Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Vain Pursuit #3: Walking in Wisdom

Sermon Text: Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Sermon Theme:  If wisdom and folly end with the same result, why live in wisdom?  

• A sad reality (vv. 12-17)
• So now what?

Sermon Reflections:

Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a person happy. The most learned person, who dies a stranger to Christ Jesus, will perish equally with the most ignorant.

• Does this mean that worldly wisdom fails in all respects or just as the ultimate source of reliance?
• Is your mind still eager and unsatisfied as before you gained the knowledge you have?
• Are you allowing the fools of the world to influence your mind?
• What profit will the wisdom and wealth of the world be to the soul in death, in judgment or in the everlasting state?
• Is the disposition of your soul being employed beneficially or shamefully in making use of the wisdom God has given you?
• Are you seeking the blessedness that can be attained only through Jesus Christ?

Man, after all his labor and search for wisdom, is no nearer finding rest than the sun, the wind, or the current of the river. His soul will find no rest, if it is not from God. The senses are soon tired, yet still craving what is untried. While fate is not an evil power even in Solomon’s mind, it rather refers to those things that happen to an individual over which there is no control. The fate that both the wise and the fool will surely encounter is death.

• What good can commendations with no enduring remembrance on earth do to the body in the grave, or the soul in hell?
• What profit has a man of all his earthly labor? All he gets by it will not supply the wants of the soul, nor satisfy its desires?
• Are your thoughts from the hand of God and not of our own creating? Do they give you rest that is above where you can hear “Enter into the joy of your master?”
• Are you learning to hate and fear sin, the cause of all this vanity and misery; to value Christ; to seek rest in the knowledge, love, and service of our Savior?
• What toil has a useful end that benefits God’s kingdom and is built upon Christ as the rock?
• Are you reaching out to someone to give them a kind word of encouragement, a helping hand, disciplining them? Is this the person who will have remembrance and thanks when they are in heaven? Are you using your wisdom to invest in eternity?