sermon series, what am I going to do with myself now that we're done with Ecclesiastes? Well, to be honest with you, preaching Old Testament series are very laborsome. So I'm glad we're moving back to Mark for a little bit. But I know in about three weeks, I'm going to be trying to find my way back into the Old Testament again because it's so rich. It is so rich. And so my prayer, I told you in the beginning, my prayer is that at the end of this series, you would understand the message of Ecclesiastes better. And I pray that you do. I also said in the beginning that my prayer would be that you would be able to see Christ in the pages of Ecclesiastes, and I hope that you do. So let's turn to our text, Ecclesiastes 12, verses 9 through 14. 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 gold, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these, or of making many books. There is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 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. This past spring, I decided to add a new role to my schedule. I became a soccer coach to five-year-olds. I have always loved the game, grew up playing it. I'm okay as a player, not so much because of special athletic abilities, but simply because of my obsession growing up with pickup games, which I played every day. I have some experience coaching. I've coached high school. I love the basics of the game, and I love teaching the game to others. But I have to be honest with you, the basics for five-year-olds is very basic. I mean, my most often repeated instruction throughout the seven-week season was, no hands. I mean, that is the basics of soccer, right? Followed closely by the instructive question, which direction is your goal? You may ask, Pastor Lucas, why would you put yourself through such a thing? And my answer, my only answer, because the team I coached had a star player, at least in my eyes. That player made it worth it for me to wake up early every Saturday and go coach the fundamentals of soccer to five-year-olds. That player's name, Boas, my son. Well, friends, this is the message of Ecclesiastes. This is the message of the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes, the preacher is interested in instructing his son in the fundamental matters of life. Look at the words, my son, in verse 12. His words are revealing. They're the words of a father who loves his son too much to see him walk in the way of folly. This is the first time the word son has been used in this way in this book. I think it's intentional. Through the series, I have said that Ecclesiastes is proverbial in the sense that it follows the same model of instruction as the book of Proverbs. And ultimately, the Book of Proverbs is a compilation of sayings of a father who seeks to instruct his son in love. Listen to Proverbs 1.8. Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Proverbs 2, verses 1 and 5, my son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, verse five, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. At the apex of the mountain called wisdom, there is a scene of a father teaching his son how to live life Well, not just the father who has instructed his son on how to be athletic or self-sufficient, or a father who taught his son skills like hunting and woodworking, although these are good, but a father who is interested in his son's eternal destiny. This is a good reminder for those among those who are fathers. Our ultimate goal in parenting is to lead our children to faith. We ought to raise our children to know the Lord. This could also be a difficult picture for some of us because perhaps we grew up with a father who failed at this task. Perhaps we grew up without a father. Perhaps as fathers, we may have failed at this task. But the message of Ecclesiastes is not a message that ought to discourage us, but ought to encourage us. What is encouraging about this book is that regardless of our own experiences on earth, we find in Ecclesiastes a father who cares not just for his immediate son in that book, but he cares for us. This book is an experience of us being like sons, being fathered by a father who is wise. All paternal experiences on earth fail in one way or another. But God, our Father, never fails. And this is the truth that we're being pointed towards today. So what are the words of this wise Father to us today? What are the final words from the preacher? The preacher's final words are these. Son, there is a God in heaven. Therefore, live your life for Him. I have three points today. First, we'll consider living our lives before God in wisdom. Second, we'll consider living our lives before God in growth through pain. Finally, we'll consider living our lives before God in obedience through fear. So consider with me first wisdom through knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge is a couplet that is very common in the Bible. The Bible sees wisdom and knowledge as complementary concepts. Knowledge is a necessary aspect of wisdom. Wisdom is not merely intellectual knowledge, but it certainly cannot preclude knowledge. I often hear people say, I don't care about theology, I just care about God. Sounds pious, doesn't it? Except that I follow that statement up with a question, and who is God? So the person goes on to answer my question by using theology. At Central, we don't shy away from knowledge, we pursue it. Because we believe that all knowledge comes from God. whether it is deeply intellectual or very rooted in our emotional life. All knowledge ultimately comes from God. I love the title of the book R.C. Sproul wrote, Everyone is a Theologian. The question at the end of the day is, are you a good one or a bad one, right? The pursuit of knowledge is ultimately the pursuit of God. This is why, right, theological studies were known as the queen of all sciences. Why? Because it is theology that ought to inform the way we view the world. The great universities in America were founded primarily as schools to teach pastors theology, Harvard, Yale, Princeton. If you're new to us and you're wondering why we preach the word the way we do, or why we pray the way we do, why do we sing the songs that we sing, why do we conduct ourselves the way we conduct ourselves? The answer is because we believe there is nothing greater than to know God so we pursue him hard in knowledge and in experience. When King Solomon Pray to God as he was faced with the task of ruling over God's people. He said in 2 Chronicles 1, O Lord God, let your word to David, my father, be now fulfilled. For you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now, here's what he asks for, wisdom, knowledge. To go out and to come in before this people for who can govern this people of yours which is so great. Proverbs 2 6 we heard this earlier. For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. Do you see how wisdom is very much a mental activity. So it's not at all surprising that wisdom and knowledge were such important concepts in the preacher's teaching. Look at verse 9. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge. So wisdom was not just something the preacher possessed. It was something that he gave, he shared. Wisdom is one of these things, right, that you can share and you don't actually have to give up your own, right? So if you have money and you give money away, right, you're giving it away. If you have a toy or good, a loaf of bread, you give that away. and you don't have it anymore. Now the Lord blesses us abundantly, right? In return, when we're generous. But wisdom is this amazing thing that when you share, somebody else gets it, and you get to keep it yourself as well. So the preacher understood this. There's great wealth in sharing wisdom. So he was not just wise, he also gave wisdom away. The text tells us that he did so through Proverbs. I don't think that this is referring to the book of Proverbs specifically, but inclusively. I think this is referring to Proverbs that we actually saw in Ecclesiastes as we went through this book. We've seen many of these Proverbs. And just think about your own life if you've walked with the Lord for a long time, right? How much wisdom have you not gained from thinking of the book of Proverbs? From thinking of proverbial sayings from the Bible, right? How many times did you choose a soft word instead of a word of wrath? How many times have you not answered a fool in his own folly, right? How many times have you waited for the full account of a story so that you could make judgments. Where does this wisdom come from? These are proverbial teachings from the Bible, right? So the preacher saw the importance of sharing these. So notice in verse 10, the preacher is not just a good teacher, he's also, he's not just a good, he doesn't just give wisdom away, he's also a good learner. The preacher sought to find words of the light. And then he would write these words of truth with uprightness, meaning with honesty, seeking to reveal the wisdom in it, not his own wisdom. Really, verse 10 gives us an outline for Christian discipleship. A teacher finds words of the light, and he writes their truths down with uprightness. This is what I seek to do every week. I study the word of God to teach their truths to you. I begin the week looking at the text and asking myself the question, how am I going to get a full sermon out of this? Because I'm wondering what the words are saying. And I'm studying them so I can learn them. And then I finish the week thinking, how could I possibly keep this within a reasonable time frame? Why? Because the process of learning takes place. Friends, let me tell you. You want your pastor to be constantly learning. You don't want your pastor to be always teaching that which he learned in the past, okay? That is a recipe for stagnation for the entire church. You want your pastor to look at scripture and say, I'm not sure what this is saying, but I'm going to look into this. I'm going to learn. You want your pastors, right? Seminary is so important. I don't think seminary is mandatory. But I think most pastors should go to seminary, right? Seminary should not give you your theology. Seminary should give you tools so that you learn how to learn theology, so that every week you study the Word of God and you present a message that is fresh. You're looking for words of delight and you're sharing the words of delight. What a shame. when a pastor doesn't have an appetite for learning. At the end of the day, their lack of desire to learn reflects on the church they shepherd. So you're here today, hopefully you sense that I have an appetite for learning because I love you. If you ever go from this place, you want to be shepherded by a pastor who loves to learn and learn primarily the word of God. What a shame when someone has been a Christian for a long time and still possesses a rudimentary understanding of the Bible. This lack of desire for the truth reflects on the overall trajectory of their lives. Christianity is a religion that demands us to have an incessant desire to pursue the truth of God because the well-being of our souls depend on it and the well-being of the souls of Others depend on this as well. The Christian faith progresses as truth is learned and as truth is taught. Listen to what Paul tells his disciple Timothy in 2 Timothy 2. And what you have learned from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. This church history. This is the process of discipleship that God has designed and this process has worked. How do we know that? We are here today because of this process. Paul entrusted the gospel to Timothy who entrusted the gospel to other men who have proclaimed the good news of Christ for millennia and here we are today. These are the foundations of of the Christian faith. So how much interest do you have in the study of theology, in the study of God? What new, fresh, powerful truths from Scripture have you learned recently? Are you pursuing wisdom through knowledge? Do you find yourself encouraged by the study of God or do you find yourself bored? Do you read the Bible with a sense of excitement? Or do you read other Christian books? Do you find to stay engaged during the preaching of the word? These are all ways that we can grow in the knowledge of the truth. When I was 15, I remember having a conversation with my brother and telling him that I was struggling in my Christian life. I told him I wasn't seeing much growth in me and that was causing me to fear. My brother, with much wisdom, Share words of knowledge with me. He quoted John 17, 17. And he said, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is true. This experience kindled a fire in my heart for the word of God that still burns today, that has set a trajectory for my life. This is why I am here today doing what I'm doing. Because someone who was wiser than me told me, if you want to grow in your Christian life, go to the Word of Truth. Go to the Word of God. Because my brother once took his time to teach me wisdom through knowledge and knowledge of the Word of God. My heart has been kindled with the love of the wisdom and knowledge of God. So now let's consider my second point, growth through pain. Growth through pain. It's interesting how these themes go together, right? The knowledge of God leads to growth, but growth always comes with pain. Listen to Psalm 119, verse 71. It is good for me that I was afflicted. Why? That I might learn your statutes. Affliction. leads to learning. Do you see the relationship between pain and growth here? Job, before going through hardship, said that he had only heard of the Lord, but at the end of his experience, he said, but now my eyes have seen you. Paul says in Acts 14 that we can only enter the kingdom of God through suffering. He also says that the discipleship of the churches in Galatia have come to him as pains of childbirth. I wonder how he knows that, but clearly he knew what that felt like. But this is a picture that the preacher paints here. He says, words are like golds. of the wise are like golds. Do you know what a gold is? I'm sorry if my poor English pronunciation is confusing you. I'm not saying G-O-L-D. I'm saying G-O-A-D. A gold is a long, pointy stick that herdsmen use to herd cattle. So they prod them to move forward when they get stuck, when they get stubborn. They poke them. And this is what the words of the wise do to us. Words sometimes can come with a sting, can't they? But if they are from God, the sting is good. We must not remove the sting from words that God gives to us. Sometimes the sting is going to come from the pulpit. If your pastor never says anything that prods you, that propels you to go forward, your pastor is not really preaching the Word of God. I'm going to say things that are going to prod you. But if they're the result of a fateful exegesis of the Word of God, welcome them. 2 Timothy 4.2, another instruction that Paul gives to his disciples. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. How? Listen to how. Rebuke, reprove, exhort with complete patience and teaching. This is what preaching should be like. Sometimes this thing is going to come from a brother. or a sister who will confront us in our sin, in our folly. But if they are words of truth, welcome them. Proverbs 27, verse 6, fateful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Believers welcome hard truths because we know that truth, even when painful, is necessary for growth in godliness. We live in a society that hides itself from the truth. Speech is now violence. Suppression of free speech is on the rise among us, often not to protect us from lies, but to protect us from truths we would rather not hear. Scotland put in place this past week a new hate speech law, criminalizing the criticism of sexual orientation and LGBTQ ideologies. In other words, to speak on the biblical morality of sex is now a crime in Scotland. Why? Because society does not like for words to be like golds. They don't like words that are firmly planted like nails on wood. They don't like words that are given by the one true shepherd. They like the words of men who hate God. And we must take heed lest we do the same. lest we ignore or distort the word of God to the point that we start following the words of man rather than the words of God. Isaiah 40 verse 8, the grass withers, the flower fades. It's the word of vanity. That's life under the sun. But the word of God will stand forever. So friends, don't go chasing society. Don't go chasing the world. Listen to the words of God, even if the world rejects you. Why? Because what the world says today will wither and fade. But one day you will see the word of God standing forever. But notice that there is a warning here against the incessant pursuit of knowledge. This is a theme that we've seen through the book, right? Knowledge and wisdom will not be ultimate unless they come from God, unless they lead us to Christ. So look at verse 12. My son, be aware of anything beyond these. On making many books, there is no end. And much study is a weariness of the flesh. In other words, beware of not finding satisfaction in the wise words of God, right? There is a point that the pursuit of wisdom should give us satisfaction. We should not always be dissatisfied with how much we know, with how much wisdom we have. Why? Because wisdom comes to us from God. And when God gives us what we need, we lack nothing. Beware of not finding satisfaction with the wise words of God. You're always pursuing knowledge beyond the wise words of God. Sometimes we can confuse the accumulation of knowledge with the pursuit of wisdom. English minister Charles Spurgeon once said, visit many books, but live in the Bible. He's right. When I was in seminary, I met a young man who had set a goal for himself to read a book a day. Well, not long after he arrived in seminary, lack of sleep and exhaustion got him in the hospital. That was unwise, although his desire was the accumulation of knowledge. There's great wisdom out there. There's so much to be learned out in the world. We have to find a point when we say, enough, satisfaction. When I walk into a good library or a good bookstore, one of my frustrations is knowing that there is so much knowledge in that place that I will never acquire. But remember this, we have all the knowledge we need in the Word of God. In Christ, we lack nothing. The Word of God is not only inerrant, the Word of God is sufficient. You realize you can embrace the inerrancy of the Word of God, it contains no errors, right? But then you can run around trying to find wisdom in the world and not in the Word of God. Is the Word of God not enough? Is the wisdom that it imparts not enough? This, friends, the battle for inerrancy, right? We have fought and we've won great victories over this. The battle that we must fight today is the battle for the sufficiency of Scripture. It is enough for us to gain all things pertaining to life and godliness from the Word of God. Look at 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. The scripture, all scriptures breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. And for what? That the man of God might be complete, equipped for every good work. The word of God is sufficient. There is no good work that the man of God must perform that he is not equipped by the word of God to do so. Friends, the Word of God is sufficient for you in all that you need in life. We're talking about the foundations of the Christian life, aren't we? Remember the hymn that says, So, allow this Word to be the lenses through which you see life. Build your worldview from the Word of God. If you're concerned about your health, don't rush to WebMD. Go to the Word of God. If you're wondering about friendship, parenting, marriage, relationships, don't go to social media. Go to the Word of God. If you want to know about politic and current events, don't go to Fox News or MSNBC. Go to the Word of God. If you want to know how a church should be structured or what a church ought to be like, don't go to the church growth gurus. Go to the Word of God. For all other questions, don't go to chat GPT. Go to the Word of God. His Word is sufficient. But the Bible warns us not to simply be hearers of the word, but also doers of the word. So how does the word become firmly planted in our hearts and go to our hands? And the answer is fear, fear of the Lord. So let's consider my last point, obedience through fear. The fear of the Lord is often a misunderstood concept in the Bible, perhaps because the word fear could have such a different meaning for us in the English language. People either mistakenly understand fear as a paralyzing fear that keeps us from coming to God altogether, or they will minimize the depth of what it means to fear God. The fear of the Lord instructs us on how to live with God as though he is our father, but also as though he is our judge. The fear of the Lord is what enables us to relate to the Lord rightly. We are not equal with God. So when we approach God without fear, we place ourselves in great danger. The fear of the Lord gives us balance in how we approach God. Listen to God's word in Psalm 2 to kings of this earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Do you see it? Do you see how these spectrums should balance the way we approach God? God, if we downplay the fact that God is our Father, our fear of Him will be so great that we will never approach Him. God loves you. He wants you to approach Him. But if we downplay the fact that God is our judge, we'll approach Him without reverence and His anger will burn against us. Here, the preacher gives us the final veredict, right? The end of the matter. All has been heard, fear God and obey his commandments, for this is a whole duty of men." You're included here, and so am I. So these are, son, these are my final words. Son, these are the most important words I will utter to you. All of Ecclesiastes has been pointing us to this point. The whole book hinges on how we understand these words. Imagine A father, on his deathbed, he only has enough breath to utter one more sentence to his son. And what does he say? He reminds his son to fear God and obey his commandments. The father that has experienced all the pleasure, power, prestige life can afford reminds his son to live his life in the presence of God. The preacher experienced all that life can offer, and he does not encourage his son to pursue that. His conclusion instead, always vanity under the sun, except the fear of God. Now we've considered what it means to fear God, but what about keeping his commandments? What does this mean? There are so many. How do we do that? Well, here is where our fear should increase. The Lord demands that we keep his commandments perfectly. In the Old Testament alone, given to Israel, there are 613 of them. If we were to count every commandment that we read in the Bible, the number would be in the thousands and tens of thousands. Friends, this is bad news. Because none of us do this. It is not that God wants us to try real hard and you curve the grade at the end. No. God wants us to obey every single little thing that he has told us to obey. Psalm 119, verses 1 through 3, blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with all with the whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. So. Does this describe your walk with the Lord? Blameless. No wrong. Keeping his commandments with your whole heart. Does this describe you? It doesn't, does it? James takes this concept and makes it even harder for us because it's not just that we're liable for the commandments we break. James tells us that if we break one, we broke them all. James 2.10, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. So how guilty are we? We are completely guilty before God. So we are to fear God and obey His commandments, but we fail at this and we continue to fail at this every day. And to fail once means to fail completely. And to make things worse, look at verse 14. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing. Whether good or evil. Notice the emphasis on these verses. Not just deeds, but every deed. Not just secret things, but every secret thing. Not only every action will be judged by God, but every inaction, every thought, every inclination of our hearts, God will judge. If God were to judge you today based on these things, how would you fare? Guilty or innocent? Condemned or justified? This is the message of Ecclesiastes. Life is meaningless and it ends with judgment. The terrible judgment of God. But remember that in the beginning of this series, I said that Ecclesiastes is an enigma. It's puzzling. It's hard to understand. It contains a deeply encouraging message, but this message is hidden, hidden behind verses and verses of desperation and despondency. So does this book ultimately have a message of hope? And the answer is yes, yes. I also told you in the beginning of this quote from Bobby Jamerson, pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. He says, Ecclesiastes is a question to which Jesus is the answer. And how does Jesus answer the question that Ecclesiastes proposes? The question that judgment is coming. And we are all guilty. Jesus answers this question with an invitation. Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Come. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle. and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Ecclesiastes reminds us of the burden, of the vexation, of the vanity, of the frustration of this life, but Jesus reminds us that he's so good at lifting burdens. Perhaps this series has made you realize you're carrying a burden too great to bear. Perhaps the burden is your very sin that you have not entrusted Christ with. Perhaps you have carried a burden because of your poor choices in the past. Perhaps your burden is a lack of purpose in your life today. Perhaps your burden is a lack of Confidence in your future. Perhaps your burden is so severe that you don't even know how to begin understanding your burden. The message of Ecclesiastes is that you're not alone. We all carry burdens. They may vary in sizes and shapes, but this is the experience of this life. But more importantly, you're not alone because Jesus wants to come alongside you. He wants to take upon himself your burden. And this is why he went to the cross. He went to the cross to carry upon his shoulders our burdens, to forgive us our sins, and to give us life. Yes, the commandments of God do give us a hopeless verdict. We're guilty. But these very commandments that God has placed on us that we fail every day in keeping, Jesus kept perfectly. So the answer of Ecclesiastes is not try harder because God will accept you on the basis of how intense your efforts have been. No. The answer to the enigma of Ecclesiastes is run to Jesus. Confess your sins to him, cast your burdens on him, and he will care for you. Jesus calls you today to trust in him, to repent from your sins, to cast your burdens on him, and to experience purpose even under the sun. to experience joy in a world that is filled with vanity. So, will you accept Jesus' invitation today? At this moment, I want to invite the deacons to come forward. We're going to prepare ourselves