You ever heard the phrase, don't reinvent the wheel? Remember the first time hearing that when I was very young. Don't reinvent the wheel. What I was being told at the time, though I didn't realize it is, don't waste your time, don't waste your energy coming to a conclusion someone else has already come to. Don't reinvent the wheel. Don't do something else, wasting your time and energy that's already been done. I heard that phrase, but differently, from the lady that used to help run the comic shop I used to go to when I was in my mid-teens. She was married to a Christian man, and she, by the grace of God, was a Christian woman, and they ran their comic shop like Christians, even handed out tracks. And not only because comic books were getting to be popular at the time, but they were kind, they were loving, and for a bunch of teenagers that didn't have parents in the home or came from broken homes, they quickly became friends, mentors, even surrogate parents. And I would hang out there for hours. And visiting with them, his wife told me one time, you know what's real wisdom? What's real wisdom is to learn from other people's mistakes. And I thought, aha, I remember hearing this. Don't reinvent the wheel. And she said, that's what the Bible's for. And then I began to think, oh, that's like Proverbs. That's like Ecclesiastes. Don't reinvent the wheel. Learn from God's word. Learn from others that have gone before. Put it to you another way. Don't learn the hard way. Just submit to who the Lord is and what he says in his word. Now this idea of not reinventing the wheel or learning from other people's experiences is very relevant to the portion of God's word we consider together this morning. Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse 12, through chapter two, where Solomon demonstrates that life is vain without Christ. Maybe you noticed that as we read through chapter one and chapter two, there were some of the strangest phrases maybe that didn't make sense. He goes through and he talks about pleasure, he talks about alcohol, he talks about all the work and the labor he does, like we saw from 1 Kings. He was wise, he studied plants, he studied animals, he was wealthy, had people coming to him from all over the place. But even in spiritual things, when he comes to what seems to be a great conclusion, For God giveth to man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy. But to the sinner he giveth travail to gather, to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. We think, oh, well, that's the reflection of the whole business. That's the whole point. You follow God, he'll give you good things. And if you don't follow God, you won't have good things. But then he says this at the end of that. This also is vanity. and vexation of spirit. Why would he say that is vanity and vexation of spirit? That serving God and being rewarded by God and having, shall we say, a better life than those who choose sin. Why is that vanity and vexation of spirit? We'll see the answer to that question and many more. But as we consider what really are a series of Solomon testing things, trying to find purpose, trying to find meaning, trying to find value in life, testing everything as we'll see, he comes to the conclusion that it's all vanity. Boys and girls, don't do what Solomon has done. Don't try and become wise and try and become wealthy and try and become prosperous so you can try and find meaning in anything under the sun. You won't. You won't. Put it to you another way, don't reinvent the wheel. Learn what Solomon was taught by the power of the Spirit and think about it. No matter how wise you are, you're never gonna be wiser than Solomon. No matter how rich you are, you're never gonna be richer than Solomon. No matter how great you may think you are or what position God has put you in to try and to test everything, you'll never be able to do it the way Solomon did. So don't reinvent the wheel. Learn the lesson that vanity, that life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ truly is vanity. And we see firstly in these these verses that Solomon perceives and recognizes this reality. That if you don't have the God of Israel, he who is the I Am, the one who will deliver and save his people. So put it to you another way, if you don't look above the sun, all you're going to find is vanity. We see this in a couple words he uses. He sees this and later on he recognizes this as he communes with his heart and he gives himself to these, shall we say, experiments and tests. I, the preacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem. We saw previously that this is indeed Solomon, the wisest man, and that he indeed was the preacher, the teacher. We saw what better message could we hear today than the vanity of this life? He says, I gave my heart, the core of his being, to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. Nothing left out. He uses his amazing insight, his brilliant understanding, the depths of his wisdom, the marvels of his riches, and he says, I will seek to understand all of creation. He doesn't just say I'm gonna study the stars. He doesn't just say I'm gonna study plants. He doesn't just say I'm gonna study panda bears. He doesn't just say I'm gonna study this philosopher, this thinker, this author. He's gonna study everything. And he does. He does, like we saw from 1 Kings chapter four. People came from all around the world to hear what he had to say about everything. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. This is the sore travail God has given, like we saw last week and in chapter three. Verse 11, he hath made everything beautiful in his time, and also he hath set the world in their heart, that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. Verse 10, I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of man to be exercised in it. God wants us to see, to look, to search and find nothing. To find nothing. so we are driven to him. That's the great exercise. That's the great exercise. To see how everything is valueless. But notice how he continues. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and to behold all his vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. That which is wanting cannot be numbered. You can't change the way reality is or what is happening. Sometimes we laugh about that in our culture. We have men that say they're women and they think they're women just because they say so. Or you have women that say they're men and they think they're men just because they say so. And they try and demand other people acknowledge the same truth just because they say so. As if wanting something, as if wanting something bad enough made it true. But it's not. We might look at our political situation and laugh or fear what it means for our culture, but what a shame it would be for us to do the same thing, just with different subjects. I'm going to find purpose and meaning in life apart from God. I am going to find some kind of satisfaction in this life in what I choose to do rather than in what God has called me to do. That's the same silliness as a man saying he's a woman and thinks he's a woman just because he said so. Same thing, same vanity. We can't change reality. God's made it what it is. The important thing is to acknowledge it. And that includes acknowledging our sin and the need for the Savior. To look, as it were, above the sun. to the work of God and especially to his work in Jesus Christ. But notice how it continues. This is all building introductory to these grand experiments he's going to do because he perceives and recognizes the situation and he puts it to the test. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. Nothing left out. And then he continues as this goes through. I communed with my own heart. He sees everything under the sun, and he reflects, and we would say talks with himself, thinks about things, reflects, and he recognizes this situation, and he wants to analyze it, he wants to understand it. Just as a side note, if anyone ever tells you science is a modern phenomenon, It's not. Nor is science necessarily a Western phenomenon. It's not. Science is a very old phenomenon and starts in the East. It may not be the same thing as modern scientific theory or the scientific method, but the idea that one reflects on creation, nature, and study, and seeks to find purpose, and seeks to find understanding, that's very old. That's very old, even older than Plato, even older than the pre-Socratic philosophers. It goes back to Solomon. I communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and I have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. He basically realizes, I'm the man. I'm the one to do this. God has made me wiser than all. God has made me richer than all. God has made me greater than all. If anyone is going to do this great work, it's gotta be me. And you'd be tempted to think if anybody else but Solomon said that, they were boasting. But it's true. But it's true. So what does he do? having seen the situation and perceived it, like verse 16 says, we see this recognition, you could say, in verse 16, as he communes with his heart, and thus in verse 17, I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. That really unpacks the whole book. I'm going to see the value of wisdom and the value of foolishness and everything that comes with and in between. And you know what? It's vexation of spirit. Empty labor. Pointless striving, so to speak. Valueless striving. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Why would that be? Because the more you know, the more you realize how valueless everything is. The more you know, the more you realize how empty everything is. And that's what chapter two is about. Because he recognizes the situation after having perceived and seen it, so he decides to test it and demonstrate it. And there it set the force in chapter two, three main tests, three main provings, where he demonstrates the vanity of everything through firstly pleasure, secondly we could call it wisdom or understanding, and then lastly labor. And these really are the three things people live for. You ever notice that? Even in the history of philosophy, but even practically when you talk to people? Think about it boys and girls, what kind of things do you like to spend your money on? Or maybe what kind of pleasure do you get in saving your money? Something different people do differently with money. I don't know if you've noticed. When you spend money, it feels good. When you spend money, it feels good. And then you get something new, and it's nice to have something new. But then that feeling goes away. And some people get in big trouble because they keep spending money, even money they don't have, because they want to have a good feeling. Other people look at that and they think, oh, how foolish is that? That doesn't make any sense. They're going to be wiser. They're going to be better stewards of their money and spend it on different things. But guess what? Even if you spend your money on different things, and even if you save your money and you're going to be wise, Guess what happens? The money just sits there, doesn't it? You don't get to use it, do you? No one just sits there. Or what about this? What if, besides being a spender or a saver, You want to take pleasure, not in your money, whether you're spending it or saving it, but in your accomplishments. Maybe money doesn't mean anything to you. Maybe you're a person of accomplishment and values, things you've done, hard work you've done, impacts you've made. Well, guess what? Just like if you die, you can't take your money with you, so when you die, no one's gonna care. No one's gonna care about the impacts you make. No one's gonna remember you. These three things, pleasure, wisdom, labor, Solomon goes through and concludes all of them end up in vanity. And it leads to feeling and accepting this truth, at least with the Spirit's blessing. But firstly, the test of pleasure, we could say. I said in mine heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth. Therefore enjoy pleasure, and behold, this also is vanity. I'm gonna live for pleasure, I'm gonna be happy. That's empty too. I said of laughter it is mad, and of mirth what do with it? What value is there in laughter and happiness or mirth? and then notice the things he considers to give him pleasure. I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine. You know, people do that. Maybe they use whiskey or bourbon or something else. They're sad, what do they do? They drink. They drink alcohol. And I know many of us have seen that and what has happened. Alcohol and the abuse of alcohol destroys families. when instead of dealing with your wisdom, instead of dealing with your problems, you take a drink. You're feeling bad and you wanna feel better, what do you do? Take a drink. The Bible even talks about giving wine to those who are sad so they may have their hearts lifted. And there's nothing wrong with drinking alcohol in moderation. The problem is when people drink to get drunk. And why do they do that? So they don't have to think about their problems. Solomon tried alcohol too, just like so many do in this world. I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom. In other words, he wasn't dumb enough to destroy his life with alcohol the way some people do. I remember taking one homeless man to the hospital for medical care, because despite what people tell you in the United States, if you take someone to the hospital for medical care, even if they don't have insurance, they won't turn you away. They will try and hunt you and track you down and try and make somebody pay. But as we were waiting for the doctor to examine him, I was talking to him about a sin of being a drunkard, even using the old-fashioned King James Word and how if he didn't repent, he's gonna end up in hell. And he told me, if I have to deal with my problem rather than drinking, I'd rather be in hell, so I'll just keep drinking. That man died. I was doing an internship for my studies, but I came back and the people who used to run the outreach told me he died. It's a very sobering thought. Solomon didn't let the drink destroy his life. That's what it means by he kept his wisdom. But he certainly sought to test it. He goes further. Yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom, and I lay hold on folly till I might see what was that good for the sons of men which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. Further, I made me great works. And then notice the great works he's done. I builded me houses. And we're not just talking small houses. We're talking mansions. every particular type of architecture you could imagine. And who would have been a greater architect than Saul? I made me great works. I built in me houses. I planted me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards and I planted trees of all kinds of fruits. I made me pools of water to water there with the wood that bringeth forth trees. He is the world's greatest landscaper. on the largest of scales. He says, I'm going to build farms like vineyards. I'm going to have these amazing buildings and context with them and design how they fit together. I'm going to plant forests. I'm going to relocate water so the water waters my gardens and my forests and my vineyards. He's designing entire landscapes. We used to live in British Columbia. and there were special gardens that people would travel all across North America to see. They wanted to know what flowers were there, what trees were there, how the special gardener did it. He had his own TV show in Canada. Go to Australia. Every major city has a certain type of royal garden with all different types of trees, all different types of plants, all different kinds of buildings that fit together in this very beautiful area. Maybe you do that kind of thing too. Maybe you've built buildings on your property. Maybe you've built your garden. Maybe you've built your fences and your animals. Maybe you know what it's like to redirect water courses. Maybe you've done these things, but on a much smaller scale. But what's the conclusion? It's all vanity. You're never done building. You're never done taking care of your garden. There's always more. There's always more. There's never ultimately any satisfaction. This is artwork on the grandest of scales and extremely practical. But even his conclusion will be vanity of vanities all is vanity. Next time you're in your garden, ask yourself, especially perhaps you're tempted to take pride in it. Do I understand this is vain? Next time you're accomplishing some great feat, some marvelous building, something that you think is very significant. Maybe you think about your legacy for your children and your grandchildren. Ask yourself about your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, and your great-great-grandchildren. and how impactful is this gonna be? I don't say that to be harsh. I say that because I'm the preacher. We must understand everything apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation we will find in him will be vain. It will literally, as the New Testament says, be burnt up with fire, and so will we apart from the grace of God. but notice how it continues. He moves on, I got me servants and made servants and had servants born in my house. Also I had great possessions, great and small cattle above all were in Jerusalem before me. He had stuff, he had resources, he had investments. Some of you understand very well how animals are investments. Animals are an ability to work. Animals increase your productivity. Some of you understand that better than some of us could ever hope to. Solomon knew that. Solomon understood that. But notice how he moves on further. We know this is about economics when it comes to maidens and servants and cattle. He says, I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings and of provinces. I got me men singers and women singers and the delights of the sons of men as musical instruments and that of all sorts or musical singers and concubines. Pleasures of the flesh, pleasures of the ear, pleasures of the mind. Some of you may know Uncle Scrooge. Not the Christmas story, but the Disney character, Scrooge McDuck. He jumps in his safe full of gold and he loves his money. It's just a cartoon, but even Solomon would dwarf Scrooge McDuck. And he's saying whether it's the pleasures of the body, the pleasures of the year, the glorious significance of wealth, and the success of investment, he would have made Elon Musk look like a hack. What's the conclusion? Vanity. He says in verse nine, so I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem, and also my wisdom remained with me. He didn't lose his understanding. He wasn't a captive to his wealth. He wasn't a captive to his pleasure. He wasn't a captive to his alcohol. He says, and whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them. I withheld not my heart from any joy. For my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and that was my portion of all my labor. I delighted in anything and everything that could give me pleasure and joy. But then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. Everything we do, everything, unless it is part of the work of God he has called us to do and part of the establishment of his kingdom, even in ways we don't know, it's gonna be destroyed in fire and judgment, and rightly so. There's no room for man to glory, only room for God to glory. Let us not take joy in any sort of purpose-giving, profitable way in these things. Let us take joy in them as they are good gifts from our God and we will release them to him when we die or he comes again. We'll see that more further towards the end that this must be felt and accepted. But just notice with all this marvelous exposition of pleasure that it ends in nothing. Don't reinvent the wheel. Seek your life the right place, in Christ, not in vanity. But not only in pleasure, in wisdom. In wisdom, this perhaps might seem striking because how can wisdom be vain? Chapter two, verses 12 through 17. And I turn myself to behold wisdom and madness and folly, and what can the man do that cometh after the king, even that which hath been already done? Nothing new. Notice how he continues. What is he saying? If you live a life that is wise, And wisdom doesn't just mean, as we'll see later at the end of the book for the conclusion, the fear of the Lord, wisdom can also mean practical skill. Maybe you remember reading about the building of the tabernacle and all the people that brought their gifts and all the people that used their abilities in the tabernacle, whether they were dyeing fabric, sewing fabric, whether they were constructing or whether they were shaping the gold. their gifts, their practical abilities are described as wisdom. As wisdom. Just to give you other examples, there's a special wisdom in being able to help a cow give birth. That's a biblical way of talking about wisdom. There's a special wisdom in being able to work with metal and shape it into the forms it needs to be. There is a special wisdom There is a special wisdom in playing music. There's a special wisdom there. That's the way the word is used often in the Old Testament. It's not used about abstract philosophy. It's often used about very particular skills. And Solomon is simply saying, listen, if you are wise about life and focusing on what works and what doesn't work, what's gonna help you and what's not gonna help you, being disciplined and focused and careful versus being reckless and dangerous and not thoughtful, the wise man's gonna win every time. He has his eyes in his head. He can see what's going on and the other people stumble around in the darkness. Wisdom exceleth folly as far as light exceleth darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness. But then this is the great leveler between the wise and the foolish. The one event happeneth to them all. He'll develop this further. The one event happeneth to them all. Then said I in my heart, as it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me. What happens to the fool happens to me. And why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity. Because I may be disciplined, I may be wise, I may be thoughtful, I may try hard, I may be diligent, and that may save me a lot of other trouble. But we're both gonna die. We're both gonna get sick. We both are under the weather. We both can't control the rain and the sunshine, hail, and all those things. Every once in a while as I'm driving around, whether I'm still driving up here or driving down in Rogers, Arkansas, you know what I see? Houses ripped apart and trees knocked over. And then I'm like, that's right, we had those tornadoes come through. And I thought, wow, it didn't make a difference if you lived in some old ramshackle hut from some old Ozark homesteader days, or whether you had a giant mansion. What does the tornado do? Boom. It destroys it all. Didn't make a difference if you were rich or poor. Didn't make a difference if you had a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, or a PhD, or if you had a GED, or you didn't get anything. Tornado didn't care. What happened to one happened to the other. This continues, this continues. Then I said in my heart, verse 15, as it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth to me. And why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, this also is vanity. For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever. Seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? He dies as the fool. And then this is his reflection in light of all his wisdom. This being that second test after pleasure, what does he feel? Does he feel a sense of accomplishment? Does he feel a sense of joy? Is there this satisfaction? Therefore I hated my life. I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me. For all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Hated it. No satisfaction in anything. It's true, isn't it? It's amazing in our culture, who are the people so many people want to be like? They want to be like the movie stars. They want to be like the actors. They want to be like the professional sports people. They write books about them, newspapers about them, websites about them. There's whole TV stations dedicated to them. Who's dating who? Who's doing what movie? Who's making so much money for which movie? What's going to be popular? What isn't? And we marvel at their lives. to the point where people in Great Britain think we view our movie stars like they used to view their royalty. But what do you learn from the lives of the rich and the powerful and the wealthy? They're not happy. They're not happy. How many mansions does Michael Jordan need? What does he do when he can't sell them? What happens when your relationships fall apart? What happens when they get cancer and die? Doesn't make a difference. Doesn't make a difference at all. You can see where people who expect to find some kind of pleasure or delight in life because of their accomplishments hate them, hate their lives, hate themselves. In our age of decadence, it's no accident there's so much apparent depression and at times even suicide. because they decided to reinvent the wheel rather than learn from Solomon. But one last example, pleasure, wisdom, labor, work, work. And maybe this is the one some of us really can relate to. Maybe we don't relate to pleasure seeking because we learned a long time ago that was wrong. maybe wisdom is something we don't think much about because we think wisdom is vain. Whether it's the accomplishments of others, college education, whatever, reading books, reading websites, ah, that's for those other people. We work! We get her done! Backbone of America. All kinds of other things. Well, verses 18 through 23, Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun, because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. No matter what he did, it wouldn't abide. Somebody else would have it. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? I work hard, and I'm going to pass on these things I have done, and who knows what's going to happen to it? If it's going to be some guy who's going to appreciate it, some guy who's going to take care of it, some guy who's going to improve upon it, or some slacker who's going to not appreciate it, and it's going to waste away and crumble to bits. Who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. All the pleasure I had, all the investments I had, all the wealth I had, all the work I had done, all my wisdom, gone, because somebody else isn't going to appreciate it. And everything I did is going to go to waste. Sometimes I think about that walking through the Ozarks or driving. You see, where I'm from, you would never see this. You see houses that are abandoned and grown over. In the places I've lived, houses don't get abandoned and grown over. Land's too expensive. Housing is too expensive. People will knock it down and rebuild or they'll take care of it, but they won't just leave it there. And you talk to some of these people, oh, that was grandpa's house, or that was this person's house, or that was this, and we just didn't take care of it. So it starts to fall apart. Wouldn't see that. But here, that's quite a common thing. But think of the blood and the sweat and the tears, the people who built those homes, built those gardens, built those homesteads. And this isn't that long ago. And now they're just some old abandoned house by the side of the road that might have one time been a great piece of farm property. But now it's ready to be burned and knocked down. No wonder you can relate with this. This is also vanity. Therefore, I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took under the sun. Isn't that an interesting way to put it? He's truly being purposeful. Therefore, I went about to cause my heart to despair. He purposefully went about to despair. Why? Because he is realizing, he has seen, he has perceived, perceive, will see further momentarily, he has to accept the fact that everything is vain. Everything is vain, apart from the Lord and his purposes, like we saw last week. Therefore, I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor that which I took under the sun. For there is a man whose labor is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity. Yet to a man that hath not labored, therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity, and a great evil. For what hath man of all his labor, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath labored under the sun? For all his days are sorrow, and all his travail grief. Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This also is vanity. With much knowledge comes much increase in sorrow. And the more you get, it seems like the more you're discontent. We'll talk more about contentment this afternoon, the Lord willing, something the Apostle Paul learned. For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief. yea his heart taketh not rest in the night this also is vanity and then here are his conclusions that he feels and accepts and leads him in the same place there is nothing better for a man that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. Notice he's recapitulating, he's bringing back all the things he's tested and says, looking back now, when it comes to pleasure, when it comes to wisdom, when it comes to work, as these things are all expressed together, this is the best there is. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw that it was from the hand of God. Remember, the conclusion here is not eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. When he says this is from God, that doesn't hearken to the idea of God giving people good stuff to enjoy on earth before they go to hell. That's not the emphasis. Like we saw from Ecclesiastes chapter three and Ecclesiastes chapter one, this is the travail hath God given to the sons of men that they would be exercised thereby. I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. So as verse 11 continues, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. wants to show us the vanity and futility of these things, not say, oh, they're going to hell, so I'll give them a nice time on earth before they can be tortured for eternity. That's not the meaning of the text. It just simply says that's the best you got, and don't kid yourself. It's the best you got, and don't kid yourself. God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he giveth travail to gather and to heap up that he may give to him that is good before God. We know that's the right interpretation of the passage. Because the ending says, this also is vanity and vexation of spirit. To eat, drink and be merry and tomorrow we die? to live a wise life, enjoying pleasure and moderation, understanding my labor that I'm going to give, I'm going to leave to a bunch of fools, and that the same things that happen to these fools happen to me. So I'm going to try and live my life as if it has value, as if it matters, as if there's any profit in it. I'm going to stay up at night. I'm going to wonder. I'm going to think. I'm going to say, this seems so unfair. It doesn't make sense. if I actually stop and think about it. If I actually, as Solomon did, perceive and recognize what is going on. This is vanity and vexation of spirit. You may try and kid yourself and think, well, I have a nice life. I have a good home. I have a nice family. I work hard, I have good things, I'm glad I'm not like those people. I don't need to have that. It's all gonna be gone. It's all gonna be gone. So at the very end, and remember we saw in the first part of chapter one, and the second part of chapter 12, there was that shift from speaking about the third person to the first. Vanity of vanity saith the preacher, all is vanity. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still sought the people, taught the people, he taught them knowledge, yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, that which was written, was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as golds, and the nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which is given from one shepherd. That's the greater than Solomon, our Lord Jesus Christ, like we saw last week. The words of the wise are as golds and nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. Further by these, my son, be admonished. Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh. Let us put an end to this whole business of examining everything under the sun. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, that every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Where does the whole... Where does the whole experiment lead us? And I mean the entire book, not just what we see very clearly in chapter one and two in these tests he gives of pleasure, wisdom, and labor. The whole business directs you back to the word of God, back to trusting in him for what he's going to reveal, not to this life. It directs you not to anything under the sun, but to those things that are above it, because all you're gonna have is vanity. We hope to celebrate the Lord's Supper next week. And in preparation for it, ask yourself this question. Am I living for what is vain? Am I going to learn the lessons that are being taught by the preacher, by Solomon, by the greater than Solomon? If you find yourself embracing the vanity, living under the sun, repent. Repent and take hold of Christ by faith. It's only in Him and His purposes are you going to find any relief for the travail of this life. It's only in Him and through Him are you going to understand what God has done and is doing in Christ. No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. You can't search it out, but God has revealed it. Job chapter 28 does the same thing beautifully with wisdom. Paul talks about the mystery of the gospel and the realization of all the promises given into the Old Testament that find their fulfillment in Christ. And the purpose that comes, the contentment that comes, the power that comes, the prosperity that comes, the peace that comes. only in and through Christ, nowhere else. Let us not reinvent the wheel. Let us heed the words of the preacher. Amen, let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank Thee for the beauty of Ecclesiastes, for the infallibility, for the inerrancy, and the full inspiration of Thy Word. Let us not live for anything here below, but enjoy all the things here below as we embrace our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue to lead us, Lord. Remember our catechism teachers, our Sunday school teacher. We pray for thy blessing on the sermon discussion. And continue, we pray, to direct sinners to Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.