Vanity, Vanity

In Ecclesiastes it is important to remember that this is human wisdom and understanding. He is writing now as a humanist. He forsook the God of his fathers. Solomon had disobeyed God and married many wives. God said when you have a king they are not to multiply wives unto themselves. Solomon disobeyed God and had seven hundred wives. Now God said the reason they were not to multiply wives is that these wives would turn their minds away from God. That’s what his wives did. Many of his wives he married just for the sake of policy or politics. In making a treaty with a king you would marry the kings daughter to seal the treaty. But in time these wives began to lead Solomon into the worshipping of their god and Solomon forsook the God of his fathers. He began to worship these other strange gods which were really no gods. And as the result at the latter end of his life he had become a very bitter disappointed, cynical man. He had come to the place where he actually was so cynical that he wrote “ better is the day in which one dies than the day in which he is born.” And the book of Ecclesiastes reflects much of this cynicism that comes from humanism. Just to look at the life and world under the sun. So that’s one of the words and themes that you will run through in the book of Ecclesiastes. He’s talking about life under the sun. Oh, what a monotonous dull routine. It just seems like everything moves in sight. One generation passes and another generation comes on and you forget the previous generation. The sun rises in the morning, sets in the evening and hastens around where it rolls again and each day the sun comes up and goes down, the monotony. So the rains fall from the heavens and into the rivers, and out into the sea and then carried back up and it takes the whole cycle over again. So you have the rain cycle.

Then he talks about the monotony of the winds they blow from the south, they complete their circuit and they blow back in from the south. So he talks about how life seems to move in cycles. He says you can’t do anything accept that which has already been done for there is nothing new under the sun. Everything’s just one monotonous routine.

I think it was Tex Ridder who used to sing “life gets so tedious don’t it” it just taught

About how you seem to get into a routine and things just seem to get monotonous and they sort of grind after awhile.

So here is a man who is been going through the grinding monotony of life apart from God, life on the human level, life under the sun. And so now he writes in his later years with cynicism, with despair, with hopelessness, with bitterness. One of the reoccurring themes through the entire book of Ecclesiastes is vanity, vanity, vanity; all is vanity and vexation of spirit. To modernize the English emptiness, emptiness, emptiness, everything is empty and frustrating, and thus the description of life of a humanist, life on the human level earthbound life. Life under the sun has its consequence, emptiness and frustration.

Man is in a search for meaning. There is within us a consciousness and awareness that life certainly must be more than what I have yet experienced. This certainly isn’t all that there is. Life must have some further purpose than daily routine. The 8-5 and the dinner and go to bed and the look forward to vacation. It must be more than this. And within us we have a consciousness that life does and should have purpose, life should have meaning. A meaning more than what we have yet experienced and so we find ourselves reaching out. Seeking to discover the purpose, seeking to discover the meaning of life. And so many times we rest under the delusion “if only I had enough money then I could be happy and satisfied.” And so we strive for material possessions. Thinking material possessions will bring us a sense of satisfaction and peace. But they don’t. So we think it lies in understanding and knowledge. So we get on the old education kick. We take every course that we can get into to and we seek to fill our minds with an understanding. Thinking if I could just understand enough and know enough about myself and about life then surely I would find the answer. But it won’t bring it. So then we find ourselves delving into pleasure and into sensations and into experience trying to find some excitement and some pleasure that will bring to me satisfaction. But it can’t. And so we turn from one thing to another to another trying to find meaning in life. Trying to find something that would bring me a rest, a peace, a satisfaction. And so many times after our pursuits like Solomon we end up with a bitterness and frustration.

Solomon was searching for meaning now he had an opportunity to carry his searches out to the end result. Now we many times don’t. We think if “we had enough money” so we spend are whole lives thinking that. And because we never have enough money we always think that would have been it. If I had enough then I would have been happy I would have found it. But I was never happy because I never got to that place. But Solomon is said to have made gold as common as rocks in Jerusalem. He said “I am massed to myself possessions more than anyone before me.” He had massed to himself this great wealth. Then he said “I looked at then I said it is emptiness.” And so he turned himself from the wealth and then he said “I gave my heart to know wisdom and understanding until I attain greater knowledge and understanding than anyone before me.” And so he wrote books on botany, he wrote books on biology, he wrote books on life because he has studied and learned all these things. And he said, “I look at it. And I said what is it? Its emptiness, it’s frustrating, because with increased wisdom all your doing is adding to your grief and with increased knowledge is increased sorrow.” In other word you are better off many times not to know so much because you are happier person. The more you know the sorrier you are, I am sure this is true about world affairs. The more I read the newspaper the sorrier it make me, the more I know about what’s happening in the world, really its tragic.

When I was a kid I used to see written in the books at school, you know in case a fire throw this in first, stuff like that. There was one of those that said “the more you learn the more you forget, the more you forget the less you know, so what’s the use of learning?” it sort of expresses that cycle of monotony that Solomon was talking about. With increased knowledge is increased sorrow. Actually it is sort of a frustrating thing to make knowledge your goal because you know what the more you know the more you know you don’t know. The guy who thinks he knows it all knows the least. But the more you study any particular subject the more you get into it the more you realize there is so much to know there you can never know it. It’s like Shakespeare said, “man poor man so ignorant in that which he know best.” And so Solomon gave himself to wisdom to understanding that he might know and he says, “what is it? It’s empty because the more I know increased knowledge only increases my sorrow and in much wisdom is much grief.”

And so he gave himself unto building projects. If I could just leave some great monument with my name inscribed upon it and they can say “that is monument with your name inscribed.” And so Solomon started building he said, “I built the great buildings.”

When we were in Jerusalem we went under the old city near Herod’s gate. There’s a cave entrance there and you can go underneath and there are these vast caverns. Huge caves under there where Solomon had taken the lime stone and had quarried the limestone for the building of the walls, for the building of the temple, and you can go for miles under the city in these huge caverns and you can see the marvelous engineering. You can see the places where they had made there holes and driven there stakes and then filled them with water to cause them to expand and fracture the rock and you can see it under the city there that Solomon did. Called Solomon’s quarry. He built these great buildings. He built the stables and you can see the stables over a thousand stables for his horses. You can see the ruins of them today. When we were out just on the other side of Bethlehem in Hebron we stopped and there we saw some beautiful pools of water, they were reservoirs, and actually these are the reservoirs that Solomon built almost three thousand years ago. He said he planted orchard and then he said he made pools to water the orchards in his garden. And these reservoirs that Solomon built three thousand years ago are still in use today. And you can still see the old aqueduct built to bring the water from these reservoirs into the city of Jerusalem to water the orchards in the gardens that he made. This guy was a fabulous engineer and just a brilliant man. He built all these marvelous things reservoirs that are still used in this present day. And he said “I looked at them all and said they are empty and they brought me emptiness they didn’t bring me fulfillment at all it just left me empty and frustrated.”

And so he determined the only thing to do is to bomb yourself out and give yourself to joy and pleasure just drink yourself into oblivion because there is no purpose or reason for life. And he became bitter and he ended up by saying in verse 17 of chapter 2 “therefor I hated life.” A man who had glutted himself with every conceivable pleasure, a man who had filled himself with knowledge, a man who had built tremendous monuments, a man who had all of the wealth, more wealth than you can possible spend, how does he end up? Bitter, disappointed “therefore I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous to me for all is empty and frustrating.”

Why is it that man feels this emptiness? Why is it that almost universally that man has this emptiness within, with consciousness that life must be more the reaching out of something yet beyond? In reality the Bible tells us that this is the way God designed us. In Romans the 8th chapter the 20th verse it declares “for the creature was made subject unto emptiness not willingly but by reason of Him who created him.” In other words, God when he designed man for His own purposes and His own plans when He designed us and created us, He created us with a hollow spot inside. He designed us with an inbuilt emptiness. That’s just the way we have been created by God himself. He built the emptiness within us. And so man was made subject unto emptiness by the reason of Him who created him. Why would God create us with this emptiness? Why would God create us with this desire to be satisfied yet not seeming to be able to find that satisfaction? Why would God build such a diabolical thing within us that would leave us always reaching out for something more? Because God when he created you, created you for fellowship and love. And He wants you to know His fellowship; He wants you to know His love. So within the deepest part of you He made this emptiness in order, because of this emptiness, reach out for Him and touch him and fellowship with Him and through this fellowship find the fullness that He has for you. But God filled it in.

Now when God created man he made him a three-fold being body, soul and spirit. The real me is spirit. I possess a soul or consciousness I live in a body. The real me is not this body it’s only a tent in which I am dwelling for awhile. One day before long I am going to move out of this tent. Into a building that has not been made with hands that God has made for me in heaven, it’s reserved for me there, its got my name on it and it’s prepared directly from God it’s a vast improvement from this old tent. It’s like moving out of that old patched up tent with a leaky roof and all into this new sanctuary. Cold, wintry days were a bear in that tent the furnaces roaring and all now here we are sitting in comfort. I am going to move out of this old patched up tent one of these days. I’ll still me. I’ll still possess my consciousness, my spirit, but I will have been delivered from this body. I know that when this earthly tent is dissolved I will have a building of God not made with hands eternal in the heaven. Every once in awhile I really get to groaning in this body. After playing football and not having done for a long time. You get all those sore muscles and you say, “why did I do that?” you do groan earnestly desiring to be delivered. Not that I would be unclothed Paul said but “that I might be clothed upon with that body which is in heaven. For I know that as long as I am at home in this body I am absent from the Lord but I would much rather be absent from this body and to be present with the Lord.”

Now in making me a threefold being He has so integrated my body, soul, and spirit it is really difficult to divide between them. Whatever affects my body affects my mind, whatever affects my body affects my spirit, and whatever affects my mind affects my body. My body and mind are very closely related. Whatever affects my mind affects my spirit and whatever affects my spirit affects my body, whatever affects my spirit affects my mind. I am so interrelated I can’t really divide between the three of them you see. That’s why when your spirit is renewed with Jesus Christ it affects you every way. It affects your whole mental outlook; your whole attitude, your emotions and it will also affect you physically. Because you can’t really separate between the three you’re interrelated. And yet though I am so closely interrelated body, soul and spirit yet my body has it’s own needs, my soul has it’s own needs, and my spirit has it’s own needs. As far as my body I need air, I need water, I need food. As far as my psyche or my soul I need love, I need security, I need to be needed and I have my psychological needs. Now as far as my spirit goes my spirit also has its needs and my spirit needs God. My spirit needs a vital relationship with God. Now I know that my body can not live without food. That is basic to my body life, food. It is essential and basic. Air is essential and basic. Water is essential and basic for my body needs. And my body without air without water without food will die. So my spirit without God is dead. Without a meaningful relationship with God my spirit lies there dead within me. And I am living now purely on the human level. I am living as a humanist. What I see, what I touch, what I feel, that makes up my life. Purely on the material human level but my spirit being dead I live empty and frustrated because life on the human level is monotony, a bore after awhile. It’s a grind. So Solomon on a human level despaired of this life under the sun it’s empty it’s frustrating I hate life it’s better the day you die than the day you were born.

So the emptiness of man lies within the realm of his spirit. My spirit is crying out for life for God. Now here is where many people make their mistake they try and satisfy a spiritual cry and a spiritual need with a physical experience. It will never do it. You could never satisfy the spiritual thirst within with a physical experience. Nor can you satisfy that spiritual need with a psychic experience. Now what can we say of physical experience? This they are not lasting. You can go home and sit down and eat till your full of your favorite foods. “Oh I wanted to always eat all the banana cream pie I can hold” you can just shovel it down until you can only hold the last bite in your mouth because there is no room to swallow. And you can sit there in absolute misery your stomach so full and afraid almost to talk or open your mouth. Just miserable! And thinking to yourself how could I have been such a nut. And just sit in misery thinking “I never want to look at another piece of pie as long as I live.” But in another 5-6 hours you will be back picking at it again. What’s happening? I thought you were so full you were never going to eat it again. “Oh but I am getting hungry again”

So physical experiences are not lasting. What can you say concerning emotional experiences? They are not lasting. When I was in college I used to be the idea man and so the guys every evening would come over to my room and say, “hey Chuck what should we do tonight for excitement?” And so I would have a little scheme all cooked up. And we did some of the filthiest things for excitement, I would share them but there are kids here, no sense giving them ideas. So we would go out to Hollywood Boulevard, there is always a bunch of people out there looking for movie stars and so (it was crazy). We would have one guy walking up the street and we would run up and say “hey can I have your autograph” and we would start getting his autograph and pretty soon everyone is trying to get his autograph, and they don’t even know who he is. And he would sign Mickey Mouse. But everybody’s clamoring for and autograph. And we would, after it was all through, just go down the street just laughing, hehawing, we would laugh so hard we would ache! And we would stop by Bob’s on the way home still just be laughing and having the greatest time as we were laughing about it and just go home and go to bed and just laughing, go to sleep. Thinking you were going to laugh until you die. Then the next night a knock on the door hey chuck what are we going to do tonight. We had an exhilarating emotional experience last night hilarious but it doesn’t last you got to go back. And back and back again and again. Frustrating! Always empty never seems to stay full. You might fill it up for a moment but it never seems to stay full. Somehow it all drains out till you are back at it again. Sittings at the table again, every time you sit at the table remember that physical things just can’t fill you. You can sit there and be full for a moment but after you go away for awhile it just has a way of dissipating and here you are hungry again.

And so is life it’s interesting it’s frustrating you try to full it you can’t maintain it has a way of getting away from you. And after a while you get just frustrated with it all. With Solomon you say “its so frustrating.” Life just moves in a cycle and you are just one part of a cycle your generation is going to pass and they are going to forget all about you. The next generation is going to come on its just cycle after cycle after cycle. What can I do? Did God built into me this capacity just to mock me? Did God build this emptiness in so that He could somehow just get a fiendish delight in man’s endless quest? No! Jesus said “ if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink and he who believes in me out of his innermost being they will flow and they will gust torrance of living water.” You see as long as my spirit is empty I can never be satisfied. As long as your spirit is dead you’re at best only 2/3 of a person. You living on a body and soulish level that’s always an empty temporary thing. You may have a high today but tomorrow you will be leveled out again. It’s always such a temporary thing it’s not a lasting thing living on a purely physical level. Mental and material level its just and empty frustrating life it’s only when you add the dimension of the spirit that you add now a permanency something that doesn’t fade away, something that doesn’t dissipate with time. For the work of God within our spirit is an eternal work. And when I come into a relationship with God I become alive spiritually and because I am integrated then that spiritual life begins to affect my mental outlook, my emotion, and it begins to affect me physically, and I become a total whole person body, soul and spirit. But it’s because the spirit has become alive. This is the record John says “ that God has give us eternal life” not this temporary transient thing. “God has given us eternal life and this life is in the Son, and he that hath the Son hath life.” God built this emptiness in you that you would seek after God, so that you would discover God, so that you would come into fellowship with God. And through His fellowship be benefited by receiving spiritual life which is true life by your spirit coming alive and making you a total whole person.

How many times Jesus said to those that came to Him “thy faith has made thee whole.” They received more than just the physical healing they received a wholeness in there life. It’s important that God touch you in more than just the material, physical emotional realm it’s important that your spirit be touched by God and that you be brought to wholeness through Jesus Christ. And as you do your brought now into a relationship with God what’s the effect? That empty area that never seemed to be full or you could never seem to fill it all of sudden your cup begins to run over your so full you cant’ contain it. David said, “my cup runneth over.” Your so full and Jesus said “it begins to flow forth like rivers of living water like a living well like a well of living water springing up within your soul.” He said. You find that this glorious inner working of God’s Spirit just bubbling out and just coloring you’re whole life and everyone around you.

You find meaning, you find purpose, you find satisfaction. Jesus said, “come unto me all ye who are weary and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” That word rest is peace you’ll find the peace you’ll find the satisfaction you’ll find the purpose and meaning when you come to Jesus Christ.

You say “well Chuck I can’t buy that. I can’t understand how just believing in Jesus can make such changes in my life and I can’t enter into something that I just can’t understand. And you say believing in Jesus is going to make all these changes in my life. I don’t understand how He can do it. I just don’t like to mess around with things I don’t understand.” Well let me tell you something I don’t understand how that down here in Huntington Beach they could have a steamed generator turning these turbines that will send electrical power through a wire into my home. That all I have to do is flip a switch and I can have all kinds of convenience within my house. My furnace will run and keep my house warm because of the fan and all. I can walk over and turn on a switch and have light in my house. Now wouldn’t it be stupid to sit in a cold dark house and say, “well I don’t believe in doing anything I don’t understand.” Now I don’t understand how turning that switch will bring the juice from Huntington Beach electrical plant how it can come through all the wires. I can understand the basics of electricity and all. I know of colon law of electricity yet I don’t understand it all there is so many facets of it, its just about a mystery to me. Whether or not the power travels in the wire or around the wire or how these charges are coming through I don’t know. I guess they don’t know either. I don’t understand it but boy I tell you I sure enjoy it.

At the same token I don’t understand how God does all the things He does for me. I don’t understand God’s love, I don’t understand God’s concern, I don’t understand the working of God in my life but I tell you I sure enjoy it. I just really thoroughly enjoy what God is doing. For He has brought to me a complete satisfaction. Rest, Meaning Purpose and he will do the same for you. You don’t have to understand him just believe. For Jesus said “He who believes on me there innermost being will flow the river of living water.”