The Vanity of Self Indulgence (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11)- Rev. Kenny C. Maple

Let us take our Bibles now and open up to the

Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Today we'll look at verses 1 through

11. Just a word of introduction while you're

finding that. We started Ecclesiastes just a

few weeks ago and Just to be reminded of some

important things in Ecclesiastes, the beginning

of the book says the words of the preacher. ESV

uses preacher. Your translation may use a different

word. It may use teacher. This is all coming

from the Hebrew word kohelet. And so I may call

him kohelet. I may say preacher. I may say teacher.

I may call him Solomon, because that's who we

believe wrote this book. But also, as verse two

says, the vanity of vanities. Remember that we

talked about the Old Testament, the Hebrew word,

hevel. And so quite literally what that means

is breath, or vapor, or mist. And it's translated

a number of different ways, but what we've said

is that all of life is fleeting and the things

of this world are fleeting. So please keep those

things in mind. As we read from chapter two,

verses one through 11, please give attention

to the reading of God's holy word. I said in

my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure,

enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity.

And I said of laughter, it is mad. And of pleasure,

what use is it? I searched with my heart how

to cheer my body with wine. my heart still guiding

me with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till

I might see what was good for the children of

man to do under heaven during the few days of

their life. I made great works. I built houses

and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself

gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds

of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which

to water the forest of growing trees. I bought

male and female slaves and had slaves who were

born in my house. I had also great possessions

of herds and flocks, more than any who had been

before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself

silver and gold and the treasure of kings and

provinces. I got singers, both men and women,

and many concubines the delight of the sons of

man. So I became great. surpassed all who were

before me in Jerusalem also my wisdom remained

with me and whatever my eyes desired I did not

keep from them I kept my heart from no pleasure

for my heart found pleasure in all my toil and

this was my reward for all my toil then I considered

all that my hands had done in the toil I had

expended in doing it and behold all was vanity

and a striving after wind, and there was nothing

to be gained under the sun. Grass withers and

the flower fades, but God's word stands forever.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for

this word. Even if it is perhaps perplexing to

us, even if it's difficult for us to read, we

ask that you, by your spirit, would grant us

understanding and the application of this text.

These things we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Working our way through chapter one of this book,

we noticed how often that Solomon seems to mention

things related to creation. He talks about the

sun coming up and the sun going down. He talks

about the wind swirling around. He talks about

the streams flowing to the sea, but saying that

the sea is never full. He continues to talk about

creation in chapter two. as you see some of the

things that he was striving to do. He was making

these vineyards and these gardens and these parks

and these trees and these pools. All of it sounds

just glorious, doesn't it? I would like to see

this. Many have looked at this passage along

with chapter one and said what Solomon is really

doing is preparing a place of paradise. It's

almost like a return to Eden. And certainly,

if we could go back to pre -fall Eden, it would

alleviate all the miseries of this life, all

of the frustrations that we encounter in this

life. What if the fall had never happened? Can't

we just go back to that? The wise man and the

wise woman knows you can't go backwards. And

the more that you learn, the more that you know,

the more vexation you have, for you remember

how chapter one ends, for in much wisdom is much

vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases

sorrow. And so we need to be mindful of that.

We need to understand that life is fleeting,

isn't it? And yet, as Solomon recognizes this

in his pursuit of meaning by wisdom, what does

he really understand? That even the pursuit of

meaning by wisdom can't deliver on all of its

promises, can it? Wisdom cannot fix every problem

in this life. Only the one who embodies wisdom,

Christ Jesus, can fix all of the mess that we're

in. And so, underlying this chapter, I believe

is something that should remind us of Genesis

chapter three. We should be reminded of sin.

We should be reminded of the fall, right? Do

you remember what stood in the middle of the

garden? There was a tree there of the knowledge

of good and evil. What was it about that tree

that made it off limits for Adam and Eve? Was

it just... forbidden fruit? No, certainly. God

gave this command. You're not to eat of that.

And they should have obeyed, right? But let's

also ask this question. What was enticing about

that tree? What was enticing about the fruit

that grew upon it? You remember the serpent talking

with Eve in the garden, and he has her questioning

what God said. the serpent attempts to correct

God and he says you will not surely die But what

what will happen if you eat of that tree? Perhaps

you remember Genesis 3 verse 6. Let me read this

Genesis 3:6

so when the woman saw that the tree was good

for food and that it was a delight to the eyes

and that the tree was to be desired to make one

wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also

gave some to her husband who was with her and

he ate to make one wise. It was called the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil for a reason

because the fruit gave insight to Adam and Eve

that they were not supposed to have. And so we

should understand the limits of wisdom. Benjamin

Shaw, who is a very fine professor, says, the

supposition of the temptation is that wisdom

will make life happy. But Solomon finds otherwise.

His first conclusion is that this life is an

unhappy burden. Why? Because there are simply

some things that wisdom cannot fix. And when

we understand that, then we are truly wise. But

Solomon, seeing that, seeing that wisdom isn't

delivering on all of its promises, he tries something

else. And so look at verse one. He attempts to

self -indulge. He attempts to find meaning in

pleasure. I said in my heart, come now. I will

test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But he

already tells us even this will not work because

he calls it what? Vanity. And he says it's a

striving after wind. We said last time that it's

like a shepherding of the wind, a harnessing

of the wind. It cannot be done. And so he's talking

to himself. Notice all of the first person singular

pronouns that are in this text. I said in my

heart, I will test you. I said of laughter. I

searched with my heart. I made myself all of

these things. There is this focus from Solomon

now upon himself. It's almost like Solomon gets

a taste of these things. And he says, I'm going

to give myself fully to them. Have you ever done

that? And I'm not talking about bad things. I'm

talking about good things. Have you ever just

gotten a taste of something and you said, wow,

I love this, and then you just pursued it with

everything you've got? A few years ago, Brittany

and I went up to Fairbanks, Alaska in January.

That's right, it was her idea. It's very cold.

We wanted to see the Northern Lights, and I knew

I wanted to see these things, the Aurora Borealis,

but once I got a glimpse of them, it was on.

And I thought, I got to see these again and again.

So we were setting alarms, getting up at the

middle of the night. I had all these apps on

my phone telling me when the aurora was coming

out. We found ourselves on the top of a mountain

at like 1 AM, negative 30 degrees. And we're

looking for these things and just absolutely

loving it. Sometimes when you just get a taste

of something, you got to have more. And so this

is Solomon. Giving himself completely to these

things and it's not really these things are all

necessary necessarily wrong It's just that he

is he is finding satisfaction in them when his

true satisfaction needs to be in God Look at

verse 2 to see what he tries first. I said of

laughter it is mad It's almost like Solomon here

is saying if I could just have a laugh track

in the background of life, everything would be

great. Like, let's make light of things. And

maybe the meaning is found in that. But he's

going to tell us in chapter three, there is a

time for laughter. Laughter is good. It's good

medicine, so they say. There's a time for laughter,

but there's also a time not to laugh. And so

ultimately, meaning is not found in laughter.

What's next? Look in verse three. I searched

with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.

And so up next is alcohol. Now I don't believe

necessarily that this is talking about the abuse

of alcohol. He may be talking about that. And

we know from Solomon that the abuse of alcohol

is wrong. He says in Proverbs chapter 20 verse

Proverbs 20:1

1, wine is a mocker, strong drink a browler.

and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

So we know what he thinks about being intoxicated,

but it's not necessarily that he's talking about

that. Philip Riken says, maybe he was not an

alcoholic after all, but a connoisseur. Solomon,

who we'll talk about here shortly, had all of

the money in the world. He could afford the fine

wine. He could drink the king of beers if he

wanted to. The emphasis, though, is on the result.

It just doesn't fully satisfy. And so here's

why I want to make application. The problem within

this text is not the gifts that God gives. It's

what do we do with these gifts? Solomon, at the

end of chapter two, is going to talk about the

gift of eating and drinking and being merry.

And these things are good. They're gifts from

God for us. But when we place our ultimate meaning

in those things, They're all going to come up

short. Look what else he looks at. Verses 4 through

7, all of his building projects. This is further

evidence that the author of this is Solomon,

because we know in places like 1 Kings 7, 1 Kings

10, 2 Kings 18 and 20, that he built all kinds

of things. Again, it's almost like Solomon is

recreating paradise. And what would you really

need to recreate paradise? You would need a massive

workforce. So Solomon talks here about these

slaves, the servants who were born in his home.

He has just this massive workforce that is tending

to him hand and foot in building all of these

things. You see, Solomon was not just the wisest

man. Solomon was the richest man. And as Solomon,

I believe, is at the end of his life, and he's

looking back on all of it, and he's remembering

the gold. He's remembering the food. He's remembering

the music. Solomon's remembering how he tried

out the good life. Look in verse eight. Towards

the end, he mentions concubines here, the delight

of the sons of man. This is an especially tricky

verse because this is not the normal word for

concubines. And so that's why if you're using

a King James here, you're going to see. is talking

about musical instruments. If you happen to be

a Greek scholar and you're looking at a Septuagint,

you're going to see something about cup bearers

here. And so what gives, why are all these translations

different? It's again, because this is the only

place where this word is found in the Hebrew

Old Testament. But we also know that Solomon

did have a problem. How many wives and how many

concubines did he have? He had hundreds, right?

So even he knows this and he would tell you this

ultimate ultimate satisfaction is not found in

sex Sex is a gift from God is to be enjoyed within

the bounds of marriage But even that does not

give you ultimate lasting satisfaction Look at

verse 9 All of these things he says and then

so I became great and surpassed all who were

before me in Jerusalem All right, so essentially

Solomon had whatever he wanted, but was it enough

for him? Excuse me. Were the servants and the

money, sorry, week three of the cold, the servants

and the money and the music and the women, was

it enough for him? No, it wasn't. And yet sometimes

people say things like, the person who dies with

the most toys wins. Is that true? Of course not.

Of course not. And so as he looks on all of these

things, he tells you what he now thinks of them.

It's all vanity. It's all fleeting. It all comes

and goes like the wind. Now for us today, we

might not describe ourselves like Solomon, right?

We don't have access to all that he had. So we

probably don't talk about it all in this way.

But think about it for a second. What is it that's

out there that you just wish you had? Fill in

the blank, if I only had this, I would be happier.

I think when we really search our hearts, there

might be things. And again, the gifts aren't

the problem. It's what do we do with the gifts?

How do we think about the gifts? And are we content

with what God gives to us? There is a slogan

that says, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow

we die. Have you heard that before? Eat, drink

and be merry for tomorrow we die. Daniel Gibson

says, people abide by that motto because they

believe that this is all that life is. For the

wise person. We don't believe that this is all

that there is. And the things that we do have,

we thank God for them. There's an illustration

that is used by, it seems, just about everybody

who preaches these days from Ecclesiastes, chapter

two. And I'm gonna use it as well. It's by a

football player who is mildly successful. You

may have heard of him. His name was Tom Brady.

After he won his third Super Bowl, He was interviewed

by 60 minutes, and he said this, there's time

where I'm not the person that I want to be. Why

do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think

there's something greater out there for me? I

mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey man,

this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream,

my life. But me, I think there's got to be more

than this. I mean, this can't be all it's cracked

up to be. I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. And what

else is there for me? And then the interviewer

said to Tom Brady, well, what's the answer? And

Brady said, I wish I knew. I wish I knew. Friends,

the things of this life are fleeting. They are

heathal. And fleeting does not equal meeting.

It comes in a go as Brady is not still winning

Super Bowls, and Solomon is not still building

pools and projects and all of these things. No.

We need to seek that which endures forever. Life

is brief, but we have been given the answer to

life. Our choir already sang these words. Seek

first the kingdom of God. and all these things

will be added unto you. Why should we seek first

the kingdom of God? Well, anything else is idolatry.

Anything else elevating any of the gifts of God,

anything of this life above God is breaking the

first command. It is idolatry. And secondly,

Solomon tells you it just doesn't work. If you

haven't experienced what Solomon did, you will.

You will. You will recognize the things of this

life are fleeting. But the kingdom of God and

the righteousness of Christ endures forever.

But you might say, well, how can I have the kingdom

of God? How can I have the righteousness of Christ?

Well, perhaps you remember 2 Corinthians chapter

2 Corinthians 5:21

5, verse 21. This is. the kind of text that you

need to hide in your heart. For it says, for

our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin

so that in him we might become the righteousness

of God. You see, friends, the opposite of self

-indulgence is what Christ did for us. The opposite

of self -indulgence is the humility of Jesus.

He did not indulge himself. He gave himself up

for us. He took our sin upon him. Perhaps you

remember these words from Philippians 2. I'll

read 5 through 11. Have this mind among yourselves,

which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he

was in the form of God, did not count equality

with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied

himself by taking the form of a servant, being

born in the likeness of men. being found in human

form he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death even death on a cross therefore

God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him

the name that is above every name so that at

the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven

and on earth and under the earth and every tongue

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory

of God the Father. Friends, do you know what

you have in Christ? You have everything. The

pleasures given by God are good things, but they

don't compare to what awaits you. And so Christian

keeps seeking the kingdom of God, knowing that

in God's presence is the fullness of joy. Let

us pray.