I want to begin by painting a scene that might hit close to home for some. This is not to represent anyone in particular, but just might be familiar enough to indict any or all of us to some extent. It's Sunday morning, it's 7.30, the alarm goes off. Dad gets out of bed, groggy. As he goes to the bathroom, he stumbles slightly over his son's slippers that were left in the hallway. He angrily kicks them out of the way, muttering, this kid never puts anything away. I almost broke my neck. As he goes to the mirror to shave, he cuts himself. It hurts. It's bleeding. He catches himself, though, when he sees his younger daughter, her eyes peeping in the bathroom, saying, Daddy, I have to go potty. His dad comes out of the bathroom, he hears his son and his older daughter arguing about who will go into the bathroom next. He resigns to comfort himself, though, at a cup of coffee in the kitchen. Afterward, he comes back to the bedroom, his wife is still sleeping, having hit the snooze button for the sixth time. His morning greeting to his wife is, we're late. Why don't you get up and deal with the arguing that's going on? Why can't we clean up a mess on Saturday night? I almost broke my neck. The older daughter finally emerges from the bathroom after 20 minutes. Her hair is still yet uncombed. She happens to run into her groggy, cranky mother, who, with eyes still half closed, greets her daughter. this Lord's Day morning by saying, your hair's a mess. You're not going to church like that. She argues back with her mother for a while until mother grabs the comb and starts combing her hair for her, during which time she cries and wails as if her mother is murdering her. Dad then looks at his son. His first Lord's Day greeting to his son is, you're not going to wear that to church, are you? The boy waits until his dad is out of view, and he makes an inappropriate gesture with his hand in his father's direction, cursing him in his heart as he changes into something that he really does not want to wear. Mother, still in her pajamas, is getting breakfast for the children. Her youngest daughter spills the milk on the counter and on the chair, and mother angrily says to the older daughter, why can't you help cleaning it up? And she rolls her eyes and says, I didn't spill it. Why do I have to clean it up? And angry words are exchanged. Dad yells from the other room, it's getting late for church once again. I do this very well because I have practice. Once again, we're going to be late. Thanks to all of you. As he sits down on the couch, he pouts and finally says, I can't take it anymore. I'm going out to the car. He goes in the driveway. He starts the car and then honks the horn every one and a half minutes as a reminder of his impatience. Finally, mother gets dressed, but she hasn't eaten, so she decides to take her cereal in a bowl in the car. So, they go into the car. Finally, everyone is loaded in the car. And in order to dramatize their lateness, Dad speedily jolts the car into reverse. Mom spills the milk on her dress. Unfriendly words are exchanged again. Will you be more careful? Well, I wouldn't have to rush if you would get dressed on time. Well, don't blame me. Blame the kids. Well, it's not me. It's Miss Beauty Queen here who has to look perfect all the time. As they argue, it's followed by a family-wide silent treatment for the remainder of the trip where everyone in the family is mad at someone else. They drive up to the church building in the car. They're immediately greeted by another family that pulls in the parking lot. And Dad emerges and he slams the door and he smiles and extends his hand and says, Brother, it's good to see you. What a great Lord's Day. And the other man slams the door to his car and he smiles back. How you doing? I'm great, lies the dad. How about you? Praise God, we're great, lies the other man. And finally, as the families exchange smiles and pleasantries, they enter the church and it's just time for the first hymn. They all open up their hymnals and smile as dad raises his hands to the Lord and begins to sing, holy, holy, holy. Can someone say ouch? I think that we all perhaps, more than we're willing to admit, have something like that happen to us. But I would ask the question, who is the real you in this? Are you that angry man or woman who so readily spews out hateful words to your family? Or are you the one who acts sweet and nice and all smiley going to the house of God? When you go to worship, is it really worship? Ecclesiastes chapter 5 opens with a seven-verse exhortation to us about worship, to be careful as we go to the house of God. And while this was written 3,000 years ago as a text to Jewish people who were preparing for a temple sacrifice, there is a certain application here to the church, to Christ's body today. The preacher, Kohalek, the author of Ecclesiastes, is speaking to us. He's speaking to you and I who are regular church goers. These are not words written to unbelievers, as we'll see, but to believers who do faithfully assemble in Christ's name. These words are for those who would come to church but find it difficult to arrive on time for the pastoral prayer or who miss Sunday school. These words are for people who come to hear the Word of God, but find as the preaching goes on, their minds wandering onto what they have to do later this week. These words are for people who come and stand and worship and sing, but don't really participate, don't understand, don't even think about the words that they're singing. These words are for people who have good intentions, coming to the house of God, to serve God, I'm going to serve God, but then have difficulty following through. These words are for people who know they need to get involved in outreach, know they need to share the gospel, even say that they will share the gospel, but then come up with some excuse for not actually doing it. These are for people who go through a serious endeavor to read and study the Bible and they begin, but it starts to teeter out after a few weeks. These words are for people just like you and I. It is to these people that Kohalet writes these words. Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse one. 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 business, 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. Pay 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. Today we're going to glean from these words of the preacher, these ancient words, what ought to be the condition of our hearts in worship, our attitudes, our activities as we come together corporately. It'll help us understand the gravity of what goes on in corporate worship, how when we gather together it is to revere God in holy worship. We enter the presence of a holy God who gathers a holy people to hear his holy word. And we can't take that for granted. Corporate worship is not a game to be played for two hours. It's not a weekly performance that we put on. We are called upon to fear God in His majesty and in His might, to give Him the glory that He deserves. So Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verses 1 to 7 was written to us, to help us to these ends, to help us to take God seriously in our corporate worship, and in our worship not just for two hours on Sunday, but in the worship of our everyday lives. As we begin the fifth chapter of Ecclesiastes, for the first time in the book now, we see the language changing from a language of observation and reflection to instruction and exhortation. In these first seven verses here, chapter five, are nine commands. There are nine imperatives here. This is going to be a heavy message of imperatives, commands. God is mentioned six times. We've barely heard God mentioned in this book. Here He is mentioned in seven verses six times. The fool is mentioned three times. And then some form of verbal communication, whether mouth, words, voice, vow, are mentioned ten times in this text. So, from these clues, we could put together Qohelet's purpose in this instruction. And his purpose is to warn us, to warn against careless or foolish speech, especially before God in worship. The first imperative is in verse 1. Verse 1 directs us to guard our steps when going to the house of God, in verse 1. Now, of course, again, this refers, the house of God, refers to Solomon's temple. As Solomon is writing this, he's referring to the temple, the house of God. As in the Old Testament, this was the place that was designated as holy. When Jesus came, He eradicated the distinctions of any kind of specific holiness associated with a place. It would be incorrect, for example, to call these four walls, this room, a temple, because it is not. This was symbolized by God when Jesus died, when he bowed his head, God tore the veil in the Jerusalem temple. Shortly after that, a few years later, the temple was destroyed. All of this is symbolic of the fact that God is no longer, there is no longer a specifically holy place. Jesus spoke about this in John chapter 4 when he was talking to the woman at the well. And she talked about the place. She said to him, our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but you people say Jerusalem is the place to worship. And Jesus said, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither this mountain nor Jerusalem will be where you worship the Father. The hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, not about a place any longer, but in the heart, in spirit, in truth. Why did this happen? Because Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the temple. That's why a temple is no longer necessary, because Christ fulfilled that which the temple stood for. So now the temple has no specific setting. Rather, it is any place His people gather in His name. Christians do not have a Jerusalem, do not have a Mecca. We do not have a Rome, which we must make pilgrimages to. Instead, we are promised the presence of God wherever two or three are gathered in His name. But this certainly has an application, though, to our corporate worship. While this building is not a temple, the gathering of God's people are His temple. The application is to our worship, not because the church building is holy, but because we, as God's people, are a holy people. Now, just like in the days of Israel with their temple, likewise today the people of God come together and congregate, and at times we come with hypocrisy, at times we come with formality or tradition. It's Sunday, I need to go to church. The Lord dealt with this with the Jewish people in Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13 where it says, the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is the commandment taught by men. Jesus said the same thing in Matthew chapter 15 when He was rebuking the Pharisees because of their vows, their flippant vows. He said, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word. You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. There's a tendency that we have in our human nature to take worship lightly. to take our words lightly, to honor God with our lips, even while our hearts are far from Him. Even though the four walls of a church building are not a particularly holy place, that does not lighten the beauty of holiness with which we are called to worship God. Again, not because you're coming to a location, but because we are meeting God corporately as we gather. Worship is the place where God bends His ear toward us and He hears our prayers. When we come together corporately, we are coming in worship. Think about this the next time you're arguing in the car. Think about where it is that you're going. Again, not to a place, but to the church of the firstborn. You are going to worship the one true, holy, perfect, majestic God. And that's why He says, guard your steps as you go to the house of God. I want to read to you from the commentary of George Milne from 1859 who writes this about verse 1. He writes, Leave not your gospel shoes at home, nor lose them along the way. If so, you will not find them when you come to worship. What do you think of and speak of along the way to the house of God? If earthly things engage the mind, the doings of the past or coming week, the dress or manners of the passersby, if thoughts like these are in your mind up to the very threshold of the church door, this will hinder your devotions. God's worship must begin before you leave your home. Make Christ your company along the way, and he'll accompany you into the house of God. Then all the acts shall savor of his presence. In private worship, or in social prayer. We cannot be dwelling on worldly things and then spring at once from heaven, from earth to heaven. Oh, there must be a preparation of the heart, a setting of the countenance heavenwards, a girding the loins for fellowship with God, a deep conviction of His majesty, a pausing on the threshold of His presence, that the first word of prayer may have His blessing. Brethren, guard your steps when you go to the house of God. The second part of verse one then admonishes us, how do you guard your steps? How do you go about guarding your steps when you go into the house of God? Do I just need to wear the right shoes? What do I need to do? How do I guard my steps? Well, he deals here with the heart attitude in the remainder of verse one. He says, draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. See, the right way to come to worship God is with open ears. Listening requires three things according to the text. Drawing near, opening the ears, and closing the mouth. In the Hebrew temple, silence reigned while the priest was offering the sacrifices or whether he was reading from God's law. There was a silence that overcame the people. Silence was the posture that was considered a receptive heart in the divine presence. This is spoken of by the prophet Habakkuk in chapter 2, verse 20, where it says, the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Many times in the Old Testament, we see this admonition to hear, to listen. The Shema, hear, O Israel. Jesus said it repeatedly in our text today. He said it, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Paul writes, faith comes by hearing. James says, let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak. So when we come to corporate worship, there will be hearing going on. You will need to hear. The place of worship is a place that you will hear. You will hear the word read. You will hear the word preached. You will hear the word prayed out loud. You will hear the word sung. You will hear the word counseled together in your fellowship. If you don't come to corporate worship with open ears expecting to hear from God, you're going to miss the purpose for which we're here. So the first question we need to ask ourselves is, am I ready to listen to the voice of God? Am I going to listen? Am I going to listen to the prayers of the pastor as he opens up the service? Am I going to listen to those prayers so that when I say amen at the end, I'm entering into everything that he just said? Am I going to listen to the word preached so that I might grow in my faith? Am I going to listen to the words or the songs as I sing them so that as I sing them, I'm singing with understanding? See, the trouble with human beings is that it is hard for us to listen. Instead of being quick to listen, we're often quick to speak. And we're often quick to speak, if not with our mouths, in our minds, there's a clamor that goes on. Even while the preacher is preaching, there's a clamor that goes, oh, he must be talking about me. Oh, what he just said, that's not accurate. I wonder what his motives are in saying that. Some of you just thought that when I just said it. I wonder if he is talking about me. You say these things instead of listening. Kohelet calls that the sacrifice of fools. He calls it doing evil. Listen, hearing is so important. Jesus in Luke 8, verse 18 said it. He said, take care how you hear. Take care how you hear. He says, for the one who has will be given and the one who has not, even that which he has will be taken away. So be careful how you hear. Your listening or your lack thereof will either take you closer to your final destination of salvation or can damage your spiritual health. So it is vital to come to church to listen. How do we do that? Well, I have just six practical tips for listening to the Word of God. How can we prepare our hearts for listening to God's Word as it is read, as it is prayed, as it is preached? The first is, expect God to speak. Prepare to hear from him during the week. Think about it all week. Think about it as if you were expecting on Sunday a telephone call from the president. Only it's with God. Look forward to what God is going to say to you with eager anticipation. Listen, God lends his authority to the preaching of the Word. The one who opens up the Word and faithfully exposits the Word of God is speaking the very words of God. And there's nothing casual about a sermon. There's nothing light. There's nothing flippant about God speaking. I realize there's a tendency in the church to dumb down the preaching, to make it casual, to sit on a stool. Not that a stool is holy or unholy, but to make it a conversation, to speak in a nice low voice so that you can kind of like converse together. That's not what preaching is. Never was. It's not that historically, and it's not that in the Word of God. Now, of course, the preacher's human. There's no question. We are subject to error up here. We are subject to preach in our own flesh. And the word that is preached needs to be discerned. We don't blindly accept what someone says just because he's behind a pulpit. But, we must approach the hearing of the preached word as the very words of God. Let me show you two places. Turn to 1 Thessalonians. In the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians 2. I will turn to one and I'll read the other. Where clearly, Paul in this case and Peter, are referring to the preached word as the very words of God. In 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, Paul is actually referring to something that happened in the book of Acts, chapter 17, where the Christians in Thessalonica heard the gospel preached. Chapter 2, verse 13, he says, and we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the words of men, but as what it really is, the Word of God. which is at work in you believers. See, Paul's approach to the preached word is that it is accepted as what it really is, the word of God. The word preached is from God. Not that every word is perfect, but it is God speaking. It is the Holy Spirit speaking. Now this doesn't only apply to the apostolic teachers, but anyone who heralds the oracles of God. Because Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4, verse 11, and he's talking about the context of 1 Peter 4, verse 11, is the preaching in the church. He says, if anyone speaks, if anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. Okay, now I realize this has been abused, and I realize with the whole authoritarian thing, you don't touch God's anointed, the words are not saying any of that. But we need to come to the preaching of God's word seriously. I would suggest practically, as you think about this, as you prepare to hear from God on the Lord's Day, a few thoughts, a few ways that you could practically prepare. One is read Sunday's passage, read the devotional notes, during the week to prepare. We do that for your sake, for your family's sake, so that you can prepare. Utilize those notes. Prepare your hearts by utilizing. Be familiar with the passage. Discuss it with your family beforehand. Make Sunday's text a reading at some point, any night during the week. Make it a subject of one weeknight's family worship. Pray for the person. You know who's preaching next week, so you know who to pray for. Pray for Pastor Joe. Pray for Brother Jim. Whoever's preaching that Sunday, that God would grant them an unction in the bringing forth of that Word. Pray for yourself, that your eyes would be enlightened, that your faith would be increased as the Word is preached. Try to come to church rested. This is just a practical thing. Avoid being too exhausted on Saturday so that you can be attentive to the Word of God. Do as much as you can physically and spiritually to prepare for the Lord's Day the night before, to avoid some of those events that were in the opening illustration. Deliberately quiet your mind before the sermon. Say, Lord, speak to me as the pastor is preaching, as we're opening in prayer. It might even involve arriving a little bit early so that you can quiet your own heart in prayer. So expect God to speak to you. God is speaking. Secondly, admit that God knows you better than you do. Realize God has ordained this day and this sermon for you at this time. He is speaking to you. about what you need. You can come here and you can say, I don't need to hear this. You can judge the message. You can think about all the other people who you wish would be hearing this at this moment. But he has not chosen to bring those people here today. He has brought you here. So you need to hear what he is saying today. To listen to a sermon humbly is to admit God is God. I am not. I am the one who needs to change. Thirdly, meditate on the message. Utilize that time of meditation that we have before the Lord's Supper to think about what has just been said and immediately apply what you have been convicted of. Write down points of action that the Holy Spirit has put His finger on. Pray that the Holy Spirit will enable you by His grace to submit to what He has convicted you of. Fourthly is be an active listener. Be an active listener. Take notes. Listening is not passive. You are as involved in this sermon right now as I am. So engage your mind in it. If you have questions, write them down. I'm so blessed when a brother or sister comes up and asks for clarification or, how did you get to that point? I love to be able to explain those things to you. Would I have gotten the same idea from this text? Would I have gotten the same application? If not, what am I missing? Or what is the preacher missing? If we do things right up here, you should also be able to summarize the message with a sentence. The main point of the message in one sentence. Do that as an exercise for yourself. Each time you come to the Lord's house and you hear a sermon, If you hold each other, hold spouses, hold each other accountable, families, do that in a car on the way home. Tell me in one sentence what the pastor preached on today. One sentence. Try it as a regular practice. It will help you to be more active listeners. You, your wife, your children, you're all here in the same room. We do this on purpose so that you all hear the same message. So there is a built-in accountability against zoning out. Discuss the sermon with your family afterwards. Ask for a summary. Give a summary. If you're single, write it down on the back of your announcements. What was one sentence summary of this sermon? Fifthly, hear the sermon in church. Don't fall for the old, I'll get the CD next week. That's a poor substitute. Why? Because listening to preaching is supposed to be a corporate event. God told Moses in Deuteronomy 4.10, he said, assemble the people before me to hear my words. And God summons us every Lord's Day to come before him, to gather together, to be shaped together by his word. Sixth, do what the Bible says today and rejoice or be a purposeful, joyful doer of the word. If God convicts you, put it into immediate action. Do not procrastinate. I know there have been many, many times when I have been convicted by something during a sermon and I didn't take immediate action. I didn't follow through. And that conviction just kind of waned away by the end of the week. Rejoice in it also. Even if it's not easy, even if God is calling you to do something that's not easy, rejoice knowing that's a product of God's grace. Conviction is a good thing. If you're convicted of something, it's an indication that the Holy Spirit is working. It's a sign of God's working. It's a sign of His care for you as His child. So be joyful and immediate doers of the Word. Draw near. Listen. God is speaking. Again, let me read from Milne's commentary. He says, in conversation with a friend, it's not one alone who speaks, but two people. And in this conversation, listening is as part as speaking. So it is in communing with God. In prayer, devotions, be much alive to listening, quick to discern the voice of Jesus, and ready to obey. Now, the next seven imperatives deal with our words in one way or another, our words. Obviously, words are important as we come together in corporate worship. We use words to encourage, we use words to preach, we use words to sing, and this is a call to pay careful attention to the words that we use. The words that we use are not rash or flippant or rote. Look at verses two and three, Ecclesiastes chapter five. Be not rash with your words, 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 business, and a fool's voice with many words." Here we have in this text, in these two verses, three more commands, all of which teach us to take care and be efficient with your words. We've heard many messages lately, haven't we, from whether we're in Proverbs or in James. God has been driving this point home about speaking in our words. Most of them have been about speaking to one another, but here we see both the context about the congregation, as well as in verse 5. You see the words, before God? It says, be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. When we come to God's house to pray corporately, we must be careful with our words. The command is, let your words be few. Kohelet illustrates this by saying, just like when you think about something, there's much business when you're thinking about something, something's on your mind, and you have a dream about that thing that night, in the same way, in other words, just like your dream comes from an occupied mind, one naturally follows the other. So in the same way, a fool's mouth precedes many words. So if there are many words out of one's mouth, that comes because it's a fool's mouth. Proverbs 29 says, a fool utters all his mind. Proverbs 10.10, where words are many, sin is not absent. Turn to Matthew chapter 6, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6. Jesus taught about this particularly in prayer. He spoke about the vain repetition of the Pharisees and their many words. And then he gave the Lord's Prayer, which the Lord's Prayer is many things, and one of those things is that it is concise, is it not? Matthew 6, verse 7. It says, When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Concise. Today, let me ask you, if you were to stand before an audience with an earthly leader, a king, or someone in authority, how would you speak with them? You're not just going to run your mouth and babble before them. You're not going to say a whole lot of unimportant things. Your words are going to be few. This is a privilege. You have a privileged audience with the king, and you're going to make your words count. I remember when we went before the judge in Englewood, when they were thinking about framing that buffer zone ruling, we were given two minutes to speak. As we were online, I'm sure my mind, and I'm sure the other brothers' minds was, what am I going to say? How am I going to utilize these two minutes? I don't want to waste my time here. Well, we have an audience with God. We ought not be flippant with our words. And I understand there's a balance here. We have to really understand this tension of the holiness and the transcendence of God on one hand and the nearness or the imminence of God on the other. You know, much today in the church is made of this, that God is your friend. I have a personal relationship with God. I talk to him like he's my friend. And that's true. That's a necessary truth. You need to know that. But I wonder how much of that in the church today is the result of a pendulum swing of a former age of traditionalism and liturgy and formality in God's house. Perhaps we need a reminder here that Koalet is giving us of the transcendence of God. He says in verse 2, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. We can't forget that that's true. Yes, God spoke with Abraham as a friend, but Abraham revered and bowed in God's presence. The Scripture says, God spoke to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. He had an audience with God, but yet, God said to him, remove your sandals for the place where you stand is holy ground. Jesus taught us to pray, and He said, He used the word Abba, Father. He's our Father. We can go to Him like our father. But yet he lacked no reverence because how did he open the prayer? Our Father, in heaven, hallowed, holy, be your name. I thought of the text this morning in Proverbs, or no, in Psalms, where it says the friendship of God is with those who fear him, right? There's that balance there. I find the same thing here, if we take verse 1 and verse 2 together, Kohiletz is striking that balance. Because on the one hand he's saying, listen, God is going to speak to you. He's transcendent, he's holy, but he talks. He speaks to you. There is going to be a conversation where God is going to speak to you. He's admonished them. Come to the Lord's house with an open ear. Hear Him. But yet here in verse 2, don't forget, He's transcendent. He's holy. He's completely other. Yet, He makes Himself known by drawing near. He listens to our cries. He speaks to us. You take verse 1 and 2 together and you have that balance there. It becomes an admonition to us to wait on God in prayer because He is your Father and He will speak to you. Listen for His voice. For while He is in heaven, He will at the same time draw near. You know, for many of us, for all of us, most of us at least, unless you were raised in an agnostic household, most of us prayed in our former religions, but that prayer was nothing more than form, memorized words. Whether you grew up in Protestantism or Catholicism or Judaism or Islam, prayer was limited to the repetition of words, words that you memorized, and it often was dull to you because you didn't have the idea of a beloved God speaking to you. You were only speaking to a deity, but now you know, now you know what a glorious thing prayer is, that the very king and creator, an eternal one, the creator of all, has condescended to give you an audience today, to hear you, and not only hear you, but answer you. Amazing. Again, from George Milne's commentary, he says, let your words be few. Five minutes of heartfelt prayer is better than hours of formal worship. Let your words be few. Abore the habit of empty prayer, praying for a praying sake that you may eke out the moments of a given time set apart for devotional exercises. In other words, just trying to get through the hour of prayer meeting. When you come to the Lord's house for prayer, let your words be few. Don't use the vain repetition as the Gentiles and the pagans do, but listen for God's voice. Even in prayer, God is speaking. I think we forget that at times. We always think there has to be something being said. God is speaking to us. Now having made these two points about reverence and worship and coming to the house with open ears and also about being careful in our words and prayer, in verse 4, he again references the tongue, but here it is in the making and keeping of vows. Look at verses 4-6. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay 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 works of your hands? Now, we had an extensive teaching on vows just a couple of weeks ago. Brother Jim brought it to us from the book of James, and he brought it to the words of Jesus as well, how in light of the vows that were being made by the Pharisees, these flippant vows, swearing by some object in heaven and earth, Jesus was faulting the Pharisees because they had these clever distinctions. They had the vows that they had to be fulfilled, the vows that could be disregarded, and he gave that image of the guy making the vow promise with his fingers crossed behind his back. Well, Jesus taught and James taught that all vows are in fact yeses and noes. Ultimately, all vows are before God and they must be fulfilled. So make your yes yes and your no no. Now, there are formal vows that people take today. You swear in on a Bible in court. You have public officials who are sworn in to their duties. Couples vow their lives to one another. Christians make vows in baptism. We make private vows to God at times. Oh, Lord, help me through this, and I will serve you. We saw the seriousness with which God takes the vows as illustrated in Jephthah's vow in the book of Judges. He promises to offer up the first thing that comes through the door and it's his daughter. That's how serious it is. Well, here is the language, the same seriousness that Koalet has. Look at verse 4 again. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for He takes no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. By the way, that word fools is a heavy word. He's chastening the people who do not keep their vows there. He says it's better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay. We can't take liberties with the seriousness of our words. We see the same thing in the New Testament. This is not just an Old Testament admonition. We see the example of Ananias and Sapphira who lied in the payment of their vow and found themselves struck dead. Listen, it's serious. By the way, verse 5 here is one of the reasons in our church, one of the reasons that you should know that we don't have a specific church covenant where you sign a line saying, for example, I'm going to agree to tithe or any other specific requirement. It's because verse 5 says, it is better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay. We give you the opportunity to make your yes, yes, and your no, no. Our words are very serious. I was surprised as I considered the numbers of hymns and songs that we sing that have vows in them. I'm going to mention a few, and this is in no way to say that we ought not to sing these, but like we sang last week, I boast no more. I wonder, OK, maybe we should change the words to that. I boast no more until Monday. How about, take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Really, not a mite. Imagine if God were to hold us accountable to singing those words as he held Ananias and Sapphira accountable. Are we really ready to surrender all? We all sang that, most of you did. Is that not a vow in the singing of a song? I want so much, Lord, to make you the focus, to serve you in secret and never be noticed. And amen. If you're a Christian, that's your desire. You want that. But at the same time, I wonder how many of us are singing, I surrender all, with the full intention of holding on to that idol. Search me and know me. I want to bring to you a life that is holy and sanctified through you." How many sang that this morning, knowing in your heart that when you leave this place, you're going to make a half-hearted effort at best to lay that thing down that God is putting His finger on? We need to be careful of playing games with our words. When we speak, when we sing, there ought to be forethought of what we say, what we pray, what we preach, what we sing. I would ask you, do you sing sincerely? There's the old saying, you know, the worship leader calls out, sing it like you mean it. Well, we ought to sing it because we mean it. I want you all to sing, brothers. This is not a thing to say, stop singing. I want you to sing heartily. And believe me, we do make an effort among our leadership of choosing songs and hymns that do not place the congregation in a position where you're making vows and you're singing. Every now and then we slip. If your heart is not in the place where you can sing with faith, and you know what? In such cases, perhaps it's better off not to sing it. I mean, take this as the Lord would have it. I'm just throwing this out as a possibility. And that would include the brothers and sisters that are up here. You know what? If you feel your heart is not in the state, it doesn't matter. You know, you rehearsed and you're ready and the whole thing. If you feel like your heart is not in a place to be playing up at the front or singing up at the front, there's nothing wrong with not doing that. This passage here directs us to avoid any words that are not sincere, whether in our singing, in our prayer, in our fellowship. In our prayers, how many times do we plead with God for grace to overcome, half afraid that He's going to give us that grace? Lord, send me someone this week to witness to, half afraid that He might actually do that. We pray for a spirit to strive against sin. I want to strive against sin, all the while longing to indulge in that sin. Praying against some idol, even while we are hugging that idol. Again, listen to the words of Milne. Beware of making vows to God. Who asked them of you? He says, make holy resolutions, if you will, but pray for grace to keep them. Have deep convictions of your own infirmity. Trust only the Spirit's power for strength. Think of the love of Jesus. Be daily crucified with Christ, and thus go forth to meet the trials of a fallen world. This will advance you more than all of your vows. Do not rashly prolong your times in worship, nor enter lightly on a course of self-imposed, pious duties. If these are followed for a time and then given up, it's worse than if they were never pursued. I'll tell you, if there's ever a biblical argument against the practice of altar calls for commitments, everyone who believes that God has convicted to them today, come forward. There's an emotional plea that goes out. Come up and seal that with God and say that I will do this and I will do that. If there's ever a biblical argument against it, it's verse 5, it's better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay. Notice it does not say not to vow, but it's better that you should not vow than to vow and not pay. And I do believe that God will hold to account pastors and churches who place people through emotionalism under a condemnation of their own words. Now, brethren, I understand there are going to be times in our lives when we feel prompted to do something, and we believe it might even be the Spirit prompting us to do something, and you may even be prompted to vow a vow. It may be to God silently, or it may be even before others in the church. I'm going to do this thing. But you know what? I have no authority in God's Word to tell you that that's okay. No matter how much we teach about grace, we can't lighten the gravity of our words. We see this in the Old Testament. We see this in the New Testament. Look again at verse 6. 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? You see how important it is? How grave a matter it is that you be true to your words? God is saying this to us here today. He is saying it to you and I. Be careful with your words. Don't say, yes, I'll be there, until you've counted the cost. Who doesn't do something without first counting the cost? Count the cost. Be ready to make your yes a true yes, even if it is to your own hurt. And if you've made any vows to God, even in the midst of affliction, Lord, get me through this and I vow, you cry out to God, God, save his life and I'll serve you with my life. If you've made such a vow, God takes those vows seriously. Let me again read from George Milne's commentary. He says, your vows of service, your fervent resolutions, where are they? Where is your change of life, solemnly pledged in the hour of need? Your former sinful books, sinful pleasures, and sinful companions, are they renounced? Say not before the messenger, still less before the living God. It was an error. I didn't mean it so. My friend, will God accept excuses such as these? Ask your own conscience. It shall tell you true. And you, my soul, I have a word for you, a word for every child of God. Think well before your resolutions. Harbor not the thought unless prepared to act upon it. Hold it far from you. Let it not come within the range even of slight resolve until you can count the cost and see if you have the faith to make the sacrifice. To break even a passing resolution unnerves the soul and more or less impedes its healthy action. Remember then with whom you have to do and be watchful of your vows." All I can say is this is God's standard. This is the Word. Maybe some of you disagree, but this is the Word. I believe we're going to be held accountable to our words. Now if that fact does not make you more appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ who kept his word perfectly, even to death, if that fact doesn't make you appreciate that Christ kept his vows perfectly, if this does not cause you to flee to Christ and embrace the love of the gospel, I don't know what will. Because we have all sinned with our words. Finally, verse 7, we have another warning and a kind of a summary exhortation. I want to read it to you though in the NASB. I think it's a more accurate translation because I think the imperative here in verse 7 is fear God. It's stated as an imperative, fear God. The NASB has it this way. It says, For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God. A warning and a final summary exhortation. First the warning, not so much about dreams per se, but about using many words to describe your dreams. I mean, listen, our waking thoughts are usually vanity. How much more are sleeping thoughts? I recently had a dream that I was running away from Godzilla. I mean, it was plain folly. But I wonder right now how many of you are just chomping at the bit to tell me the interpretation of that dream. It's significant, Pastor, it's Godzilla that you're running away from. I know that God chooses how He speaks, and I can't deny that God is maybe pleased to visit you in a dream, and you know what? If He will, He'll reveal your sin, and He'll direct you to Christ, and cherish that, and if He does, cherish that. But when you gather together with God's people, speak the gospel, speak about Christ, let Christ and the gospel occupy your words. Don't waste your breath on words that do not exalt Christ, but exalt yourself or your dreams. For in many dreams, and in many words, there is vanity. Rather, fear God. We have this concise imperative to end our text, fear God. A powerful conclusion to this unit. It admonishes us to revere God. Fear God is a command that we're going to see in the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. It's first visited here. To fear God doesn't mean to be terrified of God. It doesn't mean to be fearful in the sense of worrying about coming into his presence. Fear God means to revere him, to stand in awe of him. And brethren, this is the key to the other imperatives. If we obey this, if we are fearing God, then we will guard our steps on our way to the house of God. If we're fearing God, we'll guard our mouths. If we're fearing God, we'll be careful about what we vow. If we are fearing God, we will think less about ourselves. Our yeses will be yes, we will not delay. And if our yeses are yes, we won't make lame excuses. If we're fearing God, it'll keep us from rash vows and foolish words. Reverence for God will make our worship heartfelt and sincere and genuine. Fear God. The ninth of nine imperatives in seven verses. Now, if you're like me, you might feel a little bit beat up, a little bit hammered by this text. You just heard a sermon on a text with nine commandments squeezed into seven verses. What do you do at the end of a sermon like this? I know you took notes and there's a lot of practical stuff there. What do you do, though, when the law has cut you up, hammered you, revealed your pride, revealed your hypocrisy? Where do you run to? Do you try to run away and hide under the seat? I'm not going to partake in the Lord's Supper today because I'm too convicted. Will you run to where you need to run to? Will you run to Christ? Brethren, today if you feel as though these nine commandments, these nine commands here, I got them down. I'm pretty good. I'm good to go. If you feel today that you have surrendered all, then all I can say to you is good luck. I'll see you next week for counseling. You got this thing worked out, I guess. Let's see how that works out for you this week. But if you've been cut by the law, slain by the law, let me tell you about another hymn that we sing at times. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all, all, all their guilty stains. You who, in the words of another hymn, are bearing shame and scoffing rude, know that in your place condemned He stood. He sealed your pardon with His blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior. And I invite you today, in fact, I would pray that the Holy Spirit would compel you today. For many ignore invitations, but I pray that God's irresistible grace would get a hold of someone today. I invite all hypocrites. I invite all of you who have broken your vows. I invite all of you who have not followed through, all who have prayed insincere prayers, all who have sung hymns insincerely. I invite all of you who have had arguments in your car on the way to church. I invite all of you to the fountain that is filled with Christ's blood to receive and to marvel at the full atonement which came at the expense of the One who perfectly kept His vows in your place. I invite you to come to Christ to be saved from the wrath that your sin deserves, from the wrath that your broken vows deserve. I invite you to kindle afresh your love for Him, your genuine gratitude for a finished work, For Christ and Christ alone paid every vow He ever made, even to the very cost of His own life. He prayed every prayer to the Father sincerely, and today He even sits at the right hand of the Father to pray sincerely for you. For what you should do but did not do, He did. And where you failed, He succeeded on your behalf. If that is not a reason to celebrate, brethren, I don't know what is. What a glorious good news that is. Come to Christ today. Come to Christ and be washed in His blood. Amen.