Let's do it. All right. Okay, Dave. Let's do it. All right, let's take our hymn
books. Again, turn with me to 258. 258.
These songs Gary picked out were just so Well connected, this is, he hideth
my soul. That's good, isn't it? 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me
there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I
shall not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cliff
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand, And covers me
there with His hand. When numberless blessings each
moment crown, And filled with His fullness divine, I sing in
my rapture, O glory to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported, I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land He hideth my life
in the depths of His love And covers me there with His hand
And covers me there with His hand All right, let's take our
bulletin. Turn. No, I'll get it right. I'll get the words right, just
in our bulletin. And we're gonna sing our song
to Jesus, lover of my soul. Christ, whose glory fills the
moon, Christ, the true and only Light. Son of Righteousness,
arise! Triumph o'er the shades of night! Dayspring from on high be near! Daystar in my heart appear! Son of righteousness, arise! Triumph o'er the shades of night! Dark and cheerless is the morning, be ne'er by thee. Joyless is the day's return,
till thy mercies beams I see. Till thy inward light impart,
glad my eyes and warm my heart. Joyless is the day's return,
Till Thy mercies beams I see. Visit then this soul of mine,
Pierce the gloom of sin and grief. Fill me, Radiance Divine, scatter
all my unbelief, more and more Thy self-display. Shining to the perfect day. Fill me, radiance divine. Scatter all my unbelief. Thank you, Dave. All right. Let's take our Bibles
once again. I want you to turn with me to
the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, chapter one. Now, let me tell you, in seeking
the Lord's direction this morning, my heart was drawn to the book
of Ecclesiastes, and I read the first chapter. And I'm going
to try to be as honest as I possibly can. I'll consider. I'll consider
looking. If the Lord gives me direction
to go into the book of Ecclesiastes, I've preached a few messages
here and there, but never through the book of Ecclesiastes, and
I'm going to seek to see if that would be the way I should go,
but because having read that first chapter and seen what the
preacher, Solomon, said in that chapter, I felt led before I
go into this book, possibly go into it, I want to give some
background. of Solomon, so that we might
be able to enter into what is being said and the blessing of
what's being said. Now, Ecclesiastes is commonly
accepted. Solomon's name is not on this
book, but it's commonly accepted that it was penned by Solomon. He says in verse 1, the words
of the preacher, the son of David, king in Israel. And Solomon is the only man born
in Adam that fits that particular title there. So it's written,
we're pretty convinced, by Solomon. But there's some things that
are said in this book being written by probably Solomon in his old
age. This is going to be after the
temple was built, after he met with the Queen of Sheba, even
after his heart was turned after other gods. And the reason I
say that is because I want you to turn with me over to Ecclesiastes
7. I'm going to make some references
here, and I'm going to tell you right now, we're going to be
a lot in 1st and 2nd Kings, Chronicles, so you might as well just kind
of get your hand in that area. We'll be there for a few minutes,
but I want you to listen. And the reason I want to say
this concerning the blessing, because we know what happened. in Solomon's life. And I'm gonna
look at him. I'm gonna look at him to let
us see the blessing of this book being written, Neal, toward the
end of his life, and how God brought him back. It just, it
blessed my heart. I pray it will be to you. But
he makes reference, he makes reference to some things that
happened, but especially having his heart turned. Ecclesiastes
7, in verse 23 to 26, and he said, all this, have I proved by wisdom. Now that word proved right there,
to test, to try, by implication, to attempt. When he says he proved
it, what he said was these things I I did them, I did this. He said, all this have I proved
by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it
was far from me. That which is far off and exceeding
deep, who can find it out? I applied my heart to know and
to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things and
to know the wickedness of folly, even foolishness and madness,
and I find more bitter. And this is what he said about,
he said, I tried a lot of things. Try them out. I tempted them.
I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares
and nets and her hands as bands. I looked these words up. Her hands, her power, her direction. He said, I find more bitter.
I proved this. I found more bitter the hands
of a woman Her hands as bands, manacles, handcuffs. I found
that more bitter than death, whose heart is snares and nets.
Her hands as bands, whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her, but
the sinner shall be taken by her. So he's making reference
to something that he experienced. He knew something about. He spoke
as one who obtained wisdom through the revelation of God
by God's Spirit and experience. So beholding this book that we're
considering and seeing how God mercifully delivered him, it
should give us some peace and some hope and comfort in our
lives. We think, Lord, when you say,
I will never, I'll never leave thee. I'll never forsake thee. So here's Solomon. Now a man
that's aged in life and he spoke concerning the wisdom that had
been received. He learned something. Look at
Ecclesiastes 12. Ecclesiastes 12. He's going to
give some wisdom. He's going to give something
he's learned. Ecclesiastes 12, verse 1. Remember now thy Creator. in the days of thy youth, while
the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt
say, I have no pleasure in them. What he's saying is this. Now
he's speaking from experience. Now some of us here got a little
age on us, and we're gonna understand what he's saying right here.
He said, be mindful of the one who made you and owns you. Be
mindful. Remember now thy creator in the
days of thy youth. Consider him who owned you, made
you, before the affliction of old age takes hold. Before you come to that point
when you realize that things that you thought were so important,
that were so needful, that were so desirous, When you thought
that those things were, and now you've come to this point in
your life and you realize, you know what, they weren't. They
weren't nearly as important as I thought they were. Things that
just don't matter. Solomon had experienced, turn
to 1 Kings 10. Like I said, just kind of get
over in that area right there. 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Chronicles. 1 Kings
10. He experienced something about
wealth. He knew it. He knew some, 1 Kings
10, verse 21, 23. And all King Solomon's drinking
vessels were of gold. All the vessels of the house
of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold. None were silver.
It was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the
king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram. Once
in three years came the navy of Tarshish bringing gold and
silver, ivory, apes, peacocks, So King Solomon exceeded all
the kings of the earth for riches and wisdom. He knew something about having
something. He had money. He knew what it
was. Look at 1 Kings 10 verse 24,
just a few verses there. He knew what it was to have the
masses come to him and say, listen, I just want to hear you talk. Look at 1 Kings 10 verse 24.
And all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God
had put in his heart. And they brought every man his
present, vessels of silver, vessels of gold, and garments and armor,
spices, horses, mules, rape year by year. This man knew what it
was to have some money. He knew what it was to have people
come and want to talk to him and appeal to his wisdom. This man was taught of God those
things that can only be known. by divine revelation and believed
through faith, but he was also one that, I said, experienced
it. He knew what it was. You know,
even the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture says in Hebrews 5,
8, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things
that he suffered. He experienced them. He experienced
them. Solomon experienced that. All
the truth of keeping Solomon, even in the days and times of
his waywardness, the things that he experienced, the things he
had, the things that he saw, the things that he experienced,
Scripture says, Almighty God was his God. I'm going to show
you that in just a few minutes. And the reason that he wasn't
cut off was because of this. Malachi 3.6, I'm the Lord. I
change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. So
this book, Ecclesiastes, it's written to the people of God. It's a book, as all the books
of the Bible are, inspired by the Spirit of God. And it teaches
us two things. Emptiness and the fleetingness
of the things of this world. And also then, the sufficiency. God is all. And you know, Christ
is all. The sufficiency of God's grace
in Christ. This book is a book of mystery
to the world, but it teaches the believer something of an
inner struggle between the old man and the new man. It's a book
that the unregenerate sees as a book of contradiction. That
can't be. But to the believer, the regenerate,
he sees the proof. of God's unerring truth and the
faithfulness to His Word. So these things that are hidden
to some and revealed to others, the Lord thanked His Father for
that. He said in Matthew 11, 25, 26, at that time Jesus answered
and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. Now, I want us to, as I said,
I'm just going to look mainly, just make a few comments out
of this first verse. but mainly to give us a background
so that if the Lord directs us to go into this book, we're going
to say, why? Solomon was saying what he was
saying. Why? Where did he come from? How did
you get that information? How did you learn all that? Well,
in verse 1, back in Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, it says the words
of the preacher, the son of David, king in Israel. Now, again, there was one man
to fit that, Solomon, the preacher. That is, the assembler, the lecturer. And it's from a word, the preacher. From that word right there that
he used, it means to assemble, to gather. So has the Lord not
gathered his people through preaching, you know? First Corinthians 121,
for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that belief. I've said before, not foolish,
preaching, but what the world calls foolishness, what the world
considers to be foolish. Solomon turned to 2 Chronicles,
2 Chronicles, Chapter 1, 2 Chronicles 1. Solomon was a man that was chosen
of God, called, taught of God, a man in whom the sovereignty
of mercy of God in Christ was greatly exhibited. 1 Chronicles,
I'm sorry, 2 Chronicles 1, verse 1, and Solomon, son of David,
was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord, his God, was with
him and magnified him exceedingly. Then Solomon spake unto all Israel,
to the captains and thousands and hundreds of judges, to every
governor in all Israel, the chief of the fathers. So Solomon and
all the congregation with him went to the high place that was
at Gibeah. And there was the tabernacle
of the congregation of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord,
made in the wilderness. But the ark of God had David
brought up from Kirjath-Jerum, to the place which David had
prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. Moreover,
the brazen altar that Bezalel, the son of Uriah, the son of
Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the Lord, and
Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. And Solomon went
up thither to the brazen altar before the Lord, which was at
the tabernacle of the congregation, and offered a thousand burnt
offerings upon it. And in that night, Did God appear
unto Solomon and said unto him, ask what I will give thee? And
Solomon said unto God, thou hast showed great mercy unto David,
my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord
God, let thy promise unto David, my father, be established, for
thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in
multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge
that I may go out and come in before this people. But who can
judge this thy people that is so great? And God said to Solomon,
because this was in thine heart, Thou hast not asked riches, wealth,
honor, or life of thine enemies, neither hast thou asked long
life, but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou
mayest judge my people over whom I have made thee king. Wisdom
and knowledge is granted unto thee. I will give thee riches
and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings that have that
that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have
the life." So I'm telling you, the scriptures reveal that these
things that were given unto Solomon, promised of God, taught him,
he's going to give him some wisdom, but he's going to have to experience
them. Give me wisdom. It's going to come at a cost. It won't come at a cost. Now,
in that first verse where I said in the words of the preacher,
the son of God, King David, and we talked about, we went over
there and it says that Solomon was strengthened in his kingdom. It means it was made stable.
It was made fixed. And something happened that God
brought Solomon through that happened concerning his daddy.
I want you to turn over to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 16, 2 Samuel 16. 2 Samuel 16, David was still king. The scripture
says that 2 Samuel 16 5, and when King David came to Behurim,
the whole fence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei. Son of Gera, he went forth and
he cursed still as he came. He cast stones at David, at servants
of King David, and all the people, all the mighty men on his right
hand, on his left, and thus said Shimei when he cursed, come out,
come out, thou bloody man, thou man of Belial, and the Lord hath
returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose
stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom
into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art taken
in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. Then said Abishai,
son of Zeruiah unto the king, why should this dead dog curse
my lord, the king? Let me go over and pray thee
off, and take his head off, take off his head. And the king said,
what have I to do with you, ye sons of Abishai? Zorahiah, and
let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, curse David.
Who shall then say, wherefore hast thou done so? And David
said to Abishai, to all his servants, behold thy son, which came forth
of my bough, seeketh my life. How much more now may this Benjamite
do it? Let him alone, let him curse.
The Lord has bidden him. So what he's saying is, he said
this man was cursing David. Abishai, one of his men, said,
I'll take his head off. He has no right to do that, David
said, leave him alone, leave him alone. God sent him. God
said to go. Well, that man right there was
spared, Shimei. He was spared for a while. God
didn't kill him. But turn over to 1 Kings 2, verse
1 to 9. 1 Kings 2. He didn't kill him
right then. David's coming to the end of
his life, 1 Kings chapter 2, verse 1. Now the days of David
drew nigh that he should die, and he charged Solomon, his son,
saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong, therefore,
and show thyself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord thy
God. Walk in his ways to keep his statutes and his commandments,
his judgments, his testimonies, as it's written. in the law of
Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever
thou turnest thyself. He gives him instruction, but
I want you to look down at verse eight, 1 Kings 2.8. Now behold,
thou hast with thee Shimei. He's gonna give me instruction
here. He said, David said, I'm getting ready to die. I'm gonna
go the way of all men, but he says in verse eight, now behold,
thou hast the Shimei, the one that cursed him, with the son
of Gerah, Benjamite, Bahurum, which cursed me with a grievous
curse in the day when I went to Maheodnim. But he came down
to meet me at Jordan. I swear to him by the Lord, saying,
I will not put thee to death with the sword. Therefore, hold
him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and knowest what
thou oughtest to do unto him. But his forehead bring thou down
to the grave with blood. And he died. So he told him,
he said, look, He cursed me, and I didn't kill him. God sent
him to curse me, and I didn't kill him. I told him I wasn't
going to, but he said, I want you to take care of him. Don't you let him, don't let
him off, don't let him. So the scripture, after David
died, Solomon took action, back still in 1 Kings 2, verse 36,
here's what happened. First Kings 2.36, the king sent and called Shimei,
this is Solomon now, he said unto him, build thee a house
in Jerusalem and dwell there and go not forth thence any wither,
it shall be that on the day thou goest out and passest over the
brook Kidron, that thou shalt know for certain, thou shalt
surely die. Thy blood shall be upon thine own head. And Shimei
said unto the king, Thy saying is good. As my lord the king
has said, so will our servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem
many days, and came to pass at the end of three years. Two of
the servants of Shimei ran away into Achish, son of Meitah, king
of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, behold,
thy servant be in Gath. And Shimei arose, saddled his
ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants. And Shimei
went and brought his servants to Gath. And it was told Solomon
that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come again. And
the king sent and called Shimei, saying to him, did I not make
thee to swear by the Lord and protested unto thee, saying,
No, for a certain, on the day that thou goest out, and walkest
abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die. And thou saidst
unto me, The word that I have heard is good. Why then hast
thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment which
I have charged thee? And the king said moreover to Shimeal,
Thou knowest all wickedness, which thine heart is privy to,
that thou didst to David my father. Therefore the Lord shall return
thy wickedness upon thine own head, and King Solomon shall
be blessed in the throne of of David shall be established before
the Lord forever. So the king commanded Benaiah,
the son of Jehoiada, which went out and fell upon him. He died
and the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. God established Solomon's kingdom. He made Solomon to be known and
recognized that this is the man that God's raised up. So the
Lord in the life of this man, he was pleased to have the temple,
not built by his daddy. His daddy was going to, but God
said, no, it's going to be built by your son. And that's recorded in 2 Chronicles
6, 5 to 11, if you'd like to read it. And then even Solomon
was visited by the Queen of Sheba. And the words that she spoke
unto him, she came and she told him, turn to 2 Chronicles 9.
2 Chronicles 9, and Queen of Sheba comes. 2 Chronicles 9,
verses... 1-6, when the Queen of Sheba
had heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon hard
questions at Jerusalem. with a great company and camels
that bear spices and gold in abundance and precious stones.
When she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all
that was in her heart. Solomon told her all her questions,
and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not.
And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and
the house that had been built and the meat of his table and
the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers
and their apparel, cupbearers and their apparel, his assent
by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was
no more spirit in her. She said to the king, it was
true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts,
of thy wisdom. How be it I believe not their
words till I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the
half, one half of the greatness of thy wisdom is not told me,
for thou exceedest the fame that I've heard. Is that not the confession
of God's people toward the Lord? That shall be. I've heard it.
I've heard it all my life. Half of it has never been told. Here's Solomon in a beautiful
picture, right here, of the Lord Jesus Christ. But something,
turn back to 1 Kings. I've got to wrap this up. 1 Kings, chapter 11. 1 Kings,
chapter 11. Something happened. And here
was a man called of God, taught of God, established by God, blessed
of God. 1 Kings, chapter 11. Verse 1
to 8. It's just astounding. Now you remember what I said
at the beginning. All of these things, God gave
him wisdom. He said, I'm going to give you wisdom. But I want
you to look at the pain. And the book of Ecclesiastes
was written in old age. Because Solomon, I showed you
over there in that book, Ecclesiastes, where Solomon mentioned what
we're going to read right here. God gave him wisdom, but oh,
the pain that he suffered for that wisdom. I mean, you think
God teach a man, teach a woman something? That can be an expensive
lesson, expensive. We learn by experience. I told you before, somebody tells
me, well, they found a spot on me. I've got this. Do you know,
you can't enter into what they're saying unless somebody, a doctor's
found it on you too. You don't know what that feels
like. I've lost a loved one. You don't know what that feels
like unless you've lost somebody. You don't, you think you do, you
don't. I'm telling you, experience it. But I want to show you, I'm
going to show you something about what God brought this man, allowed
this man. He did what he did because he
wanted to do it. God left him to himself to do what he did.
First Kings 11, one, the King of Sodom and loved many strange
women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, Hittites of the nations concerning
which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, you shall
not go into them, neither shall they come into you, for surely
they will turn away your heart after their God. Solomon clave
unto these in love. And he had 700 wives, princesses,
300 concubines. His wives turned away his heart,
but came to pass when Solomon was old, his wives turned away
his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect, but
the Lord his God as was the heart of David, his father. For Solomon
went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, after Milcom,
the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight
of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David,
his father." I'm telling you, it was expensive. This is going to be an expensive
lesson right here. He's going to learn from it.
He's going to learn that the snares and the nets of a woman's
hand is worse than death." He said, I'll tell you something,
worse than death. He said, be taken like this. A picture of
false religion. There's so much what I just thought
time won't permit me to say it all. But he learned something.
There was no greater revelation of man's continual need of being
kept, kept by the power of God. And right here, what Solomon
learned. The scripture says in Psalm 39, 5, Behold, thou hast
made my days as a hand breath, and mine ages as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man in his best
state is altogether vanity. No one can keep themselves unless
the Lord keeps a man. He's gone. He's gone. You think
you're stable. No one has the right has a right
to say, I would never be found doing that. That's a foolish
statement. You think yourself. Scripture
says, 1 Corinthians 10, 12. Wherefore let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall. You know what comes just
before fall? Pride. Pride. Pride. You wouldn't catch me
Get away from me, I'm holier than you. Oh, my, my. Here was a man raised up by God,
blessed of God, given wisdom that he learned by experience. A man that was allowed to see
his need of being kept. But oh, I'm telling you, listen
to this in Nehemiah 13. I'm gonna just read it to you,
Nehemiah 13, 23, 26. Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. I'm gonna see if I can find something
here real quick. I've read, what I read, I said
the right passage. I wrote down the wrong. But the
one I read was a good one. Yeah, who is a God like that?
Pardon me. Here's Nehemiah 13, forgive me. Nehemiah 13, I'm
gonna just read it to you. In those days also, I saw Jews
that had married wives of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab. And their
children spake half in the speech of Ashdod and could not speak
in the Jews' language but according to the language of each people.
And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain
of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by
God, saying, You shall not give your daughters unto their sons,
nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
And listen to this. Nehemiah 13.26, Did not Solomon,
king of Israel, sin in these things? Yet among many nations
was there no king like unto him who was beloved of his God. And God made him king over Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish
women cause to sin. Did Solomon know God? Yes. Did God know Solomon in mercy?
Yes. Did the Lord love him? Yes. Did
the Lord teach him? Yes. Was it painful? Yes. Do we benefit from it? Yes. Oh,
the mercy of God. Oh, the mercy of God. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. I will in no wise cast out. I will never, no never, no never,
Lord willing, as we consider the things that God taught this
man Solomon, may the Lord cause us to remember the high cost,
high cost of this flesh, high cost of free grace, what it cost
him, what it cost us to learn. I'm telling you the experience
that this man went through and learned The Spirit of God to
teach us, what a blessing. When He talks about vanity of
vanity, all in vanity, He knew what He was talking about. May
God bless this to our hearts for His sake and our good. Amen.