Ecclesiastes 9:18-10:1 – Small things

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Ecclesiastes — iconic scene

Service recording Sunday 16th August looking at Ecclesiastes.

Watch the service — 16 August 2026

▶ Jump to the sermon (Ecclesiastes 9:18-10:1) — 0:40:20

Chapters

Ecclesiastes 9:18-10:1

Scripture Readings

Let’s open the Word of God. Our New Testament reading comes from Matthew, chapter 16, verses 1 to 12. We’ll be back in Ecclesiastes in our study on the measure of a man, but this is our New Testament reading today.

The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

And now our text, in Ecclesiastes.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honour.

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray and ask our Lord’s help. Father, we thank You again for Your Word. We know that it is not like any other. We believe that it’s been inspired by You, and therefore profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for correction, and for training in righteousness, that we, Your people, will be equipped to live a life that is pleasing to You and that will bring honour and glory to Jesus, our Lord and our Saviour, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Looking Back

Well, again, I just want to remind you that we’re still in our series on the measure of a man. How do we measure what’s good? How do we measure the progress in our lives as we are going about the business of living Christianly, in a way that God would have us to live in the world in which we live? And we’ve covered many, many topics throughout the course of time.

[A short passage is inaudible in the recording at this point.]

So that we would let our light shine before men, and so that all men might see the way that we live and glorify our Father in heaven. So to live an excellent life, to live a diligent life, is good. But in the next instance we saw that just because we do live an excellent and a diligent life, it doesn’t mean to say that we’re going to experience success. So doing your best does not always guarantee success in life. And that is just a fact of life for all of us.

And no matter how good you are, and even if you’re the very best in the world at what you are or what you could achieve, I can assure you there will always be somebody else that will be better. And so we have to live with that. Of course, our motivation for being diligent and excellent is not to be winners all the time. It is to honour God. And that’s the main thing. So our motives are really the important thing that lie behind that.

But at any rate, when we do fall down, and when we do make mistakes, or perhaps we’re not achieving in life that which we feel that we should be achieving, there are benefits in that as well. And some of the benefits we talked about is that it grows humility. You know, people that win all the time, people that are first and achieve, the big achievers of life, their greatest struggle is to live lives of humility and humbleness. And you see that in the world, and you see that also in the church. And so there is the side benefit of not succeeding in everything, that we grow in humility.

We grow in trust in the Lord during those times. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not rely on your own insight, the proverb writer says in chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. And so we need to grow in our trust in the Lord. And as we continue to grow in our trust and our faith in God, that’s what’s truly important in our lives, not being number one all the time.

Trust. Peace. There is a peace to it. We can rest from the pain, particularly those people that suffer from perfectionism, and those people that are just never happy with something that either they or anybody else has achieved. They lack peace in their lives, because there’s always a struggle, isn’t there, when we do not do as well as what we, or perhaps what we want other people around us, to do. But one of the things that we learn when we’re not just as successful as we think that we might like to be is we learn to rest in that, to have peace.

Patience. Remember patience. We have to be patient patients. Remember also that, like the Apostle Paul, when we realise and come to understand that the real power in our lives lies not with our ability but with God’s ability. And so the Apostle Paul says simply, he says this: when I’m weak, then I’m strong. The reason why he says that is because he knows that his strength comes from God and from God alone. And all of these things are what we might call by-products of not succeeding in everything in our lives.

Straddling the Chapter Break

This week, though, we’re considering, as I said, Ecclesiastes 9:18 and 10:1. Remember that the chapters in the Bible have been put there at a later date, and sometimes, you know, in the natural flow of things, you can see there’s a bit of a break. So chapter 9 and verse 18 really belongs, somewhat anyway, with chapter 10 and verse 1. So we’re skipping over and we’re sort of straddling, as it were, the gap between chapter 9 and chapter 10.

But anyway, it would teach us that the wise man is aware that a small thing can destroy much good. That’s our title. That’s our meditation. I’ll say it again: a wise man is aware that a small thing can destroy much good. And in the space of the two verses that we’ve read, it gives three examples of that.

One Sinner Destroys Much Good

And the first is that one sinner destroys much good. I’ve just put down there a note: the indiscipline loses much gain. I am a bit of a rugby buff. I love rugby. And there’s nothing more exciting to me than a good game of rugby when things get a bit tetchy and somebody bops somebody else in the nose, perhaps, and they’ll be put in, and they even call it this, such a person that is ill-disciplined will be sent to the sin bin. That’s what we call it.

I mean, you know, you folks that have the round ball, you don’t seem to do that so much. But in the game of rugby, we call it the sin bin. And the thing about sending one member of a team of 15 into the sin bin is that it immediately puts the team that has lost a member at a great disadvantage. And very often the team that is opposing such a team, that is now 14 members and not 15 members, will score during that period of time. There will be a penalty to pay for it.

Dead Flies in the Perfumer’s Oil

And the second thing is the idea that dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink. And so here we have the person who is making some nice perfume to smell nice, and probably either to sell or to give to his beloved wife perhaps. Maybe you make a bit of perfume on the side, you men. How marvellous.

But at any rate, as you’re making the perfume, you’ve got to watch out that you don’t get flies dropping into it, because a dead fly in the perfume would not make it smell very nice. And so you can see that small flies dropping into the perfumer’s perfume would not be an advantage at all. These small insects, as it were, infect the whole of the perfume that is being made.

Foolishness Outweighs Wisdom and Honour

And then the third one is that foolishness outweighs wisdom and honour. Foolishness outweighs wisdom and honour. And I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about one of my pet hates here: the nightly news on the television. I dislike it, and I know that all of you are absolutely salivating at the mouth when six o’clock comes around at night and you’re reaching for the television.

When televisions were first invented, the only time we had to be quiet in our house was when Dad was watching the news. After that, well, we had to go to bed, of course, because we were disturbing the rest of their nights and things. But anyway, you had to be quiet when Dad was watching the news. And so it’s just one of those things, and maybe it’s the rebellion in my heart, but since then and on from then, I’ve learned to hate the television news.

And the reason, I think, why I dislike it so much is that it’s full of bad news. It’s always full of bad news. And why is that? Because good news doesn’t sell. Bad news sells. I know they tag a wee bit on the end, you know, the good sorts or whatever like that, but that’s just a by-the-way sort of stuff. So I dislike the news because bad news always sells.

And so it is. And it’s really just what the writer of Ecclesiastes is acknowledging here. Foolishness outweighs wisdom. Bad news will always outweigh good news. It travels much faster and does much more harm. Finding good news and sharing good news is much more difficult; it’s not as tasty, it’s not such a morsel. But nevertheless, bad news does, of course, sell.

A Confession: Two Artists

Now here I have a confession to make. And you know that from time to time I give you perfectionist people a real difficult and a real hard time. And I know who you are, because, you know, in a church like ours we’ve got all sorts of different people, and some people are like perfectionists, and other people are like me, sort of the more broad-strokers. And I was thinking about that. This is one where I find myself rebuked, because I’m not a perfectionist, I’m a broad-stroke man.

I liken it to art. Sometimes I like to collect art, sometimes I like to buy it. And there’s two artists that I want to introduce you to in relation to that. One is Charles Spencelayh. And Charles Spencelayh lived and was working about the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. And he was known as the human photographer. And his speciality was painting miniature portraits of people.

And if you’re into your history and your art, it used to be that there was no snap-snap digital stuff in those days, of course. But if you wanted a picture of your lovely wife, or of your granddad or whatever like that, you would have to hire someone like Charles Spencelayh to paint a picture. This guy was so good that he was called the human photographer. And when he painted, he painted in such detail that it was appreciated the world over. Now, there’s your perfectionist. There’s your perfectionist.

Now, at the same time, I follow another artist, actually a local artist here in Wellington, called Tom Woollaston, or Toss Woollaston, I think. Yeah, Toss. We’ll call him Toss. Toss Woollaston. And that name kind of gives it away. He’s more an impressionist. If you look at his art, which, by the way, is worth almost as much as Charles Spencelayh’s, you would think that he grabbed the paintbrush from out the back shed, dipped it in some paint, and went like that. Now, what always amazes me is that that stuff sells. You want one of his paintings, it’ll cost you 10 grand. No problems at all. And he’s got heaps of them.

Well, that’s what I am. But some of youse are like Spencelayh. You’ve got your little fine little paintbrush, and every detail and every mark that you make on the canvas is just exactly, exactly as it should be. So I’m sorry that I’ve ever given any of you perfectionists a real hard time in the past, because now I’m going to give me a hard time, because I’m one of those. I just want to get the job done. I’m not interested in the intricacies of how it gets done. I just want to get it done.

There’s a trap in perfectionism, and we need to remember that. But there’s also a trap in being sort of an impressionist, or somebody who just slaps over everything; there’s something wrong there too. And that is what our verses are talking about today. It’s addressing the me’s in our midst. The me’s in our midst. And we need to be careful. We need to be careful.

Achan: One Man’s Sin

When we’re talking about the topic that’s before us, we’re talking about little things that affect big things in our lives. And you know that I told the children about Achan. It really is a very sad story, because not only Achan but all of his family and all that belonged to him were taken outside of the camp, and they were stoned to death for their sin against God.

And so really what it was teaching us was that Israel was being judged by God because of one man’s sin. A small man, not significant. If he hadn’t done that, here’s one of those things about bad news: if he had never done that, who would have ever known who Achan was? Nobody. Nobody. Who would have ever known that the place where they stoned him and his family and all that was his was Achor, which means trouble? He was a troubler of Israel.

Isn’t it true? He took what belonged to God for himself. The punishment was visited on Israel because of one man’s sin, because God knew it, and God will judge sin. I’ll leave that as the bad news there; then we’ll come to the good news when we come back to our points of application.

A Little Leaven at Corinth

There’s another very sad story that also says a very similar thing, this time in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians in chapter 5, the Apostle Paul there, remember, in the Corinthians he’s addressing a whole lot of issues in the church at Corinth. Corinth was a pagan place, and when the church sprang up they had a lot of bad habits that they needed to kick, because, you know, habits are like that. They hang around, don’t they? And when we become Christians and when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that we don’t become perfect straight away? Oh, I guess you know that. It takes time. It takes work.

And so the Apostle Paul is addressing a particular situation in 1 Corinthians 5 to do with the church at Corinth. And I’ll tell you what it was. He says there’s a grave thing going on in your church, something that we need to deal with, because there’s a sin in your church that is even worse than what the pagans around Corinth were up to. And he says this: there is a man who has his father’s wife. It’s an incestuous relationship.

And the trouble with the Corinthian church was that they were tolerating it. They didn’t want to address it. They wanted to pull the curtains down and bury their heads in the sand. And the Apostle Paul said, no, no, no, no. He says, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. You need to address that. In fact, he says, I’ll address it for you. He says, I have actually delivered that individual over to Satan, that he might be punished, that his soul might be saved.

And then he finishes this way. He says, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole dough? The whole thing. And leaven is just another way of saying the same thing. Small flies in ointment; but leaven, leaven is one of those things that you put in just a little bit, but you knead it and you leave it, and you knead it and you leave it, and you knead it and you leave it, and it grows the whole bread, because it gets through everything.

What he’s saying is this. He says, if this sin in your church is allowed to be and allowed to continue on, it’s going to affect the whole church. That’s what he’s saying. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

The Leaven of the Pharisees

Well, let me give you another example: the example that the Lord Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 16, that we read in our New Testament reading. And there the same issue stands. Remember that Jesus is talking there to His disciples about the Pharisees and Sadducees. And those Pharisees and Sadducees are after a sign. They want to test Jesus. They want to see the miraculous signs, to ensure that Jesus is the real thing. And He says, no, no, I’m not going to give you any signs like that, because He says that there will just be the sign of Jonah. Now, the sign of Jonah was equal to Jesus being put in the grave and out again in three days. He says, that’ll be the sign that you’ll see.

But He says, look, He’s essentially saying, He says, you have a twisted understanding of the truth. And then the disciples mistake the illustration that He gives. Remember, He says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Beware of the leaven. And when He addressed that situation, the disciples thought that He was addressing just the problem that they hadn’t bought bread for lunch. That was their issue. They were mistaken. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees were mistaken, and now we find that the disciples that followed Jesus were quite mistaken.

And then He goes on to explain to them. He says, look, you need to be careful. First of all, He says, you’re men of little faith. You’ve got wrongly directed faith, in other words. Your faith is in bread, real bread; but the bread that you need to have your faith or your trust in ultimately is Me. But if that becomes infected with a yeast that is not good, then it is going to be not good for us.

The explanation that He offered, He says, look, a little leaven can affect the whole. A little leaven can affect the whole. What Jesus is offering them is plentiful. What the Pharisees and Sadducees are offering Jesus’ disciples is pitiful. He says, look, so beware. Salvation is a matter of God’s grace, not a matter of something that you can work yourselves towards.

Application: Watch and Be Discerning

A few applications. The first application is this: give careful attention. Watch. Be alert and discerning concerning things in your life.

In Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3, but in chapter 2, there are two churches that are addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ in the churches of Asia Minor. One is Pergamum. And Pergamum had an issue, that they tolerated the teaching of Balaam. The teaching of Balaam sought to water down the nation of Israel by the men having sexual relations with foreign or unbelieving women. But He says, look, He says, you believe, but you’re tolerating this wrong teaching in your midst. And He goes on to declare what will happen if they continue on in that.

The next church is a church called Thyatira. And the problem that the Lord has with that church is that they don’t tolerate Balaam, but they tolerate the woman that is called Jezebel. And Jezebel is the epitome of wickedness that is drawn from the Old Testament. Remember, she was the wife of Ahab. She was the one that wrote the letter that killed Naboth, and stole his vineyard; but she did many other wicked things. Again, the problem is that they’re tolerating false teaching within the church.

And it might be just little things, but little things grow into big things. And we must remember that. So we need to give careful attention, to watch, and to open the Word of God to make sure that these things are so.

Application: Prevention Is Better Than Cure

We need to cover up. Prevention is better than cure, in other words. Now, the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount says, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, chop it off. He’s not speaking literally there. But He is saying this: prevention is better than cure. And if you’ve got an open vial of perfume, put a cover on it. Put a cover on it, to make sure that the flies are not having opportunity to get into it.

Application: Create Good Habits

And the third is this. We need to learn to create good habits. Sometimes I think we become overawed in our lives. And if we’re introspective, and if we’re thinking about things: how are we going to live for the Lord? What must I do to please God? How am I going to go about this business of life, so that I might be glorifying to God? And immediately we think about the big things, the big issues in our lives.

And yes, those big issues are important in our lives. But the big issues are more easily dealt with when we get into the habit of dealing with the little things in life. Being careful with the words that we speak. Being careful that we’re not caught gossiping, or talking about somebody else, saying something perhaps that we wouldn’t say in their presence.

These are little things, but they’re important things. Being careful that we’re obedient to the laws of the land, where we can at all possibly be obedient to the laws of the land, as difficult as that is when you are thinking about getting off paying your parking money. Being careful to return my pen when I offer it to you.

Those little things. Get in the habit of the little things, and the big things in life will follow. None of those things are big or important or nice. But all of them can lead to a slackness around. And that’s what I’m saying. We’re not broad-stroking here with the big paintbrush. We’re getting into the fine detail of the situation that we’re finding ourselves in.

A Positive Note: Little Things for Good

Anyway, I want to say something positive as we finish, and I’m sorry to keep you so long, but I want to finish on a positive note. The positive note is this: that a little wrong can do much damage, but a little faith, rightly directed, can change us completely. Isn’t that marvellous? And even the illustration of leaven, or of smallness, is taken up in a positive way in the Scriptures as well.

So think about this. One man sinned, Adam. Death came to all through that one man’s sin. But one man was righteous, Jesus. So life is given to all those who will believe in Him. The whole world has been changed because one man gave His life, so that anyone that would believe in Him and trust in Him would not perish but have eternal life.

An insignificant one man, somewhere in the Middle East in an area called Galilee, hung around within quite a small geographical radius, and has changed the world. And you and I are sitting here because of that. I think that’s marvellous.

A little faith. Jesus says the smallest of all seeds is the mustard seed, but the mustard seed, small as it is, grows into the largest tree in the garden. How marvellous. He says this: a little faith moves mountains. He says this: a little leaven hidden in a lot of flour will affect the whole. This time spoken of not in a bad way, but in a good way. A little, for good. Faith in the right object can achieve eternal life for those that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in the right object. That is Jesus Christ.

You say, well, I find it hard to believe sometimes. And sometimes we do. You know, in the midst of a group of people like this, there are some people that have got huge faith. And marvellous; praise God that He’s given them such big faith. But God hasn’t given us all the same level of faith. Some of us are small when it comes to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And some of us struggle with doubts sometimes, that we’re even believers sometimes. And that might be exaggerated because of the lives that we live, or it just might be that we just tend to be more timorous than most.

But what I can tell you is this: that the smallest of faith is saving faith, if that faith is in Jesus Christ. Because it is not the amount of your faith that is going to save you. It is the object of your faith, Jesus Christ, who will save you. A little thing. A little thing. But it can change a life.

It’s a new and living way, walk ye in it. It’s a new and living way God has planned. It’s a new and living way that we as believers are walking day by day, and being guided and led by His right hand. In Christ you are new creations; the old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You again for Your Word, and how it exhorts us to live a life, Lord, that is pleasing to You, and to be careful, Lord, of the little things that may trip us up, or destroy parts of our lives that would be honouring to You.

We pray now, our Heavenly Father, that You would be pleased, Lord, to take this meditation today. And Lord, whether we’re broad-stroke people or whether we’re perfectionist, intimate, particular people, Lord, whatever we are, we pray, our Father, that You would help us to move on and become greater and better at being followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.