1. "What knowledge do you never have less of after you've given it away? Knowledge. It's a glorious thing to burn brightly with the knowledge of God. And it's even more glorious to set others ablaze. A lamp is not diminished by lighting another."

2. "When Scripture hurts, the pain is telling you something, so hold still and pay attention. Through Scripture, God is acting like a physical therapist for your soul. A good physical therapist only inflicts pain in order to help and heal."

3. "The radical message of Ecclesiastes and the radical message of Christianity is this: you have to die before you can live. You have to die to yourself. You have to die to the world. You have to die to all those dreams that dance before your eyes and keep you constantly chasing the next thing."

4. "It is possible to multiply reading without multiplying learning. It is possible to multiply knowledge without adding any wisdom."

5. "Be a person of one book. Be a person of the book. Scripture is a deposit of divine wisdom sufficient to conform us to that wisdom. Scripture should be your primary, supreme, constantly consulted authority and guide to the good life."

6. "Whatever you say about the Bible, what you really believe about the Bible is shown by how much time you spend with it and how much you let it reshape you."

7. "Throughout this book, the preacher takes the world in his hands, tosses it into a saucepan, and sets it to simmer. Through all 12 chapters, we've seen that everything you're tempted to strive for so anxiously—work, wealth, pleasure, legacy—it's all turned to steam."

8. "The fear of God is a fear that frees, a fear that gives life, a fear that humbles and emboldens and empowers."

9. "Trying to keep your sin secret is like trying to hide a tiger in your closet. There will be no good end."

10. "The doctrine of final judgment is one of the most frightening in the Bible. It's also one of the most freeing."

Observation Questions

1. According to Ecclesiastes 12:9-10, what did the preacher do in preparing his teaching, and what qualities characterized the words he wrote?

2. In Ecclesiastes 12:11, what two images are used to describe "the words of the wise," and who is identified as the ultimate source of these words?

3. What warning does Ecclesiastes 12:12 give regarding "anything beyond these," and what does it say about making many books and much study?

4. In Ecclesiastes 12:13, what does the author identify as "the end of the matter" and "the whole duty of man"?

5. According to Ecclesiastes 12:14, what will God bring into judgment, and what categories of deeds are specifically mentioned?

6. Looking at the repeated phrase in Ecclesiastes 12:8 ("Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity"), how does this statement relate to the command to "fear God" in verse 13?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the author compare the words of the wise to "goads" and "nails firmly fixed" (v. 11)? What does this imagery teach us about the purpose and effect of Scripture in our lives?

2. How does the warning in verse 12 about endless books and wearisome study help us understand the unique authority and sufficiency of Scripture as our guide for life?

3. The sermon described Ecclesiastes as a "three-story building" with "all is vanity" on the first floor, "everything is a gift" on the second, and "the fear of God" on the third. How do these three truths work together to lead us to the conclusion in verse 13?

4. What is the relationship between fearing God and keeping His commandments (v. 13)? Why does the author connect these two things as inseparable?

5. How does the reality of final judgment (v. 14) serve both as a warning and as a source of freedom for believers, according to the sermon's teaching?

Application Questions

1. The sermon emphasized that "you become what you listen to" and "you are what you speak." What voices, sources, or authorities are you regularly listening to, and how might you need to reorder your priorities to give Scripture its rightful place as your primary guide?

2. When has Scripture functioned like a "goad" in your life—causing pain that ultimately helped you move in the right direction? How should this shape your response the next time God's Word convicts or challenges you?

3. The preacher warned against harboring secret sin, noting that "there is no such thing" as sin hidden from God. Is there any area of your life where you are trying to hide something from God or others? What specific step can you take this week to bring that into the light through confession?

4. The sermon listed things that are not your duty—leaving a legacy, getting rich, maximizing pleasure. Which of these false duties most tempts you to anxiety or striving? How would fearing God and keeping His commandments change your approach to that area?

5. How does living with the final judgment in view free you from the fear of human judgment or disapproval? In what specific relationship or situation this week could you act with greater boldness or integrity because you trust God as your ultimate judge?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Proverbs 1:1-7 — This passage introduces the book of Proverbs with the same theme that Ecclesiastes concludes with: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."

2. Hebrews 4:12-16 — This passage expands on the living, piercing nature of God's Word and our accountability before God, reinforcing the themes of Scripture as a goad and God as judge.

3. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 — Paul's instruction to Timothy about the sufficiency and purpose of Scripture connects to the sermon's emphasis on being a person of the one Book.

4. Matthew 6:19-24 — Jesus' teaching about treasures on earth versus treasures in heaven reinforces Ecclesiastes' message that earthly pursuits are vanity and only what is done for God endures.

5. Romans 14:10-12 — Paul's reminder that we will all stand before God's judgment seat supports the sermon's emphasis on final accountability and living in light of that reality.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Importance of Finding the Right Guide for Life's Ultimate Goals

II. Point One: The Right Words (Ecclesiastes 12:9-10)

III. Point Two: The Right Pain (Ecclesiastes 12:11)

IV. Point Three: The Right Guide (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

V. Point Four: The Right Fear (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

VI. Point Five: The Right End (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

VII. Finding Our Final End in God Alone

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Detailed Sermon Outline

What guide you follow depends on what goal you're trying to reach.

What's your biggest goal?

Who do you trust to guide you there? When I was in the sixth grade, growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I started taking saxophone lessons with a man named Dan Zinn. D-A-N-N-Z-I-N-N. I studied with him for the next seven years. Dan is a local legend as both a teacher and a player.

He's an accomplished performer, composer, and recording artist. I had started playing sax in fifth grade and pretty quickly got hooked on jazz music. The greats, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane. Asking around, it became clear that Dan was the best sax teacher in the Bay Area, and he happened to teach in the town next door.

His method was demanding and exacting. Endless scales, arpeggios, and learning jazz licks in all 12 keys on the full range of your instrument. He was, shall we say, difficult to impress.

However hard you worked, However much you practiced, he could always push you harder still.

When I was in eighth grade, I told him I wanted to try to be a professional musician. And he said to me, well, I think you might have what it takes, but you've got to know that it's like training for the Olympics. Only harder.

To this day, Dan is one of the best teachers in any field that I've ever known. What makes him such a great teacher? Such a great guide? Two things, I think. He does both these things at once.

One, he imposes a strict, demanding discipline on all his students. He forces his students to develop a command of their instrument. No easy way out, no shortcuts. You have to submit to the discipline or you'll never improvise fluently. Two, he somehow gets out of the way and helps all his students develop their own voice.

So jazz musicians will mockingly deride other players if they sound like a clone of their favorite player or their teacher. It's not a compliment to say, that guy sounds like Cannibal Adderley back from the grave. But somehow, all of Dan's students didn't wind up sounding like him. They wound up sounding like themselves.

Discipline blossomed into freedom.

When it comes to matters more ultimate than music.

Who do you trust to show you the right destination and help you get there? How do you tell right from wrong? And who do you trust to point out the difference?

How do you discern what makes a good life?

And who do you trust to show you when your life isn't?

This morning we come to the end of Ecclesiastes. These last six verses of the book, chapter 12, verses 9 to 14, are an epilogue. In these verses, the author comments on the whole journey the preacher undertook, and he distills the essence of the book. The passage is on page 559 of the Pew Bibles. Please follow along as I read.

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14.

Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these of making many books there is no end.

And much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment. With every secret thing, whether good or evil.

In summarizing the whole book of Ecclesiastes, the author distills its message to this: what's the right goal in life? And how do you get there? The right goal is wisdom that will pass the test of God's judgment.

And you get there by submitting to the life-giving discipline of God's Word. This passage basically has two sections. I think it helps to read verse 11 with what comes before, verse 12 with what comes after. So verses 9 through 11 reflect on wisdom's journey. This is how the preacher sought wisdom and how we should seek wisdom.

And verse 11 gives us kind of a comment on that, about how the words of wisdom goad us in the right direction, as we'll see. And then verses 12 through 14 contemplate the goal of this journey. I think verse 12 is there as a basis and guide, what we should pay attention to in order to arrive at the right destination. Kind of two halves of the passage, but we're not going to walk through the text in that way. We will go in order, but instead of having two points, we'll have five.

What do you need to reach the right goal? is the question. There are five parts to our passage's answer. What do you need to reach the right goal? Five ingredients our passage gives us.

Point one, the right words. What do you need to reach the right goal? The right words. Look again at verses 9 and 10. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.

The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The very first verse of Ecclesiastes tells us that the preacher is the son of David, king in Jerusalem. This could mean that the preacher is Solomon, but it doesn't require that. So the activity in verse 9 doesn't necessarily refer to the composition of the book of Proverbs. Instead, it definitely refers to the work the preacher did in order to write this book.

He taught publicly and studied privately. He devoted himself to understanding, interpreting, and presenting proverbs, which are compact nuggets of wisdom. He has gathered up and sorted and sifted these nuggets, and then he has sprinkled them liberally throughout the hills of this book. So take a few almost at random. Ecclesiastes 4:7.

Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. Or 7:4, the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Like gold, the preacher's words are not only weighty and precious, but they shine. He sought to find words of delight. As Melville put it in Moby Dick, the Book of Ecclesiastes is a fine hammered steel of woe.

And like unalloyed gold, these words of the preachers are true all the way down. He tells us uprightly he wrote words of truth. So why is he telling us this about what he did and what he wrote?

He's telling us this so that we will love true and beautiful words like he does. There is no wisdom without words. A huge portion of wisdom consists in words. The words you hear, the words you believe, the words you reject, the words you speak. Hearing and trusting true words will make you true.

You become what you listen to. You are what you speak.

Fellow elders, follow the preacher's example of painstaking labor in private study and public teaching. Finding and weighing and arranging true and delightful words is good work, and it is hard work. Members of CHBC, Exercise great care in how you listen to teaching at church. Don't listen for someone else's sins. Don't listen to find out how everyone else is wrong.

Don't listen for mere intellectual curiosity of some information you can file away. Don't listen for any other purpose than to be conformed to Christ and help others be conformed to Christ. Listen in order to be challenged, convicted and conformed to the image of Christ. But members of CHBC don't just listen. You too should follow the preacher's example of storing up in order to share out.

What do you never have less of after you've given it away?

Knowledge. It's a glorious thing. To burn brightly with the knowledge of God. And it's even more glorious to set others ablaze.

A lamp is not diminished by lighting another.

Verses 9 and 10 tell us that the words of this book are true and beautiful. But as you have no doubt experienced over the past several months, these words are not always pleasant. Hence, point two: the right pain. What do you need to reach the right goal? The right pain, which verse 11 tells us.

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one shepherd. A goad is a staff with a curved spike at the end. Shepherds use them to prod animals along in the right direction, to get animals moving, to keep them moving, and to make sure they go the right way. Why are the words of the wise like goads? Because they hurt and they hurt with a purpose.

This verse is first of all about this book. It would also apply to other books in Scripture that have a similar purpose, like Job and Proverbs, other books that sort of sting us out of complacency.

And by implication, I think it applies to Scripture as a whole. All of Scripture is a storehouse of divine wisdom. All of Scripture is given to us by men inspired by the Holy Spirit and given wisdom from above. And all of Scripture in different ways is a goad.

The image of nails firmly fixed in this verse seems to refer to the fact that proverbs stick in our minds and they help us to stick to God's ways. Think about Proverbs 15:1. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. That's a single sentence.

How many conflicts has that sentence prevented or resolved? How many relationships has that sentence restored or preserved? How many sentences has that one sentence kept you from saying?

Like nails firmly fixed. When the preacher says they are given by one shepherd, he's saying that the words of this book, like the words of all the other books of the Bible, are ultimately given by God. God gives wisdom in his word and through his word to wise teachers in order to goad us along the path to wisdom. This process hurts because we are prone to wander. So remember that the pain has a purpose.

The pain is meant to correct and corral, to prod and provoke, and to point the right way and motivate you to keep going.

The preacher of Ecclesiastes is like a philosopher at a party.

Dude, that guy over there won't stop talking about death.

He's totally killing my buzz.

The book of Ecclesiastes hurts because it holds up your mortality as a mirror and it will not let you look away.

How has this book hurt you?

Are there any idols it has pried from your grip, finger by finger?

How about pleasure? Ecclesiastes 2:1, I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. What about work? 2:11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

How about money?

5:10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. What is it about us that makes it necessary for God to speak such hard words to us? For one, it's our idolatry of worldly things. We wrap our hearts completely around success and security.

And sex, and we need God to unwrap our hearts. We stick ourselves to these things and we need God to un-pri our hearts from them, and that un-prying hurts.

We so easily believe false narratives the world tells us. We so quickly buy false hopes that the world sells us. And the mission of Ecclesiastes is to expose all those false narratives and demolish all those false hopes. We so quickly forget what God has told us and done for us, even what we know and remember we so frequently fail to do because of the weakness of our flesh.

We get fatigued in fighting sin. Halfway up the mountain to holiness, Halfway along the path to heaven, you stop and think, maybe that's about enough effort. The view from up here is probably just as good. I'm just going to take a load off and sit right here for a minute. Or maybe head back down.

When Scripture hurts, Ask what it's hurting and why. Is it hurting your truest, deepest self? Is Scripture refusing to respect your truth? Or is Scripture taking aim at a problem in you that you know needs to be dealt with? Is it pointing out something about you that deep down you know is wrong?

When Scripture hurts, The pain is telling you something, so hold still and pay attention. Through Scripture, God is acting like a physical therapist for your soul. A good physical therapist only inflicts pain in order to help and heal. Through their sometimes painful interventions in your condition or injury, Over time, you gain flexibility and strength. After two weeks or two months of their therapy, you can do stuff you wouldn't have dreamed of doing before they started helping you.

God's word hurts in order to heal. God inflicts a little pain now in order to save you from a lot of pain later.

The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. In order to reach the right goal, you need the right pain. The radical message of Ecclesiastes and the radical message of Christianity is this: you: have to die before you can live. You have to die to yourself.

You have to die to the world. You have to die to all those dreams that dance before your eyes and keep you constantly chasing the next thing. How? Can you die to all that?

Only by laying hold of the God who died that you might live.

This one shepherd has not only given you wise words, he gave his life to purchase you from death. This one shepherd took the death that we deserved for our sins. And the death we deserve is not only physical but spiritual, the eternal death of condemnation. But in his mercy, God himself became incarnate to save us. God the Father sent God the Son in order to rescue us from this hopeless cycle of lies, illusions, false hopes, and final judgment.

He did that by paying the price to purchase all those who would turn from sin and trust in him. He did that by triumphing over the grave, by rising again, by doing what no human being ever could and breaking death in half. If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, trust in him today. He is your only hope for deliverance from death and into a life that is life indeed. Jesus' death on the cross is both the greatest criticism and the greatest compliment you could ever receive.

Your problem with sin is far worse than you think. Only the death of God the Son could solve it. And God's love and mercy and grace are far greater than you think. Not because of anything good in you, but only out of his free love, he came to rescue you from your hopeless condition.

To receive that salvation, you have to die to yourself and to everything else in order to find life in him alone.

As Paul confessed in Galatians 6:14, But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Point three, the right guide. What do you need to reach the right goal? The right guide. This is the message of verse 12.

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Beware of anything beyond these, so what are these? There are the books mentioned in verse 11, whose sayings are given by one shepherd. Ultimately, the author is drawing a distinction between works that are inspired by God and works that aren't.

And his warning about endless publishing and wearisome study seems to work on a couple levels. On one level, it's a reminder that writing, too, is vanity. Books, like their authors, will die, and be forgotten. But on another level, this seems to be a cryptic warning about giving the wrong weight to the wrong authorities. It's a warning not to trust the wrong teachers.

It is possible to multiply reading without multiplying learning. It is possible to multiply knowledge without adding any wisdom. It is possible, as the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:7, to be always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

In the end, what good will reading or even writing many books do for you if it doesn't lead to wisdom and the fear of God? Exactly nothing.

About nine years ago, a couple of years before I began my doctoral studies, I went to an academic conference for biblical scholars, partly in order to meet with a man who I hoped would become my doctoral supervisor. The man's name is Simon. So here at this conference, everybody there is either a grad student studying the Bible or some type of professional professor of Bible.

Simon and I, one day during the conference, got lunch at a counter. We sat down in a little common area, kind of a big circular table, sat down next to each other. Someone came and sat across the table from us uninvited, you know, another biblical scholar of some kind, and he just started talking to us. Pretty quickly, he began boasting about how many books he had written. I still remember Four.

Four academic monographs. Now, what was especially embarrassing is that Simon is a widely known, pretty much world-leading New Testament scholar. And this guy didn't seem to recognize him. He didn't know who he was talking to. After a while, Simon said, well, I've published four books, too, but they could all be rubbish.

He's English, that's what he would say. Typical British self-deprecation but this man was undeterred. He continued in his boasting. It was one of the most awkward conversations I've ever been a part of. And eventually, Simon looked him in the eye and said to him, How many books you've written is not what you're going to be concerned about when you stand before God.

Of making many books there is no end. So be a person of one book. Be a person of the book. Scripture is a deposit of divine wisdom sufficient to conform us to that wisdom. Scripture should be your primary, supreme, constantly consulted authority and guide to the good life.

So beware of being addicted to the news, and neglecting Scripture. Beware of being up to the minute in politics but not being able to put together the basic storyline of Scripture. Beware of treating social media like an IV feed while your Bible gathers dust. Where do you turn for wisdom? Where do you turn for correction and training and help?

Whatever you say about the Bible, What you really believe about the Bible is shown by how much time you spend with it and how much you let it reshape you.

If you're not a believer in Jesus, we're glad you're here. If you have any questions about the sermon or the text or what it means to follow Jesus, I'd be glad to talk to you at this door right after the service. But now, I've got some questions for you. Who do you trust to tell you what the good life is? And how to live it.

What have those authorities done to earn your trust? Many secular people today would say that their chief authority is science. Science seems to promise unlimited progress. It has unraveled so many mysteries that the rest seem sure to be unlocked any day now. Science has given us so much power and has solved so many problems that it seems only a matter of time before it can solve the rest.

And give us power to overcome our greatest fears. Disease, aging, death.

Ask the Silicon Valley billionaires who plan to have themselves cryogenically frozen and be unfrozen when the kingdom of science comes.

Back in the 18th century, the Scottish philosopher David Hume asked questions that science still has a hard time answering today.

Where am I? Or what? From what causes do I derive my existence? And to what condition shall I return?

Whose favor shall I court? And whose anger must I dread? What beings surround me? And on whom have I any influence or who have any influence on me?

I'm confounded with all these questions and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable.

Can science tell you what a human being is for?

Can science tell you what the goal of human life is? And if it can't, what does that say about any goal you might choose for yourself? It would seem you are not getting that goal from science.

If matter is all there is, morality is relative. You're left with yourself as your final and really your only authority. If that's your view, how's it working out for you?

No one can prove everything they believe. We all rely on authorities. And the stakes are highest when it comes to the meaning of life. Does life have an overall goal or purpose? Is there an objective standard by which to say good life or bad one?

And who gets to say what that standard is? To reach the right goal, you need the right guide. Point four, the right fear, the right Fear. Look at verse 13.

The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Throughout the book, the preacher claims to have seen it all. There is nothing in all of life that has escaped his gaze. Chapter 1, verse 14, I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. So when he says all has been heard, he doesn't mean just that the book is finished, as if he ran out of stuff to say. He means that he has taken all of life in hand and put it into the scales.

And what he's about to tell you is the sum total of it all, what it all comes to.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

This is one of the book's thesis statements, but there is another thesis statement in the book. It opens the body of the book in chapter 1 verse 2 and closes the body of the book in chapter 12, verse 8. So just look up to verse 8.

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. All is vanity.

What the preacher concludes from his survey of all of life under the sun is that everything is missed, everything is breath, everything is here this instant and gone the next. There is no lasting gain to be found under the sun. There's no portion you can set aside for yourself to keep and hang on to when it's all said and done. So these two statements, all is vanity and fear God and keep his commandments, are the book's two grand themes. These are the two poles of this magnet.

All is vanity. Fear God and keep his commandments. But here's the key point. See this and you see the whole book in a flash. Verse 13 is a necessary conclusion from verse 8.

Because everything is vanity, the only secure and lasting good is to live your whole life for God. Only by living for God can you transcend the fleetingness and futility of everything down here that's doomed to die.

The whole book of Ecclesiastes is like a three-story building. And as we progress through the book, the perspective kind of shifts, goes up and down and gradually climbs higher until we end at that third story. Here's the three stories. That this book is built from. The first floor of the building is that all is vanity.

Everything is fleeting. That's the book's first thesis and that's what he sort of sets out to prove through most of the book. The second floor is that everything is a gift. Everything comes from God. God is a good creator and his creation is good.

We hear this again and again in the passages that essentially urge us to seize the day. Passages like chapter 11 verse 9 which we considered last week, Rejoice, O young young man in your youth and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. Because everything is a gift, this world is full of good things for us to enjoy even though none of them last. That's the second floor.

But the third floor is the fear of God. And as we're about to see in verse 14, you should fear God because he will judge everyone and everything. Back in 3:17, the preacher asserts that God will judge the righteous and the wicked, but this theme has not been as prominent until the very end. Same thing with the fear of God. He's got a sprinkled handful of references to the fear of God early on, but he only lands there here at the end.

And so it's from this third story that you can see the farthest. Being on the ground floor shows you something and it's true and anybody can see it. Being on the second floor shows you more. Everything is good. It's all from God.

We should be joyful and thankful and content but climb up to that third story and it puts the whole thing into a new perspective. God will hold you accountable so you should fear him. Those three truths in combination are why you should fear God. Those three truths in combination are why fearing and obeying God is the only way to a truly good life. God has given you everything and one day he will take everything away.

The only right response to the one who has made you and who can unmake you or remake you is total devotion, love and submission.

Throughout this book, the preacher takes the world in his hands, tosses it into a saucepan, and sets it to simmer.

Through all 12 chapters, we've seen that everything you're tempted to strive for so anxiously, work, wealth, pleasure, legacy, it's all turned to steam. It has all hit the boiling point and been sucked up into the exhaust fan.

So what's left in the pan? Fear God and keep his commandments. That sauce is the one flavor your life needs. That ingredient is the only one you can't do without. Everything else either has burned off or is about to.

To fear God and obey him is the whole human duty and the whole human portion. To fear God and obey him is the only way to live a wholly human life. The fear of God is a fear that frees, a fear that gives life, a fear that humbles and emboldens and empowers. So Ecclesiastes ends where the book of Proverbs begins. Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Ecclesiastes has taken us the very long way around to get to this point. The goal of Ecclesiastes' grand tour of everything is to help us arrive at and see with fresh eyes that all of life consists in fearing God and obeying him. That is true life. As T.S.

Eliot wrote in his poem Little Gidding, we shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

Only when you know that all is vanity. Will you really know the fear of the Lord for the first time? What is this fear of God? It's reverent awe before his power. It's humble trembling before his generosity.

It's self-abasing confession before his holiness. It's stunned marveling at His grace. Who am I that the Lord would be so rich with me?

It is self suspecting, self rejecting dependence on His steadfast love. And the infallible test of whether you fear God is whether you obey Him. As Jesus says in John 8:31-32, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Real obedience to God comes from a heart that loves and fears Him. Real obedience is sincere, not grudging.

It's heart-deep, not shallow. It's complete, not selective. It's eager, Not reluctant. It's trusting, not second guessing.

The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. The whole duty of man. So here are some things you might think are your duty but aren't. It's not your duty to leave a lasting mark on the world.

It's not your duty to get rich. It's not your duty to be a raging success at every single thing you ever do. It's not your duty to secure a legacy. It's not your duty to maximize your pleasure. It's not your duty to make sure that person out there on the internet knows they're wrong.

And it's not your duty to plot a perfect life plan.

What is your duty? Fear God and obey Him. And if you trust in Christ, then by God's grace and by the power of His Spirit dwelling in you, you can.

Point five, the right end, the right end. Why should you fear and obey God? As we saw briefly, verse 14 gives you a reason.

Here's verse 14, the end of the book. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. This verse proclaims perhaps the most sobering truth in all of Scripture. God will hold you accountable for everything you ever do and ever have done.

Secret sin is a deception and illusion. There's no such thing. No secret to God. Even sins that you succeed in hiding in hiding now will one day be brought to light. One day, God will make public everything you have schemed and struggled to keep private.

If you try to hide from God now, you will want to hide from God then, but you won't be able to.

As Hebrews 4:13 warns, and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Bring your sin to light while there's still time. If you confess your sin to God and repent of it, if you turn from it, you'll be forgiven. And you can be freed not only from sin's guilt but from its power. But that's a limited time offer.

And you do not know when your time will come.

What sins are you hiding? How successfully do you think you're hiding them?

What promptings of conscience are you silencing? What questions from others Have you dodged or answered less than truthfully?

Trying to keep your sin secret is like trying to hide a tiger in your closet.

There will be no good end.

If you claim to be a Christian but you are consciously harboring sin, Bring that sin to light. Confess your sin to God and others. Fear God more than you fear others' judgment or disapproval. Fear God more than you fear losing your reputation. Fear God more than you fear exposure or rather, fear God and so fear the final exposure.

Don't let sin win.

Brothers and sisters, Members of CHBC, if you live your whole life with the final judgment in view, you can sit loose to any and all human judgment. Remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5: But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. If your whole life is oriented to the final judgment, you don't need to fear any opposition or slander. If your whole life is oriented to the final judgment, you don't need to fear any human being pronouncing you a failure. That day will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

The doctrine of final judgment is one of the most frightening in the Bible.

It's also one of the most freeing.

What happens if God isn't the judge?

If God will not bring about final judgment, would that free you from judgment? In Arthur Miller's play, After the Fall, the character Quentin says just the opposite.

For many years, I looked at life like a case at law. It was a series of proofs. When you're young, you prove how brave you are or smart. Then what a good lover. Then a good father.

Finally, how wise or powerful. But underlying it all, I see now, there was a presumption. That one moved on an upward path toward some elevation where I would be justified or even condemned. A verdict, anyway. I think now that my disaster really began when I looked up one day and the bench was empty.

No judge in sight. And all that remained was the endless argument with oneself, this pointless litigation of existence before an empty bench. Which of course is another way of saying despair.

If there is no final judgment, you are condemned to perpetual judgment by yourself and others. But if God is the judge, then you're free from all human judgment, even your own.

How can you be in the right on the last day? How can you reach this right end? Trust in Christ and prove your trust by fearing God and obeying Him. Trust God's promises and prove your trust by disowning sin's false promises. Fear God and so fear His judgment more than you fear any earthly loss.

Fear God and so desire the glory that comes from Him more than you desire any earthly gain.

And so we come to the end. The end of the sermon. The end of the matter. The end of the book. And in the end, Ecclesiastes turned out to be not only about the speedy end of everything, but about how to reach the right end.

The final end. The only good end.

Why has God planted us in this garden of vanishing delights?

Why has he put eternity into our hearts only to keep final enjoyment and final answers always just out of reach?

He does this to drive us to find our final end, our full satisfaction in nothing other than Him.

You may be wondering why you have a poem by George Herbert, the 17th century Anglican pastor, as an insert in your bulletin. It's because I'm going to end the sermon and the series by reading it. Why an insert? Well, it's a beautiful poem. You might find it useful devotionally.

But perhaps more to the point, my daughter Rose pointed out that if I start crying while I read it, you can still make it out.

Here's the pulley. By George Herbert.

When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by, Let us, said he, pour on him all we can: Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie, Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way, then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor, pleasure. When almost all was out, God made a stay, perceiving that alone of all his treasure rest in the bottom lay. For if I should, said he, bestow this jewel also on my creature. He would adore my gifts instead of me, and rest in nature, not the God of nature, so both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest, but keep them with repining Restlessness. Let him be rich and weary, that at least.

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness may toss him to my breast.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would see and know and confess that all is vanity.

And so we pray that we would fear your and obey you. We thank you for rescuing us from our failure to fear you and all its consequences. And we pray that we would so trust in you as to find our whole life in you. In Jesus' name, Amen.