Wisdom vs Folly

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Well, you guys can scout your copy of God’s Word this morning and turn to 1 Peter 1. No joke. 1 Peter 1. I mentioned Wednesday night that I was studying from 1 Peter. I was wondering what to talk about during the wrap-up message for the O6SR. I had just come to 1 Peter and I was talking with Mr. Sarr the next day. He was like, yeah, my wife and I were talking about how you just came across studying 1 Peter. Like, that’s not at the beginning of the New Testament. That’s not like on any reading plan that’s out there to study from 1 Peter. So how did that happen? Well, the reason that I had started studying from 1 Peter was because one of the Greek classes that I teach on Saturday mornings, we were translating from 1 Peter.

We moved from Philippians to 1 Peter in our workbook. So therefore, I had just started translating through 1 Peter chapter 1 again for that class. And honestly, last Monday morning, as I was, again, pulled out 1 Peter chapter 1, thought I’d just start going through that a little bit in my own personal devotional time, I did not get past verse 1. And it was not because I didn’t know the vocabulary, I didn’t know the words, and I couldn’t translate. I just got stuck on one word. and basically sat there for 15 or 20 minutes just thinking about that one word. And in fact, I wrote out about two pages worth of my thoughts, because we had just talked about journaling last Sunday morning, so I was like, hey, let’s write out some thoughts on this.

So I did that, maybe that’ll turn into a blog someday, maybe not, but first read our chapter one, look at verse one, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion, and then he lists off some of the various regions that he was writing to where the people, the people who he was writing to were living. Perhaps some of your translations have another word other than exiles. What do you have? Aliens, pilgrims, strangers, anybody else? Exiles, aliens, pilgrims, strangers, sojourners. It’s a word to describe people who aren’t home. It’s a word that describes people who are in a place where ultimately they don’t belong.

They don’t fit there. And you think about your traveling. If you’ve done some international traveling, you know, you’d go someplace and, you know, you stick out. You don’t fit in. Your language is not the same. Perhaps your clothing is not the same. Obviously, if you go somewhere to live in a foreign country for an extended period of time, your customs, just how you normally go about doing things, the food that you eat, those things stand out. They don’t fit in. They’re different. A sojourner in particular is one who is on a journey, who is on their way to a particular destination to an end goal, but they have not yet arrived at their end goal.

They’re on this journey. That’s the word pilgrim as well. So we have pilgrims progress. And here Peter is writing to these elect exiles, these elect foreigners, these elect strangers, these elect sojourners. And you know what? He’s not talking about the fact that they’re not home in Israel, they’re not in Jerusalem. He’s talking about the fact that they’re not home in heaven yet. He identifies them as elect exiles. He wouldn’t say that you are elect. God chose you just to not live in Jerusalem for a period of time. Now that would not be the case.

Probably the majority of his readers were Jews, hence part of this dispersion or diaspora in these various areas, meaning they weren’t at home in Jerusalem or Israel either, but that’s not why he calls them exiles. You wouldn’t be elected to be on this journey outside of Israel. No, they are elected to be exiles, to be sojourners in a spiritual sense. And just think about that. Peter identifies these Christian readers that he’s writing to as not belonging where they are. They don’t fit. This is not home. Part of the reason he even addresses them like this is because he’s about ready to describe the persecution that they were getting, a lot of the trouble and difficulties that they were enduring. He’s writing to tell them, guys, that’s nothing to be surprised at. There’s nothing surprising about the fact that it’s going to be difficult for you here, you know why? Because this isn’t home.

This is not it. This is not where we belong. We live here, yes, right now. Paul talks about having dual citizenship. We are citizens both of an earthly nation or city, but we are more than just citizens on this planet. We are citizens of heaven as believers. And Peter says, we don’t belong here. This is not the end for us. This is not it. You know what? So many of our problems come from a mindset that says, this is it. This is life. This is home. You know, we’ve been remodeling our house, working on that since we moved in a little over two years ago. As Curtis and Andy mentioned, Mo and I moved into the first part of the house that we really have worked inside, at least, on remodeling.

Obviously, they put the roof on. But our new master bedroom with our walk-in closet. I got a little cubbyhole office kind of study place, which is really cool. And a new bathroom and fixtures and all that kind of stuff. And most of it is done. We’ve been hoping to get in there. We’ve been working on it for quite some time. And it’s exciting to be now in our home, like in our bedroom. You know, we belong. We have our own stuff and places to put things and so forth. But I tell you what, as comfortable as it is, as much as we like our mattress, our Tempur-Pedic mattress, as much as we like our fixtures, as much as we like my little office, as much as all of our clothes fit nicely into our walk-in closet, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff, as nice as that is, you know what, that is not home.

Ultimately, and it’s, you know, fine to have a place that you like going to and, you know, fix up your house and do those kinds of things. We have jobs or you have responsibilities at school, those kinds of things. I mean, we don’t get to blow those off just because this is not our ultimate home. But I tell you what, in the midst of those responsibilities, in the midst of doing things on this planet, if your mindset says this is all that there is, I’m going to coin a new word here this morning, you are going to have nothing but dismality. There you go. Dismality. That is the state of being dismal, discouraged, depressed, upset, bothered, frustrated, exasperated, whatever word you want to fit into the blank there, dismality.

If you think this is it, if you think this is what life is about on this planet, you are missing it and are in for dismality. And you know who missed it? You know who was in a state of dismality? Solomon. You can turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, the state of dismality. I keep saying that because it’s kind of fun. And it almost goes along with malady, like sickness or disease. So you’ve got dismality. Oh, glory. This is exactly where Solomon is. For all of the wisdom that he had, for all of the privileges and blessings that God had given him, he was stuck living under the sun. He was not considering and living like there was more to life than what his eyes could see, what his senses could experience, what his bank account could hold.

And his word for it is not dismality. His word for it is what? Vanity. Habel, Hebelim, Hakol, Habel. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. I think that’s the kind of motto for the person in the nation of dismality. Vanity of vanities, it’s all empty. It’s all meaningless. It’s all worthless if all you have is stuck right here underneath the sun. And while it’s been a good portion of time, in fact, must be sometime near the end of December was the last time that we had a message from Ecclesiastes. So let me just quickly remind you of the points of the paragraphs leading up to where we are. Not going to re-preach and give a huge review.

But just the points of the paragraphs. Chapter 1, verses 1 through 11 is all his introduction to the book. It’s an introduction to vanity. That’s where we get the motto. That’s where he tells us who’s writing. That’s where he gives us the motto of the book. He gives us the poem on, you know, nothing is new under the sun. There is no prophet. All the toil that we do is worthless. His introduction to vanity. Then we looked at chapter 1, verses 12 through 18, where he got more specific. And he talked about the vanity of wisdom. The vanity of wisdom, verses 12 through 18 of chapter 1. Ultimately, at the end, he says, in fact, wisdom is not just empty, but wisdom actually increases our problems.

In fact, the more wisdom you have, the more dismality you might have. Why? Because in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. The more you know, the more you realize how bad it is. And perhaps then, what we need is to forget wisdom and just do whatever it takes to make ourselves happy. If there’s such a negativity that goes along with seeing how bad it is, then maybe we can just ignore how bad it is by trying to please ourselves and make ourselves happy. And of course, that moves us into chapter two, which is the vanity of pleasure. Chapter two, verses 1 through 11 is all about the vanity of pleasure.

I mean, we spent weeks. I don’t know how many, ultimately, we ended up covering, but we talked about the vanity of pleasure in general. We talked about the vanity of buzz with drugs or alcohol. We talked about the vanity of women. Man, that was great. Was that not with the Barnes sisters at the talent show? Threw in, don’t you know about the vanity of women? If you haven’t seen that, you should get a DVD, borrow some buddies and watch that. That was pretty funny. I mean, the smile on my face was like the Joker smile. It was pretty good. A vanity of women, vanity of entertainment, The vanity of labor, the vanity of material possessions.

I mean, all of that really is trying to please yourself. Really, the vanity of pleasure is the umbrella under which all those things came. I mean, entertainment is to please yourself. The women part was to please yourself. The work and the material possessions part was to get pleasure for yourself. Obviously, a buzz was for yourself. So chapter one ended with the vanity of wisdom. Then chapter two has begun with the vanity of pleasure. And that leads us to where we are for today, chapter two, verses 12 through 17. I believe even though he doesn’t use the word pleasure and instead uses the words madness and folly there in chapter two, verse 12.

So I turn to consider wisdom and madness and folly. I think what he’s doing now is he’s giving us yet another reflection, but he’s stopping to consider Which is better of the two he’s just described? We’ve got wisdom, and we’ve got pleasure, or just having fun and hanging out, playing some b-ball outside of the school, just having fun and avoiding all the seriousness and the wisdom part. He already said that wisdom was vanity, yes. And he already said that seeking pleasure for yourself was vanity, but maybe between the two, one is a better option. You know, maybe, OK, both are bad, but maybe one is less bad than the other, less worser, one is a higher state of dismality than the other one.

Maybe that’s the case. And so I think what we have here is wisdom versus folly. And under folly, I would include the pursuit of pleasure, anything outside of wisdom. Now Solomon did say that he kept his wisdom during much of his pursuit of pleasure. But yet, I really think that is the point of this paragraph, is he’s comparing the two things, the two themes he’s just talked about, comparing them. And that’s actually point number one, the comparison of verse 12. So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the man do who comes after the king, only what has already been done? He said some pretty negative things about both themes, both subjects so far.

As I already said, he concluded that wisdom actually makes it worse. The more wisdom, the more misery. So I mean, could that be good? And with pleasure, he says it’s empty. It didn’t satisfy me. I needed more. Matt didn’t satisfy me. So he said some pretty negative things about both of them so far, but perhaps one is better than the other. I turn to consider, to think about. You imagine him sitting in his chair by himself, stroking his goatee. At least that’s how I imagine him, Maybe looking at himself in the reflection in his crown. I don’t know. Hmm. Which is better? I don’t know that this happened at one point in time.

Probably it happened over a period of time. This is near the end of his life, probably, near the end of him being king. So he sits down to think about and to consider and compare one with the other. Now, this last part of verse 12 is a little bit confusing. Maybe your translations have something completely different than what I just read from the ESV. For what can the man do who comes after the king, only what has already been done? Why does he even include that? Well, I think what he’s trying to say there is, look, I am the one with wisdom. I am the one who, as king, has all these opportunities available to me.

Nobody who’s coming after me is gonna be able to tell you anything different than I’m telling you right now. He’s kinda given us this perpetual affirmation. He’s saying, the conclusions that I have for you on which is better, wisdom or folly, wisdom or pleasure seeking, I’m about ready to tell you nobody in the future is going to have anything new to add. This is the final word. And it’s the final word for us today. I mean, so far we’ve had to agree with him. We’ve had to agree with him on the vanity of wisdom. had to agree with him on the vanity of pleasure. So pretty certain we’ll be able to agree with him now as he tells us which is better in this comparison. The final word. Well, it gets immediately to the second point, the conclusion in verse 13 and the first part of verse 14. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.

The wise person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Says what his comparison is going to be, pretty quickly comes to the conclusion. There’s not a lot in between telling us what the case study is going to be and what the case results are. The test results are in and it is clear. And you know what, in fact, there is no comparison between wisdom and folly. Wisdom has its problems, yes, but in comparison to folly, it’s ridiculously better. Makes this statement there at the beginning of verse 13, I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly. I mean, he just simply comes out and tells us, more gain, there’s more profit, there’s more advantage.

There is value to having wisdom for all the difficulties that it brings with it. This is one of the things I tried to warn us about when we went through the vanity of wisdom, was thinking, oh, well then, let’s just blow wisdom off. And that’s not the answer. A recognition that something has problems is not equivalent to saying, then, don’t do anything with it. Or it has no value at all just because it has problems. You know, think of a quick illustration of that right off the top of my head. I mean, would you rather have a car that has some difficulties to it or no car at all? You know, if you just got your license and you had two choices, you know, a car that, you know, you knew you were going to have to fix a lot, you knew that took a lot of gas, that was your choice, or having no car was your choice, most of you would probably choose dealing with the difficulties to have the benefit of being able to get around, right?

So I mean, just because something has problems doesn’t mean it has no value whatsoever. And in this comparison, wisdom has way more gain, advantage, or profit over folly. And it gives two illustrations or two analogies, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. Now, I don’t know about you, but well, I actually like darkness. But that’s not the point here. OK? As much as I like darkness, I have difficulty doing almost anything in it other than sleeping, which is barely counted as doing anything. I used to try to take showers in the dark. In fact, I would even shave in the dark by trying to sense where I was, because no light in some of the apartments that Mo and I used to live in.

So there is an element of me that likes darkness. The problem with the darkness is I can’t do anything in it. It doesn’t actually help me out. Darkness helps me out in almost no way, other than, again, like I say, sleeping. Light, on the other hand, enables me to do pretty much everything that I need. I need light to, you know, check out how good looking I am. I need light to read. I need light to drive. Even if it’s dark outside, I need the lights on the front of the car, the temporary lights. Light is something that we need. And the difference between light and darkness, there couldn’t be any more difference. I mean, it’s either light or dark.

Now, we have these cool things today called dimmer switches. But I tell you what, even at the most dim setting, at the most dim setting, there is still a huge difference between light and dark. Yes, the brightest light makes the biggest difference between the darkness, but a little bit of light, a little bit of light impacts what it’s doing. And so as the difference between light and darkness, so the difference between wisdom and folly. That’s a great comparison. and he takes it a little bit further at the beginning of verse 14. The wise person has eyes in his head. Well, I mean, is that as opposed to eyes in his arms?

I think that’s just an idiom. That was a way to say that the person could see. The wise person can see with clarity has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Just take it again. What can you do in the darkness? Well, you’re going to run into things, right? You’re going to run into things, potentially even to the point of getting hurt. You’re not going to be able to accomplish very much. If you can’t see where you’re going, you can’t see the obstacles in front of you, so on and so forth. You can’t see to know what you’re doing. The wise person, the wise person can see, can see with clarity, can see what’s coming, can see what to avoid, what avenues to pursue, can see how to go about their work and to avoid the problems.

The person who is in folly, the person who has avoided wisdom thinking that that will make it easier for them, in fact, doesn’t make it easier for them at all. I mean, some of us, I’ll say us, some of us, try to live as happy go lucky as possible avoiding serious thinking, serious thought, avoiding wisdom. And while that might, for a period of time, give you a temporary reprieve from being sad about all the bad things, it will not enable you to avoid the bad things. The rest of Ecclesiastes is actually going to tell us about the fact that God is sovereign, and all kinds of things happen that you’re not in control of, And then you die.

And I tell you what, pursuing just pleasure for yourself and folly and madness and playfulness and just being foolish, that is not a help to you. Again, in the temporary period of time, it might enable you to sleep through some hours of difficulty where you’re not aware of it. But ultimately, when you get up in the morning and have to go do stuff, you’re going to run into the obstacles if you don’t have wisdom. You can’t see where to go. So wisdom and folly, the comparison and the conclusion, very simply wisdom has all of the gain in comparison. Well, that leads to point number three, which is the catch. Not the catch like a verb, like you’re receiving the football.

The ball is your friend kind of catch. The catch like the hiccup, the snag, the problem with wisdom being the best. Start at verse 14, the wise person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet, in my Bible, I wish this huge pause sign, or this huge slash mark showing that there is an abrupt change here. And yet, I perceived that the same event what happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said in my heart that this also is vanity, for of the wise as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten the wise dies just like the fool. Ouch. Wisdom is great. And then you die. Wisdom is awesome.

And even if you haven’t, nobody will remember you. That’s a pretty significant catch. That’s a snag to the point that wisdom exceeds folly. And the point is, and if you’re taking notes hopefully this phrase will help you here. The point is, wisdom has value that is relative and temporary. Wisdom has exceedingly great value over folly. It’s just that in and of itself, if wisdom is by itself under the sun, wisdom will help you compared to folly, its relative value and its temporal value. That is, it will help you great while you’re living, but then you will die. Both die, the wise and the fool. This is not a new revelation for Solomon.

I really don’t anticipate that he was sitting in his chair, stroking his goatee, checking out his thing in the crown, his reflection in the crown. And all of a sudden one day it was like, Whoa! Wait a second! We die? That’s wrong. I don’t think it was a new revelation to Solomon at that point. Oh my goodness, I’ve been pursuing this wisdom thing all my life. I asked for wisdom from God and I’m still going to die? I really don’t think that that was his reaction. I don’t think that’s the point. This was a new thought to him that he’d never had before. I think what it is, it’s a personal realization. It’s an evaluation.

It’s a personal application to thinking about the truth. Wisdom is great. It enables us to do so many things like light enables us to do so many things. It far exceeds the value of folly and just silliness, madness, playing around, far exceeds it. But, you know what? Wisdom by itself doesn’t do anything about when I die. And that is why the conclusion is still the same as it was in chapter 1, verses 12 through 18, that ultimately wisdom is itself vanity so far as life beyond the sun. Onto the sun, wisdom is great. And you know what? That’s why Solomon’s life on this planet was so successful. I mean, we looked at all the money and the gold and the silver and all the buildings and all the accomplishments that Solomon had.

People are still judged by Solomon. Jesus uses Solomon as an example of his clothing and how lavish it was and how much stuff he had. Solomon to us is still somebody who is at the pinnacle of what this life has to offer. He got that way because of wisdom, because of God’s sovereignty, but God’s sovereignty in giving Solomon wisdom to accomplish all that. It was wisdom that enabled him to build those buildings and to accumulate all that stuff and to be so famous in the eyes of other people for his wisdom. It was wisdom that enabled that, but he got stuck thinking that that’s all life was about. And when that is all life is about is life under the sun, dismality.

Dismality of dismalities. Life unto the Son has nothing for us. The same end happens to both of them. I perceive the same event that is death. Without saying the word death, he says at the end of verse 17, or I’m sorry, at the end of verse 16, how the wise dies just like the fool has, kind of like bookends on this little application section. The same event, what is that event? Death. Same event happens to everybody. No matter how much wisdom you have, you are going to die. No matter how much wisdom you don’t have, you’re going to die. And he also repeats the idea, not only are you going to die, but nobody’s going to remember you. Verse 16, for of the wise as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance. He already gave us that back in chapter 1. Verse 11, there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Not only with your physical life can you not live forever under the sun, then your accomplishments will not live forever. Your reputation, those kinds of things are not a way that you can live on in infamy. They will ultimately at some point in time be forgotten. Well that leads him to verse 17 which is the climax, or the climax of this comparison. I hated life. That’s an ouch. That probably qualifies under the dismality complex. I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me. For all is vanity and a striving after wind. Adds a couple new things but But it’s basically a repetition of the motto.

It’s vanity, it’s empty. Now he gets a little bit more personal and says, I hate it. It grieves me. It weighs heavy upon me. It’s disappointing. It’s discouraging. It makes me dismal that no matter how much wisdom I have, I’m going to die just like the fool. Nobody’s going to remember. Nobody’s gonna care.

His verdict is not only his response of being grieved and hating it, but that the principle is it’s vanity and striving after wind. I mean, it’s that refrain that keeps being repeated over and over and over again. The guy’s a preacher. He’s gotta repeat things.

He’s gotta repeat things. See how that works right like that? I mean, you know, just to think about that picture again of trying to catch it. Trying to race and catch and hold on to the wind. Just not possible. Now what do we do with this? I mean, this is a Bible verse, right? It says, “…by the wisest guy who ever lived, and he says he hated life, life and was grieved by the truth that no matter how wise you are, you’re still going to die and it’s going to be empty and vain. What do we do with it? Well, I think there are at least three conclusions to start with and then I want to say why he is talking like Number one, three conclusions, he’s worth listening to.

Number one, you won’t avoid death. No matter how wise you are, you won’t avoid death. You might not think about it a lot. You might not want to think about it a lot. I’m not saying all of us need to go around with, you know, a death watch on our wrist, you know. We could even have one. have one. We knew when we were going to die. Of course, if we did know that, we probably all would wear that to just remind ourselves. You’re not going to avoid death, no matter how wise you are. Number two, you won’t be remembered. And probably could add on no matter how wise you are. These are just true things. Number three, you won’t find meaning then under the sun. You can be wise, you ought to be wise. Get that wisdom, you can accomplish a lot. And you will have relative value. You can get good grades and get into a good college to get a good job to make a lot of money to get your toys and play. You can do that.

That will have a relative value to it, no doubt. No doubt. Solomon talks about the reward that he got for his toil. There was an element of satisfaction, but not an element of satisfaction that completed his heart longing. He still realized even for the little bit that he could fill up his heart with those temporal pleasures that that was not it, that was not enough. And you and I, we’re not going to find meaning in life under the sun in our responsibilities, in our grades, in our money, in our friendships, in our relationships. Not going to find meaning if all that we have is this life. I don’t care how successful you are.

You can have the greatest amount of wisdom. It’s not going to keep you from death. It’s not going to make you more memorable, necessarily. I mean, actually, we remember some fools as much as we remember some wise people if their foolishness is at an extreme level. And it’s going to be empty. Now, why does Solomon tell us this? I mean, this is the conclusion, the climax to his case study here on which is better. Well, here’s the answer. Why such dismality from Solomon? Because Solomon was feeding his heart with things under the sun. He’s just told us all about it. In the midst of his comparison and in the midst of his descriptions before that, he says, so I sought wisdom.

And for pleasure, he said, these are all my pursuits. You know what? Solomon’s mindset, I think, as he’s writing this to us in chapter 2, verses 12-17, and especially this conclusion that it’s all vanity, his mindset is one that’s coming out of a heart filled with junk. There’s no way that he can make a different conclusion That’s what was in his heart. However many years this trial and error process went on, this case study went on, as he makes this reflection, he has had at least some years, not just days or weeks, but years of filling up his heart with this life, what this world has to offer. And you know what?

That made him miserable. I’m thankful for his misery in one sense that then he can tell us about his experience of what it was like to have all of it, to be at the height of power and fame and fortune and it’s still to be empty. I mean in one sense, I’m thankful now that it’s done that he can give us that experience. But dude was miserable. There was not joy in his life for all that he had because he was stuck underneath the sun. For all of his wisdom that he had, that wisdom had a relative value. And that’s because wisdom by itself at best has relative temporal value. But let me add one more thing and then we’re done this morning.

Wisdom with salvation has eternal value. Wisdom by itself, you can get your cars, your stuff, and your temporal happiness. But wisdom with salvation has eternal value. You know what? The person who is not stuck underneath the sun is not so dismal. The person who is not stuck with their perspective on things of this life does not conclude, I hate life. It may be grievous and there may be difficulties, but we know that this isn’t it. See Solomon had basically put all of his eggs in one basket and he had put his basket in the wrong place. You can put all of your eggs in one basket, but if you put them in the right place, that is beyond the Son and heaven in God.

No dismality. back at 1 Peter 1. We started and we’ll end with just a couple things from 1 Peter 1. I mean, those of us who have wisdom and salvation are pilgrims. We’re sojourners. We’re exiles. This isn’t it. This is not the end of the game. This is not the end of the road. Our final destination. We have another place we’re going to. And so our perspective, even in and difficulties is different. Look down at chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope. To a hope of something more. But this isn’t it.

In fact, keep going to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God’s power being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We’re not done yet. This isn’t it. It’s not over with this life. We have an inheritance that we can’t even fully describe coming to us. It’s so amazing. You’ve probably heard me talk about before, you know, we read those three adjectives there. It’s imperishable, undefiled and unfading. And people always ask me then, okay, so what’s it like? Well, Well, it’s imperishable. It’s undefiled and undefading. Yeah.

Great. So what’s it like? Well, I don’t know. I know what it’s not. It’s so amazing there aren’t even words that we have to completely comprehend it or describe it. That’s how great the inheritance is. And we have a living hope to look forward to that. We have a living hope to look forward to that final and complete salvation. Even at the end of verse 9, after we’ve gone through the trials and the difficulties, if our faith is proven and purified, we’re loving God, we’re having joy in God, then we will receive at the end the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls. And that is good news. And that is what so many of your friends need to hear.

Perhaps that’s what you need to reckon with even here this morning that you have been stuck like we’ve been talking about with the perspective that this is what we have, this is it, get as much as I can here. The problem is that, number one, Solomon has explained everything that is offered here is at best relative.

And secondly, it’s temporal because you’re gonna die. You will. You can’t avoid it. You will die. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. I mean, Edwards talked about that over and over and over again. God has so many unimaginable ways to take us out of the earth, out of existence. God can take you out at any moment, any way He wants to, and He has so many ways He does, and He has to do a miracle to make it happen. Well, if we threw miracles into the pool of things, ways God has to kill people, You’re going to die. Sooner or later, you’re going to die. And where are you putting all of your eggs? And by that, I mean your hopes, your dreams, your priorities, your values, your pleasures, your loves, your affections.

If they are stuck here under the sun, you’ve got vanity and dismality. There is a hope of so much more, a living hope in Jesus, in God Himself, in that coming inheritance, in that future salvation. But that means you’ve got to love Jesus, and you’ve got to trust in Him for that salvation. That has to dominate you more than just on Sunday mornings or small groups. That has to be your life. Wisdom and salvation leads to eternal life. Wisdom just by itself, as much better as it is than folly, still can’t accomplish what you really need it to. Father, I ask that you would help by Your word, by Your spirits, by our time that we’ve just spent together to continue to wean us off of loves of things in this world.

Help us to appropriately seek wisdom, to live as in light, to have that clarity of sight and vision, help us to realize that that by itself is not enough. Give us all more of that pilgriming, that sojourning mindset, and cause us to consider more and more that we are not home. Instead of getting too comfortable and settling in, make us vigorous and passionate for pursuing our true and final and eternal home with you. We pray all this in Christ’s name, Amen.