(Through the Bible) Ecclesiastes 1-6 — Chuck Smith

Ecclesiastes as a Search for Meaning

The book of Ecclesiastes begins the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, so it identifies the author as Solomon. The Hebrew word that is translated preacher is a word that can mean one of the assembly or a debater and it is determined that the translation preacher is not necessarily a good translation of this Hebrew Kalel, that it might be better translated the debater, the words of the debater, the son of David the king of Jerusalem.

He refers to this and in Ecclesiastes is the only time this Hebrew word is used and it is in the feminine form and it is used seven times here as Solomon is referring to himself and really a debater or one who is searching, the searcher, the son of David the king of Jerusalem and the book of Ecclesiastes is indeed a search.

Vanity of vanities saith the searcher or the debater. Vanity of vanities all is vanity. Now he starts out with the conclusion of his search. After searching through everything, this is his conclusion of life.

Life Under the Sun and the Natural Man

Now it is important that we note that the book of Ecclesiastes is a book that deals with the natural man searching for meaning in life. The word Jehovah is not used in this book. He does refer to God the Elohim but not unto Jehovah, God in the personal sense that a person can know God.

But God as a worldly man speaks of God just a force, a power, a title, the Elohim. Those who truly know God in a personal way know God as Yahweh or as Jesus Christ but this is that worldly and personal concept of God.

As he is searching for the meaning of life, he searches through all kinds of natural experiences but there is throughout the book the denial of the spiritual. It is putting man on the level of animals.

It is looking at man as an animal and it is trying to find the reason or the purpose for life on the animal plane and it must follow that life on the animal plane is totally empty. It is totally frustrating.

Looking at life on the animal plane sees man as an animal possessing a consciousness and a body but the spirit is not related to God. So man as a animal is aware and conscious of his body needs and he is living to seek to satisfy his body needs and a person who lives on the body level seeking to only satisfy his body needs denying the spiritual aspect of his nature is going to end up ultimately with this feeling of emptiness and frustration.

The word vanity literally means that which vanishes. It's nothing. You go to get it and it vanishes. It's not there. It's an emptiness. The vexation of spirit is that frustration of the spirit. Now man is a threefold being and one of the problems of our whole educational system today is the denial of the spiritual nature of man.

Our whole humanistic educational system embracing the evolutionary theory sees man as a highly developed form of animal existence. So it sees man as a highly developed animal living in a body possessing a consciousness and the denial of the spirit is the basic flaw in the educational system.

For unless you see man as a threefold being, unless you see man with his spiritual nature, then you are going to only have life on the human level, a life that is filled with emptiness and frustration.

So we have today men who make excellent livelihoods trying to help people deal with their frustrations because people feel that life is worthless. Life is not worthwhile. Life is empty. Life is meaningless and they just feel despairing and discouraged and despondent.

They go to someone who just talks to them about life and they pay money to try to understand why it is that I feel like life is just not worth living at all, you know. Well that's because you haven't come into the third dimension of life, life on the spiritual plane.

There is where life takes meaning. It all comes back to the threefold nature of man. Living in a body, I have certain body needs. God created the body, marvelous instrument, fantastically designed with my little hypothalamus and my pituitary and the various glands that are excreting the different chemicals into my system that give me my different feelings, numbing my pains or telling me that I'm thirsty as it is monitoring my blood system, telling me that I need oxygen and all of these functions that are going on in the body, keeping the balance, the hemiostasis.

For the body balance is important. It's important that I have enough sugar. It's important that I have enough oxygen. It's important that I have all of these things within the body so this body balance, my body drives, my air drive, my thirst drive, my hunger drive, my bowel and bladder drive, my sex drives, all of these have been created by God, a part of the body in which I live.

But I also have a consciousness and in the area of my consciousness there are also needs, drives. I have a need for security. I have a need for love. I have a need to be needed, these sociological drives.

Now that's about as far as your psychologists and sociologists take you. But what they are denying in the denial of the spiritual nature of man, they are denying the fact that there is deep down inside of me, in my spirit, in this part of my nature, a drive that also exists and this drive in my spirit is for God.

My spirit thirsts after Thee, O God, David said. As the heart paneth after the water brooks, so paneth my soul after Thee, O God. There is within man that desire to know God, that desire to have fellowship with God.

There is within man a vacuum that only God can fill. And if you deny the spiritual nature of man, then man can never be satisfied because this deep down spiritual thirst will always be haunting him, telling him there's something more, there's something more, there's something more.

And I feel this dissatisfaction with life. I have a thirst that I can't define. I know it's there. I know that life hasn't yet brought me fulfillment. I know there's got to be more to life than what I've yet experienced.

And I have this frustration. And this is what Solomon went through. That's what he is describing. Emptiness, emptiness, all is empty and frustrating. He's talking, and the phrase is used some nine times, life under the sun.

It is a frustrating existence. Now, according to the psychologist, frustration leads to inferiority complex, which is the rationale by which I explain to myself why I still feel unfulfilled and empty.

Why is it that I'm not satisfied? Why is it that I've not been able to achieve and attain that which I feel there must be? And I say, well, if I only had a better education then, if I only had more money, if I only were better looking, if I only had hair, and I am explaining to myself why I haven't been able to achieve this some intangible something that I know must be there in life, that somehow is passing me by and I can't quite grasp.

And so I feel this emptiness because I can't quite get hold of it. And I am explaining to myself in the inferiority complex the shortcoming that causes me not to be able to grasp that which I know must be there.

Escapism, Guilt, and the Cycles of Frustration

Now, this in turn leads to escapes. I feel the emptiness. I feel this dissatisfaction. I feel that there must be more to life than what I've yet experienced. I can't seem to find it and so I'm going to escape.

And I can escape overtly or invertly. In the inverted escapes, I escape within myself. I start building walls around myself. I get to where I don't want to open up to people. I start closing off myself from people.

I don't want them to know the truth about me that I know about myself. So I make this facade and I project this image and they see this out here but they don't know the real me. I'm not going to let them get through to know the real me.

And more and more I get within myself. More and more I begin to disassociate myself from people. In its final form, it's manifested as a hermit, a man who just goes out and lives in the desert by himself.

So he doesn't have to see people, talk to people, nothing to do with people. That's the extreme form of escapism in the inverted way. Or if I go to overt escape mechanisms, I may go to compulsive eating behavior patterns.

Start eating all the time. I'm escaping. Or I might become a compulsive gambler. Or I might turn to drinking. Or I might turn to drugs. Or I might look to a variety of sex experiences. All escaping or nomadism.

Start moving from job to job or from place to place. Oh, if I were just in San Francisco, that's where I'd be happy. Oh, I just lived in Hawaii. It's interesting, more suicides in Hawaii than almost any place else because you get over there and where can you go?

No, this is it. This is paradise. This is heaven on earth. But the problem is you had to take yourself. And the same emptiness is that you feel here, you feel there. And you find out that Hawaii didn't do it.

It didn't satisfy. It didn't meet that deep cry that is within you. If it's not here, it's nowhere. Emptiness, emptiness. Now, when a person gets into these escape patterns, it develops a guilt complex.

Because I know I shouldn't be eating like this. Why do I eat like this? I hate myself looking so fat. Why do I eat these chocolates? I can't stop. But yet, I'm escaping and I get guilty. I start feeling guilty over the things that I'm doing.

I know it's not right. I know it's not helping. I know it's destroying me. I know it's destroying my family or my relationships. But I can't seem to quit. It has a hold on me. And so I'm feeling guilty.

And the guilt complex then leads to a subconscious desire for punishment. It goes inward then and underground. And I can't follow it at this point from the conscious level. But subconsciously, I get a desire for punishment.

And I start a neurotic behavior pattern that will bring punishment to me. And neurotic behavior patterns usually stem from a subconscious desire for punishment. I've been, I'm feeling guilty over what I've been doing.

I want someone to punish me so that I can feel like I'm not guilty anymore. Now, when you were a child, your parents took care of your neurotic behavior patterns. And they took you in and spanked you.

The healthiest thing in the world for you psychologically. Because it made you feel free of your guilt. I've been punished. There's something about the guilt that I desire punishment in order that I might be freed from that feeling of guilt.

Once I've been punished, then I feel, oh, I'm innocent now. I'm free from the guilt feelings because I've been punished. I'm free to go back to my frustration and start the cycle over again. To my inferiority complex, to my escape, to my guilt, to my punishment, to my frustration.

And so life moves in a cycle. And Solomon will point out here in a little bit, the cycles, as we get in the first part of the chapter here. They're just, life seems to move in cycles. And this, according to psychologists, is the cycle of life.

And you think, my God, is this all there is? Stop this crazy merry-go-round. I want off. I'm tired of it. And that's what Solomon came to. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and frustrating. And it all comes from the denial of the spiritual nature of man.

It is living life on the human plane apart from God. For the gospel of Jesus Christ comes into this cycle. And the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to me. Now, when I'm in the neurotic behavior pattern, it is so often that people say, hey man, you better go see a shrink.

You're, you're crazy. You're, you're doing nutty things. You better get some help. And so I go to a head shrink and he sits me on the couch and he gives me a series of tests and he seeks to determine what I'm feeling guilty about.

And then he starts to talk to me. Now, when you were a little boy, did your mother tell you that you shouldn't tell lies? And did she teach you that it was wrong to cheat? Well, you see, these are a part of the old Puritan ethic.

They're part of the old Victorian system. And everything is really relative. You've got to face the fact that there are certain situations in which it is perfectly proper to tell a lie. You shouldn't feel guilty about this, you see.

And he tries to remove your guilt by telling you that it's not wrong. It's not guilty. Everybody's doing it. So you've just got to join the crowd and realize that the part of that old Puritan ethic by which you were trained is the thing that's your hang-up today.

But Jesus Christ comes to me and says, hey man, you are guilty. That's bad news. That's wrong. But I love you. And I took your guilt and bore your guilt when I died on the cross. I took all of your sins, all of your guilt, and I paid the penalty for it.

Now, if you'll just believe in me and trust in me, I'll forgive you. Hey, that's something no psychologist can do, is totally erase that guilt feeling. Take away this haunting feeling of guilt. But Jesus Christ and the gospel does.

It's the greatest thing in the world for removing the guilt complex. If that's all the gospel did, it would be fantastic. But it does much more than that. It comes back to the very beginning frustration where it all started.

Jesus Christ and the Water of Life

And we hear Jesus on the last day of the great day of the feast as he is standing there in the temple mount crying to the crowds, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. For he who drinks of the water that I give, out of his innermost being there will flow rivers of living water.

And John said, this spake he of the spirit. That third dimension of man, that man in his educational processes today is seeking to deny and by his denial has created all of this confusion in our society today.

All of the frustration that people experience results from the denial of the spirit. And Jesus is saying, you have a thirst for God in your spirit. Come to me, come to me and drink. And so this frustration where the whole thing started, Jesus comes to me and not only does he fill my life, does he fill that spiritual void, but he keeps pouring in until it begins to pour out from me.

And my life is no longer just a sponge thirsty seeking to grasp or to draw, but my life now begins to flow out with that love and grace of God's goodness that he has bestowed upon me. And now, as David said, my cup runneth over.

My life is an overflowing cup. No longer going around with this cry and thirst and frustration within, but now the fulfillment and the fullness of God within my life as my life overflows with God's goodness and grace.

So you look at life on just the human level as Solomon is looking at it. You look at man like an animal as Solomon does. You deny the spiritual dimension of man, that which places him apart from animals and above the animal kingdom.

And you're opening Pandora's box to all kinds of psychological ills. You're opening to a life that can never be filled, a life of vanity and vexation of spirit. And so we are looking now through the eyes of Solomon at the world under the sun.

Apart from God, man on the animal plane and man at the highest on the animal plane is hopeless. It is not until you interject the spiritual plane and bring man into the divine plane that man can have any hope for a fulfilling, enriching, complete life.

The Cycles of Nature and the Futility of Labor

So verse three, what profit hath a man, and I promise we won't take so much time on the rest of the verses. What profit hath the man in all of the labor which he taketh under the sun? Looking at a man and all of the things he's doing, all of the pursuits, all of the labor, what profit is there?

And now he turns into the cycles of life. It seems that life just moves in cycles, monotonous cycles. You can't escape it. You're in the cycle and someday you're just going to pass out of the cycle. One generation passes away, another generation comes, but the earth abides forever.

The sun rises, the sun goes down, and it comes back around to the place where it rose from. The wind goes towards the south, turns about, comes to the north, it whirls about continually. The wind returns again in its circuits.

All of the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full, and to the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labor. Man cannot understand it or utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done. There is no new thing under the sun.

Life just moves in cycles. History repeats itself, and the cycles of life go on. The cycle of one generation following another. The earth actually in its orbit and spinning on its axis and its relationship to the sun, the wind, the rivers.

Life just moves in monotonous cycles. Is there anything where it may be said, look, this is new. Hey, it's already been from old time which was before us. There's nothing really more discouraging than to think that you've got some new inspiration and revelation from God.

Oh, this is great. No one's ever, you know, seen this before. Oh, what an understanding. And then you pick up some old commentary written by one of the saints back in 1849, and he, you know, says the same thing that you just discovered.

There's nothing new. Life moves in cycles. There is no remembrance of the former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of the things that shall come with those that shall come after. Life just moves in cycles.

Now, I, the preacher, the debater, was king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I gave my heart to seek out and to search out by wisdom concerning all of the things that were done under heaven. And this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.

And I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. That's one of your key phrases now. Life on the human plane, not on the divine, on the human plane, under the sun. And behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. Now, this is life on the human plane. If it's crooked, if a man's life is crooked, it can't be made straight.

Human Wisdom, Philosophy, and Redemption

It is interesting that the Greek philosophers concluded that redemption of man was impossible. That once a man had gone wrong, gone bad, that there was no way of changing him. That which is crooked cannot be made straight.

It is also very interesting to read of Jesus Christ in Luke's Gospel, chapter 3, as he is proclaiming the new kingdom. Actually, it is the words of the prophet proclaiming the things of the kingdom as John the Baptist was declaring concerning the ministry of Jesus that was to come.

He said, every valley shall be filled, every mountain and every hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough made smooth. The redemption through Jesus Christ, Luke 3, 5.

But on the human level, no. On the divine level, you bet. I commune with my own heart. I wasn't communing with God. I wasn't seeking God. I was communing with my own heart. I was using now and exercising now earthly wisdom.

He was in Tim saying, lo, I am come to a great estate. I have gotten more wisdom than all of they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.

And I perceive that this also is frustrating or vexation of spirit for in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. Now it is very interesting to me today as we study the evolutionary processes of the philosophical systems of man.

A history of philosophy is an interesting course to take, because as you follow the history of philosophy and see the development of the philosophical thought, we come finally to this present state of the philosophical thought expressed in existentialism, that there is no universal base of good or evil.

Every man must experience truth for himself, but there is no universal truth. The philosophers have concluded with all of their study that in reality is only despair, and reality will lead you to despair.

Thus, the philosophers being brought to despair by their philosophy declare that it is necessary for each man to take his own leap of faith into unreality in order to escape the despair that only exists in reality.

So you have to take a leap of faith hoping to have some kind of an experience that there is no way of rationalizing or explaining. That's why TM is so popular today. It's the leap of faith into a non-reasoned religious experience.

That's why your eastern religions are so popular today and gaining popularity, because they are a leap of faith into non-reasoned religious experience, which philosophy has taught us is necessary, because with much knowledge is much sorrow.

They've come to the same conclusion that Solomon came to years ago. Years ago, before the whole history of philosophy ever began, Solomon had gone through the whole system of thought that has brought philosophy through its whole history to this final conclusion that Solomon reached three thousand years ago, that in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Now, as kids we used to understand a certain aspect of the futility of education. We used to write in our textbooks, the more you study, the more you learn, the more you learn, the more you forget, the more you forget, the less you know, so what's the use of studying?

Solomon said, hey, with much understanding, increasing your knowledge is only going to increase your sorrows. So, I said in my heart, go to now. I'm going to prove thee with pleasure, with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure.

But behold, this was vanity. So, we read in the New Testament, the epistle of John, all that is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. These are the aspects of the world by which man is seeking to find an answer, a fulfillment.

These are the things that Solomon searched out. As you follow his search, it was in the lust of his flesh, the lust of his eyes, and the pride of life. He came to the conclusion that these things are all empty.

Solomon’s Pursuit of Pleasure, Wealth, and Honor

First of all, the lust of the flesh, giving myself over to pleasure. But behold, it was empty. I said of laughter, it is mad. And of the joy, the pleasures, the mirth, what does it do? I sought in my heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom until I hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men that they should do under the heaven all of the days of their life.

So, he got into the lust of the eyes. I built me great works, beautiful homes. I planted vineyards. I made gardens and orchards. I planted trees with all kinds of fruits, made pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth the trees.

All of these beautiful gardens and buildings and all. And then the pride of life. I got servants and maidens. I had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.

Great abundance of cattle. Do you realize that every day in order to feed his household, his family and his servants, that it took ten prime beef and twenty commercial grade beef every day, a hundred lambs a day?

That's thirty-six thousand a year. That's over ten thousand beef that he slaughtered just for his servants and his family needs every year. Plus all of the fowl and the deer and the roebuck and so forth that were killed just to take care of the appetites of his family and of his servants.

Well, to have a thousand wives, you've got to feed them. You know, and they've got kids. They've got to be fed. And then they each have to have their servants. Thirty beef a day. So he was right when he said I had cattle more than anybody who was in Jerusalem before me.

I gathered also silver and gold. In Chronicles, we read that he made silver as common as the stones in Jerusalem. Now you that have been to Jerusalem know what a stony place that is. And he made silver as common as the stones in Jerusalem.

There in Chronicles fourth chapter it tells about that. The second Chronicles 9 .27 is where he talks about the silver. I brought treasures of the kings and of the provinces. I developed choirs, men and women singers, the delights of the sons of men, great orchestra, all kinds of musical instruments.

Of all sorts. So I was great. Pride of life. I was great. And increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. He was a botanist, a zoologist. And whatsoever my eyes desired, I kept not from them.

I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my portion of all my labor. Now notice that. Who could say this? And whatsoever my eyes desired, I kept not from them.

I withheld not my heart from any joy. Very few people can make that kind of a statement. You have to have really the wealth of Solomon and all to be able to say that. It seems to us there's always that, you know, if I only, if I only, if I only.

And we aren't able to fulfill all of the desires of our eyes. We go down and we see a beautiful yacht and we think, oh my, I only had that yacht, you know. It's Solomon. But, you know, I mean, he didn't withhold anything.

Whatever he desired, whatever he wanted, he had. Very few men can say that. I'd be so happy. Oh man, I'd be so satisfied. Was he? Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun, no profit in any of it.

It was empty. I was still empty. I was still frustrated. You see, this is life on the human level. This is the denying of the spiritual nature. It is trying to live your life apart from God, trying to find satisfaction and meaning apart from God.

You'll never do it. So I turned myself to behold the wisdom and madness and folly. For what can a man do that cometh after the king? What can anybody do after me? I mean, I've done it all, even that which hath been already done.

There's nothing left. I did it all. And then I saw that wisdom excels folly as far as light excels darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And I perceived also that one event happens to them all.

I said in my heart, as it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me. So why am I any wiser? With all of my wisdom, I can't prolong my life. With all of the understanding and knowledge I have, I can't prolong life.

I'm going to die just like the fool out there who doesn't know anything. He's going to die. I'm going to die. And when we die, it's all over. So what good is it to have all of the wisdom that I have? Because we're coming towards the grave, both of us together.

We're both going to die. My wisdom is going to keep me from death. How dies the wise man? As the fool. Then I said in my heart, as it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me. So why am I any wiser?

Then I said in my heart, this also is emptiness for there is no remembrance of the wise anymore than the fool forever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall be forgotten. And how dies the wise man?

As the fool. Therefore, I hated life. Now, hey, wait a minute. This is the guy that has everything. This is the guy who has every kind of pleasure, every kind of possession that you could possibly hope to have.

Anything under the sun, he's got it. And what does he say? I hated life because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me. For all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yes, I hated all my labor, which I had taken under the sun because I was going to have to leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Everything that I've built, everything that I've amassed, everything that I've done, I'm going to die and I'm going to have to leave it to some nut.

And I don't know if the guy's going to be wise or foolish. He may just go out and look at the history. Rehoboam, his son, left the throne and all the Rehoboam. What did he do? He no sooner gets on the throne than he angers the tribes of the north and they have a revolution and he loses the kingdom and starts downhill.

The whole glory that Solomon had built up, his son, dumb, foolish actions, blew it. And so Solomon's worries were not really unfounded. His son was a fool. Yet he's going to have rule over all of my labor wherein I have later and wherein I've showed myself wise under the sun.

So it was emptiness. Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all of the labor which I took under the sun. For there is a man whose labor is in wisdom and in knowledge and in equity, yet to a man that hath not labored therein shall he leave it for his portion.

You do all of the work, you do all of the effort, you do all of the sacrifice, you do all of the strain, you do all of the saving, you do all of the wise, prudent planning and everything else and you die.

And if you can really amass a great fortune, a million dollars or so, the government will come in and get 70 percent. And you know how foolishly they're going to spend it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For what hath man of all of his labor and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath labored under the sun? What do you get for it? For all of his days are sorrows and his travail grief. Yea, his heart takes no rest in the night.

And this also is vanity. There is nothing better. Now this is the conclusion. Earthly wisdom. I've done it all. It's empty. So there's nothing better for a man than he should eat and drink, that he should make his soul to enjoy good in his labor.

This also I saw was from the hand of God. For who can eat and who else can hasten here in two more than I? For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom and knowledge and joy. But to the sinner he gives travail to gather and to heap up that he may give unto him that is good before God.

This also is vanity and vexation of spirit. Now we get into the weary monotony of life. This has been used poetically as something that is very beautiful. A time to love. And it's been made very beautiful.

A Time for Everything and the Eternal in Every Heart

But in the Hebrew idea, it was monotony. Life is just monotonous. There's a time and a season, a time and a purpose under heaven to everything. There's a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to gasp.

And that's the idea of the Hebrew. It's just a monotony. Life seems to be ordered in these things. It's the time, the time, the time, the time. And the Hebrew idea is that of the monotony of life. It isn't, oh, the glorious time to love, and the time to plant, and the time.

As we make it very romantic today, it was really being expressed in a very life gets so tedious donut. Therefore, he concludes, what profit hath he that works in that wherein he is labored? What profit do you get out of your labor?

I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He has made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he has set the world in their heart. Now the word translated world there in the Hebrew is eternity or the ages.

God has actually set the ages in every man's heart. There is a consciousness within every man of the eternal. Now, some men seek to sublimate that consciousness. Some men seek to deny that consciousness.

They seek to deny God, but there is within every man. God has placed it in the heart. Eternal, the eternity in the heart of every man that is seeking out after that which is more than just a part of this monotonous routine of life.

I'm grasping and reaching for that which is eternal. God has placed the awareness of the eternal in the heart of every man, and that's that deep spiritual drive that every man has that can only be filled by coming to Jesus Christ and drinking of the water that he gives so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.

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 his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.

Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. For God does it that men should reverence Him. Now, I know this about God. My works are going to pass away. My works are going to be forgotten, but whatever God does, that's forever, and you can't add to the work of God.