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Unlocking the Old Testament Part 35 - Ecclesiastes
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it's the story of how God was seeking a
bride for his son each book is different
from every other book I'm trying to give
you the keys for you to unlock it for [Music]
[Music]
yourself I'd like to play a game with
you to begin this session I'm going to
read some quotes I won't tell you where
they're from but I want you to put your
hand up quickly if you agree with the
sentiments that are expressed all right
if you don't agree keep your hand down
here's the first Generations come and
generations go but the world stays just the
the
same anybody agree with that oh half a
dozen here's another a man is no better
off than an animal because life has no
meaning for
either you don't agree with that one it
is better to be satisfied with what you
have than to be always wanting something
else oh you all agree with that a
working man may or may not have enough
to eat but at least he can get a good
night's sleep a rich man though has so
much that he stays awake
worrying you think that's you agree with
that don't be too good or too wise why
kill yourself but don't be too Wicked or
too foolish either why die before you have
have
to does that make
sense no here's another one I found one
man in a thousand that I could respect
that fast Runners do not always win the
races and the brave do not always win the
battles you agree with that one right
one more put your investment in several
places many places even because you
never know what kind of bad luck you're
world you not sure about
that you should have agreed with
everyone that's all in the word of
God I've been reading from
Ecclesiastes all those came straight out
of the Bible and yet you didn't agree
with half of
them what I'm trying to show you is that
a text out of a context is
dangerous you can make the Bible prove
anything you like if you take texts out
of context and I'm sure you've heard
this that a text out of context becomes a
a
pretext well now when you read the book
of Ecclesiastes it really is the
strangest book in the Bible the problem
is not how to to understand it it's only
too easy to understand the problem is to
agree with it it says the most
outrageous things it's too easy to
understand it doesn't sound like the
word of God at all it sounds more like
those little slips of paper you get out
of Christmas crackers you know sort of
homely bits of wisdom in fact it doesn't
sound much different from for example
Alfred Lord
Tennyson whose uh centinary of death it
was last year I just picked things up at
random part of his uh poems is better to
have loved and lost than never to have
loved at all for men at most differ as
Heaven and Earth but women worst and
best as Heaven and
Hell Authority forgets a dying King
knowledge comes but wisdom lingers
because right is right to follow right
where wisdom in the scorn of
consequence what's the difference
between Alfred Lord Tenison and
Ecclesiastes there's not much difference
at all is there when you look at
both in fact the Book of Ecclesiastes
has a very contemporary ring it's full of
of
isms I'm always wary of isms anything
that ends in ISM a little red warning
light goes on in my brain there are only
two isms I'm happy with baptism and
evangelism but apart from those isms all
the other isms really give me the
willies they become obsessions with
people and here are some of the isms I
found in Ecclesiastes fatalism
whatever will be will be
be
existentialism live for the present
moment who knows what the future is it's there
there
chauvinism well I read one or two
statements out that are clear chauvinism
Hedonism Living For Pleasure eat drink
and be
merry cynicism there's a lot of cynicism
in the Book of Ecclesiastes and that
seems to me the mood of our age we live
in a very cynical age that cannot
believe good things of people that
always believes there's something wrong
or something bad in motives behind good
acts we're a very cynical people and the
general impression is one of pessimism a
gloomy view of life it really is quite
depressing in a sense to read
Ecclesiastes here is a man who has
reached the end of life and is
disappointed disillusioned and hopeless
I say reach the end of life because it's
very easy to
tell how old an author is by what he
writes we've just read the song of songs
and study it how old was Solomon when he wrote
wrote
that when he extolled the love with this
girl I mean he was quite young but when
you read The Book of Proverbs which he
also wrote he says now son watch the
women now how old is he now you see he's
middle-aged isn't he he's trying to stop
his son doing the same things he did I
remember once hearing a girl say to her
mother what did you do at my age that
makes you so worried about
me which is most devastating question so
when Solomon says you know watch the
women son that's a middle-aged man but
here in Ecclesiastes remember your
creator in the days of your youth before
the teeth are few and the eyes are dim
and the legs shake how old is he he's
very near the end of life he's reaching
his long home as he calls it and he's
looking back on life and he's
desperately disappointed disillusioned
and depressed with what he's done about
it or with it and these insights in this
book are the result of his
observations uh he keeps using the
phrase I saw I saw I
saw and he observed life he watched
people and he came to certain
conclusions which he includes here now
this does not mean that God sees life as
Solomon sees it that's very important
and that's why you don't just quote
texts from Ecclesiastes as if God is
saying it we've got to ask why God put
it in the Bible but nevertheless so here
we have Solomon and he gives himself a
title in Hebrew
calet what does it mean it's sometimes
translated preacher or philosopher or
lecturer I think the nearest translation
would be speaker
particularly because we use this word
for the one who presides over the
debates in the House of Commons and this
old man is presiding over a debate but
the debate is going on in his
mind and like every good speaker he
allows the pros and the cons to have
equal speech and he listens to a
negative thought in his mind then a
positive and the debate is about the
motion life is worth
living and he cannot decide whether his
life has been worth living or not and he
keeps listening to the pros and the cons
the Y and the Nay trying to decide
whether the motion is carried or
defeated now it's awful to reach the end
of life and to be to be debating that
question because you only get one bite
of the Cherry you only get one chance to
live yesterday has gone you can't have
it back again you only get one time
around and to get to the end of life and
feel that you've missed it that's
terrible it explains the midlife crisis
many men have they they often reach
their goals in their 40s and they get to
the top and look around and there's
nothing what's it all been for what's it
all been about and many men in Middle
years try and start all over again and
they trade in the family Saloon for
sports car and they trade in the wife
for a later model and they you know they
they go crazy because they they feel
I've missed it got to start again and
second and third marriages trying to
capture life trying to make the most of
it before it's gone it's a very very
common problem all right well Solomon is
debating what are we here for what's
life all about is life worth living how
can we make the most of life and that's
probably the most important question any
human being can
ask precisely because we only get it
once many I'm afraid don't even bother
to ask they just feed their bodies keep
their job going and they're just
existing what a tragedy to waste a life
just existing and just keeping Body and
Soul together many people just doing
that their sole concern is how to keep
going but why keep going if there's
nothing worth keeping going
for well now let's look at the negative
side of the debate first have I have I
wasted my life what's it all been and
his opening statement Vanity Vanity all is
is
Vanity now unfortunately that's a bad
translation because the word vanity
today means
Pride most cars have a vanity mirror on
one of the um Sun Shields you notice
which side it's usually on by the way
but um it simply means a pride mirror
and the word vanity today simply means
pride and nothing more but in older
English vanity means
emptiness it's to do a thing in
vain useless wasted and I think the
nearest English word to vanity is
pointless here's a man who gets the end
of life and says
pointless pointless it's all been
pointless now that is a very very sad
conclusion or useless useless utterly
useless as one modern translation puts
it now he had been in a position to have
anything he
wanted and to do anything he wanted
first he was King so he had the power to
do anything he wanted he also had the
wealth he was a very rich man if money
could buy it he could buy
and he did he had Fame too now these are
the things most men want wealth power or
fame to find some meaning in life to
make life worth
living well he was fabulously wealthy
and so famous that the Queen of Sheba
came on a pilgrimage just to meet him
and see what he was like and she said
the half has not been told now he said
I've tried everything and he gives a
list of his interests and they cover a
huge range of human activity the first
thing he tried was science and the
particular branch of science he studied
was Agriculture and he went in for
cattle breeding and he really studied it
and he bred some fine
cattle but it didn't satisfy him it was
interesting while it lasted didn't
satisfy so he then turned to the Arts
and he tried two branches of the Arts
music was the first and of course he
inherited a love of music from his dad
but he he really went into music studied
the instruments had orchestras playing
in the court and yet it began to pull so
he then moved into architecture that is
satisfying to build a great building and
to feel it'll be there long after you're
gone it's very satisfying as
architecture except you have to live
with your mistakes and then he tried
collecting pictures and he built
Galleries and he collected pictures from
all over paid a fortune for them but
they're all mine and he would walk along
the gallery looking at his
pictures but pretty soon that began to
bore him so he tried entertainment now
he didn't have TV couldn't so he got
caught Comedians and they came in and
they put on a sitcom for him regularly
in the palace and he laughed himself
silly to go to bed and laughter became
comedy have a good laugh that's that's
what life's all about have a good laugh
if you you heard that anyway and he
tried that and it was fun while it
lasted but it didn't last so then he
went into business and he am Master
fortune in the commercial world and he
really was good at buying and selling
and he really found he could make money
hand over fist more than he needed and
yet somehow that didn't satisfy so then
he tried pleasure and he tried the usual
forms of it food wine and women and he
certainly went into all three at debt
and still he was
empty so he then finally went into
philosophy and he bought a library full
of books and he he searched for wisdom
books all over got them from Egypt there
was a lot of wisdom literature in Egypt
and he got a lot from there and he
filled this library and he studied all
the wisdom and he studied all that great
men had written and finally instead of
making books there is no end you can't
read them
all and all these things failed
him they
stimulated but they didn't
satisfy now listen there's nothing wrong
with many of those
things but if they are the main purpose in
in
life they will
fail to interpret life for you don't we
need to hear this there's something very
modern about this he's saying look I
have tried it all and it's all pointless
now you see when you found real life you
can get joy out of all those
things but if you're trying to find the
meaning of life in any of
them one of the problems is you grow
old and you can't do them all as you used
used
to or else you just get tired of doing
them and we live in a frenetic age when
people are constantly trying something
new the biggest section of bookshops is
the cookery
section trying to find some new
gastronomic experience that might
titivate us you know we'll go to the Tha
restaurant tonight we'll have Chinese
tomorrow night and we'll do Indian the
next night you know as if Yorkshire
pudding isn't good enough for us as if
we must have some new experience to
stimulate us we might be satisfied if we
explore all the cafeterias of the world
it is really quite sad to see people
trying to find meaning to life in these
ways instead of having found meaning
into life able to enjoy them in their
place but when they become number one it
leads to what he calls vexation of
spirit we would say
frustration you just become frustrated
they are not meeting the need now can we
explain his failure to make sense of
Life yes we can he has tunnel
vision he has observed too much and seen
too little now tunnel vision is when you
can only see a part of what normal site
can see you only see a bit of the
picture and Solomon had tunnel vision
here in two ways he was limited first of
all everything he saw was under the
sun favorite phrase of his I saw Under
the Sun and if you never lift your eyes
above the sun if all you can see is
what's under the sun you will never
understand the meaning of life I think
the saddest people my wife and I have
met recently were out on the cost of Del
Soul people had had a lovely fortnite's
holiday in Spain and sold up here to
retire there and live under the
sun that's about all you can do out
there no wonder El Dorado was such a
flop because life is a flop out there
and we met these sad people who can't
afford can't sell their villain now and
they can't afford to come back they're
stuck under Under the Sun for the rest
of their existence now you see life
can't be lived under the sun you need a
much higher
perspective if all you see is Under the
Sun you don't see what life is all about
and the other limitation to his
observations was he only looked at this
life he never mentions the
next now if your vision is limited to
this earth and this life you will never
understand what life is all about or
what makes it wor living you need the
perspective of God outside these
limits both limits in space and time
give you too little a view of life it's
only when you see life under
heaven in the light of Heaven's
perspective and this world in the light
of the next that you begin to see what
life is all about you follow me and this
was his tunnel vision and this led him
to negative thinking now because we live
in a scientific age we've em bibed the
scientific way of observing things and
science only observes this world and
this life and the scientific age has the
same tunnel vision that Solomon has and
we're all brought up with it we all
suffer from it and we can't see beyond
you need in a sense to be outside of
life and look back at it to see it
properly and God is outside life and he
can see it
properly and it's very interesting that
uh whenever Solomon brought God into
Ecclesiastes he became positive and
Optimist whenever he was limited to
human observations and left God out of
his thinking and just observed human
beings Under the Sun and in this world
he got more and more
depressed but when God came into it he
begins to be positive and to see life in
a different perspective and there are
two chapters in Ecclesiastes where God
comes right into the picture and life is
focused the first is chapter
3 it's the best known and the most
frequently quoted section you all know
it a time to do this a time to do that
Melvin Bragg gave a title to his latest
novel which was serialized on TV a time
to dance he took it straight out of this
and it's amazing how many authors have
taken a phrase out of Ecclesiastes 3 is
a title for a novel or a film very
popular in fact it's the only bit of
Ecclesiastes that most people could
quote but it's a very important part
unfortunately people don't quote it all
you see it is a poem it's got rhythm
it's a real poetic song about
times but the important bit of it is
just after the Poetry ends when it goes
back to pros and it says that God orders our
our
times as the psalmist says our times are
in his
hand and when you believe that your life
is in God's hands and that he knows the
right time for you to dance and the
right time for you to
weep then the things that happen to you
are not chin they're God's choice for
you and he's we leaving a pattern out of
your life and life won't be one long
picnic and life won't be happiness all
the way because that's bad for you do
you realize that if our feelings were
always on the same level we wouldn't
have any
feelings do you ever think about that
it's only because we have lows that we have
have
highs if your feelings were always the
same you wouldn't have any feelings
thank God for
feelings there are times when we'll feel
like dancing and there'll be times when
we don't there's a time to kiss time to
stop see now then uh I've written A
Chorus about this we're going to sing
it um I put it to a well-known tune
you'll all be able to sing and uh it's
about times but it begins and ends where
Ecclesiastes 3 begins and ends with God
deciding the right time for us to go
through a particular experience isn't it
a lovely thought thing that if something
happens to you that because you're
life's in God's hands then it's the
right thing to happen at that time this
is not
fatalism fatalism believes in an
impersonal fate that nobody can affect
that's quite different from God's free
choice of what he will allow happen to
you and he will vary our lives so that
his purpose is fulfilled in them well
let's sing it together all right God is
Sovereign sets the season
date of
birthday day of
death time for
planting time for
reaping time for
killing time to
heal time for
Wrecking time for
building time for
sorrow time for
Joy time for m
time for
dancing time for
kissing time to
stop time for
finding time for
losing time for
saving time for
waste time for
tearing time for
mending time for
silence time to talk
time for
loving time for
hating time for
fighting Time For
Peace have your fun then but
remember God is
Sovereign he
decrees that is why the Bible says when
you make plans for the future always say God
God
willing my father always used to put in
a letter somewhere
DV in Brackets it stood for a Latin
phrase Deo Valente God
willing letter after letter I've seen
him just put DV I'll be with you next week
week
DV that's a person who knows that our
times are in God's
hands and actually all the plans you may
make may come to nothing because God has
other plans for you
and uh that's a positive note it's not
fatalism it's not saying whatever will
be will be because God can change his
plans there's no doubt that God changes
his mind he
repents the Bible says that he interacts
with our attitude to him if we change he
does if we repent he does and time and
again you find people like Moses
changing God's mind for him and pleading
with him God is not just a a mechanical
force gotting it all laid out he's a
person and he's interacting with us and
as we interact with him he can change the
the
times he can give you a time of dancing
when you expected a time of weeping and
he can do the opposite that's the first
chapter in which God comes and Things
become positive and what he's saying is
there can be a pattern to
life and God can set the pattern and God
can make sure his purposes for your life
are full fulfilled another favorite
saying of my father was uh life is long
enough to live out God's purpose but
moment well that's what he's saying in
Ecclesiastes 3 our times are in his hand
and he will decide not in an arbitrary
predestination kind of way but he will
decide what is best for us in the next
time next part of our life
isn't it good to have somebody looking
after us like that and to know that if
the next part of the road is tough and
unhappy well he has decided that's going
to be for our good and he has brought it
and he will see us through and our
character will be formed by that for our future
future
blessing see this is where the longer
view of happiness in the next world
really makes a lot of difference really
does see this world is so brief and so
fleeting uh I've Got a Theory as to why
when I was 20 one year was a 20th of my
memory when I was 40 one year was a 40th
of my memory when I was 60 one year was
a 60th of my memory next week I'm 63 so
one year is a 63rd of my memory and so
that's my theory life gets compressed in
your memory it seems to go quicker and
quicker and quicker doesn't it seems no
time at all since we were last here
videoing and I've had had two
conferences here since then one or two
of you men came to our Men's Conference
in January but life just rushes by but
we've got all
eternity to benefit from what we've
learned in this life all eternity to
enjoy the good things of God without all the
the
hassle we've got everything to live for
the other chapter which has a strong
sense of the presence of God in it is of
course chapter 12 and chapter 12 really
is worth reading to you because uh it's
written by this old
man and I do want to read it because
it's such a good description of old age
and since I'm now one foot in the grave
and the other on a banana skin it's good
to read chapters like this listen to it
young man he says I'm starting in
chapter 11:9 because oh these chapter
divisions are so messed up aren't they I
wish we could all have a Bible without
chapter and verse numbers in it would
really know the Bible then now I'm going
to begin with chap with chapter 11: 7
it's a wonderful thing to be
alive if a person lives to be very old
let him rejoice in every day of life but
let him also remember that eternity is
far longer and that everything down here
is futile by
comparison young men it's wonderful to
be young enjoy every minute of it all do
all you want to take in Everything But
realize realiz that you must account to
God for everything you
do so banish grief and pain but remember
that youth with a whole life before it
can make serious
mistakes don't let the excitement of
being young cause you to forget about your
your
creator honor him in your youth before
the evil years come when you'll no
longer enjoy living it will be too late
then to try to remember remember him
when the Sun and light and moon and
stars are dim to your old eyes and there
is no Silver Lining left among the
clouds for there will come a time when
your limbs will tremble with age and
your strong legs will become weak and
your teeth will be too few to do their
work and there will be blindness too
then let your lips be tightly closed
while eating when your teeth are gone
and you will wake at dawn with the first
no to the birds but you yourself will be
deaf and tuneless with quavering voice
you will be afraid of heights and
falling a whad withered old man dragging himself
himself
along without sexual desire standing at
death's door and nearing his Everlasting
home as the mourners go along the
streets yes remember your creator now
while you are young before the silver
cord of Life snap LS and the Golden Bowl
is broken and the piter is broken at the
fountain and the wheel is broken at the
syst and the dust returns to the earth
and the spirit returns to God who gave
it all is futile says the preacher all
is futile but then because the preacher
was wise he went on teaching the people
all he knew and he collected Proverbs
and classified them for the preacher was
not only a wise man but he was a good
teacher he not only taught what he knew
to the people but he taught them in an
interesting manner the wise men's words
are like gos that spare to action they
nail down important
truths students are wise who Master what
their teachers tell them but my son be
warned there is no end of opinions ready
to be expressed studying them can go on
forever and be very exhausting here is
my final
conclusion fear God
and obey his Commandments for this is
the entire duty of men for God will
judge us for everything we do including
every hidden thing good or
bad what a message for young
people now just notice what he says
number one he says remember remember God
remember him and what he's admitting is
I forgot him and of course that's why
Song of Songs doesn't mention
God when he was so young and so much in
love he forgot all about God he only
thought about this
girl he says to young people just
remember God while you're young before
it's too
late second he says fear
God not only don't forget him but fear
Him the wisdom literature of the Bible
constantly says it's the fear of the
Lord that is the beginning of wisdom
the Bible will not make you clever but
it will make you
wise now if you're clever you'll make
more money but if you're wise you'll
make more of Life Would You Rather Be
Clever or wise well one of the first
steps in wisdom is to be more afraid of
God than anything else amazing what
people are afraid of afraid of AIDS
they're afraid of redundancy they're
afraid of all sorts of things but I tell
you if you fear the lord you're not
afraid of anything or anyone else that's
a big fear and big fears cure little
fears why should we fear the lord
precisely because he's going to ask for
an account of what you did with the life
he gave
you and the fear of him saying you
messed it
up is a healthy
fear and it's important to fear God it's
right be amazed how many comments I've
had for writing that
book we live in a generation where even
people inside the church don't want to
hear a thing about that and yet God said
or Jesus said to Born Again Believers
don't fear those who can kill your body
rather fear Him who can throw Body and
Soul into
hell and if people outside the church
don't fear God that's because people
inside don't either fear is contagious
and when people inside don't fear the
lord people outside have no fear of him
at all they think he's a nice old guy
who wouldn't harm a fly they're utterly
wrong so remember God fear God and obey
God I was in a Millionaire's home in Dallas
Dallas
Texas and the father in the home had
bought his daughter a Toyota car to go
to school in she'd had it 18
months and this happened while I was
there she walked home and she told her
father that the car had broken down it
had just stopped in the middle of the
road so he sent a mechanic out to find
out what was wrong and the mechanic
telephoned and told him and I was
present when he asked his
daughter have you been putting oil in
the car and she said oil you never told
me I had to put oil in I've been putting Petrol
Petrol
in for 18 months she from that car now
there was a book in the glove box the Maker's
Maker's
instructions she'd never bother to read
it and so she' just run it into the
ground mind you he had pull and he
phoned up Toyota and they promised to
give them a new engine free he was
telling all his friends about this
wonderful Toyota offer so they got their
money's worth out of the advertising but
you see she was an idiot with that car
brand new car she just totally ignored
the Maker's instructions within 18
months it was
finished but people are equally foolish
to leave the Maker's instructions on the
shelf or in the
cupboard remember God fear Him and study
his way to
live I believe this is why the Book of
Ecclesiastes is in our Bible because it
tells you where you finish up if you
don't discover his way to
live that if you don't understand the
meaning of life from Heaven's angle and
from the angle of the next World you
finish up a disillusioned disappointed
depressed person saying well the whole
lot was pointless where has it got me
I'll be dead and gone and people will
have forgotten about me in no time and I
will leave no Trace whatever of the 50
60 70 years I've spent
here well Christians don't feel like
that they know that whatever we do in
the Lord our labor is not in vain
it has Eternal consequences for good or
evil and to know that you're doing
things that things could happen this
weekend in you that will last
forever because there are Turnal issues
at stake I believe that's why it's in
our Bible many years ago I was preaching
my way through
Ecclesiastes and uh I think we had more
conversions during that series than any
other series I've preached yet I
wouldn't have chosen Ecclesiastes as a
good gospel message you're nodding ah
head where you there and you will
remember something that happened there
were even Jews converted during that
series but halfway through my telephone
went Sunday afternoon a voice said we've
got Charles Coulson in England Chuck
Coulson the Watergate man you know from
the Nixon Affair and uh would like uh to
find a place for him to give us
testimony tonight could he come to your
church in Guilford so I said yeah fine
and then I had a real battle I thought
I've prepared Ecclesiastes 5 and I don't
why we should stop listening to God's
word because a star testimony has come
over the Atlantic so I thought I'm going
to preach it anyway and he can give his
testimony afterwards so I preached
through Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and then
said now we have Chuck Coulson here
Nixon's right-and man from water he got
up and he just said I don't need to give
my testimony you've already heard
it and we sort of looked at him he said
that chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes simply
describes my life and he he went through
it verse by verse and Illustrated it
from the way he'd wasted his life under
Nixon especially the verse be careful
recorded and that was that's the heart
of Ecclesiastes 5 because God knows what
you say as well as what you do and what
you think and what you feel never forget
that night well God teaches us
positively in the Bible how to live he T
teaches us also negatively how not to
and he gives us both examples and the
positive and the negative give a good
picture together Ecclesiastes is largely
negative it's saying don't you finish up
like this because if you leave God out
and forget him and don't fear Him and
don't live life according to the Maker's
instructions you will get to the end of
it and you'll feel it's all been
pointless well do you want to do that or
do you want to live God's way and then
you get to the end of it and say thank God
God
remember a prophecy once given to me and
it was a direct word from the Lord and
it ended David I or my son I want you so
to live and work that when you see me
you will say Lord we did
it Lord we did
it then you feel life's been
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