The End of the Matter

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.

You can take your copy of God’s Word and turn to the last page of Ecclesiastes. We encounter an almost endless array of choices every day with information that is rarely reliable and a perspective that is almost always short-sighted. Under the sun it is easy to be confused and distracted and discouraged, either because we don’t know what’s going to happen, we can’t predict the future, or even if we could predict the future we know that we’re not in control of it and there’s nothing we could do about it. For all of the commotion that takes place around us, nothing really ever changes. Man, we talked about that at the very beginning with Ecclesiastes, like the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.

All of the chaos and commotion that we see, that we experience every day, disguises the fact that nothing is really changing. We wonder about our purpose on the planet. We question why some things happened and why other things didn’t happen. We ask who we are and what it all means and where we fit in the big scheme of things. And those are the kind of questions that everyone asks at some point. And it’s no surprise that everybody asks those questions because God has put those holes in our heart.

made it so that we wonder about those things and seek an answer for them. We all know, everybody in here knows deep down a few very basic but big things like there is a God, God exists. Even more than that, you are aware that you cannot deny eternity and even more than knowing that God exists and eternity is undeniable, you know in your heart that there’s a problem with how you are related to God for eternity that needs to be dealt with, that needs to be fixed. It’s not just an issue that there’s a God, it’s not just an issue that there’s eternity, it’s that you are related to God and you will be around for eternity with God and there’s a question about how that’s going to go. For all of the people who ask those questions, there’s a very small number who have the right answers.

Everybody on the planet asks those kind of questions. A very small number are those who have the right answers, namely the people who have God’s revelation, God’s special In particular, the people who understand the Bible, and I think even more than that, those who pay attention to Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes, the whole thing, contains an out of this world sermon by the preacher, Kohelet, the Hebrew word for preacher, Solomon himself.

through 12 chapters, 12 sometimes excruciating, sometimes repetitive and monotonous, sometimes dismal chapters. Solomon has exposed the emptiness of a large bank account, the fleeting benefits, if there are actually benefits in the first place of popularity, the apparent worthlessness of submitting to authority and being hurt or oppressed by that authority, the pointlessness of listening to know-it-all fools, the meaninglessness of cheaters who seem like they never get caught, and the futility of thinking somehow in light of all of that bad news, the futility of thinking, oh we’ll be able to figure that all out on our own with our own human wisdom if we just get enough of it. And the preacher’s point is, vanity of vanities, all of that is vanity. It is striving after wind. But exposing the consummate, that’s what vanity of vanities is meant to describe. There is no greater vanity than what he’s been describing.

Supposing the consummate vanity of our short, little, forgettable, trivial lives is not the only purpose of the preacher, because somehow he also explains that smack in the middle of that vanity, it is possible to enjoy that process. Now that ought not to go together. After all of the vanity, the meaninglessness, the futility, the holes that seem like they cannot be filled, Solomon says there is a way to be satisfied in your heart and to have those holes filled in. That is possible smack dab in the middle of that vanity. And it goes a little something like this. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also I saw is from the hand of who? God.

This is from the hand of God for apart from him. Who can eat or who can have enjoyment? Implying the answer of absolutely no one can have this kind of joy in the midst of how discouraging and depressing and dark this storm of vain life is, apart from Him, you will not find satisfaction. For to the one who pleases Him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give to the one who pleases God.” As Ecclesiastes 2, 24 through 26, that’s enjoying the process. The toil is the same. Both types of people gather and collect. But one has joy in that process, the other misery.

Both are exhausted. They are tired. They get up early and go to bed late. They work themselves to the bone, often unsuccessful, and pretty much never finished in the work. And yet, one finds something to enjoy in the work and the other loathes the work. Both face vanity, only one can do it with a smile on his face. It is the one who looks to God moment by moment, who measures everything that happens in light of eternity, who sees all of life as one big worship service. That is the one who enjoys the process. Those are the people who really live. And even more than really living, those are the people who are ready to die, and those are the people who are ready to die and face God for eternity.

And if anyone should know about this, it’s Solomon. He had been there, owned that, thrown that party, married the 700 trophy wives. He climbed to the top of the mountain and Ecclesiastes is Solomon turning back from the top of the mountain and telling us what the view is like and if it’s worth trying to get there. An old Puritan preacher named George Swinnock described it like this. He said, quote, men that are in the valley think if they were at the top of such a hill they should touch the heavens. that are in the bottom of poverty or disgrace or pain think if they could get up to such a mountain, such a measure of riches and honors and delights, they could reach happiness.

Now Solomon had got to the top of this hill and seeing so many scrambling and laboring so hard, nay, riding on one another’s necks, fantastic phrase, nay, riding on one another’s next and pressing one another to death to get foremost, doth seem thus to speak them, sirs,” he’s now quoting what Solomon would say, “‘sirs, you are all deceived in your expectations. I see the pains you take to get up to this place, thinking that when you come here you shall touch the heavens and reach happiness, honors and pleasures in variety and abundance, and I find the hill full of difficulties instead of delights. And so far from giving me satisfaction, it causes much vexation, therefore advised.

Let me spare you pains and spend your strength for that which will turn to more profit. For believe it. You do but work at the labor in vain, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” He was there. He is pleading with us to learn, to get his message, and not be so discouraged like him. And today we have reached the end of the matter in chapter 12 verses 13 and 14. In the whole book, Solomon has taken great pains to write his words of wisdom in a motivating and memorable form, not just so that we would appreciate his book, but so that we would apply it, so that we would receive his message and put it into practice.

And while Ecclesiastes may seem like trying to climb a slippery rope to eternity, trying to think of an illustration, for all of the stuff that’s tough to understand, for as difficult as it can be to put it into practice, if Ecclesiastes is like trying to climb a slippery rope to eternity and to satisfaction, Chapter 12, 13 and 14 is like a huge knot that he is tied at the end for us to hang on to if we don’t get anything else. This is the end of the matter and he’s going to tell us if we don’t get anything else his argument is sufficient. There’s nothing else to add to it. It all leads to this and he’s got a very comprehensive application for us. This is the bottom line of what we need to do. If you haven’t listened in any of the previous 59 messages of Ecclesiastes, this is the end of the matter. The first part of verse 13 gives us a sufficient argument. The second part of verse 13 through verse 14 is going to give us a comprehensive application, but first of all, a sufficient argument.

The quest is complete and his observations are over. All of the evidence has been laid on the table and the arguments presented by the preacher. He’s done. And so he says, the end of the matter all has been heard. Psalm is claiming to have told us everything we need to know. Let that sink in for a moment. All has been heard. Psalm is claiming to have told us everything we need to know for enjoying the process, for basking in life, basking in youth, while remembering our Creator and preparing for judgment. He’s told us everything we need to know. This is the end of the matter. Not only have we made it to the last page of the book and to the last verse in the last chapter, it’s not just that we’ve made it to the end of the book, it’s that we’ve come to the final word on the subject, at least as far as Solomon is concerned. This is the end. This is the conclusion, the sum of his argument. It has all been given to us. And he says, all has been heard. There is nothing left to say. There are no more points to make. There’s no more discussion

to be had. Everything that needed to be said, though not necessarily everything that could have been said, everything that needed to have been said for us to find satisfaction under the sun, he has told us in Ecclesiastes. The loose ends are tied, the package is wrapped, The case is closed. This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Which means, if you get Ecclesiastes, you get life. If you get Ecclesiastes, you get how all of those questions can be answered and how all those holes in your heart can be filled. If you have heard and understood Solomon’s message, you get your purpose and meaning in life. Not just so that you can endure the vanity, but so that you can enjoy it.

That’s unbelievable. Not just so that you can wake up every day and be overwhelmed and be discouraged and walk around with a scowl on your face and just kind of grit your teeth and bear it until you die, but so that you can actually smile and bask and enjoy and revel in all that God has given. You need no other philosophy. You need no fresh perspective. You need no new wisdom. Solomon’s claim is that his argument is sufficient. It is the end of the matter for the search for satisfaction under the sun. That’s unbelievable. And yet, out of all the people who could make an argument, I’d probably go with Solomon. Not to mention the fact that as we looked at it last week, all of it was given by one shepherd. The whole thing was inspired by God. So you get Ecclesiastes, you get life. It’s a sufficient argument.

And it has a comprehensive application. In the second part of verse 13 through verse 14, a comprehensive application. Now being a preacher myself, I understand it is very it is very thorny to try to make an application for your people at the end of a sermon because the preacher pretty much always runs the risk of either getting so specific in the application that he suggests that his net ends up being too small. And so people slip outside of the net when he casts the application that they should put into practice. And so if If you make it too specific, various people slip outside and they think it doesn’t apply to them.

And then on the other hand, you can make an application so general that it’s just too weak to hold anybody in. It doesn’t actually grab and keep anyone in the net because it’s too general.

But Solomon makes a comprehensive application that applies to everybody and every part of everybody and there is nothing subtle about it. For whatever difficulties we’ve had understanding what Solomon was talking about in some of his parables and stories earlier in the book, there is nothing perplexing, there’s nothing mysterious or tough to get about his application that he makes here. And he’s going to give us the requirements and the reasons. The requirements in the middle of verse 13. All of Ecclesiastes, I’m going to say that again, all of Ecclesiastes can be boiled down to this. This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. What should you do about it? Here it is. Fear God and keep His commandments. That’s it. The case has been made, the argument is done, and the required response is now commanded, fear God, and keep His commandments. Now, fearing God or the fear of the Lord is the, one commentator put it this way, the kernel of Ecclesiastes. It is the seed out of which Ecclesiastes sprouts.

This is not the first time he’s talked about fearing God. He’s talked about fearing God at least four previous times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Fearing God or the fear of the Lord is the kernel. It is the star of the whole book. And for that matter, it dominates the landscape of all wisdom literature. The book of Proverbs starts out with, at least in verse 7, the motto of the book of Proverbs which the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So obviously, talking about fearing God, the fear of the Lord is very valuable in all of wisdom and literature. And for that matter, fearing God was a major way to talk about every human’s response, necessary response to God throughout the whole Old Testament.

But what does it mean to fear God? That’s fantastic that Solomon wants us to do that. That’s great that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. awesome that fearing the Lord is found all throughout the Old Testament. What does that mean? And I am afraid that we distort and make the fear of God too easy by trying to define it too simply. I understand we want a simple definition so that we can remember it and so that we can try to put it into practice but I am afraid that we can distort it and make it too easy if we don’t define it appropriately. We mostly hear the fear of the Lord or fearing God means that we give God reverence or that we treat God with awe.

And typically then that is contrasted with being panicked about God or being alarmed by God or being terrorized by God, being frightened by God. We’re told that God doesn’t want us to be scared of him, and so we define it as this reverence or as this respect or as this awe. We’re told fearing God means appreciating him and showing him respect. And that’s fine. There’s certainly an element of fearing God that is included in reverence and respect and awe, but I’m afraid that that definition does not help us sense the urgency and the weight of what it means to fear God and our burning responsibility to do so. It’s like by defining fear of God as showing respect to God, it’s just easy to take that like it’s an option.

And it’s easier to treat it like, maybe I’ll do it, maybe I won’t, if I don’t, I’ll work on it. And I think that misses part of, at least, what is meant by this idea of fear of God. Because fearing God, while not less than showing respect to God is so much more than that. And I’m going to go off here for a second and you’re not going to be able to catch up. I’ll tell you when you can catch up again. Fearing God is way more than just respect for God. It is an all-consuming attitude and approach to every moment and every event that includes and awareness of His presence and our humility before His prominence and our appreciation for His power. It is a minute by minute consciousness of God’s character and His control. To fear God is to be more concerned about Him, about His standards, about His authority, and about His sovereignty than anything else. Fearing God does not just take place on a Sabbath or on a Sunday, it is something that doesn’t just take place during your daily spiritual devotions or disciplines.

It means you don’t take a step in your life without thinking about how that step relates to God and the fact that He gave you that foot and He created the thing that you’re walking on and He expects you to be going in the right direction and He wants you to consider that you only take a step and see where you’re going because He gave you that option and that opportunity and it’s only by His sovereign power and control that you breathe, let alone take a step and He demands by fearing Him, you to give Him consideration in everything all of the time, no matter what you’re doing, who you’re with, what you’re deciding, it doesn’t matter.

You are responsible to fear God. Okay, now you can catch up. Or take a breath or whatever you need to do. I’ll take a breath. It’s serious. It’s not just a part of your life. It’s to be all of your life. Fear of God is opposite the fear of man. Typically when we talk about fearing man, we’re talking about being concerned about what others think. And so we demonstrate our concern for what others think by how we dress and move and talk. And we do that. We make choices and we talk about things and we do whatever it is in order to get people to think highly of us. That’s the fear of man so that they’ll accept us, so that they’ll like us.

When we fear men, we’re consumed with other people’s approval and the fear of God means we care way more about what He thinks than what other people think. I realize all that I just said is not a soundbite definition. You’re not gonna likely memorize all that. And you don’t really need to, as long as you just memorize fear God and keep His commandments, and you know what fearing God means. But let’s see if I could summarize it a little bit more memorably. To fear God, here’s five bullet points. To fear God is to acknowledge His position, to accept His authority, to appreciate His power, to adore His worthiness, and to do that all the time.

To fear God is to acknowledge His position, to accept His authority, to appreciate His power, to adore His worthiness, and to do that all the time. That’s big. It is to depend on, to seek to please, to look to joy from Him above all. And as we talk about fearing God, and even as I gave you those bullet points, acknowledgement, acceptance, appreciation, and adoration, those are as much as anything, those are attitudes. In fact, think about this, acknowledge his position is the attitude of humility. He’s God. I’m not. creator I am the pot. It’s an attitude of humility. To accept his authority is an attitude of submission. He is creator and Lord. What he says goes. What he wants I do. I need to be submissive. When we talk about appreciating his power I think That’s an attitude of thankfulness and a recognition that he’s gracious to use his power for our breath and for providing all that we need.

And to adore his worthiness is an attitude of praise. to always be singing at least in our hearts to Him. It’s an attitude. It’s an approach to life and relationships and the future and possessions and toil and suffering and parties and youth and death that rejoices and recognizes to say, God did that. That’s what people who Who fear God? Say, God did that. I’m sitting here in this plastic chair. God did that. I take a big deep breath. God did that. I get into a car accident. God did that. Some authority figure over me didn’t understand what the deal was and they punished me and I didn’t deserve it. God did that.

They may have meant it for evil, but God did that. And it’s even more than saying God did that, it’s to say, a proper fear of God is to say, God did that and deserves all of my praise for doing that. That’s our responsibility. You want to boil down life under the sun? Fear God. Okay, so how do we do that? I mean, if it’s an attitude, how is it that we increase our fear if we have it? How is it that we can get fear of God if we don’t have it? Just two simple suggestions. One is pray. In its very essence, prayer acknowledges that we are not God and must depend on Him. That’s what it means to pray. So by praying, we are participating in an acknowledgement of God is God and we are not.

We need Him. Not only is prayer in its very essence a depending on God, but why not go ahead and ask Him to increase our fear? Who better to help us fear better than God Himself? Is it God’s will for you to fear Him? Yes.

Do you know that He promises if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us and gives that to us if we ask according to His will. If it is His will for us to fear Him, then if we ask Him to help us fear Him more, to intensify that fear and cause us to do all of the things that are included in fearing God, why not ask? I think that’s the kind of prayer that God would love to answer. Second suggestion is pay attention. Pay attention to other people who fear God, find a good God-ferer and watch them work. Locate somebody in your life who fears God. See what that looks like. Pay attention. Not only that, pay attention to what’s happening around you. Part of the point of Ecclesiastes is to teach us that if we just pay attention to any and everything that happens around us, it should cause us to fear God more. That’s Solomon’s point in this book. Do you realize that the very vanity of life under the sun works to our God-fearing advantage? That’s the thing.

The vanity of life, the emptiness, the futility, the holes in your heart. That helps you if you look to the right place. God is the one who did that. God has arranged and organized the vanity of life under the sun so that men would fear Him. back at Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Good or bad, happy or hurtful, sunny or stormy. God did that so that will fear Him. Ecclesiastes 3, 14, I perceived that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. God has done it. God did that so that people will fear before him. He’s saying you don’t have to understand how stuff works or why it’s happening.

You don’t even necessarily have to like how it’s going. You just have to pay attention. And then squeeze every incident through the matrix, through the mold of what we have learned here to squeeze everything through the paradigm, the glasses of, God did that, so that I’ll fear Him. Just pay attention. And pay attention to God’s revelation starting with Ecclesiastes. Every single stinking verse in Ecclesiastes is meant to help us get the message to fear God. That’s why He says the end of the matter all has been heard and here’s the application. Fear God and keep His commandments. The whole thing is aimed for our fear, for our consciousness of who God is and what He tells us to do.

Pay attention to the preacher being Solomon as the preacher. He will goad you to fear God and he will firmly fix like nails fear in you so that you will be stable. It is a sufficient argument to help you fear God. as we regularly say, what you do comes out of what you think about God. And that’s the next part of the requirement. Fear God and keep His commandments. Now unlike fearing God, this part of the application makes its first appearance in the book. He’s talked about fearing God previously. We just read chapter 3 verse 14. Keeping God’s commandments, this is the first time he explicitly makes that kind of statement.

The command to keep is also a frequent command in the Old Testament. It means to watch, to guard, and even more specifically, like it does here, it means to observe. And if fearing God relates more to our attitude, keeping His commandments clearly is connected with our actions. We are responsible in light of everything we have learned in Ecclesiastes, not only to have the right attitude and approach to life, we are responsible to obey God.

Fear and obey. Remember who he is and then do what he says. Respect his authority, comply with his law. Bow and behave. There is no other way. To be happy under the sun than to the sun, then to bow and obey, behave. We talked about it earlier in Ecclesiastes. It is so tempting to not obey because it seems like other people are getting away with their disobedience. By watching people get away with their disobedience and it seems like nobody is making them pay up for all of the chaos or hurt that they’re causing for other people, we are tempted to disobey ourselves. But don’t be deceived into disobedience obedience because punishment is not immediate. Look back at Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 12.

Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, that’s what we see. That’s all around us. Yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before him. And the contrast here between the sinner and the fearer, the implication is that the sinner sins because he’s not fearing God. Because if he did fear God, he wouldn’t be sinning, whether he was getting away with it or not. This is the bottom line of Ecclesiastes, fear God and keep his commandments. Those are the requirements, they are the heart of the end of the matter. That leads us to the reasons, the final phrase of verse 13 and The preacher gives us two reasons, two motivations for the commands to fear God and keep His commandments.

Four, this is the whole duty of man. Four, God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. The final phrase here in verse 13 is why I call this a comprehensive application. For this is the whole duty of man. The ESV, which is what I’ve been reading, this is the whole duty of man, emphasizes the totality like every part of me and why I exist. My whole duty is to fear God. The ESV emphasizes the totality, the absolute nature of the requirements. The NAS, which some of you are looking at, emphasizes a universal aspect because this applies to everyone. So which is it? that it takes every part of me or is it that applies to every person?

Awesome preacher answer here. It’s both. It’s every part of every person. It is the whole duty of man, of mankind, of every man, woman and child who breathes. It is our responsibility to fear God and keep His commandments. Fearing God is not a part-time requirement. It demands your all. It demands all of you. Every deed will be judged, public and private. There is no time, no place, no thought, no No response that is exempt from the requirement to fear God and keep His commandments. The entire reason you exist, and you want to know why you’re here, the entire reason you exist, the final purpose, the ultimate meaning of your life, and everyone’s life for the glory of God through your right attitude and righteous behavior.

Fearing God and keeping His commandments. This is what it means for you to be a human. You are made. You and I are made to worship. And not just on Sunday with a worship team, but when we’re at home by ourselves surfing the internet, I mean whatever it is that we’re doing. It is your whole duty with every dollar you earn or lose. In every task you finish or just totally fail at. every bite of your breakfast, while you’re taking caution and precaution to work wisely, sharpening your axe, in whatever there is to be a permeating, sweeping recognition that you exist from God and through God and for God. Fearing Him and keeping His commandments is not your top priority. It is your only priority. There’s a sound bite for you. Fearing God and keeping His commandments is not the first thing you need to do on a list of many things.

It is the way you need to do everything on the list. It demands all of you, all of your life all of your time. Maybe you think that’s an overstatement, especially to say it’s not one of, it’s your only, or it’s not the top, it includes all of them. Maybe you think that’s an overstatement. Really, look at verse 14. For God will bring every deed into judgment.

That’s everything on your list. God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing whether good or evil. And this reason here is don’t forget that God is faithful with his follow-up and follow-through. This is not like a parent who keeps saying to the kid, I’ll get up off the couch whose threats are empty.

The reason is God is playing for keeps and he’s serious about this. Every deed with every secret thing calls attention to the comprehensiveness of the requirement and reinforces what I said about our duty. Every person will be judged, every person’s deeds will be judged, every hidden secret private thought of yours will be judged by how we did it. It is a judgment of your conduct and of your character by what other people know about you and by what they don’t know about you, that will be judged. It isn’t that you can say God is an important part of your life any more than you can say the roots in the trunk are an important part of the tree. There is no tree without the roots in the trunk and that is how God is to be in our lives. He isn’t the first of many. He is all. Now I know the temptation Now I know the temptation is to react like, wow, after that sermon I better read my Bible more.

Or I need to pray more. Or I should be more faithful to church and to small group. And there’s no doubt some of those things may be very necessary to help you practice. But that’s important to help you. They are not equal to. They help you practice, fearing God and keeping His commandments. But Solomon’s application is way more comprehensive than all of that. Nothing we do under the sun cannot be done for God. And you’re like, well that’s a negative. Those two negatives. Okay, well I’ll make it positive. Whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. It’s not just Bible reading, it’s eating and drinking. and enjoying your toil that God has given you for as many days as He lets you do it.

In other words, even how you do the most mundane things in life, even if you’re unsuccessful, unappreciated, even if the work is unending monotonous and you’re underpaid, you can still fulfill your whole duty. It’s not about your paycheck in order to fulfill your duty as a human. Changing diapers when your kid is sick, washing your car when it rains the next day, working late all by yourself when no one else knows about it to try to finish the project, keeping your word when you made a tough promise, dressing up for a special occasion, laughing with your wife when things are crazy, all the things we tend to believe don’t really matter, they do to God. So fear God and keep His commandments. Enjoy the process. Bask in your youth. I mean, that’s what life is about. That’s the bottom line. That’s the end of Solomon’s argument and his application is relevant for each of us as long as we both shall live under the sun.

And for all of the stuff we try to seek joy in, it all just turns bitter in our mouth. And we’re empty. But you have given us the antidote. you have told us where satisfaction is found under the sun. It’s in you. Pleasing you, fearing you, obeying you. I ask on behalf of each one of these young people in particular, the particular group that Ecclesiastes has addressed too, that you would help them to get it now, that you would help them to realize that it’s not about what’s at the top of mountain. It’s about the climb. It’s about the process. It’s about recognizing you, even if we fall back down the mountain or we get cut by bushes on the mountain or whatever happens it’s something that can be used to recognize you did that. You deserve praise for that. Help us increase and intensify our fear that our joy now and for eternity would also be increased and intensified. All as we look to You, we pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

And for all of the stuff we try to seek joy in, it all just turns bitter in our mouth. And we’re empty. But you have given us the antidote. you have told us where satisfaction is found under the sun. It’s in you. Pleasing you, fearing you, obeying you. I ask on behalf of each one of these young people in particular, the particular group that Ecclesiastes has addressed too, that you would help them to get it now, that you would help them to realize that it’s not about what’s at the top of mountain. It’s about the climb. It’s about the process. It’s about recognizing you, even if we fall back down the mountain or we get cut by bushes on the mountain or whatever happens it’s something that can be used to recognize you did that. You deserve praise for that. Help us increase and intensify our fear that our joy now and for eternity would also be increased and intensified.