Our three-year-old son got a gift from one of our kind neighbors. I suppose there's nothing better that you can give an adventurous three-year-old boy than a big, red, remote control fire truck, complete with flashing lights and to the dismay of his parents, siren noises. It has a boom ladder that swings from side to side and elevates up and down. Its ladder extends and retracts. And to top it all off, and maybe this is a bit cruel on our part, it even has a fire hose that shoots out real water. But he just doesn't know that. Now, it's one tricked out, cool little truck. It's the kind of gift that you get for your child and you bring it home and your spouse says, did you get that for yourself or did you get that for him? But there's a problem with his red firetruck. It has so many massive motorized parts that it seems after every third use, it doesn't work anymore. And poor Carson. The most futile and frustrating thing in his little world right now is to have the coolest firetruck known to humanity sitting right in front of him and he can't enjoy it. Because something called batteries are dead. Dad, the batteries are dead. And his joy is ended. He has everything he wants right in front of him. And he can't enjoy it. And boy, oh boy, does it frustrate him. Now, I don't think that kind of thing just happens to little boys either. What if you had everything that you wanted, but you couldn't enjoy it? Maybe your health prevents you from enjoying something. Maybe your age. You're at an amusement park and the coolest roller coaster on the planet is in front of you, but because you're not 12 or older, you're not allowed on. Or you're the grandparent accompanying this minor. You don't feel old, but you know you shouldn't ride the coolest roller coaster in the world either. Your age, your health prevents you from enjoying the very thing that is right in front of you. And we know, just like my three-year-old son, one of the most frustrating things in life is having everything that you want and no ability to enjoy it. That's the message of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. So if you're not there, would you turn with me there this morning, Psalms Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes. Now, just to set you up, I'll be reading mostly from the New Living Translation this morning, but some from the ESV. Ecclesiastes is one of the grittiest evaluations of life under the sun. If you read it this week, you kind of know that. I just want to let you know that if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, this book may actually surprise you. You might be surprised that biblical Christianity isn't a pie-in-the-sky fairytale optimism that turns a blind eye to the harsh realities of life. You might also be surprised to find a book in the Bible that so accurately reflects some of your own thoughts and musings about life. And frankly, if you are a follower of Jesus, and you've been fed a bunch of sentimental religious triumphalism, this book will surprise you too. You won't find a verse from Ecclesiastes in any Hallmark card that you pick up in some Christian bookstore. We're told in Ecclesiastes 9, here's the kind of cheering up kind of thing we get. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race. The strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The wise are often poor and the skillful are not always wealthy ones. Educated people don't always get ahead in life. Like a fish in a net and birds in a snare, people are often caught by sudden tragedy. That's Ecclesiastes 9. It will continue to surprise you if you're here and you think that life operates off of a purely religious worldview. You kind of do good things, and you keep your nose clean, and God will bless you. It's a tit-for-tat, one-to-one kind of universe. Well, it just isn't true. Good guys don't always win in this life. Sometimes the cowboys lose, and other wicked teens prosper. Ecclesiastes 7.15 says this, Sometimes good people die young, and wicked people live on and on. You see, friends, it may be a religious worldview to think that God is obligated to be nice to people who are nice, but it's certainly not a biblical worldview. The book of Ecclesiastes is a wonderful whiff of reality. It's like smelling salts to a slumbering world. For those people who think they need one more affair, to read one more book, to work just one more hour, to have one more glass of wine, this book is a dose of smelling salts to rouse them from their pleasure, intellectually induced slumber. Now before we open this book of smelling salts, we need to set the stage. I'm going to take the first half of our time this morning because part of my purpose in looking at the book is not just to to tell you what I think it says, but to orient you to the book so that you'll know how to understand it, not just today, but every other time you come in contact with this book. In some ways, this is a very philosophical, intellectual book. And so for those of you who might be particularly wired this way, you should make friends with this book. For those of you who are not, you too should make friends with this book. Here's how we'll proceed. We'll talk about a word, about wisdom, A word about the structure and then a word about words. All of this just setting the stage, kind of plowing up the ground, giving us the tools that we need to understand the book. First, a word about wisdom. It's important that you know that whenever you're reading a part of the Bible, you understand there are various types of literature that are in the Bible. The Bible has poetry, it has history, it has apocalyptic, fantastic imagery, and there's even a type of literature in the Bible called wisdom literature. Ecclesiastes is that type of literature. Many cultures in the ancient Near East had wisdom literature as well. This body of literature, wisdom literature, is not unique to the Bible, and often it took the form of aphorisms or some type of philosophical inquiry into the mysteries of life. And wisdom literature tends to be a rational appeal, an engagement of our intellectual sensibilities that forces us to stop and think, evaluate the life around us. So I'll just tell you that if you want to explore the intellectual side of Christianity, if you want to explore it philosophically, well, wisdom literature is a good place to begin. Now, of course, there's something distinct about the Bible's wisdom literature that separates it from the wisdom literature of the ancient Near East. And that is that the Bible makes a unique claim for the source of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's the unique claim the Bible makes. So whenever you read a piece of wisdom literature in the Christian Bible, maybe you've heard of a book called Psalms or Proverbs or Job. The point being made is this what I'm telling you is how you skillfully make your way through life. This is what fearing God looks like. And while the wisdom books all have that theme in common, fear of the Lord, they don't all have the same tone. Proverbs, you're told the righteous live a long life for fearing God. In Job, you suffer for fearing God. And in Ecclesiastes, you die young for fearing God. The point is that we have to be very careful about isolating the overall message of one particular book, or even a few verses from one book, from the whole collection, not just of the Bible, but of the wisdom literature as a whole. And you know that just like individual notes sound far better when they're part of a chord or a melody, so the message of any one of the wisdom books must be harmonized by the tone of the others around them. That's very important. Ecclesiastes is not the whole truth, but it's a necessary part of the truth. Now a word about the structure of this book. Other than the opening prologue in chapter 1 and the conclusion in chapter 12, nobody really has a clue how to outline this book. Now that doesn't mean that the book has no rhyme or reason to it. It just means that it doesn't rhyme or reason like we think it should. To begin with, because of Ecclesiastes 12, would you go ahead and turn there please? We're going to flip for a few minutes between Ecclesiastes 12 and Ecclesiastes 1. To begin with, we know that there is a rhyme and reason to this book because of how it ends. We know in Ecclesiastes 12 that he's leading us to a certain conclusion. And so we read in verse 12, here is now my final conclusion. Fear God and obey his commandments. This is everyone's duty. So as we read the book, we're to keep that conclusion in mind. Whatever else the book is saying, he is making a rational, intellectual appeal for us to fear God and to keep his commandments. Now the sticky question is, how does he argue for that conclusion? That's what's confusing. Here is one small thing that might be of help. Most of us in the Western world are comfortable following an argument that begins with one topic, and then works that entire topic through before it starts another one. The formal outline in that case is pretty clear. Big number one, A, B, number two, A, B, number three, A, B, and so on. But that's not how the author of Ecclesiastes reasons. He argues in a cycle or in a spiral. So in the opening chapters he talks about pleasure and possessions, work and wealth. And rather than deal with one of those topics exhaustively in one place, he cycles back to those topics again and again and again and again as his argument proceeds. And each time he brings up an old topic, we get a little more information, a little more elucidation as to how to understand his theme. Just realize that if you don't understand what he's saying the first time, just wait. It'll probably come around again. And it'll probably make a little more sense as the argument proceeds. The point is that as confusing as the organization of this book might appear, it's actually a well-crafted argument put together by a brilliant author who cycles through topic after topic, driving us to this conclusion. Now a word about the words in the book. If you're familiar at all with Ecclesiastes, you know that two phrases appear again and again. One phrase is, under the sun. Now if you turn to Ecclesiastes 1, and keep your finger in 12, we'll be back there in a minute, but Ecclesiastes chapter 1, that phrase first appears in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 3. What does a man gain for all his hard work under the sun? And that question launches the author into a series of experiments and observations. The phrase, under the sun, tells us where his experimentation and observation will take place. It will take place under the sun, that is, on earth, in this life. The phrase does not mean, however, this book is giving us a view of life that's simply man's reasoning. Some of you might have grown up with the old Schofield Reference Bible. This is in the study notes. The conclusions and reasonings in Ecclesiastes are, after all, just man's. Or the Bible that I used for some time, the new Schofield reference Bible. I had a chance to correct it, and they tried to correct it like this. The philosophy this book sets forth makes no claim to revelation, but represents the world view of one of the wisest men. Now that's poppy crock. being under the sun and apart from God is not what we have here. This isn't the best bit of secular wisdom that we have. We know that again because the end of the book. Ecclesiastes 12, and now I'm reading in verse 11, this stunning revelation is made to us. The words of the wise are like goads or cattle prods, like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd." Well, first we learn these words, as painful as they seem, are meant to be painful. They're like cattle prods, driving us somewhere, albeit at times depressingly and painfully so. But notice the last phrase of verse 11, we're told they're given by one shepherd. Now, if you've been raised at all around the Bible, I just ask you, who is the shepherd in the Old Testament? Psalm 23, the Lord is my Shepherd. Friends, this is a title for none other than God Himself. He is the Shepherd of Israel, the one who leads Joseph like a flock, who sits enthroned upon the chair of Him. The big point is that Ecclesiastes isn't merely the ruminations of one of the world's wisest men who lived under the sun apart from divine revelation. On the contrary, these words are given to us, they come to us by one Shepherd from God Himself. So when you read Under the Sun, don't think secular wisdom. Think life on this earth. And particularly, we know this side of Genesis, the scripture reading that we read, life on this earth is cursed. Under the Sun simply refers to the life which is cursed and lived in this fallen world. You want to know what life is like under the sun in a fallen world? Well, I'll take 12 chapters to tell you what life is like under the sun as a result of the fall. That's the first phrase that appears quite often, under the sun. The second one that most people know is that word vanity, or vanity of vanities that appears again and again and again. It appears 38 times in the book and what we have to ask is what does it mean? Well, I don't think it's helpful to translate it as vanity of vanities. In legal terms, we might object and say that's leading the witness, because vanity actually carries with it largely negative connotations. But the problem is, the word itself is morally neutral, kind of like our word crooked. Crooked doesn't have to carry moral connotations, does it? If you get braces because your teeth are crooked, that's not an indictment of the morality of your teeth. But on the other hand, you might say, that politician is crooked. And then you are saying something about the morality of the politician. How you determine in what sense to take crooked all depends on the context. The word itself is neutral. That's the same thing that happens with the word that's translated vanity, or maybe a translation you have this morning even says meaningless. But the word is morally neutral. It simply means breath or vapor. That's what it means. So we mustn't assume a morally negative meaning, vanity or meaninglessness, every time the word appears. Only the context is going to determine whether something being compared to vapor is good or bad. You have to stop each time and ask. Every time this phrase appears, you have to ask two questions. What is it that's being compared to vapor? And in what way is this situation like vapor? Now, maybe that sounds hard, but we do it all the time, and often without thinking. This illustration of Crooked is an example. But what about Robert Burns' poem, Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose? You probably don't mean that she's high maintenance like a rose, or that she's thorny. The point with word pictures is they force you to stop and think, in what way is she like a rose? In what way is life like breath or a vapor? And so by using this metaphor, this word picture, it becomes an economical way to get his point across in a memorable way in a variety of contexts. This past week I had lunch with a pastor in town. who just finished up an advanced graduate degree from a seminary that's about an hour away from here in South Carolina. One of his professors that he sat under was actually on the translation committee for the English Standard Version. He asked his professor what he thought was a good way to translate this word. It shows up in the ESV as vanity, but he said, what would be a good way to understand that word? And his professor said, I think the best word to use is actually a word like fleeting. It makes it a little morally neutral, doesn't it? Well, he followed up and said, then why did you guys use vanity if you thought fleeting was better? And he said, I got outvoted because they said it didn't sound poetic enough. Well, there you go. Biblical clarity, sacrifice on the altar of poetry. Go figure. Well, having laid all the groundwork now for the word about wisdom, the word about structure, and the word about words, we're now ready for the book itself. Now, I've already told you the book is notoriously hard to outline, so I'm going to give you what I think more for rhetorical purposes than really nailing the outline of the book. There are six refrains that punctuate the book, and they all sound the same. In chapter 2 and verse 24 is the first time the refrain appears, and pretty much every time after it sounds the same. This is what we read. 2.24, I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink, and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God, and who can eat or enjoy anything apart from Him? That, as I say, appears six times in this book. And they serve to counterbalance much of the apparent pessimism in the book. And we'll actually use those six refrains as paragraph markers that end a section and begin the next section. So, here's what we'll do. We'll go through it at length this first time, and then quickly the second time, and we'll see this. The first time through, what we're to see is this. The God who frustrates. Anywhere you look, In life, you'll see this, the God who frustrates. We get to the end of that, it's like coming to the end of a film or a book, and he's like, oh, that's where we've been heading. Let me go through it again, and I'll now pick up the clues that anticipate that conclusion. Was he blind or not? Well, let's go back and see whether or not he was blind. The God who frustrates, we'll see the second time through, is the God who fulfills. And if you don't hear anything else this morning, here is what I think summarizes the message of Ecclesiastes. The God who frustrates and fulfills must be feared. That's the outline. That's the theme of the book. So, let's look now at this God who frustrates. We'll go through the book. Beginning at chapter 1, I'm going to read the first 11 verses because they introduce us to the author's quest and his initial evaluation. We're going to read it to get a sense, the flavor, the feel of the book. So let's read chapter 1, verses 1 to 11. Here is what scripture says. These are the words of the preacher, King David's son, who ruled in Jerusalem. Everything is futile, says the teacher, completely futile or fleeting. What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south and then turns north, around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run to the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome and repetitious beyond description. No matter how much we see, we're never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. It's all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, here is something new. But actually, it's old. Nothing is ever truly new. We don't remember what happened in the past. And in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now. Well, that's quite an introduction, isn't it? Verse 3, as we said earlier, is the key question of the book. What is the gain man gets of all his hard labor? He begins by looking at nature and nothing seems to change. And his point is in verse 8. Everything is wearisome and repetitive. Whatever happened today will happen again tomorrow. So what's the point of it all? Why do I have to do it all over again? Even the repetitive cycles of nature communicate that life under the sun as a result of the fall is futile and frustrating and temporary. But he's not content with just observing nature. He now turns to the pinnacle of creation, mankind himself. He tells us in verses 12 to 16, he's setting us up. I've decided to make an experiment, to try something out. So we read in verse 16, I said to myself, look, I'm wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them. So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind. What an expression. I'm not sure where I read it this week, but somebody described that phrase, chasing the wind, like imagining somebody out in the field chasing a feather blowing in the wind, or a butterfly. Now imagine that same person in the field, and there's no butterfly or no feather to be chasing, and they're just out there, chasing the wind? Such an empty, futile, frustrating pursuit. He continues in verse 18, in fact, the greater my wisdom, the greater my grief, To increase knowledge only increases sorrow. Life under the sun in this fallen world is futile and frustrating and temporary. What's the point of nature that's so repetitive? What's the point of life that often feels like I'm chasing the wind? One writer commented that a fool thinks that he is just chained to a dungeon wall. But the intelligent person knows that life is actually a labyrinth. Pleasures, delights and sensations and all their cousins will send a man first on this errand and then on that one all to dead ends in the labyrinth. That's life. Well, he set us up for the grand experiment and chapter two, he tells us he gave himself over to everything that should make life meaningful. So we read in chapter two, verse one. Come on, let's try pleasure. Let's look for the good things in life. But I found that this too was fleeting. So I said, laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek after pleasure? As if he gives himself to one high after the next, watches nothing but the comedy channel, arranges his life to be happy, and finds it as fake and satisfying and hollow as the laugh track on a sitcom. Life is so fleeting when you pursue pleasure, he says. Well, maybe I should add a bit of drinking to my merrymaking. Maybe that would help. And so, verse 3, after much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. Well, you know the problem with getting drunk is it doesn't last. So now he says something else. Well, maybe if I can't find fulfillment in partying like a rock star or in dry martinis and caviar, then perhaps I should be a bit more sophisticated in my pursuit. I'll try a bigger home. more possessions, I'll pursue the arts, architecture and singing and fine arts. This is interesting. Here's a man who's a king. A man who already has everything and yet he says, maybe if I just have a little more possessions and architecture and a little more fine arts. He already has everything and he's asking for more. Well, he throws himself into this grand pursuit, verse 4. I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. He gives his hand in architecture. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned large herds and flocks more than any of the kings who lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. Now the arts. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women. And now how many one night stands can I have? And I had beautiful concubines. I actually had everything a man could desire. Now that's a very scary place. It's very scary to step back and say, you know, I have everything I desire. The first time I saw the film Chariots of Fire, two things struck me. Here is one. Harold Abrams is the opponent in the 1924 Olympics to Eric Little. Eric Little was a devout Christian who set the world record that stood for 12 years in that Olympic contest. He went on to be a missionary to China and eventually died there in a prison camp. Before one of his races, his nemesis, Harold Abrams, says this, I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor four feet wide with ten lonely seconds to justify my existence. But will I? I've known the fear of losing, but now I'm almost too frightened to win. And do you know why? Because there's nothing as scary and frustrating as having accomplished all that you want and not being able to enjoy it. He has ten seconds to justify his existence, and he's terrified that if he gets it, he still won't justify his existence. Somehow Abrams knew when he was frightened that he'd still be empty even if he got the very thing he'd been after his whole life. There's nothing new under the sun. Solomon says the same thing. To his pursuit of pleasure and wine and wealth, he even throws himself into his work. It's as if you could hear The aesthetic people who remove themselves from the pleasures of life. The monks or the academic people in life who just kind of laugh it off. I could have told you that that won't satisfy you. So maybe work will satisfy. I wonder how many of us are addicted to finding our ultimate contentment in work. The right job, the right client, the right project, one more hour, one more promotion, one more vacation. Just listen to where Solomon says putting your ultimate contentment in work leads, verse 9. I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted to know, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work. a reward for all my labors. But as I looked on everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so fleeting, like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. Now I know that you're tempted to say, like I am, well, you know, if I could just have what I love, do the job that I like, then it would be different. But that's his point. His point is that he had the job he wanted. He had the job he wanted. He did what he wanted to do, and he found it to be futile, chasing the wind. It didn't ultimately satisfy. And yet still, we tend to think, well, that may be his experience, but just give me a little more money or the right kind of job or the right kind of lover or spouse or whatever, and it'll be a little different. But he's already addressed that. There's nothing new under the sun. If I had a little more fun in life, if I were able to check off the things on my bucket list, if I had a little wine and wealth, things would be different. Ah, but you'll be a fool to think that. There's nothing new under the sun. And again, you can hear the intellectual scoffing now. We could have told you the pursuit of things in life are worthless. What you need is to pursue wisdom, academic pursuits. Well, he does that too. He gives himself to wisdom in verse 12. He tried to pursue the path of enlightenment for satisfaction. And he admits that it's better to be wise than stupid in this life. In the end, he says, it really doesn't matter very much. Because in verse 14, he says, excuse me, in verse 15, both will die. So I said to myself, since I, as a wise man, will end up the same as a fool, what's the value of all my wisdom? It's all so fleeting. for the wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool and the days to come both will be forgotten. Death is the great equalizer and happens to those who live with wisdom or to those who live the life of a fool. In the rest of the chapter he starts to cycle back to his theme of work and he wonders what's the point of hard work when you can't guarantee that your fortune will outlive you or that your children won't spend everything that you gave to them and be poor by the time they're dead. You know what people get for hard work? Chapter 2 verse 22 and 23. The days of their labor are filled with pain and grief, and even at night their minds cannot rest. It all seems so futile, frustrating, and temporary. So chapter 2 ends. Solomon has indulged himself in every area of life under the sun that we typically think will bring satisfaction. And when he finally bites into it, he's got a mouthful of gravel. Go ahead, he says. Go give yourself to pleasure, to wine, to wealth, to women, to the arts, to your work, to intellectual pursuits. There'll be a dead end. Life on this earth is frustrating and futile and temporary. And I think the older that we get, the more we realize this. When we're young, there are countless things out there that can make us happy. And as we get older, we've actually tried some of those things. You get some age under your belt and you get a little scared because the naive optimism of youth is slowly choked by the demands of life under the sun. My life will be great when I graduate high school, when I get married, when I get a job, when I have a kid. And then you have a midlife crisis and you think, really? What's the point? It all seems so futile and frustrating and temporary. We heard that very thing this morning from Jesse's friend David, the gentleman from England who just stopped in life and wanted to know what's the purpose of life? And then we become nervous and we get scared when we settle into life and we wonder, or you've said to yourself or your close friend, is this really all there is? Or you've said, like Harold Abrams, I just want my life to count, and I'm afraid that it won't. The point of Ecclesiastes is that that experience isn't unique at all. All of us have thought that. Some of us think that a lot. Life is futile and frustrating. I've shared this illustration with you before, but how about a modern Solomon of sorts? quarterback of the Patriots, Tom Brady, who won three Super Bowls and two MVPs by the time he was 30. And added to that, he dated two supermodels in his life. And that 2007 60 Minutes interview, he looks at the interviewer and he says, why do I have three Super Bowl rings? I'm 30 and I still think there's something greater out there for me. A lot of people would say, hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life, and for me, I think, it's got to be more than this. I mean, this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be. The interviewer pursues him and says, well, what do you think the answer is? I wish I knew. I wish I knew. And as the interview ends, the interviewer asks Tom Brady, well, which of the rings do you like the best? Which ring is your favorite? My favorite ring? I've always said, you know, I always said the next one, the next ring will be my favorite one. There's nothing new under the sun. That ending and Wilder's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when he goes up in the glass elevator and he says, you hear about the guy who got everything he wanted, he lived happily ever after. It's not true. You get everything that you want in this life, and you'll find it like Tom Brady, and you'll say, I mean, this isn't it. This can be what it is. This can be what it's about, isn't it? Well, the first section ends with that refrain, to eat, drink, and be merry. And the second section ends with 322, to eat, drink, and be merry. Quickly, just surveying now the rest of the book, what you saw in the first section happens in the next five sections. In chapter 3, he laments injustice in the courtroom, and he says, doesn't injustice make life frustrating? In chapter 3, verse 18, he laments that people and their dogs actually share the same fate, and he wonders then if there's really a difference at all between people and animals. Both go to the same place. They came from dust and they return to dust. How fleeting and futile. Then there's that third refrain. And the third section opens up, chapter four, and we have four more observations about life. Solomon, the possible author of the book, says that many people in the world are under severe oppression with nobody to help them. Then he notices that many people seem to be motivated by covetousness and envy. And how futile and frustrating life can be when he works and amasses great wealth but has no brother or child or family member to share it with. Chapter 4, verse 8. That's all so futile and depressing. Finally, the chapter ends reflecting on the futility of wisdom in popularity. He tells the story of a rags to riches story. It's a poor man who goes from poverty to the palace. The text tells us everybody's eager to help him. He becomes a leader of millions and he's very popular. What a great story, right? But guess what happens to him? Here's a man who goes from poverty to the palace and here's what we're told. The next generation grows up and rejects him just like they did before him. So he concludes that pursuing popularity and approval of people is all so futile and frustrating and temporary. You know this, right, Christian friend? You know this. You know that last week of Jesus's own life, they're hailing him as king of the Jews. At the end of the week, they're shouting to crucify him. Friends, defining morality based on a ballot box or making your decisions ultimately based on what others think about you is so futile and fleeting. The fear of man brings a snare. The beginning of chapter five is important that we'll return to at the end. In the middle of five, the author is again bemoaning injustice in this life and the futile pursuit of making it up to the next tax bracket. The problem is that you can make as much money as you want, but when you come to the end of the life, you'll be as naked and as empty handed as you were on the day that you came into the world. And once again we have a refrain and the fourth section ends and the weight continues to build. I hope that we're getting buried beneath this realistic portrayal of life and we're also starting to wonder, well how in the world do these refrains to eat, drink and be married fit in with this futile, frustrating, temporary display of life? The next two chapters in this fifth section gives us the first clue. Chapter 6 and 7 should be taken together. We often think that the wealthy people have it easy in life. We might even think that prosperous people, successful people in life are blessed by God. But it's not true. Being wealthy can be a sign of being cursed. Chapter 6, verse 2. God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want. but then He doesn't give them the power to enjoy these things. Did you hear that? It's what we've been saying all along. The most frustrating thing in life is to have all you've ever wanted only to find out you can't enjoy it. And this passage is so bold to suggest that God does it on purpose. Why? Why would God give you everything you've ever wanted and then withhold the ability to enjoy it? Things aren't always as they seem, being wealthy can be a curse. And chapter seven actually says that suffering can be a blessing. Chapter six ends by saying, who knows what is good for man? Chapter six, verse 12, chapter seven tells us a whole bunch of things that are good for man. If you want to know what's good to pursue in this fleeting life, here's a list. If you want to make life better, spend your time at a funeral rather than at festivals. Sorrow is better than laughter, verse three. It's better to listen to the music of rebuke than the music of praise. You see the point he's making? Adversity can be far better than prosperity. And you know why? Because you're going to die and you should think about it while there's still time. When is the last time, I don't mean in any macabre sense, but when is the last time you thought about your death? You're going to die. You will die by cancer, by heart attack, by old age, by an accident. You will die. Suffering helps us get used to the thought of it and awaken us to what matters most, smelling salts. to a pleasure-induced slumber. And you know what the real problem is, friends? We might be tempted to think the final problem is this world. Boy, that donut didn't taste good. Give me another one. I'll try that. We think if only the batteries lasted longer, I could enjoy things more. No, that's not the problem with the world. The problem with the world is us. Chapter 7 and verse 20, there's not a single person on the earth who does good and doesn't sin. Chapter 7, verse 29, I discovered that God created people to be upright. But they have each turned to follow their own downward path. God has designed this world, the delights of creation for one purpose to aid our enjoyment of him, but we have used the creation to enjoy ourselves, and that's our great problem. God views us as idolaters. And our dissatisfaction with life proves that we're idolaters. We worship everything but God and we're left with nothing but this futile, frustrating, fleeting life. God created people to be upright, but they've each turned to follow their own downward path away from Him. Chapter eight, he comes back to the evaluation of oppression and injustice, and he laments the use of living a righteous life. I mean, after all, I've seen wicked people buried with honors at their funeral. Wicked people are often treated as though they were good, and the good are treated as though they were wicked. This life is so futile, frustrating and temporary. And then the fifth section ends with the refrain again, eat, drink and be married. Finally, we're in the final section, chapters 9 to 11 of the sixth section, and we're reminded again that death is the great equalizer. Chapter 9, verse 2, the same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether you live righteously or wickedly, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don't. It seems so tragic that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Chapter 10, we're told that in spite of the harsh realities of life, it is better to go through life wise. That's the point of all the weird sounding Proverbs in Chapter 10 that's summarized in verse 10. Using a dull act requires great strength. So don't be a moron, sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom. It helps you succeed. Being wise won't make life any less temporary, but it can make it a little easier. And if you don't think so, try chopping down a tree with a dull axe. You'll wish you'd been wiser. Chapter 11 finally rounds out all those refrains and brings the last section to a close. And in doing so, it starts to anticipate the conclusion. Verse 9, young people, it's wonderful to be young. Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do. Take it all in. But remember, you must give an account to God for everything you do. And if you do that, refuse to worry. Keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, can be fleeting. Do you see what he's just said? He's just anticipated his conclusion and given us a key that enjoying life now, you can enjoy life now. You enjoy life. Just remember that you must give an account to God. And if you don't remember God, you'll fail to enjoy life, you'll waste it, and you know that's the right reading because it's exactly how Ecclesiastes chapter 12 opens. Remember now the Creator and the days of your youth. Think about Him before evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, I've lived my whole life and now I have no pleasure in it because I've not feared God. Then there comes this beautiful but harrowing poem in which old age is compared to an old worn down house. And then the urgent appeal is renewed in chapter 12, verse 6. Yes, remember your creator while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bolt is broken. Death happens. Don't wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well, for then the dust will return to the earth. The spirit will return to God who gave it. And everything is fleeting, absolutely fleeting. And if we're still dense and missing the point, he takes one more shot at us in 1213. Fear God and obey his commandments. This is everyone's duty. That's the God who frustrates. You see what he's been doing? The only way that you can make any sense out of this futile, frustrating life is to live in the awareness of God. That's what you do when you fear man. Your every move and thought is dictated by what other people think of you. Your awareness of them alters your behavior and your thoughts. Same thing with the fear of God. The only way to enjoy life is to live in the awareness of the God who made you. And if you do, You can eat, drink, and be merry. Let me put it like this. Ecclesiastes says that life under the sun is cursed. It means that life is futile and temporary. And because it's futile and temporary, it will never satisfy you the way you want it to. Why? Because God designed this life to be futile and frustrating and temporary. Why? So that we might see how fleeting this temporary life is, that we might fear him instead. This is a masterful piece of argumentation that the writer has just taken us through to show us this is the God who creates life to frustrate. Maybe you remember the film Pirates of the Caribbean, the first one. The first film, the antagonist is a pirate named Barbossa. If I remember right, the basic gist of the plot is that he and his pirate horde have gained what every pirate wants, immortality. That's what they want. They finally have it. But there's a catch. The moment he and his pirate buddies gain immortality, they're also cursed. They're granted eternal life and access to everything they want, but the curse is they don't have the ability to enjoy either pleasure or experience pain. And the whole plot then revolves around Barbossa wanting to give his mortality back so he can enjoy life. What irony to be able to live the life of a pirate, but have no ability to enjoy what pirates do. Utterly frustrating and futile. and temporary. That at one level is the frustrating point of Ecclesiastes. God has made you immortal, but he has cursed the universe so that you'll never be able to find ultimate satisfaction here. Never. What a mercy of God. What a mercy of God that when he cursed the earth in his mysterious, redemptive providences, it would turn out for man's blessing. In other words, the pleasures of life, the stuff of life, and the ability to enjoy the stuff of life are two distinct gifts from God. And part of the curse was to give man everything in life without the power to enjoy anything in life. That's the point of Ecclesiastes 6.2. God gives wealth so that he lacks nothing of all he desires. That's one gift, yet he withholds. He does not give him the power to enjoy them. It's led Doug Wilson to say, a can of peaches and a can opener are two distinct gifts. Only the first is given to the unbeliever. And that's utterly frustrating, futile, and temporary. This is the God who designed life under the sun to be frustrating, and He's designed it so that we might fear Him. For when God first made a man having a glass of blessing standing by, let us, said He, pour on him all we can. Let the world's riches, which disperse at lie, contract into a span. So strength first made a way, then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honor and pleasure. When almost all was out, God made a stay, perceiving that alone of all his treasure rest in the bottom lay. For if I should, said he, bestow this jewel on my creature, he would adore my gifts instead of me, and rest in nature, not the God of nature, so both should losers be. Yet let him keep the rest. but keep them with repining restlessness. Let him be rich and weary, that at least if goodness lead him not, yet weariness may toss him to my breast." This is the God who frustrates that we might fear Him. It's only part of the message. The other part of the message and here's the point of the six epicurean sounding refrains. God has designed life to be frustrating that we might fear him. God has designed life to be fulfilling for those who fear him. I'm not going to take the time to read the poem in Ecclesiastes three. You know what this is time for this and a time for this and a time to this 14 pairs of contrasts. These two points, that God frustrates, that we might fear, and God wants life to be fulfilling for those who fear Him, are wedded together in that poem in Ecclesiastes 3. I want you to read the conclusion of that. What do people get for all their work? Chapter 3, verse 9. I have seen the burden of God has placed on us all. Chapter 3, verse 11. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. Beautiful, complete, perfect. That is to say, that's the point of this times poem. God has ordained every area of life. He has infused every area of life for meaning. From times of war to peace to death to birth, everything has been ordained by God, and God looks at it and says, that's just perfect. That's not a to-do list for us. Elementary school teacher who said there's a time for everything it's time to get out your paper and do your homework That's not the point of the poem. It's not a to-do list for us. It's telling us what God has done He has created everything for its purpose And then we're told in verse 11 again he has planted eternity in the human heart and But even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. He has put eternity in their hearts. God hasn't designed this life to give us the satisfaction we crave. This life is temporary and can never satisfy an eternal being. That's the problem. You're asking the creation, wine, women, pleasure, mirth, to do something it can't do. Because God designed you to be eternal. Verse 12, so I concluded there's nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat, drink, and enjoy the fruits of labor, for these are gifts from God. Well, how does that follow? I thought you just said it can't ever make us happy. Well, keep reading. Verse 14, I know that whatever God does is final. See, that's the point of the poem as well. He's done it. Nothing can be added to His times that He's ordained or taken from it. And God has ordained everything that people should fear Him. See, that's the conclusion and now the penny drops. People who fear God realize that God has ordained every part of life and are able to enjoy life for what it is. Not as something ultimate, but as a gift from God. It's the fear of God, awareness of His absolute sovereignty that enables me to drink down life with both hands. When sorrow comes, I can run to it with joy-filled tears because it's from His hand. When laughter comes or when it's time to party, I enjoy it more than anyone else because I know this too is from the good hand of God. But here's the twist. Because I fear God, I won't overreach. That's the problem with most people. They ask this life to do something it was never designed to do, to give them ultimate satisfaction, and they overreach. But because I fear God, I won't overreach and expect more out of this life than God intends. What I'm saying is that no one should enjoy a vacation at the beach, a fall day, a glass of wine more than a Christian should. No one. But every Christian knows the enjoyment that comes from a vacation and a fall day is temporary and limited. And so when suffering comes to a Christian he can run to it with joy because he knows that it too is from God and it's only a vapor. It's only temporary. The fear of God allows me to enjoy life to the fullest, even sorrow, without despair. This life is fleeting, but I can enjoy it. It's a gift from God. It frees me. Fearing God frees me to enjoy this life more than anyone else, and at the same time it moderates my joy and my expectations because I know this is only temporary. So when your spouse dies, You're sorrow, you're sad, but your life isn't ended because you say, well, what did you expect? What did you expect? When you're treated unjustly, Ecclesiastes says, well, what did you expect? That's what life is like here. There's another twist as well. Fearing God tempers my pursuit of joy in this life because I know that God will judge and evaluate my life in the end. That's the last verse of this entire book. 1214. Fear God. Verse 14. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. So because I know life is temporary, I won't overreach and seek more satisfaction out of it than I should. Because I know that God will evaluate me, I won't overreach and indulge in this life more than I should. The fear of God frees me to enjoy life, and it also puts a limitation and boundaries on my enjoyment of life. Fearing God allows me to live with the mysteries of life, the injustices, the wicked living long and the righteous dying young. It allows us to enjoy life to the fullest without overreaching because he will judge us and it's only temporary. Now let us hear the conclusion of the matter this morning. What will it be for you, friend? The fact that he says the conclusion of the matter is to fear God is also a call out to all of us. You must fear God. Will you let the futility and frustrating aspects of life lead you for the first time or again and again back to this all-satisfying God? You see, fearing God and keeping His commandments is not the way to please God. It's a way to respond to everything that God has done in this life. And what He's done in this life ultimately comes to us through His Son, Jesus. I don't fear Him to get Him to love me. I fear Him because He has loved me. And that, friends, is the whole surging, pulsating motion of Ecclesiastes as it moves forward to the cross. Summarizing and paraphrasing how one writer comments on Ecclesiastes, The despair of Ecclesiastes is experienced by Jesus' despair on the cross. Jesus has redeemed us from this futile, frustrating, temporary life by entering into it and subjecting himself to it. He is the Son of God, but nevertheless, he came to experience the vanity of the world so he could free us from it. As he hung on the cross, his own father deserted him. He is the righteous man in Ecclesiastes that dies young before his time. At the very moment he was on the cross, he experienced the frustration of the world under the curse in a way no one else ever has. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law of life under the sun by becoming a curse for us. And as a result, Jesus has restored meaning to wisdom, to labor, to love, and to life. And now we can enjoy it for what it is and to the fullest. Because after all, by facing death, Jesus conquered the biggest frustration in Ecclesiastes. Death happens to us all, sooner or later. But for the believers, death is not the end of all meaning. but the entrance into the very presence of God. The cross and empty tomb redeem us to enjoy life and not to set our hope in this futile, fleeting, temporary life. Fear Him. Fear Him and keep His commandments. or you will die in this futile, frustrating, temporary life.