For now, we go to God's Word as we continue in
our sermon series through the wonderful book
of Ecclesiastes. We will pick up at verse 12
of chapter one and take it through the end of
the chapter, so 12 through 18. As I said, we
began this series last Sunday. And as we were
going along, we came upon some difficult words
to translate, especially what's in my text. Mine
says vanity of vanities. And so we talked about
how your translation may say meaningless, meaningless,
all things are meaningless, or futility of futilities.
And we took it back to the original Hebrew word,
hevel. And as we were looking at that, we said
what it means. The word vanity, it comes from
a word that means breath or mist, meaning that
things come and things go just like a breath,
just like a mist, just like a vapor. And we said
how important it is for us to know what that
means for it really forms just our understanding
of the entire book. We don't want to get that
word wrong. And so I would ask that you continually
keep that in your mind as we go through the whole
book. Ecclesiastes but for now let me read to
you our text Ecclesiastes chapter 1 12 through
18 and it reads in this way I the preacher have
been king over Israel in Jerusalem and I applied
my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom
all that is done under heaven It is an unhappy
business that God has given to the children of
man to be busy with. I've seen everything that
is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity
and is striving after wind. What is crooked cannot
be made straight, and what is lacking cannot
be counted. I said in my heart, I've acquired
great wisdom. surpassing all who were over Jerusalem
before me and my heart has had great experience
of wisdom and knowledge and I applied my heart
to no wisdom and to no madness and folly I perceive
that this also is but a striving after wind for
in much wisdom is much vexation and he who increases
knowledge increases sorrow this is God's word
let us pray father we do thank you for your word
we thank you for the book of Ecclesiastes even
though we might find it difficult and perplexing
Lord we know that there is great truth here reading
a difficult book makes us more and more depend
upon you for understanding and so Lord help us
to trust you And would you grant us that understanding,
these things we ask in Christ's name. Amen. There
was an old British poet named Thomas Gray who
wrote a poem titled, Ode on a Distant Prospect
of Eaton College. Maybe the title's not all that
well known to you. But one of the things that
he says within the poem, I think, is well -known
to us. Within this poem, Gray is describing children
who are playing in a churchyard, and the children's
voices are so just filled with joy. And he's
listening to all of their sounds and their squeals
and everything, and he's thinking, this is great,
but they don't know what is ahead for them. And
so Gray begins this poem in a happy way. He says,
ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, so far so
good. But then it takes a turn for the dark.
He said, ah, fields beloved in vain, where once
my careless childhood strayed, a stranger yet
to pain. What Gray is communicating within that
poem. is that sometimes in life everything seems
great, everything seems dandy and wonderful.
But then as we grow, as we mature, we start to
see things that bring about pain in our lives.
And he says this toward the end of the poem.
To each his sufferings all our men condemned
alike to groan. the tender for another's pain,
the feelings for his own. Yet, ah, why should
they know their fate since sorrow never comes
too late and happiness too swiftly flies? Thought
would destroy their paradise. No more where ignorance
is bliss, tis folly to be wise. If you've ever
wondered where does that saying where ignorance
is bliss, tis folly to be wise, it comes from
this poet, but actually I think it can be attributed
to somebody else because the ideas expressed
within this poem are actually ideas expressed
by Kohelet, the one who is called the preacher,
the teacher in Ecclesiastes. These, I believe,
can be attributed to Solomon. Think about that,
though. Ignorance is bliss. What this means is
we can't go backwards. There are some things
in this life that you cannot unsee. There are
some things in this life that you can't unlearn.
In our quest for meaning, maybe we ask, Lord,
can I just go back to the way that it was? This
section is about that. I believe this is Solomon
at the end of his life, reflecting back on his
life and his quest for meaning under the sun.
And so two points that I want us to gather from
this is one, this is about the search for meaning,
but this is also about the limits of wisdom.
So the search for meaning or the search for wisdom
and the limits of wisdom. Now we should say this
right off the bat. Wisdom is a good thing. Wisdom
is a gift from God. Wisdom is an attribute of
God. But. It has limits in a fallen world. Solomon
uses his wisdom to find meaning, but wisdom,
while it helps in a fallen world, wisdom doesn't
fix everything in a fallen sinful world. The
fix is not found in our wisdom. The fix is found
in someone else's. And yet at times, Solomon
goes after wisdom and meaning that isn't always
good. and that doesn't always satisfy. But we
do know this about Solomon, that he was a man
of incredible wisdom. Let's see where he got
this wisdom. If you would like to, turn with
me to 1 Kings chapter 3, verses 3 through 9.
1 Kings 3, 3 through 9. Solomon loved the Lord,
walking in the statutes of David his father.
Only he sacrificed and made offerings at the
high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice
there, for that was the great high place. Solomon
used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that
altar. At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon
in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I
shall give you. And Solomon said, you've shown
great and steadfast love to your servant, David,
my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness.
righteousness and an uprightness of heart towards
you and you have kept for him this great and
steadfast love and have given him a son to sit
on the throne this day and now oh Lord my God
you have made your servant king in place of David
my father although I am but a little child I
do not know how to go out or come in and your
servant is in the midst of your people whom you
have chosen a great people too many to be numbered
or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore
an understanding mind to govern your people that
I may discern between good and evil. For who
is able to govern this? You are great people."
So what does Solomon do within this text? He
is visited in a dream by Yahweh. Yes, this is
a dream, but it's really the Lord who appears.
And verse 10 says, it pleased the Lord that Solomon
had asked And so, God does grant Solomon incredible
wisdom. Flip ahead to chapter 4, and I'll read
29 and on. 1 Kings 4, 29, and God gave Solomon
wisdom and understanding beyond measure and breath
of mind like the sand on the seashore so that
Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all
of the people of the East. and all of the wisdom
of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men,
wiser than Ethan the Ezraite and the Heman and
Chalcol and Darda, the sons of Mahal, and his
fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also
spoke 3 ,000 Proverbs and his songs were 1 ,005.
He spoke of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon
to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He
spoke of beasts and of birds, of reptiles and
of fish and people of all nations came to hear
the wisdom of Solomon from all the kings of the
earth who had heard of his wisdom. You hear that
then. Solomon indeed has incredible wisdom. Can
you imagine people from all different nations
coming to you to hear your wisdom? This was reality
for Solomon. But here we need to note something.
He has godly wisdom. There are different wisdoms
that are out there, and we need godly wisdom.
The secular philosopher Bertrand Russell said,
to conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Do
you hear the problem with that? To conquer fear
is the beginning of wisdom? I don't think so.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all
wisdom. Do you hear the difference? Wisdom is
the reverence. It's the respect. It's the awe.
It's the understanding of the very holiness of
God. Wisdom is ascribing to God the glory due
his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of it all. And yet, in Solomon's quest for wisdom,
at times he strays away from that which is good.
He strays away from that which satisfies. We
need godly wisdom. And so what Solomon shows
us at times is that looking around his observation
in the world is that things are incredibly broken.
And his conclusion is this. Wisdom cannot fix
entirely the mess that we are in. Even when we
give our whole selves to it. Look in verse 13.
And I applied my heart. to seek and search out
by wisdom all that is done under heaven. He applied
all his heart to this. This is not a half -hearted
search for wisdom. This is Solomon diving in
head first. He uses that common phrase, his whole
heart. What is he doing? He's examining everything
that happens under the sun and he's trying to
understand it all. And he's doing so. with wisdom.
If wisdom were an Olympic sport, Solomon would
be on the top of the podium. But the thing is
that as Solomon observes all of the brokenness
of this life, he realizes that spot on the podium
is not that tall. And the gold of that medal
is not that shiny. And so what Solomon does,
and we're going to see this in chapter two, Solomon
begins to look elsewhere because the quest for
meaning can't deliver on all of its promises.
And he says, I think in verse 14, no, towards
the end of verse 13, it's an unhappy business.
It's an unhappy business, this search for meaning
by wisdom. And to whom does he attribute this
unhappiness? It's an unhappy business that God
has given to the children of man. Now to us,
This sounds strange. Why would he say it like
this? I think it's because Solomon understands
the sovereignty of God. He understands that all
things are in subjection to him. Solomon understands
that because of sin, a curse is in place on all
of life and that sin has consequences. And we,
friends, we are living in these consequences.
And so then. Solomon understands something else,
and that's our second point this morning. He
understands that there are limits to what wisdom
can do. There are limits to what wisdom can do,
and I want us to see this in two ways. One, wisdom
can't fix everything, but two, wisdom at times
hurts. We mentioned that this is an unhappy business
as he says. I imagine that this is Solomon at
the end of his life. He is older. He is sadder.
He is grayer and his pursuit of meaning by wisdom
has taken its toll upon him. And we have sympathy
for Solomon here. He desired a noble task, but
he is worse for the wear. Look in verse 14. I
have seen everything that is done under the sun
and behold. All is vanity and a striving after
wind. He's seen everything, he says, meaning
this is a comprehensive search. And what is his
conclusion? It's all vapor. It's like a mist
that comes and goes. And then he says, it's like
striving after wind. Now, depending on your translation,
you may have different words here. Your text
may say chasing after the wind. I actually think
it's more than chasing. I think it's more than
striving. I think what is being communicated
here by Solomon is his attempt to shepherd the
wind. It's his attempt to capture the wind, to
manipulate the wind, to make the wind do something.
Garth Brooks, the country singer, has an album
titled Roping the Wind. And it's got some of
his all -time hits on it, Rodeo, Shameless, Papa
Love Mama, The River, great album. Roping the
Wind, I think, is a great illustration of this.
And there's also something about that album that's
helpful here, too, beyond the title. Apparently,
a bandmate of Garth Brooks once said to him,
you'll never earn a living making music. In God's
perfect providence, that album went 14 times
platinum. He made a living with that album. But
what is communicated here? Roping the wind is
a fool's errand, and yet the wisest man on earth
attempted it. And what is his conclusion in it
all? Look at verse 15. What is crooked cannot
be made straight. And what is lacking cannot
be counted. I can remember the first time I came
upon verse 15 and I said, my Bible's wrong. That
can't be right. Shouldn't this say something
like, God can make straight what is crooked?
Doesn't that make sense? Well, of course it does.
And we would affirm that statement. But Solomon
here is not making a doctrinal statement about
God and his abilities. No, Solomon is making
a solomonic statement. about the limitations
of wisdom in a crooked world. Sometimes things
are just too crooked. Philip Riken says here,
some things are so bent out of shape that they
resist all of our efforts to make them straight.
And if we were to flip over, and I won't do that
now, but if we flipped over to chapter seven,
verse 13, we would see this as well, that God
is the one who makes these things crooked. Why
is that? And at this point in this sad book,
shouldn't we get some encouragement? No. Not
yet. Because some things in life cannot be fixed
by wisdom. Preachers telling it like it is. This
is real life. And his search for meaning has
turned up befuddling results. And no, he's not
making a distinction between the unbeliever and
the believer. No, the believer must go through
this too. The believer must face the limits of
wisdom in a fallen world. Look at verse 17. And
I applied my heart to no wisdom and to no madness
and folly. He's contrasting wisdom and he's contrasting
it with madness and folly. And what is his perception
after all of that? It's like rope in the wind
and it takes its toll because sometimes wisdom
hurts. To go back to our poem, where ignorance
is bliss, tis folly to be wise. Look in verse
18, for in much. wisdom is much vexation, and
he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever wanted
to know something so badly, but when you know
it, you wish you could unlearn it? When I was
first ordained into this church and into Calvary
Presbytery, I was placed immediately on a Presbyterian
committee, the Session Records Committee. It's
where they put all the rookies. All the young
pastors get their turn on the Session Records
Committee and what you do in that committee is
you review the minutes of other churches, other
sessions. It's long and it's tedious work and
I did that for two years and then I was nominated
for the Shepherding Committee and I thought now
I'm on the way up. This is where I want to be,
right? This is important work. Well, I was at
the first shepherding meeting and they went around
the room and we introduced ourselves in case
we didn't know one another and we were supposed
to say, why do you want to be on the shepherding
committee? And I said, I want to be on the shepherding
committee so I don't have to be on the records
committee. More than three hours later of dealing
with really, really difficult, troubling topics,
I said to the whole committee, can I go back
to the records committee? Friends, when our eyes
are open to the difficulties of life, sometimes
we wish we could go backward. To be lighthearted,
anybody ever watch that documentary on fast food?
Wish you could unsee that, but I guarantee nobody
was eating fast food for a while after that.
But on a more serious level, maybe you remember
the first time that you learned of death. The
first time that you experienced the loss of a
loved one and you said to yourself, I didn't
know, I didn't know it could hurt this bad. Maybe
the time that you went to the doctors, you had
something bothering you and it turned out it
was worse than you could have imagined that the
cancer had metastasized. Maybe the first time
that you learned of real poverty. You said to
God, how in the world Can it be that this many
people live in these conditions? Maybe the first
time that you learned of war, and you realize
how many people die from it, and it just never
seems to stop. You wish you could go back in
time to unlearn those things. I'm not endorsing
this, but did anybody ever see the movie Men
in Black? Remember the thing that he put up in
front of the eye? Erase the memory? Sometimes
we wish. We could just erase our memory. But
there is no going back. For in much wisdom is
much vexation. And he who increases knowledge
increases sorrow. You cannot have one without
the other. To increase of knowledge would be
to increase our sadness. This surely tells us
what we already know now. There are limits to
our wisdom. There are painful limits to our wisdom.
Now in a book on wisdom, who would expect this?
Who would expect that the writer of Ecclesiastes
would say, hey, be wise. But by the way, it hurts.
It's not a great endorsement. And in chapter
two, Solomon will say, why have I been so very
wise? Well, friends, here's why. because a wise
man or a wise woman knows the limits of wisdom
and looks beyond them to the one who embodies
it. It is true, wisdom cannot fix fully the effects
of a sinful, fallen, broken world, but Jesus
can, and Jesus does, and Jesus will. This is
the world, as I said last time, this is the world
that Jesus came to save on a crooked cross. Jesus's
wisdom saves. Jesus is God's wisdom. If you would
like to join me in First Corinthians chapter
one. First Corinthians chapter one, I'm going
to read a few different verses here, but starting
in verse 18. And it reads in this way. For the
word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved, it is the power
of God. The wisdom of God is Christ Jesus. And
when we believe in Jesus, when we place our trust
in him, it's at that point that we are considered
wise. And so in our quest for wisdom, Don't look
any further than Jesus. The Holy Spirit changes
our hearts to embrace him so that we will not
be fools any longer, but they will have the very
wisdom of God. If you flipped over to chapter
two, verse eight, you would see this. None of
the rulers of this age understood this, for if
they had, they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory. And so you see. A definition of godly
wisdom does not match up with ungodly wisdom.
We need this over here. We need the spirit to
move in our hearts that we would become wise
in Jesus Christ. Why? Because the wisdom, this
wisdom over here, this wisdom of the ungodly,
this wisdom will pass away. But the wisdom of
God is found in the one who is eternal. The wisdom
of God is found in the one who conquered death.
And so in this way, I'll contradict myself. Wisdom
can, and wisdom does fix what is broken, because
Jesus is the wisdom of God. Now, believing in
Jesus doesn't remove every vexation, but then
again, Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, right?
Jesus is preparing for us an eternal weight of
glory in a place of no more vexation, of no more
vanity, where our sorrow will be turned into
joy. Some people struggle with Ecclesiastes because
they don't see Jesus in it and they don't see
Jesus quoting it. But friends, let me tell you
this. If you are not a believer in Jesus, you
are ignorant of true wisdom. And the vexation
and the sorrow of this life will be as good as
it gets. But here's the good news. You don't
have to stay in the heavens. You don't have to
stay in the vanity. You don't have to stay in
the dark because Jesus has come and he is described
as someone greater than Solomon. And so today,
take a word from the wise, trusting Christ. because
He is the wisdom that we need. Let us pray.