Man, Ecclesiastes chapter number two, I'm going to go a little bit fast through these
early verses because I really already covered a lot of these ideas last week in chapter
one and it's a little bit repetitive because I kind of borrowed from chapter two in my
chapter one sermon.
So he starts out, you know, in chapter one talking about how vain and meaningless
everything in life is.
And obviously one of the things I'm going to keep emphasizing throughout this Ecclesiastes
series is that these things have to be taken in the greater context of the book itself.
There's a journey that we take with Solomon from chapter one to the end of the book.
And at the end of the book, he's going to explain to us what is the conclusion of
the whole matter.
Fear God and keep his commandments.
This is the whole duty of man.
So he finds meaning in the end, but we don't want to just stop part way and just
grab something from his journey and get a wrong idea.
You know, this is a good advice even just when you're reading any part of the Bible.
Because for example, when you're reading Romans chapter number one, he talks about
the heathen, how they've gotten so bad in the downward spiral where they became
these horrible reprobates and everything.
Then in chapter two, he talks about the Jews themselves and how, you know, the Jews
are guilty before God.
And then in chapter three, he explains that actually the whole world's guilty before
God, whether they be Jew or Gentile, therefore salvation must be by faith.
So by the end of chapter three, he gets to the punchline.
So in chapters one, two, and three, he's kind of building up to that, showing how
wicked people can possibly be in chapter one.
Showing in chapter two that the Jews, even though they have the law, they're not
keeping the law perfectly and therefore they're condemned as well.
Then in chapter three, explaining how the whole world is condemned, both Jew and
Gentile, and then explaining how that's why salvation for sure is by faith, it's
by grace, it can't be by works.
And then he hammers salvation by faith in chapters three, four, and five, right?
But what people will do is they'll grab a verse from Romans chapter two, where he's
getting to that, and in Romans chapter two, he basically explains that to those who
by patient continuance and well-doing seek for glory and life and mortality.
You know, he explains basically, I misquoting that because I'm trying to
jump into the middle of it, but in Romans chapter two, he basically
explains how, you know, hey, if you do the right things, if you follow the law,
you're going to be okay.
You're going to be saved.
You're going to have eternal life.
But then he goes on to explain how nobody does that.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
So in chapter two, he's like, yeah, follow all the commandments and you'll be
saved, but guess what?
By chapter three, we realize nobody keeps the commandments.
And so I've actually seen a Roman Catholic piece of literature that was
quoting from Romans chapter two to say, if you keep the commandments,
you'll be saved.
Just ripping it totally out of context of where Paul's going with that.
It's sort of like when the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to
inherit eternal life, and he tells him, well, keep the commandments.
But he just finished telling him there's none good but one, and that's God.
And the guy thought he kept all the commandments perfectly.
And then Jesus shows him a commandment that he's not keeping.
And then the guy goes away sad because he still doesn't get it.
Look, theoretically, if you kept all of God's commandments perfectly,
he's not going to send you to hell.
If you kept every commandment of God perfectly, what would you go to hell for?
But guess what?
No one's ever done that.
That's why you have to be saved by believing in Jesus Christ.
And so it's the same type of thing with Ecclesiastes.
You don't want to just jump in in the middle and grab something that Solomon
says, oh, life's totally meaningless.
He's talking about life without the Lord.
It's in context.
Or after you die, there's nothing.
He's talking about, humanly speaking, from this earth's perspective.
So always get the context.
So Solomon is kind of trying everything.
He's trying to find meaning in life, and so he's trying everything.
And people do this, right?
I mean, they try to find different things to make them happy.
And to find meaning in their life.
So it says in verse number one, I said in my heart,
go to now, I will prove thee with mirth.
Mirth is just partying, having a good time, enjoying.
Therefore, enjoy pleasure, and behold, this also is vanity.
So he tries to live just like a hedonistic lifestyle.
I said of laughter, it is mad.
And of mirth, what doeth it?
Mad means crazy.
It's insane.
What's the point?
What good is it?
I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine,
yet acquainting my heart with wisdom, and to lay hold on folly,
till I might see what was that good for the sons of men,
that they should do unto the heaven all the days of their life.
He's saying, look, I'm trying to find something to do with my life that matters.
So I tried just having fun, just enjoying the party life.
And there was no meaning there.
You know, I tried laughter and fun.
I tried drinking.
I drank wine.
And then, you know what?
I tried, instead of seeking after wisdom, I tried seeking after folly.
You know, maybe wisdom and learning and education isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
So let's just try being an idiot.
And so he went out and just acted like an idiot and tried to be as stupid as he could.
And that wasn't the answer.
Surprise there, right?
It says in verse four, I made me great works.
I builded me houses.
I planted me vineyards.
I made me gardens and orchards.
And I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits.
He's just trying to enjoy everything that life possibly has to offer.
He's trying to achieve things.
I made me pools of water to water there with the wood that bringeth forth trees.
Verse seven, I got me servants and maidens and had servants born in my house.
Also, I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.
I gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasure of kings
of the provinces.
Now, what does this mean, the peculiar treasure of the kings of the provinces?
Well, if you study the life of Solomon over in the book of First Kings,
you'll see that he brought in exotic things from all over the world.
See, we today, we're kind of spoiled in America because we just have every exotic thing
just at the grocery store, at Walmart, at the zoo or whatever.
But back then, you know, you were really only familiar with the food
and the animals and the plants from your area because most people
didn't just jet set all over the world.
And people like Solomon who are kings that have great wealth,
you know, pretty soon you start running out of stuff to spend money on.
So you want to get the exotic stuff from other parts of the world
because you've kind of already bought everything that's there locally.
So the Bible tells us in First Kings that Solomon's bringing in like peacocks, apes,
you know, just like wild exotic animals.
Because think about what if you'd never seen a peacock?
You know, to us, we take that for granted, right?
We see things like we see giraffes and zebras and peacocks and flamingos.
But if you'd never seen that stuff, it would be pretty cool.
And that's why we love to take our kids to the zoo
because they're seeing it for the first time.
And they're kind of just blown away by these exotic or even bizarre looking creatures.
But for Solomon, you know, he had access to all this cool stuff
that his contemporaries did not.
So he's able to bring in the apes and the peacocks
and, you know, crocodiles and whatever, you know,
you bring in all these crazy animals and just enjoy that.
So, you know, peculiar treasures could be that
or it could also obviously be other precious stones, jewels, you know,
whether it be animal plant, mineral, exotic foods, spices, flavorings,
you know, we could eat at the Indian restaurant today,
Chinese restaurant tomorrow, be hungry an hour later,
go to the Italian restaurant.
You know, we could sample food from all over the world.
But back then, I mean, this is something the kings would do.
And so he's getting all these peculiar treasures from the provinces.
I get me men singers and women singers
because this is before the stereo system.
So in order to have music all the time,
you got to actually bring in the live band all the time.
So he's got men singers and women singers just, you know,
he pushes the remote and they start singing
because there's no electronics.
Musical instruments and that of all sorts.
So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem.
Also, my wisdom remained with me.
Whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them.
I withheld not my heart from any joy.
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was my portion of all my labor.
And by the way, this is how we know that this book is written by Solomon
because he says that he had more wealth and abundance than any king before him.
And we know Solomon had that.
He also talks about excelling at the most wisdom.
And we know that Solomon was the wisest.
So that's how we know because it doesn't have his name on it, as you can see here.
But it says here in verse 10,
and whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them.
I mean, anything he wants, he gets it.
He's not restraining himself from anything.
I withheld not my heart from any joy.
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor and this was my portion of all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had brought.
So he looks at his petting zoo, swimming pools, orchards,
exotic treasures, museums, all this cool stuff.
Men singers, women singers, everything that anyone could ever want.
Everything that he had accomplished, all the labor he had labor to do.
And behold all was vanity.
And it wasn't just vanity because vanity is empty, worthless, meaningless.
But it was also an irritation to him
because vexation of spirit is something that bothers you.
It's irritating.
So he's not even at zero here.
He's in a negative.
He's irritated by his success.
You wonder why famous people commit suicide all the time
and the Hollywood stars and the rock stars are constantly committing suicide
or depressed or on drugs or they're shoplifting
when they're a millionaire or something.
It's because of this right here because those things don't bring happiness.
So poor people or middle class people,
they think, well, if I can just achieve a certain level of riches,
I'm going to be happy.
Whereas these people, they've already gotten there
and they realize there's nothing there.
And so now they don't know where to go next.
You know, like poor people and middle class people,
they're trying to get to the next level.
The rich people are at the top.
They realize there's nothing there.
So what's the goal?
Where do I go?
What do I do next?
Right?
Because they don't have God.
They don't have Jesus Christ.
Then their life is truly meaningless.
And so that's why they're so depressed.
Don't ever envy those people.
They're miserable.
They're unhappy.
It's just like if you give a child everything at once,
if you raise your child, just withholding from it, no joy,
whatever food it wants, just give it to it immediately.
Every toy, you buy it immediately.
Give it the candy, give it everything it wants.
That's going to be a miserable child.
Crying sad.
You'd think getting everything you want would make you happy.
Oh no, it makes you depressed.
And that's, you can see that in a toddler easily.
The happiest toddlers, their parents have rules.
They don't let them overindulge
and they're happy kids because they have boundaries.
Well, it's the same thing when you're an adult folks.
If everything is handed to you, you'll get depressed.
And that's what happened to Solomon.
He said, it was all vexation of spirit.
There was no profit out of the son.
Look at verse 12 and I turned myself to behold wisdom
and madness and folly for what can the man do
that cometh after the king,
even that which has been already done.
And again, that's a rehash from chapter one.
Everything's already been done.
You can't achieve anything new.
You can't discover anything new.
It's all been done.
It's all vanity.
It's all worthless.
It's all going to be forgotten.
Now look at verse 13 though.
Now think about this.
And again, this is what I mean about getting the context
and about getting the flow of the book
from chapter one to chapter 12.
I personally think that Ecclesiastes is best read
in one sitting.
This is one of those books that it's good to read it
in one sitting, even though it's a little bit long.
Reading that usually, you know, in my Bible reading,
I don't read books all in one sitting,
but this is one book that I almost always
like to read in one sitting.
Because it, it kind of, you know, builds on it.
And it, you know, you got to get the flow.
What did he say at the end of chapter one in verse 18?
In much wisdom is much grief.
And he then increase of knowledge, increase of sorrow.
That's a true statement, right?
You know, the more, you know, there's more
to kind of be upset about because you learn
about all the bad things in the world.
What you don't know can't hurt you.
And so knowing more brings more sorrow
and grief, more stress, more responsibility.
There are more bad things that you know about.
That's what leads him at the beginning of chapter two
to try out a hedonistic lifestyle, a party life,
a drinking life.
And he even says, I want to lay hold on folly.
I want to see what folly is all about
and see what it's like to be an idiot and try that.
Why did he do that?
Because at the end of chapter one,
he discovered that in much wisdom is much grief.
And he then increase of knowledge, increase of sorrow.
So he says, wait a minute.
I'm getting too smart for my own good.
I need to stop that and try being an idiot for a while.
He tried that.
It also didn't work.
So then he realizes, okay, now he comes to a conclusion
here in verse 13.
Then I saw that wisdom excel at folly.
So he's making progress here.
He's at least realizing, okay,
I don't have all the answers yet.
He's not going to have all the answers till chapter 12.
But he says, I saw that wisdom excel with folly
as far as light excel at darkness.
He's saying, look, being an idiot, don't do it, okay?
Don't live a life as a fool.
Be wise, be smart, learn more, get knowledge.
The wise man's eyes are in his head,
but the fool walketh in darkness.
And then he goes on and I'll explain what he says next.
But the point I want to make here
is that you never want to get this attitude
that says that being ignorant is better than being smart.
Now you say, well, Pastor Anderson,
tell me something I don't know.
I mean, what do you think I am?
But I'm telling you that there is a tendency out there
for people to glorify ignorance.
And I am not making this up.
The old IFB has sometimes been guilty of this,
where they get up and brag about lack of learning,
lack of knowledge, things that they don't know.
They brag about that and act like it's some kind of a badge
and make fun of anyone who knows things
that they don't know.
And they glorify being dumb,
or sometimes they glorify being simple,
like, well, I'm just a country boy,
and kind of just glorifying them.
And hey, fine, you know, if you're a country boy,
great, but get some smarts, would you?
And you know what?
The Bible is crystal clear when it commands us
over and over again, get knowledge, get wisdom,
get understanding.
Folks, it's the whole book of Proverbs.
I mean, have you read the book of Proverbs?
He's telling you, seek it like you're seeking
for the most precious treasure you can imagine,
wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.
Those are the three words that just keep getting hammered.
Knowledge, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, understanding.
Those get hammered throughout Proverbs.
You say, what's the difference between knowledge and wisdom?
I heard it explained this way one time.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in the fruit salad.
So basically, knowledge is acquiring facts and information.
Wisdom is knowing how to apply that
and making the right decisions at the right time.
And then understanding is obviously
just when you get things.
You get it, intelligence, grasping things that are complicated.
All throughout the Bible, God praises knowledge and learning.
And he says, a wise man will hear and will increase learning.
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Fools despise wisdom.
Fools despise instruction.
Fools despise learning.
The wise man, he wants to learn.
He knows that knowledge is good.
Now, look, obviously, when Solomon goes after folly,
he's also going after booze.
He's also going after women.
Are you going to do that, too?
So you've got to get the context here.
That in the end, he realizes that wisdom
excels folly as much as light excels darkness.
We never want to glorify being dumb or being ignorant.
OK, I heard another little spin on this just a couple of days ago, too.
You know, in the New Testament, the Bible tells us,
I believe it's 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1.
It says, you know, that knowledge puffeth up,
but charity edifieth.
Right?
You know, we all have knowledge.
Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.
So basically, here's what God's saying there.
He's not saying, stay dumb, my friends.
Stay ignorant.
Don't get knowledge.
We don't want you to get puffed up now.
I see you getting way too much knowledge there,
buddy, you've had, you look like you've had a little too much to think.
Right?
Is that what he's saying?
Or is he saying, add charity to go with your knowledge?
In fact, you know, this wasn't my notes or anything.
I don't have any notes, but, you know, this just popped into my mind that
basically the Bible even explicitly says that now that I think about it.
Isn't that 2 Peter, chapter 1, when he says,
add to your knowledge temperance in verse 6.
He's not saying don't get too much knowledge.
Careful there with all that knowledge there, buddy.
No, he says, add to knowledge temperance.
Add to temperance patience, and to patience godliness,
and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.
Amen.
So we need to temper our knowledge with charity.
Amen.
So listen, the more knowledge we get, the more humble we need to be,
the more love we need to have, the more compassion we need to have,
the more charity we need to have.
That's why we don't want to spend all of our time studying and then not go out soul winning.
Right.
You know, we want to make sure that we're still out there loving people,
reaching out to people, ministering to the common man,
not just even intelligent people, but going out and finding Joe Sixpack,
and Joe Plummer, and Joe Schmo, and getting them saved,
and talking to people of all levels, of all backgrounds,
and even going to the poor areas, and going to the ghettos,
and going to the rough areas, and winning people to Christ
to keep our feet on the ground to make sure that we temper our knowledge with charity.
I mean, isn't that what the Bible teaches?
Whoa, slow down there on that knowledge, brother.
Is that what he's saying?
That's idiotic, my friend.
That's stupid.
He's saying, add to charity knowledge.
But literally, just this week, somebody sent me a video clip
from Manly Perry saying that exact thing.
He literally, this is what he said.
He's like, I don't know Greek.
I don't want to know Greek.
Which, okay.
Who here doesn't want to learn Greek?
I mean, probably 99% of people.
And let me tell you something.
He's like, I don't think you need to know Greek.
I don't either.
You know, it's not like we're living in Greece over here.
And here's the thing about that.
Is that, you know, I think for 99% of people,
learning Greek is probably not the best use of their time.
Because it's an incredible investment of time.
But I think for somebody who's a pastor or preacher who wants to specialize in that,
you know, we need some people that can take on the lying frauds
that are corrupting the Bible and twisting the Greek text
and coming out with all these modern versions.
You know, you need some people.
You need a few people that can fight that battle.
And if someone enjoys it and likes it and wants to learn it
to read the scriptures in the original language, great.
But here's what he said.
He said, in fact, he couldn't, you know,
he couldn't just make a normal, reasonable statement.
He has to follow it up with this stupidity.
In fact, I think learning Greek would do you more harm than good.
Cause it'll get you puffed up.
Well, you're in no danger of getting puffed up.
You're safe, you know, marked safe today from getting puffed up.
Idiots in the south who refuse to learn who want to remain an imbecile.
Who don't want to learn about facts or truth or information.
Cause we don't walk by faith.
We don't walk by facts.
We walk by faith.
Hey, I walk by both.
What kind of an idiot says we don't walk by facts.
We walk by faith.
Faith in what?
I thought we put our faith in the truth.
Here's a synonym for truth.
Facts.
You know what facts mean?
True things.
Things that are true are facts.
We don't walk by facts.
How dare you come at me with the facts.
We walk by faith, not by facts.
That was the dumbest quote of the year 2020, by the way.
But now he comes out with this thing of,
well, you know, I think learning Greek would do you more harm than good.
How would you know, idiot?
Did you try it?
No.
But what kind of a stupid statement is that?
To discourage people from learning.
Keep them dumb.
And you know what?
That bozo said to me too.
He said to me a few years ago, he said,
well, I'm glad you learned enough Greek.
You know, to prove these people wrong, but you're taking it too far.
Like don't learn too much.
Learn just enough, you know, to do what I want you to do.
And then just shut up and just, you know, sit down and don't you get puffed up.
Well, you know what?
Idiots are in no danger of being puffed up.
Great, great news.
But guess what?
I don't want to be an idiot or puffed up.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
And look, I'm not saying that people who don't know Greek are idiots,
because like I said, that's a very specialized piece of knowledge
that very few people are going to be able to profit from or use.
But here's the thing.
Why would it be bad for you?
Why would it do you more harm than good to read the Bible in a foreign language?
That's going to do you more harm than good, brother.
Why would it do you harm to read the Bible in the original language?
Like now, you know, now that I'm reading the Bible in the original Greek,
it's real scary, man.
It's like, what?
Just think about us.
Just let the stupidity sink in for a minute.
I think if you learn Greek, it'll do you more harm than good.
Learning Hebrew is going to do you more harm than good.
You're going to get puffed up.
I mean, does that really...
See how crazy that is?
Well, you know, I mean, we could say...
You could insert anything.
Brother, I think learning Spanish is going to do you more harm than good.
You might get puffed up.
Hey, you know, you're taking that professional engineer exam, you know,
I think getting that professional engineer, getting that P.E., you know,
it's going to do you more harm than good.
You might get a little puffed up.
No, because wisdom excels with folly as far as light excels with darkness.
And knowledge and wisdom and understanding are things that God
blesses people with and commands us to get.
And we should all be learning.
And look, I'm not saying to learn Greek, but you know what I am saying?
You know what I'm going to say right now to every single person in this room?
Learn something!
Learn something for crying out loud.
Hey, we should all be lifelong learners.
And by the way, Jesus said that foolishness is a sin.
Foolishness is sin.
That's what the Bible says.
I know you're thinking Proverbs, the thought of foolishness is sin,
but Jesus also listed a bunch of sins and one of them he listed was foolishness as a sin.
So it's not right for a foolishness to be a sin, but it's not right for a foolishness to be a sin.
So it's not right for us to just go through life dumb, you know?
And obviously, look, everybody's born with a different capacity for learning and intelligence.
I'm not saying that we all need to be some brainiac.
And look, I'm not any kind of a genius or super intellect.
I am of average intellect.
Steven Anderson is of average intellect.
Hey, maybe your intellect's a little below average.
Maybe your intellect's a little bit above average.
I'm sure there are people in this room that are smarter than I am.
But here's the thing about that.
It doesn't matter where we're at.
We should all want to learn.
We should all want to grow in knowledge and not be like, well,
I think it'll do more harm than good to get that knowledge about the original Greek.
I mean, what more wholesome piece of knowledge could you possibly
gain than reading the Bible in its original language?
Like, you know the translation's not wrong.
It's the original for crying out loud.
You know, you know, the translation's not right.
You're reading the original Greek.
Oh, but these bozos don't think there is an original because they think,
they think that the KJV translators, as soon as they translated the Greek,
that it's self-destructed.
It was like the golden tablets of Joseph Smith.
They took it away when it was done, right?
No, we actually still have it today.
Amen.
It's been preserved.
Anyway, that was a little bit of a rabbit trail.
Now, he realizes in verses 13 and 14 that knowledge and learning and wisdom is way better
than ignorance and foolishness and sticking your head in the sand and not learning stuff,
right?
That's obvious.
But he still has a problem because he says in verse 14, he says,
and I myself perceived also, he's like, I know wisdom is better than folly, but
one event happens to them all.
He's saying, but either way, they're both going to die though.
The smartest guy and the dumbest guy both die.
Then said I in my heart, as it happened to the fool, so it happeneth even to me.
And why was I then more wise?
Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.
So he's basically saying, you know, wisdom is definitely better than foolishness,
but if we're all going to die and everything's going to be forgotten, then what's the point?
And again, this is from a perspective of without God, there's no point in learning.
But with God, there is a point in learning.
And then we add to our knowledge charity to temper that.
And look, here's the thing.
If you want to gain more knowledge, be humble because if God sees you being humble,
then he'll say, okay, I'm going to give this guy more opportunities to get more knowledge
because it's not going to go to his head because he's being humble with it.
You know, it's sort of like if you're, if you're making money and you're being
a good steward with your money, then God is likely to allow you to keep making money.
Whereas if he sees you ruining your life with that money, he might say, well, you know,
this guy can't handle money.
Let me make, let me keep this guy poor.
I got to keep this guy on a short lease.
You know what I'm saying?
Like if you want God to bless you, you got to show God that you can handle being blessed
without it going to your head.
Because if every time God blesses you, you get all prideful and arrogant and puffed up.
If you start getting knowledge or getting money or anything else, then he's just going
to take it away from you.
So, you know, want to show God that we can handle or how about authority?
You know, if, if, what if you're put in a position of authority, like, like I talked
to a pastor not that long ago and he told me about, he had put this guy in a position
of authority where, you know, I don't remember exactly what the position was, but he put
him in some kind of a position of authority in the church.
And the guy just all of a sudden just kind of became a little Hitler all of a sudden.
You know, where all of a sudden he just is just kind of flexing his authority.
And it was like, Whoa, buddy.
You know, he was just given a little authority.
You know, look, if you're given opportunities to preach and you're given a position of
authority, you don't want to just let that go to your head.
And all of a sudden, now you're just kind of ordering people around and just,
and, and, and, you know, and, and he, and the pastor that I talked to, he
ended up having to take away this guy's authority because the guy was just so private.
Like the guy got up behind the pulpit and was just talking about like, I have authority.
And he wasn't, it wasn't like he was even the pastor of the church.
He's like, he's just getting up and just saying to the congregation.
It's, it's, it's sort of like those memes where it's like nobody.
And then it's like this guy, I have authority, you know, like,
and, and just kind of go, you know, if you're that kind of a person, then,
you know, your earthly leader is not going to want to promote you.
But how much less your father in heaven when he sees it go into your head
and all of a sudden you just get all puffed up with it.
He's going to take that away from you.
Okay.
So he says in verse 16, there's no remembrance of the wise man,
the wise more than of the fool forever.
Seeing that which now is in the days to come,
shall be forgotten how diet the wise man as the fool.
We already talked about that last week.
I'm not going to rehash that.
Therefore, I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous
unto me for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
I got to hurry, but I just want to point out that the guy who has the most pleasure,
money, fame, and fortune hates life.
That explains Hollywood.
That explains the musicians, why they're depressed, why they can't stay married, et cetera.
Verse 18.
Yeah, I hated all my labor, which I had taken under the sun because I should leave
it under the man that should be, that shall be after me.
And who knows whether he should be a wise man or a fool verse 19.
Yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored and wherein I have
shown myself wise under the sun.
This also is vanity.
Therefore, I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor,
which I took under the sun.
For there is a man whose labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and in equity.
Yet to a man that has not labored there in shall he leave it for his portion.
This also is vanity and a great evil.
It really bothers Solomon that when he dies, he's going to leave everything to his son
and his son might mess things up.
And his son didn't earn it.
Everything's just being handed to him.
And that really bothers Solomon that he worked so hard and that someone else just kind of
walks into what he worked so hard for.
Now, this is obviously a wrong thought because of the fact that it's a prideful thought.
This is a prideful thought that Solomon is having here because he's basically thinking
to himself like, well, I'm better than the next guy.
You know, I achieved all this.
It's just not fair that I worked so hard and I was so smart and I did all this.
And then the next guy just gets it handed him.
Now, number one, that's a prideful thought to try to glory in your own achievements
when really it was God who gave him everything.
But not only that, stop and think about it.
Didn't Solomon kind of have everything handed to him too?
Stop and think about the hypocrisy here for a second.
Didn't David unify the kingdom, build the capital at Jerusalem, conquer Jerusalem,
build the capital Jerusalem.
And then in fact, what's Solomon's biggest achievement that Solomon's known for?
What's the biggest achievement?
The temple, right?
Okay, but what did David do?
Made the plans for the temple and set aside all the building materials and had all the
materials and all the plans, all the relationships with the other kings that to, you know,
to bring the cedars and to all the manpower because they had to bring in the guest worker,
you know, the guest visas and bring in the guest worker program.
Wasn't everything kind of handed to Solomon a little bit too?
But isn't this how people are?
You know, I was just talking to a guy today out soul winning.
And, you know, explaining to him how salvation is free.
You know, it's a free gift, believe on Christ.
But then his hang up was, well, what about murderers?
And I said, well, you know, here's the thing.
You're getting a free pass, but you don't want them to get a free pass.
What about all your sins, right?
Like, well, okay.
And he's like, well, they don't deserve to be saved.
And I told him, I don't deserve to be saved.
You don't deserve to be saved.
None of us deserve to be saved.
So, you know, I'm not going to begrudge them a free pass and say,
well, how dare that murderer be forgiven of murder?
You know, I mean, yeah, I should be forgiven of all the stuff I did,
but what, you know, this guy, isn't that hypocritical?
You know, our sins always look worse on other people, but we're all sinners.
Now, obviously I'm not saying that all sin is equal,
but still we're all equally condemned to hell.
We're all guilty if we've sinned.
Because the Bible says, if you keep the whole law and you defend in one point,
you're guilty of all.
For you that said, do not commit adultery, said also do not kill.
So, you know, either one of those will condemn you.
And so this guy struggled with that, you know, of, well, that guy shouldn't get it,
you know, and that's kind of how Solomon's being hypocritical here.
And again, remember when we read Ecclesiastes,
the correct way to interpret this is you have to follow his thought process and his journey.
Every thought that he has along the way is not a right thought.
It's recording the, you say, well, every word in the Bible is true.
Yeah, it's true that this is what he thought.
This is what he was thinking about.
This is what he was exploring.
He's explaining his journey.
It starts out in chapter one, verse one, the words of the preacher.
This is what he's saying.
Okay, but of course his conclusions that he arrives at in Ecclesiastes are absolute truth,
because the book is inspired by God.
So it's authoritative when it comes to his conclusions.
But if you took verses out of context here, you could get some real weird doctrine, couldn't you?
That's not fair that I have to leave everything to somebody else.
What if he's not as smart as I am?
Is that a righteous attitude when everything was handed to you?
Or how about this?
Try this on verse 24.
How would you like to take this out of context?
There's nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink
and that he should make his soul enjoy good and his labor.
I mean, what if you just took just that sentence?
There's nothing better than eating and drinking.
Nothing.
Soul winning?
We should be eating and drinking.
I mean, think about it.
Is that really by itself?
No, that's one of the steps in his thought process to arriving at the truth, okay?
So we don't want to take things out of context.
So I want to point out the hypocrisy here in this thought of,
well, you know, I don't want to leave it to the next guy.
But here's the thing that Solomon doesn't want to face.
You can't take it with you.
You know, Job said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Bible says we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.
We shall carry nothing out, my friend.
And so does that bother you?
Because it doesn't bother me at all.
I never worry about this.
I'm never just like, man, I'm, you know, I'm paying all these house payments.
I'm getting all this equity and, you know, I've got this collection and that, you know,
I don't, I just don't really have any stuff that's worth worrying about.
But like, you know, can you imagine just thinking like, man, I got this nice house.
Who's going to have it after I die?
Some, some bozo, why would that bother you?
If that bothers you, you have too tight of a grip on the things of this world.
It shouldn't matter.
That should be the last thing on your mind.
The whole point of your house is just that you can just live in it while you're here.
After I die, I don't care what happens to my house.
I don't care what happens to my stamp collection.
I don't have one, you know, or, or your, my beanie babies or my GI Joes or my Star
Wars action figures.
I don't have any of these things, by the way.
Who cares, right?
Does it really matter?
But that's what he's worried about, you know, because he's into stuff.
He's into things.
He's into money at this point.
And then it says in verse 22, for what half man of all his labor and of the vexation
of his heart, where he's labored under the sun for all his days are sorrows and
his travail grief.
Yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night.
This also is vanity.
Yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night.
This also is vanity.
Does that describe your life?
Because that does not describe my life.
Like I would not say about my life that all my days are sorrows.
Today was a bad day.
Tuesday was a bad day.
Monday was miserable.
Tomorrow is just going to be super lame.
It's been a horrible week.
It's been a horrible year.
My life is torture.
I mean, was, is that how you would describe your life?
Not me.
I mean, I've got the joy of the Lord.
Every single day I'm thinking like, this is the day which the Lord hath made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Isn't that the Christian attitude?
We're always rejoicing, the Bible says.
We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
So is it really accurate to say all our days are sorrows?
No, but here's the thing.
This verse is accurate because it's about people who are into their money.
They're living for self.
They're living for this world.
They're not living for God.
It's depressing.
I don't care how many cars you have.
I don't care how many achievements you have.
How many awards you have.
How many degrees you have.
It's depressing.
Living without God, you're without hope.
And it's depressing.
His days are sorrows.
His travail is grief.
And then it says, his heart taketh not rest in the night.
Now, why can't he sleep at night?
Well, first of all, if you work too hard, if you overwork, you can have trouble sleeping at night.
Now, usually people don't sleep for the opposite reason.
Usually when people can't sleep, it's because they're too lazy.
Because if you don't work enough, you also can't sleep at night, right?
It's like people sit around all day and watch TV, play video games, or maybe they go to a
job, but it's very sedentary and they're not even really using that brain that much.
And they're just kind of just chilling all day.
And then they're like, why can't I sleep at night?
Because it's like, you're telling your body to rest and your body's like, isn't that
what we've been doing all day?
So, you know, if you work hard, the Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet.
But there's such a thing as over doing it.
Because, you know, I like to exercise a lot.
Who's kind of an exercise junkie?
You're just addicted to exercise.
Yeah, all three of us.
Yeah.
No, there's like five out of a couple hundred.
But anyway, so here's the thing about that.
I love exercise, okay?
And exercise helps you sleep.
But there's something called over-training.
And anybody who exercises a lot knows about over-training.
And I'll tell you, the first sign that I know that I'm over-training is that I can't
sleep at night.
Like, I'll go to bed and wake up at two in the morning, and my first thought is just
I'm over-training.
Because when you over-train, you can't sleep.
So it's possible to go too far in the other direction.
Same thing if I study too much and I use my brain too much.
Again, I'll wake up at two in the morning.
Over-trained.
Then I look in the mirror, and there's this vein on my head that's like bulging
out of my head.
And this vein only bulges out of my head if I'm over-trained.
And then I realize, okay, dial it back.
Take a couple rest days.
You're overdoing it.
You know, you got to find that balance.
Well, here's the thing, you know, when you're out there just working hard and busy, busy,
busy, there's two reasons why you might not be able to sleep.
Number one, because overwork and worrying, obviously, worrying keeps people up at night
too, doesn't it?
Overwork and worrying causes you not to be able to sleep.
Okay, whereas if you go out and you work hard, and then you relax, and you have
balance, and then you go to bed at night, and you're thankful, you're praying to the
Lord, you have peace like a river, you can sleep like a baby.
And look, I'm not down on you if you have a sleeping disorder or something, okay?
I'm just, I'm saying in general.
The exception proves the rule, but in general, if you're living a healthy lifestyle, one
of the signs of a healthy lifestyle is that you can sleep at night.
Would you agree with that?
That a healthy person sleeps, and that if you can't sleep at night, that's a disorder,
right?
And I think when you get old, you have trouble sleeping too, but I wouldn't know, because
I'm only 39, so I don't know.
But anyway, some of you could tell me after the service whether that's true or not.
But the Bible says, the sleep of a laboring man is sweet, but the abundance of the rich
will not suffer him to sleep.
The abundance of the rich doesn't allow him to sleep because he's worrying about
his bottom line.
He's worried about the stock market.
He's worried about the economy.
He's worried about the gasoline shortage.
You know, is there a gasoline shortage or is that real or no?
Is it actually real though?
Wow, that's what you call a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But that is another sermon that shall be preached at another time.
When you say there's going to be a shortage, and by saying that, you create the shortage
because then everybody goes out and buys toilet paper.
Hello, is anybody home?
Did we learn anything from last year about the toilet paper?
There's nothing better for a man, verse 24, than that he should eat and drink and
that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor.
This also I saw that it was from the hand of God.
Now here he's understanding and acknowledging the fact that every blessing that we have
comes from God.
Now the New Testament teaches this clearly when it says every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness
neither shadow of turning.
So every meal that we eat, why do we thank God?
Like why should I thank God?
You know, my wife cooked it.
Dad paid for it.
I worked for it.
No, no, no.
Everything's from God.
Every gift can be traced back to God ultimately.
So it's from the hand of God.
But here's what I found really interesting about this verse is that in verse 25 he says
for and what part of speech is the word for?
Oh, you simply country boys out there.
You know, I never did learn much about grammar and mathematics and I never have
had to use algebra.
Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.
What part of speech is that for?
It's a conjunction, right?
So if it's a conjunction is connecting, you know, for what does we don't really say
for in modern day, what would we say instead of for?
We'd say because, right?
We use the word because we don't really use for, but it means the
exact same thing.
So it's basically saying because who can eat or who else can hasten hereunto more than
I.
Now let's put that whole thought together.
He says at the end of verse 24, I saw that it was from the hand of God for who
can eat or who else can hasten hereunto more than I.
For God give it to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy.
So he's saying the reason that I know that the ability to eat and drink comes from
God is because I did that which was good in the past.
And basically I had an abundance.
So he's basically experienced this.
That's what he's saying.
Okay.
And obviously, like I said, it's in the greater context of the whole story here.
God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy.
But to the sinner, he giveth travail to gather and to heap up that he may give to
him that is good before God.
This also has vanity and vexation of spirit.
And again, this goes along with what it says in Proverbs when it says the wealth
of the sinner is laid up for the just.
The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
So at the end of the day, God is the one who doles things out, right?
So he gives to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, knowledge and joy.
And to the sinner, he gives travail to heap up a bunch of stuff and then leave it to somebody.
Now, isn't that what he was just complaining about a few verses ago?
And I know this sermon is kind of complicated, but it's a complicated book and I'm doing
the best that I can with it here, okay?
But Ecclesiastes here, what did he say a little bit earlier?
He said, man, it stinks that I have to leave it to somebody else.
So now he's kind of thinking to himself, you know, I should really spend it, you know,
and eat it and enjoy it as much as I can rather than, you know, heaping it up for this
other guy who might be a bozo.
And he's thinking to himself, you know, God blesses people that he likes.
God blesses people that are good in his sight.
And it's really other bad people that end up stacking up a bunch of stuff and then,
you know, they're idiots and then they leave it to a good guy.
Kind of the opposite of what he was worried about earlier.
He's kind of worried about like, I'm really smart and I'm leaving it to an idiot.
Now he's saying, you know, people that God thinks are bad, he lets them accumulate
a bunch of stuff and then it gets left to a righteous person.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
So I know that's all kind of complicated and, you know, this chapter is a little bit
all over the place because, you know, the early chapters in Ecclesiastes are like
this.
I promise you it's going to get clearer, but it's, you know, in the beginning of
the book Solomon's confused about a lot of things and he's just explaining to us,
right now he's explaining the problems, you know, and then he's going to get
into more solutions as we go.
But first he's got to lay the groundwork.
These are the type of thoughts that people have, right?
They think, oh, money's going to bring me happiness.
Pleasure is going to bring me happiness.
I can learn more.
Nope, learning just makes me more miserable.
Let's be stupid.
No, that doesn't work.
Okay.
And, you know, down the line.
But what can we take from this?
How can we apply these last few statements here to our lives right here?
God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
You know, isn't that what we want?
I mean, we all want to have wisdom, knowledge, and joy.
God gives that to a man that's good in his sight.
And so what the Bible is saying here is, again, that every good thing comes from
God and the most important things, some of the most important things are knowledge,
wisdom, and joy.
And those things come from God.
Those are a blessing from God.
The Bible says in Daniel that God gives wisdom to the wise.
And so, you know, we should focus our lives
on pleasing God if we want to achieve success in this lifetime.
If we want to achieve success in this lifetime, we've got to focus on pleasing God.
That's what matters.
That's why the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
That's why the Bible said, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and
night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
You know, the Bible said in Joshua 1a, this book of the law shall not depart
out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.
And what are you going to get?
Good success.
How do you succeed in life?
How are you going to make your way prosperous?
What do you want in life?
Whatever you want, earthly speaking, you trust in the Lord,
you delight in him, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
If you go out seeking treasure, pleasure, anything else that ends in
azure, if you go out and seek these things, you're not going to find them.
But if you seek the Lord, those things will find you.
Now, if anyone should have understood this already, it's who?
Solomon.
Because how did Solomon start out his career?
He started out by making a great sacrifice to the Lord.
He made a massive sacrifice to the Lord.
He was very zealous for the Lord.
He wanted to worship the Lord.
And then the Lord appeared to him in a dream and asked him, what do you want?
Ask me what you want.
I'll give you anything you want.
And Solomon asked for a wise and understanding heart.
Because he said, I want to do a good job as king.
I want to do a good job.
I want to rule this great people.
You're great people, Israel.
I want to do a good job.
So give me wisdom and understanding.
And God said, because you did not seek for wealth, riches, long life, the life of your
enemies, he said, I'm going to give you what you wanted.
I'm going to give you wisdom more than anyone else.
And I'm also going to give you what you did not ask for.
I'm going to give you a long life, riches, everything else.
So this is one of the principles that I live by is that when it comes to these
things of this world, the joys of this world, the delights of this world, when it
comes to money, when it comes to these type of things, it's like a cat.
If you ignore it, it will come to you.
If you go chasing after it, it will run away.
So money is like a cat.
That's why our church, our church, if you notice our church in the last 16 years,
we've never had a fundraiser.
We never talk about money except when we're just preaching the word of God.
And even then, you know, it's, it's, it's few and far between, but only in the context
of preaching the word of God.
But we're not all into money and constantly talking about the budget and we got to raise
money and we got to have a fundraiser and this fund and that fund.
And you know, you need to give more and you need to, you know, give your whole
paycheck and everything.
We are one of the most non-money oriented churches.
And not only that, we give everything away for free.
I've never seen a church in my life that gives everything away for free until
Faithful Word Baptist Church and our friends who've learned this method.
We give all the stuff in the back, Bibles, CDs, DVDs, other churches have a
church bookstore in the back.
We have a church book, giveaway, DVDs, Bibles, whatever.
We have a church activity.
It's free.
The food's free and there's not like a guilt suggested donation or something.
It's just free.
So how does the church that doesn't raise money, doesn't have fundraisers,
doesn't talk much about money and gives everything away for free, gives, gives
just a stupid amount of stuff away for free.
How is it that we have never run out of money?
We always have enough money.
All our bills are paid.
And by the way, you know what our debt is?
Zero.
16 years of zero debt.
16 years of operating in cash.
How?
Because we don't care.
You know, if you call this 1-900 number, I'll explain to you the secrets
of our church's financial success.
You know, for just three easy payments of $29.95, you can get my whole cassette
series, you can get my whole CD series.
Actually, I can give it to you on a 3x5 card for free after the service.
Pastor Anderson's financial success secrets.
It's three words.
I don't care.
I'm not kidding.
I don't care.
We don't care.
Therefore, we have what we need.
Why?
Because God said that the love of money is the root of all evil.
So if God looks down and sees us loving money, worshiping money, obsessing over money,
thinking about money all the time, you know what, that's not going to work.
That's not right.
But when God sees us seeking first the kingdom of God and not taking any thought
for those other things, you know, God just fills our barns with plenty because we
acknowledge him, we put him first, and we don't care.
But it's not just money that's like that, my friend.
It's almost everything in life.
If you go out and you just want success so bad, you're not going to have it.
Oh, I just want money so bad.
That's not how you get it.
And here's the perfect example.
Being cool.
Have you ever seen people trying a little too hard to be cool?
And you know what?
To be cool.
And you know what?
Every teenager is guilty of this.
99% of teenagers.
You can tell yourself you're the exception, oh teenager.
But all your other peers are guilty of it.
I know you're not.
But I said 99%, so everyone else is.
You know, teenagers want to be cool so bad.
They try so hard to be cool.
But you know who the actual cool kids are?
The ones who don't care about being cool, and they're just real.
They're just themselves.
And they just, because the definition of cool is not caring.
So trying to be cool is like an oxymoron.
And I'll tell you who looks like a real moron are the people who are like 50 years old,
and they're the pastor of a church, and they're in like skinny jeans and a graphic tee,
and they're like trying to be cool and trying to be hip.
They're trying too hard.
And even you teenagers are trying too hard.
My sister used to always tell the story about this girl that would come to school,
and her hair was always messed up, and she'd come just like all disheveled and like wrapped
in a blanket.
You remember those kind of kids?
And it was like you'd think that she would have been considered the biggest dork or loser,
but she was literally the number one most popular girl in the school.
And she didn't care.
Now I'm not recommending you take it to that level.
And she didn't care.
Now I'm not recommending you take it to that level or that extreme.
But I will say this.
You know what?
The clothes that you wear, your personal appearance, it's vanity.
It's not that important.
You know, let me explain it to you this way.
When you're a teenager, you really care what everybody thinks about you.
When you're in your 20s, you stop caring so much about what people think about you.
When you get into your 30s, you realize people aren't thinking about you.
So that's the progression, my friend.
That's wisdom.
You know, seriously, you're so worried about what everybody thinks.
Nobody cares.
You know, it's like that meme that you post about the messing up on the music.
It's like, you know, I remember playing a false note in church on piano one time,
and I was just, like, horrified, and I was apologizing to people,
and they're like, what are you talking about?
We just thought you were just adding a little style, you know.
Nobody knows.
And this guy told me, he's like, no one here knows enough about music
to even know that was a mistake.
Who cares?
You know, it's like big deal.
And let's say you even just like, just hit the wrong note.
You know what?
People might giggle about it, but probably 10 seconds later,
everybody forgot 10 seconds later, and nobody cares.
So look, don't spend your life trying to have wealth, trying to have money,
trying to have fame, trying to be cool, trying to just achieve worldly success.
Hey, spend your time communing with God, loving God, seeking God,
doing his will, doing his work, and you know what?
He'll bless you.
And you know what?
Look, you know, I came to certain crossroads in my life where I had to choose, you know.
Am I going to go with worldly success or am I going to go with seeking first the kingdom of God?
And let me tell you something, you'll never regret seeking first the kingdom of God.
And you know what?
God has given me the desires of my heart over the years.
And the things that I've wanted, I've received from the Lord.
And so it's like a cat, right?
Ignore it and it will come to you.
Seek first the kingdom of God and you'll be like a spiritual cat lady.
You'll be surrounded by cats.
If you seek first the kingdom of God, all these cats will be added unto you.
All these cats, you know, the money cat and the, and the, you know, the coolness cat.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, I'm just saying, you know,
quit worrying so much about seeking the things that this world has to offer
because it's not going to make you happy.
Serve God.
He is the one who can give you the knowledge, the wisdom, and the joy.
He's the one that can give you the desires of your heart.
So focus all your energy on doing what he wants you to do and obeying him.
That's the main thing.
Like everything else is just secondary.
Make it all about God in your life and you'll succeed at everything else.
So as far as, and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
And this is a difficult book, Lord.
It's, it's kind of difficult to follow Solomon's thought sometimes here in these chapters, Lord.
But help us to gain from the, the truth of, of Solomon's struggle here and, and, and Solomon's
ordeal of just trying to figure out how to live life and what we should do with our lives, Lord.
Thankfully, Lord, you've given us the entire Bible and especially the New Testament
that tells us exactly how to live our lives, Lord.
So help us to follow that advice and, and not make the mistakes that Solomon made,
but rather go straight for seeking first the kingdom of God.
And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.