I'm sure you have heard of King Solomon.
He was not only a very wise man,
but a very rich man.
In fact, the Bible says King Solomon was
wealthier than any man before him or after
him.
King Solomon was so rich he could stick
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in his shirt
pocket.
I know some of you have a bucket
list of things you want to do in
life and places you'd like to visit.
I know I had a bucket list for
traveling.
I wanted to visit the Parthenon in Athens
and see the Colosseum in Rome.
I wanted to visit the Blue Grotto on
the Isle of Capri and see that fantastic
blue water of that cave.
Well, I got to do all those things
and more.
Some of you have achieved much in life
and have done much of what you set
out to do.
You can say you were satisfied by achieving
these things.
Well, King Solomon was like that.
He had a big bucket list in life
and he had the means and the money
to fulfill his wildest desires.
He says in his book, Ecclesiastes, I gave
my heart to seek and search out by
wisdom concerning all things that are done under
heaven.
I said in my heart, go to now.
I will prove thee with mirth.
Therefore, enjoy pleasure.
So King Solomon set out to experience all
the pleasures of life, all the pleasures that
money could buy.
Can you imagine, friend, having so much money
that you could go where you want, when
you want, buy what you want, when you
want, with no limits?
That's the kind of dough this old boy
had.
Listen to what he did.
I made me great works.
I builded me houses.
I planted me vineyards.
I made me gardens and orchids.
I planted trees of them and all kinds
of fruits.
I gathered me also silver and gold.
I remember when I was young, the price
of silver was going through the roof because
some Texas millionaires, the Hunt brothers, in the
1970s were trying to corner the silver market.
Well, I took all my savings and I
bought bars of silver and I kept them
hidden up in my parents' attic.
I thought I could get rich quick in
silver, but I soon needed money for a
car, so I ended up having to sell
those silver bars to a neighbor for about
what I paid for them.
But people today hoard silver and gold coins,
hoping to get rich from it.
They even put money in bitcoin.
It's just crazy.
Well, King Solomon told himself, and whatsoever mine
eyes desired, I kept not from them.
When you read about this man Solomon, you
will soon learn he had in today's dollars
over a hundred million dollars in gold coming
to him every month.
He got the gold bug.
And his throne was a great throne of
ivory overlaid with pure gold.
All his drinking vessels were pure gold.
None were silver.
In fact, this guy was so rich, when
the Queen of Sheba came to visit him,
she said she had trouble believing the fame
about him until she came and saw it
for herself.
And she said that it exceeded the fame
she had heard.
King Solomon was a man who had it
all.
He'd been everywhere, done everything.
He was the man of the world.
In fact, he owned a good portion of
it.
But the craziest thing about this guy is
the fact that the Bible says King Solomon
had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Well, that's a train wreck getting ready to
happen.
It's hard enough for a man to keep
one woman happy, let alone a thousand.
Can you imagine the credit card bills?
But with all this money and with all
those lovely ladies, King Solomon says a startling
thing.
He says, I hated life.
Money can't buy happiness, friend.
I remember watching a TV interview years ago
with the actor Peter Falk, who played Detective
Columbo on TV.
He said all his Hollywood friends, the producers
and the actors that he knew, he said
no matter how much money they had, every
one of them was miserable.
That's what he said.
You know, you can taste so much of
life, friend, that you realize it's just all
an empty bubble.
It's like this.
Here is man.
And it's as if he's riding in a
boat in the river of life, going along
with the current, tasting life's enjoyments and pleasures
as they come and go.
And after a while, things begin to lose
their taste, lose their excitement.
Some people who chase the world end up
with the whirlwind, and they hate life.
That's why so many of the rich and
famous have committed suicide.
Life no longer satisfied them.
They were chasing the wind.
King Solomon determined that all was vanity.
In all the supposed pleasures of life, he
found no satisfaction.
The more he tried to find happiness in
the things of this world, the more he
hated life.
He learned some things, though.
He wrote, One generation passes away, and another
generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever.
He saw that death came to all men
alike, and no one was exempt from it.
One event happened to them all, and that
was death.
He saw that man was no different from
the beast, as one died, so did the
other.
He observed, All go unto one place, all
are of the dust, and all turn to
dust again.
King Solomon declared, Regarding mankind, I saw vanity
under the sun.
There is no end of all its labor,
neither is his eye satisfied with riches.
In other words, there is man, there in
his boat, going downstream, tasting all he can
of life's pleasures, drifting along, continually being pulled
by the tide, but at the end of
the journey is a vast cascade, waiting where
man will tumble over it into a vast
void of death.
He'll one day leave this world for another
world.
Life is short.
Eternity is forever.
Solomon came to the end of his life
much wiser than he was at the beginning,
for he had learned repentance toward God, and
he came to a final conclusion of life.
The last two verses of his book Ecclesiastes
declare, Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter.
Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this
is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment
with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil.
I don't know about you, friend, but I
found out a long time ago that this
world does not satisfy.
There is only true satisfaction in Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who came down here
so we can go up there.
In John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am
the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by
me.
Here, Jesus answers the three greatest questions of
the human heart.
How can I be saved?
Jesus said, I am the way.
How can I be sure?
Jesus said, I am the truth.
How can I be satisfied?
Jesus said, I am the life.
And in John 6, 35, Jesus declared, I
am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.
Listen, friend, the gospel is for the hungry,
the weary, and the thirsty.
Are you hungry for God?
Are you weary of your sins?
Are you thirsty for Christ?
Christ is the bread of life.
He invites poor sinners to come to him
and believe on him.
The duty required is to come.
And he has a pure gospel promise to
all who come.
And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out.
Get to Christ, friend, before it's too late.
Only Jesus can satisfy.