ResponsiveReiding

Proverbs 31

Part 1

Living Like Kings

Proverbs 31:1-9 / Revelation 5:1-10

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

As we come into this final chapter, the language, forces us to go back to the very beginning of the book.

The 1^st part of the chapter, is addressing “KINGS” and the 2^nd, what is often referred to as “THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN”.

In these, we actually come full circle.

You’ll remember that when we began, we noted that the entire book is cast as Solomon speaking with his son, and preparing him to one day ascend the throne of Israel itself.

And we would fail to apply it well if we did not in the first place see it in that light.

That is true for BOTH sections of this last chapter – we’ll have to unpack that more fully later.

Secondly, we’ve seen the entire book as a master’s class in mentoring all of us in Living “wisely”: Living lives that are fully informed and framed by a clear understanding of who and what we are in God’s universe and according to His cosmic plan.

A plan which WE know, culminates in the return of Jesus. Or as Paul says it: Eph. 1:7–10 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

The idea is that this present life – whether the life of Solomon or his son or ours, needs to be lived with an eye fixed upon where God is taking the whole of human history.

We might say: We must live ESCATOLOGICALLY.

Growing out of those ideas then, is taking seriously that in God’s final plan, Christians are saved to occupy two great offices in Christ’s coming Kingdom.
The first of these is the subject of the 1^st 9 verses of this chapter.

And it is this: That Christ Jesus has saved us with the intention that we will “reign” with Him in His coming Kingdom.

Rev. 5:9–10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, ¹⁰ and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

That is the Christian’s destiny.

To judge angels. (1 Cor. 6:3)

To be seated with Him in His throne. (Eph. 2:6 – in some sense even now)

To rule with Him.

So we need to factor our ROYAL calling into our lives now.

We are being groomed to be an extension of His authority in His universe.

And it is in that context I want us to look carefully at this passage.
An additional word about how I’ve approached this entire series in Proverbs.

I am stealing this from Tim Keller whom I heard speak last week at the BASICS conference at Alistair Begg’s Church. It is an important concept for all of us in how we read the Old Testament.

If any of you have seen the movie The 6th Sense (Spoiler Alert!) or perhaps Ender’s Game – you know that once you’ve seen it – the big reveal at the end changes everything.

In the 6^th Sense, you find out that Bruce Willis has been dead the entire time – and now that you know that, you cannot go back and see that movie again without the ending already in mind. Its been spoiled for you in that way.

In Ender’s Game – you find out along – with Ender, that he wasn’t just playing war simulations on a computer, but was in fact waging war on an alien race.

This is how it is reading the OT now that we know Christ has come, and has fulfilled all the types and shadows and pictures.

We can’t read the OT any more as though that hasn’t happened.

The cross sheds a backward light on everything that came before, so that you see it and read it and understand it in a completely new way.

So here.    As King Lemuel’s mother speaks to us.

NOTE: Just as with Agur in chap. 31, Lemuel and his Mother are 2 personages we know absolutely nothing about, other than what is written here.

But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Solomon closes this amazing book of Proverbs by summing it all up in her two admonitions.

And in this 1^st section she warns about 3 key areas that are absolutely vital to her son as he looks to fulfill his role as a King.

All of it is being addressed as important to us within this framework of OUR being groomed for the throne as well.

3 vital areas that will directly impact her son’s ability to govern well. To discharge his royal duties with faithfulness and dignity.

1. 2-3 / KINGS CANNOT RULE WELL IF THEY ARE MORALLY COMPROMISED.

Proverbs 31:2–3 What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.

Notice how Lemuel’s Mother is hitting on something which already seems to be afoot in her son’s life.

“What are you DOING?” – 3 Times she says it.

And what IS he doing?

Paying attention to multiple women.

In our day we can say these women can be either real or virtual!

She does not say: “Don’t give your strength or be weakened by A woman, as though being married is somehow suspect – but by WOMEN – plural

It is a straightforward caution against moral compromise.

The implication being that relationships with multiple “women” weakens his ability to rule well.

And it isn’t hard to see why.

One who will violate their marriage vows, the most intimate, sacred and basic of promises in order to satisfy their lusts – are those who will violate ANY commitment – if it means personal satisfaction or enjoyment.

Those who will compromise in the home, will compromise anywhere else if it will get them what they want.

Up until the most recent of times, even the World thought that marital fidelity and longevity was a signal of a certain kind of stability and commitment – and was desirable in our political candidates.

Something which has all but evaporated in our day.

I believe it was Jonathan Edwards who said that “real love is when our happiness is in found in the happiness of another – not self.” I would add, that it is when our happiness is found in the happiness of another – irrespective of relationship even to ourselves.

If the marriage crumbles, if the home crumbles because of lack of fidelity and commitment – the whole of society crumbles. After all, a society is nothing other than its people.

And when a leader is him or HERself distracted and given to multiple competing commitments, especially morally, then there is no telling what else they will compromise on.

So Lemuel’s mother says” Don’t Do it!” As strongly as she can.

This is sound advice in the natural sense – but it is not sound advice we are after – we are after what this means concerning those in Christ – what is God’s Spirit addressing in US through such a picture?

As we’ve already noted – this impacts us because of the ROYAL calling which falls to everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the 1^st of the 3 things which directly impact and cripple the Church’s effectiveness in its witness in the World.

As we saw in Rev. 5 – the END of our salvation is wrapped up with Ruling and Reigning with Christ some day.

And so we make this application: The Church cannot represent the Gospel to the World if WE are a morally compromised Church.

We can see this strongly addressed in Paul’s 1^st letter to the Corinthians. Why he spends so much time on marriage, and rebuking easy divorce, sex outside of marriage & sexual immorality of all kinds.

Eph. 5:3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

And even more so in Jesus’ letters to the 7 Churches in the book of Revelation. –

Rev. 2:14 &16 PERGAMUM: But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality…Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Rev. 2:18–22 Thyatira: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ “ ‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. ²⁰ But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. ²² Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,

How timely this word is in our sex-saturated culture, filled with erotic liberty trying to lay claim to being the supreme right.

Gender confusion and rampant eroticism rule the day.

Speak against anyone’s sexual “rights” a you are immediately branded as biased, judgmental, out of step, repressive, homophobic, intolerant – you name it.

Note how vs. 3 intimates the weakness of the Church, its ineffectualness – is directly connected to its moral compromise. It deprives us of our strength – of our ability to work for the Kingdom and bring about true change. It is true in the individual and it is true in the Church at large.

Sexual compromise will rob you of the ability to minister to the lives of others with any effectiveness. Even though your outward activity may seem to be OK, the spiritual impact will be nullified.

Why? Because it will sap your time, your mental faculties, your emotions, most often your money too – and all the while searing your conscience because you have to justify it when you know it’s wrong.

We cannot control these things in the culture at large – but they are NOT to be part of the Church.

In a very real sense – and applying to all 3 of the things Lemuel’s Mother will mention here – these 9 verses are an exposition of 1 Thess. 5:19.

Make no mistake – sexual immorality stifles and suppresses the motions of the Holy Spirit in the heart and soul.

The Greek word here is the same one used for extinguishing a fire.

And it is precisely why those who claim to be Christians and at the same time justify homosexuality, same sex marriage, sex outside of marriage and pornography – why they reason so non-Biblically in justifying their actions.

When the Church falls into these practices under the guise of either individual freedom – or “grace” understood as license, we actively combat the work the Spirit in our lives, and in the ministry of the Church overall.

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Hear that? The passions of the flesh WAR against your own soul.

Some of the ways are very easy to see:

Desensitization- results in escalating secret sin. A calloused conscience.
Majoring on minors – Those compromising morally will inevitably find minor issues to fixate on – areas they can be vocal about, to divert their own minds from confronting their sin.
Preoccupation & condemnation of other’s faults or sins. The morally compromised fixate on the faults of others to try and diminish their own sense of failure and to try and feel superior.
Preoccupation with symptoms over causes. Those morally compromising – especially in secret will rail against all kinds of sin in society and announce how all our ills would be cured if we could just get prayer back in the schools, or outlaw same-sex marriage, or prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol. But these are symptoms – not the underlying cause.
Emotional isolation – secret sin does all it can to keep from being discovered, and those caught in it withdraw more and more – especially emotionally from others.
Unaccountability – Seeking out copious amounts of time alone and unexplained. They run and hide in their sin and rage against anyone that threatens their secret loves.
Touchiness over any criticism – No matter how much they try to deny the pinch of their conscience, in fact, it is constantly piercing them and leaves them defensive and touchy and miserable must of the time – especially if anything threatens their being found out.

What then is the answer for the individual AND for the church at large?: 2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,

It is not simply to forsake these debilitating sins – but to pursue the advancement of the Spirit’s work within us.

He isn’t called the Holy Spirit because Holy is His first name – but because He IS holiness, and always leads us into holiness.

The Spirit of God NEVER leads someone into sin, into moral compromise or to justify sexual sin. NEVER.

Oh how we need to bow before Him as He speaks to us in His Word – unmasking the wickedness of sin and how it ravages and bankrupts the soul.

How when He has sway in our hearts He gives us courage and strength to stand against the incursions of things as they attack our souls.

He lifts up Christ in His finished work at Calvary.

He urges us to see always how utterly unfitting it is to remain in, and to foster those things which Christ gave His blood and life to cleanse us from the guilt of – and sent His Spirit to deliver us from the power of.

As we come to this closing part of Solomon’s call to wisdom, we are met with a call to repentance.

A call to fight to live in the freedom Christ purchased for us at Calvary.

A call to take up the mantle of those being groomed to rule and reign with Him in eternity – and to begin to live now as destined for that throne. Not to be mastered by ANYTHING other than love and passion for Him and His great glory.

This is not about how to BECOME a Christian – but as being His by faith in His substitutionary atonement – how to live like who and what we are IN Him – what we have been saved to be by His grace.

Lastly – we need to listen to the tone in Lemuel’s Mother’s voice. Notice, she is not yelling at him – just telling him what to do – as right as it is – she is PLEADING with Him.

“My son.”

“Son of my womb.”

“Son of my vows!”

And this is how the Spirit pleads with you today Christian, if this is an area of your life that needs restored.

My Child!

The one I’ve given birth to.

The one I have pledged to love and keep and bless forever.

Leave this alone! It will destroy you.

And I have made you to share my throne with me.

Come seek me – and forsake that.

THE AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE

SO FAR: 

1. There are UNIVERSAL & UNRELENTING temptations we need to look out for. Do not be surprised when you face these things over and over and over again.

2. 15-16 / There are UNFILLABLE voids in the souls of men.

3. 18-19 / There are UNFATHOMABLE mysteries in life.

4. 21-23 / There are UNFITTING realities in life.

Only Christ can fill the voids

Only in Christ can the mysteries of life be explained – for all of God’s wisdom is summed up in Him.

Only in Christ at His coming will the unfitting effects of the Fall be righted.

TODAY

There are 3 more Master Lessons to look at in this passage – to bring our total to 7.

5. 24-28 / There is UNTAPPED wisdom in Creation all around you.

Don’t be surprised if some of life’s best answers are illustrated right in front of you.

These four speak to one of the most primal realities which any of us faces in life: We hate the thought of, let alone the experience of -being powerless.

People we cannot impact infuriate and terrify us.

When they won’t listen to us or when all of our arguments seem to simply bounce off of them.

When our best attempts at moving them are absolutely impotent.

When a husband or wife seems to be impervious to changing no matter how much you hurt.

When children won’t respond to discipline and Parents won’t take the time to consider their children’s point of view.

Even what is in itself a wise things to do – like the purchase of insurance is at least in part an attempt to hedge against the inevitable. An attempt to bring peace over things we know we cannot control: accidents, death, health, etc.

So Agur points to these 4 examples:

Ants have no “power”. They are not strong. How do they manage in a world where they are virtually the most powerless of all?

They do what they can – when they can.

And then they are cast upon God.

The rock badgers or mountain mice – tiny and frail – how do they survive? They’ve learned the secret of hiding in those places that are strong.

A lesson to us to find our refuge in the strong tower of God’s name, rather than in our own strength or ability.

The locusts. They are just bugs. They can be flicked off with the tiniest finger. Blown about with the slightest wind. Yet entire regions can fall beneath the plague when these feeble little creatures – without a leader – band together and make an army none can defeat. A picture of our being bound together with the host of other powerless Christians, who apart from any earthly King, yet march on for Christ’s kingdom, and have brought down entire empires. The unity of the powerless sons of God – relying on the power of their God.

And lastly, the lizard – or as some translations have it – the spider: Both little, frail, easily caught and extinguished.

Yet in their usefulness, are not only found but allowed to live in the finest places, in King’s palaces.

Their natural capacity to rid their environs of multitudes of other pests, makes a way for them when they would not be tolerated naturally.

So that Christians, bringing Biblical ethics and goodness and safety to those around them, though without any power in themselves, are found to be a needed useful part of society.

Sort of welcome pests.

Even the most vicious opponent recognizes that when Christians actually live up to the standard of God’s Word, the world around them is better for it.

Power is sought by all of us.

Power over a cheating spouse, an abusing superior, a stronger opponent, the indefatigable waves of life.

But power over things in life is not what we need.

Trust and confidence in the One who rules and reigns over all, that is what we NEED.

Confidence that He has made us as we are.

That His hand is upon us.

That the gifts and capacities He has placed within us, are more than a match for the need of the hour, if we look to Him.

That we can run into Him and be safe.

That we are our Beloved’s, and He is ours, and that is enough.

Take a lesson from the creatures who tho smallest and frailest in creation – not only live but thrive – because The Creator provides for them.

And as Jesus told we who follow Him: Are we not of more value than MANY sparrows, who are worth almost nothing?

6. 29-31 / There are UNLINKED similarities in life. Not everything is a conspiracy. Men simply share a common fallen nature.

Not everything rises to the level of a conspiracy, even though there might be great and startling similarities.

Our driving need to make sense of the things we experience in life, can easily lend itself to drawing connections between dots that ought not exist.

It is one of the prevailing reasons why we are so quick to jump to conclusions about people’s motives.

EXAMPLE: Politically – on the Left – there are accusations of “a vast right-wing conspiracy”

And on the Right there are looming images of the Illuminati, the Bilderbergers and massive global conspiracies of untold power.

But the truth is – what we have is a commonality of fallenness which ALWAYS seeks to run the world as much as possible.

Every empire from the ancient Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Greece, Rome, The Huns, The Turks, The Nazis and the Communists and scores of others have sought for world domination.

This is nothing new and we should expect it from fallen humanity.

But closer to home – in our private lives – we love to connect the dots to give us a discernable pattern in all sorts of circumstances, as a way of dealing with the unknown.

Especially in regard to things we are offended by.

We very quickly imagine a failure to shake hands, a missed thank you note, an unacknowledged phone call, or a passing glance of the eye to be filled with all sorts of sin and menace. Shame on us.

As our text notes: Lions, roosters, he goats and king’s with their armies with them: All STRUT.

But the similarities stop there.

None of the 4 mentioned they strut for the same reasons.

Yet how quick we are to assume reasons behind the actions of others, with nary a moment’s trouble at finding out the truth by means of asking a simple question or two.

By that I really mean asking – not accusing BY asking. Which is a great temptation in itself, isn’t it?

How many relationships would be spared if people would only assume the law of love:

Love assumes no sin in the other person, unless the facts prove it to be otherwise.

People’s sin can be counted upon to make them brag and leak information at enormous rates.

But we have this compulsion that we MUST have THE reason behind anything we cannot fathom normally.

As though everything is a matter of direct cause and effect.

1. A. Carson / “Exegetical Fallacies” – unwarranted connections.

Why are fire engines red?

Because they’ve got 8 wheels and 4 people on them

And what is the reasoning behind that?

8 + 4 = 12

There are 12 inches in a foot

One foot is a ruler
There was a ruler named Queen Elizabeth
A ship named Queen Elizabeth sails the seas
In the seas are fish
On the fish are fins
The Fins fought the Russians
The Russians are red.
Fire engines are always rushin’.
Therefore – fire engines are red!

What unwarranted connections have you been plagued by? And then made equally unwarranted conclusions because of?

The lion struts. The rooster struts. The he-goat struts. A king appearing with his army struts.

Not a one of them is connected to the other.

They are, but – similarities.

SLIDES:     Richard Dawkins / Emma Watson

Irene Ryan / Harry Reid

Burger King / Mel Gibson

Yassar Arafat / Ringo Starr

Joe Biden / Jeff Dunham’s Walter

A. Carson / Jim Broadbent

Jeremy Bretts / Ligon Duncan

N.T. Wright / Richard Schiff (Toby Zeigler)

Patrick Stewart / Neanderthal man

Now all of these are harmless fun – but then are some places where this REALLY matters –

Example: MORMONISM / CHRISTIANITY

Different God – NOT the Triune God of the Bible

Different Jesus – Not the God/Man but a man who achieved goodhood

Different Holy Spirit – Force vs a Person

Different Salvation – Works vs Grace

Different Authority – Bible vs Church & additional documents

Different Heaven & Hell

Different Gospel

Galatians 1:8–9 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

But the ancient Christians told those men the truth,—namely, that “as they had feigned unto themselves an imaginary Christ, so they should have an imaginary salvation only.” – John Owen

Similarities are not truth simply because we can observe those similarities.

Better to occupy our hearts and minds with The Divine conspiracy of the Triune God to bring saving grace to a lost race.

Now THAT’s worth contemplating.

The Heavenly Father conspiring to bless His Son with a Bride fit for Him.

A Son who redeems that Bride when she ran away in rebellion – buying her back at the price of His own blood – dying in her place for her crimes committed while in her rebellion.

And the Holy Spirit conspiring to make her clean and holy and prepared for the Son once again.

THAT’s worth musing on.

7. 32-33 / There are UNAVOIDABLE consequences to our thoughts and actions.

Twist someone’s nose, you’ll make it bleed

It is a law of nature

It is the simple truth

Harp on, or harbor anger – and you’ll produce strife

Set your mind on sinful things – you’ll sin

Sow to the flesh, you’ll reap in the flesh

Sow to the Spirit – you’ll reap spiritual things

You cannot grow in grace feeding your heart and mind on ungodly things

If we are arrogant, we WILL be brought low by the hand of the Lord who “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” – 1 Peter 5:5

This is why we need the Gospel so desperately – “The wages of sin is death” Death is the unavoidable consequence of sin.

It is a universal, inevitable and unavoidable.

No one can sin with impunity. No one. Under any circumstances.

And just because you haven’t experienced the wretched results yet for some of your sins – do not imagine they have gone unnoticed.

You’ve walked your own way in life.

Ignored the Gospel in its free offer, and in its command – ACTS 17.

And you say to yourself, “the sky didn’t fall in, the earth didn’t stop turning on its axis, the universe didn’t unravel.” WAIT!

1 Timothy 5:24 (ESV) The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.

There is an inevitable result of believing the Gospel and putting your faith in the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the Cross – dying for human sin so that those who believe might go free!

Salvation!

And there is an inevitable and unavoidable result of rejecting this Gospel of grace – and it is eternal punishment away from the presence of the Lord.

It is to this reality we call you today.

Here is Christ – God’s Son, crucified for guilty sinners – for you and me.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.^[1]

There is no other hope.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ro 3:23–25.

7 Master Lessons for Life

Proverbs 30 – Part 2

THE AUDIO CAN BE FOUND HERE

Last time:

Lesson 1: There are UNIVERSAL & UNRELENTING temptations we need to look out for. Do not be surprised when you face some things over and over and over again.

 We tend to forget:

(4) God. WHO & WHAT God really is -and that His love for me is displayed in the Cross by the One who fully unfolds Him to us.

(5) God’s Word is the only SURE source of truth – it needs to be trusted above my logic, or my perceptions.

(6) Adding to what God has said, is as dangerous, and MORE tempting than leaving things out.

(7-9) Left to myself, I am unreliable. I know my fallenness & cannot trust myself.

TODAY

Lesson 2: 15-16 / There are UNFILLABLE VOIDS in the souls of people.  Do not be surprised at the lengths to which men will go to try and satisfy such voids.

There ARE unfillable voids in the souls of men and apart from Christ as our true satisfaction – all sorts of other things stand ready to rush in to fill the void.

People do what they do to try and fill those voids.

4 Examples:

The GRAVE    –       Relentless

The BARREN WOMB       –       Mournful

PARCHED LAND      –       Insatiable

FIRE     –       Lust

We were made only to be truly satisfied with Christ. –  Eph. 1:15-23

OUR FULLNESS – IS IN HIS FULLNESS.

Augustine said, “O Lord, you have made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Blaise Pascal: “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

When this void remains men will try to fill it – sometimes in extreme, horrific and bizarre ways.

When men’s actions do not make sense, you can be sure they are trying to fill some deep emptiness.

BUT – Such deep, deep voids can only be met in Christ.

When human beings as created specifically be God’s image bearers, lose that image, they are left with the haunting reality that something is horribly wrong, something essential has been lost.

And without the special revelation of the Scriptures – they misidentify that missing something every time.

As long as we try to meet this reality by other means than being restored to our original purpose in Christ, the futility of it, and the inward gnawing and aching only increases.

Sometimes we drown it out. Temporarily.

Work

Family

Amusements – Hobbies, Sports, etc.

Sex

Drugs & Alcohol

Causes – Good and bad              Much so-called “activism” is driven by this need.

Even CHURCH

These desires and unfillable voids we often cannot even discern for ourselves.

In another of Solomon’s works – the Book of Ecclesiastes, he addresses this phenomena with marvelous clarity.

He recognized that this gnawing ache in the human heart is tied to our sense of purpose in life.

Solomon says he began to search for meaning and he looked in the same 4 places all of us look.

1. Pleasure – selfish enjoyment – but pleasure is fleeting

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”

But behold, this also was vanity. ² I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” ³ I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

2. Productivity – satisfaction in work but it has no eternal aspect to it

⁴ I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. ⁵ I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

3. Possessions – all of which will one day perish

⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

4. Power – Which is an illusion. For in the end we have very little true power over anything.

⁸ I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

⁹ So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. ¹⁰ And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

Conclusion:  ¹¹ Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Proverbs 20:5 “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water,  but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

The perversity of men’s hearts seems to have no bounds.

Need proof? The Holocaust!

How do we explain such things? MAN WANTS.

And man will do whatever he thinks he can get away with to fill his wants…

Until we find our soul’s satisfaction in Christ.

If you are being driven by compulsions of any kind – this passage is diagnosing the problem – the disease.

And the Gospel is extending to you the sole cure – being restored to God through Jesus Christ.

30:17 – WARNING: Those who do not recognize this – Will act out in the most grievous ways, and ultimately pay the price.

Lesson 3:  18-19 / There are UNFATHOMABLE MYSTERIES in life. – Do not be surprised there are things you will not be able to figure out. You will not get all the answers you seek.

Some things we will never be able to explain adequately.

And if we do not accept this fact and shift our gaze elsewhere, our perplexity may well (and does in many) shift itself over into endless obsession and hopeless despondency.

4 Examples:    EAGLE in the SKY   –  Invisible thermals

SERPENT  on a ROCK  –   No feet

SHIP at SEA  –  Currents

MAN & VIRGIN  –  Invisible means – who knows how love and attraction actually work?

It is the tendency of man’s fallen condition to let the reality that we truly CANNOT know some things, overflow into a fear that we cannot know anything for certain – and thus the soul faints in despair.

Nowhere is this seen more than in great evils done to us.

A driving need for many.      An obsessive and destructive need for some.  Look at our virtual NEED to blame someone for every pain, heartache or suffering we endure.

Our legal system thrives upon this drive.

HURT IN A CAR? CALL WILLIAM MATTAR!

This is one of those deep, unfillable voids we were introduced to in the first section.

Suffering MUST make sense if it is to be bearable to us.

Truth is there are a vast number of things in this life we may never be able to explain.

And if we are not able to give those things up to God, and to trust that HE knows both why, and has our best interest at heart in allowing us to experience them – we will sink into some form of madness.

Colossians 2:1-3 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, sto reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

In the words of Ira Stanphill:

I don’t know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day.
I don’t borrow from it’s sunshine,
For it’s skies may turn to gray.
I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said,
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

I don’t know about tomorrow,
It may bring me poverty;
But the One Who feeds the sparrow,
Is the One Who stands by me.
And the path that be my portion,
May be through the flame or flood,
But His presence goes before me,
And I’m covered with His blood.

Refrain:   Many things about tomorrow, I don’t seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow, And I know Who holds my hand.

Perhaps we could slightly alter that refrain to read:
Many things about my SORROW, I don’t seem to understand;
But I know Who holds my sorrow, And I know Who holds my hand.

30:20 – WARNING: Those who perpetrate evil, justify it to themselves.

Lesson$  21-23 / There are UNFITTING REALITIES in life.

Don’t be surprised at injustice here.

EXAMPLES:  A SLAVE made KING – The unfit in leadership. Men who are unfit for leadership, ruling over the lives and destinies of others.

A FILLED FOOL – Foolish men and women, when they have come to enjoy great wealth and satisfaction.

A GOTTCHYA GAL – A woman who was long unloved, will become so obnoxious to her former friends when married at last.

A REPLACEMENT WIFE – When a maidservant displaces her mistress. In our day, when the boss leaves the wife who put him through                             college and raised his kids, runs off with the secretary.

REALITY: Entertainers earn more than Doctors and Educators.

We cry with loud voices to protect endangered fish, birds and other animals, while murdering 1-plus million children in their mother’s wombs each year in America.

Pedophiles can run public websites, and Christians can’t pray at public events.

And as my friend Tony Bartolucci sent in an email to me, in America we are expected to – to “be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand. Believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.”

The truth is, we live in a fallen world. And such a fallen world will be filled with such unfitting things.

Criminals at times will be treated like victims, and victims like criminals.

Laws will be passed to hinder good and protect evil.

This is sin at work. This is what happens when the creature wants to usurp the Creator’s place.

We are unfit. And all we do will result in unfitting things.

– Don’t despair.

– Life doesn’t end here.

– This will not always be the way it is.

– Christ IS coming.

– One day, all of these wrongs will be made right.

– All that is so far from what it ought to be will be brought back into         line.

– He will judge the world in righteousness. His wisdom will prevail. His         truth will govern all.

– Everything will be in its right place.

– Every relationship precisely as it ought to be.

– The fullness of Christ’s redemptive work will permeate and         characterize   all of creation.

There will be all sorts of unfitting realities in the intervening years.

But not a one that will not be made right in Christ.

Don’t go mad, go Biblical – in the hope that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

There will always be unfitting realities in life.

Injustices we cannot right. Things that just aren’t “right” but nevertheless – are existential realities.

Christ is Lord of these as well. 

2. 15-16 / There are UNFILLABLE voids in the souls of men.
3. 18-19 / There are UNFATHOMABLE mysteries in life.
4. 21-23 / There are UNFITTING realities in life.

Only Christ can fill the voids

Only in Christ can the mysteries of life be explained – for all of God’s wisdom is summed up in Him.

Only in Christ at His coming will the unfitting effects of the Fall be righted.