The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God, manifested in the flesh. God the Father cannot be known except through the Son. That is what the Father has decreed. It is the Son who does the works of the Father, and He it is to whom all judgement has been committed. Only those who believe in the Son, being cleansed from their sin through His death on the Cross, will be raised up to everlasting life on the great last day. To deny God the Son is to deny God the Father.

Conclusion

1. Old Testament Israel was separate from all other nations as the people of God.

2. Christians today are likewise God’s true people, separate from the rest of men.

3. To be a true Christian is to come out of this world and to remain separate from it.

4. So Christians must take care to maintain their separated status from all the attitudes and philosophies of the God-rejecting society around them.

5. Those who come out of the world and separate themselves are those who uniquely enjoy God’s rest.

Those who use their tongue in a malicious manner towards others are defying God’s commandment that we should love our neighbour as ourselves.

Nasty and slanderous words in fact reflect a heart alienated from God. Those who can willingly use malicious, and hateful words are actually of the same spirit as those who commit murder. That is how serious tongue-sins are.

God's commandments address our heart's inward disposition, not just our outward deeds. He who is of a faithful to the Lord will always think before he speaks. His speech will reflect the desire in his heart to keep all God's commandments. His speech will be productive of good, and glorifying to God, a sign that he truly is born again. He who controls his tongue will also be proficient at dealing with all other sin in his life.

We learn from this passage about the desperate state that all people without exception are in. Our Lord states that He is anointed to preach the gospel to five categories of people which we see listed in verse 18. These categories represent all those without Christ. They are called poor, broken-hearted, captives, blind, and bruised. This speaks of the dire spiritual poverty, brokenness, captivity to sin, blindness of mind and spiritual oppression under which all people labour, but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ has come to bring relief and deliverance to all who repent and put their trust in Him.

As Christians we are not against commercial prosperity, scientific advance, artistic beauty or cultural excellence. Nor of course are we remotely against people enjoying themselves and helping to make themselves feel good. There are various human pursuits which are physically exhilarating. The maintenance of personal fitness, for example, can greatly enhance the quality of people’s lives.

What we are being taught by the word of God here in Ecclesiastes 2, however, is that all these activities must all be kept in their proper place. They must never be made the measure of a happy and fulfilled life.

Solomon tried to make them the yardstick of his fulfilment, but when they were elevated to that role, he found that they failed him miserably. If a man as wise as Solomon once was could be allured and led astray by the temporary enticements of this world, how much more must we be on our guard, seeking only the true wisdom which is from above, as Solomon did at the beginning of his reign.

Let us never allow the passing pleasures of this world to blind us form pursuing the priority of walking with Christ in all holiness of life. As the apostle John tells us,

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation”. This is the transformed status of all who turn from sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This message of salvation is what our society desperately needs to hear. Unless individual are thus transformed by the Saviour, society will never improve. This verse describes the remarkable transformed status of the believer in Christ. THE LORD JESUS MUST FIRST TRANSFORM THE PERSON, AND THEN SOCIETY WILL TRANSFORM ITSELF.

The reign of King Solomon teaches us today that Britain's head of state and government must realise that the nation can only prosper, if it honours the one true Trinitarian God, and if God's word, the Bible, is placed at the heart of the nation's life. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12).

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HORROR OF THE CROSS FOR ALL THE WORLD (Matthew 27, v47 - 51) by Penn Free Methodist Church, nr High Wycombe

These verses teach us about the status of the Lord Jesus Christ as being fully God appearing on earth in human form, and as the perfect Saviour of sinners. May all non-believers today grasp hold of our Lord’s words and apply them to themselves : “This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the last day”.

Becoming a Christian means separation from this world, and then to live out the Christian life means maintaining that separation. We have noted that the world has three particular characteristics with power to draw men away from God, and how we must be on our guard against all of these :

"The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life".

So where do our real affections lie? Let us ensure that they are with the things of God, and not with the enticements of this world, because, as John teaches us here, the love of the world is completely incompatible with a real love for God. So may the Lord help us to "set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).