All right, let's turn in our
Bibles back to Ecclesiastes chapter 10. And I'm just going to deal
with the last few verses of this, but I want us to jump back to
verse four concerning this subject of the wisdom and folly of kings. I took the title from verses
16 and 17 of Ecclesiastes chapter 10. The whole chapter, as you know,
is setting in contrast the glory of wisdom, wisdom that ultimately
can only come from God, wisdom that ultimately is from God in
Christ, who is our wisdom, and found as its foundation the wisdom
of God in His grace to save us and to keep us and to bless us.
through the Lord Jesus Christ and based upon his obedience
unto death and all that he accomplished as our substitute and our sin
bearer, our great high priest. And it sets that wisdom in contrast
to the foolishness of men under the sun, the folly of men. It says in verse 16, it says,
woe to thee, which is a term of warning. And it's a term of
negative consequences, woe unto thee, a term of sorrow and pain,
suffering, woe to thee. O land, the country, the nation,
even the world, when thy king is a child and thy princes eat
in the morning. Now what he's talking about there
is not just youth in and of itself, because the king is young, but
he's talking about the frivolity and the foolishness and the ignorance
and the folly of youth. That many times
comes with it. And when he talks about eating
in the morning, he's talking about staying up all night and
eating late into the morning, partying, that's what he's talking
about, that kind of thing, feasting. He's talking about an irresponsible
king here who doesn't lead in the ways of the Lord, but who
leads in the ways of the flesh, who spends his days not doing
justice and judgment, not ruling with justice and mercy and compassion
and truth. but spends his days just feeding
his own sinful passions. And that's what he's talking
about. And I'll show you an example of that in just a moment. And
then in verse 17, he says, Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king
is the son of nobles. That could be translated the
son of free men, those who've been set at liberty. And there's another little word
there that has a connotation I'll show you in a minute. And
it says, and thy princes eat in due season. They eat at the
appropriate time. And they eat for strength, he
says. They're not partying. They're not just indulging the
flesh there. But they're eating for strength. It's kind of like the fellow
said that some people eat to live, and some people live to
eat. Well, in verse 16, that foolish king is living to eat,
and in verse 17, the wise king is eating to live. And it says,
and not for drunkenness. So there's the contrast. Now,
back up in verse 4, he begins to mention rulers. He says in
verse 4, that the spirit of the ruler, and of course that would
refer to a king, but you have to understand, in the Old Covenant,
The system of governing and rulership in Israel filtered down not only
from the king, but it went to the prophets, it went to the
priest, it even went to heads of families. So this would apply
in essence to any person who's in a position of leadership who
has an awesome responsibility. In our New Testament days, it
would refer to people like me, like pastors. ruling elders,
those who are put in charge as undershepherds and overseers,
or bishops as the New Testament, the King James Version translates
that, bishops, who are put in charge to guide people in the
ways of the Lord. And that's the context we have
to see. That's what Solomon is talking about. Now, there are
applications we could make to all rulers of men in any capacity,
even civil magistrates, because all civil magistrates, we're
told in Romans chapter 13, are set in office ultimately by God. And they are responsible to perform
the duties of their office in a way that's right. in a way
that's just, in a way that's fair, not selfishness, not trying
to line their pockets, not trying to just, in prejudice or in any
way, just feed their flesh. So it would apply there too.
So all these things would apply. But ultimately, what I believe
Solomon is talking about here is the king. Now the king of
Israel, and Solomon was the king of Israel at this time, his father
David before him in the line of the kings of Judah, which
was the line of prophecy, it was the line of hope, it was
the line of assurance of salvation, all the way back to Genesis chapter
49 when Jacob on his deathbed was blessing his children. And
when he came to Judah, you remember what he said, Judah thou art
the lion's whelp. He said the scepter, that's the
rule of kingship, rulership, would not depart from Judah until
Shiloh come. There was a king before David,
that was the king from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul. And he was
the people's choice. He wasn't God's choice. And he
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. He didn't
lead the people right. But here in verse 4 when he says,
"...if the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not
thy place, for yielding pacifieth great offenses." What he's talking
about here is a king ruling in justice who has a just matter
against us, what are we to do? Argue? Debate? Run and hide? Like Adam and Eve did in the
garden when they rebelled against God who was the king of this
universe and is the king of this universe? No, he says, you leave
not your place. You stand right there. And you
accept the king's judgment and he says yielding pacifies great
expenses. Now that word yielding is an
interesting word. It can be translated this way. It can be translated
conciliation. And you know what conciliation
is. We're familiar with the term reconciliation. What that has
to do is peace made based on justice satisfied. In other words,
it's a peace. It's a calmness, really. Some
translations translate this pacifying, yielding, pacify, that calm disposition
because peace has been made. The king has been satisfied. Justice has prevailed. Even if
mercy was shown, justice has been prevailed. And so there's
a conciliation. And so what we see there is when
we see that God has a matter against us, or the king has a
matter against us, or the ruler against us from God's testimony,
what must we do? We must seek conciliation. Now
how do we do that? Well, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. You know this is, 2 Corinthians
5 is about what we call reconciliation. And the reason it's reconciliation
is because it is a restoration of the peace that God had with
man before the fall. Now, that's not to say that when
reconciliation is made, and it's made on the basis of the blood
and righteousness of Christ, that's what 2 Corinthians 5 tells
us, that we're simply restored to the position that we had before
the fallen Adam. That's not so. We're not just
restored to the position we had in Adam before the fall. We have
much more than what Adam ever imagined even before the fall.
Because you see, our position in Christ is an eternal, unchangeable
position. We cannot fall. You see, we stand
in the righteousness of Christ, not in man's righteousness as
Adam did before the fall. Man's righteousness could change
because man is a creation. He's volatile. But our righteousness
cannot change. Our position in the kingdom and
nation of God cannot change because it is in Christ, Jesus Christ,
who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And as long as He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever, our position in Him
cannot change. We're fully, freely, unchangeably
forgiven of all of our sins in Christ. Now, God's been reconciled
towards us in Christ. Look at verse 17 of 2 Corinthians
5. Therefore, if any man be in Christ... Now, that's salvation. That's
just another way of saying salvation. I'm in Christ. I'm saved eternally. And if I'm in Christ, I'm a new
creation. That's literally what that is,
not a new creature, a new creation. And that new creation, we are
His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2.10. And that's
a sinner saved by grace. That's the church, that's us
individually and collectively in Christ. He says, old things
are passed away and behold all things are become new. My connection
with Adam is gone. My position in Christ is set
in eternity. And he says in verse 18, and
all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself. Now how did he do it? By Jesus
Christ. Now having been reconciled to
us by Jesus Christ, he's given us the ministry of reconciliation. Now what is that? Okay, verse
19. To wit, or namely, that God was
in Christ, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
reconciling the world unto himself." In other words, this is not just
for a Jew or not just for a Greek, it's for all of God's elect all
over the world. Not imputing, not accounting,
not charging their trespasses unto them. Doesn't charge us
with our sins. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? He says, and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Now what is that? That's the
gospel. Now hold that thought. And he says, now then we're ambassadors
for Christ, we're ambassadors for the king. See? We represent the king. We preach
the word of the king. We have the authority of the
king. Now if I start on my own and get off on my own things
and my own thoughts and my own opinions, I stop being an ambassador
for the king at that point and become an ambassador for Bill.
And that's bad. But he says we're ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. In other words,
we're preaching the word of God. It's not me begging you. And
God doesn't beg you, it's a command from the king, beseeching you. He says, we pray you in Christ's
stead, in other words, as subjects of Christ and ambassadors of
Christ, be ye reconciled to God. Now that's what that conciliation
over here, yielding pacifies great offenses. God has a matter
against us, it's our sin. And what are we to do? Run and
hide like Adam? No. What are we to do? Argue and debate? No. We're to
yield, submit. God, you're right. We're to take
sides with God against ourselves and say, Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? Lord, I deserve
nothing but damnation from you. If you judge me right now based
upon my best efforts to keep the law, I'd be damned forever.
That's right. Yielding. My only hope. But now yielding goes further.
You see, you remember the Bible talks about also submitting to
someone else. And that's submitting to Christ.
Submitting to His righteousness. And saying, Lord, my only hope
of salvation is in Christ. That's yielding. And you know
what that does? That pacifies great offenses. How? By the blood of Christ.
Now go back right here. He says, be ye reconciled to
God. On what basis? Verse 21, for
God made him sin for us. Christ was made sin for us. He
became totally, completely accountable for the guilt and the defilement
of all our sins without being contaminated with our sins. And it says, Christ who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Now there's the new creation. The righteousness of God, we're
made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the new creation.
That's what I am in Christ. I'm a righteous man. I am the
righteousness of God in Him. And the fact that I'm a sinner
in myself doesn't deny that, diminish that, or lessen that
at all. Doesn't make it any less real
or anything like that, you see. So go back to Ecclesiastes 10.
Now, the king of Israel, Now think about this, the human king
of Israel, men like David, Solomon, and all the subsequent kings,
they were to lead the people in the ways of the Lord in two
ways. Number one, as types of Christ. David was a type of Christ. That's why The Lord is called
David's son, not only because in his humanity he was a physical
descendant of David, he was, but also because David was a
type of Christ, as king. The king who fought the battle
and won, just like David when he stood before Goliath as the
representative of God's people, the nation Israel, and in the
power of God, he defeated Goliath. That's what it was. It wasn't
in David's strength, see, as a human. But as a type of Christ,
that's a type of Christ going to the cross and facing our enemies,
sin and Satan and the curse of the law, and he defeated it in
the power of God, for he was and is God in human flesh. And
David was the warrior king. He was the bloody man. Now, not
just because he sinned, he did, but he was a warrior king. He
fought wars and battles all of his life. And he pictured Christ
going to war against our sins. Solomon was the man of rest. His reign as king was generally
very peaceful. And he pictured Christ seated
at the right hand of the Father, resting after His work was finished. And we enter into His rest, you
see, Christ our Sabbath. So these kings were to be types
of Christ. And they were to lead the people,
secondly, in the ways of the Lord, in faith, believing the
gospel, looking for the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, The covenant of law which would convict them of sin and
drive them to Christ in the sacrifices and all the picturing types of
the tabernacle. They were to point the people
towards the tabernacle for atonement because that tabernacle pictured
the promise of the coming Messiah. They were to lead in the truth,
they were to lead in justice, in civil matters, they were to
rule in justice, in judgment, in truth, in mercy, in compassion,
all of those things. Very few of them did it. So when
we come down here, we see this conciliation, you see. That's
a picture of our salvation by God's grace in Christ. And now
look at verse 12. He says, the words of a wise
man's mouth are grace. That's literally what that means.
It says gracious. He's not talking about politeness
there. Now we always ought to be polite. There's no argument there. But
that's not what this is talking about. Now think about it in
this continent. The words of any wise man's mouth
is grace. When you witness to somebody
about salvation, about God, when you talk to them, what do you
talk to them about? You talk about the grace of God
in Christ. That's wisdom. But think about
the king now. The words of the wise king's
mouth are grace. And kings, those kings, they
were to lead the people. in the ways of grace. But he
says, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. And
you notice that in the succession of the kings of Israel and the
kings of Judah, that's exactly what happened to those who did
not lead in the way of grace, in the way of mercy. And he says
in verse 13, the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness.
That's the foolish king, the foolish man even, or the foolish
woman. And the final end of his talk
is mischievous madness. It's insanity. If you're trying
to talk about salvation or a relationship with God and your mouth doesn't
just pour forth grace, grace, grace, grace all the way. I'm talking about when it starts,
in the middle of it, and when we're finally glorified. God's
grace in Christ. That's what it's all about now.
It may sound so simple, but I'll tell you what, it's beyond the
natural man. But if your mouth doesn't pour
forth grace, what are you showing? You're showing that you are spiritually
insane. You see, a person who teaches
any form of salvation by works doesn't know the difference between
right and wrong spiritually. And boy, wouldn't that apply
to a godly king? You see, a godly king, he's to
know the difference between right and wrong, and especially in
leading in the ways of God. He goes on, he says in verse
14, a fool also is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall
be and what shall be after him. Who can tell him? In other words,
he doesn't know the future and he doesn't know what's going
to happen. We do. I can't tell you when
Christ is coming back again, but I know He's coming back again.
And I know when He does, that all who are found in Him, it
will be well with them. And all who are not, it won't
be well. But look at verse 15, the labor, the work of the foolish
wearieth every one of them because he knoweth not how to go to the
city. Remember what I said now, city back then represented refuge,
defense, safety. Like the cities of refuge over
in the book of Numbers, which all represent Christ who is our
city of refuge. You see? And that's what these
are. And a fool, with all of his words and all of his works,
and think about it in the terms now of a foolish king, with all
of his words and all of his works, he cannot give you peace and
safety. Now he may speak peace to you.
You know, Jeremiah, he talked about those false preachers who
were rulers of the people in a sense, who said, peace, peace,
when there what? When there was no peace. And
you know why there was no peace? Because there's no peace outside
of Christ, the Prince of Peace, the King of Peace. That's right. So, here's what he says. Now
look at it. Here's the kings. Woe to thee, O land, when thy
king is a child, a foolish child, an ignorant child, an impetuous
child, a child who does nothing but play. Like that, you know. and thy princes eat in the morning
at an inappropriate time for a wrong reason." Parting. Those who are just in it for
a good time. Feeding the flesh. Oh, what a
misery it is for a nation to have a king like that. Any nation,
any king like that. But especially for Israel. I
want to show you something here. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 1. And you know, we studied through
the book of Isaiah, and I don't know if you remember it, but
Isaiah, he was probably a member of the noble family. It
says here in Isaiah that the prophecy, the vision that was
given to Isaiah, was given in Judah and Jerusalem, where Isaiah
where he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, that's verse 1, Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, all these kings came and went while Isaiah
was prophesying during that time. The only one that you can look
at there, and I don't want to misspeak here, but Hezekiah was
one of the greatest kings of Israel, or Judah, but he messed
up too. Now these kings were human kings,
they were sinners. Solomon and David were sinners.
And so, they had to depend totally upon God's power and grace and
goodness to lead a rite. But I want you to look at verse
10. And listen to what he says here. He says in verse 10, Hear
the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. You kings of Sodom. Now you know what Sodom is. That
was the wicked, wicked city, Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities
of the plague, that God destroyed back in Abrahamstown after he
got Lot out of there. And you say, well, why is he
saying solemn here? This is Isaiah's prophecy to
Judah and Jerusalem, God's people. Back up in verse 9, he says this.
Now, he's talking about a nation here that's religious. Now listen
to him. Isaiah's time, he's talking about
a nation here that was religious but lost. They had a show of
religion, outward profession, but no grace, no faith, no heart. They clean up the outside of
the cup, but the inside was still, just like the Pharisees. Dead
men's bones. And he said in verse 9, he said,
except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant,
we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like
unto Gomorrah, the whole kit and caboodle gone. In other words,
Isaiah is saying there's a small portion of people that follow
the Lord here. And then he says, hear the word
of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law of our
God, you people of Gomorrah. One of the main things that was
wrong with the nation is they were being led wrong. They were
being led astray. Look down at verse 21 of Isaiah
1. He says, talking about Jerusalem
here, how is the faithful city becoming harlot? It was full
of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, What time is he talking
about there? Probably the time of David. Maybe
the time of Solomon. But now it's murderers. He says,
thy silver has become dross. Silver was the metal that pictured
redemption. And he says, thy wine mixed with
water. That pictured joy. Look at verse
23, thy princes, the nobles, the leaders, the rulers, are
rebellious and companions of these, everyone loveth gifts. Now we're going to see that in
Ecclesiastes 10 in just a minute. In other words, bribes, that's
what it's talking about. All you had to do to get what
you wanted back then from them is bribe them. Sounds pretty
close to our day, doesn't it? And he says, "...and followeth
after rewards." They're in it to feed the flesh. They judge
not the fatherless. That's the orphans. Neither doth
the cause of the widow come unto them. They're not compassionate.
Look over to Isaiah chapter 10. Turn to Isaiah 10. He says in verse 1 of Isaiah
10, listen to this, he says, Woe unto them that decree unrighteous
decrees. That's the king and the leaders
of the people. And that right grievousness which they have
prescribed to turn aside the needy from judgment to take away
the right from the poor of my people that widows may be their
prey and that they may rob the fatherless. And what will you
do in the day of visitation and in the desolation? which shall
come from far. You see, all these things, he's
talking about the leaders of the people. Now go back to Ecclesiastes
10. You see, woe to the nation, O
land, when thy king is a child and thy prince is eaten in the
morning. When they don't lead in the ways of the Lord, in the
ways of grace. When they don't point the people
to the promise that God made to Abraham. to save them based
upon the merits of the coming Messiah. When they don't lead
in the ways of justice, and you see a digression there, don't
you? How it digresses into the immoral, fleshly appetites. Now the problem here is not just
youth. It's not just youth at all. Even
though youth sometimes is a picture of this kind of behavior in the
sense of being just full of themselves, full of the flesh and selfish
and all of that. And we know we're born in sin,
dead in trespasses and sins. We're not made sinners because
we sin, we sin because we're born sinners. But it's not just youth, in fact,
you check this one out. Sometime you get an opportunity,
read 2 Kings, I think it's 21, and then 2 Kings 22. 2 Kings 21 starts off with the
reign of Manasseh. I think he started when he was
around 8, somewhere around there. And Manasseh was a young king.
Now when they were that young, they had tutors, they had help. But it goes on to say, as Manasseh
grew, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and
he ended up being one of the worst, most wicked kings that
Israel or Judah ever saw. That's what verse 16 is about.
But go on to verse 17 of Ecclesiastes 10. Blessed art thou, O Lamb,
when thy king is the son of a free person, free man, a noble. Free
not only in the sense that he's not a slave, but free in the
sense that he's a bond slave of Christ. Free in the sense
that his debt's been paid to God's law and justice. free in
the sense that he's not a slave to the passions of the flesh
in that sense, but he's ingrained with the grace of God and the
wisdom of God to follow the ways of the Lord and to lead the people
in the ways of grace and in the gospel. And it says, And thy
princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness.
Now, if you read 2 Kings 22, it starts off with Josiah. And
he began to reign when he was, I think, around eight years old.
And in the eighth year of his reign, which would make him around
16 years old, it says, he began to seek the Lord. And he did
that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. And Josiah ended
up being one of the greatest kings of Judah. So it's not just youth
in and of itself, but it's what this youth represents. And what
he's talking about here, this nobles here, signifies freemen.
One translation says heroes. Heroes. And the actual word,
you know what it signifies? It signifies white. The color
white. Meaning the garment that they
wore. Like coming in on a white horse, coming in in a white garment,
signifying the purity of their minds and their deeds. What's
the picture here? The picture here is one of a
ruler ruling justly in truth and mercy and justice, and ultimately
it's a picture of Christ our Sovereign King. the noble king,
the pure and perfect king who reels justly, the scepter of
righteousness, and us as his descendants wearing the white
robe of his righteousness charged to us. For he, by his death on
the cross, has made us a nation of kings and priests with the
truth and mercy and justice of the gospel. And so we feed upon
His Word for our strength and not for drunkenness. I believe
if you feed upon His Word for drunkenness, I believe that's
the kind of person who'd be looking, just looking in the Bible to
find something to argue about, or to find something to fight
with, or to find proof text. No, we want, that's why you come
here tonight, to have your souls fed with the Word of God, the
Word of truth. But look at verse 18. He says,
By much slothfulness, which is laziness, the building decayeth,
and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. I
believe what he's talking about there is the state of a kingdom
that is ruled by the child king, the foolish king, the folly of
kings. Right there it is. The building
decays, the house drops through, You see, without wisdom, remember
what Christ said about the building of his house, he's the builder
of his house. He said, upon this rock I'll build my house, the
gates of hell will not prevail against it. He said, the man
who builds his house on the rock, it will not fall. But the house
that's built in slothfulness, it decays, the building. Verse
19, a feast is made for laughter and wine maketh merry, but money
answereth all things. What I believe he's talking about
there is this, that the king, the foolish king whose house
is falling, whose building decays, He's taken up with feasting and
laughter and wine just to make merry for that purpose and he
thinks money is the answer to all things. And you know, I even
read a commentary on this and the fellow said it's kind of
like today when the government's spending such much money and
they think all they have to do to cure the problem is raise
your taxes. I thought about that, you know,
that's a pretty good analogy, really. I mean, that's not gonna,
you know, you know and I know, that's not gonna cure the problem,
is it? But that's what a foolish king thinks. Just raise the tax,
just put the burden on the people, you see. That's why I love what
our king says in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, when he says, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. I'll give you rest for your souls.
He says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I'm not
gonna burden you down with the taxes of legalism, with the taxes
of legal fear and mercenary promises of reward to burden you down,
to feed my own sort of selfishness. No, no, no. He says, I'll give
you rest unto your souls. That's what the wise king does.
It's not that his people don't labor and work, we do. But not
for salvation. Not in legal bondage and legal
fear. But we do it as willing, loving
bond slaves of Christ whose debts have been paid and who have an
inheritance that cannot even be measured in monetary terms. That's eternal. A righteousness
that will never fail and never end. A king, the righteousness
of the king himself, which he worked out and wove together
and put upon us. And that's the wisdom of God.
Well, look at the last verse. He says in verse 20, Curse not
the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich, and I
believe he's talking about the rich in wisdom there, in thy
bedchamber. For a bird of the air shall carry
the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
What he's talking about here is this. Don't curse the king,
not even in our thoughts, not in any way. And you know, he's
talking about a wise king here, a godly king. And he's talking
about those whom God has put in positions of leadership. But
you know, I thought about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
Let me read this to you. Verse 3. Paul writes there in
1 Corinthians 12. He says, Wherefore I give to
you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God
calleth Jesus a cursed. and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, and what he's talking about from the heart,
truly believe in Him and rest in Him and bow to Him, but by
the Holy Ghost. Of old it was given to Israel.
He said, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless that taketh
His name in vain. You know, when a person just
simply scorns the King of kings, That's cursing him. When you
hear the gospel and walk out unaffected in unbelief, you are
essentially scorning and essentially cursing the king. You cannot
remain neutral here. And then those in Hebrews 10
that Paul speaks of there who left the gospel and turned totally
against the Lord Jesus Christ, he said they trampled underfoot
the blood of the Son of God, cursing the king. For to curse
the king will not go unpunished, and he will find it out. That's
what he means there when he says, a bird of the air shall carry
the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the man. It'll
get back to him, don't you ever think it won't. And you know
why? because he's the omniscient king. He knows all things. His word is sharper than any
two-edged sword, discerns even to the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. You cannot hide from him. If you curse him, he
knows it. Chuck Stapleton asked me last
week, he said, is that where we get the saying, a little bird
told me? It may be, I don't know. But by one means or another,
what he's saying there, when you curse the king, when you
fail to bow to the king of kings and submit to his will and his
way and his righteousness, don't ever think that you can get away
with it. He that believeth not shall be damned. But aren't you
glad? By the grace of God and the power
of God, he that believeth shall be saved. Bow to the king of
kings.