Good morning. Take your Bibles and turn to the preacher, which is Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Our study will be verses 15 through 18, but to help us gain a measure of context, I'll begin at verse one of chapter seven. This is the word of the living God. By the way, Ecclesiastes is between Proverbs and Song of Solomon if you're having trouble finding it. A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one's birth. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men, and the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression destroys a wise man's reason and a bribe debases the heart. The end of a thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Do not hasten. in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Do not say, why were the former days better than these? For you do not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is good within inheritance and profitable to those who see the sun. For wisdom is a defense, as money is a defense. But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it. Consider the work of God, for who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the days of prosperity, be joyful. In the days of adversity, consider. Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him. And now our verses. I have seen everything in my days of vanity. There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness. Do not be overly righteous nor be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Do not be overly wicked nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp this and also not remove your hand from the other for he who fears God will escape them all. Amen. We trust that God will add his blessing to his word. I have a question for you. Do you have a philosophy of life? Have you investigated trues that guide you and what it is that you believe and how you conduct yourself? I would submit to you that everyone here in this building, even children, have a philosophy of life. Now, granted, children's philosophy of life probably has to do with toys and games, but still, nonetheless, I think everyone has a philosophy of life, whether you're religious or irreligious, whether you're a Christian or if you're not a Christian. As one of the prophets of the 60s said, you, you there on the road, must have a code that you can live by, so teach your children well. I remember Tom Lyon, most of us know Tom, Pastor Tom Lyon, preached many years ago at a conference that there are two books that the Christian should be very familiar with. First one is the book of Hebrews because of the superiority of Christ coming out in the teaching of that book, and the second one is this one, the book of Ecclesiastes, because this book will aid in developing a godly philosophy of life. So when you come to the book of Ecclesiastes, as I mentioned earlier, Ecclesiastes means preacher, or one who addresses an assembly. And it is obvious from the internal evidence that the one who wrote this book was Solomon, King Solomon. appears to be at the end of his age that he preaches this sermon. You can say this is a sermon a lot of the fact that the name is Ecclesiastes, a preacher. It appears also to be his repentance of his vain and foolish and sinful pursuits of other women and other gods. Now the theme of this book is vanity of vanities or everything is meaningless and useless apart from God. Some have made the mistake and say the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes is that everything is meaningless and useless. No. That's not accurate. They haven't read the book. They've stopped reading the book. The wisdom of God, the fear of God, brings meaning to life. But something that Solomon brings out in the book of Ecclesiastes is that there is nothing that can prevent your death as well as a judgment to come. And so really when you look at the affairs of life under the sun, Everything is meaningless in terms of holding you back from that day of death as well as that day of judgment. But it is the fear of God that is to be preferred and gives true meaning to life. Now, before we look at, we'll have three points to this message, but before we look at the first point, just to give us some context, I want to briefly summarize verses 1 through 14. And here we have paradoxes or things that appear to be a contradiction in the eyes of the common man. A reputation, as our writer says, is much more important than worldly goods or money. The world would say differently. Money is more important than your reputation. It's better to go to a funeral than go to a party. I mean, brethren, wouldn't you rather go to a party than go to a funeral? and yet our writer says it's better to go there it's better to hear the correction and repute and rebuke than to hear a song the end of a thing is better than its beginning therefore what he is saying here is be patient before you make quick conclusions and quick judgments. Wisdom brings about patience. It will keep you from rash conclusions and do not say, where are the good old days? Sound familiar? That would not be wise to do that. Wisdom gives patience and understanding in life. And then consider the work of God in prosperity as well as in adversity. God has brought them both to pass. And that brings us to the paradox that we have here in verse 15, a just man who perishes in his righteousness. And there's a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness. So here we see in our first point, a troubling observation, a troubling observation, the early death of a righteous man, and then the long life of a wicked man. This observation has been perplexing God's people throughout the ages. Habakkuk wanted to know from God what he was going to do because of his common Israelite brethren were committing such violent sins against one another. And Habakkuk asked, Lord what are you going to do? God's response? He's going to correct this wicked nation with another wicked nation. Israel had become a wicked nation, and God said he was going to correct them with another wicked nation. And Habakkuk said, how can this be? You've appointed them, this particular wicked nation, for judgment, not us. He was perplexed. Psalm 74 says this, how long will the wicked triumph? So here we see a righteous man in this particular verse dying early in life and this goes all the way back as an example to Abel. From Abel being killed by his brother Cain all the way to John the Baptist being beheaded by Herod even Stephen being stoned to death at a young age it is indeed a perplexing thing to consider that the righteous are being put to death at an early age. Even Job asked the question in Job 21.7, why do the wicked live and become old? Yes, become mighty in power. Jeremiah 12 says, why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? Now, is this an absolute? In other words, does this happen every time that all of the righteous people die early, and all of the wicked people have a long life? Well, no. You just view Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and even King David. You even view this passage closely. Notice, if you look at it, it says, a just man, not all just men. and a wicked man, not all wicked men. So, if this is not absolute, if this doesn't happen all the time, why is this perplexing? Why is this a difficulty? Well, Solomon, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, continues his sermon, and in light of this troubling observation, he views this particular case, there is a temptation, in light of just one case, a just man dying early, a wicked man prolonging his life, there is the possibility, the temptation to run to extremes. And here we have the four extremes about being overly righteous and then overly wise and then overly wicked and foolish. Now what I'm going to do is we will look at overly righteous and overly wise together. They go together, they overlap one another, as well as one being overly wicked and being foolish. Now, overly righteous or righteous over much, this is important because look at the second half of verse 16. Why should you destroy yourself? This is dangerous. This is an extreme to be avoided. It is indeed a dangerous thing to consider. Now let's talk about what it doesn't mean. to be overly righteous or overly wise. What this is not saying is don't be too holy or righteous. Mix in some evil to balance out your over righteousness. That's not what's being said. Also, this is not dealing with the righteousness of Jesus Christ being put to our account. His righteousness is perfect. Now this indeed is a strange command. You don't see this command anywhere in the Bible except right here. So it is kind of a strange command, especially when you consider a soul of man is not good and he can't do anything righteous and the command is don't be too righteous. Do not be righteous over much. Well, let's take a look at what it does mean. What it does mean is to do more than the law requires, go above and beyond the law of God, and then to disobey God's clear commands. To pretend to be righteous with a great show of being religious, but being self-righteous. To pretend something. To despise others as well that don't measure up to your level of holiness. as Matthew Henry says, overdoing in well-doing. Let me give you an example that might help us understand this. King Saul. Remember King Saul? He was a king before Solomon was a king. He's getting ready to go into battle against the Philistines. And what he does, he takes the people and puts them under a curse, an oath, that if they eat anything until the end of the day, Death. Death would come to them. His son is not with them when the oath comes out, and so they go into battle with the Philistines. They're under a fast, and they're in the middle of battle, and Saul's son Jonathan sees honey on the ground. He takes it up. He partakes of it, and as the scripture says, it brightens his countenance. and they go on, they affect a very good victory over the Philistines, okay? However, after they have the victory over the Philistines, the people rush on the spoil because they've been fasting, and they start eating the meat with the blood in it. Saul calls the people down, but he finds out that his son partook of food, honey, before the fast was over, and what does he want to do? He wants to kill him. Here's a fasting. Is it good to fast? Sure, it's good to fast, but is it really wise to fast before you go into battle and you're going to exert yourself and you're going to need strength for that battle? Yes, but then to immediately want to kill your son because he partook of a little bit of honey. He didn't even hear the oath. Now, that's one example of being overly righteous. Another one is the same king, King Saul, is given the command from God to go and wipe out the Amalekites and kill Agag and destroy all the spoil. Well, he goes in and he doesn't. They win the battle, but they take some of the spoil and he keeps King Agag alive. So, go to my first illustration. Jonathan should not have been put to death. No death scene should have come upon him. Agag should have been put to death and he didn't. That is being over righteous. And the Jews throughout the scriptures and we see them being very religious in keeping with their fastings, with their sacrifices. They have many high places of worship and yet they were violent against brethren. They were immoral. and they worship other gods, though they were diligent in their worship, and we know the verse, to obey is better than sacrifice. That's what's being brought out. Now, the Pharisees of our Lord's day are the supreme example in this, whether it was their weekly fastings that they practice, they disfigured their face, they walked around glum, Everyone knew that they were fasting or it could have been their law about washing their hands in a special way and condemning others who didn't follow in this law, which God did not command. They were commanding more than what God's law required. They were majoring on minors. and minoring on majors. Or, I've used this illustration many times with you brethren from Matthew 23. They would strain at a gnat. Our Lord used this illustration of how wine was to be cleansed and so it was screened over and over again to get rid of the gnats. Wine's sweet, bugs like hanging around them. So that's what you're to do, to keep on getting it down to nothing. The illustration is this. is that they were so meticulous about tithing, Sabbath-keeping, and then swallow a camel. Imagine, this is a gross illustration, all that effort to get rid of all the little bugs out of your cup, and then you have your cup ready to partake, and a camel hops in it, and you down it. It is funny, really, when you get down to it, but it's pretty serious. They were making such a big deal about tithing and Sabbath-keeping, and what were they doing? Committing murder, plotting murder, committing adultery, divorcing their wives. The worst thing was not acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ. And look at the body of work that our Lord had done, the many miracles, raise Lazarus from the dead. All these things our Lord did, his teachings, his miracles, he should have been acknowledged by them as the Messiah. Instead, these religious leaders were not only adding to God's law, but permitting what God forbade. That was committing murder and not acknowledging Jesus as the Christ. Even in the book of Acts, when Paul, who used to be Saul and was converted and went around preaching, and these Jews made an oath that they would not eat until they put Paul to death. A law God did not command, and here they're going and permitting what God disallows, and that is committing murder. I was raised a Roman Catholic, and the thing that was elevated before our eyes was that the priests didn't marry. They made a big deal about that. Our priests don't marry. And yet, for the reason that just is beyond me, God permits for all types of people to marry. Look at the thousands of cases, the thousands of priests that have brought about abuse on young children, the millions and millions of dollars that the Catholic Church has shelled out because of these thousands upon thousands of cases that go on in the Roman Catholic institution. Forbidding to marry is against the law of nature. It's against the law of God. God has given marriage is a gift to all kinds of people to elevate this as something that's very holy. Oh, these men must be very holy. They don't marry. They should be allowed to marry. Look at the cases. It's amazing. The millions of dollars in the amount of of cases there are, and what was bad is when there was abuse found out by a priest, they would just take him and move him to another parish. I'm sure I'm making a lot of friends here right now. There's another example of this being overly righteous, and that is the ungodly quoting scripture and not obeying the Word of God. The ungodly quoting scripture and not obeying the word of God. Should the ungodly quote scripture? Sure they should. All of us should quote scripture. The ungodly should quote them as well. But those who quote scripture and do not obey the rest of the word of God is overly righteous. There is the ungodly father that has abandoned his children never providing for them, and then shows up at their home one day when they are of age and demands for them to obey the fifth commandment as they give them commands to do A, B, or C, talking to them as if they were seven years old. When we raise our children, we are raising our children up, we're providing for our children, and they don't always stay seven years old. As our children get older, there's that adult relationship that we have with our children. And for someone to do that, to quote the fifth commandment, is being overly righteous. I saw this years ago. There was a baseball player. He was a Yankee, of course. Um, that's the only funny part, because he was talking to the one who was interviewing him, and he was witnessing to him, which was great. He was telling him how someone could be right with God by believing in Jesus Christ to repent of your sins and to embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I couldn't believe my ears. But then he thought that they turned the camera off. And he says, by the way, I can use profanity with the best of them. And he went on a tirade of profanity to show that he could curse better than anyone else. It sounds like two different men. He's quoting scripture, and then he goes on with this tirade of wickedness, of profanity. Romans 2 says, you who teach others, do you teach yourself? You who command a man not to steal, do you steal? You command men not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? I remember a TV preacher, and it seemed like most of the times he spoke, he preached against immorality. We should preach against immorality, but it should be in the text. But he was preaching against immorality over and over again, and secretly he was going to visit brothels. So to be overly righteous appears to be one who talks a good game and yet there's no faith. There is no repentance. Well, let's briefly move on to being overly wise. Overly wise. What it doesn't say is that you're supposed to mix in some foolishness. That's not what's being said here, to be overly wise. Overly wise is this, it is a rush to judgment, to be quick to judge, quick to speak, quick in anger, quick in being harsh. Obviously, they're like this because they're infallible and they're never wrong, right? To have an opinion on everything and to find fault with everything and everyone. Severe judging on disputable matters. I remember talking to a man and he was going to size up my Christianity if I believed if Jonah was literally dead in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. I gave my answer. He seemed like he was satisfied with that but then his next question was, Rick do you believe in fleecing? I believe in what? He said fleecing. Do you believe in fleecing? I said what? I have no idea what that is. That did it. That did it. In his estimation, I was foolish. Making a big deal right there about something that is small, fleecing or being overly wise. He obviously knew more than I did about fleecing. Some say we don't drink caffeine. Others say we do. Others say we don't celebrate Christmas. We don't have Christmas trees in our homes. Alcohol? No alcohol. The cultists will hit your door and major on minor issues. Tree or no tree? I mean, is there anything wicked or sinful having a Christmas tree in your house? I'll leave that with you. Or birthdays and no birthdays? Jehovah's Witnesses pride themselves. We don't celebrate birthdays. We don't celebrate Christmas. And yet these cultists at the door deny our Lord's deity, his bodily resurrection, forgiveness of sin through his death and his death alone. I had a friend years ago tell me when a Jehovah's Witness hits your door, don't argue with him about the deity of Christ. Bring in the law. Because when they are convinced and convicted of their sin, they will have no problem running to the very God manifest in the flesh for the forgiveness of sins. I think that was good advice, excellent advice. But those that are overly wise are quick to judge. Be quick, therefore, to get to the law and get to the gospel. Now there's another example of being overly wise. And that is, some Christian churches, and I say they are Christian churches, they make it a matter of fellowship if one does not hold to and believe into their exact view of the second coming of Christ. You must believe in a literal thousand year reign, you must believe in a seven year tribulation period, you must believe in this in order for you to be a member in our particular church. So long as we believe in the physical second coming of our Lord, His timing is really not an issue or really for us to know. He's kept that secret. So long as we believe in His physical return, we are to have discernment. Sure, we have opinions on when the Lord comes back if we believe in a literal thousand-year reign or no thousand-year reign. We don't make that a matter of fellowship here in this church, but some have done that. Wisdom will direct you into affairs that are important and the discernment of leaving other matters unspoken. Another example of being overly wise, remember brethren, it is important for us to correct one another with humility and reverence, taking heed to ourselves. But we are not to cast pearls before swine. Another illustration our Lord used. Do not answer a fool according to his folly. Remember our Lord's command to his disciples when dealing with the Pharisees? What did he say? He said, leave them alone. Not everyone needs an answer. Not everyone should be answered. To love to debate with the unbeliever to win an argument is being wise over much. Avoid foolish disputes with the ungodly. As a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be patient and gentle to all. Yes, again, we are to stand firm in the faith on major doctrinal issues. The word of God, the Trinity, Jesus deity, his death to make payment for our sins, the grace of God and how someone is entered into the kingdom of heaven as well as the Lord's second coming. We should talk about those cardinal truths, but utilize wisdom on secondary issues because we must be reverent, we must be humble, make sure you choose your battlegrounds. Now, another example of this is closely related, is interfering in a disagreement that's not your own. Proverbs 26, 17, write this one down. He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears. Troubling. Grab your dog by the ears and see what happens. It's troubling. It's not going to be very pleasant. A man during our Lord's ministry wanted him to divide his inheritance and our Lord wouldn't do it. Why? It wasn't our Lord's business. It wasn't his to do. It was not his argument. Now this application Is that door unlocked? This application has to do with social media. Where someone posts something, then another person gets involved with that post and may disagree with it, and it isn't long until a myriad of philosophers get involved in trading insults and ruining their Christian testimony. My brethren, what a grief. Believers, fighting with other believers online, publicly? Or believers fighting with unbelievers over political issues? What's the command from 1 Thessalonians? Aspire to lead a quiet life and mind your own business and work with your own hands. That's three things to do. That should keep you pretty busy. Should keep you off social media. Nothing wrong with going on social media, but this is not the time and place to be fussing and fighting with one another. Sometimes your opinion and $2 will get you a cup of coffee. That's it. Another example is being harsh in judgment towards our Children condemning our Children. You hear it all the time. Oh, the kids of today, they're so disrespectful. Where are the good old days? Verse 10 says, don't say that. You shouldn't say that. But to judge and generalize all youth is harsh. Now, it may be true that there are a lot of children that are disrespectful, and things are worse than the days that have gone by. But I'm 71 years old. I've been hearing this for 60 years. It's older than a lot of you. You do not have perfect knowledge on every child in America, and your attitude will do nothing more than push the children away. Do not have a harsh view towards children. Deal with them on an individual basis. And then the last one is prying into the unknown. prying into the unknown, things that God has not revealed. Remember in John chapter eight, a woman that was caught in adultery was brought to our Lord, and the Pharisees wanted our Lord to give a judgment. He stooped down, he started writing in the sand, and they were convicted, and they all left one by one. As our Lord said, let him who's without stone throw the first stone. Now, do I know emphatically what our Lord wrote in the sand. No, I don't. I can guess they were convicted of sin. Maybe he was writing down their sin. I don't know, but I heard a man say he knew exactly what the Lord had written in the sand, prying into the unknown. There's also those who claim to know the exact return of our Savior as Harold Camping predicted foolishly, and it didn't come to pass. Deuteronomy 29, 29. Some of you have it memorized. Deuteronomy 29 29. The secret things belong to the Lord, our God. But those things which are revealed belong to us and our Children forever that we may do all the words of this law. That is what we are to do. Settle on the revealed God's word. and it will keep you from being destroyed. Look at the end of verse 16. Why should you destroy yourself? To practice this about being overly righteous and overly wise, you will never have any self-examination of yourself. You're too busy being overly righteous and overly wise. It does indeed place you on the broad road to destruction. no trust in God, no trust in his son, definitely no fruits of the Spirit. That's not one of the fruits of the Spirit to be mad all the time. Proverbs, I mean I should say Psalm 37 8 says, do not fret, it only causes harm. And earlier it says, do not fret because of evildoers. One who's always upset, Always fretting. People will eventually leave you alone because they do not want to converse with you since you are contentious. Oh, he's even tempered. Yeah, he's mad all the time. This is serious. Look at verse six, the end of 16. Why should you destroy yourself? Why should you destroy yourself? Okay. Now for the time they have left, let's take a look at being overly wicked and foolish. I will be briefer here. I've covered a lot of ground. Again, these blend together. And the fool will normally be overly wicked. It says here, do not be overly wicked, do not be overly foolish. And the reason that this is being brought out is when you consider the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering, one might jump to the conclusion, what's the use in living like this? What's the use of doing that? To eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow I'm going to die, so I'm going to run headlong into sin. What's the use of living like this if the wicked have a long life and the righteous have a very short life? Well, let's talk about what it doesn't mean, because this is indeed a strange command to be Not overly wicked. He's not saying to mix in some wickedness with your righteousness. It's not what's being said here. Wisdom is good. And you're supposed to go to a certain degree of evil and then stop short of it. That's not what's being said here. Mix in a little wickedness. No, that's not what's being said. That's very obvious. That's not what's being meant. What does it mean? A wicked man once said, if you're going to miss heaven, don't miss it by an inch. In other words, cast off all restraint, sin openly. This command goes against bold wickedness. Children being taught by their parents for the years that they're at home, even being at church, and when they depart, some forsake their parents teaching and what they heard in church and without restraint plunge into wickedness. Avoid those sins that will expose yourself to public justice and humiliation and even an early death. It's there at the end of 18. I should say at the end of 17. Why should you die before your time? Remember this? The magistrates, the authorities, the police, They do not bear the sword in vain. You break the law, the law shoots to kill. You break into a house to steal, the owner may use lethal force to protect his family. Therefore, be afraid, be very afraid to go against the law of the land. There are dreadful consequences to sin. Why should you die? at an early age. Children, hear me on this. Please do indeed hear me on this. Do not go in that way of open sin and rebellion. There are dreadful consequences to that sin. Solomon may have had some of his citizens in mind when he penned this. Do you remember Solomon executed Adonijah? That was his brother. because his brother was trying to usurp his throne. He also executed Shimei, a man who cursed David, and he executed Joab for killing two men during a time of peace. So what is being said here is do not be defiant against the very God that holds your life in his hands. As you run stubbornly into a life of wickedness and excess, open rebellion is to be Avoid it. Remember what your parents teach you and obey that teaching. Do not multiply sin and continue in an overly wicked and foolish way. Don't plan sin, don't continue in it, therefore you would be overly wicked and foolish. Plan course of sin. Remember this, the wages of sin is still death. Nothing can prevent that day of death. The life of sin is vanity and should be avoided, should be repented of and turned from. I've seen some leave their churches and pursue a life of unholy company, drunkenness, drugs, immorality, and to live like an atheist, that God doesn't even exist. Should they not fear the judgment to come? Would there be a hotter hell for those who are involved in open and flagrant sin? To know the truth and to turn away from it as if a dog returns to his vomit is very serious. Now I've given you a lot of do nots. I know that. But now we come to a wise ending in verse 18. He says, it is good that you grasp this and also do not remove your hand from the other. It is good that you understand these extremes. As there is a safe path to grasp, do not let go and embrace it. Do not remove your hand from what is to follow. Hold on to it. And what is that thing that we are to hold on to and grasp? He who fears the Lord will escape them all. It is indeed the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom and the best preservative against these extremes of being overly righteous and wise and being overly wicked and foolish. A humble man, will indeed forsake his own righteousness and will pursue a righteousness that comes from God. The conclusion of the matter is, if you have sinned, fear God. And that fear of God is a love, a regard, a respect, an obedience, a faith in this one. Because God gives grace to the humble and he resists the proud. Come humbly before him. Now, brethren, we repent of our ways. Maybe I've touched on some of our sins here by just what I've brought out over this next half hour or so. But we repent of those ways and we trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And what happens to the one who fears and believes in God and in his son? He escapes these extremes. he escapes these extremes, not perfectly. We do indeed have remaining sin, so we need to be on the guard for that, but we will escape them all. The one who fears God has nothing to be afraid of. Brethren, you have nothing to be afraid of if you have a fear towards God, but the one who does not fear God, he will be afraid of everything, should be, especially the judgment to come. Those that are overly righteous and wise will eventually become overly wicked and foolish. There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness. There is a wicked man who prolongs his life and his wickedness. Do not be overly righteous nor be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Do not be overly wicked nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp this and also not remove your hand from the other for he who fears God will escape them all. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are again brought to your throne, and we are reminded that you are God and there is no other. And we believe upon you, we put our trust in you, and we look to you that you would continue on with your work within our souls. We pray for our children that they would be converted and you would have mercy upon them. We pray that these words would be sealed to our souls, that we would be doers of this word, that we would believe these words, Have mercy upon your people. Richly bless your people the rest of this day as we desire to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy for we pray in Jesus name. Amen.