It is good to be with you this morning. Let me tell you, it's been quite a week. Hopefully, this study through Ecclesiastes has been an incredible blessing to you. It has blessed you as much as it has blessed me in my life. As I've mentioned multiple times, this book is near and dear to my heart because I believe that it is a helpful reset. It's a book that puts things into perspective for us. For those who are joining us, we've been taking a journey through Ecclesiastes, and today we'll be wrapping up chapter two, which concludes what I believe to be the first section of the book, which focuses on our creaturely limitations, and more specifically that we as creatures are powerless prescribed meaning, are really enjoying anything apart from the Lord, as we will discover at the end of this chapter. Now hopefully, as we've worked through this together, you start to really see the incredible value in pondering our creatureliness, our powerlessness, our insignificance in many ways. Now some might go, well, No, this has actually been quite a depressing study, actually, Jeremy. I don't know if I want to ponder those things. I want to think of my life having meaning. I want to think of my life as obtaining some power. I want to think of myself as significant in some way, shape, or form. I want to have some mark on history. Well, hopefully Solomon, in all of his wisdom, has utterly destroyed that by now. And that you have come to the conclusion that all of that is impossible. on your own. If life only existed under the sun, if all that we experienced was only under the sun, really nothing is meaningful. Nothing. And we would be left basically to ascribe meaning on our own and really in the end as we've learned that that's really not helpful. It's not meaningful at all. Today what we're going to go through is we're going to look at two specific topics that Solomon as he's pursuing to find significance in something, We're going to look at wisdom, the pursuit of wisdom, and the pursuit of toil, he calls it, or work, and trying to find meaning and significance out of wisdom and work. And what he concludes in the end of it all is he says, I hated it. I hate every aspect of it. And sometimes I think that to kind of provide a preface as we work through this, we can get caught up in that same idea. As a matter of fact, there's been theologies out there that have done incredible detriment that follow in this line of thinking, that really our work and the pursuit of wisdom is all but meaningless. That's right, I said a theology out there, and many theologies out there, that would suggest that what we do here and now in this world is meaningless. That the material existence for that matter is meaningless. Its ancient roots are found in Gnosticism. And they buy into this idea. They believe that they would agree wholeheartedly with Solomon's conclusion that all is vanity and all is chasing after the wind. And so no need to really invest time, money, and energy in anything. Come, Lord, come, Maranatha. Come, Lord, come. All is going to be washed away anyway. And as you probably heard many times from us, no reason to Rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. It's sinking. It's all going to be destroyed anyway and burned up with a fervent heat. So why invest all this time and energy into anything? So I'd like to provide a refutation of that this morning. And also too, we'd like to challenge the other group of people that I believe Ecclesiastes challenges. Those who believe that all we have is under the sun. wicked, sinful people who reject the fear of the Lord and love foolishness and they embrace it wholeheartedly. So let's look at vanity, the wisdom of the vanity of wisdom and folly pursuing that. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, starting in verse 12 to 12. So I turn to consider the wisdom of madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Now, I think he's building this idea off of the first chapter in verses 9 through 10. He says, what has been is what will be. And what has been done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it is said, see, this is new. It has already been done in the ages before us. And I think what he's saying is that his experience in life, having been endowed with incredible wisdom from the Lord, beyond measure of I think any man in history aside from Christ, and having received wealth beyond measure, beyond what we can imagine in any person in history, and as he already has said earlier in chapter 2, really anything that he had put his mind to, he was able to do in his lifetime. And what he's saying here is he's comparing himself with just an average man. Is there anything that they could do that the king hasn't already done? Are you going to be able to follow the king in the same way? No, I don't think so. And I don't think he's saying that from a position of arrogance. I think he's saying it from the reality that he has been endowed with incredible wisdom. He has really sought to pursue all these things and ascribe meaning to it in some way, shape, or form, and hasn't been able to find it. And he had all the means necessary to do so. I think that's what he's driving at. I really do. One of the words that stands out to me, and I'm sure it does to you, is this idea of madness and folly. Why would he look to consider such a thing, madness and folly? Why would madness and folly be something that could possibly, someone could find meaning or significance in madness and folly? The idea in the Hebrew is simple-minded, dull, or foolish. It's a person whose intellectual shortcomings preclude any correct estimation of his own actions and their consequences. I like that definition. They're incapable of understanding the error of their way. They're just fools. They're ignorant, they're foolish, and their behavior is irrational. It's the idea that a man who lives in such a way dies prematurely because they don't follow the law. Think of a contrast between that and Psalm 119. Think of all the different passages that relates to the law and following the law and how it's a lamp to our feet, how it guides and lights our path, how it gives us wisdom. This person is the exact opposite of that and only finds death at every end. And Solomon's like, maybe it's better to just be a madman or a fool than to pursue all of this wisdom. Because he goes on later to say, it's a complete waste of time that I've spent all this time chasing after this wisdom. The fool is just as well off as the wise man is. Listen to what he says in chapter 2, verse 13 through 17. He says, Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And I perceived the same event happens to them all. And then I said in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said in my heart, that is also vanity, for the wise is the fool. There is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in all the days to come, all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies, just like the fool. So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity, a striving after the wind." Some of you in this room may have concluded such a thing in your life. Maybe more than once. Like, wait a minute, why is it worth putting all this time, effort, and energy into studying, and to learning, to becoming wise, right? To building my intellectual powers. To use them for the good. When as we saw last week in Asaph's psalm, Psalm 73, that the wicked seem to prosper more than the righteous. Why is it that I invest so much time and energy into growing and learning when I could die next week? Some people die in the middle of their PhD studies having never finished it. Some earlier, some later. Time and chance, as Solomon says, happens to them all. Solomon goes on to say, man, I have really worked hard to be super wise, right? The Lord has endowed me with these special powers. But then in the end of it all, my end is the same as the fool's. I die. And there's really no remembrance of any one of us, right? We can think of some amazingly brilliant people right now, okay? You probably have a few in your mind. Like Jonathan, for example. Just kidding. I'm not giving the flattery. Now, if you think about some brilliant people who we're surrounded by in our time, right? Those people, a thousand years from now, the Lord Terry's, will probably be forgotten. No remembrance of them. Their lives are limited is what Solomon's getting at. Solomon's life was limited. The only reason Solomon's wisdom in any manner, and we don't have it all by the way, was preserved is because it's inspired in God's word for lessons for us. Not only in Ecclesiastes, but in Proverbs. The only reason it lives today is because God has sustained it. God has preserved it. But if you think about it, you know, aside from a few, a small handful of people, we really don't know these people. We don't know the extent of their work. We don't know the extent of their studies outside of what has been written. And much of who they are and who they were is vanished. It's gone. I just, I think of people like, they come to mind, Plato and Aristotle have been incredibly influential in history, right? Many philosophers would say, that most philosophies developed today are just mere footnotes for Plato and Aristotle's work. They're still at this present time chasing the philosophical tale of their work. That's pretty profound. But we don't know everything there is to know about Plato. We don't know everything that there is to know about Aristotle or even Socrates. Only reason we know about Socrates is because what Plato wrote about him. Right? Much of who he is and who he was is gone. Very little remembrance of him. And I imagine there's a lot of brilliant people that were surrounding him in that day that didn't write anything, maybe even more brilliant, and they're gone. So why pursue this wisdom? Why pursue wisdom? Let's look at what wisdom is according to Scripture. I like this. Martin Manzer says this in the Dictionary of Biblical Themes. He says, Wisdom is the quality of knowledge, discernment, and understanding characteristic of God Himself. True wisdom, seen in the ministry of Jesus Christ, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Scripture affirms that true human wisdom is a gift from God and points out the folly of trusting in mere human wisdom. I think that's exactly what Solomon's trying to convey to us. Here, look, I did it. I went before you. These are all the struggles that I wrestled with. And man, if life only existed under the sun, then really I don't possess wisdom at all. And it's really a vain pursuit anyway, because we all die in the end. And by the way, none of us will be remembered really. And again, remember the only reason we know Solomon is because of what? Something above the sun conveyed it to us. God preserved Solomon's word. What does wisdom look like, more practically speaking? Let's look at the structure, direction, and telos of wisdom. Telos meaning what is the ultimate aim or goal of it, okay? So in one instance, you can find throughout scripture a technical skill, like for instance, those who were building the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and things, were endowed by God with certain wisdom and skill to fashion those things. Craftsmen have been given a wisdom above their peers to execute technical excellence. We have another skill is instruction. Those who are capable of instructing wisely, whether it be from a pulpit like this, a teachings scenario, context, or just in everyday life. We pursue those kind of people, the gray beards who've been around for a while that we like to cry and complain to. And as we're losing our mind and upset about certain things we're going over in life, we look to the gray beard to just go, you'll be all right. There's a lot worse that could happen. And by the way, you're going to survive. You're going to be just okay. That's wisdom. It's discipleship. It's instruction. So there's a wisdom that's involved in instruction that way. There's astute governance found in scripture. Job was an excellent example of that. Job was deemed by God an astute governor. A man who is prominent in his society, he met at the gates with all the other great men. And when people met at the gates, that's where they governed society. We know that it takes an incredible amount of wisdom. It's the very thing that Solomon asked for into rightly governing a nation. So there's an element of wisdom that we need to appreciate. Spiritual discernment is another one. The capacity to be able to discern between God's will in a particular situation or what people say, right? Like examples this morning abounded in our Sunday school, right? And it's John's Sunday school. If you guys haven't been here, you guys are missing out. Things that Christians say are theologically loaded, and we actually have to have the discernment to be able to rightly divide the Word of God, as Paul says in Timothy, as workers unashamed, so that we could discern the will of God as people are conveying what they believe the will of God might be. We run into it all the time, don't we? And as we say often, bad theology hurts people. It really does. Bad theology has practical implications in our life. And where it is struck and correct and encourage and exhort one another, according to what? Paul says in 2 Timothy, the word of God as given to us. So if we don't know the word of God, we won't have spiritual discernment. And some people have made it their best effort to do, that's all they do. There are discernment ministries to teach you how to discern. And some of them don't have very good discernment. The Bereans were congratulated by Paul, by as he proclaimed the word of God to them, as he proclaimed who Jesus Christ was, the gospel to them, they were more noble minded because why? They went back to the word to search these things out to see if they were true. We should ask Denny about that one, Greg. He proclaimed to them and they were to hear and then they searched the scriptures to see if they were true. So the word of God should be our foundation for discernment. The word of God is what gives us the proper context to build wisdom. And what is wisdom in it all? It's a quality of knowledge and discernment and understanding the characteristics of God himself. And not only that, but us, the context he's placed us in, and then to properly apply that knowledge in its proper context. Wisdom is applied knowledge properly. So there could be evil wisdom, And there could be good wisdom. Think of it structurally. Wisdom is wisdom. Truth is truth. Right knowledge applied rightly is true. Let me give you an example. An unbeliever can do math wonderfully. Probably better than most in this room. I know certainly better than me. Structurally speaking, math exists, or we would consider it a tool of dominion. It's something God has given us for the purposes of building. and developing things. An unbeliever can very wisely use math to fly to places like the moon or send a, if you believe that, right? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, don't punch me for that one. I believe we went there. But we can also actually send trajectories deep into outer space and hit an asteroid that's rotating around some moon around some other planet, which is pretty impressive. An unbeliever can exercise wisdom and judgment But the problem is, is what direction do they typically take it, and what's their ultimate aim? As we know, what does it say in Proverbs 1-7? We all know it, right? What is the beginning of knowledge? It's the fear of the Lord. And a fool despises wisdom. What I believe he's getting at there in the beginning is to say that a fool has a telos where they want to use wisdom for their own glory. They want to apply knowledge for their own glory, for their own ends, and it always As I quoted last week, Proverbs 14, was it 12 and 16? That there's a way that seems right to man and its end is death. I think that's it. I probably misquoted that, but it's in the Proverbs. I promise. Forgot the address. There's a way that seems right to man, but its end is death. They want to apply this wisdom and knowledge in such a way where the telos, the ultimate aim, is for their own glory, for their own ends. But yet, it always ends in death. And as we learned, that last week, that you could work as hard as you want, you could build as much as you want, you could take dominion, men are always working to take dominions, or women, as much as you want, but unless you're doing it to glorify God, you won't find meaning or joy in it at all, and in the end, all that toil would have been for nothing. I love what John Calvin says in his Institutes of the Christian Religion on our relationship with God as it relates to wisdom. It's in chapter one, and it's his first argument. Without the knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God, which is really interesting when you think about it. Without the knowledge of ourself, there is no knowledge of God. Now, wait a minute, what do you mean, John? Like, we have to know ourself in order to know God? Yes. Then he goes on to say, without knowledge of God, there is no knowledge of self. This is a chicken or egg problem, right? Which one comes first? Even John Calvin says, there's really no way of knowing. in the end of it all, but what does he say? Man before God's majesty is where you discover this. Let's look at what John Calvin says about wisdom. He says, Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists of almost entirely two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two proceeds and gives birth to the other, the chicken or the egg. Which one comes first? Is it knowledge of ourself that gives us knowledge about God, or knowledge about God that gives us knowledge about ourself? Or it's kind of a both-and thing. You can't dichotomize the two. Why? I believe, he doesn't say this here, it's because we've been made in God's image. It was declared in Genesis 1. We can't escape it nor avoid it. It's a reality that is innate within us. As we think of ourselves, we must think about God. That knowledge cannot be put away. I think Paul says in Romans 1 very clearly that it's that very knowledge that is suppressed in order to what? Defend unrighteousness. We can't put away the knowledge of God in our minds. I like what Stephen Charnock says, it's like a foul stench left in a pot that can't be cleansed. Our conscience bears witness that we are image bearers of God. So it's hard to tell the two apart from one another. For in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves. Because it is perfectly obvious that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves, nay, that our very being is nothing else than substance in God alone. And in the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distill to us from heaven are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards. Not only that, while hungry and famishing, we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stripped of the divine attire, our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties to every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. So no matter what, even though we've been stained by sin, corrupted by it, there in us remains some stain, like Sharnock says, of the knowledge of God. We can't put it away from us entirely. Thus our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption reminds us that in the Lord and none but He dwell in the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness, We are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God. And indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? who in fact does not thus rest so long as he is unknown to himself, that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments and unconscious or unmindful of his own misery. Every person therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is led as by the hand to find him." This is how he starts the entire institutes of the Christian religion, which is interesting. It's an interesting way to start. What is he saying in short? That unless you know God, you can't know yourself. And unless you know yourself, you can't know God. You can only know yourself by knowing God in your proper context. And how can you know him? Through his word. And then he goes on to say, on the other hand, in terms of this knowledge, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God. and come down after such a contemplation to look at himself and be disgusted, as he goes on to say, with the reality of who you are and what you are and what you've become as a result of sin. And he goes on at the very end, just to kind of encapsulate what it means to stand in God's majesty, he says, hence that dread and amazement. with which as Scripture uniformly relates, holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence of Almighty God. Remember Job from our last example, and I think Job is a perfect example. As a matter of fact, Calvin brings him up later in this paragraph. But think about it, how did Isaiah respond when he was in the presence of the Lord? He fell as a dead man. Woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips who dwells amongst men of unclean lips. How did Job respond when God questioned him? He said he put his hand over his mouth and he realized how much of an error he really was in. how much he recognized the depravity, the corruption of his own thought life, how he could have possibly accused God, who is holy and perfect, of wrong, of treating him wrong and doing wrong by him. Israel were terrified when God revealed himself on Sinai. When the angel of the Lord was present, people fell as dead men. Terrified. Jesus said, no man can see my face. Why? You'll die, to Moses. But I'll let my glory pass by you. and then Moses' face permanently shined as a result, right? Because he had been in the presence of God's glory. It's only when we understand who God is that we can put ourselves in proper context and the necessity of needing the wisdom that He provides for us in His Word. What happens is we start to drift away from it. We start to justify and make excuses, developing and building our own wisdom. And as we know, Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 8 says, if you hate me, which is God's very wisdom, you love death. Death is always a result of it. And by the way, in pursuing this, this death is not just death in, you know, a spiritual death or even a physical death. It's actually, as Jonathan brought up this morning, which I really appreciate, it's a death in your relationship with your Creator, number one. And that death results in what? A death internally within yourself, death of conscience. You begin to suppress it in unrighteousness, starting to justify and encourage more and more sin in your life. And you encourage it in others and you breed destruction around you. Death begins to unfold. in relationships, in marriages. Death unfolds in parenting because we want to do it our own way. We don't really like what the Bible has to say about raising our children in the nurture, fear, and admonition of the Lord. And what's interesting is it's the only command with a promise. What does it say? You guys know it. You know it. Ephesians 6. What does it say? It's the command with promise. What does it say? You may live long on the earth. It extends from the land to the earth. When Jesus says, everything in heaven and earth is mine, go therefore, he is giving a command to go and disciple the nations to raise children. And the fear and admonition of the Lord, it will go well with them in the earth. It is a positive command. It'll go well. What do we see right now presently in society? as it relates to people's understanding and their relationship with God and the kind of wisdom that they're developing in their life and how they raise their children, how they govern their families. Divorce is rampant. Divorce is rampant among Christians. People are not raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. They would just prefer to ignore what God has to say about those things. The whole spare the rod, spoil the child understanding. People struggle with correcting their children even and keeping them in alignment. They struggle with with witnessing to their children what God really looks like. They struggle with raising their children in the Word. Think of how the first eight chapters of the Proverbs begin. My son, listen to me. Take this and listen. Do not go in this path. Go in this path. Avoid this pitfall. Go this way. Follow the Lord. Fear Him. And your days will be full, right? Yet we ignore it. We come up with our own wisdom, our own direction, what's right in our own eyes. We do our work in our own direction, to our own misery in many cases, right? We instruct others, like our children. We govern society by our own wisdom. For those out there who think that Christians should not be involved in civics, that is the governance of a society, That has caused disaster in America. Disaster. The Bible doesn't teach that we should be involved in this, so it's all kind of going away. It was brought up this morning that God's sovereign, God appoints these leaders. Right, but then also too, we are to hold those leaders accountable to what? God's order, the way God has designed us, the way he has created to uphold justice and righteousness and equity. Just because they were appointed there by God does not mean now that they get to be eliminated from accountability. They're somehow exempt. Christians have come up with their own way of doing governance. We just want to live peaceably. Well, let me encourage you. You can't live peaceably in society when you let wicked authorities run roughshod over the top of you because you failed to vote them into power. You won't live peaceably. We see that right now. So if you want to come up with your own wisdom, how you believe things ought to be governed instead of taking God's word and running with it, holding your local authorities accountable from his word, then you will have missed your purpose here as a Christian, as a believer in this time. in this place. God has also equally sovereignly appointed your time, place, and habitation. So we can see structure and direction and wisdom. If we believe that all that is under the sun and we believe that we get to come up and dictate what our own wisdom looks like, we get to ignore God's word. Disaster ensues every time. And you might not want to hear this, but you will be an agent of the problem of evil. Whose side do you want to be on? Do you want to govern your household, your life, your marriage, your children, society, according to your own wisdom, which we know brings death, and be a part of the problem of evil? Or do you want to be a part of the solution, which is what, saints? The gospel, a gospel-directed people. And then there's the vanity of toil, hard work. Going on in verses 18-23, Solomon says this, He will be a master of all which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This is also vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This is also a vanity and a great evil. What is a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow. His work is a vexation. Even the night his heart does not rest. This is all vanity." So if I might summarize it, he's saying something along these lines. Applied wisdom yields great gains. It's good. It's a good thing. But it's only to be left for a fool to enjoy and pilfer. In the end, it's true. I know people who have worked their entire life for this dream on the other side. Right? It's called retirement. As John Piper says, picking up shells on a seashore. To waste their life picking up shells on a seashore. To really be useless. If you haven't read Don't Waste Your Life, may I encourage you to do that today. It is an excellent book and I believe it is exactly what Solomon is nailing here right here on the head. Is your identity wrapped up in your work? Is your identity wrapped up in some future you? Some future position of your family? Is your work a vexation to you because you feel like, man, all I do is really work to what? For the weekend, as I said last week, I work and I spend all my work and my days so I can party on the weekend, play. Is all my work dedicated for play? Or some future reference to play. A vacation, maybe. What is your work for? I agree with Solomon. Well, if that's what your work's for, just so you know, you might work super hard, and at the end of your life, you might have stored up all this wealth that some fool, like one of your children, get to inherit and destroy. Next of kin. Or some idiot dude who just seems to land who gets it all. Right? Which is really interesting to me, because I believe actually that he is dealing with inheritance. He's dealing with how families ought to operate. One in the sense of wisdom. Wisdom is not a bad thing. It's actually not a bad thing to attain wealth. Scripture speaks very highly of attaining wealth. Right? Look at Job as an example. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman. Both were diligent workers, hard workers who built up and amassed wealth, who had run businesses, who had acquired land, and so on, and were highly regarded among their communities. That's not a bad thing. However, if your identity is sewn up in this building of wealth, what ends up happening in the end of it all? What happens if that wealth disappears? Remember one of Satan's greatest tactics was, what did he say to God? He said, yeah, yeah, strip him of all that cool stuff you give him all the time, and he'll surely curse your name right to your face. Strip away your family, his family, all his material possessions, his wealth, his significance in society, oh, he'll curse you for sure. And you know what? Most people will. So then why work so hard? Some fool's going to get it in the end anyway. Then there's the other attitudes towards work. I've been reading a fantastic book. Let me encourage the men here in the room who are listening to it. It's a good to be a man. It's good to be a man. By Michael Foster and Dominic Brown Tennant. And in that book, they talk about the importance of work, the necessity of work. It's kind of what I alluded to in the beginning of the sermon here, is that work is oftentimes looked at like, I'm just doing this to barely get by. And some, not so much in this room. And some have left this room who need to hear this. And now they've rejoined us. Work is incredibly important. Work is what builds dignity in a man. It's what we were designed to do. We were designed to work in the garden. Dominionists. Dominion is not a nasty word. It's not a pejorative. Dominion is a very good word. Dominion by nature and design, we were to take the garden and we were to build it. We were to make it useful. And then we were to take dominion outside of the garden. What happened though? What was part of the curse? Is that we were going to toil in the ground. Notice how Adam was immediately cursed to toil in the ground and the ground would not yield as it would before, but that does not take away the need and the necessity to toil. still subject to vanity, still subject to difficulty, in some cases it feels like you're chasing after the wind, in some cases you feel like it's really hard and I don't want to continue to do it, but you have to. Men need to work. That's what you were designed to do, to provide and to provide well, and not, by the way, to provide in just this small period of time for your life so you could just get by with barely enough to make it to the end and then the Lord takes you. No, we are to build an inheritance for our grandchildren's grandchildren. And wisdom is directly applied to that. You don't get to get out of work. What does it say in Scripture? Those who don't work should what? Not eat. They should be cast out of society. because they're not productive. So stop being dependent on society to support you and provide for you. It's called a welfare system and the government should be out of that as well. We were designed to work. We were designed to labor and labor hard. And also, by the way, have some grit. How about you stick with it for a while and work really hard, not because You think it's important to work hard, not because it's just a good thing and I'll make maybe a little bit more money and work some overtime. No, no, no. What does the scripture say about work? Work as unto the Lord. That is what he's required you to do. We don't get to make excuses for ourselves. You're going to stand before the living God one day and he's going to ask you, what did you do with all that I had given you? Well, Lord, I was terrified of you. So I went out and buried it. Actually, I spent a good majority of my time being lazy. Actually, I complained a lot about my work. I didn't really like my job that much. And you know what? I decided to just try to get by with the bare minimum so I didn't have to really work. I decided not to have a family. I love my work so much. The other side of the coin. I know those. I decided not to raise a family because I love my work so much. And then I did it all for me, all for my glory. It was all for me. No, I didn't leave my kids in inheritance really because you know what? I thought you were going to return at any given moment. Lord, I actually decided not to have kids and kind of get by with the bare minimum because you're going to return at any given moment. I think the Lord's going to have some pretty serious words to say to you in the end of it all. So let's conclude with a little gospel application, shall we? There are two people that are toiling under the sun. One to a vain end, a destructive end, a destructive purpose. They're doing it for their own glory, for their own means. They don't care about anybody else. They will kill, steal, and destroy to get whatever they want. Or, get by with the bare minimum. As it says in the Proverbs, they could hardly lift a spoon to their mouth because they're so lazy. And then there's the other side. where Christ's work is redeemed. We are redeemed in Christ. And as Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, what? You were created for good works that you would walk in them, those whom he has prepared for you beforehand. Good works. And you're to do this with the treasure of all wisdom of knowledge in Christ. because you are His, as we learned today, as His sons and as His children, that curse has been lifted in Christ. Yes, you toil. Yes, you work hard. Yes, you should strive for wisdom, but you should strive for it from the right source and work hard as unto the Lord, right? There's one side of the group that's restless and anxious and worried and concerned. about all the work that they do and they're trying to preserve it and they're trying to keep it. They don't sleep at night because they're so worried about what might happen to it. All this work that they have done to acquire and amass wealth. Listen to what Jesus has to say. It's really interesting how he concludes the don't be anxious passage. Everybody loves the quote, right? But the one that comes right before that is really interesting. Listen to what Jesus says as someone in the crowd blurts out, they say, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me in Luke chapter 12. He says, tell him to divide that inheritance with me. And Jesus said, man, who made me a judge or an arbiter over you? And he said to them, take care and be on guard against all covetousness. We just read about that, didn't we? That was our catechism today, covetousness, right? Take care that you be on guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, I will do this and I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, You have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. What does Christ say? But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So this is one who lays up treasures for himself, and not rich toward God. Exactly what I think Solomon's getting at. You're going to lay up treasures for yourself, or are you going to be rich toward God? That doesn't mean it negates the fact that you shouldn't work or store things. It is the direction of the man's heart. I'm going to trust in my possessions. All life consists in my possessions. And he's going to die. And then, like Solomon goes on to say, some idiot's going to blow it all, right? after him. Jesus also says in Luke 8 18 he says take care than how you hear for the one who has more will be given and from the one who has not even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. What does that mean? Solomon concludes this. I want you to think for a brief moment, for those who think we're gonna be evacuated out of here so that the wicked can continue to run roughshod over God's created order, are out of your minds. God's going to take it all from them and give it to us. You might go, wait a second, bro, that's crazy. No, no, no, that's what he says right here. Even what they don't have will be taken away, meaning everything will be stripped from them, all that they would have worked hard for their entire life. You might ask, well, how? How could that be? Listen to what the author of Hebrews has to say. To those in Christ, in Hebrews 12, 25 to 29, see to it that you do not refuse him who's speaking. Note again, listen carefully, right? Jesus says, take care to how you hear. Author of Hebrews, how does he start? See to it that you don't refuse him who's speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will they escape when they reject him who warns from heaven. And at that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised yet once more, I will not shake just the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase yet once more indicates a removal of things that are shaken. That is, things that have been made in order that things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." God is destroying everything around us. by virtue of the promulgation of the gospel. He is burning it up with fire right now, I think. It's a good way to explain that. That's what the author of Hebrews thought. So if that's the case, then what we build and what we do now will remain with us, and what was not done in Christ will be burned up in the end. But what we do now matters. It matters. It really does. How can I conclude such a thing? Well, listen to what Solomon concludes. In the end of it all, in our creaturely limitations and inability to ascribe meaning and find joy in anything, no matter pleasures, to try to find wisdom and to try to build work, what does he say in the end of it all? Let's look at verses 24 through 26. There's nothing better, nothing better for a person that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. Wait a minute, Solomon, isn't that a contradiction? No. This also I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from him, who can eat and who can have enjoyment? For the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy. But to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting. What? Only to give to the one who, what? Pleases God. This also is vanity and is striving after the wind. Unbelievers, let that ring in your ears for a moment. You will be gathering and collecting only to give to those who please God. And that might not look like that way now. I refer to you Asaph, I refer to you Job. But in the end of it all, all is Christ's. It's all His. And it is our inheritance. How can I say such a thing? What does Jesus say as He opens the Sermon on the Mount? What does He say? Blessed are the meek, for they shall be evacuated out of here and not receive anything and lose all their earthly possessions and never work for anything because it doesn't matter because it's all a sinking ship anyway to be burned up. No. He says what? They're going to inherit the what? The earth. It's ours in Christ. Because it's His. It's quite the inheritance. Thank you, Lord. And what? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For what? They will be satisfied. They in the end will not be thirsty. They have come to Christ to drink of Him. and experience true satisfaction, true fulfillment, true meaning, true wisdom, true treasures. Think about how Paul explains the beauty and the understanding, the necessity of the resurrection itself, right? How does Paul explain this? What does he say? It's in 1 Corinthians 15, 16 through 22, okay? I'm gonna conclude with this. I want you to hear these words and hear how important it is. Why is it so important that we work so hard, that we toil only to live our miserable vain lives to die in the end? Well, it doesn't all go away. Listen to what he says. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. arguing to defend the resurrection. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. That's what Solomon's trying to get. Guys, if all you believe is under the sun, your faith is futile, you're still in your sins, you're just going to die. It doesn't matter. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished too. They have no hope. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, Hear this, if we have hope in this life only, we are of all people to be most pitied. If all this that we have is under the sun, then we need to go with all the gusto that we got and hold to what Solomon held. It's vanity and chasing after the wind. We are to be most pitied. It is meaningless. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, and by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. The great equalizer is death. The great equalizer is death. It's the one that says, look, it is final. It's finished. You cannot escape it. Good luck. Have fun. Go with all the gusts you can. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die, and you certainly die. But one thing we know, you will ultimately face the judgment. And you'll face the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll give an account for whatever wisdom and whatever work you've done in your life in the very end of it all. Some will hear, enter in, good and faithful servants. And some will hear, Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. Let's go as in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray that for those who hear this message, they'd be encouraged today for those who are in you have much to rejoice in, have much to find joy in. The simplest things of life are meaningful in Christ. Apart from you, they're really meaningless. And I pray that those who hear this message and that might be persuaded by the fear of the Lord of those terrifying words, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you, that they would repent today and believe. Believe because you rose again from the dead. Believe because you are who you said you were. Believe because your words have life. Believe because in them we can know the truth and the truth will set us free. I pray you bless the rest of our time of worship today in Jesus' name, amen.