Ecclesiastes 5:1-3

Tonight I invite you to turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 as we begin a new chapter. Chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes. And I’ll direct your attention to the first three verses of this chapter for our text and study this evening. 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. 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, and therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through, the multitude of business and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. May God bless to us, he is sacred and holy word of this evening. In 1903, the Russian Tsar noticed that there was a century that was a sentry that was posted on the Kremlin grounds without any reason. whatsoever. Upon inquiry, and by the way the century didn’t know why he was there, he just, they had been doing this for years, and he discovered, though, that in 1776, Catherine the Great, found on the Kremlin grounds the first flower of spring. She said, post the century here, and guard that flower that nobody tramples it. And for about the next 127 years, they posted a century on the Kremlin grounds, and apparently after a period of time, they lost the reason why they were doing it, and they just continued to do it. It was a tradition without any real purpose to it. As we shall see, people also often blindly follow tradition. when it comes to the religious realm. Solomon has been concerned to show the meaninglessness of life lived under the sun. That phrase sort of gives us the idea without God, without reference to God, the humanistic approach to life. We talked about various human philosophies that people. pursue. One is that they pursue the almighty dollar. Get rich. Two, they pursue popularity. And three, they pursue power. But all of them, as we have seen, end up being vanity. In the course of this discussion, he has reminded us, or at least hinted several times, at man’s real problem of satisfaction, and the the reason for being true happiness and joy, he indicates to us, is found with a relationship with God. You recall in chapter 2, in verses 24 to 26, we find Solomon writing this, there is 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 that it was from the hand of God. For who can eat, who else can be hastened hereunto more than I? For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight. Wisdom and knowledge and 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 also is vanity and vexation of spirit. The only way we can really cope with the world, understand what’s happening in the world, is to have a right relationship with God, which is what he talks about here at the end of chapter 2. Solomon, however, realizes that many people get involved in religion, but it’s still not a genuine relationship with God. It’s one of tradition. There’s no substance to it. It’s all ritual and ceremony and outward show. He knows this also isn’t the answer. Only a true relationship with God is going to bring the satisfaction which man needs. So I want to speak tonight on how to avoid a hollow religion. And let me begin by saying this. You must avoid a hollow religion by sincerity. Your religion can be corrupted. Now in the mind of many people, religion is sort of an ugly word. Religion is by and large what we say some people get. They can get some dreaded disease. You know, they get religion. And they’re not looked on for. favorably for someone to get religion. It’s like catching some kind of disease. For the agnostic, any type of faith is religion and is to be rejected as a mystical hoax. But for a true believer, faith is a belief of the truth. In many times, religion is looked upon as only nominal. It’s just external. And that’s not the same thing as the true faith. The fact is Solomon here is fully aware that man’s approach to God can be corrupted. Just like everything else in this sin-sick world in which we live, religion can be corrupted. There is an artificial religion, just as there is a real religion. You know, James speaks about pure religion and undefiled before God. In James chapter 1 in verse 27, there is a pure religion. There is a godly religion. But then there’s the false one. We’re talking about, he wants to get us to focus on the genuine article here. In the 18th century, there was a poet named Robert Burns, which was quite popular, a lot of people. or familiar with some of his works, his poems. He used this distinction to contrast the simple, fervent faith of a Scottish believer in a cottage setting, farmer, let’s say, with the showy religion that many the formal churches of his day engaged in. He describes family worship as it was, and is really still practiced by godly Presbyterian folk in Scotland, the singing of the Psalm, the reading of Scripture, the kneeling for prayer. And then he writes this, he said, compared with this, how poor religion’s pride, in all the pomp of method and of art, when men display to congregate, congregations wide, devotions every grace except the heart. The power, and here he means God, the power incensed, the pageant will desert. The pompous strain, the sacrodotal stole, that happily in some village far apart may hear well pleased the language of the soul, and in his book of life the inmates poor in Rome. What a difference, he’s saying to the formalistic religion that I see and the poor cottage people and how simplistic and yet how realistic their worship is. Now, we have to understand that Burns while raised a Presbyterian had a complete aversion of anything that smacked a ritual. However, he was a skeptic. However, he was a skeptic. in the matters of religion. But on this point, I think he’s on target and what he’s talking about. There’s a lot of hollowness that is connected for much of what is called Christianity in today’s world. Too many hypocrites of the church, too many spiritually dead churches. And this hollowness become a stumbling block to people. What’s the Robert Burns 200 years ago or more? Just as it is for millions of people down through the centuries. They see people who are playing at religion. They’re not serious about religion. And they have a tendency then to write off all religion. Solomon wants you to know that truly religion is not just a chasing after the wind. It’s not a meaningless charade. yet religion can be made into one. And so your religion can be corrupted. Now, true religion requires you to have a sincere faith. Solomon here wants to distinguish between what is empty, what is meaningless with regard to religion and the real thing. He wants you to root out hypocrisy. He wants you to seek a true, relationship with the Lord God. Consequently, he begins with one of the most fundamental elements of the Christian experience, the worshippers approach to God. He talks about it here. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Now the scripture tells us that we should have a careful approach before God, and that we should be outwardly conforming to God’s will in our daily life and also build upon a inward love and devotion to Jesus Christ. The problem is that many people are just like the Israelites of old. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And that’s what Solomon is touching on here in this first verse. Your religion may not ring true. Even though you go through all the outward elements of worship, you show up for church, you say your prayers, you sing the Psalms, but it’s a whole outward show. There’s no inward reality to act. One night before U.S. soldiers were going to attack the German lines during war 2, there was a hundred men who belonged to one company that wrote letters home, and the chaplain, who was charged with the responsibility of censoring the letters, gathered all the letters together and put them in a pouch, hoping to look at them after the battle and censors. them then. When the battle was over, the men wrote home again. Well, the chaplain had not had time to go through the original notes that they sent home. So he had two sets of notes. He had the ones before they went into battle, and then he had the ones after the battle was over. Here’s what a sample was, that some of the things that he read before the battle, dear mother, were going to attack in the morning, and I’ve been thinking, give home and a view, and I vowed to God, if I come through tomorrow, I’m going to be a better person. Or, some even said, if you get me through this, I promise to enter into the ministry. After the battle, in the same handwriting, just three days later, to a friend in one regiment, the chaplain read this, Dear Joe, can you have leave? Last time we were in Paris, we had a lot of hot time, didn’t we? I’ve just come through a scorcher up front, and we were near death at every moment. If you can get leave and meet me in Paris, boy, we’ll go out and paint the town. Before the battle, oh God, if you just get me through till tomorrow, I’ll be a better man, or I’ll enter into the ministry. Afterwards, it’s party time. And that’s the problem with most of people’s religion. It’s just a temporary thing. There’s no reality to what they are even saying before God. Solomon’s saying here, you’ve got to avoid this altogether. You can avoid a hollow religion by sincere. Now, secondly, tonight, you must avoid a hollow religion by displaying reverence. Talks here about keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. Sometimes we forget who God is. This keeping of the foot here is an expression which we find in Isaiah 58, verses 13 and 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure in my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then thou shalt delight thyself and the Lord. So this keeping of your feet seems to have something to do here with being careful about obeying God’s will. In this case, in Isaiah 58, it was about the Sabbath and the worship of God. You don’t do your own thing on the Sabbath. You do what God commands you to do. You follow his will. Where you put your feet then tells you something about your attitude. a related passage that carries a very similar symbolism is the story that Russell read tonight from Exodus chapter 3, where God instructed Moses at the burning bush as he looked upon it to not to come any closer, but take your shoes off. Because where you’re standing is unholy. ground you’re entering my presence Moses feet must be clean come into the presence of God it was an outward sign of an inward reverence for the living God and his holiness and so when we look at this passage here by keeping your foot indicates some idea of how we should be living when we go to the house of God we don’t live the world and then go to the house of God and pretend as if everything is okay. The house of God certainly refers to the worship of God in this particular case, probably the temple worship that is being talked about. Today we would just say the assembly of God’s people. Throughout the history of Israel, the temple was the place where God revealed himself in all his glory. It was a special presence was founded to temple. Scripture says in Psalm 93-5, Holiness Becometh Thine House. Psalm 89-7 He is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints. A reverence, a fear, a holy fear of God coming into his presence. There’s a special way in which Christ is present when we come to worship as the people go. We gathered together. We’re two or three are gathered together. There I am in the midst of that. Jesus, we found in Revelation, Chapter 1, walks in the midst of the candlesticks. He’s there. He’s present. Each of those assemblies when they are gathered for worship of the Lord God. So we must have a reverence when we approach God. When we go to the Assembly of God, there needs to be a reverence, realizing God in a special way is present there. But we have very much a lack of this reverence in a lot of the church services that we find in modern worship today. It’s flippant. It’s vacant-minded worship. There’s a disregard for God’s appointed worship. Your attitude toward worship is important. The preparation of your heart in quietness even before you come to the assembly is important. If we know where we’re going, we’re going to the Lord, we’re going before the Lord God in a special way. We’re going to be with the people of God. We expect God to meet with us in a way when we come together. Therefore, we should keep our feet and come carefully to the house of God. Prepare our hearts for that occasion. And we should abandon ourselves in our singing that we would sing with full-throated praise to the Lord God because of what he’s done for us. And he’s our God and how great he is. We should have singleness of mind when we approach God in prayer that our minds not be drifting off and being locked. in our own thoughts. We should anticipate hearing God’s voice when the Word of God is preached so that God is speaking to us through His Holy Word. We should have a joyous reception of the bread of life when the Word of God is open to us in a celebration of our risen Savior as we gather together on the first day of the week. By the way, The world may celebrate Easter. As I always say, we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection every Sunday because that’s what it’s really about. Not one day a week, a year, every week we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in order for this to be a reality, what I’ve been talking about, you must be willing to concentrate your mind on the things above. and not on earthly things. We must avoid this mechanical worship, this mere ritual, just going through the paces of worship. It’s insulting to God. It’s worthless to us. So God would have us not come here without keeping our feet. Being careful, we’re coming into God’s presence. We’re like Moses at the burning bush. It’s the Lord’s day. Let’s get our thoughts away from the things of this world. Let’s focus on the things of the Lord and his thoughts. So you can avoid a hollow religion by displaying reverence for the Lord God. You must avoid a hollow religion by heeding to the message of God. He says, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do even. you. Now in the Christian order of things, ears come before lips. You know, scripture talks about being more ready to hear than to speak. Take he, Jesus said, how ye hear? For whoever hath to him shall be given, and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken, even that which he seemeth to have. Luke 818. how you hear when you come to the house of God. Be ready to hear what God has to say when you come to his house. Hearing presupposes here the idea of listening, taking in the message from God’s word. Yet some Christians are so full of their own thoughts and worldly things that it just crowds out the things of God. I’m afraid too many are like those that we read about, and Amos, when is the Sabbath going to get over, which I can get back to my business and cheating other people out of their money and everything else that they talk about? When can I get back to what I want to do? You must be willing to hear the message of God. Be still and know that I am God is the divine command. Psalm 858. I will hear what the Lord, what God the Lord will speak. He will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. Let them not turn again to fall. I will hear what he love to say. I like what Hebrews 4 too says. The word that was preached did not profit them who died in the wilderness. Why? Not being mixed with faith in them that hurt? We come in faith. We listen in faith. To what God says from his word. to go into the presence of God here in a worship service and not be ready to hear what he has to say is kind of foolish, isn’t it? It’s to give the sacrifice of fools. Now in the Old Testament, they actually brought a literal animal sacrifice. They went through the ritual. They brought their sacrifice, but it didn’t mean anything because they were really focused on what God had to say or what God wanted. Now, scripture talks about. us bringing the sacrifice of praise in Hebrews chapter 1315 talks about us when we we sing we sing with understanding so we know what we’re doing and so forth but doesn’t sacrifice indicate a recognition of a violation of the word of God that must not be repeated that we’re you know we’re recognizing are we’re sinners we come before the Lord God. But most people don’t realize that they’re doing evil when they come to church. You see what he says here? You see how he words it? But they consider not that they do evil. Here they are. You can go to church and do evil. Really? I thought I was doing my good deed for the week if I went to church on Sundays. No, you can go to church and sin again. the Lord God and you’re doing evil and doing it. That would be a greater evil if you didn’t show up probably but it’s evil to go to church and not have your heart ready to hear what God has to say. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. You didn’t keep your feet. You engage in wickedness and you have no intention of changing, but you’ll bring your sacrifice. God says it’s an abomination to me. If you’re going to engage in the worship of the the living God. Take heed. Take the heart what you hear. Realize the word of God is food for the soul. Hide it in your heart that you may not sin against the Lord God. National Geographic had an article on the Alaskan bull moose. The males of the species battle for dominance during the fall mating season. You probably have seen pictures of this where they They have these huge antlers and they’re running in each other and crashing together and fighting one another. The antlers are their only weapon they possess. During this head-to-head budding, so to speak, somebody’s antlers are going to get broken. They’re going to break off and then they become defenseless. They can’t handle the attack of the other. They have to moose, the one with the largest antlers, is the one who’s going to be the heavyweight champion in the end. But the secret to his success is his diet. His diet during the summer, so that by fall, he has gained the weight and strength of antlers that he needs to dominate during the mating season. So the battles, he has gained the weight and strength of antlers that he needs to dominate to dominate during the mating season. one during the summer, really. The one who consumes the best diet is the one who’s going to be the strongest. There’s a lesson here. If we want to be spiritually victorious, we better be taking in the word of God. We better have a rich diet. Not just take the milk in, but take the meat in too, so that we are prepared for whatever comes our way. We’re not just bringing the sacrifice of fools. were coming with a true reverence toward God and a desire to worship him and hear what he has to say. Feed our own souls that way. So you can avoid a hollow religion by heating the message of God. Notice something else here. You must avoid a hollow religion by engaging in genuine prayer. He’s still talking about approaching God here. But verses two and three says this. Be not rash with thy mouth. Let not thine heart. Let not thine heart. be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore let by words be few. For a dream coming through the multitude of business and a foal’s voice is known by a multitude of words. There’s two aspects here to our worship. One, as God speaks to us. Two, we speak to God. In prayer. But he tells us here. we have to guard our lips because prayer can be ruined by hastiness or wordiness. This is a warning signaling us to stay away from empty formalistic types of prayers. The types that Jesus talked about in the sermon in the mount where God is not impressed by our foolish babbling on and on or by our foolish repetition of words in prayer. You know, a dream is confused. It can be wild even. And it’s senseless at times. Since foolish things happen in a dream. It flows, he tells us, here, from a busy mind. We get busy and our mind is taken up with all this activity, and then when we lay down asleep we dream these wild dreams. Prayer can be similar. When our minds are taken up by all kinds of other things, we’re not focused. I’m not praying as we should before the Lord God. Proverbs 10, 19 says, in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise. It’s better to be of less words and more carefully stated to just spout. words one after another. This is true with our dealings with other human beings, and it’s certainly true in our dealings with God in particular. We had a tech. He didn’t last very long, about six months. He recently left the DCI clinic where I get dialysis. And I knew this guy was going to be testing my patients because he never shut up. He incessantly talked. He talked real lot. I could hear him all the way across the clinic. All day long. Jabber, jabber, jabber, jabber, jabber, jabber, jabber, jabber, you know. And here I am trying to work, you know, and I prefer to have it quiet. You know, I don’t, but he’s going on and on and on and on. But what happens is when somebody does that, you just basically tune them out. You try to just, because it’s just nonsense. He’s just talking about whatever flows through his mind. he’s not really saying anything meaningful. He just rambles on and on and on. There are people who are like that. Now, what Solomon says, you can’t be like that when you go to God in prayer. You can’t be just rambling through this prayer. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. But we have to come before the Lord reverently, humbly. So our prayers are not wasted, bright. breath. Here’s true prayer, what John’s 15-17-7. If you abide in me, Jesus says, in my words abide in you, he shall ask what you will, and it shall be done for you. Here’s a proper approach to prayer. You’re abiding in Christ, and you have Christ’s words hidden in your own heart. Now you’re ready to pray your prayer and ask for the right kind of things and have God answer those prayers. Most public prayers in the Bible that we read about are fairly short. I guess the one that is the longest that I can think about is solomons in the dedication of the temple. But a lot of times the prayers that we find in Scripture are short. Now, it’s true that Jesus prayed all night. But what is recorded for us is short. But a lot of times he prayed. quite lengthy in his private prayers. But he gave us a public prayer on the model prayer that we’re going to be looking at soon in Luke. He gave a rather short prayer for us to model after. And there’s a sense in which we have to be careful when we come before the Lord God. We weigh what we say. and not just mumble on or babble. Now here’s something that’s interesting. Look with me at Acts, if you would, Chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. We have the prayer here of the people of God, 24 verse, chapter 4, verse 24 through 31. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth. earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David has said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, and thou hast anointed both Herodod and Pontus Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold, their threatenings, grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders, may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. Now the setting of this is the church here was facing the severe threat by the Jewish religious leaders if they taught the truth of the gospel of Christ. They spoke about Christ. And so what happened was here, because they had the backing of the government, this was not a good situation. And so the disciples were told not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus. Stop this preaching. the people of God got together, and they held a prayer meeting to address the problem. I noticed some of the key features of this prayer. One, it’s short. Secondly, they began with the worship and adoration of God, verse 24. It was the one who’s the creator of all things. It continues with the application of Scripture to their precise problem. Versus 25 to 28, they go to Psalm 2, and they see this being fulfilled. built. That this attack on Christ as God’s anointed one did take place just as that passage as Scripture talks about. The kings and the people were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. So they did exactly what God had said and his purpose would be done, and it was revealed to us in Psalm 2. you’ll notice in verses 29 and 30 is on the glory of God, the advancement of his kingdom. They’re concerned that they may preach the gospel, and that they may boldly proclaim the truth that people may be converted and added to the kingdom of God. And then verse 31, God dramatically answered this prayer. Did he not? Gave them the boldness by empowering them by the Spirit. Here’s a very short prayer. Very reverent to the point, and it’s answered by God immediately. There’s always a danger of being cold and mechanical in our prayer life, babbling nonsense, actually contrary, something unto the revealed will of God, is the danger of being, you know, taken up with a bunch of trivial things that aren’t focused on the glory of God in his kingdom. advancing. It all comes down to the heart. It comes down to your heart, being ready to express prayers that are pleasing to God because they’re pattern after what God reveals to us in His Word. Only a joyous fellowship with Christ enables us to come with a warm and fervent prayer before the Lord God. The energy of the flesh can only produce what is lifeless what is formal prayer. So God here says, don’t come and babble words before me, but seek my face with an eye on the promises of God and on the glory of God. Well, let me close tonight by saying this. When Catherine the Great posted a century to guard a flower in 1770, it became a tradition the last at 127 years and nobody knew why the century was there after a period of time. Years after the original garden of the first flower sprang this century didn’t even know why he was on the Kremlin grounds. It’s just the dazzle with what the orders were and he just kept going year after year after year. The worship of God can be like that. We can get so used to doing things in the church and going through the same kind of things each time that we get used to the routine, so to speak. We need to be thinking about why we’re there and how we’re approaching the Lord God. So it doesn’t become just tradition. Because then we lose the life which ought to be in the worship that we have and our religion becomes corrupted. Solomon knows the true satisfaction requires a real relationship with God, not a cheap imitation. By the way, I’ve been plowing through Song of Solomon and studying it and I can’t help but imagine that when Solomon wrote the Song of Solomon, he knew what it was to have this close relationship with the Lord God and how real it is. Therefore, he sees the hypocrisy of just going through the ritual here in our text. We want to avoid a hollow religion by being sincere in our faith. By displaying a reverence for God, heeding the message of God, and engaging in genuine prayer. That’s what’s important. That’s what we should seek for. May God bless to us this word tonight that we’ve been considering. I don’t know.