New Endeavors, Same End

Ecclesiastes chapter 2 is where we are this evening. Ecclesiastes chapter 2. And as you're turning there, I'm going to take you and read to you from the book of Jeremiah to introduce to us tonight our topic on new endeavors, yet the same end. Solomon's legacy would continue on for years after his death. Unfortunately, that legacy would be one of rebellion against God. The Bible tells us that like priests, like people. So what took place in the life of Solomon was easily passed down to succeeding generations.

The question comes, why is it Israel would live the way they lived? Of course, we know the story about Solomon. After he died, the kingdom was divided between Judah and Israel, 10 tribes to the north, 2 to the south. And there was rebellion all throughout the land for centuries. The northern kingdom would go into captivity in 722 BC, Assyrian captivity. A little over 100 years after that, Judah would go into captivity called Babylonian captivity. But before they went into captivity, God was good.

God's always good, but he sent to them a prophet. The prophet's name was Jeremiah. Jeremiah's name means the Lord throws. The Lord threw Jeremiah, the prophet, at the right time with the right message. God doesn't put anybody where he puts them by accident. Jeremiah was thrown into the land of Israel. So that Judah would begin to understand that their future was doomed. So he gave them a message. It was a very unpopular message. Nobody really liked the message. It went against their own rebellion, their own apostasy.

Nevertheless, Jeremiah would give the message. Because he had been ordained by God from his mother's womb to do such a thing. And even though Jeremiah was unappreciated, he wasn't accepted, he was hated, there were times he was disillusioned. There were times he was dismayed and lived in despair. There was times he even was depressed. It was a sad time for Israel. That's why Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. Because he would weep much over Israel's spiritual condition. Yet he didn't quit. He didn't quit simply because in Jeremiah chapter 20 he says, If I say I will not remember him or speak any more in his name, then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.

For I have heard the whispering of many terror on every side. Denounce him, yes, let us denounce him. All my trusted friends watching for my fall say, Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on him. But the Lord is with me like a dread champion, like a fierce warrior, like a mighty warrior. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will utterly be ashamed because they have failed with an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten simply because the Lord is the Lord of armies.

So he came with a message. And this is the message he gives in the book of Jeremiah, 1st chapter, 16th verse. God says, I will pronounce my judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken me and have offered sacrifices to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.

Now why would Israel do that? Why would they worship the work of their own hands? Why would they turn their back against the Lord God of Israel? So you go down to chapter 2 and it says in verse number 4, Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, What injustice did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and walked after emptiness and became empty? What is it about your fathers that they saw in me that would cause them to pursue futility?

To pursue emptiness, that's what Solomon did. Did he not? He pursued that which was empty, only to find more emptiness. So centuries later, God says, What injustice did you find in me that would allow you to do the same things or go down the same route that Solomon went down?

He says, They did not say, Where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of deep darkness, through a land that no one crossed and where no man dwelt. I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things, but you came and defiled my land and my inheritance. You made an abomination. I took you through the wilderness. I led you. I took you out of Egyptian bondage.

I was your God. I was your king. I took you to a land of fruitfulness, but yet you defiled that land. You became an abomination to me. What would lead them to do that? What would cause them to go that direction? Verse 8, The priest did not say, Where is the Lord? Those who hinder the law did not know me. The rulers also transgressed against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that did not profit. Again, you walked after things that were empty, that were futile, that brought you nothing in return.

There was no gain. There was no advantage for you, but yet you kept pursuing those things that meant nothing, just like Solomon did. Pursued those things that meant nothing. Verse 9, Therefore I will contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your sons, sons, I will contend. For across the coastlines of Kittin and Sea and send to Kadar and observe closely and see if there has been such a thing as this. Go as far west as you can, go as far east as you can, and you will never see anything like what has happened in Israel.

Nothing. He says, verse 11, Has a nation changed gods when they were not gods? Have you ever seen the Babylonians forsake Marduk, a false god? Answer, no. Did you ever see the Canaanites forsake Baal or Ashtoreth? No. And they were false gods. They weren't the one true god. So the Lord says to them, Any nation, you choose them, have they ever changed their gods? Have they ever exchanged their gods who were really not gods at all? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

My people changed the God they worship, the true God, the only God. They went away from the one true God to false gods that did not bring them any profit, no advantage, no help. So verse 12, Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder and be very desolate, declares the Lord. For my people have committed two evils, two. They have forsaken me, that's number one, the fountain of living waters, to hew or to dig for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Notice what he says is evil. He doesn't say that drunkenness is evil, homosexuality is evil, pedophilia is evil, bestiality is evil, idolatry is evil. He doesn't say it that way. He says, My people have forsaken me, the well of living water, fresh water, to dig for themselves cisterns that are really broken cisterns that can absolutely hold nothing. In other words, they have forsaken me, the one who brings ultimate joy and satisfaction, to pursue that which gives no joy and no satisfaction. They have forsaken me.

Because you see, this is what is evil. Anytime that you pursue joy and satisfaction outside of God, he calls it evil. He calls it an abomination. You've walked away from me. You've gone after another love. But it's only a broken cistern that can hold nothing. It gives you no satisfaction. He says down in verse number 17, Have you not done this to yourself by forsaking the Lord your God when he led you in the way? I didn't do this to you. Nobody else did this to you. Nobody made you do this. You did this to yourself.

You went on a journey to find something that you thought you needed without me. That is evil. Because in the process you forsook me. But why would he do this? What was the cause of this? He tells them. Verse number 19. Your own wickedness will correct you and your apostasies will reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God. Now here's the answer. And the dread of me is not in you declares the Lord God of hosts. That's the answer. You don't fear me.

The dread of me, the living God, is not in you. That's why you went the direction you did. Is that not what Solomon says? When he sums up everything in his book by saying sum of everything, the story's all been told. It's simply this. Fear God and keep his commandments. That's it. And Solomon should have known that. Israel should have known that. Because way back in the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord God said way back in Deuteronomy chapter 6, these words. He said, Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

He would say it in chapter 8, verse number 6. He would reiterate it over and over and over again. David would say, King David, to Solomon, he says, 2 Samuel 23, verse number 3, In other words, when you serve the Lord, when you rule as king, you don't do it just righteously, but you do it in the fear of the Lord. In the fear of the Lord. In fact, in the book of 1 Chronicles chapter 28, He will reject you forever. Over in the book of Isaiah, in the 8th chapter, the Lord says, It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy.

He shall be your fear and he shall be your dread. Then he says, Then he should become a sanctuary for you, a place of safety for you, a place of peace for you. You see, Israel did what Solomon did, but on a much grander scale because it was so many of them. But they learned from Solomon because he kept pursuing things outside of God to fill the void in his life. Thinking that something from the world would give him the satisfaction that he so desperately wanted, only to realize at the very end, you know what?

Dad was right. God was right. It was all about fearing God and keeping his commandments. It's interesting to note that Jesus, when he comes on the scene in the book of Matthew, I love how it's stated in Matthew 4 verse number 24 when it says, The news about Jesus spread throughout all Syria and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

Of course they would. Why wouldn't they? Everybody was being healed. If you were blind, you could see. If you were lame, you could walk. If you were deaf, you could hear. If you were diseased, you were healed. If you were sick, you were better. Everything was better. Everybody wanted to get on the Jesus bandwagon. So if you were infirmed, you wanted to be healed, so why not follow Jesus? So the Lord says, Listen.

I know you're happy because you're healed. I know you're happy because you feel better. I know you're happy because you can see. I know things are going well for you because you were once physically incapable of doing something, but now you can. Things are better for you. So listen to what I'm going to say. He saw the crowds. He went up into a mountain. After he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, and the very first words out of his mouth were this, Blessed.

Blessed. The word is makarioi, which means an inner satisfaction, an inner blissness and joy, a contentment that's in need of nothing else. Our Lord is the blessed God of heaven. He's the blessed, potentate King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the blessed God. When you become a believer, you're a partaker of his divine nature. You then become the blessed person. He says, I know that you're happy because things are better for you physically, but if things aren't better for you spiritually, you're not going to be joyous at all.

In fact, I can heal you now, but you're going to soon die. You're going to get old. Your body's going to fall apart and you're going to die. So I'm going to offer you true blessing, true blessedness, true joy, because Christ knows the heart of man. And man is always looking for that inner satisfaction, that inner contentment and joy, so he goes after the things of the world to fill that which is the empty void in his life. That's why Augustine said that man is restless until he finds his rest in thee.

Man is never satisfied until he finds his rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. He never will be. Christ knows that. He healed man. His physical infirmities, but said this is not going to make you happy. Make you happy for a while, but there's no long-term satisfaction in being physically better. You must be spiritually healthy. Only way to do that is to be a part of the kingdom of God. So he gives those beatitudes. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn over the sin, because only they and they only are the ones who find real true comfort.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they and they only are the only ones who are truly satisfied. He goes on and offers blessing to the people there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, because he knows the heart of man. See Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, should have known all of this. He was the son of King David, a man after God's own heart. He should have learned well from his father's example of pursuing his God. But Solomon, somewhere along in life, became disillusioned and dismayed about all that was happening.

And began a journey. We'll call it the journey of joy. His journey to find joy. Call it the highway to happiness. Call it the street to satisfaction. Call it whatever you want to call it. He was on this journey, on this pursuit to find ultimate pleasure that would satisfy his inner soul. But realizing that everything was futile, empty, useless, without purpose. So when you come to chapter 2, the 12th verse, you have what we call new endeavors. But the same ending. He comes to the same conclusion.

And so tonight, what I want to do is give you, number one, a reflection because he's going to look back.

A consideration because he's going to look forward. And then thirdly, a summation because finally, he's going to look Godward.

Very important. A reflection as he looks backward. A consideration as he looks forward. But a summation. He brings it all together by looking finally toward God.

So, Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verse number 12, begins this way. So I turned to consider wisdom and mad folly. I know it says madness and folly, but literally in the Hebrew, it's mad folly. It's perversity. So I turned, I considered. Now notice what he says in chapter 1, verse number 13.

He says, And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. So I've set my mind to consider and investigate. Then verse 17 of chapter 1, he says, And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, or mad folly. So now why in verse 12 did he say, So I turned to consider wisdom and mad folly. What do you mean, so I turned? Haven't you already done this? Haven't you already been down this road? Ah, yes, yes. Yes, but you understand this statement.

Have you ever, have you ever lost something and you've gone to look for it and you looked everywhere under the bed, under the couch, in the cupboards, in the closet, everywhere? But then what do you do? You go back and look one more time just to make sure you turned over everything, just to make sure it wasn't under the bed, it wasn't in the closet, it wasn't under the couch. It's like when you tell your children, Hey, I want you to go to my room and in the second door down there's this, get it for me and bring it to me.

And they go there and they say, Mom, it's not here. I can't find it. And so what do you say? Look harder. Oh yeah, there it is. Right? This is Solomon. He's already considered wisdom and mad folly. He's already been on a search. But now he's going to redo some things. He's going to look with more vigor and more vitality because he must have missed something. There was something that he didn't uncover. There must have been something under the sun that he missed. So I'm going to go back and I'm going to reconsider all these things.

I'm going to engage in new endeavors. But he's going to find the same ending. So he says, I turn to consider wisdom and mad folly for what will man do who will come after the king except what has already been done. If I go back and I pursue pleasure and I pursue all these things one more time and I uncover everything, I turn every stone over and I expose everything that the king that follows after me is not going to have to do it because I've already done everything. In other words, what he's telling you and me as the preacher begins to teach and assemble us together is what Ecclesiastes is all about.

He's telling you, I've done everything already. There's no longer any need for you to do it. I've been there, I've done that, I've accomplished that. There's no longer any need for you to do it. And yet, like Israel, we forsake the Lord and dig for ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water because we think that maybe Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was unable to do what I can do with my intellect, my knowledge and my ambition. That was Israel. That's us. But Solomon's saying, I turn to consider one last time wisdom, human wisdom.

This is not divine wisdom. This is human wisdom. It's morally right. It's sound wisdom. It's like you would get wisdom from a guy like Ben Franklin or maybe watching Dr. Phil. Human wisdom. It's not divine wisdom. It's not godly wisdom. It's in his own wisdom under the sun that he is looking to figure out some way, somehow that there's got to be satisfaction somewhere under the sun. And so as you look back and realize what he said in verse number 10 of chapter 2 when he recorded these words I did not refuse all that my eyes desired.

I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was the reward for all my labor. I did not refuse my heart anything. So now I'm going to consider once again as I turn to wisdom and man following there must have been something I missed. Listen to this. This is very important. The momentary rush of ecstasy only leads to the monumental reality of futility. Mark it down. The momentary rush of ecstasy only leads to a monumental reality of futility.

There's nothing there. It doesn't last. The only bit of excitement is in the immediate act but once the act is over emptiness, devastation, tragedy. That's Solomon's testimony. That's his life. And so you move from a reflection looking backward to his consideration looking forward. So he says, and I saw that wisdom excels folly and as light excels darkness the wise man's eyes are in his head but the fool walks in darkness and yet I know that one fate befalls them both. And I said to myself as is the fate of the fool it will also befall me.

Why then have I been extremely wise? So I said to myself this too is vanity for there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool and as much as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how will the wise man and the fool alike or in how they both die? He begins to look at met folly and wisdom in light of death.

Now this is one of nine times in the book of Ecclesiastes that he deals with the subject of death because life under the sun only ends in death. But he has to bring it all together because he has to look at it from the temporariness of life.

And so he begins to look at things from the standpoint that there's one great equalizer in life and that is death because death is impartial death is inescapable and death itself is inevitable.

It's appointed to the man who wants to die after that judgment. Everybody dies. Only two people never did, Enoch and Elijah. But everybody else they all die. They were special situations and special circumstances. But if you believe Revelation 11 that Elijah and Enoch are the two witnesses of Revelation 11 well they're going to die because they are killed and the whole world sees it. But that's another story for another day. All that being said is that everybody dies. This is a great equalizer in life.

Everybody in the room is going to die. No one's going to live forever this side under the sun. And so he looks at wisdom and that folly under the guise of, listen, death is inevitable. It's coming. And what will my human wisdom do for me once I'm dead? It can't resurrect me. It can't do anything for me. Right? In fact, the psalmist said in Psalm 49 verse number 10, the fool and the stupid alike must perish. No matter how excellent my wisdom is, it does not keep me from my ultimate fate that is death.

No matter how great my works of wisdom are on earth they're not going to forestall my death. It's going to happen. It's inevitable. And no one can relieve the burden that one day I'm going to die and give it all away. It's going to happen. So in light of impending death my wisdom means nothing. It's futile. It's empty. It does nothing for me. Because when I'm dead, no one's going to remember me anyway. And like the foolish man, no one remembers him anyway. Now we do remember Solomon simply because he's in the scriptures and this is the living word and it's the eternal word of God.

So we have a remembrance of Solomon from that standpoint. But for a man who is wise or a man who's foolish, a man who walks in light or a man who walks in darkness there's no preference, there's no impartiality with death. Everybody dies. So everything I'm looking for under the sun means nothing. So verse 17, so I hated life. What a statement. So I hated life for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me because everything is utility and striving after the wind. It's spitting into the wind.

I hated my life. Why? Because there's no satisfaction in all of his pursuits. He can't attain what he wants under the sun. I hated my life. Now granted life without God probably is a hated life. As you seek to live without God, it becomes detrimental to your life. And so as he sees things from his perspective under the sun, his pursuits without God it's no wonder he hated the direction of his life because there was nothing there. Think about it. Here's a man who was the wisest of all men. Here was a man who went on the suit for intellect and education for wine, women and song, for money and wealth and fame and fortune.

All those things he had it all but he hated his life. This is going to show you that no matter what you have in life, it's not going to make your life any better unless you have Christ, unless you have the Lord. See? Solomon was trying all these things without the Lord and all that success led to nothing but emptiness. Now I think that when Christ came he came to give life. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. In John 11 he says, John 14 he says, I am the way, the truth and the life.

He says through the pen of the Apostle Paul that Christ, because you're hidden in Christ Christ is your life. So if you have Christ's life you have real life. You have the abundant life. You have the blessed life. You have the converted and consecrated life. You have divine life within you for Christ in you is the hope of glory. Sometimes life is very difficult, very hard. I remember years ago when my first wife and I were down in New York City going to Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital because she was sick with cancer and we went in for radiation treatment and chemotherapy.

We had just finished that and run our way back to the parking lot down in New York City, back to our car and as we were walking down the street there was a man who had a t-shirt on and it said, Life is hard, then you die. We both looked at this man as we walked by and we stopped for a second and Sandy said to me, she said well, without the Lord he got that right.

But she had the Lord. But life for her was hard. We have physical pain, we have broken relationships, we have all kinds of financial difficulties and stress that we face day in and day out. Life can be very, very difficult. But life with Christ is the life that is second to none.

For Christ in you is your only hope. And therefore, we as believers we don't hate life. We might not enjoy all things that happen in life. We might not be able to explain all things about life. But we don't hate life. Why? Because our life is hidden with Christ and God. We have His life. We are partakers of the divine nature of God. Solomon says, I hated my life. And I understand that. Because his pursuits were futile. So, he moves on from wisdom to wealth and to work. He says in verse number 18, Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor.

Not only did I hate my life, I hated all the things I accomplished in life. For which I had labored under the sun. For I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool. Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor. For which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity. Therefore, I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor. For which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with him.

This too is vanity and a great evil. For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days, his tasks is painful and grievous. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity. I have labored. I have worked. And then I'm going to give everything that I've done to someone who follows after me. Who didn't do any work at all. But he's going to get it all. Maybe he's thinking of Rehoboam. Because he received it all. And Rehoboam destroyed everything.

In fact it says in 2 Chronicles chapter 12 verse number 14 it says that Rehoboam did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. And therefore the kingdom was divided. So ten twelfth of everything was destroyed and divided up. Solomon says, you know you work hard, you labor hard for what? You can't take it with you when you die. So what do you do? You leave it behind. But the guy you leave it behind to you just don't know whether or not they're going to be wise enough or smart enough to handle what I leave them.

They're probably not. They're probably going to act foolishly. Why? Because they were given my legacy for free. They had to work for it. Whenever you get something for free you're just not as careful with it as if you had to work for it, are you? Solomon does that. That's human wisdom. He gets that. The Wall Street Journal called money an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven and as a universal provider of everything except happiness. That's the Wall Street Journal.

They got that right. Money's not going to get you to heaven and money's not going to buy you happiness. It might buy you a bed but it's not going to buy you sleep. Right? Absolutely not. Solomon says, you know, you stay up all night you worry about your money, you worry about your legacy, you worry about your labor you worry about what's going to happen next and you don't sleep at all. This too is vanity. Why spend all my time laboring staying up at night worrying about this, worrying about that trying to figure out how it's all going to flow out.

We're all going to die anyway. It's all empty. It's all futile. Then he comes to this summation. It's like an oasis in the midst of everything. What we'll call it we'll call it an oasis of optimism because he's so pessimistic. Life is hard. I hate my life. I hate all the labor I've given in life because I'm not going to keep it anyway and who's going to follow me what are they going to do with it, I have no idea and I spent all my energy and all my time and all my efforts into this pursuit to do what?

I'm going to die. Then what? That's life under the sun. Very pessimistic. But now comes an oasis of optimism as he gives a summation. Listen carefully to what he says. He says these words There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. Now he's getting perspective. Now he's moving from human wisdom to divine wisdom. Now you're seeing the wise Solomon give advice, give counsel because now he's recognizing that everything he has is from God.

Let me talk to you about how you enjoy life by giving you three principles from the last set of verses.

How do you enjoy life today? Number one, you're grateful for your resources that come from God. Solomon recognizes that. In chapter 5 he says this in verse number 18 Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting to eat and to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him. For this is his reward. Furthermore as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth he has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor.

This is the gift of God. So he's going to say later on that everything is a gift from God. When you are grateful that the resources you have are from God you can enjoy life today. You can enjoy it. Because you recognize that God gave you wealth. God gave you riches. God gave you your home, your car, your clothes your shoes, your kids, everything. It's all from the Lord. 1 Timothy 6.17 says God gives us richly all things to enjoy. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.7 What do you have that you did not receive?

Answer, nothing. It was all a gift from the Lord. Solomon was recognizing that his wealth was a gift from the Lord. His kingship was a gift from the Lord. All that he had was a gift from the Lord. So he wants you to be grateful for the resources you have from the Lord. Then look at verse 25 For who can eat and who can have enjoyment apart from him?

Apart from God. Answer, you can't. So not only are you grateful for the resources you have from God but you need to be faithful in your relationship to God. You need to be faithful in your relationship to God. Solomon wasn't. He did not give his whole heart to the Lord. His heart was stolen by the women of the land. But he recognizes very clearly that satisfaction is being in a right relationship with the living God. And he wasn't in a right relationship as long as he lived with perspective under the sun.

But to go beyond the sun you can't live your life apart from him. Solomon says my whole life was an endeavor of searching for satisfaction without him. But it was all futile and all empty and soap bubbles and spitting into the wind. I got nowhere. But if you want to enjoy life today in the temporariness of it, you must be grateful for your resources that come only from God and you must be faithful in your relationship to God. And lastly you must be mindful of your response to God. For he says for to a person who is good in his sight he has given wisdom knowledge and joy.

Isn't that great? To the person who is good in the sight of the Lord to a person who is right in the sight of the Lord to a person who responds to the Lord in the right way he gets wisdom, he gets knowledge, but he gets joy. Joy. Proverbs 11.18 says this righteous living brings a sure reward. Solomon should have known that. He wrote it under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. He wrote Proverbs 11.18 Righteous living brings a sure reward. What is a sure reward? Wisdom, knowledge and joy. Why? Because you're right with the Lord.

You've responded to what the Lord has said. You want to follow the Lord. Proverbs 8.18 Solomon said that righteousness is forever. Psalm 110.3 says the beauty of holiness never fades. Isaiah 61.10 says the robes of righteousness never grow old. Proverbs 15.9 says the Lord loves those who pursue righteousness. Psalm 107.9 says he satisfies the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 34.10 they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. Jeremiah 31.14 my people shall be satisfied with my goodness saith the Lord.

John 4.14 Christ said whoever drinks of the water that I give shall never thirst. In John 6.35 he said the bread of life that he is the bread of life and he that comes to me shall never ever hunger. We need to be mindful of a right response to our God for he says that he who seeks that which is good and does that which is right in my eyes will receive wisdom, knowledge and joy. It's like he's saying this is an indictment against my life because I wasn't doing this. It's no wonder I wasn't joyous.

It's no wonder I was empty. It was no longer, no wonder I hated my life. If you hate your life that's because your life is a pursuit without God. For those who pursue God love life because they recognize that all their resources are from him. All that they have is from him and that they need to be related to him in a way that honors and glorifies his name so that they are able to receive their sure reward for righteous living. Notice how Solomon closes.

He says this. He says while to the sinner this is the one who is not seeking God who is not looking for a right relationship with God who's not interested in God while to the sinner he has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God's sight. Wow! This too is vanity and striving after the wind. In other words know what the sinner does? He collects. He gathers. He labors. He works. You know why he does that? So he can give it to God's people. That's why.

Listen to what the Bible says. Proverbs 13 verse number 22. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just man. The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just man. Think about all the spoils that David had that were given to him because he conquered the enemy. He put them in the temple of God. He had all the wealth to be able to build the temple of God for Solomon. Remember what it says back in the book of Exodus? Exodus chapter 3 verse number 21. God says I will grant the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall be that when you go you will not go empty handed but every woman shall ask of her neighbor and the woman who lives in her house articles of silver and articles of gold and clothing and you will put them on your sons and daughters thus you will plunder the Egyptians.

God says look just go to your neighbor. Just go to your Egyptian neighbor and say you know what? I don't have anything. I need gold. I need silver. I need clothes. Guess what? They're going to give it to you. Why? Because all the wealth of the sinner goes to the just man. He later says in chapter 12 verse number 36 these words. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. It's just amazing. Solomon says you know what the sinner is going to do?

He's going to work hard. He's going to labor hard. He's going to make all this money what? Just to give it to the righteous. The just man. And his labor it's all empty. It's all vanity because he gets nothing in the end but the just man gets it all. It's like Christ said for they shall inherit the earth. The earth. C.S. Lewis told us that the answer in our dissatisfaction in life should always point us to God. Not away from Him but toward Him. He says these words. Most people if they had really learned to look into their own hearts would know that what they do want and want acutely is something that cannot be had in this world.

There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love or first think of some foreign country or first take up some subject that excites us are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can ever really satisfy.

There was something we grasped at in that first moment of longing which just fades away in reality. In other words he says the longings that you have, you pursue them but as soon as you grasp them all the joy fades away. Because there really wasn't joy in them. That should drive you to the living God. That's what Christ said in Matthew chapter 5. Oh I know you're happy because you're healed. I know you feel better because physically you feel better. But you need real true joy. That's why I'm here.

That's why Christ said through the pen of Jeremiah my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the well of living water to dig for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water. They have pursued joy and satisfaction. They have pursued rest and pleasure outside of me and therefore they've committed a gross evil because they'll never find it. And why did they do that? He tells you. They did not have the dread of me in them. They did not fear me. Solomon's conclusion, Ecclesiastes 12 verse number 13 is fear God.

Keep his commandments. All will be well if that's what we do. Let's pray together. Father we thank you Lord for tonight. The chance you give us to study your word. We pray that Lord you'd prick our conscience and cause our hearts to long for the goodness of God. We realize Lord that you are a great and wonderful savior. And you offer life to those who have no life. Because life without you is not really life at all. It's a temporary momentary existence upon this planet that will end in separation from you forever.

Unless we truly know the Lord God of Israel. You came that we might have life and that that life would be an abundant life filled with joy because of what Christ has done for us. You've forgiven us our sin. You've wiped the slate clean. You've cleansed us from all iniquity. That we might have Christ live in us. Christ in us is our hope. Is our joy. May we live in the light of that Lord. If there be someone here tonight who doesn't know you. May tonight be the night they give their life to Jesus Christ our Lord.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen.