We've been going through the
books of the Bible. I'll probably say that every Sunday, but this
particular Sunday, we're in Ecclesiastes, if you would like to turn there.
Our text is found in the first chapter, Ecclesiastes 1. Now, Ecclesiastes is very relatable
to everyone. And the reason for that is we
have two perspectives. We have the flesh. And we have
the spirit. We have the carnal and the eternal.
We have the mortal and the immortal. And that can be said for the
Bible as it is entire. We understand that it could just
be seen as just a storybook full of stories of great men that
lived and did wonderful things or amazing things. Or we can
see that Joseph is a picture of Christ and what he did for
his people. And we can see David is a picture of Christ and what
he did for his people. We see that all these men, Moses being
the law and also being the savior as the Lord Jesus Christ, we
can see it's a type and a shadow. So we have throughout the scripture,
the carnal and the spiritual. And here in Ecclesiastes, We
have the preacher. He says the very first words
is the words of the preacher. Now, if the Lord is has caused
Solomon to be called the preacher, the declarer of good tidings,
we probably want to pay attention to what he has to say. And so
he says, let's read verse one, the words of the preacher, the
son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanity, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prompted hath a man of all
his labors which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth
away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever.
The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down and hasteth to
its place where he arose. The wind goeth towards the south
and turneth about into the north. It whirleth about continually.
And the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All
the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. And
to the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return
again. All things are full of labor.
Who can not utter it? The eye is not satisfied with
seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath
been, it 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. 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 that
are to come with those that shall come after. The word vanity is written in
Ecclesiastes 28 times, 28 times. Now, if we focus on the word
vanity, we're not going to have a lot of hope this morning. Now,
it is true that everything that we do and everything that we
produce, everything that we think, everything is vanity. And if
we look at this from a physical standpoint and try to apply it
spiritually, anytime men hear of something to do spiritually,
that means they're going to try to do something. But understand,
in doing something that we believe has an effect spiritually, it
is vanity. It is iniquity. And that is what
the preacher is telling us. Everything that's happening on
this earth that men produce is vanity. Somebody might say, well,
that doesn't seem like good news. Well, it's not good news if you
are only looking through the physical eye. But if the Lord
has given you faith to look to Christ, you know that you have
a substitute, one that did not ever do vanity. He never had
a vain thought. He never performed vanity in
any way. Everything that he did was pleasing
unto his father. Ken's natural response to anything
spiritual is do. And the word do in and of itself
is vanity. It's all vanity. Now the Lord's
revealing something to his people here. He's stopping us from looking
to ourselves and causing us to look to him. The Lord is causing
us to confess Christ is our wisdom that we know nothing save Jesus
Christ. He's causing us to look to Christ
as our salvation, not look to our works because all is vanity. Do we see that? That's why the
preacher is declaring this. Now in these 12 chapters that
we have, we're going to hear the conclusion of the matter.
And it's the only book of the Bible, to my knowledge, that
ends with literally saying, let's hear the conclusion to the whole
matter. That's what he says in the last two verses of this book.
We're going to see that at the very end. What is the conclusion?
What did he conclude after writing about everything being vanity?
We'll see that at the very end. Notice in verse nine with me
again, he tells us that the thing which has been, It 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." Now that in verse 10, he said, is there anything whereof
it may be said, see, this is new. It hath been already of
old time, which was before. Now the word used in verse nine
and the word used in verse 10 is the word kibar. The word kibar. What does that word mean? It
means already, long ago, for a great while and far off." Everything
required of God has already came to pass long ago. He says, is
there anything new that you can say, hey, this is new? Throughout scripture, we see
that if it's new, it's not true. And if it's true, it's not new.
Why? Because the truth of God is forever settled in heaven.
It was before time ever began. Do we see that? So what's required
for our salvation is the same thing that has always been required
for our salvation. And the thing that will always
be required for our salvation, the blood of Christ alone, not
the works of our own righteousness, not the thoughts that we think
or the deeds that we do, not gaining more knowledge, but declaring
Christ is our only wisdom. Christ is our only hope. Christ's
blood alone in his work is our only stand before the Lord. Anything else, anything else,
everything else is just vanity, isn't it? The blood of Christ
alone is all, everything else is vanity. Now look in verse
12. This is one response of clearing
the conscience. He's saying, we're going to kind
of look at this from a carnal standpoint and a spiritual standpoint.
Somebody said, is he talking about himself? Is he talking
about another? He's talking about himself, but he's telling us,
is he talking about believers or non-believers? And the answer
would be yes. We see what people are without Christ in this chapter.
We see that the sum of man is altogether vanity outside of
Christ. And so we see that because men do have a conscience, there
is one response that a man may have, and look in verse 12 with
me. I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 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 son of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the
works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot
be made straight. Now we could hang the intro to this entire
message on that statement right there. That which is crooked
cannot be made straight. Only the Lord can make something
crooked straight. Is that not true? I commune with my own heart,
saying, Lo, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom
than all they that have before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart
had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. I gave my heart
to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this
is also vexation of spirit for in much wisdom is much grief
and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow." Solomon's
response to determining everything is vanity is saying, okay, I'm
gonna get knowledge. I'm gonna get wisdom. I'm gonna
know folly. I'm gonna know wisdom. I'm gonna know, I'm gonna gain
more information so that I can increase learning. He says, surely
happiness comes from the inside. Whatever I'm doing is not making
me happy. Whatever I'm doing, I see it
all as vexation. I'm going to gain more knowledge. I'm going
to gain more understanding. And when he does that, what does
he say that that amounted to? Sorrow, vexation of spirit, and
vanity. Why? Because a man cannot come
to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ with what we learn
and what we process and the information that we gather and books that
we read. We can't read the Bible and see Christ without him revealing
himself. We can't do anything to cause
him to be revealed. That's what Solomon's saying.
It's vexation of spirit. Now, now I have sorrow because
I have understanding of all these things. And this is all vanity.
This was his response. and believe that they can please
God by attaining knowledge, attaining knowledge. We had a man stop
by here recently and he asked me after several questions, one
question that he asked me, he said, what seminary did you go
to? What seminary did you go to?
And I said to him, you know, seminary kind of sounds a lot
like cemetery. There's a cemetery back here
full of dried bones. And I tried to talk to him about
Ezekiel and change the subject. He didn't really like what I
said. And I guess I was being sarcastic, facetious, whatever
you want to call it. But the truth of the matter is
I told him I attended school of hard knocks in Apopka, Florida
with the head teacher was Greg Elmquist. You can look him up
if you want to try to, uh, explain to give him enough information
to where I was relatively validated in his eyes, but I wasn't looking
for his approval or his praise. He wasn't interested in learning
anything from me, and he wasn't interested in learning anything
from the Lord. He had it all figured out. He had already gained
the knowledge that he needed in order to make certain that
he had attained eternal life. That's what men do by nature.
They hear that it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. And we
go and we try to learn our way to God. And we say, OK, now I've
obtained enough information. I know that what I'm doing now
is pleasing unto God. That's what some men do. This
is a natural response. And what does Solomon say about
that? vanity. It's still vanity. You cannot
attain to God. He is high and holy. He must be your wisdom. He must
be my wisdom. It's not that we attain wisdom
by knowledge. It's that wisdom is bestowed
in the person of Jesus Christ. And that is our only confession
and standing before God. That's our hope. And what does the preacher say?
I gave, in verse 17, I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know
madness and folly. I perceive that this also is
a vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief,
and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. Men have Bible
study groups. I saw a sign the other day that
said, come find the heart of God with us. Come find, discover,
come discover the heart of God with us. What did they mean by
that? They meant they were going to go through the Bible and find
something new that's not been seen before. And they were going
to rejoice that they had discovered something new that had not been
seen before. But I'm here to tell you what
has been shall be. There is nothing new that pleases
the Lord. It is what's always been. It's
the blood of Christ alone. That's what pleases him. Now, if we read this and said,
okay, he said, I gave my heart to wisdom and all this is vexation
of spirit and this is sorrow. So is he telling us not to study?
No, it's not what he's saying. Of course we should study. But
we don't study to please God as men do, do we? We don't study
to obligate God as men do. Men believe that they can study
and pray enough and it obligates God to respond to them to do
something, that for him to do something for them. We don't
believe that. We study because we desire to see him. We study because we desire to
hear him. We study because we know that
everything else is vanity and we must have Christ. That's why
we study. He's the only thing that speaks
peace to the soul. Furthermore, we study because
we've been commanded to. Not the Lord said, seek. Does
it know what he said? Knock. He tells us to seek you
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Second, Timothy
two 15 tells us you could probably quote this study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. I heard that so many times
in false religion. You have an obligation to God
to study, to show yourself approved unto God. That's what they would
say. I was so thankful when I looked up the word approved. What does
the root word mean? It means to prove, like it's
saying. But it was given at a time in Greece whenever there were
certain men that would make coins, they would make real money. And
there were several that were trying to bring in counterfeits
because back then they used a metal that could easily be melted and
easily be manipulated, right? I'm not sure what the metal would
have been. but that they would proof these. They would say,
okay, this one has a mark here and this one has a mark here.
This is a genuine coin. And that's exactly what our banks
do. They don't study counterfeit bills to know the truth from
the counterfeit. They study the real thing, don't
they? Banks will study real bills to know as soon as they see a
counterfeit, as soon as they see it, no, that's not real.
How do you know? Because I know what the truth That's what he's
saying. Study as if you're investigating
to know the truth so that when you see a counterfeit, you'll
say, no, he's not preaching the truth. He's not preaching the
gospel. Look at the word of God, line upon line, precept upon
precept from Genesis to Revelation. Christ will reveal himself according
to his purpose and will. The Lord will show you the truth.
And you know what the truth does? It sets you free. That's what
God's truth does. It's the only thing that's not
vanity. It's the only thing that's not vexation of spirit. Christ
is all. Men say we should study more,
we should pray more, that we're obligated to pray more. Do you
know why we pray? Prayer is not to change the mind
of God. God's mind cannot be changed.
Prayer is for us. Prayer is requesting that God
will reveal His will in our life. Lord, I'm the problem right now. I'm confessing that. I'm vanity
and you're not. You're gonna have to reveal your
truth or I have no peace. That's what prayer is all about.
Begging God, you're bringing your petitions before Him, there's
no doubt. But the underlining truth in our prayer, is it not,
Lord, thy will be done. Is that not the truth? Lord,
thy will be done. You know better than I. I know
nothing. I have no wisdom, but Christ,
our wisdom, that's my only confession. That's what we pray and believe
that they're praying to obligate God. We don't obligate God in
prayer. Only when the Lord's will is revealed do we have peace.
Is that not true? If you're in a trial, if you're
in a if you're struggling with something, whether it just if
it's just your sin that you see, if you see what you're dealing
with in your life and the Lord reveals unto you peace by showing
you this is my will and speaks. Does it make your problems go
away? No. But what does it do? It makes
you take a breath in Christ. You literally look to him and
say, truth, Lord, you're right. I'm wrong. Give me the faith
to endure this. Lord, I believe help thou mine
unbelief. Is that not true? So once Solomon's idea of gathering
this information, gathering all of this knowledge, Turned into
nothing but sorrow and vanity and vexation. Then what does
he do? Does he cry out before the Lord and say, okay, Lord,
I have nothing else to do. You're all. Is that what happened?
No. Chapter two tells us a different
kind of something that men do in order to try to gain favor
with God, but also to ease the conscience. Look in verse one
of chapter two. Then he said, I said in my heart,
go to now. I will prove thee with mirth.
Therefore, enjoy pleasure. OK, so the inside fixing the
inside didn't work. Now I'm going to enjoy the outside.
That's what he's saying. This is also vanity. I said of laughter,
it is mad. In mirth, what doeth it? I sought
in my heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainted mine heart
with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what
was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under
the heaven all the days of their life. I made me great works. I built me houses. I planted
me vineyards." And he goes on and he says, I got manservants
and maidservants. I got all the orchards. I got
everything pleasurable known to man, musicians from all over
the world, everything and anything. I did not, anything my eye desired,
I got it. And what was his conclusion at
the end? Yes, that's it. That's what I've been missing
my whole life. Vanity was his conclusion. Vanity, all is vanity. tries to bring the works of his
hands to please him, tries to do the things of pleasure to
please himself. But no amount of pleasure can
slake a man's lust. It cannot. It cannot please the
heart. It cannot atone for the sin that
we are. It cannot make the ugly disappear. It just adds to it more and more.
And we see that man at his best state is vanity. That's what
the preacher is saying. But what else is he telling us?
It's not what you know. It's who you know. It's not what
you do. It's what he done. It's not what
we think. It's what he thought. What think
ye of Christ? That's what he's pointing us
to. That's why Ecclesiastes was written to show us we cannot
please God. And no matter what we do, it's
vanity. It's empty. It's useless. And yet we have
a substitute in the person of Jesus Christ who thought perfectly,
who did perfectly, who is perfect in the eyes of God and became
the center substitute for his people. Having put away our vanity,
our sin before God, he declares us as perfectly righteous. That's
why this was written. He's telling us stop looking
on the inside. Stop looking on the outside,
look to Christ. Stop looking on the inside to
make yourself happy and stop looking on the outside for what
you're doing to make yourself happy. Look to Christ, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. Thanks be to God, he put away
our sin. Now, all religious men everywhere
believe that they are either learning their way to God or
they're earning their way to God. Now, I understand learning
is earning as well, but what the two differences is here is
the internal and the external. Some men believe they're getting
to God by what they know. Some men believe that they're
getting to God by what they do. Both is vanity. Both is a lie. It's not what we know, it's who
we know. It's not what we do, it's what he has done. Paul dealt
with the same issue, the same two issues, the internal and
the external doing, if I can put it that way, in Acts chapter
17, if you'd like to turn there. Acts chapter 17. Now Paul is in Athens at the
present moment, and he had just came through Thessalonica. And
you remember the scripture gives us 1st and 2nd Thessalonians,
the books. That is the letter to the church
at Thessalonica. Paul had just came from preaching
at the church of Thessalonica, establishing the church of Thessalonica. Now he's waiting on Timothy and
Silas in Athens. And it says in verse 16 of chapter
17 of Acts, now while Paul waited for them, Silas and Timothy at
Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the
synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the
markets daily with them that met with him. Then he goes on
in verse 18 and says, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans
and of the Stoics encountered him. And some say, what will
this babbler say? Others, some, he seemeth to be
a set or fourth of strange gods because he preached unto them
Jesus and the resurrection. Now, we have two names that are
given here, the Epicureans and the Stoics. These two individuals
represent the two that I have described to us from Ecclesiastes,
the ones that are doing internal knowledge to attain salvation
and those that are doing external in order to attain salvation.
By definition, the Epicureans believe that philosophy's purpose
is to attain as well as help others attain happy, tranquil
lives free from fear and pain. They believe that philosophy
let them lead and help others lead happy and pain-free lives,
free of fear. They believe that their body
and their soul ended at the same time. So if they were going to
have a happy life, it had to come through philosophy, they
believed. They exercised themselves to
learning to the, I have it backwards. I wrote it down wrong in my notes.
I'm sorry. The Epicureans are the ones that are, eat, drink,
and be merry. Epicureans are the ones that
we're not going to live forever. We better try to find happiness
externally and whatever we can do, bringing happiness under
ourself, because they believed that the body and soul died,
so this is all that they had. And yet they had a harmony with
the gods, they believed, because of what they were doing on the
outside. This is what the Epicureans' philosophy was. This is what
Solomon was saying when he said, I drank, I builded, I got me
this, I got me that. That was the philosophy of the
Epicureans. Solomon says, this is vanity.
Now the Stoics were the opposite. They believed that virtue, the
highest good is based on knowledge. The highest good is based on
knowledge. What knowledge we can attain as humans. The wise
live in harmony with divine reason that governs nature. The key
to happiness is on the inside is what they believe. The key
to happiness is on the inside. 2 Timothy 3, 7 tells us about the
Stoics and he says, they're ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth. Is that your experience in religion?
Can you look back and see that you were ever learning, but you
were never able to come to the knowledge of the truth until
God came by and knocked us off of our high horse and said, everything
that you've ever believed in, all the stuff you've been doing
externally and all the stuff you've been doing internally
to get to God is vanity. You need a substitute. Is that
not what the Lord does for his people every time? We say truth,
Lord, I've counted it all, but done that I may win Christ. That's
what Paul said. Everything is vanity. I see that
now. I need a substitute. Otherwise this life is meaningless,
isn't it? Without Christ and his shed blood
and the finished work of Calvary, this life is meaningless. Thanks
be to God, he shed his blood and died for his people. He gave
meaning to life and has given his people eternal life. What can we learn here? What
did Paul tell them? determined to know nothing among
you, say, Jesus Christ is crucified." I didn't come speaking unto you
words of man's wisdom, but by demonstration of the Spirit and
with power, I preached Christ. That's the only hope that we
have. And look at what Paul does in Acts 17, verse 18, again. And certain philosophers, the
Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him and said, some said, what
will this babbler say? And that word there that says
other some, it says that's a term is moreover, would be another
translation of that word. Moreover, they said, he seemed
to be a set or fourth of strange gods because he preached unto
them Jesus in the resurrection. And they took him and brought
him to Europagus saying, may we know what this new doctrine? Therefore speaketh is for thou
bring a certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore
what these things mean. Now understand what they're saying,
and he's telling us how to understand it in the next verse. For all
the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in
nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. This was their desire day in
and day out to discover something new. Paul, verse 22, then Paul
stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, you men of Athens,
I perceive that in all these you are too superstitious. For
as I passed by and I beheld your devotions, I found an altar with
this inscription to the unknown God whom you ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you. And then he starts preaching
the gospel to him. He says, God that made the world and all things
therein. He starts preaching about his
sovereignty immediately, doesn't he? That God that you have written,
they had 12 gods, 12 gods in Athens. And they had this one
God or a memorial set up for a God that literally said to
the unknown God, just in case we missed one, we want to make
sure we have all of our bases cut. That's what they were doing.
Paul said, you're ignorantly worshiping him. All these other
gods are not God. This is the one I'm going to
tell you about, the one that you don't know. These men were
gathering together at the court. This is where their court was.
This is where laws were put into effect. This is where the debates
would happen. You had those that were trying to live life, pleasing
their self on the outside and those that had knowledge on the
inside, the Epicureans and the Stoics. And then they hear something
new and they become interested because they've never heard it
before. Not for salvation. But you can imagine that the
Stoics were like, huh, this is knowledge that we don't have.
We need this. And the Epicureans would have thought, huh, maybe
this will allow us to be able to engage in pleasure more. This
will allow us to have insight to something where we can please
ourself more. And what happens? Paul preaches the gospel to them.
A lot of philosophers and A lot of, uh, well, as I was reading
Bible scholars, if you want to call it, men have so many titles
when it comes to religious things. But I was reading one man. He
said that Paul's time in Athens was a failure. I was like, what?
How is that a failure? Whenever it literally says, and
some believed. He's not a failure. God didn't
set up a church in Athens. The Lord called men and women
in Athens though. I don't know if they left Athens,
went to Corinthians. I mean, that's a couple, a few
hours away as far as travel now. I don't know what it would be
back then with a horse, but you understand what I'm saying. Maybe
they went to, if they heard the gospel, they're gonna find a
gospel church. That's just how it is. Lord's people have to
be under the sound of the gospel. And we see that it was not, a
failure because the Lord has caused some of these men to believe.
He changed their mind. What they thought was true, all
the superstition that they had and all these gods, they lost
confidence in them, didn't they? What does the Lord do to you
and I when he comes out to the Lord's people? What does he do
in salvation? He gives us repentance, doesn't
he? I've said that so many times, and I'm going to continue to
say it because it's a gift from him. What is repentance? The Lord
changes your mind about everything, everything that you've ever believed
in, everything that I've ever believed in. Now I believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that your confession? We don't
just believe in Jesus. We believe on Jesus. He is everything. And that's exactly what happened
to some of these men and women. They were no longer superstitious. They knew who God was after this. Men are always looking for something
new. And they're covering all the
bases, aren't they? All the 12 gods, and then also the extra
one that says to the unknown God, we have every eye dotted.
Every T-Cross, we're good to go. That's what men believe.
The Lord said, you don't know that you're naked. You don't
know that you're blind. You don't know that you're destitute,
that you've been left desolate, empty. You don't know that you're
polluted in your own blood and that you need to be called, that
you need to be made alive, that you need to be redeemed. You
don't know this. How do we not know this? Because
it can't be something that we learn and it can't be something
that we acquire by what we do. It must be bestowed by the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. sending his spirit and power
by the gospel, revealing that Christ is all. My hope is that we never preach
something new here. That's my hope. That we preach
the same old story. I should have sung the song,
Tell Me the Old, Old Story. Maybe we'll sing it next hour.
I don't know. But I don't want something new, do you? Something
new is not going to get the job done. That which has been shall
be. That which is of old is what
the Lord looks to for our salvation. See, he was the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. That's what he's telling us.
The Lord's satisfied with Christ, the Christ of old, if you want
to put it that way, the Christ of now and the Christ for the
future. But it's the eternal Christ, isn't it? So he's timeless.
He's always looked to his son on behalf of his people, and
he has always been satisfied with his people. men hear this and say, yeah,
we know that, but tell us something new. Tell us something new. I
saw recently a church, they were, well, I won't go into too much
detail. I'm not trying to put people
down, but in between services, we have an intermission usually
between both services and they did too. And they had a clown
going around in the service, giving out balloons to the children.
And then the man got up after that, after the clown went back
and changed clothes and everybody was happy and whatever else.
And he got up there and he started saying now, I'm going to preach
to you about a three ring circus. And he was trying to draw some
kind of a text about how you have the leader of the circus,
the man that's in the center ring, the head guy. And now that
that's God and we better be letting God have his way and all this.
I thought, man, you're preaching a bunch of new stuff. That doesn't
give me any hope at all. I need to know what God did,
not what he's trying to do. We don't need to be entertained.
We need Christ. Now, certainly we have somebody
mentioned to me, I think the other day about our pews. we're
either going to have to upholster some now we're going to have
to take off the upholstery I said we could just sit on the bare
wood that would be that would be okay we. Thankfully, we do
have some commodities such as HVAC. We have fuse that we sit
on. These are nice things, aren't
they? Lord's not telling us that we can't have nice new things
in that regard, but when it comes to spiritual things, there is
nothing new that the believer wants. We want Christ alone,
that's it. Just tell me the old story over
and over again because everything else is vanity. That's why we
come here. We come here to hear about the
Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. Their hope is that some believe.
That's their hope. Lord, cause me to believe. We're
not presumptuous in saying, well, I know since I believe today,
I'll believe tomorrow. No, the prayer is, Lord, keep
me today. Keep me tomorrow believing. Some
people say, well, those people over there, they have a small
congregation. Well, that doesn't bother me a bit. I'm thankful.
The less people, the less problems, right? That's normally how it
goes. But truth of the matter is, is we're not a failure because
of who we belong to. It's not about our numbers. It's
not about what we do and what we don't do. It's about what
he's done. And therefore, this is not a failure, what we're
doing right now, because we're trying to declare the finished
work of Christ with the hope that he'll bless it, that he
will call his sheep. That's what we're doing. And
that's what Paul did. Some believed. Now, look back with me in Ecclesiastes
chapter nine. In closing. I'm still preaching
on what has been shall be. It's so interesting, the believers
live in what we consume, which is the Lord Jesus, his body and
his blood. It's so contrary to the flesh, because if you were
to eat the same bread every single day and drink the same drink
every single day, your body would grow tired of it, wouldn't it?
That's exactly what happened to the children of Israel, wasn't
it? They grumbled and complained for 40 years because they had
to eat manna, not realizing God was providing everything that
they need so they didn't die. Is that not what he's doing for
us? Spiritually, we don't get tired of the manna of God, do
we? It's the same old story. We don't get tired of eating
the body of Christ and the blood of Christ because that is our
only hope, isn't it? This is this is the good news of the
gospel that it'll never wax old. It's timeless. We're preaching
the same thing that the Lord Jesus Christ was declaring while
he was on the face of the earth. The same thing Ezekiel talks
about and Jeremiah talks about. The same thing that Adam taught
his sons how to sacrifice about. It's all about Christ. That's
what we're doing. It's timeless because it's eternal. The gospel is forever settled
in heaven. Now, look at verse one of chapter nine. For all
this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that
the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of
God. The righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand
of God. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is
before them. What is he saying? You can't
learn anything, save Jesus Christ reveal it to you. That's what
he's saying. That's what he's saying. All things come alike
to all. There is one event to the righteous
and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean, and to the
unclean, and to him that sacrifices, and to him that sacrifices not.
And as the good, so is the sinner, and he that sweareth, and he
that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things
that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto
all. Yea, also the heart of the sons
of men is full of evil, And the madness is in their heart while
they live. And after that, they go to death. They go to the death. What is
he saying? He's saying, it doesn't matter
what you know. It doesn't matter what you've done. It is appointed
unto men once to die. And after this, the judgment.
We must be found in Christ. We must have his blood applied
upon our heart, that we have a new heart in him. We must have
the blood of Christ wash away our sins, and He's the only one
that can apply it. We can't even find it, can we?
How could we apply something we can't even find? But He does
apply it for His people. This is our hope. This is our
hope. It must be revealed, and it is
revealed. Now, we have the two contrasts.
that it's not our wisdom and it's not our works. That's what
pretty much this message has been all about. It's not our
wisdom and it's not our works. And those are the two, you have
thought, word, and deed. A word would be spoken, would
be a work. And deed would be an action, that would be a work.
And thought, you understand what I'm saying. Those are pretty
much the two things that make up what men can do. They can gain knowledge
and then they can perform actions. And that's pretty much how it
goes. We see these two contrasts and he says it doesn't matter
about all this because the end is the same for everyone. It's the same. It's appointed
unto man wants to die. Men do not fear death. I've seen
men on their deathbeds not afraid to die until it was right there. then fear gripped their heart.
It was like they were in denial, like, well, I'm going to get
better from this. And we knew that there was no way that they
could. I mean, even if they lived a little bit longer, their life
was over because of what had happened. And so, men by nature,
we don't fear death naturally. Now, sure, there may be things
that happen where we go into fight or flight mode. It's our
natural response to danger. But truly, to fear death is something
that the Lord has to give. Because in seeing you're a sinner
causes you to truly fear death, because we see that there is
a God that we must have to do. And then in seeing that we're
a sinner and seeing that we're going to die, then Christ is
revealed. And what rejoicing there is when
we see that Christ has put away our sin so that we do not have
to taste the second death. Christ conquered death, hell
and the grave for his people. Isn't that glorious? That's the
only hope that we have when we see that we're a sinner and we
see that we're going to die. We see that that's the end of man.
And then we see Christ. There is rest. There is peace
because he crossed the River Jordan for his people. And when
it comes time for us to cross the River Jordan, he will be
there for his people, carrying them through. Now look in verse
six. For to him that is joined to
all the living, there is hope. For a living dog is better than
a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die, but the
dead know that not anything. Neither have there any more a
reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love
and their hatred and their envy is now perished. Neither have
they any more a portion forever in anything which is done under
the sun." What is he saying? What is the message that the
preacher is declaring to us? Heaven and earth shall pass away. Every man is going to die. But
the word of God shall not pass away because it is forever settled
in heaven. Now, where is our hope? Is it
in the word of God, in the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the only
thing to hope in, is it? Because everything else is going
to pass away. Everything else is going to burn up. Man's works
die with him. Everything that we do is vanity.
All of our work dies with us. And if we stopped right there,
just declaring unto us that everything is vanity would not give us much
hope. Let's read on. Verse seven, go thy way, eat
thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart.
For God now accepteth thy works. Boy, there's hope, isn't it?
The Lord now accepteth our works. How? Verse eight, let thy garments
be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully
with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life of thy
vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun all the days of
thy vanity, for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor
which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with all thy might, for there is no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. What is our hope? God accepteth
our works. Why? Because he's made our garments
white and he has anointed our heads with oil. Is that not what
Psalm 23 said? Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. I understand that it reads right
here that let thy garments be always white. What is that? How
do we wash our garments? How spiritually? Well, we just
heard that everything we do is vanity. So what is he saying?
Look to the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. That's how
you let your garments be white. That's the only way that you
can have the oil of gladness upon your head is by looking to Christ.
That's the only way I can have any hope of salvation is by looking
unto Christ. Do you know what that word, when
it says for God, now accept if thy works, it's the same exact
word that was found in our text called Kibar. It means already,
long ago, for a great while and far off. He hath forever perfected
them that are sanctified." Everlasting love is what our God has. It
has no beginning and no end. What does that mean? Our righteousness
that is hidden Christ has always been and always will be and is
right now. That's the glorious news of the
gospel. It's forever. We are robed in his righteousness.
We are anointed with his spirit. Then what did he say to us? We'll
live joyfully in the life of your vanity. How can I live joyfully
knowing everything around me is vanity? Looking unto Jesus. That's the only way, isn't it?
That's the only thing that is joy. That is the joy of our salvation. That's what David was talking
about. Restore the joy of my salvation. It's Christ. Lord,
cause me to see Christ again, because everything around me
is vanity and vexation of spirit. Everything, even myself, I am
vanity. Give me Christ, lest I die. And
he said, I've made your garments white. I've anointed your head
with oil. Your cup runneth over. Isn't
that glorious? The works of all of God's people are now acceptable
unto the father because of Christ, our substitute. He doesn't see
our works. He sees Christ. He sees the finished
work of his son for his people. And he is satisfied with him.
Now the last place to turn is Ecclesiastes chapter 12. A couple
of pages over. Let us, verse 13, chapter 12,
Ecclesiastes verse 13. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of
man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, whether with
every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
Now, men used to use that verse in religion so often as lawmongering
and calling fear for people. He would say, you better watch
what you do. because God's gonna bring into account every work,
whether it be good or whether it be evil. Did you know for
the believer, we know that we're hid in Christ. So whenever the
Lord brings forth every work that we have done, whether it
be good or whether it be evil, he is going to see the blood
of Christ and he's gonna see perfect works. He's gonna see
nothing evil whatsoever. He's gonna see no sin that ever
tainted us. And he is going to say, enter
in thou good and faithful servant. That's what He's done for His
people. He said, let's hear the whole conclusion of the matter.
Everything that I've said for 12 chapters, let's hear the whole
conclusion. What's the conclusion? Fear God and keep His commandments. We cannot fear God in and of
ourselves. That's called repentance, isn't
it? That's called worship. That's what that is. Keep His
commandments. Lord, I can't keep Your law,
no matter what I do. So what is He telling us? Look
to Christ.