đŸ‘‚Listen - 04/14/2024 - Ecclesiastes 6

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TRANSCRIPT (Auto-Generated): That song reminds us that we are utterly dependent on him for all things. And that's why we have prayer. We our only hope for salvation comes through Jesus Christ, but our only hope for all things that all good gifts that we receive come through him. And so we are, we are told and we are given the great privilege to come to him in prayer. Today. We're gonna be in Ecclesiastes chapter six and we are going to be at the halfway point in our study in Ecclesiastes. It has been quite an adventure so far. We've taken a few weeks off. We had Palm Sunday and Dan brought a great message from John. We had an Easter message and then Dan was also here last week in my absence, but here we are back in Ecclesiastes. So I'd invite you to turn to Ecclesiastes chapter six. If you're not already there, follow along as I read and I will be reading the entire chapter. It's only 12 verses and we're going to hopefully cover all of these verses today. Ecclesiastes chapter six, starting in verse one. There is an evil that I have seen under the sun. And it lies heavy on mankind. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions and honor so that He lacks nothing of all that he desires. Yet, God does not give him the power to enjoy, to enjoy them, but a stranger en enjoys them. This is vanity. It is a grievous evil if a man fathers 100 Children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things. He also and he also has no burial. I say that a stillborn child is better than he for, it comes in vanity and goes in darkness and in darkness, its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything yet. It finds rest rather than he, even though he should live 1000 years twice over yet enjoy no good. Do not all go to the one place verse seven, all the toil of man is for his mouth. Yet his appetite is not satisfied for what advantage has the wise man over the fool or what does the poor man have? Who knows how to conduct himself before the living better? Is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite. This also is vanity and striving after wind. Whatever has come to be has already been named and it is known what man is that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he, the more words, the more vanity and what is the advantage to man for? Who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow for who can tell man what will be after him under the sun. Let's pray where this is a challenging and even discouraging passage to read. Yet we know that it is of your word. We know that there are things to, to learn about Jesus Christ from this very pack passage of scripture. We thank you that you have given us Ecclesiastes chapter six so that we can study and know more about you. We thank you that we can trust these words as reliable and true. And we thank you for Solomon having written them down by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, please guide our study. Now in Jesus name Amen. Hm. In 1865 a man named Aaron Ward, he started a job as a traveling salesman and he sold dry goods in the Midwest Chicago, Illinois area going out to farmers and in doing this, he realized certain things that people of that time, it was difficult for them to travel and it was, it was hard for them to get the things that they wanted. So he decided he was going to start a business and it became one of the first mail order catalogs. He did not use his first name, Aaron for the name of the business. He used his middle name, Montgomery Montgomery Ward and company. And so he implemented the first mail order catalog. And Sears later on followed that same lead because of the success that Montgomery Ward had had originally when he released this, this book, he was, he was of course offering these great quality goods. But people didn't know that they didn't have the goods to, to touch and to, to examine. They couldn't just like when they go to the general store, they could, they could say, ok, this looks like it's made well or whatever it might be. But with the catalog, how do you do that? So to get people to buy it a couple of years after he started it in 1872 he began the money back satisfaction guarantee. And so if the customer was not fully satisfied with what they had received, they can get their full money back. And of course, that was huge success and other companies since then and even to this day have adopted that practice satisfaction, guaranteed satisfaction guaranteed. Then you have Mick Jagger who doesn't get any satisfaction. 1965 he released a song that repeated this mantra about I don't get any satisfaction because he tries and he tries and he tries. And of course, that song had to do with his own frustrations with American consumerism and even his own sexual frustrations. He could not get satisfaction. What is satisfaction. This is going to lead us to this text. This whole discussion of what satisfaction is, satisfaction lies at the intersection of our desire and fulfillment of that desire. And in this world, we live in a place of temporal satisfaction only. We don't have long term fulfilling satisfaction, every longing, every yearning, every craving, even if fulfilled in the moment will come back, it will return. If you eat breakfast, you're gonna be hungry again. At lunch time, you might need a snack, whatever it might be, you might, you might want a new car. You get that new car. What happens to that new car? It's not a new car again. Eventually the new car smell goes away and, and what do you have? You have an old car? So that of course you need a new car again and we have these wants and these desires, but sometimes we get exactly what we want in the exact time that we want it, but it does not last. You guys remember those Christmas mornings as Children, the excitement of that new toy. How long did that excitement last? Once you've received it, it goes away fast. Tell you about an hour, right? You play with it. What's next life on earth? We live in this perpetual state of these irresistible cravings and these desires and we're frustrated, right? Because that's all our life is, is whatever the next thing is this perpetual cycle of want and fulfillment. We're inclined to think that if we just had a little bit more, we can be that much happier. And so we see this, this ladder that exists and I'm on this rung of the ladder. But if I could just go to the next rung in the ladder, I could be that much happier and I could be that much more fulfilled. Yet, we find out that that's not what happens. We see people at the top are not fulfilled. We see that they are often not satisfied. As I stated, this is a bleak chapter. And in fact, in some sense, this is kind of the low point of Ecclesiastes if there were a low point in scripture. But this is the one that brings us down to the depths of despair and it gets better from here. That's the good news. We go into chapter seven next and it starts to slowly build, but we have to get through this bleak chapter. In fact, this is not a chapter of the Bible that a preacher would choose to preach from. If, if someone said, hey, can you come fill the pulpit here or whatever it might be? I wouldn't run to Ecclesiastes chapter six. It's just not that kind of a chapter, but yet with our commitment to exposition or verse by verse preaching in this, in this church and, and, and my love for it frankly, we're forced to deal with some of these texts And so what is, what is here? What this is Solomon giving his experience. This is what Ecclesiastes is. This is Solomon in his old age, is looking back on his life, telling us what he discovered. Now, he has this awesome unique perspective, right by some accounts, the richest man to have ever lived wanting for nothing, the wisest man save Christ to have ever lived. He's got this unique perspective and he was given this long life, he had reigned in Jerusalem for four years. And this, by all accounts was the end of his life, looking back and warning us, warning us who would pursue the wrong things, who would look at the world around us and say, well, this person has that I want that too, or this person has that I want that too. And just telling us it's all Hubel vanity, emptiness, meaninglessness. Again, that same word we see repeated over and over in Ecclesiastes. Of course, the caveat to that meaninglessness, the caveat to that to that vanity is the fact that he is looking at it from an atheistic perspective, life under the sun. And so he begins chapter six with similar words, this is nothing new to us. He uses, this is the same mantra we've seen throughout Ecclesiastes. There is an evil that I've seen under the sun and it lies heavy on mankind. So he's observed life. He's, he's observed things in life that has weighed heavy on his mind that is weighed heavy on his soul. And he has seen that life under the sun life from a godless perspective, the hopeless life there is an evil that is attached to it. What are these inescapable realities of this Godless world? He goes on to say, by the way, I do have the text. Here we go, goes on to say a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions and honor so that He lacks nothing and all that he desires. So he's describing a man could be a hypothetical man could be himself for that matter. Someone who's been given everything that he's ever wanted that there is no desire that can't be fulfilled. He has it. He lacks nothing and of all that He desires yet there's a but there right yet God does not give him the power to enjoy them. This is a problem. What good is it having something? If you can't enjoy it? What good is it to receive that remote control car for your birthday? If you don't have the batteries to put in it and received a new car that you can actually drive and don't have the keys or the fob or whatever the heck you use nowadays to start it up and use it. God does not God not only gives the gift but he must give the enjoyment as well. This of course is reminiscent of the previous chapter and by the way, this is a side note, Ecclesiastes chapter five, starting at about verse eight through the end of 66. Chapter 12 is kind of all one section and there is a, there is a structure to it. So a lot of things that we see in Ecclesiastes chapter six, we're gonna also see back in, in chapter five as well. So both the gift and enjoyment must come from God. We see this in, in Ecclesiastes 518, behold, what I've seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the under the sun. The few days of his life that God has given, that God has given to Him, everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil. We talked about this last time that, that we can only enjoy if God gives that gift of enjoyment. So this hypothetical person or if this could be Solomon himself, he does not receive this gift of enjoyment. But who has says, but a stranger enjoys them? Who is the stranger? Now, the stranger is just someone other than himself. This could actually refer to his own heirs. He could refer to his own Children that he had worked and told this was a theme earlier on in Ecclesiastes that he had worked on all this stuff. And this inheritance all went to his Children. Also back in Ecclesiastes five, we see in verse 13, there is a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun riches were kept by their, by their owner to his hurt and those riches were lost in a bad venture. He was father of a son in verse 15, he says, as he came from his mother womb, so shall we go again? Naked? He came and, and and shall take nothing for his toil. He has to leave it all there. He has to, you know, this is the whole concept of you can't take it with you. So for all the work that he did all the toil somebody else enjoyed him, he received them all in his lifetime, but he didn't receive the gift of enjoyment and he get, he ends this with a phrase that we're used to seeing that this is vanity and a grievous evil. What are the point of these two verses? Having it all does not bring joy or satisfaction, just having it all does not bring joy or satisfaction doesn't mean that you're going to enjoy it once you have it verses three through six. If a man fathers 100 Children and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things. He and he also has no burial. I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. He sets up another scenario, the first person has all that they've ever wanted, they have all that they ever desired, but weren't given the gift of enjoyment from God. In this case, he's talking about somebody who has this abundant life. Now, back in this time, to speak of an abundance of Children, that was an indication of blessing. It's still an indication of blessing. But in our society, we don't think of it necessarily that way. Why is why is an abundance of Children such a blessing? Well, there's, there's obvious reasons behind that, but there's also practical reasons. One of the practical reasons is the more Children you have, the more hands you have to work the field to work the family business, to work the family farm. It's also more people that are available to help you in your retirement age in the ages. When you need help, Children were essentially their retirement program. They relied on their Children to take care of them. And whenever someone was seen with a large family, they, they were thought of as someone who'd been blessed by God. A large family was a sign of blessing. So he sets up the scenario where you have this man who has lived all these years. And then he compares it to, compares that person to a stillborn child, someone who just made it out of the womb and, and, and had no life, someone who, who went from the darkness of the womb to the darkness of the grave who is better off the man who had this big long, abundant life full of blessing, full of, full of family and, and just having seemingly this blessed life or was it the stillborn child for? It comes in vanity and goes in darkness. Again, refer to the child and in darkness, its name is covered before we go on to verse five. I want to go back to this phrase in verse three and he also has no burial. What is that referring to? And it also has no burial. I'm gonna say, I don't know the answer to this. If you read it in context and you read it the way that it's written, it, it indicates that there is no, there is no honorable funeral for the man, but we don't know why this is, we don't know if this was his family had, had, did not have any respect for him, did not give him a proper burial. Maybe he died in battle, maybe whatever the case may be, there are a couple other options that some commentators came up with and I thought that they were, they were legitimate. One person said he had no burial because he's like enoch, he just didn't have a death. He, he lived and lived and lived and lived and, and I don't know if that's the case or not. I think, I think one other way to look at this though might be to tie the burial, not with the man. I know that the wording is gonna mess this up but that the burial applies to the ST stillborn child. It was, it's like an anticipatory statement about this child, this child that went from womb to grave immediately. I only, I only brought that up because I didn't want to just skip over that because it was, it was there in the text. But if you have a better answer, we can talk about that later. It goes on to say in verse five, Moreover, it has not, it, it has not seen the sun or known anything yet. It finds rest rather than he referring to the, referring to the stillborn child. Stillborn child has not known all of the the things in life. Yet it goes straight to rest even though he should live 1000 years twice over yet enjoy no good. Do not all go to the one place. Of course, this is that stark reality that death takes us all. Death takes the stillborn child. Death takes the child who's grown. Some death takes the person who has lived in this case 1000 years twice over, which would be 2000 years. What is the point of this passage? What is the point of verses three through six? The stillborn is better off than one who has lived a long life without any joy or satisfaction. So verses one through two, having, having it all does not bring joy or satisfaction versus three through six. The stillborn is better off than the one who has lived a long life without joy or satisfaction. Where do we find joy and satisfaction in life? Where do we find that fulfillment? He goes on in verse seven, all the toil of man is for his mouth. Yet his appetite is not satisfied for what advantage has the wise man over the fool. And what does the poor man have? Who knows how to conduct himself before the living? Both the poor and the wise men. Both the rich and the poor. All work to satisfy their own desires. They feed their appetites. That's what we work for. We want to feed these desires. Yet the longings are never satisfied. The satisfaction never fully comes poor, unsatisfied, rich, unsatisfied, wise, unsatisfied and fool unsatisfied. So he asks, asks this question, who is better off for? What does the poor man have? Who knows how to conduct himself before the living? What is the advantage of being rich over poor? What is the advantage of being wise over foolish better is the side of the eyes and the wandering of the appetite. That appetite just goes all over the place. We always are looking for something. Verse nine is Solomon's version of a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This is a bit of a proverb better is the side of the eyes and the wandering of the appetite. If you have something in your possession, enjoy that thing, enjoy what you have, enjoy the bird that you do have rather than letting it go and chasing two in the bush. And again, he ends this with, this is also vanity and striving after wind. Again, fitting with the theme of Ecclesiastes verse 10. Here we see a bit of a shift. We see a bit of a change. I'm gonna point out something to you now that may not seem so obvious. Once we get into these verses verses 10 through 12, I think it's gonna become more obvious. This is a call back to the garden. This is why I chose to read some of Genesis today. Why do I say that the word man is Adam. Adam, it's the same word for Adam in Genesis and we see this repeated. So when you see Adam, when you see man, a Adam understand the tie back and you're gonna see some other ties. So let's go through this a section at a time. Whatever has come to be has already been named. OK. Think about that for a second. Whatever has come to be has been named, who named the creatures in the garden. Adam, it is known what man is that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he who named Adam. God named Adam. There is a hierarchy here. We're given Dominion over the creatures, Adam's given Dominion over the creatures. Yet there is one that he sits in Dominion under man is dust man is mortal. We live in a temporal world as temporal creatures. And this was the reality of Adam. This is the reality of mankind. He is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. What, what, what good is it for us to have these discussions with the eternal being? This is like the book of job when he would, was contending with this one stronger than he was. And you remember when, then when Adam sinned and we read this account how that went when he disputed, I want to know good and evil. I wanna know this wisdom that comes from eating the fruit. When we see what happens when you contend with the creator, what happens? You lose. For all of us being that Adam is our federal head. We all came from Adam. This meant that we were all plunged into darkness. Adam took the l for all of humanity goes on in verse 11. The more words, the more vanity and what advantage and what advantage? What is the advantage to man here? I'm thinking of Adam and the excuses that he and Eve gave. Well, I would not have eaten this fruit if it weren't for the woman that you gave to me. The woman said, well, you created this serpent and, and the serpent was the, was the instigator here. More words more vanity, the more that we talk, the more that we come before God with all of these words. And again, going back to job, who is job, job has got this big plethora of talk about what God is and what He's like. And at the end, God says, let me correct you on all of it. We have nothing to say before God, we have nothing to correct about Him. More words, more vanity. So the answer to the dilemmas of life, the answer to the vanities of life is not to contend with God. The more vanity, the more meaninglessness that we see, the more that we contend with God leads to more meaninglessness, more vanity for who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow. This of course is a rhetorical question. Who knows what is good for man? I would think God does yet. What was the, what was the tree called in the midst of the garden? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Do you see the tie there? They wanted to see the distinction, good and evil to do that. They had to experience evil. Now, they knew this is how we treat our sin. Often, often times I just want to try it once I just wanna see what that sin is like. Adam sought to eat from the tree that would distinguish himself and make him like God for, who knows what is good for a man while he lives. This is where we truly rely on God. We are fallen creatures. Mankind is a fallen creature and we can only find our hope in the hands of God. What is it like to be like in the hands of God? God is sovereign. God is in control. God knows what is best for mankind. This chapter is designed to whet our appetite for heaven. Do you see that when originally created this world was full of goodness and satisfaction, not only the creature but the creator, they would understand that that satisfaction could come in what was created by God because we would find our satisfaction in God himself. Yeah. Yet because of sin, this world has fallen, we have fallen into sin. Evil is pervasive and satisfaction is nowhere attained any satisfaction we received is temporary. I'm gonna take you on a quick journey first in the Old Testament. Listen to these words from Jeremiah. Now remember Jeremiah was, was coming talking about judgment. He was talking about things that were to come. And he says in verse T chapter two verse 12, be appalled. Oh heavens at this, be shocked. Be utterly desolate. Declares the Lord for my people have committed two evils. What are the two evils? They have forsaken me. Talking about people of Israel, the fountain of living waters and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold no water. They have turned away from the true and living water and they've created these pools and the pools don't even hold water and the water that's in them will turn rancid and stink and they have turned away from the wonderful living waters. Now, the New Testament, if you want to turn there, I'm gonna be in John four and I know you know this passage. Well, so this is the account of the woman at the well, John chapter four, beginning in verse seven, there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, give me a drink for his disciples had gone away to the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you a Jew? See, ask for a drink for me. A woman of Samaria for Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her. If you knew the gift of God, who it is that is saying to you give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. He is recognizing that thirst in this world will continue. I've taken multiple sips of my water. I'm thirsty right now, probably because I drank too much coffee this morning. I'm thirsty and I'm gonna thirst again. And this is nice cold water. And we all have these wonderful insulated cups if we live in Havasu. But what's what's gonna happen? That water bottle is gonna empty, it's gonna get warm, whatever happens. But we're always going to thirst and this is why we seek our satisfaction. Not in the temporal. We still live in this passing world. We still live in this world that is going to to be to be done away with where all things will be made new. But yet while we're here, we have this intense desire for things, for stuff, for substance, for family unity, for, for, for food and drink and, and all of these desires that never satisfy yet, we find out that in Christ, we find something that, that satisfies eternally. We will be given living waters. Jesus goes on to say everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give Him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I give Him will become in Him. A spring of water welling up to eternal life, this life full of want, this life full of, of desires and cravings and yearnings and all of these things that we, we think that are gonna make us happy and bring us satisfaction. They always fall short. It is in God Himself that we find our satisfaction. I'm gonna read through some of the Psalms. Psalms that many of you are probably even familiar with. Listen to the way the Psalmist describes his relationship with God. Oh God, you are my God from Psalm 63 earnestly. I seek you my soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you. So I will bless you. As long as I live in my, in your name, I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich foods in my mouth, will praise you with joyful lips. This is someone who is in tune with God. This is someone who has received the blessing of salvation. This is someone who recognizes their place before God. Psalm 65 says, blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house and the holiness of your temple. Satisfaction comes from being in his presence. Psalm 90 satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 103, bless the Lord o my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your iniquity. He forgives our sins and heals your diseases, redeems you from the pit crowns you with steadfast love and mercy who satisfies you with good. Do you ever, do you ever get the point that. We're just not there yet. Like we, we know God, we love God. We are thankful for the salvation that he has brought. We're thankful for the renewal that he's brought in us. The regeneration yet we wanna be satisfied in Him. And I'm gonna tell you that's an impossible task in this world. We are still bound by sin. Psalm 107. Be the final one. I bring up some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. His wondrous works to the Children of men for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul. He fills with good things. I made a comment at the beginning of this time together. I said Ecclesiastes chapter six is meant to whet our appetites for heaven, to prepare us for eternity, to understand the greatness, the goodness of who he is that we would not get so bogged down with the sin of this world. We truly live in a broken world. This world was originally created perfect, full of joy and satisfaction. Yet because of sin, that dynamic completely changed to find that ultimate satisfaction, to find eternity, to find that hope. We have to turn to Jesus Christ. He has bridged that gap. He has taken the temporal to the eternal. We have to have as it says in Ecclesiastes chapter three, eternity in our hearts. That that eternity that is, is, is, is there in seed form. We know that there's something beyond this world. We know there's something greater than this. We know this all didn't just happen by chance. There is that, that even to suggest something other is to deny our own logic to our, our own logic patterns. We lie to ourselves. We know that there is an eternal realm and that eternal realm exists in one of two ways. For some in this room, that eternal realm will mean eternal punishment. It will mean the weeping and gnashing of teeth. It will mean that you suffer and pay for the sins that you have committed, that you have offended a holy God. Yet for those who turn to Jesus Christ in faith, we have an eternal hope. We have an in, we have inherited great riches. Jesus having bridged that gap by paying for our sins on the cross by giving to us his own righteousness through faith in Him. I invite each and every one of you. If you do not know Jesus Christ this morning, today is the day of salvation. We're gonna turn our attention now to what we call communion, the Lord's table. This is a special time for us because it is a physical reminder of what Jesus has actually done with his actual blood, his actual body on our behalf to pay for our sins on the cross. We're thankful that he has instituted this even before the night before he was, I'm sorry, the night of his betrayal, the day before his actual death, he instituted this meal with his disciples and we carry it forward now for almost 2000 years, this meal that we joined together. So I'm gonna invite the men forward to pass out the elements. They'll be passing out both the bread and the cup. Please hold each in your hands and we will have a moment where we take together.
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