Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Main Idea: What if we could change our minds, be renewed in our minds, so that we truly find righteousness as good and fun?

Text:

This isn’t a funny story, but it does remind me about how all of us act when it comes to justifying our actions.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Billy who was a bit of a troublemaker. Whenever he got in trouble, he would always claim, “Well, this is just the way God made me!” One day, Billy was playing in the backyard when he saw a neighbor’s cat sitting on the fence. Billy knew that he wasn’t supposed to throw rocks at cats, but he couldn’t resist. He picked up a rock and threw it at the cat, and the cat got scared and ran away. Billy’s mother saw what had happened and came running out of the house. She was furious. “Billy!” she shouted. “What are you doing?” Knowing that he got caught, Billy tried to justify his actions, saying, “I was just trying to scare it away! It was trespassing, so I was just doing what came natural to me! This is just the way God made me!” “That’s no excuse,” his mother said. “You know that you’re not supposed to throw rocks at cats. And besides, that cat didn’t even know it was trespassing! Now go to your room!”

So Billy hung his head down, and went to his room. But the next day, Billy went outside, gathered some rocks, and hung a sign on the fence that he made that said, “No Trespassing.”

It’s interesting to me how we often try justify our actions based on the idea that those things are natural to us, while genetic research is finding more and more that our genes can actually predispose us to all kinds of ungodly behaviors, ranging from alcoholism, to gluttony, and even domestic violence. Even though many people have a natural inclination toward certain sins, most people also know that we should fight against those inclinations.

And yet, one of the arguments of proponents of same sex marriage, for example, is that it’s okay because we sometimes find it occuring naturally in the animal world. But I would argue that just because we see something in nature, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable behavior for humans. And this is most obvious when we observe that some animals eat their babies. Should we? I haven’t seen anyone argue that cannibalism is acceptable because it’s natural in the animal world.

There’s a song in the movie “The Lorax” that goes “How ba-a-a-ad can I be? I’m just doing what comes naturally!” And that’s kind of the theme song for much of humanity, isn’t it? We tend to like to know where the line is, so that we can get as close to the line as possible, and maybe even sneak over it once in a while.

We do that because we think sin is fun, and being godly is a chore! Despite everything that the Bible says about heaven and hell, people still seem to think that hell is a party, and heaven for all eternity sounds pretty boring.

But what if we could change our minds, be renewed in our minds, so that we truly find righteousness as good and fun, so that we sing “How goo-oo-oo-ood can I be?”

Ecclesiastes 7:15-22.

In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil. Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them. Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city. There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins. Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others. (Ecclesiastes 7:15-22)

Father, help us to know who we are in relation to You and others. Help us to be humble, loving others as You love us, and help us to live in a way that shows the world how good You are. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture basically means that the Bible is clear in what it says. The main points of the Bible are extremely evident to anyone who reads the Bible openly and honestly. The message of the Bible is that God is good, and He originally created us good, but we fell from that state so that we are not good. And even if we try with all our might, we can’t make ourselves good enough for heaven, because no matter how hard we try, we still sin. But God, in His infinite love, came down to the earth in the form of a man, Jesus, and He lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and died for us. And through faith in His death, burial, and resurrection, we can have new life by grace, so that we can be transformed in the way that we live today, and we can look forward to heaven as home, because Jesus’s blood covers all our sin, and we’re made righteous in Him. That’s the very clear message of the Bible.

But the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture does not mean that every passage of the Bible is equally clear. In fact, some passages of the Bible can be downright confusing, and it can be difficult to see how they fit with the overall message of the Bible. Our text today is one such passage.

Some of these verses seem very straightforward, like the first verse, verse 15.

In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil. (Ecclesiastes 7:15)

That’s fairly obvious to all of us, right? We’ve all seen this, how comparatively righteous people may suffer for their good deeds, and how criminals can sometimes get off scot-free. Now, of course, we could say that none are righteous, and we’re all wicked sinners in need of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice, and that’s true, but the Teacher in this passage seems to be talking about comparative righteousness and wickedness. Those who seem to follow all the major rules of society, never get into trouble with the law and who contribute great things to our world. People who we would generally call “good people” can still die young because of sicknesses, or accidents, or even the direct results of the sinful behaviors of others. And, of course, we always talk about how that’s a tragedy, because it is.

And then on the flip side, people that we all know are crooks, immoral, and take advantage of others can still get wealthy and live physically healthy lives until they die at an old age. This is also a great injustice that we’re pretty much all aware of.

The last two verses of our passage are also fairly straightforward. Verse 21.

Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others. (Ecclesiastes 7:21-22)

Remembering that we’ve all failed both in our speech and in our hearts even by our own standards, we ought to be humble before others and show them grace. We should not be offended when others offend us, even when they seek to offend us, because we know our own hearts. And this should also be very obvious. It doesn’t make it easy, because it’s difficult when others criticize you or even insult you, but we should always extend the same grace to others that we would hope that they would extend to us. Because we all need the grace of God. And, once again, this is all very obvious. It’s not always easy to live by, but it’s obvious.

But there’s one verse in our passage today that sounds very strange to us. Verse 16.

Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? (Ecclesiastes 7:16)

What in the world is he talking about? Shouldn’t we want to be righteous? Should we want to be wise? And how would pursuing these qualities cause us to destroy ourselves? How does that possibly fit with the Bible’s message?

And, in fact, the next verse also doesn’t make a lot of sense when you dwell on it for more than a second. Verse 17.

Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time? (Ecclesiastes 7:17)

It sounds fine at first, because we all know we shouldn’t be wicked or foolish, but then it almost sounds like it’s ok to be a little wicked, just not excessively wicked. Somehow, I don’t think that’s what the Bible’s teaching.

And with so much of the book Ecclesiastes being written with a cynical tone, it’s difficult to determine exactly how to understand this passage. Because Solomon could simply be writing in a pessimistic way, saying in essence, “It’s ultimately pointless from a humanistic point of view to be wise and righteous, just as it’s ultimately pointless to be foolish and wicked, because neither one will certainly lead to a better, more fulfilled life!” And that would seem to fit with much of the rest of Ecclesiastes, right?

But the problem with interpreting this passage like that is that the second half of the book of Ecclesiastes is generally more about providing real advice and solutions rather than just complaining about the problems. Remember, last week, we noted that Ecclesiastes turned a corner in the book so that the Teacher is more concerned now with helping us to live a life of joy and hope in what often seems to be a life full of nothing but hopelessness.

So if that’s true, then Solomon isn’t just saying that it seems unbeneficial to be excessively righteous and overly wise. He’s actually giving advice in some way to not be excessively righteous or overly wise. So in what sense could Solomon possibly be saying this?

Well, when seeking to understand any passage in the Bible, we should always understand the context it’s written in. So, let’s read the proverb in verses 19 and 20.

Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city. There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins. (Ecclesiastes 7:19-20)

So, we see right away that wisdom is a good thing, making us strong, and that righteousness is a good thing, even though he says that it’s unattainable on the earth. So Solomon wasn’t saying that we should not pursue wisdom and righteousness, but rather that we should not be excessively righteous or overly wise. So we need to understand what he means by the words “excessively” and “overly.”

The word “excessively” is actually the same word that’s translated “multiply” Genesis 1:28. God said to Adam and Eve:

“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

In other words, Adam and Eve were to make copies of themselves through reproduction. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, and God commanded them to multiply so that the image of God in them would fill the whole earth, and that was a good thing.

But in our passage today, the thing being multiplied is not the image of God, but our own efforts to be righteous. Righteousness itself is good, but our efforts to be righteous don’t lead to us being perfectly righteous, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When we compare our righteousness to one another, we might think that we’re better or worse. Usually, we justify ourselves as being better. But if we compare our righteousness to God, there’s no comparison! God is perfectly righteous, and we always fall short. And if we think we can compete, we’re actually fools in danger of destroying ourselves.

You see, Solomon is saying that if we strive after righteousness with wrong motives, it can be just as bad as wickedness. So we actually shouldn’t multiply our righteousness, because it’s like multiplying fractions.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I’m 50% righteous (or ½ righteous). We know from Ephesians 2 that we’re dead in our sins, so we’re more like 0% righteous before we came to faith in Jesus, but let’s just assume that we’re 50% righteous. So if I were to try to multiply my righteousness, how righteous would I become? I’d become 25% righteous. And if I were to try to do that again, how righteous would I be? I’d become 12.5% righteous. You see, the problem with trying to make ourselves righteous is that the more we try to do it by our efforts, the worse we become.

So when we attempt to justify ourselves, even though we’re trying to be good, we’re actually making ourselves bad.

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 5:20,

Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)

And Jesus said in Matthew 23:15,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are! (Matthew 23:15)

So we need to be more righteous than the Pharisees, who were thought to be the most righteous of all the Jews, and yet the Pharisees themselves were children of hell! What that tells us is that there’s no possible way for us to make ourselves righteous enough. And if you strive in your strength to be more righteous than everyone else, just to prove yourself good, and you judge them as bad, according to Romans 2, you condemn yourself, because you do the same things.

And the issue with wisdom is the same. We’re told not to be overly wise. The meaning of the word “overly” here is to not go beyond true wisdom.

Talking about how we’ve all sinned, Paul wrote in Romans 1:

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. (Romans 1:22-23)

So even though we may claim to be wise, overly wise, we’ve actually gone beyond true wisdom and proven ourselves foolish when we exchange the glory of God for anything else. And as we’ve already seen, we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God.

And yet, righteousness and wisdom are good things to strive for, as it says in verse 18.

It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them. (Ecclesiastes 7:18)

In the end, we will be righteous and wise, if we fear God. If we receive righteousness and wisdom as gifts from God, rather than thinking that we obtain them by our efforts. We talked a few weeks back about fearing God, and we saw that it’s all about recognizing who we are in relation to God. God is God, and we are not.

The thing is, we cannot know everything about everything. We’re not wise enough. And we cannot make ourselves perfectly righteous. Every one of us sins. But there is One who is Perfectly Wise and Perfectly Righteous. Trust in Him. And He will make you wise, and good, and righteous by grace through faith. This is the clear message of Scripture, and our passage today agrees with it completely: that God alone is good, and that we can be made good by trusting in Jesus.

And then, having rested in Jesus alone for our salvation and justification, we find that we’re free. We’re free to begin to rejoice in God, and serve Him with gladness, not in order to make ourselves righteous, but because God has already made us righteous.

And that has nothing to do with our efforts to be righteous, and everything to do with Jesus.