The Meaning of Life

To fear God is to trust Him, especially when He doesn't explain Himself. Keep in mind the distinguishing mark of the unbeliever is that they do not thank God for anything.

Everything about their lives, they got on their own initiative, their own pluck, a dash of good luck and their own skills. Look what I've done with my life. And the believer, what do we do? What have we that we have not received?

That's what we say. There's a great chasm between what I have and what I deserve. God's Word forms and shapes the perspective that each believer should have as we navigate this life. Today we've come to the final verses of Ecclesiastes where Solomon reflects on his journey to find truth, describes where that truth comes from, and then shares some final wisdom for his son from his life experiences. Our Bible teacher, Stephen Davey, will open Solomon's journal for the final time and share with you why these life truths are just as important today as they were when King Solomon sat on the throne of Israel. Today's message is called The Meaning of Life. Here's Stephen. One of our church members sent me this email a couple of weeks ago after I preached from Ecclesiastes 12 on the effects of growing old.

I'm not sure why. Actually, I thought you'd be interested in it. A massive passenger airplane, the Airbus 380, was crossing the Pacific Ocean cruising along on autopilot at 30,000 feet when suddenly a Eurofighter jet capable of breaking the sound barrier with Mach 2 speed appeared and flew alongside. The young pilot of the fighter jet slowed down and as he flew alongside, he greeted by radio the pilot of the passenger plane and said, Airbus, your flight must really be boring to have to travel along in straight lines and so slowly.

Watch this. And with that, he rolled his jet over a few times, accelerated, broke through the sound barrier with a crashing boom, flew to a dizzying height only to swoop down toward the ocean in a breathtaking dive. Eventually, he looped back next to the Airbus and asked, what did you think of that? The Airbus pilot answered, that's impressive, but watch this. And the jet pilot watched the Airbus do nothing but continue flying straight at the same speed. After about five minutes, the Airbus pilot radioed the jet pilot, well, what did you think about that?

And he responded, I didn't see anything. The other pilot laughed and said, well, that's because, well, I got up, stretched my legs, walked back to the kitchen, got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. And the moral of the story, when you're young, speed and adrenaline is the best, but when you get older, a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll are much better. And if you like that, that's probably because you're old. In fact, I had after the first service, one of our guys texted me and said, when you said this, I'm watching online, I'd just gotten a cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee, but I don't feel that old.

Well, nothing wrong with enjoying either experience wherever you are in life. Now, based on his private journal, it's obvious that Solomon is now flying along in straight lines. He slowed down, no pizazz, no rollovers, and breaking the sound barrier. For years, for him, if you are old enough in the faith to know much about him or you've been with us in our study, it was all about speed and accomplishment and adrenaline, and frankly, rebellion. Solomon had spent many years of his life deep in the ocean of sin.

He had come up for air when he finally realized he was desperate for meaning and truth, purpose. By the goodness of God, Solomon was brought back to repentance, and that's proven here in his journal entries. He has returned to his earlier walk with God and with the wisdom of God in mind. And as I've mentioned on a number of occasions in our study in this journal, he has written it primarily originally to his son, Rehoboam, who will soon mount the throne as the king of Israel.

And Solomon is sort of upsetting the record straight. This is what he wants his son to remember about his life, not those early years, these years. He doesn't want his son, nor does God want any of us, which is why we've been given this inspired letter, to dive into that same deep ocean of sin where, by the way, you never touch bottom. You never get anchored. If you've come to Christ later in life, you know that's true.

You just drifted along with whatever the current was without stability, direction, or satisfaction. On the closing verses of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, which is where I invite you to turn one last time as we complete our study in this book, Solomon is going to spell out his final thoughts on the meaning of life. And he begins first by reminiscing on his search for truth. Go to verse 9, where we left off.

Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing, and arranging many proverbs with great care. It was common, by the way, in ancient Near Eastern literature for the writer to address or to speak of himself in the third person. Moses did it. David did it. Even John the Apostle did it. He didn't name himself. He just talked about the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Solomon again refers to himself as he began at the outside of the journal as a preacher. That is, he has a message, a very important message, to deliver. His collection and delivery of these wise sayings, by the way, this is just a little hobby.

He didn't like, I think I'll collect stamps or coins. He's been digging for wisdom. And he tells us here, notice he says he's weighed these wise words, which means he's pondered them. He's carefully evaluated them, is what the Hebrew word means.

He studied them, he writes, which indicates deliberate thoroughness. Thirdly, he tells us he's arranged them, that is, he's wordsmith them. He's skillfully composed, the truth of God in phrases that are memorable.

He writes here in verse 10, notice, the preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. These weren't just a collection of words. These are words of delight. You could render that words of joyful purpose. They're words of truth, he writes.

That's important. These are reliable words. This is God's word when you get into it.

You know, it's the truth. You can anchor yourself to these dependable words. In fact, he goes on, notice in verse 11, to describe what they do to us. The words of the wise are like goads. They're like nails firmly fixed, are the collected sayings.

That old English word, goad, which is sort of waning and understanding, was a word for a spearhead or an arrowhead, literally the tip of the spearhead or the arrowhead or a stick that had been whittled down to create a point used to prod cattle along. Solomon uses that expression to tell us that God's word does that. It prods us. It directs us. It might hurt.

It might sting. It humbles our pride when we get into it. It reverses our direction.

We're going that way and ouch, the word says no, go that way. It has a way of upsetting our priorities. It has a way of offending our behavior.

Stop that. He writes also, did you notice these are like nails firmly fixed, like nails driven in to hold things in place. By the way, we use these same expressions to this day. We talk about that verse of scripture that goads us into action, that prods us along.

It won't leave us alone. We read it and study it and immediately know, man, we've got to nail that down. That's the idea. We've got to clamp it down in our mind and in our memory, in our heart. These wise sayings are crafted and arranged to sort of awaken the imagination.

Let me give you an illustration. It's one thing for me to say, you know, when you're reading God's word and studying God's word, if you live in God's word, you'll resist temptation. It just has a way of impacting your life. Everything I just said was true. Or you could say it as one author did in a way that I wrote down in my fly leaf, either this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.

Oh, I want to write that one down. We might say, you know, God wants to teach us to depend on him and his sovereign power, especially during times when we feel alone, when times are difficult. Now that's all true. Or you could say it like one of my favorite preachers, Charles Spurgeon is a great wordsmith said it when he said it this way, we are at our spiritual best when we are shipwrecked on the island of God's sovereignty. Wise sayings touched by the truth of God's spirit have a way of working their way past our objections. And we have to say, you know, that's true. Now Solomon gets to the fact that ultimately the power lies not in word crafting, but in its source, the source of inspired truth, which happens to be God. And that's who he introduces next to us. Look at verse 11.

Again, the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one, capital S, shepherd. One shepherd. This is a reference to Yahweh, the personal God you know and you walk with through life. He's called the shepherd of Israel in Psalm 80 verse 1. This is the God, the personal God that Solomon heard his dad sing about and write about. The Lord is my shepherd.

I don't lack anything. So these wise sayings are ultimately God's words. He is the source of biblical literature. Now Solomon here is delivering a warning in this to his son. Notice verse 12.

My son, beware of anything beyond these. In other words, be careful when you get beyond the words of God. Of making many books, there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh and every student says amen and amen at that theme verse moving forward.

This is the point. He's warning his son about make sure you're saturating your mind with the truth of God which for Rehoboam would of course been the Torah, the law, first five books of the Old Testament and the books of history, the prophets who were prophesying and for us today, it's certainly a reflection on our passion to saturate ourselves with the words of God. You know the average person I have read is reading two to three hours a day from their smart phone. Now there's a real source of wisdom for you, right? I also read, there are now, I looked it up just to see if I had the right figure and it was, it had grown since I looked last. Three thousand books are published every single day.

We're now up to a million new books every year. By the way, Solomon is not telling you not to read books outside of inspired scripture. He's just giving you a warning to be careful when you get beyond these words.

I think of Paul in prison. He's asking his young disciple bring me my books. He had a collection we know from his writings. He loved to read poetry. He would quote it on occasion. So he isn't telling us there's something inherently wrong with other books.

Just be careful. I love this statement by Martin Luther, the reformer 500 years ago who once said I have this clipping in my study. He said one book is good but a thousand are better.

So read. Just be careful of how aligned it is and relate it to the truth of God. Now with that, Solomon delivers his closing summary on the meaning of life.

Before I dive in, before you look, let me ask you a question. If you could summarize the purpose of your life or the meaning of life in two sentences or less, in about 30 words or less, what would you write? This is the purpose of my life. This is my goal in life.

This is the meaning of my life. That'd be a challenge, wouldn't it, to try to contain it in two sentences. That's exactly what Solomon is about to give us in two sentences, less than 30 words. In fact, what he gives us is a threefold plan of action which gives meaning to life. The first action step is in a word, worship.

Notice verse 13. The end of the matter, all has been heard. In other words, here is the final word, what he means. Here's the final word, fear God.

Now stop for a moment. That doesn't mean you run and hide. What does it mean to fear the Lord?

Solomon has already told us this several times in this journal. What does it mean to fear the Lord? I created a little acrostic in my study using the word fear, F-E-A-R, that might help you clarify it. The letter F could stand for this, favor his presence. To fear God means you want to walk with him. It means you miss him when you don't walk with him. To fear God means you care more about his opinion and his presence more than anyone else's. The letter E could stand for exalt his glory. You not only want to walk with him, you want to talk about him. You're as interested in talking to people about God as you are, you know, fantasy football or your fishing trip or your latest hobby.

The letter A could stand for acknowledge his sovereignty. To fear God is to trust him, especially when he doesn't explain himself. Keep in mind the distinguishing mark of the unbeliever is that they do not thank God for anything. They can't bring themselves to thank God for anything.

Everything about their lives, they got on their own initiative, their own pluck, a dash of good luck and their own skills. Look what I've done with my life. And the believer, what do we do? What have we that we have not received? That's what we say.

There's a great chasm between what I have and what I deserve. That's the believer. That's fearing God. Favor his presence, exalt his glory, acknowledge his sovereignty and remember his goodness. The first action step in a meaningful life is worship. The second action step is obey. Notice verse 13 again. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.

Now I want you to notice carefully the progression. It's worship first and then obedience. Conduct flows from worship and adoration. That's the source.

The fountain that flows is conduct. Jesus said it this way, if you love me, you're going to keep my commandments. We don't keep them perfectly. Why? Because we don't love them perfectly. But that's our hope and our desire and we're so frustrated when we don't keep his commandments.

Why? Because we love him. If you love him, you revere him and exalt him and want to walk with him and love the things he loves, his word, his people and on and on and on. And the last thing you'd ever want to do is live in defiance of him. Anybody who says, I don't really want to live for him, well, don't focus on that.

The issue is he doesn't love him. Obeying him flows out of loving him. And he writes here, this is the whole duty of man or mankind.

That word duty is supplied by the translator. It's rather rough to try to translate, but this is the wholeness of man. This is the completeness. This is the fulfilling life. This is the true meaning of life. You could paraphrase this to read, then loving and obeying God is everything that ultimately matters, completely in life. Worship, obey. The third action step is, in a word, prepare. Notice verse 14, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. And you can almost see Solomon just sort of getting up, moving his chair a little closer to Rehoboam and say, now look, son, you're going to be the king. You're going to have more power than you can imagine.

You're going to have more advantages than you can imagine. You're going to be able to live any way you want, but let me just remind you, you are accountable to God. Prepare to meet God. And for the believer, by the grace of God, every sin, past, present, and future has already been nailed to the cross. Peter writes that that certificate of debt, I envision this long scroll of every sin I've ever done, thought, contemplated, every thought, deed. It's written on that scroll.

It's already been nailed to the cross, and so is yours. Past, present, and future. One author that I've enjoyed reading is, I've studied his commentary through the book of Ecclesiastes. By the name of Benjamin Shaw, he writes this. One of the authors, he writes this about a pastor he was reading. He said that a man began attending his church with his wife. They thought their five-year-old, it was time to give her a little religious instruction, so they started taking her to church. And first time for him, and he said, the time they started attending, the pastor began preaching through the book of Genesis. And he would later testify, this man, that all the pastor did was get up and read a verse he'd never heard before, Genesis 1.1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And this man later testified, when he read it, the hair stood up on the back of my neck because I knew it was true. And since I knew it was true, I knew I was in big trouble. That good?

That's true. When did you first hear? When did that thought come to you, which preceded your regeneration? I'm in trouble.

I'm a sinner. I need to save here. Solomon's journal is like a hand on the shoulder that shakes us up and says, wake up, take a good hard look. Go to the very end of your life, and that moment, and then start living backwards in light of it.

Prepare. For the believer, it's not fear, a desire to please him, and to give our rewards to him for his work through us. Solomon has said, remember your creator in the days of your youth. And I mentioned when we dealt specifically with that text that you're younger, every one of you are younger today than you will be tomorrow. So all of us are in our youth. Amen.

And a wonderful thing, I'm speaking to young people. Start now. Start today. This works for all of us. Whether you're at that point in life where life for you is speeding along in that fighter jet, breaking the sound barrier down Penny Road, or maybe for you it's looking forward to that next cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. Solomon invites us all as believers to live this kind of life. Worship, obey, prepare.

This is life with meaning. Remember who created your life. Resolve to walk with God through life. Follow the guidelines of God's word for life. Enjoy the gifts God has given you. Solomon has written in life.

Trust him with what he has chosen not to give you in life. And then prepare for that day of glory when you see your shepherd after leaving this life. There's a little prayer that I've memorized recently written by a Puritan, and it reminds me a lot of Solomon's inspired advice here in this last chapter.

It goes like this. Grant, O Lord, that we may live in Thy fear. F-E-A-R. Die in Thy favor. Rise in Thy power. Reign in Thy glory for the sake of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. Now that's life with meaning and purpose.

That's it. So let's go live it. Let's start today for the glory and honor of God. With that, we bring to a close this message and this series from the book of Ecclesiastes. The series is called Pursuing Wisdom Under the Sun. Today's message is entitled The Meaning of Life. Before we end out this broadcast, I want to make you aware of the various ways that you can access and continue to use this series. Of course, you can always go to our website and listen to each of the 13 messages in this series. You can read Stephen's manuscript for each one, or you can watch the video of Stephen if you prefer that. We make that available for all of Stephen's teaching. It's all free and readily available online at wisdomonline.org.

We have many listeners who prefer to have the teaching on CDs, and this series is available as a set of CDs as well. You would find that in our online store, or we can help you over the phone if you call us today at 866-48-BIBLE. That's 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. We recently heard from Peter, who shares our messages with the people he encounters, and he wrote to say this. Your resources are truly a blessing, not only for God's people as a tool to equip us to do the work of ministry, but also a great tool for us to share various episodes with others. My wife and I are thankful for Pastor Davey and the team at Wisdom International. So my thanks to Peter for sharing that with us, and I hope these resources bless you as well. If you'd like to send Stephen a note, address your card or letter to Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. Thanks again for being with us. Join us next time for another message from God's Word, here on Wisdom for the Heart.