Ecclesiastes 7:19-22

Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verses 19 through 22. Wisdom strengtheth the wise more than 10 mighty men which are in the city, where there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sineth not. Also take no heed unto all words that. that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. For oft times also thine own heart knoweth, that thou thyself likewise has cursed others. God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. The majestic ocean liner, the Titanic, was said to be unsinkered. However, she struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and the unsinkable ship sank. It was reported that there were 11 millionaires who were on the Titanic on this maiden voyage. Major A.H. Poochin was one of them. He had $300,000 worth of money, jewelry, and security. in a box in his cabin, but he left them all behind and grabbed three oranges when he went out the door. He said later the money seemed a mockery at the time. I picked up the three oranges instead. If you were in a situation where you could only choose one thing, what would it be? People sometimes would choose money or power or position or place. or fame or something of this nature, Solomon’s choice is always obvious. Wisdom. Wisdom is what you need. Throughout this chapter, the preacher has been telling you, urging you to see things from God’s perspective. And in order to do that, you have to have wisdom. He’s talked to you about spiritual advantages, even in the most of the most of the most of you. most difficult circumstances that come into your life. He has spoken about overcoming various hindrances, which may retard your spiritual growth, and he has praised the virtue of wisdom repeatedly. It provides a shelter. It gives you the ability to understand life’s experiences, even the most unsettling observations you make in this life. It’s wisdom that enables you to process it all. So he again is speaking tonight here on the need for wisdom. Now you must recognize the strength of wisdom. Verse 19 says here, wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city. Solomon who never seems to weary of commending wisdom to us must be understood properly. He’s not talking about having a higher education. He’s not talking about the wisdom of the world, which is foolishness to God. This wisdom is associated, as we saw in verse 18, with the fear of the Lord. We must know that this is important. It is spiritual wisdom. The ability to apply the principles of the Word of God to your life, to interpret your life in light of what God says in scripture. Possessing wisdom provides you with strength of life. Bible says. In other words, he compares the wise person here to mighty men who are in the city. Now, some refer this to the rulers of the city, but either way, however we look at it, whether it be the rulers of the city, or whether it be the strongest men of the city, maybe militarily, the truth is this. A God-directed person is going to make better decisions than the consensus of a whole flock of politicians and the mightiest men that are in the military. Either one, because they don’t fear God like he does. And in truth, the person who is walking with God is sheltered by God’s omnipotence. The eyes of the Lord, run to and fro throughout the earth to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect or upright before. He shows himself strong on their behalf. Now, I had Russell read the story about Daniel and the Lion’s Den, which is very familiar to us. You know the story, but do you realize it sort of illustrates the teaching. of our text tonight. What happened in that story? Well, Darius, the king of the Medes and the Persians, had 120 princes that he set over the whole realm of his kingdom. And over these, he had three presidents, he called them, of which Daniel was the most prominent. And why is that? he had an excellent spirit in him. Chapter 6 and verse 3, the Holy Spirit was in it. So Daniel lived by the Word of God. From an early age, we see that he was determined in Chapter 1, not to violate God’s commands. Even when it came to the eating of the foods, he would follow the dietary laws of Scripture. And God granted Daniel wisdom in sight. In fact, the king of Babylon before Darius here, Nebuchadzez, found him ten times wiser than all the wise men in his kingdom. That’s an amazing statement. And he was very strong because of this. Well, the other presidents and the hundred and twenty princes were jealous of Daniel. They banded together against him. and they attempted to find fault with this work, and you can imagine how they spied on him to try to find something wrong, but there was never anything wrong. They couldn’t find him cheating on anything. So as they sifted through his work and couldn’t find any error or mistake, they finally said, well, the only way we’re going to get him is that we get him in relationship to his religion, to his God. And so that’s what they did. They set a trap. They decided to ask Darius, the king, to sign a law that forbade anyone to make a petition for any God or man other than the king himself for the next 30 days. And if you didn’t listen, if you violated that law, you cast in the lines. Daniel, of course, was a lot of the next 30 days. caught praying as he usually did three times a day with the window open toward Jerusalem. And so they found him praying to God, just as he always did because he feared the Lord. And despite all the efforts of the king to save him, he ends up getting cast in the Lion’s time. But God shows himself strong on behalf of Daniel and shuts the lion’s death. in his mouth by sending an angel. So he just spends the night with the lions down there in the den. And they never harmed him at all. And the next morning, Darius is overjoyed to find that Daniel’s still well and alive. He has them hauled out of the D lion’s den. Guess who gets thrown in the lion’s den now? all those and their families who plotted against Daniel 122 against one and Daniel showed himself to be the strongest and they end up being destroyed and not him because God’s omnipotence was on his side and he was stronger than they were he proved stronger because he believed in his God Daniel 6 tells us he tried in God and God delivered him. You remember when Paul appeared before Caesar Nero, he was charged with various crimes, and of course they were all associated with preaching the gospel. Mostly people like Alexander the Copper Smith who lost business because people were turning from these foolish idols to the living God. And so they brought a lawsuit against him. It was costing them money. The Jewish leaders hated Christianity. So they were opposed to him. And many of Paul’s friends deserted him in his eye of crisis. And yet Paul relates this. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and what? Strengthen me. He will stand with you. That by me, the preaching of the gospel may be fully known and all the Gentiles might hear. He gets delivered because God is with him and strengthens him and he overcomes all these attacks against him. This is the key factor. If you do what God’s word teaches, you follow the true wisdom, God will strengthen you, make you stronger than those who are against you. For those with us, the Lord who is with us stronger than those who are with our enemies. And that’s important. So he recognized the strength, the wisdom. You must recognize the real need of wisdom. Verse 20, for there’s not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sineth not. Now you are affected by the universal corruption that is tainted all mankind. When Adam sinned as the representative of mankind, all men fell into sin. It affected all his posterity. as Romans 5 very clearly teaches. And because of the fall of man and Adam, no one does what is right in the eyes of God unless he is regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit. All have sin and come short of the glory of God, and there’s no question about that. So your heart is desperately wicked from birth. You are in bondage to a sinful nature. He that sins is a is a servant of sin, Jesus told us. So you’re full of evil within. Your mind is corrupted. You’re alienated from God. And this is the case with every person who comes into the world. But this text says something even further than that. It says here that you must acknowledge that even just people are guilty before God. We’ve got to narrow the field down. Even the person who is justified, who is declared righteous by God, like Abraham was, by his faith in the Lord. Even that person, the best of people on this earth, are flawed. The just person is able to do good because he knows the Lord, and is dwelt by the Spirit, and yet we know that it’s only in heaven, that the souls of just manner are made perfect. They’re not perfect in this life. Search the whole earth. You’ll find this to be universally true. That even the righteous are guilty of sin. And the argument is that everybody sins and there is weakness in the nature of even the best individuals, as Paul said, the good that I would, I do not. If we say, as believers, that we have not sin, we deceive ourselves. you sin even when you’re trying to do what’s good. Charles Bridges in his book on Ecclesiastes quotes an old divine who says this. I thought this was interesting. I cannot pray, but I sin. I cannot hear or give alms or receive the sacrament. But I sin. I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my very confessions are still aggravations of them. My repentance needs to be repented of. My tears want washing. And the very washing of my tears still to be washed over again with the blood of the redeemed. He says, even when I’m doing what’s right and repenting and doing all these things. It’s all flawed. We have to understand this as we go through this life. You may do what’s pleasing to God and obey a command and yet be lifted up with pride in the process. You may do what’s right and yet fail to do it as well as you should do. Paul says, when I would do good, evil is present with me. and we have to face that fact. Now, human sinfulness demonstrates then your need for divine wisdom. Even if you’re a just person, you’ve been justified before God, you’re still going to need divine wisdom to guide you through this life. Does not every defect in your life teach you a fresh lesson of your own? helplessness? We learn if thou would have just mark iniquities of Lord who could stand before you. Do you think you can run your own life? Do you believe that somehow or other you now know best how to do things? The scripture tells us in the book of Proverbs, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not under thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy past. Be not wise. in unown eyes, fear the Lord. Someone has said that serving God is sort of like you paying back $5,000 to God that he has placed in your hands as a steward. Only if it was a $5,000 bill, you could just hand it back to God, but that’s not how it works. Life isn’t like that. It’s more like this. You have to go and break the $5,000 at the bank and get it all and quarters. And then you give it back little by little as you go through life. So here you are, you got 20,000 quarters. And you go through life giving back 25 cents here, 50 cents there, and so forth. And by that, I mean, every decision you make requires you to spend your quarter in a way that pleases God that’s acceptable to him. In other words, there’s not one big flash of a glorious service that you give God and then you’re done. It means that we have to serve God day by day, day in and day out. It’s a slow and deliberate process by which we serve God in this life. And this is impossible without divine wisdom. Without spiritual guidance, even the best person is bound to do wrong. So you must recognize the real need of wisdom. you must recognize the need to act wisely with others in verses 21 and 22. Also, take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee, for oftentimes also thy own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise has cursed others. The first thing he seems to to us here in verse 21 is you have to be forbearing. I guess it’s a hard saying. It’s difficult to practice, but it’s the best course of action. It displays wisdom. You have to admit in your best moments in life that you sin. And so by implication, you need to act wisely in generously in generously in respect to others and their faults. Otherwise, there’ll be no end of resentment and strife. Often people say what is unhelpful, even downright injurious. The tongue is a world of iniquity. It’s a little member, but it’s set on fire of hell. It causes great harm and no man can tame it. As James says, if any, offend not in word, he’s a perfect man. It’s better not to know everything that people say about you. either by overhearing or ease-dropping or somebody telling you what they say. You may hear more than you want to hear, more than you need to hear. I used to go to a gym, and my cousin went to the same gym. That’s what we just, you know, we talked every so often while we were at the gym. Well, one day my son was at the same gym, and he didn’t recognize me. my son. And so he’s going a mile a minute to two other people about how terrible I am. Of course, my son’s taking all this in, he comes back and tells me about it. You know, well, he’s, you know, Mr. Goody Two Shoes or something like that and all this stuff. And I’m thinking, well, that was hurtful that he would say that. And some of these people I had tried to witness to them, and I’m thinking, well, that’s not so good for me in that situation. And it would be easy if I had been, you know, been, I could just be nasty to them from that on and lay it into them. I didn’t say a word to him. I figured maybe it’s best just not to say anything. Just deal with them as it is. Sometimes that’s the way it is. It’s better not to know everything that people say about you. I’ll tell you this much as a a pastor, it’s better that you don’t hear the roast preacher that takes place on Sunday afternoons at the dinner table. It’s probably best that you don’t. You want to be loving to everybody. A neighbor, a friend, a brother in Christ, even a servant may curse you regarding something you have said or done and they’re angry with you and maybe they, you know, in the heat of the moment they say something nasty. And sometimes the best thing to do is, is realized, well, you’ve said nasty things about other people. Maybe you’re just as guilty. You know, don’t just pick on them and be mad at them when you can look at your own self and say, well, I’m not perfect in this regard either. David confessed this. They did seek my hurt, speak mischief, mischievous things. But I, as a deaf man, heard not. And I was as a dumb man that opened not my mouth. I didn’t say or worry about it. Thus, I was a man that heareth not, and his mouth are no reproofs. Acted like I never heard it. Acted as if I wouldn’t need to reprove them over. I’m just going to let it roll. So Solomon says here, there are times we need to be really learned to be forbearing. You know, forget some of the things you hear. Don’t take them all to heart. Because people could say things and later on they may regret saying them. They may think bad about saying them. Maybe they didn’t understand things properly at the time and they just went off on the, in the heat of the moment against you. In an article by Corey Ten Boom, she told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She said, I tried to forget to forget her. forget it, but she says, I can’t sleep. It just bothers me so much. She said she had forgiven the person, but she keeps rehashing the incident in her mind. So she talked to a pastor that gave her some counsel. He said, you know, up in this church tower, nodding out the window, is a bell, which is run by pulling a rope. And you know what? The sexton, let’s go of that rope. And the bell. The keep swinging back and forth, ding and dong, and ding and dong. But if he leaves go with the rope, eventually the dings and the dongs slow down and then they stop altogether. He says, you have to learn to take your hand off the rope. Keep pulling the rope. Let it go. If you’ve been tugging at your grievance for a long time, then you must not be surprised that those old angry feelings continue to remain be maintained. It’s better to leave. let go of the rope. Let them die. Learn to be forbearing. Realize your own guilt, as he says in verse 22. So all I’m going to address is you to learn from hurt hateful things or hurtful things you have said to others. Jesus said that, you know, he that without sin cast the first stone and first get the beam out of your own eye before you try to take the moat. out of someone else’s. If you recall all your conversations at the end of the day, how many breaches of the law of love have you been guilty of? How seldom we are free of cursing in a sense of backbiting or slicing and dicing somebody and condemning others, how bridled is our own tongue in this regard? It’s an old saying, those that live in glass houses shouldn’t be thrown stones. And I think in the spiritual realm, we have to think that the idea is the same. You know, we have our own problems. Let’s be careful about condemning others. Thou that condemnest another, dost thou do the same things? Romans too says. The rule of humility and love is this. Deal tenderly with others. Deal harshly with yourself. do on to others as you would have them do unto you is the golden rule. When the Titanic was seeking, Major Poochon left $300,000 worth of money and jewelry and so forth possessions in his room and grab the three oranges, because that was going to be the most important thing that he needed. There’s only one thing you really need in this life. That’s divine wisdom. Recognize the strength of wisdom, the need of wisdom, and the usefulness of acting wisely for others in this life. Let us close with a word of prayer.