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For next couple of weeks, three Sundays, God willing, we will do some meditations on the fear of God, which is really essential for our Christian walk in this side of eternity. And today we'll turn our Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and we'll read verses 13 and 14.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 13 and 14. Verse 13, “The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” Let’s pray.
Commit our time in your word Lord into your hands. Lord, we pray that you would speak to us from your word. We all need your word, and give us grace that we may submit to the teaching of your word. May you form biblical convictions in our hearts. May you bring the necessary change in our lives and in the disposition of our hearts.
We plead with you, Father, that you would allow your Spirit to work in us, cause us to bring all our rebellion at the feet of the cross. Help us not take your word for granted. And as long as we live on this side of eternity, may our lives be marked by the fear of God our Father.
We ask this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Have you had regrets in your life? Have you ever thought about the concept of regret? Now my relationship with my dad was very sour for a very long time and we hardly spoke to each other. There were deep hurts in my heart from my childhood as I grew up with him.
Our family landed in a multitude of problems throughout our childhood because of the choices he had made. We were in constant danger, and sometime during those days in my late teens I met my Heavenly Father, meaning I was saved, and I found such a solace in God, in prayer and the word. And as I came to know the Lord and understood his forgiveness, I also learned to forgive my dad. And but there was no warmth in our relationship, and we hardly spoke to each other. Then I got, sometime later I got married, we moved to Maharashtra, we lived there for some time, and while we were there we went to Chandigarh for some training, and there we met a pastor and
in some personal conversations with him he had inquired about my childhood relationship with my parents. You know we had a long conversation, this fire hour of conversation, and then in that conversation he strongly encouraged me to reconcile with my dad. And he said, “Your dad is getting old, they’ll have a lot of regrets. You must take initiation to get reconciled with your dad.” And he also said, “The next time you see him, you give him a hug.” I never hugged my dad, but he said, “You give him a hug.” I agreed to do that even. And he said that, “Let him die in peace.” Even my wife encouraged me to do that. And we came back to Maharashtra and the
next day we got the news that my dad had passed away. And the thought of not mending my relationship with my dad haunted me for days. I have a regret. Regrets come in different shapes and sizes. You know, there’s a heart-wrenching Telugu Christian song which I like a lot, written by a man who became sick and was on his deathbed. And he was backslidden most of his Christian life and later he was bedridden for a period till he died. Then he penned a song on the bed, and I’m not going to sing that song, don’t worry.
And the gist of that song is this, “I had strength once, but I did not live for you. Now that I have lost all strength, I desire to live for you. I had sight once, but now I am losing my sight. But I am longing to read your word now.” And he went on.
We Christians regret our relationship with God. If you don’t know you will one day regret not prioritizing your relationship with God more consistently. You will regret compartmentalizing God. One day you’ll wish you had trusted and depended on him more and worried less, that you were less anxious. In times of anxiety you look to him. You will regret one day for not forgiving someone or not seeking forgiveness yourself while there was still time.
You will regret one day for not expressing love, gratitude or apology directly to others. You will regret one day for not confronting a brother who has sinned against you in a scriptural manner. You will regret one day for being defensive when people showed your sins.
You will regret one day for prioritizing your work, ambition and business over your spouse, and God’s church and God’s work. You will regret one day for harboring grudges that in hindsight seem small compared to God’s purposes, his commandments and the relationships lost. You will regret one day for being harsh, for being judgmental or self-righteous towards others. You will regret one day for not showing more grace, more patience or compassion, especially within your families or churches.
You will regret one day for gossiping, for slandering, for maligning, for saying unkind words, or for pride we wish we could take back. You will regret one day for living according to the expectations of others, compromising on biblical standards. You’ll regret one day for living to please your family, be it your spouse, your relatives, your culture, rather than living by biblical convictions. You will regret one day for not enjoying life that God has given you.
You’ll regret one day for not delighting in God while you are on this side of eternity. The book of Ecclesiastes as we read in chapter 1 verse 1, it says, “The words of the preacher, the son of David king in Jerusalem.” The author does not mention his name here but we can assume that it probably refers to the King Solomon.
The author identifies himself as the preacher here so we will refer to this author here as the preacher. He was older when he wrote this letter, sorry not letter, this whatever the book, treatise, his treatise on life. He was older and wiser. He had observed a lot of things.
He tried to make life about himself but it didn’t work. He accumulated a lot of wisdom. He had accumulated a lot of wealth. He loved every pleasure, built great projects and also had unrestrained sexual pleasure. And none of those who made the purpose of his life led to anything but despair.
And he says and repeatedly says throughout this book, “All is vanity.” He regrets making the created world and the things in it his purpose. And he comes to a conclusion. And the conclusion is the fear of God. If a man has to rightly live on this face of this earth and should make sense of his life here, that man should learn to fear God.
Firstly, we can see what is the fear of God. No, we can ask this in a different way. How can we live lives without regrets? In chapter 12 verse 13, the preacher says, “The end of the matter,” the NASB says, “the conclusion,” the conclusion of the whole matter, whole of life is this.
“Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.” The fear of God is how we respond to the truth that God is greater than we are, that God is different from us in all His glory and splendor are greater. His wisdom is greater. His love is greater. And yes, his anger is greater. Simply put, he is God and we are not.
God is a Creator and we are his creatures. He gave us our very breath of life. We owe our existence to him. We belong to him not by not just by not only by creation but also by redemption, by new creation. Paul says, “If any man is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come.” When we come to God through Jesus Christ, we meet him again as our Creator, but this time as the one who recreates and reforms us into the image of his son. The preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes calls us to remember the Creator in chapter 12 verse 1.
But to remember God as a Creator is not simply to recall the fact of his existence that there is a God who created me. That is not what the preacher here the preacher has in mind. To remember our Creator in the days of our lives or days of our youth means that to let that remembrance shape our ambitions. Let that remembrance shape our desires, our conduct and let him determine the entire course of our lives on this side of eternity.
If God has made us and given us the life we have, the faculties that we enjoy, the world in which we live it out, then the ultimate authority over us by virtue of being our maker and now even more as our redeemer. He has that ultimate authority over us.
What is the ultimate purpose of this one life that God has given us? We were made by God and for God. That is the fundamental truth about every one of us here this morning. Nothing in life will ever be right until that has become the foundation on which everything else is built.
That your life belongs to him, that it achieves ultimate significance only in being live for him. And then and when and whenever we are defeated in living out this purpose, the one to whom we must instinctively turn is the God who made us. So what does it mean to fear God? What does it mean to fear God? The word used here for fear is Yare in Hebrew, which means fear or awe to the point of withdrawing either from something good or bad.
In this context people of God should withdraw out of reverence for God from anything that is contrary to our God’s will who created and redeemed us. And as a Creator he defines what life is all about. We must abstain from evil or sin because God is displeased. Your Creator who gave you life and also the Creator who gave you new life is grieved when we sin. So we withdraw from all that is contrary to his will. We must withdraw from everything that wouldn’t honor him. John Murray said, “The fear of God is the soul of godliness.” The fear of God is a soul of godliness.
Without reverence for God we cannot truly obey him, we cannot worship him, we cannot adore him. Without the fear of God there is no true biblical Christianity. Without fear of God everything that you see is just a farce. It’s just a facade in the name of Christ. And this fear involves awe, respect, reverence and worship, but it is not a fear of condemnation. If you have trusted in Christ you can be sure that condemnation will not come near you. We fear God because now we begin to know who God is.
The Lord is opening our eyes to see him as he is, to know his glory, to know that he is truly awesome, to know that he is truly worthy. So we bow before him because we in our hearts now we have realized that he alone is worthy of all worship and honor. So we adore him, we bow before him, we kneel before him. Secondly, in this text we see that fear of God is expressed through obedience. The next thing that we see is that the preacher relates the fear of God to keeping the Lord’s commandments in the second part of verse 13.
“Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” My dear brother and sister, have you really grasped this? So that it has become the central thing in your life. Have you realized that since you have become a Christian, that this life is not about you. What you desire.
It is about him and his word, his commandments. Have you realized that? And this is what gives life its significance. This is the whole of life. This is what makes you a whole man or whole woman. You are formed, created and redeemed. You might fit into God’s plan.
Notice what I’m saying here. Because for so many of us, the place God has in our lives is that we try to fit Him into our plans. We try to fit Him into our plans. We make all our plans, then we’ll ask the Lord to bless it.
We’ll choose the wrong person as a life partner and we ask the Lord to bless our companionship. Right? But what Ecclesiastes is saying is that we are here to know his commandments. There’s no excuse because God has given us his word. Probably it’s lying with dust in your shelves.
Ecclesiastes is saying that we are here to keep his commandments. And if that is not the center of your life, then I can guarantee you this morning that everything you do in this side of eternity is vain. All is vanity according to this preacher in Ecclesiastes. In fact, the two phrases are almost interchangeable. Fearing God simply means keeping his commandments. Fearing God simply means obeying his commandments. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, while he was on his earth, in his conversation with his disciples, he said that, “love me then keep my commandments” and the one of one who keeps his commandments fear him one who keeps his commandments truly loving and such a connection is frequently seen in the in the
Psalms. For instance, if you turn your Bibles to Psalm 86 verse 11, the Psalmist says that, “Teach me your way, Lord. I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.” Psalm 111 verse 10, the passage that we read this morning, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who follow His commandments have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.”
Then Psalm 193, I am a companion to those who fear you and to those who keep your precepts. You look into God's Word not to find something. You look into God's Word so that you will learn how to please God. How you can change your life. how you can mend your ways so that you are pleasing in his sight because he's worthy to be honored.
May I ask you this question? Are you sensitive to his word when you read his word? Do you just read it for the sake of reading? Are you sensitive to his word? Do you try to understand what the author is trying to say?
The entire body of the inspired writings is God’s instruction for us. We are bound to live by them. All the instructions of God in the Bible are God’s purposes for our lives. Each commandment is a purpose of God for us. We are designed to live by those purposes. We are made to obey God through his commandments. We are made by God to glorify God by fulfilling his commandments, his instructions, which are recorded for us in his word.
We can easily summarize God’s law for us and our Lord Jesus Christ did it for us. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” All the commandments in the Bible can come under this broad category of loving God and loving your neighbor. Every command in Scripture is a purpose statement.
Therefore, our purpose is to live according to that design. Fearing God is not compartmentalizing God. What do I mean by that? I will only let God into this particular area of my life. I will only seek God when I am troubled. I’ll be reverent only during the Sunday gathering, but the rest of the days I will do whatever I like.
I’ll go wherever I like. I’ll watch movies with adult scenes. I will gossip. I will backbite. I will cheat. I will lie. Is your heart or desires aligned with God’s purposes or his commandments? Do you long to do His will in every aspect of your life, even in the most mundane aspects of your life? We don’t lie. We don’t hate our brothers. We love, forgive, we bear with others. We don’t gossip. We don’t malign. We flee from sexual immorality in all shapes of sexual immorality.
Because that is God’s purpose for our lives. And how often do we wait on God to reveal His purposes for our lives and neglect all the purposes of God that God has already recorded in his only word and we are accountable to him for not living by them.
God-fearing people submit their deepest desires and ambitions to God’s revealed word and they are willing to be guided by his word. They will slowly but earnestly let God’s word shape their desires. Are you letting God’s word shape your life daily? Are you sitting with the word earnestly to learn, to examine your own hearts, your own desires, your own ambitions in the light of God’s word?
Are you seeking the help of the Holy Spirit to empower you to live by His word? Are you letting each and every sermon that you hear shape your life? The word that you read and the sermons that you hear will not automatically shape your lives and set you on a trajectory that pleases God. It will not do it. It will not happen automatically. Brothers and sisters, our lives are not being changed. We are not becoming more like Christ Jesus.
You know the reason why? Sermon after sermon and listening to the gospel again and again is not changing you. Because our heads are swollen with information while our hearts are still rotten with corruption. Why? I’m not saying this because it sounds good to say.
I’m saying this because that is the reality. It is reality even of us preachers. What you hear in the pew is the raw material, a seed dropped into the soil that will either take root or blow away in the wind. The difference between the two is what happens in the hours and the days after the final. What should follow our reading of the word and hearing of the sermon is meditation on the word and the scriptural truths that we hear. Meditation upon that, and meditation is the chewing of the spiritual food.
To meditate is to take that single scriptural truth that you read or that single conviction from the sermon and you sit with it for next few days, turning it this way and that way, asking what it means, why it pierces you, what it asks of you, demands from you.
That is a slow work in a fast age. And that is precisely why few do it, because it’s a work. Because in the days of this AI, everything happens quickly, right? You want an information, it’s there. You want a survey, it’s there. You don’t have to use your brains anymore, right? And, um, yeah. So, but this meditation is not done by AI. It is done by the minds that are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are created to and redeemed to meditate on the words of the Bible so that we change. But that’s not the end. That’s not the end. Then comes prayer is what makes meditation more than mental exercise. Left alone, reflection become merely an interesting
thought filed away with other interesting thoughts. But brought before God in prayer, that same truth becomes personal. That will be internalized. But brought before God in prayer, you stop analyzing the word and start asking God to work in your heart. You confess where you have fallen short of it. You ask for strength to obey it. You plead for it to become not just something you want to know but something that you want to become. You plead with the Lord. “Lord, I am not like this. Please help me grow according to your standard. Please, please help me move in that direction.”
“Please help me please you in this area of my life.” The entire trajectory changes. Your meditation changes. Your outlook changes. And when you sin against God, you’re broken. You repent easily before the Lord. You are quick to seek forgiveness. You’re quick to repent. You’re quick to confess. You’re quick to reconcile. You’re quick to seek forgiveness from others. You’re quick to forgive because you are living under the forgiveness of God. And you are overwhelmed by God’s forgiveness easily forgive your offenders.
Brothers and sisters, without this discipline the word you read becomes a vague memory or the sermon becomes a Sunday memory weighed by Wednesday and gone by the following week. Not because the word was boring or the preacher or the preaching was poor but because the hearing was passive. Because I did not do anything of the scripture that I had read or the sermon that I heard. I didn’t go into the presence of the Lord. I didn’t battle on my knees before the Lord. I didn’t seek the Lord to conform me into his standard. So it is lost. I remain the same.
No matter how many beautiful sermons you hear, comes and preaches, you will remain the same. The soil was never tilled. Many sermons over many years amount to little change in the soul, not from the lack of truth proclaimed but from the lack of truth received and worked into the heart.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is a sad reality of our Christian existence on this side of eternity. And we wonder why we remain immature even after knowing the Lord for many years. So fearing God means aligning our hearts and desires with God’s commandments. God-fearing people, if you are a God-fearing person, you will let God’s word into your hearts and will allow God to shape you.
You have no other excuses. You will have no other excuses. You will not say because this person has done this to me, how can I forgive? But the Bible says you forgive. You will not find an excuse of not forgiving. You will not find an excuse to commit another sin. If you sin, you repent.
But you will not find excuse. Why we fail, why we fail, the third point, why we fail to fear God. Why do, in other words, why do most of us not fear God? Why do we not live in the fear of God?
There are various reasons for that. And one of them is certainly connected in verse 14. Please look at verse 14. For God will bring every good deed into judgment, sorry, for God will bring every deed into judgment, that every secret thing, whether good or evil. I want you to focus on one phrase here, every secret thing.
Here, the author speaks about the judgment of the secrets of our lives. And a common reason people don’t fear God is that it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t deliver weekly progress reports or walk with him. It’s not because of that. As a result, many become complacent, assuming that God is unconcerned with daily life and that accountability is little more than an illusion.
So we continue to love the things that we used to love. We still have those secret things in our hearts. We love those secret things. We cover them with our Christian, so-called Christian life, Christian words, Christian jargons. But secretly, we admire those things. We love those things. They are deep in our hearts.
We are not unrooting them through this process of meditation on God’s word and prayer. We are not letting the Holy Spirit to work in us. We are not letting God to do that deep search continuously. There are these secret things even as Christians we are harboring. That is the reason we are not maturing. That is the reason we are not fearing God. And we have told ourselves, it’s okay.
It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s just a little lie. It’s okay. It’s a gossip. That’s okay. That person deserves to be gossiped about. And not only that, that gives a certain subtle satisfaction to my soul when I share something about others to others, right? There’s a soul satisfaction and you love that feeling.
You love that feeling and you want to keep it. You want that pleasure that comes out of gossiping about others. And a little pornography is fine, and we have come up with a word called soft porn, right? It’s fine, it’s okay, it’s no harm, right? And you built a world of fantasy in your mind, and you are a king and a queen in that world. You do as you like, and and slowly that becomes part of your life, you know, and you try to expect others to behave with you in a certain way. And if they don’t behave in a certain way, you’re offended.
You’re hurt. Brothers and sisters, what are those secret things in your life that don’t sync with God’s purposes? Do you have those secret things in your hearts? What self-oriented purposes come in the way of God’s purposes? If there are these secret things in our hearts, we should bring them to the cross.
Often the fear of God is replaced by the fear of man. We tend to fear others and are easily influenced by their opinions. We are so pliable, malleable, easily changed or influenced by others, by societal standards, by pressure from others, and the priorities which make us hesitant to stand out for God. You might avoid offending your spouse by neglecting parts of the Scriptures or try to please family friends or colleagues by accepting things that are not pleasing to God. Oh, if I don’t behave in certain way, this person will be offended.
If I don’t speak in certain jargon, oh, this group will be offended. I want to feel belong to this particular group. And I never liked smoking, but when I was in my college I smoked, not because I liked smoking, because my friends were smoking. I wanted to be no part of that. I wanted to know that I am like them. I wanted them to accept me. So I did, but I couldn’t do that for a long time. I had to quit. And you know we do that a lot. Maybe to please your boss.
Maybe to please your colleague. You have to please them so you behave in a certain way. Maybe with your friend. Do you prioritize fearing God even in such situations? Do you prioritize fearing God over fearing people? Or if I don’t work in a certain way at my workplace, I will lose my job, if I don’t please my manager, be it by no compromising on God’s standards.
What is your aim? Are you driven by this ambition of pleasing God? Then you will trust God, then you will depend on God. Reflect on how this influences your everyday actions, your friendships, your neighbors, your co-workers, your family, and those you interact with regularly. Are you genuinely living with a fear of God guiding your life more than fear of others?
Is God truly at the center of your daily existence? I like how Matthew Henry lists out God’s judgment here. “God shall bring every work into judgment.” He says there is a judgment to come in which every man’s eternal state will be finally determined.
It doesn’t matter if you prayed a prayer once and call yourself as Christian, if your life is not marked by pleasing God. We fail, yes we fail, we repent, we turn to him. If you’re stubborn, the Lord will discipline us, he will bring us back to him. But now this is happening. If you are still focused on doing what you like, remember your eternal state will be determined.
Secondly, he says God himself will serve as a judge, not only because he has the rightful authority to judge, but also because he is perfectly qualified for such judgment. Because he is infinitely wise and just. First, each work will be brought into judgment, examined, reviewed. Once again, it will be a day to recall everything that has been done in the body.
Fourthly, the primary matter to be judged regarding each work is whether it is good or evil, conforming to the will of God or violating it. 5. Even hidden things, whether good or evil, will be brought to light and accounted for on the great day of judgment. No good or evil deed remains concealed, but it will be disclosed. 6. In light of the coming judgment and its severity, it is of utmost importance that we diligently walk with God now so that we may present our accounts with joy.
Brothers, our works are examined not to determine salvation if you’re a believer but to determine reward as Paul mentions in 2nd Corinthians and also in 1st Corinthians, to expose which works were done in flesh or which works are done in the spirit. When works found lacking result in loss of reward not loss of salvation.
Paul says he himself will be saved but only as through fire. And we really do not know how that judgment day looks like, but that’s a judgment day. We’re going to stand before the Lord, give an account. So let’s tremble, let’s tremble. And as and when you see anything that is not pleasing God, bring it to the cross, confess honestly and repent of that sin, plead. We all must imitate our Savior.
Our Messiah's life on this earth was characterized by the fear of God. Look at what Prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1, 2 and 3. Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1, 2 and 3. He says, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ delighted in the fear of the Lord while he was on this side of eternity. He lived a perfect life on this earth. He was sinless, but he went to the cross. were laid on him. He suffered and died for the sinner on the cross, enduring God’s holy anger against our sins. He is the only one who lived perfect lives. He lived without sin, but he died on the cross to pay fully for your sins.
All of sin, past, present, and future. He also, He rose again in victory. He died in our place under God’s holy anger and He rose again in victory and is now seated at God’s right hand as the eternal God-man having defeated sin, death and the enemy. He can save everyone who looks to Him. If you trust and have faith in Him, you will not stand before God’s judgment with the wicked, but with the righteous.
But still we have to stand. God saved us through the finished work of Jesus Christ. We all deserve to die. We all deserve to be punished. But God had mercy on us and he saved us. Don’t waste that sacrifice by living for yourself.
Don’t waste that sacrifice by living for your own purposes. Don’t waste that sacrifice by being stubborn only to realize on your deathbed, wish I had, wish I had forgiven people. Wish I made peace with others. Wish I lived for the glory of God. Wish I was into the word. I was on my knees. Wish I preached the gospel. Wish I served others. Wish I denied myself.
Don’t let that song be at the end of your life. The writer says here, remember your Creator while you’re still young. While you’re still young. God called us, forgave us, adopted us into a new family. He has gifted us, entrusted us with a vision, mission, and he gave us a future.
We are heading there. You’re loved and this love is so immense that it will take you all eternity to begin to understand it. Our purpose is to become like Christ and God is at work. Our purpose is to bear his image, bring all your prodigal earnings, your earnings to the cross. It’s never too late. You may have lived your entire Christian life in a certain way. You can come back to the cross and surrender your lives. The cross is God’s pursuit of favored children. It is an invitation back to the family. It is the invitation back to the purpose of God.
Begin to take the scripture seriously and let God shape your life. Commit. You can grow day by day with the Spirit of God energizing you, making this more and more the purpose of your life. As you do that, you will be changed. Finally, a few applications.
As God with a current acts, ask whether God currently fits into your plans or whether you, your life is genuinely ordered around his purposes. Think of the areas of your life you have not submitted to the, to fearing God and keeping his commandments. Bring those secret things in your heart to the cross of Jesus Christ. Choose one truth from a recent sermon or your recent reading and deliberate over it for several days or several weeks. Ask the Lord to bring change in your hearts.
Turn that meditation into prayer, confession, request for strength and a plea to actually become it. Examine one area where fear of man — be it your spouse, family, friends, co-workers — has replaced fear of God and name it honestly before God and seek His grace.
Meditate this week on Christ's own reverent, obedient fear towards God as a pattern for your life. Ask God to help you live as one who has called you, forgiven you, adopted you, gifted you, and entrusted you with a mission.