Ecclesiastes 6

Order of Service

• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise the Lord (#10)
• Call to Worship — Psalm 150
• Prayer of Invocation
• Psalm Reading — Psalm 23
• Hymn — The Lord Is My Shepherd (#87)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Ecclesiastes 6
• Prayer of Illumination
• Sermon
• Hymn — It Is Well with My Soul (#691)
• Benediction — 1 Peter 5:10

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Sermon Title: Harsh Realities Under the Sun

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 6

I. The Harsh Realities Invite Our Honesty

A. The "under the sun" perspective frames the entire chapter

1. Ecclesiastes 6:1 opens with "there is an evil that I have seen under the sun" and 6:12 closes with the same phrase, forming a bracket around the passage
2. This perspective encompasses all of human life lived in a fallen world — toil, broken relationships, insatiable striving

B. We must be honest about the problem of mankind

1. Ecclesiastes 6:7 — all the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied
2. At the Fall, man's desire went beyond his reach; the heart of man is never fully satisfied with what it is given
3. The tenth commandment — "do not covet" — strikes at the root of this heart problem; the answer to "how much is enough?" is always "just a little more"

C. We must be honest about the Providence of God

1. The preacher is no atheist — God is the giver of life, wealth, honor, and possessions, and also of the power (or lack thereof) to enjoy them
2. Ecclesiastes 6:10 — "whatever has come to be has already been named," i.e., what God decrees comes to pass
3. Scripture holds human culpability and divine sovereignty in tension — as in Genesis 50, where Joseph tells his brothers, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good"
4. From our under-the-sun perspective, this does not always make easy sense; honest questions arise that the passage does not fully answer

II. The Harsh Realities Ought to Humble Us

A. We must be humbled by recognizing our limitations

1. We do not possess the power in ourselves to find satisfaction in God's good gifts — this power is given or withheld by God
2. Ecclesiastes 2:10 — even when pleasure is found in toil, that pleasure is the whole reward; our vision is shortsighted
3. The Fall has muddled our thoughts, wills, and affections — we must learn to be skeptical of our own desires and appetites rather than trusting them
4. Application: do not simply "follow your heart" or "be true to yourself"; let Scripture train you to recognize your limitations and rest in a good heavenly Father

B. We must be humbled by quieting our litigations — the indictments we hurl at God

1. Ecclesiastes 6:10–11 — man is not able to dispute with one stronger than him; more words bring more vanity
2. Compare Isaiah 45:9 — "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him… does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?'"
3. There is a difference between honest lament offered in faith (as modeled in the Psalms and even by Christ) and an accusing, fist-clenching complaint against God
4. The key distinction: do your questions draw you toward God, or drive you away from him?

C. The chapter closes with two unanswered questions that set up the rest of Ecclesiastes

1. Ecclesiastes 6:12 — "Who knows what is good for man while he lives?" and "Who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?"
2. These questions are born of honest humility; they are not addressed to God but reflect man's inability under the sun to solve the riddle of life
3. The full, satisfying answer is withheld until Ecclesiastes 12; God alone knows what is truly good and what has lasting significance

D. The chapter ultimately drives us to Christ

1. It brings us to the end of ourselves so that we might be drawn to the one who is stronger than us
2. Christ has himself tasted the vanity and misery of life under the sun, bearing it on our behalf
3. In Christ alone is found full satisfaction and perfect joy — the answer to every question the chapter raises