Ecclesiastes chapter 8. The title
of the message tonight is Wisdom in Obeying the King. Wisdom in
Obeying the King. Now, this book of Ecclesiastes,
as we've seen up through these chapters, is a clear testimony
of God in Christ, the wisdom of God in Christ, that was given
to Solomon, the king, the king of Israel, as opposed to the
wisdom of fallen, ignorant man under the sun trying to grope
his way through the dark. Wisdom comes from God. God is wisdom. Christ is wisdom. I love 1 Corinthians 1 when it
speaks of how Christ is to we who are called, that is, the
affectional, powerful, invincible calling of the Spirit in the
preaching of the gospel. Where in the new birth he calls
us to faith in Christ and repentance, He says to us that Christ is
both the power of God, the power of God unto salvation, and the
wisdom of God. And what wisdom it is. Think
about that. The wisdom that God has given
us in salvation. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly. That's the ultimate wisdom right
there. How God can be both a righteous judge and punish our sins in
strict justice. And still be a loving, merciful,
gracious father. And redeem us and save us and
adopt us and justify us and bring us into his fellowship and communion. That's an amazing thing. There's
no religion of man who has ever come up with anything close to
that. That's true. You can study all
world religions. And sad to say, you can study
most of what comes under the name of Christianity today. And
it ends up being a cleverly disguised system of work salvation in some
way, at some time, at some stage, to some degree. But salvation
by sovereign, full, free grace. We sing that hymn at the cross. It said that grace was free. And every time I hear that, I
think, you know, that's redundant. Because there's no other kind
of grace except free grace. But the reason I like that in
that hymn is because most people, what they think of as being grace
is not free at all. It's something the sinner has
to incite God to give him. That's why I read in Romans chapter
11 there, and we'll go back to that in just a moment. But you
see the wisdom of God in Christ, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, his glorious person and his finished work.
And that wisdom was given to Solomon. And in this book, we
see Solomon's actual search for wisdom. That's what we're going
through here. And we must remember that Solomon was a man. He wasn't some kind of a superhuman.
Not even some kind of a super-Christian. He knew the Lord. He was a justified
sinner. He was a born-again sinner, regenerate. He was a man of faith, but he
was a man just like us. He was a weak man. We have a
treasure, but we have it in weak vessels, Paul wrote, speaking
of himself, speaking of all of us. We are sinners saved by the
grace of God. That's what Solomon was. And
there are times that he shined forth. as an example, just like
David, his father. You know, there were times that
we studied through the life of David, we saw David shine forth
as a prime example of a believer. And then there were times that
we saw him fail miserably, didn't we? Solomon is the same way. Therefore, his search that we're
seeing here in Ecclesiastes sometimes led him to the wrong places.
in order to see the foolishness of trying to find fulfillment
and meaning and even salvation under the sun. You can't do it.
Man on his own is just lost. That's about
the best way to describe it, isn't it? Lost. All we like sheep
have gone astray. But one thing that Solomon has
learned up to this point, and he repeats it quite often, and
that's this. And this is a good lesson for
all of us to learn. And young people, it's a great
lesson for you to learn early on. And that's this. Things are
not always as they seem or as they appear. And, you know, appearances
are pretty important in our day and time because, you know, we've
got whole industries that make their profits off of appearances. And religion is so full of this. You see, how you appear, And
the Scripture tells us, you know, well, we're to avoid the very
appearance of evil, but what most people see as evil is not
evil at all. What they see as good is not
good at all. The Bible talks about those who call good evil
and evil good. We have to go by God's standard
on that issue. But appearances are not the way
to understand life, even life here on earth. Appearances are
not the way to understand salvation. Appearances are not the way to
understand righteousness. We learned that last week in
chapter 7. Here's a righteous man whose
life is cut short, a sinner saved by the grace of God, one to whom
God has been merciful, one whom God loved from eternity in Christ,
and yet their life is cut short. And then here's a wicked man,
an unjust man who lives a long life. You can't judge it by appearances. Only those who trust Christ And
that's why Christ told his disciples in John 7 and verse 24, he says,
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
How are we going to judge? You think about that. That's
John 7, 24. How can I, a weak, sinful man, even a sinner saved
by grace, even justified before God, standing before you, washed
in the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness, But how
can I, with all my weakness and all my ignorance, judge righteous
judgment? There's not but one way that
that can happen, and that is to go to the Word of God and
let it speak. And that's it. Now, that's it. We go to introducing our opinions
and our ideas and even our own definitions, we get in trouble.
You've seen that in your lifetime, and I've seen it in my lifetime.
Nine times out of ten, when a man introduces his ideas and opinions
and his definitions, the first thing he invests in it is his
ego. So that you can't differ with
him without attacking him in his mind. But you see, that's
appearances too. That's all that is. That's not
judging righteous judgment. The truly righteous are not those
who merely appear righteous before men. Christ said the Pharisees
appeared righteous, but inwardly they were full of dead men's
bones. But those who trust Christ for
all salvation, all righteousness, all eternal life, those who rest
in Him, and that's important for this message now, those who
rest in Christ, they are the ones who are righteous truly
in God's sight. And it's not by their works,
it's not by who they are, their pedigree, It's by the grace of
God through the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. And that's it. And so we proclaim boldly that
we glory in nothing except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's our boast. Now, the ultimate
end of all things, Solomon in his search as he's going through
here and the Lord's teaching him and the Holy Spirit is inspiring
him to write these things and going through this search. Here's
what he finds out, and this is what he repeats. He repeats it
here in chapter 8. He's said it before, and he concludes
the book with this, that the ultimate end of all things in
fulfillment, and especially in salvation, is to fear God and
keep his commandments. Fear God and keep his commandments. Worship God. Trust God. Cast
yourself on the mercy of God. That's what it is to fear God.
And keep his commandments. Now, that's not try to keep his
commandments in order to earn salvation by your works or deeds
of the law. To keep his commandments is to
come unto Christ. That's where it all begins. And
beg for mercy. And we'll see that in just a
moment, too. But also, he comes to this conclusion. How, in the
meantime, are we to go through this life? Well, along the way
he's shown that true happiness is to enjoy this life and our
labors in this life as a gift from God. And God himself is
the one who enables us to enjoy life in light of his grace, in
light of his glory in Christ. That's what it's all about. So
look at verse 1, he says, who is as the wise man. Now here's
the ultimate glory of wisdom from God in Christ. Who is as
the wise man? Who is really wise? He says,
"...and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom maketh his face
to shine, and the boldness or the strength of his faith shall
be changed." What he's saying here is this, there's nothing
better than being wise in the things of God. There's nothing
better in this life and in the next than being wise in the things
of Christ. the things of the grace of God.
You may not have anything else, anything else that you could
hold up that's valuable in this life. You may not own a lot of
land or a lot of things, you may not have a big bank account,
but there's nothing better than being wise in the grace and mercy
of God in Christ. Knowing Christ, this is life
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, in Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. knowing how to interpret a thing.
What he's talking about there is the meaning of life, the meaning
of the deep sayings of God. And you know, that's not just
deep doctrine. That's not just talking about
high theological doctrine. That's talking about the simple
things of the gospel, the simple things of Christ, the simplicity
that's in Christ. You know, man by nature, do you
know something? The simplicity of Christ is too
deep for man by nature. But it's the most simple, it's
the simplest thing on earth to abate in Christ. That all of
my salvation, everything that I am before God is being accepted. And listen to this. I wrote an
article for the Bulletin this week on this. You know, Ephesians
1 and verse 6 talks about a believer, a child of God being accepted
in the Beloved. And that Beloved there is Christ.
Well, you know, to be accepted of God, whatever makes us accepted,
and I don't say acceptable, because we don't just have the ability
to be accepted, we are accepted before God in Christ. In order for me or you to be
accepted before God, whatever basis or whatever gauge or whatever
worth or merit that makes us accepted, it has to be perfect,
it has to be pure, It has to be holy. It has to be righteous
without any taint or contamination of sin. Is that right? Now, where
are you going to find that? Wisdom from God shows you only
in the person and finished work of Christ. You're not going to
find that anywhere else. You're not even going to find
that in your own faith, the faith that God gives you, which is
contaminated with our unbelief. Lord, I believe, the disciple
said, help thou my what? My unbelief. That's struggle
within that contaminates everything we do. But in Christ, there's
perfection. In Christ, there's holiness.
In Christ, there's purity. In Christ, there's righteousness. And you see, that's wisdom. That's
the wisdom that God gives his people. He says how to interpret
the meaning of life, how to know the meaning of the things of
God. Wisdom puts light in the eyes." That's what he literally
means by this when he talks about it makes his face to shine. We
see the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ.
And it makes our face to shine with that reflected glory as
we see his glory. And it makes literally light
in the eyes. In other words, you see things
that you didn't see before. When God the Holy Spirit shows
us the glory of God, the holiness of God, and shows us our sin
and drives us to Christ for everything that we need, everything God
requires and everything we need for salvation, we see things
we didn't see before. That's right. We hear things
we didn't hear before. You see that? And that's the
light that shineth in darkness. And he says it also makes the
boldness of his face to be changed. Now, that doesn't mean that every
moment of your life you're going to be walking around with a smile
on your face. But there's a strength there, given by God, in Christ,
that will sustain you at all times. And that's what it means. That's what it means. Now, Solomon,
he couldn't find this wisdom on his own. He said that back
up in chapter 7, you remember that? He said in verse 23, look
over there, or verse 25 of chapter 7, he said, I applied my heart
to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason
of things. Or you could say it this way,
like we're reading here in verse 1, the interpretation of a thing,
and to know the wickedness of folly and even of foolish and
madness. And basically he come down to
the point, he said, I can't find it in anything under the sun.
He tried to find it in all the things of this earth and all
that he had. You remember when we opened up
Ecclesiastes, I asked you to do it this way, to read it this
way. Imagine that you have all the
money that a human being could ever accumulate in this life.
All the power, politically, that a human being could attain in
this life. All the human wisdom that a human being could attain.
All of that. This is a man who has everything.
It's Solomon. And he couldn't find the meaning
of life. He tried to find it in love, in love of his wives
and his concubines. And he messed up royally. He
said he couldn't find meaning there. And then that's when he
mentioned that one man in a thousand, that one man among a thousand,
thousand, thousands. And I believe, I'm just convinced
that's a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
mediator between God and men. the man Christ Jesus. There's
the wisdom of God. This is the wisdom of God's grace. You know the way to interpret
the meaning of life is to see all life in light of the glory
of Christ crucified and risen again. That's what this means. Now look at verse 2, verses 2
and 3. Here he talks about the wisdom
of obeying the king. Listen to this. He says in verse
2, I counsel thee to keep the king's commandments. and that
in regard of the oath of God." Now, there's a difference of
opinion among interpreters of this verse. Some believe that's
talking about men taking an oath to God to keep the commandment
of the king. And that could be, and I'll show
you that. Some believe it's a direct reference to God's oath concerning
His appointed king. And that certainly would apply,
too, because God made a promise, the scripture says, and then
he backed that promise with an oath. We read that several times
in the book of Hebrews chapter 6. God swore an oath. And because God swore an oath,
he could swear by no greater than himself. So what does that
mean? That means when God made a promise,
to sin and to save his people through Christ. He engaged everything
that he is behind that, all his wisdom, all his sovereignty,
all his power, all his holiness, all of his omniscience, everything
God is, every attribute. You've seen books on the attributes
of God. Well, every attribute is engaged behind the fulfillment
of the promise that God has made in Christ to save his people
from their sins. And so that would apply there,
too. But some say this is a direct reference to Israel's oath to
David and Solomon. Go back to 1 Chronicles. Let's
look at this. 1 Chronicles chapter 29. I believe that's the last chapter
of 1 Chronicles. And this is where David was basically
handing the kingdom over to Solomon before David's death. And it
was revealed to David that Solomon was to be king. And over here
in 1 Chronicles 29, look at verse 23. It says, "...then Solomon
sat on the throne of the Lord as king, instead of David his father,
and prospered. And all Israel obeyed him, and
all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise
of King David submitted themselves unto Solomon the king." And it
says in verse 25, "...and the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly
in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal
majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel." Well,
there had only been two kings before. And that was Saul, and
we know how he messed up. He was an unbelieving, disobedient
king. And then we see David, who was
a type of Christ in his office, And who was in his right a great
warrior king, David was, but we've seen how he messed up.
And I want to show you something on that in just a second. And
now here comes Solomon. And God blessed Solomon in so
many ways that he didn't really bless David, that is, temporally
speaking. But here's the oath, you know,
the princes of Israel, the mighty men, the sons of David, all of
them likewise, they submitted. Literally that means they gave
the hand under Solomon. That means they swore an oath
to be obedient to Solomon. Now Solomon was a picture of
Christ. Remember that? Christ as our
sovereign king. And so when he talks about obeying
the king here over in Ecclesiastes 8, I counsel thee to keep the
king's commandment. Now, he's talking about himself
as king of Israel and the subsequent kings of Israel and Judah. Of
course, he didn't know anything about the king of Judah because
the kingdom hadn't been split yet. But ultimately, this commandment
that he's commanding us to keep the king, is ultimately owing
to the King of Kings. Ultimately, this is to Christ,
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And Solomon, he was
a picture of Christ, our sovereign King of Kings. Now, when you
talk about these men as pictures of Christ, you have to keep a
distinction between what they were and what they did personally.
and what they were and what they did officially as king. But I
want you to go back to 1 Chronicles 22. I want to show you this. Now, what Solomon is talking
about, again, first of all, is ultimately obedience to God in
Christ, who is the sovereign king over this universe. But
God appointed kings in Israel. And David actually was the first
fulfillment of the prophecy of the king. He was from the house
of Judah. Remember, that was prophesied
back in Genesis chapter 49, when Jacob was reading the blessings
on his deathbed to his son. And he said, the scepter shall
not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. See, Saul was not from
the tribe of Judah. He was from the tribe of Benjamin.
But the first king of Judah from Judah was David, and he was a
type of Christ. And then comes his son Solomon,
who also was a type of Christ. Now, all these kings, and subsequently,
they were all to be types of Christ, and they were to be aware
of that. This is what they're for. They're not here because
they're the sovereign ruler of the universe. They're here to
lead the people as king in Israel, to obey and bow to and worship
and serve the sovereign king of the universe. That's what
they were to do. And David was generally a good
king in that sense, and Solomon was too. But you remember how
David wanted to build the temple? It was hidden in his mind. He
wanted to build a temple to the Lord. Well, look over here at
1 Chronicles chapter 22, and I want to show you something
here about David and then ultimately Solomon here. 1 Chronicles 22,
look at verse 7, or verse 6, rather. David called for Solomon,
his son, and he charged him to build a house for the Lord God
of Israel. David commanded Solomon to build
the temple. Now, you know what that temple
was about, it was the permanent tabernacle, so to speak, that
housed the Ark of the Covenant. The whole thing was centered
around the Ark of the Covenant, all of it a picture of Christ
and salvation and redemption by him. The blood sprinkled on
the mercy seat, the high priest, you know, all of that. All right.
Verse 7, And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in
my mind to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God.
But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed
blood abundantly. and hath made great wars. Thou
shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed
much blood upon the earth in my sight." David was a man of
blood. He was a warrior. He was a man
of war. And so we could say it this way.
David, in his office and in his time, he pictured more of Christ
the great warrior going to the cross to fight that war of sin
and Satan and the curse of the law for his people. The man of
blood, shedding his blood as complete payment for all the
sins of his sheep. David was more of a type of Christ
in that sense. That was the emphasis on his
reign. He was a warrior. fighting off
the enemies. Now we have enemies, we have
to fight all the time. And Christ is the victor over
all those enemies continually. So he is always the great warrior.
But this was the emphasis in David's reign. And you see that
even when it started, you know, because his defeating Goliath.
What a great picture of Christ on the cross coming up against
our sins, coming up against Satan and defeating him by the power
of God. And David did that continually.
So he was a man of war. He was a man of blood. He was
a fighter. And so he pictured Christ shedding
blood on the cross in the warfare that he waged against sin and
Satan and the curse of the law, and he rose victorious. But look
at verse 9, 1 Chronicles 22. Some of you may remember this
when we went through the life of David. It says, "...Behold,
a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest."
You see that? A man of rest. And I will give
him rest from all his enemies round about, for his name shall
be Solomon," peaceable. Some say Prince of Peace. And
I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days, and
he shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son,
and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of
his kingdom over Israel forever." Solomon, the man of rest. Solomon
pictured Christ also. But the emphasis of his reign
was, the battle is over, the warfare is finished, redemption
has been accomplished, now rest in Christ. Now, let me show you
how that connects with Christ. Turn to Matthew 11. Remember
Ecclesiastes 8? He said, keep the king's commandments. There's wisdom. in keeping the
King's commandments. Turn to Matthew 11. Let me show
you the King and his commandment. Look at verse 27. Matthew 11, verse 27. Here's
Christ the King. He says, "...all things are delivered
unto me of my Father." Now, we know that all the responsibility
of the salvation of his people was put in his hands, placed
on his shoulders, And he was going to go to the cross and
finish that warfare. And he says, "...and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him." Now, here's the commandment, verse 28, "...come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest." Rest in Christ. That's what Solomon pictured.
The rest of the people, and remember who was it that built the house
of the Lord in Israel, in Jerusalem? It was Solomon. He's picturing
Christ building his church. The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall
find rest unto your souls. Israel at rest under Solomon. That's a picture of Christ, the
Redeemer, who finished his work, who finished, you know, What
was it in the book of Isaiah? I can't remember the chapter.
I think it's chapter 40, but I'm not sure. Y'all can check
me out on this. But it says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Say unto the people that her
warfare is over. The Lord hath given her double
for all her sins. Rest in Christ. That's the king's
command. Rest in him. He's the Savior,
he's the Redeemer, he's the victor, he's the provider, he's the keeper. Everything we find. And he says,
"...for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." And then
turn over to Hebrews chapter 4. Turn over here. What was the
problem with national Israel in the wilderness? Well, the
main problem was unbelief. Wasn't it? They could not enter
in to the rest of the promised land because of unbelief. They were nomadic people during
that time because they disobeyed God and they didn't believe God.
They dishonored God. And so how does the Holy Spirit
describe that in Hebrews chapter 4? Look at verse 1. He says,
let us therefore fear. Now remember what Solomon says
in Ecclesiastes, he said this is the conclusion of the whole
matter, fear God and keep his commandments. And remember that
fear now is not a legal fear, that's a fear of rest, that's
a fear of worship and trust and reverence, faith, our Heavenly
Father. who saves us by the blood of
his Son. Let us therefore fear it, lest
a promise be left us of entering into his rest." His peace. Solomon, the man of peace, the
man of rest. Christ, the Prince of Peace,
who is our rest. You see the type there? Keeping
the king's command, any of you should seem to come short of
it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them,
but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it." What was wrong with their
faith? They didn't rest in Christ. That's right. And then look down
at verse 8. He says, "...for if Jesus," now
the name Jesus there is literally the name Joshua. Now, who led
the children of Israel over into the Promised Land? Not Moses.
Moses represented the law. The law cannot give you rest,
you see. All the law can do is expose
our sin and show us our need of redemption and mercy and grace. But Joshua, and the name Jesus
is a derivative of that, Jehovah saved, God our Savior, you see. And so he's talking about, for
if Joshua had given them rest, that is, when Joshua literally
led the children of Israel out of the wilderness over into the
promised land, that was only a type, you see. That wasn't
literal eternal salvation. That was a type and a picture
of something better. So he says, if Joshua had given
them eternal rest, that's what he's talking about here, then
would he not afterward have spoken of another day? Joshua spoke
of another day. We won't go back into Joshua
to see that. But look at verse 9, "...there remaineth therefore
a rest." Now, you know what that word literally is? A keeping
of the Sabbath. Somebody asked me one time, said,
do you all keep the Sabbath? I said, you bet we do, we rest
in Christ. Because he is our Sabbath. And
so, "...there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."
Now, what is that rest? Verse 10, "...for he that is
entered into his rest, He also hath ceased from his own works,
as God did from his." Who is he talking about? He is talking
about Christ resting from his labor on the cross. He finished the work. The Bible
says he sat down at the right hand of God. So he says in verse
11, "...let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Go back to Ecclesiastes
8 and I'll conclude with this, and then we'll finish up the
chapter later on. But you see, this is the wisdom in obeying
the king. He says in verse 2, "...I counsel thee to keep the
king's commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God."
You can take that as far as you want to go, as far as obedience
to civil authorities. The Bible tells us that we are
to be obedient to all civil authority when that authority does not
deny or disobey or make laws that are opposed to God, whether
it's an earthly king or an earthly governor or whatever, president
or whoever. So we certainly are, we're not
revolutionaries, we're not insurrectionists, you know, we're to be good citizens. of the country in which God has
put us under that civil authority and generally, generally that
keeps you safe. There have been governments where
they have passed laws that were opposed to the truth of God and
believers have suffered because they stood for the glory of God.
I believe that's what that scripture in Hebrews chapter 12 really
means when it talks about follow peace with all men and holiness
without which no man will see the Lord. I believe what it's
talking about is we're never to compromise the gospel. for
any government or any authority. We're never to compromise the
glory and the honor of God and the truth of God. But on the
whole, Romans 13 tells us that those who are in civil authority
are put there by God. But now Israel's king, which
I believe this is directly referring to, was to lead the people in
the ways of God, in the ways of mercy, in the ways of grace,
and that according to the oath of God. But you know what? Most
of Israel's kings didn't do it. Read through it. Most of Israel's
kings were wicked, did not lead the people in the ways of God.
But what Solomon is talking about here is the ideal. This is what
he was put in office for as a man of rest. to lead the people in
the ways of God. And with all of his shortcomings
personally, and there's a bunch of them, and I'll tell you what,
probably more people are perplexed about Solomon than any other
character in the Scriptures, because, you know, you look at
him and you say, how could he have done that? How could he
have been a believer and done that? Well, get that stuff out
of your mind, really. You'd be amazed at what we would
do. Given the right circumstances
if the lord allowed us To a certain degree and when we we just know
that he's got us on a leash and he keeps us that way But you
see the king was to lead the people in faith in god worship
of god obedience to god all as a testimony to god's grace and
the promise Of salvation by christ. So let me read two more verses
and i'll quit he says so be not hasty verse three to go out of
his sight Don't be troubled in his presence And I thought about
this, in Christ we don't have to be troubled with the presence
of God. We can find warmth and safety
and refuge in the presence of God when we rest in Christ. Stand not in an evil thing. That
just means exactly what it says. Don't stand in an evil cause,
selfish cause. For he doeth whatsoever pleaseth
him." That's the king. The king does whatsoever pleases
him. And he says in verse 4, where the word of the king is,
there's power, there's authority. If he's a real king now. And
he says, And who may say unto him, What doest thou? Who can
question him? As this applies to Solomon and
his realist king, as I said, it ultimately applies to Christ,
our great sovereign King of kings. And he may do things that we
can't figure out. We'll talk about that next time.
But his ways are past finding out. But we know this, his way
of salvation is Christ and him crucified and risen again. Mark it down. All right. Come
thou fount of every blessing. Hymn number 17 will be our closing
hymn. Let us stand, please.