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We're going to cover tonight
verses 4-16. Pick up with where we left off
last week. So why don't we go ahead and
turn there and read verses 4-16 if I can find it. Ecclesiastes 4-4. Solomon says,
And I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done
is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This,
too, is vanity and striving after the win. The fool holds his hands
and consumes his own flesh. One hand full of rest is better
than two fists full of labor and striving after the win. Then
I looked again at vanity under the sun. There was a certain
man without a dependent, having neither son nor brother, yet
there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied
with riches. and he never asks, and for whom
am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure? This, too, is vanity,
and it is a grievous task. Two are better than one because
they have a good return to their labor. For if either of them
falls, the one will lift up his companion. The world to the one
who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore,
if two lie down together, they keep one. How can one be one
alone? And if one can overpower him
who is alone, two can resist him. The cord of three strands
is not quickly torn apart. A poor yet wise lad is better
than an old and poorish king who no longer knows how to receive
instruction. For he has come out of prison
to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.
I have seen all the living under the sun belong to the side of
the second lad who replaces him. There is no end to all the people,
to all who are before them, and even the ones who will come later
will not be happy with him. For this, too, is vanity and
striving after the wind." Solomon is looking at hard issues of
life, and we were looking at this last week. Life is filled
with lots of hard facts. You have pain, suffering. Bad things happened to good people
last night when we did the Awana. One of the kids asked, I have
a question. She said, why do bad things happen to good people
and good things happen to bad people? And there was a couple
of different answers. One of them said, well, maybe
it's because God is trying to teach them something. That's
true. That could very well be. Another
answer was that God was preparing them and making them stronger
to serve Him. That could be also. And then
there was a third answer, and somebody said, because we live
in a cursed world. That is true as well. Sometimes
things happen that you just don't know why they do, but it happens
because we live in a world that is not what it's supposed to
be. And these kinds of things really bothered King Solomon,
and he gave serious thought to these issues. Now, what we looked
at last week were three of these things that really, really bothered
Solomon. The first one was in chapter 3, in verses 16-17. Solomon said that in the world
we live in right now, there often, many times, are perversions of
justice. Bad things happen to good people,
and good things happen to bad people. And Solomon said this
is part of the cursed world. Bad things are going to happen.
Now you just have to get used to that. It's not always going
to work the way that you want it. A second fact that Solomon
showed us was in chapter 3, verses 18 to 22, is the fact that you
and I have an enemy. Paul called it in 1 Corinthians
15, 26, the last enemy, it's death. Every one of us is going
to face death one day. Unless Jesus Christ comes first,
we're all going to die. If Jesus comes first, you will
be one of a whole generation that will never see death. and
you very well might be a part of that generation. But everybody
sees death. That's an inevitable enemy. And
so what Solomon says in chapter 3, verse 18 to 22, is he says,
what good is life if you're all going to die like a dog? Well,
of course, Solomon is talking about things that are not really
looking at it from God's perspective. He's just saying, from the unsaved
person's vantage point, this is what life is about. It's just
a waste of time, because you're going to die like a dog or a
chicken or a foolish person. Everything ends up in the same
place, and that's the grave. So he said, what a waste of time. A third thing that Solomon looked
at last week, and it was this, in verses 1 to 3, Solomon saw
the oppression, how the world is filled with people who take
advantage of others. And to make matters even worse,
Solomon said, a lot of times the people who are getting oppressed
don't even have anybody there to help them. They're all alone. Tonight, we're going to look
at three more hard facts of life. We're going to look at the fact
that this world is filled with greed and rivalry. Solomon said,
number two, that the world is filled with isolation and loneliness. And number three, we're going
to look at the fact that this world is filled with people who
have absolutely no devotion. There's no sincerity. There's
no commitment. It's a world filled with fickle
and fickle people who are insincere. And there's a lesson. There's
a lesson I believe that God wants us to learn in this. is to understand
that there's a lot of things in life that we don't like, a
lot of things that are bad, but God wants us to understand why
the world is like it is. In other words, if something
happens to you and you don't like it, it's a bad thing, but
you understand why this thing is happening, it makes it a little
easier, doesn't it? It's a little easier when you
understand how it fits into the whole program of God's of God's
plan. And so this is what we can learn.
We can learn about the fact that these things happen as a part
of something that God actually is in control of. And when we
see these things happening, what we can do is we can take our
heart off of this world and we can put our heart upon God's
coming kingdom. And we can take our eyes off
of this present world and be longing and desiring the return
of Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to look over
here in verses 4 to 6. Because there is a fourth thing that
Solomon really was bothered by, and it is the fact that this
world is filled with greed and envy. He says in verse 4, I have
seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result
of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. Solomon was bothered
by the fact that this world is filled with rivalry, or envy
and greed. Now, when God created mankind,
the world was not like that. You know, one of the most common
places where you find rivalry is in the marriage. Husbands
are, you know, battling against their wife, and wives are battling
against their husband. You know that when God created
Adam and Eve, there would not have been any kind of conflict
in the marriage? that Eve would have been fully
submissive to Adam to let him be the leader in the home, and
Adam would have given everything to try to help her and to serve
her. So he was a loving leader in
the house, and she was a loving helper. There was no conflicts. You see, it was sin. When sin
came in, that's when husbands and wives began to have conflicts. But that's not the way it was
originally. Originally, there would not have been arguing between
husband and wife. There would not have been rivalry
and contention. Right now, though, there is.
And the same thing is true if you go throughout all the world.
This is what the world is like that we live in. The world is
just filled with people trying to get the best of other people. This is the world we live in.
And Solomon says here, I've seen every labor, now my Bible says
every labor and every skill. That word skill actually is better
translated by the word success. What he's saying is that, he
says, I look around the world and it seems to me that everything
I see where there's somebody that is doing a job, somebody
who is carrying on some kind of business deal, everything
that people are doing to try to get ahead in life, Really,
the reason why they're doing it is because they're being greedy
and they're being envious of other people. We have a way of
expressing that in English. What's the expression in English?
Keeping up with the Jones. Keeping up with the Jones. Have
you ever heard that expression, Meeja? Just pretend that you
have lots of money, big houses, lots of cars, and your last name
is Jones. pretend that your last name is
Jones. And Dave, he sees all of your money and he wants to
have the big house and he wants to have all the cars that you
have. So he's trying to keep up with the Jones. It's an expression
in English where you're trying to always be better than everybody
else. Trying to be better. You're trying
to keep up with the Jones. And this is what Solomon says,
he says, I look around the world and that's all I find is people
trying to keep up with the gold schemes, you know? Nothing but
rivalry and contention. He says, this is part of a cursed
world. And it really bothered him a
lot. It's part of the curse. Now, I want to make a little
point of observation. There is nothing wrong with having
possessions. There's nothing wrong with having
success. There's nothing wrong with having
a nice house, a nice car. There's nothing wrong with having
money. As a matter of fact, God says in the Bible that He has
favor upon those who love Him and live for Him. So many times,
Wealth and riches are something that God has given to people
who live for Him. God was not a socialist. God
was not a communist. Israel never lived under a socialist
society. Everybody had their own property.
And the Bible says that prosperity is something that is not bad.
Look back in chapter 2, verse 24. Chapter 2, verse 24. Solomon
said, hey, there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink
and tell himself that his labor is good. This I have also seen
that it is from the hand of God." Hey, there's nothing wrong with,
you know, eating your food and drinking your drink and going
on your vacation and saying, hey, life's great. He says that's
a gift from God. Okay, so possessions are not
bad in themselves. There's nothing wrong. But there
is a serious flaw. There's a real problem in the
way that the world operates right now because people do things
out of envy and greed and lust. And that's what this word rivalry
means. It means, actually it means jealousy. Sometimes jealousy
is used in a good sense in the Bible. A husband is jealous for
his wife. You know, a husband does not
want anybody to touch his wife. That's a good jealousy. Same
word, too. That's okay. God is jealous for his people. God does not want anybody to
touch his people. God does not want his people
to go to other gods. God is jealous for us. He wants
us only to himself. So that is good jealousy, but
there's another kind of kenah, another kind of jealousy, and
it's envy, it's greed, it's where we are wanting things that don't
belong to us. Now, in the Ten Commandments,
the first commandment that God gave was this, Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. The first commandment, no other
gods ahead of God. Now, when you and I take something,
and we take God out of first place, we take God out of first
place, and then we put money in first place, it becomes an
idol. Even though we don't bow down
and worship that idol, and we have a name for it, it is an
idol. And idols take all types of different
forms. It might be drunken living, it
might be drugs, it might be immoral living. All of those things are
idols. So, when you look at this kind
of living where everything is done to try to get more and more
and more and get better than other people, number one, you're
committing idolatry. Number two, you're breaking the
tenth commandment. In the tenth commandment, it
says, Thou shalt not covet. The tenth commandment said, Thou
shalt not covet, meaning that you have a strong desire for
something that does not belong to you. a strong desire for something
that does not belong to you and that you shouldn't have because
it's not yours. But this is the way that the world lives. The
world has idols in their heart and the world has lust and covetousness
in his heart. This is the kind of world that
we live in right now. So that is wrong. A better way,
on the other hand, Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 10, in verse
31, he said, Whether then you eat or drink, do all to the what? Glory of God. Whatever you do
in life, Paul said, you should do it for God's glory. Not because
you want to have more, You know, what our kids do in their homework.
We want them to do very well. We want them to do well because
whatever they do, they should do it for God. Just like they're
doing it for Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, do it for the
glory of God. But that's not the way that we
live. Now you really see that when
you have children. When you have many children in the same house,
many young children, you know what? You see a lot of rivalry
and contention. I don't know about other people,
but I do. OK, and you know, this one has some candy and all of
a sudden this one is mad because this one got some kind of candy
or got to go somewhere. And it's always a rivalry between
the two. God says, it's not supposed to
be like that. It's not supposed to be like that. Now, Solomon
gave his assessment as he looked at this. Over here, see what
Solomon said, down in verse 4? He said, this too is vanity and
striving after the wind. The word vanity, it has different
translations. We've seen that before. Probably
the idea right here is that it's a waste of time. It's the wrong
way to live. It's just the wrong way to live.
It's foolish. It's empty and it's meaningless.
But this is the way the world goes about its course. It's not
the answer. Now Solomon goes down to verse 5 and what he does
is he goes to the other extreme and he says, let me now tell
you about the extreme of rivalry and contention. And he says in
verse 5, a fool throws his hands and consumes his own flesh. He's
talking about people who are lazy. Verse 4 shows us people
who do everything to get better than other people. Verse 5 shows
us the person that doesn't do anything. The Bible calls him
a fool because he is very lazy. The Bible says in Proverbs, and
when Solomon wrote the Proverbs, he had a lot to say about laziness.
For example, listen to Proverbs chapter 6. I'm going to read
it for you. In verse 6. Not Proverbs chapter 6, verse
6. That wasn't the verse I wanted. Chapter 6, verse 6. He says this. He says, Go to the ant, you lazy
person. Go to the ant, O sluggard, and
observe her ways, and be wise. And he says, you should look
at an ant. You know, I was out here the other day, And these
ants were all over the place. And they were marching up and
down, and then they were going up, and then they were going
in, and then they were going back down, and they were going
to their workplaces. These guys were working hard.
It was going to rain that day. There were ants everywhere. And
I got out my spray gun, and I was spraying them down with chemicals
and killing them. But Solomon said, you should
run from an ant, because ants don't have a boss who stands
there and tells them what to do, but they work hard. So hard
work is good. As a matter of fact, the Bible
says that if a person is lazy, it will lead them eventually
to slavery, and even to death. In Proverbs chapter 24, Solomon
talks about the fact that lazy people are very foolish. In Proverbs
chapter 24, in verse 30, he says, I pass by the field of the lazy
person, And he says, I passed by and it was completely overgrown
by thistles, its surface was covered by metals, and the stone
wall was broken down. And he says, I reflected upon
it, and I looked and I received instruction. He said, a little
sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, then your
poverty will come upon you like a robber and your want like an
armed man. There is no virtue to being lazy.
So Solomon says you shouldn't be greedy and envious and always
trying to get better than other people. But on the other hand,
you don't want to be lazy. And you know what? There's a
lot of people in our culture who are very lazy. I don't like
the TV, really, except for, you know, maybe if there's something
good like, you know, a soccer game. No, but think about this,
okay? Think about the time that people
spend in front of a television. I don't know what the average
is exactly, but it's over four hours a day is what people spend
watching TV in America. Something like four hours plus.
If you spent four hours a day watching TV like the average
American, that means in one week you would have 28 hours. In one
month, 120.4 hours. In one year, it would be 1,444.8 hours. In
10 years, it would be 14,448 hours. And if you did that for 40 years, you would
watch 57,792 hours of television. So by the time you went from
being age 20 to age 60, you would have 57,000 hours of TV, which
translates into about six and a half years of your life. Six
and a half years of your life. And it didn't make you a better
person. Now, there is a place for rest. But you see, when people
are lazy, the Bible says here in Ecclesiastes 4, it says that
the lazy person, the fool, he consumes his own flesh. In other
words, he just destroys his life. He ruins his life. He takes all
the opportunities that God has given to him to do well in life,
and he consumes his own flesh. Well, Solomon's advice comes
in chapter 4, verse 6. What Solomon says that you and
I should do is we should consider a balanced kind of approach to
life. A balanced approach. Look what
he says in verse 6. He says, one hand full of rest
is better than two fists full of labor and striving after the
wind. You know the expression, sometimes we say, a bird in the
hand is better than two in the bush. If you can have one bird
and you don't have to take a chance on getting two, that's better.
The Bible says that you're better off to be happy with some good
things than to always try to get more and more and more. Let
me translate that into contemporary ideas. You have a house that
you've lived in for some time. It's a nice house. It meets your
needs. And what you start thinking is, gee, I see these houses up
on Palos Verdes. Very nice houses. I can have
five bedrooms instead of three. I can have, you know, all of
these things, but I know to do it, my wife is going to have
to go to work, or I'm going to have to work two jobs. Two jobs! To buy this new house. Solomon
says, don't do it. Don't do it. He says, one handful
of rest is better than two fistfuls of labor and striving. You have
a car that has 100,000 miles on it. It's 10 years old. It's
not a bad car, but you see these brand new SUVs and you say, wow,
I like that. That's very nice. Or you see
these brand new Mercedes or these brand new whatever it is. And
you say, wow, everybody's getting one of these. I think I want
to have one of those. But to do it, you have to work
another 10 hours a week of overtime. Or your wife has to get a job.
Or you have to get two jobs. Solomon says, don't do it. Don't
do it. One hand full of rest is better
than two hands full of labor and striving. It's a balance,
you see? This is wisdom. This is God's
wisdom for us. Now, I want to give you a few
principles right here on how we can think about these kinds
of things. One principle is this, okay?
We should ask God to give us what He knows is best. Ask God
to give you what He knows is best. Listen to Proverbs chapter
30. It says in verse 7, he said,
two things I ask from God, please do not refuse me before I die. He said, keep deception and lies
far away from me, number one. Number two, give me neither poverty
nor riches. God, don't make me rich and don't
make me poor. He said, feed me with the food
that is my portion, lest I be full and deny thee, and say,
who is the Lord? Or lest I be in want and steal
and profane the name of my God. In other words, he said, God,
just give me the right amount. Give me what you know is best.
Pray that way to God. God, give me what you know is
best. The second principle is this. Learn to appreciate the
beauty of having what you have, rather than always desiring what
somebody else wants, with all of the unhappiness that goes
with it. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 16, Solomon again writes,
and he says, Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than
great treasure and turmoil with it. It's better to have a little
bit and be trusting God than to have a whole lot with a lot
of problems. He says in verse 17, Better is
a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fatted ox and
hatred with it. Better off to have a little bit
and have a peaceful, godly life than to have all kinds of problems.
Chapter 17 in verse 1, Solomon again says, Better is a dry morsel
in quietness than a house full of feasting with strife. Be happy
with what you have, and be content with what you have. And then
there's something else here that kind of goes along with this.
Paul said in 1 Timothy 6, in verse 16, he said, Godliness
with contentment is great gain. If you have a life that is right
in the eyes of God, you're living for Him, and you're happy, well,
that's a great thing, you know? If you're living for the Lord
and then you're happy with what you have in life, he says, that
is great gain. And he says, watch out, because
those who want to get rich fall into temptation. And he said,
and they ruin their lives with the greed for having more and
more and more. So balance. This is what Solomon
is saying right here. There is great wisdom in having
a balance in your life. Now, so far, I just want to recap
five things, four things so far that Solomon has said that he
looks at and he sees and he says, this is bad. The first one, was
perversion of justice. The second one was the fact that
we all die. The third thing that we saw last
week was that the world is filled with oppression. The fourth thing
we just saw is that greed and envy are a reality in the cursed
world. Now, number five. A fifth thing
that Solomon saw, it was this. He saw the horrible loneliness
and the isolation that comes with this curse. Before we came
to church tonight, what did we see tonight, guys? Who did we
see tonight before we came to church, Caribou? At Carl's Jr's. It's Aunt Mary, right? There's a lady. She's a friend. She's been my
friend for over four years now. She is in her 80's and goes down
here to Carl's Jr's. Doesn't have anybody. I've told
you about her before. So we went in tonight and she
gave us all a twinkie and a cupcake. Was it a Ding Dong? It was really
good. It was a Ding Dong. Chocolate
Ding Dong. I took her in a book, a Christian book, and I took
her in also a magazine from Friends of Israel Gospel Ministries,
a couple things, because she loves to read. I mean, she's
very, very smart. Does a lot of reading. And you
know what? She's all alone. She is all alone. She had a daughter that died
from cancer about ten years ago, a daughter that she just dearly
loved. And she has another daughter that really is very mean and
cruel to her. And so she's all alone in life.
You know what she wants? She just wants somebody to help
her carry the burden of life. She doesn't have anybody. She
doesn't have anybody. You know, we're a little light
in her life every week. We go into Carl's Jr.' 's on
Wednesdays and every week she gives the kids some kind of present,
you know? Every week she gives them a little toy or a little
cookie or something. And, you know, it's sad. And
Solomon looked at loneliness in life and he says, oh, that's
a horrible thing. Loneliness, he said, it's a horrible
thing. Now, what we look at here in
verses 7 to 12, Solomon, first of all, he reflects on how terrible
this is in verses 7 to 8, but then in verses 9 to 12, he shows
us how much better it is to have a companion, to have somebody
with us in life. Look down here at verse 7. Solomon
says, I looked again at Van at the end of the sun. Hey, hey
guys. He says, I looked at vanity. In other words, vanity right
here is probably best translated by the idea of meaningless. That's
how the New International Version translated it. I thought of something
that was totally meaningless in life. He says, it is this,
verse 8. There was a certain man, and
he tells a story about this man. He says this man did not have
a dependent. Now the word dependent here actually
could mean anybody. It could mean he didn't have
a wife. He was not a second person in his life. He didn't have a
wife. He didn't have a business partner. He's just all alone.
There was a man, he was all alone. He didn't have a second person.
Number two, he didn't have a son or a brother. He didn't have
anybody to inherit his property. He didn't even have a brother!
There was nobody that would be there for him. He says, so he's
got no second person, no son, no brother. Yet, look at what
Solomon says right here. Yet there was no end to all his
labor. The guy just worked around the
clock. He just worked and worked and
worked, never took a vacation. And Solomon says, what a meaningless
way to live, you know? What a meaningless way to live.
No end to all his labor. Furthermore, he says, the man
was never satisfied, his eyes, he says, were never satisfied
with riches. Never satisfied, never happy.
Furthermore, he says, the guy knew that he was doing all these
things and understood what he was doing. Because he says, now
my translation says it this way. My translation says, and he never
asked. For whom am I laboring? When
it says that, it has it in italics. My Bible has that little expression,
and he never said, or he never asked. How does your translation
put it? Do you have King James? Does it say, and he never asked? Okay. Yeah, that might be, that's
perhaps the idea. But, you know, those words are
in italics. It's not there in the original Hebrew. So the translator
kind of put something in there to try to make sense. Really
what it says is this. Probably, here's the idea. That
the man did ask the question. Maybe the man said something
like this. From whom are you doing this? He asked the question,
but he never stopped what he was doing. You understand what
I'm saying? In other words, he maybe said,
why am I doing this? But then he kept doing it. He
just kept on living that way. He realized that nobody's going
to be there to inherit his property. Nobody's going to be there to
take over the business or whatever the field is. And yet he just
kept going day after day. You know what? That kind of describes
something. Do you remember the story called
the Christmas Carol? Is that what it's called? What
was the name of the guy? Yeah. Ebenezer Scrooge, the guy
was all alone. He was all alone. Of course,
I guess he had his little nephew, Timmy, you know, but Ebenezer
Scrooge was a floater, and yet all the guy did was come in and
make money, make money, make money. And Solomon says, what
a waste of time. What a meaningless way to live.
Now, you know what? There are a lot of Ebenezer Scrooges
out here in the world. A lot of people that don't have
anybody or anything in life that is depending upon them, and yet
they kill themselves. Especially, I think, this happens
a lot with young couples who get divorced, where there's no
dependence, you know, they go through life and they never remarry,
and so these people just amass great fortunes. That happens
quite a bit. Maybe they don't even have anybody, any children,
no spouse. And Solomon says, what a meaningless
way to live, what a meaningless way to live. Now the guy says,
why am I doing this? Why am I suffering all of this
self-deprivation? He says, why am I keeping, he
says, all of myself from pleasure? And what Solomon says right here,
he says, this too is vanity. It's a meaningless way to live,
and it's a grievous task. What a foolish kind of thing
to do. It's a foolish way to live your life like this. Well,
Solomon's advice, you come down to verses 9-12, he gives the
advice, and what he says is this. He says companionship, companionship,
having someone else with you in life, having a partner, having
somebody else with you in life, he says, it is not the solution
for life's troubles, but it helps to ease the pain. Having a companion
helps to ease the burden and helps to ease the pain. And Solomon
gives us four reasons why we are better off to have a partner
in life than to be all alone. And the first reason is in verse
9. He says, two are better than one. Why? Because they have a
good return for their labor. You've heard the expression that
the sum of the whole is more than the sum of the parts. You
have two people who are working. Two people who are working can
sometimes get more done than two people can do all by themselves. So, he said, look, it just makes
good sense. You should have two people working
together. The point and the principle is this. It is good to have a
companion in life. It is good to have somebody else
who is with you because you get more back from life. Secondly,
in verse 10, he says a second reason why it is better is because
if either of them falls down, then one will lift up his companion. But if, he says, if there's only
one, woe to the one who falls when there is not another to
lift him up. You're going on a journey, you're walking down
the road, you fall into a hole. Your friend can help you up.
Now you know what, that could be true in anything in life.
You're going through life and something horrible happens. Like
Jules and Pat, you know, some friends that Marietje knows,
and that I know a little bit. He just broke both of his legs
about six months ago or something. Both of his legs got broken,
just in a kind of a strange deal. Very hard thing, you know? Can
you imagine having to get by if you have that without a wife?
Solomon is saying that two people are better than one because something
happens to one, the other person can help out. A third reason
is down here in verse 11. Look what it says. He says, furthermore,
if two people lie down together, they can keep warm. Hey, that
sounds pretty good, huh? Much better to have a warm body
next to you. Now, when he talks about two people lying down,
We naturally, we think about husband and wife, but it might
be thinking about something wider, a wider idea than just husband
and wife. When you used to travel in the
engineeries, it was the custom that usually they would not take
off their clothing when they slept at night. They would usually
keep on their coat and they would wear an inner shirt and then
their coat if you were outside because it was cold. And if you
were on a trip, maybe out in the middle of the desert on a
cold night, you know what? Sometimes it would be nice just
to have a warm body next to you. That could be a friend. Guess
what? It could be your donkey. You
know, maybe your donkey is there and you'd cuddle up next to your
donkey. You know, sometimes I'll take my cat, you know? If it's
a cold night, I'll take the cat. Come here, cat. Come next to
me, you know? Maybe if my wife doesn't want to be next to me,
you know, I'll say, OK, I'll get the cat. The cat will come to
keep you warm, you know? I'll bring the cat next to you
for a while and get nice and warm and then she'll escape,
you know? But whatever it is, the following
point is, hey, it's better to have two because you can stay
warm at night. That's not a bad thing. I remember
I went fishing one time. I was about ten years old. I
was living up in Utah with my grandparents, and my friend Bob
Lear and I went fishing up on this creek. My grandparents dropped
me off. They took us up and dropped us
off for a couple of days, and we slept out in sleeping bags
on the creek, North Creek. Went out fishing, and it was
either the first or second night. I think it was the first night,
even. And we were out there sleeping in the middle of the night. Beautiful
night. The stars were overhead. And we went to sleep in our sleeping
bags. We didn't have a tent. Woke up
about two in the morning and it was pouring rain. And my sleeping
bag was a cloth sleeping bag. And I got totally drenched. Bob
had a waterproof sleeping bag. And so about two in the morning
I said, Bob! Bob! Bob! Wake up! And so I got Bob
up, and I called into Bob's sleeping bag, and Bob and I slept in his
sleeping bag for the rest of the night. I was glad he had
a waterproof sleeping bag, you know? And so we had a good time. It was a fun trip. But you see,
two are better than one. It's good to have a companion
in life. This is the point. It was good to have a companion.
Now, if you're alone, you don't have anybody that can help you.
So the lesson that Solomon wants to say is, he says, when I look
at life, he said, one of the things that I see is that isolation
and loneliness is a fact of a cursed world. Think about it. If Adam
and Eve had never sinned, would they have ever been lonely? Never,
because they would have lived together for the rest of eternity. For all eternity, Adam and Eve
would have been together. Never would they have been alone. So, because Adam and Eve sinned,
That meant that they had to die, and when one person died, that
meant that the other would now be alone. So loneliness and isolation
are an effect of the curse. And this is what Solomon is saying.
He said, I see that this is vanity and striving after the wind.
It's a part of a cursed world. Okay, now there's a fourth reason
why it's good to have a companion, and it is this. It's because
you can help each other out and protect each other. Verse 12.
If one person can overpower the man that is alone, two can resist
him. You know, I guess this is gang
theory, you know? Hey, you're walking down the street alone,
a gang can come and beat you up, but if you have two people
there, maybe you can take care of yourself. And he said three
people? He said a cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
It's like if you took a rope and you made a cable out of three
ropes. Very strong. Now some people
have taken this and they have tried to mean that it talks about
the trinity, a cord of three strands is the trinity. No, he's
just using an illustration talking about a rope made out of three
bands. Very strong, it's hard to break that kind of thing.
The principle is this, you want to have people who are there
to support you in life. You don't want to be all alone.
And so, Solomon says the fact of the matter is, though, is
that there is loneliness in the world, and the reason why, he
says, is because this is a curse, and it really bothered him when
he saw these things. Now, we come down here to verses
13 to 16, and there is a sixth and final hard fact that Solomon
says really bothered him, and it is this. Life in a cursed
world is characterized by shallow and fickle people. When I say
shallow, of course I mean they're not very deep. Shallow means
not very deep, so they're not very committed to you. Pickle,
pickle means this. It's like, they say, oh, I like
this. They say, no, no, I don't like
that. Oh, I like this. No, no, no, no, I don't like
that anymore. I like it. I don't like it. I like it. I
don't like it. They can never stay committed
to what they say they're going to stay committed. And Solomon
says this is part of the curse. So people might say, oh, I'm
your friend, I'm your friend. And then as soon as you turn
around, they get a knife out and they stab you in the back.
They're not very committed. And Solomon says, this is what
life is like. In Proverbs chapter 20, here's
what Solomon said in Proverbs chapter 20 in verse 6. He said,
many a man proclaims his own loyalty. Hey, yeah, I'm here
for you. I'll be there for you, help you
to move. They don't show up. Hey, yeah, I'll help you out.
I'll stand behind your friend." And then you find out that that
person has turned against you and they're doing things to hurt
you. Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but Solomon said,
but who can find a faithful friend? A lot of people say they get
a friend. One of the men who was at Master's
Seminary that would help people to find churches. He said, watch
out when you go to a church. It's the people who are going
to be there that are very friendly to you at first. He said, a lot
of times those people are the ones that turn against you and
really do you bad, really do you harm. And that happens a
lot of times. The reality is this is all part
of the curse. People who are superficial in
their commitment... Now, I guess there's a lesson,
okay? And the lesson I think that we can learn is this. That's
a fact of life. You see, when bad things happen
to people sometimes, it really bothers them and they just kind
of fall apart at the seams. And they think, how could this
happen? How could this happen? This was
the church! And this person did this to me! And then they fall
to pieces. Hey, guess what? I'm a sinner.
The people in the church are sinners. So if somebody does
you wrong, even in the church, guess what? It's a fact of life.
Hopefully it doesn't happen in the church, but it's going to. So you see, what we can do is
we can learn from God's Word about how this world operates,
how the cursed world operates, and because we have an understanding
of the things that are a fact of life, it helps us to deal
with it, you know? It doesn't change it, but it
helps us to deal with it. And shallow, fickle people who
are not committed to you are a fact. Now, Solomon gives us
a story about three people in verses 13-16. He gives us a story
about three people to show us about this problem. First of
all, he says in verse 13, he says, There is a poor yet wise
lad who is better than an old in age, an old and foolish king. So, the first person I want to
focus on is the king. Here is a king who is old. Now,
if a person is old, you expect him to be wise, especially if
he's the king. If he has been a king for a long
time, he had to do a few things right. So he's an old king. He
has been around a long time. He should have some wisdom, but
Solomon says he's foolish. He's old, and yet he is foolish. Now, he probably was born in
the royal family, and so he already was there. Now, the reason why
he's foolish, he says down here in verse 13, is because he does
not know how to receive instruction any longer. You see, one of the
things that you and I have to be able to do is to take advice
and instruction. And Solomon said, this guy, he
no longer knows how to take advice. Solomon, in the Proverbs, said
that we should very, very often be willing to listen to advice. Listening to advice is the mark
of a wise person. In Proverbs chapter 11, in verse
14, he says, where there is no guidance, the people fall, but
in the abundance of counselors there is victory. Hey, no advice? You're probably going to make
bad decisions. But if you have a lot of people, then you have
victory. In Proverbs chapter 15, in verse
22, Solomon said that without consultation, plans are frustrated,
but with many counselors, they succeed. I was really fearful when we
did this whole building project, because I don't know a thing
about it. But we had, fortunately, some very, very wise people who
were able to give us direction on the whole thing, and we have
been able to do it, and do it at a reasonable cost, and it
has come out really very well. But that was because we had a
lot of people giving us advice. So the old king right here, he's
foolish because he's not listening any longer. Well, here's the
second person that Solomon tells us about. He says in verse 13,
there was this poor yet wise lad. So here's this little boy. The word lad is the word gelad.
It means just a little child. He's just a little punk, And
he's poor. You know, he's not born into
a rich family. He doesn't have a Harvard education. He's just
a poor punk off of the street. And yet, he says, this poor punk
is better than the king. He's better than the king. Okay? Now, the reason why is because
this kid will listen to advice. The old man will not listen.
The kid is listening to what people have to say. He doesn't
say that exactly right here, but in the contrast, there's
a contrast right here. So the kid will listen to advice. Now, some people have wondered
whether Solomon was thinking about an actual situation. You
know, do you remember David, when David was a young man? Solomon's
father David was a young man, and David, you know, really had
God's blessing. And then later on, when David
got very powerful and strong, he made a couple of bad decisions
in life, because he wouldn't listen to other people. Solomon
did the same thing. When Solomon's son came to the
throne, Rehoboam wouldn't listen to advice. And as a result of
the fact that Rehoboam didn't listen to the advice of the elders,
the kingdom split in two. And then this guy by the name
of Jeroboam, who had run out of the country, a guy that had
been a slave, became a king, a rival king. Who knows? Solomon may have been seeing
some of the writing on the wall when he talked about these things
and saw what was going to happen. I don't know. Maybe God kind
of indicated. Maybe there's not even a real historical situation
behind it, but Solomon is giving you an example here. Here's the
king. Now, even though the king is
not really living very wisely, It just doesn't make sense that
a punk would become the king in the place of this king. It
just doesn't make sense, right? That's not the way it's supposed
to work. So there's a second kid over here in verse 14. Here
comes this kid. He came out of prison to become
king, even though he was born king. Well, the reason why this
happened, the reason why he got to be king, is because the people
were not committed and sincere in their devotion to the first
king, right? That's how he became king, because they were not devoted
to their king. They changed their allegiance
to a kid that just got out of prison. However, there's a third
person in the story, too. Look in verse 15. Solomon says,
I have seen all the living under the sun, all the people, all
of the people on earth, drawn to the side of the second lad
who replaces him. Here's a third person. Okay,
so the first one is the king, and then comes along a punk kid
who becomes the king in his place. Then Solomon said, guess what?
Then there was another punk kid that came along, and he became
the king in the place of the first lad. And he says, and everybody,
everybody in the whole world goes and transfers their allegiance
to the second kid. And he says, They do this, he
says, verse 16, there is no end to all the people, to all the
one before them, and even to the ones who will come later,
will not be happy with him. In other words, all the people
go and they change their allegiance from the first king, to the second
king, to the kid, then to this third kid, and he says, and guess
what? They're not going to be happy
with him either. You know, you come into a church to be a pastor.
And, you know, maybe right away people say, oh yeah, good, new
pastor. And then, you know, they start
turning their back on you. I mean, it happened. It happened
with me. And, you know, nobody's perfect. I mean, I've made a
lot of mistakes, but, you know, but I haven't cheated on my wife
and I haven't stolen the church's money. I don't kick my dog. You
know, I pay my taxes. I'm not that evil of a guy. And,
but what happens is you see people are very fickle in their commitment.
So they may say, oh yeah, yeah, we'll support you. And then a
few months later, you know, they go and they chase somebody. Verse 16, he says, all of this
is vanity and striving after the wind. All of this is just
vanity. It's meaningless. It just shows
us how mixed up and crazy the world is. It's striving after
the wind. It's like trying to go out and
grab a hold of the wind coming off Verdun, but you can't do
it. So it just is a waste of time. Waste of time is what Solomon
is telling us. So we look at all of these things,
okay? We look at all of the things in this world that just are mixed
up and crazy. What are we doing with it? What
are we supposed to do with this kind of a world? Well, I want
to make a couple of suggestions. Number one, you and I have to
realize that we can't fix it. Dave was saying this a minute
ago. You can't fix these things. Go back to chapter 1 and look
at verse 15. He says, chapter 1, verse 15, what is crooked
cannot be straightened out, and what is lacking cannot be counted.
In other words, this world is so messed up, you're not going
to straighten it out. Things are missing. You can't
count what's missing. It's just so messed up, we can't
make an accounting of it. So number one, recognize that
you just can't change a lot of things. A few things you can.
If it's within your power to, you know, to mow your grass,
make your grass good. Go mow your grass, you know?
But if it's beyond your control, hey, you can't change it. And
this is part of having success in a cursed world. It is recognizing
the limitations that we're all stuck with. And if we will recognize
those limitations, it makes life a lot easier. A lot easier when
you know that, you know, you do the best you can and hey,
The rest happens, and quesara, sera, whatever will be, will
be. The future's not ours to see. Quesara. You know? Okay, a second thing. You cannot
fix the world. You just have to recognize its
limitations. And also, it is this. When you
find out that this world is not giving you all of the satisfaction
that you want, it's not supposed to give you all the satisfaction.
Remember what he said over here in chapter 3 in verse 11? Actually, down here in verse
11. He says, God has made everything
appropriate or beautiful in its time. God has also set eternity
in man's heart so that man will not find out the work which God
has done from the beginning even to the end. Eternity God has
put in our heart. He has given us a knowledge that
there is something better. We know that there is a coming
kingdom. We know there is a God out there
and that we are going to live forever. And so, what I'm getting
to is this. If you are not entirely satisfied
with this world, you're not supposed to be. Enjoy it. You know, enjoy the things God
has given to you. That's God's gift to you. Be happy with all
of the things that He blesses you with, your wife, your husband,
the food that you have, the house that you live in. Look at your
labor and say, wow, you know, I really enjoy this, you know,
nice new car that we were able to buy. But keep it in perspective
and realize that if you're not satisfied with this world, you're
not supposed to be. God wants you to be crying out
for His kingdom. Remember what Jesus said, seek
first God's kingdom. And John, when he wrote Revelation,
he said, come Lord Jesus, come Lord Jesus. You and I should
be longing, really desiring, coveting, lusting for the return
of Jesus Christ. Strongly desiring that you will
come. And we look at this world and
we say, wow, man, you know what, there's a lot of things messed
up. I just can't wait till Jesus comes. That's exactly what you
and I should be doing. Enjoy it, but don't let your
heart get fixed to this world, because this isn't the end. This
isn't the last stop on the train, you know. There's one more stop. One more stop on the train, and
that's heaven itself. And that's where God wants your
heart to be. Well, good stuff, isn't it? I
am thoroughly enjoying the wisdom that Solomon is bringing out
for us. I mean, there's so much here. It helps us to have a proper
perspective on everything. Well, let's bow together and
let's pray as we close. Our Father in heaven, we thank
you for this day and Lord, I thank you for the time that we have
right now to learn from your word, to learn from the Holy
Spirit about who you are and how we can know you better. I
pray that you'll protect us as we go, keep us safe, And Lord,
I pray that you will use us tomorrow and in the days to come to bring
others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Lord, we know that apart
from the cross of Jesus Christ, there is no answer. Because without
Jesus Christ, we all die and go to hell. We die and we suffer
eternal death. But through the cross, we have
forgiveness. And through the cross, we have
redemption. And through the cross, we have peace with you. And through
the cross we have reconciliation, we have a right standing, we
have your grace, we have your favor, we have your love. Thank
you Lord Jesus for what you've done. Please protect us as we
go our way and we ask this in your name. Amen.
A Hard Look at Hard Facts of Life Pt 2
Series Ecclesiastes
| Sermon ID | 1080419246 |
| Duration | 53:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Ecclesiastes 4:4-16 |
| Language | English |
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