Back in the 1900s, when I was a very young man, I went to a pastor's conference in Southern California. It was hosted by Grace Church. It featured Dr. John MacArthur and a number of other very helpful speakers. The conference was exceptional. I know I benefited from it greatly, but one of the things that struck me most, the thing that I probably remember more than all the teaching, was when Dr. MacArthur opened the conference, And he relayed to those who had gathered together the recent events they had just learned just a matter, I think, of hours before of the death of two of their seminary graduates. They were men who had trained from the ministry, they had been best of friends, and they had received a call to a pulpit, a newly formed church, a congregation that was desperate for men that would be faithful expositors of God's Word. And these men were so well-equipped and they were so earnest and sincere in their desire and they were such good friends, they didn't want to be apart. And so when the call came to one of the men from the seminary, he said, I will only go if I can bring my brother with me. And so they went together and just a short time after being there they were traveling together and were involved in a tragic car accident and they died without ever having taken their place in that pulpit ministry after having trained for all those years. And for me that was especially troubling because I was at a place in life where I had an earnest desire for the ministry. I was hoping that God would use me someday and would call me to a pulpit somewhere where I could serve God's people and be an expositor of God's Word just like those men. And I knew about seminary. I knew how arduous it was and what a sacrifice that people went through in order to give up their vocations and to go directly and to study full-time. I remember thinking about my wife and my young children and it pained me more than I'd ever had in life because up until that point I'd only known the kind of mortality that a young person knows. You know of the old people around you who die. You know of fools that die in their folly. I certainly remember people that I knew from surrounding towns, young people that had gone out, had gone partying, had gotten drunk, and had rolled a car, and there were people that died out of that. There were people when I was in the Air Force that had died as a part of training accidents. And all of that was familiar in some way, but this one was so much more painful because it was a case of the righteous dying a death that wasn't noble. It seemed like all their sacrifice had led to nothing. And this is the exact kind of thing when we come to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 that we find the preacher of this book wrestling with. You remember that Ecclesiastes is a book that's very unlike any other book of the Bible. It does have some of the ring of Proverbs and Psalms of poetry, of the wisdom literature, but the wisdom that's found in this book is of such a different kind. It's so much grittier. It deals with so much more of life as we don't want to see it. And the preacher, the one who's writing this, he calls himself the preacher. It very well could be Solomon. He sounds a lot like Solomon in places, but he never comes out and says it. It could be because he's ashamed of some of the things that he says and does in the course of this book or that led to the writing of it. But we have here the example of a person who has tried to understand his world, who has sought out wisdom. He's sought it in a manifold, a myriad of ways. He's tried to discover what true wisdom is. And what he keeps coming up with is more frustration, more disappointment, more being upset with the world as it comes before him, how it doesn't fit the categories that he hopes would be revealed. And so, in writing the book, He wants to take us on this journey with Him so that we don't have to go down the road that He goes down in the same way that He goes down it, but we can learn from Him and we can come to a greater and to a deeper wisdom. This is what we find this morning in this particular text. So pray with me as we ask once again for the Spirit to help us understand what is a very difficult portion of this book. Almighty God, we come before You hungry for Your Word. and desperate to have a right understanding of it. And pray, Father, that your spirit this morning would make us to be able to see clearly the things that you would desire for us from this word, that we might be able to accept it, to own it, to embrace it, such that our lives would be changed and such that you would be glorified by us. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. If you look back at Ecclesiastes 7.15, you see there the opening part of this section. He says, I have seen everything in my days of vanity. Of course, when we see the word vanity there, we need to understand it's not talking about a kind of a selfishness or a pride or self-interest. But what he's talking about is the fleeting nature of all things. A good word which we don't use a lot is ephemeral. Things that come, that make their presence known but are gone so quickly, it's almost as if they were never there. And this is the way he keeps describing his life, that his days are vanity, that they're fleeting, they go so quickly, he moves on to the next thing, and the things that he learns, he discovers, the things he experiences, the things he accomplishes, all of those are as if they never happened. In that opening statement as well, we see something that's very important about how he is functioning here. Remember, he's not the Apostle Paul who says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. What he's really saying in his message is, don't do what I did. I'm going to take you there, I'm going to show you where I went, how I thought, but I don't want you to go there with me. And so what's wrong in the very opening part of this text is he says, I have seen. It tells us about his epistemology, his way of knowing things. The way that he comes to understand the world is all about what he sees, what he experiences firsthand. And this is very much how he has lived his life, trying to have a collection of experiences. And that, of course, brings him to the frustration that he has in that opening verse. When he looks out, he sees things in his vain days. What does he see? Well, he sees something that makes him incredibly cynical. He sees a just man or righteous man who perishes in his righteousness. And then he sees a wicked man who prolongs his days. And this is the kind of thing that would make any of us cynical. We want to see the noble being blessed. We want to see them prospering. We want them to see them ascending to seats of power and exercising authority for the good of people around them. We want to see them, that God blesses them in such a way that the lost people around them can see how well they're doing, what their obedience is doing, what it's accomplishing for them. And that the wicked will say, you know, they just seem to be better off. We want to be over there where they are. And they'll forsake their wickedness and live a life of godliness. But when he looks out, he sees that's not the case. And it's that he sees the opposite. He sees wicked people who are actually prospering. It's the case of Psalm 73. He looks out, they're sleek, they're fat, they're happy. Everything goes their way. And yet it shouldn't be that way. They should be getting the consequences of their sin. Not blessings. They shouldn't be prospering. What's his conclusion? Well, he's happy to share it with you. Look at verses 16 and 17. This certainly sounds cynical. He says, "...do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise, why should you destroy yourself?" At first point, don't be too righteous and don't be too wise. Are you shocked by that? That's not what you're expecting to hear in the Bible, right? Don't be too righteous? Is there really a limit on how righteous you can be? Proverbs 3.33 says, "...the curse of the Lord is found in the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the just." And isn't wisdom also supposed to make us happy? Proverbs 3.13, "...happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding." So how can it be that you wouldn't want too much of this? Look at the next verse. He says in 7.17, he says, "...do not be overly wicked, nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time?" At face value, you're thinking, okay, well that's a good reminder. At least he's saying that you don't want to be wicked. But then look at what he says and how he says it. He says, don't be overly wicked. Again, that's not supposed to be in your Bible, right? Because it sounds like he's saying, well, don't be too righteous. You can be a little bit wicked and that's okay. If you take him in context, if you understand what he's actually going for, you can understand this is very much a commentary in verse 15 about the righteous and the wicked. And it is his cynicism coming through. What he's doing is he's making this observation by what he sees in the world and he's saying that the righteous, well, it's just not going to get you that much. You can be overly righteous if you kill yourself trying to be right, to be good in every way. it's going to burn you up, and you might be destroyed in spite of it. Of course, you don't want to be too wicked, and it's not like he's actually here endorsing wickedness, but he is encouraging this sort of moderation, this kind of restraint that ought to be in life, that this is true with righteousness and wisdom, is that you have to have these things with the blessing of God in order to be able to enjoy them and to prosper in them. Look at verses 18 and 19. He says it's good that you grasp this and also not remove your hand from the other. Not remove your hand from this is actually what it says in Hebrews. For he who fears God will escape them all. He's saying this is what is good. This is what is right. This is what is true. And this is what you want to hold on to. is that more important than getting righteousness or wisdom, and certainly more important than the pursuit of pleasure, is to get the fear of God. Is that the one who fears God can escape all of these things. And this is really the heart of the whole book. As He does so frequently, He is dragging us through the mud and through His muddied thinking. He's taking us along this way where He makes these cynical kind of comments like He just did, in order that you can arrive at this place where you lay hold of a deeper and a truer wisdom. The one that says the best place, the safest place, the rightest place to be is in the fear of God. And by that you can escape all these things. It's because whenever he's talking about seeking wisdom is that we have to understand there's wisdom and then there's wisdom. There's the one kind of wisdom that comes from reading a book or from learning a skill or maybe even from studying with an expert, observing people that are having great successes, being tutored. All those things can lead to a kind of wisdom that makes you sort of better and more experienced and more conversant with a particular thing and maybe even with this world. But there's another kind of wisdom that is much more deeply humbling. It's the kind of wisdom that when it comes to you, it not only teaches you more about a subject that makes you feel like you're smarter and more competent in that subject, but there's another kind of wisdom that comes to you that actually puts you back in your place. And it helps you see you, and it helps you see you in the context in your relationship with the rest of the world. And that's the kind of wisdom that we don't find as naturally. That's the kind of wisdom that is deeper because it really hurts to go there. Because one of the things that, you know, the first kind of wisdom says, I'm competent, I'm experienced, I'm an expert. And it makes us feel good about ourselves. We've done something, we know something, we've got something that people want to have from us. But then that other kind of wisdom tells you about you and it says, you know what, you really don't know that much. And you're really not the best source to go to on this subject. And all those successes that you thought you had, that you earned by your competence, well, looking back on those, you realize it was a gracious God that in His providence was walking you through those things, that was supporting you with the right cast, that was giving you surprising things in particular moments and times that made it seem like you were a really competent person. But this deeper wisdom, this truer wisdom, reveals this about you, that you're not in control in the way that you thought you were. that you're not on the throne, but that someone else is. So he's actually here being very proverbial, of the Solomonic proverbial kind, looking at Proverbs chapter 3, "...trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." This is the very problem the preacher had. He was leaning on his own understanding, what he saw with his eyes. Rather instead, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise, you know the rest of the verse, in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. This is actually what the preacher is going for. He's actually not that far from Solomon in what he says. Of course, it's not surprising then when you have this God-centric kind of wisdom that comes from the fear of God, is that he comes to the conclusion that he does in verse 19. Look at verse 19. He says, That also echoes the wisdom in Proverbs 3. Go back to Proverbs 3, verse 13. And this is a passage here. You want to hear the true wisdom, what it does, what it reveals. Proverbs 3.13. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. Again, hold on to that because we're coming back to it. But think again what we've been told thus far in Ecclesiastes. Here was a man who had gone out who had experienced everything there was. He was a collector of all manner of things, of knowledge, of people, slaves, of technology. All of these things he went out and he sought after and he got as much of them as he could. But here he says, "...and all these things you desire cannot compare with her." Length of days are in her right hand. In her left hand, riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. Don't miss the tree of life. We had a tree in the garden, a tree of life that was to be taken hold of by the sinless person. And there is a tree in the last days and in the new heavens and new earth, there will be a tree eternal. He says she is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. and happy are all who retain her. The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, and the clouds dropped down the dew. My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you'll not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. What 10 rulers could compare to the wisdom of God? What strong men in this city, competent as they are, skillful in whatever ways they had, who of them could compare to the wisdom of God to be owned by it, possessed by it, ruled by it in your heart? Well, there's a self-check there. If you keep reading, you go down to verses 20 through 22. He says, for the righteous, he kind of does this in a cynical way. He sort of tamps down your zeal. And he wants to warn you, he wants to instruct you in your pursuit of wisdom that, yes, it's a pearl of great price that you would go after and seek. It's worth selling to get. But the problem is your pursuit of it. He says in verse 20, Surely there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. He's tamping down your expectations, but he's really not being cynical here. Now he's just being clear in his theology. He's teaching what you've known for many years is that There are none righteous. What we just read in our New Testament reading from Romans chapter 3, that repetition of Psalm 14 and 53, all men sin. Everyone, everywhere, at all times. And they sin not just a little. They sin a lot. They sin abundantly. They sin repeatedly. They sin over and over in the same ways. So no one deserves to be called righteous. They're not even one person. Because no one understands himself in relation to God. No one seeks God as he ought to be sought. Everyone turns aside from his wisdom, from his law, from his commandments. They're corrupted by evil influences, and they are from their cradle to their grave. It follows them their whole life. All work iniquity, all live in selfishness, all destroy what's good, and none call on God. And if we go back to Romans chapter three, we see it's Jew and Gentile problem both. Every child, everyone born by ordinary generation as we read in our confession a few moments ago. And all of that corruption in man, in you, calls out for something better, someone better, someone who is true and righteous and good. Knowing that doctrine then, you should be humbled. When you think about searching for wisdom, of trying to understand what's true and what's right, it starts with knowing yourself in relation to God and to the rest of the world, to know yourself as a sinner. He kind of helps you with that when you look at verses 21 through 22. It just makes it really practical. He says, Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times also your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. Just picture that awkward situation, you know, kind of in ancient Israel. You're in your house, you're in the back room, you're taking a nap, all of a sudden you hear a stirring of voices, and lo and behold, your servant is out in the front room, and he's talking to another servant, and he's talking about what an imbecile you are as a master. He talks about how incompetent you are, and how ridiculous your expectations are, and how unrealistic your expectations are for the upkeep of the house, and how you don't really understand how anything works. Does anyone like to hear negative things about them? Do you enjoy it when people criticize you? And what's worse is in that moment, you know that they're being honest, right? It is because they think you can hear. So they're just spilling out whatever is coming out of their heart. They're just letting it fly. And you have to hear it all. And you can't get to it fast enough. In fact, you're not even sure if you want to get to it. Part of you wants to go out screaming and yelling and to correct that person who's just made this comment about you. And another part of you is so ashamed because of what you're hearing. What does the preacher say? He says, don't take it to heart because you do the same thing all the time. You're the same kind of person who demeans others. You like to gossip. You like to criticize. You like to tear down and destroy. You're not a person that up-builds. And you know in your honest moments that you're doing the very same thing. I recently read this short little book. I recommend it in the Visionary, but I think it's just a sermon by Tim Keller. If I can remember the title of it. I can't remember the title of it, but I'm gonna give you a verse instead. Better than Tim Keller's, the Bible, right? Yes. Listen to the Apostle Paul, and just know this is not original from me. The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 4, he says this. He says, moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this. But he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsel of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God." Something of self-forgetfulness. Let's just call it the joy of self-forgetfulness. What a treasure to be able to forget yourself. What a treasure to be able to let go not only of the expectations or the disappointments that others have in you, but also to let go of that, of whatever your positive ideas or your negative ideas about yourself, to let those things go as well. And to know that there's only one judge who ultimately matters and he's enthroned above and he sees things perfectly. The Apostle Paul, there he humbles himself, he says, I don't even know how to look at myself. If my conscience is clear, great, but what is that? Because sometimes I stand in ways I don't remember. And the same thing is true of you. Do not be overly righteous, the preacher said earlier, because you can destroy yourself. Understand who you are in relation to God and the rest of the world. Look on as we continue, verse 23, we see there more of what the preacher is doing, his methodology. He says, All this I have proved, or I have tested by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, who can find it? I plied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. There again, he's testing all things by his wisdom. He's not complimenting himself. He's actually not talking about that deeper wisdom, that truer wisdom. He's talking about that experiential wisdom, that scientific wisdom, that wisdom that says, I can test things and figure out how the world works and I'm going to come to an understanding of all of it. He says, no, this is what I've got. When I began searching, I dropped my bucket into the well for wisdom, and I lowered the rope, and I kept going, and kept going, hoping to find the bottom before I could pull something out, and then I ran out of rope, and so I tied another length on it, and I dropped it, and I just let it go down, and down, and down. Eventually, that rope ran out, and I grabbed another one, and I kept grabbing rope after rope, and making it longer and longer, and I never found it. It is exceedingly deep. Who can find it? He says in verse 24. No matter how he applied his heart to it, same thing he said back in chapter 1 verse 17, I set my heart to know wisdom, to know madness and folly, I perceive this also as grasping for the wind. He has been consumed by seeking out for something that was not attainable in the way in which he was searching for it. It causes him to reflect. He says in verse 26, And I find more bitter than death a woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape her, but the sinner shall be trapped by her. He describes there this woman that he finds, a woman that is lovely. who's attractive, that is enticing, and he's drawn to her. And what happens as he's drawn to her is that she lays hold of him, that her hands actually become handcuffs that lock her onto him that he can't get away from her. And it sounds so much like Proverbs chapter 2 or Proverbs chapter 5, this warning against the adulterous woman, the seductress. But actually, he's actually going to a deeper place here. He's not talking about an actual human person in this situation, which is bad enough. But he's talking about folly itself. He's talking about the search for wisdom that he had had become folly because of the way in which he was searching for it. Many a person has gone down this road and they have gone searching for wisdom. They say, I really want to understand. I'm going to go find myself. And they launch out into the world. I just heard of a person recently, my wife was telling me, a girl from our neighborhood who had gone off, who had gone to study abroad. She was a nice Christian girl and she'd gone off to study abroad. She spent six months in a far country and the whole time never went to church. Shockingly, she seemed to come back not having the same faith that she had. She went on that journey. She was going to go study. She was going to go learn. And what did it get her? She's not the happy person that she once was and we shouldn't be surprised by that. This is what people do when they launch into trying to figure this out by themselves in their own wisdom. Instead of laying hold of wisdom is that you lay hold of folly and then folly lays hold of you and it becomes your destroyer. Well, he goes on in verses 27 and 28, he says, here's what I have found, says the preacher, adding one thing to the other to find out the reason, which my soul still seeks, but I cannot find one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found. Man, that is insulting ladies, isn't it? About one in a thousand guys has wisdom, zero ladies. That's not what he's saying, okay? What he's actually saying there is that he says that in his searching, he knows himself and he knows that he's a gifted seer. And he can look into a room of a thousand people and he can go, there's Joe, back there in the back. Right there, I can see him. And all those people, he can spot one friend, one person that he knows, and he can call them out by name. That's a pretty good skill, right? That you can do that? But one woman he can't find. What's the woman that he's looking for? Well, just like he just talked about Dame Folly, he also wants to talk about Dame Wisdom. It's the same as in Proverbs. Go back to Proverbs 9. Proverbs 9, verse 1, it says, Wisdom has built her house. She has shewn out her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also furnished her table. She has sent out her maidens. She cries out from the highest places of the city, whoever is simple, Let him turn in here. As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I've mixed. Forsake foolishness and live and go in the way of understanding. In verse 13, a foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knows nothing, for she sits at the door of her house on a seat by the highest place of the city to call to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, stolen water is sweet, the bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of hell." The preacher here is admitting that he's really torn between two women. This one woman, his way of seeking wisdom, which was actually folly, has enticed him. He's gone her way. He's tried to find wisdom the way the world does. She was dangerous. She was a destroyer. She pulls him down to the grave. But we tried to find true wisdom in his search for true wisdom and to find the wisdom that's talked about in Proverbs. He couldn't find her. She was for all his ability to see and to make sense and to pick out. He couldn't find wisdom when it came to him. So he's indicting himself, he's saying, I am the problem. So he says in verse 29, truly this only I have found that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. The man is a schemer. God made him right. God was made in the image of God. He was blessed by God. God looked and called him very good when he'd made him. That's what the short of catechism teaches us. God created man male and female after his own image and knowledge, righteousness and holiness with dominion over the creatures. We were created in the image of God. It doesn't mean that God had arms and legs and eyes and hair and all those kind of things, but that we were created after His image in terms of our personhood, in terms of our morality, in terms of our reasoning abilities, that all of that was made upright, was made holy, was made just, that it was suited to be in a perfect relationship with Him where there was peace between God and man. He was holy. He was harmless. He was undefiled. But man thought he knew better. He sought out a different way. He listened to a different voice. And so he took the fruit, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he ate it because he thought that was wise. And what was it? It was a destroyer. It destroyed him. It destroyed his wife. It destroyed his children after him. It destroyed all of you because you know the corruption, the sinfulness that's in your own heart. The preacher has discovered this one thing, that he is a child of Adam. He and the rest of the human race. And you, my friend, are from that same family of schemers. How do we respond to this? Well, first off, we need to understand that there are ancient and modern problems in this text. The one of not being very wicked or super righteous. Some would want to take that and say, well, you know, we really shouldn't try that hard to be holy. Paul has a word, he says, if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what should we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? I speak as a man, certainly not. For then how will God judge the world? For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to his glory, why am I still judged as a sinner? And why not say, let us do evil that good may come? As we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say, their condemnation is just. People that say those things are inviting the wrath of God. We shouldn't sin a little. There shouldn't be a little wickedness. That's not okay and we should never come to that conclusion. Wickedness does hasten death and God has pronounced it over and over. God is a just judge, it says in Psalm 711. God is angry with the wicked every day. Proverbs 2.22, the wicked will be cut off from the earth and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it. Proverbs 10.27, the years of the wicked will be destroyed. Isaiah 11.4, he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. God hates the wicked. He's a destroyer of the wicked. You cannot expect to live wickedly in this world and not expect to find the judgment of God. Yeah, you might be that exception. You might be able to get by and just keep going down this road. And you might live until you're 80 years old in wickedness. But my friend, 80 years is a short time compared to the judgment of God and the wrath that it brings. And He will act. There's another problem here. It's an ancient problem. It's a modern problem. That's the problem of being super-righteous. That is probably much more of a problem. You're the choir. You're here Sunday morning. Don't tell me about being exceedingly wicked. That's not me. How about being super-righteous? In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees were the embodiment of super-righteousness. They were the believing, the biblical, the conservative. They were the counter to the progressive liberalism of the priestly elite, of the Sadducees, the unbelieving culture which surrounded them. They were trying to speak truth into their times. They were trying to preserve a way of life and trying to preserve doctrine for the people of God. Like so many other well-intended people, they did what? They made many schemes. So Jesus condemned them. He says, Their good ideas weren't enough. They had many ideas about what it meant to obey the law of God, but in the course of proliferating these commandments that were man-made in their traditions, they forgot what God really was concerned about. They had become too righteous because they were concerned about pitifully small things. Things that they had made for themselves and not the actual commands of God, and so Jesus condemned them. This is the same problem that we have in our day with fundamentalism. How do fundamentalists begin? The same wonderful things. They were the believers. They were trying to preserve the Word of God. They were trying to apply it to their culture, to own it, to teach others to walk in the way. But what did they do in their interest to be separate? They began to separate, and to separate, and to separate, to make more and more distinctions. So they become to be identified as those who don't drink, and those who don't smoke, and those who don't chew or go with girls that do. It's not scripture. Those are things that were added and they shouldn't be the markers. And don't think because you're not a fundamentalist that that's not a problem. We have our own forms of it. We're very good at finding ways out to be fundamentalist. You could be a Psalms-only person that refuses to sing the praises of Christ with God's people and the New Covenant blessing. You might be a fundamentalist in terms of the foods that you preach to others to say you should only be eating this and to judge people when they don't meet those expectations. You can also be righteous just by the scale of comparison that you use. Is that your goal is to look better than those around you, so that you're always wanting to be judged and found to be the superior in the competition between you and others. That is its own form of fundamentalism, but he says to you, there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. You can be too righteous. Your goal for righteousness is that you would obey God according to his word. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, it says in Matthew 5.48. So your goal is to obey God in all things and at the same time to know that you won't. That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Your goal is to obey God in all things and to do it from the heart. Paul says, but God be thanked that through you, that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which you were delivered. Not obeyed hourly, but from the heart. Your goal is to obey God in all things because the Spirit of God is at work in you. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Your goal is to obey God without respect to who's keeping score. Paul says in Philippians 2.12, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And your goal is to obey God because you've been renewed. Because if anyone is in Christ, he is the new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. You are a different person than you were, and that enables you to obey. Let that be the source of your obedience. In all this, we need to develop a real fear of God. Let me take you back to one of the most ironic passages in all of Scripture. Turn back to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19, verse 16. Exodus 19, verse 16, it says, And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpets was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. It matched the trembling in the people. Now look over just a chapter, chapter 20 in verse 18. It says, now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet in the mountain, smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood far off. Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. And Moses said to the people, do not fear. What? Do not fear? Do not fear this exploding mountain before my eyes. It's because of the tremendous, the mysterium tremendum, the presence of God before the people that he has drawn near to us. This one who can split a mountain apart with the sound of his voice. And you want us not to fear? He says, do not fear, for God has come to test you and that his fear may be before you. so that you may not sin. You see, just like there's wisdom and then there's wisdom, there's fear and then there's fear. And what he's calling on them to have is a right fear of God, a right understanding of who God is. That he is to be feared, that he is fearful, but his fearsomeness isn't his person. It's not just in things that explode. It's not just in loud noises that you should be afraid. But it's in this person that you have drawn near to. This person who tells you who you are. Who tells you things about yourself that you don't want to know. Who tells you that you're not as righteous as you thought you were. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. My friends, this is true wisdom. The preacher says in 720, he says, for there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. But you know he's wrong. And our confession told you that he's wrong because we believe there's one who descends not by ordinary generation, but by extraordinary generation. There's one who is born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come into this world. And so Paul says, we preach Christ crucified to the Jews, the stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. We need to be taught by Christ. and to live in response to Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 4.20, he says, you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Let's pray together. Our great father, oh, would you be our recreator? Would you be the one who makes us new? Would you be the one who places in our minds and our hearts true wisdom? That we would know the fear of you by knowing your person. That it would not be our experience of the world which teaches us, but our wisdom would come from you speaking to us in your word. and by your spirit applying your word to our heart, by your making us what we ought to be, your spirit indwelling in us, conforming us, that we might have true righteousness, true knowledge, true holiness. Oh, Father, do this, we pray, that we might be made better and that you might be glorified, we pray in Christ's name, amen.