Open your Bibles again to Ecclesiastes
chapter 12. I have a message from the Lord. I hope you'll pay particular attention.
I promise you that this message will answer your need. I don't
care what it is. It'll answer your need this morning. Everybody wants to be happy,
don't they? Everybody wants to feel some
contentment in this life. If you listen to me for a few
minutes, I'll tell you where it's found. I was sitting here thinking,
I've got a message from the Lord, an awesome burden of that. I want you to hear and believe.
Friday evening, Jan and I went to Cottageville, West Virginia.
They're having a conference where Darwin Pruitt was speaking. He's
talking about preaching. You men will preach. You'll understand.
I appreciate this. He said his daughter was visiting
with their granddaughter and it's time for the service and
his granddaughter's too little to sit out in the service yet.
And his daughter was taking his granddaughter to the nursery.
to get to the nursery, apparently you have to pass right by the
pulpit. And there Darvin sat, you know, before the service.
There was no place for a service sitting there like there is.
And he's, he's, this little girl stops and looks up at him. She's
just standing there looking at her papaw. He looks down at her
and he said, what's the matter, honey? She said, papaw, are you going
to say the word this morning? He said, honey, I hope so. I
hope God will enable me to say the word this morning, enable
you to believe it. It'll meet your need, I promise
you. All right, the book of Ecclesiastes is written to show us the emptiness
of this life. Physical life is worthless without
Christ. The word Ecclesiastes means preacher. If you look back in Ecclesiastes
chapter one, this is how King Solomon identified himself. If I was king, I'd identify myself
as king. Isn't that how Solomon identified
himself? He says in verse 12, I, the preacher, was king over
Israel in Jerusalem. Solomon identified himself first
as the preacher. Now, other than the Lord Jesus,
Solomon is the most wise man to ever live. He's a wise preacher. Well, he must be a pretty good
one if he's that wise, isn't he? He's worth listening to.
Worth listening to find out what Solomon has to say. And here
is the wise preacher's message. Everything in this life, everything
you hope to do, everything you hope to attain, everything in
this life is vanity. It's worthless. So seek Christ. Throughout this book, Solomon
frequently says vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And that word
vanity means something that's empty, something that will not
satisfy. Solomon's telling us that there's
nothing in this life that will satisfy you. So seek Christ. The message of Ecclesiastes,
Solomon's wise conclusion, that's the title of the message this
morning, Solomon's wise conclusion, is to seek Christ. Now in chapter
12 that we just read, Solomon says, let's hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. Well, before we hear the conclusion
of the matter, let's look at the things that brought Solomon
to this wise conclusion. When I was in business, every
month we'd get a P&L, profit and loss statement. And the very
first thing I'd do is turn to the back page. I want to see,
do we make any money? I want to see, this is the conclusion
of the month, you know. Then I'd go back and look at
all the detail. Well, we've seen the conclusion.
Now let's look and see what Solomon, what brought him to this conclusion.
Solomon looked for something, he just like us, he looked for
something that would give him some contentment and happiness
in this world. And the first thing Solomon tried
was education, was learning. Look in chapter one, verse 13.
He says, I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning
all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail of
God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I've
seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all
is vanity and vexation of spirit." Solomon gave himself to learning
everything he could. He learned science and biology. He learned how the earth works.
He learned math and engineering. He learned different languages
and business and medicine. And Solomon could learn now.
I mean, this man was so intelligent. And after he learned everything
he could get his hands on, you know what he found out? It still
wasn't contented. He said all this learning is
just vexation of spirit. He said because the more you
learn, the more you realize what you don't know. The more you
learn, the more you realize I'm just barely scratching the surface
here. You know, you learn something about space and what does it
do? The only thing it does is make
you ask more questions. I saw this where they sent this
whatever spaceship out to some of these outer planets. And they
were so excited. They said, well, just what we
learned is we got a whole lot more questions. Well, Solomon
says that's fixation of spirit is vanity. You know, you learn
something about medicine and how the body works and all it
does is give you more questions. But what is this? You know, the
more you learn about this earth, the things of it, you know what
you learn? There's so much I can't fix. I can't do anything about.
That's what Solomon says in verse 15. That which is crooked cannot
be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot
be numbered. He says, just vexation. He said,
the more that you learn, the more you realize can go wrong.
Look at verse 18. He says, for much wisdom is much
grief. And he that increases knowledge,
increases sorrow. Jim Meadows used to tell me all
the time, ignorance is bliss. He said, because if you're ignorant
of something, you don't know what can go wrong. You know,
you're just, you're blissful. Well, yes and no. Look in chapter 2,
verse 13. Solomon says, then I saw that
wisdom exceleth folly, as far as light exceleth darkness. I
mean, it's kind of funny to say ignorance is bliss, but I'm telling
you what, it's a whole lot better to be wise than be a fool. I
mean, it's a whole lot better to be smart than be ignorant.
That's just a fact. You know, you young people, you
get an education. When Solomon says here, by all
this learning, it's vexation of spirit. You got to go to school
in the morning, you're going to say, this is vexation of spirit.
But now you go to school and get an education. You learn everything
you can learn. So you've got to get your job
and contribute to society. It's a whole lot better to be
smart than be ignorant. But no matter how much you learn,
Solomon, you and I can't learn a fraction of what Solomon learned.
Well, that didn't bring him any contentment. It won't bring us
any either. So you seek Christ, the wisdom
of God. You find him and you'll be satisfied. I promise you, you will. Well,
next Solomon tried to find contentment. Just living life as a joke. He
tried to find contentment just dancing through life. Look in
chapter two, verse one. I said in mine heart, go to now
and I'll prove thee with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure. Behold,
this also is vanity. I said of laughter, it's mad.
And of mirth, what do with it? What good does it do? Now, you
know, there is a time and a place for laughter. I enjoy laughter. You know, laughter, they say,
is the best medicine. I don't know if it's the best
medicine. If I have infection, I'd a whole
lot rather have antibiotics, you know, than laughter. But
laughter is good medicine. It's good for you. But now, you
cannot make life a joke. You can't just joke about everything.
We have to deal with serious, serious issues. And it's harmful
for us to treat these things as a joke. You know, death, this
is a serious matter, don't treat it as a joke. Sin, it's not a
joking matter, it's a serious matter. The gospel, forgiveness
of sin in the blood of Christ, these are serious issues. Enjoy
humor. I mean, I love a good laugh,
but don't ever joke about these spiritual serious issues. Don't
ever joke about something that has to do with God. And making
everything a joke. Now that's not going to bring
you satisfaction in this life. So seek Christ. You find him,
wisdom in him, you'll have joy untold. Well, next, Solomon tried
to find satisfaction in good food and fellowship. Verse 3
of chapter 2. He said, I sought in mine heart
to give myself unto wine, 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 the heaven all
the days of their life. Solomon says, when he talks about
here about wine, he doesn't mean being drunken, because he's saying
I'm having wine with wisdom. He means banquets. He means having
good food and good drink and having lots of friends over,
fellowship, you know, around the table, having a good time.
And certainly that's good for us. You know, we ought to do
more of it. Invite each other over for a meal, you know, and
sit around and eat and have fellowship. It's good for us. But you know,
Solomon found out there's no real lasting satisfaction in
that. So you seek Christ. Your soul
will be satisfied if you have fellowship with him, because
it's eternal. I don't care what it is you're
feeding your body, you'll be satisfied if you have fellowship
with Christ. You seek Christ, the bread of
life. That's the bread that'll satisfy. It gives eternal life.
Well, next, Solomon tried to find satisfaction in fixing up
his house. He wanted to have lots of curb
appeal. Look at verse four of chapter two. He said, I made
me great works. I built me houses. I planted
me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchard.
I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. I made me pools
of water to water there with the wood that bringeth forth
trees. Solomon had the biggest, nicest,
best farm anybody ever saw. I mean, he built irrigation systems
to bring water down from the mountains water, every different
kind of fruit tree and herb and plant and spices. Brady should
have seen the produce he brought to the farmer's market. I mean,
wow. I'm just, oh my goodness. I mean, and his house, his yard
was the envy of the whole neighborhood. HGTV wanted to go and film it
all the time. Just, oh, it was wonderful. Now that's not just Pure vanity. I mean, you ought to keep your
house up. Don't let it fall down around you. But don't think having
the nicest house and the nicest yard in the neighborhood is going
to satisfy it, because it won't. It didn't satisfy Solomon. And
Solomon, he went so far as to turn this curb appeal in his
house and his farm into a big business. He made a lot of money
from it. Look at verse 7. He says, I got me servants and
maidens and had servants born in my house. Also, I had great
possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in
Jerusalem before me. I gathered me also silver and
gold and the peculiar treasures of kings and of the provinces. I got me men singers and women
singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments
and that of all sorts. So I was great and increased
more than all they that were before me in Jerusalem. Also,
my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired,
I kept not from him. Whatever I wanted, I just did.
He was able to do that. I withheld not my heart from
any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was
my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works
that my hands had wrought, and all the labor that I labored
to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. There
was no profit under the sun. Solomon got so rich, more rich
than any other king. He had the resources to do whatever
he wanted to do. There was nothing he couldn't
imagine he couldn't do. And Solomon, now that sounds
pretty good, doesn't it? And Solomon said, you know what?
It's all vanity. It was all vanity. His soul could
not be satisfied with having the nicest house or the biggest
business or the most money. And it won't satisfy any of us
either. It will not give you contentment in this life. So
you seek Christ. You seek Him. If you find Christ,
you'll have all the riches of God's mercy and His grace and
His love, and you'll be satisfied. Well, next, Solomon said he tried
to find satisfaction in being a crotchety old man. You know,
just I'm practicing to be a crotchety old man, you know, like those
two fellows in the Muppets, you know, sitting up there making
fun of everybody. I'm practicing to be a crotchety old man. Just
hating everything, Solomon tried. He tried to find satisfaction
in going around telling everybody what you're doing is vanity,
you know, and how awful everything is all the time. Just, you know,
it wasn't that way in my day, you know, the world was... And
not only was he serious, he can be sad about everything. You
can bet nobody wants to see Solomon coming while he was trying this,
right? Look in verse 20 of chapter 2. He said, therefore, I went about
to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took
unto the Son. For there is a man whose labor
is in wisdom and in knowledge and in equity, yet to a man that
hath not labored therein shall he leave it for his portion.
This also is vanity and great evil. Solomon said, who knows
with all this I'm going to leave? Who knows if this fellow is going
to be wise or he's going to be a fool? He said, this is vanity. Well, Solomon found out there's
no satisfaction in acting that way. either. You know, just like,
I'm glad I'm not one of those Puritans. I mean, I don't know,
did those fellas ever have any fun? Did they ever enjoy anything? I don't know. But I tell you
what, there are sad things in this life. Don't, just like trying
to dance through life, you know, make a joke of everything. Don't
gloss over these. There are sad things in this
life we've got to deal with. And there's some serious things.
There are. But now don't dwell on them exclusively either. You
find some happiness. You find something to be happy
about and seek a good balance. And you seek Christ. Now seek
him with all your heart. If you find him, you'll find
satisfaction. Yeah, there are works of vanity,
but his isn't. You seek him, his work, his person,
and you'll have joy. You see, the problem so far,
Solomon, where's he sought satisfaction? He sought it in the things of
this world. And he found out it's all vanity.
So this is what Solomon's learned about the world. Let me tell
you this in short, this is what he learned. Enjoy these things
while they last. That's the only conclusion you
can draw. Look in chapter two, verse 24. He says, there's 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. In chapter three, verse
13, he says it again. He says, and also that every
man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all of his
labor. It's the gift of God. Now you tie that to what we read
earlier in chapter three, and this is what the Spirit's teaching
us through Solomon. Now you go enjoy the works of
your hands. You're building your life. You're building your family.
You're building your house. Enjoy those things, knowing that
they're a gift of God. God gave them to you. What do
you have God didn't give you? Enjoy using what God gives you
while it lasts, because there's coming a time for that to stop
too. Enjoy being able to go out and work. Enjoy being able to
go out and do a good job for your employer, and you're contributing,
and enjoy that, because you won't be able to do it for long. Enjoy
the life that God gave you. God's given you a life. There's
nothing wrong with enjoying it. Enjoy your family and your children
and the things that you do in your life. Enjoy that. But now,
enjoy it while it lasts, because soon you're going to die. So
enjoy it now. Enjoy spending time with your family and your
loved ones because they won't be here forever and you won't
either. Enjoy times where you can have laughter and jokes and
you just laugh with one another, but enjoy it because there will
come a time of sorrow too. Be prepared to cry with each
other too, you know, when it's time. Well, here's how we're
going to handle the things of this world. Use them. Don't let
them use you. Use them and enjoy them, but
don't let them control you. Know that all that stuff's gonna
end one day. Well, okay, we start out, though,
talking about lasting, eternal satisfaction. What about this contentment from
my soul? Did Solomon ever get to that? Did he ever find it?
Yeah, he did. He did. His wise conclusion. is you seek Christ. The true
wisdom of Solomon is to seek satisfaction in Christ, the wisdom
of God. That's his wise conclusion. Now,
chapter 12. Now we start to look here where
Solomon started to draw the conclusion of the whole matter. Last Sunday,
I preached a message largely to our young people. Solomon's
talking to you again. So listen to what he says here.
He says, remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while
the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt
say, I have no pleasure in them. Here Solomon's speaking to young
people. He's a wise preacher. So now
listen to what he's going to say. And us who are older, we
need to listen too, don't we? Because we've got the same nature.
We've got the same need. No matter how old you are, you
ought to be remembering your Creator, shouldn't you? And when
Solomon says, remember your Creator, what he's saying is be mindful.
Just be mindful of God. In everything you do, recognize
God. Recognize that He is. As you
go about your daily activities, remember it's God that's your
Creator. He's the one who gave you life.
So live it for Him. Live it for His glory, for following
Him and following His way. And those of you who know the
Lord, You remember God, your creator. He created in you a
new heart. He gave you a new spirit. Now
you live for Him and live for His glory. Remember Him. And
when we're mindful of God, you know what we'll be mindful of?
We're mindful that we're sinners. We need God to forgive us. We've
sinned against God. We need Him to do something for
us we can't do. We need Him to forgive our sin
and make us righteous in Christ. So seeking, that's being mindful
of God. Now, all men should seek the
Lord. I don't care how old you are, whatever age you are, you
ought to be seeking the Lord. Janet told me a story yesterday
about a woman who had absolutely no use for the gospel all of
her life. She got up pretty old, wasn't she? And the Lord saved
her. No matter what age you are, you
ought to be seeking the Lord. But Solomon says, God's word
says it's particularly good for a young person to seek the Lord. I tell you why. The first fruits
of the harvest. Who'd they belong to? They always
belonged to God, didn't they? Well, the best days of our life
are the days of our youth. That's when we're the strongest,
when we're the brightest. You know, you children, you teenagers,
you're strong right now, aren't you? But I got something to tell
you about that. These are not the best days of
your life. You wait till you get a little older. I was talking
to a young man at Cottagefield on Friday. I was talking to him.
I saw his wife and daughter coming up. And he's got a beautiful
family. And your little girl, she's real
little. And I told him, I said, these are the best days of your
life. When you're building your family, you got your children
home, you're raising them, you're teaching them. Sean, these are
the best days of your life. Oh, go after it with the strength
that the Lord's given you now. You're so strong, but you won't
be for long. That strength and energy is going
to be gone before long. You know, God gave you this time
right now. Wouldn't it be ungrateful not
to use it to worship and serve him? Wouldn't that be ungrateful?
So don't delay to seek the Lord. However old you are, don't delay
to seek the Lord because these youthful days are going to be
gone. And then you're going to have evil days. Solomon calls
old age evil days because your mind and your body will be weak.
You won't be able to enjoy the things that you enjoy now because
you're in pain. You're suffering all the afflictions
of old age. You won't be able to enjoy thinking
on the things of the Lord. Thinking on all these things,
you can't remember them. Your mind's gone. You won't be able to enjoy
to learn new things because old age has come. You just can't
do it. So you better learn them now. When the evil days of old
age come, you won't be able to understand the mysteries of spiritual
things. Now your mind can grasp them
now, you may not believe them, but your mind can understand
what we're saying. Well, you won't be able to understand later
on when your mind's gone. So seek the Lord, Solomon says,
verse two, while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars
be not darkened. The sun, the light, the moon,
the stars, they're the glory of the heavens, aren't they?
Well, that's our mind. Solomon says your mind is the
glory of your body. Seek the Lord for the glory of
your mind fades and you can't understand anything. Now, I know
salvation is a hard work. Salvation is a giving of a new
heart. But now it comes through the
head. It comes through the head. And you can understand what I'm
saying. Well, they're going to come a day, your mind won't be
as strong. You won't be able to understand
what I'm saying. So seek the Lord now. At the end of verse
two, Solomon says, nor the clouds return after the rain. What Solomon's
telling us is, seek the Lord where you got some good sunny
days, sunny days that are not filled with trouble and pain
and trial. You know, when you're young,
you've got some cloudy days, but those clouds blow away. You got a pretty good length
of time with some blue sky, you know, nice sunny days before
the clouds start rolling in again. You got some sunny days that
aren't filled with trouble and pain and sorrow. But when you're
old, those storm clouds of trouble, trial and heartache, they come
one right after the other with no blue sky in between. It's
like when you're young, you get sick for a little while, but
then you get better and you're not sick again for a long time.
When you're older, you get sick. As soon as you get over it, you
got something else sick, you know, wrong with you. So seek
the Lord now. Verse three, Solomon says, in
the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble. The keepers
of the house are the hands that take care of the body. Before
your hands start to tremble and you can't hardly dress yourself
to come to the service. You can't, your hands aren't
able to turn in the scriptures and read God's word. Well, seek
the Lord now while you can. He goes on there in verse two
or verse three and he says, and the strong men shall bow themselves
That's the legs are so strong. Seek the Lord now because there's
coming a day those legs will be so weak and bowed. You won't
be able to come. You'll be able to get out of
the house. You know, well, seek the Lord now. He says, seek the
Lord there in verse three and the grinder cease because they're
few. That's the teeth for you lose
all your teeth. You know, you can't eat. Seek
the Lord now. You know, if you can't eat right,
your body's just going to quit working even faster than ever.
And when your body can't digest food anymore, even, you know,
what you eat, if it can't digest it, you're not getting the nutrients
out of it like you did when you were young. In verse four there,
when he says, when the sound of the grinding is low, that's
your digestive system. When it starts slowing down and
not working right, you know, you just, your body's going to
start falling apart even faster. You can't get any nutrients.
Well, seek the Lord now while you have those capacities. At
the end there of verse three, he says, and those that look
out the windows be darkened. That's the eyes, the eyes are
the windows of the soul. You know, before your eyes fail,
you're not able to read the Bible. You're not able to see and seek
the Lord now while you can. And verse four, he says, and
the doors be shut in the streets. The doors there are the lips.
You know, When your mouth, you just keep your mouth shut because
you don't feel like talking. Maybe there's nobody to talk
to. Maybe you forget how to talk or maybe, you know, what you
say doesn't make any sense anymore because you lost your mind. Well,
seek the Lord now. And he goes on there, he says
in verse three or verse four, the doors be shut in the street
when the sound of the grinding is low and he should rise up
with the voice of the bird and the daughters of music should
be brought low. that the daughters of the music being brought, well,
that still has to do with the mouth, the ability to talk and
to sing. You know, when you get old, you
can't do that anymore. Your lungs don't work as well. Your voice
box doesn't work as well. Sing unto the Lord where you've
got any strength and ability. And seek the Lord before you
have to rise up to the sound of the bird. You know, old people,
they go to bed early and they get up early because they can't
stay awake. You know, they can't stay awake
and they can't sleep either one. You know, seek the Lord while
you're lucid enough to seek the Lord. There'll come a time maybe
you won't even be able to stay awake long enough, you know, to hear
a message. Who knows? And then verse five, seek the
Lord before you get afraid of everything. When they shall be
afraid of that which is high and fear shall be in the way.
Like right now, you children, you just climb right up a ladder,
climb up on a chair or something to reach something. Lila likes
to climb trees. You like to climb trees. You're
not afraid at all, are you? I mean, you're not afraid at
all to climb way up there. You don't even think about it,
do you? Enjoy that. Enjoy it. It won't last. There'll
come a day, you step up on that step right there, you'll be afraid.
That seems weird. You can't imagine that, can you?
You're an old woman, it's going to happen. And you'll be grabbing
this thing here, and you'll be praying instead. And you'll smile
to yourself, or Frank told me that happened. Get afraid. Seek the Lord now. Seek Him.
They're coming today, you might be afraid to leave the house.
You've taken a stand for the gospel on this time. You're not
afraid. You're not afraid to do it. They're
coming today. I've seen it happen. You'll be
afraid to take a stand again. You won't do it. Seek the Lord
now. Seek him before you get afraid.
Then he says here in verse five, he says, the almond tree shall
flourish and the grasshopper shall be a burden. The way he's
talking about there is you get old, you get gray headed. And
the lightest thing, just something as light as a grasshopper will
be too much of a burden to carry. You know, when you're young,
you can just do whatever you need to do, don't you? You're
building your life, you're just, everything that takes, you've
got the strength and energy to do it. But boy, when you get
old, you can't do that anymore. I remember Jan and I raising
our kids. I just did everything, you know, need to be done. Boy,
we try to keep up with our niece and nephew now. Oh, my. How do we do that before? It's gone already. It's gone
already. And I tell you, that's true mentally,
too. That's true mentally. The grasshopper
becomes a burden. When you're young, you can handle
all the burdens of this life. You've got seven or eight things
to worry about all at once, and you can worry about them, think
about them, still do everything you've got to do. But when you
get old, you get one worry, and it just sinks you, just sinks
you. Brother Henry told me, he said, when he was going to retire,
he said, you got two daughters. He said, everything that happens
to them happens to you, doesn't it? He said, you worry about
it so much, everything happens to them. He said, I got that
times 300. He said, when I was young, he
said, I could handle that. Things were wrong, you know,
with all the different people, and I could pray for them, worry
about them, and manage, you know. He said, I can't anymore. I can't
emotionally handle it anymore. The grasshopper's become a burden.
In Psalms it says, seek the Lord before desire fails. He says
here in verse five, and desire shall fail. As you get older,
desire for just everything decreases as we age. You think right now,
you got plenty of time to seek the Lord. Well, do it now. Do it now. Today's the day of
salvation. That desire may not last. As
a matter of fact, it won't last. It won't last. They're coming
a day that getting out to go to the service or even going
across the room, get your Bible. Just be too much of a burden,
too much of the desire, just not the efforts, just not worth
it to put that effort in. So seek the Lord now while that
desire's there. Seek the Lord while you got any
life left in you at all. I don't care how old you are,
if you got any life left in you, you seek the Lord. Verse five,
at the end of verse five he says, because man goeth to his long
home and the mourners go about the streets. or wherever the
silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the
pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit shall return unto God who gave it. You see, seek the
Lord now, because soon this life's going to be over. We're going
to die and the mourners are going to go about in the streets after
our funeral. You know, this life, it's going to happen quickly
now. It's going to happen quickly. We're hanging on to this physical
life by a thread. That's the silver cord Solomon
talks about there. It's just a thread. It's the
mysterious bond between body and soul. It's just a thread
that ties the spirit to this flesh. And that thread won't
last long. I used to work with a lady and
say, how are you doing? She said, well, we're hanging
on by a thread and the rats are chewing on it. Well, we're hanging
on by a thread and sin's chewing on it. This thread's going to
be broke soon. Seek the Lord now. That cord's
going to be broken and then we'll die. It'll be too late to seek
the Lord and we'll die like we lived. So seek the Lord now. The golden bowl that's broken,
that's the brain when it stops functioning. We're going to die.
It's a fragile and it'll be broken soon. The pitcher, when it's
broken at the fountain, that's the heart. It stops pumping blood.
You're going to die quick, you know, when that happens. And
then what's going to happen? We're going to return to dust.
That's all we are. And at that time, it won't matter
how much stuff you had, how much stuff you accumulated. You're
just going to leave it to somebody else. And you know what they're
going to do? They're going to call Rumpke or whoever, bring
a dumpster, and they're going to throw most of it away. It
just doesn't matter. And we're finally going to know
that all that mattered was Christ. So seek Him now. Call on Him
now. Now, Solomon knew all this life
was vanity. It makes you want to throw up
your hands and quit. Nothing here can satisfy us.
Nothing here can give us any contentment. Well, don't throw
up your hands now. Solomon, the wise preacher, didn't
just throw up his hands and quit. That drove Solomon, the preacher,
to preach Christ all the more. You wonder why I'm so intense,
I'm so intent on preaching the gospel, having a time of worship,
and having you hear and believe. Because nothing here is worth
it. But He is. And that's what Solomon said.
He said, that's why I preach Christ, verse 8. He said, vanity
of vanity, saith the preacher, all is vanity. And moreover,
because the preacher was wise, he understood this life as vanity,
he understood how to see Christ, so he didn't throw up his hands
and quit. He still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave
good heed and sought out and said in order many Proverbs.
The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which
was written was upright, even words of truth. Solomon, the
preacher, knew This life is vanity. This life is a life of sin and
death and decay. And that drove him all the more
to preach Christ. And the wise man sought to find
out good words, acceptable words, simple, clear words that the
common person could understand that would point them to Christ.
Now, if you would seek Christ, I've told you how many times
just in the past few minutes, seek Christ. Well, if you'd seek
him, tell you what to do. You find some man preaching the
gospel, preaching Christ, and you listen to him and pray that
God will give you faith to believe that you go listen to the gospel
of Christ. That's what leads you to Christ,
what leads you to eternal life. Look here at verse 11. The words
of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters
of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. Now a goad,
that's a sharp stick that they would use to keep an oxen going
in the right direction. I would imagine if an oxen wanted
to go somewhere, it's hard stopping, you know, who's going to stop
him? Well, they use these goads, you know, to kind of poke him
in the side, keep him going in the right direction. Well, that
goad is the Word of God. It's sharp, it pierces the heart
and it gives life. It's sharp, it helps direct us,
keeps the child of God from going off on a tangent, going where
we ought not to go. using that gold to keep us on the path,
keep us looking to Christ. And then Solomon describes the
word of God, the gospel, as a nail that fastens you to Christ so
you can't fall off. Let's use, brethren, use some
nails to fasten this thing down, fasten us to Christ. I'll give
you a few nails. God's sovereign. Now let's nail
that down so that we'll beg the sovereign for mercy. Let's nail
that down. Man is ruined in sin, just incapable
of doing anything but sin. Let's nail that down. So we'll
ask God to forgive our sin. Christ is the Savior of sinners. Now let's nail that down. So
sinners will look to Him for salvation. We're ruined by the
fall, we're redeemed by the blood, we're regenerated by the Spirit.
Salvation is of the Lord. Now let's nail that down. So
men will seek Christ and seek salvation in Him. Now verse 12,
and further by these, my son, be admonished, for making many
books, there's no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. Now I spend a lot of time reading,
reading commentaries and things, And they can make you weary pretty
fast. Some of these fellows, wow. And
I'm a big fan of commentaries. It's a good idea to get you a
good commentary. You get you Henry Mahan's commentaries,
Matthew Henry, John Gill, Robert Hawker. You get you some of these
commentaries. They're good. They'll help give you some insight
on some things. But you remember, this is the
book. This is the book. This book won't
make you weary. It's good to know what these
great men of faith had to say in their commentaries, but don't
make what they said foundation of your faith. Find out what
God says, and you believe that. That'll give you life. That won't
make you weary. That'll give you life and joy
and peace. Now, verse 13, here's where we
begin. Let us hear the conclusion 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. Now the conclusion of the whole
matter is you seek to be found in Christ. Seek to be found in
His righteousness. Seek to be found in His obedience. Seek to be found washed in His
blood. When Solomon says obey His commandments
here, he did not mean going out and get you a copy of the law
and obey the law. No, what's God's commandment
to His people? Repent. You believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You obey His commandment to believe
Christ. Seek salvation through faith
in Him. Because now here's a serious
matter. All men are going to be judged. If we're judged in
our works, we're going to be found to be evil. Because that's
all our works are, are evil. And we'll suffer eternal condemnation.
But if we're judged in Christ, if we're found to be in Christ,
then our works are going to be found to be good because Christ
is good and His work is good and perfect. He did obey God's
law, and if we're found in Him, we'll be completely satisfied
for all of eternity, and we'll spend all of eternity worshiping
Him. So here's the conclusion of the whole matter. Seek the
Lord. Seek the Lord because He commanded
us to seek Him. Seek the Lord because He delights
to show mercy to sinners, and we're sinners. Seek the Lord. because He forgives sin, only
He can. And we're sinners who need forgiving,
aren't we? Seek the Lord because He is righteousness and we need
righteousness that we can't produce. We don't have any of our own,
but seek Him. He's our righteousness. And if you find the Lord, you
won't have any vanity. Then your soul will be satisfied.
You'll have complete contentment if you find Christ. Let's bow
and pray. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. How thankful we are that You have given Your Word
to us, that You've given us some understanding of what Your Word
says, how it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful,
Father, for all the provisions of this life that You've given
to us and how we pray for the wisdom to use these things and
enjoy them while we have them and not let them control us,
but to seek our contentment, our joy, our satisfaction, our
all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray you'd bless your
word as it's been preached. Bless it to the glory of your
son. And I pray that you'd apply your word to each heart that's
here this morning, that you'd use your word reach the heart
of your people and call them to faith in Christ, that you
use this word to strengthen the heart of your people, that you
draw us ever closer to our Lord Jesus Christ, to rest more fully
in him and enjoy the contentment and satisfaction that we have
in Christ even more fully. It's in his blessed name we pray
and give thanks.