The Philippians of the Old Testament, Morning Praise
First B Jackson
2013-05-05

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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I wanted to we're in Ecclesiastes again and I'm gonna clean up a couple of things maybe. Last week and the week before, we're talking about Ecclesiastes and the first week I just kinda went through it and talked about how it was long and confusing and discouraging or at least it seemed. And then we talked about that for just a few minutes and then went on to the state of this church in light of Ecclesiastes and the wisdom of Solomon kind of where we stood there and that was the week that I asked you all to pray for the youth program here specifically remember the creator in the days of your youth and it's very important what you learn when you're young when it's early. We've got tons of kids that are going down to children's church but we tend to slip away in the high school, middle school age and so I ask all of y'all to be praying for the valley. And then, that's why the fire happened last weekend which was great because 50 from this valley went and they are some of them are burning pretty passionately with the fire right now.

The next week, last week I talked about the state of society in light of Ecclesiastes and talked about how the under the sun thinking that that Solomon was doing or that he was reflecting on this under the sun thinking the whole book seems to be depressing because he's spending a lot of time talking about the under the sun part of things. What it appears in this life without faith, without involving God, it looks pretty hopeless and pretty desperate. And I talked about existentialism being the main the main philosophical force today in the society. So it is actually pretty hopeless. But today I'm going talk about the arc of Solomon's life and this there are a lot of slides but we're going to get through them.

I hope you can flip the lights off up here if you want to. And just so we can see these, Ecclesiastes was written, well let's just go through these. My first day of seminary, I thought that this was funny so maybe you will too. I sat down, I went to breakfast, class started at eight, I went to breakfast at seven. I got in there early that morning.

I had my grits, I had my eggs, I had my bacon and assorted pork products. And when I when I got through with all of that, I said, Lord, please help me to understand what you'd have me understand here. I spent the whole summer in Jackson Hole from 100 degrees in South Carolina on August. Lord help me understand what you would have me understand here so that I might be able to do what it is you want me to do. We did not know what we'd be doing next or where, whose continent we'd be on or what exactly we would be doing.

We had been serving for eight years on the mission field by that point. And I opened up the Bible, this Bible, and this is what I saw. My eyes fell right there and this is funny to me. The words of the wise are like goads and the words of scholars are like well driven nails given by one shepherd. Capital s, that's God given by one shepherd.

But this is the part that was funny. Further my son be admonished by these of making many books there is no end and much study is worrisome to the flesh. This was my first day when I prayed for God to reveal to me what it is. He knew it was gonna a hard time. Much study is worrisome to the flesh.

Well, that's the end of the book. That's near the end of the book and we'll come back to that. But what is Solomon's story? We've talked about what it was that he had to say. We hear about him in several places but we also hear from him.

Where we hear about him is second Samuel twelve twenty four, first Kings one through 11 actually, first Chronicles, second Chronicles, Nehemiah. There's not there are not a whole lot of people in scripture that have this much time devoted to them. They're not a whole lot of people that you hear this much about. Jesus, yes. But in the Old Testament, you don't hear a whole lot of people, maybe David.

You hear a lot, you see a lot written about him. Jesus refers to him and he refers to his splendor and his wisdom. That's somebody to pay attention to. It's somebody to pay attention to what he's written to. What's Solomon's story?

He also penned under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He penned Song of Solomon, most of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Song of Solomon probably during his youth. For those of you who have read Song of Solomon, you would understand. Probably during his youth, Most of Proverbs were throughout his years, throughout the good years on his throne.

He collected, think it's first King says that he had about 3,000 Proverbs. Can you imagine him sitting up there wise as he was having people come to him and ask for his great wisdom and he throws out proverbs one after another. 3,000 proverbs. We only have a few 100 of them recorded in scripture. Ecclesiastes was most likely near the end of his life.

There are a couple of references we believe that are about Ecclesiastes. He also wrote Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. So not only was there a lot written about him, he wrote a lot of the Bible too Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna go through those things quickly. We're talking about the ark of Solomon's life from your side, birth on up.

That's the way it goes. So that's this is from second Samuel first king. Bathsheba gives birth to Solomon. Bathsheba, the one that David committed adultery with, gives birth to Solomon. It's his second son.

One of the consequences of David's sin with Bathsheba was that he would lose that first son. Solomon becomes king with some family dysfunction I won't go into. It was like an episode of I don't know what. Days of our lives, the Tudors. I don't know.

Something along those lines. David gives Solomon a warning. It's a solemn warning. He makes sure he's paying attention and then he gives him a warning. And he tells him to pay attention to what it is he's learned in his youth.

He tells him to pay attention to it and do it. Do not fail to do this. That's in first Kings two. If you want to read it later, you're welcome to. We're going through this rather quickly.

Solomon then asked for wisdom and he received it. We talked about that the first week that he prayed. God appeared to him in a dream and said, ask for anything that you want and I will give it to you. And above everything else, whether it's power, money, riches, whatever he could ask for and God said he would give it to him and he asked for wisdom. And when he asked for wisdom, God gave him wisdom but he also, well, wisdom.

Much of it is recorded in Proverbs. He was a wise ruler. God gave him that. But he also was an economic genius. God gave him more than just wisdom.

He gave him great wealth. In one place in first Kings, I think in Chronicles again, says he had 666 tons of gold in the treasure. Tons of gold. And people would come to him and ask for advice and bring gifts and just lavish it on him and on Israel but on him personally. He had great great wealth.

He built Scott's Temple. Solomon builds the temple because David had asked God to build the temple. He said, no, you're a man with blood on your hands. And he gave it to Solomon to do. He did it with the great vast wealth and resources that he had at his disposal.

He then built the royal palace which took him twice as long to build the temple, by the way. It was amazing. He had wealth. So he had wisdom and he had wealth. When he's dedicating the temple, he prays a beautiful, very, very sincere prayer.

It's a temple dedication. I go back to this time and time again because it's so good theologically and it's so good chronologically. It's so good. He knows what it is. He is a believer.

He believes in the one true God, the God of Israel. He looks forward to the Messiah. He's looking forward to it and he knows the heart of man. He knows in first Kings eight and in second Chronicles six, there's this story of this temple dedication. He knows God is great and God is the only true God.

He knows this. He knows it. He understood God's goodness and man's sinfulness. And eight forty six says, and when they sin, he's talking about when anybody sins, he goes, for there is no one who is without sin. It's it's over and over again in scripture we see God's goodness and man's sinfulness.

He knew about worship. So he had wisdom. He had wealth. He knew how to properly worship and he did that. He built the temple so that others might do that.

He understood it. The arc of his life so far is going pretty well. He is wisest man ever, probably the richest man up to that time and maybe ever. Probably ever. 666 tons of gold.

God appears to him a second time. The same way that he had come to him and said, whatever it is that you'd ask for, I'll give you. And he asked for wisdom and he gave it to him in the second chapter. This is about chapter nine. And this time it's a warning and if you read it, it is a warning that sounds exactly like the warning that his father David gave him.

Pay attention to what you know. Do not fail to do this. Do not turn your head away to idols. Do not do not do it. You know better Solomon.

Don't do it. So he gives him a solemn warning. It echoes David's warning. I'm gonna read, if I can flip to it here, I'm gonna read part of chapter nine from first Kings. First Kings nine.

And it came to pass when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king's house, his own palace, and all Solomon's desire which he had wanted to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, just as he had to him at Gibeon and the Lord said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you've made before me. I've consecrated the house. That's what he's praying for that God would dedicate, consecrate the temple. I have consecrated the house which you built. To put my name there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.

Now if you walk before me as your father David walked, integrity of heart and an uprightness to do according to all that I have commanded you and if you keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever. As I promised David your father saying, you shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons at all turn from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I've set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, Then I will cut off Israel from the land which I've given them and this house which I've consecrated for my name and I'll cast out of my sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house which is exalted, this temple, everyone who passes by will be astonished and will say, why has the Lord done this to the land, to this house?

Then they will answer because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers up out of the land of Egypt and embraced other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore, the Lord has brought all this calamity on. Now does that sound like a pretty solemn warning? My goodness. He didn't have it just kind of, oh yeah, be good.

It was like, no, he knew exactly what he should not do. So it echoed David's warning. It's almost word for word. Warnings. So he has wisdom.

He has wealth. He has warnings. So Solomon's reign from second Samuel and first Kings. He ignores those warnings totally. I think that one of the keys to that is it said after he had done all that he desired to do.

He didn't have an exit plan past that. He was building up this great thing. He didn't have anything to keep him going and so his attention was diverted and his sin, God said exactly what it would do and God mercifully allowed his son to reign over two of the tribes of Israel after the split but that was God's mercy that allowed that and his love for David. David's love for him but his split sin would split the kingdom. There were three kings of Israel of a united Israel.

Saul, David, and Solomon, but Solomon sinned, split that king. Solomon turns from God. Now, king Solomon loved many foreign women. This is first Kings 11. Along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women.

Didn't God just say don't chase after foreign gods? From the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them nor shall they associate with you for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Little g gods. Solomon helped baptize in love. He had 700 wives, princesses.

He had great wisdom and he was an economic genius and part of that is making political alliances and that's why he started off marrying the pharaoh's daughter in the first place but it was very profitable. So he went ahead and kept doing it. 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines on the side. And his wife turned his heart away. If there's any doubt about whether that happened or not, we have it in inspired scripture again.

In Nehemiah it says, was it not because of the marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations, there was no king like him. He was loved by his God. God made him king over all Israel but even he, even he, think about that, even he, the wisest man ever, even he was led into sin by foreign wives. So he had wives with an s.

Multiples. 999 too many. When he speaks in Ecclesiastes and he says, enjoy the wife of your youth. It's with an f, not a b. It is a wife.

It is what? Enjoy the life of your youth. So I changed it to women because they did have the porcupine. I mean, concupines. So so with the wives and the women came to woe.

Sorry. I'm not blaming women for this. They were. I I really absolutely don't. It was Solomon altogether.

He had the wisdom. He had the wealth. He had the warnings. He had all of this stuff. So Solomon's reign.

Oh, this is from second Chronicles. Second Chronicles is the Reader's Digest version of Kings. First and second Kings. Second Chronicles, he has the prayer for wisdom, the building of the temple in its palace, he has the great well. His God's warning is mentioned again.

It's very very important. It's not just important for Solomon to take to heart. It's important for us to take to heart. Now, we are in an age of grace and praise God that we are. Amen.

His Holy Spirit, if you are a believer, his Holy Spirit dwells in your heart and he will continually speak these things in a still small voice and you will have this. He's not going to depart from it but at the same time, we should pay attention. Paul says that all the Old Testament was given so that we would know how to live. There's no mention in chronicles of his failures. That's the Reader's Digest version with a happy ending.

He had worship of God first and things were going very very well but then of idols. His wives turned his heart away to idols and it's not their fault. He was seeking after them. It says and he loved them with all his heart. And then he switched over to carry idols.

And God told him that it would happen. For those of you who are young and youthful and looking or not looking right now, pay attention to that. Pay attention to that. If if if the person that you've got eyes on and your all heart is all a flutter and they're not a believer, it's probably not gonna go well for you. Wisdom and wealth are not the answer to mankind's problem ultimately.

Knowing it's half the battle. Have you all heard that anywhere before? On every GI Joe? Yes. GI Joe cartoons.

My brother was into that. I wasn't really into it but GI Joe every time they have a public service announcement at the end and GI Joe would explain something about stop drop and roll or something along those lines and one of the kids said, well now we know and he'd say and knowing is half the battle. Knowing is half the battle. What's the other half of the battle? Doing.

Yeah. It's being. Doing. Obedience. He was the wisest man ever.

He knew right from wrong. Wealthy enough to carry it out. Can you imagine what Solomon could have done for the good had he converted those 666 tons of gold into something else? Actually paid attention to the principles set forth in the Old Testament that God had given. He's still saying he turned away from God.

Now, there's some hope in here. It sounded pretty desperate for for Solomon. There's some hope in here that because all of us have sinned. Solomon said it's loud. There is none who doesn't.

Roman says it over and over. There's nobody. We all have sinned. No doubt about it. What what's nice to know is the smartest man ever still fell into it.

He wasn't perfect. To know to do right and to not do it, James says, that's sin. So it's not just, oh, I got caught doing something I shouldn't have been doing, my hand in the cookie jar, my pants down, whatever. To know to do right and not do it. That's sin.

So this was all to say Ecclesiastes is a book that is reflective. Look at his whole life. No wonder it seems like it's so discouraging and depressing. He's looking back over life after he blew it. He does not want for anybody who's listening to him to live the life of regret that he is presently at that point living.

He saw when he looked back over his life misdirected wisdom. He was looking at the political way he could gain more power and more wealth. Misused or misappropriated wealth. He built this grand palace and it was wonderful and that was great. And there were some instructions by God to do that, but he went all out.

And the royal palace, it was great. Fantastic houses and lands. Major warnings multiplied forbidden lives. He does mention that wife of his youth and he goes back to her over and over. It's the only one that he names.

All the rest of them were nameless. Mixed worship. God first and then all the idols came along. Do as I say not as I do. That's what people I've read a lot of people that said Ecclesiastes cannot be taken seriously because this is a man who didn't believe anything that he wrote.

Just going and on and on. The commentators are saying, it's hypocritical for him to say, do as I say not as I do. Well, do as I say, not as I do is a hypocrite. No doubt about it. That's it.

That's the definition of hypocrite. Somebody who puts on a mask and does something and expects others to do otherwise. But do as I say, not as I did. That's a teacher. That's somebody that knows the wrong way and they don't want you to have to experience it.

So it is a story of regret but he writes with great purpose. He wants for us anybody who will listen to him. Rehoboam, his son, he wanted for his son to listen to him and pay attention and live life according to God's command and his rule. His great purpose. This is neat to me.

I don't know if it's neat to you. But to me, this is cool. This is very, very cool. This is the very beginning of Ecclesiastes. It's verse one, two in Ecclesiastes.

And it's the one we quote all the time. Anytime you hear anybody quoting Ecclesiastes, they always start off with this. This is the Hebrew for it. So that word, that word, and that word are all the same word. Won't even print try to pronounce it.

That word and that word are the same word too, but they're plural. So it is nothing, nothings. That says, except the preacher. That's the little let you know who's speaking. Nothing, nothing's.

Nothing of nothing's. Vanity of vanities. It's a superlative. It makes it go evermore beyond nothing. It is nothing of nothing.

Just like Jesus is the king of kings, lord of lords. Nothing of nothings, the preacher said. Nothing of nothings. And then that last word is nothing again. But this little section right here is what's neat to me.

That says everything, nothing. All is vanity. Everything, nothing. Do you see the difference in those two? That's the difference between everything and nothing.

Look at that. When when we say that the books of the law not one jot or tittle will pass away. Look at that blower thing, that little thing. That's the difference in everything and nothing. And Solomon, I told you over and over and over, I told you we're looking for nuggets, we're finding nuggets, we're looking for gold and there's a lot of ore, there's a lot of rock in Ecclesiastes because it's all under the sun type thinking.

But if you're looking for gold, the difference between everything and nothing can be found. His is a story of regret but he writes with great purpose. So, going back to my original day in seminary where lord, teach me what you want me to know so I can do what you want me to do. The words of the wise are like goats. You know what a goad is?

We don't use that word very often. A goad, we use it to he's goading me. He used that sometimes. A goad is a spiked stick. It's used for driving cattle or sheep or oxen or whatever.

And if you take a sharp stick and you hold it against somebody like this, it makes them move the direction that you want them to go. Sorry. Thanks Larry. We're just handling that, it's like down in my pocket. So a spike stick used for driving cattle.

When you poke a cow, you don't have to poke them hard, they just know not to go backwards. They know not to go that way because you got a sharp stick poked against them. If you prod them just a little bit, it should move them forward. So the words of the wise are like goads and the words of scholars, people who have studied this are like well driven nails. They can be trusted.

The framework can be trusted because it's given by one capital s Shepherd. God gave these commands. Imperative verb. You all know how much I love grammar. I've left it out for two solid weeks.

I haven't used a whole lot of grammar. But the imperative verb just from the last few chapters of Ecclesiastes, I could go through and pick out more, but just from, like, chapter seven to chapter 12, these are the imperative verbs, and these are the nuggets that I've been pointing for and looking for and trying to get y'all to see. These are the nuggets. The rest of it is over. Oh, everything's meaningless under the sun.

All is vanity under the sun. But these are the imperative verbs for believers in Ecclesiastes and he expects for these to be like goats and for you to do what it is that he's asking you to do. He says, enjoy what God has given. Eat, drink. Rejoice and enjoy life with your wife, with the wife of your youth.

Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Is that a carpe diem statement right there? It absolutely is. It's over and over and over. That comes up more often than anything else in the commentaries about this.

This is a person who wants you to live life fully engaged and without regret. You don't have to live with regret if you will stick with me, God says. Cast your bread upon the waters. It'll return to you in many days. Live generously.

Rejoice in your youth. Enjoy it. Live it up. The verse in the the verses in the bulletin this week are about old age. And you do get decrepit.

That happens to everybody eventually. And Solomon is saying that. He's saying, hey, enjoy. Run the race while you've got it. Walk in the ways of your heart.

Chase after your dreams. Honor the Lord. Remember your creator. And then I'm gonna circle back around and hit the conclusion of the whole matter. This is an imperative verb.

These are imperative verbs. Fear God and keep his commandments. Fear like, oh, I'm scared of him. Not exactly. Revere God.

Pay attention to what he says. He loves you and cares for you. Fear God, keep his commandments for this is man's all. This is what we're made to do. Revere God, keep his commandments.

For God will bring every work into judgment, every secret thing whether good or evil. Now, I told you Psalms seventy two and one twenty seven. One twenty seven is this one. It's very quotable. We all know it.

Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders labor in vain. That Solomon's temple is glorious as it was, dust. Herod rebuilt it. Know what? It's dust too.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. Jerusalem, where he built that. I know God has a special place in his heart for Jerusalem and I know today Israel is common in Syria. Big deal. I wanna pray for the peace of Jerusalem absolutely and their papers by the way.

But Jerusalem fell in seventy AD completely sacked. Absolutely. Unless the Lord and this version of lord right here, you all know is the covenant name for God. It is pointing towards Jesus. He was looking forward to the Messiah.

We're going go into a time of communion in just a minute but I wanted to point us that direction with this. He's looking forward to a time unless Jesus is the author. You cannot just know because you, even knowing, are not gonna be able to do. Doing follows being. Doing follows being.

Who you are in Christ allows you to be able to do what you can do in his name. So unless the Lord builds a house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over a city, the guards stand watch in vain. And then Psalm 72. His name, capital n, that's Jesus, shall endure forever.

Last like the sun and shall This is actually a Scottish translation of it. Last like the sun and shall. Men shall be blessed in him and blessed all nations shall call him. Psalm 72. Want to pray just to kind of close out that message and open up a time of communion.

Taylor, if you would come forward and play something pretty like you do so well. Let's just pray. God, thank you for driving those nails. For showing us the way in which we should live. Lord, you did it through Solomon's example.

He had such a good run there for a while. But then when he felt like he had done everything that he needed to do and wanted to accomplish, his heart wandered. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Don't let us do that. Allow us to hear your still small voice, Lord. We know that sin is what interrupts that communication. God, I pray that you'd cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We know you say in first John one nine, Lord, that if we're confessing our sins, that you're forgiven our sins.

You're faithful and just to forgive that which we confess, Lord. So we just come before you with an humble attitude of confession as we go forward in this time of communion. I pray that you would bring to our mind all of those ways, Lord, where we are turning our hearts away from you and paying attention to something else. We're giving something else, your place, prominence. So God, I pray that you would remind us of that and assure us that we are forgiven.

God, if there's anybody under the sound of my voice that does not know you yet, Lord, I pray that they would come to know you. That they would find somebody who does and ask about the peace that passes understanding. Ask about the joy unspeakable, full of glory. So God, it's not all about us. It's not all about sin.

It's all about you and the way that you've made. It helps us. It's the only way for us to get over sin. So God, I thank you for your son. Jesus, I thank you for your broken body and your shed blood and I ask that you bless this time of communion as we go into it.

In Jesus name, amen. I get the communion team to come forward. The good news of the gospel, of Jesus' perfect life of his sacrificial death, his burial, and his resurrection. Paul says, I delivered to you that which I received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Even Solomon was looking forward to it.

He didn't know exactly how it was going to happen, he wrote of Jesus. That he was crucified, that he was dead, he was buried, that he rose again the third day. He was seen by Cephas, then by twelve, then by over 500 other people at once, of whom the greater part remained at the time Paul wrote that in first Corinthians. So if y'all would just go ahead and distribute the bread. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, he took bread.

When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Oh God, thank you for your broken body. Lord, we thank you that it's not because of how smart we are or because how wealthy we are.

But lord, it is by your broken body and your shed blood. God, we ask that you'd bless this cup as we pass it that we'd remember the cost of our salvation. In Jesus name, amen. And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. This is a reason to celebrate.

The new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you will drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, Paul says, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. I wanna proclaim God's Christ's life. That's what I wanna proclaim as a living God who's active in the world today.

Renzi and Bam, would y'all come back up? We're gonna play Christ is risen. Thank you, elders. Christ is risen from the dead. Our God is not dead.

He's alive. He's alive. He's alive.