Good morning, everybody. I'd like to find your seats.
Thank you. So after three months, or was it
4, we've finally come to the last chapter in the book of
Ecclesiastes, the most important thing in life.
Next, next slide, please. Thank you.
So I I searched the phrase wasted life on Google and this
is a page that came up. It says hello my name is Julian
and I am an addict. Really.
I didn't fix this. It's genuine OK.
My addiction has made me depressed and anxious, put a
strain on my marriage and wasted years of my life.
But here's the good news. I have been Twitter free for
three months now. Three weeks.
So Julian Notselli then explained his phone lag and
phone log and showed that he had been spending four hours a day
on social media. So Julian on Twitter and the
author of the book of Ecclesiastes have something in
common. Both of them were depressed and
they felt they'd wasted their lives.
Next slide, please. Thank you.
So historians debate if Solomon really wrote the book of
Ecclesiastes. Some say that Ecclesiastes was
written by a person who pretended to be Solomon.
So I'm going to stick with Jewish tradition.
I believe King Solomon wrote the book which starts by saying the
words of the preacher the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
So Ecclesiastes uses the personal pronoun I over 80 times
in the book, and many of the sentences start with I did this
or I thought that. And many of the passages in
Ecclesiastes match events in Solomon's life.
So he wrote the book in old age, after he'd turned away from
following God. And Ecclesiastes is his
confession. This is mea culpa of a wasted
life and he is warning young people to learn from his
mistakes. Next slide, please.
So his favourite word in the book is vanity.
He starts by saying this in verse 2.
He says vanity of vanities, says the preacher vanity of vanities.
All is vanity. That Hebrew words also
translated as meaningless in some versions.
The NIV says this verse is meaningless.
Meaningless, says the teacher, utterly meaningless.
Everything is meaningless. And then the last chapter
returns to verse 2 and repeats it talks about vanity for the
38th time in the book. Next slide, please.
It's a pretty gloomy book. Solomon is saying our time on
earth is meaningless because nobody will remember us 100
years after we've died, death is the great equaliser, and that
all our daily activities are meaningless.
And here are some more of Solomon's depressing statements.
I hated life. I hated all the things I'd toil
for under the sun. I praised the dead who are
already dead. It's better to go to the House
of mourning than the House of feasting.
Sorrow is better than laughter. And this one, I found one
upright man among 1000, but one upright woman I could not find
among them all. We'll come back to that later.
Big one, that big one that. Yeah.
So Solomon's statement, statements in the book of
Ecclesiastes, they reflect the depression in his final years.
And he he probably died in his mid 50s.
And he calls himself in the, in this book 7 times.
He calls himself a teacher or a preacher.
Now if Solomon was the pastor of this church, I'd probably go
somewhere else on a Sunday morning because he wasn't a
great teacher. And here are three reasons why I
believe. Firstly, there's something,
there's an adjective called narcissistic.
Narcissistic people, they talk at length about themselves.
They like to talk about their achievements, they like to voice
their opinions, they even steer the conversation to make it
about themselves regardless of the topic.
And often wealthy and powerful people do this.
They're often narcissists and at time we see this in some other
church leaders. Unfortunately we see it in some
mega church leaders especially and Solomon in Ecclesiastes.
He sounds like a narcissist preacher.
He's talking about his pursuit of wisdom, his pursuit of
pleasure, and his pursuit of wealth and Ecclesiastes.
He doesn't sound like this servant hearted pastor who cares
for the flock and faithfully teaches God's word.
Secondly, second reason why I wouldn't go to his church is
because he seems fixated on life, on death, on dying, and on
meaningless. If Solomon had come into my
surgery, I was a doctor. If he'd come into my surgery,
I'm sure I would have diagnosed him as having clinical
depression. And maybe he's at risk of taking
his own life. And he's repeating messages of
doom and gloom in this book. And they're not exactly
edifying. They don't exactly build up the
flock, make mature Christians, help them to be soul winners and
overcomers. And the third reason I think
that's why Solomon wasn't a great teacher was because he
doesn't meet the qualifications of a spiritual leader.
Ephesians, sorry. One Timothy talks about how to
be a spiritual leader and it says it's all about character,
about how well you live your life, how well you live in your
family, how well you live in your community, whether you're a
good role model, whether you obey God.
It's not about how well you can preach.
And Solomon, as he got older, he made a shipwreck of his faith.
The apostle Paul used that phrase.
He described Hymenius and Alexander, who were two
Christians in in Ephesus who'd backslid, and Solomon according
to one kings. He did what was evil in the
sight of the Lord and lack the qualifications to be God's
spiritual leader. Jesus spoke about such
narcissistic Jewish religious leaders in his day.
His statement about them was that they preach but they don't.
They don't what? Practise.
Yeah, they preach but don't practise.
Solomon might have got an A for his preaching, but his practise
didn't just let it down, it caused him to waste his life.
Amazingly, God used him mightily.
He built the temple, he led the nation of Israel and the Holy
Spirit even inspired him to write 3 books of the Bible,
Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and the Song of Solomon.
So this morning I want us to see how Solomon ended up as a sad
old preacher telling the story of a wasted life.
So I'm going to begin by describe by describing stage 1,
next slide, please, Solomon's solid start.
So Solomon had a great father. His father was King David.
David was described in Scripture as a manner to God's own heart,
and one king, three says Solomon demonstrated his loyalty to the
Lord by following the practises of his father David.
So Solomon started his adult life when he was a young man,
following in his father's footsteps.
After David died, Solomon became king of Israel.
And last Sunday Isaac was speaking about Solomon having a
dream. And in the dream God told
Solomon, tell me what I should give you.
And Solomon's reply was showed wisdom and it showed humility.
He asked God for an understanding mind to govern
Israel. And God was pleased with that
reply. He gave Solomon the greatest
gift of wisdom ever bestowed on anyone.
And as a bonus, he threw in extraordinary wealth.
And Solomon, in the 10th century, was a superstar.
He was the Elon Musk of his day. He was a great influencer.
People admired him for generations, but it was the
young king that they were admiring, not the sad and lonely
old man. So Nehemiah wrote this.
There was never a king like Solomon in any of the nations.
God loved Solomon and made him king over Israel, Two Chronicles
says. Solomon, the son of David
established himself in his Kingdom, and the Lord his God
was with him and made him exceedingly great.
And the billionaire queen of Sheba heard of King Solomon and
travelled over 1000 miles to visit him.
And when she met him, she said she told him this.
This report was true, that I heard in my own land of your
words and of your wisdom. But I didn't believe the reports
until I came, and with my own eyes had seen it.
And behold, half the greatness of your wisdom was not told me.
You surpassed the report that I heard.
Next slide, please. Jesus 1000 years later also
spoke, spoke about Solomon's greatness.
This is what he said. He's talking about the Queen of
Sheba here. The queen of the South came from
the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and
behold, someone greater than Solomon is here, which implies
that he thinks that Solomon was pretty great as well.
So Solomon had become king of an empire by the time he was 20,
and you think he was set up for a lifetime of happiness and
success? King David called him just
before he died, and he gave him an advice.
This is what he said to him. He urged him to know the God of
your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing
mind. And then he gave this prophetic
warning to Solomon about God says if you seek him he will be
found by you and be sorry but he but if you forsake him, he will
cast you off forever. I wonder if David had seen
something in Solomon's character that disturbed him.
Perhaps he'd observed Solomon's Achilles heel that could trip
him up. The chink in Solomon's armour
was that he passionately desired the company of beautiful young
women and Solomon's foundations as a young man were already
collapsing and his world and would eventually bring him to
ruin. So second stage in Solomon's
life, Solomon's sensual struggle.
You know, millionaires today like to collect expensive works
of art for their collections. Solomon also had a hobby.
He collected wives. He became king by the age of 20,
by which time he already had two wives.
The first was an Ammonite beauty and the second was an Egyptian
Princess. Now, Ezra didn't mince his words
when he wrote this in one Kings. He just bluntly wrote He said
Solomon loved many foreign women.
Solomon was wise when he was young and served God with a
whole heart and a willing mind. And usually age and experience
make people wisely wiser and Godlier if they're Christians.
But that doesn't always happen, and it didn't happen in
Solomon's case. His desire to love young,
beautiful foreign princesses got the better of him as he got
older. You know the story.
He ended up collecting 700 wives and 300 mistresses.
If you work it out, that's two new bedmates each month of his
life. He copied the practise of other
Eastern rulers and established A hareem.
And those Solomon loved? 700 wives.
They didn't love him back. Really, none of them were his
friends. It says in Scripture that he
couldn't find one upright woman among his thousand lovers.
No wonder he became lonely and depressed in his old age, he
wrote in Ecclesiastes. Better a poor but wise youth
than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a
warning. I wonder whether he was thinking
back to the warning that his father, King David gave to him
before he died, whether he wrote this proverb about himself now
being foolish when he was wise, so wise when he was the young
Prince. No doubt there were many people
around Solomon's day who were asking the same question that
Nehemiah asked 500 years later. This is what Nehemiah wrote.
He said did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such
women among the many nations? There was no king like him, and
he was beloved by God, by his God, and God made him king over
all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made
even him to sin. Next slide.
So one king says this says when Solomon was old, his wives
turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was
not a wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of
David his father. Solomon did evil what was evil
in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the
Lord as his father David had done.
So Scripture says Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Now his big sin wasn't having numerous wives, not even was it
marrying foreign women, women, although that is prohibited in
the books of the law. Solomon suffered from heart
disease. His big sin was his heart.
His heart was turned away from following God and turned towards
worshipping idols. He built altars to foreign gods,
the foreign gods that his wives worshipped.
We never hear about his wives worshipping Yahweh, the God of
the Bible. Instead, we hear of Solomon
worshipping idols himself. Rather than helping his wives to
start worshipping Yahweh. His foreign wives LED Solomon to
worship Chimosh and Baal. Say Solomon went after
Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sardonians, and after Milkom,
the abomination of the Ammonites.
And that idolatry that he was practising, that he was
promoting, eventually led to civil war in Israel when the
nation broke into two, two separate nations.
Now the kings of both of these nations of Judah and Israel,
almost all of them worshipped foreign gods or promoted or
tolerated foreign gods over the next 400 years.
And idolatry became so established that 500 years
later, 400 years later, God judged both nations and allowed
them to be conquered and their populations to be scattered
throughout the world and the temple to be destroyed.
So when Solomon was young, he followed God wholeheartedly, but
when he got older, his wives turned his heart to follow other
gods and believers today still backslide, maybe due to
Solomon's sin. That a Christian may follow God
wholeheartedly, but then if he or she falls in love with an
unbeliever rather than the unbeliever turning to God,
sometimes the Christian may end up turning away from God.
Next slide please. So the final stage of Solomon's
life. Solomon's sad senility.
Chapter 12 continues Solomon, his sad reflection on his wasted
life. And it finishes with a short
poem. And he's painting a picture of
various complaints associated with getting old.
Solomon may. Maybe he was even suffering from
some of these complaints himself.
I'm going to walk you through these poetic descriptions one
phrase at a time. And with each phrase, I'll
suggest a medical condition that Solomon might be picturing.
Next slide, please. He starts the poem before the
sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, and
maybe he's talking here about his eyesight failing.
He goes on, and the clouds return after the rain.
There's one problem after another in his life, in the days
when the keepers of the house tremble.
He's probably picturing Parkinson's disease here, in
which sufferers have shaky hands and the strong men are bent, so
it's common for the elderly to have difficulties because their
back is bent forward. Next slide, please, he goes on,
and the grinders cease because they are few.
This is obvious, isn't it? It's our teeth.
And those who look through the windows are dimmed again.
Another mention of eyesight failing and the doors on the
street are shut. If your mouth is like a door,
then that suggests difficulty talking.
And when the sound of the grinding is low, we often have
problems hearing as we get old. Next slide and one rises up at
the sound of a bird. Difficulty sleeping or insomnia.
Hear a bird wakes you up, can't get back to sleep and all the
daughters of song are brought low hearing problems again.
They are also afraid of what is high, problems keeping your
balance and terrorists are on the way.
Maybe this is the increased anxiety and fear which is
common. The almond tree blossoms.
We have a few almond trees blossoming in the congregation
today. You know what what this is.
Next slide please. The grasshopper drags itself
along, probably meaning difficulty walking due to
weakness and desire fails. Anyone have any idea what that
might be? Yeah, you're thinking it sexual
problems. There was no Viagra around in
Solomon's day because man is going to his eternal home.
Now he's finishing the poem. He's clearly talking about the
process of dying here. And the mourners go about the
streets. And that's a clear reference to
death. Need mourners to have death.
Next slide please. His poem concludes with a few
more images, and these are events that occur at the time a
person dies. Let me read it before the silver
cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the picture
is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit
returns to God who gave it. And Solomon's probably picturing
a broken back here, a broken brain and a broken heart in this
final poetic description. Next slide, please.
So I want to to land now. So Solomon's started his adult
life well, but finished it badly.
And as he wrote Ecclesiastes, he must have had memories.
He must have remembered the time when, as a young man, he had a
close relationship with God. God spoke to him directly on a
couple of occasions through a dream.
But now he's nearing his at the end of his life, he's got many
regrets. He's wasted his life chasing
after women, wealth and idols rather than walking with God.
And he's sought earthly pleasures.
When he left God out of the occasion, out of the equation,
nothing satisfied him. He's sad, lonely and depressed
and leading the nation astray spiritually as well.
Now he wants to atone for his sins by preaching to young
people. He wants them to listen to his
experience so that they don't repeat his his mistakes.
And so at the end of Ecclesiastes, he's making a
couple of very true statements. Not everything in the book of
Ecclesiastes. We should be taking his gospel,
taking his true. A lot of it is about
recollections of a saddle man, but these things were, I
believe, true. He says this, remember also your
creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come
and the years draw near of which you will say I have no pleasure
in them. He's saying that there is a
purpose in life and it's found in knowing God and keeping his
commands. And the other verse is this.
Now all has been heard. Here is the conclusion of the
matter. Fear God and keep his
commandments. Now he's talking to young
people. I don't know what I would do if
I was a young person listened to King Solomon on his deathbed.
Would you listen to his sermon and think, Oh yeah, learn from
his mistakes. If you don't preach what you
practise, you're useless as a as a role model, as a teacher, as a
good preacher. So let me finish with a few
applications. Next slide please Right The best
time to know God is now. When I was 18, I was a medical
student. I was a mathematics student in
London, and I decided that God didn't exist.
And one day I was walking in London and I nearly had a
serious accident. And after getting to safety on
the other side of the road, I remembered what a student friend
had told me. He'd said he'd shared the gospel
with me, that I could receive forgiveness for my sins by
trusting him. And though I came to accept that
Jesus had died and had risen again for several weeks, I chose
not to trust in God. I wanted to carry on living my
simple life. I believed in that Jesus died,
but that didn't make me a Christian.
Another student visited me and with AI believe a word of
knowledge. He laid bare what I was thinking
that I could put this event off until the end of my life.
And he said without knowing what I was thinking, Jeff, if you
don't surrender your life to God tonight, I don't believe you
ever will. And I did that and that made all
the difference to the rest for me is history.
So the best time to come to know God is when you're young.
That's when your heart is most likely to be opened to the
gospel. It's the time when God can speak
into your life and guide you and help you and shape the future
course of your life. If you start young with Christ,
you can continue with Christ and stay close to Christ.
And that way you'll you'll end up with God at the end of your
life. Says in Scripture today is the
accepted time mate. So mate today the day of
salvation. If you don't know Jesus already,
mate today the day that you seek him and ask him to be a saviour.
2nd is a word for pensioners. That old age can be your golden
years. As of today that includes Libby,
my wife, because she now qualifies today for her
Lancashire County Council bus pass.
She's a but she's a ways to serving God at the moment.
She's on her conference at the moment in Derby Fort called
Hands of God for British Sign Language interpreters.
Psalm 92 says this. The righteous flourish in the
courts of our God. In old age they still produce
fruit. They are always green and full
of SAP, showing that the Lord is upright.
We shouldn't get our understandings about old people
from those who think of the elderly as those who passed
their sell by date. We should get it from Scripture.
And Psalm 92 paints a picture of older believers as trees that
are still producing fruit and testifying to the goodness of
God. It can be a joyous and
fulfilling thing in old age. Do you agree, Clem?
Good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Provost 2029 says the glory of young men is their strength,
Grey hair, the splendour of the old.
So what strength is to the young people, age is to the old.
Age isn't a liability, it's an asset to the Lord through prayer
and to the world through ministry in His church.
My father-in-law turns 99 later this year, is still active in
his church, and a old age is not a detriment to serving God.
Scripture said this of Moses when he was died he was 120
years old and his eyesight was clear and he was strong, as
strong as ever. Thirdly, a word, a word for
those in love. Don't let love draw you away
from God. Like Solomon.
If you're single, don't date an unbeliever.
Even if you think you can, your your belief will win out over
his or her belief. And that it would come to trust
in God and trust in Christ. It's dangerous.
Solomon's example proves that
don't think someone was thinking of converting his wives, was
thinking of something else. Instead, wait until the person
you fancy is born again before starting to date.
And if you're married to an unbeliever, stay faithful to
them. One Corinthian says that if
you're unequally yoked, the unbelieving partner is made
wholly by the believing spouse can work out.
We've seen it happen. Finally, a word for those who've
lost their first love for God. It's possible to come back to
God. Solomon's life story proves it.
It demonstrates that God can use in his service people even if
they've sinned or sinned badly that Solomon did.
You're still his child even if you've lost your first love, and
the way to return to him is by asking God for forgiveness. 1
John 19 says God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and God is
gracious. The Holy Spirit drew you to
respond to God in the first case, and He will keep you.
The Holy Spirit that He gives you when you're born again is
His guarantee that He will keep you until the day of Jesus
Christ. Solomon backslid badly and
wasted his life. God still used him to write the
book of Ecclesiastes, and I believe he'll be there in heaven
because Jesus said not one of his chosen ones will be lost.
So will you be in heaven if you've placed your trust in
Jesus that he died for your sins in order that you can receive
eternal life and enjoy eternity in in heaven?
Let's just pray, shall we? Yahweh, we thank you for helping
us to understand Your goodness and your faithfulness through
the life of Solomon. Your promise to us is that if we
ask anything in the name of Jesus believing, we will receive
it. Lord, we want to ask for our
children and our youth to come to know you as Saviour while
they're still young, and then to follow you all the days of our
lives, of their lives. And thank you Jesus, that You're
faithful and just. And we ask for those who've lost
the first love and are not following you.
Help their hearts to give the idols that they cling to by
confessing their sins. And thank you, Lord, for the
promise that you will cleanse us from all unrighteousness and
forgive us our sins. And Lord, we want to pray for
senior citizens right now. For those who've never asked you
to forgive them, please open their eyes, Lord, that they may
see Jesus. For those who struggle with
health issues of one kind or another, we ask you, Lord, you
are Yahweh, a Rafa, the Lord who heals.
Bring healing to their bodies and minds and make them fruitful
trees with righteousness. Thank you God for your grace in
Jesus name, Amen.