The only religion God ever established He gave to the nation Israel through the hand of Moses. Called the law of Moses, the Bible calls it pure religion because it came straight from the hand of the Creator.
"By the time of the Lord Jesus they had corrupted it and Paul called it 'the Jews' religion,' " reminds Jordan. "They had turned it into their manmade religion. Mark 7: [6] He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. [7] Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.[8] For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,
"You see what they've done? They've taken what God said and laid it aside and taken up tradition that they've imposed on it. Verse 13: [13] Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
"You can take tradition and impose it on what God says and when you do that, verse 7 says 'in vain do they worship me.' The worship is empty, valueless, it's just futile living.
"When we talk in Ephesians 6 about parenting, you can have a futile, vain parenting or you can have a spirit-filled parenting. You can have a vain, futile, worthless, empty living or you can have a living that's designed the way your Creator designed you to live.
*****
"That issue of vanity in your Bible is a very important topic and it's important to think about today. Paul writes in I Corinthians 5:
[17] And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
[18] Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
[19] If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
"Solomon was the wisest man and yet there came a point in Solomon's life where, instead of depending on God's wisdom, he said, 'I'm going to go find out wisdom on my own.'
"He laid aside the commandment of God and sought wisdom through his own experience and the result of that is the Book of Ecclesiastes. This book is written almost a thousand years before the time of Christ.
"All of the great philosophers of the ancient world who have shaped world history--the Greeks, Romans, the Athenians--you can find every one of their philosophies expressed in Ecclesiastes. It's the strangest thing in the world.
"You know what they did? They simply took the wisdom of God, didn't give credit to it, and repeated it. Solomon in Ecclesiastes examined ALL of the thinking that men go through. He condensed it down into one book. He said, 'Here's all the vain thinking people operate on.'
"All of the philosophers of the world lay aside God's Word, reject it and take up human viewpoint. Isn't that what Romans 1 said? They said, 'We don't want God's revelation.' You know what that leaves you with? A goose egg. It leaves you with your noodle trying to figure things out and you can't do it. You become vain, empty, worthless in your imaginations. You begin to develop all these wise ideas that come out of nothing, emptiness.
" 'We are of all men most miserable.' In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says that one thing, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die.
"And when you're dead, you're dead like a dog. It's over with. That's what the philosophy of the world is and, if there isn't hope in Jesus Christ, if there isn't something beyond right now, then you're just living a vain, miserable, worthless life. Because all there is ahead for you is the hole in the ground. Tomorrow's just a Bronx Cheer. You see how important the resurrection is?
"Psalm 39: [5] Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. [6] Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
"You young folks don't get that but older folks will tell you that's true. You say, 'Where'd it go so fast?!' 'Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.'
"The best you have is nothing. You won't win friends and influence people with that message.
"I just picked out some of these real encouraging verses in Ecclesiastes. In Adam, because of man's fall, man in his best state is just a pile of dust, a puff of wind; he's a dream, he's a shadow, he's a pillar of smoke, he's a worm, he's just this curiosity. In his best state he's just an empty shell.
"Ecclesiastes 5: 15: [15] As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
"The message is, 'Naked you come in, naked you go out.' You know what life is? One generation's born, it passes away and you know what it takes with it? It leaves it all behind. Well, what was I doing when I was doing what I was doing? No matter what I accomplished in life--fame, fortune, money, education, prestige--you know what happens? I die and it's gone. I've got nothing that lasts. It's just an illusion. I thought I had something but I didn't.
"When he says that, he's talking about this. Ecclesiastes 1: [1] The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
[2] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.[3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
[4] One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
[5] The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
"What are you getting out of everything you're doing in your life every day? Some of you are just starting out in life--you're still going to school. Some of you are raising your family.
"He says, 'What profit hath a man?' Verse 4 is what happens. You know what vanity is? One generation is born, they die, the next generation is born and they die, and the next generation is born and they die, and nothing changes. The earth is just still here. You try to build a legacy, have a family line, but you're not there; you're in a hole in the ground.
*****
"I love that verse in Acts 13 where it says David, the great king and bard of Israel, served his generation and 'fell on sleep.' You know what that means? He did all the things he did and, poof, he dies. If dying was the end of things, what did he have? Nothing. It was meaningless.
"Look at Ecclesiastes 8:14: [14] There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
"You know how that happens; you've seen that. Here's a wicked guy and it looks like he's blessed and he gets ahead. Here's another guy doing what's right and he's taking it in the neck all the time. What is that? It doesn't seem fair.
"People say, 'Well, if I was God, that's not what I would let happen.' That's the randomness of the curse. Listen, the curse of sin that causes vanity in the earth is a random thing. That randomness he's talking about here is how life operates in a fallen world. We live in a creation GOVERNED by that curse of sin.
"Jesus Christ took sin's curse and paid the price for it and redeemed me. Bought me out of the hock shop of sin and put me in His righteousness. He redeemed me so over there in the future He could come back and take possession of this possession He bought.
"The thing that changes the cycle of vanity, the cycle of the curse--the thing that changes that cycle of one generation comes and passes and another generation comes and passes, is the resurrection! It's the resurrection of Jesus Christ and your participation in it.
"I hope you follow what I'm trying to tell you. Listen, all that vanity out there in the world, that's all there is out in the world, and if it wasn't for the resurrection, all that stuff that was just the cycle of a sin-cursed world, good, bad or indifferent, that time and chance bring into your life . . . I mean, think about what your investing into your life and what are you going to have at the end?
" 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.' What you believe makes a difference. You've seen people reach the pinnacle of their chosen pursuit. Money, fame, education, religion, family. They reach out and have it all and find it an empty suit. In the finances of the world, the thrill is in the pursuit, not in the gaining of the prize. You know what that is? That's the illusion.
"Verse 20: [20] But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
"Generations that come and pass isn't true for us because of the resurrection. It's the resurrection of Christ that breaks that cycle. [21] For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
"Apart from Christ's resurrection and our participation in it, there's no escape from vanity. In Acts 2, Peter's first message was, 'You with wicked hands crucified Him and God raised Him up.' Why? To sit on David's throne. God had a purpose for Him and He didn't just die; God raised Him up and Israel's going to get all her promises based upon that.
"In Paul's first message, he talks about you know what? Christ died and then God raised Him up. Acts 13: [34] And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
[35] Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.[36] For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
[37] But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
"He's raised `no more to see corruption.' His death completely put away sin. In Hebrews 9, it says, [27] And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: [28] So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
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