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Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. Again, we appreciate your guys' support, appreciate your views, your comments, everything. And in this study tonight, Ecclesiastes chapter number 8, we're going to take a look at the other side of wisdom. Now obviously, wisdom's great. We need it. We love wisdom. We always preach it. We always teach it. We're always striving for it. But however, we have to be honest and we have to realize, even as God's people, that in this fallen world, even the wise can get destroyed by the bad guys. Now, what do we do about that? How do we approach that? Are there safeguards built in place for us so that we don't get discouraged? You're going to find the answer to that tonight. Enjoy the message. God bless. All right. Amen. Ecclesiastes chapter number 8. So, we're going to call this the other side of wisdom. Spent a lot of time in church talking about how to get wisdom, the benefits, what it does. I mean, there's just so many passages in the Bible about wisdom. It's really a difficult subject to get around, you know. And so you often find in churches, there's always something being mentioned about wisdom. Well, in this chapter, you get to see the other side of wisdom. So just a kind of a very quick overview. Remember last week, chapter 7, we talked about how we ought not to be righteous over much. So we don't want to be, I guess, superficially spiritual, right? We want to be righteous. We want to be sanctified. We want to be set apart. But there are limits to that. You don't want to go too crazy with that. You don't want to go too crazy with wisdom because it's going to destroy you. And so also chapter 7 does point out how there are a few people that actually find wisdom and how that's futile. Chapter 8, basically, you know, it's not a discouragement against wisdom by any means, but it does highlight some facts. It does teach us that even those who do find wisdom in this life are going to learn that it doesn't fix everything. There are wise people, godly people on this planet that get attacked, that die early, that fall prey to the wicked. You're going to find that even the wise man, though he be wiser than a king, still has to submit to the authorities. And that does bring a certain degree of misery. If I had to sum this chapter up in one statement, I would say even the wise can be destroyed by bad guys. That's one thing you got to just accept in life. You know, we go crazy a lot of times telling you about all the benefits of wisdom, and there are several. There are so many, it almost seems infinite. But remember, we live in a fallen world and there's a lot of bad things and a lot of bad people. And so with that, we have to also understand that it is not a fix all. It is not a magic pill. It is not something that guarantees you will never have a bad day. Remember, Jesus said in this life, you shall have tribulation. And so, of course, the good news to that is very obvious, right? We talked about it this morning. We ought to have the Lord's peace because he gives us this peace. We're allowed to retain this peace. And that is what carries us through. So wisdom, though, a big part of the Christian package, it is not the total game. It's not the total thing. It is a piece in our arsenal. It is a tool in our tool bag, so to speak. So that being said, let's go ahead and start working through this here. Verse number one says, who is as the wise man? And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine and his, I'm sorry, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. So there's this word that goes around quite often. Sometimes it's a trendy type thing. And it's the word aura, you know? How do you get more aura? There's books out there that you can buy, like how to be more, you know, horrific, I guess, I don't know if that's a word, but how to know when you walk into a room and how to get people to just turn their heads at you and how to get more respect from people, okay? We're gonna talk about the biblical way to do that, but just to give you some teaching on this first verse here, okay? Go to Numbers, so keep your place here, but go to Numbers chapter number six. So all the way back in your Old Testament there, Numbers chapter number six. Let me just show you something out of this real quick. Numbers chapter number, or yeah, Numbers chapter six. Look down, look down to verse 23, verse 23, okay? So remember what we just read, verse one, Ecclesiastes chapter number eight. Wisdom, okay, will change who you are. It will change how people see you. So we could say what man possesses on the inside will affect how he appears on the outside, right? We've all seen this. You've all met somebody and you're like, you know, something's off with this person. Something's just not quite right. Why do I get this feeling? I don't got any proof. I don't have any, you know, concrete evidence, but just something's not right, right? And you've met other people where you're like, you know, I don't know why, but I just really like this person. I just feel safe. I just feel, you know, very comfortable, you know, aside from the super experienced psychopath that can project that, you know, there's a reason for that, okay? And one of the reasons for that, you're gonna find in Ecclesiastes chapter one, is that wisdom gives, wisdom blesses, okay? Look at that, you're gonna see the same language here. So number six, look at verse 23. So God says this, says to Moses, speak unto Aaron, verse 23, speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying on this wise, you shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them. Now look at verse 24, the Lord bless thee and keep thee, verse 25, the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. And of course, verse 26 says, the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace, okay? So you say, well, why did you bring us here? Well, what's the point? Well, you see there in verse number 24, that the Lord blesses thee. Well, how does he do that? Well, verse 25 says, the Lord shall make his face shine upon thee, meaning he's going to focus his blessings in his time to the nation, okay? And that's what he did during this time. He's giving them his law, he's giving them doctrine, he's giving them statutes, and that is supposed to bless this nation at this time. And of course, obviously that's the result that we get when we read the word of God. What happened, now you can go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number eight. So you read through the first five books of the Bible, you read about Moses and Exodus, what happened to his face when he was with God? Well, it had shown it was so bright they had to put a veil over it, okay? That's symbolism for us when we inquire wisdom, when we actually adopt wisdom, we get wisdom inside of ourselves, it becomes a part of who we are that reflects on the outside and people will pick that up. And the whole purpose of that, it's not to be selfish, it's to bless other people, it's to help other people, it's to take what God has given and shine it forth into the world. That's the whole point here. So again, verse one, who is as the wise man? So now you know the subject for the chapter here, okay? That's why I'm saying I titled this the other side of wisdom. So who is as the wise man? Okay, a rhetorical question. And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine and the boldness of his face shall be changed. And again, you can see this when bad things happen to people, you know, and maybe a certain traumatic event happens and that person's just calm. It's like, don't worry, we'll get through this, we got this, okay? There's a level of wisdom sitting inside of that person that they've acquired, okay? And what does that do? When you, you know, if you've ever been in a situation where it's just instant, you know, terror, like, I don't know, you know, somebody just all of a sudden walks into a store and starts yelling threats and obscenities, you know, that's gonna strike fear into a lot of people because a lot of people have never really faced physical conflict before. So when you see that and you see one person just real calm, okay, what does that do? That helps calm you down as well. And so I'm just bringing this up because it's part of the chapter here, okay? Wisdom is supposed to be meant not just for us to keep to ourselves, but to obviously bless other people, make them feel safe and of course further the word of God. So with that being said, let's move on here now to verse number two. And so remember, Solomon describes himself as the preacher and of course, we've been talking for weeks now about how he basically conducted an experiment, right? A quest by experiment to kind of set the word of God aside and see how the heathen live and see what they do. Now, it's not like he said in his heart to purposely, okay, well, I'm gonna purposely do this. Remember, he married many wives, they were all strange, they let his heart away. And in the process, he still had that wisdom that God gave him, okay? And you say, why didn't God take away that wisdom? Because remember, God doesn't give as the world gives. When God gives you something, he gives it to you. So he's still in the world, but he's still very wise. And what happens, okay? Well, when he observes people and he observes how the children of men conduct themselves, it always brings him back to the word of God and it brings him back to these great conclusions. And so he says here in verse two, I counsel thee, okay? So you wanna read this as the preacher. He's saying, I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment and that in regard of the oath of God. Now, we're gonna look at two different passages. We're gonna go backwards in the Bible to 2 Chronicles chapter number 26 and we're gonna look at the last king of the Southern kingdom of Judah for a second. And then we're gonna go to Romans chapter number 13. So if you would go to 2 Chronicles chapter number 36, okay, chapter 36. So what does this mean here? I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment and that in regard of the oath of God. Well, back in this timeframe, obviously, him being the second king of Israel, he took an oath to protect the nation and to serve God and to teach God his doctrines and his commandments and to make sure that that was prevalent in the nation. And he's basically saying that no matter where you find yourself in life, that a king is ordained or authorities on this earth are ordained by God. Now, I'm gonna get into what that really looks like and what that really doesn't look like here in just a minute. But just to show you an example of somebody who violated this, it would be King Zedekiah, who was the last king in the Southern kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah, the prophet, who most of you are definitely familiar with, he had been preaching this unpopular doctrine. And that was, hey, when the Babylonians come into town, we need to submit to them. It's over, you guys have already messed up, you already did your own thing. God is through with this nation as it is right now. You're gonna have to go into captivity. And of course, people looked at him as a traitor. A lot of people said, well, that's not from God because God wouldn't do that to his own nation. We're the apple of God's eye and we need to stay here and hold our ground. It's the same thing you're being taught today. It's just a very pre shadowing of Zionism that was going on back then. And so there was a price to be paid for that. And I wanna show you that here. Look at verse 36, 2 Chronicles 36, look down at verse number 11. It says, Zedekiah was one and 20 years old when he began to reign and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. Verse 12, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah, the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. So again, that tells you that when Jeremiah came to town and said, hey, thus saith the Lord, this is what we need to do. You guys have violated the word of God. I mean, people were like, no, we're not doing that. That's not from God because that's not what we want. We've all heard that. We've all seen that today. Look at this here, verse 13. And he also rebelled. Okay, now that he there is Zedekiah and he also rebelled, look at this, against King Nebuchadnezzar, against a heathen king. Okay, what does the Bible tell you here? Well, this king, the king of Judah, rebelled against a heathen king here, the king of the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar, who made, okay, who had made him swear by God. So again, Zedekiah had an oath. There's an oath that he took when he stepped into the throne and that was to do the will of the Lord. Okay, what did he do? Well, he violated that because it didn't look like what he wanted it to look like. So verse 13, and he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Now you can go back to, actually go to Romans New Testament, book of Romans chapter number 13. And so there's an example of how God feels when a king or when a nation tries to rebel. Now, obviously, who's the real king of Judah? Well, it's the Lord God of heaven, it's Jesus Christ. And so ultimately, Zedekiah, he looked at Nebuchadnezzar like, I'm not gonna submit to him. He even told Jeremiah, okay, you go read through 2 Kings, he even told Jeremiah, I know you're right, but there's gotta be another way we can take, there's gotta be another way out of this, okay, he just would not accept it. And Jeremiah just told him, you're gonna get destroyed. Hey, you are destroying yourself because this isn't between you and Nebuchadnezzar. This is not a battle between Jews and the unsaved. This is a battle between the Jews and God. That's what this is really about. And so if you don't know the story, basically what happened is King Nebuchadnezzar killed Zedekiah's sons right in front of him and then poked out his eyes so that he couldn't see. The last thing he ever saw was his family being slaughtered right before him. And of course, God allowed that to happen because he violated wisdom. He decided he wanted to do his own thing. And so there you have it. Hey, definitely a terrible, terrible, terrible story, but it's in there for a reminder. Now, okay, a lot of people love to use Ecclesiastes chapter eight, Romans chapter 13 to tell you that you have to do every single thing that the government tells you to do regardless. Okay, there's all kinds of churches out there that will say stuff like that. I don't quite look at it like that. You might have your own opinion, you're entitled to that, you're a free person, do whatever you want. But let's look at some things here. Romans chapter number 13. Look at this here, verse number one. Actually, look at verse five first, okay? Says, wherefore he must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. You know, and we're living in a time right now where we're seeing leaders on all levels of government, all levels of media, all levels of corporate America make the dumbest decisions, okay? You can set up a homeless encampment in California, but yet you park on the street, you're gonna get a $500 ticket. Hey, that makes no sense, right? It makes absolutely zero sense. I was talking to somebody the other day, I think it was brother Joe Maples, he was telling me about how you gotta wait in line and do a background check to buy a box of ammo. But if you're homeless and you shoot a cop or you stab a baby and you're the right color, you're getting off scot-free. What sense does that make? Okay, that's horrible, that's evil, that's the country that we live in, okay? And it can drive people like us absolutely insane, absolutely drive us to madness. And then you have these, I'll call them, I better not call them anything. You have these people out there, they're just like, well, that's the government, we oughta submit to it. They say to let this out of my day, you should just do it because we're supposed to submit to the authority, okay? Well, let's find out if that's really what it's saying. So you're telling me, okay, if the government says, hey, you're gonna take this mark in your right hand and your forehead, you better do it because the authority said so and they're appointed by God. Who knows that there's teachers out there that teach that. There are prominent Bible teachers in this country that teach that. And then of course, out of the other side of their mouths you have to say, you can always just do the baptism of John and then it gets rid of it. This is ridiculous, okay? Absolutely stupid. You take the mark of the beast, you're going to hell. You're instant reprobate. We don't have time to get into it but you guys know that. Revelation 13, now let's back up to verse number one. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God, okay? Let me read that to you again. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. Who's higher, Joe Biden or Jesus Christ? Yeah, hear that silence. You already know the answer, okay? There is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Now, this is true. I believe that our... I don't believe that we really have elections. I believe we have selections. And I believe that we're allowed to participate in these selections. That's what I believe. Yeah, that's my opinion. This is the way I see it. I believe that there are very powerful principalities and powers of darkness that have already determined who they want to sit as president, who they want to sit on the throne of judgment in America, whatever you want to call it, okay? All the executive branch, the judicial branch, the legislative branch, I believe that a lot of those are already compromised and people are appointed in there. But let me tell you something, okay? If God wants to override that, he's gonna do it, okay? And so what I believe, and this was my answer when Joe Biden got into office, what, almost four years ago now. He said, do you believe that God had put him in there? Oh, God allowed it, okay? Man's not smarter than God. Man can't do anything against God, okay? And so what I believe is that God is going to give us the president that we deserve. It's my opinion, it's what I think. But at the end of the day, okay, we are called as Christians to be subject to the higher powers. So if uncle Biden's like, or the mayor of this town here who was running her mouth in an article about our church saying, oh, that's not right. They should let anybody come in there, okay? Oh, we're gonna have to do something about their whole darn not paying taxes thing, okay? I don't care. I'll pay all the taxes you want. Or you can just put it on my tab with the rest of it, okay? We could do that. How about that? But I'm gonna obey the Bible because the Bible is of higher authority than Uncle Sam or Uncle whatever, Boise's queen, communism queen, whatever you wanna call it, okay? Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Now, yes, God did establish authority. He established governments for order and for decency and things of that nature. And of course, man comes along, the devil comes along and says, well, let's tweak this and adjust this and invert this and yeah, that's better. Verse two, whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation, okay? And so your ignorant preacher is gonna say, well, because you resisted the mask, okay? And because you resisted shutting down your church during the coronavirus, you're in violation of the word of God. You know, I heard that a few years ago and you know what I said? I'm opening those doors like I did every other day. I really don't care, okay? It doesn't bother me. I'm not resisting the powers of God. We're commanded to have church and your little bogus disease out there doesn't bother me. I'm not afraid and guess what? Nobody got super sick, okay? Every year in churches all across America since the beginning of time, since the beginning of church gatherings, guess what? There are seasons where people get sick. The flu comes in, the colds come in, things come in, stomach viruses come in, it happens. Where there's people, there's sickness, okay? It is what it is. Why is this any different? And so people would call and say, you know, oh, you know, you shouldn't have done that. You're setting a bad example for other Christians. Really? Okay, that's ridiculous. That's not what the Bible is teaching here. If the lower authority tells me to do something against the higher authority, I'm gonna go with the higher authority and the Bible always wins. Now, look at this here in verse number three. And it says this. For rulers, okay? For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. Now let me say this. This may or may not happen here. This happens once in a while. This has happened in churches. I've been to a church actually where this did happen. Sometimes you'll get people that come in and they'll go along, they'll get along, they'll assimilate. And then just one day, they'll go around and they'll find people and say, hey, we need to meet together on a certain day. And we wanna talk about what we're gonna do when the government does X, Y, and Z. Sounds great, right? And there's, look, we need to be aware of what the government's trying to do, okay? Especially they're gonna start rounding us up and putting us into camps or killing us. I'm all about that. But what I'm not about is about these people saying, we need to overthrow the government. We need to take up arms against the government in general. Okay, these like anarchist types. Because look, let's just be honest, okay? The FBI in this country is pretty much just like the KGB was back in the day to the Russian leaders. That's what the FBI is to Joe Biden. And I wouldn't put it past some of them coming into churches and trying to stir people up and get them to be like, you know, yeah, maybe we should overthrow the people at the Capitol down there. Yeah, you know, they do support the alphabet soup. We oughta go and do something to them. We're not called to do that, okay? Remember, this is why we preach this all the time. We're here as ambassadors, okay? And as ambassadors, there are limits on what we'll put up with, okay? We're gonna run church the way the Bible says to run church. We're gonna do what the Bible says, okay? The government says, hey, guess what? You can't preach the gospel anymore. Well, guess what? We're gonna keep preaching the gospel. Hey, you can't say that about this people group because that's hate speech, guess what? We're gonna say this about that people group. I don't care if it's hate speech. This is Bible speech. Bible speech trumps hate speech all day long, okay? So in that aspect, yeah, we wanna be on the lookout for that. People come in here, oh, you know, we should overthrow, we should attack cops, we don't wanna do crap like that. You know, oh yeah, we should go down to these clubs and you know, and we should just be armed because it's really easy to be armed here in Idaho and stand outside this auto, no, we're not doing that. We're only interested in converting people and helping those that are already converted. That's it, it's all we care about. We care about none of that other stuff and keeping ourselves safe so that we can continue to do that mission, okay? But back to verse three, okay, look at this. The Bible defines for you and for me what rulers are and what they are not, okay? So if somebody asks you, hey, what is a government authority? What is a ruler? What do they do? What does the Bible say? Yes, it does right here. For rulers are not a terror. What does that mean, a terror? Is that a good thing? That's a bad thing, okay? Rulers are not a terror to good works. Let me ask you this, is Joe Biden an ally of good works? No, okay? What about his freak show, sideshow cabinet? Are they rulers, allies of good works? No, okay, they're proponents of the activities of Genesis chapter 19. They're proponents and allies of the activities that took place in Judges 19 that God said that he absolutely positively hates. They wanna take those actions and make them law and take people like us who do good works and shove us down. Okay, so the rules that we have today in this country and a lot of the West are what? They actually are terrors to good works, okay? So what does that mean? They're not really rulers, okay? But they're there and I believe God has allowed them there because of the hearts of the people in this nation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil, okay? Is that what our government's doing right now, punishing evil? Is that why they left the border wide open and they're allowing these people in these mental institutions, in these jails, in these pedophiles to just flood into our country and not prosecute them to the full extent of the law? When they hurt people? When they kill innocent people? No, okay? We're in a completely different time than what Solomon was writing this in, okay? We're living in some of the most reprobate, deranged times that the world has ever seen. Now, obviously I get the days of Noah were probably worse. You know, we're probably gonna get worse because we know that before Christ comes back, the earth is going to be like the days of Noah. We're definitely, definitely headed that direction. But the point here is, okay, rulers are not supposed to be allies of terror, okay? No, it says, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. We have the opposite of that, okay? So therefore we have to call out what we can call out and we have to analyze what these so-called rulers are feeding us so that we can be wise and hide from the bad guys. He says, do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. Look at verse four. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. Again, this just goes back to what I've been saying. Is Joe Biden, okay, does he fit this category here? Is he a minister of God to thee for good? No, if he had his way, if the mayor of this town had her way, she would shut us down right now. She would make it so that we could never knock another door again. And you can take that straight to the bank. That is factual. Okay, look at it one more time. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. And of course, today, right now, this is almost completely inverted. Now in this state, we have it a lot better than other states do. I get that and we ought to thank God for that. And we ought to keep it that way. We ought to do what we can to keep it that way, which is why I say, hey, if you get the chance, you know, and you're out there talking to somebody and they're starting to bring this stuff up. Obviously, gospel is always priority number one. Don't be afraid to give them that reprobate doctrine. Don't be afraid to, you know, give them some extra teaching and ask if you can set up a time to follow up with them and go over some things, some interesting questions, because we need to get more people understanding of this right here, okay? Verse five, wherefore you must need to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. So who are we supposed to be in subjection to? Well, the authorities and rulers. But the problem is the rulers that we have today, they're the opposite of what God is telling us right here. They are not terror to, you know, to good works. I'm sorry, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil, okay? No, we have the opposite. Our rulers are terrors to the good works and proponents and allies to the evil. There, that's a mouthful, but that's enough of that. Go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number eight. And let's go ahead here and move on to verse number three and four. So verse two, I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment in that in regard of the oath of God. Now, you know another thing that just pops in my mind when I read this, like doesn't, don't all the presidents like take an oath and put their hand on the Bible? I always wonder if you open it up, if it's just like a comic book or if it's like the Jewish Talmud and there's something that just looks like a Bible, you know, it's gotta be something like that. I don't know. I don't think they're decent enough to be that honest. I believe it's probably some NIV that denies the resurrection or something to that effect. But okay, obviously, hopefully now we all understand what a real ruler is and what these rulers that we have now actually are and why we have to sometimes go against what they wish and what they want. It is because we are supposed to be in subject to the higher powers. And we know that Christ is above all of these rulers and there's no shame, no guilt in doing so. Verse three, be not hasty to go out of his sight. Stand not in an evil thing for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. And so again, this goes back to this whole riotous type attitude. These people, oh, you know, anarchy, we shouldn't have a government, we shouldn't have police. Defund the police. I kind of feel for those guys that say that because a lot of police are absolutely corrupt and it's getting worse. I personally believe, this is my personal belief, okay, I believed this for a while now, I'm sure some of you will agree with me. I believe that a lot of police officers, not all of them, okay, but a lot of them, especially in certain parts of this country, are chose based off of their mental incompetency, okay, based off of just the fact that, you know, like how little constitution do you know? You're a perfect candidate, okay? Are you willing to just smash anybody we tell you? Let's hire them, let's get them on the force, okay? I mean, what's the first thing that these guys do when they call on us, you know, out knocking doors? The first thing most cops do is you gotta leave. But that's not what the law here says. That's not what it says here at all and I don't wanna spend a lot of time getting into that but the point is, okay, I can sympathize with some of these people that are like, hey, we do need to defund the police. I say, well, maybe we need to defund these police and then like set up normal police and make them, I heard Pastor Anderson say this a long time ago, they need to be more like the fire department, you know, where they just kind of chill and they come out when they're called. They're gonna be hiding behind bushes on Cloverdale and Ustick, you know, trying to get me in my van when I'm going to work, you know. We don't need that kind of garbage, okay? If you're just getting, you know, you know why they do that, right? They're just trying to get taxes. It's money for the king is what it is. Just trying to extort us for money. You were going 10 over, but I'll just write five here. This is $175, please. Get out of here, man. This, man, I'll tell you, this is stuff that'll make you mad and this is why we're like, hey, we're ready to get off this planet, but okay, verse number four. Where the word of a king is, there is power. And who may say unto him, what doest thou? Of course, any nation that's had a king, you know, nobody was gonna go up to Solomon and say, well, what the heck are you doing, man? Like what's wrong with you? Okay, that wouldn't, nah, they wouldn't tolerate that. It's the same in the kingdom of God, isn't it? Where the word of a king is, there is power. Now I gotta do this. I'm sorry, but I've gotta do this. Go to Revelation 19. I can't, this is, you could say this is a hobby horse. That's fine, I just have to do this, okay? It's here, I just cannot help this. Revelation 19, look at verse number 13. So what is Solomon saying? Where the word of a king is, there is power. Hmm, where the word of a king is, there is power. Look at this here in verse 13. Revelation 19, last book of the Bible, Revelation 19, verse 13. Says, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God. Everybody see that? The word of God, who is that? That's Jesus Christ. Look at verse 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, now look at this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Go to John chapter one with that in mind. Very basic doctrine here. We know that Jesus is King of Kings. He's the highest authority in all the universe, right? Interesting, where the word of a king is, there is power. Look at this here in John chapter one. First verse, super, super duper basic stuff. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. You can go back to Ecclesiastes chapter eight. You know what I'm gonna say, right? Cause no exact, do I have to even say it? Why is there no power today in the new evangelical churches? Why? Because they attack the word of God. They attack the word of God by saying what? In the original manuscripts. Come on, man, you guys know that you gotta belt this stuff out here to help me out. Help a brother out. You know that's what they say. They attack the word of God every single chance that they get. And so therefore there's no power, right? Because sometimes people will ask us, well, you're not the only, you know, you Baptist, you guys aren't the only ones doing it and then to the right, right? There's other churches out there that do preach the gospel. They're far and few in between. However, right, they'll say, you know, our church has power because of our praise and worship. No, you've got a lot of audio waves and vibrations coming from the drums and the guitar and the smoke machine. You've got a sensational feeling that's being projected on Sunday morning. And by the time you get to the parking lot at 1230, it's already left you, okay? That's the reality, pal, okay? Because the Bible says where the word of a king is, there is power. How is it that our tiny little church is able to take this message throughout the entire Treasure Valley? How were we able to send somebody to South Africa last year and get all kinds of people saved? And rally people from other parts of the world. How does that happen? Because where the word of a king is, there is power. And we believe that Jesus is the word, like the Bible says, and we acknowledge that, we respect that. And so therefore God gives us the power, okay? We have this power. Any church who believes that has power like this available to them. So there's your professing Christian plug for the day. Let's move on now to verse number five. So he says this, who so keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing. And a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. Sounds great, okay? Two aspects here of a wise person's heart. They got great timing and they understand judgment. If anybody ever says, oh, you know, judgment's bad. You know, there's no wisdom inside of that person. But look at verse six. Because to every purpose, there is time and judgment. Therefore, now look at this. The misery of man is great upon him. Wait a second, what is that all about? Again, this is the other side of wisdom, okay? Wisdom is great. We wanna have it better to have it than to not have it. I mean, what's your other option, to be a fool? Okay, no, we want to be wise. But however, there is going to be a misery in life, even to the wise person. You say, well, how come that is? Well, number one, they still, like I said, have to subject themselves to the authorities. We still have to pay taxes. We still have to obey some of these stupid laws down here because they're not worth fighting out on the street. We still have to submit to these people even though we're smarter, even though we're wiser. And that is a certain level of misery to us, okay? And not to mention, we can't predict the future. Look at verse seven. For he knoweth not. Okay, what does that mean? Yeah, he understands the present time. He understands judgment, but he knoweth not something. What is that? Verse seven, for he knoweth not that which shall be for who can tell him when it shall be. So he doesn't know what's coming next. He doesn't know the future. We have a good idea of what could possibly happen this November, but we're not sure. There are several possibilities, okay? Donald Trump could become the president and maybe we'll save a few bucks, I don't know. Or a slimy Newsome could take in. Yeah, I mean, there's, or martial law could be declared or that Russian sub off the coast of Florida could change the face of the station forever. I don't really know. And that's the bad part. The other side of wisdom, we really don't know, okay? Look at verse eight. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit. Neither hath the power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that war. Neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it, okay? So this says quite a few things here. So in this war here, this war, so in earth, right? There's a war where we're constantly striving to stay alive. And when it's your time to go, it is your time to go. And in that process, there's no discharge, okay? I was discharged honorably from the military. That is what that word means to separate, okay? We as men do not have power to tell God, oh, it's not my time yet, Lord, okay? I need to do a few more things here, okay? You don't have that right. We don't have that power. We don't have that strength. And just obviously we all understand that. But when you speak about it and you read about that here in this chapter, it really puts man down to the proper perspective, doesn't it? Again, in order to magnify the word of God like we're told to do, which is a wise thing to do, you have to put a lot of other things down. And that's what the Bible does. And that's why man doesn't like the Bible, okay? Because we're called to magnify God. And the only way to do that is to put us where we belong. Look at verse number nine. It goes on to say this. All this have I seen and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun. There was a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. So now he's talking about the other type of king, okay? You know, in the first part of the chapter, it just, hey, you know, it kind of parallels the kingdom of God, right? You know, nation of Israel, they got their king, they got Solomon, submit yourself unto the king, things will go well for you, and that's good. Now he's bringing up the other side and saying, hey, you know, there are rulers out there. We talked about this, or we touched on this this morning. There are rulers out there that rule to their own hurt. They hurt people, okay? Verse 10, and so I saw the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done, this is all so vanity. So he's bringing up the fact that, you know, there are people who are unfortunate, kind of like we are, to serve in a nation, to live in a time where we have wicked rulers, we have evil people in charge, and he's saying, you know, I saw the people that supported that. I saw the people that contributed to that. I saw the people that stepped aside from the holy, that denied God, that didn't want anything to do with him. Okay, and he's saying, guess what? They're gonna be dead and forgotten. No one's ever gonna remember their name, okay? All these people chanting, you know, oh, you know, we gotta save the animals, and global warming, and PETA's great, and give up the red meats, and, you know, take your juice, whatever, okay? These people, if they don't get saved, it's over. No one's gonna remember them, but they think in their hearts, don't they, when you talk to them. I convinced eight people in my life to become vegan, to, you know, give up fur coats, and stuff like that. I used to have a boss that would go around, and she would start, she would literally throw red ink on people wearing fur coats. This was a long time ago, and eventually someone cleaned her clock, and it actually changed her thinking. Hey, maybe this isn't a good idea. I'm lucky to be alive here. Some people take that very seriously. They pay a lot of money for those things, and they don't like the hippie garbage, but that's a story for another day. Look at verse number 11. It says, because sentence is against an evil work, is not executed speedily. Therefore, the heart of the sons of man has fully set on them to do evil. Okay, remember this, okay? We talk about this. In the Bible, you have the sons of Adam, okay? Or the sons of man, those are the same thing. You have the sons of God, those are us, those who are saved, born again, okay? And then you have the sons of Satan, the sons of Belial, children of the devil, in other words, okay? You have those three groups of people on earth. Our job is to go to the sons of men and try to get them saved, to try to get them converted, to believe, and to be born again. The devil has the same mission, but he's trying to get them on his side for the destruction of flesh. And here Solomon says, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is fully set in them to do evil. You look, I'm telling you, you see this today. Anytime I turn on like a Facebook or a social media, I'll find influencers, and they're saying good things that make sense. They're upset about what's going on, but they're not saved. You know, they're not Christians, they're not born again. And so you listen to them long enough and their so-called wisdom, it's vanity. It's just like, you know, we need to rise up and smoke these people. You better, I mean, you gotta be careful doing stuff like that. It's not, you know, God's not on your side. So when I hear that, I'm just like, I'm turning that off because that is not conducive to a healthy thought life. Because again, we all find ourselves with this mentality sometimes, right? We see wickedness getting, people getting away with murder all the time, all the time we see that. You know, and by the way, I don't know this for sure, but everybody's heard about how Trump got convicted on 30-something counts of whatever, and he's got these felonies. I don't know if he's got 39 felonies or it was all one. I don't really know. Okay, but it's like, you go look at Bill Clinton, and apparently he got away with the same thing that Trump's being prosecuted for, okay? Things like that bother us, because we wanna see righteous judgment, don't we? We wanna see that. And I think the enemy knows that. And so I think they're doing this as a big setup to cause civil unrest. Possibly, I don't know, I'm not a prophet. I'm just saying these, we gotta think about these things, okay? Again, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is fully setting them to do evil, okay? I get the evil. We can all relate to these guys and why they're upset, but you gotta be careful about yoking yourself up with them. They might lead you down a dark path that will ruin your life. Verse 12, though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. So again, you know, that's why I condensed this chapter into one sentence, which was even the wise can be destroyed by bad guys, because we see it all the time. Verse 13, but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before God. So again, this is how it is in life. It often seems like the wicked get away with everything like that. Again, I think I mentioned this last week, like why is it that Bill Gates, his skin's hanging off of his face and his eyes are out to here and it looks like he is a little reptilian. I don't believe that people are reptiles. I'm just, okay, I got a different definition than the world has on that, okay? But they sure do look like, you ever seen a picture of the Pope? Get the, here's an experiment, okay? I think we did this a long time ago. Go get a picture of George Soros, any Rothschilds you want that's over 80, Bill Gates and just look at their eyes. Dude, it just screams evil. It's just pure evil coming through your paper off your printer. It's like, ooh, it does something to you, you know? It jars you a little bit. And it's like, how are these people still around? Okay, don't worry about it, doesn't matter. They're gonna get their day. Their day is coming. They will be judged and we will come out on top. That's what Solomon's telling us here. Verse 14, there is a vanity which is done under the, or upon the earth. That there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked. Again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous. I said, this is also vanity. So again, you know, we don't live in a perfect world. Wisdom is a tool. That's what it is. It's a tool to help us get along. It will not solve all of your problems, which is why we are called to trust on the Lord, right? And not lean on our own understanding, like we talked about this morning. And so verse 15 really begins his application here. This is his conclusion and we're almost done. And he says this, then I commended mirth. Remember we talked about this, it might've been like a month ago, what mirth is. It's like entertainment or amusement. And again, you know, when I say entertainment or amusement, I'm not saying things that are sinful. But we've talked about this, okay? And Solomon has brought this up several times. There is nothing wrong with having some entertaining fun. There's nothing wrong with playing, you know, certain games, going fishing, going to baseball games or whatever, okay? Use your judgment. That's between you and God. You have liberty. I'm not going to judge your liberty, okay? It is what it is. His point here is, hey, you know, because this world is crazy, right? Guess what? We're allowed to just serve God, realize our position as ambassadors. And you know what? When you go to work and you earn some money and you want to go to wahoos, you want to play mini golf or you want to play ski ball, I'll get crazy at that ski ball game, by the way. I will flip out. So if you ever want to play me down here at Pojo's, come down and I will smoke you. No, I'm just kidding. But I do take it personal, just so you know. Take it personal. So just so you know, and same with that Pac-Man game down there too. You want to see our family fight? Get me, Kate and Kylen and Kimli on that Pac-Man game and you will see a physical brawl afterwards. But you know, stuff like that's fun and it's memories, you know? And it's okay. I work hard, you know? And sometimes I'll say things like that and I get a little message, oh, you've played a game down there. I go so many more than you do. I don't even have to, you want to compare resumes? Give me a break, chill out, okay? And just read the Bible and just relax and enjoy life. Okay, don't worry about me. If you don't like me, don't watch me, don't listen to me. Go somewhere else. It's not that hard. Then I committed mirth because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink. And by the way, this ain't the way the Calvinists interpret this. Oh, he's drinking the Guinness right here, man. Start chugging them back, you know? Okay, you're not talking about getting drunk and partying and doing all that stupid stuff. Oh, these joints. No, come on. Eat to drink and to be merry, okay? For that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life. That shall abide with him, okay? Stay with him of the labor the days of his life. This is a good thing. It's okay, all right? It's okay to eat, you know, a steak. You got money you wanna splurge and go down to the Texas Roadhouse or Ruth Chris? Better invite me too. I'll tell you what, no, okay? Where am I at? Let's just read verse 16 and I'll stop you up. And it says, when I applied mine heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done upon the earth, for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes, okay? This is verse 17. Then I beheld all the work of God that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea, farther through a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it. That's interesting there. That last sentence in my Bible, the ink is just like smeared. So hopefully I read that right. Hopefully I read that right. Only got one Bible up here. So, but anyways, the point is, okay? We live in a fallen world, okay? We are to use wisdom as a tool from God, okay? And when we realize, hey, this is a gift. This is a tool that comes from God. It's not a guarantee for your Joel Osteen type success. They have your best days now. If you give enough money to the church, that's a wise thing and God's gonna bless you. And you're gonna get 10 fold back. You don't know that. Yeah, you don't know that. Don't ever say something like that to somebody because you have no idea whether or not that's true. And most of the time it's not. Person does something like that and the IRS comes after them or they get fired, they lose their house and then they start hating God. Yeah, that's typically what happens with that type of preaching and it's treacherous. But the last part of the chapter is just saying, you know, hey, you know, serve God, do God's will, go out and do the things that convert people, but just also realize, okay, that the sons of men, they've set their heart to try to figure out all the intricacies of how the earth works and all this type of stuff. And they don't know what they're talking about. And guess what? They're never gonna understand it. You know, whatever these scientists, whatever Elon Musk and all these people, these deal chicken Tyson degreaser, whatever his name is, okay, whatever these people are teaching, okay, a hundred years from now, people could be like, they were way ignorant back then. They didn't know this, this, this and this. Hey, and it's just gonna be a circle. It's just, they're gonna be teaching the same stuff the guys were teaching in Solomon's day. It's just, they're just never ever going to find it out. And so again, we're not the sons of men, okay? The sons of men, there are sons of men out there that are wise that do make wise decisions, but we are the children of God. And our job is to operate on this planet as an ambassador and to understand that as ambassadors, we obey the higher authority who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And we know that is the Lord God Christ. So with that being said, we'll stop right there. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for this church, for everybody that comes here, Lord, I just pray you bless our church, bless our travels home, bring us back again safely next week. And again, Lord, I just pray you help us to remember these things and comfort our hearts in times of trouble. And that also, Lord, bless the soul winning next week. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, we'll do one more song and then we'll be dismissed.