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.