Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses
13 and 14. Let's just read these two verses. The preacher here, which is Solomon,
Concludes both this book and his thoughts upon Everything
that he is before developed so of the the preceding things that
he's talked about and he's developed he draws conclusion To these
and he says in verse 13. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter here God 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 bad or whether
it be evil. So the end of all that has been
said previously, and really that shall ever be remarked concerning
us, God's creatures, men and women, he says, he gives three
things. Basically, fear God, keep his
commandments, and know that God's going to bring every work into
judgment. Now, what are we to pursue? As a believer,
what are we to pursue? What is our great purpose? What
does our glorious God command of us? Or questions that I had
written down as I looked at these last two verses. We're not left to wonder. We're
not left to guess. We're not left to develop organizations
and Bible classes and car washes and all these different things
to try to figure out what our purpose is. We got a flyer in
the mail at home today. And it was from Teen Maniac Ministries
or something like that. And it had all this stuff that
you have to do in order to figure out what your purpose is. And
you must invite these people into your church and then you
must invite all the young people so they can figure out what they
need to do. Well, most preachers, not any
that you know or the ones that are the pastors of Sovereign
Grace that I know, They're not going to look at these last two
verses and say, OK, here's a checklist. Now, most religion will. They'll
just say, OK, it's a checklist. You this is what your responsibility
is. This is your the whole matter. This is your duty. Fear God.
Keep his commandments and realize that God's going to bring every
work into judgment, good or evil. And then you as you live your
life, you begin to do these checklists. Well, we know that this is not
the case because as from Genesis to Revelations, grace is the
theme of this book. Grace is God's glory and grace
is the believers, as David says, song in the night. But let's
look at these things as it's laid out before us. Let us hear
the conclusion of the whole matter. First thing we're going to look
at is fear God. Again, I'll let someone say,
okay, this is just a checklist. And I can, first of all, I know
many religious people try to figure out how to fear God. They
look at all these things as steps. Step one, step two, step three.
Checklist, as I said before. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter
32. Jeremiah chapter 32. This is
the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. He starts off there. Jeremiah chapter 32. I think this is just absolutely
beautiful the way this is worded in this book. Which none of the
wording in this book, how it's worded, the phrases, the grammar,
none of it is by air, none of it is by option, it is all by
inspiration of God, written down for our use and edification exactly,
exactly as it is to be read and to be written and to be received. Jeremiah 32. Now remember, let's
get to the conclusion of the whole matter. The first point
is, fear God. Fear God. Jeremiah 32 and verse
40. Jeremiah 32 and verse 40. Now this is God speaking. He
says, I will make an everlasting covenant with them, God's people,
that I will not turn away from them to do them good. There's
Romans 828 right there just in the Old Testament. He's guaranteed
through the covenant of God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ
to do us good. Look at what he says in this
next phrase. But I will. That's God speaking about what
he's going to do for us. I will put my fear in their hearts. The conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God. You can't do it. I can't do it. God does it for His people. God
does it for His church. God does it for His elect. God
does it for His remnant. So, what God commands His people,
He provides for His people. What He requires, He provides
everything we have need in the person of Jesus Christ. He says,
I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from
me. That's Jeremiah 32. Now back
to our text. The conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear. And he says, God says, I will
put. That is grace. That is majestic,
pure, sovereign, sweet, amazing grace. God says, I will put. fear in their hearts and our
brother here in Ecclesiastes said let's hear the conclusion
of the whole matter fear God we can't do it but in Christ
he puts that fear in our hearts now we return as we look at our
text fear God that is an expanded definition of this would be a
humble reverential worship for Christ, for King Jesus. To fear
God is to have a reverential respect and awe for God Almighty
through Christ. Once the new heart of grace is
placed in the sinner, we cannot help but fear, respect and worship
God. So what's our purpose? Once you
know, we don't need 40 days to figure this out. We don't need
20 days. We don't need 10 days. The believer who knows who's
been shown. What we are and what he is. We worship God, we fear God,
we worship him. Notice in this, as it is written
in our text here, this is the first or the preeminent thing
in the conclusion of the whole matter. God must be worshipped
or feared in order for us to know him correctly. Salvation
and fear, that is worship, they go hand in hand. When God does
a work through the preaching of the gospel, There's not a
bunch of arguing going on. That's what I love about the
Gospels. You know, I was reading an article, I don't know, sometime
this week, and the more preachers, the more religion debates, whether
it's Islam or Christianity or Protestant or Catholic, the more
debate There's nothing solved. I like what Milton Howard told
me years ago. He said, have you ever really
won an argument? Yes, you might have stated your
position much clearer than the other person. You might be a
better orator. You might be a better thinker.
You might be a good, you know, these debate teams. You might
be good at debate. But in the things of God, it's
not about any of that. Usually what debate does is cause
division and separation and hard feelings. But when the gospel
is preached and believed, when God is feared, in all companies,
it's all together. You cannot separate the fear
of God and worship and salvation go hand in hand. If someone tells
you that they have been redeemed and do not reverence or submit
to God or this word, they're sadly mistaken. They're sadly
mistaken. Trying to separate these things,
the things of God, the salvation, regeneration, and the fear of
God, and reverence of God, and worship of God. To try to separate
these things is to try to separate imputation and impartation. When Christ redeems us, he imputes
to us his righteousness. And then he imparts his nature. We're new creatures in Christ.
You can't separate it. They go hand in hand. They go
one goes with the other. That's what James was talking
about. And people get so confused about the book of James. They
say, well, he's talking about works. He's talking about works accompanying
or after salvation. You have a tree. If it's a good
tree, it produces fruit. If it doesn't produce fruit,
then it's not It's not growing. It's not doing what a fruit tree
is supposed to do. It's useless. It's worthless. And in Christ,
we bear fruit, now some more than others, but they are going
to go hand in hand. This truth, fear God, worship
God, reverence Him. This truth and experience of
grace is what I'm going to call it. is vital to our health and
growth in the gospel. It's vital to our growth and
health in the gospel. Gospel preaching produces or,
say produces, it reveals or it draws out within the believer
worship. Worship of God, reverence of
Him. You know, our services, you know,
and I got to thinking, well, what if we had 100, 200, 300
people? That'd be a nice situation to
think about. Would we do anything different
in our worship services? I can't really think that we
would. We keep things simple. Would we have more to do for
the children? We used to do that when we were gathered before.
Every now and again, I think Jackie or whoever was teaching
the Bible class, they'd say, all the kids were going to go
to the slide, the slip and slide there at Jackson. It was not
really a church function. It was just if you wanted to
go, you go. There was no, you know, trying to get people in
and plays and all these different things. No. The preaching of
the gospel. We keep it simple. We speak of
Christ and Him crucified. The simplicity. That's in Christ. And when that is done and that
is preached and that is believed and God is worshiped and feared
and reverence and his son and his blood and his righteousness.
There's going to be growth. There's going to be fellowship.
There's going to be love. There's going to be all these
different things. I don't I do not need to stand up here. and
preach to you a 20-part message on how the husband should treat
his wife, and how the wife should treat the husband, and all these
different things. We stand up here and we proclaim
Christ and Him crucified. Now, I'm open to if people want
to ask me questions and this and that, you know, when you've
lived 30, 40, 50 years, or been married so many years, there's
some things that you learn and you understand, and there's nothing
wrong with passing those things on, You usually learn through
experience, the experience of grace, that only grace can teach.
Secondly, look at our text. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God. Keep his commandments. Keep his
commandments. That is, believe the gospel account
and person of Jesus Christ. How do we learn to love one another?
We learn, Christ said, You love me. If you've done this to one
of these, you've done it to me. We love him because he first
loved us and we love those who are like him. How do we seek
him first and his kingdom? Through him, by and through Christ. Every time the gospel is preached,
obey the commandment. The conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear God, reverence Him, worship Him, keep His commandments. Believe
on Me. He that believes on Me shall
not see death. When Christ would preach, repent
their parents. When Christ would preach, believe
on Me. In Me is eternal life. His commandments. He's not talking
about the Ten Commandments. You know, again, there's preachers
that just preach a checklist. And all that will produce a checklist. But we can't do it. Believe it,
believe Him. Every time the gospel is preached,
we never stop coming to Christ. Peter tells us, unto whom coming?
Unto Christ. We just keep coming. Keep coming.
You say, well, I thought we're completing Him. We are. We're
completing Him. We grow in grace. We're made
more like Him. We learn. So the believer never stops coming.
We never stop believing Him. We never stop worshiping Him.
We never stop submitting to Him. This is the conclusion of the
whole matter. When I see you, Lord willing, this coming Sunday, we're going to worship Him. We're
going to fear God. If He gives us grace, if the
Spirit's here, if you just hear my words, that's all they're
going to be, just the words of a sinful man. But if the Spirit
takes these things and opens your heart, opens your mind,
you will worship Him. And you'll desire to keep His
command. You'll desire to believe the Gospel and live of this Gospel. I looked at this, and I was Thinking,
now what's a good example? Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God. Reverence Him. Worship Him. Adore
Him. Love Him. Keep His commandments. Believe the Gospel. Live the
Gospel. Every time you open this book,
desire to obey Christ. If the Lord has given you light
in an area, Obey that, obey him and glorify him, submit to him.
I know we sound and speak often
like our brother did years ago. He said, Lord, I believe, but
help my own belief. There's the problem. There's
a problem. May he give us daily grace to
believe and to live and to learn of his gospel. That's the conclusion
of the whole matter. I just had a meeting Friday up
at St. Louis, and the leading salesman,
his conclusion of the whole matter for him, and he makes it plain
every time he wins a certain whatever, it's money. Money is
what makes the world go round. Money is what pays his bills.
Money is what he seeks for. Money is what he goes after.
He's very plain about that. The conclusion of the whole matter
to him is money. I'm sorry, but I'm not. The conclusion
of the whole matter for the believer, though we're in this world, though
we pay taxes, though we work, though we do these things, enjoy
life, is to fear God and to keep His commandments. Submit to Him,
bow to Him, be in awe of His grace, and believe His gospel. And he says, and thirdly, he
says, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every
secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. My thought
on this was to live in this world so as to keep our eyes and our
mind and our heart and our affections heavenward. That's the duty, the whole duty
of man. Fear God, keep His commandments,
and live, verse 14, knowing that God rules, reigns, and He's going
to have judgment. Judgment is coming. That is,
live as we believers, as we live in this world, as though our
eyes and our minds and our hearts and our affections are heavenward.
I get really frustrated. The times I get frustrated is
when I realize it's been several days and I haven't studied, I
haven't read, or I haven't, because I'm involved with something else.
You know, Bruce asked me out, how's it going? Well, you know,
business is going great. It's just too much. Too much
going on. Then this is happening. That's
happening. That's going on. It's life. Life, that's it. Remember, God's going to bring
every work into judgment. Every work into judgment. The
scripture says we are to redeem the times, realizing that every
breath we take is closer to judgment. Walk with a loose hand around
the things of this world. is passing away. But what does
this book, what does Peter say? It's passing away, but the Word
is eternal. The Word is eternal. It's an
everlasting gospel. Honor God by honoring the Son
and obeying the Son. Turn with me to John 5. That's
what he says here in John 5. I had to read this over about
20 times. Well, I can figure out just, you know, maybe it's
just me, but sometimes I'll read something and it's just, what's
he saying? What's he saying here? But in
light of this last verse, it unfolded. Actually, Robert Hawker
shared this, and I was thinking, he's on a level I don't even
know what he's talking about. And I read it, and I read it,
and I read it, and I read what he had to say about it, and then
I started looking at what the Scriptures here and in the last verse and
look at them back and forth and then this thing started making
sense John 5 verse 22 and 23 let me re-read verse 14 for God
shall bring every work into judgment John 5 verse 22 and 23 Christ
says for the Father judges no man but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. He that honors not the Son honors
not the Father which hath sent him. Live your life realizing
that it is all coming to an end. Honor the Son, fearing Him, reverencing
Him, worshiping Him, obeying the Gospel, living in the Gospel.
And realizing that this is not our home. We're pilgrims. And
thereby honor the son and honoring the father. And realizing he's
given all judgment into his hands. Well, we need to live. Turn to Genesis chapter 5. Bruce
and I have spent a lot of time talking about this. This is something
I think we could talk about for a long time. How are we to
live? Now let me read how one man lived,
Genesis chapter 5. This man lived according to the conclusion of
the whole matter. Worshipped God in reverence, feared God,
obeyed His commandments, the gospel, and understood that he
was just passing through this world. And this is how it's praised. Now, commentaries can be written
on this. Bruce and I spent a lot of time
talking about it. Genesis 5 and verse 24. This is the third thing. Live
as knowing our home is not here. And Enoch, he's a believer, walked
with God And he was not, for God took him. Now you want to
explain to me what that means, Enoch, walk with God? Everything
it means, and all that it means. I don't know. I know Bruce and
I spent a lot of time on it. I believe it includes fearing
God, worshiping Him, adoring Him, submitting to him. I believe it includes keeping
his commandments, that is, obeying the gospel. Seek where the gospel
is preached. Submit to the gospel. Learn of
the gospel. Seek Christ day in and day out. Redeem the times and walk through
this world like he enacted, walking with God. I would love I would love, and
I might maybe just try to do this over at a conference, I
don't know. I do this occasionally. I'll get something that just
sticks in my craw and then I'll just find out what all these
other men think about it. And I love talking with these other
preachers. But I would love to sit down with every sovereign
grace preacher I know and discuss this in Genesis. Enoch walked
with God to the edifying of my soul. I would love to do that.
Yet I know eventually That God, the Holy Spirit must teach me
what it most surely means. I know he uses, he uses one of
the, he uses us to help us understand the scriptures, but it must be
God, the Holy Spirit that would teach us what that truly means.
But I do know whatever that means, that Enoch walked with God. And
I don't mean it's, I was driving on the way home from And I don't
think it means anything against Bruce here with his affiliation
with big trucks and big rigs. But it doesn't mean driving down
the interstate 55 with a huge cross emblazoned on the side
of that 18-wheeler. I don't think that's what that
means. I think that's what people want everybody to see. I don't
think it means Making sure somebody is watching you and you bow your
head before you have meal out in public. I think walking with God. One
man said whatever the religious world says it's the opposite
of that. You know beads? I don't think so. Programs? I don't think so. What's wrong
with standing up and just preaching the gospel? Preaching this book.
Fear God, the God of this book, the sovereign reigning monarch. Keeping his commandments, knowing
that we in among ourselves are unable to do the least that he
requires. So knowing that it's got to be
all blood-bought righteousness for us to even fear him and to
do those things which he commands. But knowing that which he commands,
he provides in Christ. And lastly, The whole matter,
like our brother said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole
matter before God Almighty is to walk through this world with
a light grip around the things of this world. May He teach me
and may He teach us together as we sojourn. May He teach us
as His bride and His people to walk with God in worship, in
obedience and in hopeful expectation to glorify Him. It's just really
not, I'd say it's not that complicated because you know how much struggles
we have. We struggle with stuff. The flesh
is never going to get any better. The old man is never going to
quit. But really, by His enabling, it's singular and it is simple. May we be taught of Him and learn
of Him, to walk with Him. And then we'll help one another
and encourage one another. And it could be that somebody
would say, that person is walking contrary to this religion, to
this denomination, to this, this person is set. They're set. They walk with purpose. And the
religion is just kind of everywhere. Whatever people say, whatever
they think, whatever they want, whatever they want to do, it's
all about pleasing people. But this person seems to be...
And then they would say, what? What is this walk? What are you
doing? Who do you worship? And we could tell them, Christ
and Him crucified.