Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for a study in the Word of God. That's
what we do on this program. Today I'll be preaching from
the Old Testament in a little book called Ecclesiastes. You may not have heard much preaching
from this book, Ecclesiastes, but I'm going to go to the last
chapter of Ecclesiastes. Basically, my text is the last
two verses. So it's Ecclesiastes 12 and verses
13 through 14. Now it is generally accepted
by Bible scholars that the human instrument that the Lord used
to write the book of Ecclesiastes was King Solomon, the wise man,
the son of David. And that's probably true, but
it doesn't matter. This is the Word of God. And
so we shouldn't get hung up and divide over issues of the human
writers. Sometimes it gives us a little
insight into what's being said. But we need to understand that
the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the word of God. And so what
I want to talk to you about today from Ecclesiastes chapter 12
is this subject, the conclusion of the matter. the conclusion
of the matter. And that's where Solomon, as
he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, concluded the whole book with
these two verses, verse 13. He says, let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. And then he says, 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. So let us hear the
conclusion. The conclusion of the matter,
or as Solomon wrote, the whole matter. Now the book of Ecclesiastes
is a book about life. Life on this earth. And I've often heard people say
that the theme of Ecclesiastes is the phrase, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. And the word vanity,
as you know, means worthless. Well, back up in Ecclesiastes
12, verse eight, Solomon repeats that. He repeats it throughout
Ecclesiastes, but listen to what it says in Ecclesiastes 12, in
verse eight. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher,
all is vanity. Now Solomon is writing to the
congregation of Israel, who were typical of the true people of
God. In fact, the word Ecclesiastes,
you may have heard the term Ecclesia, which refers to the church or
a gathering. That's what it is, it means a
congregation or a gathering. And he's telling them, that life
on this earth without worshiping, well let's put it this way, life
on this earth, this is the theme of Ecclesiastes, life on this
earth without seeking the Lord, without serving the Lord, worshiping
the Lord, life on this earth without the grace of God, without
Christ essentially, is worthless. Ultimately worthless. Now I know
that as people go through life they can do things that affect
others for years and years down the road and we wouldn't consider
that worthless. But what Solomon is doing is
he's putting things in the perspective of eternity. Eternal value. And what it is, he's showing,
my friend, this world is not going to last forever. And God
has appointed a time for everything. You remember in Ecclesiastes
3, to everything there is a season and a purpose, a time for everything
under heaven. That's God's sovereign providence. God is absolutely sovereign in
all things. God created this world. He's
the ruler. He's the governor. He's the sovereign
of this world, of the whole universe. And He works all things after
the counsel of His own will. And until God brings a sinner
to recognize this, and to seek the Lord, and to worship Him,
and follow Him, it really, in the scheme of eternity, is all
worthless. Solomon goes through a whole
plethora of different things, man's work, man's play, all these
things. He says there's nothing wrong
with us working and enjoying the fruits of our labors as long
as we thank God, seek God, and we thank Him and seek Him through
Christ. And so now in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, he concludes this
book by saying, verse one, remember now thy creator in the days of
thy youth. It's good for a person to seek
the Lord, worship the Lord, serve the Lord when he's young, when
she's young. Because he says, and he uses
metaphorical language to describe old age from there. And then
he comes to this, verse eight, vanity of vanity, saith the preacher,
all is vanity. And he says in verse nine, listen
to this, and moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still
taught the people knowledge. Now that's what a wise preacher
does. He teaches people knowledge. And where are we gonna find that
knowledge? From the word of God. That's
what I do. I preach the word of God. I don't
preach my own word or dreams or visions or opinions that I
have. I want to tell you what God's
word says because that's the knowledge you need. That's the
knowledge I need. Christ said in his high priestly
prayer in John 17, I believe it's verse three, he says, this
is life eternal that they may know thee, the true and living
God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. How am I gonna know
God? Through Jesus Christ who is the
God man, who is the redeemer of his people, who died on the
cross to save his people from their sins. And so he taught
the people knowledge. Verse nine, yea, he gave good
heed. In other words, he not only taught them knowledge, but
he took stock in it, he followed it, and he says, and sought out
and set in order many proverbs. And you know Solomon is attributed,
a lot of the proverbs in the book of Proverbs are attributed
to Solomon too. Verse 10, the preacher sought
to find out acceptable words, appropriate words. You may have
a concordance there, it says words of delight, but now the
word of God, the words of God are only a delight to the people
of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. And then he says in verse 10,
and that which was written that was upright, even words of truth.
Verse 11, the words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened
by the masters of assemblies which are given from one shepherd. The words of God do many things
for God's people. They convict us, they encourage
us, they teach us, they comfort us, all of those things. They
guide us. And he says, like nails fastened
by the masters of assemblies which are given from one shepherd,
and the one shepherd is Christ. He is the good shepherd. He is
the chief shepherd. He is the great shepherd. The
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And so that's
Christ. And so the only way we're really
gonna understand and know the word of God in salvation, from
Genesis to Revelation, is to see Christ in the scriptures.
So he says in verse 12, and further, by these my son be admonished,
be corrected, of making many books there is no end, and much
study is a weariness of the flesh. And what he's talking about there
is the books of men. You go into the bookstores today,
even the religious bookstores, and mainly what you see is a
self-help kind of thing. Here's how you can help yourself.
It's not studies of God's word. It's always something that takes
you away from God. So here's the conclusion of the
whole matter. Now look at verse 13. Let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. When we consider the whole of
life, When we consider everything that
we do or don't do, everything we build, everything we act upon,
everything we set our time to and our attention, here's the
conclusion of the whole matter. Now what's following is something
very important and here's what he starts off with. He says,
fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of
man. Fear God. Now what does that
mean? Well, that means to respect God. It means to reverence God. It means to seek God as God reveals
Himself in His Word. That's what it means. It means
to believe God. That's what fear God is. It means
to worship God. It means to serve God, not out
of legal fear. You know, there is a legal fear.
You know, legal fear is natural to even unbelievers. It's natural
to all of us. Legal fear is the kind of fear
that motivates you to worship and serve a God as you think
He is in order to attain or maintain salvation. Serving God for what
you can get out of him. Legal fear is a fear of loss
of reward. I heard a preacher say one time
the reason he preached is because he didn't want to lose his reward.
Well, that's legal fear. Legal fear is mercenary. It's the kind of person who is
a hireling. Legal fear is fear of hell. Now, any of us should fear to
go to hell, but the believer's motivation for serving God is
not just to stay out of hell. It's because God has saved that
person by his grace, and his motive is grace and love and
gratitude, not legalism, not mercenary promise of earned reward. The Bible says in Romans 3.18
that by nature there's no fear of God before our eyes. That's just by nature. So this
fear here is a godly fear that arises from God-given faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety of my salvation. Solomon
wrote in Proverbs chapter one that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge. And that's what this is all about.
Worship God, seek the Lord. Now how am I going to seek the
Lord? Well, you seek the Lord in His word. Now there are things
that we can know about God from looking at nature, looking at
providence. But if you're gonna seek the
Lord, you need to go to His word, the Bible. This is God's revelation
of Himself. And if you find what it says
in the Bible about God, you may come away saying, well, I don't
really understand all that. But to fear him is to say, that's
the way it is. That's who God is. How do you
know? Because it's in the Bible. That's how God reveals himself.
I've mentioned in several messages on this program the doctrine
of election. God chose a people. And a lot
of people don't like that today. A lot of them who call themselves
Christian, they don't like that. And they concoct a view of God
that is not scriptural. They say, well, God looked down
through the telescope of time and foresaw who would believe.
They make God a crystal ball gazer. And that's not the way
the Bible portrays God. A lady told me one time that
a friend of hers asked her about this. He asked her, he said,
what do you think about this election thing? And she said
she didn't know what to tell him. And I told her what to tell
him. What do I think about? It's in the Bible. That's what
God reveals of himself. And if that's what God reveals
of himself, then I'm going to fear God and not man. I'm gonna believe God. You say,
well, I don't understand all that. It doesn't matter. That's
what God says of himself. Now, if you seek God in his word,
what are you gonna find? You're gonna find that God reveals
himself through Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me give
you the two things that you need to understand. to find the true
and living God as he reveals himself in the Word of God. First
of all, you need to know what the Bible says about the person
of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, the
Bible says that he is God in human flesh. He is God-man. The Bible reveals God in the
three persons of the Godhead, not three gods. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Now I don't understand that.
That's a concept that's impossible for a human being to get our
minds around. But it's the way God reveals
himself. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God
in three persons. And that God, through the Son,
the second person of the Trinity, reveals the glory of the Godhead,
the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. If you want to know God
the Father, if you want to know God the Son, if you want to know
God the Holy Spirit, who do you go to? Where do you look? You
look to Christ, who is God in human flesh. John 1 14. The Word
was made flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled, among us. Matthew
1.21 says, for his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And then verse 23 says, for his
name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God
with us. Colossians chapter 2.9 says that
in him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and you are complete in Him.
If you want to know the glory of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, you look to Christ, who He is. He's God in human
flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. So therefore, anyone who denies
the deity of Christ or the humanity of Christ, they do not fear God. Another way that we seek and
find and know God is through the work of Christ. And that
refers to His work as God-man, as He, as the representative,
the surety, the substitute, the redeemer, and the intercessor
of His people, came to this earth He became incarnate. Isaiah said
it. The son was given, the child
was born. And he came to this earth made
under the law, made of a woman, that's his humanity, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. His redemptive
work. And it goes to this, what did
Jesus Christ actually accomplish? when He died on that cross for
the sins of His people. And what the Bible teaches is
that He accomplished the complete salvation of all whom the Father
had given Him before the foundation of the world. Didn't He say in
John chapter 6 and verse 37, all that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me? And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. Now most people
look at verses like that and they say, well, that's what God
wants to do, but he can't do unless you let him. And that
is not the God of the Bible. You don't fear God, if that's
what you believe. Christ came to put away the sins
of his people. by his death on the cross. And
let me tell you what he did. He put them away. The sins of
his people were imputed, charged to him. And he died on that cross
and satisfied the justice of God in their place. It's called
a propitiation. That is, he turned back the wrath
of God from them. He took upon himself the wrath
of God for their sins. And in doing that, he established
righteousness by which God justifies them. God forgives them their
sins. God will not charge them with
sins. And God declares them righteous
in His sight. And they must be saved. They
must be born again. That righteousness that Christ
worked out on the cross is the ground of their justification,
but it's also the source and power of their new birth, regeneration
and conversion. So all for whom Christ died will
be born again. They will be brought to faith
in Christ. And go back to Ecclesiastes 12
verse 13. He says, fear God, and then he
says, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of
man. Whenever we see the term, keep his commandments, you know,
Christ himself, he said that his people keep his commandments.
Well, what are his commandments? Well, most people go to the Ten
Commandments. But when it comes to a right
relationship with God, it is not based upon the keeping of
the Ten Commandments. Now, we should all seek to obey
God. We should all seek to be moral
people. The summation of all the commandments
of God is love God with all your heart, soul, mind, spirit. Love your neighbor as yourself.
We should all strive to do that. But we also have to understand
that we are sinners. And as sinners, We cannot keep
the law perfectly so as to earn or attain or maintain salvation. Salvation is not by deeds of
law, it's not by our works, it's by the grace of God. And the
grace of God, you know what most people think of the grace of
God today? They think of grace as you do your part and God'll
do his, or God'll fill in the blanks, you do what you can do,
and where you fall short, God'll fill in the blanks with Christ.
That is not grace. Romans 5 21 says that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness All right, now righteousness is perfection,
the perfection of the law. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation is based not on my
law-keeping. It's based upon Christ's law-keeping
for Christ, Romans 10 and four. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You see that? Grace is God's righteousness
at Christ's expense. And all who come to faith are
brought to faith by the Holy Spirit. All who are brought to
fear God, they believe in Christ. They rest in Christ. They trust
Christ. They submit to His righteousness
as their only righteousness before God. And so when he says keep
his commandments, what is he talking about? He's talking about
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the gospel command. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. He's talking about repenting
of our dead works. Repent. Except you repent, you'll
perish. And what am I to repent of? Yes,
I'm to repent of my sins, but I'm also to repent of those things
which I thought were good. But when I thought they recommended
me unto God, I found that they were evil. One old preacher said
that believers are brought by God to repent of their sins,
S-I-N-S, and they're brought to repent of their sin, what
they are by nature, and then they're brought to repent of
their own righteousness. Like the Pharisee and the publican,
the Pharisee thought he was righteous. Well, he's commanded to repent
of that. And then yes, we're commanded
to be obedient to God, to follow Christ, to imitate Him. Not in
order to be saved. Not in order to earn our rewards. Not in order to keep ourselves
safe. And not in order to attain assurance. We're commanded to obey Him.
with the obedience of grace, love, and gratitude from faith,
knowing that Christ, Christ is the only merit I have before
God. Christ is my only assurance, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of my faith. And so when he says, this is
the whole duty of man, fear God and keep his commandments for
this is the whole duty of man, he's talking about believing
in, trusting, resting in, following the Lord Jesus Christ as he is
revealed, identified and distinguished in this word, the word of God. And it shows from Genesis to
Revelation, Christ is in every book. He's either there by prophecy,
he's there by picture and type and shadow, he's there by explicit
testimony, he's described and many times he's spoken of as
already having done a work which was to be left to be done in
the future because God sees things that are not yet done as though
they were. That's his eternal perspective and Christ is, the
one and only Savior of sinners. There's none other. If you believe
there are many ways to heaven like many people do today, you
don't fear God. Because the God of this book,
he states out clearly, there is none other name given among
men whereby we must be saved than that which we have testified,
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He's the only way
of salvation. My friend, without Christ, there's
no salvation. Without Christ, there's no forgiveness. Without Christ, there's no righteousness. Without Christ, there's no saving
faith. And without Christ, there is
no fear of God. That's the conclusion of the
whole matter. Fear God, keep His commandments, this is the
whole duty of man. Now, as you read through the
Bible, You're gonna come upon many things about God that just
will boggle your mind. But what do you do? You fear
God. You fear God and keep His command.
You fear God and look to Christ, rest in Christ. You follow Christ. And that's the whole duty of
man. There's nothing else really when
it comes to eternity. We have responsibilities in this
life and Solomon talks about them all the way through Ecclesiastes.
My friend, this is the whole duty of man. This is the conclusion
of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments.
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.