Alright, go back with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter 1. Ecclesiastes 1. I'm not sure
just yet what book we will go to for the Bible study. We just
finished Romans last Sunday and I'm just not sure, might not
know for a little while, but I am praying about and I'm really
enjoying reading through Ecclesiastes. And if that's the way the Lord
would lead us to go, then we would really benefit from it. It is so wise. I mean all of the word
of God is able to make thee wise, but wise counsel and such a wise
book. Either way I felt led to declare the summary of Ecclesiastes. There's a point to this book
and there's a lot of wise things in here. Solomon was inspired
by God, given more wisdom than any man. And he has some wise
things to say in here. And we would be wise to heed
them and listen to them and obey them. But there is a point to
this book. There is a conclusion to the
matter. At the end of this book, he says,
here's the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, fear
God, and keep his commandments. Hold to and cling to and look
to and love his commandments. And this summary, the message
of Ecclesiastes and the message of this entire book is in the
first four verses. And this is what he's saying
through the whole thing. So what I want to do tonight
is look at the message of the book tonight and realize that
everything he has to say is from this. He's saying this. All right.
Ecclesiastes 1 through 4 says, The words of the preacher, the
son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, saith the
preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet hath
a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun. One
generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but
the earth abideth forever." Now, who is saying this? The title
right there, you see it in your Bible, it says Ecclesiastes,
and that word means the preacher. That's what the word means. And
Solomon, the son of David, he was the son of David, and he
was king in Jerusalem, he was a preacher. And he did physically write this
book. He penned this book. Verse 1
says, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. But here is what 2 Peter 1 verse
20 says. It says, no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation. And verse 21 goes on to say,
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy ghost. All right, they were moved. Solomon
wrote this and he was moved by the spirit of God. To write this,
our Lord said, these scriptures are they which testify of me. Every one of them. And in John
chapter one and in revelation 19, both of those places say
that the name of our Lord is called the word of God. His name is the word of God. He is the word of God. And this word is all about him.
Every bit of it. It's all about him. Matthew 4,
17 says, from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. These are the words
of the preacher. The preacher. The son of David
himself. Isn't that what the Lord is called?
The son of David. King in Jerusalem. That's who wrote this. That's
who said every bit of this. Our Lord is a preacher. I cannot
wait. I personally cannot wait to physically
hear the preacher. I just can't wait. Who is sufficient for these things?
I can tell you that I am not. I am not. I think of a lot of
men who I would much rather be sitting and listening to right
now. But one of these days, necessity is laid on me right now, but
one of these days I'm going to get to sit in the pew and I'm
going to get to hear the preacher. Forever. I can't wait. I just cannot wait. I was able to go to Mexico one
time. I've been able to go one time.
And when I was down there, Brother Cody Groover's Bible was sitting
on the coffee table in his house. And it's in Spanish. So I was just curious to see
if I could recognize any of the Spanish words. That's all I wanted
to see. So I thought of a text that I
knew the words well, and I thought of Psalm 23 and I found finally
how they were, you know, and I went to Psalm 23 and in Spanish,
Psalm 23 verse one says, Jehovah is me pastor. As soon as I saw that, I thought,
yes, he is. The Lord is my shepherd. Jehovah
is my pastor. He's the pastor. And one of these
days, it's going to be for all eternity, but one of these days
we are going to physically get to watch God step up into the
pulpit. And he's going to open his word.
Because one word's not going to fail. And we're going to open this
word and we're going to hear the pastor. We're going to hear
the preacher preach. Can you imagine every word he
says, we're going to say, Oh, my heart is burning within me. He's going to flood his spirit
every time. You know how we beg for it. Oh,
we begged for it. I've been driving over here,
begging for it. Lord, please send your spirit. Please don't
let me stand up there by myself. Let me stand there with your
spirit. He's going to send it every time. Every single time. I can't wait. I just cannot wait. We're going to listen to the
preacher preach, and we're going to say the half wasn't told.
I like Gabe. He's a nice guy, but he didn't
tell the half. He didn't scratch the surface.
Never did he scratch the surface. We're all going to sit there
and we're going to hear things that are not possible for a man's
mouth to utter. That's what the word says. When
the Lord caught Paul, he brought Saul up to the third heaven. Saul sat there and he listened
to the preacher preach. He learned the gospel through
the preacher. The requirement of an apostle. And he listened to the preacher
preach, and he said, I'm telling you, I heard things that are
not possible for a man's mouth to utter. Samuel said, speak, Lord. That's what I want tonight. Lord,
speak to us. Speak to us. Verse 1 says, The
words of the preacher. The son of David, that's Christ. King in Jerusalem, that's Christ. Verse 2 says, Vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told
us, through this word, that if you don't have Christ, you don't
have anything. You don't have anything. Vanity means empty. That's what
it means. It's just empty. It's all empty. And I'm telling you, it is all
empty. Outside of the preacher, the
son of David, king in Jerusalem, everything outside of him is
empty. It is so, so empty. I don't care what a man has.
If he does not have Christ, he does not have anything. He does
not have anything. If Donald Trump does not have
Christ, he does not have, he owns what, half of New York?
I don't know what he owns. But if he does not have Christ,
I'm telling you, he does not have anything. When I thought
of him, I thought of Steve Jobs. That man just died not long ago.
And if that man left this world, he's the Apple guy, Apple technology. If that man left this world without
Christ, he left this world with nothing. I mean nothing. He left this world empty with
nothing to show. I've been referring to men like
that for a long time now. Bill Gates, he's been around
for a long time. And I don't wish any evil on anybody. I wish
Bill Gates could hear this. I wish somehow through the internet,
Bill Gates could hear this. I wish he could hear, Mr. Gates,
if you don't have Christ, you don't have anything. I mean,
you just don't have anything. I wish everybody could hear this.
I wish the owner of the Eastman Corporation all the way down
to the newest hire, the lowest employee, I wish every person
could hear that if you don't have Christ, you don't have anything. You just don't have anything.
But if you have Christ, man, if you have Christ, Donald Trump thinks he's seen
riches. He thinks he has. I'd love to have the opportunity
to tell him about, I can't describe it, the half couldn't be told,
but I'd love to have the opportunity to tell him about the unsearchable
riches of Christ. The unsearchable. If God ever
revealed to him the unsearchable riches of Christ, he would rend
his clothes. That's what he would do. And
he would pour ashes on his head and he would start crying, woe
is me. I'm undone. I'm undone. I'm vile. I'm low. I think I'll lay my hand over
my mouth. It's all vanity. Vanity of vanities. That's what he would cry. Vanity
of vanities. Verse 1 says, The words of the
preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What prophet hath a man of all
his labor which he taketh under the sun. What good are a man's
works? What good are a man's works?
You know, I mean, we're gathered here looking into things of eternity,
the eternal state of our soul. What role does man's works play
in this? If he's going to leave this world
empty, if a man is going to leave this world empty, and he is,
Job said, naked came I into the world and naked I'm leaving it.
If he's going to leave this world empty, what good are a man's
works? Are they going to save his soul?
No. Go with me to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8 verse 34 says,
And when he had called the people unto him, with his disciples
also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it, But whosoever shall lose
his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save
it. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall
it profit a man? Back over in Ecclesiastes 1 verse
3 says, what prophet hath a man of all his labor which he taketh
unto the sun? His works will not do one thing
for his eternal soul. And I'm not going to even go
into should a man work hard. The scriptures are very clear
on that. Should a man work hard? Should he provide for his family?
Our Lord said if he doesn't, he's worse than an unbeliever,
worse than an infidel. Work while there's 12 hours in
a day. But our works will not do one
thing for our eternal soul. So, you know, the question would
be asked, well, even so, there's got to be some good in a man's
earthly works. It has to account for something,
right? Go over to Proverbs 21 with me. Proverbs 21 verse 4 says, a high
look and a proud heart and The plowing of the wicked is sin. All right, now do you see the
word plowing? I have a margin right there and
mine says the light. So I thought that meant something
other than plowing. So I looked it up in our concordance
and it means tilling the dirt, plowing the field. What he's
saying right here is outside of Christ, a man who is just
plowing in his own field is absolute sin in the eyes of God. Well,
at least he's a good, hard-working man. I think that's wonderful.
But we're talking about the eternal state of our soul. And the man
who's just out there plowing in his field, God says it's sin.
And it's because he's not doing it as unto the Lord. He's not
acknowledging this is the Lord's land. He's not doing it giving thanks
to God. He's not. Giving thanks for the knowledge
he has and the skill that he has and the ability that he has,
the health that he has. And he's not doing it for the
good of God's sheep. He's not doing it for the glory
and good of God's sheep. He's doing it for self. Everything
about it is for self. And God says it's sin. Back over
to Ecclesiastes 1, verse 1 says, The words of the preacher, the
son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities saith the
preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet hath
a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? One
generation passeth away and another generation cometh. Men enter
this world. And they leave this world without
having bettered themselves, truly bettered themselves one bit. One generation comes, another
generation goes. One goes, one comes. A man can
do nothing of himself. All his works are empty. They
are all useless. They are all damning. But there
is a man, the man, the preacher, the son of David, the one that
all of this is about. When Solomon said, everything
here is vanity, but he said, fear God. There is one thing
that is not vanity. There is one thing that is needful. What profit hath the man of all
his labor which he taketh under the sun? Everything man did since
day one was vanity. It was sin. So the man came. The preacher came and he did
something that completely restored everything that was lost. He
filled every single thing that was empty. God the Father said,
Behold My servant, he shall not fail. The works that He is going
to accomplish, that He is going to perform, He will not fail.
He will not fail. And God the Son said in John
17, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. He said, I have glorified Thee
on the earth, and I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me
to do. I am empty. I am weakness full
of weakness. I'm empty. I'm nothing but vanity. Everything that I am, everything
I do, everything I touch is vexation of spirit. If it involves me,
it's just vexation of spirit. I can't preach, but I go home
and my soul is vexed. Everything I do is vexation of
spirit. Christ did a work, though, that covers every bit of that.
When I go home, there's something that I know has been done that
has replenished and refilled everything I have ruined. All
of my works have ruined everything. Christ came and did a work that
put it all back. He put every bit of it back.
He said, those that thou gavest me I have kept. Kept them in
my blood. None of them is lost. Not one. Was there any profit in his labor? Verse 4 right here says, one
generation passeth away and another generation cometh. Paul said,
I am crucified with Christ. I passed away. Well, did you
hear? He passed away. Paul said, yet I live. Another generation came. In Adam
all die. In the first Adam, old things
are passed away. But in the second Adam, in Christ,
it says all things are become new. In Adam, we're nothing but
vanity of vanities, but in Christ, we are a brand new creature. Brand new. And the result of
a profitable labor, a profitable work. Verse four says, one generation
passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth
forever. Now we know that this earth is
not going to abide forever. It's going to melt with a fervent
heat. But our Lord said, I create a
new heaven and a new earth, a brand new earth, and it's going to
abide forever. This phrase, I looked up, abideth
forever. It's in the word of God five
times. One of them is right here. And the other four times tell
us the result of the preacher's work, the result to this message
of his work. Let me show you those four and
then we'll close. Psalm 125. Because Christ has replenished
everything we lost, everything that was ruined. Psalm 125 verse
1 says, They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion,
which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. His kingdom
will stand sure. And it's never going to be removed.
Mount Zion cannot be removed. It's going to abide forever.
And the next one is in John 12. John 12 verse 34 says, the people
answered him, we have heard out of the law that Christ abideth
forever. And then they went on to say,
how sayest thou that the son of man must be lifted up? Who
is this son of man? Well, that's the work he accomplished
that secured forever, secured eternity. Christ Himself will
stand sure and He will never be removed. His Kingdom and God
Himself are going to abide forever. Go over to 1 Peter chapter 1. First Peter 1, look at verse
23, it says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. Because Christ was victorious
in his work, his word will stand sure and it'll never be removed. Never. Everything other than
His Word is going to turn out to be vanity, but not His Word. I hope I can get that. I am asking the Lord to bless this
to my heart, our hearts, and I want to learn that everything
is vanity. Everything is vanity. Christ
is all. And His kingdom is going to stand
forever. So Lord, take my mind out of this world. And Christ
Himself is going to stand forever. So Lord, take my mind out of
this world. Take my mind off of myself and
put it on Christ. And His Word is going to stand
forever. So Lord, don't let me listen
to anything else. Don't let me cling to anything
else. Let me cling to this Word. Here's the last one. Go to 1
John chapter 2. 1 John 2 verse 17 says, And the
world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the
will of God abideth forever. Every soul that sees everything
in this life to be vanity of vanities and Christ to be all
in all. That soul will stand sure and
never be removed ever. He will abide forever. That's
what the whole book of Ecclesiastes is telling us. Man at his best
state is altogether vanity, just empty, nothing, but the man or
woman who is in Christ, man at his best state is nothing, but
the man who's in his state will abide forever. Thank God for
the preacher. Thank God for his message. Thank
God for his work. All right, let's stand together.