Good afternoon congregation. Today we have the privilege of
hearing a sermon titled Wisdom Means Remembering Your Creator.
It is written by Doctor Wes Bredehoft and this sermon was
first preached in the Free Reformed Church of Launceston,
TAS in the year 2024. Beloved congregation of Christ.
If you don't know him, Jordan Peterson is one of the most
influential figures of our day. He's a Canadian psychologist
known for speaking up against many of the present day trends.
He's a conservative in many ways, but he is not a Christian.
Maybe he will be someday, and we can pray for that, but for now,
he is not yet a Christian. But Peterson was once asked
about wisdom. How would you define wisdom?
That is the question. And knowing Jordan Peterson,
that was dramatically that. So he paused and thought for it
for a moment and then he said, well, there is the Old Testament
view that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
But then he went on to add more. He spoke of wisdom as the
knowledge of your capacity for malevolence at Anupu Sabina.
Malevolence. Malevolence means your ability
to do something that is evil. And then he said also that
wisdom is the knowledge of your limitations and a few more other
things. But he didn't come back to the
theme of the fear of God or even expound on that.
Well, it's remarkable that he mentioned the fear of God at
all, and we can give him credit for that.
And we cannot expect much from someone who is not a Christian.
Nonetheless, we should notice that apart from the first bit
about the fear of God, the answer of Doctor Jordan Peterson
is directed on the horizontal plane.
The vertical dimension isn't taken into account.
It's all about you and yourself and nothing to do with God.
If we put it in terms of the author of Ecclesiastes, Jordan
Peterson is speaking mostly about the life under the sun.
And life under the sun is life considered apart from God.
That's actually the opposite of having the fear of God.
This afternoon we are going to learn about wisdom.
Our catechism lesson in Lord's Day 9 teaches us that we have a
heavenly Father who is our Creator.
And Ecclesiastes 12/1 teaches us that wisdom means taking Him
into account in our lives. So we will focus on that passage
this afternoon as I preach to you.
God's Word, wisdom means remembering your Creator.
And this afternoon we will be learning about three things.
First, when to do this. Second, how to do this.
And lastly, why do this? But before that, let us go to
the Lord in prayer. Other God, we thank you for your
goodness and your faithfulness in our lives.
Thank you for giving us life, our existence, our strength.
You are the one who gives us blessing from the earliest stage
of our life into our old age. And this afternoon as we
meditate on your word, Father, help us remember you in the days
of our youth and help us always take you into account as we live
our lives here on earth. And please help me as I deliver
your word this afternoon. May I speak with clarity and may
you open our hearts and give us humility as we listen under the
preaching of your word this afternoon.
Marami Salamat turning on and all of this we pray in Jesus
name, Amen. So the author of Ecclesiastes
calls himself the preacher. Some would think that it was
King Solomon, the son of David. Others would look at the kind of
language or the kind of Hebrew that was used in the book of
Ecclesiastes and would think that the author must be someone
who lived a few 100 years after King Solomon.
Well, I think that's a question that we will not be able to
resolve in our lifetime. And I also don't think that that
is a question that we need to answer in order to understand
the message of Ecclesiastes. But the overall message of the
book is that life under the sun is vain.
Life without taking God into account is pointless.
When the preacher says vanity of vanities, all is vanity, he does
not mean that as an absolute truth for each and every single
person, but rather it is a truth that is only for those who don't
take God seriously. Our passage occurs at the near
end of the book of Ecclesiastes, and as the book concludes, the
preacher speaks to the beginning and the end of human life.
He speaks about youth and about old age.
He speaks to how we should think wisely about this vastly
different stages of our life. And that brings us to the
command of our text. Remember also your Creator in
the days of your youth. The first thing to notice is
that all human beings have a Creator.
As we confess in Lord's day nine, God created the heaven and
the earth and everything in them, and he created it all out
of nothing. At the beginning God spoke, and
there was light. On the second day, God spoke and
He created the heavens and the earth.
And then on each of the following four days, God spoke
and He created everything, that is including humanity.
And the Bible teaches us that all this really happened within
space and time. There really is a Creator who
really did create the universe and everything in it.
But as I'm sure you know, the world that we live in right now
has a different story of origins because their version of the
story of origin does not involve a creator.
It involves nothing suddenly becoming something, and in a
long, long story of that, something evolving into some
other things until eventually a species called Homo sapiens
appears in the scene. And sadly Mahati, even Doctor
Jordan Peterson is one of those many people who holds on that
story of origins. Yes, sometimes he will talk
about the Bible story of creation, but he describes it as
a myth or a story that reflects and shapes the human
imaginations. He does not actually believe
that the Bible story of creation is true and it he does not
believe that the Bible's story of creation is real history.
Utmost Doctor Jordan Peterson Kitna Idol Cushion Magsalita is
one of those people that I really look up to when it comes
to public speaking. He takes the same approach to
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In other words, for Doctor Jordan Peterson, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ is a myth and not history.
But contrary to that, the Bible presents both the resurrection
and creation as a real history that happened within space and
time. There is a Creator who ought to
be remembered, and he really did create in times past, and he
continues to be involved with his creation even in the
present. So our catechism speaks about
his work of Providence briefly in Lord's Day nine, and we will
look at Providence more fully in Lord's Day 10.
But for now, we can note that God's Providence means that He
is our Creator in a more direct and immediate way as well.
Yes, my chapati, God created Adam and Eve at the beginning of
history, but by His Providence, He also created each and
everyone of us in our mother's wombs.
Someone under 39 tells us that God is the one who need us
together in our conception. He controls all the natural
processes involved. And then he sensed the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, to give us life.
That's why every human being is physically, physically alive
because of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in Acts 17, it is
in God that we live and move and have our being, and specifically
through the work of God the Holy Spirit.
So God is our Creator in a real and powerful way and we ought to
remember him in the days of our youth as it says in Ecclesiastes
12/1. Now you might read this and
think that this is directly addressed to young people only,
and yes it is, but it's not exclusively addressed to young
people as in the preteens, the teenagers or those people in
their early or mid 20s. It's not only for them because
the word used for youth in the Hebrew text is speaks of a time
of life when you are robust and have energy, you are able to
work vigorously. And the following verses after
that, he speaks of a time when there is no longer vigour or
strength or where there is where that is no longer the case.
So we know the saying, you're only as old as how you feel.
There's something to that. Biblically speaking, you could
be in your 50s and still be in the days of your youth because
you are still strong, you still have your health and you are
still in the prime of your life. And that could even be true even
for someone who is still on his 60s or in his 70s.
New Ibama, Hollywood stars Sienna, Brad Pitt, Sina, Tom
Cruise and then 50-60 nylon. And even though in the Bible
they are still considered at as people who are still in their
youth. So you see, youth here isn't
defined by the number of years that you have.
It's not defined by the number of birthdays that you had.
But youth here is defined by your health and your strength.
And that is going to differ from one person to another person.
Summing up, we need Doctor W Bredehoft.
He has known people in his life who are already in their 80s who
are far more strong and healthier than some people in
their 50s. And mannequin Thorin Pusha
Novata Pasha in the church where he grew up.
One summer he worked for a man, an old man in his 80s, whose
name is Mr. Bush. At Mr. Bush Mr. Bush is lifting
up 90kg of concrete blocks with ease.
Alan 3 kilograms of blocks. Parhaus, Dalawang kill.
Unambiguous. I am buhatin.
Sorry. Sorry me speak Vegas, sing
Buhatin Vegas, but Old Mr. Bush was as strong as an ox.
And not only that, he's smart too, because in his age, 80 ish,
he was able to learn the New Testament Greek because he does
not have anything to do. Well Ashan Magawa so in Arizona,
your New Testament Greek. So biblically speaking, Old Mr.
Bush was still in the days of his youth.
So the So this is being addressed not just to the young
people, but to everyone who still has a good measure of
health and strength. Now is the time to use that
health and strength to remember our Creator.
Because brothers and sisters, eventually decay does set in.
You lose muscle mass, something called sarcopenia.
You get weaker, we get arthritis, our bones get brittle
and break more easily. And osteoporosis, your immune
system isn't that strong. Madela scanning Nakakasakit,
Your balance is not what it used to be and your mind is not as
sharp anymore. And for some people, all that
happens sooner rather than later and you just don't know when it
will happen for you. You don't know God's Providence
and what He has in store for you in terms of your health.
So instead of using your youthful robustness and your
vigour to pursue sinful things, we should give our best of our
time and strength in remembering our Creator.
The preacher tells us that this would be wisdom.
So let us not waste the days of our youth, but let us remember
our Creator. So I can just well imagine that
some of our older members might be thinking, those members who
are already well past their days of youth, and they must be
thinking then what does this preaching have to do with me?
Am I exempt from remembering my Creator in my old days?
Dylan, upon health at Welland upon strength?
Well, the answer to that is no, you are not exempt because even
though you are in your old age, you still have some strength and
energy left. You are still alive.
You are responsible to use whatever strength and energy you
have to remember your Creator even in your old age.
And by doing that Marathi, we are setting example for those
who are still in the days of their youth.
That's why young or old God calls us to remember our
Creator. Now let's look closer at how we
can do this. And that is the second point
that we have this afternoon. When we hear the word remember,
we may think of it merely in terms of recalling in our mind.
It's like remembering consignment, even your phone
more or you remembering what is the PIN of your ATM card.
But the Old Testament often, but the Old Testament often means
much more than this with the Hebrew word for remember,
because to remember is often used in context of the covenant
of grace. The covenant of grace is God's
special relationship with these people.
In this covenant, God makes beautiful gospel promises that
are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Here he promised to be our God,
to be our faithful Father in heaven.
But there's also something that God expects from us in this
covenant, in this covenant of grace.
In some places of the Old Testament, that expectation is
defined in terms of remembering our God.
So what is remembering our God? Remembering God is to
acknowledge Him and intentionally live in that
covenant relationship with Him. It is to remember God because it
is to remember God, meaning you have to have faith.
You have to have faith in Him first, you have to trust in Him,
and also you have to follow Him with your whole heart.
So what we have to keep in mind is that in this covenant of
grace, it cannot function in a healthy way if it's just a
matter between God and us, because we are all sinful.
We are sinful people and no matter how hard we try that is
not going to change. In this side of eternity we so
often forget our Creator and the and we don't take Him seriously.
We don't acknowledge Him and we don't follow Him the way we
should. We are sinful people and God is
a holy God and God's holiness means he can't and then he won't
have anything to do with sin and that is non negotiable.
This is why we need a mediator in this covenant of grace and
that mediator is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
He is the one who steps into the breach between God and us, and
He brings us together. And He does that by virtue of
His perfect obedience and His sacrifice on the cross.
Christ always perfectly remembered the Creator
throughout his life and even when all of His strength and
energy was virtually gone, even when He is already on the cross,
He still remembered the Creator and called out to Him and mark
apatite he did that in our place.
He presents his obedience to God and says to God here this
obedience is for him or here this obedience is for her and
God accepts that obedience for us and by dying on the cross on
our place, Jesus has paid for every time we have forgotten our
Creator, whether in the days of our youth or otherwise.
If we look at the mediator of the covenant with faith, then we
are forgiven. You are forgiven, and you can
have a healthy and friendly relationship with your Creator
through what Jesus Christ has done for us as our Mediator.
Now, with that in mind, we can approach Ecclesiastes 12/1 from
the perspective of a forgiven Christian who are thankful to
God for their deliverance because we've been delivered by
His grace. We want to remember our Creator
in the days of our youth. We want to trust Him and obey
Him, and the fact that He is our Creator reminds us how we have
this obligation towards God. The Creator has claims on his
creatures. If God is our Creator, then we
owe Him our loyalty and our obedience.
But further, if God is our Saviour to our Christ, to our
Mediator Jesus Christ, then we want to give him our loyalty and
obedience out of love and gratitude.
Now, that's already one good reason to pursue the wisdom of
remembering our Creator, but our passage speaks of another one,
and that is the last thing that we will learn this afternoon.
Our passage speaks of the normal progress of human life.
Wisdom literature in the Bible often does that.
It speaks in general terms of how things go.
In general terms, someone is young, vivacious and energetic
and then eventually one gets old and the associated decay and
breakdown of the body comes in. Well, obviously there are
exceptions to the rule. Alarm nothing Mama batang
namatai Cilla and there are teenagers who died tragically in
an accident or due to some illness, but those are
exceptional circumstances. The normal course of things is
what we found in the text that we will start as young at
Mamamatay Tayo nang old and there are days of our youth and
then there are evil days to come.
So the word evil here is not used in the sense of something
that is morally bad people, you know in an evil days.
But evil days is used in a sense as something that we experience
as being bad, bad days. These are the tough times and
these are the hard days. And it speaks here for days
which are shorter period of time.
You know Bella Muhammad by 1/4. I makram Daman mahari Pokayo by
saying that you have good days and you have bad days.
Diploma many times 90. I'm snug and La La La La non
GAAP. So that's how the decay
associated with old age often begins.
It starts with fits and it starts federal Valentina anti
Buhari is that eventually young bad days it becomes bad years,
the hard times become longer and eventually it becomes sustained.
Decay and breakdown are obvious all the time.
The following verses in chapter 12 speaks poetically about the
experiences of many elderly people.
And if you only have a good study Bible, it will explain to
you all the different metaphors for you.
Matalin, Hagan's Pananalita. But all of those point to the
experience of an elderly person, so I will not go through them
one by one. But suffice it is to say that
the preacher knows how the elderly experience things like
fading eyesight, dental problems, trouble in sleeping
and other woes. And in verse 1, the preacher
speaks of this year's as those of which people will say, I have
no pleasure in them. There is no delight in those
years human apanho mahina natayo at Marami tayong naramdaman
masaket life becomes bitter and it becomes burdensome.
And for some, sometimes debt becomes even more attractive to
them. Now listen carefully.
The point of the preacher, the point that the creature is
trying to make, is that if you are waiting to take God
seriously until old age, then the challenge of doing so is
going to be much, much harder. People who haven't been
remembering, who haven't been remembering their Creator in the
days of their youth aren't suddenly going to find it easy
to do that later in their old days.
Cutting apple old age isn't the time to start taking God
seriously. It is better to do that when
you've got your youth or your health and your vigour on your
side. Because if you've got the energy
now, if you are in the days of your youth, so to speak, then we
should make the best of it. When you get old, the challenges
can make it harder to develop good habits.
Let's take for example the habit of Bible reading.
Para pulsating maga bata bata APA one hirap mag develop na
habit of Bible reading. How much more capable than
Darana Deepu Bama's Mahirap Mag develop nang habitation?
But if you've developed a habit of Bible reading while you are
still young or youngish, when you still got the energy, that
habit will travel with you into your old age.
That even though your old age might be tough kite, marami
saket, that habit will encourage you and strengthen you with
God's Word. Or let's take also the example
of memorization of Bible verses. It is a proven fact that as you
grow old, it becomes more difficult for your brain to
process and retain new information.
Must nagiging Mahakali or must they hear up on the pussy?
Take in information so your memories can get cluttered in
your mind. It takes longer to learn and
remember new things, but if you've spent time memorising
scriptures while you are still young, or while you are still in
the days of your youth when your mind is still fresh, then those
memorise scriptures will often still be there in your sunset
years. But the time donating is a point
now. Scriptures that sovereign amata.
But if we have stored away scripture in our heart because
we have memorised them in our young age, then we will have a
lot of reassurance and comfort from those memorised passages.
Yes, it takes time and work, but you've got the ability to do it
now. So take advantage of it and
you'll find rich dividends further down the track.
And of course, remembering your creator in the days of your
youth also speaks of so many other parts of our lives.
Kumausap kunatin elderly people, we will find out that they that
what they regret about the days of their youth.
Meron silang manga regrets vagina.
I doubt it, but you know really that one of the one of them will
tell you now. C Anila is Uma Tensilon Lord's
Day twice every Sunday or I doubt someone will tell you now
Horsham Park attending Bible study Kasami Mahima brothers and
sisters in Christ, or no one will tell you that I regret that
I choose to follow Christ and did not engage in sex before
marriage. Because when we talk about
regrets, regret is often related to ways in which we did not
remember our Creator in the days of our youth.
Loved ones, you don't want to have those kinds of regrets
right now. If you have got the vim and the
vigour of your youth, it doesn't matter how old you are.
Now is the time to remember our Creator.
Now is the time to take God seriously in our life, to take
His words seriously, or to be serious in being a disciple of
Jesus Christ, because not doing so is a foolish thing.
It is foolish to ignore and forget about your Creator when
you are youthful. It is foolish to put God aside
and think you can do without Him in this life, or perhaps that
you'll have the time later on kapag matanda kana to work out
your relationship with God and chapati.
That is foolish for two reasons. First, nations adding passage.
It is the fact that old age makes it hard to break old
habits or patterns of thinking. And then second, who in the
world told us Nahayi guaranteed dadating so old age I I tatenda.
We simply don't know what God has planned for our lives.
That's why in Asia 55 eight it was said, seek the Lord while he
may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
Seek the Lord while you are still in the days of your youth
and don't delay it. Don't put it off.
So wisdom means so many things, but at its most basic level, it
does means remembering our Creator while we still can.
So wisdom means trusting in God's promises in Christ.
It is acknowledging Him in all our ways and aiming to live for
Him more consistently. And those who do this aren't
promised that suddenly old age will go easy for them.
There are many elderly faithful Christians who have long been
remembering their Creator but still do experience the decay
and the harshness of old age SE-12.
But wisdom enables them to face this hardship in a God
glorifying way. Wisdom enables them to say with
the old man who wrote Psalm 71, Ohh God, from my youth you have
taught me and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
You have made me see many troubles and calamities, and you
will revive me again from the depths of the earth.
You will bring me up again. In the end.
That kind of wisdom is the wisdom that gives us comfort and
hope. Amen.
Let's all go to the Lord in prayer.
Ohh. God Almighty our Father, we
worship you as our Creator. In six days You made everything
that is out of nothing and that amazes us.
We adore you for your handiwork, especially with humanity.
You created us to remember you, to acknowledge you, to trust
you, and to follow you. We confess that so many times
we've failed to do that. We appeal to the perfect
obedience of Christ took over for us.
We appeal to the sacrifice He made on the cross in our place
because of what Christ did in our place.
Please forgive us for not remembering you in the days of
our youth. We ask you to please help us
with your Holy Spirit to more consistently remember you while
we have the youthful strength to do so.
We especially pray to you this afternoon for our children and
our young people. Help them to take advantage of
their youth to develop godly habits that will serve them well
throughout their life. We pray for our elderly members
as well and all the challenges that they deal.
Please be their help and strength.
Be please be their help and strength.
And please help them continue growing as disciple of Christ
even with the challenges that come with old, with old age.
And all of this we pray in Jesus name, Amen.