Goads, Nails, and Death

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and staff they comfort me. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day. I will wait, you shall call, and I will answer. I will wait till my change comes. You will have a desire for the work of your hands. In those three thoughts from David, from the Apostle Paul, and from Job, we have a synopsis of what we've been going through for the last couple years almost now. It was almost two years ago that this coronavirus made its debut in America, and it changed our lives forever. It affected every single one of us in one way or another. Recently and of late, it's affected the whole world and it's made death a topic, a worldwide topic, a global topic unlike anything that we've seen in our lifetimes before. We had charts that would go up every week or every day on the TV that would talk about how many people had died in America, how many people who had died in the state, how many people had died worldwide. It was just the focus of the world. We all walked in a way through the valley of the shadow of death. We're still continuing to walk through that because we don't know what the end of this will be. We know it's not over yet and that there is more coming because the Bible talks about times of disease and pestilence and things that will continue to increase upon the earth.

We've seen people die. All of us have been affected in some way. We all know someone who has died because of this pandemic. As mentioned in Jacksonville this morning, we've had three people die in the last two months up in Jacksonville. I don't think in my years in the church we ever had that many people in one church die in that short span of time.

Here in this congregation, we've had two. Two people die within the last couple months from COVID. Judy Hughes, Bessie Harris. We have a third person who's in the hospital that unless God intervenes any day will get the call that she has died. I don't think in a circuit there's been that many people, six people in a two-month circuit, that have died. We all went to the face this year. We've heard the stories about how many people came down with the coronavirus. We've all learned someone who has died as a result of being at the feast. All these things surround us. All these things surround us. All these things have happened to us. They've had an effect on all of us. We might ask the question, why?

Why would God allow this? Why would God have this happen to His people? What is it? You know when we're faced with death, whether it's a death that's in the normal course of times because we're all going to die, right? We're all going to die of something. In this day and age, it can be COVID, it could be something else, but we know that everyone's going to die once. It affects us. We mourn, we grieve, we sorrow. Those who aren't with us in this congregation anymore, we still think of them, we still mourn for them, we still grieve for them. That's okay. That's good. We do that because there is a loss.

There's someone that isn't going to be replaced in this lifetime. We'll wait until we see them at the return of Jesus Christ because we know what the end or the next step in our lives are. The world doesn't know that. But we've been faced with these things, and as we mourn and as we grieve and as we are faced with death, it affects everyone. Whether you're in the Church of God, whether you're a Catholic, whether you're a Protestant, whether you're Muslim, whether you're a Buddhist, everyone has stops and thinks when they are faced with death. Because we know what the we think about what is in it for us. What about us?

Not what's in it for us, but what about us? It makes us pause. We come face to face with our mortality, and it makes us think, and it's right that we would do some introspection.

We need to do some introspection because life, life is a meaningful thing. Life has a lot of purpose, and it's good for us to take the time sometimes to be face to face with that and to take stock of what we're doing and why we're doing it. You know, I often say that everything that we encounter in life, we find in the Bible. There isn't anything that you and I go through, that we aren't going to find the answers or the examples or something to look at in the Bible that can lead us through times that we experience that can help us understand what is going on, why is going on, or why would God allow that to happen? Why would He do that? There is a book in the Bible that leads us exactly to what we're dealing with today. Whether we had someone in our immediate family who died or whether it's someone that we've known, I think probably everyone knows someone who has been affected by this. Everyone listening on the web has been affected. We all can relate to this today. And there is a book that leads us through that that gives us the answers why and what should we do when we're faced with something like death? That's so final.

It was written, the book, of course under the inspiration of God, by the wisest man that ever lived, except for Jesus Christ, and that's Solomon. That's Solomon. He wrote a few of the books in the Bible. We have the Proverbs that he penned. He wrote the Song of Solomon, and he also wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is a unique book in the Bible because in it Solomon goes through a thought process. He asks questions about what is life about? What is this happening? What did I do? Have I made any use of my life?

You can see that as you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, there's questions that he asks the very same questions that you and I may be asking that certainly plenty of people in the world are asking. Maybe some families are asking as they ask why, what do we do with this? One of the things when we're faced with death is that introspection. It happens.

We have funeral services. We have memorial services. We talk about the person. It's good to remember them. But we also always talk about what it means. What does death mean?

People always want to know what does it mean? What is it that we need to learn? You and I know a lot, but there's a lot more that we can learn.

Now the book of Ecclesiastes, if you look at the original title, it would be called the preacher. It also has, in the middle, the Greek word ekklesia in it, which means called out one. So some commentaries will suggest it's the preacher's words to the called out ones. Now whether that's what God intended, I don't know, but it certainly is words to us, words to his people, the words of the preacher Solomon to his people. And Solomon, you know, he started off very, very strongly. He was very close to God. When God asked him, you remember what is it that you need as you become king? And he said, just give me your spirit, give me wisdom, so that I can rule these people well. God was so pleased. He said, I'll give you wealth as well. He became the wealthiest man on earth. You know how he lived his life? We talked about him many times. He bought everything that he needed. He did everything. You and I would be... he was a richest man on earth. There isn't anything that he wanted that he didn't buy. Nothing that he wanted that he didn't have. He even had a thousand wives. As if in one of them, one of them must have pleased him. I don't know. You know, it makes a comment in the book of Ecclesiastes that he hasn't found one good woman among the thousand that he married. So it's an interesting comment that he married, but none of them were women of God. They were all women of other cultures. They were all women that didn't have the real purpose in life that they should have had. But he muses on these things. But he does an introspection somewhere along the line, Solomon, as he was enamored with all the wealth that he had and all the things that he did and all the cares of life and all the things that should have made him happy somewhere in his life, whether it was at the end of his life, whether he saw someone that died, whether he had a health problem, whatever it is, he had to pause and think, what has my life been about? What's my legacy? Have I done anything with it that's going to be lasting? Or am I going to just pass away and no one will ever remember me again?

And so you remember in the early pages here of Ecclesiastes, he asks those questions. So let's look a little bit at some of the verses in Ecclesiastes and see what God teaches us during these periods of introspection we can have, because Ecclesiastes is a very good study in seeking God's will, seeking God's understanding, and to going through the process to determine the meaning.

Solomon has a question. It's a very real question, one of the basic questions of life, and he doesn't get it done in an hour. He doesn't spend an hour thinking about it, and God magically gives him the answer. You can see, as you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, it's a very long study, a very long meditation and contemplation, if you will, that Solomon had. Something that you do with God's Word. You don't read everything in 30 seconds and understand it. You don't always go to the commentary and find out what its meaning is. Sometimes, and a lot of times, you have to spend some time with God alone and let him lead you to the answer and the understanding that you're looking for.

So let's look at Ecclesiastes 1. I'm not going to read the first few verses here.

Solomon comes to a conclusion there. I've done all these things. What good is it? In verse 12 of Ecclesiastes 1, he says, I the preacher was king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that's done under heaven, this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man by which they may be exercised. I've seen all the works that are done under the sun and indeed all his vanity and grasping for the wind. As Solomon goes through this treatise, as he goes through this introspection, there's two ways of life that he's contrasting. When he says under the sun, he's talking about the way of the world, the way of the world without God. That's the way most of the world lives. That's not the way you and I live. We live under the grace of God, but under the sun, when Solomon talks about that, and if I remember correctly, it's 29 times in the book of Ecclesiastes, he's talking about with the world without God. They don't know the truth of God. They don't understand what the truth is. They don't understand the purpose of man. So they go through life having these questions, these unanswered questions, as they search for meaning, as they search for some kind of something that they can cling to because you can't just live this 70, 80, 90, 100 years in life, and that's all there is? That's all there is? And so he says here, I've seen all the works that are done under the sun. There's a lot of works that are being done. People are busy. They've got a lot of things going on, and it deeds all vanity. 36 times in Ecclesiastes, he uses the word vanity. More appropriately, as you know, it should be translated, it's futile. It's meaningless. I've gone all these things, and it really has no meaning to it. There's no reason for it. When you look at it in the scope of eternity, beyond just my life, when I leave this world, what does it mean? What good did it all do? It was fun while it was there, but that's all? I just did things and left it?

I saw indeed all his vanity and grasping for the wind. Move over to chapter 2, verse 10. He says, whatever my eyes desired, I didn't keep from them. I didn't withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. I looked at all the works that my hands had done, and all the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed it was all vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. There was nothing lasting. It was just there. I did it. It was done, and when I'm gone, when I'm there, there's nothing left. It's just all that. It was just activity. It was just that and nothing more. There has to be something more, Solomon is saying.

Remember what he's lost in the time as he's become enamored with the cares of the world as his life has been dominated by activity rather than a relationship with God. He's been dominated by searching for things for himself, not searching for the meaning of life. He's been dominated by things and activities and cares of this life without any focus on the life that comes afterwards. And so he finds himself as he draws to the close of his life in all probability with these questions. Same questions that many of the world have that maybe even some here might have. Maybe some listening might still be looking for the meaning of life or searching what it means because God does have a purpose for all of us. If we drop down to verse 15 of chapter 2, I said in my heart, as it happens to the fool, it also happens to me. And why then was I the more wise? God gave me all these wisdom, but you know what? The fool dies. I die. What happens to them happens to me. And why was I then more wise? And I said in my heart, that's also futile. What did I do with the wisdom I had? What did I have to do with the knowledge I had? The same thing happens to me and them. People he may have looked down on, and the same thing, the same result.

Verse 16, for there's no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool. What good does it do? Solomon asks. What good did it do that I had all this wisdom? And other people didn't. Verse 17, therefore I hated life, because the work that was done under the Sun, remember that's life without God, all the cares and activities the world apart from the knowledge of God, I hated all, therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me. For it's all vanity, it's all meaningless, it's all futile, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the Sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool. Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled, in which I have shown myself wise under the Sun. This is meaningless, this is futile, therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I toiled under the Sun. For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity, and in his eyes, a great evil. Well, you can see Solomon's dilemma. You can see where his thought process are. He's going through the thing. He's looking at things logically. He's asking questions the same way that you and I might ask questions when we do some introspection, when we look at our lives, when we examine our lives. He's doing it for a reason.

Something has prodded him into this introspection. We don't know exactly what it was, but something has caused him to look at this a little more closely. As we go on in Ecclesiastes in chapter 3, he says, you know, at the beginning there, to everything there's a reason, a time for every purpose, a time for every purpose under heaven. He comes to realize that there's a reason that there's a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted. And he goes through that, he goes through that list. If we drop it down to verse 10, as he's contemplating, as he's meditating, as he's seeking God and his guidance and his understanding and what it is, you see his thought process continue. Down in verse 10, he says, I've seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He did make us physical. He did put us on a physical earth. He did tell us to tend and keep that earth. He did tell us to work in physical labors. He did tell us to work hard. He did tell us to keep our, you know, to do the things the best of our ability and to work hard all the days of our life. And he does bless us when we work hard. That's by principle of Christian living, to work hard and to do those things that God has told us to do.

And he blesses us for that. So Solomon thinks, he says, well, this is what God gave us to do. We're supposed to be working hard and doing everything. Verse 11, he's made everything beautiful in its time. It's a beautiful earth. It's a beautiful earth he gave us. Beautiful things that we can occupy ourselves with.

Also, he says in verse 11, he has put eternity in their hearts. Mankind knows there's something more. Something more than just this physical life.

As I mentioned before, every religion has its own philosophy, its own theory on what happens after life. There's none. I don't think there's anyone on earth that just thinks man goes away and there's nothing thereafter. You can go back into history, back to the the first century when the Adam and Eve were on earth. They all knew there was something more than this physical life. They lost the knowledge of God, but God put that in man's mind. There is a reason. I don't know what it is, and that's what he says. He's put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. And indeed, most of the world and most people who have lived have never understood what God's purpose was. You and I do, because he's opened our minds to understand that. He's given us that knowledge. We know what comes after death.

We know what we're doing here today. We know what God wants us to be doing, learning, becoming. What we do physically is a part of what we do spiritually as well, as we obey Him and as He brings us, as we allow Him to bring us to the people that He wants us to become. He's made everything beautiful in His time.

He's put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. True for Solomon at that time, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know what God is doing, he says. He comes down to verse 18.

I said in my heart, concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them that they may see that they themselves are like animals. It's comparing life and looking at things. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals. One thing befalls them. As one dies, so dies the other. Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals for all his vanity. Well, in a physical sense, he's right. Death comes, breath ceases, dust you are, he says here, and dust and unto dust you shall return. Just like God said in Genesis 3.19, dust you are and dust you shall return. As Solomon sees, he says, you know, that's what happens. You die, you're buried, you turn to ashes, people forget who you are. Life goes on. Nothing new under the Sun, he says. The same thing happens over and over again. History repeats itself. Human nature is the same.

Different times, different technology, same people, same human nature, same cycle of life. What's it all about? He says. Verse 20, I'll go to one place. All are from the dust, all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth. So he realizes, okay, there's something about man we know he's been created different. There's a purpose and an eternity that God had in mind for man.

Not that man was born with an immortal soul, absolutely false, absolutely not part of the Bible, can be disproven from the Bible, but God's will was that no one should perish, but everyone should come to repentance, its repentance being the first step toward eternal life. Without repentance, without turning to God with all your heart, mind, and soul, there is no eternal life. God would love to have everyone receive eternal life. It has to be done in the way that he said, and the Bible says, the Word of God says. But Solomon sees that. He's just looking at things from a physical aspect and trying to figure it all out. Verse 22, he says, I perceive that nothing is better. Nothing's better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that's his heritage, for who can bring him to see what will happen after him. So, you know, he's had everything he could possibly want. There was absolutely nothing he says that he wanted, that he wasn't able to have. And he says, was it wrong? Was I wrong to do that? Was I wrong to use the resources that God had given me? Was I wrong to enjoy them? The answer is no.

God gave them. Enjoy them. The problem with Solomon is he let them become his major part of life. He let them overtake him. He forgot the spiritual end of life.

He only was about the physical, all about the physical activities, all about the physical and material blessings, all about the things we do rather than the things that we're developing, all about today rather than future and tomorrow, and what comes after life. So he says there's nothing wrong with that. He comes to that same conclusion as he's working through the process here with these questions that he has in mind. Well, there's nothing wrong with enjoying what God gives us. He gives us. He does reward us for the work that we do.

When we work hard, when we're living by God's way, he will bless us. Nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is God often reminds us in the Bible is when we put our stock and we put our focus on that, when our heart is in the physical treasures of earth and we're not laying up for ourselves the treasures in heaven that we must have if we're going to find the satisfaction, if we're going to find the fulfillment in life, if we're going to when we come to the time of our end look and say, my life is where it needed to be, rather than what did I do? What did it all mean? There's nothing here. There's nothing I have. I have a lot of things. I haven't done anything with my heart. I haven't done anything with my character. I have nothing that lasts. It all is going to fade. It's all physical things that will fade away. In Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Chapter 5, let's look at verse 10. As he in the early chapters here, the first five or six chapters, he goes through these questions and you can see God leading him to a little bit of insight here and there as as he continually works and asks the questions, gives it the time for God to lead him into understanding. 5.10.

Ecclesiastes 5.10. He who loves silver won't be satisfied with silver. Silver's nice. It is the thing that's going to bring lasting satisfaction to you. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase. It's vanity. It's meaningless. In the scope of everything in God's plan, it's nice to have, but if that's where the focus is, it's going to be pretty empty.

When goods increase, they increase who eat them. So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not forbid him to sleep. God, all these worries, because he's always worried about his material things and what's going on with it. Let's drop down to verse 15. Well, no, let's just continue. Verse 13, as I'm looking here.

Verse 13, there is a severe evil which I've seen under the sun. Riches kept for their owner to his hurt, but those riches perished through misfortune. When he begets the sun, there's nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor which he may carry away in his hand. This is a severe evil. We call it a severe evil because he's like, I don't understand. Why is this so? This is a severe evil. Just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind? All his days he eats in darkness and he has much sorrow, sickness, and anger. When he doesn't have the focus on where it needs to be, when there is nothing in the spiritual but all focused on the physical. So Solomon goes through this. You can see his process. Like I said, I have no idea how long it took Solomon to go through the process that he was going through as he was faced with something that prodded him into this thought process. But he didn't give it just a day, maybe not just a month, maybe years. Maybe years he was thinking about this as he was seeking God, as he was looking, what is it, God, that you want us to do? What is life about? What is it that I'm missing?

Because I have all these questions and all this emptiness even though I've had so much. Well, if we go to the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, he's over in chapter 12, Solomon brings his introspection to a conclusion. And it's a pretty brief conclusion. It's not a ton of words. It's not a whole book of the Bible. It's, you know, what is it, six verses there at the very end of chapter 12.

But those six verses are very instructive to us. Verse 9, Ecclesiastes 12, moreover, because the preacher was wise, remember that God did give Solomon wisdom, moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered and set out or sought out. Notice that he pondered. He just didn't give it a week, just didn't give it 10 minutes, didn't turn on a tape, turn on the TV and say, I think I can find the answer there. I'll ponder.

I'll let God lead me. I will seek this out. He still taught the people knowledge.

Yes, he pondered and he sought out. He sought God. He sought the answer. He worked hard at it. You know, God says that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, diligently seek him. It's one of those adverbs again that when we see God's Word, when we diligently seek him, when we really are looking to see truth, when we really are looking to have understanding, God will give it to us. Might take weeks, might take months, but he'll see how serious we are and how much we really want to know. And we keep asking him and we keep focusing on it. We keep asking him, what is it? What is it? And Solomon did this. He pondered and sought out and he said, in order many Proverbs. We have that book of Proverbs that Solomon authored. The preacher, verse 10, he sought to find acceptable words. Who gave him those words? Well, God gave him those words. That's who he was looking to. The preacher sought to find acceptable words.

And what was written was upright. Words of truth. Words of truth. Everything in the book of Ecclesiastes is a word of truth. Everything written in the Bible is truth. Thy word is truth. It wouldn't be in the Bible if there wasn't any truth in it. What Solomon felt, what Solomon thought, what Solomon did, it's all truth.

The process that he went through. It's all truth. And he comes to a conclusion, the correct conclusion, that is truth. And that answers so many of the things in life that we may ponder not just at the time that someone dies, but other times in our lives as well. We'll see here in a minute. The preacher sought to find acceptable words. And what was written was upright. Words of truth. Verse 11, The words of the wise are like goads. Now last week I listened to the sermon, and I've never heard goads described before, but I heard it last week in the sermon.

So you're hearing the word goads again, right? The words of the wise are like goads. And you will remember what a goad is when you remember ancient Israel, and they didn't have tractors, and they didn't have mechanical plows, and all these things that we have today. They had to do the things by oxen, right? They had to have oxen drive their cars, pull the plows, people were behind them. And those oxen would get lazy from time to time. They would have to be prodded in order to keep on track, in order to keep moving forward. And so they had this long pull that was called a goad. One end of it was pretty sharp. The other side apparently was kind of like a shovel, so they could knock mud off of the plow and everything like that. But the farmers would use the goad to prod the cows, the oxen. You got to keep moving forward. We've got to get the job done. We have to get the field plowed. We have to finish the task. We can't just lay around and do it whenever you're ready to. We need the prod. We need the goad in order to keep those oxen moving. Solomon says the words of the wise are like goads. Now the other place you may remember where goads are is in the New Testament. And you remember that Jesus Christ, when Paul was being called on the road to Damascus and God and he throws him into his takes away his sight, he asks Paul, why are you kicking against the goads? Now Paul, you remember, especially if you've been in our Bible studies, in Acts 7 he heard all the words of Stephen as Stephen was preaching truth there. He saw what happened to Stephen. He heard Stephen call on God. He heard Stephen say, Lord, I commend my spirit to you. He saw Stephen Stone. Paul heard all those words. They should have been goads to him. It should have turned a light on. Maybe this Jesus Christ I need to look into it more.

Maybe he is the Messiah. Why would someone be willing to give up their life for something like that? But Paul stood by. And on the road to Damascus, when God stopped him, when Christ stopped him, he said, Paul, why are you kicking against the goads? Didn't you know those words were goads? But you just didn't pay attention to them. You just kept right on going in your own way. So I had to stop you in your tracks. As Solomon is saying here, the words of the wise are like goads. They prod us. The words of the Bible, they motivate us. They should stimulate us. When we read them, we should say, okay, I may not be the picture of what God wants me to be. I may not be even close to what Jesus Christ is like.

I may have a lot of things going good in my life, or I might have a lot of things as strengths, but I've got these weaknesses that have to be addressed. They should be like goads to us. Prods. Keep moving. Build the temple as we talked about a couple weeks ago. Consider your ways as we talked about a couple weeks ago when we went through the book of Haggai. Look at these things. Keep moving.

There's a job to get done just like those oxen had to keep moving so that the fields could be plowed. The words of the wise are like goads. If we go back to Ecclesiastes 7, you know, the book of Ecclesiastes is a goad. It teaches us maybe we need to do a little bit of introspection in our lives. Maybe we need to kind of take some time, turn off the TV, turn off the internet, turn off the radio, do a little bit more alone time, a little bit more meditation time, a little more contemplation time, a little bit more pondering about the way of God so that we can learn what the way of God is, and His Holy Spirit in us can guide us and direct us into understanding, motivation, and when we understand to do His will. But here in chapter 7, you know, it might have been death, might have been death that made Solomon stop and start thinking about things and what's the purpose in life. In chapter 7 verse 1, He gives us several things that may be a goad to us, you know. A good name, He says in verse 1, is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. Well, that's an interesting thought, isn't it? The day of death is better than the day of one's birth. Well, we think of the people who have died here even locally, the other people around the church who have died. Their race is done. This part of their life is done. They're now hidden in the grave waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. The next moment of their consciousness, Jesus Christ will be there.

Their race is done because this physical life is just the first part of what God has in mind for all of us. It's a training ground. It's will we do His will or not? Will we yield to Him or not? Will we find the meaning that He's willing to give us? So death can be a goad. Verse 2, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. Again, how many of us would choose that?

Will we rather go to a party or where everyone is mourning about something?

Well, Solomon can speak from experience, right? He tells us, I tried mirth. I did everything to make myself happy. I thought everything I bought would make me happy. His conclusion? It's all vanity, all futile, all meaningless. Didn't do any of what I had hoped it would do. All the gold in the world, all the silver in the world, all of that amounted to nothing. So he says, it's better to go to the house of mourning. When you're mourning, there's a goad. What's it about? Let me think. What am I being faced with? What are the questions that I should be being asked?

Or I should be asking myself or asking God. Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for that's the end of all, men. When it's all party and all good times and all laughter and whatever, that's not the way the Bible says. That's the end of all, men, when life is just about the good times and the living will take it to heart. Verse 3, sorrow, he says, sorrow is better than laughter. Again, look at what Solomon is saying. Sorrow is a goad. It makes us think. It makes us look at ourselves in a different way. Laughter can disguise things. That laughter can be one of those distractions. If all we seek is laughter and everyone has to be happy all the time, then probably we're missing something. Probably we're missing what God wants us to learn. If we don't ever take the time to step back and think about what it is that God has called us to, sorrow is better than laughter. For by a sad countenance, the heart is made better.

Verse 4, the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. O, Solomon is beginning to get it. What God is looking for is not just how much physical wealth you can accumulate, not how many things that you can put on your name on. It's not the bank accounts of the world. It's not the number of houses in the world. That's not what makes any difference in life, but it's the heart that makes the difference. That's what Solomon was missing. What's in the heart? All that work that he did, all the work that so many in the world do from time of the first man and woman up until the last man and woman that live on earth. All that time spent in the physical activities, it's good. It's good. We should do it. We have to work. We have to do the things that God put us on this earth to do. But if that's all we do, if it's just about the physical... Remember the third message of Haggai from a couple weeks ago? If it's just about the activity, God said, I don't accept what you're doing.

It has to be about the heart. Do the physical, but the heart has to be there, too. And Solomon is beginning to get it. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Let's go on. Verse 5.

Here's a goad. For some, this isn't a pleasant goad, either. Death isn't a pleasant goad. Mourning isn't a pleasant goad. Rebuke isn't a pleasant mode or a goad. It is better, verse 5, to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. Well, none of us want to be said. None of us want to be told, well, you know you're not doing that right. It could be done better. Let's do it this way. Let's do it this way. None of us want to hear a rebuke, but a rebuke is a goad. Now, God asked Paul, why are you kicking against the goads? The reason you have the goads is because I want you to be in the kingdom. You got to do what I want to do. When you hear a goad, don't react the way people react, the way the world or the people under the Sun react. Remember, we're under the grace of God.

God is going to show us what it is. There is going to be a time. Remember the scripture inspired by God for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction. So that is going to be part of life when you rebuke and you hear a rebuke. Stop and think if the reaction is, I don't want to hear it. Closing my eyes to it. Closing my ears to it. Oh, it's a goad. It's a goad. Something you need to listen to. It's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. If all we ever hear is, wonderful job, you couldn't be better, the da da da da da da. You know what? It's going to let us to sleep.

Chalk down to verse 8. The end of the thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. 9. Don't hasten in your spirit to be angry. Anchor rests in the bosom of fools. You know, sometimes when you're out in the world, you encounter people. It seems like someone's always angry. You think, what do you have to be angry about? You have a nice, you have a good job. You have nice things and blah blah blah. What are you always angry about? The Spirit of God doesn't dwell with anger and ongoing anger. So if we see that as part of our lives, we might want to stop and do some introspection.

Is that what God wants? No. He says, put away the works of the flesh, anger, contentions, wrath, etc., etc. So if we see that, that might be a goad to say, I need to look. What am I doing? What's life? How do these words motivate me? How do they move me to a different place in life? Verse 10, don't say, why were the former days better than these? For you don't inquire wisely concerning this. Well, that again sounds like Haggai, doesn't it? Remember, that was the second message of Haggai. Don't look and say, hey, the former temple was bigger and better, so this depresses us to do this. God says, don't use that as an excuse. And if you find yourself saying, how come this and how come that? Why isn't this better? Why were the former days better than this? Stop and think. God is in control. It's God's will. He will be... it's His will be done. It's not our job to give the number of people that should be in the church or how many buildings the church owns or any other thing. It's God's will. And our job is to seek what that will is. Seek it diligently. Use the times that come upon us as introspection.

Maybe this is one of those times, as we watch and see, everything that's happened around us that we look and see who we are on an individual basis, what God's will is. So there's some of the... there's some of the goes, you know, that we... we can look at that could happen in our lives. That when they do, again, I'd say turn off the TV. Don't bury yourself in TV endlessly. One of the banes of society I continually become more aware of is video games, internet, cable TV, the things that we can kind of just lull ourselves to sleep, block out anything, never contemplate, never meditate, never have any time, just keep the TV on the entire time we were home, be on the internet the entire time we're home, video games on a non-stop basis.

Solomon didn't have any of that. He did take the time to think you and I need to be taking the time to diligently seek and to ponder. Let's go back to chapter 12. Chapter 12. We were in verse 11. The words of the wise are like goads.

Well, the words of the Bible are goads, right? There is no one wiser than God. Every word of the Bible is like a goad. The words of the wise are like goads. And then going on to that verse that says, in the words of scholars, that's a terrible translation, what they did in the New King James Version. When you look back at the original and even the old King James Version, it doesn't say the words of scholars.

It says, the words of the masters of the assemblies are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd. And, of course, that shepherd is Jesus Christ. So we have the words of the wives. We have the Bible. You have some of the counseling you might do. Some of the other things you do are like goads. And the words of the masters of the assemblies given by Jesus Christ are like well-driven nails.

Now, how does a nail compare to a goad? Well, a goad is a prod. It makes us think. Check in what's going on. A nail is permanent. A nail is steady. A nail gets pounded in, and it makes things permanent. When we nail the truth of God into our lives, it fastens us permanently to Jesus Christ. Let it be written on your hearts and minds. Nail it to yourself. Make it part of you. The goads will get us there. The hearts will get us there when we accept what God is saying, when we know that we need to change, when we need to become more like Him, and we don't react, we don't resist as we've spoken about before.

Do the natural human thing of resist, resist, resist. But accept, accept, accept what God says, and take the time to ponder it and then do it. He says the words of scholars are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd. So Solomon talks about some of those nails in this book as well, those permanent things that we must do, the things that aren't goads, but the things that we must do, the permanent things of being close to God, developing the heart and what God wants us to do.

We see one of those, we see one of these nails right here in verse 11. If it hadn't been taken out of the New King James Version, but had been left the way it was in the Old King James and in the original, the words of the wise are like oaths and the words of the masters of the assemblies are like well-driven nails given by Jesus Christ. The word assembly, one of the nails and the permanence, the structure, the stability, what we must do as God's people to be fastened to Him is we must not, as it says in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

We talk about it all the time. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. In Leviticus 23, when it talks about the Sabbath day, it talks about a holy convocation. It talks about the holy days being holy convocations.

Don't forsake it, God said. And here Solomon says, these are like, well, where do you find the well-driven nails? Well, you can find them in the Bible, but you're gonna find them in the assemblies of God, in the places where He has put His name, where He tells us to assemble before Him. You know, we talked about, one of the things we'll continue to talk about is building the temple, getting the house ready, getting the house done that God is wanting us to build so that Jesus Christ can return to it. That's something that's not going to go away.

That's something that has to be part of our mindset and part of what we do from here on out. Building it, getting it done, working on it. You know, in First Peter 2, he talks about living stones. And we know when we know when we know in when you look at the temples, the old First and Second Temple, they were built out of stone. You know those stones were there? They were permanent. They were not nailed to each other, but they were there. They held the building up. It was part of the building. We read in Haggai when God said, go out and get the materials, go to the mountains, get the trees. Remember the trees are like people. It's people who are building the temple today. That's who the temple is. You can't be a living stone in the temple if we never see you. If you're here sometimes and then gone another time, it has to become part of our responsibility. If we're building the house, the stones of the temple need to be here. They need to hear.

They need to listen. They need to be in God's presence.

Assemblies are important to God. They're important to God. Let's go back to Ecclesiastes 5. Solomon talks about this a little bit. Ecclesiastes 5 in verse 1.

He says, walk prudently. Walk prudently. And you know, when you look at the, when you look at what the prudently means and some of the other translations, it means watch your step. Be aware of what you're walking into when you go to the house of God. You know, right here in this room that we're in, this is the assembly place that God has chosen for us in this area. Just like up in Jacksonville, it's in the hall up there, and if you're listening on the web, it's wherever your local congregation is where God has put his name and that's where people assemble together. And he says, walk prudently. Be aware of what you're doing. Don't just wake up Sabbath morning and think, oh, oh, I need to do this. Let me run. Let me get together. Let's get there to Sabbath services so we get there on time. Walk prudently. And all that means it's someone's, it's God's presence you're coming into. Holy ground, if you will, when you come into God's presence. Walk presently when you go to the house of God. Draw near to here. Draw near to here.

And all that that means. Draw near to here rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don't know that they do evil. If we come to Sabbath services, just because we have to, because we know people will see us and they need to see, oh, we're here, so okay, I'll be here. Or if we think we need to punch a time clock, oh, I'm gonna arrive. Services are 2.30. I'll be there at 1.30. I'll stay for an hour afterwards. I'll put my time in. Click, click, done. But that's what we're doing it for, just because it's something we have to do, because it's just a physical activity. But there isn't any meaning behind it. If we're not coming and walking prudently to the house of God to hear, to learn, to hear what Solomon talks about when he talks about those words, those nails, those nails that will bind us to God, bind us to Christ, help us to become what he wants us to become so we can be in the kingdom, we're doing just the physical. It's all meaningless. There has to be heart. There has to be a reason we do it. We have to put our heart, mind, and soul into it. It's what God has prescribed for us to do. Not me, not the home office, not someone else. It's what God said to do. That's one nail.

You know, if we go down in verse 2, and it says here then, to give the sacrifice of fools. People who come, they don't really talk about God. They're really not interested in what's going on here in this. It's just they come because they have to, or they have every other thing on their mind, or they need to see someone, or someone they need to give something to someone, or there's other reasons they come. They're giving the sacrifice, but not for the reason that God wants. We're not giving our time, he says, for what God wants us to learn, to learn, to hear, to understand, to make a difference in our lives. In every opening prayer, just about every opening prayer you'll ever hear in the Church of God asks us to him to inspire the message, and that we will take that and put it into our lives, put it into practice in our lives. That's what God wants us to do.

If we are never putting anything into practice in our lives, and we're here, we're offering the sacrifice of fools. If we leave here today, and we don't have one thing that we think about, if we don't think about Ecclesiastes later, if we don't think about Solomon, if we don't think about introspection at all, then we would ask the same question that Solomon did. What was it all about?

What was it for? Why were you here? Same question. We're under grace. God expects us to know, and God expects us to do. In verse 2, he talks a little bit about prayer. Don't be rash with your mouth, he says. Let not your heart, heart, right?

Your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth. Remember who he is. Don't make him common. He is the supreme king, leader, whatever word, God of the universe. No one greater than him, anywhere, anytime, forever.

We had the opportunity to come before his throne because of what Jesus Christ did for us. Remember, be humble when you come before him. Be humble, walk prudently when you go to his house, and when you're praying, remember who you're praying to. He wants to hear everything. He wants to answer. He wants the relationship. We can pour out our hearts on everything, but don't just be rash with your mouth and say something, you know, whatever you promised to God.

He goes on and says in verse 4, when you make a vow to God, don't delay to pay it, for he has no pleasure in fools. When we make a vow to God, we'd better be really certain in putting our hearts into the fact that we are keeping that vow. No one should ever take it lightly that they would make a vow of any sort and then just say, I give up, I don't want to do it anymore, I, you know, whatever. That's what counting the cost is ahead of time. When you make a vow to God, don't delay it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vowed, better not to vow, than to vow and not pay. You know, he goes on, there's a lot of chat, well, before I leave, before I leave there, let me drop down to verse 7. The last sentence there in verse 7 is one another's nails. He says, but fear God. You know, fearing God, it's the beginning of knowledge, it's the beginning of wisdom, it's the beginning of having a satisfaction in life. Because without God, without doing those things, life is not at all satisfying. Solomon found that out. He had it all. And he said at the end of his life, or near the end of his life, meaningless, worthless, not wasted, I wasted my time. I hope none of us ever look back on our lives and say we wasted our time. Fear of God, it's the foundation of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom, it's the beginning, you know, the beginning of obedience to God and doing the things that he wants us to do. You know, as we go on, I'm not going to go through this, you can spend some time in Ecclesiastes. And I would say if you're going to read the book of Ecclesiastes, read it all in one sitting.

In chapters 1 to 12, don't just pick out a verse and do things because you can see the thought process of Solomon. Very instructive to do that, very instructive for us to do that. You know, through the chapters here, when you get into chapter 16, he talks about people of many words. You know, that's one of those nails as well. You know, James 3 talks about the tongue and how evil it is and that we need to watch our words. Jesus Christ says, you're gonna be held for every idle word that you speak. It's one of those nails of life. It's hard to do. No one can bridle the tongue, right? We all have to work on that. It's something that we have to continually work on. But it is one of those things that we need to do to become like Jesus Christ and to do what he said, to follow and hammer those nails into our lives that get put there when we are led by God's Holy Spirit. Okay, let's go back to chapter 12. Before we go there, let's go to 11. You know, as you progress through here, you see Solomon, the early chapters. It's all vanity. It's all everything done under the sun is just kind of a waste of time. As you come down to chapters 10 and 11, you see him becoming more exhortative, right? He's more encouraging. This is what you need to do. He's not talking anymore about all these things. He's understanding. In chapter 11, verse 1, he says, Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven and also to eight, for you don't know what evil will be on the earth. You know, share what God has given. Don't keep it all for yourself. We're told, watch out for one another. If you have, you see your brother in need. Do it.

It's how you build the house. It's how you build the temple of God. Everyone's sharing. I didn't go to Ecclesiastes 4. You can read that later, 9-12. You know what it says? It talks about a two-fold cord, a two-ply cord, is better than a one-ply cord. God didn't call us to be lone wolves. We have to be part of the body. We have to be part of who He has put, where He has put us. Every joint supplies what is needed for the temple to work together and to build together into something that God will be glorified in. So he says, you know, cast your bread.

God says, if you're a blessing to others, I'll be a blessing to you. Verse 3, interesting verse, He says, that the clouds are full of rain. They empty themselves upon the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or north, in the place where the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

Don't put it off. We can all have excuses for not doing things, right? It's a little cloudy today. I can't go out and plow the field today. It's a little cloudy. It may never rain. I can have an excuse. I can procrastinate. I can put it off.

I can have anything stop me from doing God's will because I can look at it and say, oh, it's a little windy today. Ah, the crayons look like it may rain. Ah, there's a pandemic. I might get something that I don't want to get, and so that's going to keep me from doing what God said. If I am perfectly healthy and no symptoms and whatever else, it's going to keep me from there because, you know, I might. I might. Verse 5, as you do not know what is the way of the wind or how the brown bones grow in the womb of hers who is with child, so you don't know the works of God who makes everything. God's will will be done. There is nothing that's going to happen to you and me that God doesn't know is going to happen.

He will let it happen so that we learn about ourselves. He will let it happen so to be so that we will grow, that we will get closer to Him, that we will look at ourselves, become more like Him, make some changes in our lives, that we will learn to trust in Him more, rely on Him more, become more obedient to Him, diligently, carefully, completely. That's why He has those things. You know, some parents just want to make sure their child has never a problem, they never are under any stress, they never have anything they have to do. And often those children grow up to just be so not productive in life. God never told us, I'm gonna make your life easy. He watches over us, He protects us, but there is pain. No pain, no gain. Does have something, some merit behind it. We grow by those things. We grow when we are faced with those goads in a life. We pay attention to the nails that are there, and are they part of our, are they part of our foundation? Well, let's go over to chapter 12. As Solomon concludes, he reminds the young people of whom we have many sitting with us here today. Don't forget the Creator in the days of your youth. Don't waste your youth on all just the fun things of life.

Don't forget God, because you will regret it later. You know, it's fine to do the things of life. You should have the education, you should work hard, you should get out and get jobs, you should have careers, you should marry, you should have children, you should have them reared in the way that God would have them reared.

Don't forget God. Don't let all the good things of life that can distract you take you away from God. Let's go back to Ecclesiastes 12 and wrap it up here. I'm going to read again verse 9, and it's just a kind of a reminder of what we talked about. Moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find acceptable words, and what was written was upright, words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of the masters of the assemblies are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd.

And then Solomon says in verse 12, further my son be admonished by these.

Pay attention. You have to have the Bible and the words of truth in your life. You have to have that as your basis. Everyone sitting here today has a Bible in their lap, or a Bible in their iPad, or a Bible in whatever you're looking at, right?

That's the word of truth. That has to be the foundation of our life. That's the book. That's God's instruction book. And he says be admonished by these things.

Pay attention. Do what God says to do. He says of making many books there is no end. How much study is where he's into the flesh? What's he talking about there?

Well, you know, we live in a world where we have endless knowledge. Daniel 12 it says people run to and fro. There's an increase in knowledge. We have so much. I mean, we could literally never spend one second thinking for ourselves. We can click on the Internet and find probably a thousand interpretations of any verse that we look at, right? We can go to Barnes and Nobles, and there's books written on everything that we can do that. We can go on the Internet. We could listen to, I don't know, you could spend 24 hours a day listening to sermons. Got to have your nose in the Word of God. This is the Bible. You know, it's a big book. It's a big book. Everything we need is in this book. Comparatively speaking, it's few words, but it's words that we seek. We seek God's understanding. We contemplate them. We ponder them. God lets us know the meaning of life. God lets us know why we go through these things. God lets us know what his plan is. God wants his people to be part of his kingdom. The rest is up to us. Live by every word of God, Jesus Christ said. So he said, oh, these other things are good, but you know, you can spend all your life reading those other things. Make sure the main place you are in is in the Bible. Make sure the main place that you are in, that's the word of truth. And in verse 13, after all that Solomon has gone through—how many days, weeks, months, years, whatever it is—he comes down to just a very few words that he tells us will make our lives meaningful. When we come to the end of our lives, it won't be like, what have I done? What have I done with my life? It's just been empty. I just don't see anything I've done. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Here are some nails that we can look at, fear God, and keep his commandments. For this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. You know, we are all accountable to God. We are accountable to what he gives us. We're accountable for the goads that he gives us in life. And when we go through experiences that are different and God is driving us to think, we need to take the time to think. And the time we've lived in recently has been a time, unlike any other, think, contemplate, seek God's will, and then purpose in your life to do it.