Put First Things First
September 18, 2005
How can I live with purpose?
View God Correctly
Ecclesiastes, chapter 3
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Work, sometimes mind-numbing, sometimes exciting and stimulating work is our lot in life, the fruits of which are either forgotten and die with us or are enjoyed by others. Genesis 3:17-19.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
World is used here partly, because in context, Solomon is not talking about salvation and particularly not about New Testament salvation. The setting of this verse is the framework of temporal time as in the phrase “from the beginning to the end” and the fact that it is God who inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15) is helpful in understanding why Solomon is here saying just what he is saying, that everything has been made in God’s proper setting, beautiful within his framework, and from his viewpoint. Mankind’s view is limited. We can’t see the big picture. We have a hard time withdrawing our minds from the temporal, our own difficulty, suffering, and joy to understand or comprehend what God’s greater purposes are.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
Whether it be Austria, Russia, Pakistan, Mexico, Australia, or the US, man and woman are occupied with making a living. Eternity is the last thing 99% of the world is concerned about on a day to day basis.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
Verse 12 and verse 13 are saying that because conditions in verse 11 are true that a man had better relax and enjoy the common luxuries of life, which most people in the USA think are just necessities. The ability to eat, drink, labor, rejoice, and do good are luxuries compared to much of the world’s condition. See chapter 2:24-26.
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14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
“for ever” here is not a reference to Calvin’s “eternal decrees” before Genesis 1. What God has set up on this earth is unchangeable. He pronounced a life of sweat and toil for Adam and that’s the way it’s been for 6,000 years. He said he would bless Abraham’s literal and physical seeds, and so He did it. He set up circuits for the sun, the moon, and the planets, so they run courses, just like the wind and the water do. You have no solutions for earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or tsunami’s and tidal waves. You have never had a solution for these things God set up and you never will. The batting average of science as in Protagoras’ statement “man is the measure of all things” in this World Series is a big fat “0”. The unsaved comedian, Chevy Chase, used to have a line he’d use when opening the fake news that he would do on Saturday Night Live in the 1970’s. He’d say “Good evening, I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”. In the movie “Rudy”, about a boy who wants more than anything to play football for Notre Dame, a priest makes this comment to him, “There are two things I’ve learned in my 60 years. One, there is a God, and two, I’m not Him”. Perhaps we can thing of God speaking Chevy’s line in relation to Himself when we get up in the morning and we can say back to Him the priest’s line from Rudy when we go to bed at night.
Fear God Obediently
Ecclesiastes, chapter 12
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
“The conclusion of the whole matter” is so revolting to modern man that he tries to cut out these verses from Ecclesiastes while keeping other parts on practical grounds to justify his own sins. Solomon’s conclusion is a roaring calamity for every Pragmatist (practical minded), Humanist (Mankind worshipper), and Hedonist (Pleasure lover and Fun worshipper) in the congregation.
o “Fear God,”. God doesn’t even exist from a practical point of view of day to day decisions for the persons listed above.
o Fear is a negative emotion; it is “counter-productive,” according to all positive thinkers, charismatic Christians, and the public school system.
o “Keep his commandments”. He never gave any according to all evolutionists, logical positivists, and modernistic preachers, and all New Age humanists and anarchists.
o Keeping his commandments isn’t even on the table if you want to commit sodomy (oh, excuse me, live an “alternate sexual orientation”), fornication (pre-marital sex), adultery (consenting adults can do no wrong, huh?), tell lies
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(situation ethics), steal (just a condition of the disadvantaged, the thief being the real victim here), or worship false gods (ecumenical overtures, dialoguing with other faiths, you know, everyone is just finding their own path to God and all of THAT garbage). Those who practice these things are professional liars and just as dishonest with themselves as they are with you.
o “This is the whole duty of man”. Not if you’re main concern is saving the environment, world peace, protecting the ozone layer, setting up a welfare state, or financing wars around the world and selling weapons to both sides of any conflict.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
God will bring every work into judgment. Not if you believe any book written by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Maugham, Faulkner, Carl Jung, James Baldwin, Neitzche, or Mark Twain. John Dewey, the father of our modern public school system’s philosophy, and people like Gore Vidal, the author, basically call Paul a liar (Romans 2:16), call John a liar (Revelation 20:12), call Solomon a liar, and say that the Lord Jesus Christ was the biggest liar of the whole lot (Matthew 12:36; John 5:29).
How many “secret things” do you have going on that you don’t think God is concerned with as if the Holy Spirit was just kidding around when He had Paul write 2 Corinthians 10:5?
The fact is, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). God is the judge of good and evil. No politician, conservative or liberal, has a clue what good is or evil is and all good values have been eliminated from public discourse over the last 50 years by the news media, the federal judiciary, and corporate greed, the three modern branches of government. The only place you are going to hear about true good and evil is from that pulpit in the sanctuary.
Love God Supremely
Mark 12
28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
If you read the parallel passages in Matthew and the context you can see that Jesus has just finished shutting up the big four. He shut up the state worshipping Herodians with
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the tribute question, the modernistic, liberal Sadducees on the Resurrection question, the ultra religious Pharisees on the baptism question, and now a scribe, a lawyer. Of course, the lawyer has a double motive. He’s heard him answer well and can appreciate anyone who stands trial and answers the way Jesus has been doing. But, in Matthew 22:35 his intent is also to tempt Jesus. He doesn’t answer from Exodus 20:1-3 like you would think. He goes back to Deuteronomy 6:4,5, then to Leviticus 19:18. He ignores the Ten Commandments. What Jesus does is to get to the real meaning of the Ten Commandments and how they concerned Israel as a nation by starting with “Hear, O Israel” as he quotes.
29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
The question had to call the crowd’s attention to its importance as a nation in God’s plan.
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
In John Wesley’s sermon, “The Almost Christian”, he points out how you can follow every commandment as far as you are able but without actually loving God, and you are truly, an almost Christian. I recommend reading it free online if you get the chance or listening to it on sermonaudio.com. It will convict you in a great way. I read the last written words of someone very dear to me about the fact that they loved God and knew that He knew they loved Him and realized at that point that I didn’t even know what it meant to love God. It took another two years almost to find out.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
While in context this statement would speak of how a Jew was to treat another Jew, Jesus expanded the meaning by his Parable of the Good Samaritan found starting in Luke 10:29. In Matthew 22:40 Jesus says that all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
Christ’s reference here to the kingdom of God, which is invisible and lies within each of His own (Luke 17:20,21), shows the moral quality that Israel must attain before the literal, physical kingdom of heaven will come to them. This is a controversial issue
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among us Baptists and I don’t want to get stuck in the theological mud with an argument about the difference or sameness of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Heaven, so let me just point out that in spite of this guy’s admission, Jesus still says that he’s only close, not there. Believing a chair will hold your weight is not the same thing as sitting down in it. Belief in the New Testament implies trust, not just intellectual assent to a proposition. Faith might be called Belief and Trust working together.
Do you love God? That’s the first and greatest commandment. It truly is the first thing. If you don’t, how are you going to get past it?
