The Search for Wisdom (day 2) Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

SPEAKER 04 : 0:00

I think it’s time that we understand that God is offended when we do not consult Him. We do not fear Him. We do not say, I’m going to do what He wants me to do no matter what. I am going to do what is right in this situation. Though a hundred people over here are encouraging me to compromise and do something else, I’m going to do what is right. Moral conviction flows out of our sense of accountability to God and listening to God, no matter what anybody else says.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:52

We’re blessed to have you with us for this Friday edition of Hope for Today. By now in our Ecclesiastes series, Solomon has wrecked our confidence in ourselves. He’s exposed how quickly human wisdom fails, how dangerous moral pride is, and how foolish it is to think we see clearly. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 doesn’t pat us on the back. It cuts, corrects, and it calls us to fear God or live deceived. This is day two of The Search for Wisdom. And if you want truth, stay right here, because in just a moment, David’s going to take us back into Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verses 15 to 29, to continue our look at wisdom. Stay tuned. First, Matt, we have a listener letter today from Kent in Wilma. And Kent, by the way, at one time, volunteered here at the ministry helping us out. They have since moved to another part of the country, but share their letter and how they’re ministering now and how that was influenced by Hope for Today.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:01

Right. It’s so neat. It’s so encouraging. It says, Dear friends at HFT, that’s Hope for Today. May the Lord continue to use and bless this ministry. You often come to mind as we remember the years Kent was able to help out there. Now he, the Lord, has us in a small town where there is much opportunity to reach out to new friends and neighbors. He, God, keeps us busy. Amen to that, right? Wow. Well, thanks, Kent and Wilma.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:27

We sure appreciate that. And of course, Kent, your faithful service and helping out here at Hope for Today. You know something? Ministry doesn’t stop. No, it doesn’t. And with your help, friends, and your prayers, this ministry continues by God’s grace. Now here’s David with day two of The Search for Wisdom, found in Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verses 15 through 29.

SPEAKER 04 : 2:53

Guided by his word, wisdom exhorts us to avoid the extremes of self-righteousness and moral indifference or indulgence. Now let’s come to a second matter in verse 19. He’s also telling us that wisdom excels the advice of others. I’m going to try to be cautious here because you can be misunderstood easily. For example, the Bible teaches us that there’s safety in a multitude of counselors. It would be a wise thing for you to talk to Christian people who walk with the Lord about a decision that you’re going to make. There is nothing wrong with that. Unless… If in seeking the advice of others you have ignored or neglected the wisdom of God, then I tell you it is wrong. Why is it that the last resort we have is to go to the Lord? Why isn’t the first? Why do we talk to 30 people about some decision we want to make before we ever consult the Word of God? We pour out our hearts before God and say, God, I need your advice. It’s only when I get locked into something that I can’t see, and I’ve studied as much as I can, but I don’t understand which way to go, that I now turn and ask for advice elsewhere to clarify. Maybe they know something about this passage I don’t know, or they’re seeing something I don’t see. But most of us jump quickly to the friend without exhorting or calling on the friend of all friends, without calling on God for advice about what to do. You see, wisdom, which comes only from God, exceeds the advice of all others. And that’s why verse 19 says, Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers of the city. Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, who wrote in the first century, he says that the ten rulers are the number of the city council. We do know that ten men are necessary to get together for a synagogue. And the Jews kind of look at this as ten men who are the most mature men. They’re the elders. They should be directed. They should be running the affairs of our city. They’re the most knowledgeable, most wisest people we have. And Solomon’s saying that the wisdom of God will strengthen you more than even the top 10 smartest people in your town. Wisdom will strengthen you more. It exceeds the advice of others. And he really gives us two reasons. Why is that so? Why can you, as an individual believer, trust the wisdom of God more than the advice of the ten smartest guys in town? For two reasons. Number one. Look at verse number 20. For… which is simply translated also because, it’s a causal sense, because there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. You see, the first reason why I need God’s wisdom instead of talking to ten people about it is because the ability of others is affected by sin. Boy, you stop and think about the seriousness of that. Why should I talk to you about something when I haven’t talked to God about it? Because I know that both of us are affected by sin. There’s not a man on the earth that does good and does not sin. So prone to error is in the heart of every one of us. Prone to make mistakes. It’s so easy to make a mistake. It’s so easy to give advice off the top of your head and not really understand that’s the wisdom of God. If it’s the wisdom of God, praise the Lord. But if it’s not, we’re just talking. Wisdom exceeds the advice of even the ten smartest people in town. Because of the fact that the ability of others is deeply affected by sin. And secondly, the second reason he gives is in verse 21 and 22. And boy, do these pierce the heart. It says, do not take to heart everything people say. In our English vernacular, we sometimes say, don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. Same thing. Don’t take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Hey, it’s not a matter of overhearing it. I have them writing it. That’s the truth. They get letters on it. And you say, well, maybe some of it’s true. Maybe it is. I don’t know. But if everything people have said to me is true, I ought to be in a funny farm. Now, don’t say amen. But, you know, it’s amazing what people think. And the further you are in leadership or whatever, people decide they can just take a pot shot anytime they want to. Now the Bible says, don’t listen to it. That’s what it says. Is there somebody at work picking on you? Don’t listen to it, God says. Why? Because it says, for many times your own heart has known that even you have cursed others. Now if curse is a little strong, you say, oh, I never swear. Hey, you like be critical? Will that help you? Be critical. Have you ever been critical of somebody? Have you ever torn somebody down? The Bible says, hey, don’t listen to what people say, or you’ll find out even the guy that’s working for you will be attacking you. Oh no, none of those would ever do that, would they? Hey, the only way you know that is not be a boss. It’s only the boss that thinks that everybody loves him. Hey, beware when all people speak well of you. Everybody isn’t saying what you think they’re saying about you, okay? But don’t listen to what they’re saying. What you want to listen to is what God has to say. And I’ll tell you why this is so critical. People who are always responding to everything everybody says about them will never make a decision in a moral crisis to do what is right. They’ll always compromise. You see, wisdom is very important. It’s listening to God first. It’s the attitude of Peter and John in front of the Sanhedrin who say, we don’t want you guys to preach and teach anymore in Jerusalem. Now stop it. Hey, we ought to obey God rather than men. Hey, we told you not to do that. And in chapter 5, they beat him up, they flog their backs, and they go out bloody, bruised, and they are rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name. And they go right back and keep on preaching and teaching. Would you do that? Would you? Wisdom is better. than all the advice of the ten smartest people in town, even if they’re Christian leaders. I think it’s time that we understand that God is offended when we do not consult Him. We do not fear Him. We do not say, I’m going to do what He wants me to do no matter what. I am going to do what is right in this situation. Though a hundred people over here are encouraging me to compromise and do something else, I’m going to do what is right. Moral conviction flows out of our sense of accountability to God and listening to God, no matter what anybody else says. I’ll give you an illustration. The lady down at the newspaper who was getting an article together on the prayer amendment being defeated in Congress, she asked me what I thought, which was her first mistake. I said, how much time you got? She said, as much as you want to give me. She said, what do you think about all this going on? I said, I think it’s a colossal waste of time. She said, oh, maybe you didn’t understand. I’m talking about the prayer amendment. I said, yeah, I know what you’re talking about. I think it’s a colossal, I think it’s a shame that our congressmen are wasting so much time on that dumb problem. She said, but you’re a pastor. I said, well, you asked me. That’s what I told you. I think it’s a shame. They’re wasting so much time on what a dumb problem. She says, I don’t believe this. You know, we’re having this conversation. She said, I don’t believe you’re saying this. Why is that such a dumb problem? I said, look, what if they decide we can’t pray at all anymore, ever, under any circumstances? She said, that’s a possibility. I said, well, sure. I said, but that doesn’t stop me from praying. I don’t care what they decide over there. That isn’t going to stop me from praying. Is it going to stop you from praying? Is that what you think? What has happened to us is we are now listening in a wrong way, not to God, but to people and what they’re saying. It’s not going to stop me from praying no matter where it is. And I don’t care what your position is on that prayer amendment. I’m going to keep praying. She said that’s civil disobedience. Hey, she’s right. If they told us not to do it, it’s civil disobedience. If they told you not to preach the Bible, it’s civil disobedience. We sit here in the comfort and security of a free culture. Hey, I’ve been in other countries where it’s illegal to preach the gospel. I think America’s being lulled to sleep. We’re not listening to what God says. If we feared God more than we feared man, we would do what is right no matter what. Wisdom does not listen to the advice of the ten smartest guys in town. If they’re not relaying the advice of God Almighty, it doesn’t even listen to them. Psalm 1.1 says, Blessed is a man that does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he does meditate day and night. I think we have a serious problem, folks, in this society. I read these things and, you know, we can innocently run over them real quick and say, yeah, amen, praise the Lord. But start thinking about it. What is he saying? He’s saying wisdom will strengthen your life more than the ten smartest guys in town. That’s what he’s saying. So wisdom exceeds all the advice of others. Not only because their ability is affected by sin, but because the attitude of others is not always right. And that’s why he says don’t listen to it. David said to Saul in 1 Samuel 24 9, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Indeed, David seeks your harm? It wasn’t true. So why were you listening? The question is not what people say, but what is right. That’s the question. It’s foolish to be overly concerned, it seems to me, and troubled about what others think and say about us in their unguarded, unkind, and often foolish moments. When the truth of the matter is our whole life ought to be controlled by God Almighty and what He says. It’s what God thinks of me that ought to control my life. I need to be accountable to Him. I need to fear Him with all of my heart. What he’s saying here is pretty strong and I think would help a lot of us who are compromising with sin in this rotten world of ours. To fear God, we will escape the problems of life. To fear God always is to look to him before we look to the advice of others. Now let’s come to a third thing. Down in verse 23 to 26, he tells us something else about wisdom, that it not only exhorts us to avoid extremes and excels the advice of others, but third, it escapes the traps of sin. Wisdom does. It escapes the traps of sin, as well as our inability to understand things by ourselves. You know, there are a lot of things in life I don’t understand and you don’t understand. But when I get wisdom from God, it will help me to escape the traps of sin. And there are a lot of them. Let’s look at this again. Verse 23, Solomon says, all this I prove by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep, who can find it out? I applied my heart to know and to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares, traps, and nets, whose hands are fetters or chains. He who pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. Talking about a very common problem. That’s the problem of prostitution, the affair. Whatever you want to call it. The woman whose motive is not right. The woman about whom he spoke often in the book of Proverbs. Read the opening chapters. He spoke often about the trap and the snare. That by flattery and deceit, the world often offers things to us that we think somehow will bring pleasure or momentary satisfaction. And it becomes a trap. It is bondage. It’s a chain. It will pull us down. Wisdom will escape those traps. There’s certain things here that really struck me. One, I noticed that in this particular section, the problem of human understanding is clearly presented. I don’t understand things sometimes. And you know, you try to judge people’s motives. You don’t understand what they’re really up to. And you can sometimes be in a trap before you even know it. People that look good, talk good, dress good, seem to be nice people, and all of a sudden lead you into something you don’t want to be let into. That happens all the time. Kids are often led into things they never want to be led into, but they are because they’re trapped by human understanding. If you think as humans we can understand always what people are presenting to us in a world, you’re crazy. The devil is a master deceiver. He can appear as an angel of light, transform himself and deceive us. Look at the problem of human understanding here. Three things. One, it quickly discovers its own limitations. Solomon said, I applied my heart to know to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things. But the verse preceding it said that it was far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out? You see, human understanding quickly discovers its own limitations. I like what Moffat said about this, an old writer. He said, reality is beyond my grasp. Something about that makes me think. It’s an interesting statement. Reality, what’s really the truth, is beyond my grasp. I need God’s help. So a lot of things in life, man, I look at the front of it. I look at the veneer. I look at the things people are saying and doing and the attractive Madison Avenue presentation they’ve given to me, and it all looks good. Reality, however, the real truth behind it is beyond our grasp. I’ve searched for it, he said, but it was far from me. I wanted to be wise, but in myself I couldn’t find it out. Isn’t that really our problem, people? Instead of falling on our knees before God and seeking his wisdom, we think we can solve it. Hey, I can understand this. Don’t worry about it. I can take care of this. Oh, really? Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said that God’s wisdom is exceedingly deep and far from you, and it’s impossible to find it out without his help. Boy, that’s something. The problem with human understanding, it not only quickly discovers its own limitations, but secondly, the other thing I found is that it desires to know the wrong things. Do you know that? Human understanding desires to know the wrong things. It’s because of the way we’re made. We have an old sin nature. And we want to know things that we don’t need to know. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden. They wanted to know things that God didn’t intend for them to know. And they violated God’s specific command in order to do so. And isn’t that what he says in verse 25? I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom, the reason for things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. Does God ever tell you to know that? Solomon told us earlier that he sought that, and it’s a one-way street, and he warns us, don’t go that way. Don’t try to know or understand sin. A lot of us think, hey, we’ve got to know a little bit about what we’re trying to combat, don’t we? Hey, all we have to do is read the Bible. That’s all we have to do. Several years ago, I was listening to a speaker who was teaching… The matter of going into the ministry. And he was a seminary professor. And I will not mention the school. But he was a seminary professor and he was teaching on going in the ministry. And he told the audience, and I’m sitting there, I’m hearing it, I’m in this audience. I was not a student. I was a guest of that particular, another professor in the school. And he said that they were going to go on an urban plunge. He called it urban plunge. He said, we’re going to go down to the dives in town and we’re going to see what sin is really like. So that you men will know how to preach against sin. My friends, the Bible does not teach that we need to know about sin in order to preach against sin. If you preach what God says, you already know all there is to know about sin. And all that you do in sinning or being exposed to sin will not add one bit of information that isn’t already in the Bible about sin. Nothing. Sin is quite deceiving. And it can trap the most unsuspecting hearts.

SPEAKER 02 : 20:26

That’s Bible teacher and author David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David will be back shortly to offer his final comments on today’s time in the Word, so stay right there. First, his son Matt’s here, and together we have a powerful resource. We’ve been talking about this for the past few weeks. This is the Is Life Worth Living Ecclesiastes bundle, and when you get this, you’ll save everything you’re learning in our current Ecclesiastes radio series and go even deeper. Matt?

SPEAKER 01 : 20:56

In a world of confusion, God’s Word still has the answers. Most of us will agree with that, and it brings great comfort and reassurance to our hearts. And that’s precisely why we continually emphasize the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:11

The need to stand firmly on the truth of God’s Word, Matt. Has it ever been more urgent than it is now? It really isn’t. Those who love end time prophecy and the validity of the Bible know we are called to be watchmen on the wall, always prepared.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:27

Always watching and always waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, during our Ecclesiastes series, we have a power package for our listening family. First, it’s my dad’s book called Is Life Worth Living?

SPEAKER 02 : 21:38

It’s a powerful study guide for the book of Ecclesiastes, adding additional lessons, illustrations, and application to our current radio series.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:47

And we’re combining the book with a complete collection of all the messages in the Ecclesiastes series.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:52

Yeah, so it’s the 170-page book by your dad titled Is Life Worth Living? Again, Ecclesiastes. plus all 18 audio messages in our Ecclesiastes radio series.

SPEAKER 01 : 22:01

Each message, of course, is covering two to three days on the radio. The complete package is just $40 plus shipping. Get this, and you’ll have all the lessons, encouragement, and guidance from Ecclesiastes safely stored for years to come. You can even share it with others. Oh, sure. Yeah. Your purchase will help the ministry of hope for today. The Is Life Worth Living Ecclesiastes package. Again, just $40.

SPEAKER 02 : 22:23

And consider adding a donation with your order or becoming a regular monthly contributor as long as God directs and supplies for you to do so. And please pray for hope for today. to get your copy of the Is Life Worth Living Ecclesiastes study package. And this is a wonderful bundle, just $40, as we mentioned. And you can get it by phone in the U.S., calling us at 875-BIBLE, or in Canada at 888-75-BIBLE, or order online at our website, davidhocking.org. That’s davidhocking.org. By the way, if God is using this ministry in your life, would you prayerfully consider supporting the work? First of all, support Hope for Today through prayer. Faithfully pray for Hope for Today. That means so much to us. Faithfully pray for Hope for Today. And then secondly, your donations help us continue teaching God’s Word without compromise, proclaiming the gospel, and strengthening believers in these difficult times. If you’d like to let us know you’re praying or make a donation by mail, write to us in the U.S. at Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO7Oaks.com. Abbotsford, B.C., V2SHP1. And remember, you can also call us in the U.S., 875-BIBLE. In Canada, 888-75-BIBLE. Bible is 24253. And our website. Many folks like to make a contribution online. It’s davidhawking.org. davidhawking.org.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:15

David? Often folks will ask us, hey, I missed one of the broadcasts. Well, maybe you don’t know about our website, our website, davidhocking.org. That’s where you can see all of our products. You can also order off of that website. And you can pick up broadcasts that you may have missed. So please take advantage of it, davidhocking.org. And remember, like we are in chapter 7, verses 15 to 29 right now, remember that this whole thing is talking about wisdom. You find wisdom in Job. You find it in Psalms. You find it in Proverbs. You find it in Song of Solomon. But you also find it in Ecclesiastes. And I hope this will be helpful to you and that you’ll get the tapes and the book and be able to enjoy it. God bless you.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:13

Well, thank you, David. And by the way, if you missed any part of today’s program or maybe a recent broadcast, you can catch up at DavidHawking.org. When you get there, click on the radio tab and you’ll find our most recent broadcast there for a limited time. And again, while you’re on the website, check out all the great Bible study resources we have for you. Again, that’s DavidHawking.org. On Monday, it’s day three of the Search for Wisdom from Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Solomon closes the door on easy answers, and God’s Word presses in, helping us to look honestly at what we trust and why. This isn’t the kind of wisdom that flatters or reassures. It’s the kind of wisdom that challenges our motives, exposes our assumptions, and strips away false confidence. We don’t want that. This is where self-reliance fails, pretense ends, and where real biblical wisdom finally begins. That’s what we want. Be sure to invite a friend as we bring you the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible right here on Hope for Today.