In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines Solomon’s teaching in Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 about pious words. Pastor Dave explains how Solomon gives two sobering admonitions about words and worship so that you will wisely fear God instead of ruin yourself with religious folly.
1. Slow Down in Worship (vv. 1-3)
2. Be Careful in Promises (vv. 4-7)
Full Transcript:
Well it’s very good to be back with you. My wife was here any earlier service. Thank you for praying for us as we dealt with Covid and recovered from Covid. It seems to be the nature of the illness that there are sometimes a little bit of lingering symptoms. So if you detect a little bit of congestion in my voice or even a cough that might come up in the sermon, don’t be alarmed. It’s not a sign that I’m spreading Covid throughout the sanctuary. No, I’m recovered. It’s just the lingering symptoms that’s been getting better everyday, so don’t be alarmed. Just know that ahead of time. But thank you for your prayer. the Lord answered those prayers. I’m feeling great. Ema is feeling better, and thank you so much for caring about us and upholding us before the Lord.
Our passage this week has to do with making a fool out of yourself by words. So let me ask you – is that something that you’ve ever done before? Have you ever made a fool of yourself by words, ever embarrassed yourself by what you said? I know that I have. And I usually trying not to think about those times and my memory – they don’t want to relive the pain. But for illustration purposes I will share one of those times with you this morning.
When I was in third grade, my teacher once demonstrated to us the egg in a bottle of trick. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that or even demonstrated that. It’s pretty cool. You take a peeled hard boiled egg, a glass bottle, and some matches, making sure that the opening of the bottle is slightly smaller than the width of the egg. After you show your audience that the egg cannot normally fit through the lip of the bottle, you light a few matches, you put them inside the bottle, and then you place the egg on top of the bottle’s opening. What happens when you do this? Well as if by magic, soon after the match has extinguished, the egg slides right into the bottle. This is a pretty cool trick for kids, and it makes for a great example of how differences in air pressure can exert a pushing or pulling effect.
But that day in third grade, when my teacher asked all of us – how did the egg go inside? I blurted out gleefully in front of the whole class – it’s just a stupid trick. To this day, I ask myself why I said something so rude and foolish. But actually, I think I know why. You see, that wasn’t the first time I’d seen that trick. I had seen it on TV before, so I wasn’t particularly impressed and I wanted my classmates to know how cool I was and how in the know I was. I also wanted to say something that would make them laugh or what might make them laugh, so I said what I said. For some reason though, I never calculated the effect of my words on the teacher. In reply to my outburst, she told me I could take my attitude out into the hallway, which is where I remained for the rest of the class.
Oh the foolishness of speaking before you really thought it through. But it’s not just children who do this. The adults can quite easily embarrass ourselves with speech. But did you know that we can make fools of ourselves before God in our speech? This can happen if we speak or act carelessly in spiritual activities. We can act so thoughtlessly as to bring shame on ourselves, discouragement to others, and even face the burning anger of God. Even our very words of worship, when offered recklessly, they bring us into judgment. Could that even be a danger for some of us this morning?
In our next section of Ecclesiastes, our teacher king Solomon, speaking by the Holy Spirit, is going to give us another important lesson about living life wisely in a vaporous world. And what is that lesson? That if we want to be wise, if we want to be happy, we must watch our mouths in worship. That’s the title of the sermon today – watch your mouth in worship. To see this, let’s look at our next passage in Ecclesiastes, chapter 5 verses 1 to 7. You can turn there in your Bibles. It’s also on the back of the bulletin and in the calvary app.
Before we read the passage, just to remind you, Solomon’s grande thesis in this book of Ecclesiastes is that all of life is hevel – that Hebrew word that means vapor or vanity. Because of the fall into sin, because of God’s curse as a result of sin, everything on this earth is fundamentally insubstantial or impermanent or ultimately incomprehensible. It’s like vapor – you just can’t grasp it. Living for the things of the world, therefore, it only brings pain and frustration. But there is a wise and enjoyable way to live this vaporous life, and it is in gratitude toward God and in fear of Him in holy reverence for Him.
Now last time in Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon taught that this difficult and uncertain life is lived better together. Companions, they are not a means to ultimate gain, but they can help you in life, and they can make life more enjoyable.
Now that we come to Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon takes us in an unexpected direction – to the temple. Let’s hear the words of Solomon, which are the words of the living God, to us this morning. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7:
Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. 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 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 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? For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.
This is the first section in Ecclesiastes where Solomon speaks to us in direct admonitions. You, he says, and then he speaks to us specific command. We see more of this as we keep moving through the book of Ecclesiastes. We have times of these specific admonitions mixed in with Solomon’s general observations about life.
The topic here, the topic in our passage is speech, religious speech in particular. The transition to this topic may seem a little random, but actually has much to do with what Solomon has already taught in Ecclesiastes 3 and 4. If you remember, we learned that we humans are fundamentally not in control of our times and circumstances. God is. We also learn that companions, while helpful, they’re not worthy of our ultimate devotion. And these truths, they should humble us and affect us in the way that we approach God in worship. How should we be affected? Namely, we should fear God in worship and beware of merely prattling as religious fools.
This sobering message here is organized into two main admonitions, which have generally parallel structures. Verses 1-3 and verses 4-7, we see the same pattern. There’s a positive command and a motivating reason. There’s a negative command and a motivating reason. And then there’s a proverb about dreams and words. In Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, and here’s the main idea of the message today, Solomon gives two sobering admonitions about words and worship so that you will wisely fear God instead of ruin yourself with religious folly. I’ll say that again. What we have here are two sobering admonitions about words and worship so that you will wisely fear your God instead of ruin yourself with religious folly. What are those two admonitions? Number one – slow down and worship. And number two – be careful in promises.
We’re going to start with the first sobering admonition in verses 1-3. Number one slowed down in worship. We’re all tempted to be too hasty in worship. But if we fear God, we will slow down. Look at what Solomon says at the beginning of verse 1. Solomon says:
guard your steps as you go to the house of God…
Ever hear someone say – watch your step? Maybe because there’s a stair or because the ground is icy. This is how Solomon opens his exhortation here. Guard your steps, he says. Watch out. Slow down a bit because there are hazards on the path ahead. What path does Solomon have in mind? The path to the house of god, which is the temple, the temple which Solomon himself built at God’s direction.
The temple in Jerusalem was God’s ordained site of worship. It was the primary place for sacrifice, for teaching, for praise, and for prayer. As such, the temple was to be a joyous and glorious place. So good, in fact, that David in the Psalms, he says – I just want to dwell in the house of God all my days. I’m going to live at the temple. But Solomon says to us here – be careful if you’re going to the temple. And this is not because of physical pitfalls on the streets of Jerusalem, but spiritual pitfalls which are even more dangerous. Solomon continues in verse one with a parallel exhortation. He says:
and drawn you to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools;
There was a dangerous, Solomon says, in rushing to worship at God’s house. You might end up offering the sacrifice of fools. You might embarrass yourself before God in presenting what you think is worship but what is actually an affront to God. Don’t avoid the temple. It is good for you to draw near to God and to worship. But have the right attitude, Solomon says. Approach to listen to God rather than to offer careless sacrifice. Listen is an important command in the Old Testament. The famous passage of Deuteronomy 6:4, which is recited regularly by many Jews today, it begins with this same verb – shema. Listen.
Hear, O Israel! The Lord Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one!
Commands to listen to God, even to listen with the disposition to obey, they appear all over the Old Testament. One other notable passage is 1 Samuel 15:22. In this passage, Samuel rebukes Saul, for Saul is not being careful to keep God’s commands and for offering a foolish sacrifice to God instead.
Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey
literally in Hebrew “to listen”,
is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”
Solomon says his original audience and to us – brethren, slow down. Be careful in your walk to the temple. Don’t go rushing to offer up some animal, proclaim some exhortation, Pray some prayer. Get your priorities straight. Go first to listen to God and to put His word into practice. Otherwise, you might offer the offense of sacrifice of fools and that’s not all. Look at the rest of verse 1.
For they do not know they are doing evil.
Woah, Solomon says that these religious fools are not only embarrassing themselves, but they’re actually doing evil. They sinned against God and against others. And you know what the worst part of it is – they’re doing all this and they don’t even realize it. They don’t realize that what they’re doing is so wrong. How horrible to think that we could find ourselves in that situation. To think that the worship and service that we are offering to God is actually sin. That’s obviously a situation we want to avoid. What constitutes this kind of unacceptable worship to God? Let’s keep listening to Solomon as he continues in verse 2. Solomon says:
Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God.
Okay, we’re getting a little more clarity here. What kind of religious sentiments are foolish and evil before God? Those which are hasty and impulsive. Those which are not careful to be in conformity to who God actually is and what God has actually said in His word. Notice here that Solomon specifically admonishes about bringing up a matter in the presence of God. What does he mean by this specific phrasing? Solomon primarily has in mind prayer in God’s temple.
Prayer is the most obvious way that someone might bring up a matter or a word in the presence of God. And the temple was, as we’ve said, fundamentally a house of prayer. Solomon exhorts, even when it comes to prayer, slow down. Do not thoughtlessly bring up something in prayer to God. You want to give praise? You want to give thanks? You want to offer up a petition? That’s okay, but remember, whatever you speak in the presence of God, you better take care first about what you’re going to say.
Solomon primarily has prayer in mind, but I think other kinds of religious speech would also qualify and are considered in what Solomon says here, because there were other pious words that would be spoken at the temple in the presence of God. These would be words of exhortation, public confession, public thanksgiving. So the same counsel applies. Solomon says – think about what you’re going to say before you say it. Remember that you speak in the presence of God. Don’t just assume because it’s spiritual or religious that it must be good. God must like it. Watch your words. Watch your mouth, even in worship.
Now noticed the reason that Solomon says this in verse two as we continue. Solomon adds:
For God is in heaven and you are on the earth;
This is the kind of humbling statement that coincides with some other things that Solomon has spoken to us recently in Ecclesiastes. Just to remind you of two of them, Ecclesiastes 3:14 Solomon says:
I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.
Solomon adds soon after in Ecclesiastes 3:18:
I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.”
So brothers and sisters, before we come striding into prayer or into some public ministry, we need to take a step back and remember who God is and who we are before Him. When it comes to prayer, it’s like what H. B. Charles once said I think at a Shepherd’s Conference – first thing we need to remember in prayer is that God is God.
Notice how Solomon draws attention to the distance between us and God here in verse two. God is in heaven and you are on the earth. We must remember – God is set apart. He is exalted. He’s transcendent. He is so much higher than we are. He literally resides in a world apart, far above our atmosphere and even above the vast distances of space. He sits enthroned above cherubim, creatures that are so fantastic the Biblical writers struggled even to describe them. The Lord sits above them. He rules as King so enshrouded in light that He cannot even be approached. We’re also told in the Old Testament – no mere man can look at the full glory of God and His face and live. This is a glorious exalted transcendent God.
And what are we by contrast? Yes, we are made in the image of God, but also remember we were literally formed from dirt. We are subject to weakness and death. We frequently fall into sin. And we utterly depend on God’s mercy. We, unlike God, are bound to the earth and dependent on its resources for life. And it takes just the slightest problem to throw our world upside down, even a little virus, as we’ve all experienced. If God, the sovereign powerful God, was to merely blow on us, we would scatter like dandelion seeds. We are that fragile compared to God.
Solomon tells us – you need to remember this difference in position before you speak in His presence. God is in heaven. You are on the earth. But a Christian might ask – but I thought God was everywhere. Isn’t He even in my heart if I know Jesus Christ? Well, it’s true. As the infinite God, God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Yet God chooses to manifest His special presence in certain chosen places. One of those places was the temple in ancient Israel. And for believers in Christ today, another one of those places is the assembly of the church. That’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3. The church is the temple of God. Not the building, the people. Even the individual bodies of believers are the temple of God, 1 Corinthians 6, the dwelling place of God. Now though those realities are true, it is also true though, both then in the Old Testament and now today as believers in the new covenant, that God’s chief dwelling place is set apart in holy heaven. That’s why Revelation 21 to 22 is such a big deal, when God’s dwelling place and man’s dwelling place merge in the new heavens and the new earth. That’s a wonderful reality that we look forward to in Christ. But God is set apart, even in heaven.
This is the point that we don’t want to miss from Solomon. If we really know who God is, where He is, we must slow down in our pious speech and make sure we actually proceed in the fear of God. Proceeding hastily or carelessly is to babble like a fool and even commit evil. Though we don’t worship at a literal temple today, we believers do proceed in the holy presence of God, especially when we gather together to worship and to minister to one another.
You might be asking – okay, what what are some specific examples of foolish religious speech into which we can fall? I brainstormed to shortlist here. This is not exhaustive. Here are some examples. Praying prayers while only half paying attention to what you pray. Praying formula prayers just to check a box or to manipulate God to do what you want. Speaking to or of God as if He were your pal instead of the Lord. Offering praise to God while you live in unrepentant sin. Admonishing others not to commit the very sins that you practice yourself. Speaking religious words primarily to impress others. Worshipping God in ways contradictory to His word. Pronouncing judgment on others when you do not have full information. Teaching personal opinions as if they were God’s Scripture. Speaking any religious words but without genuine love for God and for others.
We could add much more to this list, but this is just for illustration. I think you quickly see that our mouths can get us into a lot of trouble before God, even in our very words of worship. The advice that Solomon gives at the end of verse 2 is extremely practical. Look at what he says:
therefore let your words be few.
There’s such great wisdom in these few short words from Solomon. If God is God and to speak in His presence is such a serious matter, we should be speaking less than we do. Understand that Solomon is not saying we shouldn’t speak at all. No, God commands us to speak His truth, to pray to Him, to make the disciples, to encourage one another, etc. We better only speak after we’ve guarded our steps, after we really thought through what we’re saying and compared it to what God has revealed in His word. We dare not speak insincerely, irreverently, or unlovingly to God or to others on God’s behalf. We must exercise self-control in our speech. And when we do, we’ll find that we just plain talk less.
And doesn’t Solomon gives us the same counsel from the book of Proverbs? Somewhat famous Proverbs here – Proverbs 10:19:
When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
If such behavior is so contrary to what we see all around us in the world, it’s not a world of people restraining their lips. These days, especially because of social media, it seems everybody has a profound thought to share, some outrage to make known, some judgment about the latest current events that they want you to listen to. But again, what does God’s word say? Proverbs 12:23:
A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly.
Proverbs 17:28:
Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he’s considered prudent.
And Proverbs 18:13:
He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him.
This advice is consistent with a proverb that Solomon gives us at the end of this first admonition in Ecclesiastes. Look at verse three now. Solomon says:
For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words.
Interpreters debate the exact meaning of this proverb, especially what is meant by dream in the beginning. The overall point though of this proverb is clear. It is a plain association between foolishness and many words. The interpretation that makes most sense to me is the following. Just as a mere empty dream is often the result of much effort, nothing to show for it in the end, so also the mere empty voice of a fool is often the result of many words. Because we fear God as followers of Christ, we should be a people with guarded lips, speaking only what is true, only what is necessary, only what is helpful, only what is loving, only what is reverent to God. Because we know God will hold us accountable, each one of us, for our words – Matthew 12:36.
Before we move on from this point, maybe someone among you was wondering – but doesn’t God say that we should come boldly into His presence and beseech Him in prayer as a child does his father? To that question I say yes and amen. But there is a difference between coming boldly to God and coming casually to God. And there’s a difference in affirming God’s love and welcome towards us and presuming on God’s patience and holiness. When we cry in Christ, as Romans 8:15 says, Abba, Father, understand that those terms are terms both of affection and reverence. One does not drive out the other and they shouldn’t in our own minds. We in Christ are like adopted children of an exalted King. On the one hand, amazed that our new Father’s love and nearness. On the other hand, never forgetting the great respect He is due.
So the first sobering admonition from Solomon is to slow down in worship. The second sobering admonition is in verses 4-7. This is number two – be careful in promises. If we wish to wisely fear God and not ruin ourselves with religious folly, then we must be careful in our promises. Look at the beginning of verse four:
When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it;
How interesting. In Solomon’s first admonition he urged us to slow down. But in the second, he urges us to speed up. Solomon says – if you make a pious promise, publicly or privately, fulfill it as soon as possible. Now vows were an important part of ancient Israelite culture. Not only would they make vows to one another as part of showing yeah I’m really telling the truth, people often made vows to God. These vows could be part of importuning God to answer a certain prayer. God if you will do this, then I vow to respond by doing this. Or the vow could simply be a volunteer expression of thanks and worship. God I’m so grateful for what You’ve done in my life. I’m so grateful for who You are. I vow to do this or to give this to You.
There’s nothing wrong with these vows. This could be very good and we see righteous persons taking these vows in the Old Testament. Hannah’s good example, beginning of 1 Samuel. She prays to God – if You will give me a son, open my barren womb, I vow that I will dedicate him in service to You. God answered her prayer and she fulfilled that vow and she was glad to do so. That’s where Samuel came from. Also in Numbers 6, we learn that God gave Israel the opportunity to voluntarily take a Nazarite vow. It’s not required, totally just if you wanted to do as an expression of thanks and worship to God. And we see Samson and Samuel were two people who actually lived under a Nazarite vow their whole lives, or at least they were supposed to.
But you can guess what happened so often with people after they made their vows to God. Oh God, I see You answered my prayer, but I’m not sure I still really want to keep my vow. Or yeah, I made that voluntary vow in a moment of spiritual exuberance. I mean everybody else was doing it. I didn’t want to look, you know, unspiritual. But now I think I shouldn’t have done that. I’m not sure I can actually keep this vow. So people would delay the fulfillment of their vows. They wouldn’t actually say outright – oh yeah i’m not keeping it, but they would just be like – yeah I’m not able to do it yet. Or they give clever excuses to get themselves out of their vows. Jesus deals with some of those excuses in the New Testament. The thought was – is vowing really that big of a deal before God? Surely God will be compassionate. He will understand. He will forgive if I can’t keep my vow. Solomon addresses this kind of situation and he commands in no uncertain terms – don’t delay the fulfillment of your vows. Take your words before God seriously. Notice the reason Solomon gives for this in the next part of the verse in verse four:
for He takes no delight in fools.
This is pretty strong again from Solomon. He says when you break a vow or other pious promise, you show yourself to be a fool in the eyes of God and in the eyes of man. You show by your careless and defensive behavior before God that you ought to be rejected, even dismissed as a fool. Instead of delaying the fulfillment of our vows, what are we to do instead? What was Israel to do instead? Solomon says plainly at the end of verse four – pay what you vow. Don’t delay. Don’t make excuses. Take God seriously. Keep your promises.
Now Solomon adds in verse 5 an intriguing comparison. Look at verse 5:
It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
These words reveal to us something important about the vows of the Israelites. No one was forcing them to make their vows. God didn’t require these pious promises from them. They were voluntary. They chose these vows for themselves. So if fulfilling a vow was going to be difficult or impossible, the solution was simple – better not to make a vow at all. In fact, according to what we learn from Solomon and Ecclesiastes 3, choosing not to make vows is pretty wise because we humans are fundamentally not in control of our times or circumstances. The future to us is very uncertain. God knows what’s going to happen, but we don’t. Life is a vapor. So if we promise to do something in the future, it may be the future unfolds in some unexpected way that it will be very hard even impossible for us to keep our promise.
So there’s nothing wrong with recognizing this and refraining from voluntary vows. Such even shows humility before God. Isn’t this what we see echoed in the New Testament? James says – don’t boast about tomorrow. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Jesus says – you’ve heard that you should keep your vows. I tell you it’s better not to make vows at all because think about what you’re able to do and not do. You can’t even turn your hair has white or black. God’s in control. You’re not. Remember that before you make a vow. Not wrong to refrain from vows. But what is wrong is when you make a careless vow and then you delay or refuse to fill it.
Now is this problem for us? Do we Christians make careless promises that we delay or refuse to fulfill? Because when we start making excuses for our unfulfilled and broken promises, we put ourselves into a very dangerous position. Look what Solomon says next in verse 6. We’ll just start with the first part:
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.
Solomon is very straight with us here. Making careless vows and refusing to fulfill them is a sin. It’s evil. There’s no room for excuses. There’s no room for downplaying our foolish words. It’s just a mistake. You know, it’s just a mistake. I got caught up, you know, saying those words. It’s sin. By the way, you see the phrase messenger of God there. Literally the biblical text just says messenger. “Of God” is in italics in the New American Standard, showing you that’s just a translator trying to help you understand. What does Solomon mean by the term messenger? Probably he’s just speaking of a priest, since Malachi 2:7 also mentions the instructing priest at the temple as a messenger of God. The picture then would be of a priest approaching someone who had made a vow, probably publicly, at the temple, coming to that person later and saying – hey going to fulfill that vow? You promised this animal, or you promised this money, or you promised this action. Don’t you want to fulfill it? The vower might be tempted to give an excuse at that time. But Solomon, he commands, he exhorts – don’t give excuses when that priest messenger comes. And if you really are unable to pay, don’t downplay your sin by calling it less than it is. Noticed why Solomon counsels this in the rest of verse 6:
Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
Wow, that is intense. You hear what Solomon is saying? We, like ancient Israel, are easily tempted to think that our unfulfilled promises and commitments aren’t really that big of a deal. But Solomon clarifies – don’t you see that you make God angry with this, with your foolish voice and your lame excuses? Why would you let this happen? And even cause God to destroy the work of your hands. All those things that you care about and have worked hard to attain for yourself and for your loved ones. Why would you move God to destroy that? Because make no mistake, God will judge this kind of arrogance, this arrogance that not only says I’m going to make a reckless promise and then I’m going to refuse to fill it, but then adds excuses for the impiety and a refusal to make amends. Brethren, this is a bold offense before God, and it will bring about His chastisement. Solomon promises it. God promises it. That should make us remember who God is. This should make us fear. This should cause us to be careful in the promises we make and be careful to fill those promises.
Now what’s really interesting about what Solomon teaches here is that what he says is pretty much the same thing Moses has already said in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 23 verses 21 to 23. Let me read it to you. Moses says:
When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you. However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have promised.
The biblical teaching is consistent. God is a God of truth. He therefore hates insincerity, dishonesty, and arrogance, especially when it’s expressed as false piety. Now though Solomon says essentially the same thing as Moses, notice that solemn has framed it in terms of wisdom and folly. Brethren, he reasons with us, because this is who God is and this is what He does, why would you act so foolishly as you try to play games with God with your promises? If you express something to God that you will do, you better do it. Otherwise, don’t say it before God. Remember who He is. Fear Him appropriately. Why invite judgment on yourself otherwise?
Are all these exhortations about ancient vows actually relevant to us today? We’re not really in the business of making special vows before God at church. Really not super common for us. So is this teaching really relevant? Well what about marriage vows? That’s a kind of vow that many of us take. Do we take that seriously before God? Remember in marriage vows, you didn’t just pledged to be sexually faithful, to live together, but you pledged to love and serve one another in a picture of how Christ and the church have relationship. Do you keep that promise? The people of the world dunks by and large. It’s okay if I neglect my spouse. It’s okay if I’m immoral against my spouse. It’s okay if I divorce my spouse. Yeah I made that vow, but I made a mistake. It’s not that big of a deal. Is that what you say?
What about the other kind of commitments we make? What about commitments that those in authority take or make for those who under their charge?For pastors and elders before a congregation. I have committed, Pastor Babij and others have committed that we will faithfully dispense the word of God. We will serve this church. We will have integrity. What about leaders in the government, police officers, leaders in a business organization? They’re making commitments on behalf of their employees and constituents. What about the agreements that we make as part of organizations? Maybe it’s your work. Maybe it’s your school. Maybe it’s your church. Many of you are members at this church. You made a commitment to this body and to the people of it, to love, to exhort, to serve. Do you take that commitment seriously? Do you keep your promise?
What about the commitments we make even when we sing in church? There is songs where we are literally saying words like I will follow Christ. I will walk by faith, keep those commandments. There’s so many different ways in life that we in essence make promises and make commitments for various situations, with various people, and before God. We need to hear the words of Solomon. Unless someone protests and say well yeah I said I’d do it but I never promised, I never swore. So you can’t hold me to it. Well, let’s remember what Jesus says. Jesus says in Matthew 5:37 in connection with people who want to get out of their vows:
But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.
You don’t actually have to say the words I promise. You’re essentially making a promise if you say you commit verbally to anything. It’s like you vow. I’m going to do it. I’m not going to do it. That’s a promise. Do you take it seriously? James in his book, he basically says the same thing as Jesus, but he adds this word. You should keep your yes, yes and your no, no so that you may not fall under judgment. Remember, James wrote that letter to Christians. Brethren, let’s be honest. Anything that we say that we will do represent a kind of vow or promise. So we need to be careful. We need to be careful in what we promise. We need to be careful in what we commit to before God and men. It’s part of fearing God. Whatever we commit to, we better follow through. What we fail to follow through on, we need to confess it as sin and repent.
Speaking of repentance, you know it’s another area we need to apply this truth about – keeping our words, being careful about our vows. It’s when we express repentance to God. Isn’t it something that we’ve all done if we are in Christ? We’ve fundamentally committed, even verbally, God I’m not going to follow my own way anymore. I’m not going to follow sin anymore. I want to follow You way. I’m going to live a life in holy obedience to You. I’m here to serve You, worship You, speak on Your behalf to evangelize the lost. Can we make that commitment and then live continually in disobedience to Christ? It’s like what Paul says in Romans, when we’ve died to sin in our old slavery to sin, can we then take our members, take ourselves, take our bodies and then present them continually as members to unrighteousness, enslave ourselves to sin again? That is a fundamental going back on the vow, the commitment we made before God. It ought not to be.
Or even individual instances of sin. How many times have you prayed to God – God I realized I committed the sin. I’m so sorry God. Please forgive me. I’m turning from the sin now. Then shortly thereafter you go right back to it, like it’s your habit, like it’s your pattern. Don’t you see that this is the same kind of religious prattling that Solomon is warning us against? When we do this, we are playing games with God and our words. And God’s not going to stand for it. He is too holy for that. Ask yourselves today – do you follow through on your promises before God, even your expressions of repentance? If not, then you need to change. You need to turn. You need to listen to the wisdom of Solomon here and give up what is a reckless charade. Listen to Solomon’s appeal – why would you invite the anger of God on yourself with your foolish voice? Why would you move God to discipline you and destroy the work of your hands? If you make a vow, pay it. When you have broken your vows, repent and seek to make it right with God and the others that you have hurt. And Scriptures do promised us – humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up. And when we repent, we’re guaranteed the welcome of God. When we truly repent, Isaiah 55:7:
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him…He will abundantly pardon.
If we turn from carelessness in our words, even religious words, we can instead walk wisely and receive God’s blessing. Solomon concludes his second admonition, like the first, with a proverb. Notice the end of verse 7:
For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness.
The original Hebrew for this proverb is actually kind of puzzling, difficult to translate. If you check the main modern translations, you’ll notice they all translate this last verse differently. What is clear though here is like in verse 3. There’s an association of dreams and words and manyness. The meaning of these two proverbs is pretty similar. It must be similar. I take this proverb to say – for many empty dreams and many words are increasing. That is, people are always getting caught up in empty pursuits, dreamlike pursuits, and empty words. There’s no profit in it, even though they keep on doing it. It should not be the same for God’s people, for those who want to walk wisely in this vaporous world. What do God’s people do instead? It’s there at the end of verse 7:
Rather, fear God.
We could translate it – as for you, fear God. Don’t chase those dreams and speak all those empty words like the people of the world do. You, fear God. This is what all this instruction in this passage boils down to. Do you really know who God is? Do you really fear Him as He deserves? And does that fear show up in the care you take to watch your mouth, even in worship?
Now of course if we’re honest, we all know that we have not perfectly kept the wisdom of this passage. We have not fear God as we ought, even though He’s our creator, even though He owns everything, even though he’s holy and perfectly good and only gives us good commands and wise commands, we have ignored them. We have not fear God. We’ve loved ourselves. We’ve exalted ourselves. Therefore, we have been careless in our speech, even in what we think is worship, and we’ve offended God. We’ve sinned against God. We’ve broken our promises and angered Him.
Therefore, we justly fall under the penalty that is warned about in this passage. God’s burning anger will burn against us and He will not only destroy the work of our hands but He will destroy, as other Scriptures say, our souls and bodies in hell forever. That is the wages of sin – the wages of sin is death, eternal death, the torment and the punishment of a holy God against all that is evil. It’s what we deserve and it’s something that we can never save ourselves from. We can’t make new hearts for ourselves, hearts that fear God. All the good works that we supposedly do to try and balance out the scales, they’re exactly what this passage is warning against. It’s that religious prattling. That only offends God more.
So what hope is there for us? It’s the hope in the gospel, the good news that we celebrate so much in this church. God sent His son, His only son, who came to the earth as both God and sinless man, and He lived a perfectly righteous life that all of us should have lived. He kept the wise charge of this passage. He always spoke only with perfect reverence for God His father. And He kept every promise that He made, even those wonderful promises of salvation. He lived a perfect life and then He died an innocent death on the cross, the death on behalf of His own and those who believe in Him. Those who didn’t speak with the right words and have a fear of God, He took their place and He’s suffered the hell wrath that they deserved. He suffered it all, even though as infinite as the infinite God, He could suffer it Himself. He paid it once and for all. He died on the cross. He was buried, but then He rose again because He’s God. Death couldn’t have power over Him, and His sacrifice was acceptable to God. He rose and He ascended to heaven where He waits until He comes back.
And in the meantime, He gives that great gospel message to us, that we ourselves proclaim – if anyone will repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they will be saved. They will be covered by the sacrifice of Christ, so that there’s no sin left for them to pay off. They’ll be given Christ’s own righteousness, His perfect record of His life on the earth. It’s not your good works that can save you. It’s Christ’s good works. It’s His perfect life on your behalf that makes you right with God. If you will believe in Christ to be your Savior, if you will turn your life over to Him as the Lord. He is God. He deserves your fear, your service, your worship. If you’ll repent of your old way, your arrogant way, your reckless way, and turn to God, take him as your Lord and Savior, you will be saved. You’ll be saved even from what your reckless words deserve. And more than that, God will give you His Holy Spirit, His Holy Spirit which enables you to actually heed the wisdom of this passage, to walk anew, to walk in righteousness, to fear God, to slow down in your worship, and to be careful in your promises. Apart from that change of heart, apart from that new fear of God, you won’t be able to keep this message and neither will I.
But if you repent and believe and receive God’s Spirit, you can. You can keep this passage and thereby you can receive the blessing of walking with God. Because that is ultimately what this is all about. I told you this is in terms of wisdom and folly. You want to be blessed, you want to be wise, you want to walk happily in this world, this difficult and vaporous world, then heed this instruction. You can’t do it apart from Christ. And even in Christ, you won’t be able to do it perfectly, but that’s not the point. It’s the fundamental new direction. It’s that progression, that continually following after Christ and becoming more and more like Him. That’s what Christ enables you to do, so that you and I can hear this passage, truly listen, and put it into practice.
So do you repent and believe? Have you come to Christ in salvation? And if you’ve drifted from Christ and you got caught up in the thinking of the world, that foolish irreverence of the world toward God and in regard to words, if that’s been you, do you repent and believe now? Come back. Come back into wisdom. Come back in the blessing. Come back into fellowship with your God. Because if you do, you’ve already been guaranteed the result. You’ll be blessed. That’s what Solomon wants for us. That’s what God wants for us. And that’s why He’s given us this text today. Do you believe it? Do you turn from your way to embrace the wisdom of god?
The world’s going to keep on doing its thing. With social media and with the current climate of the rhetoric today, There’s going to continue to be careless words, irreverent talk, broken promises. But we are to be different. And when we are different, we will shine as lights for Christ. We’ll glorify our Lord, and we will have the blessing of walking with Him. Let’s embrace that. Let’s do that together here at Calvary, helping one another in this. If you want to walk wisely and happily in this vaporous world, then let’s fear God and watch our mouths in worship.
Pray with me. Lord, Your word is a lamp to our feet and enlightens our way. Thank You for this word. It prevents us from walking as ignorant religious fools, presenting what is an offensive sacrifice to You. Lord, we can never speak or act in a way that fully captures the glory You deserve. But we can speak and act in true fear of You, true reverence toward You, and true love for You. I thank You for Jesus Christ. Lord, forgive us for where we have been careless with our words and not fearing You. But we thank You for the covering sacrifice of Jesus that has made us once for all acceptable to You, and that’s forever secured us fellowship with You. Yet, God help us to walk according to the wisdom of this passage and to help one another in it. In Jesus name. Amen.