Now, I want you to turn in your
Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter one. I've entitled this message the
vanity of life without Christ, and that's a good statement of
the theme of this whole book, these 12 chapters of the book
of Ecclesiastes, the vanity of life without Christ. If you had
an opportunity to read through all these chapters. There may
be some things that might seem to be kind of confusing or maybe
a little perplexing to you, but that's OK. If you see things
in the light of God's purpose in inspiring this great, great
book of the Bible and the meaning of it, what its theme is, again,
the vanity of life without Christ, you'll understand these things.
God the Holy Spirit inspired King Solomon in his old age to
write this book. Now, if you've read much about
Solomon, he is an enigma too, isn't he? If you've studied much
about the history of King Solomon, his dealings as king of Israel,
he was the son of David. It opens here in verse 1, the
words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
That's Solomon. I don't know why anybody would
argue over that or against that, but that's exactly who it is.
King Solomon. And we can talk a lot about Solomon
and his life and all of his, some of his triumphs, all of
his failures, just like his father David. But here is the last word
that the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to write. He wrote many
of the Proverbs, as you know, the wise Proverbs, the axioms,
the truth of God in those Proverbs. But here he writes this book
that's labeled in your Bible, the Old Testament here, Ecclesiastes. Now, as you may know, the Old
Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language, the ancient
Hebrew language. But Ecclesiastes is not a Hebrew
word, it's a Greek word. And the title Ecclesiastes refers
to a gathering of people, a congregation. It's the New Testament word that
we use for church, the church of God. The original Hebrew title
of this book meant the preacher. or the speaker, or some even
say the seeker. So I look at it this way. You
see in your title there, if you've got in the King James Version,
it probably says Ecclesiastes or the preacher. It can be entitled
either one. So here's what you have with Ecclesiastes. You have
the preacher preaching to the congregation. God's preacher,
who has been called and inspired and gifted by God to bring out
these great truths, that he has experienced and seen and delivering
them to the people of God, to the church. And so when we speak
of the assembly, the word church, we need to understand that word
plainly. What is the church? Who are the church? Well, they're
the chosen of God in Christ. That's who the church is. They
are those who are justified before God in Christ, washed in his
blood, clothed in his righteousness. They are described by the Apostle
Paul in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 as the church which Christ
purchased with his own blood, redeemed by the blood of Christ,
the redeemed of the Lord. That is the church. That is the
true church. Now, we have assemblies, local
assemblies here on this earth that are mixed with true believers
and false professors, and that will all be worked out and divided
up when Christ comes again and he works it all out. But we're
talking here about the true church, the true elect people of God,
justified before God, righteous in Christ, redeemed by His blood,
and then regenerated and called out by the Holy Spirit in the
gospel. Now, sometimes the word church
means called out ones. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 and verse 13, he said, we're bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
that's the church, the beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation, that's the chosen
of God, the church, and then he says, through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, that's the new birth,
regeneration and conversion, the calling of the Holy Spirit,
and he says, whereunto he called you by our gospel, the good news
of salvation, by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, to the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the true church
we know from the Bible is the elect of God, many names for
it. They're called the bride of Christ,
the Lamb's bride, the Lamb's wife, called the body of Christ,
Christ is the head, we're the body, called the household and
family of God, the building of God. Christ said to Peter and
the apostles in Matthew 16, upon this rock, the rock of himself,
He said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not
prevail against it. The church is described as the
sheepfold of Christ. The Bible says that each individual
who makes up this church, that before we're brought into the
kingdom of God, and that's another name for the church, the kingdom
of God or the kingdom of heaven, that we're like sheep who have
gone astray, and we can't find our way back home to the sheepfold. And therefore, Christ the great
shepherd, the good shepherd who gave his life for the sheep comes
and he snatches up his sheep and brings us back to the fold.
And so the church is the sheepfold of Christ. Sometimes it's called
the vineyard of God or God's husbandry, like a farmer. God
has a field and he raises nothing but good crops in the true church.
Sometimes it's called the sanctuary or the habitation of God, wherein
God dwells by His Spirit and by His Word. In fact, the church
is called the pillar and ground of truth. The true church ought
to be a place that if you go there and sit down, you ought
to be able to hear the truth. And that's the truth as it is
in Christ, the truth of God's Word. That's why we major on
preaching the Word of God here and not entertaining you. If
you want to be entertained, go down to the Paramount Arts Center.
But if you want to hear the truth preached, if you want to hear
about your eternal destiny and your soul, come where the Word
is preached. We're not in the entertaining
business. We're not trying to hook people
in with false bait and then keep them entertained just to keep
them here. We're here to preach the Word of God. That's what
Ecclesiastes is all about. The preacher preaching the Word
of God to the assembly, to the church. Sometimes the church
is called the city of God. It's called the New Jerusalem
or the Heavenly Jerusalem, that's the church. It's called God's
nation, spiritual Israel. It's made up of God's people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation, both Jew and
Gentile, qualified not by their own works or their own goodness
or their own power or their own station in life. but qualified
only in that they are sinners saved by the grace of God. You
dealt with that in your message, talking about Jacob. That's sinners
saved by the grace of God. We didn't earn salvation, and
we don't deserve salvation. We're members of the church because
we're bought with a price and called out by the Spirit. You
don't become a member of the church by making a decision. That decision has already been
made by God before the foundation of the world. And if you do make
a decision, which you will, because he said that in John chapter
6 and verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall what?
Come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. You'll find that God is the one
who ultimately made the decision. It's not by your free will or
my free will, it's by the will of God. We're born again or begotten
again by the will of God, by the word of truth. And then the
church is also called the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven,
and it's called the General Assembly of the Firstborn, the Firstborn
there being Christ. And that's referring to His resurrection.
Now, when you look at that at Ecclesiastes, and you understand
who's speaking, who they're speaking to, what are they talking about?
What's Solomon talking about in Ecclesiastes? Well, my text
for this evening is the first two verses of chapter 1. Look
at it. The words of the preacher, the
son of David, king in Jerusalem, and he starts out this way. Vanity
of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Now that's part of my text. The
next part of my text is over in chapter 12. And it's the last
two verses of Ecclesiastes. I started to title this message,
Beginning at the End. But I want you to notice what
I'm doing here. I'm going to introduce us to
the book of Ecclesiastes this way. Now you see how it started
out. Here's what the preacher had to say. Vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. But now look at the last two
verses of Ecclesiastes 12. Let us hear the conclusion or
the end of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil." That's the conclusion. Now that's my
text. The first two verses and the last two verses. And I hope
you thank the Lord tonight that I'm not going to try to make
my text everything in between tonight. in one sermon. We're going to do some preaching
through the book of Ecclesiastes, but you need to understand it
in this context. If you don't know the conclusion
of this book before you start it, you'll see it as a book of
pessimism. You know what a pessimist is.
Somebody who always sees the glass as half empty instead of
half full. Always looking on the bad side
of things. Always seeing the negative. Always
thinking that the worst is going to happen. You might see it as
the preaching of a cynic. Nothing's any good, suspect,
negative, everything. One writer described it this
way, it's the ravings of a disappointed, frustrating, unfulfilled person
who has no meaning or purpose in his life. Wow. You say, well, that's what it
is, let's just not study that book. Let's just skip over it.
Well, that's not how it is. But you've got to understand
not only where he starts, but where he concludes. The theme
of this book, as I said, is stated in the title. It is emptiness. There is an emptiness there.
That's what vanity means here. This word vanity, it doesn't
mean pride, you know, like in a vanity mirror, like pride and
proud of your looks or something like that. That's not what it
means. It means emptiness. It means
meaninglessness. It has no meaning at all. It
means fleeting, something that's temporary. It's going to have
an end and you'll never see it again. This word vanity, it describes
the emptiness and the meaninglessness of life, but not just life, life
without God. That's the key. Life without
Christ. Life without grace. Life without truth. Life without salvation. Think
about that now. Think about your life. Your daily
life. Because there's a lot said in
Ecclesiastes about living the daily life. Going about the old
grind, as we call it. Think about going through that
without knowing the sovereign mercy and grace of God in Christ.
Think about that. How miserable. How empty, how
meaningless. And what Solomon is teaching,
or we'll say it this way, what the Holy Spirit is teaching us
here, is this. Here is the story of man's search
for meaning, for purpose, for fulfillment, and eternity on
his own. These first chapters, all the
way up to chapter 12, we'll see some things brought in, you know,
of the things of God. But on the whole, here's man's
search for meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and eternity on
his own. It's kind of like when I was
in school and we'd read about the old ancient philosophers,
many of whom were atheists, denied the existence of God. And they
go about their lives trying to find meaning, trying to find
purpose, trying to figure it all out. And several of them,
if you read their deathbed confessions, it all comes down to this in
their minds. It all means nothing. It's all
worth nothing. That's really what they come
to. No purpose, no meaning. Man searching for meaning, purpose,
fulfillment, and eternity on his own in the things of the
world. If you're familiar with the book
of Ecclesiastes, you're familiar with this term, under the sun. 27 times in Ecclesiastes. What's
under the sun mean? That means right here on this
earth. Everything under the sun, 27 times, right here on this
earth. And what he's shown is man cannot
find fulfillment in his sinful, fallen, depraved existence, his
self-seeking endeavors here on this earth under the sun. Can't
find it. You're not going to find salvation
under the sun. Not here. Not on the earth. Not by man's works, man's efforts.
They can build towers. I think I saw on the news a couple
months ago that they built the largest building somewhere in
Africa or somewhere, wasn't it? I can't remember where it was.
But you think about man's endeavors. They're all doomed to failure.
They built the Titanic and they said this is the ship that not
even God could sink. First voyage, what happened?
They built their buildings. Earthquakes come, topple them
down. Man's endeavors. Man's religious
endeavors cannot save him. You can work hard all your life
to be righteous, and you will not get any closer to it than
when you start. In fact, you'll get farther away
from it, the Scripture says, in your very endeavors. It's
like walking on a treadmill. You walk and you sweat, but you
don't get anywhere. And that's what he's saying here.
Man cannot find righteousness under the sun. If you find righteousness,
it's got to come from the sun, S-O-N, the sun of God. You've
got to look higher than the sun. And I'm not talking about outer
space, and I'm not talking about geography. I'm talking about
from God. If you're going to find salvation, it can't come
under the sun. It's got to come from God. Salvations
of the Lord. That's one of the sub-themes
of Ecclesiastes. You're not going to find immortality
under the sun. Now, you may find a way to live
longer in your mind. I know God already knows how
long I'm going to live. He knows how long you're going to live.
He's appointed that day, the Scripture says. It's not that
God just knows when that day is going to happen. He's actually
appointed it. That's what the Scripture means
when it says the hairs of our head are numbered. God knows
the time and the means of my death. He already knows it, and
there's nothing going to stop it. I believe that. I know people say, well, he added
to so-and-so's life in the Old Testament. That was not, listen,
that wasn't God changing his mind. I'm not going to get into
all that tonight, but that wasn't God changing his mind. You don't
change God's mind. Why would you have to? God must
change ours. So you may live the longest of
any person. You may outlive Methuselah, but
still under the sun there's no salvation. You may live 969 years
and a day and beat Methuselah out, but you're still going to
die like Methuselah. He died. You're not going to
find forgiveness of sin here under the sun. It must come from
above. It must come from God. Forgiveness
of sin is by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God from heaven, not under the sun. You're not going to find
any of the blessings of eternity under the sun. It's just not
there. And I think I told you one time,
if you really want to read the book of Ecclesiastes and have
some understanding of it just in reading it, think about it
this way. We might all say, for example,
that we're pretty content on the whole with what we have.
We might say that, and that's good. The Bible says that godliness
with contentment is great gain. And I tell you, there's not a
more miserable person on earth who is a discontent person, always
wanting more, never satisfied with what they've got. But you'd
have to say in our heart of hearts, there are things that we can
each say, well, I'd like to have a little more of that, or a little
more of this, a little more of that, a little more of this. whether
it be money, power, knowledge, education, a better job, whatever
it is. Well, if you could, for the purposes
of argument, say that you had all of those things to the max,
you had all the money you wanted, all the power you wanted, all
the health you wanted, all the education you wanted, all the
earthly wisdom you wanted, you see what I'm saying? You had
it all. All right? Here's what the book of Ecclesiastes
will tell you. Without Christ, without living
your life for the glory of God, it means nothing. It means nothing. If you had it all, now we don't
have it all, but if you had it all, it still means nothing without
Christ. Solomon, I guess as far as human
beings are concerned, you could say he pretty much had it all.
He asked for wisdom, and that's talking about human wisdom, now
he had godly wisdom too, he did. But Solomon was known all over
the world for making wise judgments in dealing with men. I mean,
folks, kings came, queens came to visit him to find out his
wisdom. He had riches, he had power.
The kingdom of Israel flourished under Solomon economically, militarily,
all the things. He had horses, he had wives,
he had concubines, he had everything. Everything a human being could
possibly want, fame, fortune. And what does he say? Vanity
of vanity, saith the preacher. All is vanity. It means nothing
without Christ. It means nothing. He could only find meaning and
purpose, fulfillment, righteousness, forgiveness, life in the God
of all grace. through Jesus Christ. And that's
what that conclusion of the whole book is all about. Back over
in Ecclesiastes 12. Look at it one more time. Verse
13 of Ecclesiastes 12. Let's hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Here's how we conclude. I'll
tell you what. Aren't you glad if the Lord has revealed Himself
to you and brought you to Him and shown you the glory of Christ?
Aren't you glad that your life doesn't end All is vanity. But let's hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. Now, this is for the church.
This is the conclusion of the whole matter. And this is a directive
now. This is a command for lost people to seek the Lord. We'll
show you that in a minute. But he says, fear God. Now, that
means worship God. That doesn't mean run scared
from God. That doesn't mean hide from God.
That means reverence God. That means respect God. It means
believe God. In fact, if you read Hebrews
4, go home and read that sometime this week, Hebrews chapter 4,
it means rest in Christ. Believe in him, trust in him
as your heavenly father, Abba Father. The one who saved me
and blessed me and keeps me and rewards me and brings me to glory,
not by my efforts and work, but by the Lord Jesus Christ through
his blood and righteousness alone. Fear God. And keep his commandments. What is his commandments? Now,
let me say this, just in making this, not making, drawing this
out too much for tonight. Keep his commandments, he says.
And right away, when people see keep his commandments, they think
of the Ten Commandments. And they think about, well, God
says, well, if you do this, I'll do that. If you'll do that, you
know, if you'll meet this condition, or if you'll keep this command.
No, no, no. When it says keep his commandments,
you must understand that God has never commanded any sinner
to seek salvation and blessings by their works of the law. In
fact, he forbids that. To keep his commandments means
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and follow him. It's a
matter of grace. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. That's what the scripture says.
Submit to his righteousness instead of trying to establish a righteousness
of your own which exposes your ignorance of God's righteousness
and God's way of salvation. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. You keep his commandments. This
is the whole duty of man. That means Seek salvation not
by your works, but by his grace in Christ and follow him not
in order to see what you can earn from him But but because
you love him because you're grateful because of his love for you and
Then he said so so what he's saying here He says in verse
14 for God shall bring every work into judgment with every
secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil live your
life in light of judgment and eternity and Because it's all
going to be brought out in the end. Don't live your life in
the vanity of all these things under the sun. Trying to get
everything you can get, accumulate everything you can accumulate,
make a name for yourself, all of these things, trying to find
fulfillment in these things of the world, which mean nothing.
No, sir. Don't live your life like that.
Live your life in light of judgment and eternity. And the only issues
that will matter in judgment and eternity is this, am I in
Christ or am I not? Oh, to be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ. I want to be found in him. Live
your life that way. Now, man by nature will not seek
after God above the sun. He will not do it. Romans chapter
3 and verse 10 tells us about that, when it's describing the
depravity of man. It says, as it is written, there
is none righteous, no, not one. That's man by nature now. That's
man as we're born into this world on our own. This is how we are. None righteous, no, not one.
Then it goes on and it says in verse 11, there is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, They
are all gone out of the way, that's God's way. They are together
become unprofitable, that's vanity. There's none that doeth good,
no not one, Romans 3, 10 through 12. That's a description of man
on his own. Now man seeks. That's what this
book of Ecclesiastes, here's a seeker. Remember I told you,
could be the preacher, could be the speaker, could be the
seeker. He's seeking. But he's not seeking the Lord
God. And yet the Scriptures tell us, you see, man on his own won't
do that. He'll grapple in the dark down here on earth, in the
things of this world. He'll work hard, he'll try to
accumulate, go to school, get degrees, but he won't seek the
living God. You wouldn't, I wouldn't, until
the Lord brought us to seek Him. Isn't that right? If you think
you did that of your own free will, you don't know yourself.
Did you know that? You've not really come face to
face with yourself. If you think, well, I'm just
better than everybody else and I decided to do this. No, sir. No. If God had left me to myself,
I would be still groping in the dark here under the sun. You
would too. But yeah, the scripture commands
us to seek him. Hebrews 11, 6, let me just read
you a few. It says, But without faith it
is impossible to please God. And if you know faith is the
gift of God, the Scripture teaches. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. It's the reward of grace, because
they seek him in Christ. Let me read you this, Isaiah
45, verse 18. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made
it, he hath established it, he created it, not in vain. Now,
you see, God didn't create this world in vain. He didn't create
it for nothing. But here the preacher is saying,
vanity, vanity, all is vanity. The problem is not with God.
The problem is not with the creation. The problem is with the fallen,
depraved sinner. We're the problem. We're the
vanity, you see. We're the vanity. Everything
God created, it says in Genesis chapter 1, is what? Good. Where's
the problem? That's what Solomon's teaching
here. I'm the problem. Everything I touch, you see,
under the sun, without Christ, without God, without truth, without
grace, is vanity. And you know why? Because of
me. So God, He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited.
And he said, I am the Lord. There's none else. I have not
spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth. I said unto the
seed of Jacob. Now, that's that's a symbol,
a metaphor of the church seeking me. And then he said, I didn't
say that the seed of Jacob seeking me in vain. I, the Lord, speak
righteousness. I declare things that are right.
When God commands a sinner to seek him, he doesn't say, seek
me in vain. He doesn't say, seek me and you might find me. You
won't find me. Now, he says, seek the Lord.
and you'll find him. Isaiah 55, 6, Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. He's
near right now in the preaching of the gospel. Amos 5, verse
4, the prophet says, For thus saith the Lord unto the house
of Israel, another type of the church, Seek ye me, and ye shall
live. That means live forever. Seek
ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth. Do you know what it is
to be meek? It means to be submissive to God's will and word. And man
by nature is not meek. And so he says, Seek ye the Lord
all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgment. Seek
righteousness. Seek meekness. It may be you
shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. And then Matthew
chapter 6 and verse 33, when the Lord commanded, he said,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And
all these things shall be added unto you. Righteousness can only
be found in God. All who truly seek the Lord will
find him, and find that he sought them first." That's what the
Scripture teaches. And to seek the Lord is to seek
Him as a sinner seeking mercy. Not trying to find our meaning
in the things of this world. To seek Him is to seek Him in
His Word. 1 Peter 1, verse 24. Listen to this. For all flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass,
the grass withereth, And the flower thereof falleth away,
but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you." You see, you seek
meaning, fulfillment, salvation, righteousness, forgiveness, and
life in His word. And if you seek it in His word,
you know what you're going to find? It's in Christ. To seek
Him is to seek Him in Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. When the Holy Spirit uses the
Word of God to be the power of God unto a sinner's salvation,
he drives that sinner out of himself and out of the world
and to Christ. That's where he takes him. And
that's where he leaves him. And that's not vanity. That's
meaningless. All else is vanity of vanities.
You know what that vanity of vanities means? He says of all
the vanities there is, this is the most vain of all the vanities. Vanity of vanities, fleeting,
futile, incomprehensible. You can't understand it. You
know there are a lot of things we can't understand even as believers,
but we know this, God's in control. And God's behind all things.
He's not the author of sin. We're going to talk about that
Sunday morning on the sovereignty of God and the responsibility
of man. God is sovereign, absolutely.
Man is responsible. You can't deny either one. You
don't understand it all. I don't understand it all, but
God's in control. And it's all headed toward one
goal, and that's His glory in Christ in the salvation of His
people. Now, that's all the understanding
that we need, and that's all He gives us above the sun. This
answers some hard questions about Ecclesiastes. A lot of people
read through Ecclesiastes and they're confused by some of the
statements that Solomon wrote because they're actually wrong
statements. You know, there's error in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Now, hold on before you walk out. But it's error, it's conclusions
that the sinners come to that are wrong. Now, let me show you
what I'm talking about. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter
3. Look at chapter 3. And look at verse 19. What I'm
saying is this, now think about it. There are conclusions that
man on his own, without God, without Christ, without the Holy
Spirit, without the Word of God, without the truth of God, man
will come to some conclusions on his own that are just flat
wrong. Now, you agree with that, don't
you? Well, they're recorded here, that's what I mean. He records
them. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter
3. Look at verse 19, for example.
Listen to what he says here. He says, For that which befalleth
the sons of men befalleth beast. Even one thing befalleth them,
as the one doth so doth the other, yea, they have all one breath,
so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast. For all is vanity,
all go into one place, all are of dust, and all turn to dust
again. Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward
to the earth? Wherefore, I perceive that there is nothing better
than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is
his portion. For who shall bring him to see
what shall be after him?" Now, you know what that is? That's
the erroneous conclusion of a man seeking salvation and fulfillment
under the sun. And what are you saying? There's
really no difference between us and the animals. Some of you
young people, when you go to school and you study science
and biology and all that, they will refer to human beings as
animals. Not so. We're not animals. We have a lot of the physiological
makeups the same as animals. But man was created in the image
of God. He has the power of reasoning,
the power of choice, even though his will is not free. Your will
is in bondage to yourself, your nature, fallen human nature,
which animals don't have. Even creativity, which is not
really creativity, but just rearranging things that have already been
created. I mean, you've never seen a monkey that painted a
great work of art. I know some works of art they
call great look like monkeys did paint them. You've never
seen a dolphin who built a skyscraper or invented a car or anything
like that. You see, that's something that's
unique to mankind. You've never seen a snake who
composed a great musical composition or anything like that. They just
don't do that. They operate by instinct. And though they may
show some signs of what people call intelligence, Man has a
preeminence above the animals. Now, now, what does that mean?
Well, we flat dropped the ball in Adam and we fell. Lost our
first estate. That's why it's such a heinous
crime to sin against God. You see what I'm saying? Man's
a fallen creature. But Solomon was wrong here. But
what's he showing here? He's showing this is the conclusion
of man under the sun. That's why you've got these folks
who who devise these great plans of evolution and teach them as
if they're they're trying to find the meaning and the purpose
and the origin of life under the sun. And they refuse to go
to God. So what's the difference, you
say? What's the difference? Look,
let me show you another one. Look at chapter four. Look at
verse 2 there, chapter 4, and there are others in here. I'm
just going to show you a few examples. He says, verse 2 of Ecclesiastes
4, he says, Wherefore I praise the dead which are already dead
more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he
than both they which have not yet been, who have not seen the
evil work that is done under the sun. You know what he's saying
there? He's saying it's better not to
have existed at all than to go through this trouble here on
earth. My friend, we know better than that. That's not true. That's
not true. God put his people here for a
purpose. And we may go through some hard,
hard trials. But if we keep our view and our
goal and our method of operation under the sun, we might come
to that conclusion. One of the old philosophers that
I was talking about earlier, who was an atheist, that's what
he said on his deathbed. He said, I'd have been better
off if I'd never been born. You remember, Job got into that
kind of thinking, too, in his sin. Oh, no, we were put here
for a purpose. And it's a glorious purpose.
And we can only realize that purpose as we look to and rest
in and honor and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. One more, look at Ecclesiastes
7. Look at verse 16. Well, look at verse 15, Ecclesiastes
7. He says, All things have I seen
in the days of my vanity. Now, that's the key there, what
he's about to say. There's a just man that perisheth
in his righteousness. There's a wicked man that prolongeth
his life in his wickedness. You know what he's saying. Here's
a just person, and they die young. Here's a wicked person, and they
seem like they'd go on forever. You couldn't kill them with a
rock in the head, you know. They just live and live and live.
What's that all about? You know, that didn't seem right
to me. How about you? I mean, it should be. You know, they
used to say in that song, the good they die young. But look,
he says, verse 16, therefore, now here's his conclusion about
that. We'll be not righteous over much. Don't be just over
much. Neither make thyself over wise.
Why shouldst thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked. Neither
be thou foolish. Why shouldst thou die before
thy time? What he's saying is don't be
too good. Don't be too bad. Just find a little middle part
there and live therein, you know, because it really doesn't matter.
That's what he's saying. It doesn't matter. Well, my friend, it does
matter. It does matter. Now, we know
there's no righteous here on earth except those who are righteous
in Christ. And that matters. There may be
people who appear righteous here on earth, but if they don't have
Christ, they're not righteous. The righteous may be like Abel
and get cut down in the prime of youth in an unjust way. And
the wicked may live and live and live and live. Does it matter? Yes, it does. Because it doesn't
matter how long you live or how short you live under the sun.
Eternity is eternity. And the only way you can spend
time in eternal blessedness is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
does matter. Turn to chapter 9 and look at
verse 2 there. Ecclesiastes 9. Verse 2. He says, All things come alike
to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked,
to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him that
sacrifice, and to him that sacrificeeth not, as is the good, so is the
sinner. And he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. What
he's simply saying there is it doesn't matter how you live your
life. It's going to be the same thing. That's wrong. That is wrong. What do we read?
Every secret thing is going to be declared, going to be brought
above board by the Lord at judgment, whether it be good or evil. And
the only thing that will matter then is, do I know Christ? You see that it does matter.
It matters a lot. Well, these are the conclusions
of man's search without Christ. But they're not the conclusions
of man's search in and by God's grace in Christ. Now, let me
conclude with Act 17. Look over at Act 17 and this
will be the conclusion. I hope this serves as a good
launch pad to look at the thoughts of Solomon as the Holy Spirit
inspired him to write them in the book of Ecclesiastes. In
Act 17, Verse 27, he's talking about God as Creator. God created this earth. God created
man. Man fell. And God created man
and put him in the bounds of his own habitation for this purpose.
Look at verse 27, that they should seek the Lord. Not that they
should seek fulfillment under the sun. Enriches, power, whatever. but that they should seek the
Lord. Now, the term Lord there is Jehovah, the God of grace,
the God of salvation, the God who saves sinners through Christ.
What you're going to find in the book of Ecclesiastes, when
you see the name God, it's not Jehovah. It's Elohim, the God
of creation. And what you see there is this,
that you cannot worship the creation above the creator. And that's
what the man of vanity is doing. If you're seeking fulfillment,
like for example, if your meaning in life and your purpose in life
and your fulfillment in life is your job, that's exactly what
you're doing. That's idolatry. God gave you
that job. You ought to seek the Lord and
thank Him. If you're seeking it in your family, It's good
to have a family, and you're responsible to raise that family.
But if your meaning and purpose and fulfillment is in your family,
that's idolatry. God gave you that family. God
created them. He's the Creator. Seek the Lord. If you're seeking
fulfillment in any way, in riches, in education, no matter what
it is, if it's anything under the sun, that's idolatry. And you may say, I believe in
God, but if you live your life as if your meaning and purpose
and fulfillment and time is all spent in those things, you are
what we call a practical atheist. You're one who says you believe
in God, but you act like there is no God. You see what I'm saying? So he says that they should seek
the Lord. Verse 27, if happily they might feel after him, that's
talking about the drawing of God for you to seek him. and
find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in
him we live, and move, and have our being." Now, there's the
meaning and the fulfillment and the purpose of God in Christ.
As certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his
offspring. That's by creation. For as much
then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven
by art and man's device. Now, you may not think that God
is like a stone idol. Or you may not think like he's
a gold idol, but you may spend your life pursuing gold, pursuing
riches. And that's the same thing. That's
your God, you see. Just like false religion, you
may spend your life pursuing your works, trying to attain
righteousness. Well, that's your God, not the
God of the Bible. not Jehovah, the Lord, who is
saved by grace and makes sinners righteous in Christ. And so he
says in verse 30, And the times of this ignorance God winked
at that is overlooked, but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead. There is your fulfillment. There
is your salvation. There is your righteousness.
There is your meaning. You say, there's your purpose,
the glory of God in Christ. That's why Paul told the Corinthians
about eating and drinking. And really it pertains to everything
in our lives. Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And that's why he told the Colossians
there when I read that opening. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns. And spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord, that's referring to
worship, but that's really the whole life of a believer. And
so he says, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father
by Him.