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All right, amen. Ecclesiastes chapter number three, the great time chapter in the Bible. Heard a lot of different messages on this and I'm looking forward to being able to preach this tonight. Now for a title, we're gonna go with this, with it's time, okay? Because obviously the chapter is centered around time, but really it's centered around again, like we've been saying the last couple of weeks, that Solomon is on a quest by experiment, okay? And so essentially he's put the word of God aside, and his wives have convinced him to basically go a different direction, to go a false direction. He's put the word of God aside and he's viewing life from a human perspective, from a human standpoint, okay? So with that being said, this evening, we're gonna focus on four things in this chapter, and that is life is provisional, death is unavoidable, judgment is unstoppable, and eternity is inescapable, okay? So we're gonna look at those four things. Now, before we do, I wanna highlight a phrase in here, then we're gonna study this phrase and what it means, and then we're gonna come back and go through the chapter with those four points in mind. So just real quickly, look over at verse number 10. Look over at verse number 10. So the Bible says, I have seen the travail which God hath given, and look at this next phrase here, to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Now look over at verse number 19, for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts. Okay, now you can go back to the beginning there and actually keep your place there and go to Genesis chapter number six, Genesis chapter number six. I've heard this preached before that Solomon was so messed up that he didn't even know which way was up, which way was down, and then he got to a point in his life where he didn't even understand the difference between a beast dying and a man dying. And so in other words, he had no clue what was going on. I've actually heard that preached before. You got my old notes in there, and I was looking at that and I was like, ooh, I gotta bring that up. How do people come to that conclusion? Well, one of the reasons people come to that conclusion is because they're not saved. But aside from that, it's because they don't understand who the sons of men are. And you're gonna see that the same people that preach that sort of thing are the same people that believe that the sons of God mentioned in Genesis chapter six are actually fallen angels and things of that nature that we talked about before. Definitely a false doctrine, but I wanna show you what this means. Who are the sons of men? So we're gonna get this definition down tonight real quickly. And then when we go through the chapter, you'll understand very clearly what he's talking about and who the sons of men are. So Genesis chapter six, first book in the Bible. Let's look down here at verse number one. So it says, and it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them. And I want you to have in your mind right there, that is one group, that is one group of people. Okay, there's one group of people. And I'm gonna show you that here in a second. Here is the next group of people. Verse number two, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men. Notice there's two groups of people now. Everybody see that? The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose. And that led to something disastrous. Okay, that led to something not good. Look at verse three. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. So obviously before this point, you read about people living into the well deep hundreds in their lives. Verse number four, it says there were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the sons, or I'm sorry, the daughters of men, they bare children to them, the same became mighty men. Okay, not mighty hybrids, not mighty hybrids, half alien, half demon, half man, whatever you wanna call it. Okay, not Nephilim. Okay, that's not found anywhere in the Bible. They became mighty men, which were of old men of renown. I've done sermons detailed in the past, proving beyond a shadow of doubt that the Bible does not teach. Okay, the Bible does not teach that angels came down here and made it with humans. That's not what this is talking about. We're talking about two groups of people. You have the sons of God and the daughters of men. Okay, the daughters of men are the same as the sons of men in Ecclesiastes chapter number three. So, okay, now we're gonna come back to chapter six here, but go to chapter four real quick. Go to Genesis chapter four, and I'll show you this. So where do these sons of God, okay, who are they? Where did they come from? Does the Bible tell us? And the answer is obviously, yes, it does. So Genesis chapter number four, we're gonna pick it up right here in verse number 25. Of course, this is after Cain kills Abel, after he murders him of his own accord, commits obviously a very grievous sin before the Lord. Okay, and then God allows Eve to bear a son and they named him Seth. Verse 25, look what it says. It says, and Adam knew his wife again, and she bear a son and called his name Seth. For God said she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. Okay, now look at this here in verse 26. It says, and to Seth to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. And this is so important here. Then began men, okay, look at this. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. So what you have to understand there, by the time you've gotten this far in the Bible, you realize something, okay? You realize that the population has increased now. It has increased to a point to where people are further apart. And so there is now this movement to, hey, you know, now that there are more people being born, you don't know the Lord, you need to go from man to being born again, i.e. calling upon the name of the Lord, getting saved, okay? And so we see that to start here during the time of Seth. Now, when you go over to chapter five, and in fact, go ahead and go over to chapter five, it's kind of like a parenthetical insert. Verse one of chapter five starts off and says, this is the book of the generations of Adam and the day that God created man and the likeness of God made he them, okay? We don't have time to break this down here, but basically you're getting a genealogy of people here, okay, from Adam all the way through Seth down to a guy you might be familiar with here, we're just gonna skip ahead for sake of time and verse 24, a man by the name of Enoch, okay? So remember during the time period of Seth, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. So men realizing, oh, okay, I'm sorry, I'm born in this fallen state, I need to get born again, okay? So what do we see here in verse 24? And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. So what are we looking at here? Okay, well, if you study this out here, go back to chapter four, look at verse 25, look at verse 26, and then read through the chapter here, you're getting a line of basically saved people, what we would say are Christians, the godly people, okay, the sons of God, because we all in this church understand that you have to pass from death unto life and how do you do that? Well, it's been the same process since the beginning of time, okay? You call upon the name of the Lord, you're saved, you're born again, you're in the family, okay? So we see Enoch here, this guy, we don't know much about him, he walked with God, gee, I wonder where he learned that from? How did he become a son of God? Oh, that's right, because of Seth, because of Adam, so on and so forth, okay? And then it goes down, verse 25 talks about Methuselah, look at verse 29, it says, and he called his name Noah. So after Methuselah begets Lamech, Lamech begets a guy, very, very popular in the Bible, Noah, right, most people have heard about Noah. So verse 29, and he called his name Noah, saying this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. Look at verse 31, it says, in all the days of Lamech were 770 and seven years, and he died, verse 32, and Noah was 500 years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now, go to chapter six and look at the very first word, okay, so in order to understand this, and in order to defeat these Nephilim characters, okay, these sci-fi dispensational alien lovers, okay, you have to pay attention to continuity, you have to understand that the Bible has breaks in it, and it's not always with the chapter divisions, okay? First word of Genesis chapter six, and, okay, this connects these thoughts here, okay? And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, okay? Now, we saw in Genesis chapter four that men began to call upon the name of the Lord, thus creating a second group of people. So you have ordinary fallen state man, and then now you have born again man, you have regenerated man, saved man, right here we see verse number one, the Bible telling us through the process of time, men began to multiply, okay? So people are being born, they're living their lives, some people are calling on the name of the Lord, some are obviously not. Verse two, that the sons of God, okay, that is that same line that you picked up on in Genesis chapter number four, and followed throughout chapter number five, okay? That the sons of God saw that the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And of course, we don't have time to get into this, but this leads into a lesson of why a saved person should not yoke up with a person of the world, a person who is not saved. It leads to disaster, what happens after this? God floods the world because the world becomes filled with wickedness. So the sons of God, they got all the good stuff, the principles, the word of God, they're saved, and then they marry these heathen women who were mighty and from, you know, wealthy families or whatever you wanna say, and so they got their work ethic, their smarts, and they basically didn't apply the principles of God, and so the world turned upside down, and it led to disasters, okay? And so I had to bring you here to teach you that, that when you read that phrase, the sons of men, we're not talking about the sons of God, we're not talking about the saved, okay? So just keep that in mind there. You might have to write those down and go back and just kind of meditate on that, but let's get back to the study. Now go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number three, and let's move on here. So verses one through eight, we're gonna look at what that teaches us, okay? It teaches us that life is provisional, life is temporary, and before we start in verse number one, let me just turn your attention to verse number 11 real quick, okay? Look at this here, it says, "'He,' and this is referring to God, "'hath made everything beautiful in his time. "'Also, he hath set the world in their heart "'so that no man can find out the work "'that God maketh from the beginning to the end.'" Now go back to verse number one. And so life is provisional, life is temporary, and time is in God's hands, okay? That is what you're going to learn here in these first eight verses. God has ordained time for every purpose and season, and that's exactly what you see here. Now look at verse number one. So it says, "'To every thing there is a season "'and a time to every purpose under heaven.'" Now remember the style in which Ecclesiastes is written, okay, is written by who? By Solomon, and how does he identify himself when he's writing this? The preacher, meaning this is supposed to be easy to understood. The method of communication here is a sermon, okay? And so that's what you're getting. But it's a sermon preached by somebody who actually went on a quest by experiment and basically had put in the word of God down. Okay, and what do we learn right here? "'To every thing there is a season "'and a time to every purpose under heaven.'" There are a lot of purposes under heaven, and all of them have a select time. And so I mean right off the bat, what I would say there is no matter what season you're in, you need to look for the enjoyment because that season will not come back, okay? That season is one and done, okay? And again, these are not in here to give us like this doomy, gloomy type picture, okay? In fact, what you're gonna really understand from reading this chapter here is that the Lord want, you know, the whole point is our time is precious. Your time is a gift from God. Nobody knows how much time we have, okay? And so God wants your precious time, not your spare time, okay? That's definitely what I think you're gonna see here. Now look at verse number two. It says, a time to be born, and just look at these contrasts, okay? A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up, that which is planted, pretty simple there, okay? He's trying to demonstrate the cycles of life, the seasons of life. There's a time to be born, obviously a time to die. These are non-negotiables. These are things that happen. There's no, oh, I identify as I didn't get born. No, okay, sorry, that does not work. Now we're gonna kind of park it here for a second. Look at these first four words of verse number three. A time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up. A lot of times here, this is so easy to find. People will say this in the original language, shouldn't say kill, it should say murder, okay? And those are the same people that will attack Exodus chapter 20 the same way. In fact, just turn there real quickly. Go back and keep your place there in Ecclesiastes three, go to Exodus chapter number 20. This is where we get the 10 commandments from, okay? And people will say, well, there may be a time to kill, but really, although even worse, they'll say this, there's never a time to kill, okay? And so really what that word means there is murder, and you should never murder anybody. Of course, everybody understands that, okay? Now, let me just kind of show you something here regarding the 10 commandments. So in verse number three, where we find the first commandment, thou shall have no other gods before me, okay? Notice the word thou, okay? That word thou. Thou in the King James Bible is what? It is singular, okay? Now, how most of professing Christianity looks at these commandments as general guidelines and rules that Old Testament Israel basically had to abide by. So it's just like, well, these are rules for you as a nation, okay? But that's not necessarily the way it is, okay? These are commandments meant to be memorized and internalized, okay? That's why God is giving them to Moses in the way that he's giving them to thou, okay? Meaning you specifically as an individual shall have no other gods before me. So if each individual adopts that principle and says, I agree with that, that's exactly what I'm gonna do, then guess what? The nation as a whole is gonna be much stronger than just like, well, this is just kind of the law of the land, or this is just kind of the general rule, okay? Commandment number two is found in verse number four. We're not gonna read the whole thing. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image. Again, notice the singular word there, thou, you specifically, okay? All the way down in verse number seven, thou shall not take the name of the Lord, or I'm sorry, of the, yeah, of the Lord thy God in vain, okay? That is the third commandment. Again, what's the first word? Thou, you individually, specifically. Fourth commandment starts with a, remember the Sabbath day found in verse eight. Commandment number five is honor thy father and thy mother. Now the sixth commandment, this is the one that everybody likes to correct, because man loves to correct the Bible, found in verse 13, thou shall not kill. Now say, ah, see right here, this word is incorrect, it doesn't belong here. It should say murder, okay? No, it should say kill, because what the point is, is that you of an individual should not decide, ah, I'm gonna go out and kill this person, okay? Murder is easy, that's low-hanging fruit. Everybody knows that, okay? That's included in this. But the reason why kill is there as opposed to murder, is because everybody in their minds can observe situations, okay? Where somebody needs to be killed, and for a righteous, just cause. We all know people like that, we've all heard of people like that, they're everywhere. They're the types of people that our government loves to protect and promote, aren't they? We know this, but despite that, even though it's right that they die, we of our own accord individually, thou, do not have the right to take that matter into our own hands. So by putting kill in there, it's stronger and it covers murder, but it also covers the vigilantism as well, okay? So we don't need the scholar, oh, individual languages. You know, it really bugs me, it bothers me. In fact, it infuriates me every time I hear that. And so I just wanted to bring that up because there's a time to rebuke idiots, okay? So with that being said, let's go back to chapter number three in the book of Ecclesiastes and move on here. So again, we're talking about the first eight verses here. Life is provisional, that's what it teaches us. Remember, the Lord wants our precious time, not our spare time. So verse three, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up. And you're gonna find all of these things taking place on the earth somewhere, okay? Verse number four, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. It's funny because there are some denominations say, oh, if you ever dance in your life, that's sinful, it sends you to hell. There are people out there like that, tons of them, all kinds of them. Well, but the Bible says there is a time to dance. Now, of course, the Pentecostals think that the time to dance is during the service when the preaching's going on and the pastor's got the tambourine and he's really going to town, okay? No, that's not found in the Bible either, okay? There's a time for all of these things. The goal for us is to realize when that time is so that we're not out of times, that our timing's not off, okay? Verse number five, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. Together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. Verse six, a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. You know, again, with any of these things, okay, obviously we're gonna go through seasons and sometimes those seasons are not very pleasurable. Again, that's why we have the Lord, okay? Because the Lord can help us and put an end to those hard seasons. But even in those hard seasons of life, what are we doing? We're learning, God is showing us something. We're learning something about ourselves and the decisions that we make, okay? Verse seven, a time to rend. Now, what does that mean, a time to rend? Well, it means to tear. Look at the opposite there, a time to rend and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. And this is one all of us get wrong from time to time. There is a time when we're supposed to be quiet and we're not. This is a time where we should speak up and we don't. Okay, verse number eight, a time to love and a time to hate. That's another one, okay? You got that whole controversy with kill, but this hate one, okay? This one here, the world does not want you to see, but the Bible is very clear. There is a time to hate and I can't digress the sermon and go off into that. I've done that in the past. We all know that there is a time to hate. The Bible proves that. Jesus talked about it. It is a thing, okay? But it's not all the time and everything. When you run into people like that, it's just, I hate everything and everyone, okay? That you're just dealing with a very miserable person. Verse number nine, what profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth, okay? And so Solomon here, remember, class by experiment. He has essentially put the word of God aside and he's looking at life through the lens of the unsaved man, through the life of a son of man or a daughter of man that we looked at back in Genesis chapter number six. So, one thing that is interesting here, okay, is there's this song, it's called Turn, Turn, Turn by a band from the 60s called The Bird, B-Y-R-D, or maybe it's The Birds, I forgot. But anyways, this song actually copies and sings the first eight verses of Ecclesiastes. Now, what's interesting about this song are several things, okay? Number one, it was actually written in, I wanna say the late 50s, and I already forgot the guy's name, okay? Just type in turn, turn, turn, and Google it. It'll pop up, it's not important. Okay, but it was actually written by a guy, I think his name was Paul, Paul Seeger? No, Peter, Peter Seeger? Okay, Jessica's not speaking in church, his mouth is, we can do that, okay? That helps me out. But anyway, so this guy in the 50s, he copies the word of God and he writes this and it doesn't go anywhere, okay? It doesn't go anywhere and it just kinda floats around music land until midway through the 60s when it becomes a hit. In fact, it becomes a hit on the Billboard charts for like three weeks in a row, which I guess was a big deal back then. I hate the sound of all that stuff, so I'm not gonna play you a sample, okay? It's not important. What's important is the question, okay? Why was that song, which quotes the word of God, very popular in the mid 60s, but it wasn't in the 50s? Hmm, let's think about this here. What was going on in the 50s, I'm sorry, in the 60s and in the 70s? Will you have the communist, hippie, flower girl type people, right? The hippies, everybody knows that. 60s, 70s, you got the big bell bottoms of hippies, all that stuff. What is the signature of hippies? What was that whole movement about? They were anti-God, okay? Obviously anti-war, even though the Bible says there was a time for war, and I'm not saying that any of the wars of recent or good or whatnot, but there is a time for war, but they're all anti-war, they're anti-God, they're anti-establishment, they were anti-authority, anti all sorts of things, kind of like the people that are out there today, okay? They're anti all of these things, and their message to the world is free thinking, love, drugs, rock, sex, all of these things, freedom to do whatever you want. Do as thou wilt, basically is their mantra, okay? And they claim to be spiritual, but yet they hate God, okay? And so all of these things can be found very intensely in the 60s, and again, we're trying to ask the question, what is a song, quoting the first eight verses of Ecclesiastes chapter three, why wasn't it popular in the 50s, but it became very popular in the 60s? Well, when you look at the culture and what was really booming back then, all that anti stuff, okay? People found themselves in the same position that Solomon had found himself when he digressed from following God, okay? So of course that makes sense, that's why that song then had become very popular. Then of course, out of that chaos, you know, whatever happened to all the hippies? Well, some of them are still around, you can find them around here, some of them are in this neighborhood actually, believe it or not, but basically what happened, and if you look at history, even just, you know, you just look at just very recent Baptist history, you know, people that came before us that had a King James Bible, that believed the word of God, that had right salvation, you know, they got to a point where people reached the end of their, you know, quest by experiment and realized life has no meaning, you know, this is terrifying, this is absolutely hurting my soul, and you know what those old preachers did? They took their independent fundamental Baptist churches and they went out and they took advantage of it. They went out and they got tons and tons and tons of people saved, to the point to where it became known as the Jesus movement, and of course then Hollywood has to mock it and try to counter it, and you wind up in the 80s and obviously, you know, we, here we are today, okay? So just something kind of interesting there, but again, the first eight verses here are life is provisional, okay? Now, if you're looking for some application, really for the whole book, you're gonna find that in verse 22, which we'll save for the end. Now, the next category that we're gonna look at here, we're not gonna go completely in order in the chapter today, but we're gonna look at this, we've already looked at life is provisional, okay? The first eight verses teach us that, but the next section we're gonna look at here is that death is unavoidable, very simple to understand, we know this, okay? Now, the reason why I've labeled that, look at verse number 19, it says, for that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them, as the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all his vanity. Okay, now that you guys, now that we all know who the sons of men are, these are the unsaved, those who have not called upon the name of the Lord, they look at life and they just come to this conclusion, well, we're no different than the beasts, we're no different than the animals. How many college professors do you have teaching not on any given day during the week? How many people do you have living out here that claim to believe that on any given day? Okay, it makes sense, you know that the answer are tons of them, this is how the world tends to view life, and this is what leads to their pessimistic behavior, this is what drives them insane, right? And it's obviously our job to put a stop to this, but if you look at verse number 20, it says, all go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust. Again, verse 21, who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of beast, or of the beast that goeth downward to the earth. Okay, Solomon's not saying like, I forgot the word of God I forgot that saved people go to heaven and lost people go to hell. He knows that, he knows what he's doing is wrong. Okay, remember, he's already told us, his wisdom did not depart from him, even though he's on this quest to find fulfillment in women, in money, in acquisitions, and in acquiring, getting things done, okay? He's simply reporting what he saw through the lens of the sons of men, through the lost, that's it. Now that's all he's saying, and so what does that teach us? That teaches us that death is unavoidable. What does that mean for the Christian? Well, what that means for the Christian is that our time is precious, and God doesn't want our spare time, he wants us to invest our precious time in getting that message out to the lost, so that we can get them out of this snare and out of this mental disaster, this way of thinking, okay, and the only way that happens is by getting people saved, okay? So, quick bit of application, we'll just back up to verse number 18 for this, remember, death is unavoidable, verses 19 through 21. So he says this, I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. Okay, what is he saying here? He's saying, hey, I want this information to get out so the men can realize that they're nothing special in and of themselves, that they're just beasts, they just need to understand that so that then they could be saved, kind of like Nebuchadnezzar. What did God do to put him back in the humble role? Made him operate as a beast, okay? Gave him the heart of a beast, and he ate grass like an ox, and he lived like a beast, what happened after that? He's like, there's only one God. He changed his tune real quickly if you go read through the book of Daniel, which unfortunately we don't have time to get to today. This is to get you familiar with these chapters. So, we're gonna back up now to verse number 16, look at the next category, which is judgment. Judgment is unavoidable, okay? We live in a world today where they say judgment is bad. There's Jim, what was that, Planet Fitness, okay? Planet Fitness, their logo. If you go down here on Milwaukee, you go to Natural Grocers, just look over, you'll see their logo, okay? No judgment here, okay? Well, that's just so stupid, because why did people make the judgment that they need your gym if they didn't look in the mirror and realize, all right, I need to get to work it out? But I digress, okay? Judgment is unavoidable. The world is attacking judgment because the Bible says that the spiritual judgeth all things. We need judgment. Judgment is very necessary, and you're gonna see here very quickly that there is no avoiding this. Verse 16, so Solomon says, and moreover, I saw under the sun, the place of judgment, okay? What's under the sun, what does that mean? Just on earth, okay? On earth, that's what he's saying. On earth is what? Judgment, okay? Judgment is everywhere. That wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. So on earth, again, what do you have? You have the wicked, and then you have the righteous, and then you have the people that are hanging in the balances, the people that have not made up their minds yet, okay? Those are basically your three groups of people here, and this coincides with what I taught you earlier, okay? Those two groups of people in Genesis. You have the sons of God, which are the saved, and then you have the sons or the daughters of men, which are the people of the world, people who have not been converted, who are not saved yet, and because of that, you're gonna have two philosophies. You're gonna have two ways on the planet earth, okay? You've got the wicked, and what do they promote? Well, they promote human achievement. Do, do, do, do, do, earn, earn, earn, earn, and then all will be well, despite what you believe. And what about the righteous? What is our message? Our message is salvation, that men are nothing but fallen creatures that need a savior, okay? And that's very simple to understand. Verse 17, I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. And we've spent a great deal of time a couple months ago talking about the judgment seat of Christ, great white throne judgment. I don't wanna rehash that tonight, but basically what you're finding here is that judgment is unavoidable. And so you could put it like this, okay? Look, 10 out of 10 people die. It's just the way it is. Two plus two equals four. What does that mean? Well, that means truth exists. Well, what did Jesus say? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the word of God. So again, God has installed in the world a visual everywhere that you turn, okay, that just screams out that he's here, that there is order, there is a creator, there was a designer, okay? And we ought to do well to look for him because judgment is unavoidable. So there is that. Now the last category we're gonna look at, I'm calling eternity is unescapable, okay? Eternity is unescapable and why is that? Well, because judgment is unavoidable. So let's go back to verse number 11 again and look at what that says. So it says he, again, actually back up to verse 10, I'm sorry, look at verse 10. I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. And you say, well, you know, that's not what that means. Okay, has God given his children just this grief outlook on life? Is that what you get from reading the epistles? Is that what you get from reading the gospels? No, read the verse slowly. I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Again, he's put the word of God aside and he's looking and living in the world like the sons of men, like a lost person, okay? And he's observing, he's seeing how things play out. And he's basically saying, this is terrible. Now look at verse 11. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. And of course, man today likes to try to buck the system saying, oh, we can find out everything. I remember being in school and seriously, third grade, I remember looking at the projector and a lot of you guys probably don't remember the projector you used to screens and nice little things like that. But they used to have these things called projectors and the teacher would put a slide on there and be clear. And it would just be like this image on the wall. And they'd be talking about, we know every species of bug. We know every animal. You guys are lucky to be growing up here in 1987 because we know everything. Now you fast forward a few years and you get to biology in high school and like, well, we don't know everything because everything's evolving. And it's just like, what a mess, man. Just shut up and get me out of here. I need to go live my life. This is confusing. I hate school, whatever, man, whatever. Okay, and so what Solomon is saying here is that God has established things from the invisible, from the eternal, okay? And so the only way a person's ever gonna understand that is if they can get saved, obviously saved, what does that mean? You have the Holy Ghost inside of you. You're now able to properly, rightly divide the word of truth and understand how God framed the world based on what he has told us, what he has given us, okay? Verse number 12, he says, I know that there is no good in them. Well, who was that? Is that Christians? Is that God's people? Who is that? Oh, it must be the sons of men. Okay, he says, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life. So he's like, hey, look, obviously, you know, God has blessed us with the ability, even amongst this curse that we're living in, to be able to partake of the fruits of our labor, okay? And of course, there's a whole sect out there that believes that any enjoyment is satanic, whatever, that's just garbage, okay? You have the right to take the fruits of your labor and enjoy it, okay? There's nothing wrong with having materialistic goods, again, as long as they don't have you, okay? And so he's saying, even though there's no good in them, he's like, what should you do? Well, do good in this life, in verse 13, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor. It is the gift of God. So he wants, again, the preacher wants man to see that and to come to that realization that there is eternity, eternity is unescapable. But while we're here, we oughta enjoy our time, we oughta make the most of it. Look, somebody once said this, lost time is never found, right? You know, we have a lost and found, it's not over there. It's wherever, depending on what's left behind. But you know, that is a true saying, lost time is never found, okay? You know, you ride a bad check or you go broke, that's something you can make up for. You know, you can earn more money, you can get, you know, you can establish a plan and get ahead, but man, that precious time, you don't get back, okay? You don't get back. And that's why I say the Lord wants your precious time, not your spare time. Verse 13 again, he says, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God, verse 14. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be. And here it is again, forever, okay? Solomon is saying, you know, even though I'm looking at life and I'm looking at the world through the lens of the sons of man, through the lens of the lost, he's saying, I still see God. I still see that life is provisional. I still see that death is unavoidable. I still see that judgment is inescapable as well as eternity, okay? Verse 14, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that the men should, or that man should fear before him, okay? Verse 15, that which hath been is now, and that which is to be have already been, and God requireth that which is past. And so you could almost say this, yesterday plus tomorrow equals today, okay? Today is like cash. Yesterday is like a spent check. Tomorrow's like a promissory note, but today is like cash. Today is what you actually have to spend, so spend it wisely. Make the absolute most of it. And so now we're gonna finish off here with some application, which is really just one verse here, and it covers all four of those points. You say, what are we supposed to do about this? Well, look at verse 22, because this is his conclusion here. Wherefore, I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion, for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? And of course, this also brings on, why worry about things, okay? Why should we be worrying about things? What's gonna take place later on down the road? We shouldn't, we should make the most of it. But if we as Christians make the most out of it and understand, you know, hey, we need to give God our precious time, okay? That is time that you do get back in the form of rewards in eternity, okay? Remember, so many people just have this attitude, I'll give God time if I have time, okay? A little bit of my spare time. You know, I've said this before that we live in America. We live in a nation, we live in a time where there's all sorts of apps, there's all sorts of devices designed to save you time. But yet we are a people that have the least amount of time in the world. You know, you ever think about that? Something is desperately wrong with the way that we're doing business. And it would be wise to realize that time is the most precious thing that you have to spend more so than money. Money's gonna collapse, but time, okay, time is a gift to you from God, so spend it wisely, and you won't ever, ever be disappointed. You will never have this shameful, harsh attitude that you see here from the sons of men. So, we'll stop right there for tonight, and we will go ahead and have one more song, and then we'll be dismissed, so let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the time that you've given us and the knowledge about time. I just pray, Lord, that you'd help us to spend our precious time wisely and not give you our spare time. And I pray you bless the fellowship after the service, and please bring us back safely this week. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.