The Word Like Nails Well Fastened
1Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; 2Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; 3in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened, 4and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; 5yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets: 6before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!” 9Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs. 10The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth. 11The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
Through these expository sermons on Ecclesiastes, we have seen how hard it is for frail human beings to keep the grace God gave entirely of his own accord. Solomon could not let go of a world that is passing away, and though he knew it was Satan’s temptation, he could not resolve to turn from it, so he failed to live by the word. Once his heart turned away from God in his youth, he grasped after power and pleasure, and only when he had grown old did he come to feel deep remorse for those deeds.
Solomon bitterly regretted the days when he had heard the word from God himself and still disobeyed, and he knew he could not go back, however much he wished to. So it was that he came to see all the hours of laughter and tears as a life of vanity upon vanity. Those who wielded great power and dominated a generation, and the poor who, like Lazarus, suffered for lack of wealth, must both have seen, standing at the threshold of death, how vain everything in life is.
Fearing that his descendants would live lives that ended in regret, as his had, Solomon lays bare all his shame and counsels them to live by faith at every moment. Like Solomon, when we grow old we can tell for ourselves whether we lived for God or for the world. Solomon’s father David left his son a last charge: if Solomon kept the instruction of Yahweh and walked in his ways, keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies as written in the law of Moses, God would make him prosper in all that he did and wherever he turned.
The priests and Levites whom God appointed obeyed this word in carrying out their duties; and the king, too, as Yahweh’s regent entrusted with the work of ruling, was bound to obey Yahweh’s law. Even so, Solomon’s walk with God swerved to the right and to the left.
Whatever people may want, God has decided salvation and judgment with Christ at the center, so we must live according to his will. When life is over, what comes after death will be determined by that faith. You must never forget how important it is to strive to keep God’s law as long as you live on this earth. One night, as I was walking home late from church, I saw bars with their doors standing open and their lights glaring. Every place was packed with people of all ages; they all seemed happy, laughing and talking loudly over their drinks, absorbed in conversation. Watching them, I felt as though I were the outsider. I began to wonder in what frame of mind they were drinking so late into the night, and what they could be talking about without end.
I am not saying, of course, that they are living their lives wrongly because they are drinking late at night. What I wondered was whether they know this truth: that after death, acknowledge it or not, they will meet God and be judged. If they heard me say so, they would be offended and find it absurd. They might ask in return how anyone can live trusting in God alone. They would say the same about failing to resist the countless other temptations besides drink and falling into sin. What matters, however, is whether a person has lived according to God’s commands and ordinances. From the moment of birth until the moment they leave this world, God sees every thought, word, and deed, and every ideology, philosophy, and conviction they have lived by.
Each person’s thoughts, actions, and choices will surely differ according to their experiences, their education, and the differences between cultures. Their religion may differ as a result, and so may the way they see humanity and society. As times change, what was once beyond understanding becomes commonplace. Some of it we must adapt to, though a refusal to accept it can also stir up conflicts that run to extremes. But in spite of all the changes and conflicts in the world, God’s law stands above everything that makes up the world. That is why, if we refuse to acknowledge this, we cannot help but end up in a different place after death.
Among those laughing, drinking, and talking, there would be some who go to church and some who mock and persecute believers. As we make our way through the world, the demands of work, our relationships, and our circumstances will sometimes take us where we would rather not go. And because people pursue different directions in life, differences in how they see the world or in the depth of their conversation can make things hard. That is why we must never forget that such people are the very ones who need to be saved; only by dealing with people in faith wherever we are will we keep from stumbling. Then, by the wisdom the Holy Spirit gives, we can set an example as God’s people.
Those who treat God’s name as worthless will be judged for their own sin; but how grievous it would be if those who serve God failed to discern spiritually and came under judgment one day. To those who worship at church in the bright light of day and then live as entirely different people among the people of the world at night, I want to put this question: do you truly know who God is? Some of you may say that the pastor can talk this way because pastors do not have to fight for survival out in the world. Some may say that to survive in the world you sometimes have no choice but to drink, and that there are times you must act dishonestly. Everyone’s situation is different, but I fully understand how hard it is to earn a living in a world that does not fear sin. Still, I want to say this: a ship can move forward toward its destination only when it sits half in the water and half above it, and in the same way, only those who hold fast to their faith can stand among the ranks of the saved.
A ship’s engine runs beneath the surface of the sea; faith, likewise, comes to its fullness and shines only when it is out in the world. If the ship loses power and sinks, many lives will be lost; and if it stays on land because land is safe, it cannot do what a ship is for. Just as a ship has to be launched into deep water to carry people to their destination, we must keep our bodies in the world while our souls hope for heaven, living wisely, if our walk with God is to be balanced.
I have worked for a company myself and ran a business for twelve years, so I know well how many different kinds of people there are in the world. I have learned firsthand how much we must yield and endure to keep our faith while dealing with them. Watching people of the world strive so hard toward their own goals, I thought that believers have even more to bear than they do. If we set our faith aside for a while to sin for our own pleasure, we will wander, having lost our purpose and direction, like a ship drifting aimlessly with its engine dead. If we do not grasp how holy a people we are, we will lose even our faith, like a ship that has gone down.
Far too many people today think of church as little more than a hobby. For them, the thought that a religion is fine to have as they go through life looms larger than the thought that God is the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. In a world where no one knows the future, they come to church lightly, thinking it would not hurt to have a god of their own to protect them. They hear that going to church means going to a heaven far better than this world, and all they think about is going there after death to live in comfort. But the Bible says that those who believe in Jesus with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and confess him with the mouth can enter heaven.
1 John 5:11-12
11The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.
The Bible does not say that we gain eternal life by going to church; it teaches that whoever believes in the Son of God receives eternal life. Faith is the bridge between Christ, who atoned for our sin, and us sinners, and so only by believing in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, can we have eternal life. This is God’s law, and it will never change.
We believe in God not simply out of fear of going to hell, but to live as children of light in the Lord and as mature people of God, setting our minds on the things above rather than the things on the earth. A child who studies only to avoid a scolding from their parents never makes that effort their own. But a child who is grateful for the love of devoted parents, fills the present with happiness, and studies for their own future can go on to a successful life. Likewise, those who live by faith in the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit are naturally set apart from the world and can walk in holiness.
The way for us to live holy lives is never to forget to give thanks to God. People do not memorize other people’s addresses, only their own, and someone who knows for certain where home is does not get lost on the way. Just as you can recognize a heresy without knowing every heresy in the world, as long as you know the truth, so those who know the holy God will not be dragged under by sin.
When the apostle Paul confessed that he dies daily, he was also confessing that if he let his guard down for even a moment, he could not hold back the attacks of Satan. Rather than going to church just to keep out of hell, we can live the life of heaven even here on earth when we love Christ, proud to be God’s people, and that life can be safe and free.
Children who take care not to wound their parents’ hearts will receive the blessing of heaven that God promised in the fifth commandment, where he says to honor your father and mother so that your days may be long in the land Yahweh your God gives you. Those who love God sincerely will guard themselves against sin, thinking it over again and again, for fear that they might obscure his glory. You will see that those who take care lest their words and actions hinder God’s work receive all the more of his protection and grace.
Acts 7:55-59
55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord. 58They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
If there were no judgment even though we sin, how foolish would the martyrs be who gave their lives for their faith? Luke sets two parties in one scene and records how sharply they differ. On one side are the people, enraged because they did not want to hear the word. On the other is Stephen, who believed that heaven is real, boldly spoke the word, and was then put to death at their hands. Stephen proclaimed Christ, who stood at the right hand of God and was looking upon Stephen, but the people could not control their feelings; they did not want to hear the gospel he preached, and in the end they even stopped their ears. We must know that those who persecute the truth may take even our lives. But Stephen prayed for the forgiveness of the very people who were stoning him. That is how much patience and love come from knowing God fully.
In the middle of Stephen’s martyrdom, Scripture slips in a young man named Saul, and seeing this, I came to understand how many plans God has as he works to save a soul. The very Saul who led the persecution of Stephen heard the gospel Stephen preached and later, as the apostle Paul, became an evangelist who carried the gospel to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The word sown in a heart will surely do its work.
There will surely be people who stop their ears, shout, and persecute you because they do not want to hear the gospel you share. But it is vital to believe that the word you have shared will change their hearts, and to go on preaching to the end, as Stephen did. Do those who show one face in the morning and another in the evening believe in a different God from those who, like Stephen, preach the gospel morning and evening? They all believe in the same God, but their faith looks different according to how well they know him.
Do you truly love God? For the people of the world and for believers alike, what matters is that in the end they will meet the living Judge. We must never forget this. From the moment of birth, people run toward a destination already set. The young need to know that youth will not always be theirs. Life may seem as if it will last forever, but unless you decide by faith at every moment, you will look back when the years are gone and regret having lived a life of vanity upon vanity.
Once you grow old, there is no way to turn back, however much you long for your younger days. If you are living in the days of your youth now, I hope you will take hold of God without hesitation. In chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes, Solomon records in great detail what happens to people as they age. Verse 3 says that when people grow old, their strength fails, their hands and feet tremble, their once-straight back bends, and their gums weaken until their teeth fall out and they can no longer chew their food well.
When these signs appear, it means the body is preparing to leave this world. That is when we must set our affairs in order, so that we leave no regrets behind. Because they are young, the young find eating and drinking no burden, and with good eyes they can see and learn a great deal; this is the time for them to serve God’s work well. In verse 4, the doors being shut in the street means that hearing grows dull. Others have to raise their voices before you can hear them, and since your own hearing is poor, you assume theirs is too and speak louder and louder.
As we age we can no longer sleep deeply, and we wake even at the sound of a bird. Speaking grows harder too: the voice that was clear and ringing in youth turns husky and weak. In verse 5, the old are afraid of heights because their bones break easily. Having no strength to resist, they are startled by the slightest noise; their hair turns white as the almond tree blossoms; and they can no longer carry even a small load.
When these things appear, we should take them as a sign that the day of leaving this world is not far off, and that it is time to open the hands we have kept clenched and put our lives in order. Though hard work may have brought you great wealth, you have to leave it all behind when you depart; so live by love rather than temper, by giving rather than greed. When breath ceases, we can take nothing on earth with us. Even the name we have been called by and this body we were sure was ours have to be given up, and so we must bring our lives to a beautiful close.
When the long journey of life is over, everyone meets the Judge. Perhaps God will ask you how you used the years he gave you. According to your answer, he will either embrace you as a faithful servant or rebuke you as a wicked one. He is almighty and already knows everything before we answer; yet because we must confess our sins with our own lips, we need to live rightly now.
May you never forget that the time you are spending now is your answer to God’s question. If you met God today, what answer would you give? You must always live with that answer in mind. Earlier I spoke of the people raising their glasses. My heart ached for them, because the things done carelessly, without a thought, add up to become the evidence at judgment.
In verse 6, the silver cord is severed, the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is broken at the spring, and the wheel is broken at the cistern. These describe the moment of leaving the world, when the flesh that held up our life gives way and the body and breath that held the soul come to a stop. The days when we filled the jar of life with greed and lust and the hours we spent longing for the word and living by faith have all come to an end. Before the body returns to the dust, then, we must remember God, who granted all these things, and turn and repent now. Knowing that people are divided between eternal life and eternal punishment according to the faith they lived by, Solomon pleads earnestly with us not to cling to a life of vanity. He is urging you, too, to fear God and keep his commandments. Because God brings every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether good or evil, we must turn back to the way of truth.
In closing, I would like to ask you some questions. Do you truly believe that God will judge? Do you truly believe that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing and dividing your soul and spirit, even to the marrow?
If so, I hope you will lay down all your greed and anxiety and live by the word. If you believe that God truly governs our lives, may you lay the heavy burden on your shoulders down before him and see for yourself how he answers. Let us lay down the person we hate, the craving for more, and the urge to take revenge, and give glory to God, who has given us grace. I hope you will understand that God can work only when you let go of the world, and that you will live in obedience to his will.
If we cannot entrust things to him, we are left raising a glass, taking revenge with our own hands, and chasing after money. Through Ecclesiastes you will have learned what life is. And watching Solomon, who held power that nothing could resist and yet at the end of his life was filled with remorse over what he had done, you will have learned what kind of life leaves no regret.
Can you see Solomon, kneeling powerless before God? The man who once ran as if he had wings began to walk slowly as the years went by; his back bent, his hair turned white, and he became a shabby old man, endlessly lamenting the years gone by. Though you grow old, may your years not end in regret. The word of God is like nails well fastened, so those who hold fast to it will never fall into darkness. When we meet God, who never changes, we can rise above the world. If you understand Solomon’s heart and follow Christ, you can become wise in old age, as Solomon was when he wrote Ecclesiastes, and show the young the way they should go.
Now I bring these expository sermons on Ecclesiastes to a close. I give thanks for Solomon, who shared his wisdom with us, and I give deep thanks for the love of God, who waited for him to the end through all his wandering. May you who have learned this wisdom be a light to those around you.
Expository Sermons on Ecclesiastes