He was given a large boulder to roll up a hill. The boulder was enchanted, so that every time the boulder was just about to reach the top of the hill, it would fall right back down to the bottom. Thus, because of his pride, Sisyphus was doomed to an eternity of pointless and endless toil. You continually have to work hard, straining to get that boulder up the hill, Every time it was close to reaching its goal, ending the struggle, it would roll right back down. And we'd have to start all over again. What stands out to me from this Greek myth is its notion of what constitutes a kind of hell. What torment, the Greeks thought, to be doomed to an existence of absolutely fruitless work. Be forced to work hard day after day, but never to advance, never to find satisfaction, never to have anything to show for all your labor. That is such a terrible fate. One must do anything to avoid it. You know what the great irony of that line is? According to the Bible, such a destiny of fruitless will, that is not the fate of a few proud ones as they go into the afterlife. What is the Bible? That is the fate of every human being who lives on the earth. Surely the story of Sisyphus. It functions like a parable for humanity. In regard to me, mankind, my first pair have to be They rose up in pride and rebellion against their Creator. They insisted on finding a satisfaction according to their own wisdom and apart from their Creator, God. As a result, God cursed them. And He cursed all their descendants, which includes us today. As Romans 8-20 says, the creation was subjected to futility. God says, you don't want me? You will now be cursed. Decay, pain, and hardship may all enter into the world because of their sin. And though God graciously allowed man to continue to survive as an equal, and even to multiply, part of the curse was that all of man's pursuits in this world became sustained. Each of us must now afford to get by in this long road. But in the end, what will we find for our toil? We will not find any true advancement, any satisfaction, or any gain. It will be like trying to grasp a vapor and trying to chase after the wind. Does such an assessment depress you? This is the hard truth. that King Solomon wants his listeners to face at the beginning of the New Testament. Though you will work hard, you will not find gain. Now Solomon presents this truth not because he's a depressed cynic who just wants to drag everyone down into some sort of despairing unbelief. Not at all. Rather, Solomon, as a wise and compassionate man, man of God, great king, he directs us especially those who are young among us, on what is the only wise, happy, and godly way to approach life. We actually overviewed this way last time. We did an introduction to Ecclesiastes, and I gave you what is the main message that Psalmy communicates, and let me just repeat it to you here. Solomon teaches in this book, the 12 chapters, that life in a fallen world is the most vaporous of vapors. It is insubstantial. It is fleeting. It is puzzling. There's nothing you can do about that. That's what this world is. Anyone, therefore, who lives for this world and for its vain treasures, what will they find? Disappointment. Frustration. And then later, God's judgment. But for those who fear God, who do not live for this world, but instead live for God in Christ, what will they find? Those persons will find the life and joy that's apart from this world, and they will find the only way to enjoy life in this world. They will see all the little treasures not as gain in and of themselves, but as little gifts of love from their Heavenly Father. They can gratefully enjoy it. To say it succinctly, as I said last time, truly, life is a bait. But God says, enjoy it as a gift, not as gain. But perhaps you protest. If your sister really is ultimate gain and satisfaction in this world, maybe you won't say that. Maybe mentally you do a sense-do-it song that says, man, you know everything in the world, the favorites, the main cast, you can't get a friend in this world. Maybe you say that, but that's not actually what you believe. You know that's not actually what you believe because that's not the way you do it. You are caught up in the same sort of crazy frenzy as the rest of the people in the world. You are striving to secure ultimate advancement or security or pleasure in the things of the world. You never feel like you've worked enough, saved enough, seen enough. Just a little more, I'll be happy. Just a little more, I'll be saved. Sure. As we begin our investigation of the word today, Consider for yourselves, whatever pious words you confess, what do you actually believe about life? How do you actually live? What really is your hope and treasure? We're proceeding into the first long section of teaching in Ecclesiastes today. Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 3 to 11. You can take your Bible and please turn that if you haven't yet. Ecclesiastes 1, starting in verse 3. Part of what we saw last time was the presentation of Solomon's thesis in this book. The main idea. Ecclesiastes 1, 2 expresses it. You can see it again. Ecclesiastes 1, verse 2. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Solomon a wise man who lived far from your Christ. He declares all my identity I told you about the people who work on that term in English Adele is the word and it means literally vapor breath or wind That image gives a great idea of what I don't mean spiritually So I'm going to say life is not meaningless, but it is like a vapor. It's fundamentally and substantially It's fundamentally impermanent. It's fundamentally incomprehensible. You just can't get your hands around it. You can't comprehend it all. Solomon declares that thesis, but now he's going to present his first general argument to prove that such is the state of the world for everyone who lives in it, both Christian and non-Christian. Let's read what Solomon says. 3 Genesis 1 verses 3 and 4. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does not understand? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Also the sun rises and the sun sets, and takes you to a place that rises there again. Blowing toward the south and then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along, and on its circular courses the wind returns. All rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again. All things are mirrored. Man is not able to tell. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be. And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything in which one might say, see this, it is new? Already it has existed for ages, which were before us. There's no remembrance of earlier things. And also the later things which will occur and will be spread out, no remembrance, among those who will come later still. In this passage, Solomon provides four startling observations on the vapor-like nature of life so that you and I will not be deceived into living for this world. Four startling observations, and they're all framed by a provocative question provided by Solomon to us in verse 3. Let's look again at verse 3. Here's the question. What advantage does man have in all the work he does This is a simple question, but it is a powerful and profound question. In a way, Solomon's already given the answer in verse 2, but now he poses it to us. What do you think, Solomon says? Is there any true profit in this world for man and all his work? The word of man is used here to translate as profit, or gain. It's a financial term, like Solomon's asking In the day, tally up all the numbers, what's the bottom line for me? Isn't that a concern that we all have about life? Me and you approach everything we do, our time, our work, our recreation, always with the question, what am I going to get out of this? What will I ultimately receive from this? Will I think it was worth it in the end? One of the greatest pains in life is to discover that something you were pursuing, thought would provide you a nice benefit, actually was empty. I did all that work for nothing. I felt nothing. You're like, oh, that's how the story ends? What a waste. I said that. We as humans want to avoid futile pursuits. It's all we know for now. But he's asking the same question that we should be asking. What's the gain? What's the profit for man in this world? And there's a phrase that comes to mind. In all his work which he does. This is a somewhat understated translation of the New American Standard of what the Hebrew actually says. ESD is a little better here when it gives this calculation. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? That's a little bit better. That's more persistent, if you keep it. Is toil a positive or a negative? What's a negative? Toil is hard work when trouble makes it in. You ever experience toil? If we all have it's not something we touch Nearly every day probably we face toil So someone's asking what's the profit for all this toil, all this excruciating work and struggle that we face as men and women and children And we're suffering a lot here. We want to know what we're going to get out of it. What's the payoff? There's one more phrase from Ptolemy here in verse 3, under the sun. This phrase appears many times in the Euclidean Act. What exactly does it mean? Some interpreters believe the phrase refers to existence in this world that does not acknowledge God. It says life merely under the sun. And in that interpretation, there's this nice little play on words that you can do. Life under the sun, S-U-N, is different than life under the sun, S-O-N. This is pretty standard. And there's something to that. But that particular interpretation of this phrase doesn't really fit with Enthusiasm. The phrase is better understood under the sun, S-U-N. It simply means the world in which we live. Life in time. Life in the fallen world, whether you fear God or you don't. We all live under that many times harsh, but continually blazing fall in the sky. But we want to know, is there any gain in a world under the sun? Might there be some treasure that we can live for here that will make all this world worthless? Solomon directs us to four startling observations that should teach us not to live for this world. It really is a difficult time. The first one, the first startling observation of this vapor-like world appears in verses 4 to 8. The beginning part of verse 8. What's that observation? Number 1. The earth coils in an unsatisfying circle. The generation goes, and the generation comes. But the earth remains forever. Also the sun rises, and the sun sets, and peace takes place. It rises there again. The blowing toward the south, and the turning toward the north. The wind continues swirling along, and on its circular course, the wind returns. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again. All things are wearisome. Owen's first observation, one that he wants us to see as well, is that the Earth plainly has a Havel-like two-tiled existence. If you want to ask if there's true gain for man in this world, just start by looking at creation. Does creation experience any advancement or gain? Notice the first phrase that appears in verse 4. A generation goes and a generation comes. This word order is probably not what we expect. We would expect a generation comes and a generation goes. Actually, that's the way the NIV translates this. Solomon has chosen this word order specifically by emphasizing leaping first. It's almost like the new generation, it's no advancement, it's just a replacement. It's just status quo. There's nothing fundamentally new about this new group of people. Something else to note here, The verbs in the English translation or in the present tense, goes, comes, but in the original Hebrew, they're actually participles. Many of the verbs act in the past with participles. We have a lot of participles. Participle is just a fancy word for a verb that acts like an adjective. An adjective that emphasizes continual action or characteristic action. Normally they're translated into English with an I-N-G. So, a more literal translation of the first quote would be, a generation going, and a generation coming. See how it's emphasizing that continual characteristic action? Whole masses of people are constantly going and coming into the earth. There's a whole lot of activity as far as the environment is concerned. But what's the net effect? That's the end of our show. Despite the constant recycling, Generation, whole generations of trains of humanity on the earth. The earth and man doesn't have any rights. No real impact. The earth just keeps going, that's all we've done. This hurts, right? Because man wants to make his mark on the earth. You yourself, yeah, I want to do something that has a lasting impact. Solomon says, just look. Just look at the physical world. It quickly has forgotten the whole generation that he had. It's going to do the same for you. Generations keep going. Generations keep coming. All those persons don't come and mess with you. Just keep on doing it. Look at verse 5. Solomon points out first that the sun is ever rising and setting, rising and setting. It completes its course for the day and then gets ready to do the same job tomorrow. In other words, no change, no advancement, no problem. Just a lot of hard work as far as the sun is concerned. And here's the word hastening in verse 5. Hastening to its place and setting. The idea, in a Hebrew term, One idea you can be attracted to is the idea of panicking. Usually you panic when you're like really tired, but you have to keep on going, right? That's the image of the sun here. This is not the sun excitedly, or even just passionately going about its work, just to get to shine another day. That's not the image. This is the sun just hustling, dragging himself forward, okay, finish another day, go everybody. The sun is metaphorically weary with its work, but it has to go back to it continually over and over. It's not just the sun when it's first fixed. The wind is in the same state. So just as the sun is moving from midtown to Anglican Circuit from east to west, the wind blows in a circle from north to south. So we've got all directions covered here. It's like compass roads of futility. And notice how vain the wind's movement is. The wind is literally going around and around and around in circles. Is there anything more vain than that? Like the sun, the wind has the point of the circuit to run, and it runs it, but it has nothing to show for its effort. Nothing fundamental changes, nothing advances. And then in verse 7, Psalm 82 considers the rivers and streams. The water channels, they also have work to do. Their job is to flow into and to split up the sea. But is the sea ever full? Does God ever take those rivers and streams? They did it. You finally filled it up. You can stop now. Oh, and then what happens? The sea level never even appreciably rises due to the hard work of rivers and streams. The rivers just keep on returning to the ceaseless work with no lasting accomplishment or profit. So just looking at creative order, Is there any pain in this story? Solomon has this commentary at the beginning of verse 8. It says, all things are weariness. Again, I think the ESV is a little bit better here for this translation. The ESV says, all things are full of weariness. That's better because the Hebrew term has the idea of being weary rather than causing weariness. See what Solomon is saying? He's saying the creation itself is weary with the monotony and incessant activity that you've known to remain. Everything's weary. Doesn't Paul say the same thing in Romans 8.22? Romans 8.22. But we know, Paul says, that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of Calvary together until now. It's like creation knows it's caught in a cycle of futility that longs to be free, that longs to be redeemed, that longs to be restored, along with the children of man. But for now, the world must continually and wearily go about its futile work. That's the state of creation. And that's where we live. Are we going to do any better? This is the first observation that should direct us away from living for this world. The second strong observation appears in the rest of verse 8. If not only does the earth coil in an unsatisfying circle, but so does man. Man coils in an unsatisfying circle. Look at the rest of verse 8 again. Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied in seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. What is man's response to his reaction to living in this world, weary with futility? It's only a series of continual inabilities and frustrations. Some might put that second line in verse 8 with the previous section. I think it's atoned because these three lines in the latter part of verse 8 are all dramatically parallel in people. So I think we've got three inabilities being brought to our attention having to do with man. The first is that man is not able to tell it. Literally, man is not able to speak. It's kind of a funny statement. What does Solomon mean by that? Certainly, Solomon doesn't mean that man cannot talk at all. I mean, that's obviously wrong. I'm talking to you right now. Well, what does he mean? If we consider the two phrases that follow in their parallel manner, I think we have to understand Solomon's meaning that man is not able to speak fully or satisfactorily about something. And what is it that man cannot tell or speak sufficiently about? Really? Everyone. Everyone. Have you noticed that? Consider the publishing industry. Is there any topic for which, once someone publishes a book, that's it, no one invokes that topic in the code? No, actually. People have the most obscure topics. There's always book after book after book produced. No one has a less word than anything. Or consider nodes of artistic expression. People rave about books and paintings and films that deeply probe the nature of human existence. Oh yeah. He's really, he's on to something there. He's communicating something there. But does any work of art fully explain it? Has any art really captured all that it means to be human or to live in a fallen world? No. It's never happened. And it doesn't do it. Man is not able to tell it. He feels an intense desire to express himself and to explain and to communicate about this world. And he does, but it's never enough. Man is not able to talk. We ourselves, we crave expression. We crave to be able to classify, explain this world better. Just as the world is taught to be utility, so is our speech. That's not the only part. Next, notice Solomon says that man's eye is not satisfied with seeing. That's a very blind area of your speech. The eye is never stated. It never says, That's it. I don't need to see another beautiful discipline. I'm good. Or, that's the last Netflix episode I ever need to watch. Finally get to that security. Or even, that's the last article about the election I ever need to read. I never said that, right? And today we are flooded with more visual stimuli than ever. But has it sated man's appetite? Has it even reduced man's appetite? Not at all. It's only the increase in it. I want to see more. I want to learn more. I want to read more. Manti is Manti. Do you count it to be different for you? Finally, Mantiere. Mantiere is not filled with hearing. There's a repeat of some of the terms that Solomon just used to describe the sea not being filled by the rivers. in the same way a man's ear is never filled up no matter how much music, or how much teaching, or how much talking is poured into it. Ever find a new favorite song? Ah, it's a joyous occasion, right? Oh, I love this song! You just want to listen to it again and again and again and know what happened. You don't know where you're starting to get to. You're like, maybe I shouldn't listen to that song. So you listen to it less and less, until eventually you just forget about it, because you found another favorite song. Why is this happening? Because man's ear is never filled with hearing. This is just a sample of what it means to be a man, a woman, a person in this world. Did you catch that with Solomon's working? Just as the earth is caught in an unsatisfying circle of toil, man has been happy that the earth is caught in the same cycle. Man toils, He's never able to find lasting satisfaction, not for his nose, not for his eyes, not for his ears. So where indeed is man's profit in all his toil? Won't it be a lasting impact on the earth? Won't happen. Won't it be a lasting satisfaction for yourself, for humanity? Won't happen. Perhaps someone says, well, OK, man hasn't found a lasting gain in the world yet. What about the future? The future is full of possibility and hope. Might humanity discover something new that frees, fixes his condition, frees us from this vapor of existence in this world? Might I myself find something or contribute something into this world that will be new and true gain for me? Anticipating such thoughts, Solomon has a third startling observation in verses 9 and 10. Number 3. Man experiences nothing truly new. Remember 9 and 10. That which hath been is that which will be. And that which hath been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. If there were anything a person might say, it would be this, and it's beautiful. already has existed for ages, which were before us. If you just examine the divine, you can see there's a lot of parallels and a lot of repetition that's done on purpose. The form of the message actually complements the content of the message. This kind of repetitive little section is just like life in this world. Man hopes for and craves the new. He doesn't find them. He only finds repeats of the old ones. And you may hear that. And find yourself resisting it a little bit. And you say, well, come on. I've experienced a bunch of new things in my life. Some good, some bad. I just live to progress in humanity. I mean, we've come a long way since Bible times. We've got indoor plumbing. We've got antibiotics. We've got a space program. Come on, you're telling me nothing's new? Well, that notion is partly true and partly not. Yes, there are elements of life that we experience that are, or that feel new to us. And there are technologies and institutions and even experiences today that did not exist in the past. But Solomon says what he does for a reason. He's speaking by the Spirit of God. We can't just be like, follow your God. No, he's right. We just need to understand what he means. I believe the answer to what Solomon is getting at here is that though we experience new things, we don't experience anything fundamentally, not personally, and not as a people. I remember seeing a meme that put side by side two pictures. One side is a picture of passengers on the train in the present day. And the other picture is a picture of passengers on the train in the 1950s. Now in this picture, the present day, what do you suppose all the passengers on the train are doing? But in the picture of what happened in the 1950s, what do you suppose they're all? They're all reading newspapers. Times change, technology changes. Is anything really new? Let me give you another example. Everyone these days is talking about how unprecedented this COVID-19 situation is. There are some new aspects of it, but is it really so unprecedented? experience plagues and pandemics for the war. And it's even experienced controversies about how to protect from those plagues before. Even about masks. Are masks effective? Are they not effective? Should you join church? We saw the same thing in the flu pandemic of 1918. You can see it in the newspapers from back then. Now it's true, there wasn't the internet, there wasn't globalization, there wasn't social media back then. There were a lot more deaths in that pandemic. But in terms of time, Our crisis isn't all passive. Or take one other example of the past repeating itself. You know how some people are so jealous of the King James version of the Bible today. King James only. This Bible translation served mankind all for hundreds of years. Time tested. This Bible inspired from God. Did you know that such arguments are nothing new? when Jerome tried to create a new Latin translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew in the 4th century A.D. Most people who weren't working in the translation community at that time decided to make this translation. But Augustine rebukes Jerome by asking, What's wrong with just reading the Septuagint? Which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Godly men have used this translation for hundreds of years. It's time-tested. It's practically an inspired translation from God. Obviously, he actually said that. And you know what's even more amazing? Guess what happened when men tried to create a new translation from Jerome's Vulgate in the 1450s? The exact same thing. Catholic Church said, why? What's wrong with this realization? It's practically inspired. Many examples such as these can be put forward. Circumstances change. There are different details in it than in future situations, but fundamentally, nothing is the same. What seems new to us is really just an upgraded, different, or recombined version of the things we've already seen. Actually, you know, this is like always basically about science fiction. Science fiction, you know, is so interesting, like, ooh, a cool idea. But then you look at all the Canadian races they come up with, and the different places they visit, and you're like, hey, that looks familiar. That kind of looks like a thing on Earth. It's because there's nothing on this thing here. You can re-combine it, you can upgrade it, but it's still all basically the same. Now, we're so grateful for those upgrades and advances. I'm grateful for the technology. We have the medical advances. We have great God. Thank God for that. But the things that we really want to see change, they're not going to. This world. Mankind. Sin. Death. Pain. Frustration. Those things are not going to. There's no refer to the escape from these realities. Yet how often do you cling to the hope of the new? The promise that maybe something, something you haven't seen will come and make a real difference in my life. A new diet, a new dress, a new car, a new job, a new marriage, a new government. You can just believe in what I'm doing. Believe in myself. If it's not around me, I can find it. I can contribute. This will be my game. I added something new into the world. What God says. You know what life says. It's not possible. Nothing fundamentally new will come from you or the experience of God. And you know why it is that we find ourselves looking so much in the mirror? That's to do with Solomon's last observation in this section. Number four. Man does not remember the past. Then verse 11. There is no remembrance of earlier things, and also of the later things which will occur, there will be for them no remembrance, among those that will come later, still. This is why we don't recognize there's nothing new. Because we don't remember the old. We can't compare it. Now, of course, we're selected to say To be understood the same, you remember absolutely nothing about the past. No, you can remember what happened yesterday in various ways, and there is such a thing as the same history. Nevertheless, there are at least two ways that's almost safe and true. Number one, no people, some people, remember earlier things. Most don't. Do you think most people in the world are well-informed of history? Those people are not even well-agreed to the present. You know, the surveys that you see pop up on the news every now and then, like, they ask, you know, 10,000 people who the president of this country is, and they're like, how can people get along? I don't know, but who is there to pass it? Unless you become too hard-mothered and dismissive of them, they've got their own abilities. How much do you know about your ancestors' past? Do you even know the names of your ancestors beyond your grandparents? How much do you know about this country's history? How much do you know about the other countries and their history? Though there are historians who have special knowledge of the past, humanity as a whole remembers very little. What we remember is often vague, and sometimes misremembered. Oh yeah, who'd want me to do this? Maybe I can do this. Actually, I did. So there's that aspect of there's no remembrance. But this fact leads to another way that there's no remembrance. That statement from Solomon is true. Number two, no one learns from the past in a way that's fundamentally transforming or rescuing of man. Someone once said, the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. That's a pretty true statement. While the past can and does help us in certain small, limited ways, man never learns from the past the way it is truly helpful in escaping the vapor of vapors existence that we all share. Instead mankind is making the same mistakes over and over again. And pursues the same useless idols, treasures, and hoaxes. You know what's the case with one of this? Nation of idiots. Look at them in their life. If you think, look at all that God did to you in the last minute. Look at all the times that God chastened you from turning away. Why are you doing it again? Don't you remember? Probably the most obvious example is when they literally said, let's go back to Egypt. You weren't sleeping in Egypt. They're like, oh, that's good, okay. We have the leeks, we have the melons, we have all the food everybody wants here. This woman just had a problem with her brain and her memory. Why did they fail to remember? In a way that was helpful. Because of the entire palace. Because they were stubborn in the heart, therefore they refused to learn the lesson that they choose to come to pass. It's still true today today. It's even true for us at times, isn't it? Think about how people make the same mistake over and over again when it comes to placing hope in our modern American political system. We hear the same thing every election cycle. How many times have you heard, this is the most important election? How many times have people believed that if their candidate would only win, then everything would be fixed? And then how many times have people been disappointed to find out that their elected candidate won, but he didn't fix everything? But instead of saying, oh, you know what, I shouldn't have put so much hope in that political candidate, you know what they do? They come up with excuses. Oh, it was the other party. They got in the way. He would have done it if they had just let him go. He got in the way. Next time. Next time. We'll do it, guys. Never give up. We'll be there. But let's get even more personal. How many times have you pursued a simple, foolish course in your life? You experienced a lot, but you got in a lot of trouble. You were very disappointed. You realized the thing didn't get what you thought it would get. Then what do you do? You go right back? Why? Don't you remember? Don't you remember what that experience was in your pursuit before? It wasn't satisfying. It only brought trouble. Why are you going back? Don't you remember? You say to yourself, maybe this time we'll live. Maybe this time we'll find the meaning. But in your heart, you already know the answer to that. It's not true. This is the common experience of mankind. We generally do not remember the past. And what we do remember, we don't remember in a way that's fundamentally helpful to us. And if we ourselves can't remember the past, then what hope is there for the next generation? The next generation is just as confused as we are now about what Solomon says. There will be for them no remembrance. Humanity doesn't change. It's just recycled. You never remember, you never learn, and thus, you never progress. As a people, and as individuals, we don't find gain. We're just like a hamster, running on a wheel, no matter how hard we run, we never get there. By the way, this last observation is solemn. It shows how pointless it is to live to be remembered. You needn't miss upon that temptation. 20 times in this year for our country that people may be stressed. I will make a name for myself the last one I Will have I don't make my family's name great for all generations people will remember me or they will remember us as being particularly awesome Wasn't this with the ancient people of Apple said when they first tried to build the tower let's make a name for ourselves How many people pursued all of their different accomplishments in the name of producing and putting themselves in the name? And you know what? They don't remember. They're accomplishing for God. It's not significant to us anymore. The same is true for you. If you want to make a name for yourself, you've got to hear from Solomon here. It's not going to last. Within a few generations, no one will remember. How very likely am I. If they do remember you, it won't be in the way that's predicted. Just as you don't remember all supposedly great men and women in the past, so other people will not remember you. So, reconsider this whole argument from Solomon in this passage, verses 3 to 11. Can you see now why Solomon says that he does in verse 2, vanity of mankind? The natural world is stuck in an unsatisfying circle. Man, as an inhabitant of that natural world, is stuck in the same circle. We experience nothing that's truly new, and we do not remember the past and the day before. What's the answer to Solomon's question? What is the profit of all man's toil under the sun, even all your toil? The answer is, there is no path in life. There's no game. There's no game in the store. All your excruciating toil and pain. No matter how hard you work, no matter how hard any time you work, you will not find an ice cream vending machine. This is what life is. This is what life in the modern world is. It's insubstantiation. It's reading. It's ultimately content. It's like Sisyphus. Painfully rolling that rock up the hill just once more again? You might be asking in response, well, what then? All right, so maybe I won't find some gain in this world. Maybe I will only be disappointed. But maybe I should just keep chasing these vain pledges anyways. Because it's basically temporarily numbed the pain of this nap ball. What else? What other choice do I have? There is a way to true gain and lasting fulfillment. What way is that? Let me point you again to what Solomon said in Eugenius 12. In Eugenius 12, the last two verses of the book, verses 13-14. The conclusion, what all has to occur is, hear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. Literally, this is the whole command. For God will bring every act of judgment, everything which is good, whatever is good, for people. You see, the way, the lasting gain in this world is not actually in this world. It's apart from this world. It's in God. Our Creator is the One that we were created for. So of course, any method of approaching life that doesn't see God as the ultimate gain is due to frustration. We weren't designed for that. We weren't designed to find gain or satisfaction in the world, but in God. And worse, by running away from God, Seeking the world instead of Him, you come under God's judgment. Because only He is worthy of devotion and worship. Not created things. And not you. Man's all. Man's design is to walk with God and depend on Him continually. It is to fear Him. It is to seek God as the ultimate treasure and not to fear things of the earth. So, if you actually stop Going the way the rest of the world does. We'll stop rebelling against God, actually fear Him, actually keep His commandments, actually seek Him, and we will rediscover the joy that was always classified as commandment. That joy that is not based on this world and the things of it, but of He who is God. This is the way that Jesus Himself, Son of God, described this group, the Samaritan women in John 4. Jesus was talking to this woman at the well about the water she was drawing. Everyone needs to drink water to live. And then Jesus said to her in John 4, verses 13-14. Jesus stands to her and said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. The water that I will give him will become infinite. A well of water springing up. Everyone is thirsty in this world. That's why they strive the way that they do. But Jesus, the Lord, says, I am the only one who can provide true light and satisfaction for the thirsty. Not in the way that they're seeking, but in the way that they do. How does one come to drink, partake, know, have this living water from Jesus? There's two. Be His disciple. It is to come to know Him by repentance and escape. That's what Jesus said, right? Repent and believe the gospel. The kingdom of God is near. To know Jesus Christ, to know true gain, you must repent of living for the people of the world. It is the vainest thing, but it is also an evil thing. The psalmist shows that it is of no profit to seek your children to the will, to seek those as your idol and as your God. You must repent of that. Turn from that. No longer walk your sinful way, pursuit of violence. Turn from that, turn from yourself, and turn to God. Embrace Him by faith. Faith in what? Faith in who He is and what He's done. Jesus Christ, the God of men, He came into the world to save sinners. He died a perfectly substitutionary death. He rose against the enemy. Great! So that all those who believe in Him could have their sins totally paid off before God. And they might be clothed with Christ's own perfect righteousness. made acceptable to God through Jesus, and not through their own good works, and not through Israel. If you want to gain God, which is the ultimate treasure, it's the only true gain for life, then you must repent of your sin and your violence, and you must turn and embrace Jesus. He is my Lord. He is my God. I want to follow Him, and He's the only one who can make me righteous. All by Himself, His Word, He's the only one that can make me righteous. If you do that, then not only is what Jesus said true, this living water will become a fountain of water, much like a tunnel of life. You won't inherit a tunnel of life if you're gone. Plus, you already get to drink of that water, so to speak, during this time. Make no mistake. Solomon is not saying that your life is doomed to misery because we live in a big world. That's not true. It's doomed to misery ultimately if you live for this world. There is a happy way, there is a wide way to live life. That way is to live in the spirit of God. God is your game. Then, like I said at the beginning, life then becomes a gift to be enjoyed, thankfully, rather than some rat race for gain. God has many good things for us in this world. The thing is that He commands us to give Him thanks for it. And He intends for us to enjoy. But not in and of themselves for all to enjoy. Oh God, thank you so much for this food. I'm going to enjoy it in part for you because it's going to bring me over to the throne. No, that's foolish. Innocent. God says, you will seek me first, and I want you to enjoy that food. If you will seek me first, then I want you to enjoy those companionships you have with your friends, your family, your spouse. It's my history. They won't satisfy you enough themselves, and yet they are my kind of history. When God is your game, life becomes a gift that you can wisely utilize and enjoy and thank God for. So which way are you going? You have to answer that same question that Solomon throws in verse 3. What is your profit for all of your toil that you toil in this world? Solomon has already directed you toward the answer. Will you stubbornly insist, no, I do know, I've got something that's great, I know where you're going. You know who also said that? Adam and Eve. They were so wrong. Don't be so stubborn. Think that up. Humble yourself. Listen to your Heavenly Father. He's appealing to you from this book, through Solomon. Say, no. I'm not God. And I won't ever help Solomon. Because that's the way it is. When you listen to your head and your body, one way leads to joy in life. The other way leads to frustration. Thank you for this word. But it has to pierce through those long things that we often believe and cling to. But it's so easy, especially in our materialistic society in America, So look for gain in this world. Trust in science. Trust in philosophy. Trust in pleasures. Trust in all these new products that keep coming out. But they won't bring gain. They're just old things dressed up in a new way. But there was something new in the world that didn't come from the world. It's you. Lord Jesus Christ, you came into the world to save sinners. You did what was unthinkable and unexpected. You came to redeem those who had no reason. Nothing in themselves can make us worthy to be redeemed. You did that for your loved ones. For all those who repent and believe they have eternal life, which they even taste death. Because they know you. But I pray for any who don't know you today, that they would know you. And for those who do know you, who get so easily entangled up in the things of the world, that they would cut off those entanglements. To say, no, I'm not going to live this old way, the vain way that the world continues to live. I want to live for God, and thereby enjoy the world, enjoy life, enjoy the good gifts of God in a proper way. We could outline some kind of divine new way for us. Lord, I pray that your spirit would be so kind as to work and cause us to take that way and lead us in it. Finally, we need to try something new, which is to get to sing indoors without masks. Again, if you're uncomfortable with this, please feel no obligation to continue to stay. If you'd like to go outside and sing there, or if you need to go, that's totally fine. I'll say a few things, but if you have time to do this, you're invited. We're going to sing three songs. We have Immortal, Invisible, and Where Does Not God Hide Home in All Glory Be Christ. And those lyrics are those that get displayed on the screens. You'll find that a lot of the lyrics tie in with what we just heard from the message. God is through game. And God is the one who lasts, not the things in the world. Those are the things that we want to praise God for, even as we sing these songs. We start with the hymn, Immortal, Invisible. So, please sing with me. We mourn the dead, sir, who carnally lies, And lie near her sister, who can't compromise. The blessed, most glorious, the ancient, her maid, Almighty victorious, thy name may we praise. God bless thee, God bless thee, as I and as I. Your hearts be glorified, crowned with divine. Thy justice, thy bounty, thy stories of love. Thy goodness, thy bounty, thy goodness and love. Where all life now liveth, still both great and small, In all life now liveth, the true light of all. Be love's love and joy rich, and peace on earth bring, And with earth and spirit, our thoughts make in thee. May God through love's love Our next song is by the word of God and what I heard. It's a great song. And this ought to be your hard testimony, right? If you can raise the level of enthusiasm, the level of the gospel, and you say, my gain is not the things I am or the things that were. It's God. God is my treasure. God is my inheritance, right? I've been an inheritance, Psalm 13. Let's sing this song together. My worth is not in what I own, Not in the strength of fresh and old, But in the costly work of love that I've done. My worth is not in skill or name, In win or lose, if I were shamed. A game without blood, a place without love. I rejoiced in my Redeemer, His pleasure. Just think of my soul. I'll trust in him no longer, for this night is mine to do. At sun, moon, heart, sea, shade, and love, in youth and youth and love. While life eternal falls, I am not close enough or known Or human, this does not surprise But I feel close enough because I am the Lord I rejoice in my Redeemer, rich treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him no more, for still His hand is wide and evermore. Who wonders here at iron's edge? My earth and my unworthy edge. I value this, I ransom this, and the thought of this. I rejoice in God the Redeemer. Greatest treasure will free up my soul. I will trust Him in no other. As humans and as God together. I rejoice in God the Redeemer. I will trust in him no other, my soul is satisfied in him alone. For our last song today is All Glory to Christ. I think we've sung this a few times in church and family stuff. It's been a long time, but I think the words of All Glory to Christ are better. So let's sing that together. Should nothing of our efforts stand, no name could seize her life. Unless the Lord God creates the house, in vain its builders thrive. To you, folks, to all those kings, tell me, what is your life? A misadventure that longs of glory be to Christ. Of glory be to Christ our King. Of glory be to Christ. His rule may reign and let us sing of glory be to Christ. His will be done, his kingdom come, on earth and kings above. Who is his help? Our daily bread, raised in the Lord above. The living water, ♪ From the thirsty grave of Christ ♪ ♪ We'll take a cup of kindness yet ♪ ♪ Of glory to Christ our King ♪ ♪ Of glory to Christ our King ♪ ♪ Of glory to Christ our King ♪ His rule and reign will ever sing of glory to come. Old Medina, pray go yet, the people have grown true. The man who was once in his strife is gaining all things new. Behold, our God shall live with us.