Turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes. It's a small book right after
the book of Proverbs. We're going to look at a few
verses here in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Remember thy Creator. Solomon is believed to be the
writer of this book. And if you read through the book
of Proverbs and on into the book of Ecclesiastes, the main theme
of these two books is wisdom, the wisdom that God gives to
His people, to know Him, to understand who He is and to see Him. And
we do this by faith. We have no audible visions. We've
not seen the Lord with our natural eyes as some of the prophets
or some of the apostles did and some of the people in the New
Testament did. But by the eye of faith, we look
and we behold and we say, there he is, the hope for sinners. He and he alone is my hope and
my salvation. He and he alone is able to save
to the uttermost all that come unto Him. Let us hear. Look down in chapter
12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. What is this? What is the conclusion
of the whole matter of this life? Why are you and I created Why
did God see fit to create men and women upon the earth? Here
it is. Here it is. Let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commands. For this is the whole duty of
man. This is the reason. This is the
purpose that God created man. that we may fear Him and keep
His commandments. Now, we know that we sin and
come short of the glory of God daily. We know that when Adam
fell, he plunged all of his posterity into this thing of sin. So how
do we fear God? And how is it that we can keep
His commandments? Only through the Lord Jesus Christ. only looking unto Him, the author
and finisher of our faith, only by believing on Him who is able
to save to the uttermost. And I believe Brother Scott Richardson
said, to the gutter most. He's able to save those that
come unto Him. This is the conclusion of the
whole matter. This is the purpose that man
has experienced. And this is the purpose of God
creating. Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. All men and women ought
to fear God. All men and women should, and
one day will. All men and women should worship
God, and one day they will bow a knee. Every knee shall bow,
and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. But while we're here on this
earth, while we're here in this old flesh, oh, let us keep His
commandments. Let us depend upon Him. Let us repent and believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the Lord is able,
He's able to save. Isaiah said it this way in Isaiah
59 and verse 1, Behold, the Lord's hand is not short, that he cannot
save, neither his ear heavy that he cannot hear. He hears our
prayers. He knows our frame. He knows
that we are but dust, and he calls us unto himself through
the preaching of the gospel. Our God is able to save. He's
able to save. But this chapter, as we're going
to look at it this morning, deals with things as they are. He deals
with things as they are, not as they ought to be, not as they
ought to be. It's a sad fact, but a fact nevertheless,
that the majority of men and women that lives upon this earth,
they have a religion, they have some kind of hope, they have
some kind of understanding, but they do not know Christ. They
do not know Christ. I don't know how many churches
we passed from the time that we left John and Irene's this
morning, but the ones that we passed, several cars was already
in the parking lot. They come ready to do what they
call service to the Lord. But it is a sad fact that this false gospel that goes
throughout our land is leading men and women to be servants
of Satan rather than servants of God. That's just a fact of
the matter. Those who learn the grace of
God are blessed beyond measure. You that are set under the gospel
have been blessed of God. Men say, oh, we're blessed of
God because we built this and we built that. Sometimes it is
and sometimes it's not. But the most blessed thing that
you and I can have is to have a faithful man to come to the
place that we are and to deliver us the gospel week after week
after week. And he only does this by the
grace of God. God only calls men by His grace. And He puts them where He wills.
And they are there by His power And they shall be there until
God takes them out of the way. So you and I, who is able to
sit under the gospel, are the most blessed people in the world.
God has richly blessed us. He loatheth us daily with benefits. He pours out upon us the mercy
and the grace of His great love. And He gives unto us an understanding
that we may know who He is. And then He calls on us in verse
1, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Remember what verse 13 says now
when you read this. Let us hear the conclusion of
the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man. Remember now, right now,
today is the day of salvation. Today, if you will, the scripture
says, harden not your hearts. Come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden. Right now is what He's talking
about. Today, right now. Remember now,
thy Creator. Look upon Him. Meditate upon
Him. Remember the goodness that He
has given you. Remember the grace that He has
so abundantly shed upon you. Call upon His name. Bow the knee
and worship Him. We know that it is God who created
man, and we dare not try to separate God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. There's many around that say,
well, we're Jesus-only people. We believe that we are led by
the Spirit, by the Spirit alone. Some say, well, I worship God
the Father. When you worship one, when you
truly worship one, you worship all three. For the Scripture
tells us that there are three that are record in heaven, and
these three are one. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Have we not all one Father? Malachi
chapter 2 verse 10. Has not one God created us? Yes. He did it in the triune
God of heaven, the Trinity that dwells alone. They are to be
worshipped as one God, one Creator, one Father, and one Son. We read in John chapter 1, He
says, in the beginning, this is a very familiar scripture
I'm sure to you, in the beginning was the Word. And Christ said,
I am the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. So there's no separation here. You cannot worship one
without worshiping the three. And you cannot worship three
without worshiping as they are revealed in the Holy Scripture. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were created by Him.
You say, well, now wait a minute. The Scriptures tell us that God
spoke. He said, let there be, and there
is. He spoke, but He spoke in the triune head of God. The all
three purposes of God spoke, and things came into existence.
He said, let there be light, and there was light. This is
the power that our God has. And when He speaks unto you through
the gospel, He says, Come! And what do we do? Oh, we grab
the seat and we resist God? No! You cannot resist God. When God speaks to you with an
affectional call, you will come unto Him. And you will not leave
Him. And He will not leave you. All
things were created by Him. And without Him was not anything
that was created that was made. In Him was life. Our Lord said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. That's who He's talking
about here. And the life was the light of
men. We read in Job 33 and verse 4. The Spirit of God has made
me. Well, I thought God did. He did
in the Trinity. Men try to separate these, and
that's where they go astray. These three are one. Our Lord
said, when you've seen me, you've seen the Father. The Spirit of
God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me
life. This is the creation of God.
This is the power, the work, and the handiwork of God in creating
all things for His glory. for that we may see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We look upon Him and we say,
there He is, God in human flesh. There He is standing as my representative,
my sacrifice and my all before God. Everything that I need to
be accepted of God, I find in Him and Him alone. Who is He that condemneth? Who
can condemn me? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, that is even sitting at the right
hand of God right now. You say, well, when you do this
or that you are condemned. No, there is nothing in this
flesh or there is nothing in this world that can condemn me. Because I am in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is my substitute. He is my
satisfaction. And He is all I need to stand
before God and to hear God say, welcome in unto the joys of the
Lord. Come. Sit down. Rest. Find rest for your soul looking
unto Him. Oh, this is He. that came by
blood and water. Not by blood only, but by blood
and water. And it is the Spirit that bears
witness because the Spirit is true. How do we know that He
did this? God sends forth His Spirit into
our hearts and causes us to understand. Causes us to see and to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. For there are three that bear
record. in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. Oh, remember now thy Creator. This God should be remembered.
And the word remembered as it is used here means to recognize,
to think upon, and to be mindful of. Be mindful of your Creator. Think upon your Creator. Recognize
Him as He is revealed in Holy Scripture. So what is it to remember our
Creator? What is it? It's not a casual thought. It's
not a thought that we get up on Sunday morning and say, well,
I believe I'll go to church. Nor is it an indifferent glance. Well, there he is. I know who
Christ is. Men all over the world, all over
this universe, use the name of this Jesus. You ask anybody up
and down this road, in my community and in your community, who is
Jesus? And they'll say, well, he's the
son of Mary. He's the son of Joseph. He's
this. He's that. But what does the
scripture say concerning him? What does this book say? Who
does this book say he is? The scripture tells us that he
is God manifested in the flesh. It is God that came and took
upon himself flesh and they called his name Jesus. The angels bear
record of him. He said, Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and be with child, and she shall bear a child, and they
shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sin. And men all over the world are
using this same name here today, but they have no idea who he
is. He's a helpmate. He's the old
man upstairs. He's a co-pilot. Oh, my. Who is Jesus Christ? What is
it to remember Him, to meditate upon Him, and to think upon Him? David said in Psalms 146 and
verse 1, Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord, O my soul. While I live, I will praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. This is what it is to recognize
who He is. This is what it is to remember
now thy Creator. Not a casual thought, not an
indifferent glance, but one that dwells in here. One that comes
and takes up abode in the heart of His people, giving them a
spirit The Spirit of God. I was trying to think of the
Scripture. It says, Know ye not that ye
are the temple of God? That's who we are. That's who
we are. You say, well, that's blasphemy.
God don't dwell in men. Yes, He does. Know ye not that
ye are the temple of God? For God dwelleth in you. And something in here is always
in our memory here. We don't forget about this thing.
Oh, we sin, yes. We forget so many things. But,
oh, to remember that my God is with me. I in Him and He in me. You read through the book of
Song of Solomon. This love story that is set forth
in the Song of Solomon. So often they compare the Lord
speaks of his beloved and then the church speaks of her beloved.
To the point that it's hard to understand sometimes who's speaking
here. Is it Christ talking about the
church or is it the church talking about the Lord? It is a I am
my beloved and my beloved is mine. I hear my beloved coming. I hear His voice. I see Him dancing
upon the hills. That's the church seeing the
Lord Jesus Christ in all His power and His beauty and His
glory. But He turns unto us and He says, Come away, my fair one.
Come unto Me. Rest in My arms. Eat the apples
of My love. Take the sweetness of My lips.
and enjoy the goodness of my flavor. This is the relationship
that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's closer than even
man and husband, or husband and wife. It's so close that we're
made one in God, with God in Christ. So close that we cannot
be separated. I will never leave thee, and
I will never forsake thee. I'll go with thee always, even
unto the end of the world. Oh, let us be mindful that our
God is a God of great perfection, a glorious perfection. He is
omnipotent. He is all-powerful. He is omniscient. He sees all things. And He is
omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times. Only the God of heaven and earth
can be this. These other gods are, well, he's
my helpmate. He's my crust that I need to
lean on. Oh, no. When you see Him as He
is revealed in Holy Scripture, when God by His grace comes unto
us and speaks unto us in mercy and in truth and reveals unto
us who the Son of God is, we cry out. He's my Lord and He's
my God. He's my hope. He's my Savior. He's my substitute. He's my Redeemer. He's my all in this life and
in the life to come. Let's get on to our lesson. I
got off my lesson a little bit here. If we are saved, If we, by the
grace of God, are saved by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, if we are redeemed by the precious blood
of Christ, if we are resurrected on that great day and we are
conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be
all of His work and none of mine. It will be all of his work despite
what I am and who I am. It will be according to his mercy
and grace through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who has
done all things for me. The scripture says he will perfect
that which concerns me. Is it any wonder that the writer
calls for us to remember Oh, remember now thy creator in the
days of thy youth. I love to see young people in
the congregation. I love to see children brought
up under the gospel. It's a joy to see these young
people sitting under the gospel. And oh, it's even a greater joy
when we see God speak to them and call them by His grace. And
as we go down through these rest of this chapter, the writer is
telling us, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. And then he tells us what's going
to come, what's going to come, what's going to happen in our
old age as we are getting older every day, every day. And he
does this to, let me find the word I'm looking for here. He
does this to convince younger people to remember
God, to come to Christ, to look upon Christ, to feed upon Christ,
and to rest in Christ. He does this to encourage them,
because in this old age, as we're going to look at here for just
a minute, there's many things that's going to come our way.
There's many things that's going to come our way. that oftentimes
blocks our mind, blocks our thoughts, and blocks our inability to worship
God as we desire to. So let us read here a few minutes.
Remember now, thy Creator, in the days of thy youth, while
the evil days come, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them, The evil days, they are the old days,
the old age, the old age. We look back on our younger days
when we could jump and skip, whatever it is. Now it's a struggle. It's a struggle to get up in
the morning. Now, the evil days don't mean
that sin in our older days is more evil than those... Sin is
sin. I don't care if you're first
born or if you're getting ready to pass on. Sin is sin. Sin must
be dealt with. And the only way that sin can
be dealt with is in the substitute of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only way that God will deal with sin. He will either deal
with Christ or He will deal with you outside of Christ. There's
no two ways about it. That's the way that God does
things. He will either look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and find
you accepted in Him, or He will look upon you outside of Christ,
and outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire. So let us remember our Creator
in the days of thy youth. While the Son, verse 2, while
the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened,
nor the clouds return after thee rain." Now, what's the writer
talking about here? What does all this mean? Remember
this now. He says, Remember thy Creator
in the days of thy youth, before the clouds are darkened. The
writer here is talking about The old age, the flesh getting
aged upon it. The sun, the light, the moon,
and the stars will be darkened. This is the understanding, the
mind, the judgment, and the memory. And you and I that are getting
older, we know that this is true. We know that we're not as sharp
as we used to be. We don't have the memory that
we used to have. It's tough sometimes to understand plain English because
of the infirmities of the flesh. And that's what he's talking
about here. He's encouraging the youth to look to Christ early
in life. But while these are yet true
in our faculties, we are the same with God. Oh, we may forget
Him, but He will not forget us. We fail Him and come short of
His glory every day, but He will not fail us. He will not fail
us. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And he stands before God pleading
his own blood in righteousness. Lay not this to their charge.
I suffered and bled and died in their room and their stead.
Accept them into the very presence of God. The clouds returneth to the rain,
and our youth Troubles come and then there's sunshine, there's
joy in the morning. But oh, seems like every time
we come out of one trouble, we go right into another one in
our old age. Before these things come upon
us, in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble. Now
what's he talking about here? And the strong men shall bow
themselves And the grinders cease because they are few, and those
that look out the windows be darkened. The keeper of the house,
the house is the body, is body. The keeper are the arms and the
hands that does most of the work in keeping this body fit, which in old age they become
weak and trembles. The strong man are the legs and
the thighs that uphold the body, with the feet that support the
house. Some have to have knee replacements. I just had a shoulder
worked on. We're getting older, and these
things are a hindrance to us. The grinder's teeth, that's the
teeth that we eat with, because they're few. Our teeth fall out. They perish. And they're gone
away. But does that change our standing
before God? No. He loves us today and tomorrow
and every day. He said, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
you to myself. You're precious in my sight.
I love you. And because I love you, I've
drawn you to myself. Look at verse four. And the door
shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding
is low. And he shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all
the daughters of music shall be brought low." He said, well,
I don't understand what he's talking about here. Remember this. Remember now thy
Creator in the days of thy youth. And then he tells us all the
things that are infirmities of this flesh. The doors shall be shut. This
is the lips. This is the lips, which are open
for speaking and eating. But in old age, they are more
shut than they're open. Old age brings this thing of,
I can't remember. I forget. They rise up at the
voice of a bird. Most old folks, I think every
one of us at John's house was in a bed at 9 o'clock last night.
That's just what we do. That's just what we do when we
get older. And we rise early. We rise early at the voice of
the birds. The daughters of music shall
be brought low. This may mean the lungs and the
throat and the mouth, which, when they're weakened in old
age, we don't, our voice don't project as it used to. Our lungs
are not sufficient to breathe out as it used to. Look at verse
5. Almost when they shall be afraid,
or also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear
shall be in the way, and the almond tree flourish, and the
grasshopper shall be a burden, and the czar shall fail, because
men goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.
They shall be afraid of that which is high. High places, such
as mountains, hills, towers, even steps, even steps, is a
hindrance to the old. Even steps, two steps up here,
we have to get a hold of something to steady ourself. Our limbs
are feeble, our limbs are feeble. The almond tree that flourishes,
is the gray hair that comes upon our head when age comes upon
us. It says it's like an almond tree
when it flourishes, when it's blooming. The grasshopper shall
be a burden. Even the very small grasshopper
is a burden. The lightest load is always a
heavy load to us when we're getting older. desire shall fail. Is that not
true? Is that not true? Desire of almost
everything fails in the weakness of our old age. And man goes
to his long home, the grave, and is the home of this body,
dust under dust and ashes under ashes. Wherever the silver cord
be loosed, or the golden bow be broken, or the golden bow
be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the
wheel broken at the cistern. Now, what's that mean? What's
he talking about? The writer here is talking in
riddles. Oh, no. He's telling us the infirmities
of the flesh. The silver cord is a bond between
soul and body. When this flesh is put into the
dust, that bond is separated. It's broken. The silver cords
are broken. The golden bowl is the brain
which stops functioning at death. We lose these things. We lose
them at death. The pitcher be broken at the
fountain is the heart which is the fountain of life. Then shall
the dust return to the earth as it was. And the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it. Oh, remember now thy creator. in the day of thy youth. Worship
Him. Bow to Him. Give glory to Him
that they may be in our old age. Facts that I know God. I believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am saved by His grace through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And oftentimes,
I've seen this thing of dementia come upon men and women that
have been a pattern of faith, and they have this look in their
eyes. They look like they're looking
out into space. Oftentimes can't remember their
own name, but God remembers. Old age don't change our standing
before God. The feebleness of this flesh
don't change our standing before God. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. While you have ability and while
you have the strength and the understanding that you can comprehend
and know who He is. And know that I am His and He
is mine. And we shall rest in Him forever. I've run out of time. We'll take
just a few minutes and then John will come.