Now, if you would, let's return
to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. I'm going to, tonight, divert
from our study in the book of Habakkuk and then pick back up
Wednesday night on that, Lord willing. But tonight, we're here
to, again, lift up Christ and to preach Christ, exalt Him,
to worship Him, with a special word to our young people, especially
our young graduates. two high school graduates, David
Stapleton and Taylor Robinette, that we're going to recognize
with a dinner in the back. And we also have three college
graduates, Jason Smith, Kristen Smith, and Lauren Ratliff. Lauren's
not here tonight. She's away at school, and they're
graduating from college. And, you know, whenever we see
this take place with our young people, Our graduates, we certainly
wish them the best and we pray for them. And we want to speak
a word to you. Nothing new, don't have anything
new that you haven't heard before, but something that I want to
emphasize. And as I speak to these young people, I told some
people earlier, I said, us old folks, we can listen in too.
Because this message, you know the gospel is an ageless, timeless
message. It spans all cultures, all time
periods, and all ages. And the reason is, is because
we're all in the same boat. We're all sinners. And we need
salvation by the grace of God. But sometimes it seems in the
scripture the Lord seems to speak to a particular group for a particular
reason. And for that reason, he, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, led Solomon to speak a word to the youth
here. And he says, remember, in verse 1 of Ecclesiastes 12,
I've preached on this before, and you've heard messages on
it before, but listen to what it says. Remember, now, thy creator,
in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not." Now,
young people all days on this earth in essence are evil in
some way or another. But he's speaking of something
specific now here. And what he's telling you just
in plain old language is remember God now while you're young before
you get old like us. That's what he's saying, isn't
it? The evil days here are the days of trouble the troubles
of this body and the troubles of this mind when you can't think
like you think now when you don't have the energy that you have
now the abilities that you have now in your youth we hear all
kinds of jokes about that uh... you know and and and some some
are wise sayings they're kind of funny but they're wise sayings
you know somebody said one time youth is wasted on the young
And you know me, I have my roots in bluegrass music, and I used
to hear an old bluegrass fella, he sang a song, and one of the
lines in that song, he says, I wish I could be 16 again and
know what I know now. Well, you can't do that. But
there's some wisdom in all that, you know, to think about it.
And what we do, I know, we know, we as your parents and grandparents
and your friends, And some of you, hopefully, brothers and
sisters in Christ. That's our main prayer for you. We know that many of the things
that you'll learn, you'll learn not because we told you. You'll
learn it because you've experienced it. Many times, we as parents
and grandparents, we wish we could shield you from making
the same mistakes that we made. But human nature being as it
is, You're going to make mistakes. You're going to make a lot of
them. But we hope that by God's grace,
you'll rise above those mistakes and learn from them. But here's
the key. I've entitled this message just
this one word, remember. And if you want the outline of
this message, it's on the back of your bulletin. I'm just going
to give you some scripture tonight to show you what I was talking
about when I wrote that article on remember now thy creator. in the days of your youth. And
one of the things that I always like to stress with young people,
children and young adults, teenagers, whatever, is this first point
that I've got in there. And it simply says this, remember,
remember that all of your gifts, all of your strengths, whether
it's physical, intellectual, whatever, All of your opportunities. I believe both our high school
graduates are headed off to college. You know not everybody has that
opportunity. That's not to be taken for granted,
is it? But you do. And all your privileges. What
am I talking about privileges? Where you were born. Your parents who loved you, took
care of you, your abilities in your mind and in your strength,
the schools you attended, the friends you had, all your privileges,
that they are gifts from God. Remember that, never forget that.
And when we talk about gifts, we know, we know that the main
gift, really the gift of all gifts is the gift of salvation. The gift of salvation. That's
a gift. You're not saved by works. Nobody
is. Men and women by nature believe
they can be saved by their works, but they can't. For by grace
are you saved through faith. That's not of yourself. Not even
the faith that we have, we who believe. Now, not even the faith
that we have, the repentance that we go through is of ourselves. It's a gift from God. not of
works, lest any man should boast. The Bible speaks of the gift
of Christ himself. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8 that he that spared not his own son, but freely gave him
up for us all, all his people. How shall he not with him freely
give us all things? And the point is this, Christ
himself is a gift from God as our Savior, the God-man mediator. Our Redeemer. And everything
that we have in salvation comes with Him as a free gift. We didn't
earn it, we didn't deserve it. The Bible speaks of the gift
of salvation itself. All of salvation is a gift of
God's mercy and grace. It speaks of the gift of righteousness. That's how we stand before God.
And young people, this is one thing you need to learn early
on. Not only to understand the Scriptures, but to understand
yourself. And we hope and pray that if
the Holy Spirit has not already given you eyes to see and ears
to hear, that He'll bring you to see yourself as you really
are. But there's a difference between
how we appear before men and how we stand with men here on
earth, than how we stand and appear before God. Now there's
a difference. That's not hypocrisy now. We
look at a lot of people today who are fine, upstanding citizens.
But their standing and state before God is not right because
they don't know Christ. They don't stand forgiven of
their sins washed in His blood alone. They don't stand before
God justified in His righteousness alone. You see what I'm saying?
You need to understand that. But here's where you need to
begin. Is that everything you have, and I often say this from
the pulpit, every one of us, the next breath you take, is
a gift from God. You know as well as I do, folks,
and you've seen it, you older folks, you've seen it many times,
haven't you? You hear about a friend or a relative or somebody just
walking down the street or running down the street and they drop
dead. You know what happened? They didn't get that next breath.
And you know it can happen. It's a gift from God. And being gifts from God, and
this is one of the messages of the whole Bible, but especially
the book of Ecclesiastes. These things being gifts from
God, then how are you to use them? You're to use them for
His glory and for the good of others. These are not watchwords of today,
but they're the attitudes of today. Selfishness. And it comes
in the form of what they call self-reliance, self-fulfillment. You know, that's what most people's
religion is. You know, when people look for a church, they're not
looking for a place to hear the truth and worship God, to hear
Christ preach. They're looking for a place where
they can find self-fulfillment. That's what it is. It's self-righteousness.
That's the norm in the world. don't live like that everything
you have to give from god again you didn't deserve it you didn't
earn it james one in verse seventeen the quote for your read it to
you every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the father of light with whom that there's
no variableness neither shadow of turn it's a gift and then
here's the second time and listen this very carefully remember
this And no matter how high you rise in life, and we hope you
rise high, every one of you, you're still a sinner in need
of God's mercy and God's grace. We hope that you go far in your
educational pursuits, in your skills, in your wisdom, in your
earthly endeavors. We hope that you can get employment
and keep it. How about that? But understand this, and we hope,
we hope that when we speak of you, we hope that we're speaking
of the best of people, best of men, best of women. We hope that. But realize this, Psalm 39 and
verse 5, listen to this. The psalmist writes this, he
says, Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand breath. That's
a hand breath right there. You don't realize it right now,
but that's how short your life is, isn't it? Ask some of these
old folks. It just seems like it's going
so fast. And I'm experiencing that too,
you know. He said, Behold, thou hast made
my days as an hand breath, and mine ages as nothing before me. This is what the psalmist wrote.
My years, it's almost like they were nothing. But he says this, "...verily
every man at his best state is altogether vanity." Now what's
he talking about? Is he talking about it's useless
for you to pursue excellence in life, in education, in work,
or in any endeavor, in family? No, he's not saying that at all.
What he's saying is this, when it comes to salvation, When it
comes to a right relationship with God, when it comes to being
justified, righteous before God, every man at his best is altogether
vanity, worthless. Worthless. So somebody might
ask, well, here's the next thing, number three here. Well, where's
there any hope for me? Where's there any hope for any
of us? Well, remember this. Don't forget this. Remember that
the only way of salvation, the only way of eternal life, the
only way of righteousness, the only way of worthiness is in
Christ alone. No matter how high you rise,
you can't get away from sin. You can't get away from being
a sinner. You can't improve the flesh.
You can't make yourself accepted before God. Only Christ is the
way of acceptance, the way of salvation. The forgiveness of
sin by His blood. Justification before God through
His righteousness. And so, we encourage you and
pray that God will bring you to seek Him and His righteousness.
And the Bible says in Matthew chapter 6, all the necessities
of life will be provided by God. Now they won't be provided without
means. You have to work for them. The one thing you don't have
to work for and are commanded not to work for is salvation. Christ did all the work there. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life, no man. And that means no one, no one
at their best cometh unto the Father but by Him. And one thing
that we want you to understand is this. is that you're going
when you go out there and you're mine right now you have a lot
of things you think you need and some of those things you
do need you need a good education you need skills you need opportunities
you need all these things you need to work hard all these things
but i'm telling you and every believer here will tell you your
greatest need is christ that's your greatest need I don't care
what else you do, your greatest need is Christ. Salvation by
the grace of God in Him. You have no guarantees for a
long life. I hope the Lord grants you a
long, productive, healthy life. But you have no guarantees of
that. And can you imagine going before a holy God with no representative? no savior, no redeemer, no righteousness. God's going to judge the world
in righteousness by Christ, that man whom he hath ordained, and
that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead. Your greatest need is Christ
and what he accomplished. And turn over to Psalm 119. Let
me show you this. Here's the fourth thing. Remember this, and I want to
emphasize this for several reasons. Many of you, you're going to
college. Many of you have been to college. Maybe going to graduate
school. You're going to meet all kinds
of people. You're going to meet people who don't care about religion
and the Bible. You're going to meet people who
are so religious you can't even hardly stand to be around them.
You're going to meet all kinds, and most people fall somewhere
in between. You're going to meet people who'll
challenge your faith, challenge the script, if you believe. You're
going to meet people who'll challenge the scriptures. Remember this,
that the Word of God, this book, this Bible, is your most precious
possession. It really is. I'm not just speaking
religious words up here. I encourage you to read it, study
it, and pray that God will open your eyes and your ears to it
follow its teaching, especially in seeking Christ and salvation
by God's grace in him. This book is the word of God. Look at Psalm 119 and verse 9.
The psalmist writes here, he says, wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way, listen to what he says, by taking heed
thereto according to thy word. That's the revealed word of God.
He says, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me
not wonder from thy commandments. That's his word. Thy word have
I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Blessed
art thou, O Lord. Teach me thy statutes, thy teachings. With my lips have I declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. I've rejoiced in the way of thy
testimonies as much as in all riches." He says, I will meditate
in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. Not only will
I read it and study it, but I'll believe it and follow it. He
says, I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget
thy word. This book is a book of Christ.
You've heard me say that many times. Brother Mayhem preached
it for 52 years. This is a book of Christ. This
book, in all of its sections, all of its chapters, all of the
books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, they speak of
Christ, salvation by Christ, salvation by God's grace, the
way of holiness, the way of righteousness, the way of forgiveness, the way
of eternal life in Him. When you read the law in the
first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, you're reading what God inspired the prophet Moses
to write. He's called the lawgiver. And
the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 5 said, Moses wrote of
me. He told the Pharisees who studied
the law and missed that message. He said this, he said, if you
had believed Moses, you would have believed me. When you read
about Abraham, you're reading about one who looked to Christ
as one to come in the future and rested his whole salvation,
his whole justification before God upon that promised Messiah. The Lord said in John chapter
8, He said, Abraham, rejoice to see my day. And he saw it
and was glad. It's our prayer for you that you see his day
and rejoice in it like Abraham. The day of him. The day of his finished work.
When you read the Psalms, as we read here in Psalm 119, you're
reading the poetry of God that points a sinner in need of mercy
to God's grace in Christ. When you read the prophets, you're
reading the Word of God given to these men in their various
days where they told Israel and Judah and others that the only
way of salvation, the only way of hope The only way of eternal
consolation is in Christ and Him crucified. And I know that
this book will be, this book has been under attack ever since
it was brought together. And I'll tell you how I know,
one of the ways I know that it was under attack, because I used
to be one of its biggest attackers. My whole goal, let me tell you,
when I first began to really study this book and really seek
the knowledge of it, what it said, my main goal, and this
is the truth now, my main goal was to prove it wrong. I wanted
to prove it wrong. And then, by the grace of God,
he opened my eyes and I found out you can't prove this book
wrong. Let God be true and every man a liar. Don't ever forsake
it. It is a precious, precious possession. And then lastly, turn to Proverbs
chapter 1. Let me give you a little word
of advice from the Word of God. This is not just mom and dad
talking. This is not just the preacher
talking. These are words of wisdom from
God. And listen to what he says. Look at Proverbs chapter one.
You know about the book of Proverbs. Book of wisdom. Essentially this
is Solomon writing to his son. And I want you to remember this.
Remember that evil companions will lead you astray. They'll
lead you astray from the things you're taught from the word of
God. The things that are taught by your parents. The Bible teaches
that we're to keep no company with them and don't follow their
ways. Now look at verse 10 of Proverbs chapter 1. He says,
My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Now I want
you to understand something. We're all sinners. But this is
the way of the Old Testament and in some of the scriptures
to refer to an unbeliever. There's two types of people in
this world. You know that. They're sinners lost in their
sins and they're sinners saved by the grace of God. And when
he refers to sinners here, he's not talking about looking down
on people. He's not talking about being
self-righteous. Our Lord taught against that.
Brother David just read in the study an episode of that where
this woman who was an infamous sinner came in to a Pharisee's
house where our Lord was, in Luke chapter 7, and how she was
broken-hearted and contrite over her sins and crying so many tears
that she washed his feet in her tears with her hair. And the
old Pharisee stood up and said, well, he wouldn't have anything
to do with her if he knew who she was. She's a sinner. Well,
we're all sinners. By nature, we're all dead in
trespasses. We're all no good in the sight
of God. I know people don't like to hear
that. That's offensive to the natural man. But if so, there's
none righteous, no, not one. So what's he talking about? He's
talking about unbelievers, those who are sinners without Christ. That's what he's talking about.
And if they entice you, if they tempt you, Don't enter into a
league with them. He says in verse 11, if they
say, come with us and let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk
privily for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up
alive as the grave and whole as those that go down into the
pit. We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our
houses with spoils. In other words, to get gain.
Cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse. My son,
walk not thou in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their
path, for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood."
Don't do it. But now let me say something
to you about this. Our tendency when we read things like that
is just to think about the most immoral, of people. You know,
you look at our cultural landscape today. We have a real problem
with the drug culture. It's there. And it's bad, isn't
it? Our sheriff, who's a member of
our church, he tells me all the time, he said, people don't realize
how bad it is. Some of you do. Some of you do
know how bad it is. Some of you who may have been
involved with it yourself or have children involved with it
or some of you who are in the health care field, you know how
bad it is. We have a real drug culture.
Don't get involved with that. The culture of alcohol, the culture
of sexual immorality, it's rampant in our country today. Now, let
me say this now. It's really been rampant in society
for years. I mean, this isn't something
new that I'm telling you about. Don't get in with it. Don't let
them bring you down. Don't go in with the idea, well,
I'll influence them for good. No, sir, they'll bring you down.
But let me caution you on another side of this. Be careful of their
religious evil, too. Because there'll be people who
will entice you in false religion and say, come with us. Don't
do it. Because religion without Christ
is deadly. Religion without grace is deadly. Religion without truth is deadly. I don't care what it calls itself.
And Satan is a subtle devil. So you, you remember this. Seek the Lord. Seek Him in Christ. Seek him in his word under the
preaching of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ,
where Christ is exalted and set forth in all of salvation and
righteousness and eternal life and glory. And this is our prayer
for you. This is our prayer for you, that
you walk with God, that you not walk alone. All right. We're
going to