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Voddie Baucham - The Limits Of Pleasure Ecclesiastes 2_ 1-11 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Take your seats, and please turn with me in your
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  Speaker 1: Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, Ecclesiastes chapter 2. We'll look
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  Speaker 1: there at those first 11 verses. On last week, we
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  Speaker 1: examined the limits of wisdom and knowledge. This week we
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  Speaker 1: examined the limits of pleasure. Remember the principles that we
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  Speaker 1: talked about last week when reading Ecclesiastes, that we have
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  Speaker 1: to understand that Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature, and it helps us,
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  Speaker 1: it guards us against viewing wisdom as law. Wisdom literature
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  Speaker 1: gives us principles that help us understand the way the
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  Speaker 1: world normally works amen they give us principles to help
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  Speaker 1: us understand the way the world normally works but they
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  Speaker 1: are not hard and fast laws they the the principles
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  Speaker 1: in wisdom literature are are not the same as um
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  Speaker 1: you know the law of gravity the the law of
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  Speaker 1: gravity that just is just it's going to get you
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  Speaker 1: it always works amen don't believe me just jump off
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  Speaker 1: of something right it's not the same when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about wisdom literature. And we get in trouble when we
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  Speaker 1: read wisdom as law. Because something happens and we think, well,
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  Speaker 1: I did this, I was supposed to get that. And
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  Speaker 1: it's not true. That's not a guarantee. It's not a law.
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  Speaker 1: And so Ecclesiastes comes along and it reminds us of
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  Speaker 1: that by showing us that there are instances that prove
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  Speaker 1: to us that wisdom literature, that things don't always work
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  Speaker 1: out the way they usually work out. And the other
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  Speaker 1: principle that we have to remember is that we read backwards.
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  Speaker 1: We always remember the end. We always remember that at
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  Speaker 1: the end of this book, he tells us to remember
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  Speaker 1: our creator in the days of our youth. At the
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  Speaker 1: end of this book, he tells us that we're to
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  Speaker 1: love God and keep his commandments. At the end of
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  Speaker 1: the book, he's pointing to the sovereignty of God. So
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  Speaker 1: we don't end up in despair. But instead, we are
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  Speaker 1: reminded that God is sovereign, that he is in control,
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  Speaker 1: that there is a way that the world usually works.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it doesn't. But that never catches God by surprise.
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  Speaker 1: And it never calls his sovereignty into question. Amen? With
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  Speaker 1: that in mind, we turn our attention today to the
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  Speaker 1: idea of pleasure. and the limits of pleasure. Look with
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  Speaker 1: me beginning at verse 1 of chapter 2. I said
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  Speaker 1: in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said
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  Speaker 1: of laughter, it is mad, and of pleasure, what use
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  Speaker 1: is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer
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  Speaker 1: my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: and how to lay hold of folly till I might
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  Speaker 1: see what was good for the children of man to
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  Speaker 1: do under heaven during the few days of their life.
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  Speaker 1: I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards
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  Speaker 1: for myself. I made myself gardens and parks. I planted
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  Speaker 1: in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself
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  Speaker 1: pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.
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  Speaker 1: About male and female slaves, and had slaves who were
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  Speaker 1: born in my house. I had also great possessions of
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  Speaker 1: herds and flocks, more than any who had been before
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  Speaker 1: me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and
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  Speaker 1: gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers,
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  Speaker 1: both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of
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  Speaker 1: the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed
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  Speaker 1: all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom
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  Speaker 1: remained with me, and whatever my eyes desired, I did
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  Speaker 1: not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and
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  Speaker 1: this was my reward for all my toil. Then I
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  Speaker 1: considered all that my hands had done, and the toil
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  Speaker 1: I had expended in doing it. And behold, all was
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  Speaker 1: vanity and striving after wind. And there was nothing to
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  Speaker 1: be gained under the sun. Amen. This one is a
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  Speaker 1: little bit even more difficult to deal with than the last.
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  Speaker 1: Because this one falls into a category with which we
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  Speaker 1: have great And it's the category of earthly pleasures. When
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  Speaker 1: it comes to earthly pleasures, we tend to make one
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  Speaker 1: of two mistakes. There's a ditch on either side of
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  Speaker 1: the road, and we tend to either fall into one
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  Speaker 1: of those ditches or live very close to one of
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  Speaker 1: those ditches. On the one side is hedonism. Hedonism is
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  Speaker 1: the idea that pleasure is our ultimate end. pleasure is
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  Speaker 1: our ultimate end. The way we make decisions is by
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  Speaker 1: gauging what pleases us more. The way we determine whether
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  Speaker 1: something is good or bad is by whether it pleases us.
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  Speaker 1: This becomes the rule by which we gauge and govern
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  Speaker 1: and interpret all reality. Did it bring me pleasure? This
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  Speaker 1: is the root, for example, of the prosperity gospel. It
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  Speaker 1: is a form of hedonism. It Christianizes hedonism, if you will.
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  Speaker 1: That God intends for us to have pleasure. God intends
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  Speaker 1: for us to have plenty. God intends for us to
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  Speaker 1: have more. And so name it, claim it, believe it,
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  Speaker 1: receive it. It is a form of hedonism. It governs
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  Speaker 1: whether or not We are truly spiritual by whether or
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  Speaker 1: not we are truly acquiring and gaining more and more
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  Speaker 1: and more. It's a perversion of the chief end of man.
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  Speaker 1: The great Westminster Shorter Catechism, question number one. What is
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  Speaker 1: the chief end of man? The chief end of man
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  Speaker 1: is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Hedonism is
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  Speaker 1: a perversion of that. remember, we're to enjoy God forever. Amen?
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  Speaker 1: The second problem, the ditch on the other side of
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  Speaker 1: the road, is asceticism. Asceticism is the opposite of hedonism
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  Speaker 1: in that it views pleasure negatively. It views pleasure as bad.
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  Speaker 1: This is the ideology of monks and priests and mystics.
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  Speaker 1: who take vows of poverty, who swear off marriage. This
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  Speaker 1: is the idea that in order to be truly godly,
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  Speaker 1: you have to shed the pleasures of the world. And
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  Speaker 1: true godliness is a monk in a cave with nothing,
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  Speaker 1: closing his eyes and thinking of absolutely nothing. That's asceticism.
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  Speaker 1: That's asceticism. By the way, asceticism doesn't just manifest itself
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  Speaker 1: that way. And asceticism is the more common temptation. It's
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  Speaker 1: more likely that you struggle with asceticism than you struggle
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  Speaker 1: with hedonism. Let me explain why. For many of us,
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  Speaker 1: And I know for me, when I first heard the
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  Speaker 1: gospel and when I was first considering Christianity, how many
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  Speaker 1: of you have thought or have run into people who
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  Speaker 1: think that becoming a Christian is really difficult because of
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  Speaker 1: all the things you have to finish the sentence? Give up.
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  Speaker 1: We all know it, right? All the things you have
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  Speaker 1: to give up. because being a Christian is about not
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  Speaker 1: doing this and not doing that and not doing that
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  Speaker 1: in the south there is a saying that sort of
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  Speaker 1: sum this up right and the saying was I don't
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  Speaker 1: drink smoke cuss or chew or date the girls that
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  Speaker 1: do right I don't do all of that stuff I'm
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  Speaker 1: a Christian, and I know I can prove to you
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  Speaker 1: I'm a Christian because I can give you a list
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  Speaker 1: of pleasures that I deny myself. If you can't say amen,
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  Speaker 1: you ought to say ouch. That's asceticism. I'm more godly
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  Speaker 1: than you because you enjoy that, and I would never
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  Speaker 1: allow myself to enjoy that. That's asceticism. That's asceticism. And
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  Speaker 1: I make this point because if we're not careful, we
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  Speaker 1: will read this passage wrongly. And what I mean is
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  Speaker 1: we'll read it completely differently than we read the passage
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  Speaker 1: last week. In the passage last week, we talked about
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  Speaker 1: the limits of wisdom and knowledge. We acknowledged the fact
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  Speaker 1: that we need wisdom and knowledge today. and that we
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  Speaker 1: ought to pursue wisdom and knowledge, but that the text
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  Speaker 1: is teaching us that it has limits. Amen? This means
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  Speaker 1: you're with me, right? Right? Be careful, because the tendency
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  Speaker 1: with this passage is to read it differently and say, right,
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  Speaker 1: if we're reading it the same way as we were
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  Speaker 1: reading the passage that just came before it by the
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  Speaker 1: same author, right, who says wisdom and knowledge are essential
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  Speaker 1: but has its limits, then we'd read this newsflash. You
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  Speaker 1: don't even like to think that, let alone say it. Amen, somebody.
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  Speaker 1: He knows that as a Christian, the last thing that
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  Speaker 1: you would say is pleasure is essential because pleasure is bad.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, there are times when we have a decision
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  Speaker 1: to make, right? It's this job versus that job. And
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  Speaker 1: as a pastor, it happens all the time. And someone
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  Speaker 1: comes in and it's, you know, I can do this
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  Speaker 1: or I can do that. And you sit there with
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  Speaker 1: the person and you say, okay, based on what I
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  Speaker 1: know about you, seems like this over here makes all
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  Speaker 1: the sense in the world, right? I know who you are.
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  Speaker 1: I know what you like. I know what your passions are.
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  Speaker 1: I know what you, I know that, and so like
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  Speaker 1: this fits. And then here comes the response. I know,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm just afraid that maybe that's my flesh. Afraid
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  Speaker 1: of pleasure. Because if I really want it, then that
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  Speaker 1: can't be God. Because everybody knows that God wants would
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  Speaker 1: never want you to have the desires of your heart.
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  Speaker 1: Except the Bible says he does. But we are mired
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  Speaker 1: in asceticism. It plagues us. So I want you to
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  Speaker 1: be aware of that as we look at this text
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  Speaker 1: and to think about it the same way We thought
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  Speaker 1: about the text last week. Amen? Four things here. Number one,
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  Speaker 1: earthly pleasure is unavoidable. Earthly pleasure is unavoidable. He says
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  Speaker 1: here in verse 1, I said to my heart, come now.
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  Speaker 1: I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. Verses 9
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  Speaker 1: and 10. So I became great and surpassed all who
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  Speaker 1: were for me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me.
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  Speaker 1: This is important. He says that twice in the text,
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  Speaker 1: that my wisdom remained with me. In other words, when
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  Speaker 1: he says my wisdom remained with me, he did not
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  Speaker 1: leave biblical truth behind. He did not leave his desire
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  Speaker 1: for God behind. He did not lose control. Even when
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  Speaker 1: he says, you know, when he refers to wines, He says,
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  Speaker 1: that's the other place where he says, and yet my
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  Speaker 1: wisdom did not leave me. So this is not a
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  Speaker 1: person who just went off the deep end, ran away
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  Speaker 1: from everything that he knew, and then after his life
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  Speaker 1: was wrecked, came back and said, that was awful, and
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  Speaker 1: I learned a lesson from it. No. That's not what
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  Speaker 1: he's saying here. He's saying, I had my wits about me.
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  Speaker 1: And I pursued these things. He says, whatever my eyes desired,
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  Speaker 1: I did not keep from them. I kept my heart
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  Speaker 1: from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all
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  Speaker 1: my toil. And this was my reward for all my toil. So, again...
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  Speaker 1: These are the pleasures that he found in the normal
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  Speaker 1: course of life. These are the pleasures that he found
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  Speaker 1: as he tried to answer the question of what life
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  Speaker 1: is supposed to be about. How it is supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be lived. How it is that we're supposed to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: these good gifts that God has given us. He's not
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  Speaker 1: running off on fool's hill somewhere. It's important to keep
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  Speaker 1: that in mind. Because earthly pleasure is unavoidable. Why is
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  Speaker 1: earthly pleasure unavoidable? Why would I say that? Well, because
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  Speaker 1: it was designed to be so. God created the world
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  Speaker 1: and everything in it for his glory and for our pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Before the fall, Adam lived in an environment that brought
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  Speaker 1: him pleasure. When God created man and put him On
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  Speaker 1: the earth, when God put man in the garden, God
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  Speaker 1: did not say, I'm going to put you in a
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  Speaker 1: place where you can be godly. And because you're going
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  Speaker 1: to be godly, nothing in it will please you. Because
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  Speaker 1: we know, pleasure cannot be godly. Genesis chapter 1 and
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  Speaker 1: verse 31. God saw everything that he had made and behold,
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  Speaker 1: it was very good. And there was evening and there
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  Speaker 1: was morning, the sixth day. Everything God made was very good.
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  Speaker 1: Look at chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2, verses 8 and 9.
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  Speaker 1: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in
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  Speaker 1: the east. And there he put the man whom he
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  Speaker 1: had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God
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  Speaker 1: made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to
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  Speaker 1: the sight and good for food. That's pleasure. That's pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: It looks good. It tastes good. That's pleasure. And it's
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  Speaker 1: built into creation. In fact... It is so intertwined in
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  Speaker 1: the way that we're created that one of the ways
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  Speaker 1: we know what foods to avoid and what things can
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  Speaker 1: do us harm is that they are unpleasant. This milk
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  Speaker 1: is spoiled. How do you know? It has an unpleasant
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  Speaker 1: smell or it has an unpleasant taste. This plant is dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: I need to avoid it. Why? Because I touched it
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  Speaker 1: and it hurt. That was unpleasant. God designed the world
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  Speaker 1: so that we are warned by the absence of pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: We can't get away from it. God promised Israel what?
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a land and it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be drab and terrible and awful because you are
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  Speaker 1: my people. And everybody knows that godly people have to
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  Speaker 1: avoid all pleasure. No, he says, I'm going to give
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  Speaker 1: you a land flowing with milk and honey. What does
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  Speaker 1: that mean? Praise. and full of good and pleasing things
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  Speaker 1: Psalm 37 verses 3 and 4 trust in the Lord
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  Speaker 1: and do good dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness
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  Speaker 1: Delight yourself in the Lord, watch this, and he will
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  Speaker 1: give you the desires of your heart. This is where
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  Speaker 1: I take people all the time. When they come in
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  Speaker 1: struggling with asceticism and there's a good opportunity before them
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  Speaker 1: and they're scared, scared because the presence of pleasure and
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  Speaker 1: delight must be a negative sign. The fact that God
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  Speaker 1: has put an opportunity before me that I absolutely delight in,
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  Speaker 1: must mean that this is a test. It's a test
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  Speaker 1: to see if I'm really godly, because if I'm really godly,
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  Speaker 1: I won't chase after the desires of my heart. Do
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  Speaker 1: you hear how warped that is? In light of this text,
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  Speaker 1: delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you
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  Speaker 1: the desires of your heart. Now, Obviously, that does not
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  Speaker 1: mean that everything pleasant is good. Amen? There's a problem.
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  Speaker 1: There's a problem. After the fall, our relationship with God's
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  Speaker 1: good creation changed. And our ability to enjoy pleasure rightly changed.
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  Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter 2. Verses 1 through 3. You were dead
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  Speaker 1: in your trespasses and the sins in which you once walked,
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  Speaker 1: following the course of this world, following the prince of
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  Speaker 1: the power of the air, the spirit that is now
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  Speaker 1: at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we
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  Speaker 1: all once lived, in the passions of our flesh, carrying
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  Speaker 1: out the desires of the body and the mind, and
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  Speaker 1: were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
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  Speaker 1: There it is. our passions overtaking us, and pleasure becoming
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  Speaker 1: something that it was never intended to become. We see
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  Speaker 1: it again in 1 John 2, 15-17. Do not love
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  Speaker 1: the world or the things in the world. If anyone
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  Speaker 1: loves the world, the love of the Father is not
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  Speaker 1: in him. For all that is in the world, the
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  Speaker 1: desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: the pride of life, It's not from the Father, but
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  Speaker 1: it's from the world. And the world is passing away
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  Speaker 1: along with its desires, but whoever does the will of
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  Speaker 1: God abides forever. By the way, that's where we get
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  Speaker 1: our asceticism from. Passages like that that warn us. Passages
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  Speaker 1: like that that open our eyes to the fact that
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  Speaker 1: we have desires that are sinful. We have desires that
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  Speaker 1: are broken. And because of that, what we decided to
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  Speaker 1: do is not learn to live with wisdom, but to
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  Speaker 1: live like the Pharisees and run as far away from
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  Speaker 1: pleasure as we can so that perchance we will not
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  Speaker 1: be tempted by it. What we must learn to do
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  Speaker 1: is enjoy earthly pleasures in a righteous context. In a
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  Speaker 1: righteous way. Because they are absolutely unavoidable. Built in to
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  Speaker 1: God's creation. An essential part of our experience. Just as
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  Speaker 1: human beings. Let alone as those who love and pursue.
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  Speaker 1: The God of creation. Those of us who desire to
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  Speaker 1: appreciate God. this good creation that God has given us.
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  Speaker 1: Not only are earthly pleasures unavoidable, they also come in
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  Speaker 1: many forms, and this is important to note. The reason
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  Speaker 1: that this is important to note is because, remember, they're unavoidable,
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  Speaker 1: but then we tend to be mired in asceticism. And
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  Speaker 1: when we're mired in asceticism, what we do is we say, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: I'm a Christian. And as a Christian, I don't live
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  Speaker 1: this life pursuing those earthly pleasures, pursuing those desires of
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  Speaker 1: my flesh, right? And so we have a form of asceticism. However,
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  Speaker 1: remember what I said. Earthly pleasures are unavoidable. So what
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  Speaker 1: we tend to do is we have a list of
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  Speaker 1: pleasures that we identify as ungodly, And another list of
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  Speaker 1: pleasures that we identify as godly. And we make sure
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  Speaker 1: that we keep these lists separate. I don't do those things.
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  Speaker 1: I will do these things. By the way, here's the
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  Speaker 1: problem with that. You've removed your heart from it. You can...
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  Speaker 1: sinfully pursue anything. And what this list thing does is
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  Speaker 1: it allows us to live in moralism and legalism, not
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  Speaker 1: deal with our sin and call ourselves righteous because of
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  Speaker 1: a list that we've made. Look at verses 3 through 8.
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  Speaker 1: And notice how comprehensive this list is. Of course it's
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  Speaker 1: not exhaustive. It can't be exhaustive. But it's rather comprehensive.
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  Speaker 1: I searched with my heart how to cheer my body
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  Speaker 1: with wine. My heart still guiding me with wisdom. And
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  Speaker 1: how to lay hold of folly. Till I might see
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  Speaker 1: what was good for the children of man to do
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  Speaker 1: under heaven. during the few days of their lives. I
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  Speaker 1: made great works. So we've gone from wine and folly
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  Speaker 1: and these sort of things. Now we're at great works.
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  Speaker 1: I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards
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  Speaker 1: for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted
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  Speaker 1: in them all kinds of fruit trees. Anybody got fruit
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  Speaker 1: trees in their yard? Right? Isn't it interesting? We don't
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  Speaker 1: put that on our list, right? Where are your fruit trees?
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  Speaker 1: I don't have them because I'm godly. And fruit trees
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  Speaker 1: are pleasurable. And as a godly person, I deny myself pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: It's right here, fruit trees. Fruit trees. You get me?
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  Speaker 1: It's easy to make lists because all we do is
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  Speaker 1: we decide Which things we're okay with avoiding and we
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  Speaker 1: put those on the list of the righteous. And the
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: other things we don't bother with. I made myself pools
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: from which to water the forest of growing trees. I
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: bought male and female slaves and I had slaves who
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: were born in my house. I had also great possessions
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: of herds and flocks more than any who had been
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: before me in Jerusalem. Anybody got any goats? Anybody got
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: any cows? Anybody got any, huh? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody got
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a maize field somewhere? Hmm. I also gather for myself
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and We're wearing silver and gold right now. Amen? Anybody
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: got a ring, earring, necklace? And don't give me that,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: it's gold-plated stuff. That's still gold. I got singers, both
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: men and women. I can't afford singers, really? How much
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: music do you have on your device? more than he
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: was able to have with his singers that he bought.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And you've got them on demand anytime you want them. Huh?
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: And many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And so what we do is we'll get a list
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: like this and we'll say, hey, Um, okay. Uh, the, the,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: the concubines, that's bad. The slaves don't want to do that.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: The wine don't want to do that. And so we
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: put that on a list over here, and we say, me,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I'm a Christian. I don't have concubines because of sexual sin.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: We've got to stay away from that. I don't have concubines. Because,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you know, we know slavery, that's bad, and I don't
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: do wine. And we just ignore the fact that the
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: pleasure that he's talking about also includes having a garden,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: fruit trees, music. Music. Be careful. Legalism, moralism, pietism, it's
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: like a cancer. It's like a cancer. And most of
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: us are infected with it and have no idea. Look
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: at the verbs that he uses. I made, I built,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I had, I bought, I gathered, I got, I became,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: I surpassed. This is the work of his hands. These
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: are things that he's pursuing and acquiring. Then look at
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: the various forms of pleasure. Again, not exhaustive, but very comprehensive. Wine, folly,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: great works, houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, orchards, forests, slaves, herds, flocks, silver, gold, singers, concubines. Everything. Everything. Everything.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: He tried it all. This list is important for a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: couple of reasons. One, we've already looked at. It's important
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: because it's necessary for us to check ourselves. Because we
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: have a tendency to think that we're doing well with
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: keeping pleasure in check. Because we've got a list over here.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Now never mind that we're just completely blind to all
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: these things over here. But we've got a list over here.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: We stick our chest out and we hold our heads
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: up high because we're Christians and we have a list
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of the pleasures that we deny ourselves. All the while
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: there are others that we absolutely don't. And when we
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: live like that We miss the point. We miss it completely.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: The other reason that this list is important is so
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: that we can be reminded of how good God has
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: been to us. Amen? God is so good to us.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: How many times do we pause and enjoy a sunset?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Not many. When you think about the number of days
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: that God has given us, right? How many times have
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: we paused? And I remember, we've lived here eight years now.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And I can remember, there's wonderful sunsets in Lusaka. Amazing
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: sunsets in Lusaka. Been here almost nine years. I don't
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: even pay attention to them anymore. We forget. We forget.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Fruit trees in the yard. You should just go and
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: pick and eat. God is good. Amen? And we need
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: to be reminded of that. Thirdly, although earthly pleasures are unavoidable,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: although they come in all these forms, it's important to
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: remember that earthly pleasures can never fully satisfy. Amen? They
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: can never fully satisfy. And that's the point here. Just
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: like last week, the point was wisdom and knowledge can
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: never fully satisfy. Wisdom and knowledge are essential, but they
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: can never fully satisfy. The point here is pleasure can
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: never fully satisfy. It's essential, but it will never fully satisfy.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Verses 1 and 2. Behold, this also was vanity. The
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: end of verse 1. I said of laughter, it is mad.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: And of pleasure, what use is it? And then look
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: at verse 11. Then I considered all that my hands
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: had done and the toil I had expended in doing it.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: And behold, all was vanity and striving after wind. And
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Look
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: at the descriptions that he uses. Vanity, madness. What use? Again, vanity. Vanity.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Striving after the wind. Nothing to be gained. These are
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the phrases that he uses. And he uses that last
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: week when talking about wisdom. It's all vanity. It's striving
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: after the wind. You can strive after the wind all
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: you want. You won't catch it. Amen? You won't catch it.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: If the wind is blowing that way, you run after
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the wind, you don't catch the wind, you get tired,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: you stop, and then the wind blows from behind you.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Anyone who has lived long enough understands pleasure and knows
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: exactly what the preacher is saying. It's a vicious cycle,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and here's how the cycle goes. Step one, we discover
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: a pleasure. We discover a pleasure. Step two, we experience
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the pleasure. Step three, we delight in that pleasure. Step four,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: we indulge in that pleasure. Step five, we can no
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: longer get enough of that pleasure. Step six, it's not
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: pleasurable anymore. That's the vicious cycle. That's the vicious cycle.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you a story you can't tell anybody. When
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I was a boy, I lived in the projects in
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles, California. Not a good
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: neighborhood at all. I grew up very poor, raised by
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: a single mother. And one day in the projects where
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: we lived, Friends of mine, we woke up in the morning,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: we were going outside to play, and all of us
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: noticed that there were these small bottles of soda that
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: were on our door. There was a door hanger with
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: these small bottles of soda. It was called Aspen Soda.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Never forget. It's apple-flavored soda. Aspen Soda. And so I
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: had it on my door. My buddy had it on
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: his door. And the projects that I lived in was
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a huge project. And we just kind of quickly just surmised,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: this is on everybody's door. So we went all around
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the whole project, gathering the soda off everybody's door. And
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: we hid it in my closet. Why my closet? Yeah.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: So my mother discovered all of these bottles of soda
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: in my closet. And she said, I know you didn't
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: do it by yourself. And being the courageous stand-up friend
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: that I was, I told on everybody. And so my
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: mother called other people's mothers, and we all gathered at
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: my house. I thought there was going to be a
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: collective beating. But there wasn't. Our parents had gotten together
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: and came up with a plan. And they took us
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: to my room and pointed to the closet and said,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: drink them. It's the best punishment ever. Let me read
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the cycle for you again. We discover a pleasure. Step two,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: we experience it. Step three, we delight in it. Step four,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: we indulge in it. Step five, we can't get enough
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: of it. And then finally, we no longer find pleasure
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: in it. It made us sick. To this day, to
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: this day, like don't bring me appetizer, just to this day,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: That's what the fall has done to us. It's perverted pleasure.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: It's perverted good things. Listen to this jewel in Proverbs 13, 25.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: belly of the wicked suffers want. The righteous has enough
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: suffers want. We see this all around us. People with
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: wealth always seeking more and greater wealth. People with beauty
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: constantly seeking to enhance that beauty and never satisfied with it.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: People with fame always trying to maintain and grow their fame.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: How many times have we heard the story of the famous,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: beautiful woman whose husband cheated on her? And you hear
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: people all the time No way. If I had, if
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: she was my wife, if she was, if she was
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: your wife, sir, you would go through the exact same
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: cycle that I just read. Because the problem is your
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: heart is seeking pleasure for its own sake. And it
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: will never satisfy. Never. Never. There's a reason that it won't.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: And that is because earthly pleasure is but a shadow
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: of things to come. This is not our home. Amen?
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: God has given us wonderful things that we can enjoy
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: here but they'll never satisfy us. They will only cause
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: us to long for that which is to come. Listen
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: to this in Amos 9, 13. Behold, the days are coming,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: declares the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: the mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: shall flow with it. There is unimaginable pleasure ahead for us.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Psalm 16, 11. You make me to know the path
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Amen? That's what
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: we're designed for. That's why we can't be satisfied here.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: That will never happen here. The things that we experience,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the pleasures that we experience here are but a foretaste.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: They are good and we ought to embrace them and
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: enjoy them to the glory of God. Amen? Recognizing that
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: they will never satisfy. And there's where we cross the line.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Where we cross the line is when this is no
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: longer something that God has given for me to enjoy.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: But this is something that becomes the God that I enjoy.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: It becomes my obsession. It becomes the answer to all
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: my problems. It becomes that satisfaction that I believe will
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: ultimately get me to that final place where I will
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: want no more. And it never comes. It never comes.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Not this side of glory. One more passage, Titus chapter 3.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Titus chapter 3, verses 3 through 7. Listen to this.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to various passions, and pleasures passing our days in malice
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: and envy hated by others hating one another but when
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: he saved us not because of works done by us
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: in righteousness not because of lists of things that we
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: don't do or lists of things that we do not
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: because of that but according to his own mercy by
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Heirs. Heirs.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: That means there's a possession yet to come. Amen? We're
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: heirs through Christ. Through Christ. The problem is we are
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: meant to be satisfied in Christ and in Christ alone. Amen?
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: It is only when we are satisfied in Christ that
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: other pleasures can be enjoyed in their proper place. Well,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: what about things that I should enjoy or I shouldn't enjoy?
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: Be satisfied in Christ. Be satisfied in Christ. If you're
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: satisfied in Christ, then that's when we ask ourselves, is
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: this Christ-like? Is this from Christ? Is this from Christ?
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Can I do this in the name of Christ? And
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: if the answer is no, turn from that and turn
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: to Christ. Be satisfied in Him. And in Him alone.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: But remember, there is no satisfaction in Christ apart from
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: coming to Him in repentance and faith. And when we
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: come to him in repentance and faith, old things pass away.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: All things become new. We become new creatures in Christ.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: And because we are new creatures in Christ, there are
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: new passions that ignite us. And old sinful ones that
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: we no longer enjoy. That's the difference. That's how we
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: view passion rightly. Let's pray. Humble adoration and gratitude for
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: your goodness toward us. Thanking you for all of the
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: good things that you provide. Father, we ask that you
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: would grant us grace to be a grateful people. That
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: you would make us mindful of the myriad pleasures that
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: are ours day after day after day. Pleasures that we've
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: come to take for granted. Lord, we also ask that
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: you would cause us to delight in nothing more than
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: we delight in you. But that instead, we would view
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: every pleasure as a gift from your hand. And that
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: we would also, or that we would always, rather, enjoy
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: the gift more than the giver. In all of this,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: we pray that we would be found in Christ. That
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: we would find our joy in him. And that nothing
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: would please us more. And that as we do, our
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: pleasures would be governed by Him. Our delights would be
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: governed by Him. Our hearts, our minds, our souls would
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: be conformed to his very image so that we might
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: find pleasure in the things that he finds pleasure in.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: That we might find delight in the things that he
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: finds delight in. And in all of this, we pray
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: that our eyes would always be looking upward in anxious
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: anticipation of the day when our joy will be made
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: complete in your presence. where there is endless joy, endless delight.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Because we will be your people and you will be
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: our God. And we will delight ourselves in your very
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: presence throughout all eternity. These are the things that we pray.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: These are the things that we ask. And we ask
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: him in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.