Duckhorn, John: Going to Extremes ~ Ecclesiastes 7_15-29

Open Ecclesiastes, chapter seven. I'm going to plod long in this book. Chapter seven, starting at verse fifteen. Remember, this is obviously written before we have New Testament truth. The things that Solomon says have to be kept in perspective with his knowledge of biblical matters at his time. But there are timeless truths in this book, and we want to look at them. The other thing is, some of this is a little difficult. When you look at a chapter like chapter seven, you, you struggle a bit. Is he giving a series of proverbs that are not connected with one another, or is he, um, giving us a flow of thought? And we have to wrestle with these truths. And so, um, it's kind of interesting studying it, trying to understand what he's saying, how he was thinking, and how these truths apply to us. First part of chapter seven, he began some practical wisdom, some practical things about life. Remember, up to this time, Solomon has come up rather pessimistic sometimes about life and the perplexities of life and the difficulties. And the first part of chapter seven, he told us a series of things that are better. And in verse one, he talked to, said that a good name is better than, um, precious ointment. It is better for us to, to go to the house of mourning sometimes and be faced with difficulty so we can keep life perspective. Um, sorrow is better than laughter at times because we need to learn that God ministers to us in sorrow. Verse five, he talks about, uh, better to hear rebuke from the wise than for a man to hear the songs of fools. Precious are the wounds of an enemy and deceitful, or the precious are the wounds of a friend, deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. And then in verse eight, he tells it's better, the end of a thing is better than the beginning. In the beginning, we're enthusiastic and we want to do things that at the end we see the marvelous work of the providence and sovereignty of God, and we are in awe the way he's led our lives. And, uh, verse eight, the patient spirit is better than a proud spirit. Verse ten, do not say, why are the former days better than these? So he's contrasting certain things that are better than other things. Now, when we get to verse fifteen, he starts a another series of thoughts, and it has still has to do with practical wisdom, and has to do the outworking wisdom, and he presents a problem right off in verse fifteen. He presents a a problem that has perplexed Job and perplexed David when he wrote the Psalms and perplexed us, a problem that, uh, causes some some difficulty, and he's going to state the problem and then tell us what a reaction to the problem should be. And I, and what he says about what a reaction should be, kind of odd. So we have to fit it all together. All right, let's read verse fifteen. I've seen everything in my days of vanity. There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness, and there's a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness. Now I want to stop right there. He says, I have, I've seen everything. That's, that's a comment we often say, boy, I've seen everything now. One of the translations talks about, um, in this silly life, I have seen everything. I've seen everything in the days of my vanity. In this silly life, I've seen everything. Solomon says one of the things that, as you live, I've seen it all, is the fact that you cannot package everything neatly. You cannot just lay life out very orderly and neatly and package all biblical truth and say, this is the way it will always be, because he says, one of the things I've seen is that just men have perished early. And I have seen wicked men live longer, and I have seen wickedness prosper, and I've seen those who've tried to live right and be honest and good have themselves problems and get in trouble, and life not work out the way they thought. So right off, Solomon says, in my own words, you cannot package life very neatly and very orderly all of the time. And as we go through this, you'll see, um, Solomon as he tried to develop some thoughts. We're told in the Bible to live a good life. We're told to live a righteous life. We're told to follow Jesus Christ. Uh, but if goodness isn't always rewarded, the question is why, why live a good life? Maybe we should just go out and just do our thing and take whatever comes. And that's one of the things that has perplexed people, and you can see as Solomon looks at this, there's a bit of frustration. So he says, I've seen it all. I say, I've seen everything. And uh, most of us, as we get older, say the same thing. In, in the ministry, you've heard me say before, nothing surprises me anymore about any of us or anything, because there's so many things that take place in life. Now, how does this verse fit with the other truths of the Old Testament? For example, and I don't want you to read these, but mark it down because it would be good reading if you could read all of Leviticus chapter twenty six and all of Deuteronomy chapter twenty eight. And in those passages, you see that God says, those who are righteous will prosper in body, they will prosper in soul, the land will give crops. In other words, if you live right, I will bless you. And that, of course, is a truth that has come out in the Old Testament. And you can read those two chapters. But as you move on through the Old Testament, you also find that there are other difficulties. For example, David in Psalm seventy three talks about, um, the opposite, and this is what perplexed him, keeping in mind what Deuteronomy twenty six and twenty eight says. David says, I have seen the wicked prosper. I have seen the triumph of wickedness, and that was perplexing and confusing to David. We get kind of confused about some of these matters. See, when we put God in a box, you want him all neatly packaged. And as we move along in this, we see there are things we can't figure out, and it bothers us. And that's what Solomon is saying. Perhaps also there's a warning here, um, I think that we, we need to be careful of judging the moral worth of a person merely on outward condition, the moral and spiritual worth of a person, because the righteous may suffer, and we may say, well, there must be something wrong in their life. Maybe there's some hidden sin God is disciplining for. Well, maybe there is, but maybe there isn't. So he introduces a problem, and you could multiply this problem. You could add things to it until you begin to, to see that there are perplexing issues. So what we need is wisdom. Now, the chapel, the, the chapler has been talking about wisdom, practical things. How are we going to handle this? The next thing he says in verse sixteen is really interesting. This is really interesting. How, what do you make of this? Don't be overly righteous, nor be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? What? Overly righteous, overly wise. And then he says, and don't be overly wicked or be stupid. That literal translation, be foolish. Why should you die before your time? What a crazy answer to this problem. It seems like a crazy answer, isn't it? What a nutty way to give an answer to the problem. Let's look at this. Um, we need wisdom, and wisdom, of course, is more than just practical knowledge. Wisdom is a, is a God-given ability that helps us see things very clearly with real objectivity, and gives us rare insight in how to live. Wisdom is more than just practical knowledge. It gives us ability to see things and really put, put God's word to use. It creates a stability in our lives, because you see, that's one of the things you see here. Overly righteous, overly wise, overly wicked. Maybe we could use the word extremes. Beware of extremes. Maybe we could use the word, um, here, balance. Some kind of a balance that has to take place in this idea of living in, in wisdom, and wisdom operating in our lives. So he's asking, um, giving us some ideas, all right? So don't be overly righteous, overly wise. That's kind of interesting. What does he mean? I mean, we are not to be holy, we're not to pursue. Paul says, I press toward the mark. Is he saying, don't try too hard to be godly because you'll come up short, and who wants to be too godly, and people will just think you're, you're a goofball anyway, you're a fanatic? That's not what he's talking about, obviously. Wouldn't make sense. Not talking about dedication or holiness or the pursuit of righteousness. But he certainly is talking about a person who's overly righteous and overly wise, the super pious person, the person who wants to put everything together and think they have all of the answers, the person who tries to be, uh, um, overly zealous in order to impress people, and maybe to impress God. Maybe it's one way to react to this problem of, um, the, the righteous may, um, perish early. Try to influence men and influence God, and being overly wise. Trying to come up with all of the answers to everything, thinking that if we can just come up with the correct formula, we can answer everything anybody says to us. I think he's talking here then about this idea of the Pharisees. This person who's living an out of balance Christianity, living in an extreme, presenting the truth of God in a harsh, imbalanced way that makes no impression on anybody, but brings glory to their, their own self. Let's look, for example, in Matthew twenty three, and you can, you can turn there if you'd like, Matthew chapter twenty three. Very quickly, I'll just show you some verses without any comments. But I think he's talking about the Pharisee type attitude. Matthew twenty three verse four. They, uh, they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. Coming down hard on people and over righteousness. Verse five, But all their works they do to be seen by men. Verse six, They love the best places to feast, the best seats in the banquets and at the conferences, oh, and that sort of thing, see? Let's move on. Verse fourteen. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses for a pretense, making long prayers. Serving, and yet seeking in their service what they can get out, using their position for gain. Verse fifteen: Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself. Wow. They'll go over, they'll spend a lot of time influencing people with their extreme things, and all they're really doing is binding them and making them like themselves. Verse twenty three, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and you have neglected the weight of your matters of the law, justice and mercy of faith. Dotting the I's, crossing the T's, worrying about all little things, and yet where's justice and mercy? Verse twenty five, Um, you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but the insides are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Verse twenty nine, and so on and so forth. And I think that perhaps what he's talking about, but he's talking about a reaction to these life problems. The overly righteous person, the person who, um, tried to impress, the person who, who wants to have everything exactly right and have all of the answers and conduct their life in such a way, overly righteous, that they impress nobody. They go up to an extreme. Now, we're not saying here about being godly and following Jesus Christ and living a daily life. We all know that we're talking about certain kinds of people. Let me give you an example. There are those among us worldwide who, once they learn a thing is desirable, that God wants something that we're to do, or that a certain course of life is good, you never hear the end of it. See? You never hear the end of it. Wherever you go, you never hear the end of that thing. That is a whole life, that is a whole formula. For example, have you ever heard this? The Bible is the best of books, and it is, so why read anything else? You ever run into people like that? I do. I run into people like that a lot. I've had a number of people along the way over the years here and in Columbia suggest that I shouldn't read commentaries. I should just go to his word because there's no wisdom in the commentaries. Well, they're just Bible teachers, that's all they commentaries are, putting it in paper. So, our impulsive natures are pushed to unreasonable and unreasoning opinions, and that's what he's talking about. He has seen people in wisdom having a problem by going overboard, making no impression. They lose the respect and influence of other people, and people rarely heed their judgment, they tolerate them. And we know what that's like because in our lives we've run across people like that. So, um, as I said, these people might feel if they dedicate their lives and give their lives in extreme that God will bless them, but of course, um, piety will not gain all that we desire. Now there's a parallel here because it turns it just the opposite. Don't be overly wicked. Now, there might be some who look at this problem and say, look, if, if the righteous get into trouble and often die young, so that following God, you don't know what's going to happen. You may get cancer at forty five, or you may be younger and die. What's the use? Maybe I should just live a wicked life because the wicked prosper, and maybe the best thing to do to handle this problem is just go out and do my own thing. Some handle their lives that way. God, I don't understand God. I don't understand how he does things. I'm just going to do what I want. I don't understand how God could be loving or holy, so I'm going to do what I want. And look at some of these people around. Everybody's going to die. They die painfully, but they've lived a wicked life. Maybe if I do that, I'll live to be old and I'll get away with it. So there's a, a kind of a parallelism. Sin appears sometimes to go unpunished, and it does. And let's face it, sin in this world appears many times to go unpunished. So people might react to this because you can't understand God's sovereignty, um, doesn't mean we should be deliberately sinning. Now he's not saying, by the way, sin in moderation. Be holy in moderation, sin in moderation, in other words, have the best of two worlds. Because he will state later on in this portion that nobody is perfect, and we are all sinners, and we all have our defects. So there's a balance here. Don't be too, too strict, overstrict in your righteousness, but at the same time, don't give way to all of the, the human desires of wickedness and become like the fool. Verse seventeen. No, be foolish. Don't become like the fool who just goes out and lives their own life the way they want. Psalm one hundred and ten eleven says, pardon me, Psalm ten verse eleven. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten, he hides his face, he will never see. That's what David says about the wicked. He he's hid his face, he'll never see. He doesn't know what I'm doing. So we're told here not to indulge in speculation about God's dealings according to our own leanings. There are things we can't answer, and we are to keep a balance. In other words, is wisdom guarding you from extremes? We need to express Jesus Christ in our life and show the reality of Christ. But the person, the person who is overly righteous in everything makes no impression upon anybody and often drives them away. So balance is important. And of course, the answer is in verse eighteen. How do I handle this? Not being overly righteous, not being overly wise, thinking I can neatly package God, not be overly wicked. What's the answer? Well, it is good for you to grasp this. It's good. And also not remove your hand from the other. Hold on to both of these. For he who fears God will escape them all, keeping the fear of God before you. And the fear of God is the reality and sensitiveness to his leading and sin and his word. The person who will keep the fear of God before them is a person who will know tenderness of conscience. They will know how to conduct their lives, and they will not be given to extremes. Solomon have seen this, and he warns us against it. The way of victory is to keep God in the forefront of our lives, to fear him. And you see, the extremist doesn't necessarily fear God, and the one who goes out and lives in sin does not necessarily fear God. So some conclusion from this first part. Fear God instead of complaining about his mysterious providences, why some suffer, why some don't. Fear him. Nobody's overwise. Nobody has all of the answers. And serve God with intelligent reasons instead of extremes on one side or the other. Love God, but do not lose touch with humanity. Now we must move on. The second thing he says in, starting in verse nineteen is wisdom strengthens the wise, and that would be a good word for this portion. First word is balance. Wisdom gives balance. The second word that would be important is wisdom strengthens, and it strengthens in interesting ways. Notice what he says. Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers of the city. Now he sees some city, maybe the, the political poobas who are running it, or he sees maybe the generals, but he sees difficulties, everybody running around panicking, and everybody in sort of a, a, a, an extreme panic, and then he sees the wise with strength. People say, what's going to happen, and lose their balance, and this is happening, and, and dumb things happen. But he sees some wise man. Maybe he's not one of the political poobas, but he sees one of the wise men, a wise, with wise, a a man who has wisdom, and he knows how to handle his life. He's not given to extreme. Our politicians are given to extremes, but on both sides of the fence. Somebody burns their hand, and the next week we'll have a law that that we have to get rid of matches because one person burned their hand, and everybody's running around all kinds of extremes, all kinds of things. So wisdom strengthens, and this strength, of course, is inner strength. This is what he's talking about. Um, it is, it is something that takes place in us because of the fear of God. We're able to stand strong, and while other people are looking at the world, these, these ten mayors, these ten leaders who are, who are panicking about the coming army or the fall of the economy or worrying about the Babylonians coming or whatever else it is. The wise man with inner strength, the wise men and women will be able to s- stand and handle their lives. Life is full of panic. Life is full of danger, and these ten mayors, because I think that's basically what it means more than generals, these ten rulers or mayors who are panicking in these cities who might be attacked or who might be vulnerable or, or from drought losing their crops, are panicking. The strong person is able to live in this world where there are a lot of things beyond our control and stand strong and true. We need inner strength, and only Jesus Christ can give us that. Proverbs twenty four five says, a wise man is strong, yes, a man of knowledge increases strength. And this is our inner strength. So these are the things that are important. Now, verse twenty, he says, now notice this, for there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. That sounds just like Roman. There's none righteous, no, not one. Romans chapter three. In fact, when Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple, First Kings eight forty six, you'll probably see this in the margin of your Bible. That was part of his prayer. Now, why does he throw that in? He's talking about people wanting to handle the problems of life through overzealousness or overwise, wanting to have all of the answers, wanting to conduct everything perfectly, wanting to do everything right, and everybody else wanting to do everything the way they want. And then he states a fact. Nothing is right. Nothing is really perfect. See? Nothing in this world really is the way we would like it to be. Verse twenty, there's not a just man on earth who does good and doesn't sin. We're all sinners. Even the believer who wants to do righteousness will often discover that he or she misses the mark. I do, and I won't speak for you. I'll speak for myself. In my dedication and wanting to make sure these years of my life are used for him, wow, I missed the mark. It's part of life. So perhaps he's talking about the perfectionist. Maybe that's what you have in those verses, overly righteous, overly wise. Then you have the one who just throws the whole thing out and will go sin. Maybe talking about the perfectionist. I've given this definition years ago, and I like it, about a perfectionist. A person who's taken great pains and has given them to others. Person who wants it just perfect all of the time and will not be satisfied with the people around them. Now keep in mind verse fifteen. Some want to, to fit everything. They want an answer to everything. Everything must be black or white. Greys, gray areas drive them crazy. And that happens among us. Years and years ago, I was faced at a place where there was a divorce, and people were praying for the marriage, and one of the men who wasn't in regular fellowship, but one of the men said at this place, he said, the reason the marriage isn't put back together is because you're not praying. Well, how do you get that? Well, God believes in marriage, right, and God doesn't want a marriage to be split up, right. So therefore, if we prayed, God would do his will, right. Therefore, if you're not praying, it's your fault, not their fault. So neatly packaged that it just laid it at the feet of the whole congregation. That doesn't work that way. People have free wills. Say the conclusion were God believes in marriage, he ordained it, he doesn't want any couple to split up, so if everybody's praying, it will be put back together, and if it falls apart, it's because people didn't pray. That may be true, and it may not be true. And neither one of us can prove it either way, can we? We can't. Because there's human nature in all of these things. So you have this perfectionism. Um, as we gain God's wisdom, we gain strength to live with questions and tension. That's what I think we have here. As he gives us strength, we can live. Wisdom is a filtering system. Helps us look at things in life and, and, and kind of, um, keeps us from the extremes. It rejects extremes. It helps us in our doubts. It gives us the ability to keep believing and moving on, even though there's some things we can't understand. So verse twenty is very important in this context. It's not isolated. Verse twenty is very important. Because you see, the people who are dealing with this are trying to make a perfect world, and he's not saying go out and sin, but certainly he says they're a problem. Let's move on. Don't always... Now, this is an interesting... Why does he say this? This is kind of funny. Also, don't take to heart everything people say. Now, over in first part of this chapter, chapter seven verse five, he said it, it is better to hear the rebuke of a wise, of the wise, than for a man to hear the songs of fools. So he's not saying we shouldn't listen to wise people. Right? So over here he says, um, don't always take everything to heart of everything says, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Right? Many times also your own heart is known that even you have cursed others. Now you see, I don't know exactly why he pulls this out, but it fits, he is saying one of the things that creates unrest in us. We hear things, we're not perfect, so we, we hear things. Now take the servant. The servant is somebody who's very close to you. The servant would be somebody who knew you well. And, uh, no man is a hero to a servant. No. He is a servant sees you warts and all. So he says, the people close to you, there are people who are close to you, and don't take everything to heart. You know, sometimes people say something, and ten minutes later, they've even forgotten what they've said. And so Solomon is saying it is better for us to learn how to handle it. A, a wise man remembers his own mistakes and offenses and judges leniently of others in their hasty words and offenses, because in verse twenty two, he twists the sword, say, well, I've heard those people say that. Then he twists the sword, he says, many times also your heart is known, you have even cursed others, and he twisted the sword. You don't like people to say anything about you, how many times have you said something about others? But this is something that throws us off, isn't it? And, uh, wisdom helps us rise above giving and receiving a false criticism. This is an area, people, where we don't need perfect justice. And sometimes people say something, even those people who are closest to us. And he's saying, don't, don't take everything to heart. Because we say things sometimes, and we're bothered by it. He said, well, we ourselves have said the same thing. We've cursed others. And if somebody would ask us a couple days later what we said, we probably wouldn't even remember. Maybe we just said it. But wisdom helps us not only to handle the difficulties, it helps us to handle this area where people, where we hear things, where we see our own weaknesses. We're not faultless. What others say in haste is, is often soon forgotten by the person who said it. Make allowances for the imperfections of our fellow man. But we don't. We take it to heart, and we bear it for years. And it comes out at the craziest, strangest times. Go to places, I traveled around enough, and you go to places where there've been ch- church splits, and you begin with the present problem. Why did this church split? Well, because we were fighting over contemporary music. Nah, you weren't fighting over contemporary music. Humbug. Trace it back, and go back, and go back, and go back, and pretty soon you find out that there's this ill feeling and that feeling and that problem and that problem. And what shocks you sometimes when you're in, when you learn the news of this, is that something that happened twenty years ago is finally brought out when arguing about contemporary music. Say, well, you never were very godly anyway. Eh. Wow. But there's truth to this. There's truth to this. Paul says in Philippians three twelve, I have not already attained, nor am I already perfect, but I press on. What he's just asking for here is plain and simply that we have some compassion and care for one another, and be careful about remembering every little thing that we hear. And that goes for praise also. Let another man praise you and not yourself. That goes for praise also. Here's something I quote out of a commentary, in commentaries, but I liked it. Those who crowd around the gates of mercy as supplicants have little need to recriminate one another. Recriminate means to reply to an accusation by accusing. I never thought you were very godly. Oh yeah? Well, I'll tell you what I thought of you, say. Those who crowd around the gates of mercy have little time for it. And let's be at the gate of mercy. Question. First question was, is wisdom keeping you in, in balance from extreme? Second question, is wisdom keeping us strong in the blast of criticism, the traps of pride? Is it giving us inner strength we need? That's the next issue here. Now, in verse twenty three, he moves on, and he's going to talk about, uh, how much can we really know? And it still fits in the context, because he's Solomon was smart, and he prayed for wisdom, and he says, I'm going to get answers to these mysterious providences of God. So verse twenty three, he says, all this I have proved by wisdom. I said I will be wise. I'm going to get the answers. But it was far from me. So there's some things I just can't know. I cannot neatly package everything and divide it up. At verse twenty four: as for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, who can find it? My, the mysteries. Wow. Some things are only known to God. You'll hear me talk about my life a lot, but I think my life is a little bit of an example of it. A young kid saved at eighteen, gets on fire for the Lord, gets a missionary vision, goes to the field, and finds out he's got a poor sound system. Cheap radio sh- I know, I shouldn't say anyway. Cheap sound system. And you wonder why all of this? Why give a burden? Why give a desire? Why give a vision? Why all of it? I don't know. I don't spend much time thinking about it. What I spend most time thinking about is that I would learn to have grace and mercy now so I don't make a stupid fool of myself in front of you as I get testy with situations that I can't handle. But figure out the mystery of I can't figure it out. I can't figure it out. Well, you see, this is what he's saying. All right. So there's far off, exceedingly deep. He said, I applied my heart to know, to search, to seek out wisdom and the reason of things. Now, that's the first thing he did. I wanted to search and seek and know the reasons of things. I wanted to understand the depth of everything that was going on, but there's something else I wanted to know. He says, to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness of madness. Two things you wanted to know. I like this. I wanted to search out the, the reason for things and understand things, but I also wanted to search out why people are so stupid. See, why some people are so stupid. Why are there some people who just insist on ruining their lives? And I wanted to study that too. You know what? I can't figure it, he said. Some people are just stupid. See? They just won't listen to the word of God. They just won't listen to truth. They just rebel and they just go on. Why are they stupid? They can understand what happens. And who can explain that? How some people have listened to the word of God all their lives. I have good parents, and they've gone and be dedicated, and some have sat in the same environment and gone off and be, live stupid in madness. So Solomon said, I want to study. And it's it's one of the perplexing things. Be careful how you judge people who bring up their children. Be careful, especially if a child goes wrong. Be careful of immediately accusing the parents of being bad parents or not having brought up the child right. There are people in this world, hard, stupid people, young people who have been brought up in good environments, who just insist they will live in madness. How do you explain it? Pretty hard, but there's an answer here, and we'll get there. I won't tell you where it is, but the answer's here. So he searched this, and he saw these two things. I want to know the reason for things, but I want to know why there's such stupidity. I want to know why people make choices that lead them away from God and from his word and from the very things that are designed to bless them. I want to know why they're led that way. And of course, there's a lot of Proverbs. Proverbs one twenty two, the fool hates knowledge. Proverbs eighteen two, the fool has no delight or pleasure in understanding. Proverbs ten twenty three, the fool finds pleasure in evil conduct. And these are some of the examples. He gives us an example of a fool in verse twenty six. I find more bitter than death. Oh, let that, let that rock your heart, man. The woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be trapped by her. Now, keep this in perspective, believe me. He's not saying women are just nothing. Not saying that at all. Go back and think of Solomon's life. Three hundred wives, how many concubines? Forgive me for putting it this way because it's desecrating a biblical character, but Solomon had an insatiable sexual, sensual desire that was never satisfied. He was a sensual man, and he looked for meaning in variety of partners, and he did. Even Queen Esther. See, we have a hard time with this. Esther is chosen. Why was she chosen? Because she was smart? No. Because she was so beautiful, she would give the king pleasure for maybe one night. Read Esther. Those kings in those days sometimes had some of these women for one night, and it said if they found no pleasure in them, they put them in the house of concubines and gave them a little bit of inheritance, and they lived there. See, Esther wasn't chosen before wisdom. She was chosen because the king thought she was one good-looking woman. But she became wise, and I believe he fell in love with her. I believe he found something compatible with her, and he listened to her, and he began to appreciate her for more. And what he's talking about here is more bitter than death is the affair. If you went to Proverbs chapter five, and we don't have time because I'm out of time, but the Packers don't play, so let me finish this. If you went to chapter five of Proverbs... Oh, next week they play at eleven thirty. I'm sorry for the person who speaks then. I'll be on Oconomowoc and trying to sneak off to Andy, Andy Miller's house for the game over. He likes to practice anyway. But, um, what did I say? Anyway, Proverbs chapter five contrasts two women. In the first part of Chap- uh, Proverbs chapter five, it contrasts the woman who's the adulteress and how seductive she can be. But in chapter five verse fifteen, he also talks about the wife. Let's go there for a minute. What, what, what's the difference? We're a few minutes late today. I haven't spoken for three weeks, and I'm all wound up here. All right. Chapter five. he talks about the, the adulteress. But when he gets to verse fifteen, he says that there is a legitimate pleasure in the wife of our youth. Drink from your own cistern and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. And you could keep reading this. So he's not, he's not knocking women. What Solomon is saying is that the foolish person goes out and looks for sensual pleasure and does not esteem a woman for what she should be, because in Proverbs chapter thirty one, he's talked about the virtuous godly woman, the affair. This is what I'd- I'd like to... This is the person who says, I'm not satisfied in my marriage, I'm not satisfied with getting old, and I'm satisfied with my wife. I need excitement. I need variety. I need the pleasure. And by the way, there ought to be excitement and pleasure in your sexual relationships in marriage. But this is the one who looks over here. This will meet my need. So Solomon gives us something that is stupid, but notice how he says this, and I want this phrase, men, to be struck in your heart, it was as it is mine. More bitter than death. I lose a loved one, and the pain is incredible. But my conscience is guilty. I understand the providence of God, and somehow he strengthened me to handle it. But when I go out and do this other thing, it is more bitter than death because it means a scar in my life and a scar in the lives of other people. It wrecks and it ruins, and it's more bitter than death. Because the loved one that died I can put behind me with the sense of peace. So let that phrase, let that phrase mean something to you. More bitter than death. So Solomon is saying, I sought wisdom, and here's to somebody who's just stupid. And when they participate in that, it becomes, it becomes more bitter than death. And in Proverbs five, there were two women, the adulteress, the legitimate wife. He contrasts them. Find the joy in your own wife. Solomon had how many hundreds of wives and concubines, and that's all he did, was seek sensual pleasure. You can read in First, First Kings chapter eleven. He never treated them as trusted companions or friends, to him they were just degraded to be used. And that's how sexual matters are seen in our society today, aren't they? We got to move on. We have to move on. All right. So he looked for love and sexual satisfaction outside of intimacy and closeness with the person, companionship, reality, and all it led to was self-loathing and hate, more bitter than death. Wow. Now let's keep going here because I want to get this done. Verse twenty seven. Here's what I found, says the preacher. He's going to give you something that found. Now this is something he did find. This is an answer he does have, so pay attention. Adding one thing to another to find out the reason which my soul still seeks, but I cannot find. I cannot find one man among a thousand have I found who has wisdom. In other words, one in a thousand really knows how to handle it, but I haven't found one woman. Now, remember, he's not saying women are dumb. Look at the crowd of women he was around and why he had them around him, and you'll understand that phrase. There's nothing here of a white male patriarchal society looking down on women. Solomon was surrounded by women for one reason. That's why he says, I haven't found any wise ones. And I understand from some reading that the harems they had and the concubines they had weren't the most intelligent people around seeking wisdom. They weren't reading Calvin's Institutes or re- memorizing Greek verbs or anything like that, eh. It's interesting Solomon says this. Maybe I've found one man in a thousand, but in the crowd I'm with, he says, I haven't found any of this, because this is what he sought. But here's the answer. This is what he's found now. Get this. Truly, this only I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. Now, if there's any truth in this chapter, it is this. He says, this I have found. God has made man upright. He gave him a mind that can think in the gutter or a mind that can be put on holy things. He gave him a will that can be destroyed or a will that can serve God. He's given him a body that can be degraded or a body that can love God. He's given him emotions that can be destroyed or emotions that can fly high and enjoy God, but man has followed his own road to destruction. Now, for those of you who don't believe this, listen to me. Our basic problem is not above us. What do I mean? Well, I can't figure out what God's doing. No, the problem is in you and in me. Our problem's not around us, it's their problem. No, it's you and it's me. And it's not with God. Well, I don't understand what he's doing. It's with us. See, Solomon just said, there are some things I can't figure out. So what does wisdom do? It gives balance. Beware of extreme. It gives strength to face things, inner strength, but it also gives insight. Wisdom gives insight to the world around me. Gives insight to you. So Solomon makes this clear. This is the insight I have, that God has done right by us. He's done right. It's not his fault, but we have continued to choose our own downward road. We seek out many devices and things to go away from him. This is an interesting chapter, isn't it? Be careful about trying to neatly package God. Be careful. Don't go to the extremes. Be careful about being so overly righteous that you, you come across phony and nobody wants to learn from you. Be careful about running the world. Remember, nobody's perfect. Nobody's exactly what we want to be, and when you take to heart what other people have said and you bear grudges, remember you may have said something about somebody else too. N- none of us are free from this, none of us. And then he moves on and says, I've sought wisdom and I looked around me, I went to know all of the answers. I also went out to study stupidity, because one stupid person I've seen is the one who seeks pleasure outside of the relationship with their wife in an affair, and it's more bitter than death. But I'll tell you what I found, he said. I'll tell you what I found. God has made man upright, but man has continued to go down his own road. Jesus Christ came to the cross that we might be newly, new people, born again, saved. Give us the Holy Spirit. Wisdom gives us balance, wisdom gives us strength, and wisdom gives us insight. Thank you, Father, for these words from Solomon. They are wise words. They are from a man who's experienced the emptiness of relationships that don't fulfill because he went into them for his own pleasure. They're the words of a wise man who thought he could neatly package God, but came up with frustrated. A man who expected everything to go right, to be perfect, and forgot that nothing is perfect in his creation. Thank you, Father, for this, and we pray for anybody here who's heard the gospel and who hasn't received Christ, that they may today, they may stop blaming you and being perplexed at your mysteries, and come to the cross and accept Christ and be born again, and they will know, as they've never known, how you love them and care for them, and that you handle all things in our lives according to your sovereign plan. Bless us now with these words to our heart, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.