Written Sermon · Ophel

In This Sermon

• I. MAN MUST FIRST REMEMBER WHAT GOD MADE
• II. WHEN MAN DEPARTED FROM GOD, HE BEGAN TO BUILD
• III. THE INVENTIONS MULTIPLY BECAUSE THEY CANNOT BEAR THE SOUL
• IV. CHRIST DID NOT COME TO IMPROVE OUR INVENTIONS; HE CAME TO BRING US BACK TO GOD
• CONCLUSION: WHAT HAVE WE BUILT?

Ecclesiastes 7:29 · KJV

“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” — Ecclesiastes 7:29

There are moments in Ecclesiastes when Solomon seems to gather a long search into a single sentence. He has examined pleasure, labor, possessions, wisdom, sorrow, prosperity, adversity, injustice, human limitation, and death. He has asked questions that cannot be answered merely by looking longer at life under the sun. He has confessed that some things are “far off, and exceeding deep.” He has described himself as “counting one by one, to find out the account.” And after all of that searching, he stops and says, “Lo, this only have I found.”

There is much Solomon cannot explain. He cannot trace every providence. He cannot tell us why every righteous man suffers when he does, or why every wicked man seems to prosper when he does. He cannot see what will come after him. He cannot reach the bottom of everything God is doing. Yet there is something he can say plainly: the crookedness he has observed did not begin in God. “God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”

That verse takes us farther back than Solomon’s experiments. It reaches behind the houses, vineyards, wealth, pleasures, accomplishments, and disappointments of Ecclesiastes. It carries us back to the beginning, when God made man upright. And if we understand what happened there, we begin to understand why man has spent the rest of history building so many things that cannot save him, satisfy him, or give rest to his soul.

I. MAN MUST FIRST REMEMBER WHAT GOD MADE

Solomon begins with God: “God hath made man upright.” Scripture begins there too. Genesis does not open with a broken world trying to repair itself. It opens with God speaking, ordering, filling, and giving. Light comes because God speaks. The heavens are ordered because God speaks. The earth brings forth because God speaks. Then man appears, not as a creature struggling upward toward meaning, but as one deliberately made by God and placed within an order that was already good.

Genesis says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” — Genesis 1:27 And when the work of creation was complete, Scripture says, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” — Genesis 1:31 Man did not come from the hand of God morally twisted. He was not created alienated from his Maker. He was not designed with the restless heart that we now know so well. God made man upright.

There was an order to life from the beginning. God was God, and man was the creature. God spoke, and man was to receive His Word. God gave, and man was to receive His gifts. Creation was not meant to carry the soul in the place of the Creator. The gifts came from His hand and were to be enjoyed beneath His rule. Man did not need to invent a purpose for existence because life already possessed its meaning in relation to the One who made him.

That matters because fallen man is constantly tempted to look at the disorder within himself and around him and quietly place some of the blame upon the design. We live among broken relationships, disordered desires, violence, fear, pride, grief, death, and confusion. We see things bent that ought to be straight. We feel things within ourselves that ought not be there. And if we are not careful, we begin speaking as though this is simply what humanity was always meant to be.

Solomon will not allow that conclusion. “God hath made man upright.” The crookedness is not evidence of a crooked Creator. What is disordered in us is not evidence of disorder in Him. Scripture says, “As for God, his way is perfect.” — Psalm 18:30 Moses said, “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment.” — Deuteronomy 32:4 Whatever else we conclude about the condition of man, we must not place the blame upon the character of God.

His holiness is not the problem. His authority is not the problem. His commands are not the problem. The boundaries He places around human life are not evidence that He is withholding what is good. His ways arise from His perfect wisdom and goodness. Yet this is exactly where the serpent began in Genesis 3. Before the forbidden fruit was taken, the goodness of God was questioned. “Yea, hath God said…?” — Genesis 3:1

Then the serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die.” — Genesis 3:4 And finally, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof… ye shall be as gods.” — Genesis 3:5 The suggestion beneath all of it was that perhaps God's Word could not quite be trusted because perhaps God's heart could not quite be trusted. Maybe His boundary was not good. Maybe He was withholding. Maybe there was another path to wisdom. Maybe man could possess something better if he stepped outside the order God had given. And humanity has been stepping outside ever since.

II. WHEN MAN DEPARTED FROM GOD, HE BEGAN TO BUILD

The second half of Solomon’s statement is just as important as the first: “but they have sought out many inventions.” God made; man sought. The creature who had received life from God began looking for life somewhere else.

Isaiah describes that movement plainly: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” — Isaiah 53:6 That phrase reaches deeply into the nature of sin. “His own way.” Sin is not merely doing obviously wicked things. At its root, sin is the creature refusing to remain happily beneath the Creator. God says, “This is the way,” and man determines that another way may be preferable.

Romans 1 describes the same departure. Paul says, “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations.” — Romans 1:21 They knew God, but they would not glorify Him as God. That is the departure. And then something follows immediately: “became vain in their imaginations.” Once God is refused His rightful place, the human mind begins producing alternatives.

That is very close to Solomon’s language of “many inventions.” These are not merely machines or acts of human creativity. The word points toward schemes, reasonings, devices, contrivances—the many ways fallen man begins arranging life once he has left the simple order of living beneath God.

Ecclesiastes has already shown us many of them. Solomon built houses. He planted vineyards. He made gardens and orchards. He gathered servants. He possessed cattle. He accumulated silver and gold. He surrounded himself with music and pleasure. He gave himself to wisdom. He labored. He achieved. None of those things was necessarily evil in itself. That is what makes Ecclesiastes so searching.

The great danger to the soul is not only that it will pursue obviously sinful things. Sometimes the soul takes a good gift and begins asking it to become something God never intended it to be. Work is good, but work cannot tell me finally who I am. Money has usefulness, but money cannot guarantee tomorrow. Marriage is a gift, but another human being cannot bear the full weight of my soul. Children are a blessing, but children cannot become the ground of my identity. Knowledge is good, but knowledge cannot make me omniscient. Ministry is good, but ministry cannot become the place where I prove my worth before God or men.

The gift begins to bend when we ask it to become the Giver. A portion becomes dangerous when we ask it to become the Portion.

Jeremiah gives us one of the clearest pictures of this in all of Scripture. God says, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” — Jeremiah 2:13 There are two movements there. They forsook the Fountain, and then they began building. They “hewed them out cisterns.”

That is what the human heart does. Departure begins to manufacture. Once man leaves the One who gives living water, he must build something that might hold enough water to keep him alive. The tragedy is that the cisterns are broken, so he builds again. Then again. Then again. That may help explain why Solomon says “many inventions.” The inventions multiply because the soul keeps needing them to do something they cannot do.

III. THE INVENTIONS MULTIPLY BECAUSE THEY CANNOT BEAR THE SOUL

If one invention could satisfy the soul, we would not need many. But man's schemes multiply because none of them can finally accomplish what he wants from them. That is the ache running beneath Ecclesiastes.

Solomon does not simply describe disappointment with one pursuit. He moves from one thing to another and repeatedly encounters the same boundary. The problem is not merely that he chose the wrong created thing. The deeper problem is that no created thing can become God.

The heart says, “Perhaps this will be enough.” Then the thing arrives. For a time there may be pleasure. There may be legitimate joy. There may even be thanksgiving. But eventually the soul discovers the boundary. So the heart imagines that perhaps it simply needs more.

If this amount of money did not produce security, perhaps a larger amount will. If this level of success did not quiet the need for recognition, perhaps greater success will. If this possession did not settle the restlessness, perhaps another possession will. If one explanation did not remove uncertainty, perhaps a more complete system will. If one ministry opportunity did not provide significance, perhaps a larger ministry will.

The inventions multiply because man keeps demanding from creation what creation cannot give.

Solomon had already said, “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” — Ecclesiastes 1:8 Later he says, “All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.” — Ecclesiastes 6:7 The appetite remains, not because God forgot to create something that could satisfy it, but because the soul was never designed to find its final rest in what lies under the sun.

This does not mean we despise God's gifts. Ecclesiastes repeatedly tells us to receive them. Eat. Drink. Labor. Rejoice in the portion God has given. But receive the portion as portion. Do not turn it into an inheritance it cannot become.

Perhaps some of our deepest frustration comes because we blame the portion for failing to become the Portion. We say the job disappointed us. The marriage disappointed us. The ministry disappointed us. The church disappointed us. Our plans disappointed us. And in some cases those things truly may have involved real hurt or failure. But another question may need to be asked: what did I expect this thing to carry?

Was I asking it to give me something God never promised it could give? Was I expecting a created thing to quiet a hunger that only the Creator can answer?

That is why changing circumstances does not always change the heart. A man moves and discovers he brought himself with him. He changes jobs and finds the same restlessness. He enters a new relationship and eventually discovers that another sinner cannot become his savior. He changes churches and discovers that the people there are sinners too. He reaches the goal and learns that achievement has no resurrection power. The inventions change. The heart remains.

Jesus said, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts…” — Mark 7:21 The deepest problem is not merely what we have built around ourselves. The deeper problem is the heart doing the building. And if that is true, then we need far more than a better plan for life.

IV. CHRIST DID NOT COME TO IMPROVE OUR INVENTIONS; HE CAME TO BRING US BACK TO GOD

If our greatest problem were simply that we had built poorly, perhaps God could give us better construction plans. If our greatest problem were a lack of information, perhaps He could send a teacher. If our greatest problem were merely bad habits, perhaps He could send an example.

But Solomon says something deeper has happened. Humanity departed from the uprightness in which God made man. We need restoration. And Scripture brings before us Jesus Christ.

Here is a Man unlike us. Jesus says, “I do always those things that please him.” — John 8:29 Think about that statement. There was no divided heart in Him, no secret rebellion, no moment in which He decided that the Father's will was insufficient, no alternative path constructed because obedience appeared too costly.

Adam stood in a garden surrounded by abundance and disobeyed. Christ stood in a wilderness after forty days of fasting and obeyed. Israel repeatedly turned aside. Christ remained faithful. We have sought out many inventions. Christ could pray, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” — Luke 22:42 Here is the upright Man.

Yet the gospel tells us that the upright One took the place of those who had departed. Peter says, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” — 1 Peter 3:18 The Just for the unjust. And notice why: “That he might bring us to God.” There is the answer to the entire movement. We left. Christ brings us back.

We do not merely need the consequences of departure repaired while remaining away from God. We need to be brought to Him.

Christ bore our sins in His own body upon the tree. He shed His blood. He died. He was buried. He rose bodily from the grave. And the goal of that redemption is not merely that we escape judgment while continuing to build life around ourselves. He suffered “that he might bring us to God.” The Fountain we forsook is the very One to whom Christ brings us.

And when God saves a sinner, He begins doing something astonishing. He begins restoring what sin distorted. Paul says, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” — Ephesians 4:24 Listen to that language: the new man, after God, created in righteousness.

Ecclesiastes says, “God hath made man upright.” Sin came. Man departed. Many inventions followed. But in Christ, God begins forming a new humanity.

Paul says again that the new man is “renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” — Colossians 3:10 Redemption reaches back toward creation. God is glorifying His Son by redeeming a people for His name, and in that redeemed people He is restoring the creature beneath the rightful rule of the Creator.

That does not mean every external part of life disappears. The Christian may still work, earn money, marry, raise children, study, plan, build, serve, and enjoy God's gifts. But those things no longer have to function as saviors.

I can work without asking work to tell me who I am. I can possess without needing possessions to make me secure. I can serve without requiring ministry to prove my worth. I can plan without pretending I own tomorrow. I can love my family deeply without demanding that they become my portion. Why? Because in Christ the heart is being brought back to God.

CONCLUSION: WHAT HAVE WE BUILT?

“God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” — Ecclesiastes 7:29

Perhaps the question today is not first whether we have built obviously wicked things. Perhaps the question reaches closer.

What have I built because I was afraid simply to trust God? What must I possess before I believe I can have peace? What must happen before I will be content? What must other people think of me before I feel secure? What explanation do I insist upon before I will rest in God's wisdom? What created gift has quietly become indispensable to my joy? Those questions are not meant merely to produce guilt in the believer. They are invitations to return.

You do not have to keep repairing broken cisterns. You do not have to make the portion become the Portion. You do not have to know every detail of tomorrow before you trust the God who is already there. You do not have to manufacture peace. The call is deeper than that. Return to the Fountain.

Perhaps you have known Christ for years, but other things have gradually become large again. Comfort has become large. Security has become large. Recognition has become large. Control has become large. Even ministry may have become so large that communion with God has quietly moved toward the edges. Look again at why Christ suffered. “That he might bring us to God.” — 1 Peter 3:18

The soul was not redeemed merely to possess a more successful life under the sun. Christ brought us to God. Come back to the One who is your Portion.

But perhaps you are here and have never been brought to God at all. You may be religious. You may know Scripture. You may have built a respectable life. You may know how to speak Christian language. Yet beneath all of it, you may still be trusting something you have built.

Your morality cannot reconcile you to God. Your baptism cannot reconcile you to God. Church membership cannot reconcile you to God. Good works cannot reconcile you to God. A prayer you repeated cannot reconcile you to God.

Scripture says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:23 And the same Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Romans 6:23 You have departed. So have I. But God did not leave sinners to manufacture a way home. He sent His Son.

Jesus Christ, the righteous Son of God, bore sin at Calvary. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” — 1 Peter 2:24 He shed His blood. He died. He was buried. He rose again.

Scripture calls you to “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Acts 20:21 Stop resting in what you have built. Stop trying to make yourself worthy. Stop believing that one more human invention can repair the separation between you and God. Come to Christ. The Just suffered for the unjust “that he might bring us to God.”

And Christian, perhaps we should finish where Solomon finally arrived. After all the searching, after all the counting, after all the experiments, and after all the inventions, God was not the One who wandered. We did. And perhaps one of the deepest mercies of God is that He did not leave us to find our own way home. He sent His Son. So the final question is not whether we can build something better.

It is whether we will stop demanding life from what we have built and return again to the God for whom we were made.

God made man upright. Man sought out many inventions. Christ came to bring us back to God.

And there, before the Fountain we had forsaken, the restless soul finally discovers its true Portion.