This brings his sermon to its conclusion. Having proved his thesis, he now restates it.
If this world is everything we have, then the sum total of it is nothing. To reach this conclusion is only to begin; it is to come to the point where we can at last begin to seek God, but it is to have understood something which vast numbers never understand. Ecclesiastes is not a wholly pessimistic book, but it is wholly pessimistic about anything that lies outside of Christ and of God. It is a book which is perfectly consistent with all else that is said in Scripture and it is a book in which God reasons powerfully with us not to be taken in by the deceitfulness of sin. O that those who have not yet tasted of the goodness of the Lord would come to him; O that believers who have felt his power should not like Solomon return again to what is so worthless.