“Fooling Ourselves to Death”
A
Sermon on Ecclesiastes 7:15-18
January
19, 2003
by Rev. Stephen C.
Magee
Sermon: “Surprising Discoveries of Old Age”
Part 1 - The House of Mourning (7:1-6)
Part 2 - The End of a Thing (7:7-12)
Part 3 - Adversity: The Gift of God (7:13-14)
Part
4 - Not Overly Righteous, Not Overly Wicked (7:15-18)
Ecclesiastes 7:15-18
15 I have seen everything in my days of vanity:
There is a just man who
perishes in his righteousness,
And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his
wickedness.
16 Do not be overly righteous,
Nor be overly wise:
Why should you destroy yourself?
17 Do not be overly wicked,
Nor be foolish:
Why should you die before your time?
18 It is good that you grasp this,
And also not remove your hand from the other;
For he
who fears God will escape them all.
Introduction: Fooling Ourselves
It is an easy thing for you to fool yourself. This is one of the perverse facts of the
human condition after the fall. I should
state at the outset that it is a very wicked thing to be more righteous than
God, and it is madness to be wiser than God.
The person who thinks of himself capable of a better standard of
righteousness and wisdom than Jesus Christ is fooling himself. And the person who pursues wickedness as a
badge of honor to be displayed before the world is showing himself to be a hero
before an audience of fools, of which he is the chief.
The world that we live in is a world
of common grace and common curse. The
sun shines on the righteous and the wicked.
This is common grace. But grace
is not the only thing that is common to all men. Since Adam's transgression curse is also a
common reality. One of the aspects of
the human condition under the common curse of God is that we commonly fool
ourselves. We can wrongly convince
ourselves of our own surpassing righteousness. We can also cause much harm by pursuing an
extreme of a good thing.
Today #4: Self-focused Charades
This is one of Solomon's surprising discoveries of old
age - the game of charades that we play for ourselves (and perhaps others) is
not a safe activity for sinners under the curse. This is the fourth in a list of four
surprising discoveries found in this section of Ecclesiastes. We need to avoid being overly righteous and
being overly wicked.
Unexpected
Outcomes Observed
Solomon begins this passage with an
observation. He notes that among all the
vanities of his life he has observed two individuals that he now brings to our
attention. There is a righteous man who
perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who appears to prolong
his life in his wickedness. This is
surprising.
We might expect that those who we
count as righteous will live long. We
certainly do not expect people to perish against their will in the midst of
their acts of righteousness.
We might expect that the wicked will
cut their lives short through foolish choices and the judgment of God against
them. We certainly do not expect
wickedness to prolong life.
Solomon here tells us that he has
personally seen both of these unexpected occurrences. A fair reading of the Bible also furnishes us
with a number of examples of how the righteous often suffer and die and the
wicked seem to prosper and live on in this brief vain life. What are we to make of this? What instruction can come from this
unexpected observation?
Do
not be overly righteous. Do not be
overly wise.
Why would it sometimes happen that
those who appear to be righteous, do not always
prosper? It may be that their acts of
righteousness spring from impure motives, and that they are attempting to
secure their righteousness before God in themselves, rather than in his perfect
righteousness. This is what we call
self-righteousness, and it is not attractive.
In this case there is a deep unrighteousness that may be hidden from view. This is one possibility.
It could also be that in this fallen
world our hard pursuit of righteousness in one area may lead to such an
imbalance of life that we are prone to be an agent of unexpected collateral
damage, even serving causes of wickedness more than displaying the true beauty
of Christ-like righteousness.
It should also be remembered that
Solomon has already schooled us in the truth that adversity and even death is
not always to be thought of as God's just punishment of impure motives or
actions. Instead we have been told in
the prior verses that the Lord who gives us days us blessing is also the giver
of the gift of the day of affliction, and He is working out all things for His
own glory.
As helpful as these considerations
may be, they do not appear to be the purpose of Solomon's observation that he
has seen a righteous man perish in his righteousness. He instead gives us this instruction: Do not be overly righteous nor
overly wise.
To say the least, this seems to be a
most surprising lesson for us to learn from the Bible. I think we have some hint of the author's
meaning when we grasp that an excellent translation of the Hebrew on the issue
of too much wisdom would be as follows: "Do not show yourself
excessively wise." True righteousness
and wisdom is defined in the character of God, and is displayed perfectly in
the person and works of Jesus Christ.
This is real righteousness. Our
own displays of righteousness and our own efforts to show ourselves wise are a
most unfortunate starting point for a true pursuit of holiness. We must begin with God and his power to
change us, and then pursue righteousness according to his definition rather
than our own.
Biblical righteousness, perfectly
displayed in Jesus Christ, is like a beautiful piece of material with many
threads. There is a danger in grasping
one good thread, pulling it hard in order to draw singular attention to it, and
thus marring the beauty of the entire article.
Put another way, righteousness is a
circle that includes within it all of the holy perfections of Christ. If you take one part of the perimeter of that
circle and push hard in only that one direction, you will find that the circle
will soon become an oval, and much of the area once covered by the original circle
now lays bare, as we emphasize one good thing, and lose track of the wholeness
of the righteousness of God in Christ.
To do these things is to be overly righteous, and the result from this
is not more righteousness, but less.
An example of this can often be seen
in our pursuit of the truth. The
doctrines of the Bible form a beautiful system of truth. It is right for us to see a particular piece
of that truth, such as the truth that children of believers are to be
considered as a part of the covenant community.
I trust that this truth is particularly treasured by many of you here
today. But if we were to press this
truth without any sense of biblical proportion, we would soon find that we had
more fire in our bosom for the inclusion of children in the covenant of God
than we had for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This would not be truly righteous. It would be sin. We must pursue biblical doctrine with a
biblical sense of proportion.
This can also be said about every
area of the Christian life, and it is one reason why the Christian life is to
be lived communally, and not only as individuals. It is only as Christ is more fully formed in
his body the church that true righteousness is more boldly displayed. This does not happen through any one person
in the body. The scope of the task
before us is quite clearly too much for any one person in this fallen
world. We all are fully responsible for
the Christian display of all truth, all love, and all obedience. But it is only through our life together as
the body of Christ that we will more perfectly display the righteousness that
is required of us. Through the church,
iron will sharpen iron, and family intimacy will round off the rough edges of
our over-righteousness and our foolish wickedness.
Do
not be overly wicked. Do not be foolish.
Let us now turn our attention to the
topic of wickedness. Solomon has
observed a man who prolongs his life in wickedness. Why might such an unexpected thing take
place? It could be that the powerful man
survives through a time of famine by his oppression of the weak. Weak men die and the foul oppressor
lives.
It is also possible that what may
first appear to be wickedness to us may in fact not be wickedness at all.
Remember that the Pharisees were convinced that Jesus was a sinner because he
healed people on the Sabbath and because he at times celebrated with his
disciples in ways that they considered to be excessive. The were quite wrong
about Him. He had no sin.
Could it also be that there might be
some action with obvious wickedness, that could yet
come forth from a heart that is being purified by God? Let me give you an example of this from the
experience of 19th century Scottish missionary John Paton. He tells the story of a Chieftain of
cannibals being converted. The man had
been brought to see that the pagan gods of his ancestors were not as strong as
the God that John Paton preached to them. Listen to Paton's
account of the first prayer of this man:
The old
Chief led them in prayer -- a strange, dark, groping prayer, with streaks of
Heathenism colouring every thought and sentence; but
still a heart-breaking prayer, as the cry of a soul once Cannibal, but now
thrilled through and through with the first conscious pulsations of the Christ-Spirit
throbbing into the words-- "Father, Father; our Father."
When
these poor creatures began to wear a bit of calico or a kilt, it was an outward
sign of a change, though yet far from civilization. And when they began to look up and pray to
One whom they called "Father, our Father," though they might be far,
very far, from the type of Christian that dubs itself "respectable,"
my heart broke over them in tears of joy; and nothing will ever persuade me
that there was not a Divine Heart in the Heavens rejoicing too. (John G. Paton,
Banner of Truth, 1965, p. 325)
The
prayer might have had significant errors, but God is able to judge the heart in
perfection.
All of this is to simply say that
there may be several valid reasons behind the observation of Solomon that a
wicked man may indeed prolong his life in wickedness. Whatever use these considerations may be,
they do not appear to be the purpose of Solomon's observation regarding the
wicked man and his long life. He instead
proceeds to gives this instruction: Do not be overly wicked, and do not be
foolish.
This is not to suggest that Solomon
is here commending a certain acceptable level of wickedness. What he does have in view is this truth:
There is a lack of restraint that is especially foolish and dangerous.
This can even be seen in Christian
circles among some who have come to a new-found appreciation of their freedom
in Christ. They learn that some things
that they had been told were sin are no part of the biblical definition of
sin. This is a good thing to learn. We want our understanding of what the Lord
loves and what He hates to be well-informed by his Word. But armed with their new liberty, they must
be careful not to move from liberty to licentiousness which leads to death.
One of the ways that this can happen
is when we are not sufficiently attentive to general biblical principles
regarding sin. If we insist on a
"thus saith the Lord" for every possible
path of foolishness we will travel the fool's highway on many occasions before
our lesson is learned. Some do not learn
their lesson at all, and simply fall into snare through their own false ideas
of "liberty."
Of course this problem of
over-wickedness is also found outside of the church. When people discover that I am a pastor in
the midst of a discussion, I have found that there are two frequent and
opposite reactions. The first is that
the speaker covers his mouth and expresses concern about what he might have
been saying in the presence of a religious "professional." But some people seem to move in the opposite
direction. As if to display the fact
that they have no interest in or respect for God, they take the conversation to
a lower level of vulgarity or turn to some base topic, openly flaunting their
wickedness as if to say, "I hope you don't think that I am impressed by
you or your God."
This is being overly wicked in order
to prove some point, and it is just plain foolish. This can be done with words, but it perhaps
happens regularly with thoughts that only God can see, and even with actions
that demonstrate the desired disdain of divine things. For my own part, I am not particularly
impressed either way, although I do feel sorry for the one who feels like he
needs to express himself this way.
Grasp these things,
fear God and escape a life of self-focused excess.
These two errors of
over-righteousness and over-wickedness may at first appear to be very
different. There is one important thing,
however, that they share in common. They
are both very self-focused, and possibly also self-promoting. A charade is in process. The actor himself is also the audience,
although their may be others who are supposed to be impressed or distressed by
the performance.
This is a sad pattern of behavior,
and the solution to it comes in adopting a God-focus to life that comes through
what the Bible calls "the fear of God." Only through the fear of God will we see our
charades of over-righteousness and ridiculous wickedness.
Grasping
things about ourselves that are more easily observed by others
It is through the fear of God that
we will actually be able to grasp what Solomon is saying. We need to walk through life in this world of
common curse with one hand on the neck of over-righteousness, and the other
hand on the neck of ridiculous wickedness, and resist both of these
self-centered approaches to life. The
truth is that our charades are much more impressive to us than they are to
anyone else. Other people do not fall
for them as readily as we do. It is by
the fear of God that we will grasp things about ourselves that other people
already know.
It is through the fear of God that
we can do what the Apostle Paul urges us to do - to not think more highly of
ourselves than we ought to, but to have an accurate appraisal (Romans
12:3). This is also the way for us to
have a more perfect appreciation for the true way of righteousness that has
been displayed in Jesus Christ, and thereby to escape the clutches of
imbalance.
Escaping
the clutches of imbalance through the perfections of Jesus Christ
Consider with me for a moment the
perfections of Jesus Christ for you. He
knew when to celebrate and He knew when to cry.
He knew when to wait, and He knew when to move on. He knew when to teach, and He knew when to go
away to pray. He knew when to care for
the poor, and He knew when to receive an extravagant gift. He knew when to live... and He knew when to
die. It can truly be said in His case
that there is righteous man whose life was cut short in His righteousness.
His righteousness was not partial
but perfect, and He displayed this, leaving no room for doubt, through His
resurrection from the dead. This perfect
righteousness was for you. He is the
Head of the body in perfect righteousness.
We are the body that is united with the Head. There is a communal righteousness that we
strive toward as we strive together toward Christ-likeness. No one member in the body can do alone what
the whole body must do together. The
members of the body are a protection for the others members in our temptation
toward excess or self-focus. Together we
have the joy of seeing the whole body grow in holiness.
Conclusion: You can fool some of the
people...
The biggest problem with self-focused
charades of righteousness and wickedness is that we are all too-successful at
fooling ourselves. Others may see
through the act, but too often we do not.
We fool ourselves.
You can fool some of the people some
of the time. And there are some people
you can fool all of the time. But you
can't fool God - ever. You don't need to
fool Him. He knows the truth. For this reason, He has provided His Son for
us.
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