So we are continuing in our series in the book of Ecclesiastes this morning, and we come to Ecclesiastes chapter five, verses one through seven. So please turn with me in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter five. Beginning in verse one, hear now the word of the living God. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near, to listen, is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few, for a dream comes with much busyness and a fool's voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools paying what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity, but God is the one you must fear. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever. In the book of Job, Job questions God throughout the book, really, about his frustration with the amount of suffering that he was going through. And he wanted God to answer why was he going through this suffering in his life. He was demanding answers from God. And God famously responds in a whirlwind of rhetorical questions, beginning with, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? And in this series of questions, God establishes the difference between God and humanity. God is the one who created the heavens and the earth. You are not. God is the one who has complete control over all of creation, over the seas, over the weather, over the stars. You are not. God is the one who created all the complexity of life that you and I can barely even begin to understand, let alone create and control. And ultimately, through this line of questioning, God establishes His infinite divine wisdom in contrast to our limited, finite perspective. Who are we to even question Him? And although God doesn't even directly address Job's specific comments, instead he reminds Job of the splendor and the wonder and the majesty of all his work in the world. And Job in humility acknowledges his own limited understanding and he repents for even questioning God. And he says at the end of God's questions to him, I know that you can do all things. I know that and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." Job came to a place where he understood and accepted, acknowledging God as the infinite creator and understanding himself as the finite creature that he is. In our passage this morning, the preacher, Solomon, is continuing his search for eternal meaning or value from the things of this world. And he comes to the topic of worship. And he considers the heart of the worshiper. He's speaking not about someone who is not worshiping God, but someone who is doing so without the proper heart of worship. Someone who is entering the house of God without a full understanding and focus on the greatness and the glory of God that he is worshiping. And so as we worship our Lord and our God, We learn from this passage this morning that your heart in worship should be reverence and all of the God that you're worshiping. This passage begins with a command to guard your steps when you go to the house of God. He's speaking about entering into worship, into the house of God. In the time of Solomon, this would have been the temple. But today we see the house of God as the gathered body of Christ for worship. And he's saying to guard or watch your steps as you do this. And by your steps, he doesn't mean watch how you are physically walking. He means your attitude of your heart. He's saying, consider the heart with which you approach God in worship. God made us to worship him. And so our heart should be focused on him and his glory in worship. The Presbyterian historian and author Hughes Oliphant Old once wrote, we worship God because God created us to worship him. Worship is at the center of our existence, at the heart of our reason for being. When the Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches us man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, it gives witness to the same basic principle. God created us to worship him. Our hearts should be focused on God himself in worship because that is why we were created. Worshiping God is fulfilling our purpose in life. But sin affects this purpose. We were born in sin. We were born with a sinful nature. And so all of humanity worships, but we've replaced worshiping the creator with worshiping the creature. in the creation. We worship all sorts of things. We worship pop stars and athletes, music and sports. We worship money and possessions, sex and fame. We worship ourselves. We want to glorify anything and everything but the Creator, who alone deserves our glory and praise. And it's not that any of these things are bad in and of themselves. That's what we do. We take good things and we put them out of place. God has given us these gifts to enjoy and we should enjoy them. But in our sinfulness, we elevate them above their proper place. We elevate them above the creator himself. They become an idol when we put them in a status above God. You have an idol when you care more about the creature or the creation than you do about the glory of the Creator. And you and I do this all the time. It affects us even in our gathering of worship. And that's what the preacher is speaking about. Now, when we speak about worshiping God, there are different categories that we make. There's family worship, there's personal worship, there's the general sense, in a broad sense, with worshiping with the whole of your life. You can worship God anywhere, anytime, when God is in the primary place in your heart. When you go to him in prayer, when you're singing his praises, when you submit to him and trust in him to provide, you are worshiping, in a sense. But there's also the gathered worship of God's people that we have different names for. Gathered worship, corporate worship, public worship. In the Old Testament, God's people gathered on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, on Saturday. They gathered to worship God collectively as his people. And in the New Testament, as Christians, we worship on the Lord's day, the first day of the week, the day that our Lord rose from the dead. On Sundays, we gather as God's people to worship him in corporate worship, that's the body of Christ. And so Solomon is warning you to guard your steps, to watch your heart as you enter the house of God. And then he gives some wisdom as it pertains to worship. He says, to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they do not know that they're doing evil. He's saying that the wise person draws near to God to listen. But the fool may offer sacrifices, they may go through the motions of worship, but in their hearts they don't really care what God has to say. He's saying when you come to worship, to draw near to God, to listen. And listen has the idea of both hearing and obeying. It's like when parents say to their children, you're not listening, or you need to listen. We mean not only that they need to hear what we are saying, but also obey. God speaks to us in worship through his word. That's why we have the scriptures all throughout the service. The call to worship and the benediction are both scripture. Beginning and ending the service with God's word speaking to us. The prayers and the hymns are saturated with scripture. We read the scripture in the response of reading, but the pinnacle of God speaking to us is the preaching of the word. John Stott once wrote, preaching is the primary means by which God communicates his truth to the church. The Bible is the means and preaching is the medium. By listen, Solomon here means with an open mind to understanding and doing what you hear. You are to hear the word of God with the assumption that you are going to do what you hear. You're to hear and obey God in worship. And James 1 verse 22 says, but be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourself. This is the attitude you are to have in worship, that you are here to be transformed by the living God through his word. You're to hear God's word speaking to you, not only to inform you, but to transform you. You are coming into the presence of God to praise him and to glorify him and to hear from him. And so Solomon is telling you, you should listen while you are here. But he doesn't stop there. In verse two, he says, be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. The preacher has moved on from listening to God now to speaking to him. Sacrifices in the temple were offered in silence. The silence was a reverence and awe before the holiness of God. And this reverence before God in worship is what the preacher is speaking about. The silence was then broken in the temple by the reading of the word of God. God speaking to his people through the public reading of the word and then the people would respond in prayers and in hymns. When you pray to God, you are speaking to the creator. And a proper reverence of the transcendent holiness of God is what he is speaking about. It's not so much the number of words, but more about the heart with which you are praying. He says, for dreams come with much busyness and a fool's voice with many words. So somewhat cryptic, but he's speaking about dream as a fantasy, like a false state of a hypocrite. and all the work that this person would do, and comparing it to too much speaking coming from someone who is foolish. And in the context, he's speaking about someone who's babbling before God, not considering the seriousness of the God whom he is approaching. Consider the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector we read in Luke 18. There, Jesus says, two men went up into the temple to pray. one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. The Pharisee would have been considered pious, religious man. He prayed, though, with a heart of contempt for others. He had no understanding of his entering into the presence of God who is in heaven, who towers over all of creation, and his own sinfulness before the Holy One. And this is the wrong heart with which to approach God in prayer. He prayed with a heart of pride, not a heart of a repentant sinner before the most holy God. But we see the tax collector, however, says, was standing off. He would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The tax collector would have been considered one of the worst sinners in first century Jewish society. He was a traitor. He collected taxes for the Roman oppressors of his own people. And out of greed, they often took more than what was needed and they kept it for themselves. He was an outcast from his own people. But he, however, had an attitude of humility and reverence before God. He recognized he is a sinner. You're to pray with a heart of truth that recognizes who you are and who God is. If you approach God in prayer this way with genuine wisdom and knowledge of the holiness of God in your own sinfulness, then clearly you won't be babbling or ranting about something before God like the Pharisee in Jesus's parable. Most likely your words will be few and heartfelt. You will pray out of a genuine love of God because he has forgiven you in his son. He has adopted you as his child through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. And so you come in humble confidence, humble because you are aware that you are a creature approaching the creator, but confident that your righteous status before God is secure in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Solomon is pointing out wisdom in approaching God with reverence. But as usual, he leaves you at the doorstep of the gospel, because Jesus is the great mediator advocating for you before the throne of God. So the heart with which you approach God is the heart of reverence, awe and gratitude for what he has done for you in Christ. A heart that fully recognizes who you are and who God is, but knows God's love, mercy, and forgiveness in Christ. Then the preacher speaks about vows to God and paying them. His context again is in the temple and people vowing an amount of money they would pay and then not paying it promptly or delaying it for some reason. He says, it's better not to make a vow at all than to vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. The messenger most likely refers to someone from the temple who came around to collect the offerings and sacrifices that people had vowed to pay. He's saying this would be a lie to God himself, to say you were going to do something or pay something, then not do it. And he says, this would make God angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands. For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity. He's saying when there is hypocrisy and lies and lengthy speech that goes with it, it is fleeting and worthless and frustrating just like everything else. And the point ultimately is to have integrity. in your promises to God. There are many times when people make promises to God, promises to do something for God, promises to stop some particular sin, but it's foolish to promise something to God himself and not do it. You're to have a spirit of truthfulness in your speech to God, integrity. Meaning don't promise to God something and not do it. Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount. He said not to take an oath. He meant don't swear to God or heaven about something. He said simply let your yes be yes and your no be no. Be honest and truthful and have integrity in what you say. And there will be no reason to make promises to God. But the preacher ends his wisdom teaching here with this statement. but God is the one you must fear. And this really sums up the attitude of worship that the preacher has been encouraging throughout this passage. The fool offers sacrifice not knowing what they are doing. The fool speaks rashly and hastily with many words in their prayers to God. The fool makes vows to God and doesn't keep them because ultimately he doesn't fear God. This is why the preacher mentioned in verse two, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. You are to worship with a fear of the Lord. And fearing God is mentioned a few times in this book and it's mentioned here again and then at the end because of the importance of living a godly life. It's mentioned here because of its importance in worship. As I've mentioned before, fear of God isn't just terror. It isn't simply being frightened of God. where you're purely afraid of something, you don't wanna be near them. There's an element though of trembling that comes with the recognition of the holiness of God. We see this throughout the Bible. Anytime someone comes into the presence of God, they begin to tremble. One vivid example of this is Isaiah six, when Isaiah sees the Lord seated on the throne and the angels cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. Now Isaiah again would have been a man of outstanding reputation. He would have been a devout religious man, thought well by his community. But when he comes into the presence of God, the first thing he says is, woe to me. Woe is a harsh rebuke. It's what Jesus said to the Pharisees, woe to you. Isaiah is rebuking himself. And then he says, I am ruined, or I am undone, I am shattered, I am nothing. God's holiness shined a light on who Isaiah really is. He knows that he is worthless in the presence of God. And that's what the Bible tells us happens anytime someone comes into the presence of the holy God, even sometimes just his angels. And there probably hasn't been a time in church history that viewed worship as casually as modern day American evangelicalism. The attitude toward God and worship in many churches is almost flippant. It's overly casual attitude, where people are just coming in, singing, hanging out, and they view worship as this kind of subjective feeling that you get. But as we read in our response of reading this morning from Hebrews 12, it said, let us offer to God acceptable worship. with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. When you have the proper fear of the Lord in worship, then you will listen with a heart of obedience to him. Then you will speak to him with the reverence he deserves. You won't make promises that you don't plan on keeping. Your heart in worship should be reverence and awe of the God who you are worshiping. John Calvin once said that godly fear is a voluntary reverence, which true piety causes us to feel toward God. He said there is no worship without reverence. Fear of God doesn't bring you to avoid him, it brings you to devote yourself to him. Because while God is a consuming fire, that's not all he is, that's not the whole of his being. God also is love. He's a loving father for all who belong to Jesus Christ. You come to worship in the assurance of forgiveness through belief in Jesus Christ. You come knowing that the just, holy, righteous wrath of God has been satisfied on the cross of Jesus Christ. God is a consuming fire, but that same God loves you with an extraordinary love. And although you have sinned and rebelled against him repeatedly your whole life, although you deserve nothing from him but his wrath, he sent his son to die for you in your place so that you may live. But never forget who he is and who you are before him. To fear God and worship is to remember and acknowledge that God is the creator in heaven and you are a creature on earth. You enter the house of God to worship Him with a heart that knows that He is God and you are not. That He holds everything in the entire universe in His hands, including your very life. But you know that He loves you with a divine, steadfast love that can never be broken. And his son, Jesus Christ, whom he gave up his life for you, is the great mediator between God and humanity. Jesus bridged the gap between you and your creator so that you can approach God in joy and delight, never forgetting the greatness and awe and the majesty of God. Psalm 2 verse 11 says, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. It's a delight to those who have been changed by God to serve him. To fear the Lord has always meant to know who God is and to love him and serve him as a result. We see this even in the Old Testament. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he saw that the people of Israel had made the golden calf to worship and he broke the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Then in Deuteronomy 10, we read of God giving them 10 new tablets with 10 commandments on them. And he says in verse 12, immediately after this moment, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God. Then he explains what that means, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord. He goes on to say, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart. The circumcision of the heart is the new heart you are given in Christ. It's a new spiritual birth of believers in Jesus Christ. And what he's saying is you are able to fear God because God has changed your heart. And think about the average unbeliever, the average person. They have no fear of God at all. They sin willfully. They repeatedly, they argue against God. They question God. They question his goodness. They refuse to give him the reverence and honor he deserves. But God in his infinite love, his infinite goodness has saved you from this fate. He called you out of the world. He changed your heart so that you will fear him, so that you will love him, so that you will serve him, so that you will be here today in his house, worshiping him with reverence and love for him in your heart. And when you fail at this, you and I will fail at this. You will be distracted and not listen to God. You will be quick to speak. You will not keep all of your promises to God perfectly. You will not always have a proper reverence for God in worship. He has forgiven you in his son, Jesus Christ, and he's renewing you day by day, that you will know who he is truly and know who you are before him. When I first became a Christian, I rejected this idea of fearing God. But I realized over time, it was only because I'm sinful. I didn't want to acknowledge how sinful I am before God. I didn't want to admit that I bring nothing to God, that I have empty hands before Him, that He, the Holy Creator, has every right to end my existence. But instead, He has redeemed me by the blood of His Son. The more I understand the nature of God and how short I fall of His perfect righteousness and glory, the more I fear Him, the more I love Him, the more I desire to worship Him in reverence and in awe. If you are here in worship today, you should know that God is a consuming fire. But this God loves you with a divine love beyond your understanding, and you were created to worship Him and only Him. And though you and I have failed to devote the whole of our lives to him, he sacrificed his son that you may have new life in him. And in this newness of life, you can draw near to him and worship. And by his spirit living in you, you can fear him, love him, serve him and worship him as only he deserves. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord, as your people, called out of the world to cast off the idols in our heart and to worship you with a heart of reverence and awe as you made us to do, to glorify you and enjoy you in worship as is our purpose in life. And so, Lord, we ask that you continue to grow us into the image of Jesus Christ that we may worship you in spirit and in truth, that we would worship you and glorify you in our hearts as you have made us to do, as you deserve. As we praise you and sing your praises, we know, Lord, that you have forgiven us, and we love you and serve you with the whole of our lives. So as we worship you now as your people, we ask that your glory is in our hearts and our minds, in the glory of your name, of your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.