Okay, now here we are at Ecclesiastes
chapter 1 concerning the vanity of wisdom without Christ. And Solomon the king, as he's
inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, he is preaching here, he
calls himself in verse 12, the preacher. And that's the office
that he's taken as he records these things of the vanity of
life in this world without Christ, without the grace of God, direction
without fulfillment. And he's preaching these things
and he's speaking here as king over Israel in Jerusalem. And he says in verse 13, speaking
of the futility of human wisdom, here on this earth, he said,
and I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning
all things that are done under heaven. I want you to turn in
your Bibles back to the book of 1 Kings chapter 3. I want
you to see where this wisdom that Solomon desired, it was
a good thing. And he says, as we'll read just
in a moment, that it was a sore travail that God had given him
and has given to all the sons of men in some degree. What we
do with that by nature is always the wrong way. Some men spend
their life trying to squelch that desire that God gives, and
we'll talk about that in just a minute. But look at 1 Kings
3. Here is Solomon before the Lord,
Solomon who is made king, Solomon who was walking in the statutes
of David his father. And it says in verse 5 of 1 Kings
3, In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night,
and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said,
That thou hast shewed 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." Now, Solomon's not speaking literally here. He's
speaking figuratively. And what he's showing here, in
humility, he says, I am not able of my own strength and power
and wisdom to govern these people. Just like a child who doesn't
even know how to go out or come in. You have to lead a child
everywhere. Because they don't know it. And
what he's saying, Lord, you have to lead me in all these things.
In verse 8, he says, 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 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 so that's what he's looking
for, understanding of heart. He's talking about wisdom. Now
look over at chapter 4, 1 Kings chapter 4. This is what Solomon
asked for above all things. He didn't say, let me conquer
all the kingdoms of the world. He didn't say, let me build great
buildings so that I can be remembered. Maybe they'll name a town after
me or anything like that. He said, give me the understanding
of heart, the wisdom and the knowledge to govern this people.
Now look at 1 Kings 4, look at verse 29. It says here, and God
gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness
of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And that's
compassion, that's what that means, largeness of heart. And
he says, 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, and Heman,
and Chalco, and Dardah the sons of Maho. And his fame was in
all nations round about. He was wiser than any other king
on earth. And it says in verse 32, 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." In other words,
there's no subject that Solomon didn't have knowledge of. And
it says, "...and there came of all people to hear the wisdom
of Solomon from all kings of the earth which had heard of
his wisdom." Now, back over here in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, that's
what Solomon's talking about here. This is the wisdom that
any king on this earth ruling under the sun, under heaven,
would want to have and need to have to rule justly and wisely
and rightly. And Solomon says here in verse
13, I gave my heart to seek out this wisdom. He spent a lot of
time studying the wisdom of the world. And again, as we said,
he asked God for these things so that he'd be a wise and just
king over the affairs of his kingdom and rule with wisdom
and justice and compassion. This, when he says, under heaven,
he said in verse 13, search out by wisdom concerning all things
that are done under heaven. That's the same thing that he
means when he says under the sun. He's determined to use such
wisdom to seek and search out all that has been done under
heaven on this earth. And then, as I said, when we
read through it, this statement, he makes, this sore travail hath
God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith, or
to afflict them. I believe what he's talking about
there is this, even in fallen, ruined sinners, born of Adam,
as we all are by nature, God in our conscience and in our
hearts has set forth and given us a longing and a task that
is given to all men to seek out and to search out the meaning
of things, the real purpose of all things. Now, I'm not saying
that everybody's going to be a philosopher or that everybody's
going to be a theologian or anything like that or even a religionist
because many times what men and women do with this kind of longing
that God gives us is they spend their time trying to squelch
it, trying to cover it up, trying to ignore it, trying to deny
it. And we'll see that as we go through
Ecclesiastes. But turn to Ecclesiastes 3. I'll
give you a little preview of something that's said over here
in verse 10 of Ecclesiastes 3. Now here, you know, this is the
passage where he talks about there's a time set for everything.
There's a time to every purpose under the heaven. And I believe
this is talking about in every person's life, there's a time
for each of these things. There's even a time when somebody
comes face to face with this sore travail that God has given
them. Now, it may not be until their death. You know, there
are people who may not even be concerned about heaven and eternity
and judgment until they die. But it's there. And this is what
he says. Look at verse 10. He says, I
have seen the travail. There's that term again. The
trouble, the pain, the sorrow. which God hath given," this is
a gift of God, "...which God hath given to the sons of men
to be exercised in it." And then look at verse 11, "...he hath
made everything beautiful in his time." You see, nothing wrong
with this creation, except us, sinners, who are in it. We're
the one who's marred creation. And he says, also, "...he hath
set the world in their heart." Now, literally, That means he
has put eternity into every person's heart. In other words, there's
just something in man, even fallen sinful man, that he knows there's
something more than this world. He knows, he's got a sense of
it, that there's something beyond this life. That there's someone
who created this world. Now again, we may spend our lives
denying it, hiding it, ignoring it, whatever, but it's there.
And he says, he says, he set the world in their hearts so
that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning to the end. Man on his own cannot find out
the purposes and the meanings and the reasons of this life. Why God put us here and how we
get and rise above and be safe from this mess of fallen sinful
humanity that we're in. That's what he's saying. Let
me give you another reading of that from another translation.
This is verses 10 and 11. And here's what Solomon is saying.
He's saying, I've seen the business that God has given to the children
of man to be busy with or to be humbled by it, like we saw
over in Ecclesiastes 1 there, verse 13, to be afflicted. It's an affliction. You can't
get away from it totally. You may get away from it for
a little while, maybe for years, but it'll come back to you. It'll
come back to you. And here's what he says, he's
made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity
in the man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has
done from the beginning to the end. You see, one of the results
of our fall in Adam, one of the results of our ruination and
our sin and our depravity is a thirst to find answers to the
questions of life, the questions of salvation, the questions of
eternity. But we cannot find these things
out of our own wills and our own power and our own searches.
By seeking them within ourselves or in the things of the world
by science, philosophy, human theology, ideas, opinions, all
of those things, natural reasoning will not do it. In other words,
the only way, now back here in Ecclesiastes 1.13, the only way that this sore travail is going
to be relieved and satisfied is if God reveals himself from
above. That's it. The only way this
troublesome conscience, this idea, this need, it's a need,
you see, To know, why am I here? Where am I headed? Is there more
than this life? We were talking about people
seeking under the sun. I think you mentioned the famous
scientist Stephen Hawking, who has that disease ALS. And somebody
said that with all of his intelligence and all of his searches, he cannot
find out God. That's what I'm talking about.
You know, it's interesting about him because I think he's an astronomer
or something. He looks at the stars. You know,
some might say, well, he goes above the sun. No, he doesn't.
If you don't go above creation to find God, you're not going
to find God. And I'm going to show you that in just a moment.
You see, now creation does reveal the glory of God. It does. But you're not going to find
fulfillment in the things that God created. You can only find
fulfillment in God himself, and that means this. The only way
we're going to find fulfillment, salvation, righteousness, life,
and glory is in God in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else is vanity. That's
what he's saying. It must come from God. And you
know what? This sore travail, This seeking
and searching out, you know what it's meant to do mainly here
under the sun? It's meant to make us humble
so that we know, Lord, I am totally dependent upon you for all things,
for all knowledge, for all meaning, for all salvation. One of the
things God uses to humble us is a realization of the vanity
of human wisdom. You know here, the name God in
verse 13 of Ecclesiastes 1 is the name Elohim. You know in
the Bible there are many names for God. Because you can't use
one name to describe the glory and the greatness and the majesty
of God and His nature. Many, many things that go into
the majesty of God. But here is the name Elohim.
And it's used 39 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. It's the
name of the God of creation and power. And that's what you can
know about God from nature, you see, that God is great and glorious. Turn to Psalm 19 with me. This is what we can know about
God from nature. Elohim, the God of creation.
The God of power, the God who is all-wise and high above us. Look at verse 1 of Psalm 19.
It says, "...the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth knowledge." You see, even creation
tells us some things. That's what he's saying. Even
creation teaches us some things. Now again, men may deny it. You
know, how many scientists study creation? and end up being atheist
or evolutionist, you say. You know what that tells you?
It tells you that even though they're plagued with this sore
travail to find out what these things are like and the meaning
of them, they're not very good learners. They're stunted in
their learning. They're just hard to teach. Well, that's what we all are
by nature. That's what we all are by nature. And he says in
verse 3, now listen to this, he says, there is no speech nor
language where their voice is not heard. Don't say, well what
about the heathen in the heart of Africa? Here's your answer,
there's no speech where that language, their voice is not
heard. Their line has gone out, verse 4, through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world. In them he hath set
a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out
of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit
unto the ends of the earth." You see, Solomon's talked about
that circuit, that circle, that cycle of life. That's an order,
you see. Now, you're not going to, listen,
you're not going to find salvation by looking at creation. You're
not going to find salvation by meditating on a rock. You're
only going to find salvation in Christ. You see? But this is what he's saying.
You can learn some things from this. This circuit is the order
of God. Our God is a reasonable God. He's a God of purpose. He doesn't
do anything at random. There's no chance here now. You
can't say, well, the sun came up this morning by chance. No,
God ordained it. God set it in order. That's the
circuit. It comes up, it goes down. That
might not be entirely scientifically correct when we say it that way,
but that's the way we see it. And listen to the weatherman
tonight. He'll say it the same way. He's the meteorologist.
But he'll say it the same way. But you see, that's God's order
of things. And what should that do? It holds us accountable and
responsible to seek more of this great God. What does man do?
He looks at the sun, the glorious sun, and he bows down and worships
the sun. Oh, the great sun God. No, let's
seek the God who made that thing up here that warms us by day
and keeps us warm in the summer. Let's seek the God who created
that. That's what we ought to do. So
he says in verse 6, he says, and there's nothing hid from
the heat thereof. Now, we'll come back to Psalm
19, but let's go back to Ecclesiastes 1. You see, you can learn some
things from creation. And that's Elohim, that's the
God of creation, the God of power, the God of wisdom. But do you
know the one name that God uses to reveal Himself in the salvation
of sinners is what? They pronounce it different ways.
Some of the old Hebrews, they'll pronounce it Yahweh. We say Jehovah. The God of the covenant. The
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who justifies the ungodly. The God of the covenant who set
it up from everlasting to save his people by sending Jesus Christ
into this world. Now that name Jehovah is never
used in the book of Ecclesiastes. Just Elohim. What's the point? Why is that? What's the point
of Ecclesiastes? You cannot find Jehovah, the
God of salvation, the God of all grace, in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ, by searching under the sun. That's what it's saying. That's what it's telling us.
It's like seeking wisdom only from creation, and that's a task
which Solomon knew he had been especially equipped. But in the
end, what does he say? Verse 14, look at it. I've seen
all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity
and trouble of spirit. You see, you've got to go higher
than the sun, to the S-O-N, the Son of God. So what does he conclude
here? Well, the next comes the impossibility
of man saving himself, or delivering himself from this sore travail,
from this sin state that we're in. And here's what he says,
look at it, verse 15, that which is crooked cannot be made straight.
Who's the crooked there? That's us. That's man by nature,
depraved, sinful, ruined in Adam. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now, we could talk about other
crooked things. We certainly could. We could talk about all
the diseases of this world. We could talk about all the troubles
of this world. We could talk about all the conflicts
of this world. But you know, every bit of that
goes back to one source. Sinful, fallen, wretched me. And you. Isn't that it? And you search under the sun,
you go to science, go to philosophy, go to human theology and religion,
economics, government, politics, mediators, whatever, you can't
make this old crooked thing straight. Can't do it. Man with all of
his improvements, you know what we've done. We have not, in all
of the searching and seeking and inventing and all this, we
have not improved man. We just made him a little more
comfortable and a little more convenient. We can get from A
to B a little faster. We don't have to sweat so much
in the summer and freeze so much in the winter now. But we are
basically still the same crooked generation, a crooked and perverse
generation seeketh after a sign. That's us. And you can't make
him straight by anything under the sun. Nothing Solomon did
in his government, nothing Solomon thought or said as far as human
wisdom could make a sinner. a crooked sinner straight before
a holy God. And so he says in that verse
15, that which is wanting, that which is lacking or defective
cannot be numbered. There's so many defects about
us and stuff that we like that you can't count them. I know
some people try because they go around trying to point out
your faults all the time. But you know they haven't even
commenced to begin to get started as the old fella said. When reality
sets in, You can't count the stuff that is lacking in me or
in you. It's uncountable. You can't number
it. We're sinners. James said, to be guilty of one
is to be guilty of all. How many are you going to count
there? Just keep multiplying. It will go exponentially, as
the mathematician said. That's what we are. I know people
don't like to hear that, but that's what it is. And that's
what he's talking about. It's vanity. You cannot take
a natural man, a lost sinner, by nature alienated from God,
and give him an education and expect that education to solve
the ultimate problem of his life, which is sin and depravity and
a depraved heart. You know, you can make him more
comfortable and you can make him more convenient, but the
problem is still there. All right? What does the Bible
say? 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, for they are
spiritually discerned. Christ said in John 6.44, no
man can come to me except the Father which has sent me to draw
him. You see, the Father has to draw the sheep, the lost sheep,
into the fold. Lost sheep out there in the world
under the sun is not going to find his own way. That crooked
thing can't be made straight. He lacks anything he needs to
get himself back into the fold. He lacks the knowledge, he lacks
the wisdom, he lacks the desire. He doesn't even know where he's
at. That's right. He thinks he's okay, but he's
in a way of death. And so he said, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God, every man therefore that hath
what heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, Christ
said. That crooked thing, man by nature
in Adam, condemned under the sentence of death, cannot be
solved by his worldly wisdom. Except God, by His grace in Christ,
and by His obedience unto death, having been made sin for us,
He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him, as he went under the sentence of death for us
and died the death that we deserved and earned and redeemed us by
his blood. That's the only way the crooked
can be made straight right there. Justified by the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. A crooked sinner cannot
be made straight in any other way. And that's why Christ said,
He is the way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You see,
there's something which through sin is crooked in the hearts
and in the nature and the principles and ways and works of men, which
can never be made straight. It can never be corrected. It
can never be amended by all the natural wisdom and knowledge
and religion of men. All that does is show the vanity
of it, the vexation of it. You say you can dress him up
and make him look good on the outside, but you still can't
make the crooked straight. The wisest philosophers and the
most dedicated religionists, with all their learning and wisdom
and efforts, could never make this straight. And you know why?
You read it in studies, John 3.8. That which is born of the
flesh is what? Flesh. Born of the crooked, we
come out crooked. David said, I came forth from
the womb, speaking lies, not innocent, but in sin, born in
trespasses and sin, dead in trespasses and sin. So this can only be
done by the Spirit and grace of God in Christ. Let me read
you a passage here, Isaiah chapter 42. You read this too on your
own sometime. Read the whole thing. But let me just read you
this. Isaiah 42. This is verse 16. Listen to this.
It's talking about the coming of the Messiah. the coming of
Christ into the world. And here's what he says. He says
in verse 16, he said, and I will bring the blind by way that they
knew not. What's he doing there? He's making
the crooked stray. What is the way that he brings
the blind? It's the way of Christ and him crucified and risen again.
It's the way of God's grace and salvation. It's the way of redemption
by the blood and regeneration by the Spirit. It's the way of
justification by His righteousness imputed to us, charged to us.
It's the way of glory in Him. And he says in verse 16, I will
lead them in paths that they have not known. We've been on
a crooked path, you see, all our lives until God brings us
to Christ. He said, I will make darkness
light before them and crooked things I'm going to make crooked
things straight." That's what happened when God straightened
us up before God in Christ, washed in His blood, clothed in His
righteousness. And He says, these things will I do unto them and
not forsake them. You see, back over in Ecclesiastes
1, this sore travail that God has plagued us with is the best
plague that we could ever enter into. Do you know? It's not a
bad thing. When, by the Spirit of God, we're
brought to see that we cannot make ourselves straight, we cannot
get ourselves out of this mess, we have to turn to God and Him
alone. Over in chapter 7 and verse 13
of Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote, consider the work of God. For
who can make that straight which he hath made crooked?" What do
you believe he's talking about there? I'll tell you what I think
he's talking about. I think it's when God shows us who we really
are by nature. By the power of the Spirit who
convicts us of sin and shows us our crookedness. God makes
us crooked in that sense. He shows us what we are. You
see, by nature we think we're straight. We think we're the
best people on earth. We think maybe we're not perfect,
but we haven't done anything to deserve going to hell. We
think we're better than others. We think we're all right. And
then when we get religion, we're double that way, aren't we? You
get religion. And then God comes along by the
power of His Spirit and shows us that there's none good, no,
not one. None righteous, no, not one.
That's His work. Did you know that? That's the
work of God. That's not the work of men under the sun. That's
not the wisdom of men. That's God's work. Here's a sinner
under the conviction of sin. That's the work of God. That's
the work of God who makes that sinner crooked for what purpose? To straighten him in Christ.
Show him Christ. Who strips him naked of his own
works and righteousness, because they're filthy rags just like
Joshua the high priest over in Zechariah 3, and gives him a
new righteousness. One that Christ worked out in
His death on the cross. Which makes Him thirsty to give
Him the water of life. Which makes Him hungry to feed
Him with the bread of life. That's what it's talking about.
Job spoke of it. Job 12, verse 14. He says, Behold,
He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. He shutteth up
a man, and there can be no opening. Only God can take care of that
problem. One other verse, Psalm 146, verse 9. It says, "...the
Lord preserveth the strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and
widow, but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down." Oh,
this crooked generation. Look back at Ecclesiastes 1.
Look at verse 15 again. It says, "...and that which is
wanting cannot be numbered." The deficiencies of man, the
defects of man, not just outwardly, but all the way through to the
heart. The heart's deceitful, Jeremiah said, Jeremiah 17. He says, desperately wicked,
who can know it? And let me tell you something,
human science, human medicine, human philosophy and religion
cannot cure it. And the defects not only in the
sinner, but in the sinner's ways of trying to get him out of this
mess are so many that you can't number. The deficiencies of human
righteousness. Christ pointed that out in the
Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20. Think
about that. It's like He was saying this
to them. He's saying, pick out the best people that you can find
here on earth, and immediately they would go to the Pharisees,
who were the super religious. who outwardly, Christ said it
himself, outwardly they appear righteous unto men. And he said
in Matthew 5.20, here's what he said, here's the deficiency,
the wanting of human righteousness. He says, For I say unto you that
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven. The best ones on earth, their
righteousness is so wanting and defective and deficient that
they cannot enter heaven by it. And you've got to have one to
exceed them. Well, how am I going to get a righteousness to exceed
that? Look unto Christ. His righteousness
is not wanting or deficient or lacking anything. His righteousness
is full. The scripture says in Romans
chapter 10 and verse 4, for Christ is the end. That means the fulfillment,
the finishing, the completion of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. You see, our attempts to make
ourselves righteousness will always be deficient and lacking. We must have Christ. and his
righteousness else were defective." Well, here's the conclusion.
Look at verse 16. He says, "...so I communed with
mine own heart. Lo, I am come to great estate."
I looked at my own heart, meditated. What's he doing? He's looking
within himself. Looking within himself. And then
he says, "...I am come to great estate." Look at what I've got.
I've gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before
me in Jerusalem. And he was right. He's not bragging here, because
God gave it to him. And he said, yea, my heart had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge. It's almost like he's saying,
I've seen it all. I've seen it all. And so he said, and I gave
my heart to know wisdom. He's speaking of his whole life
here, and to know madness and folly. I can tell you this difference
between the wise and the knowledgeable and 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. What he's saying here is this,
there's no hope within myself. There's no hope under the sun.
There's no hope in myself. What's the answer? What's the
answer? It's not in worldly wisdom, there's
much grief in that. The more you know, the unhappier you are, it seems.
Because wisdom and knowledge without Christ, that's where
it leads, ultimately. There is a knowledge that God
gives that brings the sinner peace and happiness, but it's
the knowledge of His grace in Christ. But that's what he's
talking about. He's not talking about all wisdom
and all knowledge here. Look over at 1 Corinthians 1,
and I'll conclude with this. Listen to this. You know, Christ
told us plainly that the only way of wisdom and knowledge and
salvation and righteousness was in Himself. And when we look
for these answers, where do we go? We go to the Word of God,
which is able to make us wise unto salvation, Paul told Timothy
in 2 Timothy 3. Verses 16 and 17. That's why
he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God in his righteousness,
not your own, his, and all these things will be added unto you.
But look here in 1 Corinthians 1, we read it, he says in verse
21, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom,
that is by worldly wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Now, preaching
what? Well, Paul said, the preaching of the cross, the preaching of
Christ and Him crucified. There's the wisdom that we need. How God saves sinners, by His
grace. And he says in verse 22, the
Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. That's under
the sun, you see. That's human ways, human religion,
human wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. You see, this is what he's saying.
When he says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,
he's talking about the way the world looks at it. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called. That's
the calling of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Both Jews and
Greeks, Christ, the power of God, He's the power of God and
the salvation, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed,
and He's the wisdom of God, for we see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. Now, why does God have it this
way? Look at verse 29. "...that no flesh should glory
in His presence." Ultimately, any contentment, let's say it
this way, any contentment of conscience or peace of conscience
that men or women may find under the sun and all their endeavors
in that sore travail, any that they find under that and in that
knowledge and wisdom is pride. It's a refuge of lies. It's exalting the sinner. And
so God has worked it all out this way, that salvation is of
the Lord by his grace through Christ and revealed by him, and
not in our human endeavors, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. Verse 30, But of him are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Christ is
my wisdom. Anything less for salvation,
for righteousness, life and glory is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. Anything
less than Christ for salvation, for glory, and for life is wanting. It's lacking. It's defective.
You see what I'm saying? That is it. He's my sanctification. He's what sets me apart, you
see. I mean, you look at the smart
people, the professors, the scientists, they think they're set apart.
But in reality, they're not. They may be smarter. They may
be more intelligent. But it all comes to the same
place, vanity. But Christ sets His people apart
under glory and then redemption. He's redeemed us by His blood
on the cross already. But you know, He's going to redeem
us by power when He comes again and deliver us from this vanity
and vexation, this present world. And so He says in verse 31, that
according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now that glory in the Lord is
the answer. All this sore travail, all this
vanity and vexation of spirit. So, I told somebody the other
day, I said, don't let studying the book of Ecclesiastes get
you down. Because look at it this way,
have you ever read a book, have you ever bought a book that you
want to read? Let's say a mystery book. And if you're like me,
some of you, now I know some of you like to be kept hanging
there and there. If you're like me, I like to
know the outcome, you see. So I might turn to the last chapter
and read the end before I read, you know, and then this guy,
that's why I used to like that TV series, Columbo, because,
you know, the whole time we knew who did the murder, you know,
and then it was just interesting how Columbo and his, his inimitable
way, how he got to the crime, you know, and that's where, well,
that's where you ought to read the book of Ecclesiastes. You
know, the end, you see. You know that anything in this
world as far as salvation and righteousness and life is vanity
and vexation of spirit. But if you know the Lord, if
you know Christ, not to you. So don't let it get you down. Rejoice that the Lord has delivered
you from being trapped and chackled by these things under
the sun. And he's brought you to a saving
knowledge of Christ. All right.