Overly Righteous?

Introduction

Boy, how many times have I sung that, but really not appreciated what it was saying? What marvelous thoughts. Hilltops of glory. Never turn backward, always ascend. Let’s keep ascending toward that beautiful end of the journey. This morning, for a few minutes, I want us to consider a couple of verses from the book of Ecclesiastes. Now, there are some verses in Ecclesiastes that are on your radar, but I’m pretty sure these two are not. But we’re going to try to understand them together. They are from Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verses 16 and 17. I have them on the board for you, but if you turn there, stay there, we’re coming back to the context. Ecclesiastes 7, 16 and 17. Listen to these very carefully. The wise preacher says, Do not be excessively righteous.

And do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? Do not be excessively wicked. And do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? Anything about those questions and those two verses that trouble you? Some might say, I like this preacher. He’s saying, Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be excessively wicked either. Somewhere in between. Is that what Solomon is saying in these verses? Is it possible to be too righteous? Most of us who have served God and feared God for a number of years would say, no, it’s not possible to be too righteous. We need to be as righteous as we possibly can. And every nation, he who fears God and does what is right, and that encompasses the whole inshalata, as we say in Texas, and does what is right is accepted of him or welcome to him.

God expects us to be righteous. In fact, in the Sermon on the Mount says, we’ll look Wednesday night. Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees if we’re going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Some would even argue, though, as Henry Fielding did, a British playwright, who said, there is a set of religious or rather moral writings, which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have one objection, namely that it is not true. Who is Henry Fielding? What gives him the authority to cast aside the moral writings and proclaim them untrue? The writings, the sacred writings of Scripture in which I place my trust and confidence, are substantiated by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

He has an authority to speak on the matters of life. He is the one who gave us life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And Henry Fielding is not that. But what about the next verse? Perhaps a little wickedness is okay if we’re not to be excessively wicked. And again, this kind of preacher some people like. I can do a little bit. Just don’t make a big splash in it, but a little bit will be just like. Actually, I think this is the verse that sort of provides a clue that the first verse is not really saying that righteousness should not be your pursuit in all of it. I think it helps us when we see the wickedness verse that follows. He’s not saying little wickedness is okay.

But someone suggested about the first verse that really the response is to Phariseeism. You know, if there’s somebody who could be too righteous, it was a Pharisee. The problem was not that they were too righteous. The problem is that they were inconsistently righteous. Or at least in their pursuit of righteousness, they were inconsistent. Some things they were very meticulous about, and other things they ignored altogether, some of the weightier matters of the law. And here’s the thing. I don’t know that there were a lot of Pharisees running around in the days of Solomon. In fact, there’s not any indication that anybody really thought like the Pharisees in the days of Solomon. There may have been people like that, but that all grew out of the intertestamental period, and there were no Pharisees per se, by name at least, in the days of Solomon.

Well, what are these statements telling us? Let me just remind you of a New Testament passage where Jesus says that we have to hate our fathers and mothers, and yes, even our own lives if we want to be his disciples. Now, how are we going to understand that? Is Jesus saying something opposite of husbands love your wives, as Paul said in Ephesians chapter 5? No, we have to understand contextually what is being said. And we understand from the Luke 14 text that Jesus is not saying it is okay to loathe or treat with contempt or hatred anyone in these family relationships. In fact, even in regard to your own life, you should want to preserve your spiritual life, if nothing else. The point is not hate in the tent in the idea of loathing, but just that God has to come first, that Jesus and discipleship has to come first in Luke 14.

1. Solomon's Experiment Produces the Same Results

Well, what’s going on contextually with these statements? And really, in order to untangle this, you have to look at the entire book of Ecclesiastes. Because really, here are the questions that Solomon is raising. What brings happiness and meaning to one’s life? Even more, is there a particular way of life? And contextually, this is what’s going on. This runs through the entire book. Is there a particular way of life that will allow you to avoid hardship? Injustice, pain, sorrow, difficulty, and untimely death. Those are the questions that doing. As he looks at life under the sun, he’s saying, you know, sometimes the wicked fares better than the righteous, but sometimes he doesn’t. And sometimes the righteous have bad things happen to him. And so he’s trying to make sense of life in the world.

And so as we look at those statements contextually, first, we need to understand that in this experiment, that in Solomon’s experiment, the same results are produced. The entire book is really a systematic experience or an experiment to find ultimate meaning in life of the Son. And so in chapter two, he tries everything. I mean, he tries laughter. He tries possessions and pleasure and passion. He tries wisdom and beauty and food and work. And after he tries all of those things, the conclusion of the matter is, after all that his eyes desired, he did not refuse or withhold from his heart, he said, This was my reward for all my labor. And I’ve always loved to say about that, you know what I say about that, right?

He got out of it what he got out of it. And that’s it. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done, and the labor which I had exerted, and behold, all was vanity, and striving after wind, and there was no prophet under the sun. What he’s saying is, not that there is no benefit in any of the things that he tested or tried, but he’s saying it didn’t give me the answers that I sought. It didn’t fix life’s inequities. It did not remove all of life’s pain and troubles and hardships and difficulties.

2. Wisdom Is the Superior Course, but There Are Limits

He found that none of these things brought the satisfaction or happiness or value he was seeking. And my question about that is do we learn? We think that we have to repeat Solomon’s experiment ourselves, and if we do that, we’re going to get the exact same results. Ultimately, there is no profit under the sun. It will not shield you from the hardships of life. And so as you look earlier in chapter 7, going back a few verses to help us understand why a person who a person should not be excessively righteous and a person should not be excessively wicked, he lots the superior course of wisdom. But there are limits. Look back to the context. Verse 11. Wisdom along with an inheritance is good and an advantage to those who see the sun.

Now, don’t be overly righteous or overly wise, but now wisdom has an advantage. Okay, now understand. Those who exercise wisdom experience an advantage. And Paul says that really in Ephesians chapter 5. He encourages the path of wisdom. When he tells us to walk in wisdom and redeem the time, making the most of the opportunity because the days are evil. You know, even if you walk the path of wisdom, there is going to be a lot of evil surrounding you, and sometimes some evil results. So walk circumspectly. Not as fools. Really, this is Ephesians 5 per the preacher. For wisdom is protection, just as money is protection. But money doesn’t fix everything, does it? He’s already talked about that. He says he who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 5.

But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lies of its possessors. Now, you need to pursue wisdom. It’s the best course, it’s the superior course. In contrast to folly, of course. Consider the work of God. For who is able to straighten what he has been. Now that’s an interesting insertion. God’s made things to operate a certain way, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re really quite powerless to change it. There’s a lot of things that we can’t control in our world. Standing on the seashore this week and watching the waves. I mean, I can’t make the waves stop, can you? Or if the waves were stopped and one day it seemed that they were, I couldn’t make them start again. These are God’s things.

These are things that God does. Who can straighten what God has meant? And you know, that’s really sort of the mentality of our time. People that think that we can take God’s ways and manipulate them to our own purposes and fashion them the way we want them, and that we have this ability. It’s almost as you can’t do that. You are powerless when maxed against God, so don’t even attempt it. In the day of prosperity, be happy. Look, when good things happen to you, get the most out of it that you can. In the day of prosperity, be happy. But in the day of adversity, there’s going to be some of those. Sorry, kids. It’s not all going to be pleasant all the time. You know, childhood can be a little sort of like that for some of us.

If you’re fortunate enough, I had hardly a care in the world as a kid. I think I lived probably in a better time, but maybe that’s just me being nostalgic. But I had hardly a care in the world. I didn’t ever wake up in the morning and say, Well, I wonder if there’s going to be any food for breakfast. Or I wonder if there’s going to be anything on the dinner table. Now, such as it was. Sherry and I talked about some of the meals we had growing up, and they were not just the most stellar things, but we ate. We live. Didn’t have a care in the world. But as you get older, you realize, man, some tough stuff to deal with. The day of adversity, consider God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not discover anything that will be after him.

You know, there’s another limit to life. I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to look like. God does. I have no idea.

Or the United States of America. I’ve known this country all my life. Is it even going to be a country 10 years from now? I don’t know that. I am really, I really have a lot of limitations here. And so when you look at the standpoint of prosperity and adversity, okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to be really righteous before God, and prosperity is going to come. And he says, not necessary. And even though you should be wise, I mean, that’s a better course. He says that’s not a guarantee either. You’re still going to have some adversity. Maybe a lot of it. So understand contextually where these statements come from. They don’t come out of thin air in Ecclesiastes chapter 7. And what he says about wickedness in verse 17 is let me tell you about if you’re going to reject wisdom, you may have some good times as well, but when you indulge in sin, that only hastens your demise.

3. Do Not Be Excessively Wicked

He says, Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? I like that. He says, now you can reject wisdom if you like, but I’m going to tell you what you do. You bring yourself a lot closer to peril. Foolishness. And whether it’s spiritual foolishness, rejection of God’s ways, or just, you know, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. Just rejecting a wise course and living precariously, we might say, you might tend to hasten your death. You might bring it about faster. Now you might die young as a righteous person. There are no guarantees there either. But you live wickedly, you may bring it about a lot faster. Well, somebody says in regard to the first one, well, I’ll just live how I want to live and indulge in everything I want to indulge in and thus maximize my happiness and life.

That’s why the second statement is made. The preacher assures us that won’t work either. Sin will not make you happy. It might even contribute to further misery. As the wisdom of Proverbs indicates, the way of the transgressor is hard. In fact, if you go over there to Proverbs, it’s a few pages over to the left in your Bible, in Proverbs 13, the teaching of the wise, Proverbs 13 and verse 14, the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life to turn aside from the snares of death. He’s talking about the same thing Solomon’s talking about. Turn away from the snares of death. Be wise. Good understanding produces favor, but the way of the transgressor or the way of the treacherous is hard. Verse 16. Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool displays folly.

4. There Is No Magic Path of Guarantee

And Solomon is echoing the same principle. Okay, so what are these two verses really telling us? And this I’ve already hinted at it and said it in a number of ways. Whatever course you choose in life, righteous or wicked. Understand the limits. There is no magic path of guarantee. It could be illustrated in Acts chapter 12. James, the apostle, was very righteous. And yet he died an untimely death. He was executed. Peter was also in prison, but he was released. I think it’s some of my preaching colleagues who have passed at a time that we would consider untimely just this week. The passing of my friend David Owen, who is my age. The nephew of Bob Owen. You may not know his father, Sparky Owen. Shocking news.

Or the death of Marty Pickup a few years ago, where one of my favorite teachers at Florida College, Phil Roberts, those guys did not live in the old age, and as I look at that, I say to myself, there was so much more knowledge and wisdom that they could have imparted. So much more work they could have done in God’s cause. But for whatever reason, they are no longer with us. How many times in the last decade or however long it’s been since Bill Roberts passed, have I wanted to call him up and ask him a question?

And I don’t know why I’m still here. Maybe it’s all those prayers that people pray that he may have a long life in doing so. Maybe that’s the reason why I’m still here. But there are no guarantees, and that’s the point that he’s making. There is no magic path in your life. That, okay, if I’m righteous enough that God is going to somehow shield me from all kinds of problems and difficulties and pain and sorrow. And I think a lot of people think that they become a Christian and they think it’s all going to be roses after that. And we talk about that. And he said, no, it’s not that way. But I think people still think like that. I’m serving God, and it’s going to all be good.

It may even get worse. Before the end. When all the wrongs are righted, when the righteous are rewarded. Don’t measure the validity of righteousness by the circumstances of your life. That’s what the scriptures are saying to us over and over again. You may have pain because you’re a Christian. As we saw in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are you. When men persecute you and cast insults at you. Okay, so what’s the point of this lesson? Here it is. There are no guarantees. There’s no magic path that you can take. Now understand this. If you reject righteousness and go down the path of wickedness, you could get only worse misery. And certainly you do not have God on your side as you go down that path.

5. Righteousness Is the Preferable Course by Far

Because whatever he might be saying in Ecclesiastes 7 does not undo what he ends with, right? Fear God and keep his commandments. Because this applies to every person. He will bring every act into judgment. And so what we should surmise from the entire scope of the book as we come to its conclusion is while it doesn’t have any guarantees, you’re going to still experience adversity and sorrow and pain and trouble in this life. He says, the preferable course by far is the righteous. Fear God and keep his commandments. Why is that? Did you notice I had by far underlined? Boy. How much further? Righteousness is the preferable course by far. But young people, why is that? Well, it’s a longer list than I can do in five minutes, but here it is.

And let’s start with the biggest answer of all. Savior and friend, be my endeavor unto the end. I love that phrase in that psalm. May God be our endeavor unto the end. Because if our earthly house is torn down, if our earthly tent is removed, we have what? We have a hole with God eternal in the heavens. That’s where it’s headed, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 1. Even if what is temporary is very temporary. Whenever I talk about this, I always talk about the latest person that’s passed. And this week it was my beloved yogiara. Yogi. 90 years old, I think. I mean, wow. I don’t really remember when he played baseball, okay. But Yogi’s been known for decades for his funny little sayings where he turns things upside down.

It ain’t over till it’s over. It’s one of his most famous. But I like the one that’s a little more obscure, where he says, nobody goes there anymore because it’s crowded. Like, think about that for a second. If you come to a work in the road, take it. Yogi was awesome. He’ll be missed. But even if you don’t live to be 90, look, our time here is very temporary. We need to live in view of eternity, and that’s really what Solomon concludes in chapter 12 of his book. And I’ll tell you another reason why it’s the preferable course, because it brings peace in the midst of chaos. That’s the problem Solomon is dealing with. Life has its chaos. It’s unfairness, it’s injustice. You think going the righteous course is going to lead a certain way, but you don’t have any guarantees of that.

You’re still like a fish caught in a net. Time and chance overtake you to them all. That’s two chapters later in chapter 9. And he says, that could be your experience, even if you’re righteous. You’re going to die just like the dog who died, she said earlier in that chapter. Like Robert who’s dead all over. You’re going to die too. There’s no escape of that just because you’re righteous. And so here’s why righteousness is better. Even if chaos gets out of control, and sometimes it does. It’s like, where’s the next chaos going to come from? If this happens and then that happens, and then something else happens. The thing about the righteous course is we have God’s faith. The peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, can guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Why do we need that? Well, previously he just said, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, because circumstances may not be too favorable, is the point of Philippians chapter 4. Be anxious for nothing, he says in verse 6. And then he says, the peace of God will guide you through the chaos. We will have reliable assistance during the crises, even if all men fail. God will not fail his people. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayers.

And it’s a preferable course because of revitalizing behavior. And I call it revitalizing because have you ever just taken the time and sacrifice to help someone and to see the result of that in their lives, how thankful they were, how appreciative they were, and what that felt like. How that made you feel that you had assisted someone, maybe just a little bit, but you assisted them in the journey. The things God asks us to do revitalize us. And that makes the righteous course pray. Godliness is profitable for all things. Having promise of the life that now is and the life that is to come. God’s ways are the right way to live.

6. It Is With Difficulty That the Righteous Are Saved

They are the saving way to live. And as Peter would conclude the same in 1 Peter chapter 4. He said, It is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And I know he may be talking about a specific set of circumstances and history that were about to unfall and a specific judgment of God at that time, but even if that’s what he’s talking about, the application of that to our ultimate judgment is just as real. And when judgment does begin, when the day of judgment that is sure to come comes, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10, he says, if it first begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? It is with difficulty that the righteous are saved.

There’s your point from Ecclesiastes. It is with difficulty that the righteous are saved. But what will be the outcome for the godless man and sinner? Difficulty is not sugarcoating. It is real, it happens to us all. With this recommendation and require. Entrust your soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right. And that was Solomon’s conclusion, too. Despite the inequities, despite the pain, despite the fact that no matter which course you go, there are any guarantees. If you go the wicked course, you’re going to bring more trouble to yourself. But even if you go the wise course, you’re not going to be shielded from all of those kinds of things. So, and you’re going to have difficulty if you’re a Christian. Peter says that in 1 Peter chapter 4.

Conclusion

So, what should I do? Entrust your soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right. That’s whom he will welcome and embrace. Is there someone in this audience who needs to choose the superior course of wisdom? Awake, sleeper. And arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. That same context that I mentioned earlier in Ephesians 5 and verse 14. Take advantage of the time.

Choose the superior course and choose the saving course because time isn’t a given. I know we plan to meet at 5 o’clock and sing songs. I’m looking forward to that. We’ll be encouraged by that wonderful singing here. But that may never happen. Are you ready to meet the Lord? Can we assist you? Come now as we stand and sing.