Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore enjoy pleasure, but surely this also was vanity. I said of laughter, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great. I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards. I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold, the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all those who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity, grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. When we turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, what we find is a theme that's recurring throughout the book. What we find is the pursuit of life, a man trying to pursue life, Solomon in this case, apart from God. And he goes about to test and fill his life with many different things. We looked a couple weeks ago in chapter 5. Solomon tries to fill his life with the pursuit of wealth and riches. He comes to the conclusion It was vanity. It was emptiness. There was no profit in it whatsoever. And when we look around at the world today, that's what we see, isn't it? I mean, when we look around at those that are around us, we see a lack of contentment. We see people searching, walking through life almost with blinders on, not able to find that that they're searching for. And that's what we find any time we're trying to pursue life apart from God. What we see tonight in the passage that we just read is that Solomon is now trying to fulfill his life, to find fulfillment and pleasures. And the fulfillment of those sensual pleasures, those things that makes man in his nature happy. One thing to note, just like we said last week, these things in and of themselves are not necessarily a bad thing. But if they become the pursuit of your life, if they become the passion of your life, the drive of your life, then it becomes a danger. Anything that we do in our lives apart from God, if God is not the focus, that thing becomes a God in our life. Riches became a God and now pleasure so often can become a God in someone's life. Solomon is dealing here with what we would call today hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure And there are a couple different types of hedonism. One is Cyrenian hedonism. And that's one of those things that I think that if any of us in this room saw someone living like that, well, we would easily call that out and say, oh, no, that's wicked. That's bad. That's people who are living a life out of control, totally debauched, living every day for lewdness and immorality. And we would all look at that and say, oh, that's wicked. That's wrong. But then there's another philosophy of hedonism. It's called the Epicurean way. We've talked about that some here. That's a little more refined. People would look at someone like that and say, that person is someone who's refined, maybe sophisticated. And that's the danger. This is someone who's pursuing pleasure, but they're not out of control. But yet it has become a god in their life. And I think that, just like we said a couple weeks ago with money, that's a particular danger, especially in the United States, where wealth is abundant. This is a danger, too. We look around and everywhere we see in this country, on either side, wherever you turn, every pleasure that a man desires can be found in this country. And that's the risk and that's the danger for each one of us. The church itself has to be careful and always looking and say, what is my heart's desire? Is my heart's desire riches? Is my heart's desire pleasure? You know, oftentimes people think that those things kind of go hand in hand. Unlimited money will bring me unlimited pleasure, the ability to acquire anything that my heart desires. It's almost the American dream. You know, when people talk about that, it's the ability to have things oftentimes. And that's the danger for our hearts. Solomon goes on here in this passage that we're looking at tonight, and he tests many different types of pleasure. And the thing to keep in mind when we look at that is Solomon had the opportunity more than anyone that we can ever imagine to pursue pleasure. There are limits to my ability to pursue pleasure because there are limits to my bank account. There are things that I cannot have. Solomon didn't have those limitations. So we should learn from his wisdom. He tested it all. He tested everything that a man's heart desires and in the end finds it vanity and emptiness. So let's look at the first two verses. We're just going to walk through and look at the different ways that Solomon tests his heart. And it says in the first two verses, it says, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure. But surely this also was vanity. I said of laughter, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? So here we see Solomon is pursuing mirth. He's pursuing happiness. He surrounds himself with almost a party atmosphere. All he wants is people who can make him laugh, people who can make him happy, people who can make him forget about anything else in life, but just to constantly have happiness and almost a party-like lifestyle around him. In reading through this, I think about this, and probably all of you can do the same thing. Think about someone that you know. Aren't there those people who life's just a party? It's one party after another, after another. Where can I find the next thrill? Where can I find the next laugh? Where can I find the next excitement? Oftentimes, I think those people are actually covering up a sadness within them. But what we find is at times like that, those parties start to grow stale over time. Over time, we find that things just aren't funny anymore. And that's the danger. It's something that's unsustainable You know, constant happiness, constant mirth. It's impossible to maintain. You go to one party and it's exciting. Well, there's time for the next, and there's a time before the next, and a time before the next. It's unsustainable to try to fill our lives, to satisfy our hearts with that which can never be sustained. It's a definition of vanity, of emptiness, of meaningless. But people are constantly trying to pursue this. And what is the end result? You know, I think that We look around us in the world today, and what do we see? We see a lot of men who lack sober-mindedness. Especially my generation, and perhaps younger, I don't know. Men in my generation seem to have never wanted to grow up. Everything's a joke. Life was always easy. They had everything they wanted. They don't want to deal with serious matters. They don't want to take the time to deal with their life, to get alone with themselves, to get alone before God, to get still. To get quiet. To ask themselves, what is my life about? What am I pursuing? What are my heart's desires? The questions that man needs to ask himself. What is the purpose of my life? What is it I'm trying to accomplish with it? But instead, it's distraction. It's busyness. It's parties. It's jokes. Anything to avoid being serious. And such a danger for us to to be distracted like that. It keeps us from finding satisfaction in life. That which they're pursuing that they think is going to bring satisfaction ultimately keeps them from it. Solomon says, he says, that laughter became madness. A mind that has no order, a mind that's discontented, that's the end result of the pursuit of mirth, the pursuit of this type of happiness, this type of jokiness, joviality, it actually keeps us from finding the satisfaction that our hearts ultimately desire. So Solomon moves from there. He comes to it and finds that it's madness. So he goes on to test again. Verse 3, he says, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives." So he turns to the pleasure of the appetites, of turning to fulfill the appetites of his heart, and he looks at those things. He wants to enjoy drink and wine and food and those things that bring those natural appetites that we all have out. He decides, I'm going to pursue this. I'm going to see what type of pleasure this brings to me. What we find in life so often, though, is this thing that we want to do to bring a pleasure, a temporary pleasure. You know, that first drink leads to that second drink. Well, now I can't get the same level of satisfaction. I need three. I need four. And that that was initially supposed to be something that brought us pleasure leads to overindulgence. And what happens is this food and drink that are supposed to be a blessing from God for man, that are meant to bring refreshment to us, instead become a chain around our neck. What we find out is that these gifts, and ultimately all of these gifts, you know, are meant to turn our eyes to the giver. When we receive gifts from God, that's the purpose. It's so that we turn our eyes to Him, the one who gives these to us. But so often instead, what happens? We become ensnared by the gift itself. That becomes our heart's desire. That's what Solomon sees here when he turns to food and drink. He finds that these things which were meant to bring refreshment become a chain around his neck, those things that bind a man. You know, men become addicted to these things. Men become, you know, one drink's not enough, one whatever it is, it's not enough. I need the next one. I need the next one. And in the end they become a chain around his neck and puts a man into slavery. But when Solomon does this, when Solomon looks at it, he doesn't lose control. It says that he guides his heart with wisdom And that's what Solomon did. He wants to maintain his faculties about him. He wants to maintain and say, I'm going to test this to see what this pleasure does for me, so I can see what the value is of it. And he comes to the same conclusion. Vanity. Emptiness. His soul is still left yearning, finds no fulfillment in these things that he's pursuing. So he moves on again, and we look to verses 4 through 6. So that made my works great. I built myself houses, planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens, orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. Solomon turns to building. Solomon starts to build great works for himself. He wants to build big things, big things that other people can see, things to leave a legacy, something that men do so often. We read in 1 Kings, I think it's 1 Kings 7, you can read Solomon building his house. And it takes him 13 years to build his house. And it's not like, you know, me building a house, and I'm going to, you know, contract this out, and thanks to not a small crew to do one thing and another crew to do something else. You know, those of you who know building know, you know, that might take a while, but this is the king. This is a man with unlimited wealth, with servants, 13 years to build his house. How amazing that must have been. And that's something that oftentimes I think that that it's in a man's heart to build. And again, in and of itself, it can be an expression of creativity. It can be a good thing. But when it becomes the idol in your life, the passion in your life, and it becomes something that leads us astray and leads us away from God, it becomes something that's prideful, something that we look at and say, look what I've done, look what I have accomplished, something so that other people can see. But instead of being what it should be, an expression of God's glory, There have been times when men have built amazing works, but they've built them to the glory of God. But instead, oftentimes, men build to their own glory. You think about it. Driving through a major city, what do you see oftentimes? You'll see a building that reaches the sky, and what's slapped across the top? It's a man's name. He built it for a purpose, to glorify himself, to glorify the passions of his heart, instead of glorifying God. And in the end, what he'll find, is emptiness, no satisfaction. Pleasure after pleasure after pleasure and still he finds no satisfaction. So now let's look at verse 7 and 8. These are the last of the pleasures that Solomon attempts to satisfy himself with. He says, I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold, the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers and delights of the sons of men, musical instruments of all kinds." Solomon becomes a collector, a collector of many things here. said he has great herds, greater herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. He puts together the special treasures, you know, those things that, you know, if you were a king and someone came to visit you, you know, they brought their best. They brought great gifts to the king. So Solomon is collecting all of these things as well. He does that which oftentimes men do, especially men who have great riches. You know, I think of men who have built great collections of art. automobiles, whatever it may be, collections of homes. We find that throughout history, men collecting and trying to amass great possessions and, again, for what purpose? A legacy. Oftentimes, again, it's a pride thing. They want their legacy. They want to leave something so that people can see that have come after them, to see what they've done, to see what they've accumulated. But these collections can so quickly become a God in man's heart quickly can become the center part of their life. You know, I was thinking going through this when we're getting our house ready so that we can move, went in our garage and I found a collection of comic books that I had. And while not a, you know, curds and socks This was something that was prideful for me. I spent years when I was young collecting these. I'd read the books to find out what they were worth. We would trade these back and forth. And I was proud of my collection. But what happened to my collection? It got stuck in a box. I went off to college. Come back, get married, the box goes in the garage in the house. We move from Smyrna to Dixon, the box stays in the garage. And what happened to this great treasure of mine that I put together, sold in a yard sale for $20. $20 for what, to me, was pride. Something that I was proudful of. Something that had a place that, at that time, was beyond what it should have had in my life. What a waste. $20, actually. Christine reminded me that the box that it was in a plastic bin was actually probably about $5 to $8. But vanity, emptiness, all of those years, all of that collecting, for what? And that's what men do. We build these things. We put these together. Why? To satisfy us. There's no satisfaction there. Nothing lasting. Temporary pleasures, momentary pleasures. things that are fleeting, things that will pass. Solomon became a connoisseur of fine arts and music and collected, it says, you know, that he acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men. He collected all of these things to satisfy himself. God gave us these things to glorify Him. Music was meant to glorify God. Art was meant to glorify God. Our lives are meant to glorify God. Instead, we use these things to pacify ourselves, to keep ourselves amused for a moment, but it passes. Solomon tests this, and we see the conclusion that he comes to. Solomon, again, tested all of these things, things that you and I could never test, but by God's grace, things that we don't have to test. He's tested them for us. This is wisdom literature. That's why this is classified as wisdom literature. I don't have to test these things. You don't have to test these things. Solomon has done it and God in His mercy has recorded them for us so that we don't have to. But let's read the conclusion that Solomon comes to. Verses 9 through 11. He says, So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works my hands had done, on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity. Grasping for the wind, there was no profit under the sun. Solomon tests it. In verse 9, he tells us, he says, I excelled more than any who have gone before me. No man had been able to test pleasure like I have. There's not a man out there who had access to the resources and the riches that Solomon had. And he says, I excelled more than all who were before me. And what did he find out when he did it? In verse 10, he tells us. He says, he did find pleasure in these things. It's important that we see that. He found pleasure. He said, I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. My heart rejoiced in all my labor. This was the reward of all my toil. He said, I did these things. I tested these things. And you know what? They brought temporary pleasure. He said he rejoiced in his heart. But the question is, did it last? Did it ultimately satisfy him? And we find the answer in verse 11. He said, I looked in all the works that my hands had done, and the labor in which I had toiled, All was vanity. Grasping for the wind. There was no prophet under the sun. Solomon comes to the end of this and says it was temporary. He's fleeting. Just a few moments. Vanity. Grasping for the wind. Grasping after that which cannot be held. That's what we find when we pursue these things. The pursuit of pleasure, apart from God, is meaningless. And that's the lesson for us. But you know, the natural man, the humanist, the philosopher will say, no, no, that's not true. We have these desires within us for pleasure. We have these desires. There is good in these pursuits. Because that's what we desire, right? We all desire pleasure. That's true. But the reality is this. Man was not made to find pleasure apart from God. Man was made to find pleasure in God. The only place that we're going to find lasting pleasure is in God. To desire Him, it says in Psalm 37.4, delight yourself in the Lord. It should be our heart's desire. The light of our hearts in the Lord. Philippians 4.4, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. Our lives will only find rejoicing in God. The problem that we have, the issue that we seek, isn't the fact that we desire happiness. The problem is we settle for such a fake and small substitute for happiness. It's not that we have desires. Our desires are down here. We don't desire enough. We're satisfied with mirth, with buildings, and with so many substitutes. instead of desiring that which will ultimately bring satisfaction to our lives. The only thing that will bring satisfaction to our lives, the finite, those things under the sun that Solomon tests, can never bring joy to our hearts. Our hearts desire the infinite. They will never be satisfied for the finite. Those things that we find under the sun, only God can bring that level of happiness. You and I were made to be in communion with We see man walking around discontented, miserable in many instances, unhappy. And the reason for that is because they're settling. If you and I are going to desire, we should. But let's desire what's best. Don't settle for riches. Don't settle for those things that are temporary. If someone offers you great wealth and buildings and pleasure, don't settle for those things. We don't desire enough. We need to desire more. Our hearts need to be more desirous and say, what is that one best thing? What is that thing that will actually bring the satisfaction that we seek? It says in Matthew 13, 44, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Is that how we feel about God? Do we say, this is the treasure that we find in the field. We bury it because we must have it. And we go sell everything we have, all of the riches that Solomon has, all the possessions that he has, his collections, and everything that he has. Well, we sell it all because we know that ultimate joy, the joy that can only be found that's buried in that field, the kingdom of heaven, we sell everything that we have for that. Because then and only then are we going to find contentment for our souls. Then we'll find the joy unspeakable. When we find God, when we pursue him with all of our hearts, it says, as the deer panted for the water. Is that how our hearts feel before God? Or will we settle? Will we be satisfied with the lesser when God wants to pour out all of his blessings upon us? And the greatest blessing that he gives us is himself, to be in communion with him, to know him, to be like Adam and to walk in the garden with Him in the cool of the day. That's what God wants for us. That's the gift that He makes available to us, to walk with Him. But how often we settle for less. You see, a world around us settling for less, may it not be so in God's church among His people. We who have the truth of His Word and can know the sweet enjoyment of a time with Him, to be alone with Him, pursue Him with all of our heart. God knows that we need these other things. God will give us what we need. We talked about that some a couple of weeks ago. There isn't anything that's not at God's disposal. All these things that Solomon had and all these things that men have, God made them. He knows what we need. He knows what's truly best for me. He knows what's truly best for you if we'll pursue Him, seek after Him, and trust Him. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, God, I pray that you would search my heart. Search our hearts, Lord. Father, for those things that have gotten in the way of our pursuit of you, Father, help us to know. Help us to be still before you, to hear your voice. God, may we never settle. God, give us desire to pursue after you with all our might. We're not being satisfied with the lesser. God, may we seek after you. May we find your kingdom, that treasure hidden in the field, and may it be our heart's desire. I pray in Christ's name. Amen.