I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men. He's not talking about our stuff, he's talking about our, our state of being, if you will, concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them. I'll interpret that if I can. I said in my heart concerning man that God would show them something. He wants, Solomon wants mankind to see something manifest, to see it. So picking back up again in verse 18, that God might manifest them, that they might see that they themselves are what, Beasts. Okay. Solomon says, I want them to see that they are beasts. Now you and I don't usually use the word beast to talk about a person unless it's in a very negative sense. Right? You know, he's a beast, that's what he is. And so we would, we would never use it in a positive light. The king James, in 1611, it was, it was common to speak about the beast out there. Like we would use the word animal. Today they would use the word beast. And it didn't have the negative connotations that we have today for beast. So what I want you to do is take everything negative out of that. It means animal. But it's the word that the King James always used. You know, he created all the beasts of the field, for example, we see in the King James. So anything negative you have in there. And the reason I say this is because there is a lot of. There is a theology that looks at man as beastly in the negative sense. A theology that says, you know, you are, you are totally depraved, radically corrupt. You're just a beast. That's what you are. Don't read it that way. It's saying you're an animal. Okay. By the way, I want to share something that. I don't know if this is significant or not, but I'll go ahead and share it. All of the modern versions that I looked up just use the word animal. I can understand that because that's in, in a, in a modern way, that's what we would call them, is an animal. So they, you know, help, help them to see again in verse 18 there, that they might see that they themselves are animals. That's what he wants to see. Or you're an animal. I'll get into it. I don't want you to lose your self esteem yet. Stay tuned. But he's not saying anything theological. He's talking physiological. He's not talking about your depravity, if you have it, or any of that. He just says physically you're Just like the animals. Now, I remember learning that in fourth grade that, you know, we're nothing but a jar of chemicals that's worth about 86 bucks. And we're just like the animals. Okay. There is a sense in which that's true. Right. I mean, I think you go to medical school and, you know, before they get to the real people, they, they. They do it on guinea pigs and work their ways up to beagles. At least that's what I saw on the news. Now they can. They can. Well, maybe they even start with mice. Okay, mice to guinea pigs. You know, finally, there's gorillas up there. Whatever they're checking because on the cellular level, we're really all. We're the same kind of stuff. And for the. For the most part, even the insides, you know, go fishing and open up a fish. And I can tell, you know, that's a heart, that's a lung, that's a. I don't know what that is. And, you know, you go. You can learn anatomy. We did it in 10th grade. Right. You know, when you're dissecting frogs to figure out what's inside you. So there we are. He says, I wish they'd all learned that they're animals again, not theologically, just physiologically. In fact, before I go on, let me continue there. Both man and beast was made out of the dust of the. Of the ground. We have that in the book of Genesis. We're all the same chemical makeup. Yeah. And there is a big theological divide in the world that, you know, whether or not man is anything more than that. There are some in the world that just think, you know, hey, we're just. We're animals. And therefore puts, you know, whether it's the spotted owl or the human or the snail darter or whatever, everybody on the same sort of equal plane. Now, from a biblical worldview, we know that physiologically, we're the same as the animals. But we also know that we have one thing that the animals do not have. Not that we are a living soul, by the way, because, you know, in the Bible, it says that God breathed the breath of life in him and he became a living soul. You remember that? But believe it or not, it says the exact same thing about the animals. It's in the King James, anyway. It's translated a little different. It says, they became a living creature and we became a living soul. But that's just some English lingo that's a little bit different. In the Hebrew, it is the exact same phrase. Okay, we're living Creatures, we're living souls. Same stuff. That's what Solomon wants us to realize. The one thing that you and I do have that's different, that Solomon is not yet talking about here, that only you and I, humans, are made in the image of God. That's what sets us apart from being different from the snail darter, is we're made in the image of God. So picking back up again in verse 18, he says, I wish people would see that they are themselves. They themselves are just animals, just beasts. Now, why would he want us to see that? It goes on in verse 19. For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts, okay? You end up in the same place is what he's saying. Was it this morning I was driving down and a chipmunk came out running across the highway and he, you know, just barely made his way through the tires and made his on. And I think I said something like, almost got him. That probably wasn't the nicest thing. Is it not supposed to say that on. On recording. Thank goodness he's still alive. Thank goodness he's still alive. But there's a lot of things in his life that's kind of true for us too, you know. Oh, almost got me. That one came close. And all of us could give our stories, you know, about all of that, where our life flashed before our ey. So back to verse 19. That which befalleth the son, sons of man followeth, befalleth beasts. Even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth, so dieth the other. There it is. What he says is, we're all going to die. I remember years ago, Nathan was probably, I don't know, second grade maybe. And we had this little thing where you order. You order frogs and you raise them in a thing. Do you all ever do that with your. Get some for your grandsons, okay? I don't know. You get these frog seeds and put them in water and a terrarium and. And somehow later you come up with frogs, okay? And we had these frogs, two of them, as I recall. And I'm going to sound so cruel saying this, but I really wanted to teach a lesson, okay? We went somewhere and came back and the frogs were dead. And he, you know, a little shaken voice. I didn't want him to die. And I said, I know, but things die. Now, I knew it was kind of harsh right then, but I did want the little boy to know this is what happens in life. Things die. And we get used to it, okay? We kind of learn frogs Die, you know, snakes die, whatever. Chipmunks die, things die. Someday we're going to die. This is the message he wants us to get. Okay, we're going to die. Isn't this encouraging? Uplifting and everything? Yes, Amen. You're going to die. Okay, some of you before the others. Here we are on our journey towards death. It is a. It is a good thing to remember, right? We're not going to live forever. We've tried to overcome and, you know, I'm all for. Do the things you can to, you know, add a. At a couple of years in the nursing home to your life. You know, whatever. You know, we want to live healthy, we want to live good, all those kind of things. But in the end, it is good and healthy to know we are going to die. That's not his full message. We're going to get further. So he says, I want them to know. Okay, every. Everybody dies. We got that going on. Middle of verse 19 again, as one dies, so dieth the other. Yea, they all have one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast. For all is vanity. Now remember, vanity. There is quick poof. It just goes. I don't know what the average life is of a chipmunk, but it's not very long. And the average life of a man, in the whole scheme of things, it's not very long either, right? It just. Poof, there it goes and it's gone. So catch that. And then in verse 20, he continues this. He says, all God unto one place. Now, here's where you have to. Excuse me. Have to be careful in the book of Ecclesiastes. True, most anywhere, but especially the book of Ecclesiastes. I would, I would warn you, by the way, to say, if you see someone using the book of Ecclesiastes to prove some particular theology, discount the whole thing. Because the book of Ecclesiastes has to be understood in its totality, not in its part. If you take the part to prove something, you're gonna. You're gonna prove something that's not true. And so here he says again in verse 20, all go unto one place. Well, you could not. You could argue annihilationism here. You know, there's no. There's no life after death. A number of things you could argue. What he's saying is we all go to the same place called the grave. We die, animals, people, all to the same place. Continuing in 20. All are of the dust and all turn to dust again. There you go. Remember Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Do you know that's not actually in the Bible? Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. That thing said it came from the common book of prayer in the Episcopalian church. They put in the ashes to ashes. The Bible just says dust to dust. Wouldn't it be a completely different life, a completely different worldview? I started to say sad, and I think I would go with sad if that was the whole story of the Bible right there. Animals live. Some are cute, some are ugly. They die. You too. Some are cute, some are ugly. You'll die. Done. Period. Let's. Let's quit and go up, go home. Wow, what a worldview that would be. But that's not his full worldview. It's an honest worldview. Okay, we all die. Then he. He asks a question in verse 21. The question in verse 21 is a rhetorical question. Now, by rhetorical, that means there is an answer built in it. It's not really asking for information. If you take it as asking for information, it sounds like an agnostic. Verse 21 says, who knoweth the spirit of man that go upward and the spirit of beast that goeth downward? It almost sounds like, hey, does man's spirit go up and the beast spirit go down? Who knows? But that's not the way you should read it. The question is like a preacher often would give the question, hey, who knows which one goes upward, the spirit of man or the spirit of beast? Go ahead and give an answer rhetorically, man. There you go. The spirit of man goes up, the spirit of beast go down. Now that's his way of saying, wait a minute. There is a divide, not physiologically, but spiritually. And who knows this? Somebody needs to know this. This is going to make a difference in your worldview. So again, we pick up in verse 21, who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of beast that goeth downward to the earth? And it is this, this idea, or this concept, if you will, that we really need to know that there is a difference in the spirit of man and its ultimate destination. Now, I want to tie this back to the beginning. Remember, we started out talking about injustice and iniquity, and wow, I wish there was a judgment. And then he kind of switches gears and says, everybody's going to die. But these are connected. What he's saying is, ultimately there is a judgment at the end, for not for the beasts, but there is for the sons of men. There is something beyond there is the spirit going upward to its appointment, like Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27 says, it is appointed unto man wants to die. And after that. Anybody remember the judgment? That's right. Appointed unto man wants to die. And after that, the judgment. There's a number of passages that could be brought into this. Job, chapter 28 verse. Verse 8 talks about there is a spirit of man. Hebrews, again, it's given once to die. And you go on. And it gives this argument, or the scripture as a whole does give this argument. There's no indication whatsoever that those frogs are going to go to judgment day or that the dogs are going to go to judgment day. I know all dogs go to heaven. I saw that in a movie once, but. And I get in trouble when I don't say it, so. Yeah, but. But there's really no indication at all that the beasts have any accountability before God. They're animals, you and I, created in the image of God. God. God's image bearers, if you will. There is a responsibility. And so he. He brings this down like this. Let's suppose that you are the judge, Charles. You are the judge. And your courtroom is full of wickedness, including your own judgments. You take money under the table, you know it's crooked. It's, you know, everything that the justice system has become. Yeah, politics. It's all in there. What this says is, I wish, Charles. Oh, let's put the preacher in there, too. We'll have Luca yet. The church is full of iniquity. It's full of filth. It's. Did you hear about that? I saw some church in the other day in Arizona, was in hot water over some $60 million scheme of something. And I thought, how in the world does a church get into a $60 million scheme? But anyway, now they're going to prison over it. So, okay. At the Righteous Place, I knew that new suit came from somewhere. In the place of righteousness, you get wickedness, iniquity in the place of justice. Solomon sees this and says, I wish these guys would see that. Just like the animals, they're going to die. And I wish they would see that their spirit is going upward. They have a meeting out there. There is going to be some ultimate judgment or justice that is going to be done. I wish they would see this is what the king is saying. And I think you would agree with me, it is a good thing to see, to live only for today. And Solomon's already had some good things of saying, hey, live today to its fullest. But you live only to today. Ah, you have missed the point. He Says, there's something, something that goes on. So he concludes his thinking in verse 20:22, where he says, 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? Now, let's think through that. Says, I think it would be good for man to enjoy his works, to rejoice in his works, to be able to say, look what I have done. To be proud of his works and to honor the things that he has done. And then further, not only to rejoice there in his own works, that is his portion. That's a little bit, I think, saying, hey, Henry's work and my work. I don't have to do Henry's job, and he doesn't have to do my job. That's his portion. This is my portion. This is what I do. That's what. You know, this week, the richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world got in a fight, right? And I saw, you know, everything going back and forth, you know, all this kind of stuff. And, and my own thinking on it was people get in fights all the time, and fortunately, I don't have to fix that one. If you guys want to fight, go for it, whatever. It's kind of like making the sausage made, you know, as long as I get good sausage in the end, I'm good with it. Give me some sausage. And there is this tendency for everybody, you know, the, the, the, the. I don't know if this is an accurate view or not, but the rich man wants to take care of the power, and the power man wants to take care of the money. And, you know, everybody's going back and forth, just rejoice in your own work. And that's your portion. Okay, stay in your lane, I think is the, is the, is the line. And here a little bit, he's saying, hey, there's nothing better than you taking your work, saying, I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do it in such a way I can rejoice in it. When it comes to the end and they give me the watch, I can say, you know, you know, wow, look what I have produced. Look what I have done. I am proud of it. I celebrate this. I rejoice in it. That's my portion. And then that last little line, again, a rhetorical question. Who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? That is, who. Who's going to tell him that There's a judgment afterwards. Yes. Stand work, rejoice in your work. Hopefully someone has told you you're going to die and the spirit is going to go upward. There is a judgment. So you're looking with that ultimate end in mind. That's his desire. Looking with the ultimate end in mind. Now I want to, I want to say one thing before we quit here in, in. In. In summary, his passage is really simple. I wish everybody would realize that humans are going to have a judgment someday. That's what he says. Therefore, work with the judgment in mind. That's the message. I want to add one little bit of message. He is the king of Judah under the old covenant, living under the law. A lot of stuff in the law, of course, that talks about how, do this and you shall live. Do that and you shall be condemned or be punished. Now, you and I, we do have the blessing that we live in grace. We have this message for us today that is by grace through faith, not of works. Lest any man should boast, our righteousness comes. Unlike in the days of the law, there is a righteousness of the law. The Bible speaks about that. But our righteousness is not a righteousness of the law. Our righteousness is a righteousness of Jesus Christ. So you and I, we can take this same message and say, ah, little bit it's kind of similar, but for us, we can have the judgment that taken care of in Christ. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, that the righteousness of God might dwell within us. 2nd Corinthians 5:21. And, and so today I would tweak Solomon's message just a little bit. As a matter of fact, I think if Solomon were here, he would come and say, let me tell you how it was in my day. I wish everyone in my day would have realized, do your work knowing that someday you're going to give an account of that work before God. And then I think Solomon would say, you know, since my day, Jesus Christ came. He was died, he was buried, he rose again, he ascended onto high. He is offering a gift today. The Apostle Paul tells all about it. It is a gift in which your righteousness is not counted. Your works are not counted. Rather, you have the righteousness of Christ and it is given to you as a gift. He'd probably say, boy, I'd rather live in your day than my day, free from the law. What a happy condition that is. And so he would remind us, there has been a change since Ecclesiastes and now. But ultimately the message is still good. Whether you're in Paraguay or you're here in Taos or. Or you're in New Zealand or you're in Switzerland or wherever it is you are, there is this good thing to say, you know what? I'm not going to live forever. Someday I am going to die. And. And there is a judgment. That judgment for us is either in Christ, where we are righteous, or out of Christ, where we are unrighteous, regardless of the works that we have done. Where are we in Christ? And so the. The ultimate message then stands the same. And whereas there's some things that you could take, especially if you take them by themselves and say, wow, what a downer that is, to come along and say, you're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die. All you are going to die. I got a lot of funerals ahead of me. Rather than looking at that and sort of that disgusted kind of, there's no hope. We're all going to die. The hope is. Or the positive part of this message is you can. For Solomon, under the law, you can live in such a way in which you put your works before God. And he says, well done, good and faithful servant for us. We can stand before God. And he says, in Christ, you are righteous. Your righteousness is complete in me. And there is that forward look, not just saying, you know, happens to chipmunks. It could happen to me as well. And boom, that's the end of it. There's. That's all she wrote. You know, it's done. So there's this encouragement. And in the end, he says, who's going to show them? Who's going to show them? You know, you probably all know this message, but maybe it's me saying, okay, I want you. I want to remind you of. Of the next life, that there is more, but we can help others because there's people all around us that either don't know this or they haven't put it into their worldview. They're living for today and only for today. There are, of course, many in our community, many right around us, who, who would reject this message. You know, there's no. There's no judgment tomorrow. We just become part of the earth, and that's all there is. And. And, you know, we become Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and that's. That's it. And, and not a. A reward for righteousness in our own works or in Christ, what, whatever it may be well with that we gotta go and leave it at that. So live with the. With eternity in mind, I think is his message here. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the encouragement of this day and music and hearing missionaries and fellowshipping together and the lunch that we'll have here in just a few moments. And the new friends that we have as well as gathering together with the old. And as we do live, we pray that we would take these words from Solomon in mind and we would remember that there is a. A blessing and an encouragement in knowing that there is a way of all the earth and. And it's the way that we're headed on. You may rescue us out of that through. Through rapture, but you may not. And we may come to the end as well. Help us to rejoice in our portion, to live our portion well and to live it with joy and grace. It is vanity. It is quickly passing. And then as believers in Jesus Christ to rejoice that our. Our judgment is already taken care of in Christ. And in this we do rejoice. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you again for being here today. Would love to invite you to lunch with us. Friends. Friends and enemies both just come on and everyone is welcome back there in the fellowship hall. Take us a few minutes to put the food out and be ready to go. But we'd love to have you then Wednesday night as well. Juno, why don't you come play something as we go out of here today? And we appreciate it. God bless you. Each one of you are dismissed it Sam. Now it. Bye everybody. Have a good day.