Ecclesiastes 5:13-17

Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verses 13 to 17 for our text and study this evening. There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their heart. But those riches perish by evil travail, and he begateth the sun, and there is nothing in his hand. as he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked, shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. What profit hath he that hath labored for the wind? all his days also he eateth in darkness and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. October 19, 1987 was known as Black Friday. The New York Stock Exchange lost 23% of its paper value. And one day, a week or so later, Arthur Kane walked into a financial office in Miami, Florida, pulled out a 357 magnum from his suitcase, killed the financial manager, maim the broker, maimed the broker before shooting himself. The stock market crashed, wiped out his multi-million dollar portfolio that he had. A nest day that he had built up by clever speculation, but largely, with borrowed funds. When Wall Street plunged, it collapsed the pillars of Kane’s Little Empire, and it all was gone in a moment’s time. Quite clearly, the very reason he had for living dissipated. Solomon has been dealing with the problem. problem of evil. When we looked at the first part of that last week, but he has more to say. He has not done with the problem of evil here in with regard to wealth. People think that if they just had enough money, that all things would be well in their life, but Solomon says that is not the case. It’s just not true. Wealth cannot provide lasting satisfaction for you. Christ, you remember, said there is a deceitfulness about riches, because riches promise more than they actually provide. And we get fooled or tricked, if you would. There’s never enough. It never satisfies you. And wealth cannot make life meaningful. And in the end, wealth only increases your anxiety, as we saw in verses 10 through 12. in our last study. Solomon was one of the richest men who ever reigned as king. And so he is able to provide us with insight. He knows what it is to be rich. He knows what it is to have money. Great wealth. So we were looking at the problem of wealth here part two tonight. And in verse 13, we see this, that wealth can be harmful to you. Verse 13. says there is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for their owners. They’re all to their hurt. Contrary to what most people think in our society today, wealth isn’t always beneficial or even just basically neutral. It can be harmful to you. To their hurt, it says. the money in scripture, at least the love of it, is called the root of all evil. All kinds of evil can be associated with wealth. Wealth in and of itself isn’t evil, but there’s a materialistic spirit that permeates those who pursue after wealth in this world. And we find materialism, possessions and wealth becomes the engine that begins to draw. your life. It becomes your reason for living. That was certainly the case with Arthur Kane that we talked about just a few minutes before. Now, materialism isn’t like a brand of coffee or, let’s say, a make of a washing machine in which it’s morally neutral. It’s not morally neutral. Materialism maims and kills. It’s a sore evil. It’s a severe evil. is a great evil. Or let’s put it this way. It can be a great evil. Solomon speaks here of riches kept a stored away, hoarded by this person. He asks the average miser why he hoards his wealth. He’ll tell you he’s not hoarding. He’s saving. He’s just being prudent. Conserving his assets. He’s thrifty. He’s thrifty. You ought to look at this as a virtue, not a vice. Over Solomon here sees the hoarder hurt by his attitude toward wealth. So hoarding isn’t harmless. One of the problems is that wealth hurts you if it makes you proud and it takes your heart away from the Lord. There was a missionary had been witnessing faithfully to a man on the foreign field and this man was an idol worshiper. One day this man came in before the missionary and he had a small statue in his hand of his idol. And he also had a silver coin in his hand. He placed both of them before the missionary. And he wrote something on two slips of paper. On the one slip of paper he put the heathen god put that next to the idol, the little statue that he had. Then next to the silver coin, he put the Christian God, put it extra to that. And he’s saying, how much different are you really from me? Because he observed that many of those living in so-called Christian countries really worship money or wealth. They may not worship idols, but they put their confidence in trust and money. Many people today choose to worship the God of money and they make it the object of their trust, their love, and their devotion. And this is why it’s difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. As Jesus told us, the heart is drawn away from God. Wealth becomes your security. So you don’t trust in the Lord. You trust in uncertain riches. It can hurt you. Wealth may encourage you to indulge your sinful lust, and therefore it’s also something that hurts you in this sense. You know, the person who has everything at his or her disposal is someone who is going to be busily engaged in gratifying every whim that he or she may have. That’s not a good thing. The power to do whatever you want, to is normally not spiritually beneficial. You may hoard and seek out the pleasures of this world. You may oppress others. You may deal harshly with them in order to put more money in your pocket, so to speak. I used to work for a boss that was pretty stingy on wages, and certainly when it came to raises and actual pay, he was was difficult, but he would fly every weekend of Vegas to go gambling. Every weekend go flying. He had money to spend on his vice. Wealth may cause you to be the target of thieves. You may look at wealth as a good thing, and the thieves are eyeing you up and saying, ah, this guy has something I want. The person who builds up his wealth in possessions becomes the very person who attracts the robbers in the thieves. My wife and I used to kid one another when we used to go to the parking lot of the shop and save or one of the stores. So we’re going to park next to this Cadillac over here or this sports car. They won’t touch our car. They’ll go after the expensive car. Of course, I was a sort of a dilapidated old 84 Chevy. Grace Chevy, so anybody that stole our car was really desperate. You know, but park next to the nice looking car and they won’t touch yours at all. Obviously, If a thief has a choice, you’d take the best. Matthew Henry said this, and I think it catches the idea here. It’s the fat beast that is first led to the slaughter. You’re the first one up when someone wants to steal. The Bible would have you think about why God gives you prosperity and how best to use it. We should learn to share our bounty with those who are truly in need and to adventurers. the kingdom of God. That’s why he gives it to us. There’s nothing wrong with wealth or wisely saving your money. Parents, for example, are told that they ought to be storing up for their children. Paul tells us that in 2 Corinthians 1214. But your attitude toward wealth must be God-centered. And that is the key factor here. There must be obedience in areas of personal consumption, family support, providing for the church, debt avoidance, and long-term provision perhaps for saving when you get older or you need, you’re going to need some help when you get older and things get difficult. Hoarding, however, just to hoard it, just to be more wealthy, is dangerous to yourself. The biblical saver saves in order to do. to serve the Lord and meet needs. Ironically, the hoarder locks up his resources, which actually belong to God. He locks them up. And he’s keeping them from their real true purpose. And it harms him spiritually to do that. So wealth can be harmful to you. These are just three basic areas that you should consider. Secondly, tonight, your wealth can be lost, verse 14 For those riches perish by evil travail And he begeteth the Son and there is nothing in his hand. The problem with wealth is gain is subject to risk. Fortunes have been made and fortunes have been lost. Years ago in oil speculation huge companies have been founded, numbers of families like the Rockefowers and the hunts acquired great wealth through oil speculation. But you have to think about all the dry holes that were dug when they were seeking out oil. In the past, probably four of them have been drilled for every well that brought in gain. So if most of the wells you dig don’t produce, you lose a lot of money. Now, today with a lot of our modern technology, it saves a lot of guesswork and risk in this field. But many people have lost money in investing. It’s a common occurrence. It’s an evil travail that man face. Perhaps you get into oil futures and perhaps they’re at $140 per barrel. It looks like you’re going to jump in because they’re going to go up higher. And you jump in and they drop down to $100 per barrel. Just to show you how dangerous things can be, at one point I had bought a stock that held, it was like a mutual fund, but it sold as a stock. It was a spider of some sort. And it had just oil companies in it. I thought, well, I’ll invest in this and get a nice little dividend off of it. And so I invested in this. and I was talking to Matthew and we thought, well, if we get in under 75, it ought to be pretty good buy. So, you know, I got 72, 70 and I thought, boy, I got in under 75, I’m happy. The next six months were a nightmare. You know that stock went down to $38. It just kept dropping. And there I am. Every $10 I thought, well, I should buy some more. And so I bought some more, bought 30 more shares. It goes down another $10. I’m thinking, man, I’ll buy another 30 shares. It goes down another $10. You’re like, is this ever going to end? And then eventually it got to the point where it was real nerve-racking. Like, do I really keep, is this thing going to go down to zero or what? And I, you know, I thought, well, when it got down to 38, I bought some more. Eventually, it turned around. And actually, it went all the way back up again. But it was, for a while there, it was like, you’re pulling your hair eye. You’re saying, here I thought I was making a goodbye, and it was like everything just went down the tubes. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Even when you carefully lay things out, you think this is going to be a good buy, and, you know, oils make, you know, there’s a lot of things going on in oil, and you think, well, this will be great. You just never know what’s going to happen. And as soon as Joe Biden got in, they cut all the oil supply. The oil prices went back up. So what happened? Fuck goes back. I’m thinking it’s going to go get worse in this. And I’m thinking how much worse can it get. You know, so you just never know. You cannot be sure. There’s a lot of evil travail out there in regards to these things. So if we live just for wealth, it, it, is futile. And this is why the Christian is urged to be content with what he has. Don’t vainly pursue after this. This is just chasing after the wind, as he says later on here. If you labor for God in this life, the grace and spiritual blessing you gain may be carried along with you into eternity. However, if you labor only for this world, and you fill your hands with this world’s possessions, you have to leave it all behind when you die. You cannot take it with you. The magazine publisher, J.I. Rodell, a zealous advocate of health foods, claimed at the age of 72, that he was going to live to the age of 100 because he was eating so well, and he was doing so well. The same week that he made this prediction and it appeared in the, in the New York Times, he was interviewed for a TV program. And in the TV interview, he claimed again that his bones were as strong as ever. Moments after he made the boast, he died of a heart attack. His life was over. Also, a Dr. Stewart Berger, a nutritionist, claimed that he had discovered the formula that would enable everybody to live past the century mark. He had supposedly found the secret of youthfulness and had convinced many to follow his advice. He died in his sleep at the age of 40. And it was all over. Why labor for the wind? When you can’t grasp the wind, you can’t hold on to it, and wealth is the same. Well, you can’t guarantee that wealth. Have you learned that lesson? Have we seen that that is the case? So death leaves you a palper. Now, you see the miserable life of the faithless rich in verse 17. All his days also eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. Those who have great wealth if they set their heart upon it, not only have uncomfortable deaths, but miserable lives. Darkness is a mood, a shroud, a doleful gloominess that hangs over the life of the hoarder. The miser is vexed. He’s sick because of all the necessary expenses to keep what he has, the anxiety over what he has that could be stolen from him, the bitterness of being unsatisfied with what he has. And he becomes an angry person. Should he become physically sick in his old age? He’s angry because he can no longer enjoy the sinful pleasures he once was able to pursue. There’s a terrifying apprehension regarding death as it closes in on him. And being removed from his little empire, he’s not repaired for that. And so you become very angry with God’s providence, angry that your life, isn’t more enjoyable, angry that you’re sick, angry with your riches being taken away at death, and so forth. All that makes you a mean and cantankerous, wealthy miser. It’s very frustrating. What kind of life is that? My friends, this is not the life we need to be living. Now, when the scripture talks here about something being a source, evil here. An evil is something that is a misfortune or harm or disaster. He’s thinking about wiping you out, getting wiped out financially. You have nothing left. It underscores how painful the damage can be. A catastrophe. All that you hold dear, you lose. And you become bankrupt. And he says here, it’s interesting. He talks about the fact that he begeteth his son and there is nothing in his hand. He can’t give his son anything because he lost it all. You are lost and your life has come apart at the seams. This is why the Bible talks repeatedly being out laying up your treasure in heaven because any kind of spiritual riches that we have, they go with you when you die. Spiritual ridges are eternal. You, You can’t lose them. So Solomon is asking you to do some soul searching in this regard. What are you living for? What’s your goal in life? Where does your heart lie? Are you willing in this life to be materially poor if you are spiritually rich? What’s most important? You know, when we read about Job, and one day, he was the wealthiest man of the East, you know, one day, it is all gone. From natural disaster, from thieves, and even from fire, falling down from heaven. Everything’s gone. Even his family. At least his sons and daughters. So death ultimately leaves you a palper. Can’t take it with you. You can’t take it with you. Have ever seen a baby born in a black tux with a white, lacy shirt, black socks, black wingtip shoes, gold ring on the finger, a wad of cash in his hand? He comes out buff naked, right? I’ve been there. I’ve seen it, and you probably have to. That’s the way you go back as well. You can’t take anything with you. You can’t even take the clothes. on your back. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen some of these Egyptian pharaohs in their tombs, they would take all their treasures and stuff and try to, you know, they build these big pyramids and so for. They try to hide their wealth and they’re as if they’re going to take it with them. You can’t take it with you. There’s no hope for it. When you die, your soul and your character is the only thing that goes. Everything else gets left behind. So it’s your relationship with God that counts. Otherwise, you lose everything. That’s the way it is in life. Well, let me close by saying this. Arthur King, I think, is a typical example of what it means to live for wealth in this life. And when he lost it, he lost every reason for living. Solomon here is taking the time. And he sort of repeats some of the same themes. I don’t want to be so redundant, but he repeats sort of the same things. you don’t think that this is going to satisfy you. Don’t think that this is going to solve your problem. It is not. It’s not a cure-all. Wealth, as he indicates here, can actually be harmful to your soul in the long run. May God grant us to see what the true riches are that we have in Jesus Christ, the riches of His grace. You know, the child of God is really the happiest to all people. Because he trusts in the living God and he’s content with what God has provided for him in his life. And therefore, whatever God gives him, he richly enjoys. Because God has given it to him. He’s much happier than the miser. He may have all the wealth, but he’s got the gloom and doom hanging over him. You enjoy what has been allotted to you by God of this world’s goods, and you look at it as God’s good blessing to you. And you also possess spiritual blessings, which excel, anything that has to do with this earth. And so you have no cloud hanging over you, no darkness, which would bother you. When you die, you’ll gladly relinquish everything that you have in this life because there is far greater riches in the life to come, and you look forward to that. So you’re only using this world as not abusing. You’re using it while you’re here. And when you’re going, it’s said, well, okay, I’m done. It’s served its purpose. I’m on my way. And I think that’s how we have to look at this whole aspect as we go through this life. It’s better to have less and be content than to pursue diligently after money as if it’s the end of all things and the end of this thing it’s going to make you happy. and find out that it’s only going to bring misery and sadness in your life in the long run. Let us close with the word of it.