The End of the Matter: Fear God

0:47So it probably won't surprise you that my views haven't changed in the 15 years since then, that all the news that I think I can handle comes twice a month. One of the things that I really love about that magazine is that it handles all of the stuff that's going on in our world, politics and entertainment and sports and all of it, from a decidedly Christian worldview. And so it helps me to process everything that's going on at a rate that I can handle.

1:18And it helps me to process everything that's going on from a biblical worldview. They don't pay me anything to advertise for them. But I would strongly recommend that you get off Twitter and that you get off cable news. And that you find something like World Magazine to help you sort out all that goes on in our world on a weekly and monthly and yearly basis. One of my favorite things about that magazine is at the end of the year, they put out this issue and they call it News of the Year. And in this end of the year edition, it has a section that usually runs 20 or more pages. It's just called deaths.

1:58And so for 20 or more pages, it just lists these brief obituaries of famous and infamous people who have died in the last year. And it usually takes me several sittings to get through the entire thing, but I read every obituary every single year. And part of that is because it's fascinating to read these little accounts of people who have died in the past year. But part of it is because it's an annual reminder to me as a person who is living in an age and in a day where we aren't confronted with the reality of death all the time, like people were 100 years ago or 500 years ago or 1,000 years ago. And so for me, as a modern person, it's a regular reminder that I am going to die. That somebody someday is going to write my obituary.

2:54And so it's a time for me to pause and to consider: how am I living my life? What am I doing? I giving my time, my energy, my attention to? It's a time to ask myself, am I afraid of death? Am I trying to prolong this life as long as I possibly can for worldly reasons? Because I think if you talk to the average person on the street, they will tell you that one of the things that they fear more than anything is death.

3:23They fear the unknown. They fear people and what people think of them. And Solomon is the wisest man who ever lived when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. He understood these things. And so he wrote this book to people who were just like you and me, who had fears just like you and I have. And he concludes this book by hitting directly on some of those fears. He reflects on our greatest fears, and he concludes with the admonition to fear the Lord.

3:59So friends, as we wrap up this brief study of Ecclesiastes, and if you haven't been here over the past five weeks and you haven't had a chance to listen to the sermons or watch the services, they're all online. I would encourage you to do that. We've had some great preaching the past few weeks, haven't we? I was not preaching. Just to be clear, not tooting my own horn there. We've had some great preaching, and I want you guys to experience that. But as we wrap up this book, we're going to learn that if we fear the Lord, we have nothing else to fear.

4:31So let's jump in here. First six verses of chapter 11. You probably noticed when it was read aloud a moment ago that there's this phrase that's repeated in these first six verses: you do not know. You do not know. And if there is one thing that modern people hate to hear, it's we don't know. We don't want to be told by doctors, we don't know what's causing the pain you're experiencing. We don't want to be told by scientists we don't know exactly how that disease spreads or why it kills one healthy person and barely affects another one.

5:21We don't want to be told by pastors and theologians, we don't know how to explain many of the mysteries that abound in our world. Modern people don't want to hear that stuff. We want an explanation for everything. We've made so much scientific and technological and yes, even theological progress that we're spoiled. We believe that we are entitled to an answer for everything and that we're entitled to that answer right now. We're uncomfortable with mystery. We're uncomfortable with having to admit that we. Don't know something with having to acknowledge that our best and brightest people have not figured everything out.

6:08That is to say, we've come to the place where we are uncomfortable admitting that we are not God. So, in these first six verses of chapter 11, Solomon is just hammering that point home. And in verses 1 and 2, he says, if you put your crops, if you put your merchandise, your products on ships, and you send them out on the high seas for trade, you have no idea what may befall them. There may be a shipwreck.

6:39Jack Sparrow and his pirates may steal it. The people that you're trading with may cheat you. You just don't know. In verse 3, he says, if the clouds get full, it's going to rain. You have exactly zero control over when it rains. If you want it to rain, it may not. If you don't want it to rain, it may pour. And he says in verse 3, if the integrity of a huge tree is compromised, it's going to fall down, and you don't know where it's going to land.

7:12It could fall to the north or to the south. You've got no control over that. In verse 5, he says, you have no idea how the Spirit comes and animates the bones of a child in the womb. You don't know the work of God. Apart from what he has revealed to us, his ways are inscrutable. They are past finding out. And in verse 6, he says, you don't know which seeds will produce a crop. If you plant one, it may grow, but it may not.

7:50If you plant another, it may grow, it may not. Both may grow. You just don't know. So, friends, we read all this, and if we're honest, we recognize that it's all true. We don't know the future, we don't control the future. God does, but we don't. So, listen to Derek Kidner. This is what he had to say. If that can be a paralyzing thought, it can also be a spur to action. For if there are risks in everything, it is better to fail in launching out than in hugging one's resources to oneself.

8:27The very smallness of our knowledge and control, the very likelihood of hard times, so frequently impressed upon us throughout the book, become the reason to bestir ourselves and show some spirit. So, what is Solomon's prescription in light of the fact that we don't know or control the future? We'll go back to verses 1 and 2. He says, send your goods out and trade. Invest in seven or eight different ways because you. Don't know what could happen. Your money could get stolen while on the high seas, and it can also get stolen under your mattress.

9:10Look again at verse 6. He says, plant in the morning, but also plant in the evening. Since you don't know which seeds are going to grow, it's wise to diversify your crops. In verse 4, is what really hammers this whole idea home. Look at what he says: he who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. In other words, if you wait for wind conditions to be just perfect for you to go out and scatter your seed, you're never going to do it.

9:46If you wait until the perfect opportunity to harvest your crops when you don't think it's going to rain, you're going to wait forever because it could rain at any point. Friends, Solomon is teaching us to embrace the fact that we don't know or control the future. And I think information overload in our day has paralyzed many of us into not taking risks because we are just frozen by the thought that something bad might happen to us.

10:21But Solomon says to us, and I say to you, don't be ridiculous. Bad things are definitely going to happen to you. That much is clear throughout Ecclesiastes, isn't it? But if we never take that test, if we never apply for that job, if we never ask that person out, if we never invest in that business, then we're just never going to take the next step in life. If we never take the risk of being rejected, we are never going to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our friends and family members and coworkers who desperately need to hear the good news.

11:09Church, we don't know the future, and we don't control the future. So, what Solomon is saying to us is we need to embrace that reality. And instead of fearing the unknown, we must fear the Lord. Not only does God know the future, He controls it down to the very smallest detail. And what that should do is it should inspire rational faith in Him instead of irrational faith in ourselves and in our own abilities to know and control the future.

11:47So, let's pick out now in verse 7 where we're going to be encouraged to fear the Lord and not the aging process. 7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

12:48What Solomon is doing here is he's highlighting the joys of living a long life filled with lots of good days. And what he's saying is that most of those good days often occur when we're young, because along with youth come energy and opportunity and choices, things that disappear over time. As we age, we simply have less energy to pursue the things that we once pursued. We've got fewer opportunities because there are more doors that are closed to us. And we have fewer choices because we have Greater responsibilities that limit us from making those choices. And I think for a lot of people, especially modern people, those are very scary realities.

13:43We don't want to come to grips with the fact that we are getting older, that youth and the dawn of life are behind us, that we're nearing the end of our lives. So, what happens to a lot of people is that they end up doing all that they can to maintain the energy and the opportunities and the choices of youth as long as they possibly can, which is just another way of saying that they end up idolizing youth and everything that goes along with it. But, friends, that ruins it because that's what idols do. Instead of delivering the freedom and the security that they promise, idols always end up delivering bondage and insecurity.

14:32I love Derek Kidner's observation here. He says, To idolize the state of youth and to dread the loss of it is disastrous, it spoils the gift even while we have it. To see it instead as a passing phase, beautiful in its time, but not beyond it, is to be free from its frustrations. So, if we aren't to idolize, Youth, then what is Solomon's counsel? How do we view youth? How do we view the dawn of life?

15:08Look at verse 9 again. Solomon tells us to rejoice in our youth, to walk in the ways of our hearts. In verse 10, he tells us to put away vexation and pain, or that word can be translated evil, from our bodies. So he's saying, don't excessively dwell on what's wrong with ourselves or what's wrong with the world. And he tells us why at the end of verse 10, he says, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. Now, you might remember, as we've talked about throughout this series, this word that's translated vanity can be translated a lot of different ways, but it's trying to get at the idea that these things are passing. They're fleeting. They're here today and they are gone tomorrow. And the reality is, in a fallen world that's under the curse of God for our sin, where our bodies get sick and they wear out and they eventually die, the days of darkness that he talks about, those are going to come.

16:11And Solomon has this vivid description at the beginning of chapter 12 to really drive this point home. He uses these artistic and poetic metaphors to show us what happens to every person who is living in this fallen world under the curse of sin, where our bodies wear out and they age. And they die. Look at what he says in chapter 12. He says, Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth. Before the evil days come, and the years draw near, of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, he's saying, when your hands start to shake, and the strong men are bent, your fingers, your arms, your back, you're no longer able to stand upright. And the grinders cease because they are few. Yes, your teeth are falling out.

17:20And those who look through the windows are dimmed. Your eyesight is going. And the doors on the street are shut. You're losing your hearing. When the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of the bird, may I anybody getting older feel like you rise up at the sound of the bird? Any sound, anything, I'm up, I'm up, what is it? If I can sleep 15 minutes consecutively, we're doing great. I hate to admit that. That's so true. And all the daughters of song are brought low. What? Did you say your hearing starts to go? They are afraid also of what is high. When I looked at the roof of the house this year and I thought about putting the Christmas lights up there, I just had this thought that I've never had before. I was like, you know what? A fella could fall down from there.

18:26I never used to have those thoughts. And terrors are in the way. The almond tree blossoms. That's saying that that almond tree is the one that it turns white at harvest time. Your hair is beginning to gray. And the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails because man is going to his eternal home. And the mourners go about the streets before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, all is vanity.

19:21You read these first eight verses, and what a description. Solomon, who is an old man himself, is described. The autumn of life as it turns into the winter. When the sky is darkened and the clouds return, not just for a day or two, but to stay forever. He describes the end of your life when your body starts failing more and more until it fails you completely. Look at verse 7. He says, When the dust returns to earth as it was.

19:59That's a clear allusion to Genesis chapter 3, where God states that we were created from dust, and to dust we will return. And the spirit returns to God who gave it. Aging and death are terrifying prospects for so many people because that process is the end for them. They don't believe in an afterlife, or if they do, they don't believe it to be more desirable than life on this earth. So they essentially take Solomon's counsel to walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes in a way that he didn't intend. They basically read that and they would conclude, well, let us eat and drink because tomorrow we're going to die.

20:46They conclude that this life is all that there is. And so it's better to fulfill every last desire, even if it's sinful, even if it's harmful to themselves and others in the long run. They don't realize, as verse 9 tells us, that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. They don't realize, or at least they refuse to acknowledge, that God is going to call them to account for everything they did, for every careless word that they spoke.

21:26And so instead of fearing this natural aging process, Solomon calls us to fear the Lord. He says right here in chapter 12, verse 1, remember also your Creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come. Friends, of all the miscalculations that we make as human beings, perhaps the most common and the most deadly is thinking that we can forget God when we are young and that we will remember him when we're old. How many people, and maybe this is you, how many people have soothed their consciences in high school and in college and in young adulthood by saying, I'll settle down when I get older, or I'll get more serious about my faith after I get married.

22:31Or we'll get more involved in church when we have kids. But then you get older and you don't renounce the vices that you've come to love. You get married, but you get no more serious about your faith. You have kids and then you spend every single weekend doing anything other than gathering with the body of believers to worship and to learn and to serve. And so, if you are a younger man, a younger woman, a teenager, a child here today, even if you are older, I want you to listen to the words of J.C. Ryle. He wrote this almost 150 years ago. Look what he said.

23:20Before the day of grace is past, before your conscience has become hardened by age and deadened by repeated trampling underfoot, while you have strength and time and opportunity, go and join yourself to the Lord in an everlasting covenant, not to be forgotten. The Holy Spirit will not contend with us forever. The voice of conscience will become feebler and fainter every year that you continue to resist it. Make haste and do not delay. Do not linger or hesitate anymore.

24:01Friends, we don't have to fear the aging process. Unfortunately, it's a natural part of life in this fallen world. But we must fear the Lord because every one of us is going to have to stand before him and to give an account for every careless word that we have spoken, every thought, every action. Let's not make the same mistake that millions of others have made over the centuries, thinking that we will remember God at the end of our lives when we willingly forgot him at the beginning.

24:47Take a look at Ephesians chapter 5. Paul says, Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Friends, we don't have to guess as to what God's will is. He's already told us. Jesus came preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here now, today. He said that we are too. Leave everything and to follow him, to pick up our cross and to come after him.

25:37His obedient and sinless life, his death on the cross, his resurrection from the grave is our only hope for forgiveness and for reconciliation with God. We don't have to fear the aging process, but we must fear the Lord, who will bring us into judgment. Let's conclude now with verses 9 through 14 of chapter 12, where we'll see that we have to fear the Lord and not man's opinion. He says this in verse 9. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh.

27:00For all of his faults, and Solomon had a lot of them, he certainly wasn't stingy with his unmatched, God-given wisdom. He weighed and studied and carefully arranged all that we find here, and in the Song of Solomon, and in most of the book of Proverbs. And he says in verse 10, uprightly he wrote words of truth. And that is true because these words did not originate with Solomon. He wrote them down, but I want you to see in verse 11 where he gives credit. He says, they are given by one shepherd, which is to say that Solomon knew where his wisdom came from. His wisdom came from God, the one true shepherd. And so he gave God all the credit.

27:59And friends, if you study the Bible, you will find that the authors of Scripture were aware that they were not speaking and writing their own observations and opinions. They understood that they were being inspired to write the very words of God. I want you to think about just a few examples. Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, at the end of his life, he is preaching this sermon that we know is Deuteronomy. And in chapter 1, verse 3, he said this, In the 40th year, on the first day of the 11th month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them.

28:47Moses was aware that everything that he was preaching, everything that he was saying, was coming from God, delivered as God's word through him to the people. If you've ever read any of the prophets, any of their books, or any of the prophecies that we find in the scripture, they all begin with something to the effect of, thus says the Lord, or the word of the Lord came to me. They were all saying, we are speaking God's word to God's people.

29:21And Peter, near the end of his life and his ministry, when he looks back on the entire Old Testament, when he looks back on all of the writings of Paul, when he looks back on the Gospels written decades earlier, he says this, knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

29:58It is so very important. To understand that the authors of Scripture claim to be writing the very words of God. The Bible is authoritative because God inspired men to write it, and therefore it is completely true and trustworthy in all that it says. That stands in stark contrast to anything else that has been written or ever will be written. That's why he says in verse 12, My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books, there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh. Amen, students?

30:40I had a friend in college who loved to quote this verse and not study very much. How many books have been written trying to answer the hardest questions of life? How did we get here? Does God exist? Can we know Him? What is the meaning of life? Thousands, perhaps millions of books have been written trying to answer those very questions. But they're all saying different things. And so they wear us out and they lead us away from commitment to one coherent worldview and belief system.

31:23That's why in our culture today, theological questions aren't taken seriously anymore. They aren't met with a reasoned, impassioned defense for one belief system over another, but what you get instead is an uncommitted shrug, kind of like, who can even know? But deep down, we're not satisfied with that answer, are we? Even if it's hard to find, we believe that the truth is out there. We want to know where to start looking for it. And so that's why Solomon says what he says in verse 11: The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collective sayings. They are given by one shepherd.

32:20A goad was a long stick that had a point on the end of it. It was used to keep livestock moving in the same direction. And nails firmly fixed is this other picture that he gives to us. They hold things firmly in place. And what Solomon is doing here is he's saying, in contrast to everything else that's out there, God's word, the words of the one shepherd, they are like goads. They prod us along to believe the right thing and then to live in accordance with that belief.

32:59They're like. Nails firmly fixed in a sea of all of these different opinions, of all these different ideas about what life is really about, about whether or not there is a God and what He's like, we have an anchor in the sea of all of these ever-changing and shifting opinions. But, friends, it's hard to stand for truth, isn't it? It is hard to declare that we believe that God's word is absolutely true for all people in all places at all times.

33:37It is hard to declare that we believe that competing truths aren't just different, but that they're wrong. And that's because all of us deal with the fear of man. All of us want others to think and to speak well of us. We want to be respected. We don't want to be accused of being backwards or judgmental or anything else. But look what Jesus says in Luke chapter 6: Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

34:20If our belief system receives the stamp of approval from everybody, it will not receive the stamp of approval from God. We cannot fear the opinions of man because that makes us slaves to approval, which means that we are going to change what we say we believe every single time society changes its mind regarding what is true and acceptable and on the right side of history. We must fear the Lord, believing that in the end, our trust in his word will be justified. Our faith will be rewarded by the one who has revealed truth to us in his word through the authors of scripture.

35:12Friends, Solomon closes the book with these words. Take a look at 13 and 14. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. If you are already following Jesus Christ, I hope that you have been greatly encouraged by the book of Ecclesiastes. It is a wonderful book because it reminds us that it's okay to be perplexed by life.

36:00It's okay to not have all the answers. It's okay to say, I don't know. Because our hope isn't in our ability to figure everything out. Our hope isn't in having an answer for every single thing in this world. Our hope is in God, who does know all things, who is in control of all things, who is absolutely good and absolutely powerful. Our hope is in Him. He has proven Himself entirely trustworthy and true, and never more so than through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

36:42And so, if you are a Christian today, I want to encourage you at the end of this book to rest in the person and work of Jesus. Don't put any hope in your abilities. Don't put any hope in your intellect. Don't put any hope in politicians or in pundits or in commentators or tweeters or anyone else who is telling you that they have the answers to life's mysteries and problems. They don't. God does. And He's already told us how it all ends. So we don't have to fear. You don't have to fear the unknown. You don't have to fear aging and dying. You don't have to fear what other people think about you.

37:30All you must do, my fellow brothers and sisters, is fear the Lord. And if you're here today and you're not yet a believer in Jesus Christ, I think Ecclesiastes is a great book for you to read because it confronts the realities of life in this world head on. It tells us that life is hard, that it doesn't often seem fair, that bad things do happen to good people, and good things do happen to bad people. It tells us what we already know: that even the best things in life fall short of our hopes and our expectations.

38:18And friends, these realities can become your rationale for not believing in God, or believing in him, but not trusting in him or his word. So I want to remind you of what Solomon wrote back in chapter 7. Take a look at this. He says, See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. God created all things, and he said it was very good. He said the world was good. He said we were good, but he also gave... us freedom to rebel and our first parents Adam and Eve exercised that freedom to rebel against him in the Garden of Eden and because of that rebellion both the human race and our world that we live in are under a curse ultimately the reason that life is hard the reason that we are so often disappointed in ourselves and others the reason why everything seems broken and not the way that it should be is our sin but the amazing news is that God Himself promised to fix everything that you and I broke in our sin he sent His only Son Jesus Christ who lived a perfect sinless and miraculous life He stood up to every single temptation including the temptations that He faced in another garden at the end of His life so that through faith in Him and His sacrifice on the cross we could be forgiven We could be reconciled to God and we could have confident hope in a future that awaits us that God has promised where He is going to return and He is going to make everything right every injustice every illness every shortcoming every piece of brokenness He is going to make right He gives us a hope that is unlike anything That has ever been offered.

40:33And so, friends, I urge you to humble yourself, to cry out to God, to receive His mercy and His grace. You don't have to fear the unknown, you don't have to fear dying, you don't have to fear what other people think of you. Because if you fear the Lord, there is nothing else to fear. Let's pray. Father, there sure seemed to be a lot of things to be afraid of. When we look around in our world, we hear about or we see all that's going on, things feel very out of control.

42:00Very uncertain, very scary. And when we have so many people who are promising that this policy or this piece of technology or this diet or this exercise regimen or this book or this person is the answer to all of our problems, we're tempted to jump at it because we so want there to be an answer. We so want there to be a fix. We want everything to be made right. But, Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see that there are so many things in our world that are just not going to be fixed until Jesus returns.

43:09And so, God, I pray that you would help us to put our hope where it won't be disappointed. Help us to put our hope in the person and work of Jesus. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would fill us, that you would guide us. And lead us. Give us wisdom and courage to face the days that are ahead of us in this new year. We're so glad that it's not 2020 anymore, and yet all of the same problems are here.

43:47Would you give us courage and wisdom and help to be the men and women and children that we need to be? In the midst of these times when there's so much uncertainty and so much fear and so much confusion, help us to be people of peace and resolve and calm confidence in the Lord, God of the universe, that people have to ask: How is it that you have that kind of peace? How is it that you have that kind of certainty?

44:33Father, we pray that you would use us as your ambassadors. We believe that you have raised us up for such a time as this. And so I pray that we would take these lessons from Ecclesiastes to heart. And that in the midst of these puzzling times, we would be able to point people to the one sure thing: Jesus Christ, crucified, died. Buried and risen. Thank you, God. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.