The Vanity of Wealth
Sermon Purpose: To call the hearer to avoid the danger of trying to find satisfaction in earthly wealth.
Sermon Proposition: There are 3 ways life under the sun can keep people from enjoying the fruits of their labor.
I. Corruption may keep one from enjoying the fruits of his labor. V.8-9
Habakkuk 1:4 Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
2 Peter 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
Zephaniah 3:5 The LORD is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails, But the unjust knows no shame. 6 "I have cut off nations, Their fortresses are devastated; I have made their streets desolate, With none passing by. Their cities are destroyed; There is no one, no inhabitant. 7 I said, 'Surely you will fear Me, You will receive instruction' -- So that her dwelling would not be cut off, Despite everything for which I punished her. But they rose early and corrupted all their deeds.
Ezekiel 22:12 "In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me," says the Lord GOD.
B. Earthly wealth may be horded by corrupt officials. V.9
Micah 2:2 They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance.
Jeremiah 22:17 "Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, For shedding innocent blood, And practicing oppression and violence." 18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They shall not lament for him, Saying, 'Alas, my brother!' or 'Alas, my sister!' They shall not lament for him, Saying, 'Alas, master!' or 'Alas, his glory!' 19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
II. Covetousness may keep one from enjoying the fruits of his labor. V.10-12
A. Earthly wealth never satisfies. V.10 (Prov. 1:18-19; Prov. 28:22)
Habakkuk 2:5 " Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples.
B. Earthly wealth multiply dependents. V.11 (Ps. 39:6; Prov. 19:4)
C. Earthly wealth increases anxiety. V.12
Hebrews 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
Ephesians 5:3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
Proverbs 15:27 He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.
III. Cessation of life may keep one from enjoying the fruits of his labor. V.13-17
A. Earthly wealth produces pain as we move toward the cessation of life. V.13
B. Earthly wealth disappears through misfortunes of life as we move toward the cessation of life. V.14
Job 20:15 He swallows down riches And vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.
Micah 2:2 They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. 3 Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this is an evil time.
C. Earthly wealth will be left over after the cessation of life. V.15-16
D. Earthly wealth can produce fear, sorrow, and anger as we move toward the cessation of life. V.17
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.