In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith explores the book of Ecclesiastes, specifically focusing on chapter 3, verse 12. He begins by acknowledging the fleeting nature of life and the emptiness that can come from pursuing worldly desires. He encourages listeners to find joy and fulfillment in their relationship with God. Pastor Chuck also highlights the oppression and suffering that exists in the world, emphasizing the need for compassion and empathy towards those who are oppressed. He concludes by urging listeners to have a humble and teachable attitude towards God, recognizing the importance of seeking wisdom and understanding.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Chapter 3, verse 12 And now with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck And so I know that there is no good in them But for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life And also that every man should eat and drink And enjoy the good of all of his labor For it is the gift of God The enjoyment of the fruit of your labor Now, the fruit of our labor All depends on what I have been laboring for If I've been laboring just for myself The fruit of that labor can be very empty But if I'm laboring for God and the Kingdom of God I know that my labor for the Lord is never in vain Never empty And to enjoy the fruit of our labor for God The glorious thing Now, he said, I know that whatsoever God does It shall be forever The work of God is eternal The work that you do for God is eternal Jesus said, lay up for yourself treasures in heaven Where moth and rust cannot corrupt And thieves cannot break through and steal And that work that I do for the Lord Is eternal in its benefits I know that whatever God does is forever And it is complete Nothing can be put to it Nor anything taken from it That completeness of God's work When God is working, He does a complete work And I'm thankful for that God doesn't start something that He doesn't intend to finish He who has begun a good work in you Shall continue to perform it God didn't start a work in you just to say Oh, I tried, but you know, no way Just give up, you know Forget Him Doesn't do that He, having begun, is going to continue We may slow the process We may hinder the process I many times have gotten in the way Trying to help But I found out that He didn't need my help That so often only slowed the process Because as God works in your life He wants the glory For that which He has wrought in you He doesn't want you going around bragging Taking glory, taking credit And so careful when you try to add to what God has done Or be careful when you try to take away And God does it In order that we might worship Him In order that we might reverence Him In order that we might praise Him Paul uses a phrase in Ephesians The first chapter on several times there He says, to the praise of the glory of His grace As he's talking about the work of God in us Having chosen us and having predestined That we should be adopted as His sons And redeemed us and accepted us All of these are for the praise of the glory of His grace It's God's work And He does it so that He might receive the praise and the glory from it Now Solomon declares that which has been is now We get into the idea of the eternal nature of God I can understand God has put eternity in my heart That is the capacity to realize that There can be infinity That puts me above my dog My dog cannot understand that infinity exists I could sit all day and try and explain to my dog The distance to the sun But he has no way of comprehending Infinity or that infinity could exist All he knows is he's hungry at dinner time And he can't even understand Wait five minutes and I'll feed you But God has put eternity in our hearts That is the ability to comprehend that Eternity exists Though I don't understand it and can't comprehend it I know that I can accept the concept of infinity And eternity is infinity actually as far as time goes Eternity is infinity of time And time past, time future So as we get into this eternal concept That which has been is now Whatever has happened is happening, eternal You're outside the time continuum That which is to be has already been And God requires that which is past So interesting scripture Moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment That wickedness was there That's interesting that he made that observation in his day I've made the same observation in my day That even in the place of judgment Within the judicial system, within our courts Wickedness is there That's because We have placed men As judges Who many of them lacking the fear of God Begin to believe that they are gods And they begin to act like gods And demand to be worshipped as gods And so in the place of judgment wickedness was there In the place of righteousness iniquity was there And I said in my heart God shall judge The righteous and the wicked For there is a time There for every purpose and for every work So in observing The wickedness in the places of judgment In his heart he said well One day God will judge When God judges it will be a righteous judge And these men Who have been in the seats of judgment Judging over other men Will one day be judged One day they'll stand before the judge of the universe And as the scripture said it is a fearful thing To fall in the hands of a living God I'm glad I'm not going to have to be in the shoes of a lot of people When they stand before God Sort of glad I don't have to be in my own shoes That Jesus will stand in my place But if you don't have Jesus standing in your place You're in big trouble I feel sorry for you I said in my heart One day They're going to be judged I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men That God might manifest them And that they might see that they themselves are beasts Man Apart from Being born again Is as a beast He's like an animal And there is a Great endeavor By man today to relate himself To the animal kingdom In trying to understand man We seek to understand animals And so many of the Theories in sociology and psychology Have come from the observation of rats And it is interesting to me That man has chosen the rat As more or less the prime Creature for which to gain knowledge of himself I can understand why But Solomon was Talking now you remember we said The Women had turned his heart from God and He is looking at the world from just a worldly viewpoint And he sees man as animals That they might see that they themselves are beasts For what befalls the sons of men befalls beast Even one thing befalls them That's death As one dies So the other dies Yes They all have one Breath or Ruach So that Man has no preeminence above the beast for all is vanity And this is true apart from The new birth in Jesus Christ Now that is why Jesus said you've got to be born again if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven That which is born of the flesh is flesh And born of the flesh you're born As an animal You're a beast You're Sort of in the same category as an animal Possessing a Mind Living in a body It's not until you're born again that your spirit is alive and that lifts you From the animal kingdom to the divine kingdom And thus once a person is born of the spirit he begins to relate to God Rather than to the animal kingdom You begin to relate into the eternal realm Rather than into That which passes the animal kingdom All go to one place All are of the dust all turn to dust again Who knows if the spirit of man goes upwards Or the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth Don't know Solomon said well we do know By the further revelation of the scriptures and of Jesus Christ Solomon saying no one came back to tell us where their spirit went Who knows Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better Than that a man should rejoice in his own works for that is his portion for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him Who knows what's going to happen so just enjoy what you've got spend it while you've got it Who knows what they're going to do with it after you're gone So enjoy it yourself is basically what he is saying So I returned and I considered all of the oppressions that are done under the sun I beheld the tears of those that were oppressed And they had no comforter And on the side of their oppressors there was power But they had no comforter So I observed how The strong were oppressing the weak These oppressions the tears of those who were being oppressed No one to help them No comforter no hope And so I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive you're better off dead than alive This is a This is a conclusion of the natural man Yea better is he than both they Which has not yet been born Or has not yet been who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun A Child that Is stillborn Is better off he says Than those which Have the opportunity to see the oppressions and the evil of life Again I consider all of the travail And every right work That for this a man is envied of his neighbor This also is vanity and frustration so You try and do the right thing And All you get for it is your neighbor becomes envious of you The emptiness of it the fool folds his hands together He eats his own flesh But better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with travail And frustration And so I returned and I saw the vanity the emptiness under the sun The emptiness of being alone there is one who is alone There's not a second he's by himself Yea he has neither child nor brother And yet there is no end of his labor here he is all by himself no Heirs or relatives to leave his money to and yet the guy is working like crazy To build up a fortune And he says how ridiculous You know that this fellow should travail and labor and work so hard When all he's got is himself No one to really leave His goods to There is no end to his labor and neither is his eye satisfied with riches Neither does he stop to say for whom am I laboring And bereave my soul of good So this also was emptiness yes it is a sore travail And so Solomon observes life life under the sun Life lived apart from God and the consciousness of God and the emptiness of it The folly of it A man without any relatives laboring so hard Trying to get rich And never satisfied Never satisfied never enough the eye is not satisfied with his riches So he came to the conclusion two are better than one Because you have a better reward for your labor At least you're feeding someone else And if one falls the other will lift up his fellow But woe to him who is alone when he falls the loner he's No one to help him if he falls he no one there to lift him up And if two are lying together then at least you're warmer But how can one be warm alone it's a cold bed When you're there by yourself and so Two better than one If one prevail against him two shall withstand him And a threefold cord is not easily broken so The value of Close relationships not being just a loner better as a poor And a wise child Than an old foolish king and there he sees himself just This poor little child doesn't have anything but He's wise This old king foolish king Who will no more be admonished who has seen it all and you can't tell him anything For out of prison he comes to reign Or as he that is born in his kingdom becometh Poor So Solomon actually had Placed heavy taxation upon the people and they were impoverished by his Heavy taxation it was greater than the people could bear And it was only you know enriching himself living in This total opulent lifestyle and luxurious lifestyle And he sees now the emptiness of it I considered all of the living which walk under the sun With the second child that shall stand up in his stead and there is no end of all the people Even of all that have been before them They also that come after shall not rejoice in him surely this also is empty And vexation of spirit so I saw that one passes another comes and they pass another comes to see the generations going And it's not long before you forget I can't even tell you the names of my great grandfathers I can tell you the name of all my grandkids but you know you looking back You're soon forgotten And so he sees life is just an empty Frustrating Rut really People just get in this rut and Emptiness So he said keep your foot When you go into the house of God Probably keep your foot out of your mouth is what he is saying When you go into the house of God and be more ready to hear Than to give the sacrifice of fools For they consider not that they do evil God gave you two ears and one mouth that should tell you something The sacrifice of fools David when he was in that sin with Bathsheba In the unconfessed state He spoke of his not bringing sacrifices to God Sacrifices and offerings thou would not It would have been the sacrifice of fools had he While in a sinful state sought to appease God With a sacrifice when he was continuing In that sinful state God Through the prophet Isaiah To the nation of Israel in their State of having turned away from God Said that he hated and abhorred their sacrifices They're celebrating of their holy days Their Sabbaths and their new moons They were still going through the motions they were still offering sacrifices but there was sin Unrepentant sin And thus it was the sacrifice of fools it was not accepted by God God said when you lift your hands In prayer I will not hear you he said for your hands are filled with blood The sacrifices that God desires is a Penitent heart That he'll not turn away They were going through religious ostentatious kind of Demonstrations and one of the things to show A great religious kind of a Fervor and feeling was to tear your clothes it showed Great remorse and grief and all to tear your clothes and God says hey Tear your hearts and not your garments I'd rather see a broken heart Than your shredded clothes God's interested in what's going on in your heart And if your heart isn't really right and honest before God Then the sacrifices become an abomination He said I've observed them Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools For they don't consider that that sacrifice is evil We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Ecclesiastes In our next lesson as Pastor Chuck Smith continues with Our Attitude Toward God And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message Simply order Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 12 When visiting TheWordForToday.org While you're there we encourage you to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck You can also subscribe to The Word for Today podcast Or sign up for our email subscription Once again all this can be found at TheWordForToday.org If you wish to call our toll-free number is 1-800-272-WORD And our office hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Again that's 1-800-272-9673 For those of you preferring to write our mailing address is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California 92628 And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today And now once again here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing comments I pray that God will make this a very special week for you That you might follow after the things of the Spirit And may you walk in holiness and in purity And in righteousness before Him May your life be committed fully unto Him As you experience His love and power working In and through your life In Jesus' name Have you laid hold of what God has called you to do? Well let me ask you this Are you sure you know what your calling is? Well ladies I have a special surprise for you The Word for Today is making available The When Leaders Lead Women's Conference On DVD with a bonus MP3 That has over 40 messages to assist women to discover God's call And then to equip, teach and encourage them to minister the Gospel to others Topics include how to witness to loved ones Balancing ministry and motherhood Coping with conflict Counseling with compassion Discipling others And knowing the Lord's will There are even messages geared to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit And teaching a Bible study To find out more call The Word for Today At 714-825-WORD Or contact them online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California