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Harry Reeder: This was an interesting statement that you would find on products. Satisfaction guaranteed. Satisfaction guaranteed. If not satisfied, will refund. Remember that? Well, Ecclesiastes 6, I’m going to change the title: Dissatisfaction apart from the Lord guaranteed. Dissatisfaction in a life apart from the Lord, it is guaranteed.

Guest (Male): Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Have you ever tried to grab the wind? It is futile. You have no control over it, for it blows where it wishes.

Solomon’s verdict on life under the sun apart from God is that it is vanity and emptiness, like striving after the wind. Life under the sun is emptiness, futility, dissatisfaction, disappointment, and meaninglessness unless you live for the one who made the sun and is above the sun. Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder continues our series From Vanity to Vitality: Ecclesiastes in Biblical Perspective. Let's turn to Ecclesiastes 6 for today's teaching, part one of the message, Back to Vanity With the Sure Hope of Vitality.

Harry Reeder: Take your copies of God's word and turn with me to Ecclesiastes. We make our way to this sixth chapter of Ecclesiastes. If you'll have it there in front of you, let's look at the first six verses.

There is an evil that I, the preacher, Solomon, that I have seen, and there's that phrase again, under the sun. And this evil 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 power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity. It is a grievous evil.

If a man fathers a hundred 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, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off 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 a thousand years twice over yet enjoy no good. Do not all go to one place? The grass withers and the flower fades; God's word abides forever. By His grace and mercy, may His word be preached for you.

Maybe your mother and our wife—well, in fact, some of you guys may fall into this category—that you are coupon savers, and you're always taking a look at the promises that manufacturers make to you. I remember one that my mother used to point out from time to time that was interesting, and this was an interesting statement that you would find on products.

Satisfaction guaranteed. Some of you have got that coupon. Satisfaction guaranteed. If not satisfied, will refund. Remember that? Yeah, that’s what I remembered. Okay, well, Ecclesiastes 6, I’m going to change the title: Dissatisfaction apart from the Lord guaranteed. Dissatisfaction in a life apart from the Lord is guaranteed.

Now, again, when you're looking at the book of Ecclesiastes, I want you to see it as a documented journey of Solomon back to Proverbs. He starts with humility, asking the Lord for wisdom. He becomes a collector of wisdom, and yet somehow, the wisdom he gained, instead of using it to live life for the glory of God, he began to live life for his own glory and to seek his glory in all the things in a life under the sun.

And I believe the book of Ecclesiastes is the documentation of not only his repentance but his appraisal of what does it mean to try to live a life disconnected from the Lord. What does it mean to live life under the sun? The verdict: vanity, meaning emptiness. The verdict: it’s like striving after the wind. Have you ever tried to grab the wind when it comes?

Have you ever tried to control it? You have no control over it; it blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, our Lord says, but you do not know where it has come from and where it is going. So here is what the life looks like of emptiness and futility when you live life under the sun instead of living life for the one above the sun and the one who made the sun.

That's when life begins to take on proportion. So here, the writer of Ecclesiastes has given us some interesting analysis. He shows us life under the sun in the opening chapters, and then he shows us in the opening chapters man's attempt to deal with his disappointment and his futility of life under the sun and his man-made solutions and how they don't answer the emptiness.

On the contrary, the man-made solutions to living life apart from a God-centered world and life view and a God-filled heart, that life that is being lived, the solutions actually add to the futility and the emptiness and the vanity of life. And then he stops, and he says he can't help himself when he gets to chapters four and five.

He can't help himself but wait just a minute. Listen, here's where you need to get to: Fear God. You can see his journey back to Proverbs, can't you? Because where is Proverbs? Proverbs is the glory of wisdom: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Knowledge: I know the truth. Understanding: I can see the implications and applications of the truth.

Wisdom: I’m learning to live the truth. And what is the beginning of wisdom? The fear of the Lord. So you can see his journey back to Proverbs that he is documenting, as well as his travelogue of the futility of life lived apart from the Lord. And he ends up in a couple of things that he says to us that I think are extremely interesting.

Not only is the answer back in acknowledging the place of God in the reverence and respect that is due to Him who gives us life and who alone can redeem our life, but he also tells us that that life is to be lived in concert with Him. And in Ecclesiastes chapter five, he gives you a little hint of it. I want you to look at Ecclesiastes chapter five.

Go back there with me where we ended up a couple of weeks ago. Look at verse 18: "Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 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—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart."

Don't miss this. What does he say? Here is someone who is working. Here is someone who toils. Here is someone who has the good things of life. They have something to eat. They have something to drink. They have labor with their hands. They have all of these good gifts, and they not only have the good gifts from the hand of God, they have joy from the hand of God with those good gifts.

Now, chapter six, we've got another study, another case study. This case study is someone that has, in the hands of a sovereign God, been given good gifts, but God has not given them joy because their life is not lived in the fear of the Lord who gives the joy. Their life is under the sun.

Now what they don't know—and this text is telling you—they actually think that everything they have has been by their own activity, by their own endeavor, by their own achievement. The reality is, whatever they have, whoever has it, whether they are good or evil, whatever they have, it is by the hand of a sovereign God that you have it. But God does not give joy to everyone.

Only those who have the relationship of grace and reverence with Him and who fear the Lord. So here is a man who has possessions from the Lord, but he doesn't have joy from the Lord. The man back at the end of Ecclesiastes chapter five, he's got possessions from the Lord, he's got joy from the Lord, and he lives in the fear of the Lord.

The man in Ecclesiastes chapter six also has possessions from the Lord, but he doesn't acknowledge it. But he doesn't have joy from the Lord, and he doesn't fear the Lord. He lives his life in reference to himself under the sun. Therefore, it is one of vanity. Now go with me, if you would, in this first case study that you find in the opening couple of verses of this man who has possessions from the Lord, but he doesn't have gifts from the Lord.

And notice it's introduced with this statement: This is evil. This is an evil existence. An evil existence that men who are living their lives under the sun—and this evil is something that is heavy upon mankind. Now that's a very difficult translation in the Hebrew, and I’m not going to try to unravel the Hebrew translation.

I understand why the ESV translates it as heavy on mankind, and I think that is the best translation. But what does that mean? That means this: You will find what I am describing throughout all of mankind. It is heavy. This isn't an oddity that you just find in places. This evil you will find throughout mankind that mankind is enjoying by God's common grace, good gifts in their life.

What they eat, what they drink, the things that they enjoy in their life that are even beyond their needs. And even though they have them, there is an evil that weighs upon them. And the evil is they have this—notice the next phrase—a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor. So he's got status in life, he's got a position in life, he is being honored by everyone around him.

He's got possessions in life, he's got wealth in life, he's got materialism, he's got consumerism, and he has influence. That's what he has. Yet, while God has in His common grace given him all of that in a fallen world, God does not give him the power to enjoy them. There is a power that is missing in their life that is required for them to enjoy them.

And this is an evil that is found throughout; it is heavy. It is a blanket throughout all of mankind. This is a vanity. Notice he says it is a grievous evil. It is one that brings grief and despair in all of life. Let me put it this way, here's what I wrote down: Desires of life with objects in life.

You have desires in life for objects in life that you think can do what God alone can do. The journeys to those things are journeys that you take, and you never arrive at a destination. That next vacation’s going to be it, isn’t it? That next purchase. That next car. That next piece of clothing, if it's got this label on it, that label on it.

We always go and—yes, there will be an immediate exhilaration at their acquisition or their achievement. Well, but then I need something else. It is a journey when we have these desires for these objectives that we desire in the place of God or as rivals to God. We are on a journey that even though we achieve and make acquisition of the objects, we never arrive at the desired destination because they never deliver what we think they will deliver.

And that is a grievous evil that dominates all of humanity. Whether it's wealth, whether it's influence, whether it's possessions, whatever it is. As we're seeking for it, we are absolutely convinced that that will be what makes my life. And when you're on that journey, it is dissatisfaction guaranteed.

Sometimes there are people that have, for instance—I'm not trying to talk about whether a big house or a small house is holy or not, I’m just saying—here is someone with a small house that is satisfied in the Lord. Here is someone with the big house that's ready to get a bigger one. And the problem is not whether they got a big house or a small house, the problem is what were they looking for that object, once it was obtained, to deliver to them?

And when we look for it to deliver to us what God alone can give us, then what we have is emptiness in life. That's where we end up. Maybe it's a car, maybe it's clothes, maybe it's a job, maybe it's the degree that I’m finally going to get in school. Whatever it is, listen to me, I am not saying there's anything wrong with the thing.

In fact, he just says God has given them what? Good things. There's nothing wrong with the thing; it's amoral. It doesn't bring evil in and of itself. The issue is: What are we looking for it to do in our life? And when we look for it to do what only God can do, then what we are on is a journey that even when we get what we think we want and what we think we're going to have once we get it, it doesn't deliver because we are asking it to deliver something it does not have the power to give.

Only God can give you the power of joy. Now, why is this such a grievous evil? The reason this is such a grievous evil, brothers and sisters, is because you were made for God and joy. You were made for God and joy. You know, I think I’ll write a discipleship instrument to train people about the Christian life to try to capture that.

I think I’ll go with questions and answers. I think I’ll start with: What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to—

Guest (Multiple): To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Harry Reeder: Now, folks, let's do some exegesis of the shorter catechism. You'll notice the shorter catechism says: What is the chief end—purpose—singular, not purposes. Purpose. What is the chief end of man? Why did God make man? Why did God save me? Why does God sustain me?

Why have I been made? Why have I been saved? Why have I been sustained with breath this day? It is that I might glorify God and enjoy Him. Those are not two purposes. Glorify God and enjoy Him. Those are one purpose. Think of it as a coin with two sides.

My call in life, my responsibility in life, is to glorify Him. My relationship in life is to enjoy Him. And these two are interdependent and inseparable. In other words, the more you glorify God, the more you will enjoy Him. And the more you enjoy Him, the more you will glorify Him.

And when you glorify Him and enjoy Him, now the good things in life can be used for good purposes to praise God from whom all blessings flow. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, when you're not through that that you want to do and want to acquire and want to achieve in the place of God, but now God is in His place in your life—which means your life—and He is the joy of your life, now you can enjoy those things He has given you because you turned them around for His glory and for His praise.

But once they become the reason for your life—I know you've heard me say it before, but if you don't mind, I’ll just say it again because I can't say it any better—that I have the good thing of food and the good thing of drink. Well, if I am eating to live for the Lord, it is glorious; I can enjoy it.

Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. If I am living for the Lord, then I am eating and drinking to the glory of God. If I am living to eat and drink, then I am on a route of emptiness and despair, and I’ll never get enough to eat, and I’ll never get enough to drink because food and drink are good gifts from the Lord, but they are terrible substitutes for the Lord.

They can't deliver. When you are eating and drinking to the glory of God, then you eat and drink to live for the Lord, and that means you enjoy Him and the good gifts that He's given. But when you are not living for the Lord, then you live to eat and drink, and that is always dissatisfaction guaranteed.

Now he says I've given you case scenario number one. Let me take this a step further with you. The preacher now takes us to step number two, illustration number two. Go to the next verse with me, go down to verse three. If a man fathers a hundred children—good gracious—if a man fathers a hundred 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 has no burial.

I say that a stillborn child is better off 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 a thousand years twice over yet enjoy no good. Do not all go down to the one place?

So he said, "Let me give you step number two." Now, if you were living in the tenth century BC or ninth century BC—we won't discuss detail as to when this was written—but if you were living in the days of Solomon, in the course of humanity in the Old Testament Ancient Near East culture, there were two things that every man would love to have.

What was the quote "good life"? The good life was simply this: To have a long life and to have many children to bear your name after you're gone. So here's a man who has many, many years. In fact, he says, "Let's say he lives a thousand. Hey, I'll tell you what, let's say he lives two thousand."

Here's a man with a lot of years and a—I choke when I think of that—and a hundred children. A hundred children. Now, we've got some folks in this church they're coming close, but they're not there yet. A hundred children. He's got a hundred children and he's got a long life of a thousand years, maybe two thousand years.

That's how long his life is. But he does not know the Lord; his joy is not in the Lord. He is trying to use life's good things as if they are the answer to life: his years and his children. He says this man is a man who goes into life unburied. He just ends life as if he's never lived it at all.

And then he makes one of these—periodically, Solomon will give an example and then he'll say, "and this would be better than." Look for that phrase when you're reading Ecclesiastes: "better than." He is not saying it is better; he is not saying it's what you want. He is saying it's better than what he had.

Even a stillborn. And when he goes on to explain why he says the stillborn is better off, what he explains basically is this: It never saw the light of day. Never saw the light of the sun. Lived in the darkness of the womb, died in the darkness of the womb, and therefore does not have the disappointments that the one who saw the light of the sun and lived under the sun as if the things under the sun were God.

Guest (Male): Life under the sun apart from God leads to dissatisfaction and disappointment unless you live for the one who made the sun and is above the sun. You are listening to InPerspective, featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. Drug addiction, pornography, broken homes, sexual promiscuity—these are all challenges in raising a family, and the Christian family is no exception.

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Join us again next time as Dr. Reeder reminds us that you can have a life filled with all the things that men seek and strive for and yet still have an empty soul. That's next time as we turn back to the scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.