All is Vanity

Ecclesiastes 11:8-10 ESV

 

“So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

 

“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

 

“Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.”

 

If we live on this earth to please our flesh and to do the things that bring us pleasure, but we have no thought of God and of what he has for our lives, then it is all vanity. We may enjoy our days on this earth, but we must be reminded that hell is forever and that there is no turning back once that is where you end up.

 

If while we live on this earth we follow after our own hearts and our own desires and what is pleasing to our eyes,  we must know that for these things God will bring us into judgment whether or not we profess faith in Jesus Christ. For a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ is not enough to save us from our sins and to secure for us eternal life with God.

 

For Jesus died on that cross to deliver us from self and from slavery to sin and to give us new lives in him to be lived for his praise and glory. He died to free us from our chains to sin so we will now walk in his holiness and righteousness. For sin shall no longer have mastery over our lives. Now Jesus is to be our only Lord.

 

But many people knowing this continue in deliberate and habitual sin even into their old age. They have no fear of God and they have convinced themselves that God will not judge them. So they engage in all manner of evil in direct defiance of the Lord and of his commands without conscience.

 

They continue to walk in sin and not in righteousness because they are chasing after the pleasures of this world. They are giving way to the lusts of the flesh and of the eyes and they are driven by the pride of life. Many of them are living in sexual immorality and in adultery against God and their spouses. And this continues.

 

And so the call here is to put that all away from your life. We are not saved from our sins so we can go on living in sin guilt free. We are saved to walk in freedom from slavery to sin and to walk in holiness and righteousness. For this purpose Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross and was then resurrected from the dead that we might live with him.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Co 5:15,21; 1 Co 6:19-20; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 12:1-2; Matt 7:21-23; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8]