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In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon reflects on the pursuit of pleasure, the failure of worldly wisdom, and the need for true wisdom from God. He realizes that everything he achieved was meaningless and a chasing after the wind. He sees that denying God leads to madness and folly. Solomon concludes that both the wise and the foolish will meet the same fate and that wisdom alone cannot save. True wisdom comes from God and is found in pursuing Him. through verse 17, so our continuing series in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, verses 1 through 17. It's a challenging book. Stretches our brains a little bit. It causes us to think and to think about the gifts that God gives and how we might see them employed in our lives. And so it's a good work and a good study for us these days. So Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verses 1 through 17, and this is God's Word. ...for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers and a harem as well, the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed within me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart's no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun. Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done? I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. The wise man has eyes in his head while the fool walks in darkness. But I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I thought in my heart, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise? I said in my heart, this too is meaningless. For the wise man like the fool will not be long remembered. In days to come, both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die. So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind, the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Today we're going to consider this text, verses 1 through 3. We read about the seduction of pleasure, verses 3 through 11. It's a compromise under the sun. And verses 12 through 17, the failure of the world's wisdom. And then as we conclude the text, we'll look at Jesus, how we see Jesus in Ecclesiastes. We're considering our text today to determine the chief end of man, and this is how we'll study this particular text. As we consider this text, we can't help but think of a scene that appeared previously in the Old Testament. Recall the event in the Garden of Eden when the attempt was made to consider together the gain of wisdom and the pursuit of pleasure. The gain of wisdom and the pursuit of pleasure. This is Genesis chapter 3. So you know what happened in Genesis chapter 3. Everybody knows what happened in Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. Listen to what the text says. It says, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Yes, we know the story of the fall in the garden in Adam and Eve. Now, fast forward from there to about 930 BC, and we know that Solomon knows better. He's been to Sunday school all his life. He knows these stories. He's aware of the garden story, and he's aware of how it worked out for Adam and Eve. So certainly he must know that this cannot work out well for him either. But here at the beginning of chapter 2, Solomon seems to be willing to walk into the same trap. Notice our text for today, verse 1 and 2 of our text. Solomon says, I thought in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good. But that also proved to be meaningless. Laughter, I said, is foolish, and what does pleasure accomplish? I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly, my mind still guiding me with wisdom. Wisdom, as we see and as we understand, that is under the sun. And we've seen the distinction between wisdom under the sun and wisdom under heaven, and here it is again today. As we've already seen, this is not the place to find true wisdom, the wisdom of God. Fast forward 1,000 years later, and the Apostle James will then teach on the same true source of wisdom, compared to wisdom that is from under the sun. Listen to what James writes. This is James chapter 3, starting with verse 14. James says, but if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth, such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. This is how James lines up with the teaching about wisdom from under heaven. So what could Solomon have been possibly thinking when he declared these intentions? He said, I thought in my heart, come now, I'll test you with pleasure. Did Solomon not realize what trap he is walking into? I tried cheering myself with wine and embracing folly like that was ever going to work, but Solomon went there anyway. Solomon has to know that this is not going to turn out well for him. It is the seduction of pleasure. Solomon has to understand that he is playing with fire and that he will be burned somewhere in the process. And this certainly ought to send up for us a bunch of red flags. Certainly, of course, for all believers, particularly for Presbyterians, because we recall the opening words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question one, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Now, compiled by the pastors and scholars of Westminster who looked at the Word of God and said, truly man's chief end is not to glorify man, and it's not to glorify enjoyment with himself, not to pursue one's own pleasure and one's own gain, rather to glorify God and pursue God. The Apostle Paul reminds the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whatever you drink or eat or whatever you do, you do it all, what? For the glory of God. And he also made clear to the believers in Rome in chapter 11, verse 36 of Romans, when Paul says, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be the glory forever. Amen. This is the consistency of the Word of God. Solomon here tries to explain, though, at the end of verse 3, that his mind is still guiding him with wisdom. But if we're sitting with Solomon, we might say, well, what wisdom are you talking about, Solomon? What wisdom do you have in mind? Which wisdom are you applying here? Is this wisdom that comes, that is under heaven, or is it wisdom that is under the sun? Here is what the wisdom which is under heaven would say. This is the words the Apostle John, 1 John, chapter 2, verses 15. And here's what the wisdom under heaven looks like. John says, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. We have to continually ask ourselves, we're seeking for wisdom, as we said last week, wisdom does not exist in a vacuum. Wisdom comes from heaven, or wisdom exists under the sun. Which one are we looking after? Which one are we seeking? Which one are we applying? Verses 1 and 2 act as an introduction to the rest of chapter 2. We find here that chapter 2 divides into three parts, and we'll consider parts 1 and 2 today, and part 3 we're going to save for next Sunday. You have to come back to hear part 3. We notice the divisions because Solomon makes it easy for us here in this text to notice the divisions. And we see that because each section that Solomon describes ends with similar words. Look at verse 11, for example, when he concludes with, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun. Then we go down to verse 17, notice the end of that verse, the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me, awing it as meaningless, a chasing after the wind. And then we get a sneak peek at next week's text, notice the end of verse 26, this too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. So what Solomon has done here is he has concluded each of these little sections in chapter 2 with a reminder, like we need the reminder that everything, everything is meaningless. We knew that Solomon was going to go back there sooner or later, and he does at each one of these sections. We find that Solomon is in quite a predicament. Chapter 2 seems to set up the believer time and time again with the glorious hope that the abundance of divine wisdom just waiting just around the corner. In the first part, beginning with verse 3, the king dives into a list of what has brought him such fame and notoriety. Here Solomon recalls government work projects which were begun and completed during his royal administration. Solomon kind of sounds here like one of our typical modern-day politicians running for re-election. He's telling about all the wonderful things he has done, of course it's with your money, but he's telling about all the wonderful things he has done. But then Solomon draws to the conclusion, clearly not something that would be part of a political campaign. Can we imagine any of our government officials running over their list of accomplishments, and instead of justifying all the expenditures and the accompanying waste and fraud and all the kickbacks, wouldn't we just love one of our politicians to say something like, yeah, I did all this stuff, but I realized then that everything was meaningless. Wouldn't that be great to hear one of our politicians one time to say that? Yes, don't hold your breath, but wouldn't it be great just for one time to hear one of our politicians to say something like, you know, I did all this stuff, but what I realized is this. Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun. So are we not thankful that Solomon speaks for us here divine wisdom? He goes through these litanies. He goes through this list, for example, and then he realizes and he admits, yeah, it was all a big waste of time. Admits the sin and the darkness of this broken and fallen world, a world which desperately needs a Savior. Solomon makes it abundantly clear where this world is headed without a Savior. Notice Solomon's bragging words. He says this, I undertook great projects, built houses, planted vineyards, gardens and parks, planted all kinds of fruit trees, made reservoirs to water the groves, and then look down in verse 7, I own more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. And then he's really bragging, I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. And who was before him? David. And David didn't do too bad for himself, but even in this Solomon says, you know what, anybody before me and I've done greater, I have done more, greater by far. Now if this was the extent of Solomon's bragging, we would have agreed that the king had much to brag about, no doubt about it. But as we read through the list of the items of Solomon's accomplishments, there were a few things in there that should have caused little red flags for us to pop up. There were a few things that we saw them and we thought, well wait a second, why are those things in this list? Notice verse 7, what does he say? What's he bragging about? He says this, I bought male and female slaves and I had other slaves who were born in my house. And then he comes to verse 8, he says this, I acquired men and women singers, oh that's not so bad, but I acquired a harem as well. The delight, like he needs a harem. 600 wives and concubines and he's, oh I acquired a harem. Oh that's great, wonderful, thank you Solomon. The delights of the heart of man. Or how about verse 10, notice that text, I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure. So therefore Solomon boasts that I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. Yet as he concludes this bragging, the truth will not remain silent. Verse 11, yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I toiled to achieve, I realized this fundamental truth. Everything was meaningless. A chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun. Let's just remember folks why these accounts appear in Scripture. Take for example, as we just referenced, Solomon's 600 wives and concubines. Why does something appear like that in the text? Why do we need to know that? What are we supposed to think about Solomon and his 600 wives and concubines? Well here he boasts possessing slaves in the text that he purchased as well as more slaves that were born under his ownership and he brags about the harem that he keeps. Now please understand that just because something appears in the Bible, like in the historical narrative of Scripture, so just because something appears in the Bible, it doesn't mean that it's justified. Just because something is in the Bible and we read it in the historical account, that doesn't mean that the Bible is endorsing that thing. So when we read of Solomon, we read of him, and how do we read of him? We read of him warts and all. Just like everyone else in the Bible saved Jesus, Solomon appears as a sinner in need of a savior. The Bible record tells us, tells of God using people despite their abhorrent practices and not as a reward for their abhorrent practices. Solomon has seen fit to accept a compromise under the sun, slaves as servants, slaves as sexual objects, human beings here callously among buildings and gardens planted. This is the seduction of pleasure. So when we read the historical account, the Bible is not justifying these events. So in other words, it's not saying, oh, 600 wives and concubines, that's a good thing. Just because Solomon did it, it means it's okay. No, what the Bible is saying is this, that's a historical account. We're going to see Solomon warts and all, and we're going to see that despite his sin, despite his absolutely abhorrent, grievous, vile behavior, God yet would desire to use Solomon, just like he would use you or me. Now let's go on to verse 12. This next section, Solomon returns to a theme we visited in the previous chapter. Certainly this is part of what makes Ecclesiastes such a challenging book to comprehend, because Solomon will visit a theme, then he'll move on to another, and then he'll come back to a theme that he visited previously. He kind of does this throughout the book. Immediately we have to remain on our toes when we study Ecclesiastes. Notice here Solomon's words in verse 12. He says, then I turn my thoughts to consider wisdom and also madness and folly. Down to verse 13, I saw that wisdom is better than folly. Just as light is better than darkness, the wise man has eyes in his head while the fool walks in the darkness. This is good wisdom, no doubt about it. Certainly the wisdom from God is revealed here, wisdom that everyone in the world needs to hear. Solomon here connects walking in darkness, a metaphor of course for unbelief, a pursuit of the things of life and of this world without God, without a submission to divine lordship. Here Solomon connects walking in darkness to madness and folly. Denying God, denying his existence, denying his authority, these here Solomon therefore equates with insanity and foolishness. We say that again, this is important. Denying God, denying his existence, and denying his authority, these here Solomon, and therefore the Word of God, these here Solomon equates with insanity and foolishness. And this underscores a portion of the text of why we must be passionate about communicating the gospel to this world, because the Bible is telling us the truth. We must say to this world, please do not deny God, and please understand that denying God means a surrendering to madness and folly. Denying God is an embrace of insanity. It's an embrace of foolishness. You see the urgency with this message. There's an urgency here. This gospel we must communicate because we're burdened with this truth, and we must communicate it, and no one else is going to. No one else is called to do the Great Commission. Who is called to do the Great Commission? The church is called to do the Great Commission. That's it. You're not going to get on some government website, you're not going to get, Facebook doesn't care about the Great Commission. The church's job is to communicate the Great Commission. There is an urgency to this message with which we are burdened. Think of it this way. If we see someone standing on the railroad tracks and a speeding locomotive is heading their way, would we not do what we can to get them off the tracks, even physically if we must, and violently if necessary? Yes, absolutely. We must be about the communication of the gospel because denial of God and the denial of the Word of God, denying his existence and denying his authority, the Bible says, is insanity and it is foolishness. So Solomon here is considering both wisdom and also madness and folly. Fine, let's throw it all back in together and see what happens. He longs for wisdom, but then he discovers a problem. Notice the second half of verse 14 and following. Solomon says, pursuit of wisdom and then also madness and folly, he says, I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I thought in my heart, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise? I said in my heart, this too is meaningless. For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered. In days to come, both will be forgotten, like the fool. The wise man, too, must die. And this is rough text for us to understand. Solomon's been talking about pursuing wisdom and now he's saying there's really not much point, is there? Well, Solomon has spent two chapters now discussing the pursuit of wisdom and the need for wisdom, but here a roadblock appears. Solomon realizes a difficult truth and it's this, the wise person and the foolish person will in this life meet the same fate. Wisdom will prove to be as meaningless as foolishness, and both the wise person and the foolish person will eventually die. It's the failure of the world's wisdom to carry through beyond this life. Here's the underlying truth. The wisdom that is under the sun, the wisdom that is under the sun will pursue wisdom merely for the sake of possessing wisdom. I pursue wisdom so I can have wisdom. Oh, that's great, you have wisdom. What are you going to do with it? Well, I don't know, but I've got it. I've got wisdom. That's the wisdom under the sun. Pursuing wisdom for the sake of possessing wisdom. But here's the problem, and we know this is true. Wisdom doesn't save anyone. Wisdom does not save anyone. Wisdom cannot guarantee eternity. Wisdom doesn't save a single person. So wisdom as the goal therefore really is meaningless. It really is. It gets us nowhere. It really is vanity. Wisdom, we must understand, is therefore a tool. It's a tool for something more. It's a tool for something greater. The wisdom that is under heaven knows that we are here not just for the pursuit of wisdom, but what we would gain through wisdom and by wisdom, which is God himself. We're not here to pursue wisdom. We're here to pursue God. And we're going to use wisdom and all the other things that God gives us, wisdom, intellect, emotion, experiences of our lives, relationships, everything. We use them all together, how and why, for the pursuit of God. We're not here to get a wisdom certificate to hang on the wall. That's not what it's about. We use wisdom so that we might gain something, we might acquire something, we might possess something. What is that? Through wisdom, what we would gain? We could see God, that we would know God. This is the wisdom that exists under heaven. Now we'll think about Jesus and Ecclesiastes. As we understood him throughout the history presented to us in the Scriptures, Solomon appears as a great king, ruling over the nation with compassion and wisdom. And as we've seen today, he effectively administered the progress of the nation through the construction of great works, including the temple, the king's palace. Solomon did a lot of things. He had a lot of stuff on the resume during the course of time that he served as king. And as a result of Solomon's rule, the nation of Israel enjoyed a sense of peace within its borders and its interactions with other nations. So great was Solomon's reign over Israel that the Queen of Sheba even came for a visit. The fate of Solomon was known throughout the region, so we read in the text in the Bible that the Queen of Sheba had heard about Solomon and how great he was, and she came for a visit. She came so that she might hear of the king's wisdom, and she might enjoy the splendor of what he had done while he was king. And this is in 1 Kings chapter 10. You can read about the text here. Listen, verses 6 through 9, as the Queen of Sheba comes to Israel to meet Solomon and to see what all he has done and to hear his wisdom. This is what the Queen of Sheba writes. She said to the king, the report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true, but I did not believe these things until I came and I saw them with my own eyes, indeed not even half what was told me. In wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your men must be, how happy your officials who continually stand before you and they hear your wisdom. Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness. The word about Solomon was everywhere and even the Queen of Sheba was astonished. Solomon has indeed accomplished great things. He's accumulated great wealth. He's built great structures. But even within our text today we've seen the flaws again. They've popped up here in our text. We see that Solomon, of course, as we saw earlier, he's purchased men and women. He's acquired slaves. He's assembled a harem. And as we read previously, Solomon was quite fond of worshiping at any place he could find. So all the high places he made sure to leave the prescribed sacrifices at each and every detestable pagan deity as he was traveling down the street. He made sure to cover them all. Sin continues as justified in the kingdom of Israel through the reign of Solomon. So then why Solomon? Why does he appear in the Scriptures? And why do we take any time to read about him? And what are we going to learn from Solomon? Why must we read about Solomon? Well here's why. Hang on to this and this is a little bit of a shocker but we're going to explain it to you. Solomon is presented to us by the Old Testament and he's presented to us as a type of Christ. He's presented to us as a type of Christ. He prefigures Christ. He points us forward to Christ. Now Solomon does not point us forward to some neutral concept of wisdom that exists in a vacuum that's devoid of the divine as if such wisdom is actually wisdom and if such wisdom can exist as the final goal. No, Solomon points us forward to Christ. He points us forward to Christ as the one who truly and fully embodies the very wisdom of God, the wisdom that is under heaven. But wait, how is this possible? Because we have seen Solomon is indeed a vile sinner. Solomon has failed miserably. He is certainly no paragon of virtue. So how can we say that Solomon is a type of Christ? It's this way. It is clear from our read of study of even this little bit of Solomon's record and Solomon's writing that what we need is a better Solomon. What we need is a greater Solomon. The one who is to come must be the one who accomplish greater things and he must do so while not embracing and incorporating and justifying the evil of this world or compromising with it, but instead he is to come who has demonstrated and proved his absolute perfect holiness and perfect righteousness. We need a greater Solomon. Matthew's gospel tells us of an instance when some people asked Jesus for some sign to prove that he was the Messiah, to prove that he was the Savior, to prove that he was the Lord of all things and the one who was to come. And it's found in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 42. And listen to Solomon, Jesus' response when the people said, show us, show us some sign Jesus. Here's how Jesus responded. He said this, the Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom and now one greater than Solomon is here. The greater Solomon is here. So we are thankful to God for giving us Solomon and yes in Scripture we see Solomon warts and all, all his glory and all his depravity. But Solomon, despite that, points us forward to Jesus and Jesus proves to be the greater Solomon and it's through Jesus that we determine the chief end of man. So how does Jesus prove to be the greater Solomon and why do we need to know that Jesus is the greater Solomon? So let's, it's two ways and let's consider this here at the end, two things we'll think of. First, of course, we read of Solomon and his great building projects, gardens, parks, reservoirs, the temple, the palace. But then we hear of the opening verses of John's gospel and we read that John is indeed describing for us the greater Solomon. Listen to what John writes about this greater Solomon. He writes this, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. He's the greater Solomon. Second, we read of a Solomon today whose sinful ways were evident in his acquiring of persons who would then remain in bondage. But then we read in Paul's letter to the Galatians and we read the blessing that comes through the greater Solomon. The blessing that comes through the greater Solomon. Listen to what Paul writes to the Galatians. He writes this, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. So my friends, the greater Solomon has come. The greater Solomon has come and his name is Jesus. Let's bow our heads and pray, shall we? Lord Jesus, you indeed are Lord and King and Savior and we praise you and we give you glory this day. And where for Solomon and all the other Old Testament characters whom we admire but whom at the same time we learned deep truths about the sin of man, we looked at Solomon's life and we found that he accomplished great things. We also looked at Solomon's life and we have found that he was terribly sinful. And so it reminded us that we needed a greater Solomon. We needed one who defeats sin and death, not embraces it. And we needed one who builds all things, not just some things. And we needed someone who brings all people in, not blessing some while owning others. Thank you, Jesus, because you're the Solomon that Solomon could never be. Thank you, Jesus, for you're the Savior that we've needed. Thank you, Jesus, for you're the Redeemer and the Reconciler and the one who draws us into the kingdom of God, built for us, that we might enjoy the presence of God for all eternity. For this we praise you and we give you glory. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.