We want to invite you then to turn back with us to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Ecclesiastes chapter 2, our reading today is going to come from verses 12 through 26, the remainder of that chapter. And I want to talk to you today about the title of the thought would be Nothing Better. nothing better. We've been looking at Ecclesiastes for a short while, and as we've said, we continue to be brought back here to this book. Solomon wrestling with the question that the human heart has of trying to find meaning and purpose in life, and it's important to keep in mind how he always uses that phrase, under the sun, when he talks about all is vanity. When he says all is vanity, he doesn't actually mean that everything is vanity. He means that all is vanity under the sun, on this side of eternity. If it is not connected, if it is not pointed to eternity, to God, to understanding what this life truly is, is to be about. And so we want to begin reading in verse 12. Solomon has tested wisdom. He's tested pleasure. He's going to continue that thought, and he's going to take another look here at wisdom and folly and madness, and he's going to make some assessments that I want to share with you today. I think that he would want to share with you today, and what he did want to share with those among whom he lived and at the time in which he lived. So he says in verse 12, so I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly for what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more pain, or excuse me, more gain in wisdom than in 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 yet I perceive that the same event happens to all of them. 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 this also is vanity. For of the wise, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in 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 in a striving after wind. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is 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 also is vanity. and a great evil. What has a man from all the toils beneath the sun, all he toiled beneath the sun, for all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. For apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to 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 only to give it to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind." Solomon here takes, as we've said, another look at wisdom and madness and folly in his search for meaning. takes a very close look at them. He reminds us again, as well, that as king in Israel, his search was exhaustive. His search was not limited by financial resources. In one place in the Old Testament, Israel was described with Solomon as king, that diamonds were his stones. The riches of Solomon's kingdom were unlike any other kingdom before him. And he reminds us, and he says in verse 12, what can a man do after the king? This is nothing that's not already been done. He's tested it all. And he says that he is specifically looking again at wisdom. And then I think really comparing it to these two words that are used, madness and folly, really the same kind of idea. Wisdom, it means to be skillful. to have an ability, to be someone with capability, the ability specifically to rightly apply knowledge. And then there is madness and folly kind of together. It simply means rashness or to behave rashly. The way you and I would speak of it mainly, it would be just foolishness, just a foolish person. And so Solomon says he is comparing these two things as he looks for meaning in life. Where's the meaning to be found? Is it found in wisdom or is it found in foolishness? Solomon here compares them and he makes this test and he is essentially asking this question. Is wisdom found in living wisely or is it found in living foolishly? Does one find the need of the human heart in being wise or on the other hand, Is the need of the human heart for meaning and purpose filled best with foolishness or just not caring, not just kind of giving up and just living life foolishly, rashly? He's looking again from the very beginning. He's looking for the meaning of life. This is weighty stuff. This is the question that we have as human beings, isn't it? What is the meaning of life? Some dare not ask the question. Some cynically think there is no meaning. But this is the question that Solomon is asking. And I think people continue to conduct this very same test. Though Solomon tested it thoroughly for us and gives us the results, I think a lot of people continue to take this test and put life to this test, put their life to this test. Is it in wisdom or is it in foolishness and pleasure? People attempt to find meaning in living a wise life, a life that might be called skillful, rightly applying knowledge. The knowledge that they obtain in life, they put to good use. This is the successful man. This is the successful woman who finds meaning in life, in wisdom, in living it wisely. That that's where the meaning of life is found, is in living wisely. This is the child, the student in school who applied himself or herself and usually was at or near the top of their class. This is the young person then who is accepted into some prestigious university and applies themselves in their studies, and they get a high advanced degree in some chosen field, and they set out on their career, and they soon find themselves elevated above most of their peers because they are applying their hearts, their minds, their life to wisdom. That's what Solomon did. I applied my heart to know wisdom, to know how to live wisely, skillfully. And people continue to put this to the test. This wise person, they become wise in their life, they become successful in their career. They become known for their skill and ability. Maybe this one is someone, if it's a young man, he grows older, and he perhaps marries a wise wife, and together they appear to be raising their children skillfully. They do all the right things. They buy the right child seat in the car. They feed them the right baby food. They do all the things that all the books tell them to do, and they seem to be very skillful, and they are living their lives thinking That this is the meaning of life to live wisely. To live skillfully. People look at this one and outwardly it appears as though they have all of their life together and they must understand the meaning and the purpose of their lives, but this is an assumption. This is an assumption that we make, and it's based only on outward appearance and circumstantial evidence. If you were to look deep in their heart, there are many people who outwardly might be considered wise, but inwardly still have this question. Where's the meaning of life? What's the point? Many people who outwardly look to be people of wisdom and skill, who are empty and are searching for meaning in their lives that extends beyond their own wisdom. I wonder how many people are walking the face of the earth today, testing wisdom for meaning, thinking that to live wisely is the meaning and the purpose of life. And that's where I'll find the meaning. Well, then there are some who are testing the other side as well. Aren't there? Perhaps, you know, somebody who's trying to test their life and maybe you see that the end of all they do is all about doing the right thing and being wise in the eyes of the world. But maybe perhaps you also know people who are testing the other side of what Solomon tested, which is madness and folly, as he calls it foolishness. These are the people, again, that Solomon says are acting foolishly, irrationally. Is this where meaning is found? This is the child, rather than finding themselves at the top of the class, this is the class clown. This is the one constantly acting up. Rather than give diligence to their studies, they give diligence to their ease and their comfort This is the young man who wiles away his time with endless hours of video games and streaming TV. This is the young man who thinks the purpose of life is to laugh as much as possible, to always be enjoying some pleasure, to not worry about gaining wisdom, because according to what he sees out in the world, All that happens when one applies themselves and works hard and diligently and is skillful, all that happens to them is they just end up with more responsibility and sorrow and difficulty for their work. And so he says, that's not for me. That's not where the meaning of life is. That's not what we're supposed to be about. The diligent students called to a higher standard as they begin to take harder and harder classes. And this one testing foolishness sees that. The diligent coworker, the one applying their hearts to wisdom in their work is asked to do more and more and take on greater and greater responsibilities. And the one who is testing foolishness and pleasure and simple things is looking at that and saying, not for me, I don't want all that headache. I just want to live life and I want to enjoy as much as I possibly can. Perhaps even the foolish young man reasons with himself. That he has something figured out that the wise one doesn't. That he's actually the smart one in this story. Is this where wisdom is to be found? This is the test. And this one testing pleasure and foolishness, he laughs more, he plays more, he has but a fraction of the responsibilities, and he doesn't really care what people think of him or about him and his chosen path of ease and pleasure. And so maybe he says to himself, this is what life is all about. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Here, this is the test that Solomon has undertaken in his search for meaning. This is what he's considering in this passage. Where's the meaning? Where is it to be found? Is it found in wisdom or is it found in foolishness? Are you testing one of these? Have you before? Have you tested both at various times in your life? Maybe as a young person, you were the class clown. But then as adulthood came and responsibilities started to pile up, you began to say, I better start taking life a little more seriously. And you began applying yourself and you swung over to the other side of this test and said, life is about living wisely and being a wise person. And you're thinking that meaning is there. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe you were a hard worker as a young person and it's like God got along on its way. You began to think, what is the point? And so you begin to test foolishness instead. I would like us to follow here for just a short while, Solomon as he reasons this puzzle out. Which is it, foolishness or wisdom? Is there meaning to be found in both or either or none? So let's look at what he says once again. In verse 13, Then I saw, after testing both foolishness and wisdom, Solomon says this, Then I saw or I understood that there is more gain in wisdom than in 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. One of the key ideas in Ecclesiastes is the idea of one thing being better than another thing. One thing being of more gain or advantage than some other thing. Solomon's search is for meaning here, isn't it? That's what his search is for. That's what he's looking for. is meaning and purpose in life. And as he goes about testing one thing and another, pleasure, goods, wealth, wisdom, women, all of these things that he tests in his life, as he goes about testing one thing to another under the sun, he discovers that some things are indeed better than others. And while better, still not what he's looking for, meaning and purpose and the reason for his life. Anyone who has tested wisdom and foolishness in their lives knows that living wisely will ultimately lead to better consequences, better results than living foolishly. We know that by empirical experience, by observation of those around us. The wise person, as Solomon said, he's got his eyes and his head, which kind of means, speaks about the foolish person who says, well, then he must not. He's walking around blindly. The wise person has his eyes in his head. He is not blind to his circumstances. He sees what he needs, what needs to be done. And he takes care of the things that need to be taken care of. He's not walking through his life blindly seeking one pleasure after another. He knows there are consequences to such behavior. And so Solomon looks at these two things and he says, well, wisdom is better. There is more gain in wisdom than in folly or in foolishness. This month, and we know this because we know that saving money for the future is a better course of action than spending it as soon as you get it. We know that's more wise under the sun. We know that there's a day, a rainy day coming in the future or a day if we get to live long enough where we'll no longer be able to work and we're going to need to live on that that we have saved for that day. We know that doing that is wiser than spending every last dime that we make. And yet it's still just wisdom. It's better. But it's still not what he's looking for. Not really. Solomon sees this betterness and he understands the great gain that is to be found, or the greater gain, at least, to be found in wisdom than folly. And I say this because as you read Ecclesiastes, as you try to pull from it what I think God has left it for us to understand, if we look at Ecclesiastes, as we read it, We must understand that we not place wisdom and folly as equals. They are not equals. And one can see that again, simply by observing the life of the wise compared to the life of the fool. So it is better for you. This is what Solomon says, between wisdom and foolishness, it's better to be wise. You will have more gain for you and others around you if you apply your heart to wisdom. So be wise is what Solomon is saying. Wisdom is better. But not only that, many other places in scripture, do they not call us to be people of wisdom? Proverbs 3, 13. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. Again, in Proverbs 4, verse 5. Get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. And then Jesus himself, Matthew 10, 16. Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. We are to be wise people. We are to be people of wisdom. Wisdom is better, Solomon says, than foolishness. It's better because by it we are able to be more useful, to live more useful lives for ourselves and again for those around us, and more importantly, to obey God who gave us life. So I encourage you to be a wise person. We don't want to miss that. It is better to be one who adds wisdom than one who merely adds laughter. That's better. Solomon's gonna say that again in chapter seven when he says it's better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting and laughter. But this test hasn't concluded yet. He said this, wisdom's better than foolishness, and I think we all know that. But then he says this, Solomon does, and yet, And yet. It's as though he's saying, hold on, wait a minute, I have not told you all of my conclusions about this test that I've made, he's saying, wait, there's there's more to it, there's there's more to be said. And yet, he said, I perceived. But the same event happens to all of them. To all of who? The wise and the foolish. Remember, what is his test? What is his search? Solomon's search is for meaning and purpose in life. Should I live my life as a wise person or as a foolish person, he says, you should live your life as a wise person, but. That's not where meaning should be found in your life, not not really not by itself. He comes to us, he disabuses us quickly of the notion that the meaning of life is to be found in living wisely. that how many people go through their lives satisfied with what they consider to be things that are better than others. Living their lives in a way that is better than other things in life. But God wants you to understand that that is better than anything else. And that's what Solomon is going to end with. There's nothing better. But right now we are just comparing these two things. But so many people, again, they live their life trying to simply live wise, good lives. These are the good people that you know. The good people that we can strive to be, these are responsible people. They are liked and loved by their community. They are respected and admired. They seem to be continually improving in wisdom and skill in life. They dedicate themselves to be the best person they can be. And there is gain in that, wisdom says. But the same event is going to happen to you that are wise. that will happen to you that are foolish." So meaning is not found in one of these two things alone. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how wise you are, Solomon says. Perhaps through your wisdom and through your skill You can gain all the world's riches and you can delay the hand of death and you can maybe eat well and exercise and do all the right things. But it does not matter how wise you are. Solomon says to you, the same event, death. Is going to happen to you just like the fool. And so Solomon is going to consider that and he's going to find it vanity, a chasing after win. This same event, no amount of wisdom, as we said, will will prevent this event in your life, this realization, this understanding that came to Solomon with the difficult and the probing question that he has. Why then have I been so very wise? What's the point? Why have I worked so hard? Why have I been so diligent? Why have I tried so carefully to live wisely? Nothing can stay death's hand. Nothing can prevent its ultimate arrival in my life. And when I'm gone, according to Solomon here, even my memory is going to fade into the past. Whether I was wise or whether I was foolish. I, along with my foolish friend, Solomon might say, will both alike die and we will both pass away from this life that is lived under the sun and my memory and theirs will be eradicated from the earth. So where's the meaning? Solomon's in a dark place, isn't he? He's in that dark place where I think most human beings, if not all of us, get to when we really start asking ourselves the real and the honest question, what is this life about? And what was his initial response to this discovery? He tells us, beginning in verse 17, I hated life. Solomon says, so because of what this this event that will happen to the wise and the fool, there is gain and wisdom over foolishness. But the same thing happens to both. So I hated life. Because what is done again under the sun was grievous to me for all this vanity and a striving after when I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me. I want to read to you again, verse 20. So I turned about. After this test, can I find meaning and fulfillment and purpose in my life in being wise or foolish? Will it have a difference? Will it make a difference ultimately in my life? And he determines that it doesn't. And so in verse 20, I turned about and gave my heart up to despair. The result of Solomon's tests left him in what we might call a bad way. A bad and difficult way, he says he hated life because everything was grievous to him. All his toil, he might have said, it's just good for nothing. I'm not going to change a thing. He looked at all the wealth he had amassed and thought to himself, I'm just going to leave this to somebody else and there's no telling what they're going to do with it. Whether it's going to be a benefit to them or anyone else or not, all that I have accumulated and built up in my life, I'm going to hand to somebody else. And to paraphrase Job in chapter 1, verse 21, naked I came and naked I shall go. Nothing I've gained here is coming with me from this life. And yet, if I wisely collect and gather all of the things of the world, I am nothing better, really, ultimately, I'm nothing different than the fool who didn't. There's something, I think, to be considered here that Solomon didn't just say he hated his life. He didn't say that. He hated life. I think he looked at it at this point and in despair, Which that word despair, it means despondent. It means to be desperate. It's that place where one feels no hope. And that's where Solomon had come to. His heart had come to this place. And so this is where Solomon's test had left him. Wisdom's better. But the same event happens to both the wise and the fool. So what should we do? Maybe you, like Solomon, have conducted the same test that he has made, and you are where he was, left in despair and depressed and feeling as though there's no meaning to life and are quickly losing hope in finding any. I want to assure you there is hope to be found. It's just not under the sun. It's not here. in the sense that it is native to this land, this place, this earth. This is difficult medicine, I know, but it's medicine we must take if we are to truly get to the meaning of life, so long as something other than God is the meaning for your life. You will end every time where Solomon ended vanity of vanities. All is vanity. It doesn't matter what you're testing. This job, another job, this spouse, a different spouse, this amount of money, that amount of money, this car, that car, this hobby, that hobby. This friend, that friend, I don't care. You can test everything that is under that blazing red sun that's some 90 million miles away. And you can test it again and again and again. And the variables will always be essentially the same here under the sun. And you're going to end with this vanity of vanities. All this vanity. Yes, it's better to live wisely than foolishly. But ultimately, even that is going to be erased from the face of the earth. My wisdom will be remembered by no one. And yet that one who in my life I might even have ridiculed and said, what a fool, their memory, too, will be eradicated from the earth and no one will remember them. Some people might test all kinds of things. We just had a Super Bowl last week and you hear that same phrase from the players. This is the best day of my life. And I thought, I hope that's not true. This is the best day of my life, which would lead one to think that the best thing in life is to win a football game. And then I would simply ask, how many people even care? They brag about 100 million people watch that game, and that's certainly something. What? 2%, 3% of the population, you know, people don't care, and I'd ask anybody, tell me who won the Super Bowl five years ago. You'd take a little while to figure it out if you even got it. And I thought that's the best day of your life. Vanity, that's where you're going to end. Empty. And if you are the other side and you apply yourself to the better, which is wisdom, you're going to come where Solomon got to as well. And I just warn you and myself because this is the side I think most people will err on because it's so obvious that living wisely is better than living foolishly. We then interpret or we equate wisdom with meaning. And Solomon says, but wait. I perceived that the same thing happens to both. Wisdom, as he said, is better than foolishness, but verse 24 kind of comes out of nowhere. There is nothing better. Here's the answer. What's the best? If wisdom's better than foolishness, is there something better than wisdom? One would assume logically, yes. And this is what Solomon says is better than all other things. There is nothing, and that word in the Hebrew, that word nothing, it means nothing. There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also I saw was from the hand of God. That's the best. to live this life in view of the next from the hand of God enjoying the things that he gives. For apart from him, Solomon says in verse 25, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? Wisdom is better than foolishness, but there is nothing better for a man than to live his life and find enjoyment in his labor as provided by the hand of God. whatever your hand is setting to do. It ought to be a wise thing. You ought to apply your life to wisdom, but that's not where the ultimate meaning is found. The meaning and purpose of life is to live before God and find enjoyment even in the things of this life, knowing the promise of the life that is coming to those who love him. Those who please God are said here that they are given wisdom and knowledge and joy. The sinner here, though, is given by God the business of gathering and collecting only to give it to those who please him. What is that about? It sounds like a twisty and a winding road of logic. What is he saying? It's a difficult concept to grasp, but I think Ultimately, what's being said here is that God is going to give His people all things. Those who follow Him, obey Him, and love Him, and even the things that are gained by those who rebel, they're going to let go of them, and God is going to give all things to His people. I thought about that, and as I was even reading and studying on the plane to Kansas, this thought that had never occurred to me, came, I thought I'd been reading of late about Joseph in Genesis and how God enabled him to understand Pharaoh's dream and how Egypt became incredibly wealthy because of Joseph. Their strength economically was because of Joseph, because all the nations came to Egypt and paid for the corn, the grain, that they needed. And Egypt became this great and mighty nation. And then you turn the page into Exodus. And do you remember that passage where it said, as the children of Israel left Egypt, that the Egyptians gave them their jewelry, their silver, and they gave them all their goods? They were trying to buy these people and said, leave. They'd had enough. And I thought on the airplane, I said, God was just making it right. That wealth of Egypt was just returning to the hand of God's people who gave it to them in the first place. And the same is going to happen in Proverbs 13, 22, we read this, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, that the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. Matthew 5, 5, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed, happy. are those who follow the Lord. So Solomon, after his in-depth and complete search, tells us that there is nothing better than this. This is the meaning of life. It's not found in wisdom alone, and it's certainly not found in foolishness. It's found in pleasing God, which can only stand, and which only stands to reason, by the way, since it was God who gave us life in the first place. To find the joy, and I will conclude here shortly, but I want you to heed what I believe will help you. Certainly can help me. Solomon, after his in-depth and complete search, tells us that there is nothing better than to live our lives submitted to God, to find the joy and meaning spoken of in scripture. you are going to have to submit to the truth that you are a creation made in the image of God and that your ultimate meaning and purpose is to find your place before Him. That is the meaning of life. Solomon tests absolutely everything that he could test under the sun. the insinuation that all of it apart from God. And then he comes down and just kind of out of nowhere in verse 24, there's nothing better. And I thought about that verse as well. And I thought, wonder what his tone was. You can say those same words and with a different tone, communicate something very different. Was he saying kind of almost in desperation, there's nothing better. Or was he saying, there is nothing better than this. Some might be dissatisfied with that idea. that living a life submitted to God is where meaning and purpose is found. And you may find that something that you don't desire. I pray God will change your heart and change it soon. I pray that when you read that verse, that at least as I read that verse, and I thought, indeed, that is true. There is nothing better than to enjoy the work and the labor that God gives to us in this life, applied with wisdom, but knowing all the while that it's because God has given it to us to do. I want to leave you with this thought. God wants you to know the meaning of life. He wants you to find the purpose that is found only in Him. He could have left you without these words from Solomon, to understand it, to find it out on your own. And you probably will anyway, but then you can turn to these pages in Scripture and you can say, that's been exactly my experience too. I've tried all of these things. They don't satisfy. God didn't leave us without scripture. He's given them to us. And just as important, he has given us of his Holy Spirit who dwells with us, who bears witness with our spirits. As Romans says, that we are children of God who can direct us and comfort us and guide us. If you are searching for meaning in your life and in your days, your search will continue until you submit to and rest in God. Until you see Christ, you see man as he is described in scripture and as you witness around you and as you know in your own heart is fallen. sinful, broken, empty, and meaningless apart from His Creator. But then you read of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came into the world, took upon Himself flesh, lived under this same Son, lived perfectly, and went to the cross as a perfect sacrifice so that you might cling to Him, look to Him, and His sacrifice might be made in your place And you might find in him the propitiation of God and his turning away his wrath from you as he turned it upon his own son. And you are forgiven and made free and you find the meaning and the purpose of your life. If that's what you're searching for, God will give it to you. But you're going to have to let go of yourself and grab a hold of God. That's where you will find the meaning and the purpose that you're desperately searching for. But you're going to have to let go of yourself and grab a hold of God. That's where so many stumble and fall short, stop short. And I think that's what Jesus was talking about when he said that in order to find your life, you need to lose it for him and for his cause. Pray something has been said that has been of help to you today. I have some.