Open Mouth Short Arms

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, you can take out your copy of God’s Word this morning and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 6. And as you’re doing that, when are you most teachable? When are your teachable moments? People are typically least teachable after they just hit the game-winning shot. Generally speaking, that is not a teachable moment right after your team has just won the game. It is not a teachable moment right after you have just aced. Maybe you’ve even added some extra credit onto that test that you just took. You got the 123 out of 100. That generally is not the time when we’re most teachable. We’re generally not most teachable right after the awards ceremony where we got that huge trophy in celebration of us and how great whatever it was that we did was. Get a plaque with our name on it. That’s not a teachable moment for most people. Isn’t much reason to listen if you can enjoy something or succeed at something, succeed at something, and attribute any part of the reason for that to you.

Generally not a teachable moment. It isn’t just when we’ve shown ourselves to be outstanding that we don’t listen either. There are plenty of other times when we don’t listen. I think probably the next biggest time we don’t listen is just when we’re distracted. there are too many things, or we’re too busy, or our to-do list is just too long, or even when we’re entertained by something. You know, we’re just getting to that, laughing, enjoying that. It is hard to keep our focus and to listen when we are distracted. Basically when anything consumes our attention, whether that’s us or something else, we’re not really teachable, but there are such things as teachable moments. There are times when you and when I are more ready to listen and to hear what somebody else has to say than others. Those are called teachable moments. While I’m sure that there are probably some differences between my teachable moments and your teachable moments, I’m also pretty sure that there are some similarities between all of us as well.

Namely, almost everybody arrives at their teachable moment when they are hanging at the end of their rope by one hand and losing their grip. Almost everybody is ready to get somebody’s advice or counsel on how to hang on when you’re at the end of your rope. We are never more ready, ready to listen and to submit to someone’s instruction than when we have lost everything. And we know that we are out of options. We’ve got no clue what direction ahead. We need somebody else’s help. Then we are ready to listen. And even though Job, think about Job, even though Job was a righteous man, And God was primarily intending to teach Satan a lesson, not necessarily to teach Job a lesson.

That ended up happening. There’s no doubt in my mind that Job’s ears were never more open and ready to listen and to submit to God than by the time we get to chapter 38 in Job. You can actually turn over there before we look at Ecclesiastes 6, Job 38. You know, Job lost everything that he could have pretty much except for his own life. He lost all of his physical possessions, his earthly stuff. He lost all of his sons and daughters. His wife virtually abandoned him and his three friends have been accusing him and questioning him for 36 chapters.

The whole part about losing his kids and his stuff and his wife complaining at him gets two chapters and 36 chapters of his friends berating him and accusing him of being the problem. I was thinking about that last night and thinking, whoa, that’s a lot of space devoted to this debate back and forth between Job and his three friends. Job debated and argued and defended himself, but what did that accomplish for Job? In all of that exchange with his three friends over 36 chapters, what was Job doing in all of that? He was talking. That’s the only thing he could do was talk. And what did that actually get him? Zero.

Not only did he not persuade his friends, he also didn’t change his circumstances at all for all of his talking, for all of his defending, for all of his fighting against his friends and his situation, he accomplished nothing. And when you get to Job 38, he is at the end of his rope. There is no more fight in him. There is no more debate. All he can do is shut his mouth and listen.

I think he probably had even greater reason to listen based on the fact that God was answering him out of a whirlwind. Generally, I think I would shut up and start listening when a whirlwind was speaking to me, let alone God speaking out of the whirlwind. But Joe chapter 38 verse one, then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, this is scary. I’m scared for Job at this point. This is one of the reasons I don’t like listening to talk radio. There’s a little footnote. I don’t like listening to talk radio because I hate how stupid most of the people sound and I, I feel bad for them. I have some kind of internal reaction in my bowels of sadness for them that the host of the show is just going to make them look like the total idiot that they sound like.

And here is God answering Job out of the whirlwind and this is a barrage. This is a machine gun barrage of questions that just put Job right into his place. The Lord answered Job out of the world and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you make it known to me. Why don’t you tell me something Job? Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements?

surely you know you are hot snot on a gold platter buddy so why don’t you inform me God is saying about how all this took place because certainly you know you were there at least that’s how you’re talking and acting like you have that kind of ability and that knowledge who determined its measurement surely know or who stretched the line upon it on what where its bases sunk or who late its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far shall you come and no farther and here shall your proud waves be stayed? Yeah I was thinking back to that time when I was visiting the ocean and I didn’t want to get my feet wet and so I just said stop right there that worked for me of course for you as well no not that just doesn’t happen our words fall into emptiness at that point we have no control over the things that God is

saying he has control over verse 12 have you commanded the morning since your days began, which is kind of a snide remark right there anyway, because since your days began, suggest that there was a beginning and therefore Job was not eternal anyway. So just in the time you’ve been around, have you ever gotten up before the sun and then you commanded it to come up? Has that been your job? Has that been your power or your ability and caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it? It is changed like clay under the seal and its features stand out like a garment from the wicked.

Their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare. Tell me if you know all this. We were just watching a couple weeks ago some sections from Blue Planet. Do you know what that is? I didn’t know what this is. Let’s say it’s 40 hour long thing just on the ocean and Blue Planet because however much of the earth’s surface is water and all the things that basically I don’t care about.

I have watched at least a few hours going through it and it’s crazy the stuff that they find at the bottom and they are not even at the bottom. They’re at the bottom as bottom as they can get down to. They can’t even get down there. And it’s like three people in the history of the world who have been to the lowest parts that they’ve been to, let alone not even getting to the bottom. And God is saying to Job a few thousand years ago, that was you, right, who did that?

No, it wasn’t. Look over then at Job 40, because from the beginning of chapter 38 through the end of 38, and all the way through 39, is God questioning Job about his wisdom and his power and sovereignty and ability. And of course Job has none. So chapter 40 verse 1, and the Lord said to Job, shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further. I realize, Lord, that what I really need to do is shut up.

That’s really what I need to do at this moment, is stop talking and start listening. Then look down at verse 9. Have you an arm like God? And can you thunder with a voice like His? is this picture or illustration of ability and power and might. Now with our arms we do all kinds of things. In particular, if you can imagine fighting and battling with somebody, arms are pretty valuable. That’s why we don’t send unarmed people physically or literally like with guns. We don’t send unarmed people to fight.

And really you don’t send a person into the boxing ring with little stubs for arms either because they are likely to not succeed in the fight. But who has an arm like the Lord? And this is not one of those big beefy arms. Like, like Trogdor has. This is an illustration of His power and His might and His ability. Who has an arm like the Lord? And the answer is nobody. You know, the best that we can possibly do is talk. And even our talk is so empty and futile and useless compared to the voice of God that actually brought things that weren’t weren’t even existing into existence. That’s the kind of power his word has compared to ours.

And so we have open mouths and short arms. That’s the title for the message. We talk big games, but we get into the ring and we just got little jabs here and there. We got nothing. We need to close our mouths and start listening. Job, by this point, has arrived at his teachable moment. It’s at this point when he recognized that he was at the end of his rope and that he started to grasp God. Started to submit and put himself under God rather than trying to do his own thing. Look over at Job 42. Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. That is total submission to somebody else who is in control.

No purpose of yours can be thwarted. Then he quotes what God had already said to him, Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, thanks to wonderful for me, which I did not know. I was that one. I’m at fault. He quotes, God, again, here and I will speak, I will question you and you make it known to me. Job says, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Joe finally came to understand that his position was not to debate and to fight with God, but rather to submit to God and to listen. And I think in a similar way, Solomon has been moving us towards a teachable moment in Ecclesiastes. And now you can turn to Ecclesiastes chapter six.

Through a combination of personal testimony. And observations that he had made with all of his wisdom, Solomon has intended to rip away from our grasp any rope we might be holding on to to find satisfaction or meaning or joy in this life under the sun. And he has tried to take away all of those things and bring us to this teachable moment. Pleasure doesn’t satisfy. Money can’t buy happiness. Wisdom is no guarantee of joy. The theme of the book, and especially chapter one, verse one through chapter six, verse nine, is that all is vanity and striving after wind. You’ve got no rope. No rope to hold onto. You can fight that if you want, but the only way you can fight is with words.

That’s the only thing you can do to even make a debate here to contend at all is just with your words. How else are you going to fight against God? Are you really going to put your fist up in the air and ask him to come down?

like hand-to-hand fight. You’re not doing that with God. So all you’ve got is words and our words are pretty weak at that. Our arms are just too short to box with God. We have open mouths and short arms. That is not terrific weaponry. A big open mouth and little stub arms is not a great way to fight God. And so chapter Verse 6 verses 10 through 12 begins the second half of the book of Ecclesiastes, and he is preparing us to receive counsel and advice for living under the sun. In fact, the first half of Ecclesiastes is dominated by phrases like, all is vanity and striving after wind. The second half of the book is dominated by phrases like, who can find out? And man does not know. And he knows that we don’t know, and he wants to give us the counsel and the advice that we need, but he He needs to make sure that we are in a teachable moment, that we’re ready to listen.

And I think he intends to get us to this teachable moment by giving us three reasons to submit to God and listen. That’s what we’re going to find in verses 10 through 12. Three reasons to submit to God and listen. The point of this passage is to tell us who we are, and we are weak, and it is also to tell us what we are capable of, And that is hot air. It’s going to tell us what we know. And that is bupkis. Who we are is weak. What we’re capable of is hot air. And what we know? Nothing. That ought to cause us to submit and to listen. Let’s read the paragraph, chapter 6, verse 10. Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.

The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow. For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? Three reasons to submit to God and listen. Number one, from verse 10, you are in a position of total dependence and frailty.

Each one of us, every human being, is in a position of total dependence and frailty. Whatever has come to be has already been named and it is known what man is and he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. Here we find out who man really is and specifically that he is weak sauce.

Man has no power in and of himself and no influence of his own. When Solomon says whatever has come to be has already been named, he is talking in a way to describe our dependence. When you name something else, you are communicating that it is dependent on you. You can go all the way back to Genesis chapter one, where God names his creation.

He calls it into being by his word, and then he calls it day or night or the heavens or the earth, and by calling it something, God shows that it is 100% dependent on him. It has no existence. It cannot be defined apart from God giving it a name. What has been has already been named. That is, it has been called into existence by somebody else. Even when you think about Adam in chapter 2 verses 19 to 20 of Genesis, he, God brings all the animals to Adam and Adam names them. And that’s more than to just show off he had great creativity in coming up with fancy names to describe the animals. It’s meant to be an indicator of Adam’s dominion over the animal kingdom.

By naming the animals, God enables Adam to take that dominion and that control over the part of the earth that God had given man dominion over. In the Old Testament then in general, to name something is to have control over it or to define it. And the emphasis in Ecclesiastes 6.10 is on God’s power and how he defines, he creates and defines us as humans. And so we are totally dependent on him in every part of life. Everything in your existence depends on something outside of you. It is known what man is. That is, he is totally dependent. Is it really hard to get that, by the way? Is it really hard to get that man is totally dependent?

Let’s go back to the very first man. What did he have? Right. He was dirt. Yeah, that’s what he had. He was dirt. And so God comes down and forms the dirt. Into a man and then breathes into that dirt life And then we have Adam. It’s really interesting that the Hebrew word for dirt, for earth, is Adam or Adam. And so man and dirt are pretty much right there connected together. And so that is the first man’s name is Adam.

So even through this passage where we see the word man repeated over and over and over again to a Jew, to a Hebrew, they would not have been easily able to isolate away the thought about the first man, Adam, from man here, Adam, and his total dependence on somebody else, namely on God. We know then that God is not a, or man is not able to dispute one stronger than he. The one who touched the dirt and made man and breathed into man his life is the one who names man and defines man and on whom man is totally dependent. And there is no way that God is nervous about your big pile of dirt that you take around with you every day.

realize it’s not actual dirt anymore. But it’s the picture. God is not nervous about the one to whom he imparted life. It’s not scary to him. He is, maybe this is the understatement of 2007 so far, he is stronger than you. We’re not able to dispute with him. Connecting this strength, he being stronger, and even the idea of his arms, Jeremiah 3217 says, Ah, Lord God, it is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

Nothing is too hard for you. And yet every day is like this constant fight against God. And certainly that’s the case for pagans who aren’t even thinking about God. They might need to even recognize the fight that they’re in, and yet that’s what it is, a fight against the sovereign one outside of them who is in control of everything. But even us as believers who know better, we still find ourselves debating against God in our situations. Why is it like this? Why do I have to go through this? Couldn’t you make this different? Come on.

And we fight and we dispute and we find ourselves like Job answering back to God. Isaiah 45.9 really points out the ridiculous, the ridiculousity of this kind of perspective. Woe to him who strives with him, who formed him. A pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who forms it, what are you making? Or your work has no handles? Look buddy, you totally blew it. I needed the handles on the side of this one. I’m a little teapot. You know, my spout is just too short, God. And we fight against the one who made us and who is in control. When we are in a position of total dependence and frailty, man is in an inferior position with a frail existence.

He ought to submit and listen. Well there’s a second reason why we ought to submit and listen. Number two, your protest is completely ineffective and futile. You gain zero by your big words. Verse 11, the more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? Depending on your relationship with God, your intimacy there, you might view the position of being totally dependent and frail as a pretty awful predicament. And even if you don’t view that as an awful thing that you’re totally dependent on somebody else, still us who are generally glad, still at times are upset about it. So what can we do about this position that we’re in of total dependence and frailty?

What can we do about that? Nothing. Nothing. We’ve seen who man is and this is what he can do. So he actually, maybe it’s wrong to say he can do nothing, he can talk. That is what man can do about his terrible predicament of being in total dependence and frailty, he can talk. What his talk in this case is cheap and fruitless. Words won’t change the world. Any part of it. Okay, right, we have persuasive speeches. That changes the world. You know, some politician could make this great speech and win the election and, you know, then become the president and then change the world. Or call the nation to battle with some motivating or inspiring speech.

That’s changing the world with words. Well, one, I would argue that that only happens because God allows it. A lot of people say a lot of things that could be persuasive that aren’t. And I know people who say things that aren’t persuasive and yet somehow things still happen around them. So one, I would argue that it’s not their words that have the power, it’s God who is enabling it. And secondly, even if that was the case, nobody’s words are making the sun come up this morning. If we had that kind of power, most of you would have used your word power to make it warmer. I would have used mine to make it rainy. Nobody has any control over those kinds of things with their words. We can’t stop the rain. We can’t stop the earth from rotating. When Superman flew around the earth real fast to make it go backwards in time, this is the old school like 70s Superman and he made the earth go back in time. That was fiction. And it wasn’t words. And it was fiction. And we definitely are not creating something out of nothing.

Pepperoni pizza. Nothing. I got nothing there. And neither do you. So we can debate with God, but we’re debating with our words that do nothing and his words that created universes. It’s not a great position to be in. All we have is words. They do no good against God. Our words don’t even work the voice commands on our cell phones. People yelling at their cell phone to dial such and such a person’s number. We don’t even get that to work. Let alone think that we can control anything or accomplish something with our words. But yet we love to talk. And we love to talk even against God. David actually prays against big talkers in Psalm 12 verses three and four. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts.

Those who say with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us. Who is master over us. What? Our lips are with us. You know, to battle. It just, that’s not how it works. Our words don’t do anything. And Solomon connects our wordiness with foolishness multiple times. He does that in Proverbs, the book of Proverbs multiple times. And even in Ecclesiastes, Look at chapter 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10, starting in verse 12, the words of a wise man’s mouth when in favor but the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness and the end of his talk is evil madness. A fool multiplies his words though no man knows what is to be and who can tell him what will be after him.

There’s just no advantage to your wordy fighting with God. It’s not going to change Him. It’s not going to change your situation. Your protest is futile. You don’t have a good fight in you. What advantage is there to man? There is none. There is no advantage for a man to talk and argue and quarrel with God. In fact, the more you struggle, the worse it gets.

I suppose in that way, it’s kind of like quicksand. I did some research on quicksand last night just for this purpose. Apparently quicksand is not like this living creature that sucks you down in, you know? It is through super saturation and blah, blah, blah. And again, more things I don’t really care about. But apparently if you thrash around and fight against it, that is what actually sucks you down further. If you just relax and wait, you are more buoyant. The oxygen in your body will actually cause you to float up to the top so that you can more paddle over to the side rather than suck you down in. And it is not going to just suck you down in unless you fight it.

I think that’s a perfect picture even of the increase of words being an increase of meaninglessness. The more we actually fight against God, the more vain it actually ends up being. Man is impotent in his protest, a total failure when it comes to fighting with God. should submit and listen. Which brings us to the third reason in verse 12 for submitting and listening. Your perspective is absolutely limited and fleeting. Your perspective on life, your wisdom, is absolutely limited and fleeting. For who knows what is good for a man while he lives the few days of of his vain life which he passes like a shadow for who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? So far we’ve seen what man is, he’s weak.

We’ve seen what man can do, he can talk and this is what he knows. He knows nothing. At least nothing fully or completely or absolutely. Two rhetorical questions here in verse 12 kind of cast this curtain of skepticism on our ability to know anything. Who knows what is good for a man while he lives the few days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow. You cannot tell me what is going to guarantee me to be happy tomorrow. You you cannot tell me with absolute certainty the right course of action that I should take on a given decision that I need to make. You can’t guarantee me that. Now you might have great experience and seen how it has gone generally speaking in the past. That doesn’t guarantee anything for tomorrow.

The only way we can know anything for certain about life is when we get it from God’s word. But all those people who are giving counsel and advice on what is right and what you should do and this is the best thing. You can try to be wise about that, but you can’t guarantee anything. You have no idea what is going to happen. You have no certain proof that you’re even going to be here or your friend is going to be here tomorrow, let alone that you know exactly what they should do and this is the right thing and, duh, how could anybody think anything else? Our certainty can come from God’s word, but it can’t come from our perspective. Our perspective is absolutely limited to this vain life.

Your friend asks you for counsel. Well, sure, there’s safety in a multitude of counselors. That’s a great thing. I’m not saying we should all stop talking with one another about anything or giving each other help on making decisions, but ultimately, you better be humble when you give that counsel because you don’t know.

Job’s three friends did not know. They actually said a lot of, at least Bible sounding kind of things, and they did not know what was going on. Sure, out of love. You have experience or you know God’s Word, you ought to listen to the advice and counsel that other people give, but ultimately there is no guarantee in any of that. And part of that is limited not only by our perspective because we’re finite and we’re not in control and we don’t know everything, It’s limited because our life itself is temporary. It’s fleeting.

You definitely don’t know what is going to be like under the sun after you’re gone. You can’t guarantee what happens while you’re here, let alone what’s going to happen when you’re gone. So who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun? The fact is that like Job says in chapter eight, verse nine, we are but of yesterday and know nothing for our days on earth are a shadow. What is your life? It is like a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James chapter four verses thirteen through sixteen. You have no perspective, partly because you’re finite and partly because you are momentary. Literally every one of us are short lived.

We are short-lived. We cannot know for certain because we’re not God. We have no capacity to see beyond our nose and beyond the next five seconds. Really the next second. That’s pretty much what you got. Are you at the end of your rope yet? The thing is, we know who man is and he is weak. All he can do is talk and he doesn’t know anything. Why fight? Submit to the one who is stronger and listen. The rest of the book of Ecclesiastes, like I mentioned, is Solomon’s advice. It is his counsel from beyond the Son on how to live under the Son, independence on God, rather than fighting against him, happily submitting to him and his control.

You, no matter what you do, no matter what you say, you will not escape your limitations. You will not unravel the mysteries of life on your own. And you can debate all you want, but your arms are too short to fight with God. Solomon is calling us to get to the end of our rope, to submit and listen and grasp for God. That’s the thing that’s going to enable us to enjoy the process when we put our hands over our mouths and look beyond the sun. Father, we want to do that. It’s our vain pride that keeps us from doing that. It is this sin that can be so dominant in our hearts and minds that keeps us from submitting. But you are sovereign and you are stronger.

There is no profit, no advantage in fighting against you. It only increases the vanity and the meaninglessness. So I pray that as we’ve looked at this paragraph of your Word and as your Spirit has worked, that you’d cause us even now, during our small group times, to consider our own teachability and our own submission and listening to you. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.