God Knows Best — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of the late Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. This radio program is a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, Pastor Chuck continues with God Knows Best, as we pick up in Ecclesiastes Chapter 6, Verse 1. Now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck.

The Evil of Wealth Without the Power to Enjoy It

Solomon declares, there is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it's a rather common evil. And that is a man to whom God hath given riches and wealth and honor, so that really he lacks for nothing of all that his soul may desire.

Yet God does not give him the power to partake of it, but a stranger eats it. This is an emptiness and it's an evil disease. That a man should have wealth and power and everything he wants, and yet lacks the capacity to enjoy it, to partake of it.

And Solomon said it's something that he observed as not a rarity, but a rather common thing. I was interested in some of the remarks of Donald Trump as he spoke really of the excitement was in the pursuit, but there was disappointment in the attainment.

That once it was attained, he was bored with it. It was just the excitement of the chase. And Solomon pretty much came to that same conclusion too. And I think that when a person, you know, we say, oh, well, I could just have, well, we're still in the chase.

And there is the excitement of the chase, but there is an unfulfillment in the accomplishment. And a person has a lot, but yet doesn't have the capacity to fully enjoy it. It's an evil, Solomon said. He really passes his inheritance on to strangers, yet a stranger eats it.

And that is he really has no natural children to pass it on to. It becomes the inheritance of strangers. You remember Abraham was a very wealthy man. God had blessed Abraham. But prior to the birth of his sons, he was complaining because the only heir was his servant, Eliezer.

And all of the great wealth would pass on to a stranger, that is someone who is not begotten by me. But then he goes on to say, if a man begets a hundred children. Now, I don't know how many children Solomon had.

No doubt he had a lot. I mean, if you've got 700 wives, you're bound to have a lot of kids. His son Rehoboam had 88 children. That's a pretty good number of kids to have around the house. There is another king that is mentioned in the Bible, Ahab.

He had even more than Rehoboam. And for the wealthy kings, they had, of course, their harems and all. And so they had a lot of children. If a man begets a hundred children, and he lives so many years, that the days of his years be many, and his soul is not filled with good, and also that he has no burial.

He's sort of forgotten in death. I say that an untimely birth is better than he. That is a child that is stillborn is better off than a man who has a hundred kids and lives many years, but his soul isn't filled with good.

For he cometh in with vanity, and he departs in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. Moreover, he hath not seen the sun, nor known anything, and this hath more rest than the other.".

He's talking about a child that's born dead, comes in with vanity, departs in darkness. He will go nameless. They don't name the child. However, he has not seen the sun. He's not known anything. But he has more rest than the man who lives a long life with a hundred kids, I can imagine.

So, yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, or you live to be two thousand years old, yet he hath seen no good. Do not all go to one place. All of us go to the grave. Now he observes that all of the labor of a man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

The Endless Appetite of Earthly Desires

We work to satisfy our own desires. All of the labor that a person puts in is to accomplish and fulfill goals, desires. I want. And you can fill in the blank. And therefore, I work. And we labor to satisfy our desire for things.

And yet, the appetite is never satisfied. Have you ever noticed how that, again, I want that new car, and I go down, and I price it out, and I really can't quite afford it, but the guy is pressuring me, and he gets creative financing or whatever.

And so you think, well, yea, if, you know, I cut off on this, and if I get an extra job and all, then, you know, I can afford to get it, you know. And so you sign up, and here you are driving this fancy car, and oh, man, it's great for how long.

No matter how fancy a car it is, five years from now, you're going to be tired of it. You're going to be looking for something else. All of a man's labor is for his appetite, and yet he's never filled.

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria: Thirsting Again

Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, you drink of this water, and you are going to thirst again. I think that we would be wise if we would write that over every earthly goal that we have. Oh, if I just had this, all right, right over the top of it, drink of this water, but you will thirst again.

We are never filled. All of our labor goes to our appetite, but we are never filled. For what hath the wise more than the fool, and what hath the poor that knoweth to walk before the living? Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.

To have something, there's a proverb that sort of goes along with this. It's a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Better is the sight of the eyes. Something that you actually have is better than the wandering of the desire.

Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish, you know. For this also is vanity, that is, the wandering of desire, and it's frustration, vexation of spirit. And that which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man.

Neither may he contend with him that who is mightier than he. He speaks about the frailty of man, how that we often find ourself in that uncomfortable position of seeking to contend with God. There is a scripture that's in Isaiah says, woe unto him who strives with his maker.

Why Striving Against God Cannot Succeed

Now, a lot of people find themselves sort of striving with God. I think that all of us at one time or another in our lifetime have found ourselves at odds with God, striving with God. A couple of things that I might note about a person who strives with God.

Number one, how can you hope to win? Striving with him that is mightier than he, contending with him. Secondly, if you do win, you've really lost. If you strive with God and you prevail, then you have really lost.

Because God's way is the best thing that could ever happen to you. Our striving with God comes from our limited understanding. As he points out in verse 12, for who knows what is good for man in this life?

You think you know what's good for you. But as he says, who can tell what is going to be after him? You don't know the future. You don't know what the future holds. And so we find ourselves striving with God because we really have in our mind our ideas of what is best for me.

But I truly don't know what's best for me. But I contend with God because things are happening that I think, oh, this is horrible. Lord, why would you allow this to happen to me? And I contend with God because I cannot see and I do not know the purposes of God because I don't know the future.

I don't know what the future holds. In the early years of my ministry, I found myself striving with God so much. My wife and I were talking the other day, and we were talking about being poor. And we said, well, we were always broke, but we were never poor.

Learning to Trust God Through Financial Hardship

Poor is a state of mind, I think. We didn't have any money to speak of. We got $15 a week from the Church. And I decided to be a George Mueller and live on faith, trusting God to supply the needs of my wife and I.

And there was just the two of us at the time. And God was faithful. He came through. We didn't go without a single meal. Now, we came close. The faith was tested. But usually, the post office came through.

We had a post office box there in Prescott, Arizona. And twice a day, they would deliver the mail. And usually, in the afternoon, we got the mail from out of town. And it—usually, they dropped it in the boxes about 2 .30 in the afternoons, okay?

And I would walk a block over to the post office in the afternoon when we needed money for dinner. And we'd just get the letter that was there that we knew would be there. It had $5 in it, $10 in it, whatever.

And we'd go out and eat dinner, get dinner. And we got to where we started depending on that, because $15 didn't go very far. And so this one day, we were broke. We didn't have any money for dinner, so we went over to the post office.

And we waited as the fellow was dropping the mail. We got there just a little early. He hadn't quite got to our box. And we watched the mail being, you know, through the little glass coming into the box and coming right down to ours.

And then we saw him go right past ours, didn't put anything in it. And Kay said, Honey, he probably has it in his packet there. He just missed it. He's got to have something for us, you know. Go over to the window and call to him and see if he, you know, just didn't miss us.

And so I went over and I said, Sir, you didn't put anything in our box. And he said, I don't have anything for you this afternoon, Mr. Smith. And Kay said, Ask him if he's sure. And I said, Are you sure?

And so he went through the stack he had. There's a nope, nothing for you today. Sorry. So Kay said, What are we going to do? I said, Well, we'll go back to the apartment. And we'll see just how much we do have for dinner.

And we went through her purses, my coat pockets, and the dresser drawers. And we came up with 37 cents for dinner. And so we headed for the market with 37 cents, accepting the challenge of wondering how nutritious a dinner can you get for 37 cents.

It was a real challenge. And so we got a couple of carrots, a can of Van Kams pork and beans, which at that time was only 16 cents. Number two size can. And I forget what else, some green vegetable. So we'd have our protein with the pork and beans.

We'd have the yellow vegetable and green vegetable. And we went up to the counter and the guy totaled it up. And he said, 37 cents. I pulled it, laid it all out. And we were rather proud of ourselves.

It's going to be nutritious. And by tomorrow afternoon, the post office will come through, you know, and we'll be able to eat regularly again. As we headed for the door, the fellow called us. He said, Hey, kids, come back here a minute.

He said, There's, there's something I've been intending to do for the longest time, and I just keep forgetting. And he reached into the counter and pulled out a gift certificate for $10 and handed it to us.

So I said to Kay, let's go over to the meat case and pick out a couple of T-bones. We had T-bone steak that night. We figured as long as the Lord's treating, you know, might as well eat T-bone. But he was teaching us.

I was complaining. It's hard to be broke. I couldn't get things for my car that my car needed. I needed an air cleaner for my car. There were dusty roads in Prescott. Couldn't get an air cleaner. Didn't have money for it.

Boy, that's a real luxury. You know, that just didn't fit in the budget. And so actually, I ruined the engine on my car, sucking in that Arizona dust. And it just really wiped out the engine. Tough days.

God's Faithfulness in Preparing Us for the Future

Important days. Days in which I was contending with Him who was mightier than I over the lot, over the difficulties that we were going through. The days in which I was learning to trust in God, learning the faithfulness of God, learning that God would not fail.

And they were so important for what God had in mind for the future. You see, I didn't know what the future held. Who knows what is going to come? God knows. And so many times our contention, most of the time, our contention with God comes over the fact that we don't know what is really good for us.

And we don't know what's going to take place in the future. And thus we find ourselves contending with God over our circumstances that we don't fully understand. And so he speaks about contending with Him that is mightier than he.

There are many things that just increase the emptiness, so why are you any better? For you really don't know what's good for man in this life. All of the days of the vain life he spends is a shadow. We know that life is short, measured by days.

If you don't know that yet, you'll know it when you get old. The older you get, the quicker things go by, the shorter life seems. When I was a kid, it seemed like life was forever. Now I look back and I say, man, it went fast.

Where is it gone? He spends it as a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun? So watch it when you're contending with God. A good name is better than precious ointment. Now, precious ointment was a very important thing in that Eastern culture.

A Good Name, Mourning, and the Wisdom of Mortality

You remember that the woman came to the house where Jesus was eating dinner and she was anointing his feet with precious ointment. And Judas Iscariot said, why this waste? This could have been sold for a lot of money and we could have put it in the treasury and given it to the poor people.

Now in Jesus Christ Superstar, they made Judas a big hero over this statement. That's because they didn't read the whole scripture. The scripture goes on to tell us Judas said this not because he was really interested in the poor, but he was the one who was keeping the purse for the group and he had been thieving out of the purse.

Jesus Christ Superstar didn't tell you that about Judas. Tried to make a hero out of Judas and Jesus being very cold and callous towards people's needs. They accepted the extravagance, but Judas, the hero, objected to this extravagance.

But a good name is better to be chosen than precious ointment. It's so important to have a good name. We don't stress that with kids anymore, the importance of a good reputation. And the day of death is better than the day of one's birth.

Interesting observation from an old man who is jaded. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart.

That is going to the house of mourning for one who has died. The day of death better than the day of one's birth. Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. They always had a feast at the birth of a child.

For that is the end of all men. The living will lay it to his heart. For sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse venture through the Bible in our next broadcast, as Pastor Chuck continues his study through the book of Ecclesiastes. 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 6, verse 1, when visiting the wordfortoday .org. And while you're there, we encourage you to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck.

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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.

May the Lord bless you as you walk with Jesus this way. May you experience the touch of His love and His power upon your life. And may you have that beautiful consciousness of God as you submit your ways unto Him, to walk in His path for His glory.

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Also included is a special presentation of the crucifixion from a doctor's perspective, as well as a powerful salvation message shared by Pastor Chuck. And when you order My Redeemer Lives MP3, we'll include a free CD by Pastor Chuck to witness to your loved ones that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.

This CD, entitled, A Risen Love, clearly presents the evidence to help others make a decision that will impact their immediate and eternal future. For more information, contact The Word for Today at 800 -272 -9673 or visit us online at thewordfortoday .org.

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