Let us turn again tonight, as
we did last Sunday evening, to the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter
1. We saw last week that this book
is actually a written sermon. Solomon is the preacher, and
I believe by calling himself the preacher, because that word
actually means gatherer, he intends for us to know that he had been
gathered by repentance from his strain like a lost sheep. He's the preacher, Solomon. His text is found in verse two,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And the basic tenet of the sermon
is that the things of this world are insufficient to make a man
happy. Now tonight, let's begin with
verse 12. I, the preacher, was king over
Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and
search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under
heaven. This sore travail hath God given
to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the
works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot
be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great
estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have
been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom,
and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also is
vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge,
increaseth sorrow. The verses that we're looking
at tonight might answer this question. What qualified Solomon? What qualified Solomon to bring
such a message, such a sermon as this? A sermon in which he
declares that the things, he insists that the things of this
world are insufficient to make a man happy. What qualified this
man to preach such a sermon, to bring such a message? Well,
first, you notice in verse 12, he begins, he was a king. I, the preacher, was king over
Israel in Jerusalem. He uses the past tense, I was. But that doesn't mean that he
was no longer the king when he wrote this sermon. But it does
remind us of what took place when he became the king. And I want us to look at that
if you keep your places here, but turn back to 1 Kings. chapter
3 and chapter 4, 1st Kings chapter 3. What qualified this man to
bring such a message, such a pessimistic message, as many people would
say, of all the things which are done under the sun. But in
1st Kings chapter 3 and verse 5, We read, in Gibeon the Lord appeared
to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall
give thee. And Solomon said, thou hast shown
unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy. according as he
walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in
uprightness of heart with thee, and thou hast kept for him this
great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his
throne as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou
hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am
but a little child. I know not how to go out or come
in. Solomon confesses his need as
he prays unto the Lord, confesses his lack of knowledge, his lack
of wisdom. Notice in verse eight, and thy
servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen,
a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore, here's his request,
here's his petition. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern
between good and bad. For who is able to judge this
thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord
that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, because
thou hast asked this thing and hast not asked for thyself long
life, Neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, nor hast
thou asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself
understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according
to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise
and an understanding heart. Now watch this. So that there
was none like thee before thee. There was no man like Solomon
before God gave him this wisdom, there was none after him. The
only other man that had more wisdom than Solomon, of course,
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God. But God gave Solomon a wise and
an understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before
thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And
I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches
and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like
unto thee all thy days. Now look in chapter four, 1 Kings chapter four and verse
29. Now most of us are very familiar with the episode when the two
women were living together and one night one woman evidently
laid on her son and her son died. But in the night she switched.
She took her son who was dead and laid it in the bed of the
other woman and took the live baby and laid it in her bed. And so they come before Solomon,
both of these ladies, both of these women Claiming, this child
is my child, this child is my child. No, this child is my child. Well, how in the world would
Solomon know that? How would he discern whose child
this child was? You know what he did. He called
for a man with a spear, or with a sword, rather. And he said,
cut the baby in two and give half to this lady and half to
this lady. And one mother, she said, oh,
no, no, no, no, don't do that. and he knew immediately she was
the mother. She was the mother, and because
she loved her son, she said, don't do any harm to the child.
The other woman, she was willing, go ahead, split the baby in two. We were all familiar with that
in his life, and there were many other things that are recorded
in the word of God, and no doubt many more things that are not
recorded in the word of God. You take the Proverbs, the book
of Proverbs, and most of those Proverbs were written by Solomon. God gave him wisdom, as we read
there, like no other man before him and no other man after him,
other than the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice here
in 1 Kings 4, verse 29, And God gave Solomon wisdom and
understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart, even
as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled
the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the
wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men, than Ethan, the
Ezraite, Heman, and Kalko, and Darda, the sons of of Maho, and
his fame was in all nations round about. And he spake three thousand
proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake
of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto
the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of
beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there
came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings. of the earth, which had heard
of his wisdom. So what qualified Solomon to
preach such a message in which he declares that the things of
this world are insufficient to make man happy? So that's the first thing. He
was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And answering that question,
what qualified him? First of all, he was king over
Israel in Jerusalem, and God had given him wisdom above every
other man who has ever lived on the face of his earth, except
the God-man, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, here's the second
thing. In verse 13, he gave himself
to the pursuit of wisdom. Now God gave him wisdom, but
he pursued wisdom. It wasn't a passing fancy with
him. You notice in verse 13, he says,
and I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning
all things that are done under heaven. This was sore travail. have God given to the sons of
man to be exercised therewith. He pursued knowledge. He gave
his heart to it. He didn't just search into a
few things, but concerning all things that are done under heaven. We just read that in 1 Kings
33. He spoke of the trees, the trees of Lebanon, the cedar trees,
and all the other trees. Botany as I believe is the science
that that would fall under he Pursued that and learned all
he could even to the hyssop that just springs out of the wall
Wasn't planted it just it just what God planted it got the wind
scattered the seed there But he studied all concerning the
trees and all of the beast the cattle No doubt, every beast
that you can think of. And we know he had beasts brought
to him from other countries. And not only beasts, but fowls,
birds, the scripture says. And of creeping things, those
little insects, you know, that creep on the ground, the beetles. And this is kind of
off the subject, but we visited a place one time, And I don't
know how many different types of beetles there are, but hundreds. If my memory's right, there were
hundreds and they were all on display in a museum up in Longview,
Texas, I believe is where we were at. Anyway, beetles and
creeping things. Reptiles. Zoology. That's the subject here,
the science here. and fishes, all the different
fish of the seas. He studied them. And John Gill said he searched
into all trades, building trades. We know he was an architect,
building the way he designed the temple that was built. He
searched into all, John Gill said he searched into all trades
and manufacturers to understand everything in politics, how kingdoms
were raised up and how they were put down and how kings ruled
and other places relating to kingdoms and states and the government
of them to observe all the actions of men, both wise and foolish. Both the wise actions of men
and the foolish actions of men. He studied in to all of these
things. He had the time. He was a king. He had the wealth. And people
visited him. That verse that we read there
in chapter four of first Kings said, all kings of the earth.
In other words, all the kings that were surrounding his kingdom,
they all visited him. We, of course, are most familiar
with the Queen of Sheba, who came. And remember her statement
was, the half had not been told unto me. When she observed Solomon
and those who waited upon him, his kingdom, the wisdom that
God gave him. What qualified Solomon to make
such a statement, to preach such a message? Vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. Well, we see what qualified him,
the wisdom that God gave him, and then his pursuit. He gave
his heart to study. And notice what he says here,
this work of searching out wisdom. Notice in the last part of verse
13. This sore travail, travail. hath God given to the sons of
man to be exercised therewith. You see, he recognized and he
confessed that part of the judgment of God upon man for his disobedience
wasn't only that he should earn his bread by the sweat of his
brow, but he should also, by the sweat of his brain, achieve
to knowledge. To Adam, before he sinned, knowledge
came easy. It came easy to him. But to fallen
Adam and all of his sons, like you and I, knowledge comes through
hard work, through labor. And that's what he says God gave
to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. Third, what qualified
him. Notice in verses 14 and 15, he
acknowledges what he had found. I have seen all the works that
are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of
spirit. And notice this, that which is
crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot
be numbered. He had seen all the works done
under the sun, and notice that word, behold. I've seen all the
works that are done under the sun, and behold, as though he
himself was surprised of what he found. And he knew this would
be a surprise to those who read his message. Matthew Poole said that this
behold indicates that to Solomon what he saw came as a great surprise
to him, therefore he knew that it would seem strange to those
who read his sermon. Many think that what is translated
here, vanity and vexation of spirit because it is translated,
I believe, in the book of Hosea, the same root word, by feasting
or feeding on the wind. Feeding on the wind. You know,
if you're hungry and your stomach's growling and you just open your
mouth and take a big bite of wind, not much to it, is it? I don't think that would stop
your stomach from growling, from hunger. And that's what Solomon
says, that he realized that after seeing all the works that are
done under the sun, it's all empty. It's all vain. It's the
vexation of spirit. It's like feeding on the wind. It's unsatisfying. And not only
is it unsatisfying, but it is troublesome. The obtaining of a vast amount
of knowledge does not. Now listen, here's this man with
all of his wisdom given to him by God and all of his research,
his knowledge, and he came to see that with all that he had,
it cannot make straight that which is crooked. It just cannot
do it. Look ahead in chapter 7, Ecclesiastes
chapter 7 and verse 13. Consider the work of God, for
who can make that straight which he hath made crooked? That which
is wanting in wisdom and knowledge to make straight that which is
crooked is so great, he said, it cannot be numbered. There's
something in man. There's something in you. There's
something in me when we come into this world. And we know
what it is, those of us who have been taught of God. We know that
there's something called sin. Sin. That we inherited a sinful
nature from our father, Adam, that we come into this world
Depraved. That is, every faculty of man
was ruined in the fall. We are depraved. We have a fallen
nature. And that all the natural learning
and all the knowledge of this world can never make that straight. No doubt Solomon, as a king,
he desired to reign and to rule. He wanted his kingdom to be upright. He wanted people to live right,
and treat others right, and to act right, but he realized that
there's something crooked, that which God has made crooked with
all of his knowledge, all of his learning, he could not make
straight. Men today, they talk about our
environment, and they think if we could just put men in a perfect
environment, Everything would be all right. No, it's not our
environment. It's us. The problem's on the
inside. You know, in the early centuries
of the Christian dispensation, some of those people were misguided
and misled, and they thought, well, if we can just get away
from society, we'll go and live in a cave. We won't bathe anymore. We won't shave. We'll be hermits
out here in a cave somewhere, and that's going to solve our
problem. But when they got in the cave,
they found out the problem was not outside. The problem was
inside the cave. It was in them. And that's what
we see here that Solomon found out. That which is crooked cannot
be made straight. The great philosophers, And you
know them, they're still being studied, some of them. The philosophies
of some of those men are still being taught in the universities.
And yet, they could dream of a utopia, but they never could
achieve a utopia. Why? Because that which is crooked
cannot be made straight. Now, man cannot make it straight. Look with me in Isaiah chapter
42. Thank God for the gospel. Thank God for the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ and this gospel promise here in Isaiah 42 and
verse 16. This is what God promised that
he would do. I will bring the blind by way
that they knew not. And all of us by nature are spiritually
blind. spiritually blind. We can't say
that we have a problem. We can't say that we are sinners.
And we certainly cannot say God's remedy unless God, as he promises
here, leads the blind by way that they knew not. We didn't
know it. There is no understanding. Remember, the way of peace they
have not known. In that list in Romans chapter
3, which shows the depravity of lost men and women, the way
of peace, there's none that understand it. There's none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way, spiritually blind, actually
dead, spiritually dead. And yet, here's God's promise.
bring the blind by way that they knew not, I will lead them in
paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them. And now notice, and crooked things
straight. Man does not have the ability
to make that which is crooked straight, but God does. God does, and that's what He
does in His people. The natural man is not crippled,
but dead in trespasses and sins. And what man needs is life. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I am come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. Go back to our text now. Fourth,
He confesses his knowledge was great, but it was vexation of
spirit. Verses 16 through 18. I communed with mine own heart,
saying, Lo, I am come to greater state, and have gotten more wisdom
than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. If we
heard someone say that, we would think, boy, he's full of pride. He's sure proud. He's full of
himself. But this was a true statement
that Solomon made about himself, and he knew it was the Lord who
had given him this wisdom. He said, I've gotten more wisdom
than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem, yea,
my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge, and
I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.
I perceive that this also is vexation of spirit, for in much
wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth
sorrow. Of all men other than the Lord
Jesus Christ, Solomon had more wisdom. He was qualified to deliver
this sermon on vanity of vanities, all is vanity. He also found
that with much wisdom is much grief. To increase knowledge,
increase sorrow. The more we learn, the more we
realize how little we know. Sometimes I'm in my office back
in the building and I look at all of those books that I have.
God's blessed me, given me a number of books. And many of them, not
all of them, but many of them I have read through more than
once. And yet, I don't retain it. I don't retain the knowledge
that I have received from those books. Some of it, yes. But sometimes
I feel guilty and convicted. of what the Lord has given me
and how little I retain. I think that's part of what Solomon
is saying to us here in this passage of scripture. That with
much wisdom, much knowledge, comes much grief because we realize
how little we know. And remember this, he's speaking
of things which are done under the sun, under heaven. It is good to know tonight that
there is wisdom and knowledge that is just the opposite of
this wisdom of things which are done under the sun. Earthly wisdom,
as Solomon found, brings sorrow. It brought sorrow to him. But
heavenly wisdom brings joy and comfort. I experienced this just recently.
It was a strange experience to me, but I picked up a book that
I've read once before, and I began reading it again, and it was
such a blessing, such a joy, and I just thought, how blessed
I am that I rejoice in this, this truth about God, about how
God justifies sinners. What a blessing to just be thrilled
with this knowledge. So we know tonight that there
is wisdom and knowledge which is opposite from this worldwide
wisdom of that which is done under the sun. Earthly wisdom,
as Solomon found, brings sorrow. But heavenly wisdom brings comfort,
and it brings joy. The more we know about God, the
more we love Him. And we read that Psalm a few
minutes ago, Psalm 26, and I think it's the third verse. David said,
I have set thy loving kindness before me. What is God's loving kindness? Someone said it's God's love
in action. I've set thy loving kindness
before me. In other words, I set it before
me. I think about thy loving kindness. I think I meditate upon my loving
kindness. I said it before me, how that
God loved us from before the foundation of the world and how
that God loved us so much that he gave his darling son to redeem
us and rescue us from an eternity separated from him, from God. I set, I do this on purpose,
I make this decision, this is my action, this is my responsibility. I set thy loving kindness before
me. There is wisdom, there is knowledge,
which brings comfort and brings joy, but it's not that which
is the wisdom and knowledge of things done under the sun. When we read about wisdom, I
would just remind us tonight that the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians
1, he says, but we preach Christ, who is the wisdom and power of
God. Christ is the wisdom of God. In Proverbs 8, you see that especially
brings out about wisdom being personified, and it is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The more we know about Christ,
the more our joy is increased. The more we learn about Him,
there's no sorrow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, but
there's joy and there's comfort. And I thought about this, and
closing actually, the Apostle Paul, writing from a Roman prison cell,
Now, if anyone maybe had cause to be discouraged, be cast down,
it may have been Paul. In prison, not for doing evil
things, but for preaching the gospel, serving the Lord. And he wrote this in one of his
prison letters, a letter of Philippians. He said, And I count but loss,
count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. He said, I count everything else
but dumb, garbage, refuse for the knowledge of Jesus, the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ. Think of how this knowledge worked
in Paul. First of all, it taught him to
be content in whatsoever state God's providence put him. Whatever state God's providence
put him in, he said, I have learned to be content. You know, when
a person is content, that person's not murmuring and complaining,
are they? And I know all of us from time
to time, if we would be honest, we murmur. We murmur about the
weather, we murmur about traffic, we murmur about this, we murmur
about that. Paul said, this knowledge, the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, this knowledge
enabled him to learn to be content, he said, in whatever state God's
providence put him. He said, I've learned to be,
to abound, and I've learned to be abased. I've learned to have
everything sufficient, and I've learned to be a necessity and
be content in both states. That's what this knowledge enabled
him to do. And number two, this knowledge
taught him that labor is not in vain in the Lord. It's not
in vain in the Lord. Sometimes we get discouraged,
I know, we all do, and we think, It doesn't look like the Lord's
doing anything. It looks like, you know, things
are going backward. We take one step forward and
we end up thinking we're taking two steps backward, you know. But this knowledge enabled Paul
to know and to write, be ye therefore steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know,
your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And then third, this
knowledge taught him to look forward to departing from this
world. He was able to say to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better. So the wisdom that
Solomon, the knowledge that Solomon explored and found were of things
done under the sun. But thank God there is the wisdom,
spiritual wisdom, spiritual knowledge, that brings comfort and joy to
those to whom it is given. Yes, he was qualified. He was
qualified to write this sermon. He was qualified by the knowledge,
the wisdom that God gave him, and by his pursuit of knowledge,
he was qualified. And his estimate was the things of this
world, fame, fortune, riches, whatever it is that men set their
hearts on, is vanity and vexation of spirit. You want contentment? We used to sing that hymn that
said, you want real joy, wonderful joy? Have Jesus. come into your heart. That's
when you'll find contentment and joy. All right, David, if
you will lead us in a hymn.