"Wisdom means remembering your Creator" (Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 9)

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.