Let us take our Bibles now and open up to the
Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes
chapter 2. Today we'll look at verses 1 through
11. Just a word of introduction while you're
finding that. We started Ecclesiastes just a
few weeks ago and Just to be reminded of some
important things in Ecclesiastes, the beginning
of the book says the words of the preacher. ESV
uses preacher. Your translation may use a different
word. It may use teacher. This is all coming
from the Hebrew word kohelet. And so I may call
him kohelet. I may say preacher. I may say teacher.
I may call him Solomon, because that's who we
believe wrote this book. But also, as verse two
says, the vanity of vanities. Remember that we
talked about the Old Testament, the Hebrew word,
hevel. And so quite literally what that means
is breath, or vapor, or mist. And it's translated
a number of different ways, but what we've said
is that all of life is fleeting and the things
of this world are fleeting. So please keep those
things in mind. As we read from chapter two,
verses one through 11, please give attention
to the reading of God's holy word. I said in
my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure,
enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity.
And I said of laughter, it is mad. And of pleasure,
what use is it? I searched with my heart how
to cheer my body with wine. my heart still guiding
me with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till
I might see what was good for the children of
man to do under heaven during the few days of
their life. I made great works. I built houses
and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself
gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds
of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which
to water the forest of growing trees. I bought
male and female slaves and had slaves who were
born in my house. I had also great possessions
of herds and flocks, more than any who had been
before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself
silver and gold and the treasure of kings and
provinces. I got singers, both men and women,
and many concubines the delight of the sons of
man. So I became great. surpassed all who were
before me in Jerusalem also my wisdom remained
with me and whatever my eyes desired I did not
keep from them I kept my heart from no pleasure
for my heart found pleasure in all my toil and
this was my reward for all my toil then I considered
all that my hands had done in the toil I had
expended in doing it and behold all was vanity
and a striving after wind, and there was nothing
to be gained under the sun. Grass withers and
the flower fades, but God's word stands forever.
Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for
this word. Even if it is perhaps perplexing to
us, even if it's difficult for us to read, we
ask that you, by your spirit, would grant us
understanding and the application of this text.
These things we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Working our way through chapter one of this book,
we noticed how often that Solomon seems to mention
things related to creation. He talks about the
sun coming up and the sun going down. He talks
about the wind swirling around. He talks about
the streams flowing to the sea, but saying that
the sea is never full. He continues to talk about
creation in chapter two. as you see some of the
things that he was striving to do. He was making
these vineyards and these gardens and these parks
and these trees and these pools. All of it sounds
just glorious, doesn't it? I would like to see
this. Many have looked at this passage along
with chapter one and said what Solomon is really
doing is preparing a place of paradise. It's
almost like a return to Eden. And certainly,
if we could go back to pre -fall Eden, it would
alleviate all the miseries of this life, all
of the frustrations that we encounter in this
life. What if the fall had never happened? Can't
we just go back to that? The wise man and the
wise woman knows you can't go backwards. And
the more that you learn, the more that you know,
the more vexation you have, for you remember
how chapter one ends, for in much wisdom is much
vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases
sorrow. And so we need to be mindful of that.
We need to understand that life is fleeting,
isn't it? And yet, as Solomon recognizes this
in his pursuit of meaning by wisdom, what does
he really understand? That even the pursuit of
meaning by wisdom can't deliver on all of its
promises, can it? Wisdom cannot fix every problem
in this life. Only the one who embodies wisdom,
Christ Jesus, can fix all of the mess that we're
in. And so, underlying this chapter, I believe
is something that should remind us of Genesis
chapter three. We should be reminded of sin.
We should be reminded of the fall, right? Do
you remember what stood in the middle of the
garden? There was a tree there of the knowledge
of good and evil. What was it about that tree
that made it off limits for Adam and Eve? Was
it just... forbidden fruit? No, certainly. God
gave this command. You're not to eat of that.
And they should have obeyed, right? But let's
also ask this question. What was enticing about
that tree? What was enticing about the fruit
that grew upon it? You remember the serpent talking
with Eve in the garden, and he has her questioning
what God said. the serpent attempts to correct
God and he says you will not surely die But what
what will happen if you eat of that tree? Perhaps
you remember Genesis 3 verse 6. Let me read this
so when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food and that it was a delight to the eyes
and that the tree was to be desired to make one
wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also
gave some to her husband who was with her and
he ate to make one wise. It was called the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil for a reason
because the fruit gave insight to Adam and Eve
that they were not supposed to have. And so we
should understand the limits of wisdom. Benjamin
Shaw, who is a very fine professor, says, the
supposition of the temptation is that wisdom
will make life happy. But Solomon finds otherwise.
His first conclusion is that this life is an
unhappy burden. Why? Because there are simply
some things that wisdom cannot fix. And when
we understand that, then we are truly wise. But
Solomon, seeing that, seeing that wisdom isn't
delivering on all of its promises, he tries something
else. And so look at verse one. He attempts to
self -indulge. He attempts to find meaning in
pleasure. I said in my heart, come now. I will
test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But he
already tells us even this will not work because
he calls it what? Vanity. And he says it's a
striving after wind. We said last time that it's
like a shepherding of the wind, a harnessing
of the wind. It cannot be done. And so he's talking
to himself. Notice all of the first person singular
pronouns that are in this text. I said in my
heart, I will test you. I said of laughter. I
searched with my heart. I made myself all of
these things. There is this focus from Solomon
now upon himself. It's almost like Solomon gets
a taste of these things. And he says, I'm going
to give myself fully to them. Have you ever done
that? And I'm not talking about bad things. I'm
talking about good things. Have you ever just
gotten a taste of something and you said, wow,
I love this, and then you just pursued it with
everything you've got? A few years ago, Brittany
and I went up to Fairbanks, Alaska in January.
That's right, it was her idea. It's very cold.
We wanted to see the Northern Lights, and I knew
I wanted to see these things, the Aurora Borealis,
but once I got a glimpse of them, it was on.
And I thought, I got to see these again and again.
So we were setting alarms, getting up at the
middle of the night. I had all these apps on
my phone telling me when the aurora was coming
out. We found ourselves on the top of a mountain
at like 1 AM, negative 30 degrees. And we're
looking for these things and just absolutely
loving it. Sometimes when you just get a taste
of something, you got to have more. And so this
is Solomon. Giving himself completely to these
things and it's not really these things are all
necessary necessarily wrong It's just that he
is he is finding satisfaction in them when his
true satisfaction needs to be in God Look at
verse 2 to see what he tries first. I said of
laughter it is mad It's almost like Solomon here
is saying if I could just have a laugh track
in the background of life, everything would be
great. Like, let's make light of things. And
maybe the meaning is found in that. But he's
going to tell us in chapter three, there is a
time for laughter. Laughter is good. It's good
medicine, so they say. There's a time for laughter,
but there's also a time not to laugh. And so
ultimately, meaning is not found in laughter.
What's next? Look in verse three. I searched
with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.
And so up next is alcohol. Now I don't believe
necessarily that this is talking about the abuse
of alcohol. He may be talking about that. And
we know from Solomon that the abuse of alcohol
is wrong. He says in Proverbs chapter 20 verse
1, wine is a mocker, strong drink a browler.
and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
So we know what he thinks about being intoxicated,
but it's not necessarily that he's talking about
that. Philip Riken says, maybe he was not an
alcoholic after all, but a connoisseur. Solomon,
who we'll talk about here shortly, had all of
the money in the world. He could afford the fine
wine. He could drink the king of beers if he
wanted to. The emphasis, though, is on the result.
It just doesn't fully satisfy. And so here's
why I want to make application. The problem within
this text is not the gifts that God gives. It's
what do we do with these gifts? Solomon, at the
end of chapter two, is going to talk about the
gift of eating and drinking and being merry.
And these things are good. They're gifts from
God for us. But when we place our ultimate meaning
in those things, They're all going to come up
short. Look what else he looks at. Verses 4 through
7, all of his building projects. This is further
evidence that the author of this is Solomon,
because we know in places like 1 Kings 7, 1 Kings
10, 2 Kings 18 and 20, that he built all kinds
of things. Again, it's almost like Solomon is
recreating paradise. And what would you really
need to recreate paradise? You would need a massive
workforce. So Solomon talks here about these
slaves, the servants who were born in his home.
He has just this massive workforce that is tending
to him hand and foot in building all of these
things. You see, Solomon was not just the wisest
man. Solomon was the richest man. And as Solomon,
I believe, is at the end of his life, and he's
looking back on all of it, and he's remembering
the gold. He's remembering the food. He's remembering
the music. Solomon's remembering how he tried
out the good life. Look in verse eight. Towards
the end, he mentions concubines here, the delight
of the sons of man. This is an especially tricky
verse because this is not the normal word for
concubines. And so that's why if you're using
a King James here, you're going to see. is talking
about musical instruments. If you happen to be
a Greek scholar and you're looking at a Septuagint,
you're going to see something about cup bearers
here. And so what gives, why are all these translations
different? It's again, because this is the only
place where this word is found in the Hebrew
Old Testament. But we also know that Solomon
did have a problem. How many wives and how many
concubines did he have? He had hundreds, right?
So even he knows this and he would tell you this
ultimate ultimate satisfaction is not found in
sex Sex is a gift from God is to be enjoyed within
the bounds of marriage But even that does not
give you ultimate lasting satisfaction Look at
verse 9 All of these things he says and then
so I became great and surpassed all who were
before me in Jerusalem All right, so essentially
Solomon had whatever he wanted, but was it enough
for him? Excuse me. Were the servants and the
money, sorry, week three of the cold, the servants
and the money and the music and the women, was
it enough for him? No, it wasn't. And yet sometimes
people say things like, the person who dies with
the most toys wins. Is that true? Of course not.
Of course not. And so as he looks on all of these
things, he tells you what he now thinks of them.
It's all vanity. It's all fleeting. It all comes
and goes like the wind. Now for us today, we
might not describe ourselves like Solomon, right?
We don't have access to all that he had. So we
probably don't talk about it all in this way.
But think about it for a second. What is it that's
out there that you just wish you had? Fill in
the blank, if I only had this, I would be happier.
I think when we really search our hearts, there
might be things. And again, the gifts aren't
the problem. It's what do we do with the gifts?
How do we think about the gifts? And are we content
with what God gives to us? There is a slogan
that says, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow
we die. Have you heard that before? Eat, drink
and be merry for tomorrow we die. Daniel Gibson
says, people abide by that motto because they
believe that this is all that life is. For the
wise person. We don't believe that this is all
that there is. And the things that we do have,
we thank God for them. There's an illustration
that is used by, it seems, just about everybody
who preaches these days from Ecclesiastes, chapter
two. And I'm gonna use it as well. It's by a
football player who is mildly successful. You
may have heard of him. His name was Tom Brady.
After he won his third Super Bowl, He was interviewed
by 60 minutes, and he said this, there's time
where I'm not the person that I want to be. Why
do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think
there's something greater out there for me? I
mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man,
this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream,
my life. But me, I think there's got to be more
than this. I mean, this can't be all it's cracked
up to be. I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. And what
else is there for me? And then the interviewer
said to Tom Brady, well, what's the answer? And
Brady said, I wish I knew. I wish I knew. Friends,
the things of this life are fleeting. They are
heathal. And fleeting does not equal meeting.
It comes in a go as Brady is not still winning
Super Bowls, and Solomon is not still building
pools and projects and all of these things. No.
We need to seek that which endures forever. Life
is brief, but we have been given the answer to
life. Our choir already sang these words. Seek
first the kingdom of God. and all these things
will be added unto you. Why should we seek first
the kingdom of God? Well, anything else is idolatry.
Anything else elevating any of the gifts of God,
anything of this life above God is breaking the
first command. It is idolatry. And secondly,
Solomon tells you it just doesn't work. If you
haven't experienced what Solomon did, you will.
You will. You will recognize the things of this
life are fleeting. But the kingdom of God and
the righteousness of Christ endures forever.
But you might say, well, how can I have the kingdom
of God? How can I have the righteousness of Christ?
Well, perhaps you remember 2 Corinthians chapter
5, verse 21. This is. the kind of text that you
need to hide in your heart. For it says, for
our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin
so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God. You see, friends, the opposite of self
-indulgence is what Christ did for us. The opposite
of self -indulgence is the humility of Jesus.
He did not indulge himself. He gave himself up
for us. He took our sin upon him. Perhaps you
remember these words from Philippians 2. I'll
read 5 through 11. Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he
was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself by taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. being found in human
form he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death even death on a cross therefore
God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name that is above every name so that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven
and on earth and under the earth and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Friends, do you know what
you have in Christ? You have everything. The
pleasures given by God are good things, but they
don't compare to what awaits you. And so Christian
keeps seeking the kingdom of God, knowing that
in God's presence is the fullness of joy. Let
us pray.