TEXT: Eccl a 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
FRENCH: La vanité de vanités, saith le Prédicateur, la vanité de vanités; tout est la vanité.
SPANISH: La vanidad de vanidades, saith el Predicador, la vanidad de vanidades; todo es la vanidad.
INTRO: Concerning the ways of man, Solomon spoke with authority
1 Ki 10:23 So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
1. Solomon had the power and position to try every thing his heart desired.
2. Satan’s lie is that if you could only have this one more possession or this one more pleasure or this one more bit of worldly wisdom, you would be happy.
But listen to the King who exceeded all the kings of the earth for wisdom! - "all is vanity."
The Hebrew word Vanity used here is ’???????? which means "emptiness or vanity; figuratively something transitory and unsatisfactory;"- Strong’s Hebrew dictionary
I/ LIFE WITHOUT GOD IS EMPTY BECAUSE LIFE IS TRANSITORY
Eccl 1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
Psa 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
If you are now 35 - you have only 12,000 days left - But that is a snap of the finger compared to eternity. James 4:14b For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
The late President Kennedy never dreamed on Friday morning November 22, 1963 as he ate breakfast during the peak of his life, that by 2 o’clock that afternoon he would be in eternity.
Life is short even if it is not cut off as was President Kennedy’s.
Thousands of people showed up for work on Tuesday morning Sept 11th at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with absolutely no clue what would await them that day. They didn’t even have time to
pray, often when death comes, it comes suddenly.
Let me tell you a story of a young man that was saved at the Lincoln Baptist Church where I was pastor. He grew up in a broken home, dad had left, mom had died, he lived in a old railroad boxcar. Washed dishes in café’s and cared for himself. Since he was so poor, he had no friends had never traveled, and was often looked down on by society. He had experienced very little love, honor, position or possessions. When he was 20 years old, he died of brain cancer.
I was asked to say a few words at his grave site. What could I say?
I thought of Solomon who had everything this world could offer, and Ray who had nothing of this world. There was only a handful of people at his funeral. Then I realized that in his short empty life, Ray found the most precious thing life had to offer: The Lord Jesus Christ! He was now living in a mansion in heaven richer than us all.
The point is if you find Christ, you are immediately successful in life, but if you have all this world has to offer, and do not find God through Christ, your life is "empty and unsatisfactory".
II/ LIFE WITHOUT GOD IS EMPTY BECAUSE KNOWLEDGE BRINGS NO PEACE
Eccl 1:16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
Eccl 1:17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
A/ Knowledge that does not recognize God brings "vexation of spirit".
For example, Intellectuals of our day, say that sometime in the ageless past, a single living cell arose by spontaneous generation or chance occurrence. And from this cell gradually evolved plants, multi-celled invertebrates, then fishes and insects, then amphibians, then reptiles, then birds and mammals and finally man.
The author of this theory was vexed in his spirit and said "why if species descended from other species by fine graduations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? As by the evolutionary theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them imbedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?"
Another Evolutionist named Wallace, must have been vexed in his spirit when he said, "The mental requirements of the lowest savages are very little above those of many animals. How then was an organ (the brain) developed so far beyond the needs of it’s possessor?
Natural selection could only have endowed the savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape, whereas he actually possesses one but very little inferior to that of the average members of our learned societies"
Much of the content of the text books I used while going to college is now obsolete. The point here is that intellectualism brings no peace because for the most part it ignores God’s wisdom and therefore sin remains.
1 Cor 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Cor 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1 Cor 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
1 Cor 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
1 Cor 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
III/ LIFE WITHOUT GOD IS EMPTY BECAUSE PLEASURE, WEALTH, & WORKS BRING NO LASTING SATISFACTION
A. PLEASURE:
Eccl 2:1 I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
Solomon had 700 wives, and 300 concubines, a Palace, and was the richest man in the world.
Remember, vanity means transitory, unsatisfactory. The bible tells us in Hebrews 11:25 that Moses chose"rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season"
At the end of life, those things we thought so important at the time, seem empty because they brought no lasting satisfaction.
Let us take a careful look at 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1 John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
How much of our lives are spent pursuing the things in verse 16, but verse 17 tells us it is all passing away.
B. WEALTH AND WORKS
Eccl 2:4-11, 5:10, and 5:15 Read and expound.
IV/ LIFE WITHOUT GOD IS EMPTY BECAUSE OF SIN
Eccl 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
A. This verse tells us that Sin is an universal malady, we are all effected by it.
B. But men think they will not be caught: Eccl 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
C. Judgement will come therefore do not waste your youth and make your life empty.
Eccl 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Eccl 11:10 Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
Eccl 12:1 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;
CONCLUSION:
Bring God into your life and obey Him - Because your life is being recorded and will be revealed.
Do not wait until you are old, and like Solomon, look back on an empty life.
