1. "Ecclesiastes is like a diamond. It was forged under the crushing weight of observing everything that is wrong with this fleeting and futile life under the sun. And like a diamond, the resulting product is hard, beautiful, crystal clear, and it cuts through everything."

2. "In order to be prepared to hope in what does not deceive, we must first lose hope in everything that deceives."

3. "How often do you want not to be good at something, but to be better than someone? How often do you not even want something until you see that someone else has it?"

4. "Envious idolatry is not the only way to kill yourself with work. Idleness kills too."

5. "If you try to grasp for gain with both hands, both hands will come back empty."

6. "It is possible to kill yourself with work and never even ask why you're doing it or who you're doing it for."

7. "God did not create us to be rugged individuals. He did not create us to pursue our unique vision of accomplishment, utterly alone, unaided, overcoming all obstacles and with no help from anyone else. Instead, he created us to depend on him and not only on him but also on each other."

8. "We're all weak. And the problem isn't weakness. The problem is the illusion of strength. Ultimately, refusing to let others help you is just as isolating and does just as much damage to the body as refusing to help others."

9. "You need to live for someone other than yourself and for something more than money, success, or power."

10. "Only the fool is someone who shows up to God and tells him all the reasons why God should let him into heaven."

Observation Questions

1. In Ecclesiastes 4:1, what does the preacher observe about the oppressed, and what crucial element is missing for them according to this verse?

2. According to Ecclesiastes 4:4, what does the preacher identify as the source of "all toil and all skill in work"?

3. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, what four specific benefits does the preacher list for those who work together rather than alone?

4. What contrast does the preacher draw in Ecclesiastes 4:13 between the poor youth and the old king, and what fault does he identify in the king?

5. In Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, what does the preacher say is "better than to offer the sacrifice of fools," and what reason does he give for letting our words be few before God?

6. According to Ecclesiastes 5:4-6, what warning does the preacher give about making vows to God, and what consequence does he describe for breaking them?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the preacher describe the dead and the unborn as "more fortunate" than the living in Ecclesiastes 4:2-3? What is he trying to communicate about the weight of oppression, and how should we understand this statement in light of the rest of Scripture?

2. How do verses 4, 5, and 6 of Ecclesiastes 4 work together to present a balanced view of work? What are the two extremes being warned against, and what does the "handful of quietness" represent?

3. What does the phrase "a threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4:12) teach us about God's design for human relationships, and why is this significant in the context of the preacher's observations about isolation?

4. In Ecclesiastes 5:1-3, why does the preacher emphasize listening over speaking when approaching God? How does this instruction relate to the distinction between true worship and "the sacrifice of fools"?

5. How does the sermon connect the command to "fear God" (Ecclesiastes 5:7) to the gospel message? Why is recognizing God as Creator, Ruler, and Judge essential before we can understand our need for Christ?

Application Questions

1. The sermon mentions that envy often drives us to want to be "better than someone" rather than simply good at what we do. In what specific area of your life—work, parenting, ministry, or social media—do you find yourself most prone to comparison? What would it look like this week to pursue excellence without envy?

2. The preacher warns against endless toil without ever asking, "For whom am I toiling?" Take a moment to identify the top two or three things that make you feel busy. Why are you doing them? Who benefits? What might need to change if your honest answer reveals misplaced priorities?

3. The sermon challenged both those who struggle to help others and those who struggle to receive help. Which tendency is harder for you—giving or receiving in Christian community? What is one concrete step you could take this week to grow in the area that is more difficult for you?

4. The pandemic was described as a "ready-made excuse to neglect the body of Christ." Whether you attend in person or remotely, how intentional have you been about genuine fellowship—not just attendance? What is one relationship in your church you could invest in more deeply this week?

5. Ecclesiastes 5:2 says, "God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few." How does this instruction shape the way you approach prayer and worship? What habits of hurry or distraction might you need to lay aside in order to listen to God more carefully before speaking?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 66:10-14 — This passage, quoted in the sermon, offers God's promise of comfort to His people, directly addressing the despair of the oppressed described in Ecclesiastes 4:1-3.

2. Proverbs 6:6-11 — This passage expands on the warning against idleness found in Ecclesiastes 4:5, using the ant as an example of diligent work and warning against the folly of laziness.

3. Romans 3:9-20 — This passage explains how God's law stops every mouth and holds the whole world accountable, illustrating the sermon's point that we come before God with nothing to say and must hear from Him.

4. Hebrews 10:19-25 — This passage urges believers not to neglect meeting together and to encourage one another, reinforcing the sermon's application of Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 to church community and fellowship.

5. Deuteronomy 23:21-23 — This passage is the direct Old Testament source for the preacher's teaching on vows in Ecclesiastes 5:4-6, showing the seriousness with which God treats our promises to Him.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Michael Ignatieff's Political Rise and Fall Illustrates Life's Illusions

II. Four Pitfalls of Life Under the Sun (Ecclesiastes 4:1-16)

III. The Way Up and Out: Hear God and Fear God (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7)

IV. The Gospel as Our Ultimate Hope Against Life's Pitfalls

Detailed Sermon Outline

In October of 2004, Michael Ignatieff was contentedly teaching political philosophy at Harvard. Then one night, three men in black suits arrived from Toronto to take him out to dinner. They asked him, Would you consider returning to Canada and running for a seat in Parliament with the Liberal Party? The Liberal Party was at that time in power, so Ignatieff asked them, oh, did the Prime Minister, Paul Martin, send you? The men exchanged glances.

Not exactly. They were proposing a run from the outside.

They were acting on their own initiative. Their ambition was eventually to make him prime minister. They thought the party was headed for a train wreck and they wanted Ignatieff to save it. They were, to say the least, dissatisfied with the current leadership.

Ignatieff's memoir, Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics, tells the story of what happened next. Ignatieff accepted their offer, moved back home to Canada, and ran for a seat in Parliament. He won, but in that election, his party lost their majority, and so they lost control of the government. Eventually, he made a bid for becoming leader of his party, and he succeeded, which meant that he would be the Prime Minister. If they won the next general election.

Only problem is they didn't. In fact, under his leadership, the Liberal Party suffered their worst ever electoral defeat. Not only did his party lose, but Ignatieff himself lost his seat. His political career was over in only five years. From fire to ashes.

Ignatieff's book has many striking insights, and some of them are lessons you only learn by losing. So for instance, he talks about the sort of contrasting conversations on his very first day on the job when he and his newly elected colleagues were all optimism. They were thinking, oh yeah, we've just been sent to the penalty box. We'll be back in power in no time. But all of his party colleagues who had just lost their seats and been voted out of office were singing a very different tune.

They were saying, you, guys have no idea what just happened. You haven't been sent to the penalty box, but to the wilderness. Ignatieff writes, That was my first lesson in the encapsulating effect of illusion in politics. How everyone ends up saying the same thing, even though it happens to be wrong.

Tonight we continue our series in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes with chapter 4 verse 1 all the way to chapter 5 verse 7. Like Michael Ignatieff, the preacher of Ecclesiastes, tells us what he saw and experienced. Ignatieff tells us over and over again of the mistakes he himself made. There's just refreshing candor throughout the book. And Ecclesiastes tells us, from the preacher's own store of experience, Ecclesiastes tells us over and over again of the pits he sees others falling into.

The illusions he sees them succumbing to. The phrase I saw is a crucial repeated feature of our passage. So just glance through the passage, this will help you get a handle on it. Chapter 4 verse 1, Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. Chapter 4 verse 4, Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor.

Same thing in verse 7, again I saw vanity under the sun. And verse 15, I saw all the living who move about under the sun.

Also like Michael Ignatieff, the author of Ecclesiastes points out pitfalls. He says, Watch out, look over there, don't fall in or you will sink and get stuck. Both writers teach hard lessons. Lessons learned by having reality crash down on you and crush your dreams.

Ecclesiastes is like a diamond. It was forged under the crushing weight of observing everything that is wrong with this fleeting and futile life under the sun. And like a diamond, the resulting product is hard, beautiful, crystal clear, and it cuts through everything.

Tonight we're going to see again that Ecclesiastes dispels illusions. Here's how one writer put it commenting on the whole book: In order to be prepared to hope in what does not deceive, we must first lose hope in everything that deceives. That's what the author's about in the whole book and especially in our passage tonight. So in our passage, the preacher points out four pitfalls of life under the sun and he shows us the way up and out. Two points to the sermon.

The first will be by far the longer one. First, all of chapter four, four pitfalls of life under the sun. And then in chapter 5:1-7, the way up and out. Point one then, four pitfalls of life under the sun. First pitfall is oppression.

Oppression. The preacher forces us to stare at the bleak reality of oppression in chapter 4:1-3. Again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. On the side of their oppressors, there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.

And I thought, the dead who are already dead, more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Here, as is so often the case in Ecclesiastes, the preacher is simply observing. He is certainly not defending or justifying oppression, but neither is he looking at oppression and then saying, Therefore, go and save the world.

Teenagers in the congregation. For your schoolwork, have you read any utopian or dystopian literature? Books like the Giver or the Hunger Games or Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World. Some books like that raise the question, what happens when human beings try to engineer a perfect society? And what happens when people try to take control of every aspect of life and fit it to some plan is that the dream turns into a nightmare.

In these verses, Ecclesiastes dispels the illusion that this world could ever become a utopia. As Jesus himself said, the poor you will always have with you. If we personally are fortunate to enjoy a large share of freedom and prosperity, many of us prefer to ignore oppression.

But most people don't have that luxury. One of our interns, Matt Mihelic, told me this week about a friend of his who's a Congolese refugee. Reflecting on the atrocities that were taking place in his homeland, that friend once said to Matt, it would be better not to be alive. It's important to remember that these verses offer us an impression. They tell us what the author thought and felt when he stared at the reality of oppression.

If you're being oppressed and all power is on the side of the oppressor, life looks hopeless. It's natural and understandable to despair. There's even a kind of dignity in despair in the sense that at least you have your eyes open to reality and you're not trying to close your eyes as if that can make it all go away. But though Ecclesiastes tells us the truth, as we've seen over and over again in this book, it does not tell us the whole truth and deliberately so.

Even when there may be no human comforter, God remains the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. And the Bible is packed full of God's comforting promises to those who trust in Him. Consider just one from the tail end of Isaiah and God's promise to make a new heaven and earth. This one just jumped out at me this week. Isaiah 66:12-14.

For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, your bones shall flourish like the grass. And the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants, and He shall show His indignation against His enemies.

Second pitfall, envy. Envy. Look at verses 4 to 6. In this section, the preacher starts to break out of his mold a little bit. In addition to observation, he offers us some proverbial sayings that warn and instruct us.

So look first at verse 4: Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

You might immediately object, All toil? No way! What? We have to remember that, like a stand-up comic, the preacher of Ecclesiastes frequently uses hyperbole, deliberate overstatements to get your attention and make a point. Also ask yourself, how often do you want not to be good at something, but to be better than someone?

How often do you not even want something until you see that someone else has it?

How often is your heart filled not with contentment, but with complaint because of comparison. Jamie Dunlop recently told me about a dinner he had back when he was in business with a former boss and four high-ranking executives. His boss asked these four other executives, How many of you are the first or only child of divorced parents? Three out of four hands go up. You could spend your whole life feeling like you're not enough and climb all the way to the top just to disprove it to yourself.

But if envy is a big problem in our work, it's not the only problem. Look at verse 5. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. What on earth does that mean? Start with the phrase, folds his hands.

It's a metaphor for idleness. If you fold your hands together, you are not using them in work. So, like in Proverbs 6:10-11, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. And poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. Okay, so it's talking about idleness.

But what about the phrase eats his own flesh? What type of self-cannibalism is this? Well, what happens if you do no work? You earn no money, you get no food. If you get no food, you go hungry.

If you keep going hungry, your body starts to feed on itself.

Because it has nothing else to feed on. Envy leads you to trample on others in your climb to the top. Idleness is just as deadly for you and for anyone else who's depending on you. Envious idolatry is not the only way to kill yourself with work. Idleness kills too.

We were talking through this verse at our dinner table this week, and it reminded our daughter Lucy of the chapter titled Experiments in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. The girls in the story wanted a week of all play and no work. So what happened when nobody did any of their regular chores? The house descended into disaster. Pip, the canary, died of starvation, and they had to serve a disgusting inedible dinner to Laurie.

As Jo remarked at the end, having learned her lesson, lounging and larking don't pay. Now look at verse 6. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. Verse 4 warns us of the extreme of overwork due to envy. Verse 5 warns us of doing nothing.

Verse 6 bowls down the middle. It shows us the mean between these two errors. Verse 6 is saying, if you try to grasp for gain with both hands, both hands will come back empty.

In order to be content, you have to know your limits, submit to your limits, and set the right limits? Do you have time in your life for both work and rest? Can you turn work mode off?

What keeps you from turning work off? Is it really, really, really the expectations of your employer? Is there some cold, hard, inflexible rule that if you transgress, you'll simply lose your job?

Or, do you sometimes stay on when you could be off?

If you do, why?

Leads us to the third pitfall: isolation. Isolation. The preacher points out this pitfall in verses 7 to 12, and here the preacher really breaks form.

In verses 7 to 12, he gives us two verses of problem and four whole verses of solution. He offers a fleeting glimpse of encouragement. So what's the problem he identifies? The problem is being a loner workaholic. Look at verses 7 and 8.

They could have been written yesterday. Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is vanity and an unhappy business. It is possible to kill yourself with work and never even ask why you're doing it or who you're doing it for.

Type A strivers out there, that should scare you.

Are you busy? If you're busy, what are you busy with? Think about the top one or two or three things in your life that make you feel busy.

If you do feel busy, I'd encourage you to find time to ask a simple question. Why am I doing this? Whether you're trying to become valedictorian of your high school to get into your dream college or whether you're trying to disciple 20 different people at the same time, just slow down enough to ask, why am I doing this?

What's the solution? The preacher tells us it's working together. Look at verses 9 to 12. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, Two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. God did not create us to be rugged individuals. He did not create us to pursue our unique vision of accomplishment, utterly alone, unaided, overcoming all obstacles and with no help from anyone else. Instead, he created us to depend on him and not only on him but also on each other.

That's how he built us. That's how insufficient we are in ourselves. There are all sorts of realms you could apply the preacher's counsel to from these verses: the workplace, the family, living with roommates, studying, sports, so much more. But let's think especially about how these verses apply to our life together as a church. If you weren't there this morning, I know only some of you could be, our brother Andy Jones gave a wonderful devotion reflecting on Ephesians 4:15 15 and 16, that gave a great explanation, encouragement, and unpacking of some of these themes here.

If you couldn't be there, I'd encourage you to listen to the audio. But how do these verses apply to our life as a church? The preacher says in verse 12 that a threefold cord is not easily broken. Brothers and sisters, if you're a member of our church, you are part of an 829-fold cord. When we covenant together as members, we are committing to provide for each other spiritual Christ-centered versions of all the things that verses 9 to 12 are talking about.

Burden bearing, comfort and sorrow, help to persevere, strength in weakness, strength to keep seeking Christ and defense against temptation. When you join the church, you add your one strand to the whole, and you gain the strength of the 828 others. To live in genuine community takes work. It's hard work. It can be frustrating work.

Every church member is called by God to be both a giver and a receiver. Which one of those is harder for you? Which one is less appealing? For some of us, it's hard to slow down our own personal agenda enough to take notice of others. To see what's going on in their lives and to pick up and carry their burdens.

But for others, it's harder to let other people bear your burdens. Some of us are self-isolating and deeply independent. You want to be able to handle your own problems. You think you're weak if you can't. But I got news for you.

We're all weak. And the problem isn't weakness, The problem is the illusion of strength. Ultimately, refusing to let others help you is just as isolating and does just as much damage to the body as refusing to help others.

Brothers and sisters, this pandemic presents us with a powerful temptation to drift from fellowship. COVID-19 is a ready-made excuse to neglect the body of Christ. Every single one of us has a doctor's note.

Now, these days, there are all sorts of legitimate reasons not to attend church or not to see other members face-to-face outside of our main gathering. Many of you have legitimate concerns for your own health or the health of those that you care for and see regularly. I trust those of you in that category will hopefully hear this on the podcast. As I said, there are lots of good reasons not to go to church right now, but there are also some bad reasons. Is it just too inconvenient?

Too much hassle? Have you started to enjoy having more of Sunday to yourself to do whatever you like? If you have any question about whether your reasons for staying home are good or bad, I'd encourage you to talk to mature believers whom you trust. You can talk to any elder. Seek wisdom.

Bring those concerns to other believers and to the Lord. And pray that whether you stay home or attend, you would do it for God's glory and other people's good. Fourth pitfall, power. Oppression, envy, isolation, power. The preacher points out the pitfalls of power in verses 13 to 16.

Look at verse 13.

Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. Power can close your ears to counsel. In the 17th century, Blaise Pascal wrote, this is why each rung of Fortune's ladder, which brings us up in the world, takes us further from the truth.

Because people are more wary of offending those whose friendship is most useful, and whose enmity is most dangerous. A prince can be the laughingstock of Europe and the only one to know nothing about it.

The story continues in verses 14 and 15: For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place.

The preacher may well be reflecting on a concrete historical incident. It's hard to tie it to a particular incident in Scripture or history. And it's not totally clear whether there are three leaders in this story or only two. I think in the end it's two: the king and the youth who emerges from poverty and prison to replace him. But in any case, the preacher's point is clear: power doesn't last.

And then verse 16, There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Those of us who are old enough will remember the TV show Wheel of Fortune. It has something to do with money and spelling phrases and this big wheel you spin. My memory's sort of hazy. But the phrase Wheel of Fortune was not invented by that show. It comes from classical mythology.

The ancient Greeks and Romans pictured the goddess Fortuna as spinning a giant wooden wheel. That wheel had people strapped to it. If the goddess spins, you go up, you rest ever so briefly at the top, and then you come plummeting back down.

The image was made popular, sort of culture-wide, by Boethius. Boethius was a Christian theologian and philosopher in the sixth century A.D. He was a prominent public servant under Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, Boethius had a richly successful career in politics until the king took a disliking to him, accused him of conspiracy, threw him into prison, and had him executed in AD 524 from fire to ashes. While he was in prison awaiting execution, Boethius wrote a book called the Consolation of Philosophy. And it became one of the most widely read books in Europe for a thousand years.

In that work, Boethius imagines himself in his prison cell with the goddess Fortuna, appearing to him in a vision, and saying, you, imagine that fortune's attitude to you has changed. You are wrong. Such was always her way. Such is her nature. Instead, she was just the same when she was smiling, when she deluded you with the allurements of her false happiness.

You have merely discovered the changing face of that blind power. She who still conceals herself from others has completely revealed herself to you. For this is my nature, this is my continual game.

Turning my wheel swiftly, I delight to bring low what is on high, to raise high what is down.

And of course Boethius knew, as did the author of Ecclesiastes, that behind the seemingly arbitrary wheel of fortune stands a sovereign God.

It is ultimately His hand that turns the wheel, but from our vantage point down here, sometimes all we can see is that the wheel just keeps turning and no one stays on top for very long.

Looking at verse 16, those who come later will not rejoice in him.

In just the past few weeks, the following names have been removed from school in San Francisco, California and Southern England. Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, DianE Feinstein, Winston Churchill, and J.K. Rowling. Even if you get your name on a building, that doesn't mean it will stay there.

Power, political success, and reputation can all vanish overnight. And even if they last for decades, they'll soon turn to vapor, just like everything else under the sun.

Take a breath for a moment. Step back. Look over chapter 4 as a whole. What does it teach us? Here it is in a sentence: you: need to live for someone other than yourself and for something more than money, success, or power.

I'll say that again. You need to live for someone other than yourself and for something more than money, success, or power. Those are the pitfalls. How can we avoid and escape them? That brings us to point two, much more briefly, the way up and out.

The way up and out. The preacher points out this way in chapter 5, verses 1 to 7. And the way up and out has two parts: hear God and fear God. First, hear God. Look at verses 1 to 3.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.

For a dream comes with much business, and a fool's voice with many words.

The preacher is telling us that in order to rightly relate to God, we need to listen before we speak. We need to listen to God instruct us and rebuke us. We need to listen to God correct us and condemn us. We need to listen to God reveal Himself to us and reveal ourselves to us in light of who He is. Only by listening to God can you come to know both God and yourself rightly.

When the preacher says, Draw near to listen, he is reflecting the fact that under the old covenant, it was the priest's job to instruct the people in God's law. So today, our fundamental The primary task in gathering as a church is to hear God's Word, just like we're doing now. And to aid us in hearing God's Word, we take the preacher's words here literally. We open our gatherings with a full minute of silence, and then we hear God speak to call us together. And so as to help us digest and apply and to help us have what we've heard actually change us and dig into our hearts.

We pause for silence afterward because we've just done business with the living God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools. What is that sacrifice of fools in verse 1? It's an outward show of religion divorced from real faith and obedience. It's hypocrisy.

It's an impressive performance that conceals inner deceit. There is a way to serve God on the outside, but be serving yourself all along on the inside. The preacher's instructions here paint a picture of our need. We need to be silent before God so that he can rebuke us and illumine our understanding. But this picture also shows us something of how God has provided for our need.

We come with nothing to offer. We come with nothing to say. Only the fool is someone who shows up to God and tells him all the reasons why God should let him into heaven. We come before God silent. As Paul says in Romans 3, God has given us his law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

So we have nothing to say before Him. We have to hear from Him. And what has He said? What has He spoken into that silence? In Christ, He has come to us.

He's spoken to us, as the book of Hebrews says, in these last days. And God is in heaven and we are on earth, but He hasn't simply stayed up there and left us here. He's crossed that gap. He's bridged that need. He's come to us in person.

By sending Jesus into the world to live for us and die for us. And the word that Christ came to speak to us does condemn us as unworthy. It points out our needs and lacks and failures before God. But precisely because we are unworthy of him, God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. Jesus, God the Son incarnate, took our sins on himself on the cross.

He paid the full penalty of what our sins deserve. He died the death we deserved to die. And because he bore our punishment, Jesus made it so that without first becoming any more worthy in ourselves, we can trust in him and be completely reconciled to God. We can believe in him and be made right with God just like that, with no cleaning up of our act required as a prerequisite. We could never do that anyways.

Jesus died for us and on the third day he rose again. He triumphed over all the effects of God's curse on our sin in his own person. And now he calls all people everywhere to repent and believe in him. If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, turn from being your own master and Lord and submit to him. Turn from trying to be your own savior and simply rely on on Him to save you.

That's how you can have forgiveness of sins. That's how you can be right with God. That's how you can have your eternal destiny secure in Him. The second part of the way out and up is to fear God. We hear God and fear God.

The preacher commends this way to us in verses four to seven of chapter five. Chapter five, verses four to seven. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity. But God is the one you must fear. Here, the preacher closely echoes Deuteronomy chapter 23 verses 21 to 23.

In ancient Israel, people would make a vow to the Lord in response to some signal act of provision or deliverance. God, if you do this for me, I will bring a gift to you. And they would then offer a sacrifice in order to fulfill that vow. The thing that they offered wasn't required, but by vowing, that made it required. The point here is simple: if you tell God you're going to do something, do it.

As the 19th century pastor Charles Bridges put it, To refuse to enlist may be guiltless, but to desert the colors is to be guilty of death. If you promise to give God something and then decide not to give it, you're treating God as if he is your social inferior, as if you can burn him without any real consequence.

And verse 6 warns that God takes broken vows very seriously and he repays them with wrath. And of course, there's another limit on vows, which is that they have to be morally legitimate in the first place. As Bridges again says, A vow cannot make that right, which is morally wrong. What is contrary to the law can never be a legitimate engagement to the lawgiver. So what's the antidote to this kind of hasty speech before God, this kind of over-promising and under-delivering?

Well, it's in verse 7. God is the one you must fear. God is our Creator. God is our ruler. God is our ultimate lawgiver and judge.

So fear him. God is perfectly righteous, unstintingly pure, and unimaginably holy. If you're not a Christian, you need to know that as big of problems as oppression and envy and isolation are, as big a problem as power can be, whether you're in it or suffering under an unjust expression of it. Your problem with God is far bigger, and that's because God has a problem with you. None of us have treated God as he deserves.

None of us have given to God everything that we owe inherently. That's why our only hope is God's grace. And that grace poured out on us through Christ's dying love for us is all the hope we need.

Oppression sometimes leaves its victims without any human comforter, but Christ offers comfort that is never mere words. His empty tomb and glorified life, His promised return and endless kingdom, these offer comfort that no earthly oppression can extinguish. Envy turns us against others and even against ourselves, but Christ's sacrifice frees us from selfishness and enables us to live lives of gladly sacrificing for other people's good. By the grace of Christ, you can live a life less upwardly mobile as you stoop down in order to lift others up, because that's exactly what Christ has done for you. Union with Christ rescues us from the isolation of sin's self-deception, and it makes us members of his life-giving body, again as we considered together this morning.

And whatever power you have or lack now, if you trust in Christ, you will reign with him forever. So what should you do?

Hear God and fear God. Turn from all idols and illusions and trust in Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for speaking to us even before we were listening. We thank you for granting us ears to hear the gracious word that you have spoken to us in Christ.

We pray that we would hope in you and in your powerful promises this week, and that we would flee from all vain idols and delusions.