FEAST OF TABERNACLES – DAY 6 – 2005

Fred Coulter – October 23, 2005

And greetings brethren. Welcome to Day 6 of the Feast of Tabernacles – 2005. Hope you’ve been having a good feast and been having a good time and learning a lot. And of course you know the feasts of God are primarily for our spiritual edification so that we can understand the plan of God, we can understand what God is doing, and as He lays it out in His Word. And as we know, as we started out at the beginning of the feast, that God reveals these things in His Word. And what we have to do, we have to search it out according to the way that God shows us that we need to, and He will open our minds to wondrous things in His law, and reveal to us great things concerning what His is doing and His plan and how He’s carrying it out. And so the Feast of Tabernacles is a great time to be able to get together, to hear God’s Word, to study God’s Word, to fellowship together, to understand and talk about God’s plan and the things that He has for us, for the world, and for all eternity. And so it’s quite a time for us and you know as I pointed out the most important thing for us to do is always keep our minds on the goal.

Now, I want to go back and review where we ended up yesterday (just a couple of things), because we need to look at the cycle of human nature, because the cycle of human nature is still going to be applicable for all people who live in the Millennium. Because one thing God is not going to do – He is not going to take away choice. So therefore we can learn a lot of things on how human nature works, and the use of choice and how a person chooses, and then how a person lives his or her life. So let’s go back and let’s review these five steps to apostasy and let’s see how this will apply. And let’s see also what happened to Solomon, because this is very instructive, because from the time of Adam and Eve clear on down to our time there has never been a time in the history of the world like Solomon’s. And we’ll see what happened because that is a lesson for us. And we’ll see the pattern even in our lives. So what I want you to do is view this as the cycle of human nature, or the cycle of our thinking and then how Solomon applied it, and let’s learn some lessons on how then we can apply it to the Millennium and the people who live at that time.

Now first of all every movement (whether it is religious movement, political movement, whether it is a church, whether it is an individual) has what is called a revival. That’s the first step – revival. So what we also have with human life is: birth, and growth. And then we have the next step: number two, which is education. Now education is a protracted period of time in individuals lives, and also a protracted period of time in the life of institutions and in the life of churches, and so forth. Then after there is the education… Because this could apply to the Millennium very well, because when we first start out in the Millennium what’s going to happen it’s going to be a revival. A rebuilding, a time of teaching and education. And then there’s going to come a time when everything will have been physically restored. People are going to be healed and have overcome all the problems of the return of Christ and the upheavals that took place then. And then we’re going to have a culture that’s going to develop. And of course this is going to be the best and the most wonderful culture that has ever been. And when there is culture then you have a situation that takes place: you build institutions, you build buildings, you have colleges, you have education, you have all of those things – all which we are going to bring to the world in the Millennium, right? Yes, indeed.

Now at that time there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be born into the society, and as it talks about in the book of Judges, when a generation passes away then there’s a new generation that follows. And so when people are born into this new generation (and we’re going to have many generations in a thousand years, of course), when they’re born into a society and the society is set and the culture is set, those who are born into it will feel that this is the way that things have always been.

Now when a society gets to that point of culture then number four sets in, which then is apostasy, or we can say, lethargy, or we can also entitle it Laodiceanism, see. It sets in. And when that sets in people don’t like to have their comfort zones disturbed. Or they don’t like to have their choices restricted, so they can do what they want to do. Now we can see that in everything. We can see that in life. We can see that in everything that is done. And we will see how God is going to minimize this during the Millennium, but He’s still not going to take away free choice, you see.

So then what suffers in the end is spiritual conviction. So that’s why we can label it, not only as apostasy because some people will apostatize from God, we can label it as lethargy because everyone is going to hit their point of being lethargic, aren’t they? Yes, even us.

Well, let’s come here to Matthew 25 and let’s see the point of the point of lethargy that happens in the parable of the ten virgins. So everyone goes through it. Every one of us will go through this cycle. Now the key is going to be, for each one of us: How do we keep that from happening to us today? How are we, with the rule of God during the Millennium, going to minimize it with the people in the world? And what are the people going to do? So this sermon today will blend on over into the sermon tomorrow. But let’s come here to Matthew 25 and let’s see. Even those of us with the Spirit of God, what happens? We reach a point of lethargy, don’t we? Or complacency. Or we could put it this way: satisfied with the status quo, meaning, we are happy with the way that things are.

So let’s come to Matthew 25 and let’s see what it says here concerning the ten virgins, and let’s understand that as we’re going through these things we need to apply them to our lives, don’t we? And we need to use it as experience, don’t we? Yes, because you see whenever there is a crisis, a sense of urgency sets in, doesn’t it? So the question is: How can we maintain a sense of urgency that is sufficient to overcome complacency? So that’s the question.

Now Matthew 25:1: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.” So this shows that there is a natural distribution of wisdom and foolishness. Now in the world they have what is called a normal bell shaped curve. You have the extreme on one side, the extreme on the other side, but most everything fits into a normal bell shaped curve. And so the median ground is right in the middle. So this is exactly what we have here. We have in the church of God at any one time half of the people who are wise, and half of the people who are foolish. But let’s notice, one thing happens to all of them.

Let’s continue: “They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them…” In other words they didn’t carry a spare amount of oil in a separate vessel to refill the little lamp. And as you know, as you can look in the Harmony I have a picture of one of these little reading lamps, which is no more than the size of a huge clamshell with a wick that goes in it and you put the oil in it. Well, obviously if you don’t carry a supply with you you’re going to run out.

So the complacency and sufficiency set in with the five foolish and they figured that what they were doing was just fine. They figured that what they were doing would carry them over and would be good enough. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. So the wise prepared for being able to overcome the lethargy, though it did fall upon them. In other words the extra oil, picturing the Holy Spirit, means that they took with them enough of the Spirit of God so that when they found themselves coming to a point of lethargy, or coming to a point of laziness, or coming to a point of really slacking off where it affected their spiritual lives, they were able then through prayer, through study, and whatever to be encouraged, to be inspired, to discipline themselves to make the choice to do what is right and to go forward and things like that.

Verse 5: “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” This is the point of lethargy. Now lethargy can also go into apostasy. You see, lethargy is the first step to apostasy. Then apostasy comes because you’re so lethargic you’re looking for ways out of this lethargy and rather than coming to God you come to your own devices, or in the case of today you come to the way of the world to overcome the lethargy. And therein is the trap. And that’s the trap that Satan sets. Well, now we know that in the Millennium Satan isn’t going to be around, but we’re still going to have to deal with human nature, aren’t we? We’re still going to have to deal with the lethargy, aren’t we? Yes.

Now let’s also understand this: as spirit beings, to rule and reign with Christ in the world and help as many people come into the Kingdom of God as possible (And of course this is going to be the great harvest of God, isn’t it? Yes, indeed.), we are not going to take away free moral agency. God never wants human beings to become robots and automatons. In other words even though we are born into a culture like we have today, and we have all of these modern conveniences. We have everything that we take for granted. Everything that we have in society is at our fingertips. And we become used to it, and we become satisfied with it, and we become lethargic. And when it doesn’t go the way that we expect, guess what? We get upset, right? Yes. Well, we’re still going to have to deal with this.

So here’s a warning. They all slumbered and slept. They all had their point of lethargy, and in the case of five, they had the point of apostasy. Now verse 6: “And at midnight there was a cry made…” Now in the middle of the night is when you least expect something to happen. And what happens when you’re awakened at midnight? You’re not happy. I know I’m not. You’re sound asleep and everything’s going fine. You have a good night’s sleep and at 1AM the phone rings – Ring-g-g, and you sit up in bed, “The phone!! Why is the phone ringing?” You find out it’s some kind of problem or disaster, or whatever. So at midnight, when least expected – and this is the thing concerning lethargy and apostasy. When you least expect it, when you are the most comfortable, it’s going to happen. So that’s what it is here – midnight.

“…Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps [now we’re going to get ready here]. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone [going] out.” So they wanted to present themselves to Christ, be ready, but they didn’t have enough oil and their lamps were going out because the little lamp was running out of oil and they didn’t take any. Now here is a great spiritual lesson. This is one of the first steps we need to understand to help us not get into a lethargic attitude.

“But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you…” The lesson is this: You cannot make the choices for anybody else. You cannot do the prayers for them, as evidenced by Job the first chapter because Job prayed for his sons every day, didn’t he? Yes. But that didn’t make any difference, did it, because you can’t make the choices for someone else. You can’t do the things for someone else. You cannot study for someone else. You cannot pray for someone else, that is to do their work. You can pray for people, that’s true, but you cannot do their prayer for them. And you cannot live anybody else’s life at all. So it’s going to be the same way in the Millennium. We’re not going to live people’s lives. We’re not going to make them robots. They are still going to have choices.

So here we have: “…but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves” (Matt. 25:1-9, KJV). Now this ties in with the Laodiceans. We won’t go there. We’ve beaten up on them enough, but maybe hopefully that they will come out of their lethargy and do as the apostle Paul said, stir up the Spirit that is within them, so that they can be zealous and recover themselves. So this is something that we need to analyze.

Now let’s come back to the book of Ecclesiastes and let’s see what happened to Solomon, because this is a very instructive thing. Not only did it happen to Solomon, but it also happened to all of the people. Because when they saw Solomon do all of these things what did they do? They did the same thing. So let’s come here to Ecclesiastes 2 and let’s read it. Let’s see some of the things that are here and let’s see how we go through this whole cycle from revival or beginning, all the way through education and culture, then all the way through to lethargy, and then we know Solomon apostatized.

Now this is also instructive for us in many, many ways so let’s see it. Ecclesiastes 2:1: “I said in mine heart [choice], Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure…” How much pleasure can a person have? How much pleasure can a person use? How happy can they be just doing pleasurable things all the time? Well you see, what we’re going to find out is the truth is in all of these things there is a great spiritual lesson to be learned, as Jesus said, “The flesh profits nothing. It is the spirit that gives life.” So all of the experiments that he’s going through – did they bring him closer to God? Now he did learn some things. That is true. But did he have to go through this to learn it? Let’s see.

“…I will prove thee [myself] with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.” So he found out when it was all done it was empty, it was hollow, it didn’t satisfy. Because you see, there is a part in every human being that God has put there which is a spiritual part for Him to fill, which is this: No physical thing in life is going to satisfy that true deep inner desire to live forever, except to fulfill it according to the way of God. So he said, Ok: “I said of laughter…” You can only watch comedy so long. You can only watch sit-coms so long, and after a while what happens? It becomes boring and repetitive and stupid, or mad, as he has said here. “…And of mirth, What doeth it?” After you have laughed and you’re not in right standing with God, what good has it done?

So: “I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine…” Hey, that feels pretty good. Drink a little wine, you feel good – “I’m going to give myself to wine. Let’s see what I can do with that.” “…Yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom…” So here we have as we have said before, here we have a full fledged experimental hippie going on here. “…And to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.” And that’s going to be something we’re going to need to consider for all the people in the Millennium, correct? Yes. That’s something we need to understand in our own lives, because you see we also have in connection with what I read there in Matthew 25, what do we have? He who endures to the end, the same shall be saved, right? So that’s not only going to apply to us, today, but that’s going to continually apply to everyone that we’re going to rule over in the Millennium, right? Yes, indeed.

Ok, now here’s what he did, verse 4: “I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards…” Now not only did he make a house for himself, but he doesn’t tell you here that he made temples for all the gods of his 700 heathen wives. “…I planted me vineyards…” Probably had the best wine that could ever be. And you know what happens, when you taste the best wine, hey, you aren’t going to buy any more cheap wine, right? And after you drink the best wine for a long time, guess what happens? You get so used to it that itself becomes flat and boring. See, because the flesh profits nothing. That’s what we’re going to learn here. And this is not only a great lesson for us, but it’s going to be the greatest lesson that we’re going to have to not only learn in our lives but teach all the people during the Millennium. Because not only that, they’re going to have the best of the flesh, aren’t they? They’re going to have the best of the physical things, aren’t they? And to counter-balance that there’s going to be the knowledge of God. So this is going to be a time where there will be absolutely no excuse to make the wrong choice.

Well let’s go on: “…I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits [every wonderful and great thing you could ever imagine]: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees…” So here he had these magnificent terraces. He had these great gardens. He had Jerusalem so beautiful, and the Temple of God, and the way that people would come up to the Temple of God and be there for the feast, and I am sure that it was breath-taking. I am sure that when the people came up there this was just surreal to them how beautiful and fantastic it was.

So then he said: “…I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house…” Well, today we have all electrical appliances. Today you probably have more mechanical servants than people who had enough wealth to hire some servants. You probably have more things that can be done for you with mechanical and electrical servants than people had physical servants when there wasn’t electricity and the mechanisms we have today. So he had also servants born in his house. “…Also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me [so he had everything that he wanted]: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces…” Yes, and they had such an economy going that the taxes that he brought upon them, they could all bear. There was so much gold that was coming in, as you read the account about Solomon, that silver was counted as just gravel in the streets. Very much like we read earlier what’s going to be in during the Millennium. So the same process is going to affect these people. So he had all of that.

“…I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men…” See, he had everything he wanted to do, everything he could possibly want. “… As musical instruments, and that of all sorts.” Well today you can have music 24 hours a day. You can download, you can have ipods, you can play the music from the greatest choirs and the greatest orchestras and the greatest voices, and all of those pleasurable things. Yes, and you can have it, you can plug in and you can have your little carry along CD, and you can just have it blasting into your brain day and night. A lot of people have it that way. So let me ask the question here: If people have to listen to music all the time and can’t stand to have it quiet, when are you ever able to think? And who is using your mind? What is going into your mind? “Oh, I don’t hear it, it’s just background music.” Wrong, it goes into your mind. They have proved it. But, that’s what he did.

 Verse 9: “So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem…” And we can add through the history we know, “and all that came after him in Jerusalem.” None were like King Solomon. None had the opportunity. So during the time that Solomon reigned for those 40 years you have a time on the earth that was the closest thing to a millennial setting that we could come to until the end-time.

“…Also my wisdom remained with me.” Well, at the time he wrote it that is true, but did it remain with him when he apostatized when he was still in this experimental lethargic kind of attitude here? Obviously it didn’t stay with him to the end because when God condemned him for what he did we find no repentance on his part. Now whether he’s going to be in the Kingdom of God or not, that’s God’s judgment, but we find no repentance. I mean take the worst king of all, King Manasseh, and he did everything wrong. Even dealt with familiar spirits and witchcraft and divination, caused the children to pass through the fire to Moloch. Build idols and statues right in the Temple of God to the false gods. So bad it was that God sent the Assyrians there and they took him off the throne, made Jerusalem a vassal state, and sent him off in fetters to Babylon. And guess what? He repented. He repented, so much so and humbled himself that God put it in the minds of the kings of Assyria who controlled Babylon at that time, and brought him back to Jerusalem and put him on the throne. And what did he do? He cleaned up the house of God, he got rid of all the idols that he put in there, and he ended up doing what was right in God’s sight. So the moral of the story is this: that if Solomon had repented it would have been recorded, right? No question about it. Without a doubt.

Now back here to Ecclesiastes 2:10: “And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy…” Now what does that mean? I have no idea how far you could take that, but still it didn’t satisfy him. “…For my heart rejoiced in all my labour…” All right, so you look out and you see everything that you have done. You see the temple that you have build. You see the great house that you have build for yourself. You see the gardens, you see the vineyards, you see the orchard, you see all the animals. You see all of these people coming to you – the kings of the earth coming to you saying, “Oh Solomon. Solomon – Solomon, tell us about your wisdom. Here’s all this gold.” You read it and you understand that Solomon was perhaps the wisest, and the richest, and the most powerful king in all the world. So when it says here that he looked at everything that he did, he: “…rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.” Now does that satisfy? See, because as we saw earlier the eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never satisfied with hearing. So when you reach a point where you have everything that you want, anything you can do you can do, what happens?

Well, let’s read it: “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit…”, because it didn’t scratch the deep inner itch, if I could put it that way. He was not using God’s Spirit, if we could put it another way. “…Vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” So now he began to see some things. Now he began to understand some profound things. But the question is: in the end did he really learn it? And the reason we’re going through this is to show that there will be people during the Millennium who will choose to reject God’s way. Now as astounding as that may seem and almost just incomprehensible as it would appear, it’s going to happen.

So, verse 12: “And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly [and what ever experiment he could do to do that]: for what can the man do that cometh after the king?” [“Now who’s going to be able to do more than me? I have the money, I have the time, I have the servants, I have the peace. I have all of these things right at my fingertip – anything I want. So who could do more that comes after me?”]

He says: “…Even that which hath been already done. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.” True. Yes it does, that’s true, but what do you do with it, you see? That’s the question. “The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.” So you see these two trails of wise and the foolish. You know, like today the great and the small die, don’t they? And the great get their names listed in an obituary in the local newspaper. The small maybe get a couple of lines, but the truth is they are both dead. So he saw this and he said, “Look at all of this. What on earth is going to happen, because everyone’s going to be staring death in the face sooner or later.”

So then he says, verse 15: “Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me…”, and he didn’t learn the lesson, because in all of his wisdom he became foolish. Even though he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and even though we have hundreds of proverbs which he has written, even though he wrote about it and had some tremendous points of understanding and analysis he didn’t do it himself in the final part of his life. And that is astounding. And we can see the parallels in church, see the parallels in our lives and so forth, so I think it’s a good thing we all don’t have lots of money. I think it’s a good thing we don’t have everything at our fingertips in the way and abundance that he did here.

Ok, let’s go on here, verse 16: “For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever…” You can see that. Drive past any cemetery. The rich, the wise, the great of the world they have big sepulchers, don’t they? They even build them little houses to put their bodies in. They have their names engraved there, don’t they? And the fool has just a little place where his name is, maybe born, maybe died. And if it’s a homeless person who has no identification and he dies they’re just buried. They’re forgotten. But as you drive past a cemetery do you remember any of the great? No. Do you remember any of the foolish? No, never heard of them. So he was saying the same thing there. And this became a point of frustration to him. And became a point of despair to him. “…Seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten.” Question: How much do we know of the world that was destroyed by the flood? Virtually nothing. How much do we know of Solomon’s kingdom? Very little. The archeologists have found a few things which prove that Solomon existed and that Jerusalem indeed was the city where he lived. But where is the gold? Where is the silver? Where are all the buildings? Where are all the things that he made? Gone.

So then he says: “And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.” They both quit breathing and that’s it. So he looked at that and he said: “Therefore I hated life…” Well, that’s quite a statement, isn’t it? He didn’t hate it enough to repent. That was his problem. And he didn’t hate it enough to really fully understand God’s way, otherwise he would have repented. “Therefore I hated life…” There are some people that way today. Nothing’s right, nothing turns out good, everything is bad, everything is evil, everything is wrong. And for those in the church who think that’s the way, it’s because you don’t have your mind focused on the Kingdom of God, and you don’t have your life oriented to continually be doing the things of God the way God wants you to do, with a zeal and a desire that must be used every day to overcome the complacency of things as they exist in what is called in the world “the status quo.”

“Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me [Did all these great things but it’s a grievous thing. What’s going to happen to it? Where’s it going to go? What is it going to come to?]: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” You see, without the knowledge of God and the Spirit of God, because he had the knowledge of God, didn’t he? So the knowledge of God is not enough. It also takes the Spirit of God. And then it takes the choices of the individuals involved to desire the things of God. And always remember, the flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit that gives life.