Ecclesiastes chapter one. And my intention last week was to go back and to say a few more words at the end of Romans eight. Before moving to this passage in this chapter in Ecclesiastes. but I think I got all said what the Lord wanted me to say last week in Romans 8. And I wanted to move to Ecclesiastes the first chapter as part of this preaching through Romans 7 and Romans 8, because I think Ecclesiastes, the whole book, for one, but mainly this first chapter is really a very close parallel to Romans 7 and Romans 8.

And my thoughts had gone to Ecclesiastes as we were going through verses 19 and 20 and 21, talking about being subjected to vanity. And my thoughts had went to Ecclesiastes, and whenever I went there, I seen there was a lot of things that we can look at here that reinforce what Paul has been preaching in Romans 7 and Romans 8, so I thought we might go and look at that today before we kinda conclude our look and study of these two chapters in Romans.

Now, just to remind you, What we've been talking about is I've made the claim several weeks ago, when we started in chapter seven, I made the claim that I do not believe that the scripture teaches a progressive holiness, okay? I don't believe that we grow progressively more and more holy and less and less sinful. We grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? That's something internal. That's something that comes by way of knowledge, that comes by way of enlightenment, comes by way of revelation. And surely we grow in experience of the fruits that God produces or works in us, the works or fruits that God does in us. God works in us to will and to do his good pleasure, He is foreordained works that we will walk in. And those works are not works that he gives us a list of things to do and for us to accomplish. And we just go out and start doing those works, but they are supernatural divine works that God has foreordained and they to the child of grace are hidden to them in the workings of them until the Lord works them out in them. And so, All we do is rest in the promise in both aspects of our salvation.

Let me maybe clarify that a little bit, because I know sometimes people get confused about what I talk about or what I mean by whenever I talk about these things. There's two aspects to our salvation, and I want to be very clear about this, because there are some primitive Baptists who take the same verbiage as what I'm about to say, but they make it mean different things.

I believe that there are two viewpoints, or there are two aspects to salvation. There is an illegal aspect to salvation, and there is an experiential aspect to salvation. However, I just want to make it clear and on the record that I do not believe in a two-time salvation. I do not believe in conditional time salvation.

I know probably most people here, you may not even know what I'm talking about. Larry probably knows what I'm talking about because he's had to deal with that and been in churches that have taught it. But it's a theological debate, a doctrine that is held by many primitive Baptists who believe that eternal salvation and time salvation are two separate salvations.

Eternal salvation is a salvation that is wrought only by God. It is what we call monergistic or by God alone, work by God alone. However, conditional salvation or time salvation is a salvation that is synergistic or is by the work of God and us that we have to do some things so that we can experience this conditional time salvation.

There are some primitive Baptists that hold a conditional time salvation who I have actually heard, so I'm not misrepresenting anybody, and I think Larry can probably cooperate of what I'm saying here, that have actually said that there are some people who will be eternally saved, but yet will never come to know their salvation in time.

The gospel might not come to them. The Bible may be never given to them. They may never believe on Jesus, but because they are elect children of God, they're still going to be in heaven. And there are some I've even heard say that they may be of even another religion and that they might, which by the way, Billy Graham thought the same thing. Now he wasn't a primitive Baptist and he wasn't a sovereign grace believer, but he, preached the same thing. He believed that there are people of other religions who are all getting to God, and they might not have known Jesus, but they still love God, and they're gonna get in heaven. That's what Billy Graham preached. That's why he's inherited it.

But anyway, this time salvation, they say, are things that we have to work out. We have to believe. We have to repent. We have to believe. And then there is this aspect of a life of walking according to God's word and obeying and the admonitions of scripture and all those things that if you do these, this will happen to you. So there is a conditional salvation and there is a eternal salvation. Eternal salvation was won by Christ. Conditional salvation is by your obedience to God. And that's nothing more than really what the Judaizers was doing when they came to Galatia.

Whenever they came to the Galatian churches, they were telling them, oh yeah, what Paul is saying is true, we're saved by grace, but you still have to keep the law of Moses and do all these other things for that to take effect, okay? So there is this thing. I believe that there is an eternal salvation that is a legal salvation that God has decreed from the foundation of the world and it's based in righteousness, it's based in justice, it's based upon the finished work and the covenant work of Jesus Christ, okay? And then there is this experiential salvation that we experience in time. However, I believe it's still one salvation. There's only one salvation.

The salvation that God has declared upon his people and the one that Jesus bought with his blood takes care of everything in the legality of eternity, but it also provides everything for the experience here on earth. So that our being born again, our believing, receiving, our experience of everything in this life as it pertains to our salvation in Christ Jesus that also was purchased with his blood and is sovereignly bestowed and worked out by God alone without man's hand. My believing comes by not my effort or my knowledge or my working diligently in this. It doesn't come that way. It comes by revelation of the Holy Spirit.

My faith in Christ Jesus or faith on Christ Jesus doesn't come by me reading more of this. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Absolutely, that is true. But we're talking about the spiritual work of hearing by the spiritual preaching of Christ to the heart of the believer, who is the preacher that preaches to that inner man, that new man inside of us. And that new man inside of us is hearing the preacher preach the message. He's the one revealing that to us.

Okay. What I'm saying is, is these are spiritual matters and they are dealt with in a spiritual way. And I can't control the spirit. I can't control when God reveals things to me, even though I may read this I might read this thing 10 hours a day, memorize every word that is in cover to cover of this book, and still not understand this thing until God reveals it to me.

So then my experience cannot be governed by my activity of obedience. I can obey God and read this every day as long as I can, but unless God opens up my mind.

Now, I know some people say, well, God has already opened your mind. cause you to be born again. Well, if that's the case, then I have all knowledge of all things and all understanding. And Paul says, we don't have that. We grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So experiential things, my hope that Christ is my righteousness. That isn't something that I can work up. Matter of fact, that is completely opposite of who I am in myself, in Adam. My hope is in my self-righteousness in Adam. Hope in Christ is not natural to us. It is born from above.

So our experience of salvation and everything that comes with that is worked out and governed and dictated by the sovereign hand of God. So all of salvation is by God's sovereignty.

So when we look at these things, when we see that salvation is something that is completely outside of our ability, it's outside of our working, it's outside of our grasp, it is completely outside of us, then there isn't nothing that there is for us to do to get it or keep it, maintain it, to enlarge upon it. There's nothing that we can do to do that. We are beholding at every facet of our salvation of our life we're beholden to God for everything.

Because outside of Christ and outside of salvation, the Adamic man, whether he be the child of grace or whether he be the child of Adam, the child of the wicked, wicked one, natural man can do nothing. And everything that he does, as we've seen in Romans 7 and 8, is worthless. I can do nothing. Oh, wretched man that I am, My flesh, prophets, nothing.

Well, in Ecclesiastes, Solomon, who was the son of David, who was the king of Jerusalem after David, was given by God everything. He was the richest man to have ever lived up to that time. He had more wisdom than any man had ever had. God had given him wisdom. So he was the wisest man to have ever lived.

Okay, so you have the wisest man that had ever lived. You have the richest man that had ever lived. He had everything. He had want for nothing. Okay. He was in position as King of Israel. So he had access to anything that he wanted to have access to. And he had anybody he wanted to serve him to do whatever he chose to do. So everything was under, if you would, bar the sovereignty of God in all things, he had rule over all things and the ability and the means to back up anything he wanted to do. And he had the wisdom to carry out whatever he wanted to carry out in this temporal life, okay?

Now, don't misunderstand me, misquote me. I'm not saying that he's on the level of God in wisdom. He's on the level of God in control. He is in this temporal life in temporal things above all others that was before him, right? He wrote Ecclesiastes. And in Ecclesiastes, he chronicles the life that in this wisdom that God had given him, he went to search out to experience everything that there was to experience in life, everything. He had the means to do it. He had the ability to do it and the wisdom to guide him in his efforts. And so he sought out to experience everything good, bad, everything moral, everything immoral, that there was to offer in this life and in wisdom figure out what is it all about? What's this all about? What are we here for? What is man? And that's what Solomon, was on the hunt to do. And that's kind of where this book picks up.

Now, if you'll think with me, remember, back to Romans 7. Remember when Paul, in his account, give the fact that he remembers that in his life's work, he did everything. He was the Pharisee among Pharisees. He hit the law in all aspects. He was zealous more than any of his other kinsmen or God. He thought that he was serving God to the utmost more than any of his other peers. That he was going after these people who were called the way and he was taking them and he was persecuting them because he thought they were some weird sect that was defying God and was heretics and was anathema and should be killed, okay? Paul was zealous in all the works of this temporal life, this religious life, but Paul come to a conclusion once he met Christ. Once Christ came and revealed himself to him, he found out that, as we'll see here, all is vanity. Everything is vanity. Paul even said it. He said that all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Well, that's quoted from the Old Testament, but Paul realized that everything that I put my hand to is evil. and is worthless and in the end will not be considered for righteousness. It will not be considered. It's gonna die with me. And Paul even said that. We're in this body of death. We continue in this body of death and all this body of death can produce is sin and death. That's all we can produce. We can't produce anything Godward.

Now let's look at Ecclesiastes with kind of that as our backdrop of what we've been talking about the last few weeks. And remember again, I made the claim that we cannot grow in holiness, we cannot grow in sinlessness, because the natural man has been subjected to vanity, and he's been subjected to vanity for a purpose. The purpose is to destroy the confidence that we have in ourself. And in destroying the confidence we have in ourselves, God, by grace, gives us faith to look to Jesus Christ for our salvation.

Now, look with me, if you would, at Ecclesiastes chapter one. Verse one, it says, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem. Now, again, like in all things we do, there is a physical, practical aspect to this writing. It is chronicling something historical that really happened with Solomon. Solomon was a real person. He experienced these real things that he wrote about. Okay. And so there is a practical aspect of that.

But brethren, as with all things in the volume of the book, it is written of Christ. This book is about Christ and his salvation. So whenever we look at the physical, when we look at the historical, let's look through that to see how it points to the spiritual. It's always going to point us to the spiritual because that is the kingdom that we are in. We are in the spiritual kingdom serving our spiritual king.

The words of the preacher, and notice the word preacher is capitalized there. The words of the preacher, Jesus Christ, brethren, is the word of God. He is the preacher. He is the word that is mentioned in Peter whenever it talks about the word of God being brought forth by the word of God. It's not talking about black words on white pages. It's being brought forth by the word of God, who is Christ himself. Christ himself is the wisdom of God, and he is the one who has given the words of God. He is the word of God, and he is the true preacher.

I'm standing up here saying all these things, but if there's anything that is of truth that I speak, it's because the preacher has given the words to me to speak that truth. And if you are to hear that and it to be of any encouragement to you or to be of any enlightenment to you or any revelation of who God is or what salvation is about, it is because the preacher has preached into your heart and taught you the truth, not me. I'm here to encourage you. I'm here to instruct. But brethren, at the end of the day, I can't make a heart change. I can't make a mind change. I can't give understanding and I surely can't place hope within a soul. Only the preacher can.

The words of the preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem, is not Jesus Christ known in the physical as the son of David? But also brethren, although Jesus never sat down on the physical throne of David, He is the King of Jerusalem. He is sitting and has ascended the throne of David because the throne of David in the physical in the Old Testament was only a type and a foreshadow, a shadow that fades away. It's temporal. It's not of any value because it was showing forth the substance, which is his throne in heaven, which he ascended whenever he rose from the dead. In Christ's resurrection, he rose from the dead and ascended the throne of David and is now seated on that throne with all majesty ruling over his kingdom. And he is the king in Jerusalem. We are the new Jerusalem. We are the Jerusalem of scripture where all of God's saints are together where Christ, where God dwells.

So these are the words of Christ. who is teaching his people in his kingdom. And he says this about us. Look at verse two. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, look at this, all is vanity. Vanity now, that's how that's how Solomon starts this out. But as he opens he goes on throughout his writing He's gonna tell you of all the things that he took part in But he's summing it up right here at the very beginning now a lot of people they'll sum up their work at the end but here Solomon by the Holy Spirit goes right to the point. He sums up his book at the very beginning by saying this Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

And it's talking about this temporal life. So brethren, that is a principle that we need to understand if God is to give us to understand it. That everything in this temporal life is vanity. It's all vanity. It's temporal. And it is of no value. What is of value is what has been done by Christ in the spiritual. That is of worth. All of this is wood and dross. It's all worthless. And that's what he's saying here. All is vanity.

Look with me, if you would, over back into the book of Psalms, Psalms 39. Look at verse five, it says, behold, thou hast made my days as a hand breath. You know what a hand breath is, anybody? Anybody know what a hand breath is? The breath of my hand. How wide my hand is. He said, you've made my life as a hand breath. Not much there, short. Basically nothing. and my age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man, listen to this, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. And then he says, Selah, that means think about that.

All our righteousness is as filthy rags man at his best state is vanity that kind of takes the wind out of ourselves don't it kind of knocks the feet from out up from underneath us right makes it makes that old pride crumble down man at his best state is vanity before god

look at verse six Surely every man walketh in a vain show. You know what that means? The word vain here, if you remember a few weeks ago when we was preaching on that verse in Romans 8 about being subjected to vanity, it's being subjected to worthlessness. That's what the word, the word vain here means worthlessness.

I got out my Oxford Dictionary. If you guys don't have an Oxford Dictionary, get one. It is amazing. The Oxford Dictionary, now it's about that thick. But the Oxford Dictionary, whenever you look up a word, you can take that word back and it shows you the different meanings. Because, you know, words change over time, right? You can look up a word in this Oxford Dictionary and it will tell you in different years what that word meant.

So I went to look up what the word vanity meant back around the time that the King James Bible was translated into English because the English word vanity then may be something different than it is now. So I looked that up and it means worthless. It means without value. So God is saying that we were subjected to being without value. That all of us was subjected to worthlessness. And here, the psalmist is saying that in our best state, we are worthless.

He is saying that every man walketh in a worthless show. It means everything that we show on this outside, all the religious activity that we show on the outside, is worthless in comparison with eternal things, in comparison to righteousness in Christ, in comparison to that which God requires. It's worthless. God's not going to accept it.

He says, surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them. See the vain man is out there working and he's doing all this outward appearance stuff. He's doing all this stuff that he thinks is getting noticed by God and noticed by men. And he's gathering up all this stuff. And he says, listen, he heapeth up the riches and knoweth not who shall gather. Who's even gonna take note of all these things? Who's gonna gather these up and say, good job?

You know what? Man to man, we might do that, don't we? We might say, hey, this old fella here, he's got, you know, we give out the Nobel Peace Prize and we give out the Medal of Valor and the Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart and we have, award shows, the Grammys and the country music awards where all your peers get up and look and say, oh, how great you are and how great you've done. We have theologians who they have gone through all their seminary degrees and get all these letters behind their name so that everybody can look and say how smart that person is and how much we should listen to him because he obviously knows more about the Bible than me because he's got 15 letters behind his name. We give accolades. We give awards.

Man, I've told you guys about the Southern Baptist Convention in Oklahoma giving out awards for which churches give out at the most baptisms. Crazy. Men like to trumpet their alms in the public square. But what does the Bible say about your alms? It says if you give your alms, what do y'all do? Do it silently, do it quietly. Do it secretly. Not to trumpet those things. Trumpet all their accolades and what all they've done and what all they've accomplished

But it says here he heaped up riches and no it's not who shall gather them and now Lord what wait I for Will the psalmist realized if all this vanity and every man that walketh walketh in a vain show and All the things that we heap up ain't worth anything and it's not going to be gathered up by God He says, what was it? What do I wait for? He says, my hope is in thee. My hope is in thee.

What does a life of vanity to the child of grace lead to? Hope. Isn't that what Paul said back in Romans 8? That we are subjected to vanity in hope? Let's not forget it. Let me let me read it real quick. You don't have to turn there. Keep your place.

Romans 8. Verse 20, For the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groweth groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of the body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. "'For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? "'But if we hope for that we see not, "'then do we with patience wait for it.'"

God has subjected us to this vain temporal life so that we in hope would do what? Does the Psalmist say? Wait for it. We hope in thee. Our hope is in the resurrection. Our hope is in the time that this body of death is put down, and we assume that body that God has prepared for this inner man that we have talked about the last few weeks.

Look back into our passage here in Ecclesiastes. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. So now we understand that everything in this life, no matter how much accolades or achievements that you accrue in the scheme of spiritual life, in the scheme of heavenly things, in the scheme of God's kingdom, it's all vanity. It's all vanity.

It's all vanity. Now that doesn't mean that the things that we do on this earth in the temporal way doesn't have some meaning to us, you know? Whenever my kids, each one of them have achieved things, you know, Kaylin going to school, getting her phlebotomy degree and going to work in phlebotomy and happily getting her course and finishing it and starting to do her proofreading and Zach and his job and his promotion and Waylon and his and Kaidman and his and all the work that's done, the achievements that they have done, you know, all these things are great. Nursing schools, you know, jobs that you've had, whether it's been working for the government or working for yourself or building your own businesses, all these things, everything that we have done, you know, to each other, those are great accomplishments.

But in the grand scheme of eternity, in the grand scheme of religious or in kingdom things, it's all vanity. Look at verse two. What prophet hath a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun? So Solomon is saying here, he said, in light of all things being vanity, what profit hath a man in all of his labor? Eternally speaking, spiritually speaking, what profit hath a man in all of his labor? Now he goes into this, listen to verse four. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. Men's gonna come, men's gonna go. Generation upon generation, after generation, after generation. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to its place where he arose. Day after day, after day, after day, after day, after day, it's all the same. One day comes, one day goes. The next day comes again. One generation comes, one generation goes. It's a cycle. It's a cycle of life that God has ordained for this earth. to come and go, to come and go, and it continues on, continues on, continues on, and as we'll see, nothing changes.

It says the wind, by the way, just a side note, the sun rises and the sun sets, and it desireth to go back to the place where it arose. Verse six, meteorology didn't figure this out. God told this way back when. The wind goeth towards the south and turneth about unto the north. It whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to its circuits. How many of y'all have watched the news and you've seen the weather and the jet pattern? Up and down, up and down, up and down. Yeah, God did that. God chose that and guess what he says here? It continues and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. Continues on in circuit.

All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. I had to stop at that one whenever I was reading through that. It was kind of a thinker there. All the waters on land run down into the sea, but the sea never does fill up. and get larger. Ain't that weird? Where do the waters on land come from? Lori's grandpa had a well out where we used to live in Oklahoma, dug that well. I can't remember how far down it was that it was dug, but his house, my house, Lori's uncle's house all drew water from that well, and you can turn your water on at all those houses and leave it running all day long, and it never would run out. That well never ran out. I don't know how far down it was, but how in the world is water down that far in that plenty of this, and how does it replenish itself? How does it continue to be that way?

the further you drill sometimes the deeper you find well but supposedly the deeper you go the hotter it gets right because we're getting to the core of magma at the center of the earth where gravity is born i'm being facetious about all that by the way where does the waters come from that's below the earth whenever you drill down 1,600 feet. But yet all this water run out. Remember I told you about that spring that me and Lori went to just recently? A hole in the ground coming up. I mean, two million gallons a day comes out of that hole. Two million gallons a day comes out of that thing. Where's all that water come from? But every bit of that water comes out, and it flows down, and it works its way, and it finds its way in the sea, and the sea never does get any bigger. That's amazing.

All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. So wherever the rivers came, it goes into the sea, and guess what? It goes back into where the rivers came from, however it gets there. Does it seep in there? I don't know. Does it have a little tube that it runs through and gets back to the place again? I don't know. Does God just mysteriously make it appear over there? I don't know. All I know is this, it's a continual cycle. The rivers come out, flows into the sea, goes back into the river. It's a continual cycle.

Look at verse eight. All things are full of labor, See, Solomon is given illustration of the generations, the sun, the wind, the rivers. It's a continual cycle over and over and over again. They continue in their labors and nothing changes. It continues in its labor, but nothing changes.

Now think about that in the spiritual brethren. We continue in our labors, but nothing changes. We are vanity of vanities. We are wretched men. We are unrighteous before God. And if we continue in our labors year after year, after year, after year, it doesn't change anything. At the end of the day, at the end of our life, the walk of man is vain.

All things are full of labor. Man cannot utter it. He can't even describe I can't even describe you. Sometimes I come home after a hard day of work and experiencing some stuff at work and I come home and I try to dump it all off on my family. Sometimes they like to listen, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they humor me and act like they're listening and they probably aren't, but I don't know.

But I come home and I bare my soul out about, and I can't really explain to them exactly how frustrating that day was. But brethren, listen, I labored every bit of labor that was in there. And every bit of frustration in doing that labor, and every bit of frustration in what did not transpire because of my labor.

There are times that I go out on a x-ray machine, you can ask my wife this, There are times I go out on an x-ray machine and I will literally troubleshoot that thing all day Still don't get it figured out Order a bunch of hero kit parts to throw at it Put all those come back the next day put all those parts on it. Guess what? It's still the same Do it all over again. I labor It doesn't work. I labor it doesn't work and I come home and I can't even voice the frustration

Well here, Solomon is saying the same thing. All things are full of labor and we can't even utter how much labor is involved in everything that we have tried to do. But he says this, the eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. No matter how much labor we do, no matter how much accomplished that we finally get done, The eye is never satisfied. The ear is never full.

You think you've accomplished it all, and guess what? It's not enough anymore. You know? It's not enough. You've attained this status, and guess what? After a little while, well, I've made it to that status. Now I'm bored. Let me move on to this. Is that not true of our lives? You know, at one time, me and my wife lived in a little apartment. I was satisfied with that little apartment. We lived here the rest of our life. Guess what? It wasn't. After a while, I wasn't satisfied with that. I needed to move on to a house. I can't live in an apartment. I need to move into a house. We moved into a house. Well, after a while, that wasn't satisfying. Well, this house is pretty shabby and run down, we need a nicer house. Let's move to a nicer house. Well, now we got kids, let's move to a bigger house. You see, we're never satisfied.

So no matter how much we accomplish within our labors, it is never enough for us. And brethren, if our labors isn't even enough for us, you really think that it's gonna be enough for God? who is perfect and holy and righteous and just. All things are full of labor. But the eye is not satisfied, the ear is filled, not filled with hearing. Verse nine, look at this. The thing that hath been is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done. And there is no new thing under the sun. What does that mean? It kind of sounds a little confusing, right? But if you slow down and read it, you kind of get the idea. The thing that hath been, what has already transpired, it's just going to happen again. It's going to be the thing that will be. And it says here, and that which is already done, guess what? It's going to be done again. It means it's a cycle. Life is going to continue in this same pattern over and over and over again.

Look with me if you would. I thought this was interesting. Genesis chapter eight. After Noah came off the ark, they built an altar There was a covenant made with Noah and Noah built an altar and verse 20 it says, Noah built an altar under the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground for any more for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart Four, the imagination of man's heart is, what does it say there? Evil. The imagination of man's heart is evil. From his youth. A lot of times we look at our kids and we don't wanna think that they're evil. think our children are innocent, good little kids, whatever. The Bible says that I was estranged from my mother's womb. It said that in sin did my mother conceive me. We are evil from the womb. The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. Here it is, verse 22. While the earth remaineth, which we just read over here, that the earth abideth forever. He said, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. If we look in Ecclesiastes, And it is in the, oh my, I just went blank. Chapter three. to everything, verse one, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Now, what is under the heaven? Well, that's everything temporal, right? Everything that is under the heaven is temporal. That's what's happening in this lifetime. So to everything there is a season and a time and a purpose. So everything has its purpose. Brother Larry, all your things that you've experienced these last few weeks, there's been a time and a purpose for it. My x-ray machines that give me fit to make me want to kick a wall down. God has given it for a time and a purpose.

A time to be born. There's a time to die, time to plant, time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.

What profit he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? There's that question again. What is the profit in all that we labor in these things? I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men. Number one, who is the one who gave it? Well, it must've been Satan, because God doesn't want bad things to happen to us. Benny Hinn told me that. Kenneth Copeland told me that. The Joker lady told me that. I can't think of her name. Joyce Myers. They told me that God wants us to live in prosperity and health.

Nope, there's a time for having and a time for not having. There's a time for being well and not being well. There's a time for good, there's a time for bad. And the wisest man in the world said, what profit do we have in any of this? The cycles of life, they come, they go, there is a season for everything, there is a time, there is a purpose. But temporally speaking, what profit do we have in any of that labor? And who is it that give it? It's God. And what did God give? Travail. What is travail? Hardships.

This life of hardship, God has given to us for a purpose and for a time. What's the time? The time of our habitation. God has given each one of you, each one of us, a time of habitation, when we live in this temporal world. He has set the bounds of that habitation, where we live and in what time period we live. But he's done it for a purpose. And there is a continuation. The whole time I live, guess what? I live in my time period habitation just like everybody else before me. Nothing is new under the sun.

The cycle of this travail of life continues on the temporal life where no man can do anything of any worth as far as righteousness is concerned, as far as eternity is concerned. We live our life and we die. We live our life and we die. We live our life and we die. And whatever by God's hand he puts to our experience in that time period is no different than every time periods before me and is no different than any time periods that are after me. God has bound us up and subjected us to vanity.

I've seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in. He has made everything beautiful in his time. Doesn't seem beautiful at the time to us, right? But isn't he saying a lot like what Paul said in our message a couple of weeks ago? All things work together for good. The sufferings of this lifetime don't compare to anything except for what to what's going to be revealed at the end. Isn't that what Solomon says? He hath made everything beautiful in his time.

Even the travail that I go through, all these negative side to this, a time to kill, a time to heal, time to be born, a time to die, all these things, there's a positive, there's a negative, all that stuff in the negative list, he says is beautiful in its time or its purpose that God has given it. He has set the world in their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and do good in his life."

What's he saying there? He's saying, since all is vexation and vanity, since all is vanity and the cycles of life is to live and to die and in between living and dying, God exercises the people in travail. He exercises you for his time and for his purpose. And we can't change that. No one can change the seasons. No one can change the inevitable that God has set out in his purposes. And so he says, so I because there is no good in man. What is there for man to do? To rejoice. and to do good in this life.

Now he just said that there's no good in man, what is he saying? He's saying temporally, to rejoice and just continue in this life, to live your life, to do your life. Matter of fact, he says in verse 13, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor. It is the gift of God. enjoy it for what it is. It's temporal gifts of God. It's temporal life. Enjoy your temporal life and all the things that God exercises you in, knowing that all things work together for good to them who are the call to them who love God and are the call according to his purpose.

To know that in all the vanity and vexation of this life, we are subjected to it in hope because that hope Whenever that hope is seen, whenever that hope comes, we shall put off this body of vanity, this body of death, and we shall be like him.

So what's he saying here? Enjoy your life. Rejoice kind of sounds like rest. Rest in him. There's nothing wrong, Mike. You go out and work hard and labor hard and do what you've done. In this temporal look, that's a good thing. As far as righteousness is concerned, it didn't earn you nothing. But in this life, that was good.

Come home and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Enjoy your family. Enjoy the things that God has gifted you and given to you. Enjoy the lot that God has made for you. He says all that that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor. It is the gift of God.

I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should fear beforehand. Listen, everything that I do in this temporal life, is it gonna add to or take away from what God has already purposed? And it surely doesn't change anything as far as the spiritual aspects are concerned.

Go back to chapter one. The thing that hath been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Brethren, there is nothing new under the sun. You might think it's new, it's just new to you, but it's nothing new.

Is there anything whereof it may be said, see this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us. It's already happened. Every man's experienced. The things that you've experienced went through the things you went through. There is no remembrance of former things. Neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after it.

That means Listen, we live this temporal life, and guess what? Now, I know there's a lot of people that are into history. But most of the time, people don't, they don't care less about what has happened before them. And most of the time, they really don't think much about what's going to happen after them.

But what is this saying? There is no remembrance of former things. Neither shall there be any things that are to come. Listen, nothing's going to be remembered about you. And there ain't gonna be nothing remembered about those things that are coming ahead of you. In the scheme of eternal things.

Now look at this verse 12. I the preacher, he restates this again, I the preacher was king over Jerusalem, Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith."

So Solomon's saying that he was given wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. And he sought out to experience every one of them that God has given to exercise man in. He says, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. So he says, I've experienced everything if there is to experience people. Everything. Now, I'm taking God's word at this. I don't think it's just hyperbole. I think Solomon, being the wisest man and being the richest man and the most prominent man of his time. Literally was able to experience everything. That any man, hey, How many concubines did he have? 700 something concubines. And how many wives did he have? A lot. He had a bunch. I guarantee you, just in that aspect, that man has experienced just about everything that there is to experience.

And what does he say? I have seen the works that are done under the sun, And behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. What does he mean? What does the word vanity mean? Worthless. What does the word vexation mean? Desire. Longing. A vexation is something that is a longing or a desire. All is worthless desire.

Now let's think about that on the spiritual side. All of our religious activity in trying to gain acceptance of righteousness before God is vanity. It's vexation. It's a desiring and a longing that ends in worthlessness. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. And all of our righteousness are as filthy rags. They will not be accounted at the end of this temporal life. We live, we die, and when we die, all of our labors die with us. But what moves on? That which is not dross. That which God did. That which God produced. That which came from above. That's what will move on. That's what will last.

Look at verse 15. He says that which is crooked. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. Do you think that you're increasing in holiness? And becoming less sinful that which is crooked cannot be made straight and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. That means that there is nothing that you can add to your life to make you of any worth. The word wanting there, that is a term of balance and scale. You know, in the olden days, they used to have to weigh everything out. You know, they would put a known weight over here, and that balance would go down. And so like, I would buy something, say I wanted to, you know, buy some Skittles, okay? and those skittles was however many dollars per ounce or whatever. Well, they'd put a scale of something known over here, an ounce. I would start putting my skittles in until the balance leveled out. And whenever the balance leveled out, I had as much skittles per ounce as I get, right? It was equal. God is saying in the balance of things, you will always be found wanting. You will never have enough in your side to level out the equality that is in the other side, because what's in the other side is perfection, holiness, righteousness, yea, Christ himself. He's in this side, and when you're on this side, you will always be found wanting. You cannot add to your number because you always are wanting. You always are less than. You always are vain, worthless.

Now brethren, just a side note, that does not negate God's love for us. In while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So our worthlessness in this temporal life doesn't mean that there is not some eternal value to us of the inward man who is the child of God. This outward man is who we're talking about, this temporal man. But look, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. And listen, there are preachers all over the world today that are trying to tell their congregation how to get straight. Verse 16, I communed with my own heart saying, Lo, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge, and I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also is vexation of spirit."

Now I'm gonna conclude with this right here, verse 18. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

Now, remember back to what we've been talking about. Whenever Paul was given to know his sinfulness and God's righteousness, that his inability to become holy, his inability to perform a righteousness that God would accept, as he increased in the knowledge of who he was, he increased in sorrow over his sin. He increased in sorrow for who he was.

That picture of that publican and that Pharisee praying there in the temple. And that Pharisee saying, hey, I thank God that I'm not like that publican. He thought that he had done something to not be wanting He thought that he had done something to gain and not be vain in. But yet that publican, he sit there, the sinner that he was. And he said. God have mercy on me, a sinner. He didn't even lift up his eyes because he couldn't look upon the Lord. Because he knew that God is holy and he was sinful and much knowledge and much wisdom. came much sorrow.

The more that we come to know, growing the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness and God's sovereignty, the more sorrow we become and knowledgeable of how sinful we truly are. That's why I said at one time, I said, listen, over the course of the years that I've been a Christian that have been believing on the Lord, I actually, now I see more sin. I'm not seeing less sin, I'm seeing more sin than I have ever. Not that I'm necessarily committing more sins than I ever was. I'm just now visible, or see them visibly more. I now am more coherent to my wretchedness. I now have been revealed that I'm not, back then it was onesies and twosies. And to most of the world, that's what law keeping is all about, onesies and twosies. Oh, God knows your heart. God knows you've got perfection, but he's not meaning for you to be perfect, he just wants you to try.

But see, that's what Paul was trying to say. And that is what Solomon is telling us, that all trying is vanity and vexation. It's a longing of worthlessness. What should we do? Live your life, rejoice, eat, drink and rejoice in what the Lord has done. Rest in him. Because if he's if there's going to be anything of eternal value that comes out of you, out of your mouth, in your heart, it's going to be God that works it. So live your life and wait upon the Lord. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Those who live under the law will in vanity and vexation become wore out and burdened. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increaseth in sorrow."

Brother, I'm telling you, the more closer you come in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the more you see the sorrowfulness of your sinfulness.

Look with me, one more verse before we stop. It's in Ecclesiastes chapter seven. Look with me if you would. Look at verse seven. It says, surely oppression maketh a wise man mad, and a gift destroyeth the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. You see that? That's what, brethren, that's what being subjected to vanity does. It makes one patient. That's the recurring theme. The reason that God has left us in this sinful body that has left us in the travail of our souls that has left us in this vanity and vexation is because it worketh patience in us. We wait in hope. That's what he's saying here. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.

At the beginning of our life, what do we always tell everybody? Oh, you're in the beginning of your life. You've got everything ahead of you. The stupid graduation speeches that we always hear. Oh, your life is ahead of you and you've got so much to accomplish and all these things that are happening and, um, what do we got going on out here? You know them, Lord? I think they're at the wrong house. Sorry, folks. How do you get more chair? Sorry, folks. Says better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.

As I was saying, you know, we talk about people, oh, your life is just starting now and all this hope and all this stuff. Brethren, that's just the beginning of sorrows. It's your beginning of sorrow. All you young kids, your life is just starting out and you have a lot of things ahead of you, surely. And there'll be a lot of temporally good things ahead of you. But it is the life of sorrow until the end. That's why at the end, he says here, that better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Rather than our waning hours, we've got more to look forward to. when we first started, because we have a lot of sorrow now behind us.

And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Paul was proud of what he was doing in the spirit, right? He was proud of everything. But guess what? He learned that it was better to be patient in spirit. I was out there gaining my righteousness, but now I see there's no righteousness to have in this life. So now with patience, I will wait for the righteousness that has already been given to me and the resurrection that will show outwardly what I am in for me.

Look at verse nine. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger rested in the bosom of fools. I think we all should take note of that. Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom is good with an inheritance, and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom, here it is, for wisdom is a defense and money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

If we have knowledge of what Christ has done, we truly live then. If I'm If I'm living by the burden of the law, trying to keep a righteousness that is going to be acceptable with Him, if I'm truly born of the Spirit, that inward man is always going to keep telling me that wasn't enough. The Spirit is always going to be convincing me of my sinfulness. Therefore, all my religious activities outwardly is going to only be a burden because I've worked in the labor, but not received anything for that labor.

Man, I couldn't imagine. Could you imagine the last few weeks that you've had with your extra days and stuff? Could you imagine working all those and at the end of all those saying, well, you had to work for free for all that. When you work through your sick, being sick and all that, all the coming and going. Can you imagine at the end of that, your boss come and say, well, we're going to just let you do that one for free. You don't get nothing at the end of all this. Can you imagine that? Okay.

what we're saying here paul realized that hey at the end of my life none of this mattered for anything none of this did anything and so now he is going to uh in that wisdom he's going to now live life by the faith of the son of god

i have being crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who died for me, who gave himself for me.

Look at verse 13. These last two verses is what I wanted to hone in on. Consider the work of God. Consider the work of God. What have we been learning here, brethren? The work of God. It is the work of God. Known unto God are all his works, the end from the beginning. And Solomon started from the beginning and is working to the end. That God has from birth until death, put it within man and on man, vanity and vexation that we might in hope look to him. Paul said the same thing.

Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he hath made crooked? Whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Who hath made it crooked? Consider the work of God. Who can make that straight which he hath made crooked? There you go for all you debaters on. God's absolute predestination of all things, God's absolute sovereignty, even in sin and evil. who hath made crooked.

Verse 14. In the day of prosperity, be joyful. But in the day of adversity, consider. God also has set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him. Why has God made the good and the bad? He's made the bad. It is a denial of scripture to say that God has not brought good and bad. What's the verse, is it in Job? Hath not God both brought good and evil? Gabriel put it in the notes down at the bottom, he always does. To the end that man should find nothing after him. The purpose that God has given that to us.

Now, brethren, listen, this is talking about the child of grace. Now, surely whenever the reprobate will stand before the Lord, he's not going to find anything that his life is then he's going to find out that it was all vanity and vexation. But to the child of grace, God has given us the spirit of God so that we might rest in him and that we might hope in him and that we might come to the conclusion like Paul did, I know that in me dwells no good thing. Therefore, with my flesh, I will serve the law of sin, that vanity and vexation until the day I die. But with my mind, I will serve the law of God.

I'm going to rest in Christ and live my life and live it to the fullest. not an exercise of religion, but an exercise of faith towards Christ and on his faith that secured my salvation. The faith of Christ is my righteousness. He is imputed that to me. I can be no less than righteous of God, the righteousness of God in God's sight. And brethren, whenever God brings you to that revelation, your life is a lot different. Your life is a lot different.

That doesn't mean we still don't have that struggle like Paul did. We still struggle with that old man. But that new man, he lives in hope. He lives in rest. He knows that his righteousness comes from above and not in what he has to try to work out.

All right, does anybody got any questions, comments, corrections, reviews? All right, unless God brings anything else to my mind, I think we'll conclude the study here. It's a beautiful thing. It's a gospel-centered thing. And I know a lot of people don't see it that way. And that's because the natural man hates this kind of gospel because he can't do nothing. He has to depend on God. And if God is doing it all, then that means those who have it and those who don't are also by the will and determination of God. So it's not a popular thing among Adam's race.

All right. Anybody got anything you'd like to say or anything?

All right. Father, thank you once again for all that you are and all that you've done for us. Thank you, Father, for the grace and the mercy that we have in Christ Jesus. Thank you for this life that you've given to us. And may you help us to live this life and rejoice and rest in what you have done on our behalf, to enjoy the gifts that you have given us and even the travail that you put us through that we might find that is for our betterment. It is for our good.

And Lord, I pray that you just might be with each one of these brethren. I pray that you've encouraged them through this study. Lord, I pray that Christ has been honored in this. And Lord, if any of these things that I have preached and taught be of error, Lord, I pray that you might guard the heart and mind of your precious children, that they might not follow after my error and that you might correct and give me understanding and reveal the truth to me.

But Father, I pray that these things that I have spoken have been honoring to Christ and has been in accordance with your word. And I pray that has been for the good of your people. Lord, I thank you again for this church. I thank you for the fellowship that we have together. And Lord, we just look forward to the day that you come and receive us unto yourselves and that we put away this body of death and we be once and for all done with sin and death.

The Lord, even so, come quickly. For it's in your son's name that we pray. Amen.