Book of Ecclesiastes. It has
been said that the theme of Ecclesiastes, now you know the word Ecclesiastes,
it's a form of the word that means church in the New Testament,
and it refers to the congregation. And what it's specifically geared
toward is the congregation of the Lord. And it's been said
that the theme of Ecclesiastes is the vanity of life. You look at verses one and two,
chapter one, the words of the preacher. Now this is Solomon,
the son of David. He doesn't call himself the king,
even though he is the king, the king of Israel, calls himself
the preacher. And he says, the son of David,
king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, saith the preacher,
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all
his labor which he taketh under the sun?" So it's been said that
the theme of Ecclesiastes is the vanity of life. What does
vanity mean? It means worthlessness. And you
say, well this is not the power of positive thinking here, is
it? This is the downer. To say that the theme of Ecclesiastes
is the vanity of life here on earth is only part of the story. The theme of Ecclesiastes is
the vanity of life on this earth without Christ. That's what the
preacher is saying here. And we know that throughout the
book of Ecclesiastes, but the last two verses of this book
over in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 states it out well. And here's
what it says, it says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole
matter. Now that's something to think
about. I'm gonna give you the last word, that's what Solomon
is saying, and he's doing this by inspiration of the Spirit.
Let me tell you, all this vanity that we see, I'm gonna give you
the conclusion of the whole matter, and he says, fear God, That means
worship God. That means to give glory to God. That means to believe God. That's
the holy fear. The reverent fear. Not a legal
fear. Not being afraid in that sense. But it's a respect and a reverence
for who God is. As He reveals Himself in Christ. So fear God and keep His commandments. Whatever God says. Now we know
that Solomon was under the Old Covenant. And that's what God
commanded. And that was not a commandment
to try to earn salvation by your works. Because the Old Covenant
was given to expose their sin. But we keep God's commandments
when He brings us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Who's
the end of the law. And we follow Him. We seek to
follow His Word. And we're not perfect in doing
so. Because we only have one righteousness before God and
that's Christ. His righteousness imputed. But
we keep his commandments when he brings us to follow him in
his word. And it says, keep his commandments
for this is the whole duty of man. That's the whole duty of
man. Somebody said one time they don't
like the word duty because it sounds like legalism. Well, God
uses it. That's our duty. Now what does
that mean? This is what we duly owe God. Not in a legal way. We don't
owe a debt to God's law and justice. Christ paid that in full. But
we owe him a debt of love, grace, gratitude. The very reason we're
here on earth is God's glory. And he says, for God shall bring
every work into judgment, What does that mean? It means he's
not gonna judge us by our works if we're believers. Our account
is paid in full, but the judgment of our works as evidence of his
grace and our unity with Christ. And he said, with every secret
thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. You remember
in Matthew 7, 21, those who pled their works. as their reason, their ticket
into glory. And he said, depart from me,
you that work iniquity. Their works were judged to be
evil, dead works, fruit unto death. And the works of believer
are the works of God within us that evidence his grace, his
power, and our union with Christ. So the issue here, and you can
read through, I've got the first 11 verses, and I'm not gonna
read all of those, because what he does is he starts out with
the vanity of life here on earth. What are these things really
worth in light of eternity? Now God gives us every good and
perfect gift is from the Father of lights, with whom there's
no shadow of turning. And he's given us some good things,
hadn't he? You think about it. Our lives,
our families, our children, grandchildren, our jobs, or whatever it is,
he's given that. And those are all gifts from
him. But what are they worth? What
are the things of this life worth in the matter of salvation? In
the matter of eternal life? And the answer's nothing. And
that's what he's talking about. Look down at verse 12. And it
says, I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Now
this is Solomon. And let me tell you something
about Solomon. Solomon was a man of whom it could be said had
everything that a human being could desire out of this earth. He had power, he was the king
of Israel, and he was king during its heyday, as David, his father,
left in the kingdom. And Solomon was king of Israel
when Israel was strong. And his fame spread throughout
the world. You remember the queen of Sheba,
who heard of Solomon. And she lived far away, and she
came to just see it with her own eyes. And so Solomon had
power as king of Israel. He had riches. He wasn't trying
to pay his bills, his bills were paid. So he had money, he had power,
and then he had knowledge and wisdom even in the things of
this world. Remember, he prayed for wisdom.
That was a wise thing to do. And so, as God appointed Solomon
king and preacher, Solomon had knowledge and wisdom, and he
was qualified to teach others, even especially in the matters
of salvation. Solomon knew Christ as the promised
Messiah. He knew God. As far as righteousness,
Solomon knew what righteousness was, and he is, that he was a
sinner in need of a righteousness he couldn't produce. And in terms
of eternal life, he knew what it took to have eternal life
because God revealed it to him. And so it's all by his grace
through the promised Messiah. Now Solomon, if you read the
story of Solomon, you know he was a sinful man. Sometimes,
in some areas, he was very weak. But aren't we all? Isn't our
theme song only a sinner saved by grace? Only a sinner saved
by grace. This is my story. You want me
to tell you my story? I'm only a sinner saved by grace. My only hope of eternal life
is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. The blood
that he shed to wash away my sin, to pay my sin, that the
righteousness that God has imputed to me is my only hope. Well,
that's Solomon. And you say, well, Solomon did
some awful things. Well, so have we. We've done
some awful things, too, and probably will do some more. But that's
our problem. We're sinners saved by grace.
Solomon ruled Israel righteously. In other words, in justice. He
was a just king. But Solomon, in his own personal
life, didn't always act righteously. Again, that shows and proves
that the only righteousness, this powerful king, this rich
king, this wise king, the only hope of salvation was Christ. That's his only hope. And look
at verse 13. It says, 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 men
to be exercised therewith. Now you remember over in Ecclesiastes
chapter three, just a page over, in verse 10, Solomon writes,
he said, I've seen the travail which God hath given to the sons
of men to be exercised in it. Verse 11, he says, he hath made
everything beautiful in his time. Also, he has set the world in
their heart. That's the issue there is eternity. And he says, so that no man can
find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
So people have a natural sense of eternity, that there's an
afterlife. Now they may ask the question,
you know, will a man live after he dies? Well, why even ask that
question? It's because God has given us
a sense, a natural sense. But the problem is, is by nature
we're so sinful and depraved that the answers we seek for
are no good. And the only answer that God
gives by nature we don't want. But Solomon was given a new heart. in the new birth, just like all
of us when we're born again. And that's why he says in verse
13, he gave his heart to seek and to search out by wisdom.
And that's the wisdom of God. This can only be given to us
by God in his revelation of himself in the glorious person and the
finished work of Christ. Look at verse 14, he said, I've
seen all the works that are done under the sun. And behold, all
is vanity and vexation of spirit. Not only is it worthless, but
it's troublesome. Vexation of spirit, that's what
that means, troubled. And so you may have all the money
in the world, you may have all the power in the world, and all
the worldly wisdom and knowledge in the world, but when you come
to the time of death, what's it all worth as far as stepping
out into eternity? You understand that? And so he
says in verse 15, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. Man can fix some things, but
ultimately, that which would be valuable in eternity, we can't
fix. We can't fix it, no matter how
much we progress in areas of science, economics, philosophy,
we can't fix it. Just like this issue of the world,
environmentalism. People say, well, we need to
fix this world. We can't fix this world. God
can. He's going to burn it up and
make a new world. That's what he's going to do.
And the problem is sin. He says, that which is crooked
cannot be made straight. That which is wanting or lacking
cannot be numbered. There's so many things in this
world that we see some progress, but there's always something
lacking, no matter what it is. And there's so many things that
are lacking, we can't even count them. That's how bad it is. Now again, remember what he's
talking about here is life on earth without God, without Christ,
without His grace. without righteousness, see? And that's what he's describing.
Verse 16, I communed with mine own heart, saying, lo, I am come
to great estate, I got a lot of material goods, and have gotten
more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem.
Worldly wisdom. 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 perceived that In other words,
he went the realm of human thinking, from wise things to foolish things. And he said, this is also vexation
of spirit. It's nothing and troublesome
without knowing God, without knowing Christ. You all know
the story of Howard Hughes. You remember Howard Hughes, the
millionaire, multimillionaire? And how, when it came to the
end of his life, what kind of a shape he was in. I mean, he
looked like a wild man and shut up in a penthouse in Las Vegas. What was all his money and his
power and his fame, what was it worth? For him, nothing. He died. Probably in unbelief, you know.
Somebody says, well, you don't know what happened at the end
of his life. Well, I know how he lived. It was all over the
news. But to have so much, and you know he was wise in things
of money, because he made a lot of money. But to have so much
and to die in unbelief, That's what Solomon's saying here, verse
18. For in much wisdom is much grief,
and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Do you know
that's true? Without a knowledge of God, without
a knowledge of how God saves sinners, a knowledge of His grace,
the more you know, the more sorrow it brings. Now that's true. So, recognizing the vanity of
all the works that are done under the sun and the impossibility
of man being able to fix or even number the problems in the world
due to sin. Well, Solomon looked within his
own heart rather than seeking counsel from others. Now we have
to understand, when he says, I looked within my own heart,
he's not talking about the natural heart there. You know, Jeremiah
said, the heart's deceitful and desperately wicked. What Solomon's
talking about is the new heart given to him by God, which seeks
the wisdom that we find only in God. The fulfillment. Christ said, blessed are they
who seeketh after righteousness, who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. If you're
seeking righteousness, salvation, eternal life in riches on this
earth, you won't be filled. You'll go away empty. If you
seek it in worldly philosophy and wisdom, you'll go away empty. But if you seek it in Christ,
you'll find it and you'll be filled. You understand that?
Well, in the first 11 verses of chapter two, He reasoned,
he says in verse one, I said in mine heart, go to now, I will
prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure, and behold, this
also is vanity. He said, I said of laughter,
it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it? You know what Solomon's
saying here? Now, he sought, the wise man
could seek and find fulfillment in the material things of this
world. He didn't find it. Cause it's
only to be found in Christ and the treasures that God has for
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ to find forgiveness
of our sins, to find righteousness, to find eternal life and glory.
That's all in Christ, not in the things of this world. So
if, if a human being doesn't find fulfillment in the things
of this world, what's next? Well, chapter two says, well,
let's just go have a good time. Let's go party. Let's laugh it
up. Look at verse three. I sought
in mine heart to give myself unto wine. Let's eat, drink,
and be merry, for tomorrow you die. You remember that? The Epicureans. He says, yet acquainting mine
heart with wisdom and to lay hold on folly till I might see
what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under
heaven all the days of their life. And then he says in his
works, not only will he enjoy the material things of this life,
he'll build things. And Solomon did. You remember
Solomon was the one who supervised the building of the temple of
God in Israel. And he built great palaces and
buildings. He says in verse four, I made
me great works. I builded me houses. I planted
me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards
and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits. I made pools
of waters." And he goes on. He said, I got me servants, verse
7, and maidens and had servants born in my house. Verse 8, I
gather me all silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of
kings. See, he's going about now, it's by his works. It's
not just by what he has, what he owns, what he possesses, now
it's by his works. And what's the conclusion of
it all? He says in verse nine, so I was
great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem.
Also my wisdom remained with me. Verse 10, whatsoever mine
eyes desired, I kept not from them. Whatever I saw that I wanted,
I got. You believe that? I withheld
not from my heart any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor,
and this was my portion of all my labor. Now look at verse 11.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and
on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity
and vexation of spirit. There was no profit under the
sun. Man cannot be saved by his works. You can build monuments, you
can build idols, and think they're to the living God. You can work
hard, you can give to charity, but you cannot be made righteous
by your works. Salvation is by grace. and grace
alone. Now, in chapter two, from verses
12, all the way down to verse 23, here's what he's saying. You read these verses, but I'll
read verse 12. He said, I turn myself to behold
wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the man do that
cometh after the king, even that which hath been already done?
Talks about the wise man as compared to the foolish man. And here's
his conclusion. He says wisdom is better than
foolishness. You all would agree with that,
wouldn't you? And especially in the realm of
salvation, the wisdom of God. We talked about that in Proverbs.
Proverbs 8, remember? Christ, the embodiment of the
wisdom of God. The foolishness of salvation
conditioned on sinners. Conditioned on man, but when
it comes to worldly wisdom We know wisdom is better than foolishness,
but the wise man Here's what he concludes in these next verses
the wise man like the fool dies and leaves it all behind You
heard this the saying you can't take it with you Well that that's
everything You say well you can leave a legacy That's true, you
can leave a legacy, and I hope it's a good legacy, but you're
still dead. And without Christ, what does
that mean? It means eternal death, damnation,
perishing. Solomon, he comes to these things,
this conclusion of the whole matter here. There is a good
life here and a greater life hereafter if these things are
put in their proper place. And that's what he's saying.
Enjoy life, he says that. Look down at verses 24, chapter
2. Verse 24. He says, well look
at verse 23 first. He says, for all his days are
sorrow, and his travail grief. Yea, his heart taketh not rest
in the night. This is also vanity. That is
seeking worldly wisdom and all of these things. But verse 24,
there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink,
and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This
also I saw that it was from the hand of God. For who can eat
and who else can hasten hereinto? more than I. Now, keep these
things in perspective. Think about it this way. Is it
wrong for a person to study to improve their knowledge? Well,
no. To improve your mind, to get
a good education, we tell our children, you need a good education.
They do, don't they? To get along in this life. Is
it wrong for a person to acquire a skill? To make a living, you
know the Bible says, if you don't work, you don't eat. So we need
to have something, we need to have a job. Nothing wrong with
that. Is it wrong for a man and a woman
to marry each other? To build a house and a family? To plant a garden, enjoy our
friends? Is that all wrong? No. There's
nothing wrong with that. There's nothing better for a
person than to eat and drink and enjoy his labor. Because
it's all a gift from God. You know, that's one thing I
think we always need to understand, that it doesn't matter how hard
we work. I mean, it matters, but what
I'm saying, whether we work hard or not, it's all a gift from
God. How many times have I said it? Take your next breath. That's
a gift from God. And so what he's saying, there's
nothing wrong with enjoying these things in life. You know, some
people think that being a Christian, as they say, you got to go around
miserable and poor and unhappy and all. No, there's no holiness
there. There's no righteousness there.
There's nothing wrong with us enjoying the good things that
God has given us in this life in a proper perspective. Listen. I know people who have entered
into jobs and, you know, giving out
jobs, being a boss or being an employee, and they let it take
them away from the worship of God. You don't have any right,
if that's the truth, if that's, you, you don't have any right
to enjoy that because you're forsaking the Lord. But to enjoy
these things in the proper perspective, and look at verse 26, the last
verse here. For God giveth to a man that
is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy, but to
the sinner he giveth travail, that is to the unbeliever. He
giveth trouble to gather and to heap up that he may give to
him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation
of spirit. Without God, it's nothing, it's
worthless. And it's trouble. And on your
lesson here, I've got five things. I'll just briefly look. He's
talking about a good man. For God giveth to a man that
is good in his sight. Well, is that referring to the
things that God gives him or to the man himself? Well, it
can refer to both. Who is a good man or a good woman
in God's sight? Bible says there's none good,
no not one. Well, what's he talking about
then? If he's talking about the person, it's one whom God has
made good through the blood of Christ. Good in God's sight,
not based on our works or our possessions, but based upon his
grace in Christ. And number two, God gives him
wisdom and knowledge and joy in Christ. And then number three,
God gives the believer wisdom in the gospel. Again, wisdom
in Christ. Knowledge, verse number four,
God gives the believer knowledge. There's nothing better in this
life than to know God. And to know God is to know His
Son, Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. And then lastly, He gives
the believer true joy. We have joy in this life in some
things, in some events, in some things that we go through. But
none of the joys of this life will last But in Christ we have
everlasting joy. Joy and peace in believing. And
that's what this book is about. Enjoying life here on earth,
but enjoying it in the worship and the fear of God. Looking
to Christ for all salvation and righteousness in life. Okay.