Ecclesiastes 5:2-7

Solomon wants us to be careful as we enter the house of the Lord. He wants us to remind ourselves when we step into church, who we are, where we are and who and where God is. He tells us to be quiet, keeping our words few and should we make any promises to God or others, to ensure that we fulfill those promises quickly. Our Lord, in Matthew chapter 5, tells us that we should not make oaths in our normal lives but that as followers of Christ, our yes needs to be yes and our no needs to be no. Nothing else should be required of a Christian, for among other things we should be recognized by our truthfulness and follow through on our obligations. 

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

Well, welcome to our Bible study. We are in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, and we're going to do verses 2 through 7 this evening. And Solomon, if indeed he is the writer of Ecclesiastes, which most theologians believe, he's going to be telling us about how to manage our words, how to manage our promises, how to manage our vows and our oaths. And he is going to be bringing that up with regard to our public worship and our corporate prayer while we're in the house of God, as well as, I believe, at any time in our prayers or any time in our speaking with one another. Primarily, once again, Solomon is talking about being in the house of God, where it is so important that we pay close attention and make sure our words are few. We recognize who we are, where we are, that is, we are fallen creatures in the house of God, and that we also recognize who God is. He is the creator, he is infinite, he is from everlasting to everlasting, he is Alpha and Omega, He's holy, He is supreme. We, on the other hand, are none of those things. We are in desperate need of a savior, we're in desperate need of God's forgiveness, grace, and mercy. And Solomon wants us to be reminded of those things always, but especially when we're in the house of God. So let's take a few minutes right now and look into the Word of God. Again, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 2 through 7. So we've spent a couple of uh Mondays talking about um guarding our steps before we go into the house of the Lord, and we've recognized that um guarding our steps shouldn't just be taking place as we walk into the house of the Lord, but it should be a constant process that we go through, that we are making sure that we uh think and act like children of Jesus, children of heaven. And um if we're cognizant of that day in and day out, hour in and hour out, that will be the best way for us to be able to stay on that uh narrow road to bring glory to the Lord. But it is very important that we do guard our steps. And Solomon is gonna teach us in in uh uh Proverbs as we go into that that that's not all we need to guard. But let's go to uh verses two through seven. I'm gonna read out of the New American Standard Bible. You you may have a different version, but let me read this. Do not be hasty in word, but let me read this. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. Let me read that again. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth. Therefore let your words be few. For the dream comes through much effort, and the voice of a fool through many words. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying for it, for he takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin, and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? Tonight, as we go through these six verses, I'm going to seesaw between our speech between one another and our prayers going up to God. And as we press on these fur these next few verses, um, I would like us to consider that Solomon is really being like the prophets in this way. Uh first of all, in chapter five, if you look at an outline of the book of Ecclesiastes, you will find that chapters one and two kind of outline the problem with life under the sun. And then chapters three through ten describe in further detail the problems of life under the sun. And then in chapters 11 and 12, we read the solution to why that doesn't work. Chapter 5 is kind of isolated from that, and that's because, as we talked about two times ago, Solomon is really acting like a preacher here. You know, before and one and two, chapters one, two, and three, he's he's really looking at the world and saying, boy, this is shot, it's futile, nothing new under the sun, what are we working for? You know, you eat, live, and then you die, and all that stuff. And then the bulk of this center thing kind of goes into further explanation of that before he comes out on the end in chapters 11 and 12 to give us the real answer. Um, but chapter five sort of excluded from that because now he's really acting like a preacher. And um in this instance, almost like a prophet. Now, prophets, you and I both know, they would take the word of God and they would be heralds for the word of God, and they would be speaking to everybody, but so often, primarily uh to the religious leaders, to the disobedient, to the ungodly, and to the hypocrites. Because God was getting to the point in most instances when he spoke to his prophets of being fed up with the way the people acted, and he was about to do something that he didn't want to do. Remember, he loves mercy and not judgment, but that doesn't mean that judgment never takes place. History proves that it does. Um they would speak primarily to those types of people. Solomon here seems to me to be talking to a well-meaning churchgoer if we bring it up into the 21st century, right? It would have been a uh, you know, a person that was really looking forward to going into the house of the Lord in the Old Testament. See, we're kind of looking, Solomon seems to be looking at a a well-meaning churchgoer. What do I mean by that? One who is cheerfully driving to church. They're happy they're going to church. It's not a drudgery, it's something they want to do, it's something they look forward to to do. They're cheerful when they enter through the houses of their uh uh worship place, but once they get in there, God doesn't have their full attention. He looks down, Solomon's looking down, and as we're about to read, it's it's sort of like, okay, I'm here, I'm happy I'm here, but Lord, you really don't have all of me. I'm really not focused on you as much as I'm focused on this service, on the songs, on the people around me, on what the preacher is preaching. And sometimes, as Solomon looks at this, I believe, this type of individual, which all of us fit into this, certainly um one or a number of times, uh, he gets to the point where where Solomon is talking about making a vow, making a promise to God. And perhaps while we're in church and God doesn't have all of us at this point, in other words, we're really not focused so much on him, but we hear the preacher saying something, and something runs across our mind, and we say to ourselves, you know what, that's a good idea. Um, you know what, Lord, I'm gonna promise to change down the road. Or um the preacher preaches something, or words in a song come to you, and it's like, you know, here's stuff to stay away from. Don't don't tempt yourself here or there. And you say, you know what, Lord, that used to tempt me in the past, but uh, you know, I'm not gonna let that tempt me anymore. I'm I'm you know, I'm really promising you that I'm I'm gonna do that. Um such a person, and I think I certainly have been there from time to time, such a person really is forgetting where they are at that time. In other words, in the house of God, in the congregation of God, in the sanctuary, a holy place, if you will, in the church, and and they're really not so much focused on where they are, and they're certainly not focused on who God is, and that's the real, real big issue. The word fool or fools in the first seven verses of Ecclesiastes, I think, is used at least three times. And um Solomon is saying those words. We know it's really the Holy Spirit, and if Solomon indeed was the writer of Ecclesiastes, which most think he was, he's he's taught, he's laying down these words with a very heavy hand. In other words, read this and don't get caught up into it. Because we find that if we're casual with God, and by that I mean we're not giving him the honor and the respect that's due his name, especially when we're in the house of the Lord. We found out in verse 1 that A, if we do that, it's a sin. In verse 6 that we just read, uh it's an affront to God, and in the second latter part of verse 6, it's not going to go unpunished. So we have a tendency to do a couple of things, I think. I'm saying we as the church in America, the born-again evangelical church in America. Number one, we lean on grace, which we all need to, but I, you know, so much so that we have this tendency for the grace that we know we are going to receive from the Lord to relieve us from being obedient to him because we're forgiven. We don't need to pay the kind of attention to sinfulness, to his commandments, um, as much as maybe they did in the Old Testament because Jesus has died for our sins and we're sin abound, grace abounds the more. And so I don't I think we have this tendency as sinful human beings to rationalize our our sin by simply saying, oh, it'll be okay, grace will abound. And I think that's one issue that um the church struggles with, and the church is us, and that we can struggle with. And um the second thing is along the same lines, and that's this that um the very concept of grace um given to us at no charge to us and on full account of our Lord Jesus Christ should demand our gratitude at all times, and gratitude should never be casual. It should never be come see come sa. Oh well, it's nice. That kind of thing. That's not how gratitude and thankfulness should be. Solomon is concerned with how we speak. You know, when we sing these worship songs, whether it's here, at church, at home, in the radio, uh, in your car, on the radio, wherever it might be, and you're focused on the Lord, that's that's a that's a great thing. That's uh that's a wonderful thing where where your mind and your heart are singing to Jesus. And and those are good times. And and uh they are rewarding times when we do that. And the Lord is blessed, and we are blessed as well as we think about what our Lord has done for us. Um but how about all the other times in our lives? Because those times that we're doing those things, if we were to look at them as a fraction of our lives, generally speaking, aren't that much. You know, if you sing, you know, three or four praise songs, if you sing ten praise songs in a week, if you sing 20 in a week and they average four minutes, that's just say that's an hour and a half out of whatever 24 times seven is 168 hours. So it's it's you know, if you read your word and you're in the word for 15 or 20 minutes every day, if you total all that stuff up, um, and I'm it's it's certainly valuable time, please don't misunderstand me. Every minute singing to the Lord, being in his word, praying to him is all valuable time. But overall, there's a lot of time left for us to decide, to make those choices, to uh guard our steps every day as to how are we going to respond to the things that life throws at us that send us out of uh kilter uh because they're interruptions to what we wanted to do, they're roadblocks to what we wanted to do, they upset us, they anger us. Um, you know, you fill in all the unrighteous anger, you fill in the emotions that take us away from being those peace-loving uh men and women that are indebted to Christ and love him and and sing to him and pray to him. And so that's in part what Solomon is going to be talking about tonight, you know, in the Word and what we're talking about tonight, and that is that we have to, most of us have to do a better job in what we say. And of course, all of us, or at least most of us, have a tendency to be imprudent from time to time with our words. Due to our flesh, we have a propensity to tell lies, to make rude comments, and even to yell out in anger. And you know, we can utter all sorts of evil threats. We can throw, we can hurl um insults at those we love. We can we can utter evil threats. You know, not that long ago, just a couple of, maybe a month ago at this point, just as an example, there was a woman on a school board, it was not in New York State, and uh she actually said out loud, unfortunately for her, the microphone was on. Uh it was a hot mic, and she said out loud that she hoped all Christians would die of COVID-19 because we weren't getting vaccinated. Hoped all Christians would die because, you know, she said they weren't getting vaccinated. Obviously, we know that some Christians are getting vaccinated. But think of that evil that just came out of her lips. Really? You don't know me, you don't know anything about me, and you wish that I was dead because I didn't get a COVID vaccine. Obviously, she wasn't guarding her tongue, and I'm not saying she was a Christian, it was just an example, because those types of things can come out of our mouths as well if we are not careful in guarding our hearts, right? We make promises, knowing at the time of the promise, that we really weren't gonna keep it. How many, uh, how many times, or at least we make promises and we wind up not keeping it, uh, and then maybe a long time down the road we think, oh, we we promised this and we never did it. Oh well, kind of thing. You know, maybe it's brother or sister, I want to pray for you. And okay, you hang up the telephone, and you know, life goes on and the the prayer never takes place. Or, you know, uh you know, there's a million examples that we've all fallen prey to, um, where we've made a promise, we've told somebody you can count on me in so many words, and they really couldn't count on me, or they couldn't count on you. You know, we might even use the Lord's name in vain as an example. Um, you know, we might we we might be either saying this and saying, you know, Lord, I'm gonna follow through on this. And then when we don't, when we use his name in that regard, we've really used it in vain. Even if it's a thought process, we can use the Lord's name in vain by making a promise, by telling somebody that we're gonna do something. And incidentally, we'll get into this in some detail in a few minutes, but you might, or I might be saying to myself, well, it wasn't really a promise. And if we go back to um uh verse six, Solomon says, Do not let your speech cause you to sin, and don't say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Oops! I really didn't mean it. I really didn't mean that promise. You know, I told so-and-so I was gonna pick them up tonight, but I'm running late, and and I'll just call them and I won't pick them up. You know, that's Solomon is saying, and Jesus says in the New Testament, you know, he changes the landscape a little bit, and we'll see this, where as a general rule, Jesus says you shouldn't make any oaths, and then at the end of this passage in Matthew, that we'll get to, he says, Let your yes be yes, and you know be no. That's all. That's all. You say it, I count on it. I say it, you count on it. If Bob says he's gonna be at your house to do this or to do that, short of something that neither one of us could have foreseen, um, that causes me to be unable to calm, cars broken down, whatever, you you should be able to count. As Christian men and women, when we say we're gonna do something, we better do it. Why? Because as Christian men and women, Jesus, you don't need to make a promise, you don't need to make an oath, you don't need to make a vow. Jesus says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Do we, going back to being in the house of God for a minute, do we really mean what we say, whether we're sitting down or standing up and worship in the house of God? Whether it's, and I know not every church does this, but just as an ex as examples, whether it's standing up and reciting the Lord's Prayer or the Apostles' Creed, um, or standing up for corporate prayer, whether it's intercessory prayer by the pastor, or even singing during worship time. You know, it's easy to read a psalm, you know, maybe it's maybe it's uh pastor reads a verse, congregation reads a verse, this antiphonal reading, going back and forth. It's easy to read a psalm, sing a hymn, or confess a creed without ever thinking about what it means. I'm getting back to the point that God doesn't always have all of us when we're in front of him, in his presence, in his house of worship. You sing a song. Oh, yeah, that's I love that song. What are the words? Uh I don't know. But I love the melody, you know, the music's great kind of thing. Or the pastor just preached a sermon and it's an hour later. What do you say? Uh, well, what book was he in? Uh, what verses was he in? Uh it's an hour later. It's two hours later, right? We're we're off doing something, our minds are off doing something else. We've forgotten where we are, who we are, and who God is, and the purpose for us being in his presence. The God we worship or partially worship on any given Sunday is the sovereign and mighty God who rules the entire universe. We sung that, right? The God of the universe hung on a tree. He is the sovereign and mighty God who rules, the created the entire universe, rules the entire universe. And Solomon reminds us of this in verse 2 when he says, God is in heaven and you are on earth. And this is one of the Bible's best short verses for really putting us back in our place. John Calvin says this He said that knowing God, who He is, can't do it perfectly or completely, but John Calvin said that knowing God and knowing ourselves is the sum of all wisdom. Ecclesiastes 5.2 gives us that wisdom. God is in heaven. He is the eternal being who made the entire universe. We are on earth. We are mortal beings, limited in time and space. There is a vast distance between the finite, us, and the infinite. There is a vast difference between good, God, and evil, us. There is a vast difference between holy, separate, and profane, or common. And there is a vast difference between the creator and the creature. And the creator-creature distinction has practical implications for what we say when we are in the house of God worshiping. We need to know our place, remembering both who God is, who we are, and where God is. We mentioned this, you know, like two or four weeks ago that, you know, God is holy and He is the uncreated one. He's the infinite one. He is the everlasting one. He is the uh all-encompassing one. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is from everlasting to everlasting. And there he is, holy. And here we are down here, having none of those features. None. Right? That's the difference. And when we walk into the house of God, Solomon is telling us, shh, shh. Be quiet. A few words. Meditate. Where are you right now? Where's God right now? Who are you right now? Who is God right now? Why are you here? That's what Solomon is telling us to do. Deep breath. Pacetime. Empty our minds of the things of the world and remember why we're going into the house of God. And while Solomon is focusing on that, guys, this is something that I'm going to go back to verse one again and again and again. This is a primary way to guard our steps. Remembering who we are and who God is. Listen, we this book, I think I told you before I'm reading. The title of this book is about salvation, is about becoming a born-again child of God. The title of the book is Rejoice and Tremble. And that comes right out of the Psalms, right? Rejoice and tremble. Rejoice that we're one of God's own, that he chose us before the foundation of the world. Cartwheels down Main Street would be the right response if you were able to do that for your salvation. Praise and worship and glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ are exactly what he deserves in response to the fact that he died and rose again for us. But tremble, tremble at what? Tremble that God is who he is and we are who we are and never forget that. We're his, but have that godly fear and reverence at all times, especially in the house of God. And Solomon is saying, we can go here and there with our minds and not even think who God is or where he is. We're just kind of going through this process by rote. We walk in, we sing two songs, we have some announcements, we sing a song, the pastor preaches, there's an invitation for salvation, we sing a song and we leave. And it's different songs and it's a different message, and maybe somebody different comes up to the altar if God so moves them, but I'm not really engaged. I'm not really fully engaged. Um, and that's what Solomon is now warning us about. Isaiah said in one of his most familiar prophecies or statements, um, Isaiah 55, 8, and 9, God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. If this is true, and it is, then we should think before we speak. We should think about these things before we enter into worshiping our Lord in our house of God, uh place of worship, or home or anywhere else. This man by the name of Gregory of Nyssa wrote this Knowing how widely the divine nature differs from our own, let us quietly remain within our proper limits. It's called respect and godly fear. And Solomon says, You're missing it. You're missing it. Ecclesiastes helps us set some of these limits of speech when it says in verse three, let your words be few, and then explains why. For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words. Now that's a difficult verse. And so in one of my commentaries, a man said, here's a paraphrase for verse three. So I'm going to read, so let your words be few. Work leads to many dreams, foolishness leads to many words. And, you know, there's the first part of this is kind of, we all know this, that if we work hard, we sleep well. And uh harder we work, the harder we sleep, and that sleep can be deep and wonderful as a response. God says you worked hard, and as a response, I'm going to give you a good night's sleep, and that may very well lead to many, many dreams, but foolishness leads to many words. Think about that statement as we continue to go through our study tonight. The voice of a fool has many words. Simply stated, we are certainly not wise all the time. And the more talking we do, the greater the chance that we will say something foolish and or sinful. And this is more of a concern when we are again in our churches preparing to worship for God, but it is a concern at all times. We've all, I'm sure, gotten ourselves into a position where after saying too much, we've said, better stop now. All I'm doing is getting myself in deeper and deeper and deeper in trouble. I've said too many words. As a general rule, fools are talkative. We get to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 14A, and it says this, yet the fool multiplies words. So Solomon is making this contrast between a person that has many words and a person that has few, and he's saying, if we include Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and Proverbs, by the way, that a fool has many words. And we've all run into those people that can't stop talking. It's like, how do I get away from this person? They are, they are, one time or another, they're going to say something stupid, hurtful, sinful, crass, or something because we can't bridle our tongues. And Solomon tells us, don't get there. He then tells us or exhorts us to be more careful. Instead of going on and on about things, we need to be careful with our speech. And the actual number of words are not the whole issue. It's part of it. Because as we say more and more and more, we have an opportunity to say worse and worse things. You know, we can think about this with encounters with friends, encounters with loved ones, where you start out not agreeing with one another. And initially it's a little civil. And then the words get a little bit harsher and the voices raise a little bit. And the next thing you know, we've gone from an early-on civil conversation to one where we're probably disappointed in ourselves that we said what we said. Be a few words, Solomon is telling us. Be a few words. And again, the number, actual number of words is not the whole issue. It's a big part of the issue. But the additional part of this issue is that the words that we do speak, we want to be sincere, honest, and righteous. Want to make sure that those are the types of words that are coming out of our lips. Sincere, honest, and righteous. Building up. Not falsely, not with a pretense, but honestly building up. One commentator said this the fewness of the words is not the main concern. It is a concern, however, but whether they be the words of the heart. End quote. Asking questions like, Am I speaking from my heart? Do my words of encouragement really reflect my real opinion, or am I only trying to flatter someone? So we need to be heartfelt and genuine with our words, which is important, especially important while we're in the house of God. When we sing a hymn of praise, it should be with thoughts of God in our minds and love for God in our hearts. This sign hangs in a church somewhere, I think it's in New Jersey, to help its worship leaders remember this. It reads, Sing like you mean it. But the word like is crossed off and replaced with the word because. Sing it because you mean it. And we are when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do. For they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them. Why? For your Father knows what you need even before you ask him. So I said in the beginning, I'm gonna see between our prayer life and our word life outside of prayer. And now I'm now I got the teeter-taughter in the opposite way now. And I'm saying now when we're praying, we need to have, we should have few words in prayer. Why don't we do that sometimes? Well, our ears are tickled when we listen to some men and women pray. Oh, we say, what a beautiful prayer. The emotion and the words are so amazingly heartfelt. And we find ourselves focusing on the person or on the beauty of the words rather than on the one to whom they are praying. It is not the length or the beauty of our prayers that's important. Jesus just told us don't use meaningless repetitions because the Gentiles think they're going to be heard for their many words. It's not the length or the beauty of our prayers that are important. And actually, we can find ourselves very prideful if we're the ones doing that type of praying. Here, I think, we see through the book of Ecclesiastes and through what Jesus said in Matthew 6 that the shorter the prayer is probably the better. It is not the length of our prayers, but the depth of our prayers that is important to God. Because let's face it, let's think about this. God knows everything, anyways. And what did Jesus just say? Your Father knows what you need even before you ask him. Now, does that mean we don't pray? No. That is, we are we're commanded to pray, right? Bring our praise, our adoration, our thanksgiving and our confessions to God, and bring him our supplications. He wants to hear from us. He gives us, he opens his heart and his mind, if you will, to our requests. However stumbling we might be as we present them to him, he his heart is open to hear us and he wants to hear from us. Paul says in Romans 8.26, part B, but the um for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. We don't, we don't need, and I say need, we don't need to try and figure out exactly what to say to the Lord, lengthening our prayers and and trying to get a point across when our hearts are open to him and we're revealing our inner, our most inner important thoughts and feelings to him. He already knows them. He already knows what we're gonna ask, and if we can't really find the words for him, let his spirit finish it for us. Let his spirit finish that prayer for us. Sue, I don't know if you wanted to talk about a guy we know who typically has short prayers.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Right?

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Well, no, you're talking about with our study that we're doing at church.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

No, I'm talking about Pastor Brian.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

That's what made me think about it because we we've been going over this funny you're talking about now about praying, praying, and do we need to go so long and to to tell you know the surgeons to have steady hands and all this stuff, you know, that we go in such such detail. We've been doing a lot on that. That, you know, do we just say we lift this person to you, Lord? You know, you know. But yeah, our pastor has very short prayers. And we and I was always like, he just prays so short all the time. I always used to say it, and then when we did the study, I said, you know, there's something to be said for that. Because we ramble and ramble and ramble on with everything, and he's just like, I lift this person to you. He's you know, we've all heard people pray like that, and some of us do, but and you don't need to say all that, you know. And so it was just kind of neat that so there's nothing watching my mind that what what you know.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Right. So there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with longer prayers at all. There's no right or wrong way. But what Solomon is saying is be careful, right? Just be careful, right? It's better to have few words than more words, because we just have this propensity to stumble on what we're trying to say. As a matter of fact, James 3 2 says this for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. One perfect man, right, Jesus. And so we just so Solomon's just saying, you know what? This is a way to guard your steps. Be careful, right? No right or wrong way to pray, but just be careful.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Because he says, pray without ceasing, you know, to keep praying. Right. Right. And he's like, are we supposed to, but but then how far do we go with it?

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Because we're we're just we're we're learning so much about how what the Lord already knows. And it's like, so when we're praying in the morning, I'm saying, okay, I just said all this stuff that he already knows. What am I, you know, what am I saying all this for?

SPEAKER_00 39:24

But you're exposing your but you're exposing your heart to him. That's true too. You're remember, I I always go back to the woman that goes to the unjust judge, right? And she will not leave this guy alone. It's like, you know, I want my pay. I want to get paid back for this, I want to get paid back for this. And he's like, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone. And finally she bugs him enough and he responds to it. Now, that's an unjust judge.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

I want to get paid back for this, Lord, I want to get paid back for, or did she say, Here's how I want you to pay me back? Now I want you to get this person over here, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Well, we don't know. She could have done both, depending on which time she was in front of him. That's an unjust judge, right? God is a just judge.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Well, like, when you said, you know, that when we don't know to pray, let the spirit finish it for us. So I think sometimes, like, you know, at least I I think of myself, when I ramble on and on, it's like I I don't like there's something inside, and it's just You can't get it out. Yeah. And so I just like when you said that, I just gotta learn to shut up and just say amen and let the like instead of rambling. I think it's just an unction end, like there's something that it's like and then you just blah blah blah blah blah blah and just be quiet.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

I think that's an amen. Yeah, yeah. Just you know what, Lord? I it's I I've tried. Yeah, he already knows what we're asking for, right? Let let the let the Spirit of God finish your prayer for you. So it's just again, Solomon is remember, I started out by saying, I think he's talking to people that are kind of like going to church and and uh want to be there and want to praise the Lord and want to worship the Lord. He's just in part saying, be careful, fewer words are better than more words. And um we haven't even gotten into vows yet, but um let me end this section with this following verse from Matthew chapter 5. Um I'm gonna go back to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. This is the NLT Bible. Don't make rash promises, Ecclesiastes says in in the uh New Living Translation, and don't be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven and you are here on earth, so let your words be few. His ways are not our ways. His ways are higher than our ways. In Matthew 5, Jesus says this. Again you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no, anything beyond these is of evil. Matthew 5, 33 to 37, New American Standard Bible. Now, is there anyone here that believes that most politicians are truthful? We would all agree that most politicians are truthful only as long as it benefits them. Is there anyone who thinks that our present president or vice president are truthful people? Again, only when it might aid their position in life. Is there anyone who thinks that most salesmen are truthful most of the time? I doubt it. I think we would say that they're truthful only when it helps them. But if they need to lie to sell a car, hey, that's a great deal, that car right there, and it's not going to be on the lot that much longer. Now's the time to get it, right? Having no idea how long that car might be on the lot. Or if you're being sold a copier, it almost never needs repairs. This manufacturer's the best one out there. There's none that can equal this manufacturer. Um, it's the most well-built machine that I know of. I have to tell you, it far outweighs all other manufacturers. How about buying a dress, ladies? Oh, how pretty you look in that dress. It fits you just perfectly. You know, I want the sale, I want the sale. Or a suit, guys. Wow, that suit makes you look like a million dollars. The lies come rolling off the lips of the politicians and of the salespeople and of all other types of people as easily as the Water falling by gravity over Niagara Falls. We look out into the world and we know for sure that it's filled with liars and it's filled with cheats. But what about us? We're supposed to be different. Do we lie? Listen to these words recorded in the book Preach the Word, the Sermon on the Mount. I'll quote this. I don't know him, but the great preacher and writer George McDonald wrote to his son on December 6th, 1878. Quote, I always try, I think I do, to be truthful. All the same, I tell a great many lies. And then the writer of the commentary goes on to say that he identifies with that. I am speaking to someone and suddenly realize that what I'm saying is not the truth. Perhaps you've experienced the same. The difficulty comes from the combination of my own deceitful nature and the pervasive deceptiveness of the surrounding culture. You know, we can start out by telling the truth. You know, it started out by saying, gee, I just I just thought about that, I just thought about this thing, and then it winds up as we're telling somebody else about it. Um, you know, the Lord just spoke to me. Now I don't know if he did or not. You might not know if he did or not, but it went from a thought you had to, oh, the Lord just spoke to me in this. You know, things of that nature where where you know we have to be so very, very careful. Again, keeping our words few helps us to stay away from that. But this this great preacher and writer starts out by writing to his kid. I always try, I think I do to be truthful, and then the next sentence in the letter he writes to his kid is, but I'm lying all the time. So what's Jesus saying in this Matthew 5 passage? Let's first take the beginning of what he says and then the last verse. And if we put those two things together, so this is verse chapter 5, verse in Matthew, verse 34a and verse 37. But I say to you, make no oath at all, but let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no. Anything beyond these is evil. Now, I had a number of examples in the Old Testament. If you want them, I'll give them to you. But in the Old Testament, Jews were actually encouraged to make vows to the Lord. Let me just, there's a phenomenal passage in Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 21. It's about how to be before the Lord. It is a great passage to review. But in verse 20, we read this. This is Deuteronomy 10.20. You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. In Jeremiah chapter 12, again, this whole passage 14 to 17 is pretty cool, but I'm just going to read verse 16. So this is Jeremiah 12, 16. And if these, incidentally, so at this point, um uh the Lord's talking about some Gentile nations coming back, allowing He's allowing them to come back and uh is saying to them, Look, if they want me to be their God, I'm gonna be okay with that. And in verse 16, he says this, and if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, As surely as the Lord lives, just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal, then I will be given, then they will be given a place among my people. How about that? God Himself says that if the Gentile nations learn the ways of God's own people, and if they then learn to swear by his name, he's gonna have grace fall down upon them. But should a vow have been made, it was imperative that it was carried out as quickly as possible. Again, I have some longer passages, but I'm gonna shorten them down. In um in Leviticus 19, verse 12, and the passage is really 9 to 18, it's another wonderful passage. But in Leviticus 9, 12, uh the word of God says, You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. So don't swear by my name and not carry it out. Don't finish it. You swear by my name, you do it. Because if you don't, you profane my name. You take away, if you will, my holiness in the, I mean, nobody can take away his holiness, but in your heart my holiness has been denigrated because you haven't carried out the promise that you made using my name. In um uh in Numbers 30, verses 1 and 2, we read this: Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, This is what the Lord has commanded. This is a command from the Lord. If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Everything that you vowed to do, you shall do it. In Deuteronomy 23, 21, Word of God says, if you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. So, in summary, in the Old Testament, vows were encouraged for the Israelites and even for Gentile nations who decided they wanted to accept the Lord as the sovereign God. Um, but should any vows or swearing by God's name not be quickly fulfilled, they would have sinned. It was serious business then, it's serious business today. But now Jesus changes the landscape a little bit. First, he says that we shouldn't make any oaths, we shouldn't have any vows using any people's names, graphical places, no locations, or even upon our own heads. Examples today might be I swear on my mother's grave, or I swear by all that's holy, or I swear on my own life. Jesus says, don't do that. And here's the primary reason for that. Because all things that can be mentioned have been created by God and belong to him. Therefore, you're just taking a roundabout way of making a vow in God's name. Here's the problem that the Jews had in the Old Testament. Remember how the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they would, when one of God's commandments was, you know, keep the Sabbath holy, no work on the Sabbath, keep it holy. And they decided they were going to make the rules as to what was working and what wasn't. You know, you could uh you know, you could uh you could only go to your neighbor's house if it was less than 30 steps away and you tied a rope between the two homes and you could hold on to the rope kind of. I mean, they they they these were nuts, right? These are crazy rules. Um one of them was you couldn't take out your false teeth on the Sabbath, right? Uh you probably could put them in, but you couldn't take them out. They had all these crazy rules. Well, they had the same things for making vows to God. They would say, you know, if you make a vow uh to Jerusalem, but you weren't facing Jerusalem, then it's not really a vow. But if you face Jerusalem and made a vow in the name of Jerusalem, then it was really a vow. So they made all these rules, and essentially what they were saying is you can get away uh with not telling the truth, but don't consider it a lie. They're having their cake and eating it too. That's what Jesus is really fighting in part in these middle verses between 33 and 37 in Matthew uh 5. That's what he's fighting. Hey guys, these are a bunch of crazy rules, and don't do it anyways, because no matter what you choose, you're gonna swear by uh what's on the altar? You're foolish because what made that thing on the altar holy? The fact that the altar's holy, and on and on he goes, right? So we shouldn't be doing that. Here's, you know, here's an example of Jesus' own words. Woe to you, blind guides, who say if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. And he goes on, he calls these people blind guides, blind fools, blind men. And finally, in verse 20, Matthew 23 says this so whoever swears by the altar swears by it, and everything on it, and whoever swears by the temple swears by it by it, and him who dwells in it, and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. Don't do that. He's telling those people at the time and to us today. But what about, Jesus says don't make any oaths? What about marriage vows? Does Jesus mean we shouldn't take these? Does Jesus mean that we shouldn't put our hand on the Bible in a court of law and say, you know, I swear to tell the I swear, I promise, to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? So help me God, are we not to do those things? I don't believe so. So if we're if those are okay, how do we translate Jesus' words into our own personal lives? I think this is what Jesus is saying to us. We can make oaths, but in normal, everyday life, it is discouraged by Jesus to do so. Obviously, there's times when we need to do so. We talked about the courtroom, we talked about um marriage. Pastors may take vows uh you know to be or to be ordained depending on the um denomination that they're they're going to be under in their pastorate. Um but think about this. When when we take a wedding vow, all of us here I think would say that's a pretty serious and solemn thing, right? When we say, Lord, I promise to have this man or this woman to be my lawfully wedded spouse until death do me part, or do us part, rather, we're saying to God, I don't care what happens. I don't care what happens. I'm sticking out with him or I'm sticking out with her, through riches and being poor, through sickness and in health. It won't matter, God, if my beautiful wife is in a car accident and gets burned. It won't matter, Lord, if my husband is in an accident and I have to push him around in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and bathe him and clean him. It won't matter, Lord, that even though we have a home now and two cars and great jobs, that if it all goes away and I no longer can have the car in the driveway, we have to go down to tube one from two and on it goes with losing some of our wealth. That won't matter, God. I'm sticking it out. Now, does God we take those vows seriously, and we should, because they are a special event and moment in our lives, and we want God to know, and we want the world to know that's hearing us. We mean what we say. We are going to fulfill that vow for the rest of our lives. Does God look at other vows in a different way? If we say to him, Lord, um, I promise that if you fill in the blanks, get me this better job, um, you know, it could be a million things, then I will do so-and-so for you. You know, bargaining with God. Um a vow is a vow is a vow. An oath is an oath, is an oath. And that's why Jesus says, don't do that in normal life. So the the the bottom line here is between people in our normal daily lives, we should never have to take an oath, we should never have to vow. Um, as God is my witness, I promise I'll do this. None of that should ever, ever, ever be necessary for us. First of all, Jesus says don't do it. And the reason why we don't do it is because our yes is yes and our no is no. And that's such a clutch thing. When you and I, how do we know we have somebody we can rely on? Because when they tell us they're gonna do something, they do it. I know, I know if I call so-and-so and they tell me they're coming over to help me, I ain't worrying about getting help over here. It's on its way, right? And you guys can all fill in the blanks. That's that's how we know somebody's yes is yes and no is no. That's how we judge their credibility, their love, uh, their promises. It just so much falls into that. Their very character. Our character is predicated on a number of things, and one of them that's very important is is our yes, yes, and is our no-no. So, to bring this to a conclusion, I have four points. One, out of these first seven verses, live a life that honors God at all times. That is, be obedient to his commands as we find them in his word. And when we don't, and we won't, don't make an excuse for not doing it, no matter how small a transgression. Turn from it, repent of it, and ask him for forgiveness for it, for the sake of his son Jesus. Live a life that honors him at all times, too. Remember who he is in all his glory, in all his perfections, in all his holiness, and repent. Repent for our lack of understanding or thinking of him in those ways, especially when it causes us to sin because we think he doesn't hear us or see us or because we're forgiven and we can do what we want. Remember who he is in all his glory and holiness. Three, live a life that remembers that we are citizens of heaven and as such are called to be holy, for he is holy. And when we find ourselves living worldly lives, repent of that lifestyle. Ask for forgiveness for our evil ways and change, really change. That's what repentance means, anyhow. Turn away from, right? How we are living day to day. And there's going to be a fourth year. And if you haven't heard this in the first three, repentance is a major, major factor on how to live a life with God being recognized through our words and actions into who he really is. Four, be slow to speak and quick to listen. James 1.19. This you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I want to read Proverbs 4.23 through 27, because this is a great section of scripture. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Avoid all perverse talk, stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil. Again, that's the NLT. Notice that Solomon starts out with guarding our hearts and winds up talking about our feet. Our life story is defined by the small steps we take each day. We have scores of decisions each day, week after week, and month after month, and year after year, and decade after decade, and on and on it goes. And as we look back, there is a path that we have created for where we are today, both in the world and in our spiritual lives. It is not just the large decisions that are important, it's all the small ones that we make every day. It is those decisions that, if godly, will have us going on a path to be more like Jesus. But if those little tiny decisions we make every day are not done with a focus on being holy, then we're going to find that as we look back, our paths will not have led us to be more like Jesus, but we will have been shown to have been pulled by this world to either be more like it or worse, stay with it. Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you for our study today. Lord God, we thank you for the reminders, the warnings, and the commands to be men and women, to be children of you that are quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. That we will we pray, Lord God, that you would help us guard our steps and guard our hearts. Jesus has so much to say about uh you know the evil that comes out of our mouths because our hearts are evil, Lord God. We want to show the love of Jesus through what we say. In order for that to take place, it must be in our hearts. So, Father, as you look at each one of our hearts tonight, they're filled with all kinds of stuff, all kinds of stuff. And I pray, Lord God, that we would learn how to empty ourselves of the things of this world to allow you to fill our hearts with your spirit. It is then, Lord God, when your spirit controls us and guides us and teaches us, uh, Lord God, that when we push our spirit in the background and allow your spirit to fill our hearts and guide our lives, that we will indeed be loving you more, be loving those around us more, be honoring you more, bringing glory to your name to a greater extent and pleasing our precious Savior Jesus all along. Father, again, thank you for this time and may you continue to teach us through your word, Lord God, whether it's later on tonight or in bed or waking up. And Father, I do pray when everyone does decide it's time to go and they can stay as long as they want, that you would give them traveling mercies on the way home. Keep their furnaces working, Lord, as the March temperatures drop from 60 to the teens. Father, we thank you for working furnaces. We thank you for the warmth of our homes, the protection of our homes, Lord God. Just the the you know, just those that live with us and help to help our lives to be more complete. We are so grateful to you, Lord God. And may we not forget, Lord Jesus, that your name is exalted above all other names, and that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are King of kings and Lord of Lords. And it's in your name that we pray. Oh, and Lord, please bless the food, the time, and the fellowship, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We certainly hope that you are blessed, and uh may you and yours be richly blessed by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ until next time.