Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Verse 8, we're going to pick
up with verse 8. This is where we left off. And
if you'll notice, if your Bible has paragraph symbols, it's its
own paragraph. And I do want to say something
about it, but then we're going to finish this chapter. We're
going to move on to what he has to say in the rest of the chapter. So, Ecclesiastes 5 verse 8 says,
If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting
of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter. For
he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher
than they." What he's saying is trust God. That's what he's
saying. Trust the Lord God. We see all of these horrible
oppressions that take place in this world, don't we? Horrible,
absolutely horrible. Sin has just ruined this whole
world, ruined it. And our Lord is the only one
who is able to do anything about it. And He will do something
about it. He will do something about every
oppression and every injustice in this world. He is going to
deliver His children out of every oppression. And the number one,
and I tell you the one that breaks our souls, religion. We see our loved ones under the
oppression and bondage of religion, and it breaks power hearts. We think, oh, that God would
set them free. If they belong to Him, He's going
to set them free. He is going to deliver them out
of every oppression. And he said, vengeance is mine. I will repay. He will deal with
it. He will punish. But it's all
in his hands. That's where we have to leave
it. We can and we do worry. We do fret. And but it's all
in his hands. We know that. And we leave it
there. Solomon said, trust the Lord. Now, in the next subject,
he's going to deal with here. He's also saying, trust the Lord. And this is wisdom. This is so foreign to the flesh. What he's about to say is so
foreign to the flesh. He has something to say about
his experience with money. All right, and Solomon had a
lot of experience. No man was like Solomon. No riches
were given to a man like they were given to Solomon. And the
theme as we go through Ecclesiastes, the theme of all of his experiences,
they're all vanity. They are all empty, all of them. And what he's telling us is the
riches of this world are not true riches. We as believers
hear that. We know that, but it's hard to
enter into it and walk in the light of it. But the Lord keeps
reminding us and we say, that's right. And then we go back out
into the world and then we come back in and he tells us and we
say, that's right. But the riches of this world, they're not true
riches. Here's where I want us to start.
Go with me to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6 and look with
me at verse 6. It says, but godliness with contentment
is great gain. What a verse that is. Godliness
with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this
world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. and having
food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil." And I'll tell you something that I realized
at some point. I went through a phase where
I hated money. At one point Solomon said, I
hated life. And then God revealed to me,
God gives life. He is life. He ended up saying,
I don't hate life. It's good for a man to enjoy
the things that he has and such on and so forth. So I went through
a point in life where I'm going to follow my Lord and I hated
money. Forget money. That's not what
he's saying. He's saying the love of money
is the root of all evil. means, and this is what the whole
chapter is about. I'm summarizing, pre-summarizing
what he's about to say. But I want to point that out.
Verse 10 says, For the love of money is the root of all evil. Which every one of us have. We
started with a, my first thing to get was a savings account.
You know what I wanted to happen to that savings account? I'd
just like for it to maintain. No. I wanted to get bigger, and
bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
Then I got a checking account. You know what I wanted to happen
to that thing? All I want to do is just write checks, and
write checks, and empty my savings into my checking. No. All right,
now the love of money is the root of all evil, which while
some covet after they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows, But thou, O man of God, flee these
things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness. Fight the good fight of faith."
You know what that means? Faith is looking to something
that we don't yet possess. Once we have it, we don't need
faith anymore. And he's saying, fight the good
fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Whereunto
thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many
witnesses, I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth
all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate
witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment
without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which in his times he shall show who is the blessed
and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be
honor and power everlasting, amen. Charge them that are rich
in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain
riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things
to enjoy. that they do good, that they
be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate,
that means give, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation
against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal
life. Christ is our riches. We are so rich. We are so, so rich. Christ, though he was rich, yet
for our sakes He became poor. He gave it all. And this is what
Paul is writing to Timothy right here. You tell them whom the
Lord has given much to, to not be high-minded and to distribute. Be giving in communication. Our Lord, though He was rich,
became poor for our sakes. He gave it all. He gave His blood.
He gave His life. He gave His inheritance. He gave
it all. He left His throne that we through
His poverty might be made rich. He gave it to us. He gave every
bit of it to us. His death is our life. His blood
is our adoption. We've been made joint heirs with
Him. And if we have Him, we have it all. We have all things. That's the reason Solomon wrote
what he did in Ecclesiastes 5. Now let's look at it, okay? Go
with me back to Ecclesiastes 5. Verse 9. Moreover, the profit of the earth
is for all. The king himself is served by
the field. He begins with the importance
and the necessity of distributing what God provides to us. The
farmer works the land. All right, it's God's land. We're
about to see that here in just a minute. The farmer works the
land. It's God's seed, right? It's God's water. It's God's
sunlight. God gives the increase. God miraculously creates fruit. Out of this seed comes a whole
plant and then a fruit. Now, what is the farmer supposed
to do with it? After God does every bit of that,
what's the farmer supposed to do with it? Gather it all up,
hoard it to himself. I'm going to build me some barns,
and then I'm going to build bigger barns, and I'm going to keep
all this fruit to myself. Solomon said, the king himself
needs what God gives from the ground. And God has put it into
the hand of the farmer to distribute it. Gather it up, distribute
it out. What a sin against God it would
be for him to hoard it all up for himself and not send out
the necessity. The same thing applies to what
our Lord has given us. The exact same thing. It is not
ours. It's not ours. It's all God's. He has caused us to be stewards
over it. The Lord gives whatever a man
has. What does a man have that has
not been given to him? The Lord distributes it wherever
he sees fit, and then he makes us stewards over it. Verse 10
says, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. Who doesn't love money? We're
flesh. You know, and you get $100 and
you're just not done. And you get $1,000 and you're
not finished. And you get $10,000 and you're
not done. He that loves silver shall not
be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with
increase. This is also vanity. It's true,
isn't it? It's just true. To stay on track, stay on time,
just listen to this. This is Luke 12. This is what
our Lord said. This is Luke 12 verse 15. He said, Take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. What is
life? What is life? The flesh says
life is getting all you can get before it's done. That's what
the flesh says. What is life? What is the point
of life? What is the good life? What is
the true and good life? It's Christ. I mean it is Christ. It's in
Christ. Proverbs 15 says, better is little
with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. And it is so, so true. Verse 11 right here in Ecclesiastes
5 says, when goods increase, they are increased that eat them. And what good is there to the
owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? The
more that God gives to us, the more the responsibility will
be that comes with it. The more that God gives to us,
the more responsibility will be that comes with it. I think
of that in light of this ministry. The more God gives to us, the
more this ministry needs to minister the gospel. Minister to other
believers in other places, other local startup congregations. Aren't you so thankful? You know
somebody bought us all these windows? They visited and saw our windows,
said, you need new windows. We had holes in them. They said,
you go pick out some windows, get a price, and he said, you
make sure they're not cheap. I want good windows. So we did. Somebody came in and they said,
you need a new HVAC. And they came down and put it
in for us. Aren't you so thankful for that? Somebody said, how
are you baptizing? Well, we're driving up to Brother
Tom's. Okay, we'll send you one. Aren't you so thankful? Now,
if God reveals that there's a group somewhere in the same boat, look
at what our Lord has done for us. You know what our responsibility
is? As our account grows, we're just going to watch it grow and
watch it grow and watch it grow. No, we're not. To whom much is
given, we have been given and given and given and given and
given. Much is going to be required. He said in verse 11, when goods
increased, they are increased that eat them. The vanity of
worldly riches, the uncertainty, every time you get ahead. Tell
me if this isn't true. I overpaid on my insurance or
whatever and they refunded me this much money two days later. Right? It's gone. It's just gone. No matter how much we're given,
everybody lives on the edge of their means. Everybody's in the
same boat, no matter how much we're given. And if we do actually
gain just a little bit, if time goes on and we gain a little
bit, the end of verse 11 says, What good is there to the owners
thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? What
good is it but to look at it and know it's there? What good
is it? What good is it? Usually, well,
I got to keep going. I'm going to get off track here.
My neighbor's yard. My neighbor has a beautiful yard.
They've been working on it for years. Little dry stack rock
walls around all the trees, which I think is nice. I'd like to
do that myself. Japanese maples. They have a
fawn care service that comes most days in the summer, and
they just nitpick it, and they keep it nice. You've been to
my house. Our yards dip down. So I see
more of her yard than I see of my own yard. And she sees more
of my yard than she sees of her own yard. You talk about empty. I don't have what she has, but
I get to look at it and she gets to look at my yard. Poor thing. It's just empty. It's just empty. What good is it but to behold
it? That's all it is. Verse 12 says,
The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little
or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him
to sleep. I had a business in Rocky Mount.
For that business, I had a commercial building in downtown Rocky Mount. And I also owned a house. All
right, you know what that meant for me? I got to have two mortgages. I had Two sets of electric bills,
two sets of water bills, two sets of insurance, two sets of property taxes, two
buildings to maintain. It wasn't worth it. It just wasn't
worth it. The day that I sold that building,
I was so happy to go back to one. I was just so happy to go
back to one. I sleep good. I do. I sleep good now. Verse 13 says,
there is a sore evil which I've seen under the sun, namely riches
kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. I want to, you know,
He said to their hurt. Solomon is a type of Christ. He's a type of Christ. And we
always relate this back to Christ and what he did. He gave and
he gave. And Solomon, we've read many
times about his table. Everything that he spread every
day for whoever wanted to come to the table. Just an unbelievable
amount of animals and food and every single day. And our Lord
said, whosoever will, let him come. He said, you come and buy
and eat without money, without price. Every grace of God is
free. It is free grace. As a type of Christ, Solomon
was a giver. God gave him much and he was
a giver. And every soul in his kingdom,
it says, dwelt under his own vine and fig tree. Every single
person there. I love how it says Solomon had
peace on all the countries that were around him. If you were
in Solomon's kingdom, there was peace all the way around you.
Nobody was even trying to get to you. And Solomon says, I've
seen firsthand how men who hoard up their riches, it's always
to their hurt. It's always to their hurt. And
if it hurts them, they'd be better without it. Riches make men proud. This is not a message against
riches, but this is a message of truth with the heart of man,
the sin of man. Riches make men proud. They give
men a false sense of security. They make men desire more of
the world because they can get it. They make it almost impossible
for men to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that what our
Lord said? He said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter
into the kingdom of God. The reason is because they have
no need of God. They have everything their hearts could desire. And
it sounds like they would be better off without him than to
have riches. and it be to their hurt, whatever
those riches may be. For some people it's money, for
some people it might be something else. But whatever they may be,
if anything becomes a greater obsession to us than Christ,
it's going to hurt us in the end. Verse 14 says, But those
riches perish by evil travail, and he begetteth a son, and there
is nothing in his hand. Because of what the Word of God
teaches, Relatively speaking, I guess,
I'm not for setting up our children. I know that's a strange statement,
but I am for teaching them a work ethic. People say, you hear this all
the time, I just want them to have what I didn't have. What we don't realize is the
reason I have it now is because I didn't have it then and I worked
for it. And if it had been given to us, then we would have had
no work ethic. And the scripture right here
is telling us what happens. Matter of fact, in Ecclesiastes,
I'm not sure where it is right now, but we'll get to it. Money
that's easily gotten will be easily lost. It just comes in
and you don't, you didn't work for it. You don't appreciate
it. So anyway, out of foolishness
and waste, they don't hold on to it. Verse 14, that's what
he's saying. Those riches perish by evil travail, he beget at
the sun, and there's nothing in his hand. As he came forth
of his mother's womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came,
and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away
in his hand. And this also is a sore evil,
that in all points, as he came, so shall he go, and what profit
hath he that hath labored for the wind?" The Lord gave Job
some wisdom. He understood this, naked came
I from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
I came from dust, I'm going right back to the dust, and if in my
time here on this earth all I gain is the world, if that's all I
gain, I'm going to return just like I came, in sin. I came in sin. The only thing
I will leave with, if all I've gained is the world, is my sin. I'll leave just like I came.
But if I gain the unsearchable riches of the blood of Jesus
Christ, if I have Him, if I have His blood, I'm not going to leave
like I came. I'm going to leave in His holiness. I'm going to leave in absolute
righteousness. I'm going to leave accepted in
the beloved. Nothing like I came. Verse 17
says, All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much
sorrow and wrath with his sickness. The man who leaves without Christ
is going to leave in darkness. That's all he's going to have.
But if I leave with Christ, I'm going to leave in the light.
the light. I'm leaving with joy, I'm leaving
with eternal health, I'm leaving with forgiveness. Verse 18 says,
Behold that which I have seen it is good and comely for one
to eat and to drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor that
he taketh under the sun all the days of his life which God giveth
him for it is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath
given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof,
and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor, this
is the gift of God. For he shall not much remember
the days of his life, because God answereth him in the joy
of his heart." Do we see what he's saying right there? The Lord did not tell us to become
monks and go to the backside of the Himalayas and be minimalist. He didn't tell us that. He said
everything we are given is a gift from God. God gives it to us. He gives us everything that is
good and needful and if we use it for the purpose that He sent
it for, which we've seen why He sent it, that's to Distribute
it. It's good. It is good to eat
and to drink of our labor. It's just not good to eat and
drink alone. It's not. Isn't it so much better with
God's people? So much better. An old writer named Matthew Henry
said this, this is so good. May God teach me this. This is
so, so good. I want this to sink down in my
heart. I want to remember this the rest of my life. He said,
what we have more than food and raiment, we have for others. Isn't that something? I think
that's wonderful. What we have more than food and
raiment, God gave it to us for others. God has given it to us
to distribute to others. And we have to come back to considering
everything Christ gave to us. Every single thing He gave to
us. May God cause us to be good stewards. May He put it in this
heart right here, to be good stewards in return because of
Christ. All because of Christ. Okay,
you're dismissed.