Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Cuisiastes chapter 12 for our text and verses 13 and 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. 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. The Lord blessed to us is sacred and holy word this evening. Many years ago there was a temperance preacher who was lecturing on the evils of drink and liquor. And he would cry out, Who has the most money to spend? The saloon keeper, he would reply. Who has the biggest house? The saloon keeper, he replied. Who has the finest furs and the most jewelry? The saloon keeper’s wife, he replied. And who pays for all this? You do, my friends. You do. A few minutes, a few days. later, a couple who had been in the audience ran into the eloquent speaker. They congratulated him on his wonderful speech. And he said, I’m pleased to see that you’ve given up drinking, the lecturer said. To which the man replied, well, not exactly we bought a saloon. It’s interesting to know that the body. The Bible always presents the positive and the negative side of a matter. The scriptures do not merely tell you what’s bad, like the temperance preacher, but also what is good and what is pleasing in the eyes of God. So it lays before you two paths and a choice to be made. The temperance speaker in advance. verily ended up promoting saloon keeping by what he said. But the Bible never makes that kind of mistake with regard to evil. Solomon has laid before you all that this life has to offer. He has talked about seeking satisfaction and pleasures and work and wealth and possessions and wine and women and song and so forth. And Solomon now is going to give you the conclusion. to his extensive experiment here in verse 13. The end of the matter is that satisfaction is only to be found in God himself. And thus the book ends by laying before you a clear choice. Pursue the things of this world and you will remain unsatisfactory. Seek God and you will find satisfaction. I want to talk tonight on the topic of the whole duty of man. Now you are told the reason for your existence here in verse 13 when he says let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Here we have a summary of your duty in this passage of Scripture. Ralph Barton was one of the top cartoonist of the nation at one point, but he left this note pinned to his pillow before taking his life. He said, I have had few difficulties, many friends, many successes. I have gone from wife to wife. and from house to house visited the great countries of the world, but am fed up with inventing devices to fill up 24 hours of my day. Seems that Ralph Barton didn’t understand why he was here on earth. He thought it was all about seeking pleasures, all about amusement. But he became bored. with life. Solomon’s book provides the answer to such a question. The great inquiry which Solomon pursues in this book is found in chapter 2 and verse 3, what is that good which the sons of men should do? And here, after recounting how he vainly sought in the answer to this question among many of the activities and things of life. He speaks of the conclusion. Man’s whole duty is summarized as fear God and keep his commandments. Failure to comprehend this leaves you clueless with regard to your existence on this earth. Otherwise, you may think that you’re only here as the result of random chance processes. You may think that there is no reason for your existence, no purpose for life. Everything that happens, therefore, is just an accident, just mindless evolution, as one person put it. If there’s no God, then life is an invitation to a scavenger hunt but the there’s no treasure or prize at the end. Your intellect drives you to ask the question, why am I here? But if there is no God, you have no answer. The question goes unanswered. The question becomes a curse, a lifelong frustration. You have no spiritual direction. Nothing about fearing God and keeping His commandments. The catechism asks the question, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. So your main concern in life is to fear God and do what he has commanded in his word. Everything else is secondary and of minor significance. So we have the summary of your duty. So your duty, first of all, all he tells us is to fear God. The foundation for true religion is always the fear of God. That must be reigning in your heart. And this fear is a reverence for the Lord God. A holy respect for the majesty of God. The holiness, the righteousness, the righteousness, the omnipotence of your creator and redeemer, a dread of angering him, a dread of incurring his wrath. Thus we read in Psalm 33 in verse 8, let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe before him. the fear of God is manifested in several ways. and here are some of the marks. one, you have a hatred of sin. look with me at Proverbs chapter 8 and verse 13 if you would just a few pages back. Proverbs 8 and 13. He tells us here, and this is Solomon who is writing, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogance in the evil way and the froward mouth to I hate. So what is one of the things that mark the fear of God is the hatred of evil. The person who fears God has a reverential attraction for him will hate all that’s contrary to the holiness of God. In other words, what God reveals in his commandments to do these things are the very things that you will seek to do, because the opposite of that is evil. evil words cursing, swearing, obscene and filthy language the froward mouth God hates. Evil men and their company who oppose God and his people do not I hate them that hate thee, the psalmist says in Psalm 139.21. Ye that love Lord hate evil. Psalm 97 10. such as evil thoughts. I hate vain thoughts, David said. So the thing that we should keep an eye on here is do we hate evil? We have a hatred of sin. Secondly, you will depart from evil. Look at Proverbs 16 and verse 6. Proverbs 16, verse 6. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. By the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. Now, we’re not talking here just about open and public sin. We’re talking about private, also, and secret sins. Job was a man that feared God, and what do we read about him? He eschewed evil, the Bible tells us. He avoided it. He departed from it. The person who fears God does not enter into the path of the wicked. Like Joseph, your mind is constantly saying, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against the Lord? The third thing here is you will worship God. Look at Psalm 22, verses 23 to 25. Psalm 22 verses 23 to 25. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye see it of Jacob glorify him. And fear him, O ye seed of Israel. For he hath not despise nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard, my praise shall be of thee in the great congregation, and I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The great congregation courses the assembly of God’s people, no doubt at the temple. and so the idea here is, of course, you can’t fear God if you’re not worshiping him. Fear the Lord leads to praise in worshiping and glorifying the Lord God. They meet in the great congregation. Thus they don’t forsake the assembling of themselves together as some do. God is not in the thoughts of those who fail to fear. him. Yet God is the primary source of joy and happiness for those who do fear him. And this is why you read, O, how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee in Psalm 3119. So worship springs out of this goodness, this mercy, this grace, which God has bestowed upon you in disclosing his covenant interest in you, that indeed he has brought you into a bond of friendship with him by his grace. and he’s granted you salvation, and he’s granted you forgiveness of sin. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Psalm 130 in verse 4 tells us this. So you will worship God and you will not withhold anything from God. I had Russell read the passage in Genesis chapter 22. If we just focused on verses 11 and 12, it’s where Abraham is about to sacrifice his son on the altar. Abraham, when he so willingly offered up his son that the commandment of God received a commendation from the Lord that you didn’t withhold your son, your only son when I gave you the order. Now on the contrary, when men keep back what God expects from them, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, it’s proof that the fear of God is not before their eyes. So your duty is to fear God and the second part of your duty is to keep his commandments or to obey God. The fear of God is the hidden principle that leads to all obedience to God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the regenerate. I will put my fear in their hearts, God says, about the everlasting covenant that he makes with the his people. The man that feareth the Lord greatly delighteth in His commandments, the scripture tells us. In Psalm 112, verse 1. Whenever there is a true fear of God in the heart, it always, always expresses itself with a concern to keep every commandment that God has given you. In vain, Do you pretend to fear God if there is not a conscientious effort to obey his commandments? God, as the Creator, knows what is best for his creatures. His commands provide a way for true peace and satisfaction in life. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, Psalm 19 in verse 8 tell us. But a false religion does not require obedience to God’s commands. A Barvarian woodcutter found a piece of wood in the mouth of a sack of grain. And the wood was exactly the same color as the grain. So the man began to cut small imitation grains of wheat out of the wood and mixing it in with the grain. And he defied any of his friends to tell the difference between the two. The woodcarver had performed his work so well. He said, I can’t even tell the difference. He said the only way to tell the difference is put the grain into water. And after several days, the true grain will sprout, whereas the wood will just look like wood. It’ll, it’ll, it will not do anything. So he’s able to tell the truth, true from the false. Ultimately, the only way to tell apart what was put in the water for a day or two is the ones that produced fruit or some type of growth. And so the way to tell the difference between the saved and the lost is there needs to be some type of growth, some type of growth, some type of, life that is shown in the person’s life. A desire to please and obey God is very important. It may be possible for someone to imitate the life of a Christian or copy some of the ways of a Christian, maybe even echo some of the words. The real Christians are careful to maintain good works. Titus 3.8. They obey God’s commands. The law is written on their hearts, the Bible tells us. So the reason for your existence. We do see the summary of your duty, it breaks down in two parts. Fear God and obey God. Secondly, why you must use your existence responsibly is looked upon here at verse 14. of the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 12. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil. You have a powerful incentive here to obey God. What does it matter if you fear fear and obey God or you simply live as you please? Does it make any difference? Well, if all die and they go to the grave and life becomes extinct so that you don’t exist any longer, then there would be no reason to worry. Many ungodly people live quite well in this world. Solomon however fully understands the implications of death. Death causes the body to return to the dust, but you have to stand before God. And so there is a powerful incentive to fear God and to keep his commandments. Because there is a judgment coming, a preliminary judgment and then a final judgment that’s going to come. A time for God to review your account. A time when your life will be examined down to the minutest details, every secret thing is going to be included in that. In his first book, the warlords of Washington, Bruce Katten, describes a Washington dinner party that was given by Donald Nelson. Nelson headed up the powerful war production board. Frank Knox, who was the Secretary of the Navy, was at the party, and he assured everyone. War may begin in the Pacific at any time, but I want you to all know that no matter what happens, the U.S. Navy is ready. Robert Horton, who was the director of information, was present also. He challenged the Secretary of Navy and related this story. He said the other day, he was with a Coast Guard cutter in the Chesapeake Bay, and they made a trip to Norfolk later in the day, and they cruised right up to the Navy Yard. No one’s stopped them to see if they were really a Coast Guard boat or just a boat painted gray to look like a Coast Guard boat. They saw a British aircraft carrier that was in the yard for repair, which was supposed to be a secret, top military secret. No one was supposed to know that. They even walked around a big new Navy installation and no one said a word to them. No one challenged them. Horton looked at Knox and said, Mr. Secretary, I don’t think your Navy is ready. The dinner party was held on the night of December the 4th, 1941, three days before Pearl Harbor and the Japanese attack. The Day of Judgment is inevitable. You have to be ready for it. Are you prepared? to face God. You’ve got a powerful incentive here. You’re going to face going to face a final judgment. now if you would look with me at 2 Corinthians 5, verses 10 and 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 versus 10 and 11. Paul writes here, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We are made manifest under God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. There is a judgment to come, in which every man’s eternal state will be given final determination. God will be judging us in the person of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom he has given all judgment to take place. Every work will then be brought into judgment. Nothing will escape God’s evaluation, whether it be secret deeds or secret thoughts that will all be exposed. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof thereof in the day of judgment according to Jesus in Matthew 1236. The great thing to be evaluated is whether you have done good or whether you have done evil. Do you obey God? For everything which is contrary to the revealed revealed will of God is evil. And both the good and the evil is going to be brought to light on that day. There will be no escaping this judgment no way to hide from God, no middle ground regarding your deeds. They are either good or they are evil. God will have no difficulty discerning between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who fears and serves God and the person who does not. In consideration of this judgment to come, and the strictness of the judgment is extremely important and that you walk in godliness now as you go through this life. The temperance preacher actually ended up promoting saloon keeping because he presented only one side of the picture. The Bible presents both the negative and the positive. Solomon has told you that preparing and pursuing the things of this, this world, if we pursue the things of this world, it’s only going to be chasing after the wind. And he has told you that true satisfaction is to be found in fearing God and keep his commandments. And you have a powerful incentive there’s going to be a judgment to come. So here’s the clear choice. It’s laid before you this morning or this evening for the direction of your life. What will you do? Where do you stand? on this whole issue of fearing God and keeping His commandments. May the Lord blessed to us His word this evening. Let’s have the word clear.