Let's turn now in the Holy Scriptures to Ecclesiastes 12. But we're going to back it up two verses. Ecclesiastes 12 follows from, well, the entire book, but we can't read that. But especially verses 9 and 10 of chapter 11. So we're going to start reading there. Verse 9 of chapter 11. 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 thine heart and put away evil from thy flesh for childhood and youth or vanity 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 days 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 fears 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, wherever 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. 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, and 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. Text is verse one, chapter 12. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, Nor the ears draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, some keys to understanding the passage. One of them is to remember that what the preacher says in this first verse is the beginning of what he later calls the conclusion of the whole matter. When the preacher gives that conclusion at the end of this chapter, he's not bringing up something entirely new. That's evident when the reason he gives for his wisdom to remember that God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing is something that he brought up even before this chapter in the 9th verse of chapter 11. So you have to see this as one whole. And when the apostle or the preacher concludes with this, fear God and keep His commandments, that's the conclusion of the whole matter, that that's something that he began to speak about much earlier. And specifically already in verse 1 that we consider here. It'll be helpful for you to understand what he's talking about. And that is why, as I consider this verse with you, it's impossible to leave out what follows. It all comes to bear as one message. Number two, the whole matter pertains to the entire book. By whole matter, the preacher is referring to all the Proverbs and all the instruction and all the observations that he had made thus far. And there's a lot there. There's a lot there. Primarily he's talking about life. He's talking about specifically the vanity of life. If there's a theme to the book of Ecclesiastes that runs through it all, it's that. Life is vanity. And he makes many observations. And you quickly understand that the man making these observations is no ordinary man God used Solomon, his strengths and his weaknesses, his riches and his wisdom to give us this book. This was a man that could buy anything, could do anything. He had the whole world at his hand. He did what he wanted. Bought what he wanted. Tried what he wanted. Raised what he wanted. And after reflecting back on life, he has one conclusion. Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher. All is vanity. And that's the theme that runs through the book. I think it's the second verse already in the book. He mentions it. Somebody can check that out. But I think it's the second verse already. He brings up vanity. And then he mentions it some 30 times throughout the book. So that's the main message. But in the process, He makes some observations. One of them is that life isn't inherently vanity. Life isn't inherently evil and vain, empty and worthless, which is what vain is. Empty and worthless. It can't be because God created all things. And it's apparent even that God created these things for our pleasure. The Christian faith, the faith of our fathers, both in the Old and New Testaments, isn't. that the way to live the Christian life is indulge in nothing. Ignore everything in this creation. Live a life of bread and water. No, we do that if we're required to, if God withholds these things, but the preacher sees the whole creation and understands that God made this as a gift for us to use, and especially his people, of course. God even gives it to us in His grace, whereas He does not to others. So, life itself isn't inherently vanity, nor is the creation inherently evil. It is evil, and the days thereof are evil, and life is vanity for one reason. Death. And of course, sin. Because death is the wages of sin. And that it is which makes life vain. And therefore, life must be lived wisely. The point of Ecclesiastes is to point out certain matters of wisdom. There's a time to laugh. There's a time to cry. a time to plant and a time to reap. There's a time for everything. There's all kinds of wonderful wisdom in there, but the overall arching wisdom is that life must be lived in the reality that it is vanity. Vanity. And now, in the last chapter, finally the preacher says, now, here's the conclusion of the whole matter. This is it. This is the wisdom of all the wisdom. This is how you summarize everything I have learned through faith in the Messiah. It's, remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. And we're going to see corresponding with that is, serve God and keep His commandments. That's it. Let's consider that then. Remember Thy Creator in youth. We look at, first, the calling, secondly, the work, the activity, thirdly, the wisdom, the wisdom. And you will see how all these things really intermingle. It's hard to separate them out into even categories. But the command, the conclusion, and then I'll tell you how important it is, Anybody that has an aversion to commandments, doesn't know their Bible, doesn't know the gospel, doesn't know the doctrine according to godliness, may put on an air of piety, but they don't know what they're talking about. The conclusion of the whole matter, about life, about being wise, about our relationship to God in this world, About the reality of sin and death is a command, a calling, remember thy Creator. Now, that all by itself is pretty simple to understand, but we'll elaborate just a little bit. And you will quickly notice that I couldn't really possibly make my first point simply on what remembering is, because that would be the whole sermon then, wouldn't it? And you're going to notice something about the text. The focus is not on the calling as such, but the when. But remembering. So, God tells us to remember the Sabbath day. What does He mean? Remember the Sabbath day. We know that that means to honor the Sabbath day, to respect the Sabbath day. It means, especially, to take something into account when considering the Sabbath day. Remembering the Sabbath day is to remember the overall arching principle of the Sabbath day, which is it is God's day. It is the Lord's day. It's not your day. It's not an ordinary day. It's not a common day. It's a day that's special. It's a day that's set aside. The other six days, go work and play. Go live your life. Go do what the preacher says in the book of Ecclesiastes. Live your life that way. But... On the seventh day, remember, it's not your day, it's God's day. It's to be dedicated to God, it's going to be lived as a life that's special, it's sanctified, dedicated in a special way to the service of God, which points out something already about what the preacher has to say, which is, and we're going to see this, remembering is also an act of worship, of honor and glory, But it's not a calling to simply engage in this on Sunday. So if someone said to themselves, a young person for example, well I remember God, and I do that on Sunday. I go to church with my parents, I listen to sermons, I even enjoy them, and so I'm carrying this out, I would say no you're not. Remembering your Creator has the idea of remembering at all times, but the point by connecting it to the commandment, remember the Sabbath day, it helps us understand what that word is all about. It means to consider or to take an account, to take into account in your behavior some truth, some reality. In this case, the reality is God. It has to do with God, and especially God is the Creator. Also, consider this. There are many prayers in Scripture, and perhaps, I'm sure, well, we did this morning, so I know I'm sure. We pray to God, and we pray that God remember something. It's an amazing thing that we're told in the Bible God does not remember our sins anymore. That's an amazing thing. That God who forgets not, God who is all-knowing and all-powerful, tells us He doesn't remember our sins, but we also make requests for God to remember things. We bring them to His mind. Christ does that when He intercedes for us. Maybe we forgot, but Christ remembers. And He adds it to our prayers, but we'll ask God to remember who we are. The Psalms are full of things. Remember, Lord, that we are dust. There's even a hint of that, an idea of that in the book of Ecclesiastes where we read that the dust shall return. The dust returns to the earth as it was. And so, even when we're living, there's things we have to remember about ourselves. Part of remembering God as Creator is to remember that you are dust. That's all you are, dust. When we get up on our high horse and think we're really quite something, we're going to live for a long time, we're going to do great things, just remember you're dust. If you want to know how wonderful and amazing God is, God takes dirt and makes you. But don't ever forget you're dirt. But we pray to God to remember that. And in so doing, we remember. That's what it's for. God doesn't forget anything. But yet we pray, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, take pity and be merciful. Remember our weakness. Remember we are flesh. Remember we live in a world of iniquity. Remember the many temptations that face us. When we ask God to do that, what are we really asking? We're asking God to take that into account when He deals with us. You do that with your own children, right? Your children can do things that are pretty awful, pretty temper-producing, anger-producing. They can ruin some pretty expensive things sometime. And if they're wise, but not manipulative, that's not why we pray to God that. We're not manipulating God. But if children were wise, they would plead to their parents to remember who they are and what they are. That's not often what they do. They usually have all kinds of excuses why they ruined this or that, or did this or that. Remember means to take something into account. And that's what God is saying here. In your life, and in all you do, take something into account. Take something into account. But now, generally, there's not a person here that can't see. Well, it means to take into account that God is God. and that God is Creator, and you will have nailed it. That is the idea of the text. That's the main thing that has to be remembered, that God is God, and God is your Creator. But if you want to know more specifically now what he means by remember God is God and God is your Creator, you have to take into account the conclusion of the whole matter. Well, what is that? At the end the preacher says the conclusion of the whole matter is to fear God and keep His commandments. And as I said, he's not stating something new there. What he's doing is developing the idea of remembering God as your Creator. So, the point is that remembering is an act of worship. It is an act of faith. It is fundamentally to believe and to worship and to serve God. Do not forget that tonight. There's many things that we have to add to that and explain further, but fundamentally, remembering God. is to take Him into account in all your living, and it is fundamentally to worship and adore Him and to praise Him. In many ways I could say amen and you'd have the whole point of the text, but that's the calling. And it is amazing how this is brought up. in the Reformed faith. I read of the Belgic Confession, Article 29, the mark of a Christian. You could take that and apply it right to this passage. This passage is simply another way of saying what the Belgic Confession is in Article 29. This is who a Christian is. This is what a Christian does. This is what a Christian looks like. And in Ecclesiastes, there's simply an urging to that, a calling to that. And that's the whole duty of man. The Great Reformed Confession, the Westminster Confession. Catechism, actually. That's the first question and answer. First question and answer is, what's your duty? What's the whole duty of man? Why was man made? Why are you here? It's a question we don't often think about. Why are you here? What's your purpose? Why did God make you? Why did God put you on this earth? So that you remember Him. You worship Him. That's your one great calling. Your one great job. It's the only reason you exist. You've seen the memes before, right? You've had one job to do. Guy's given one job to do and he don't do it right. You may look at our life this way. This is who we are and God is saying, Remember that. Remember who I am. Worship, serve, and glorify me. Now, the emphasis in the passage is on the timing of that. The timing of that. And as you all recognize, and as the title recognizes, the calling is to remember God. Remember your Creator in youth, when you're young. And that as opposed to when you're old. Yes. The preacher could have applied this to every individual. This is our calling. It doesn't matter how young, how old. This is what we are called to do, day in, day out, regardless of our age. But notice the conclusion of the whole matter is, do this when you're young. Now, part of that is because Solomon is an old man. He's learned a lot from life. And he has something to say to the youth. Part of the reason why this is coming and why this is here is, well, everybody but youth seem to know this, but the problem with youth is they know everything. That's the fundamental problem of youth. Fundamental problem of youth is they got all the answers, don't they? They know everything. Fifteen, sixteen years on the earth, they got it all figured out. They've got it all learned, they've got it all understood, and they're going to tell everybody, too. And so the preacher, who's an old man, and he's learned from experience, by the way, that's the other way to learn, right? Why do you think he says to the youth of Many books, of making many books there is no end. And there is much study, weariness to the flesh. Why does he say that? Is the preacher saying, put away your books, there's nothing to learn in them? There's no value in a big library and reading all the time? No, no, no, you misunderstand. What he's pointing out is there's another way to learn. And that is through the experience of life. But he has something even more fundamental to lay down, which is the best way to learn is actually to listen to those who have already gone through that life. Don't say to yourself, well, now I will learn, and I will understand, and I will study, and I will consider these things just like you did as I go through life. No, God gave us the preacher. A man uniquely qualified to say now, as I look at the end of my life, and I look at all the opportunities and all the things I did, good and bad and otherwise, I have something to say to the youth. I have something to say. And if you're wise, you will listen. And now, keep in mind, we never forget that Solomon speaks for Christ. That's really the amazing thing here. That's the amazing thing here. Christ is the wisdom of God, and the preacher is Christ. And this is the conclusion of Christ's life. This is the conclusion of everything that Christ is. Everything that Christ has done. Christ comes to us, and he has a special word for the youth. Learn. Understand. Take this to heart. Consider this in your inmost being and do that as youth. Now, the contrast, as I said, is with being old and what's really amazing is that the contrast isn't between the number of days. Remember when you're 15 as opposed to 80, because there's less days here and more days here. But no, the contrast is not simply between young and old, but good and evil. In other words, the quality of the life, quality of life is a word that's used not so well in our day. Quality of life is used to kill people, euthanasia. Quality of life is given as an excuse for abortion and all kinds of things. And we make too far much, we make much too much out of the quality of life. But there is something to the fact of quality of life. It is real. The preacher brings it up here when he compares the days of youth. And he says, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth! Let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth. And what does he say about the days of being old? Well, those are evil days. And keep in mind, when he uses that word evil, he's not using it in a moral sense. Good and evil can be used to refer to things in terms of quality or in terms of morality. Christian Reformed Church in 1924 got those all confused and muddled up. But the fact of the matter is, we use the word good and evil, like Scripture does, with reference to morality and with regard to quality. If I say that's a good car, I'm obviously not talking about the morality of the car, I'm talking about the quality of the car. But now when I refer to a person, or even a day, It may not be easy to tell what I'm talking about, morality or quality, and with human beings, quality and morality converge, but he's talking about days, and he says they're evil. And he's talking about now the quality of those days, the quality of life, and that's brought out when he says that the individual who lives in them says, they are days in which I have no pleasure in them. This is a difference that's easy to minimize or ignore. Part of the reasoning, part of the wisdom of the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes is that repeated frame. Do not forget that there is, because of the vanity of life, because of the reality of death, a quality of life difference between when you're young and when you're old. that's used as an excuse for the wicked to live wickedly. They use that reality for all kinds of social engineering projects, as I said, for things like euthanasia. But that doesn't mean the child of God ignores it. This is biblical. This is how the world operates. This is the way it is. And when the text adds that the days when we get older are days when we shall say, I have no pleasure in them, that's literally true, you understand. And not only of the ungodly, but the godly. Ask your grandparents that sometime. If out of their mouth comes, these are days I have no pleasure in them, we quickly run for the med cabinet. Grandma and Grandpa are depressed. Give them the meds. Or you're overstating things, Grandpa and Grandma. No, that's not true. The preacher says, this is normal. This is what you can expect. You get older. You say, I have no pleasure in these days. There's nothing here. Nothing here for me. And don't take that as discontentment. It can be. It can be. Grandma and grandpa are going to be all upset about these days. They say, I have no pleasure in them. And you say, why? And you say, well, I can't drive my car. I can't golf. Can't see my friends. Used to go fishing. That's all over. I'm just here stuck in this room all day. That would be the wrong kind of thing. That would be discontentment. There's truth to that, of course. Those kinds of pleasures are taken away and belong to the vanity of life, but even then there should be contentment and patience and understanding that this is life. Grandpa and Grandma should be told, What did you expect? What did you expect? Have you not read the book of Ecclesiastes? Do you not know that that's what old age brings? But the point is that this is what we can't expect. This is what we have to take into account. And that is such an important point that the preacher really emphasizes it in very memorable language in verses 3 through 6. Verses 3 through 6 lead up to 7, which is death. The dust shall return back to the earth. In between youth and death is this period of when we're old, and the days are evil, and there's very striking language there, and some of it is open to interpretation. Anybody says they know exactly what each of these things mean, I would say they're lying. But you get a rough idea of what it's all about. The preacher is using examples from earthly life to explain what getting old is all about. I can give you my understanding of them, and you can consider them. doctrine doesn't impinge on these, but it's poetry. And he's laying this down, and if you look at verses 5-7, they really describe the effect of death and getting old on the individual members of our bodies. So you have verse 2, Right? Talks about the sun, the light of the moon, and the stars. And you might say that he's simply talking there about the fact that our eyes go dim, but no. The emphasis there is upon clouds. And so I believe what he's talking about there is the fact that often old age is accompanied with gloom. and depression. A depressive disposition. The clouds return after the rain. There's one illness after another. And usually one reason why there is such a depressed condition. You go to verse 3, where he talks about the keepers of the house trembling. He's talking there about the muscles of the legs. They become weak and they become unsteady. The strong men bow themselves. There's arthritis in the joints. The grinders. It refers to the teeth. They eat slowly because there's few teeth. Written in a day when there wasn't dentures and all those things. Few teeth. And he talks about those that look out the windows. What are that? That's eyesight. Poor eyesight. Go to verse 4. He talks about the doors are shut in the street. The idea is there's trouble communicating. More difficult to form words sometime. The sound of the grinding is low. That is, there's a loss of hearing. Someone doesn't sleep, so they rise with the voice of the birds, and the daughters of music are brought low. They can't sleep, then they awaken, and they can't hear the birds singing. Verse 5, talking about the fear of things high. and fear of things that are in the way because the legs are weak and the eyesight is poor. The almond tree flourishes, probably a reference to hair turning white or hair turning gray. The grasshopper is a burden. The idea is there's no longer a spring in the steppe, but they hobble along. The desire shall fail. That refers to sexual desire. Then it talks about man goes to his long home, that he dies, and the mourners mourn at his funeral. And then there's verse 6, a little more obscure. I believe it refers to what death does to our various, what we call, systems. Our systems, the main bodily systems. Solomon was no ignoramus. He was a scientist and he understood more than I think we realize. Either way, I believe it refers to the various systems. The silver cord being broken refers to the failure of the nervous system, the golden bowl. refers to the mind or the skull being broken, failure of the mental system. The pitcher broken at the fountain is failure of the digestive system. The wheel is broken at the cistern, that is the failure of the cardiopulmonary system. That's what old age brings. And the preacher says there's two things to remember, two things already about remembering our Creator while in youth. Number one, the youth I'm talking to are not just the teens. Neither was that the case for the preacher. Eyesight still good? Hearing good? Legs still operate well? Still functioning quite well? Well, then you're not of the days yet that are evil. They're coming. But you may consider yourself as someone who falls under this calling to remember your Creator when youth. Don't take this passage and say, well, this applies to you teenagers over there. No. God gives you good eyesight, good hearing, good legs, good arms, good back. Then your calling is to remember Him. It also points out that this is a calling that doesn't simply involve the mind. He says, remember, we say, oh, that's talking about the mind, what the mind brings in. Oh yes, it does. That is how it starts. Everything begins with the mind. The mind is the way we receive, and the mind is the way we think, and the mind is that which tells the body what to do. So he begins with that, but it involves the whole life. That's why he brings up all these other systems. What he says about remembering is going to involve all your members, and all your faculties, and all your gifts, and all your abilities, and that also physically. It really is an amazing thing when you think about it. There's a lot here. I suppose if we were writing this passage and we had something to say to the youth, we would say, remember God as your Savior while you're in your youth. No, it's God your Creator. We're going to see that includes God as your Savior, don't make no mistake, but there's a reason why He brings us back to God as Creator. And we might be inclined to say to ourselves, well, you know, worshipping and serving God is mainly a matter of the mind, and it's a matter of the heart, and it's a matter of the soul. Oh, no, it's not. It's a matter of all your being. God lays claim to your whole being. God lays claim to you and everything that you are, and everything He gives to you. That's why the emphasis also is upon youth. He lays claim on your time. Why does this command come to youth? Well, in part because another weakness of youth is to say, I got all kinds of time. And this is my time. Oh, yes, there's a time coming when I realize I'm going to have to give myself to a family or to a spouse. And I'm going to have to give my time to the school, maybe serving on school board and maybe even being a teacher or being involved at the school summit. And I'll have to give my time to the church. Maybe I'll serve as an elder or deacon and I'll work toward that. I expect to have a career. But now is my time. Now is the time to think about me. Now is the time to think about what I want and what I wish. This passage doesn't simply speak to the youth as a check against the sowing your wild oats philosophy. That certainly is ruled out, isn't it? There's no time for sowing wild oats when you're remembering your Creator. And if one is remembering his Creator, there's no desire or want to sow wild oats as it's called either. But we shouldn't allow that thinking in our homes either, parents. There's no place for it in the Reformed faith. No place for it in a Christian home. The youth belong to God and they have a special calling. If there's one individual and one group of individuals that above all else in our homes and in the church ought to be remembering God, their Creator, it is the youth Do you get that out of this passage? And the youth often say, well, if there's one set of group of people that ought to be serving God, it's the old people, right? They got nothing else to do. And the preacher turns it all on its head and says, you don't want to think that way. You don't want to get to the end of your life with regrets I wish I had done this. I wish I had spent more time in God's Word. I wish I had given more of my time and energy to my Lord and Savior. I wish I had thought upon God more in my life. The preacher flips it all on its head and says, no, now's the time. Now, what about it? Well, as I said, certainly it begins with the mind. Reason requires a sound mind. Remember, being begins with the mind. It's the primary means by which we receive information and command the rest of the body. something so sad and something to be mourned in the elderly when they lose their mind, when they lose their ability to think. Many will tell you it's really the worst thing. They would rather lose the ability of their legs to function. They would rather lose the ability of their arms or their eyesight or their hearing than to lose their ability to remember and to think clearly. And yet it does belong to getting old. So, what do we remember? Well, remember this, that your calling is to use all your faculties, all your gifts, all your abilities, all of your members, everything that is you, everything that God gives you in your youth, and now especially your youth in the service of God. Remember that. What does remembering God in youth mean? It means especially to use the energy, to use The amazing ability that youth have to absorb huge amounts of information. To your advantage. Youth is the time to memorize. Pack it in. I remind Heidelberg Catechism students of that all the time. Do not give this licking a promise. And if there's one thing I want out of you, it is to memorize huge chunks of the Catechism. I can even put off understanding it for now, but memorize it. You will never forget it. And you need not, or you need to remember it. It's how you defend the faith, remember the faith. All those things are defined. And it's easy when you're young. and use all of your being to serve and worship God. We must ask ourselves that as young people. How often do I actually use my considerable abilities and faculties to remember God? How often do you use your eyeballs to serve and worship God versus figuring out how to beat a video game? And we might add your thumbs and everything else that's engaged in all that. Really innocent, huh? Not going to get into the content of them, but even right now, answer the question. How much do you use your eyeballs and your thumbs and your behind, because you're sitting in a big fluffy chair, to play video games versus remembering God, your Creator? And we can add in now the hands, and the feet, and the body. How often do we use those faculties to learn how to play basketball, or soccer, or baseball? Use our time and energy and all these faculties to learn a skill. To learn how to run a business. versus remembering God. And now's when you have the most of it as a youth, right? We should be remembering God much more than we do. Oh, I know. The preacher is not saying you spend all your time on your knees with a Bible open, pouring through it and memorizing it. No. Just read the book of Ecclesiastes. The preacher, the wise man says, no, it's okay to eat and drink, to have a good time, to be engaged in sports and pleasure, but are you remembering your Creator as you do so, or only after the fact? Consider these things. Remember also that you are a creature, a finite creature, why God is your creator. Ah, that's important too. You see, if we put God simply in terms of salvation, there's things we forget about God, which is, number one, you are always the creature. That's fundamental even with regard to salvation. One of the reasons we get up on our high horse with regard to salvation is we forget who we are. You know, if you even take the issue of sin out of it, And just consider who we are. Consider even who Adam was when he was perfect before God. What was he? Just a creature. Nothing compared to God, even as perfect. He was nothing. God was everything. God was his creator. God gave him everything that he was. And the wonder of his perfection was he could praise and honor and glorify God for that in a way we cannot. And even as redeemed and saved, we may never ever forget who God is and who we are in relationship to Him. That changes the perspective on life. It changes everything with regard to life. How you live your life. And don't forget, it's worth a special note of that, especially with regard to you as an individual. You know, it's one thing to confess and remember that God is the creator of everybody else, and God is the creator, and God is the sustainer, and God is the provider of everything that goes around us, but the preacher actually wants you to apply that to yourself. He's talking about remembering your relationship to God in your own mind. That's about faith too. When young people come before the consistory and make confession of faith, I'm not interested in what you believe about Jesus as pertaining to everyone else. I'm not really interested in that. To confess that Jesus is Savior from sins and saves other people from their sins is not faith. Faith is personal. I'm interested in what you confess about your own relationship to Jesus Christ. The same thing here. Remembering God as your creator in days of youth is, what about God creating me? Have you considered your own gifts and abilities? Do you wish you were smarter? Well, God made you that way. Do you live in this kind of family with these kinds of parents? Do you consider that God is your creator as regards everything that you are? Or do you sit back a lot and say, well, I wish this and I wish that, I wished I had that person's abilities, and I wished I had their parents, and I wished I had their money. No, remembering God as your Creator in a day or a year means He made you. He made you just the way that you are. He made you exactly who you are and put you in the exact time frame of this world that you need to be, gave you the exact parents you're supposed to have and your skills and your abilities or lack thereof. Remember that while you are young. Remember that as Creator, God is your Lord. That's built into it. It's baked into it. If God is your Creator, He's your Lord. What you make, you own. God has patent rights on you, as it were. You are His creation. You belong to Him. Now, think about that. That's even apart from salvation. Again, the preacher brings us back to creation because there's things we may not forget and they apply to our salvation. It becomes even much more true now. because of redemption. Jesus' death on the cross was redemption. God purchased us there. That's why the beginning of the Heidelberg Catechism is. Remember what your comfort in life and death is, that you are not your own. You don't belong to anybody, not even your parents, not really to the church, not to anything. You belong to Jesus Christ. Remember that this Creator is your Lord. As your Lord, He is your King. He has the sole right and authority to tell you what to do. That's what kings do. When you don't like the way things are, you're rebelling against the king. The king has the sole authority and right to tell you what to do. And he does. He's also the sole judge. That's what kings were. They were judges. He is the sole judge. He is the one that gets to determine whether you meet his standard or not. You don't get to determine that. God says, this is righteousness. This is the standard. And built into it, too, is God will judge. Twice that's mentioned in this section. Have fun, young people, Solomon says. Have fun. Enjoy your youth, but know something. Know that for all these things, God will bring you into judgment. That's how he ends, too. Enjoy life. Use the gifts God gives you. But understand something. God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. Don't forget that. That's part of remembering God as your Creator, see? That's part of remembering God as your Lord and God as your Judge. And that should govern our life, all of our life. It should make us wise. Now, the greatest wisdom, and that which is unspoken here, is this. Anybody who remembers God by fearing Him and keeping His commandments is going to understand something very quickly, which is, I can't do that. I can't match that standard. I can't be what God wants me to be. And if that person is a Christian, they have faith, and by faith they'll say, I'm sorry. That's why I said Article 29 of the Budget Confession fleshes this out more importantly. And that is certainly included in, remember God is your Creator. That is precisely what the preacher is getting at. It's not simply a matter of remembering God made you, God fashioned you, God gave you gifts and abilities. We may never forget that. We tend to. But it also includes that if that's true, there's only one way. There's only one way to live. There's only one way to live in this world. There's only one way to live after this world. And that is to fear God and to serve Him. as the one who alone can forgive our sins, redeem us from destruction, who can take those evil days when we're old and the body has fallen apart, and give new life, can resurrect that body, can take the soul where the mind can no longer think and understand, and things are confused, and upon death, immediately, there's that wonderful, perfect knowledge and understanding of God that we can't quite comprehend. That's what it means to remember God, trusting Him, fearing Him, serving Him, believing in Him by faith. That's the wisdom. Use your time wisely. You've got a lot of it. Understand in youth you're faced with many temptations that are unique to youth. Wisdom is to understand that this is your whole duty, especially as youth, not just when you get old. And remember that God remembers, that God calls you to this, and this is why He made you and fashioned you. Amen. Let us pray. Lord our God and Father in Heaven, we thank Thee that Thou art our God in a very special way, that Thou art our Creator, Creator of body and soul, but Creator of the new man, Creator of the new life, so that we are born again. Help us to remember Thee, O Lord, especially when we are able in youth to use the considerable gifts and abilities, the time and the energy that we have to serve Thee in a special way. And even when we are having fun and pleasure, to remember that we must give an account, to remember that time goes by quickly and that soon these things will be taken away because of the specter of death and sin of which we are a part. We pray, Father, that Thou will use these things and this instruction to bring us evermore to Jesus Christ, where we may remember Thee in Him, and remember the eternal life that He has granted us freely for His own namesake. Amen.