Ecclesiastes chapter 5. It's
been a few weeks since we've been in the book of Ecclesiastes. And the last time that we were
here, we briefly looked at the first three verses. And I want
to look at them again along with verses 4 to 7. And I'll pre-warn
you that we're going to spend most of our time on verse 1,
so don't get scared when we stay in verse 1 for a while. But in
these seven verses, at the beginning of Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon is
instructing us on three things. It is wonderful, wise instruction
on three things, and then he gives us a conclusion at the
end of that. And I believe the heading at
the top of the page is an excellent summary of what he's teaching.
Yours could be different, but mine says, of vanities in divine
service. That's what it says at the very
top of my page. Of vanities in divine service. Things we need
to be careful of. Things we need to be careful
of when it comes to worshiping and serving our Lord. Things
that we ought to guard. Things that we ought to watch
against. And the very first one is in
verse 1. He says, Keep thy foot when thou
goest to the house of God. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God. Now when God saves a sinner,
When God saves a sinner, God opens his eyes to see some things. It's a revelation. It really
is. The Lord, they shall all be taught
of God, and they see some things. And Solomon saw some things.
The Lord obviously dealt with him and gave him wisdom, and
he saw some things. And after he saw them, it caused
him to say, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.
Keep thy foot. Now turn with me to Matthew 18.
Matthew 18. Now think about this. I've thought
about this before. I've mentioned this before. But
honestly, we worship a man, don't we? We worship a person, don't
we? Do we believe he's real? Or is
he a figment of our imagination? I mean, I believe Roy is real. Do I believe
Jesus Christ is real? Really? You know, you think about
this idea of what if God was here right now? What if God was here right now? In our bulletin we have, you
open it up and the first section says to our congregation. What
if this morning our bulletin said to our congregation, The
God of all heaven and earth is in Kingsport, Tennessee today. And He will be attending our
worship service with us. What if God walked in? Do you believe He's a man who
walks and moves? His delight is among the sons
of men. What if God, do you believe we're going to see Him? Do you
believe we're going to be with Him? Do you believe we're going
to fellowship with Him and spend time with Him and learn of Him
and listen to Him? What if God walked in the room
this morning? Matthew 18 verse 20 says, For where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." I believe with all of my heart,
I truly do. that at least two people are
here this morning with the sincere purpose of worshiping the Lord,
glorifying His name and giving thanks for His great salvation. I believe that. What that means
is He is in this room. He is in this room right now. Right now. He is watching, and I'm going
to tell you what, you think about the awesome task of standing
up. He is watching. He is listening. He is discerning the hearts, observing our worship. Does that
strike a little bit of fear and reverence? Does that make us
say, wait a minute. That causes me to realize this
is serious. This is holy. This is holy, holy,
holy. If God is here, we are all right
now standing on holy ground. That's what he told Moses. That's
what he told Joshua, and that's what he tells us. That's what
he tells us. Now, is his spirit in a person? Is his spirit the spirit of bondage? Is it the spirit of bondage?
If you want to be saved, you've got to do this, or you've got
to do that. Doesn't it grieve you and doesn't
it just weigh on you to hear, now Christ finished it, but I'm
going to tell you what now, if you don't, every religion is based on straighten
up and fly right, every religion. God finished it now, He died
on that cross, but if you don't straighten up and fly right,
okay, is His spirit the spirit of bondage? Absolutely not. If anybody knows we cannot do
His commandments, He does. That's why He sent the Lord to
prove that to us. He's not hoping we actually obey
Him. If we do, He is working in us. He's doing in us. But his spirit is not the spirit
of bondage. Our Lord is not a man who puts
his people under bondage. He sets them free from all that. He reveals to them, I finished
everything. But I'm lacking in this. I did
that. But I just am so insufficient
over here. I did that. I did that, the fullness
of it, I did that. And when God's people realize
that, they're so thankful and they're so relieved, it's not
on me, that makes their heart say, I think I'd like to obey
Him. I would love to obey, I'm gonna
try to obey Him. But He sets His people free.
We're saved by free grace. Free, free grace. He's not a
taskmaster. He is not a taskmaster. I love
knowing that He laughs. I can't wait to see and hear
Him laugh. I love knowing that He smiles.
I love knowing that He has joy in His heart. He has love in
His heart. I love knowing every bit of that.
But what we still must remember is we are coming before the Holy
God. Not even a holy God. The one
and only holy, holy God. We worship the holy God. And what we do, what we do, The way that we come
before Him. This is what a believer starts
to understand. The way that we come before Him
in our attitude. The way we come before Him in
our conduct. The way we come before Him in
our dress. The way we come before Him in
motive. It's all saying something to
Him. That's what it is. It's all saying
something to Him. He sees it all. And there needs
to be a fear and a reverence in what we're doing. There needs
to be a fear and a reverence in what we're doing. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We all need wisdom,
don't we? We all need it. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning. It's the beginning. Turn with
me over to 1 Kings chapter 10. First Kings chapter 10. First Kings 10 verse 1 says, And when the queen of Sheba heard
of the fame of Solomon, concerning the name of the Lord. She came
to prove Him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with
a very great train, with camels that bear spices and very much
gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon
told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from
the king which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built,
and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
And his assent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord,
there was no more spirit in her. It emptied her. Solomon is a type of Christ.
Her seeing his glory. I love the thought of his assent
by which he went up to the house of the Lord. It emptied that
woman. It absolutely emptied her. It gave her a solemn reverence. A solemn reverence. Moses delivered
the children of Israel, didn't he? They were in bondage. And Moses, the Lord told Moses
to go get them, and he delivered them out of Egypt, and after
Pharaoh said, okay, let them go, he changed his mind, and
he got all of his soldiers and went after them to kill them.
Now here they are pinned up at the Red Sea. And here they see
Pharaoh and all the soldiers coming. And they started crying
to Moses, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? It was a moment when they needed
God. It was time to start worshiping
God. It was time to start begging God for help, for mercy, and
here's what Moses told him to do. He said, Stand still. Stand still. Keep thy foot. What are we going to do? We need
God. We need mercy from God. We need help from God. What are
we going to do? He said, Keep thy foot. Stand
still. You just stand still. We need
to see the salvation of the Lord. So let's remove ourselves from
this equation. Let's get ourselves out of our
own eyes. Stand still. And God's people
do that with the heart. That's what they do. They do
that with the heart. There is a time, there is. Without it, life would just be
too boring. There is a time for joking around. This is not it. There's a time for silliness.
Men love to get up in the pulpit, you know, and they want to put
on a show and tell a few jokes first and all that kind of stuff.
This is not it. This is just not it. There is
a time to impress, and this is not it. This is just not it. Go with me to Isaiah chapter
1. Isaiah 1, now this is God speaking,
verse 11. He said, To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Saith the Lord, I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or
of he goats. When you come to appear before
me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto
me. So many men love to put their
robes on and get their incense and wave it on the people. He
said, I'm tired of it. It's an abomination unto me.
The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot
away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn
meeting. Your new moons and your appointed
feast, my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your
hands, don't you wish people could read this? I'm not trying
to be mean. I'm trying to say, please hear
the word of the Lord. Men love to get in their big
crowds and they go like this. You know, and they're all, they're
worshiping God just like this. He said right here, verse 15,
when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers,
you're gonna be up there and pray longer than everybody else.
He said, I know what you're doing. I'm gonna be, so help me, I'm
gonna be the last one standing up here. I'm gonna keep on praying
and keep on praying. He said, I'm watching your heart.
When you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full
of blood. He said, you think you're worshiping
me. That's what he's telling them.
You think you're worshiping me with all of that flesh involved. And he said, you're not. You
are not. I will not accept what you're
doing. I will not have it. That makes
me want to keep my foot. Doesn't it, you? That makes me
want to stand still. Wait a minute. This is the Holy
God. And I'm so running out of time,
but we'll go as far as we can go. Go to Jeremiah 7. Jeremiah 7 verse 8, Behold, you
trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder,
commit adultery? All of that happens in the heart.
It happens outside too, and there are consequences for that. You
steal, you go to jail. But we do every bit of this in
the heart. steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn
incense under bail, walk after other gods whom you know not,
and come and stand before me in this house, which is called
by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations.
But you see, we've been set free. We can go do whatever we want
to do. Verse 11, is this house which
is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold,
even I have seen it, saith the Lord. If that doesn't cause us
to want to keep our foot, I don't know what will. Our feet must be kept when we
enter the house of the Lord. Must. Now, how do we do that? How do we do that? Clearly, we
must do it, right? How are sinners' feet kept? By the power of God. By the power
of God. I can't keep my feet. The Apostle
Paul said in Romans 7, I wish I could. That that I wish I did,
I don't do it. And the things that I wish I
didn't do, that's what I do. I'm a sinner. You know what?
I'll get to that in the next message. I'm a sinner. And I can't do anything. I'm
coming to you. I need you. If my feet are going
to be kept, I need you to keep them. As soon as I start looking
to myself, I have nothing but depression ahead of me. You know
that? Because as I read all of these
things that these people are doing, I have to say, that's
me. That's me. I need you. I come to you. This is what David said. We're kept by the power of God.
We're kept by the word of God. You know that? What we're doing
right here is looking into the word of God and it causes us
to say, wait a minute. It keeps us for a moment. Then
we come back and it keeps us for a moment. Then we come back
and it keeps us for a moment. David said, Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet. Isn't that what he said? It's a light unto my path. We keep our foot by making a straight line to
Jesus Christ, begging him to keep our feet. He is the only
firm foundation that we have. We're about to sing in just a
minute on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is
sinking sand. So when we enter into the house
of God, we need to keep it all on Jesus Christ. We need to get
to Christ in every way, shape, and form. Go with me back to
Ecclesiastes 5. Verse 1 says, Keep thy foot when
thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. Let's be careful about what we
say. Let's be careful about what we
say. We can crush each other by what
we say. We can crush each other. One
of the greatest lies ever told, there have been some big lies
told in this world. One of the greatest lies ever
told is this. Sticks and stones may break my
bones, but words can never hurt me. That is so untrue. That is
just so untrue. James talked about, we were going
to turn but I'm not now, James talked about this tongue being
a fire. He said you put a bit in a horse's
mouth, that big huge horse, you can turn that whole huge muscular
body by putting a bit right there in his mouth and he'll do that.
He said the ship, it's so huge, And it's driven by the tempest,
but he said it turns by one little hound. That guy wanted to turn
the whole ship. He said, do you realize what
a great fire a little spark kindles? And he said, this tongue is a
fire. And it's a world of iniquity. And he said, no man can tame
it. Well, get control of your tongue. My problem is, my tongue is the
response of what's happening here first. That's my problem.
My tongue is only saying what's originating right here. And it's
bad in here. It's bad. Lord, keep this heart. Would you keep my feet? And would
you keep this heart? He said in verse 2, Be not rash
with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God. For God is in heaven, and thou
upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. And that's what he's saying.
Out of this heart, the mouth speaks. Lord, let not this heart
be hasty. One man said, this is so wise,
he said, we ought to ask ourselves three things. Before we say anything,
we ought to ask ourselves three things. Number one, is it true? Do we know that it's true? You
know how much stuff I repeat that turns out to be not true?
Well, so-and-so said, well, so-and-so didn't know when he told me.
Is it true? If I don't know that it's true,
I'm just a gossiper. Secondly, he said, is it kind?
It may be true, but is it kind? And the third thing is, is it
necessary? Is it necessary? If we'd ask ourselves that, we'd
save us and everybody else a lot of heartache. Verse three says,
for a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a
fool's voice is known by a multitude of words. Sometimes we can talk
so much we don't even know what reality is anymore. We confuse
ourselves. So help us, Lord. Verse 4 says, When thou vowest
a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure
in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. It is not a good idea to make
a vow to God. It's not a good idea. People
say all the time, I swear to God. Every time they say that,
God will not excuse it. He will not excuse it. God takes His vows seriously. Thank God. That's our hope. That's the foundation of all
our hope, that God will keep His promise. If a promise is
made, He's going to keep it. He promised to save us in the
blood of His Son, and He's going to keep it. That's our hope.
Verse 5 says, better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that
thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause
thy flesh to sin. The only vow that we make that
I can think of that is a good vow to make is a wedding vow.
That's the only one. That's the only one I would encourage
anybody to make. is a wedding vow. All of us who
have made those vows, we made them to God. We made them to
our spouse before God. And men, we promised God. We didn't just promise our spouse. We promised God that we would
love the wife He gave us. God's going to give you this
wife. And we promised God that we would cherish her and we would
protect her and we would put her before ourselves. And you
ladies promised the same thing, the same thing. And Solomon instructs
us that to go back on our word will provoke God's anger And
He's going to deal with us for it. Look at verse 4. When thou
vowest to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for He hath no
pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest
vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause
thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel. And the
word angel translates pastor. Don't go to the pastor and say,
never mind. I changed my mind. God says a vow is a vow. Verse
six, suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither
say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should
God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands?
For in the multitude of dreams, in many words, there are also
diverse vanities. And here's the conclusion he
gives. End of verse seven, fear thou God. Fear thou God. He brings us right back to where
we started. Fear God. That's the whole duty
of man. That's the only safe place to
be. Fear God. The only way that I can fear
God is if God puts that fear in me. The only way I can be
faithful to my wife is if God keeps me being faithful to my
wife. I cannot keep myself. All these
things are His instructions to us. And with every single one
of them, we look to Christ. The author and finisher of everything. Keep me in every way. I need
Your mercy. And You've kept my soul. You shed Your blood for my soul. He said, Father, every soul that
you've given me, I've kept. You've kept my soul. Would you
keep my foot and keep my heart and keep my tongue? Would you
keep me? Would you make us all men and
women after your own heart? Make us to be the men and women
you'd have us to be. conform us to the image of Christ. Would you do that for His blood's
sake? And Lord, never let us forget.
Never let us walk away from the fear and reverence of the Lord.
Let's not leave that. Let's just not leave this. If
God will keep us, we won't. It's wisdom, and we need it.
All right, you're dismissed.