May we please God to bless us
together this evening as we come to his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Ecclesiastes and chapter 6 and reading verse 9. The book of the Ecclesiastes
chapter 6 and reading verse 9. Better is the sight of the eyes
than the wandering of the desire. This is also vanity and vexation
of spirit. As we know, this book was written
by King Solomon. And King Solomon had everything
at his disposal in order to try and find out happiness in this
life. and he did everything he could
to prove that he could find those things which would bring him
happiness in this world. We find as we read through this
book in the Ecclesiastes, again and again he proves that things
are all vanity and he sums it up really in the first chapter
when he tells us, I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem
and I gave my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning
all things that are done under heaven This sore travail hath
God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I
have seen all the works that are done under the sun and behold
all is vanity and vexation of spirit." So that was the conclusion
of King Solomon and he therefore illustrates that conclusion in
so many ways as we may read through this book of Ecclesiastes. I suppose it's one of those books
which is not preached from very often and perhaps is not read
very often, but there is a lot of instruction in it, and it's
very worthy of our attention. Well, this evening, we come down
to this very tremendous statement, really, that he makes in this
ninth verse, where he tells us, better is the sight of the eyes
than the wandering of the desire. This is also vanity and vexation
of spirit. Well, very simply, I believe
what he is saying here is that it is better for us to concentrate
on the things that we have seen not only naturally but spiritually
with our spiritual eyes and to be able to meditate and to think
upon those things than allowing our thoughts to wander in all
manner of avenues which do not profit and in fact will prove,
as he tells us, our vanity and vexation of spirit. I'm sure
we all understand what it is to have the wandering of the
desire. And if we analyse it, it really
comes down to covetousness. Because we could express it in
this way as perhaps building sandcastles in the air. It's
nothing really positive or tangible, and yet our minds often are led
astray into wrong and evil ways. And remember, the devil is a
past master at leading you in that which is your weakness,
the same as he's able to lead me into that place which is my
weakness. So the devil knows our weak points,
and he homes in on these. and brings into our minds very
quickly and suddenly those things, which may not be convenient at
all, but are really just coveting other things. And his great aim
is to deflect us from the things of God, deflect us from meditating
and thinking upon the things of God. And you know, he is very
successful very often. And I'm sure you understand when
I say he's a past master when we come to prayer. We might think,
well, surely prayer is that which we'll be blessed with, be able
to concentrate wholly on the things of God and be favoured
with that wonderful grace of access and the throne of grace. But we sadly have to prove something
of this. that the King Solomon knew the
wandering of the desire even in our prayers and indeed also
when we are in worship, times of worship, again the devil wants
us to lose our concentration He wants us to, for our minds
to wander. And of course sometimes, or perhaps
it has been so, when we're younger, in those days when we were not
converted, we were very happy to spend our time in the service,
thinking about other things, letting our mind wander all round. and not really listening to what
was being said or read or prayed and therefore there was no spiritual
profit. What we were doing, we were allowing
this to develop, the wandering of the desire. it will be a blessing
if the Lord has come and spoken to our hearts and shown us our
true state before a holy God and our need of a saviour and
our need of salvation and the need we have to be fruitful in
the things of God and therefore has granted us that concern that
we may be lively, we may be those that do listen and are not distracted
by the things the devil brings into our minds, the wandering
of the desire. We need to pray and pray and
pray against the wandering of the desire. I suppose, again,
if we were to sit down and analyse our life, we would find that
there were many hours, days, weeks, months, perhaps years,
that we've spent allowing the wandering of the desire. And
what has it done? Has it brought honour to God? Has it brought the blessing to
our souls? Not at all. What has it produced? Sin. Sin. What a sad condition by nature
we're in. What a sad condition we are when
we're called by grace and the devil comes and possesses our
minds. He grasps every opportunity. And that's why we're told in
the Ephesians to take unto us the whole armour of God, that
we may be able to resist the devil. He's a hard person to
resist. He's not easy. And he's very
cunning and clever. And he'll do all he can to dislodge
us in our thought process of the things of God. All he can
do, he will try and turn us away and you see he touches on those
weak points in our lives those things which perhaps attract
us and we're very easily led and distracted from the things
of God well that's why we should bless God that Solomon obviously
knew this himself he was a man of God But he walked the way
of the children of God and he knew what it was to walk this
way. And therefore he warns us today.
You may say, well, I didn't need any warning. Well, perhaps we
don't. But nonetheless, we need to be reminded and we need to
be concerned that we might heed the truth of the Word of God. And it therefore directs us so
clearly like this. It says, better is the sight
of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. Now I expect you
and I would agree with that. You would say, yes, well I believe
that to be true, but we might say that and then we might just
carry on in our life without any real concern that we might
be a better person. And when I say that, I mean this.
We might be a more spiritually minded person. We might be more
concerned when our minds do wander, to turn away from it immediately. Now, the Word of God tells us
what this means. And what it means is this. It's
a crucifixion of our flesh. You see, the flesh likes to have
these kind of thoughts, these covetous desires, these things
which will really never ever come to pass. But yet you see,
that's our flesh, that's the weakness of our flesh. And we
need therefore to guard against it. And we need therefore to
remember, God has given us an armour, to take, to place upon
ourselves, so that we might be able to resist the devil as he
endeavours to come and tempt us and more than tempt us, to
turn us away from the things of God. How successful he is. He tells us in the last chapter
in Ephesians, he says, for we wrestle not against flesh and
blood. And we are to put on this whole armour so that we may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now then, God's
given us an armour and the tendency is to disregard it. This is what
he says, and he warns us. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Well, that's the enemy. And he
says, wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God. The
temptation is perhaps to only take a part of it. But you will
find you will need the whole armour of God and you will need
to be reminded of what it means and what it contains. in our
battle to resist the devil, especially when it comes to the wandering
of the desire. See, these things are very subtle,
but they don't profit our souls. What do they do? They lead us
away from the things of God and very quickly they can bring us
into a barren condition. It's not profitable. It's the
very opposite. It's unprofitable. And so here
the Apostle tells us, take unto you the whole armour of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to stand. He gives us a list of these things,
his armour. He says, stand therefore. Remember
that, it's not lying down, it's not sleeping, it's not sitting
down. It's standing, so that we're
alert. You know, you can't go to sleep,
can you, really, when you're standing? Stand, therefore, having your
loins going about with truth and having on the breastplate
of righteousness. Well, there's two grand statements
to start with, isn't there? Truth. You will find that, generally
speaking, the wandering of the mind does not bring truthful
things. It often brings untruthful things,
things which are really impossible. And yet the word of God is truth.
You can bless God for it. Rest in the truth of God's word.
Meditate upon the truth of God's word. The devil won't be there. But my friends, you'll need much
grace to concentrate upon this truth of God's word. Your loins
going about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness doesn't mean unrighteousness. Righteous thoughts, righteous
desires. You don't need a dictionary to
be able to know what those things are and what those things are
not. And then your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. That means you are to walk up
and down in the gospel. And with your feet as you're
standing, walking up and down in the gospel, which is indeed
the gospel of peace. And he then says, above all,
taking the shield of faith. Faith, what a gift that is. We
touched on it this morning. It's a wonderful blessing to
be favoured with true and living faith. And if you and I are blessed
with faith, this is what the word tells us, above all take
in the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. And so the expression here is
they're not just a little prick No, the devil intends to wound
us with fiery darts to turn us away from the things of God and
take the helmet of salvation, the helmet of salvation. Remember
that is what the Lord gives to us in our mind, an understanding
of the truth of God in our head, the helmet of salvation, to rejoice
in that and to face the devil with what salvation means to
us and how it was brought about. Oh, it's a very different scene,
isn't it, than letting our minds wander in an evil way. And then
he says, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God. Well, bless God, you and I have
the Word of God. Do we wield it at the devil? The more you and I read the Word
of God, the more you and I would know the Word of God, and the
more it would be a weapon for us to thrust at the devil, that
he may flee from us. And then he says, praying always
with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. It's a comprehensive
statement, isn't it? The whole armour. Remember, praying
always. When he wrote to the Thessalonians,
he says to pray without ceasing with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit That means not praying to ourselves. That means
not praying to impress people. That means praying in the Spirit.
The words given us, indicted by the Spirit, so that we may
pray those things which are in accordance with His will, which
will bring honour and glory to His great and holy name, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance. There is a persevering in these
things. It doesn't come easily. It doesn't come naturally. We're
sinners and we're gross sinners and we're black sinners and our
nature loves sin. And that's why we need to have
this perseverance and supplication for all saints. and he goes on
speaking for me the utterance may be given unto me that i may
open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel
for which i am an ambassador in bonds that therein i may speak
boldly as i ought to speak well i'm sure we're familiar with
the apostle's life that how indeed he was an ambassador, that how
often he was bound up in prison, in chains, with ropes. He was in bonds. It didn't stop
him speaking boldly. And what a blessing it is to
have an example of such a servant of God. And so the King Solomon says,
than the wandering of the desire. Well may we really be concerned
that this may be put far from us. You know it will need much
prayer and much concentration so that we might indeed grow
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Don't forget then, Ephesians,
the last chapter, the whole armour of God. It's good to go to. It's
good to remind ourselves of and to consider how relevant and
how important it is. Well, then perhaps, having dealt
with this in perhaps a reverse way, come back to the beginning
better, is the sight of the eyes, our spiritual eyes. If God has
given us spiritual sight, it's a wonderful blessing, not given
to everybody. It's only given to those whom
He has loved an everlasting love. Those who He has drawn to Himself.
Those to whom He has revealed Himself. Those to whom He has
revealed their selves and shown the condition and the situation
that they're in under the holy law of a just and righteous God. To show them their true condition.
They are condemned under that law, left to themselves there
is no hope. They are destroyed because of
the sin which is within them. Well, the spiritual eyes that
God gives reveals truths like that to ourselves. But it doesn't
leave us there. The work of the Spirit of God
is to direct us from ourselves. to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Surely here is room for sight. Here is room for us to realise
how much better this is. Now, again, don't expect an easy
ride. Don't expect that you latch hold
of these words and think, well, yes, they're good words and they're
right words and they're true words. My friends, you'll still
find it's a real labour. You'll still find it's a real
battle, because the devil won't give you any rest. He won't give
you any rest. Rest is a very pleasant thing,
isn't it? Naturally it is, isn't it? When
we're really tired, when we're worn out, to go to bed and rest
is a very pleasant thing, isn't it? Why do you see? The devil
doesn't want you to have any rest in a spiritual way. No, he'll come and he'll toy
with you, perplex you. and you and I need to pray that
we may know the blessing of the Lord and that we may be spiritually
healthy in the things of God. I've sometimes said, as you probably
know, it's a very good test of our spiritual health as if we
should wake up in the night as to what we immediately think
of Do we immediately think of spiritual things? Do we immediately
have our mind directed to the Saviour and to the things of
God? Or do our minds go directly to
some worldly pursuit, some covetous desire, some evil way? Well, it's a test, isn't it,
of our spirituality. And I believe if the Lord has
graciously blessed us with liveness of our soul, perhaps by His grace
we've gone to bed at night thinking about the things of God, rather
than the things of this poor world. It's good, isn't it, the
last things you do before you go to bed is to perhaps read
the Bible and to pray, so those things are fresh in your mind
and upon your spirit. so that you are in that right
frame and then therefore as you may wake up in the night, these
things may follow you and you may remember, you may be blessed
perhaps with some spiritual meditation. Now again, don't assume that
things are just going to be easy. And just because you wake up
and have a good thought, those thoughts are going to continue.
The devil is hovering to try and get an access He's trying
to get into your mind. He's trying to penetrate into
your heart. He's trying to turn you away from the things of God. Oh, it's a battle. Life is a
battle. It's a spiritual warfare. That's
why the apostle refers to the armour. You see, a soldier needs
an armour. My friends, we are to be a good
soldier. of Jesus Christ. And we are to
realise that it is a battle. You know, naturally speaking,
a soldier, if he's on guard, on duty, he has to be alert,
doesn't he? He can't doze off if he's a sentry. He can't lie down or sit down.
He's found standing up. He's alert in his position. And it's a good thing, if God
gives you and me grace, to be alert in our Christian life. As it were, to be a sentry, watching
over our mind. Because so many sinful thoughts
can sometimes flood into our minds. And you know, it may be
that we didn't want them. That's good and true, but then
when they come in, Perhaps they develop in our minds and we don't
thrust them away with the urgency and with the authority that we
should. And what do we do? We indulge
our thoughts in sinful things. Well, that's not the sight of
our spiritual eyes, is it? That's the way of the devil. And he wants, if possible, to
overthrow us. He wants, if possible, to produce
in our minds the evidence that we're so bad, there's no hope
for us, and we give up religion altogether. That's his aim. And that's his hope. And that's
why we are to be, as it were, sentry on watch. and watching. And Lord Jesus tells us to watch. And how often we ignore such
statements as that. We are to watch and be alert
and be aware that the devil is trying to influence us and come
into our minds to distract us from the things of God. And so
the battle continues and sometimes it becomes very fierce. The temptations
are very great. The Lord sometimes allows the
devil to make inroads into our mind to show us our weakness. We may think we're strong, or
at least we may have thought we were strong. But the Spirit
of God will soon prove to us that we're not strong, left ourselves
very, very weak. And it brings us to that position
again which the Apostle Paul was in, when he says very gloriously,
I can do all things. how? Through Christ that strengtheneth
me. There is our place of refuge. There is our place of support.
There is our help. Remember, our help cometh from
the Lord. It doesn't come from ourself. No help in self, I find, you
have to sort it well. There's no help in self. We need
to look out of our self, to be blessed with this, the sight
of the eyes, the spiritual sight of our eyes. Now to behold then,
Behold the Saviour. I love those words, I often quote
them as you know, that John the Baptist said, to those multitudes,
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And as our spiritual eyes may
be able to behold the suffering Saviour, to behold what He has
done on our behalf, to behold His great work of salvation,
and to meditate upon it. What a work it was. You know,
we should never be tired. We should always be fresh. There
should always be food to our souls, to meditate upon what
Christ has done. to have a little appreciation,
a little understanding of the enormous cost of your and my
salvation. It cost the Lord Almighty, the
Lord of life and glory, His life. his life and he was caused to
die an agonizing death to satisfy the righteous demands of the
holy law of almighty God. That law which you and I have
trodden underfoot, that law which you and I have given into, Now,
when we've allowed ourselves the wandering of the desire to
realise that our great and glorious Saviour has died in order to
satisfy those righteous demands of that holy law wherein we have
fallen and sinned, and sinned, and sinned, and do sin, Oh, my
friends, what a blessing it is to be touched by the Holy Spirit
of God and to be drawn to the Saviour's work, the finished
work that He accomplished upon that cross at Calvary. Yes, we
may be led often to Calvary. You see, the devil can't be found
there because he knows that on that great day, that glorious
day in the history of the world, He was vanquished. Because the
Lord Jesus Christ conquered. And He conquered sin, death,
hell and the grave. He doesn't want to be reminded
of that conquest. Remind the devil, when he comes
in, sometimes like a flood, Remember, the word tells us the Lord raises
up a standard against him. What's that standard? The Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil can't stand against
that. We need to be reminded constantly of what a Saviour
we have and the great cost of our salvation. The wonderful
blessing which is ours, the Lord Jesus Christ is stood in our
place. He bore our punishment instead. That which was due to
us. That which condemned us. Condemned
us. We were guilty before the judgment
seat of Almighty God. We were guilty. We could not
say anything else but hang our heads. In shame we could not
justify ourselves. The ungodly person tries to justify
himself, tries to make out that he isn't as bad as he is. under
the influence and the work of the Spirit of God, we fall down
before God and we confess, we are less than the least of all
saints, we are the chief of sinners, we are guilty indeed, but then
to be led to that great sacrifice for sin and to behold then the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, the suffering
Saviour. Yes, remember His life, Remember
what he did. He went about doing good, never
pleased himself, did his father's will. What an example for us
today to do the will of our God. That's not to allow the wonder
of the mind, is it? Oh no, that's the desire to think
upon the things of God, to enjoy that spiritual sight which God
has given us. He has given us spiritual sight. It's a wonderful blessing. I
know then that that sight may ever direct us with a single
eye to His honour. A single eye for His honour and
for His glory. You know, the psalmist directs
us to a very beautiful word in the 73rd Psalm, Esau tells us
He says, so foolish was I and ignorant,
I was as a beast before thee. Does that explain your position
and mine? Foolish, aren't we? And ignorant,
aren't we? As a beast before thee. Yet he
comes on to these beautiful words, nevertheless. I am continually
with thee. Thou hast holden me with my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. Well, may that be true. And perhaps
such a statement may really test us. And we may feel, well, I
don't really measure up to that. Well, we won't do in and of ourselves. But bless God, if he's given
us that concern, that desire, that it might be like this. And
we might be able to say, whom have I in heaven but Thee? There's
none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. Again, is that true? Again, it puts our religion to
the test, doesn't it? You see, David, sorry, Asaph,
he knew the pathway. He tells us, as for me, my feet
were almost gone, my steps were worn out and slipped, for I was
envious of the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Well, you see, we might then allow this to wander in the desire
and think about those who prosper, those who seem to do much better
than we do. My friends, by God's grace we
have an inheritance which is incorruptible and which is undefiled
and fadeth not away. The things of this world will
fade away, they'll vanish, they'll be burnt up. Those treasures
which are in heaven which God gives to His church will remain
forever. And so may we be blessed with
this single eye a single eye for His honour and for His glory. Better is the sight of the eyes,
isn't it? You see, as we observe the great
vast difference between our spiritual sight and the wandering of the
desire, isn't it far better? What does it bring? It brings
comfort to our souls. Comfort in this way, that it
shows to us that we possess the evidence of divine life in our
souls, that life which will never be taken away. and that grace
of God will enable us to endure unto the end against all the
onslaughts of Satan, all the temptations which he thrusts
before us continually. Yes, that's why the Apostle says
stand. and we will, through the grace
of God. Better is the sight of the eyes
than the wandering of the desire. You know, the psalmist David
speaks about this really, the wandering of the desire, in the
Psalms, Psalm 119, tells us, And he tells us, and it would
appear that David did write the 119th Psalm. He doesn't actually
say so, but it would appear so. Nevertheless, anyway, whoever
wrote it, it's great truth. And what does he tell us? 119th
Psalm, verse 113. I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. That's a complete opposite, isn't
it? Vain thoughts and the law of
God. They're not compatible, are they?
And so, he says, I hate vain thoughts. Now, it would be a
wonderful blessing if you and I hate vain thoughts. Remember, naturally, we will
not hate vain thoughts. We'll probably love vain thoughts.
We'll love the wandering of the mind. We'll indulge in it. but
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we're able to come and
say, I hate vain thoughts. And on the other side, Thy law
do I love. What does that mean? Our spiritual
eyes observe the law of God. We see how true it is, how wonderful
it is, how blessed it is. And we're thankful for it. And
we're able to rejoice in it and to bless our God for it. And
then in an earlier verse in this same chapter, And verse 37, He
tells us, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken
thou me in thy way. That's a good prayer, isn't it?
That's a good prayer. Turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity. Sometimes you may not want to
do that. Yes you see our flesh is very
strong and evil and we may not want to pray like that but bless
God when His Holy Spirit comes upon us we might say this He
makes us willing in the day of His power to pray like this turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity because those things which are vanity will not do us any
good will they we know that in our heart of hearts don't we
but you see Satan's powerful and comes in and tries to convince
us to meditate and to let our minds wander on things which
are vanity. And therefore he says, turn away
mine eyes from beholding vanity. And he gives the alternative.
It's not a vacuum. It's not left with nothing. What's
the alternative? And quicker, that means make
alive thou me in thy way. the way of life, to make us spiritually
alive in the way of eternal life, to make us aware of the blessing
of eternal life and how we received the blessing of eternal life,
how it was given to us and how we did not earn it ourselves. make us aware quicken thou in
thy way he goes on establish thy word unto thy servant who
is devoted to thy fear establish thy word." Well, what a wonderful
thing it is to be established in the truth of God, in the Word
of God. As we mentioned earlier, it's
good to read the Word of God often so that we are established
and established in the Word of God, so that we are able to answer
the devil. Remember, when the Lord Jesus
Christ, after he was baptized, He was led of the devil into
the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. The devil tempted
him. How did the Lord respond? How did the Lord resist him?
By quoting scripture. The devil, my friends, quoted
scripture falsely. The Saviour quoted it correctly
and the devil was not able to answer him. Now that is, remember,
the sword of the Spirit. So may we be able, by God's grace,
to be giants in the Word of God. The trouble is, I suppose today,
many of us are pygmies in the Word of God. Lord bless God,
if we have that real desire to be found giants in the Word of
God, it's not a hardship. It's a pleasure to read the Word
of God. It should be the joy and rejoicing
of our soul, because it directs us to the Saviour. We read through
the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, what does it do? It directs us
to the Saviour, to the life of Christ. What are we doing? By
faith we're beholding the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. What is it? It's that light that
our spiritual eyes observe. for better is the sight of the
eyes, those spiritual eyes, than the wandering of the desire.
This is also vanity and vexation of spirit." Well, you know, Solomon
tells us so many times in this book that these things, these
wandering of the minds, etc., and so many things itemized,
what effect does it have? vanity and vexation of spirit. It doesn't bring us any peace. What does it do? It makes us
restless, not restful, restless. He never wants us to be restless.
Oh, may the Spirit of God bring us into that time. In those times,
may it often be that we heed the truth of His Word. Better
is the sight of the eyes, those spiritual eyes which God has
given. We weren't born with them, the
Lord gave them to us. What a favour if you and I have
spiritual eyes. What reason to praise and bless
God. He's given us those eyes to see
the great truth of scripture, the need of salvation, our true
state before a holy God. What does it do? It leads us
to a crucified Saviour, so that we do indeed behold the Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Well, my friends,
I'm sure We will be tested, tested before the day's out, without
any doubt, about the state and the wandering of the desire.
But O may His grace abound and superabound within us, so those
that struggle, we may be able to look to Him with our spiritual
eyes and behold the glories which are to be found in that finished
work of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and be able to
praise God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
for His great grace which we have received. Amen.