Turn back to Ecclesiastes chapter
12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I geared this message up mostly for the young people here
this morning. That's what's been on my mind.
You've been on my mind. this past week, especially. Now, anybody that's under 40
is a young person. If you're 40 and older, you're
not young. Someone said 40 is the old age
of youth and the youth of old age. But this is for the young people. especially those of you who are
graduating. Some of you have already graduated, and some of
you are going to in a year or two. And you've been learning
for many years now. And you're about to take a big
step in life. You've come to a place where
you're going to make choices that's going to affect you, the
rest of your life. Choices you make will affect
you the rest of your life. Not only will the choices you
make affect you the rest of your life, but when you have children,
it'll affect them too. And your grandchildren, it'll
affect them too. It's amazing. It's like a ripple. It's like
you throw a rock in the water and you watch those ripples go
across the pond. That's what choices do. They affect generation
after generation. And I know this, I know that
in the day we live in, especially, you need a good education. Get
it while you're young. Get it while you're young. One
time, a few years ago, I was bird hunting at this shooting
preserve. And the man, you know, at the
shooting preserve, they put them out for you. And this man put out
a bunch of pheasants and stuff, and that morning was cold. I
mean, heavy frost, cold. He got on his four-wheeler, and
he went out this long, long, long field, big field, put them
out, came back. His face was as red as a strawberry. I said, man, I said, you're gonna
freeze to death. He said, you know, my daddy told
me, if you're going to be stupid, you better get tough. He said,
if you're going to be stupid, you better get tough. And when
he said that, I understood what he was saying. He's saying this,
you need to get an education, son, or you're going to be in
trouble. You're going to be in trouble. And I say this, well, Solomon
said this in Ecclesiastes 2. He said, I saw that wisdom excels
folly as far as light excels darkness. And I say this to the young people.
Enjoy your youth. Enjoy your youth. It doesn't
last long. But what time it does last, I'm
telling you, enjoy it. Enjoy it. And you can enjoy many
things in this life that are good. You know, the word of God
tells us that he's given us all things to enjoy. If we just enjoy
them properly, there's a real joy in them. And there's a real
way to enjoy things. But in all of this, the wise
man said in verse one, in the closing of all of his wise sayings
and instructions, he says, remember, remember. I looked that up in
the dictionary. It means recall from memory,
It means to show appreciation to it. Show appreciation to it. Remember the gospel you have
heard over the years. Remember that. Don't let that
slip away. There'll be many things trying
to capture your attention, and they will get your attention
in this life. It'll get your attention. but
never forget the message of grace that you've heard over the years.
You know, the scripture says faith comes by hearing. Hearing,
hearing what? The gospel. The gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God, the gospel of God. Remember that. Remember this message wherever
you go. Remember this. And remember this,
remember that God is. Remember that God is. Wherever
you go, whatever you do, remember God is. We cannot ignore this
truth. This is not a theory. This is
a truth. God is. He is the one who gives
us life He's the one who gives us breath. He's the one who gives us the
health that we have. The intelligence that we have
is God-given. God gave it to us. The God that
is gave that to us. And never think, never get to
the point, never get so educated that you think you have what
you have because of your high intelligence. Listen to this. God said this
over in Isaiah. I make rich, I make poor. I lift up, I bring down. I the Lord do all these things. In another place in Isaiah, he
says, the battle is not to the strong. He said, the race is
not to the swift. Now, the translation, it says,
time and chance happens to them all, but it is this, God gives
opportunity. But the battle is to whomsoever
the Lord gives it. Victory, it says, is of the Lord.
I never want to forget who gives me my daily bread. The Lord said, when you pray,
we say, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. This shows us
our continual dependence upon Him. My daily bread, it may not
be talking about just my supper. That's the job I need. what I
need to take care of the family. Never forget your dependence
upon God. Never forget. Never forget who gives you what
you have. Don't be like Gomer. Hosea, remember
the story of Hosea and Gomer? Hosea left her her corn and her
wine. She left him, but he left her her corn and her wine at
her door every day. And she thought it was her lover's. But it wasn't. It was her husband,
Hosea. So never forget that whatever
you have, God has given it to you. God's given it to you. And remember God's authority
over you. We grow up, we leave the authority
of mom and dad, but we never leave the authority
of God, do we? We never leave the authority
of Almighty God. There's never a time that I am
my own person. We'll see this at the very end
of this chapter. God is sovereign. He is the monarch
of heaven and earth. This is His world. You and I belong to Him, whether
we believe it or not. Whether we believe the gospel
or not, we are still His. Turn over to Psalm 24. Psalm 24. We are never our own. Listen to Psalm 24. Listen to
verse 1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullest thereof, the
world and they that dwell therein. It's His. It's His. He's the monarch of it. And you
and I belong to Him. And then remember Jesus Christ,
whom you've heard preached all these years. Jesus Christ is God. He's the
God I'm talking about. He's the God that is. He's the
God that is. Remember Him. Remember Him. Never forget that the only way
to God is by Jesus Christ. The only way to be forgiven,
the only way to be accepted is by Jesus Christ. That's the only
way. His person, His blood, His righteousness. In Jesus Christ, you will find all you need. And I'm speaking not only from
the Word of God, but from experience. I know that I need no more than
Him. And I know this, if you have
Christ, you have life. You have life. Apart from Christ,
you don't have life. The preacher said it's vanity
of vanities. It's what it is. God can require no more of me
than Jesus Christ. In Him, I'm complete. And I hope
by the grace of God, you find that out. You find that out. He is the last person, I thought
of this this morning while looking over this, You know, I don't
have to deal with everyone in this world. There's over, what,
seven billion people in this world. There are very few people
that I really have to deal with. But Jesus Christ is the last
person everyone is gonna face and see and deal with. He's the
last person. And He's the Lord, and Scripture
tells us to give unto Him the honor and glory due unto His
name. And when are we to remember Him?
Now. Now. Not after I get my career
started, not after I finish my education, not after, it's now. It's now. Remember now, thy creator,
you didn't evolve and I didn't evolve, God made us. And the translation of this is
thy creatorus, it's plural. It's the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. That's what it's saying. Remember now, like
creators, God said, let us make man in our image and after our
likeness. Today is the only day you have. It's the only day I have. We
don't have tomorrow. It's always today, today, today. Always. Always. I believe And I am confident that one of the greatest blessings,
if not the greatest blessings, that God can do for you is to
save you while you are young. To know God early. I thank God
I heard the gospel when I was 23 years old. And I believe I
heard the gospel in power and believed. And I can say from
experience and looking back, there's no greater blessing than
for God to save you in your youth, to make himself known to you
while you're young, and your life not spent in vanity. I believe
that my life has meaning. Doug, your life has meaning.
In Christ, it has meaning. It has direction. It has a purpose,
and I understand something of the purpose. It's for God's glory
and for my eternal good, and I'm going to share in that glory
of God. I can't even begin to express
who God is. I'm going to share in it. Oh, that God save you while you're
young, to know God early, to worship God early in life and
not be like a wanderer, not be like Cain, trying to figure everything
out all the time, find yourself all the time. But to come to know the Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember now thy Creator. We didn't make ourselves. We
did not make ourselves the first time. I had nothing to do with
that. I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I'm on this earth by the
purpose and will of God. And so were you. And we will not make ourselves
a second time in the new creation. Listen to Psalm 100 verse three. Know ye that the Lord he is God. Know this. Know him. Know that he's God. Know that
the Lord Jehovah is God. It is he that hath made us. He that hath made, we have our
existence because of him. and not we ourselves. We didn't
make ourselves. And he's speaking here of the
Lord's people. He says, we are his people and the sheep of his
pasture. He made us. He made all people. The whole
human race was created by God. Now, he gives us a picture He
gives us a picture and He's giving this to youth. And He's saying
to the youth, you see, this is the wise man. The wise man is
not going to stand here and just blow you up and make everything
look rosy. He's going to tell you the truth. He's going to tell you the truth.
And the wise man is going to show you the process of life. Because right now, I tell you,
when you're young, you're full of life. I'm telling you, full
of energy, it's just go, go, go. At least it was when I was young.
Nowadays it's video games. It was outside, go, go, go all
the time. I can remember the endless energy
I had. Now I wouldn't want that same
energy in this body. It'd be a train wreck. It would. If I had that same energy now,
it'd be a train wreck. That's what someone said to me
once. There was a little kid running
around just playing and running around. And he said, wouldn't
you like to have that kind of energy? I said, not in this body,
I wouldn't. I'd be in trouble. I'd be in
trouble. But what he's going to show here is the process of life. And I'm
really seeing this right now in my parents, in their late
80s. And this really came home when
I started reading this. And so know what's coming. He
said, while the evil days come not, remember now thy Creator
and the days of thy youth. While the evil days come not,
nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure
in them. He's speaking here before old
age comes on. Not that old age is evil, that's
not what he's saying, but the infirmities. The infirmities
that it brings. And look at some of these. While
the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened,
let the clouds return after the rain. When you have loss of sight. I used to have 20-20 vision.
When I hit 40 in my 40s, then I had to get glasses. But I had
20-20 vision. And now, I was telling Vicki the other day,
I said, man, my eyes are changing again. I said, I'm having trouble
with some eyesight here. But he's talking here about the
loss of sight, and when trouble seems to come like rain, one after another, my grandfather
said to me the last year of his life, he said, I can't remember
the last time I had a good day. He was up in his 80s. In the day when the keepers of
the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves
and the grinders cease because they're few and those that look
out of the windows be darkened. He said, remember now that creator
in the days that I used before these things come on, the arms
grow weak. My dad can't even hardly lift
himself up now out of the bed. He can't hardly use his arms.
And his legs, the legs are shake, they just shake. He said the
pillars of the house just shake. They just tremble. When they
walk, they just walk with a tremble. The teeth have fallen out. The
grinders are few. Grinders are few. And the doors
shall be shut in the street when the sound of the grinding is
low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all
the daughters of music shall be brought low." Loss of hearing? All of you that have hearing
aids, you didn't have that when you was young, did you? You could
hear great, but not now. Now you gotta have
hearing aids. Loss of sleep, you can't sleep.
You're up all hours. I tell you what, I wake up every
morning at four o'clock. I mean, it's just like, I used
to never do that. And I'm assuming if I live another
20 years, I'll be at three o'clock. And sooner or later, ain't no
reason to go to bed. Just get a recliner set up. Doze off. I guess. Loss of speech. That's the one thing I've noticed
from my father, is when he's talking to me, his speech is
just, he can't get it out hardly. It's hard to keep it together.
Loss of speech. And also, when they shall be
afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in the way,
and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshoppers be a burden,
and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and
the mourners go about the street. So feeble, and you've seen this, so feeble
that stepping up on a curb is just too high. All desires fail. Appetite fails. Senses are all gone. All the hormones of the body
are dying. You know, it's not that people,
when they get older, get better as they age, it's just their
hormones are dying. It really is. It really is. There's a lot to be said for
that. The whole duration of life has been complete. And what he's
saying here to the young is don't, while you're young, remember
your creator. Don't ignore, you know, I can't
imagine now, of course, that's because the Lord saved me as
a young man. But I can't imagine going through
life ignoring God and never worshiping God and never giving thanks to
God. What would you do to someone
that you gave everything to and gave them their health, their
life, their breath, gave everything to them? And they totally ignored
you, as if you didn't even exist. Wherever the silver cord, in
verse 6, wherever the silver cord be loosed, where the golden
bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or
the wheel broken at the cistern. Here now comes to the process
of dying. The spinal cord's broken, the
brain shuts down, the heart's stopping. That's what he's saying.
You say, man, this is getting morbid. No, it's not. It's the process of life. It's called reality. That's what
is called reality. The spinal cord is broken, the
brain shutting down and the heart stopping. And now what? He says, then shall the dust
return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to
God who gave it. And what he's telling us here
is everyone returns to God in the end, to give account. To give account. And he says here in verse 8,
after going through this, he said, vanity of vanity, said
the preacher, all is vanity. Listen, without Christ, a life
without Christ, listen to me, a life without Christ is a life
of vanity. It's a life of emptiness. It's
a life of futility. That's what it is, and that's
the way it'll end. A life without Christ. Christ
gives meaning to life, doesn't he? Doesn't he? He gives meaning
to life. He gives meaning for being here. And moreover, he says in verse
nine, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge.
Yes, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs.
Listen to God's preacher. If he's God's preacher, listen
to him. He's giving you God's word, which will make you wise
unto salvation, like it did Timothy. And the preacher sought to find
out acceptable words, right words. Words are powerful, you know.
Wars have been started over words. Peace has come over words. Homes have been split over words.
Homes have been brought back together again over words. There's
nothing more powerful than a word. Nothing. Someone says sticks
and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
That guy's an idiot. That guy's an idiot. Sticks and stones may
break my bones, but words can absolutely crush me. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the what? The mouth speaks. If God is pleased to save any
of us, he's gonna do it with his what? His word. Never underestimate the power
of words. The preacher sought out to find
acceptable words that which was written was upright, even words
of truth. Listen, truth, You want me to tell you the truth?
Want me to tell you the truth? Truth is forever. A lie lasts
until it's found out. But truth is forever. Listen to God's Word when you
have the opportunity. And listen to what He has to
say. And do what He has to say. As James says, be a doer of the
word and not a hearer only. And he says here in verse 11,
the words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by
the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
Words of the wise, like the goads, it was like, you go over to Mexico,
They still do it. They use oxen to plow the gardens
or the ground. And they have these sticks. They
have a sharp, sharp pointed stick. And they would stick that oxen
with it to keep him in the row and to keep him going. That's why he's saying the words
of wise men, they're sharp. You may say that doesn't feel
good. I'm not here to make anybody feel good. I'm here just to give
the word of God. And the word of God is sharper
than any two-edged sword. It cuts going both ways. And they're like nails, he says,
the words of the wise are like nails, like nails that hold the billy
together. I would to God that he would
drive and nail the truth to every heart in here. And that when you leave, you
leave this building this morning, when you leave home, you go off
to school, that you remember what you've heard. Don't forget
it. And further, by these, my son,
be admonished, be instructed, be taught, Of making many books,
there's no end, and much study is the weariness of the flesh.
The study of many books will make you weary. Those of you
who've gone off to college, you've studied all night, trying to
study for an exam, and it wore you, you're just weary. Weary. But let me tell you this, the
study of God's word will make you wise. It will make you wise. There's a difference between
intelligence and wisdom. There's a difference. They're
not the same. Intelligence is the horse, wisdom is the rider. And if you don't have wisdom,
that horse is out of control. It's just gonna, he's gonna get
in trouble. He's gonna go off and, why'd you do this? Why'd
you do that? There was no wisdom riding the
horse. Here's the conclusion. Let us
hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. The scripture says the fear of
the Lord's beginning of wisdom. Fear God, keep his commandments
for this is the whole duty of man. Fear God's beginning of
wisdom. No secular education can give
you the fear of the Lord. It won't happen. Keep His commandments. Here's
one of His commandments. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's not an invitation. That
is a commandment. For God shall bring every work
into judgment with every secret thing. Every secret thing. Nobody saw that. One did. One did. Mike Bartram told me,
you all know Mike, he came here and said, he said, my mother,
he said, every time I'd go out, he said, she just ingrained this
in me, and he said, it just bothered me all the time. But he said,
my mother, every time I'd go out, I said, remember son, God
sees you. He said, every time I went out, I got that, God sees
you. And he said, that always stuck
with me. We're never out of his sight. Every secret thing, whether
it be good or whether it be evil, this is the day everything comes
back to roost. Brethren, if you and I are in
Christ, we have nothing coming back. Nothing coming back. Everything's
taken care of, everything's atoned for, everything's gone. Outside of Christ, it all comes
back. Remember, now listen, and I believe
this is what he's saying. Remember while you can. While you can. Henry's telling
the story of an old lady, an elderly lady, I should say, saying
that she believed in the hereafter. She said, every time I go in
the other room, I wonder, what am I here after? What am I here after? Remember why you can. Now. And I'm going to be very... And this is what I've seen over
the years. But very few times have I ever seen God save someone
that's been elderly. I'm not saying He doesn't. Not
law, I mean, He can save at any age. But most of the ones that
I've ever seen God save have been in their youth. And this is why the Holy Spirit
has moved Solomon to say, remember now thy creator while you're
young.