Now, I want to start today by asking you all some questions. I won't go on for too long, but I just want to make sure everyone is awake because I know what it is like to sit down for chapel in the morning. I will, however, ask that you please spare me your attention for these next few moments as we hear what God has for us. This is the problem of meaning. Please open to Ecclesiastes chapter 2 where we will start our session this morning.
"Then said I in my heart, as it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity. For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool. Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit." (Ecc 2:15-17)
Here we have a heavy text. We find this being written by who we believe to be King Solomon. If you skip your eyes to the beginning of chapter one, you will read, "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem." Then he opens immediately after with this statement: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities: all is vanities. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?"
Later in the chapter in verse starting in verse thirteen, we read that he gave his heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven, and that he has seen all the works that are done under the sun. His conclusion: all is vanity and vexation of spirit meaning a cause of distress to the soul. He says, "And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
This doesn't sound like a happy guy. In fact, we believe this book was written later in the life of Solomon after his hundreds of wives had led him astray from the Lord. If the Proverbs were Solomon's magnum opus, then Ecclesiastes is his testamentum vanitatis (his testimony of emptiness). This is a man who dedicated the larger portion of his life to finding joy, meaning, and purpose in literally everything under the sun. Yet here, where we expect to find an old man with no regrets having lived his life to its fullest we find a hollow, depressed, and sad man who literally hates his own life. Considering this, I want to jump back into our text.
How many of you have ever wondered, "What is the point of school?" or "Why do we have to learn things that we probably will never have to directly use in our lives?" Don't lie; I have to sit in class with the majority of you.
"How many of you have ever wondered, 'What’s the point of waking up early every day just to repeat the same routine?'"
"Or asked yourself, 'Does any of this really matter in the long run — grades, sports, college, jobs?'"
"Maybe you've thought, 'If we’re all just going to die one day, why does it matter how we live now?'"
"Have you ever felt like you were just going through the motions — wondering if there’s any real meaning behind it all?"
"Be honest — have you ever thought, 'If I disappeared tomorrow, would it really make a difference in the world?'"
Today I want to grapple with this question of meaning. We all have to answer this question. It takes a few forms like why am I here, what is my purpose, what is God's will for my life, etc... But I want to stick with this idea of how do I make my life count, or does any of this really matter?
I think we all have this desire to make our lives count, to make some sort of difference, or to achieve this certain goal. For some of us, it's getting a lot of money, for others, it's becoming a pro athlete. No matter what it is, we all have something that wakes us up in the morning. But here is something I want to point out. What if I told you all that maybe you aren't wrong for wondering if all this matters? What if I told you that it's possible that many parts if not all of what you live for is vain?
In chapter 2, starting in verse 15 we find ourselves in a portion of the book where Solomon is talking about the pointlessness of life. If you have a study Bible, it may say somewhere above this block of text like, "Without God, everything is pointless." It is in verse 15 that we come to our first point that is: The futility of all things apart from Christ. The first of these is the futility wisdom. "Then I said in my heart, as it happeneth to the fool, so it even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this is also vanity. For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever, seeing that which is now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool" (vv. 15-16). To Solomon, his search for wisdom only caused him more pain. The same things that happened to fools happened to him. But his larger point was that wisdom is vain because the fool and the wise both die alike. Between the death of a godly and a wicked man there is a great difference, but not between the death of a wise man and a fool; the fool is buried and forgotten just as the wise man is. But we come to a dilemma for those who know Scripture. How can wisdom be vain if the rest of Scripture calls it the path to righteousness, or as the Proverbs say, "The fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom?"
When doing study, we find there is little difference between the Hebrew word chakam, an adjective translated as “wise,” and the word chokmah, a noun translated as “wisdom.” In fact, chakam means the one who has chokmah, or the one who is wise has wisdom. The word chokmah is the word used in Proverb which says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (chokmah). But here we are in Ecclesiastes, and we see Solomon calling this wisdom—though better than folly—vain and a cause of grief. How can this be so? There is a distinction in perspective we must make. The Puritans often described the book of Ecclesiastes as a metaphor as to why we must not look for value in that which is under the sun, in the temporal, but rather through the perspective of God. Likewise, wisdom sought in everything under the sun is vain. Even wisdom becomes vain when it is sought apart from God. But when we stop looking from the bottom up and start looking from heaven down, we find the fear of the Lord—the path to righteousness. Wisdom divorced from eternity is futility. Wisdom is not bad, but even godly wisdom, if kept under the sun, leads to grief, not grace. So how do we find any meaning in wisdom? It is only in Christ that wisdom gains wings. It is in Christ that wisdom finds value. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon experiments with wisdom as a tool for personal gain and legacy—and it left him hating his life. In Christ, wisdom becomes, as James says, full of mercy.
The second thing we find is the futility of work and riches. Continuing, "Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yea I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me" (vv.17-18).
Here we see that even the work Solomon desired to do brought him no fulfillment. It was an irritation of dismay to his very soul. So many of us believe that working or getting paid is going to bring us meaning. We think that once we get money we can buy the things that make us happy and we can live in peace. But Solomon pointed out, "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing"(ch.1 vv. 8). Just like how even though the rivers run in to the sea, but the sea is never full, you will never be filled, you will never be satisfied with any temporal gain you have on this earth if you do it apart from God. The labor Solomon attended to would not last him. All that he gained would ultimately be given to someone else upon his death. We cannot take the temporal with us when we die.
This is a check on our priorities. In Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” One of my favorite quotes from Johnathan Edwards is, "The world may make men miserable, but it never yet made any man happy." No matter how hard you work, no matter how much you get, and no matter how much you know, it will not go with you after you die, and nothing you do will matter.
You may be wondering now, "Great, does this mean nothing really matters?" Well, the answer depends. What gives us our purpose? If you go to the end of this book, in chapter 12, we find the conclusion of Solomon. This is the climax and conclusion of the entire book. Like when we write an English paper, at the beginning of the last paragraph, we write, "In conclusion," to sum up our paper. This is Solomon’s conclusion. This is the most important thing he says in the entire book, not only for the sake of literature, but for us as well. It is the conclusion of the book, and of ourselves. It the chief end of man, the whole purpose of our existence, our primary duty. That is to, as he says in verse 13, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." According to Solomon and according to the inspired Word of God, our entire purpose is to fear God (which is the beginning of wisdom) and to keep His commandments (A result of the fear of the Lord). Not only is keeping His commandments a result of the fear of the Lord, but it is a result of the love for God. Jesus said if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Here is our dilemma. We have not kept the commandments of God. Look at it this way: keeping His commandments means we have the fear of the Lord. Having the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Therefore, breaking His commandments means we do not have the fear of the Lord. And not having the fear of the Lord makes us foolish. The fool here isn’t mentally impaired, but rather purposely rebellious against God. Secondly, Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” But we break His commandments. Well, is the converse not also true? If keeping His commandments shows our love for Christ, then breaking His commandments shows our hatred for Him. We are in a real dilemma here. We break the commandments of God. That means we have not only failed at our very purpose of existence, but we have become purposely rebellious fools, and we have displayed our hatred of Christ and our state of enmity with God. That isn’t very good. Not only is everything we live for vain and useless, but we have sinned against a holy God and earned eternal punishment, because the wages of sin is death. How then can we find any purpose in this life and the next?
So, what is our Solution and how we can have purpose in this life? Our solution is Christ. Firstly, He is our solution for salvation. He bore our sin as our propitiation (appeasement of wrath) - Romans 3:25. Christ came and lived a sinless life and suffered on the cross not just as a man, but as the God incarnate. On that cross, Paul says in Galatians that He became a curse for us. Isaiah says He was bruised for our iniquities. That word for bruised can also be rendered as crushed and can mean to be shattered into a million pieces, to be utterly destroyed. And because Christ carried the punishment for our sin, God can legally let us go and forgive us. Not simply because He feels like it, but because Christ stood as our substitute, and now if we call upon Him, and trust Him for our salvation, the gift of grace will be attributed to us for salvation, and our faith can be counted for righteousness.
Christ is also the solution for our purpose. 1 Cor 10:31, says "Whether therefore we eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." We have been given an opportunity to every moment of our lives, in every drink, in every bite, and in every beat of our heart to glorify God. Why? Because we are commanded to, and God does not command us to things that we cannot do in Christ. We can have an eternal purpose and meaning to our lives only because Christ, for the regenerated, lives in us. Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, Christ liveth in me: and the life witch I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Through the giving of Himself for us, we have Christ in us, therefore we can live by the faith of the son of God and actually have meaning to our lives.
1 Cor 15:58, "Therefore , my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Under the sun, all of your labors are vain and vexation of spirit, but in the lord, we can know that our labor is not vain and has purpose.
Even in death, we find gain as Philippians 1:21 says, "To live is Christ to die is gain."
To concluded, does any of this really matter? If you are living your life under the sun, chasing this world, then no. All you work for, and all you gain will soon be lost and forgotten. You are digging empty wells and trying to hold on to grains of sand. You will get no substance and anything you do catch will fall through your fingers. Everything we do apart from God is vain and meaningless and only ends in destruction and death. But everything done in Christ is eternally valuable. No matter if it is as small as drinking a glass of water, starting a business, or entering the ministry, it will, if done in Christ while abiding in Christ, bring glory to God. The treasures you lay up in Heaven are not destroyed, or corrupted, or stolen, but last forever to the glory of God.
What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Realize today that Solomon literally gained the whole world. By the grace of God, His soul was kept from destruction, but from his own conclusion, we know it is not worth it. You can waste your life chasing the wind. Or you can surrender now and live a life that echoes in eternity. That is a choice we must all make, and I pray that it would be to live for Christ.
