The Futility of Knowledge
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
October 25, 2024
You know the premise.
The old man is quoting the preacher to the young man
Because the preacher is sounding a warning that needs to be heard.
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE
This life is all vanity.
Perhaps my favorite quote that the preacher makes to the young man is this:
Ecclesiastes 11:9 “Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.”
• Every year our church gives Bibles to the graduating seniors.
• Many seniors have received a reference to Ecclesiastes 11:9 in their Bible.
But you see the preacher here, presumably now an old man,
Is preaching to the young man,
And he is seeking to cut through all the nonsensical fluff
That is commonly peddled to young people.
Many have referred to the preacher by a different title.
Many have called him “THE CRITIC”
That’s sort of what he feels like.
• He just doesn’t seem to be able to find anything good to say about life at all.
• He comes across as that angry co-worker in the breakroom who you only wish
him a good day as you walk out the door.
BUT THAT IS NOT THE PREACHER AT ALL.
The preacher here is merely an honest man
Who is filled with experience and who wants to save a young man
From the same pitfalls he made when he was younger.
Do you ever read the reviews before you purchase on AMAZON?
Whose advice carries more weight with you;
The advertiser or the reviewer?
This preacher is giving you honest reviews about the world is selling.
• He has seen all the commercials…
• He has heard all the sales pitches…
• He has tried all the gimmicks…
• He bought most of it when he was younger…
Now he’s giving you the review
SO THAT you don’t make the same mistakes that he did.
This world is filled with millions of shiny objects
That seek to attract your attention and devour your resources,
And all of them are FOOL’S GOLD.
THERE IS ONLY 1 TRUE TREASURE.
There is only 1 object that is truly worth your sincerest affection.
Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
The Preacher is making sure you search for the right treasure.
And when you find it, it is the goal of the preacher to make sure that
You too will gladly sacrifice every other earthly treasure to obtain it.
SO LET’S READ THIS BOOK LIKE AN AMAZON REVIEW
THIS MORNING we saw the title of his review?
When asked to review life, what was the title of the preachers review?
Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
Again “Vanity” is the Hebrew word HEBEL (he-vel)
It means “vapor” or “breath”
It’s all a Mirage!
It’s all False Advertising!
It won’t last!
It won’t satisfy!
To which he went on to say:
Ecclesiastes 1:3 “What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun?”
There is no advantage.
There is no benefit to all the worldly endeavors.
Listen young man!
All the things that the world is offering you as satisfaction are not true! They won’t satisfy.
• It’s like trying to catch smoke!
• It’s like trying to catch the wind!
• You’ll chase it your whole life and never find it.
What a message!
THIS EVENING the preacher starts getting specific in his review,
And first on the list is KNOWLEDGE
THIS IS OFTEN THE FIRST THING THE WORLD OFFERS
I think every young man or women ABOUT TO GRADUATE
Can identify with this one.
How many times do you suppose the question will be asked: “Where are you going to go for college?”
And we understand why people ask that.
• Much of our culture runs on the expectation of higher education.
• Many jobs require college degrees.
• Most see college as a necessary step to obtaining the successful and fulfilling and satisfying life.
And know from the outset here,
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH EDUCATION.
In fact, the Bible speaks highly of the importance of knowledge.
Proverbs 10:14 “Wise men store up knowledge, But with the mouth of the foolish, ruin is at hand.”
Proverbs 19:2 “Also it is not good for a person to be without knowledge, And he who hurries his footsteps errs.”
Proverbs 24:5 “A wise man is strong, And a man of knowledge increases power.”
KNOWLEDGE IS A GOOD THING.
If you want to be able to contribute to society you need knowledge.
Knowledge is even required for salvation
• For it was Paul who asked how can a man call on One in whom he has never heard?
The quest and THE GOAL of the preacher here IS NOT
To convince you that knowledge is bad and that it is preferred
That you just go out into life as an uneducated buffoon.
CERTAINLY NOT.
However, if you think knowledge is going to somehow
Be what brings you a fulfilling and satisfying life,
I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you.
Listen to the preacher.
Let’s break our text down into 3 points this morning.
#1 THE QUEST
Ecclesiastes 1:12-13
“I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.”
As we said, most think this to be Solomon.
• And we certainly remember Solomon as the man who prayed for wisdom.
• We certainly remember Solomon who was called the wisest man to ever live.
• And we also remember how Solomon fell prey to the temptations of life and didn’t finish as well as he started.
• We know about Solomon.
Well here he is passing on the lessons of his life to the next generation.
And he begins with the first item on his list
That HE THOUGHT would bring him satisfaction.
(13) “And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.”
Very simply put,
Solomon set out to be the man who was finally able to make sense of life.
(Many a philosopher after him has attempted the same thing)
Solomon could see, as could so many others, that this life “is a grievous task which God has given the sons of men to be afflicted with.”
Would we agree with that?
Life is hard
Sure you would, because life is hard.
There are all sorts of struggles and tragedies and hardships and frustrations that we face every day.
• Suffering is real
• Injustice is real
• Tragedy is real
• Disaster is real
Now, we are not confused as to why life is hard.
The gospel has given us this answer.
It’s called sin, and it’s called the curse.
This world wasn’t created bad, it was created good,
But when sin entered the world, God cursed this world.
• By the sweat of your brow you bring forth food – God said.
• And by the pain of your body you bear children – God said.
LIFE IS HARD.
SOLOMON KNEW THAT.
His ambition was to make sense of it all.
“I set my mind to seek and explores by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven.”
Now there’s a few things that need to be understood here.
1) You see the phrase “under heaven”
This is an IMPORTANT PERSPECTIVE that Solomon likes to reference.
Typically you read it as “under the sun”
• You already heard him use it last week twice (vs. 1:3 and 1:9)
• He uses it in our text this morning in verse 14.
• And he uses it a total of 29 times throughout the book.
The reason he speaks of “under the sun” or “under heaven”
Is because he is reminding you of your vantage point.
God is above the sun.
• God is in heaven.
• He sees and knows things that we do not see or know.
We are “under the sun” or “under heaven”
And we simply are not privy to the information that God has.
So very simply you have Solomon saying here
That his objective was to observe what happens under heaven
And see if he could make sense of it all
As though he were in heaven with God.
He’s seeking to gain that eternal divine perspective and understanding.
2) We also see the phrase “I set my mind to…”
He uses such language often.
• (16) “I said to myself…”
• (17) “I set my mind to know wisdom…”
• (2:1) “I said to myself…”
• (2:3) “I explored with my mind…”
What we are talking about here
Is a man who literally gives himself to these things.
When he says “I set my mind to seek and explore”
He is saying “I gave my heart and soul to this endeavor.”
My point is, he’s not a halfway kind of guy.
3) The other thing we need to clarify before we move on here is what he means by “I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom”
We need to clarify what is this “wisdom” he speaks of.
Now first, there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom.
• Knowledge = what you know.
• Wisdom = what you do with what you know.
But the greater distinction we need to make is the SOURCE of wisdom.
There is in Scripture true wisdom from above
And there is natural wisdom from below.
Wisdom from God begins where?
“the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”
But earthly wisdom comes not from a fear of God but from ambition and desire.
James 3:13-17 “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”
We might better make a distinction by altering the terms.
• We might refer to wisdom as that which is from God.
• We might refer to philosophy as that which is from man.
When you read verse 13 and he says, “I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom”
• He’s NOT talking about the fear of the LORD kind.
• You’d be more accurate to understand him speaking about philosophy or
worldly wisdom.
He went searching through all of academia
To try and find the meaning of life and to gain an understanding
For why life is so hard, and how to fix it.
THAT IS HIS QUEST.
“And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.”
So just to make sure you see what is happening here.
• He recognizes the perplexity and hardship of life.
• He thinks the answer to life’s hardship is through knowledge and education.
• So he devotes his heart and soul to searching out that answer.
That is philosophy.
That is his first ambition in life.
He’s going to seek knowledge and education and reason
Until he understands life and how to fix it.
The Quest
#2 THE CONCLUSION
Ecclesiastes 1:14-15
And there it is.
“I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.”
He gave his heart and soul to understanding the human condition through education and philosophy and WHAT WAS HIS CONCLUSION?
It’s “vanity and striving after wind.”
It’s his honest review.
It’s his critique.
AT THE END OF HIS QUEST HE FOUND NO FULFILLMENT.
WHY?
(15) “What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.”
• There’s his problem.
• Actually it is two problems.
1) DEPRAVITY
“what is crooked cannot be straightened”
It is a moral depravity.
• The word for crooked there actually means “perverted”
That is a good way to describe our world.
It is morally deprave and perverse.
Solomon realized all the knowledge in the world couldn’t straighten it out.
The other problem was:
2) DEFICIENCY
“what is lacking cannot be counted”
It is not enough, it can’t satisfy.
(This world is a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle with only 999 pieces)
• He took this life which was full of grief and pain
• And sought to bring correction and meaning to this life
• Through human knowledge and education and philosophy
• But it brought him no comfort.
All the knowledge in the world couldn’t fix his depravity.
All the knowledge in the world couldn’t fix his deficiency.
AND THAT IS SO TRUE.
Consider the even the Law of God.
The Law is full of knowledge and instruction and clarification
About the holiness of God and the mandate for human living.
But the Law never fixed anyone.
TURN TO: Romans 7:9-11 “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”
• Knowledge didn’t make Paul more upright, it only revealed how wicked he was.
• Knowledge didn’t give his life fullness, it only revealed his deficiency.
Knowledge won’t make you righteous.
Knowledge won’t make you complete.
All it will do is reveal that you aren’t.
And that is exactly what Solomon learned.
• Despite all that he knew.
• Despite all that he had learned.
• Knowledge provided no answers for how to actually turn depravity into
righteousness or deficiency into something satisfying.
Continue on with Paul in Romans 7.
Listen to him lament his powerlessness to turn his knowledge into actual righteousness.
Romans 7:14-20 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”
• Paul knew the Law.
• Paul agreed with the Law.
• Paul desired to obey the Law.
What was the problem?
Sin wouldn’t let him!
“What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.”
And the point?
While knowledge has great value in this life,
Knowledge alone will not bring you satisfaction and fulfillment.
And it certainly will not bring salvation.
It has been the misunderstanding of our culture.
Our culture thinks you can fix moral problems with education.
• I’ve seen the “shattered dreams” presentations where you instruct kids on
the facts about drunk driving.
• My kids just told me about a school program to give the facts about the
dangers of vaping.
• Countless sex education courses have sought to educate people to the
dangers of sexual immorality.
And yet, drinking, vaping, and sex are still going on!
If you want to overcome sin
You’re going to need more than knowledge!
Education and knowledge and philosophy
Cannot straighten what is crooked and cannot complete what is lacking.
That was Solomon’s Conclusion.
His Quest, His Conclusion
#3 HIS LAMENT
Ecclesiastes 1:16-18
Do you hear his despair?
“I said to myself, “Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this is striving after wind.”
• What good did it do?
• What benefit did I receive from all my study?
• What advantage did I gain from my knowledge?
NONE!
It couldn’t make me righteous and it couldn’t bring me fulfillment.
WHY?
(18) “Because in much wisdom there is much grief and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.”
It is exactly what Paul spoke about.
• The more I knew the worse it hurt.
There is a sense in which the axiom “Ignorance is bliss”
Is a true statement.
There is a sense in which immoral sinners are actually happier
Without the truth of the knowledge of God.
Solomon sought to fix his problems through knowledge.
It didn’t fix anything.
It only brought more grief and more pain.
NOW LISTEN TO HIM YOUNG MAN.
As I said, knowledge and education are NOT BAD THINGS.
Scripture unequivocally says they are good things.
HOWEVER – If You Think that an education or knowledge or philosophy is going to provide you with the answers for life you are gravely mistaken.
• Your education may teach you how to coach a sport or work with children…
• Your education may teach you how to perform physical therapy…
• Your education may teach you how to install an air conditioning unit…
All those are fine things to know.
But your education will NEVER make you righteous
And will NEVER bring you fulfillment in life.
It is an empty hope to assume that it will.
1 Corinthians 1:20-21a “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God…”
It is “striving after wind”
It is trying to catch what cannot be caught.
1 Corinthians 3:18-20 “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”; and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”
All the promises of our culture that fulfillment is found
In education and degrees are a lie.
I have no problem with you pursuing them,
But if you give your heart and soul to them
With the hope that it will give you fulfillment it will not.
Solomon learned it the hard way.
Learn from him.
And let Solomon drive you to the gospel.
Paul said:
1 Corinthians 1:30 “Christ Jesus…became to us wisdom from God”
1 Corinthians 2:6-10 “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”
There is a wisdom available in Christ that the world does not have.
• It is wisdom that can straighten what is crooked.
• It is wisdom that can complete what is lacking.
Because Christ CAN do those things.
PAUL LAMENTED in Romans 7 that all his knowledge in the Law couldn’t not help him.
Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
But Paul also found satisfaction in Christ.
Romans 7:25-8:4 “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
• Knowledge couldn’t make Paul righteous, but Jesus could.
• Knowledge couldn’t bring Paul fulfillment, but Jesus did.
Jesus straightened what was crooked and completed what was lacking.
Listen to Paul speak to the Colossians.
TURN TO: COLOSSIANS 2:8-15
Do you hear Paul warn of the “empty deception” of philosophy and worldly wisdom?
Listen, human philosophy is totally unnecessary.
• When human philosophy is accurate it will agree with Scripture and therefore unneeded.
• When human philosophy is wrong it will disagree with Scripture and therefore dangerous.
It is not needed.
It only promises what it cannot offer.
And so Paul tells the Colossians not to be sucked into it.
Literally not to be “carried away” by it.
“takes you captive” is actually a Greek word which means “to carry off the booty” (as in a Pirate)
Where is fulfillment?
• If you have a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle and you’re missing a piece, there’s ONLY ONE who can count what is lacking…the manufacturer of the puzzle.
• Where is true righteousness? Only the creator can fix what is crooked.
True fulfillment and true righteousness are only found in Christ.
(Read 9-15)
Do you see that?
• Only Christ is complete and only Christ makes you complete.
• Only Christ can clean up your flesh (spiritual circumcision).
• Only Christ can forgive you of sin
• Only Christ can cancel out your debt
• Only Christ has authority over the enemy
Education and knowledge and philosophy certainly can’t do that.
And that is the message of Solomon this evening to the young man.
There’s nothing wrong with education
But if your whole life is spent in search of human wisdom
You will only find yourself still in your sin and still unfulfilled.
It is commonly said that “Knowledge is Power”
To an extent that is true.
But it’s not power to fulfill
• It’s not power to sanctify
• It’s not power to forgive
• It’s not power to redeem
• It’s not power to deliver
Only Christ is that.
