Okay, turn with me, if you would, to 1 Kings chapter 4. 1 Kings chapter 4. There is a man in the scripture that the Lord greatly blessed. He greatly blessed him and he greatly used him in the writing of his word and in the preaching of his gospel. And that man's name is Solomon. And even though Solomon's natural greatness, his natural earthly greatness, the things that God gave him, his possessions and his authority and the power that he had, no king was like him, no other king ever. And no kingdom was like His kingdom ever. Look with me right here at 1 Kings 4 at verse 22. It says, In Solomon's provisions for one day, what he provided for all who came to his table, for one day was thirty measures of fine flour and three score, that's sixty measures of meal. 10 fat oxen, those that had been put up in stalls, and 20 oxen out of the pastures, and 100 sheep. Besides 30 ox, 100 sheep. Besides hearts, those are kind of like deer, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl. For he had dominion over all the region on this side, the river, from Tifsa even to Eza, over all the kings on this side of the river, and he had peace on all sides round about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. And Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses. I was envisioning the barns, the roof lines. Can you see those roof lines lined up? Can you imagine 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen? And those officers provided victual for King Solomon and for all that came to King Solomon's table. Every man in his month, they lacked nothing. Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge. The natural greatness of this man Solomon far exceeds anything, I mean anything that anyone could ever do or become. Anyone. The Lord said no man's going to be like you. But even so, even so, Solomon is a man we can all relate to. I love Solomon. He's a man we can all relate to. He recorded his innermost struggles. His innermost thoughts, just like his father David did. Don't we love the Psalms? David's pouring out his heart in those Psalms. Well, his son Solomon did the same thing. And the way he viewed this world, and the way he viewed Christ, is a way that every believer can relate to. God gave Solomon the exact same heart he gives to every one of his children. Every single one. And as a type of Christ, Solomon is a type of Christ. As a type of Christ, God gave Solomon something in greater measure than he ever gave to any other man before him or after him. And that was wisdom. Now look at chapter 3 with me right here in 1 Kings 3 verse 5 says, In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. God said to this man, You ask what you would have me to give you and I'll give it to you. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, And I am but a little child. Don't you love that humility? Here this man has been made the king of Israel. And he said, Lord, I'm just a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. He said, you've chosen this particular people. and you've set me in the midst of them, and they can't be numbered for multitude. Verse 9, he said, give therefore thy servant an understanding heart. This is what I'm asking for, a hearing heart. That's what the word understanding means. To judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment. Behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked for, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. Now look with me back at chapter 4, verse 29. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezraite, and Heman, and Kalkal, and Darda, the sons of Mayol, and his fame was in all nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon." You know, that's the strongest tree in the world. The cedars of Lebanon. And that's Christ. He spake of trees from the cedar tree that's in Lebanon. even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." We know what they used hyssop for, don't we? That's what they dipped in the blood of the sacrifice, and they took that blood and they sprinkled it on the mercy seat to appease a holy God. He spake of trees, from the cedar tree that's in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom." Solomon was so wise. He was so wise. And we would be wise to listen to the words that God gave him. Just like all the people came to hear Solomon, all those kings came to hear Solomon, we would be wise to listen to what God gave this man and caused him to write. Now God used him to pen three of the books in the Bible. We're going to look at the beginning of two of them. Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, those two books. Now here's the message that I want us to get tonight, okay? Here's the point. This is what I want us to take with us. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us what life is without Christ. That's what he tells us. How empty this life is without Christ. And then in the Song of Solomon, he tells us what life is with Christ. How full this life truly is in union with Christ. All right, let's see if we can see this in the beginning of these two books here. Here's the title of the message and here's the point, okay? life without Christ and life with Christ. Alright, go with me over to Ecclesiastes 1. Psalm and then Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 1 verse 1 says, The words of the preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem. Now here's what life is without Christ. Verse 2 says, Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. I'm going to tell you what, we've just heard the truth. We hadn't heard an old wives tale. We hadn't heard good advice. We just heard the truth. We just heard the truth. It is empty. It is empty. The vanity of this flesh right here is just a wasted existence without Christ. That's all it is. It's a wasted, ruined existence. That's all it is. Verse 3 says, What profit hath a man of all his labor, which he taketh under the sun? Without Christ, all of our works are useless. They're useless. Our physical works don't matter. They don't matter. Get to the end of his life, a man gets to the end of his life. What if a man does gain the whole world, but lose his own soul? What does it matter? Really, what does it matter? Our physical works don't matter. Our spiritual works won't help us. Absolutely useless. Verse 4 says, One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. That right there just keeps happening. Isn't it sad to see people get old? Isn't that sad? There was an actor I used to love as a kid and I saw him recently in a movie and I was like, wow, that guy's old. And it's so sad. It's just so sad. That's what sin has done to us. And people just keep dying and they just, one generation comes and then they just pass away. What's it all for? They just keep dying and dying and dying and it's all because of sin. That's why. It's all because of sin. By sin, death came. Verse 5 says, The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north. It whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again." What he's saying is, nothing is satisfied. Nothing is satisfied. Without Christ, there's no rest. None. Verse 8 says, All things are full of labor, man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The things that hath been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done is that which shall be done. And there's no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new. It hath been already of old time which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after." That made me think of a poem that John Newton wrote. He said, one of the lines in it says, when I turn my eyes within, all is dark and vain and wild. It has always been that way, it will always be that way. I am not a holy roller. When I turn my eyes within, I tell you what, if you want to get discouraged, all you got to do is go. When I turn my eyes within, it's all dark, it's all vain, it's all wild. Verse 12 says, I the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith." Life without Christ is a sore travail. That means an evil work. That's all it is. That's all it is. Everything that's done is an evil work. You know, everybody, men think that they're good, and the works that man does are good. It's all good. We're going to be good people. We're going to do... Without Christ, every bit of it is an evil work. That's what God says. Sore travail. Verse 14 says, I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. Without Christ, sin, and here's the thing we can all enter into, we're all sinners. Right? All we gotta do is take one second, just get inside that mind for one second. Forget about what happens with these 10 digits. Get inside that mind for one second and you know what we'll find? Sin. Sin. And without Christ, sin will never be remedied. It cannot be, I don't care what we do, it will not undo what we've done. It won't undo it. You cannot wipe that slate clean or balance things out. And that's what this says right here. He said, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. There is no hope, period. Men are going to go meet God. Men are going to realize the truth of their sin before God. And they're going to realize without Christ, there is no hope, period. He said, that which is wanting, and that means lacking, cannot be numbered. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? No man who's without Christ. No man. There's another man in the scripture named Daniel. And a king, Belshazzar, was having all these dreams. The Lord was speaking to him in dreams. And the Lord also used his own finger to write on the wall. And Daniel was the interpreter that interpreted these things for him. And this is what Daniel told him. This is what God wrote. Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting, found lacking. And that'll be every soul that is without Christ. Every soul that's without Christ. Verse 16 says, I communed with mine own heart saying, lo, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." Everything about life without Christ is absolute misery. People enjoy it a little bit along the way. But I'm telling you, this life is so short. You watch a movie, and then you wait 20 years and look at that man and see what he looks like. You know what that tells us? This life is short. Oh, this is flying by. You know where we're flying to? The judgment throne of God Almighty. And all of us, if we go without Christ, we're going to find out it turned out to be absolute misery. It's sin. It's death. It's emptiness, it's vanity, it's nothing. Life without Christ is worthless and it will leave a man and it will leave a woman ruined. Now, let's take a look at life with Christ. Turn with me just a few pages, go over one more book to Song of Solomon. And we're only going to look at the first four verses if that helps everybody. Song of Solomon verse 1 says, The song of songs, which is Solomon's. That's Christ. Solomon represents Christ. The song of songs, which is Solomon's. This right here is what life is with Christ. Verse two says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Have you ever been in love? Anybody in here? Anybody in here ever been in love? Just completely ravished, just absolutely ruined with love. Can't eat because you're just so sick with love. The kind of love where you can't stop kissing. Just kissing and kissing and kissing. That butterflies in the stomach, happiness in the heart, smile on the face, love. Have you ever experienced that? That's what life is with Christ. That's what life is with Christ. God made Adam and Eve, didn't he? And he brought them together in a covenant of marriage. And he said, this is what life is with Christ. It's the only reason he ordained the covenant of marriage. It's the only reason. One reason alone. It was to show man the union, the relationship between Christ and His bride. Only reason. Turn with me over to Genesis 24. Genesis 24, this right here is what life is with Christ. This is Isaac and Rebekah. Genesis 24 verse 61 says, And Rebekah arose and her damsels. And they rode upon the camels and followed the man. And the servant took Rebekah and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the whale, Laharoi, for he dwelt in the south country. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the even tide. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel. For she said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant said, It is my master. Therefore she took a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebecca, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Why did God write all that down? To show us what life is with Christ. He saw her. After that, she saw him. She jumped off of her camel and covered herself, didn't she? That's the bride. Isaac took her and he loved her. Look with me at Genesis 29. Genesis 29, this right here is what life is with Christ. This is Jacob and Rachel. Genesis 29 verse 20 says, and Jacob served seven years for Rachel. Jacob loved this woman and he asked her father, can I marry her? And he said, you have to earn her. You got to work for seven years. Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her. Do you know why Boaz redeemed Ruth? It's the same reason Hosea married Gomer. Love. Love. Absolute love. The fullness of love. Every one of these accounts are written in the Word of God to describe life with Christ. Every one of them. Go with me back to Song of Solomon. Verse 2 says, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. How does our Lord kiss us? He kisses us with his words, doesn't he? He kisses us with his spirit. Have you ever felt his kiss? Have you ever felt his kiss? Verse 2, Solomon said, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. It's better than wine. You know, wine makes the heart glad, doesn't it? Man, this is better than wine. Verse 3 says, Because of the savor of thy good ointments, Thy name is as an ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." The Apostle Paul said, I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. That's what he said. Those who have been espoused to him. They have smelled the same sweet-smelling savor that God the Father smelled in the sacrifice of His Son. They've smelled the same sweet-smelling savor. Those who have truly heard His name, His name is Savior, isn't it? Life without Christ is absolute ruin and vanity and death and horror. And once they see their Savior, once they see the One who redeemed them from all their destruction, all their sins, His name is the Lord our righteousness. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. All who are joined into a living union with Christ, they fall in love with Him. And this is what they cry. In verse 4 it says, draw me, draw me, I can't come. Did you know that, did you know we can't come to Christ? I'm going to tell you this, our only hope is to be found before God Almighty, not only with the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can't come to Him and make that happen. So you know what we do? We start crying, draw me, draw me. The Lord said, no man can come except the Father which has sent me, draw him. That's what the heart of those who have smelled verse three again, he said, because of the savor of thy good ointments, that's that sweet smelling savor. Those who have seen his sacrifice entered into what his name means, they cried, draw me. Draw me, it says in verse four, draw me, we will run after thee. Lord, if you will draw us, we'll come running. We'll run crying, draw me nearer. We just sang, I am thine, O Lord. I have heard thy voice and it told thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. That's my hope. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious, wounded, bleeding side. Draw me nearer. That's my only hope. That's my only comfort. That's my only life. That's my only life. Verse 4 says, Draw me, we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more than wine. What is his love? What is his love? The king of kings himself said, the greater than Solomon said, greater love hath no man than this. that a man lay down his life for his friend." Isn't that what he said? His friend. That's the greatest love there is, that a man lay down his life for his friend. Well, look with me at chapter 5, verse 16. Song of Solomon 5, 16, it says, His mouth is most sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is my friend. O daughters of Jerusalem, life without Christ is emptiness. It's vanity, it's death, it's waste, it's ruin. But life with Christ is love, peace, joy, happiness, redemption, acceptance. It's heaven. It's everything. Life with Christ is heaven. Life with Christ is heaven. People want to go to heaven, don't they? You know what that means? That means they want to go to Christ. He is heaven. He's all. And we'll close with this back in chapter 1, Song of Solomon 1, the end of verse 4 says, the upright, those who have been made to be upright in Christ, the upright love thee. They love Thee uprightly. They upright love Thee. Why do they love Him? Why do we love Him so much? What are we doing here? Why do ruined sinners love Him so much? It's because He first loved us, isn't it? He first loved us. Life with Christ is a love affair. That's what it is. That's what eternity is. I wonder what we'll be doing in eternity. We'll be in love. That's what we'll do. For the rest of eternity, we will be in butterfly in the stomach, joy in the heart, smile on the face, love, absolute love. Those who have received His love will spend eternity crying unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins, washed away all that emptiness, washed away all our vanity and all our ruin in his own blood to our husband, our spouse, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. All right, let's stand together. Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your love to us. And Lord, thank you for espousing us to Christ your son. And Lord, thank you for his shed blood. Thank you for the redemption that is in him from all of that vanity and all of that ruin. Thank you for sparing us, Lord. Thank you for mercy and thank you for grace. Thank you for the marriage that we have to Christ and the marriages you've given us to each other here. Lord, we give you all honor and glory for the things you've done in heaven. We pray that you'll watch over us and keep your hand on us, and we pray that you'll be with our fellowship now as we celebrate this new marriage. And we pray, Lord, that you'll keep our eyes and our conversation and our hearts on you. We pray that you'll forgive us for all of our sin and please keep your hand on us for Christ's sake. Amen. You're dismissed.