In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the inevitability of death and the importance of wisdom in life. He emphasizes that no matter how well or evilly we live, death is a common event for all. Solomon's philosophy of "eat, drink, and be merry" is contrasted with the teachings of Jesus, who calls us to deny ourselves and follow Him. Pastor Chuck shares the story of a wise man who saved a city but was forgotten, highlighting the value of wisdom even when it is despised. Ultimately, he encourages listeners to live for the glory of God rather than seeking personal pleasures.

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 And so he said, this is an evil among all things that are done under the sun That there is one event unto all Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil And madness is in their heart while they live And after that they go to the dead So there's, no matter how well you live or how evil you live There's one event, we all die, we can't escape it And the same thing happens to all of us The same event comes to all Whether you're righteous or wicked Now, it is true That we will all Experience physical death However, we will not all experience Spiritual death There are some of us who have experienced New life, spiritual life We've been born again by the Spirit of God Those who are not born again Will experience physical death And then they will experience the second death They already are spiritually dead But they will experience the second death And that is that eternal separation from God Two definitions in the Bible for death The one is the separation of your consciousness from your body The second definition is the separation of your consciousness from God The separation of your consciousness from your body is physical death The separation of your consciousness from God is spiritual death There are some people who are spiritually dead Who are physically alive If you do not have a consciousness of God If you don't live in that conscious awareness of God If you don't take God into account in your life If you're not actively seeking His guidance, His counsel If you don't have fellowship and relationship with God You are spiritually dead Your consciousness is separated from God You don't think about God In a close, intimate way And so you're dead, spiritually But that separation from God will be eternal Now, those who do live through Jesus Christ In a conscious relationship with God In fellowship, communion, oneness If we walk in the light as He is in the light Then we have this fellowship with each other As the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing us from all sin You'll never die, spiritually You have eternal life Though one day, physically, your consciousness will leave your body Your spirit will leave your body It'll only be a metamorphosis For your spirit will move from this body into a new body Paul the Apostle said We know that when this earthly tent, the body in which we presently live Goes back to dust We have a building of God A new building, a new house to live in It's not made with hands It's eternal in the heavens So then, we who are still living in these bodies Do groan earnestly desiring to be Freed from the limitations of this body Not that I would be an unembodied spirit But my desire is to be clothed upon with a body which is from heaven For I know that as long as I'm still living in this body I'm absent from my Lord But I would choose rather to be absent from this body That I might be present with the Lord So the metamorphosis Paul speaks of the necessity of the metamorphosis Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Therefore, this mortal must put on immortality This corruption must put on incorruption The change, the metamorphosis, the change of body It's a necessity to enter the kingdom of heaven So, where Solomon says, hey, they all die So, you know, party it up, man Wrong conclusion There are some who die to be eternally separated from God And others who Death is nothing more than just the metamorphosis You'll never be separated from God And from the consciousness of God For to him that is joined to all of the living, there is hope In other words, as long as you're alive, you're hope Man, when you're dead, it's all over For a living dog is better than a dead lion Now, a lion is stronger than a dog And a dog would be no competition for a lion Unless it's dead And so a living dog is better than a dead lion Jesus said, don't fear those who can kill your body And after that they have no power But rather fear him who after the body is destroyed Is able to cast both your soul and spirit into Gehenna Yes, that's the one you should fear The one who is able to cast soul and spirit into Gehenna Death after death, this is the second death, the scripture said For the living know that they shall die But the dead don't know anything Neither have they any more reward For the memory of them is forgotten Now, as I said, Solomon is expressing opinions that are not biblical For the living know that they shall die That's for the most part true There's some people that don't believe they're gonna die They somehow think they're immortal, but they're not But the dead know not anything, not so Now, Job expressed the same feeling Talking of his misery He said, oh, that I were dead, you know Where you're oblivious, where you know nothing It's just sort of in this void and all It is interesting that when God came on the scene And began to talk with Job The first thing God did was rebuke Job For all of the things he was talking about Of which he knew nothing Words without knowledge, God said Darkeneth counsel with words without knowledge And then God said Have you been beyond the gates of death? Do you really know what's there? Job had been talking about, oh, I wish I were dead, you know Where the dead know nothing idea If I were only dead And God said, have you been beyond the gates? Do you know what's there? He rebuked him for all of this talking Of stuff that he didn't know anything about Now, who do you suppose would really know About what happens After a person's spirit leaves their body? I would say probably the most authoritative person In the Bible on that subject would be Jesus I would say he would know quite a bit About what happened to a person After they were dead What does Jesus say? There was a certain rich man Who fared sumptuously every day Moreover, there was a poor man That was brought daily and laid at his gate He was covered with sores And he ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table And the poor man died And was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom Moreover, the rich man also died And in hell, the grave, Sheol, Hades in Greek He lifted up his eyes being in torment And seeing father Abraham afar off And Lazarus there being comforted in his bosom He said, father Abraham Have mercy on me And send Lazarus to me that he may take And put his finger in some water and touch my tongue For I am tormented in this heat And Abraham said unto him, son Remember that you in your lifetime had the good things And Lazarus the evil Now he is comforted while you are tormented And besides this, there is between us a gulf that has been fixed And it's impossible for these that are here to come over there Or for you that are there to come over here Then I pray thee, Abraham If he cannot come over here Then send him back to my brothers and warn them Lest they come to this horrible place And Abraham said They have the law and the prophets And they will not believe them Neither will they believe Though one should come back from the dead Now that's what Jesus said about consciousness As far as the dead are concerned You see, the real you isn't the body When they place your body in the ground That's not the end You go on Consciously, your spirit continues to exist And spirits are conscious And intelligent beings Angels are spirits God is a spirit Angels are unembodied spirits Except as when they choose to come in a bodily form Which they can do But they are conscious beings Different bodies And as Paul said There are celestial bodies And there are terrestrial bodies That is, there are heavenly bodies And there are earthly bodies And we've been living in an earthly body Someday we'll have a heavenly body But you're still spirit You'll just be in a different body That won't have as many restrictions Material restrictions as this body So Solomon is expressing thoughts that are not biblical For the dead know not anything Not so they do Neither have they anymore a reward That's not so Paul said I have fought a good fight I have finished the course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me A crown of righteousness Talking about I'm going to die soon But there's laid up for me A crown of righteousness Which the Lord, our righteous judge Shall give to me There is a reward For those who have lived for God For the memory of them is forgotten That's probably true You forget the dead After a few generations I can't even tell you my great-grandfather's names My great-grandkids probably won't know my name If the world goes on that long Also, their love and their hatred and their envy Is now perished This is true Death, you know, the The corpse doesn't love you anymore Hatred, envy It's all over Neither have they anymore a portion forever In anything that is done under the sun Now We will be coming back To live upon the earth For a thousand years with Christ So we will have a portion in the kingdom age Jesus promises Those that overcome That they will reign with him On the earth So, again Looking at things from a materialistic standpoint Apart from God Apart from the knowledge of God Again, go thy way Eat thy bread with joy Drink your wine with a merry heart For God now accepts your works So, again, a conclusion Just make the best of life You know, when you're dead, it's all over So, make the best of life Jesus said, if you seek to save your life You will lose it But if you will lose your life for his sake Then you'll really find it And that was Solomon's problem He tried to find satisfaction and fulfillment In this life apart from a relationship with God Impossible So Let your garments always be white Let your head lack no ointment Just, you know Lavish things upon yourself Live joyfully With the wife whom you love All of the days of the life of your emptiness Which he has given you under the sun The days of emptiness For that is your portion in this life And in your labor which you have taken under the sun So, again, just that idea of Exact what joys and pleasures that you can out of life Because of the emptiness of it And that's all you're gonna get That's your reward That's all she wrote for you Whatever your hand finds to do Do it with all your might For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom In the grave where you go Again, wrong He's speaking from a purely human materialistic standpoint He's just saying, you know, do what you can Do the best you can Because, you know, when you're dead, it's all over There's nothing there There's no knowledge, no wisdom In the grave where you're going The Bible, in the New Testament, tells us Whatever you do In word or deed Do all to the glory of God You see, Solomon's big mistake is he lived his life for himself For his own pleasures These were the conclusions he came to It's empty Those following the New Testament exhortation Whatever you do, in word or deed Do it to the glory of God Do it for God's glory If you live for God's glory You'll find that your life will be very rich and very satisfying Live for your own glory Your life is gonna be empty You'll be like Solomon And so I returned And I saw under the sun That the race is not to the swift Nor the battle to the strong Neither bread to the wise Nor riches to men of understanding Nor yet favor to men of skill So it doesn't matter how fast you are How strong you are How wise you are How filled with understanding Or how skillful As far as success in life It's all a matter of chance Blind chance Time and chance Happeneth to them all So Man who is fast may not win the race Man who is strong might not win the battle A man who is wise May not have bread Time and chance Happeneth to them all That again is purely worldly thinking And worldly philosophy It is sort of a fatalism The Bible said that God Is in control of our lives And all things are working together for good There is a purpose And a plan of God for my life And nothing happens to me by accident I don't live by chance I live by divine appointments And God brings into my life Those things that He knows are best for me And thus I do not subscribe to this philosophy of Solomon's But I believe that God's hand is upon my life Has been upon my life And will continue to be upon my life Bringing into my life That which He knows is best for me And nothing happens to me by accident It is appointed of God And it is intended for my good All things Not some things All things Work together for good to those who love God And are called according to His purpose For man also knows not his time As the fishes that are taken in an evil net As the birds that are caught in a snare So are the sons of men snared in an evil time When it falleth suddenly upon them So we don't know what time we might be taken Like fish that are taken in an evil net Birds that are caught in a snare So men are snared And it falls suddenly upon them This wisdom have I seen also under the sun And it seemed great unto me And so now he goes into a new thought This is the wisdom I saw this and I thought this was great There was a little city And there were a few men in it And there came a great king against it And he besieged it And he built great bulwarks against it Now there was found in this little city A poor wise man And he by his wisdom Delivered the city And yet no one remembered That same poor little man Then I said Well Wisdom is better than strength Here's a powerful king He comes and besieges the city Sets his bulwarks against it But this wise little man Poor little man but he was wise And he devised a strategy By which he delivered the city from the king But they forgot who he was So wisdom is better than strength Nevertheless The poor man's wisdom is despised And his words are not heard The words of wise men are heard in quiet More than the cry of him that ruleth among fools Wisdom is better than weapons of war But one sinner Can destroy a lot of good So Observations of life Conclusions that he drew From those observations Solomon's philosophy was that of Eat, drink and be merry This is your portion in life The Lord said If you will come after me Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me For what will it profit you If you should gain the whole world and lose your own soul What shall a man give in exchange for his soul For he who seeks to save his life will lose it But he who will lose his life for my sake Shall find it Different, diverse Philosophies There are many people who Buy into Solomon's philosophy Life is a party Eat, drink and be merry, that's all you're gonna get There are People who are living very empty, shallow lives Following that philosophy And like Solomon, they are becoming bitter And cynical There are many who have Opted for The philosophy of Jesus Denying self to take up the cross to follow him And they have found that life is rich Blessed, fulfilling The Word for Today.org 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 Losing your life for Christ's sake Taking up your cross to follow him Just thrilled That you can bear fruit Eternal fruit for God's glory Lives that count Our lives that are lived for Jesus Christ Lives that are fulfilling Our lives that are lived for Jesus Christ Oh, don't buy into Solomon's philosophy You'll end up like Solomon Jaded Cynical Miserable Empty Live your life for Christ Follow him And the joy never ceases I just got The Word for Today Bible And I'm really enjoying the commentaries by Pastor Chuck Listen to this one from the book of Joshua You see, God has already gone before me God is already there tomorrow Joshua is telling them Tomorrow, God is going to do wonders in your eyes And that's the thing that I need to hold in my mind Yeah, that's really good I have one too from the book of Nehemiah So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly And then they gave the sense And caused them to understand the reading That's what expository teaching is all about That's what we have devoted our ministry to The study of God's word The Word for Today Bible is available in leather and paperback editions With more commentaries by Pastor Chuck Simply teaching the Word of God For more information, please call The Word for Today at 1-800-272-WORD You can read a preview of The Word for Today Bible by visiting thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California