That's what I'm trained to be
Led by goodness like a feather By my wandering heart to thee
Once you wander, oh, don't feel it Once you leave, there's not
another Let's now turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter 12. Ecclesiastes, the last chapter,
chapter 12. Now, there's so very much that
God says in these twelve chapters. Though Solomon, we believe, is
the writer of it, yet this is God's Word, God's inspired Word,
as Peter said. No scriptures of any private
or, that is, personal interpretation, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved or taught by the Spirit of God. So this is
God's Word, and so much is said. And again, I encourage you to
read the whole book carefully. In chapter 12, in verse 13, look
at what the writer says. Let's hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. The conclusion of the whole matter. He's going to conclude and sum
up everything that's said in this book. The sum of it all.
The conclusion of the whole matter. Read it. Fear God, and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man. The conclusion of the matter.
Verse 9, now this is, it begins by talking about the preacher.
You saw that with me, chapter 1, the preacher, and I noticed
for the first time, the letter was in a capital P. I don't exalt myself for what
I do. One time Paul said, Though I preach
the gospel, I have nothing to glory in. He said, Necessity
is laid upon me. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Paul didn't glory in being a
preacher, and neither do I. Some of you thank me all the
time for a message, and you should, just as I would thank you for
fixing a meal or whatever. That's good on your part. But
when you thank me, I feel like, well, that's what I do. That's
what I want to do. Like a mother preparing a meal,
a wife preparing a meal, though she needs encouragement, yet
she really doesn't want She's doing it because she wants to. The children need the food, and
she enjoys it, and she eats it herself. Well, most of the time I eat
it, and I get a great deal out of it. gives a special place to the
preaching of his gospel. And I'm thankful, especially
on this day, you know, especially on this day of all these fools
out there. My pastor, oh my, he has a capital
P, preacher, to me. He really is. Brother John Chapman
is going to come next week. Oh, he's way up there in my esteem,
capital P. But this preacher, and God uses
a preacher, and it says in verse 9, because the preacher was wise,
and all wisdom comes from above, Solomon, the Lord told Solomon,
ask what you will and I'll give it to you. Remember? Solomon
asked for wisdom. And the Lord granted it to him.
And if any man lacks, James said, let him ask from above. Wisdom.
God gives it liberally. He said the preacher was wise
and he taught the people knowledge. He taught the people knowledge. Jeremiah, our Lord said in Jeremiah,
I'll give them pastors after my own heart and they shall feed
the flock with knowledge. Knowledge of what? Current events,
politics, social issues. God's Word. God's Word. This is what God's people are
knowledgeable of. God's Word. He'll feed them with
knowledge. He taught the people. Yea? Verse
9. He gave good heed. He himself
gave good heed to what he heard and sought out. He was a seeker.
And set in order many proverbs. Now, the preacher, verse 10.
says the preacher sought to find out acceptable words. And the
margin where it says acceptable, the margin says words of delight,
good words, good, profitable words, words that you need. I
don't, like I said, you seem so far away. I don't want to
get further away from you. I don't want you further from
me. And I don't want to preach one One fellow said to this preacher
who was so intellectual in his so high-sounding oratory that
said to this preacher, we're not giraffes. Don't put the word
up there where nobody can get to it. We're sheep. Put it down
here. Let's make it simple. When our
Lord preached, he preached and taught in parables, simple illustrations
to the very most, the longest word he used, three syllables.
Righteousness. And it says the common people
heard him gladly. Pharisees, doctors, lawyers got
offended. Spoke too simply. But they couldn't
understand him. The good words, profitable words. I want to meet you where you
are. I want this to be something you
can use. Something where the rubber meets
the road, so to speak. Everybody here knows what that
means. Where the rubber meets the road. That's what I want
this to be. Something you can use. I get so tired of preaching
sermons. I get so tired of you hearing
things like they're sermons. I want something to chew on. Food, meat. Like a cut. Old cow chewing his
cut. That's what I want you to do.
I want to give you grass. There's a cow that goes out in
green pastures and eats it and just delights in it so much,
he regurgitates it and chews it again. That's what I want you to do.
But it's got to be good the first time, doesn't it? Or he'd just pass out in the
draft. Good words, he said. This preacher sought to find
out acceptable words. That which was written. What
kind of words, preacher? What are you looking for? Well,
this morning I was looking at something that so-and-so said,
or this preacher said, or this philosopher said. No, that won't
profit anybody. Man's words are going to pass
away, but Christ's word now, he said, my word lives and abides
forever. Not one word of mine, Christ
said, shall pass away. This is the only profitable word
there is. Dare I stand up and spend this time telling you what
men say and think? This is valuable time. God's
word. Except words that were written. That's the only thing
upright. Read it, verse 10. The word that
was written was upright. Words of truth. We keep reiterating
this, don't we? That's too big a word. We keep
repeating this. God's word is the truth. Don't believe what you read.
Don't believe what you read. Don't believe what you see out
there. Our Lord said this whole world
is an optical illusion, did he not? He said that which is seen
is what? Temporal. Didn't he say that?
Like a soft bubble. But that which is not seen is
eternal. So the preacher sought good words. What was written is what he saw,
because it's upright and it's the truth. God's word is the
truth. Everything else, everyone else,
is a liar. If they speak not, Isaiah said,
according to my words, it's because there's no light in them. Only, David said, the entrance
of thy word giveth light. That's what the preacher, one
sent from God, seeks. God's Word. Read on. Now, the words of the wise, verse
11, he said, The words of the wise are as goads and as nails
fastened by the masters of sin. Goads and nails. What's a goad? Well, over in the poor countries,
eastern Our eastern countries, they still use these. Ox goads,
cattle goads, big long pointed stick. You have an old ox and he won't
move. Got you a goad, he'll move. We use cattle prods today. The Word of God. We need goads,
don't we? We'll sleep. not will be unmoved
by the word, unless God, by his word, makes a point, gets the
point across, right? Goads, the word of God is like
goads and nails. Not only do we need words that
will awaken us, you know, and quicken us and, you know, head
us to Christ and walk in by faith. putting our hand to the plow
and so forth, but we need nails to fasten us down, to tie us
down. There's some horse people in
here. I could use this illustration. Goads and nails are like spurs
and tie-downs. You need them both, don't you,
Brother Come on now, you dumb beast.
Let's get going. Then you need tie-downs. You
don't want them running wild. They've got to learn tie-downs.
God's Word is like a nail. Nails. We fastened this place
with nails. Nails. Why? We want it to stay
there. Nail's a permanent thing. You
want it to stay there. Anything that's not fastened
down or nailed down is liable to do what? Blow away. Scripture talks about those that
are carried away with every wind of doctrine. It talks about people
who are carried away with every wind of doctrine. Here comes
some new preacher. He's got some new revelation.
He's got some new little thing of the Holy Spirit that he's
come up with. He and he alone. Well, here are all these people
just just blow right after him. Whichever way the wind blows,
they blow. But not if you're nailed down.
Scripture says that God's people are grounded and settled in the
truth. We need to be nailed down. We
need to have the truth nailed down in our hearts. Do we not?
In our minds. Paul said this, I know whom I
have believed and I am persuaded. And another time, he said, let
nobody bother me. Nobody can bother me. I don't
care what they're saying or what they're doing. I know the truth.
And you can't move me. Martin Luther stood up one time.
He said, here I stand. I'm not moving anywhere. I don't
care if the whole world goes after this new thing. Nailed
down. Got my feet nailed. So you need
both, he said. Goads and nails. Goads and nails. And it's fastened by the masters
of assembly. Paul talked about this. The prophets,
the foundation of the prophets and apostles were the builders.
God sent to be builders, masters, teachers, men of God with the
word of God, masters of assembly. But it all comes from where? Verse 11. It's all given from
one shepherd. They all got it from him. the whole buildings of God. He's
the one. And he provides the nails and
tools and so forth. And verse 12 says further, by
these my son be admonished. By what? By God's word. It's
the only thing that will admonish God's people. It's the only thing
that will. Admonish, the word admonish means to enlighten by
warnings. Admonish means to instruct by
warnings. That's, you know, when we talk
with our children, things that we really want to get across,
we use warnings, don't you? Now, son, you listen to me now.
If you don't do it, this is going to happen to her. That's going
to happen to her. If you listen to me, you're going to get in
trouble. Warnings. The Word of God admonishes us
and enlightens us by warnings. Boy, we need warnings, don't
we? If we're sheep, sheep need warning. They're such dumb creatures,
such dumb creatures. Well, I've got to go on. It says,
by these, by the word of God, we're admonished. And he says,
of making many books, there is no end. Go in my study down there, in
our study down there. Go down there and look on my
wall and look at all the books. I don't know why I have all those.
I do too. I stole most of them. I stole
them from my dad. As a young man, I began stealing
his books. He knew it. He didn't need them
anymore. And I built up this huge library.
I rarely look at any of them. I almost never look at them. Why should I? All those books
are trying to comment on this. We don't need another book. Some
might write a new book. We don't need another book. The world is full of books. What
we need are people to look at This book. Somebody the other
day called me up and said, we'd like to give you, send you this
book. I said, I don't need another
book. We want to give you these books to pass out to your people.
I said, I'm more interested. I know where. It was at Lowe's.
Some of these salespersons wanted to give me a book, Prayer Jabez
or something. I said, what I want is for my
people to read God's book. I don't want them to read second-reasons
they want to, but what I'm trying to get people to do is read God's
word, not man's. The making of books is no end.
No end. And, it says, much study is a
weariness of the flesh. Much study is a weariness of
the flesh. Man just wearies himself trying
to learn. Trying to learn. And so, the preacher says, let's
hear the conclusion of the matter. Let's hear the conclusion of
the matter. Let's hear. The wise preacher
said, let us hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
what? And you quote the rest of it.
I'm hearing by the word of God. That's what we need to hear.
Solomon began the Proverbs. He began the Proverbs in this
way. I think it's about verse three.
He said, verse five, he said, a wise man will hear. And it goes through the Proverbs
talking about a fool known by a multitude of words. It talks
about a fool you can't hear for all the words going on, but a
wise man will hear it in quiet. This is the way things are supposed
to be done, folks. This is the way it was done in
the New Testament. This is the way it was done when
the preacher stood up and the people sat and heard and listened
and contemplated and meditated and read the Word and went home
and read it for themselves again to see if what the preacher said
was true. It wasn't wildfire and enthusiasm,
all a state of emotion. Emotion is not faith. Faith's built on the Word of
God. And there's only one way we're going to hear this, and
that's to hear it. And you can't hear it in the
midst of a mess, of confusion. So let us hear, he said. Let
us hear the conclusion of the matter. The conclusion of everything
he said. All right, what did he say? I've been 15 minutes now. I've
got about 30 minutes to sum up all of Ecclesiastes. Let's go
back, all right? Let's go back. Chapter 1. Let's
hear the conclusion of the matter. Let's hear some of the things
that he said. Ecclesiastes. Go back to chapter
1. Chapter 1. And after we see all
this, we're going to hear the conclusion of it all. Chapter
1, verse 2, says, "...vanity of vanities, saith the preacher."
Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. He repeats it, doesn't he? We really don't learn something
unless it's repeated to us over and over. Right? That's what
Isaiah said, didn't he? Same. Line upon line. Line upon
line. Precept upon precept. Precept
upon precept. Here a little, there a little.
We learn by repetition. He repeats it. Vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What's he talking
about? All is vanity. What is vanity? Vanity means
empty. Vanity means of no lasting value. Vanity. What is vanity? All is
vanity. All in this world is empty. Nothing in this world will fill
you. He went on to say that, didn't
he? We read that where he said, The eye is never full. The ear
is never full. The mouth is never filled, the
stomach is never filled, the appetite is never filled, nothing
is ever fulfilled. Even the sea, it says, things
run into it. Vanity of vanities. There's no lasting value. Nothing
will really give you what you are looking for in this life.
The ear is never satisfied. Nothing. Vanity? Vanity. No satisfaction. A fellow wrote
a song one time, I Can't Get No Satisfaction. He was a millionaire
when he wrote that. No satisfaction. Verse 7 and
8 says, well, I'll just paraphrase that. All the rivers run into
the sea, but the sea's not full. In verse 9 and 10, he says, everything
just continues a vain course. That which hath been is that
which shall be. Nothing changes, in other words.
Things keep being repeated, repeated over and over again. Nothing
new. He said that in verse 10. Is there anything where it might
be said, here's something new, I've discovered something. Well,
no. Nothing new. Nothing new under
the sun. Nothing. Nothing. So, verse 12,
I, the preacher, was king over Israel, he said. King over Israel
in Jerusalem. Now, at this time, Israel was
the richest place on earth. At the time of this writing,
Jerusalem was the capital of the world. And the king of Jerusalem
in Israel was the richest man on the planet. And this is what
he said, I was king in the richest place on earth. In verse 13,
he said, I gave my heart, being a wise man, he gave his heart
to seek and search. A wise man will seek and search
by wisdom. concerning all things that are
done under heaven, everything. And he said, this sore travail
hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
That is, men and women, all their lives, spend their lives searching,
seeking. But if they're really wise, they
want to get to the conclusion of the matter. What's it all
about? What's my life all about? What
is this all about? If someone's really wise, they
won't be just like an animal, living for the day, living for
the next meal, living for the temporal senses. But what's out
there? For the preachers that I did,
I sought, I searched. And he looked at everything around
him. He experienced everything around him. Chapter 2, verse
4. You know the story of Solomon
and his riches. Look at it. Verse 4. He said, I made me great
works. I built me houses. I planted
me vineyards. I made me gardens and orchards.
I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits. I made me pools
of water. Swimming houses and swimming
pools and gardens and vineyards and He had it all, didn't he?
He had his own personal Napa Valley. Solomon did. He owned it all. Trees. Verse 7, I got me servants and
maidens and had servants born in my house. I had great possessions
of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before
me. Read it for yourself sometime over in the book of Kings, Solomon's
riches, all the all the camels and oxen and horses and stalls
and chariots and you name it, the table that he'd spread. Read
it for yourself. It's amazing, the riches that
this man had. Verse, look it down at verse
18, but he said, when it's all said and done, verse 18, I hated Everything I've done. I hated
all my labor. I hated it. Why? Because the previous two verses
said, because I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to
work all these years, 70 years, for what? And then I die. And in Proverbs
it says, I'll leave it to a fool. And he did. He had some sons,
a bunch of them, sons and daughters, and they squandered it. All that
hard work. He couldn't live to enjoy it,
and his children squandered it. I said, why did I do all that?
Vanity. Vanity. He said, I hated all
my labor. I said, I'm going to leave it
unto a man after me. So, what do we do? Don't work? Don't eat? Don't do anything?
Crawl in a cave somewhere? Forget it all? Become a monk?
Live in a monastery? What do we do? Be a Hindu on
a mountain in the Himalayas? Self-renunciation? Escape the
world? Have no part of it? Is that what
we do? Is that what he says to do? No, he doesn't. Look at verse
24. He says this at the end of nearly
every chapter. There's nothing better for a
man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make
his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, it was from
the hand of God. There's nothing wrong with eating
and drinking and building. When our Lord said, as in the
days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Buying and selling, marrying
and giving, marriage and so forth. Is there anything wrong with
that? He said they were eating and drinking. Is there anything
wrong with that? You know our Lord is not condemning eating
and drinking. Buying and selling, marrying, no. Building, no. Not condemning these things.
Solomon says here, eat. The reason God gave it, eat.
Don't eat too much, it'll kill you. But eat, drink, enjoy it. Build, buy, sell. It's all from
God. God giveth us, the scripture
says, all things to richly enjoy. Doesn't it say that? All things
to richly what? Enjoy. Religion would, you know,
real strict religion would say, oh, you're not supposed to have
fun. This is from God. You think Solomon enjoyed his
children? You think Solomon enjoyed his
home? You think Solomon enjoyed eating all that food and these
things? You think he enjoyed it? Sure
he did. He said it's from God. Temper all the enjoyment, temper
it with this, verse 26, God giveth to a man that is good in his
sight, wisdom, knowledge, joy, but to the sinner he giveth travail,
to gather and to heap up that he may give to him that is good
before God. This is vanity and vexation of
spirit. Temper everything with this consideration,
that everything is vanity. Temper everything with it. Right
over top of everything. No matter what it is, a relationship,
a possession, whatever it is, write this word on it. Temporary. It won't last. Write this word on
it. No satisfaction. Enjoy But don't
seek all your joy there. You understand? That's what he's
saying. And in chapter 3, now, chapter
3, you know this chapter. Well, the whole world is familiar
with it. It was a popular song written back in the 60's, based
on it. To everything there's a season.
There's a time to every purpose under heaven. Time to be born,
time to die, time to plant. Time to pluck up, and on and
on he, time to weep, time to laugh. He said everything's got
a time. Now in verse 12 and 13, read
it again. I know that there's no good in
them, there's no lasting value in these things. There's a time
to laugh, enjoy it. Laugh when you laugh, weep when
you weep, eat when you eat. But there's no lasting good in
them, he said. for a man to rejoice and do good
in this life, and also every man, he says, should eat and
drink and enjoy the good of all his labors to give to God. See
that? He keeps saying that so that
we won't feel guilty about enjoying people and things and relationships. And I would tell all our young
people, there's nothing wrong with the things of this world. It's how man abuses them. It's how man abuses them. It's
being overcome by them. It's forgetting where they come
from. It's not seeking Christ. Christ said, Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be
added to you. That's what's unwise, and that's
what's vain, is to seek happiness and joy from these things that
can't give it. He said in verse 14, Now I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever, and nothing
can be put to it, or anything taken away. And God doeth it
that men should fear before him. He's getting to the conclusion
of the matter now. What God does is eternal. Maybe we'd better
look into that then. What man does is temporal. Everything
in this life is temporal. What God does now is forever.
Well, then maybe we'd be wise to see what about the things
of God, wouldn't we? What is God doing? What's God
doing with me? What's God's purpose? What's
God's will? What's it all about? Huh? What's it all about? Chapter
8. I've got to skip on through.
Chapter 8. Now, Solomon went all the way
through here and said, I tried mirth. Solomon said, I enjoyed myself
to the fullest. I tried mirth. I tried to be
happy all the time. He said, I wasn't. People do that, don't they? Well,
just smile. There's times when you can't
smile. If you're a real human being, there's time to laugh
and there's time to cry. As a matter of fact, Solomon
said in the Proverbs, he said, go to the house of mourning.
In Ecclesiastes, he said, the heart of the wise is in the house
of mourning, he said. But that doesn't mean being morose
all the time, melancholy, downcast. Well, he said in chapter 8, he
said, I tried it all. Verse 16, I applied my heart
to know wisdom. See the business that's done
upon the earth, what is going on here. Verse 17, I beheld all the work
of God. A man cannot find out the work
that's done under the sun. We cannot know the immediate
will of God in everything. The scripture says a lot is cast
into the The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. We try to find it, and we should try to find it.
What's the will of the Lord for this or that? But we don't. A
lot of trial and error in this life. Right? And everything. Marriage, job,
a lot of things. We try. We should seek, Lord,
if this is your will. But He doesn't come right out
and say, this is my will. See what he's saying? Lord, I
don't know where to turn. I don't know what to do. I'm
seeking your will. A lot of times you step out by faith.
The Lord blesses it or doesn't bless it. You don't know at the
time. That's what he's saying there.
A man cannot find out. But now we can know the eternal
will and purpose of God, and that's That should be our number
one pursuit. All right, now go to chapter
12. This is where we come down to. And he went on and on, and
everything you could go through, everything you could think, everything
you could consider, everything you could ponder, every question
you could ask is in this book. Everything you could try, everything
you could go through, Solomon went through it. All right, now, chapter 12, he
says, let's hear the conclusion of the matter. What's it all
about? What's my thought about it? Look at it again. All right.
Verse 13, the conclusion of the matter. Why are we here? Fear God. Fear God. Does it strike you that you don't
hear this anymore? that you never hear anybody say
this anymore. Does that strike you? It overwhelms
me. And all the knowledge that men
seek after, all the wisdom, all that's going on. You know, this
world is filling up with people and things and stuff and knowledge
and books and no end. He said there's no end to it
all. It's just full, materialistic and all that. And he said in
Proverbs 1, the beginning of wisdom. It's the fear of the
Lord. That a man, a woman, a person,
a young person is an absolute fool who doesn't start with this. Fear God. Fear God. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Fear God. Paul said there's no
fear of God before their eyes. He wrote to the Romans, chapter
3, verse 18, there's no fear of God before their eyes. And it's tenfold more true now
than ever. There's no fear of God. It's
a popular slogan, isn't it? No fear. Well, this is what the wise man
said. This is what God says to his
people. This is what I say you, the preacher
who seeks out. I may not preach another message
to you. I'm leaving here. I may not come back. Here's my
last word to you. My first and last word. Fear
God. If I had one message to preach
to this world, it would start right there. Fear God. What does that mean? Fear God. Well, he said in Hebrews 11 verse
6, now listen, everybody wants to know God, or they say they
want to know God and worship God. Everybody's worshiping God
and everybody's studying God and everybody's praising God
and everybody's talking to God and everybody's being talked
to by God. In Hebrews 11 verse 6 says, he
that cometh to God, Hebrews 11 says, He that cometh to God—anyone
who's going to come to God, everybody who's going to approach God,
anybody who's going to talk to God, anybody who's going to be
spoken to by God, anybody who's going to get into the presence
of God after this all is over—must believe, he says, Hebrews 11
says, that he is. Now what does that mean? It doesn't mean he just exists.
I hear people, people tell me that all the time. Whenever they
hear I'm a preacher, they've got to let me know that they're
not a heathen. They do. They say, I believe
God. Oh, you do, do you? Most people believe their conception
of God. Even an out-and-out heathen believes in some kind
of God, small g. But now, he that cometh to God,
the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the
living and true God the Scriptures talks about, must believe that
he is, is what? Capital G. Capital O. Capital D. The fore-approaching, he that
cometh to God must believe he is. This world has lost sight
of the meaning of sovereign. Scripture talks about, speaks
of God in the language of a sovereign, of a king. Scripture talks about
God being a king, talks about Christ being king of kings. But the world today, the modern
world, there is not one king, unless it might be Saddam Hussein. Somebody like that is the closest
that you're going to come to see an absolute despot. That's what true king means.
An absolute authority. An absolute sovereign. That is
one who does what he will, with whom he will, just because he
will. Guess the people of Iraq. Is Hussein sovereign? They won't even answer you. They fear Him. They fear Him. And how are you getting the point
across? If you're going to come to a King, if He's King, you're
going to have to believe He's King. A Sovereign. A Creator. I know, you maybe get tired of
hearing about my animals. My dogs especially. I cannot
think of a better illustration. My dogs know that I'm their master. Absolutely, unquestionably so. They fear me, Brother John. They
fear me. I've never beaten my dogs. Never. I don't mistreat my dogs. No,
sir. I don't chain them up. No, sir. My dogs are free. My dogs are
loved. My dogs are provided for. But
they fear me. They come when I call them. They
love me. That's the reason I don't have
to chain them up. They love me. I've taught them well. So it
is with God's people. They fear Him. They know He's
God. Listen, God is not our servant. This is what this world needs
to hear. God is not the servant of man. God is not one big sugar daddy. But God is king to be worshipped
by peons. He that cometh to God must believe
he is God, a true king. No one would dare
approach a true king with an impudent look on his face or
with doubt in his mind. I don't know if you're a king
or not. I might decide to let you be king. Can you imagine? Somebody approaching the great
King David or Solomon, I don't know if I'm going to let you
be king or not. What have you got to do for me? What's in it
for me? I'll tell you what's in it for
you, a sword. But a person who comes, yes,
bowing and scraping. Yes, bowing. That's what you
do first to a king, do you not? Oh, most noble king. Everyone who bows. Everyone who
comes, meek and humble, he says, humble yourselves in the sight
of God. Isn't that what the Scripture says? That's what God's Word
says to mankind. Humble yourselves. Don't humble
God. You've got this thing backward. You ain't got God bowing and
scraping the man. What are you going to let me
do? What are you going to let me be? What are you going to let me do for you?
If you let me, I love you. No fear. You don't fear a king
like that. You don't fear a God like that. You'll only fear an absolute
sovereign. That's the God of this Bible. If He's not, let's forget this
whole thing. Let's make one up. Let's join
the masses. Let me hear the conclusion of
the matter. Fear God. To fear God is to worship God. To fear God
is to worship God. Listen to me now. Stay with me.
John, I'm not through yet. I'm just getting to a conclusion
here. Worship God. Romans 1, the whole
first chapter of Romans, talks about how men should be
thankful. What's worship? What is worship?
Well, we come here to do good. We come to give thanks. We come
to acknowledge God. We come here to acknowledge God. I live because you say live. God, I breathe because you give
me breath. God, I've eaten the foods you grew for me. God, I
have a family because you provide them. God, I have a house. God,
I have—all things come from above. It's to come and acknowledge
I have what I have by the grace of God. It's to come and to worship
him, to thank him for that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It's to come to seek his face. To fear God is to, what will
you have me to do? Old Saul of Tarsus, by the way,
old Saul of Tarsus was serving God all those years. He didn't
know God. He served himself. But when he met the God of Scripture,
which is Christ. He said, what will you have me
to do? I've been doing everything all wrong. What will you have
me to do? It's to serve God. It's to give God all the glory.
To fear God is to give God all the glory. To fear God is to
give God all the glory. To fear God is to give God all
the glory. You learn by repetition, to fear
God is to give God all the glory. That's the reason we're trying
to do our way with everything that smacks of man. When people
come in here, I don't want them seeing people. I want them to
see God. When people come in here, I don't
want them to hear me. I want them to hear this. Why? That men may fear God. Not be impressed with a man.
Not be impressed with a choir. Not be impressed with anything,
but fear God. I want them to hear not the beauty
of the music, but God's Word that says, Fear Me! This is the most important message
there is. It's the beginning of wisdom,
the fear of the Lord. To fear God is to fear sinning
against Him. To fear God, this is the reason
this world is such a despicable, iniquitous, depraved place. God doesn't judge. God is not
judged. God will not punish sin. It's
all a figment of some old Jew's imagination, this thing of God
destroying this planet. Well, that's an old wife's fable.
That's an old—we don't believe that anymore. God's love. And so we can do whatever we
want to. We can be an out-and-out pervert. They say God made me
that way, and God loves me, and he ain't going to do anything
about it. Oh, how this planet is in for
a heart-stopping shock. The Scripture says that when
Christ comes, men's hearts will fail them. That's what the Scripture says.
Fear God. It's to fear sinning against
them. And not just ten commandments.
And not just thou shalt not. If we'll keep this, we'll be
good little boys and girls. This is God's Word. This is the
King. This is the King. Fear God. That's the conclusion
of the matter. And keep his commandments. Here's
the conclusion. Fear God and keep his commandments.
What are his commandments? Number one. And they're all wrapped
up in this right here. You could sum them all up in
one commandment. One time, the Jews said to the
Lord Jesus Christ, said, What may we do to work the works of
God? And Christ, the God-man, said,
This is the work of God. This is the commandment of God. It's all found right here. He
said that you believe on him whom he hath sent. When we talk about fear in God,
who are we talking about? We're talking about Jesus Christ. Because God, the Scripture says,
has given all authority into his hand. Christ said, all authority
is given unto me in heaven and in earth. He says, all judgment
is committed unto me of the Father. The Scripture says in Psalm 2
that God hath made him king, and he sits on his holy head.
He said, oh, that they were wise, that they kissed the sun, that
they believed him. God doesn't speak any more out
loud. God quit speaking years and years
before even Christ came, out loud. And when his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, came to this earth, he spoke, well, three more times,
out loud, what did he say? He didn't speak to human beings.
He wasn't speaking to anybody. He was speaking to Christ. He
said, Thou art my beloved Son. in whom I dwell, please." And
the disciples heard this, and he did say to them, hear him,
believe him, look to him, trust him, get all your orders from
him, bow to him, worship him. He said this in Hebrews 1, let
all the angels of God worship the Son. Let everything that
hath breath worship Jesus Christ. Oh, we got, over here is Confucius,
over here is Buddha, over here is Mohammed, over here is Jesus Christ. God hath made him
Lord, that every mouth, every tongue would confess, every knee
bow to him. This is the commandment of God.
He said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well. This is the
whole duty of man. This is what life is all about.
coming to know he who is the treasure of wisdom and knowledge.
Coming to know and believe him who, or he at all, the wisdom
of God. He is the wisdom of God. The
next verse says, this is the whole duty of man. Keep his commandments. Christ's commandments. Everything
he said. obedient son and a daughter will do. This is the whole duty
of man, to fear God, believe his Son, look to cry, look to
cry, and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. Verse 14, God shall bring every
work into judgment. Paul got up and preached one
time. He said, God hath ordained God
hath appointed a day in which he will judge all flesh by that
man whom he hath ordained, Jesus Christ. All flesh is going to
be judged by that man. Either going to be standing beside
him to be judged equally with him, or in him, covered by him, by
faith in him, standing behind him. I illustrated that up in
the Bible school last summer, and it really got the point across. I had a brother, and I won't
make anybody do this, but I brought Brother Mike Bartram up beside
me on the platform, and he's about four foot two like me. Anybody with me? He's about four foot two. Anyway,
he's short. And I had him stand beside me,
and I said, We're tall, aren't we? We're big fellas. I'm a big
man. Look at us. Don't we look big? I said, Wait a minute. And I
called Brother Todd Nyberg. I said, Brother Todd, come up
here. Todd's 6'2". And I said, Yeah, I'm a tall
fella. And they just laughed, all those
kids laughed, they thought, what a fool you are. You're not tall
at all, you're a midget. Compared to him, so it is. God says, I'm going to judge
all works. Your own works? You want to judge
standing beside Christ, his perfect righteousness? Oh, there's a
scripture that says you're weighed into balances and found wanting.
The old kind of scales used to, they'd put weights on it for
equal measures, and weights, they'd put weights on it, and
then they'd put the grain or whatever, the gold dust or whatever
on that, and if it was equal, it would even out. Well, here's Christ on the scale
of God's absolute justice and righteousness and holiness, the
standard by which God Almighty requires of a man. Here it is. And the scripture
says we're like the dust of the balance. Put dust on the scale. I won't
even move it. He said you're lighter than dust.
He says we're vanity. Vanity of vanity. Here's the
conclusion of the matter. Anything we do is vanity. Only when life soon will be past,
only what's done for Christ will last, hogwash. He doesn't say
that in the Bible. Only what's done by Christ will
last. We're found in Christ. Then I
got over to Todd. I said, I don't look too tall
standing beside Todd, do I? I said, well, that's the way
God sees us if we stand beside Christ when I'm found. I want
to be judged in Christ. Paul said, I want to be found
in him, not having my own righteousness of the law, but that righteousness
which is his by faith, by the faith of Christ. I want him to
impute to me. I want him to cover me with his
righteousness. I want to be found in him. I said, what does that
mean? And all I did was just step over behind Todd. cover
me up. I said, now I'm big. I'm six foot two. Now you understand. What does it mean to be in Christ,
be found in Him? What does it mean to be judged? Every word, every secret thing,
good or whether it be evil, is going to be judged by Him. That's
what Scripture says. By Christ. According to Him. I want to be found in Him. I
want to be found in Him. The conclusion of the matter.