escape, wisdom's escape. And by now you might have noticed Solomon is quite fond of declaring things to be worse than death. He'll repeatedly say things like, you're better off dead than a life with no joy. You're better off dead than a life with no satisfaction. At some point we might be wondering, is Solomon overusing this better off than dead phraseology? Is he guilty of hyperbole? Verse 25, Solomon tells us he's on another scavenger hunt, testing out wisdom, testing out folly. And you see, once again he says, I have discovered a fate worse than death in verse 26. You see there he says, I find something more bitter than death. The woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. And so we need to first ask, who is this woman? Who is this lady? Solomon paints this picture of a woman that should we have the x-ray vision to peek inside of her soul, we discover this heart that's full of deadly traps and snares that all of her ways lead to this pit of no return. Every hallway of her heart leads to a prison and in her hands she holds these chains to bind her captives. Who is this woman? Oh, we know from Proverbs that the woman that Solomon has in mind is none other than the adulterous woman, this woman that has these smooth words that drip honey and then in the end prove to only be poison. And when you consider how Proverbs describes this lady folly, you quickly realize why it's no exaggeration for Solomon to say, to fall into this trap is a fate worse than death. Because in this snare a man is like the ox led to the slaughter and he's like a deer caught fast in a trap right before an arrow pierces through its liver, like a bird that is rushed into a snare never to escape. So is the man with the forbidden woman, not realizing that this sin will cost him his very life. And so just a word to our men, men's scripture could not be clearer as to the grave, the irreparable dangers of adultery and by extension we could add these seductions of sexual sins, lust, pornography, fornication and so on. The very moment a man thinks he is grasping sexual pleasure in fulfillment is actually the very moment that an arrow is piercing right through him. But as Solomon does so well, as much as he warns us of this serious sin, he also tells us the good news, that there is escape, there is deliverance from these temptations. And you see that at the end of verse 26, he says, he who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. And so let's ask another simple question, well what is it to please God? Who pleases God? Well preeminently to please God is to believe upon God's Son, Jesus Christ, that as the angels declared at His nativity, peace on earth among those with whom God is pleased. And that is because Christ Himself, He is the one that is fully pleasing to God. When we believe upon Jesus Christ, we are believing upon the one whom God spoke from the heavens, this is my beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased. And that is good news for us today. And firstly of course for our forgiveness, as that old hymn says, God is pleased to look upon Him and pardon me. Such pardon of course would include forgiveness for sexual sins, the cleansing power of Christ that would purge our sexual stains, our blemishes. You might remember that of all people, the very first whom Jesus revealed Himself to as Messiah was none other than that promiscuous Samaritan woman who had had five husbands and was shacking up with yet another man. And that Jesus deliberately, compassionately showed Himself to her as Savior for sinners just like her. And secondly, this good news is good news not only for our forgiveness but for our fear of the Lord because Jesus also told that Samaritan woman the reality of new birth, of new life in Him that would issue forth in obedience to God's commands. And so as it pertains to the snares, the traps, the dangers of sexual sin, do not ever believe the lie that there is no way out. The lie is from the pit of hell and it is one that Satan loves to spin. And if you've fallen a little, why not just fall all the way? If you've succumbed a little, why not just indulge all the way? And no need to confess it, it's too embarrassing, it's too shameful. God will not accept you. No, believe the gospel. Believe that with the temptations to sin, our great God promises, here is the way of escape. Look to the one who is tempted in every way yet without sin, able to forgive, to cleanse, to sustain you throughout such temptations. And then you must know that most often fighting such temptations simply means retreating. In this case, the righteous man is a running man. You remember when Joseph was held fast by the clasp of Potiphar's wife, he just put on his spiritual sprinting shoes and ran away. And so too, do not entertain, do not coddle, do not nurse such temptations. It is to scoop fire into your lap and pretend you will not be burned. And like a good physician, Solomon moves us from this symptom to what is the even deeper problem. And that is that we are schemers to the core. You see that truth at the very last verse of chapter 7. Solomon says, this alone I found on my scavenger hunt. God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. Sometimes the Reformed view is criticized for holding to an overly low view of man, that man is nothing, that man is a worm. We call man a worm, but actually we don't want to insult the worms, so he's even lower than that. But you see, Scripture actually holds to the highest view of man. Indeed, man's greatness, his glory is precisely what makes the fall so tragic. If mankind is just a worm, then his fall is really no big deal at all. But you see the excellency of man that we must affirm from verse 29. God made man upright. That word upright, it means like straight, righteous. It speaks to the truth as to just how wonderfully and fearfully created we were, the very crown of creation, having this profound righteousness without equal on all the earth. And it is that great height that makes the fall so tragic. We have sought out many schemes. There's perhaps no doctrine, no teaching that has a greater explanatory power than this. Why would a married man, why would a father throw all of it away for just a moment of fleeting pleasure, a moment of passing pleasure? It makes no sense. It's baffling, confusing, irritating, frustrating and tragic. Verse 29 explains why. All of us have this capacity because we went from saints to schemers. That as sin entered the world, as sin entered into man's heart, he's now a schemer to the core. And he plots with his mind. He contrives with his heart. He schemes with his will, all in rebellion against God. And so it asks the question, well, what is it that could heal this wound? What is it that could move man back from schemer to saint? Well, our God never heals the wound lightly. And he has provided us a Savior who can save us to the uttermost, which means not only does our old scheming self meet its death in the death of Christ, it also means the new man, new life comes to birth in Jesus Christ. The new man who is pleasing to God and by the Spirit escapes the schemes of the enemy. But to do this well, we will need much wisdom. And so verse 1 of chapter 8 transitions us, telling us that wisdom is good for life and that wisdom is good for the skin. You see that verse there, wisdom makes the face shine. You might remember Moses coming down from Sinai, his face glowing with the glory of God. You might remember the martyr Stephen from the New Testament, whose face shined like an angel. As the psalmist says, those who look to the Lord are radiant. As God lifts up the light of His countenance upon us, it changes our very countenance. As weird as it sounds, wisdom has an aesthetic effect. It renews us in beauty as we worship the God of all beauty. This wisdom not only helps us to escape, it helps us to evade or navigate difficult situations as we look at the second section, starting in verse 2. Solomon says there very plainly, keep the king's command, and you see why, because of God's oath to him. The king, of course, was the Lord's anointed in Israel, God's vice regent, God's little general on earth, such that to rebel against the king is tantamount to rebelling against God Himself. As Romans 13 says, be subject to your governing authorities because they are established by God Himself. But so too, Christianity will at times have its confrontations with kings because Christianity comes along and declares that Jesus is Lord, which means that Caesar is not Lord, at least not in the way that he thinks he is Lord. And so Solomon continues in verse 3 and says, here's how you keep that balance. One, don't take your stand in an evil cause. The king does whatever he pleases. His word is supreme. Who can go up to the king and say, what are you doing? Now even if you're the most disinterested person, politically speaking, you probably at some point have thought, man, if I could just get my five minutes alone with the president, with my senator, with a judge, I would give them a piece of my mind that they would not soon forget. America's current level of distrust in governance seems to be rising by the day. But Solomon says, be wise enough to realize that if you just thoughtlessly or hastily challenge the crown, there will be consequences. You just read through the book of Kings and you see how many rebels are quickly destroyed when they challenge the throne. If you've ever played chess before, you know it's a very poor strategy to, on your very first move, try to attack the king. And so Prudence says, thread this needle. Pick your battles wisely. Don't die on every hill. You might remember the person Obadiah who hid those hundred prophets in the caves when he was under the absolute worst reign of Ahab and Jezebel. And Solomon says, the wise have that kind of discernment. They have that kind of foresight. You see it in verse 5. This is the summary truth. The wise in heart will know the proper time and the just way. The wise know the means and they know the methods. There may be no better Old Testament example of this than that dynamic duo of Esther and Mordecai. Recall just how shrewd that duo was. They were able to honor the king, evade dangerous situations, and at just the right time, in just the right way, they delivered the Jews from a certain massacre, all without ever having to lift a finger or to raise a sword. So is the power of wisdom. It is mightier than the sword because, of course, the truth is that Scripture does not come to us as a kind of crystal ball or a printed out calendar. God's Word most often does not tell us exactly what to do or when to do it. We've all probably said at some point, ah, I wish God would just tell me precisely, exactly when do I turn left, when do I turn right? Do I take this job or that job? Do I marry this person or that person? Do I take up this cause or just let it go? Is this a good compromise or is this just cowardice? The Scripture most often does not spell out for us the specifics to every situation. For what Scripture is chock full of is wisdom, wisdom that makes wise the simple. And this is something that in our current cultural moment, we must recover, and nearly everyone recognizes that our governing authorities are in some ways growing only more hostile towards Christianity. And so the question is, how will the church? How will the family? How will the individual navigate this? Verse 5 says, acquire the wisdom that knows the proper time and the just way. Even as verse 6 says, there's a time and a way for everything. We saw that in detail in chapter 3. There's a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to build up and a time to tear down. There's a time for everything, and the wise work to acquire it. Well, Solomon is a wise pastor, perhaps he senses maybe we're becoming puffed up at this point with all this talk of outsmarting difficult situations, of being a kind of spiritual Houdini in hard times. And so his next verse immediately humbles us as if to say, yes, seek out wisdom, but just keep in mind, do all the chess moves you want to do, you are still going to die. Verse 7, try as he may, try all he wants, man does not know what it is to be. Who can tell him how it will be? No man has power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war. William Shakespeare penned that famous line, the history is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. But Solomon says, no, history is a tale told to idiots who don't know what's coming next. Try all you want. You cannot see into tomorrow and you cannot rule over death. Even the most powerful of kings and powerful of reigns end in death. Where is Caligula? Dead. Where is Alexander the Great? Dead. Where are Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler? All dead. Where is Jesus Christ? He is alive forevermore with the power of an indestructible life. And it is that fear of the Lord that the Christian must store up. Because while we may not have power over the day of death, verse 9 does say that what man does have power over is hurt to his fellow man. As one philosopher said, life is solitary, poor, brutish, nasty, and short. And Solomon seems to be saying, hey, it's a vicious dog-eat-dog world out there. And surely you've experienced this, some more than others, that life under the sun means that man has power to injure his fellow man. That, of course, can mean physical violence, political violence, the carnage of war, economic or legal injury, or just the plain use of our words that we inflict harm over others. And Dave, you're here this morning and you're not a Christian. Sometimes Christianity is painted as being naive, as sentimental, maybe even a little out of touch with reality. But you see, it's just the reverse. Christianity not only acknowledges, but explains why things are the way they are. Why would a man hurt and harm his fellow man? Is it his lack of education? Is it his upbringing? Is it society's fault? Maybe it's a lack of opportunity. Maybe it's his bad genetics. Maybe it's his bad internal chemistry. But you see, at the end of verse 11, Solomon unfolds quite literally the heart of the problem when he declares that the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Why would Cain kill his brother Abel? Why would Hamas attack Israel and take innocent lives? Why is there slander, gossip, violence, racism, murder in this world? Well, verse 11 is as direct, as it is accurate, as it is simple, that the radical problem resides in man's heart, that he is not a little, he is not somewhat, he is fully inclined to do evil. Our default setting is destruction, so much so that humanly speaking, if we relax justice, it promotes evil. Evil runs at the speed of justice. You see, as verse 11 says right there, that because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, man is spent on doing evil. So, in other words, simply put, if justice is delayed, then evil increases. It's hard to overstate just how relevant this is to our time. Our so-called enlightened sociologists and jurists claim that justice as a deterrent is ineffective, misguided, even inhumane. Yet I read that not too long ago in San Francisco, Nordstrom's actually had to close down shop entirely because shoplifting was so rampant. Why was it so rampant? Simply because it was not being prosecuted by the authorities as criminal. For the heart of man is fully set on doing evil. It's a truth that strikes right to the core of man's pride. Because most people are willing to admit, aren't they? They might say something like, oh sure, I'm not perfect. I do some bad things some of the time. But it is pride. Man still reserves the right for himself to boast in a little something, to contribute a little something, to claim something as his good. Not even the hourly religious man participates in this delusion. Get back up to verse 10 and see Solomon says, you don't have to look hard to spot the wicked going in and out of the holy place and even receiving praise for it. As Daniel warned in his prophecy, in the temple of all places you'll see the abomination of desolation. That as Jesus walked into the temple of all places, here are the money changers turning his father's house into a temple of trade. And of course we see the same thing today, don't we? A prominent church conference just recently headlined two keynote speakers whose biography read and described them as two married gay men who are also passionate Christ followers. And Solomon says, such is life under the sun. We can call good evil, we can call evil good and even receive a round of applause for it. And so you bundle all this up and it brings to a head the pressing question, well what is it then that can cure this sick heart so set on evil? We've seen the problem but where is the remedy? I have a good friend who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure at a very early age, in his early twenties. And if you looked at him from the outside, you would only see a vibrant, strong, healthy, athletic young man. And yet the doctors told him that in light of his inner condition, there was actually nothing he could do to rehabilitate his heart. There was no diet, no exercise, no program, no medicine, nothing could fix this heart. Nothing less than a heart transplant could remedy this situation. And friends, so it is with our heart that our sin problem is so radical, so pervasive that man must have nothing less than the heart of stone removed and a heart of flesh transplanted. And it is this that our triune God alone accomplishes, that our God causes us to be born again through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. And Christian, that is good news for you today, that if you are in Jesus Christ, you truly do have a new heart with new affections, with new power. As one Puritan put it, this new heart of ours has what he called expulsive power. And not explosive, but expulsive power, the power to force something out. It simply meant that by the Spirit's expulsive power, our lustful desires are driven out. Even the lustful sexual desires that we mentioned earlier can be exposed, driven out and put to death. And not only that, that's just the half of it. The Christian's heart does not remain empty, right? That addicts get over an addiction by just replacing it with another addiction. But that is not the Christian's lust. There is no just swapping out of one lust for another lust. No, there is a more compelling joy at work for the Christian. He drives out and he puts on. Kids, do you know that that means for you, every day is a day of war. Every day you wake up is a day of war. Monday is a day of war, Tuesday a day of war, Wednesday is war day. The war for your soul to put off the evil desires, to put to death your sin. And not only that, to put on the joy of Jesus Christ. Kids, you ought to know that is a war well worth fighting because to the victor goes the greatest of joys. And it's exactly that that Solomon commends for us in this third section as we look at wisdom's great joy. Now even there, you might already object and say, well, what is there to enjoy? You might say, Solomon, you've just told me of these kings whose word is supreme. Man has power over man to his hurt. Justice is delayed. Evil only increases. Man hates and harms his fellow man. Everything is vanity. What is there possibly to be joyful about? Solomon says in verse 12, let the fear of the Lord be your joy. You see, he says there, though a sinner does evil a hundred times and even prolongs his life, yet I know it will go well for those who fear God. Solomon says, yes, the wicked may prosper in this life. Judas lived longer than did Jesus and he even made some money off of it. But the fear of the Lord endures forever. Vanity cannot touch it. Even sufferings and afflictions and hardships cannot touch it. As verse 14 says, there are the righteous to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. There are wicked according to whom it happens, the deeds of the righteous. And Solomon is simply saying, the wicked can and do prosper and get along just fine in this life by God's common grace. You've surely rubbed up against this. You have that coworker who stabs everyone in the back, who cuts corners, who is deceptive and they get the promotion while you are passed over. You have the arrogant rich who wouldn't dream of tithing a single penny to God and yet there you are having this hand-to-mouth existence, barely scraping by month to month. Or the decadent fool who seems to be enjoying perfect health in every way, body's working just fine. There you are suffering perpetual aches, pains and ailments. As if it goes well for the wicked in this life, it provokes this issue. What then is the use of all this righteous living? This too seems to be all in vain. But Solomon says, no, there's something far deeper, far better, far more resilient than these long life or riches or pleasure. You see in verse 15, he comes out and he plainly commends for us joy. There is nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink and be joyful. And then look what he says, for this will go with him in his toil through all the days of his life. In the bleak tone of Ecclesiastes, some commentators think that Solomon is speaking like a cynic, like a skeptic here. This plea for joy is more of a resignation. Like saying, look, I know things are bad, but let's just make the best use of an otherwise bad situation. And you can see why commentators would say that. We've got these powerful kings, these bad men who prosper and now you're going to play the joy card on me. It seems a little forced. But you see Solomon's point is that joy, true joy goes with us, it endures, it persists, it follows us, it carries us onward. Unlike vapor that just burns off, unlike mist that is here today, gone tomorrow, this joy has a staying power. As the psalmist says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. And of course, friends, nowhere is such joy more awesome, more clear than in the Lord Jesus Christ. That joy that followed him all of his days, that carried him along, that joy that was set before him, so much so that he endured the cross, that he despised its shame, that out of the fear of the Lord, Jesus had true joy, that he knew beyond that crucifixion, beyond that grave, he would enter into glorious fellowship with his Father. He would receive his great reward, that he would be exalted far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and he would be glorified forevermore, and not even the ultimate vanity of death could keep him down. And Christian, you must know it in your bones today, that it is that victory, it is that redemption, it is that salvation, it is that joy that Jesus Christ shares with his bride, that if you are in Christ, that same joy is yours, the joy of resurrection life, the joy of eternal fellowship with the triune God, the joy that says and knows that nothing, not even death, could separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And friends, that is the joy that goes with you throughout all of your days, whether the highest of highs or the lowest of lows. That is the joy of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do praise you for what joy is this, that whether the vanity of afflictions, hardships, sufferings, whether the vanities of prosperity, riches and wealth, you have given us rock-solid joy in the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and the one who is with us, that what joy is ours, that we can truly say, he is mine and I am his. And Father, we do pray we would know what is it to eat, to drink, and to find joy in this life, that we would honor you by receiving the grace upon grace that you have shown us in your beloved Son. In his name we pray, amen.