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In the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is reviewing through his mind what he has been through and he is recording, for all practical purposes, what a fellow can know by just looking around. Solomon of course is the greatest philosopher that ever lived and the wisest man that ever lived. In the books of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, the books of Solomon, you will find Empiricism, Existentialism, Pessimism, Hedonism, Realism, Naturalism, Pragmatism. You will find every major philosophy of the world in those two books, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
Now, in chapter three, he is talking about timing. He is saying that God has so set things up that things happen at certain intervals and certain times and certain places for certain reasons. He says in chapter three that to everything there is a season. Christ said one time, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." (Acts 1:7)
To everything there is a season. If you grow crops, you know that. Paul says about preaching in II Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;..." That means preach the word when it bears fruit and preach the word when it does not bear fruit.
To everything there is a season. If you live down South you know that. There is a season for okra, there is a season for pecans. The reason you can't grow pecans in Ohio and Michigan is because it isn't warm long enough. That pecan tree starts putting on leaves and then buds in about two months and will have to sit there April, May, June, July, August, September before it comes out. You can't do that in Pennsylvania. Nothing is going to start budding in March and then still be budding in October. There is a season.
Now, if you are going to plant okra, you can't plant okra right now. You can plant something else right now, but you can't plant okra right now. You can't plant okra and make it grow until you can go out there and walk around in your bare feet and if it is warm, if that ground is warm under your bare feet, then you can plant the okra. But if it is cool, it is not going to grow. Now, you would think anybody could understand that. There is a season.
3:1, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" What appears to be haphazard and random is not haphazard. The equinoxes and the solstices run according to time. The universe runs according to time. The nebulae and the star clusters and the galaxies rotate according to certain fashions. You can set your watch by the stars. "...purpose under the heaven:" Now, the trick is to find out the season and the time and the purpose.
Now he starts and he has twenty-eight items, which is the number of the moon's revolution in a month - like the moon had something to do with the times and the seasons. In Genesis chapter one you have the greater light and the lesser light and the rule of the day and night and therefore times and seasons. That's why some folks in Carolina, Alabama and Georgia always plant by the moon. You would never convince anybody who had to make a living by planting that you shouldn't plant by the moon. If you plant root crops, you plant with the moon going down and if you plant top crops, you plant with the moon coming up. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"
Now, what are they?
3:2, "A time to be born,..." The Lord has determined it. The doctor can't tell you the hour and the minute. A woman can go into labour and stay in labour three times longer than they thought she would stay in labour and she can go in labour and stay in labour half as long as they thought. There is "A time to be born, and a time to die;..." If your number is up, your number is up.
"...a time to plant,..." Around here you can get two crops. You can plant potatoes in February and harvest them before the summer. You can plant again at the end of summer, around July and August, and get fresh potatoes on Christmas day if you keep them covered with pine straw.
"...and a time to pluck up that which is planted;" Time to put the stuff in the ground, time to go out and dig the stuff up, pick it, harvest it.
3:3, "A time to kill,..." Contrary to what modern, oh so sensitive preachers say, there is a time to kill. There was a time for Bundy to get killed, but his time was long delayed. They should have killed him years ago. There is a time to kill. When? War, Romans chapter thirteen, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." The Lord told old Saul (I Samuel 15:3) to go out and get the Amalekites "...and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." You know, modern people just shake their heads and say "Oh, my goodness!" Well, what are you going to do about an atom bomb? "Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness."
To this day there are still people who think it was wrong to drop that atom bomb on Japan. You can find people who think that was a terrible thing to kill all those folks. You know something? If we had not dumped that bomb, we would be fighting somewhere in central Japan right now from rice paddy to rice paddy. I know those people. Do you know when the last Japanese surrendered? I think it was ten years ago. That guy on the Philippine Islands - I think he surrendered ten years ago. That guy had been fighting for forty-five years by himself. Now, listen, you are not going to land the Japanese mainland with a bunch of American troops. You are going to lose two million of your own people and four million of theirs. An atom bomb was the most merciful thing you possibly could do. You say, "Why?" It saved the most lives. If you're worrying about saving lives - that is the way to save them. Dump it.
"A time to kill,..." There is a time to kill an animal when it has been wounded and can't recover. Time to kill a horse when he breaks his leg. There is a time to kill. Somebody said, "Human life is sacred...we shouldn't execute murderers." Same people teaching that think it is alright to abort babies. Aren't they peculiar? "We should honor the sacredness of life and back abortion." What a strange thing.
"A time to kill, and a time to heal;..." Time to get well, time to get healed up in the hospital.
"...a time to break down,..." Break down and weep, break down and bawl. Break down a building, tear it down and build a new building. Break down a highway, break down a bridge and build a new bridge. "...a time to break down,..." Time to break down the walls of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar.
"...and a time to build up;" Like Ezra and Nehemiah. When the time comes, they go back and re-build the walls and re-build the temple. There is a time to build up.
Now, do you see this thing? There is a time to be born - positive. There is a time to die - negative. There is a time to plant - positive. There is a time to pluck up - negative. There is a time to kill - negative. There is a time to heal - positive. There is a time to break down - negative. There is a time to build up - positive. See the balance. It isn't like yen and yang - both are parts of the same thing and identical. They are not identical. The things are different.
3:4, "A time to weep,..." Well, what? Weep over your sins. There is a time to weep over loved ones. Paul said, "I would not have you sorrow as others sorrow...", but you are going to sorrow. Paul said to weep with them that weep. There is a time to weep. You shouldn't be happy all the time. Some times you ought to be bawling. You say, "When?" God sets the time. There is a time and purpose for everything. There is a place where you are supposed to weep.
"...and a time to laugh;..." See? You're not supposed to weep all the time. You're not supposed to have a face longer than a horse trying to get corn out of the bottom of a rain barrel.
"...and a time to laugh;..." That is one way you test somebody's spirituality in church - see how well they laugh. If they don't laugh easily, there is something wrong with them. The point is if they are relaxed, if they are relaxed, then they respond the way people would respond who are relaxed. When they are not relaxed, then ummmmmmmmm. Something's not in there, man.
"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn,..."Be sorrowful. God doesn't expect you to be hard-hearted when a loved one dies or when a baby gets sick.
"...and a time to dance;" Uh oh. Now if a fellow wanted to prove something, he could prove it from that, couldn't he? "...a time to dance;" There is a time to dance. I'll show you when it is, too.
Turn to Exodus chapter fifteen. There is a time to dance and it's when the world never dances. Now, the first dance in your Bible is Exodus 15:20, "And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." There's the dance. Notice no men in that dance. That's just women. What are they doing? Verse 21, they are praising God. That is your Bible dance. "And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."
Now, that is not a worldly dance. I'll show you a worldly dance. Turn to Exodus chapter thirty-two. Now, here is the worldly stuff. This is a mixed dance. This is men and women together and half dressed and an African congregation. Exodus 32:19, "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount." First time all ten commandments are broken is at a dance.
Turn to the New Testament and we'll take another case of the dance. Luke chapter fifteen. There is dancing to praise God and there is dancing when a soul is saved and neither of those dances would resemble anything that you ever saw at a rock concert or anything else. It's amazing how many dances are named after animals. When I was coming up, my mother and daddy used to dance a dance called "the grizzly bear". Another one was called "the bunny hug". When I came up, there was the "fox trot", and then there was the "jitterbug". Isn't that something? Bugs, foxes, bears. Oh, and one was the "turkey trot". Then there's the limbo, mambo, the sambo, and the big apple, the frug, the twist, the break dance. The break dance is watermelon withdrawal. Do you know what your modern dancing is? It's a bunch of people out there doing the bumps and the grinds. That's all it is. That's what you call a belly dance. That is burlesque stuff - has nothing to do with dancing. Looks like a ruptured duck on rubber stilts.
All right, Luke 15:24, here is the next dance. These are Bible dances. "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing." See that? They were dancing because somebody got saved.
All right, turn to Psalm 150. The time to hop, skip and jump is when somebody gets saved or to praise God. Modern American dance is not that kind of dance at all. Psalm 150:1, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power." Verse 2, "Praise him for his mighty acts...." Verse 3, "Praise him with the sound of the trumpet..." Verse 4, "Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs."
"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;" You see how that is set in contrast, the antipathy of the mourning is the dancing.
3:5, "A time to cast away stones,..." Moving benchmarks, taking down a wall, destroying a city. "...and a time to gather stones together;..." Setting up tombstones, graveyards, re-building a wall, re-building a city.
"...a time to embrace,..." Like he said when they were going off to war, back in Deuteronomy, if he had just gotten married, he was allowed to stay home a year and cheer up his wife instead of going to war. I Corinthians chapter seven, about the husband and wife he said, "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency," talking about his body belonging to her and her body belonging to him. There is a time to embrace.
"...and a time to refrain from embracing;"
3:6, "A time to get,..." That's getting honestly, earning a living, getting profit. "...and a time to lose;..." There is a time for you to get money, get property, get land and there is a time for you to lose money, property and land. There is a time for you to get a family and there is a time for you to lose a family. There is a time to get fame and a time for you to lose fame.
"A time to get, and a time to lose;..." Don't you wish you knew exactly when it was? Wouldn't it be wonderful if you knew the times and seasons? In a minute he is going to tell you why you can't know.
"...a time to keep,..." Keep your money. "...and a time to cast away;" Throw your money away. God loves a cheerful giver. A time to keep it - don't pan it out to lazy Christians. II Thessalonians 3:10 says "...if any would not work, neither should he eat."
"...a time to keep,..." Fathers should lay up for their children, not the children for their fathers, II Corinthians.
"...and a time to cast away;" There is a time to be liberal, time to be generous, time to turn loose.
3:7, "A time to rend,..." Like your garments in the Old Testament. When they showed they were sorrowful, they would take their clothes and tear them. You know, westerners think that is melodramatic, and I guess it is. But, the idea is that the clothes represents your skin. When the guy rips his garment, he is as much as saying, "I could die."
There are three expressions the oriental has along these lines. The first one is ashes on the head, meaning "I wish I was dead." Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The next one is the expression of the knife to the chest, meaning "I wish I was dead." The third one is tearing the clothes. That is the picture of the rent vail in Matthew twenty-seven and the rent in Christ's side. That is the picture of dying.
"A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence,..." David said in Psalm 39:1, "...I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me." "a time to keep silence,..." Christ doesn't revile His persecutors. He doesn't answer again. Paul kept silence one time before Gallio the Judge and the case was thrown out of court and the other time that Paul spoke up, he had a hard time getting out of court.
"...a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;" There is a time to witness, time to open your mouth, and there is a time to shut up.
3:8, "A time to love,..." Love what? Love God, love the Book, love each other, love the brave and noble deed. Love an honest act.
"...and a time to hate;..." These are opposites. Now, your modern Christianity is just love, love, love, love. I'm going to talk to you about the greatest commandment in the Bible, the most impossible commandment there is. The most impossible commandment there is to love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind. It is impossible.
"...and a time to hate;..." Hate what? Hate unrighteousness, hate sin, hate Bible perversions. There is a time to be negative. A man that can't hate good can't love good. Folks think God just loves. If God wasn't a good hater, He wouldn't be God. Any god that loved unrighteousness and filth and iniquity and godlessness and depravity and sin like he loved honesty and purity and righteousness is no God. He's a crook.
"A time to love, and a time to hate;..." You can tell as much about a man by what kind of enemies he has had as by the friends he has.
"...a time of war,..." Saddle up, guns up. "...a time of war,..." There is a time to fight.
"...and a time of peace." Now, do you see what man wants? He wants just the peace. It isn't just a time of peace. There is a time of war. All man's efforts to undo what God does just can't be undone. Eventually (You've heard this before, whether you believe it or not.), eventually, all issues are settled by violence. They are settled by an act of judgment that goes against somebody. When God Almighty wants to settle His issue with his created intelligences, when God finally decides and settles the issue between Him and you and me, He does it with judgment, Judgment Seat of Christ and the White Throne Judgment.
When the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to this earth and settles His issue with the United Nations and both Houses of Congress and the One Worlders and the Roman Catholic Church, He does it with armed warfare. Troops on horseback, stomping people in the ground and the blood comes up to the horses' bridles by a space of seventy-five miles. Violence. I'm not saying that violence is always right and I don't say it should always be practiced, but I am saying that there is a time for it and an issue is settled by that. The issues are settled on who runs the world by who wins the wars.
3:9, "What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?" What is the profit in working? Day and night, night and day.
3:10, "I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it."
3:11, "He..." That's God. "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time:..." That's God's time. That is, God has a time and a purpose and when God does a thing, it comes off at the right time in the right place under the right conditions. So, it's beautiful.
"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time:..." But here is the problem. "...also he..." God. "...he hath set the world in their heart,..." Man, the sons of men, verse ten. "...he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." The problem is that we don't know the time and season. God knows the time and season and if it is done in the right way at the right time under the right conditions then it is beautiful, but man can't appreciate it because his time isn't God's time.
Many times when the Lord does something in your life at a certain time, it isn't beautiful at all to you. Is it? Is it? Why, it is revolting sometimes. And discouraging and repulsive. What's the problem? The problem is that God is looking at that thing from eternity, so He has His time and place for each one of these things down here and if you would just get back where God is out there and look at it, you would get it. See? That's what the Buddhists try to do. The Buddhists try to get out of the frame and get united with the infinite presence, whatever it is, so that whatever happens, he can take it the way the infinite presence takes it. But, you can't make it. Even when you think you have made it, you have not. Because you come back in the flesh and there you are stuck back in the world again. It does not work. Works temporarily, kind of like medicine.
We're stuck here in time and the Lord is out in eternity. The Lord has that whole thing set out there and it is beautiful in God's eyes, it's right in God's eyes. But in our eyes, it isn't because we can't see it the way God sees it. It prevents us. The world is set in our hearts, so it prevents us from seeing what God is doing. That is, today you are going to figure, "Where am I going to eat? What am I going to do this afternoon? I've got these bills to pay. They're going to shut off the lights if I don't get this bill paid. What will I do with this wreck I'm driving that's coming to the parking lot one piece at a time?" How can you find out what God is going to do with that mess going on in your head? Look at verse eleven, "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." As far as your life is concerned, you can't figure the thing out.
I must admit that the closer you get to the end, the better it gets as far as coherence goes. The closer I get to the end, the more clearly I see where the things were in the proper time and place and way. But, I wouldn't kid you young people coming along. From where you are, it is just like a blind maze sometimes and sometimes it is just like banging your head against a brick wall. You don't know where you are or what you are doing, you can't see what God is doing. Knocked this way and knocked that way and knocked over this way. You say, "I can't find God in this mess with a flashlight." But, then after a while, you get up close to the end and look back and you can see where the little pieces go. It's kind of like painting - when you are working right up against it, you can't see what is going on. But when you finish and stand back and look at the whole thing, then it is clear.
3:12, "I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life." All right, "...there is no good in them,..." Like verse eleven, "...he hath made every thing..." All the stuff that God does, there is no good in them from your standpoint, "...but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life." That is all he can get out of it.
3:13, "And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God." See, that is the natural man just figuring things out naturally, and it is the truth. If you enjoy the good of your labour, that is a gift from God. If you are able to eat good and drink good, that is a gift from God. Do you understand? Like the gift of God is eternal life. Do you understand that if you enjoy a meal, that is grace? Amen. Alot of people can't enjoy one. You say, "Something to drink?" Something to drink. Do you know what some of you folks need to do? You need to get out about a half canteen full of water, just warm enough - just about to boil an egg, and then try to make that thing last all day. After a while, you get to see that if you can eat and drink, it is a gift of God. Some of you people need a well in your back yard and every morning when you get ready to take a bath, go out in the back yard and pump the water and bring it in the house and pour it in the pots and heat it up (if you have anything to heat it with).... Any of you fellows ever have to shave in cold water for about six months? Just like using a rake across your face. If you have hot running water and cold running water, the Lord has blessed you.
3:14, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." The Lord does the time and the purpose and you can't change it. It is fixed.
"...nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it:..." It's true of the word of God. The scripture cannot be broken. "...whatsoever God doeth,..." He wrote that Book. "...it shall be for ever:..." Psalm 119:89 says, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "...nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it:..."
Why does God do it? "...and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." The Lord does that thing to teach you respect for Him. Instead of attributing that thing to some remote cause or some accidental fluctuation, it is to be attributed to somebody with intelligence who is planning that thing. And when those plans cross your plans and go afoul of you, then that is to make you think. "...and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." The Bible says in Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:..."
3:15, "That which hath been is now;..." What went on in the days of Cain and Abel is going on now. What went on in the days of Noah is going on now. What went on in the days of Christ is going on now. Human nature hasn't changed. "That which hath been is now;..." Do you want to know how to handle something now? Study what has been. There is nothing archaic about going backwards. Folks talk about being reactionary and going back to mid Victorian times. If you want to learn something, go back in history and you will find the same thing went on then that is going on now and you will find that what worked then will work now and what did not work then will not work now. There is nothing reactionary or backward about a man that lives back in 1700 or 1500, if he is checking it out with a Book that covers the whole thing.
"That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been;..." The future is repetition of the past. Those that ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.
"...and God requireth that which is past." Look at the context, verse sixteen. Judgment, God is going to require. Matthew 12:36 says, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." David said in Psalm 139:2-4, "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.....For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether."
Christ said in Matthew 10:26, "...for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known." "...God requireth that which is past." And he goes on and talks about the nature of the judgment in verse sixteen.
3:16 Now this is Solomon and he is speculating and thinking about life on earth after about having finished it. He is up near the closing years of his life and he is looking backward over the past and trying to sum up what he has learned of what he has seen under the sun. Ecclesiastes is a book of philosophy, not a book of New Testament Christian doctrine. Very often you will find things in it that go contrary to revelation. The reason why is Solomon is giving it from a man's standpoint, a man's point of view, without any special revelation about some things.
3:16, "And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment,..." Like the district court or probate court or circuit court. Like a Supreme Court. "...I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there;..." Fellow being tried is wicked or the judge is wicked. "...and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there." That is, iniquity is present where righteousness is present and where righteousness is present where wickedness is present. It is true of the two natures of the believer. You have a righteous nature in you, a born again nature, and you have in you an old nature. The place of righteousness, your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, there is iniquity there. You see? Of the judgment seat of Christ, he says in II Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Place of righteousness --iniquity is there. See?
"...I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there." The two are hand in hand.
3:17, "I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous..." Judgment seat of Christ. "...and the wicked:..." White Throne Judgment. "...for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work." Back to verse one, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" Verse seventeen, "...there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."
So, God has a place where He is going to judge the righteous and God has a place where He is going to judge the wicked and there are different times.
3:18, "I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men,..." That's their condition, their state. "...that God might manifest them,..." All right, he said in his own heart, "I wish God would do something. I wish God would show a fellow something, "...that God might manifest them,..." Show them what they are. "...and that they might see that they themselves are beasts." Animals. Now, Darwin took that literally. Darwin said you are a beast, you are kin to a beast and you came up from beasts. Evolution isn't true, but there is alot of truth in it.
Did you ever wonder why so many times in the Bible people are likened to animals? Isaiah 40:31, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles..." We mourn like doves and we roar like bears (Isaiah 38:14 and 59:11). Matthew 7:15 says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." "...Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19).
II Peter 2:22 "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
John 10:14-15, "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and.........I lay down my life for the sheep."
Matthew 10:16, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
See that stuff. It is all through there. Antichrist is likened to a leopard who has a lion's mouth and a bear's feet (Revelation 13:2). He is called a behemoth back there in Job chapter forty, and these dumb fundamentalists think that is a dinosaur. That is the devil.
Throughout the Bible, people are likened to animals. Solomon is saying to show the fellows they are like dogs or cats or bear or snake or fish. Old Darwin had them all running together and you can't blame him, an unsaved man, when you consider it.
If you are unsaved, I'm going to say one of the most insulting things to you that you have ever had said in your life, and I am not going to worry about it, I have no conscience about it, I'm not going to apologize after saying it, and I'm not going to ask God to forgive me for saying it when I get through saying it. I'm just going to put it on you and leave it there. If you don't like it, you can lump it.
If you are unsaved, the only three things that drive you in life are the three things that drive a skunk or rattlesnake. If you are unsaved, you are after self preservation. So is a dog. So is a snake. So is a skunk. There is not a deer in the forest that is not after self preservation. Self propagation - that's the sex drive. Find it among the moose and the goats and the rabbits. That's you. Self gratification. You want to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter and be fairly comfortable. You say, "What else?" That's all. That's all.
The things that guide, lead and drive you as an unsaved person are the things that guide, lead and drive every snail, frog and fish in the forest, and that is all you have got. You say, "I believe in helping folks out." Self gratification. See that? Don't give me that stuff. You say well, I've done this and I've done that. You enjoyed doing it. You got a kick out of it. "I gave up this and gave up that for so forth and so on." Yeah, you did that because you thought that was necessary or the lesser of two evils. Or, you did it to earn righteousness. Made the sacrifice so you could earn your way, you know, self preservation. Self gratification. If you are unsaved, there are only three things in your life and that is all you have got. In that respect, you are just like any dog in the street. You're welcome. I would say the same thing in the First Baptist Church or the First Presbyterian Church or before the United Nations.
3:19, "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts;..." Isn't it true. I mean, they have families, they run in packs, they go it alone, they get hurt, they get wounded, they get hungry, they get thirsty, they get scared, they enjoy things, they die.
"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them:..." Now he is going to name one thing that you have in common with every animal on this earth and every man on this earth. What is it? "...as the one dieth, so dieth the other;..." Dog quits breathing, you quit breathing. Dog's heart stops, your heart stops. Gets hit by a car, you get hit by a car. They come up and scrape him off the highway, they come up and scrape you off the highway. "...as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath;..." Breathing - that's the same air a rattlesnake breathes.
"...they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity." So, men are like animals. And unsaved men are really like animals. When you get saved you still have those basic fleshy drives. Your old nature still has in it that desire for self preservation, self propagation and self gratification. But, when you get saved you get a drive added to you that isn't found in those three. Do you know what that added drive is? It is to find out what God wants you to do and do it. The unsaved man does not have that drive. If he had that drive, he gets saved.
When you get saved, you get a desire to know, "Lord, what do you want?" And if what you want crosses (self preservation, self propagation, self gratification) with what the Lord wants, it has got to come first. And it doesn't always come first. Not every Christian can whip that thing every time it comes up. But it is there. You take Stephen getting stoned there by the Sanhedrin, what motive do you think he had in mind when he got up to preach? Self gratification? They're going to kill him. Self propagation? He's going to die before he gets married. Self preservation? They're going to beat his brains out. But, he gets up and goes ahead and preaches. Why? The Lord wanted him to and so he did what the Lord wanted him to do. If you are unsaved, you have not got that. If you are unsaved, the Bible says the will of God is that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. If you are going to do the will of God, you would be down the aisle getting saved. But, you haven't got that. What you have is just what a tiger, hippopotamus and a bull moose has, and that is all you've got.
"...a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity." You know, in some cases, a beast has preeminence above a man. German shepherds have alot of things about them that are superior to people. A really loyal dog will be loyal to you when they're hungry and you can't feed them. They will wag their tail at you and you pat them on the head when they're starving and you're starving. Well, not everybody will do that. I mean, dogs have been known to jump into burning buildings to haul people out. They have been known to take chances on dying. They're courageous, they're brave. Not all people are courageous, not all people are brave and not all people are loyal. You take lions - I like lions. I like to watch them, I like to look at their faces. That lion is the most self-confident creature you ever saw in your life. He is perfectly self controlled and self contained. He will look at you and just put a hole right through you. No malice, just, "I'm in charge." If you don't believe it, put your arm in the cage.
Women in the Bible are likened to pigs, II Peter 2:22. A farmer told me that pigs will eat anything. When I look at Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal, I believe it. Did you ever look at those women in the magazines that have all these fancy dishes in them? Do you know why they are like that? Because they photograph good. I don't see how a man with red blood could stomach that thing. All red, green, yellow - just junk. I mean a baked potato with butter could out-beat the thing any day in the week. I've seen a pig take the snap out of a rail trying to get to the trough and miss the rail and snap the post, bite the splinters out of it. A farmer told me that he had known some pigs that, after they had ruined the swill for other pigs, would jump in the swill so the rest of them couldn't eat anything, even after they had enough. Jumped in so the rest of them couldn't get anything. I got that truth from a farmer, see. He said that one thing about a pig is that if you have a bunch of pigs around, you don't have to worry about a rattlesnake because they will stomp on rattlesnakes and eat them. I said, "Eat a rattlesnake?" He said, "A pig will eat anything." He said the rattlesnake will strike that pig, but the pig has so much blubber on it that the poison won't go through and kill the pig and the pig will just stomp on the snake and eat it.
Men in the Bible are likened to dogs. Did you ever observe dogs real close? Any dog, even a German shepherd. The worst dirty word in the German language means literally a pig-dog. That is a picture of an unsaved man and unsaved woman.
People are likened to sheep, likened to serpents. Men are like snakes. The devil is like a snake. All those similitudes in there that God might manifest.
3:20, "All go unto one place;..." That's true. You bury them. "...all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." That's true. Nothing about heaven or hell there, nothing about the afterlife. He is talking about what you can see. What you can see is they rot and decompose.
Now, here is what you don't know.
3:21, "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward..." Then there is a difference in spirit. There is no difference in the body, no difference in the physical composition. Both came out of dirt, Genesis two. "...the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" When the animal dies, the spirit or breath in him leaves and just goes right back off into the ground. When a man dies, that spirit in that man goes back to God. Now, that isn't the man's soul. Every unsaved man's spirit, when he dies, goes back to God. But, that is his spirit. That is not him. You are your soul. Man is a body, soul and spirit. And whether you are lost or saved, when you die your spirit returns to God. But, the difference is if you are saved, your soul goes back to God with it because he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And if you are unsaved, your soul goes right where everything else goes - straight down.
3:22, "Wherefore I perceive..." That is in the fact that men are just like animals. 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?" In the Old Testament they don't know for sure. That's not a doctrinal statement in the New Testament salvation. That is an Old Testament statement on what a fellow knows about life after death.
"...for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?" So, a fellow might as well enjoy what he has got to do and do it with all his heart and rejoice in it because that is what God has given him to do. That's what the animals do. The animals just do what God tells them to do. You don't find animals worrying. You ever saw a dog, sitting around and worrying about what he is going to eat next year? You watch these crows that fly over and these blackbirds that come in flocks, they just go where God tells them to go. It's just imparted wisdom God gave them to go where He tells them to go.