I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes,
chapter one. The Spirit of God moved upon
a man named Solomon to set forth in the first three verses of
this chapter the conclusion that he had come to concerning all
things pertaining to this fleeting world. Here's what it is. Verse 2. Vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vapor. Vapor. Everything pertaining to this
world is going to come to nothing, nothing. You take your last breath, and it don't matter how much
money you got, the kind of car you drive, the kind of house
you live in, It's done. It's over. And we're going to meet God.
Now Solomon has been instructed to relate that even the continual
activity of this planet on which we live This world that is powerfully
and providentially being ordered by him who rules in heaven and
earth is just going to be here for just a little while longer.
Verse four says, one generation passeth away and another generation
cometh. But the earth, now listen to
this, abideth forever. Now our time on this earth is
short. James 4.14, whereas you know
not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is
even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth
away. Spirit of God moved on King David
to write these words, 1 Chronicles 29, 15, for we are strangers
before thee and sojourners as were our fathers. Our days on
the earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding. What does that mean? That means
there's absolutely no hope or expectation that we're gonna
stay here. It ain't gonna happen, 100%. So man is born to die. We're gonna leave everything
as quickly as we thought we accumulated it. We're going to depart this
world for another, and where that world is comes down to this
question. What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of Him? Is He the Savior of sinners,
or is He one that wants to be, if man let Him? Now, what do
you think? Solomon was moved to say one
generation, Passeth away, another generation come. I've thought
about that. You know what? We're just, I've
said this before, this is just a blip in eternity. We just,
by the grace of God, we happen to be here right now. We happen
to be here right now, for a moment. And another generation's gonna
come, And this world, the scripture
says, abideth forever. Now hold your place here. Now
turn with me to 2 Peter, 2 Peter 3. I want to read something. 2 Peter chapter 3. Now we know
that this world in which we live, is not going to last in its present
state forever. How do you know that? Because
I'm getting ready to read it to you. 2 Peter 3, 9 to 13. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward. He's long-suffering to his people. not willing that any should perish,
any of his people should perish, but that all should come to repentance. All God's people are going to
come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation,
and all walk, and attitude, and godliness? looking for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens shall
be on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness." Now, Mr. John Gill, I looked at what Mr. Gill had to say concerning this. This is what he had to say, the
form of this earth is going to be changed. The form of it. That which God created shall
continue, but it shall be renewed and refined. The elements, he
said, in their present state will pass away and melt with
fervent fire. When the scripture says that,
it's talking about we look for a new heaven and a new earth.
New heavens and a new earth. The word new, there is a word
that means freshness. We look for a fresh earth. He said while there is another
word new, and that deals with age. So he said, this world in which
we live, the elements as we know them, all that was affected by
the fall, this earth was cursed, weeds started to grow, man had
to start working by the sweat of his brow, things changed because
of sin. These things are going to melt
away, they're going to pass away, and we're going to see a fresh
earth, fresh earth, fresh heavens. So the scripture declares, one
generation passes away, another generation coming, but the earth
abideth forever. Not the way we see it. Not the
way we know it. These things tainted by sin are
going to pass away, but God's going to create a fresh earth
and a fresh heavens. I said, well, what do you say
about that? I said, well, let God be true and every man's a liar.
I may not understand all that I hear or read, but the word
of God declares it to be so, and it's so. So it is. Ecclesiastes
1.5, the sun also ariseth. and the sun goeth down and hasteneth
to his place where he arose." Now, here, according to the continual
motion of the earth, the sun is said to rise and set according
to God's determinate counsel and providence, according to
the seasons, and then hasteneth to the place where he arose.
You know, we watch the sun go down. And the scripture says,
well, my margin gives the explanation of that, it hasteneth, it panteth. It gives the setting forth that
when the sun goes down, it's running as fast as it can to
get around to the other side and we're gonna see it come up
again. That's what the implication is here. The sun arises and the
sun goeth down and hastened, it panteth to his place where
he arose. It's running to rise again. And if you want to know what
time is going to rise or exactly where on the horizon it's going
to rise according to the seasons, what happened a year ago on this
day at that moment? If you want to know what time
it's going to come up where somebody said, well, what about leap year?
Well, leap year then too. God determined all the world's
seasons and times. Where's it going to come up?
Is it going to come up right there or is it going to come up right
there? Where did it come up last year? It's perpetual motion. Verse six, the wind goeth toward
the south and turneth about unto the north. It whirleth about
continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. I like the motion of the sun. The scripture declares the wind
to be continually going toward the south. The wind goeth toward
the south and turneth about on the north. It makes a circuit,
and it's whirling continually in a fresh motion, but it's repeating
itself over and over and over, and it seems to make no progress
to an end. It's doing the same thing, it
seems. The wind, that which seems to
be the freest of all created things, the wind bloweth where
it listeth. Where does it list? Exactly where
God says it's gonna go. It's gonna go south, then it's
gonna turn around and go back north, and it's gonna do the
same law of God's immutable changelessness. God-ordained repetition. But let me ask you this. Is that
not the description of man? You know, I thought about this
the other day. You'll understand what I'm saying. We get up every morning and do
basically the same thing. Same thing, get up, get ready,
either go here, go to work, or we're retired, we do this, you
know, mow the grass, we're gonna clean the house. Linda told me she'd clean the
house, and she said that afternoon, needs cleaning again, dust it
again. Why? Because we're gonna do the
same thing over over and over and just get older. We're going
to go. We laugh because on Thursdays,
they pick up garbage. They said, you mean it's garbage
day already again? Here, it just happened. It just
happened. So here, we do the same thing,
go with the same spirit of hurry and worry about everything that
vexes our spirit. And then we go to bed and get
up the next morning. Verse 7, all the rivers run into
the sea, yet the sea is not full. Unto the place from which the
rivers come thither they return again. Everything again is moving. It's never resting, nothing's
ever resting. The earth moves, the wind blows,
the sun comes up, and we see all the rivers. I mean, river,
I grew up seeing the Mississippi River, right down, here's Louisiana. The Mississippi River is the
border between Louisiana and Mississippi. And you go down
to New Orleans, and you look at the mouth of the Mississippi
River, it's right about a mile wide. I mean, it's a big river. And water is flowing right into
the Gulf of Mexico, and been flowing there for eons of time. And the water level of the Gulf
of Mexico, according to the tides, is basically there. Well, it's evaporating, and the
ocean is no miser that stores up all the water that's flowing
into it, and it's teaching all creation. There is a perpetual
motion, a perpetual giving, that which God teaches through the
creation. The creation sets forth the glory
of God. There's a giving. There's a giving. There's a receiving and there's
a giving. We're learning that God gives. God gave His only begotten Son. He gave all He had, His Son,
that sinners like me and you might be saved. So here you take
the Son, I say the sun's going to burn out, you know, in so
many millions or billions of years, you know. No, it's not. You know when it's going to be
burnt up? Whenever God ends this. When there's new heavens and
a new earth. It's just the sun, it's just there, it's just giving
off heat and what it does, it heats the ocean that has all
this water going into it and evaporation and it goes back
and there's a giving back, a giving back. I read where they say that
almost 80% of the oxygen that we breathe, we've been breathing
for a long time in this world. Where did all the oxygen come
back from? Well, they say, plants. You know, if you've been in school
for any time, you'll remember at least the word. You may not
be able to. Photosynthesis. To be able to replenish 80%,
they said, come from the ocean. All the plankton and the All
of it, it gives back. So the rivers run into the sea,
yet the sea's not full. Unto the place from which the
rivers come, thither they return. That water's going up, it's going
to rain, and it's gonna put it right back where it was. And
it's gonna come right on down that river again and do the same
thing. Well, what do the scriptures
teach us concerning giving? Turn to Luke 6. I want you to
look at this. Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6. Hear the words
of our Lord. Luke chapter 6. Let's look at verse 36, 38. Be
ye therefore merciful. as your father also is merciful.
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you
shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto
you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over, shall men give into your bosom, For
with the same measure that you meet with all, it shall be measured
to you again. Give. Is that just money? No. No. Give you time, give you attitude,
give you love. What do you do? You treat others
like you want to be treated. That's how you do it. That's
what you give. And it shall be given to you.
Good measure. Oh, what a lesson. These blessed
words taught that even the earth is in subjection to Almighty
God, receiving, giving, But only those that are taught in heart
know this. Only those that are taught of
God know the joy of God-given generosity. That's what he's
saying right here. Wind goes south, north, comes
back, circuits, rivers, back, rivers come down, sun rises,
runs around to the other side. It is God's perpetual providential
care. Verse 8, all things are full
of labor. Man cannot utter it. The eye
is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. All things weary with toil. One generation past another comes
up, sun rises, wind blows, rivers flow. We see and hear things. Things that we think for a while
is going to satisfy us, they don't. You think of the most
desirable place that you'd like to go. Every once in a while
I'll be watching a TV history channel. I like looking at old
stuff, you know. I look at, like, Sphinx over
in Egypt. I've never been to the Grand
Canyon. Those of you that's been to the Grand Canyon, And you've
seen it. Okay, you've seen the Grand Canyon. You stood there
and you looked at it. Are you just dying to go back? I mean, is that your heart's
desire? I've got to go back and look
at it one more. I've seen a picture of it. I mean, I wouldn't mind
seeing it. Don't get me wrong. But the thing
about it is, once you've seen it, you've seen it. Once, I mean,
you know, man, I grew up, you know, as stupid as anybody could
possibly be. Man, I grew up, there was, man,
back in the 60s, there was bands, I thought, I just got to hear
them. And I did, I went to some of them and heard them, and you
know what? They sound just like the record.
Sound just like they did. You know, the eye is not satisfied
with seeing, The ear filled with hearing. If I could just hear
something that was just so wonderful. It's old, it just, it didn't
satisfy me. Nothing in this world does. We
hear them, we see them, and we've seen this place and that place. Now I gotta go over here. This will satisfy my ear. I wanna
go see the Eiffel Tower. Statue of Liberty. I mean, we're
just not satisfied with those things. Whatever we crave for
the moment in this life, we're gonna tire of it. You get tired,
and after we've dwelt on it, then we gotta have something
fresh. Look at Acts 17. This is the same thing with false
religion. Acts 17. Apostle Paul was in
a place called Athens. Acts 17, verse 18 to 21, then certain
philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him,
and some said, what will this babbler say? other some he seemeth
to be a setter forth of strange gods, because he preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine
whereof thou speakest is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know therefore what
these things mean. For the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else but either
to tell or to hear some new thing. Well, by the grace of God, the
apostle Paul was moved by the spirit of God, a door was opened
in him because of that attitude, wanting to see some new thing.
And I'm telling you, every time you want to see some new thing,
Especially when it comes to religion, it's wrong. It's wrong. Write it down. Whatever you're
thinking about, it's wrong. Look how the Spirit of God moved.
Let me just inject something right here. You know, we're to
be witnesses one to another. I want to invite people to come. I want them to hear. There's a danger. We used to
have Tuesday night visitations and stuff like that, you know.
And I thought, man, we're really doing something for the Lord.
You go out there and knock on somebody's door about six o'clock. He just got in from work and
he's tired and his wife's had a bad day. She's trying to get
supper and he's just, you know, just being impatient and all
this kind of, he's tired, she's tired. And here comes somebody and they're
gonna witness for the Lord. Let me tell you what will happen.
The Spirit of God will providentially open a door. Be mindful. Be mindful of that. Be mindful
of what is going on around you. Let me show you what happened.
Here, back in Acts 17, they wanted to hear some new thing. Verse
22, then Paul stood. Okay, you want to hear some new
thing. Is that what you want? Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in
all things you are too superstitious. You're so religious, you reek. You reek. For as I passed by
and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,
to the unknown God. whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord in heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped
with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth
to all life and breath all things, and hath made of one blood all
nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined
the times before, appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."
Whenever the Lord is pleased, be mindful. Be mindful. Be listening. Start your day
asking the Lord, Lord, providentially order my path. If God causes
you to cross paths with someone, be mindful of what's going on.
And if the spirit of God moves you to ask somebody to come,
then ask them. But to go out in the power of the flesh, be
careful, be careful. All things are full of labor.
Verse eight, man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied
with seeing, the ear filled with it. The thing, verse nine, that
hath been, it is that which shall be. That which is done is that
which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. All things in creation, as I
said, are repeating themselves. You can calculate sunrises and
sunsets according to God's ordained order of creation. While the
earth remaineth, Genesis 8, 22, seedtime and harvest and cold
and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. Jeremiah, I'll read this for
you if you want to read it. It's Jeremiah 31, talking about
the consistency of this creation. Almighty God sent forth a promise
from this creation. Jeremiah 31 verse 35 says this,
thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and
the ordinances of the moon and the stars by a light by night,
which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar, the Lord
of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart, from
before me. What he's saying is, if this
creation doesn't stay just like it is, just like I made it, just
like I ordered it, if those ordinances depart from before me, saith
the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a
nation before me forever. If I can't keep all this creation
just exactly the way I created it, made it just the way I made
it, then I can't keep Israel either. Jeremiah 33, 20, 21. The scripture declares, thus
saith the Lord, if you can break my covenant of the day and my
covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night
in their season, then may also my covenant be broken with David,
my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his
throne and with the Levites, the priest and my ministers.
Aren't you glad that this world stays just exactly the way it
is? God said, you wanna see a promise from me? This is it. Verse 10
and 11, I'll stop right here. Is there anything whereof it
may be said, see, this is new. It hath been already of old time,
which was before us. There is no remembrance of former
things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things which
are to come with those that shall come after. Is there anything
new? Is there anything new? Anything
new? Nope. Nope. He said, well, now,
wait a minute. Hold on just a second. What do you mean there's nothing
new? I remember when I was in college, that's the first time
I ever saw a Texas instrument handheld calculator. I was in
college, college. Before that, they were using
slide rules and all these crazy things that I couldn't figure
out either. I said, a calculator? Well, now we got computers. I
mean, now I can take a phone. I can tell you, my mama thought
I was brilliant because I could say, call home, and it would
say, calling home. She didn't know that I programmed
that in there. Say, well, that's new. No, it's
not. All those elements, all that's always been here. Just
God has just given some understanding. There's nothing new. Nothing
is new. There's no remembrance of former
things. Now this is showing you the depravity
of man's heart. God said that all things are
made for his glory and honor. All things work together for
good to them that love God, who are the called according to his
purpose. But man left himself. There's no remembrance of former
things. How's that? You remember through Genesis,
you remember the account of the flood? What happened? What happened because of rebellion,
because of the iniquity of man's heart? What happened? God destroyed
it. Man by nature, you don't remember
that. What about Sodom and Gomorrah? What about Korah, Dathan? They opposed God's man. What'd
God do? He just opened up the earth and
sent them to hell, alive. There's no remembrance of that. Man by nature sees these things
in the Word of God, and there's no remembrance of things that
are to come. Is there going to be a judgment?
Did God say that there's coming a day when a trump is going to
sound, and the dead in Christ are going to come out first,
and we which are alive are on the earth going to meet them
in the air. And we're all gonna stand before God. There's no remembrance of that.
And we're coming to the end of our life. And listen, let me
remind us of something. God is ordering all these things,
and the same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and
one of these days, it's over. It's over. May God have mercy
upon us. Teach us. Give us a heart for
Christ according to His will and purpose. Amen. All right,
let's just take a break.