just as sure as the sun rises in the morning and cuts its path across the sky to sunset. God will bless and reward every soul according to his desire for righteous living and labors of love. The wicked will also receive their reward or punishment. It is called the law of harvest. What we sow, what we plant, we're going to reap. We cannot live wrong and die right. The title is Prepare to Meet God. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes, please. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap in our Sunday school lesson this forenoon. Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 9. Reading through chapter 12, verse 14. If you are comfortable to stand, please stand as we read in reverence to the Word of God. Chapter 11, verse 9, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore, remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity. Chapter 12, verse 1. Remember now thy Creator in 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, while the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets 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. 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 grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets, or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher, all is vanity. And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. further by these my son be admonished of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil thank you you may be seated Primarily looking at verse 14 for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing Whether it be good or whether it be evil Now if we go back to verse 9 the first verse that we read We see that Solomon is not a dreary type of person or a pessimist. I It says here that rejoice, oh, young man, let thy heart cheer thee and walk in the way of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. Just have a good time, enjoy life. Live your life to the fullest while you are young. I'm just assuming that we're all young this morning. Some of us may be younger than others. But keep in mind, when we are enjoying life in our youth, that eternity is forever, much longer than our short lifespan here on earth. Psalm 90 verse 12 says, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, Realizing that life is short should motivate us to use the little bit of time we have wisely for eternal good, for bringing glory to the Most High. What do I want to accomplish in life before I die? What small step can I take today to Come closer to fulfilling that goal. We do not just think about the moment. What feels good for the here and now when we make a choice, we think into the future. Think ahead. Take the high road of holiness. Take a long range view of eternity. Make your daily decisions from God's perspective. Consider what impact that choice will make in 10 years from now. Better yet, what difference will it make in my destination, my eternal destination? You know, sometimes we're tempted to think that, oh, it doesn't really matter. It's just a little thing. Or I'll wait another five years to make the right choice. You know, it seems that in life, many choices that we make are irreversible. They stay with us for a lifetime. One wrong choice will lead to another wrong choice, and that wrong choice leads to another wrong choice, and on it goes. And we are in a downward spiral of going the wrong direction away from God. There will be no peace in our life, only trouble and chaos as we continue that downward trend of making a series of wrong choices in our life. We can also apply our heart to wisdom and make a right choice when we're faced with a decision, and that right choice leads to another choice that we can make a right choice again. And those series of right choices will draw us closer to the father in heaven. We find ourselves following the true shepherd. He leads us and helps us to make those right decisions for our life. He is the one that is able to give us peace and contentment instead of trouble and chaos. What we do when we are young does matter. It does matter. It points our life in a certain direction. It gets us started on a pathway. Whether it be right or wrong. I'm not saying that we cannot change our ways, our life at an old age. And come back to God. But the tendency is not to do so. And it becomes much more difficult. Enjoy life in your youth. But don't make foolish choices. Don't do anything physically, morally or spiritually that you will later regret in your life. That might keep you from enjoying life once you're older. In other words, once you sit in your power, lazy boy chair. And you can hardly get around. And you have all day to think. You don't want to be thinking back and be haunted by all the wrong choices and the regrets that you have about your youth. Live today so that when you're older, you can look back and have fond memories of what God has done in your life. Life has few greater tragedies than the wasted energies of one's youth. Here in chapter 12, Solomon gives a detailed description of old age. It says that the keepers tremble or the arms and hands become weak and they start shaking. The strong men bow. Our legs and our knees get tired and they start to bow from carrying the load for many years. It says the grinders cease. We can hardly chew because we have a lack of teeth. Windows are darkened. Something happens with our eyes and we need glasses to read. The sound of grinding is low. We hear things all the time that we don't want to hear, like a ringing in our ears, and we can't hardly hear the things we'd love to hear. We get up at the voice of the bird. We can't sleep all night. The daughters of music brought low, our voice gives out and we can't carry a tune. We're afraid of heights, steps, and ladders. The almond tree flourishes. Our hair starts getting that moldy color or some of us just plain white. The grasshopper is a burden. There's no strength to lift anything. Or maybe we start looking like a grasshopper. We lose our muscle and the bones just kind of stick out and are covered with skin. And it says, desire shall fail, there's no drive to go to work. Life is fragile and more so as we get older. Could it be that Solomon is describing old age to put in us a desire, a motivation to enjoy life when we're young? But notice also that he gives a caution concerning God's judgment in verse 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment. Was this warning given to keep the young in the way of true righteousness and holiness as they pursue that enjoyment in life? Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. Remember. We tend to get so wrapped up in enjoying life, in pursuing pleasures, that we forget our Creator. Remember thy creator. Remember thy savior. Remember the one who died for your sins. Remember the one who resurrected from the dead. Remember the one who is interceding for you today at the father's right hand. Remember thy creator. By the way, He will also be our Judge one day. Remember thy Creator. Forgetting our Creator, you know, a life without God produces a bitter, lonely, hopeless old age. But a life that is centered around God, beginning in our youth, is fulfilling. Even when the disabilities of old age set in, there can still be peace and contentment in knowing that this too will pass and there is life beyond this life where we will get a new body and things will be glorious. Being young is exciting, but that excitement can hinder our relationship with God when the focus is wrong. It has a way of getting our focus on carnal pleasures rather than on eternal values, and we drift away from God. Rejoice, let thy heart cheer thee. Cheerfully enjoy all of God's gifts. By the way, these things that I mentioned that fail in our old age, they are gifts from God. Seeing, hearing, smelling, our strength, our vitality, our desire to work, to do something. They're a gift from God. Use them wisely in your youth while you have them. Keep in mind that he hasn't given them to you to squander them foolishly. Someday in the future, we do not know when, there's coming a day when we will give account for how we lived our life, for how we use these gifts from God. We will stand before God and give account for our actions. Verse 14, for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Every work, every work that would indicate that we will all be there. We will all be there for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. In second Corinthians five verse 10. We must all appear, you know, there are not enough caves, rocks and mountains to cover us and to hide us from the presence of God. We will all be there. We will all give account someday for how we lived our lives. Not only will we be there, but all our works will be there as well. Unless they are blotted out, the evil works will be blotted out by the blood of the lamb. Unless we have taken care of them, the evil works, the secret things will be there as well. Good works. Evil works, secret things. Do you have anything in your life that does not come under one of those categories? Everything will be there. God will bring everything to light unless it has been blotted out by the blood of Jesus beforehand. Every secret thing. The devil would have us to believe sometimes that it is just a little thing. It's not a big deal. It doesn't really matter. Nobody knows about it. Well, let me suggest to you, if it's not a big deal, if it's just a little thing. Why don't you get up after church and just tell the ones around you about that little thing, if it's not a big deal? And maybe they can help you find peace and victory if you are struggling with a secret thing in your life. I trust that they could help you find peace and get right with God before you leave this place. If not, if you keep that a secret, it will come out one day. Romans 2 verse 16 says, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. If the secret does not come out this side of judgment, it will be out in the light on that day. Every secret thing. Every good work will be there as well. But wait, here is where the Bible says that many missed the mark. Many have this faulty idea that God will separate the good from the bad on that day. And there is some truth to that, but maybe not totally accurate. The truth is that He will separate the saved, the born-again believer, from the unsaved or the unrepentant. Not everyone that sayeth, Lord, Lord shall enter heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father. And we ask, well, what is the will of my father? Well, it is that we repent and come to the saving knowledge of the truth. It is that we, by grace, are saved through faith in Jesus Christ unto good works. Many will say, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? We had devotions in church, we taught Sunday school, we preached the word, we testified to the lost. Have we not in thy name cast out devils? Have we not in thy name done many wonderful works? No, many people have figured out how to be good and how to produce good works, but they have never made a change of heart. They have never changed their life. They have never accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior. And that's why I'm saying it won't necessarily just be separating the good from the bad. It will be separating the believer from the nonbeliever at the judgment day. That is why the Lord answers to many of those so-called good people. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Satan would have us believe that because of who we are or because we have been appointed to some great work. Maybe it's helping others in some way that God will overlook that one little thing in my life. And I will be able to talk my way out of it and slip right into heaven. Unnoticed. My friends, the Bible says God is no respecter of persons. Think about the first created people, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. in a perfect environment. God breathed into Adam the breath of life, personal relationship. He communed with them on a daily basis. They disobeyed and God brought judgment. Adam worked by the sweat of his brow. Eve bore children in pain. The serpent was cursed. They were driven from the garden. It didn't matter that they were the first people caring for the Garden of Eden. They disobeyed and it brought judgment upon their life. Think about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't know how many people this was. They were evil. They didn't help the poor and needy. God rained fire and brimstone on the cities and destroyed them, utterly destroyed them. Or the confusion at the Tower of Babel. He scattered the people and their work came to naught. By these examples, we see that God brings judgment to those who rebel against his will. And it is no different for us today. It doesn't matter who we are. If we rebel against his will, if we hide some sin in our life, we will be judged someday. If not repented of. God help us that our good works on that day will be a testimony of what Jesus Christ has done in our hearts. and that we're not just trying to slip in just by our good works and we're hiding sin and darkness in our life and heart. Every evil work will be there. At that day, it will be too late to discover the truth that we have not been saved. it will be an awful revelation. And I believe when God makes the call, we will know in our heart where we went wrong. The iniquity of our heart will be exposed and come to light. The hatred, the lust, the pride, the unforgiveness, The adulteries, the immoralities, the love of the world, all these things will be revealed. Including the deceptions that we allow ourselves to be comforted with in our sin, it will all come to light. Dear friends, we cannot afford to miss this mark. We cannot afford to be careless in this matter. Our soul is at stake. Eternity is at stake. Be diligent to make your calling and election sure. Make sure you know where you stand with God today. Don't wait till it's too late. Who will be our judge? John 5.22 says, For the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. I know that's maybe splitting hairs, but the three are one. I think it will be a fair judgment. But that verse does indicate that Jesus Christ will be the judge. Jesus Christ will be a righteous judge on that day. The one who was present at creation. The one who walked the earth as a man. The one who was nailed to the cruel cross, bearing our sins, canceling our debt. The one who knows us by name. The one who walks with us each day. The one who perfectly understands who we are. the one who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. It's comforting to know that the one who knows us that well will be our judge. It will not be a random call from someone who doesn't know us and we have 10 minutes to tell him what I did in my life and he'll say one way or the other. That's not the case. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. It will be a righteous judgment. We won't have to say a word. As determined in Romans 2, we will be judged according to truth and according to our deeds. We will be judged according to the truth and according to our deeds. judged by the truth, by the Word. We may have our own opinions, but we cannot have our own truth. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. The teachings of Christ in the Gospels lay the truth before us in a very powerful way. He made it very clear that he did not say anything that did not come from the Father above. You know, aside from that, we wonder about trying to find truth when it's right before us. We have the truth right before us. Aside from this, we search and we find it not. The call is to receive it, to embrace it, to take it to heart. by faith, be born again by the power of God. Settle in your hearts that God loves you and He cares for you. And through Christ's blood, we can escape the awful judgment that awaits the sinner. Judged by the truth. It also says that we are judged by our works. How we have lived, our level of commitment and obedience will determine our standing before God. You know, He has provided everything for our soul's salvation. The blood of Jesus to atone for sin. the Word to teach us, the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. He has provided the church, a brotherhood of believers, for a shelter from the world. Most of us have Christian families and friends, faithful partners. You know, we really have no excuse before God. No reason to say on that day, I never heard or I never knew the truth. We have no excuse. we will be judged by how well we received the truth and lived it out. This judgment includes the separation of the righteous and the wicked. The Bible says when Jesus comes again, He will sit on the throne of His glory, and all nations will be gathered around Him. And He will separate one from the other as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. There will be a great separation. The wicked will be on His left, the righteous on the right. Terrible words await for the wicked on the left. Those who have not been honest with themselves before God, who have neglected so great a salvation and have taken their own way, the terrible words await them. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels. My prayer is that none of us here this morning would ever hear those words. Beautiful words for the ones on the right, for the righteous, for those who have made right choices from their youth. And one right choice led to another. And their life was a testimony of what Jesus did for them. And they were faithful all the way to the end. They were cleansed by the blood of Jesus and were living for the Father. These words come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's the father's will for everyone, that we would all be saved and come to him. In conclusion, rejoice, O young man, in the days of thy youth. Enjoy life, but remember thy creator. Use your energy to build the kingdom of God. Make wise choices with eternity in mind. Remember you will one day, we will one day give account for how we lived before God. Believe and live the truth. Prepare to meet God someday. Let's kneel and pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you this morning. We thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your word. Thank you for truth. Truth that only comes from you. We wonder about searching for happiness, for truth, for satisfaction and find none until we come to you and kneel at the cross and open our hearts. and let you be our Lord and Master. Thank you for redemption and salvation. Thank you for the Holy Spirit that provides strength and a desire to be faithful in our young days and from there on throughout our middle age and old age. Oh God, bless each one here this morning. Help us to be in tune with you. Help us to prepare our heart to meet you when you come again on that great day when you will open the clouds and you will be sitting on your throne of glory and you will judge all nations. Oh, God, help us to be faithful so that we could be on the right and hear those blessed words. Come. Help us, Lord, to be faithful so that we can inherit the kingdom that you have prepared for the faithful. Bless each one for coming. Guide our lives from here forward, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.