WEBVTT 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:08.320 Ministry to the heart and for over 165 years. 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:16.320 Welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of 40 minutes, first of all, you'll find amazing teaching in Factory. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:21.120 Thank you for listening. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:26.800 Welcome to this edition of the Legacy Series of our Chapter and First podcast. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:33.679 Chapter and First is a podcast that highlights the Bible teaching and preaching ministry of First Feddy's Church. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:39.759 We've been blessed to have incredible men of God as a part of our history. 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:51.679 And this legacy series of our podcast gives us a chance to go back and hear some of these godly men share incredibly powerful and impacting messages. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.359 Today you're going to listen to a man named Angel Martinez. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:07.280 Angel was a gifted, God-empowered evangelist, and he did evangelism meetings and rallies around the world and all over the United States. 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:21.200 In fact, as a high school kid at Briarcrest Baptist High School in the early 80s, when we had a spiritual emphasis week in revival, it was Angel Martinez who came and preached in our high school. 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:32.959 He preached to untold number of souls, and only when we get to heaven will we find out how many people were saved under the evangelism ministry of Angel Martinez. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:41.120 Angel was a longtime member of First Baptist Church and used this as his home base and was referred to as the staff evangelist. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:56.480 And so we are so honored to be able to be a part of his ministry throughout the years, and we are blessed to be able to let you hear this message from Angel Martinez as a part of our legacy series. 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:08.080 Why are we here? 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.360 What is the purpose of human existence? 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:16.879 What is the significance of the journey between the cradle and the grave? 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:25.199 And this man explores those avenues, not only intellectually, but also experientially. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:30.719 And he becomes a clean history of what works in life. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:36.319 Because this man ranged the entire compass of human life. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:39.439 He was both a poor man and a rich man. 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:45.039 He was both uh not knowing and later very intellectual. 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:49.599 He was a very uncultured person, then became very cultured. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:55.759 A man of low position who became the king of Jerusalem and of Israel. 00:02:56.400 --> 00:03:03.039 So this man compasses the range of the entire gamut of human existence. 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:04.879 And he has a conclusion. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.840 And the conclusion is chapter 12. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:09.199 Chapter 12. 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:12.240 So we're going to begin from the back and go forward. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:14.800 And I'm going to give you an overview. 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:18.400 We're going to get up high and look at the entire book. 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:33.120 This is a wonderful way to study the Bible sometimes, not only verse by verse, as we do here in the book of James from Sunday to Sunday, and then chapter by chapter, as many pastors do often, and others book by book. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:35.759 And we're going to talk about a book. 00:03:36.240 --> 00:03:37.599 A wonderful book. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:39.919 The book of Ecclesiastes. 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:46.400 Because the writer of Ecclesiastes exploring a very important facet of human existence. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:47.280 Why? 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.800 It's really a philosophical treatise. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:54.400 Because philosophy asks the question, why? 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:55.520 Why? 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.319 Now theology asks the question, who? 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:00.639 Who made this universe? 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:08.319 Who is the author of this intricate pattern we call our system? 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:11.520 Our galaxy. 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:13.439 Our solar system. 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:14.879 Our universe. 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:20.800 This intricate pattern that defies human intelligence. 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:27.279 And we are trying to reach out and discover how God has done it. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:29.279 Because that is what science is. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:32.079 It's an attempt to find out what God did. 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:35.519 We are only the discoverers. 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:37.519 We are not creators. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:40.399 So theology answers the question: who? 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:43.040 Who made the universe? 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:47.519 Who made this wonderful, wonderful orb on which we exist? 00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:53.360 Who gave the stars their celestial push and placed them in their orbit? 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:58.959 Who put a carpet of green grass upon the earth and nailed it down with beautiful flowers? 00:04:59.199 --> 00:05:05.839 Who took the rainbow and wove it into a scarf and draped it around the shoulders of a dying storm? 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:12.399 Who opens the door of the morning and floods the world with light and beauty? 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:19.680 Who at evening time pulls down the shade of night and shoots it through with sunset fire? 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:49.680 You see, the God of the universe, the infinite mind, the infinite I am, is a composer of all the chemistry and all the physics and all the biology and all the anthropology and all the sociology and everything we try to learn about life and man and things and laws and nature, energy, and motion. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:52.800 God is the author of all of these. 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:53.920 Who? 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:57.839 You see, theology answers that question. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:02.720 Now biology and science answer the question how and when. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.000 They're concerned about the clock and they're concerned about the mechanics. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:12.959 They do not uh scientists do not create anything, they synthesize. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:20.000 Or they analyze, they break up something and say, well, this element here is composed of this and that and the other. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:28.079 Or they take various elements and synthesize them into new combinations, but they do not create the basic elements. 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:35.839 The 115 elements in the Mendeleev chart of chemistry were not formed by the human mind. 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:47.519 No, the laws of physics, whether they be Kepler's laws of motion or others, or Faraday's laws about matter, these are the works of the infinite God. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:58.000 I think that Einstein said it beautifully in one of his books, that uh man is like little children on an Easter hunt. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:06.240 He said before the Easter hunt, the mothers go out in the field and take the beautiful colored eggs and put them in different places. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:08.800 And then they turn the children loose. 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.959 And from the distance they hear one little voice cry out, Oh, I found a blue one. 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:16.879 Another voice, I found a green one, another voice, I found a red one. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:17.680 And Dr. 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:20.240 Einstein said that's what scientists are doing. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:30.480 They're just finding what God has recessed in the beauty of nature and the complexity of the physical order. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:33.360 So biology asks, how? 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:36.399 How is this done? 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.560 And all that we do in science is try to find out how. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:44.160 We're trying to find out about outer space. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:48.560 And it cost us seven lives last week. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.000 And uh it's going to cost us some more. 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:55.920 Progress always demands a price. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:03.279 And uh people die in war and they die in peace, and they die in the search for knowledge. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:10.639 And these are part of the human existence, the human circle, the human dilemma. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.800 So, we're concerned, biology, about how? 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:22.480 Theology, who, philosophy, why, and that's what the writer is exploring in this book of Ecclesiastes. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:24.800 Now let's look at chapter 12 and verse 1. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:52.240 He begins by saying, or concludes rather by saying, this wonderful chapter, after trying, and I'm going to show you in the eleven chapters what he has done, how he has tried, not only intellectually but experientially, avenues of human existence that are good up to a certain point, but do not answer the deeper questions of the human heart. 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:57.360 So in chapter 12, he explodes in a discovery. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:09.279 After eleven grueling chapters searching, trying to find an answer. 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:13.120 He said, Here, here's the solution. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:17.600 Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:24.159 While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:28.720 The word remember, by the way, in the Hebrew is the word welcome. 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.519 It's the picture of a house with an open door. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.799 The writer is saying, God is passing by and giving you a chance to make him your guest. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:46.639 So don't keep your door closed against the spiritual dimension that makes life meaningful and gives it purpose. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:51.759 The King James word is the word remember. 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:55.039 But the Hebrew word is the word welcome. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:56.879 Welcome. 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:00.480 As God passes by and he does every moment of your life. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.200 Open your arms and say, Come into my house. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:04.399 That's the picture here. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:05.600 Welcome thy creator. 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:14.399 And he's talking about the creator, the God who made the world, the God who lived the sun, the God of all power. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.879 The God who is the author and the finisher of human existence and the entire cosmos. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:25.679 Welcome Him. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:30.399 Let him become a part of your thinking and living. 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:32.159 That's what he's talking about. 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:35.919 Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:37.440 In the days of thy youth. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:45.039 He says, Don't wait until you get old to take this spiritual fortifying power into your life. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:52.000 You know, it's amazing how many people have the idea, young people and old, that religion is a preparation for death. 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:55.840 The Bible teaches it's a preparation for life. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.759 You're not prepared to die until you're prepared to live. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:03.519 And you're not prepared to live until God moves in. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:06.639 Your life is a broken fragment. 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:07.919 Your life is a piece. 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.399 You're just a piece of a human being. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:19.679 I don't care how rich you become, how famous you become, how intellectual you become, how popular you become, you're nothing. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:26.320 The grace of God is what adds the plus factor to you. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:28.240 You're like a bunch of zeros. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.840 You know a bunch of zeros are nothing by themselves. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:39.279 But you take a one or an integer and put it in front of the zeros, and now the zeros become meaningful. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:41.919 And God is that front number. 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:49.440 You may be a one-zero person, maybe two, maybe three, but when God adds his one or his two to you, then you become a lot. 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:54.799 Because you have a certain potential which is nothing until God activates it. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:12:02.240 That's why in 1 Corinthians 15 10, Paul could say, By the grace of God, I am what I am. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:10.879 Paul said, The end result of what I am right now is not my education, nor my genetic background. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:19.519 You remember in Philippians 3.8 he talks about being a Hebrew of the Hebrews, nor my moral standards, and he had high ones. 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:23.279 He was a Pharisee, and those men were highly moral men. 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:26.639 But Paul said, All these things are refuse. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:29.039 They're ciphers. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:32.559 There's heroes. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:35.600 Until Jesus moves in. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:39.200 Until God moves in in the person of Christ. 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:41.600 And so do it when you're young. 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.320 And he's making that emphasis here. 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:53.360 He said, Remember 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. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:58.639 And the pronoun them is referring to the days of your youth. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:33.039 In other words, the writer is saying, if you let God escape your youth, if you live live, if you make your youth a succession of days and weeks and months and minutes and hours that soon will become history, that soon will become yesterday, and you don't include this spiritual dimension, which is so integral to the formative part of your life, your decision making and your problem solving and your temptation structure in your life. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:43.759 If you don't make God a part of your life when you're young, you're going to someday look back and say, Don't remind me. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:49.200 I have no pleasure in them. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:53.679 The writer is simply saying, Life is not worthwhile without God. 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:58.159 And the time to let Him, to welcome Him into your life is right now when you're young. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:03.200 And by the way, the word, the words, remember thy creator, in the days of thy youth. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:08.960 The word youth there in the Hebrew is a is a word for somebody under twelve years old. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:15.039 You know, we have words in English that determine how old a person is by the word itself. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:21.759 For example, if you say about somebody, he's a teenager, well, you have a picture of that person, the age about. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:28.159 If you say about somebody, he's an adolescent, you have a picture of that person. 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:33.600 If you say he's an infant, you have a picture in your mind of a little baby. 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:38.399 You you can tell by uh you say about somebody he's middle-aged. 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:41.919 Well, you can tell about that person. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:45.840 And so the word here, youth, is somebody under twelve years old. 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:46.639 Let's translate it. 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:52.080 Welcome that creator before you're twelve years old. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:57.360 Because if you don't, the day will come when looking back you'll say, Forget it. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:00.960 I have no pleasure in the past. 00:15:02.080 --> 00:15:12.480 Life was just an existence, a meaningless jargon of days and nights, and minutes and hours. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:19.200 Life is too powerful to be denigrated to that level. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:24.480 Every moment has a potential, every hour has a possibility. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.080 And the writer is saying, God makes it important. 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:32.399 Don't let this spiritual dimension elude you. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:38.879 Solomon said, I've tried it all, and I'll show you in a moment as we go back and overview the book. 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:48.720 I've tried it all, I've thought about it, I've explored the mind and the body. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.159 And Solomon said, I've come to a conclusion. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:53.679 Only God can do it. 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:56.159 Only God can make life worthwhile. 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:00.399 And he said, Not only that, but don't wait till you become an old man to do it. 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:09.279 Remember 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. 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:16.639 While the sun or the light or the moon or the stars, he continues, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:18.399 Now here's poetry. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:28.879 You know when you're young it rains, and then the sky clears up, and then it the sun shines for a while, for a long while, then another storm comes. 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:33.519 But when you get older, it's one storm after another. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:41.759 The clouds return after the rain. 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:48.399 So when you get older, it rains and rains, and then it stops, and you say, Well, it's going to clear up for a while, and then here come the clouds again. 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:49.919 Another storm. 00:16:50.159 --> 00:17:03.039 And that's why you need the strength, the spiritual strength that gives you the inner insight that makes you a competent human being as you journey between the cradle and the grave. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:05.359 And that's what the writer is saying here. 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:08.640 Life is tough, life is complex. 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.839 You cannot do it by yourself. 00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:17.279 You need the comfort and the intelligence and the guidance of somebody beyond you. 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:29.680 So when he passes by your front door, you keep that door open and step out on the front porch and open your arms and say, Welcome. 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:34.480 You're the one who made me and redeemed me on a cross. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:45.119 And do it while your eye is clear and the voice is firm, and the step is firm, and the cheek is red, and the voice is loud. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:47.279 Welcome Him now. 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:53.200 If you don't do it, said the writer, then looking back, you're going to say, It wasn't worth it. 00:17:53.440 --> 00:18:00.720 I just made my life a succession of days and nights and minutes and hours. 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:05.759 Now he goes into physiology. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:20.480 We have a great uh Norwegian expositor in the Old Testament named Mo Binkel, who has done some beautiful study in the Hebrew words of the book of Ecclesiastes and the Book of Psalms and the Book of Job and the Book of Proverbs. 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:27.039 He's majored on those on the Hebrew of those four books and done a very beautiful and minute study. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:34.480 And he contends that the following figures talk about the human body, the aging body. 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.079 And you see, the writer is still trying to impress us to do it now. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:50.720 The urgency of allowing God to invade life when you're young and strong and bold and firm and not wait till it's too late. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:55.759 And the bulk of life is behind you. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:03.599 So he goes on to say in verse, in the third verse, in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:08.079 Now here we have a picture of the aging process in the physical body. 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:10.480 The keepers, he said, don't wait till this happens. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:19.519 You let God come into your life right now while you're young and you're facing temptations and you're facing problems and you're facing decisions and you cannot do it alone. 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:26.400 You need God's help in your life, and God's wisdom, and God's comfort. 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:35.599 And did you ever stop to realize that the attributes of God are the resources of the believer? 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:37.119 Let me repeat that. 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:41.759 The attributes of God are the resources of the believer. 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:43.359 What do I mean by attributes? 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.680 I mean that God has all power. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.000 Well, if that's true, it's a resource for me. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:55.119 That's in my favor because I belong to him, and he's my father, and I'm an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:57.680 And what belongs to God belongs to me. 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:05.440 And if God knows everything, he's omniscient, then that's in my favor because he's my father. 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.680 And if God is uh is everywhere present, omnipresent, that's in my favor. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:16.000 And if God is perfect, I make mistakes, I make blunders, I'm a sinner. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:30.640 But if God is perfect, then that's in my favor because he's my father, and by virtue of kinship, I can appropriate what belongs to him because it belongs to me as a child. 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:34.160 So the attributes of God become the resources of the believer. 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:42.799 That's why the writer is encouraging us to open the door. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:46.880 And he said, Don't wait until the keepers of the house. 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:47.200 And Dr. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:21:02.640 Movinkel says the hands, the hands are uh referring to here to the hands, because the Jewish person, the Jewish man protected his hand, his home with his hands, and the Jewish wife kept the house with her hands. 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:05.759 The domestic labor. 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:09.119 Don't wait till the keepers of the house shall tremble. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:18.720 And there you have a picture, of course, many of the uh aging diseases, like Parkinson's disease. 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:24.799 You've seen older people with trembling hands, it's a brain dysfunction. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:36.079 Doctors used to open the brain and go in there with a technique called cryosurgery, where they would freeze some tracts of the of the brain and stop the tremor. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:41.279 But now that has been discarded and medication is being used instead. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:47.440 And uh so don't wait till the keepers of the house shall come. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:51.440 Or the strong men, the next phrase bow themselves. 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:52.720 Bow themselves. 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:53.920 There you have the shoulders. 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:54.319 Dr. 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:57.359 Movinkle says the strong men refers to the shoulders. 00:21:57.519 --> 00:21:59.359 The strong men bow themselves. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:02.400 Now you have a picture of rheumatoid arthritis. 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:04.799 Now you have a picture of osteoporosis. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:09.920 You know, as people get older, the calcium problem becomes very prominent in their system. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:13.519 And they begin to stoop. 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:19.359 The body loses some of its height as age creeps on. 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:25.440 And the writer is saying, don't wait till the strong men shall bow themselves. 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:29.839 The next phrase is obvious, though it's poetry. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.519 The grinders cease because they are few. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:45.440 In the country of Solomon, a thousand years before Christ, they used the women would grind them the meal in the mornings, so they would have bread for the rest of the day. 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:49.200 And the grinder was a noisy apparatus. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:51.599 Everybody could hear it. 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:58.160 But when you couldn't hear it, it would be like saying today he's deaf, he can't hear thunder. 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:02.079 Well, back in those days they say he couldn't he can't hear the grinder. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:06.480 The sound of the grinding is low. 00:23:07.039 --> 00:23:26.880 The three little apparatuses in the middle ear that conduct sound through vibration from the outside environment to the auditory nerve, and then to the part of the brain that interprets that phenomenon begins to fail. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:30.799 The sound of the grinding is low. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:36.160 Next phrase: they that look out of the windows be darkened. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:39.279 There you have a picture of the eyes becoming dim. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:50.480 As age creeps on, there's an implication of cataracts, an implication of a detached retina. 00:23:51.279 --> 00:24:16.640 Or that screen in the back of the uh eye that contains the cones and the rods that interpret for the visual nerve the phenomenon that we see loses its mooring and begins to swim in the vitreous humor of the eye, causing all kinds of occlusions in vision. 00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:23.839 There's a picture of glaucoma, where the fluid imbalance in the eye becomes a problem. 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:34.720 And medical doctors and ophthalmologists have to make a little slit in the limbus of the eye and release the pressure that might damage the optic nerve. 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.559 The writer is saying, don't wait till that happens to you. 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:44.880 They that look out of the windows be darkened. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:46.799 Next phrase. 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:51.680 Dr. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:55.279 Movinko said the Hebrews refer to the lips as the doors. 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:58.240 Shut in the street as a picture of a stroke. 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:03.119 Whenever strokes take place in the speech area of the brain, the person cannot speak. 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:05.200 You've seen that happen. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:10.960 And though the person was very eloquent and very loquacious in youth, now he says nothing. 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:14.240 The doors are shut in the street. 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:25.759 Old age is coming. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:28.799 And the writer is saying, Don't wait till all this happens to you. 00:25:29.039 --> 00:25:31.920 Remember thy creator when you're young in the days of thy youth. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:36.480 While the evil days come, not the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:41.359 While the sun, the light, the moon, the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain. 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:47.839 In the day when the keeper of the house shall tremble, the strong men shall bow themselves, the grinders cease because they are few. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:51.920 They that look out of the window shall be darkened. 00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:54.559 Doors shall be shut in the street. 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.119 Sound of the grinding is low. 00:25:57.440 --> 00:25:59.359 They shall rise up at the voice of the bird. 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:04.720 There's a picture of the insomnia that older people experience as time goes by. 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:14.880 You know, as you get older, there's a sir in the hypothalamus, there's a section of the brain that controls the sleeping patterns of human existence. 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:18.400 And when you're young, they function beautifully, and you can sleep late. 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:26.160 But when you get older, you wake up with the birds, and you cannot resume your sleep. 00:26:26.640 --> 00:26:29.599 They shall rise up at the voice of the bird. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.079 And the next phrase, the daughters of music shall be brought low. 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:46.640 The Hebrews call the larynx, these two little muscles in the throat that vibrate when you push air from the diaphragm in the lungs through them and producing song and voice and speech. 00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:51.599 The daughters of music are brought low. 00:26:52.079 --> 00:26:56.720 You know, as you get older, the you you don't sing as well as you did when you were younger. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:01.359 Because the vocal cords thicken, they thicken as age creeps on. 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:05.440 And sound depends upon vibration for its production. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:12.880 Take, for example, 440 vibrations per second, produce the sound of A on the piano and vocally. 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:21.519 Now, whenever the chords are thicker, they cannot vibrate at that speed, and oftentimes you get off key, and you f your voice is flat. 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:26.720 Because the thicker vocal cords are not responding. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:30.000 The daughters of music shall be brought low. 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:34.480 The next phrase, when they shall be afraid of that which is high. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:38.400 You know, older people are very careful about steps. 00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:44.640 Now you've seen boys and girls climb the tree, walk on a fence. 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:47.440 You've never seen grandma do that. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:49.680 She knows better. 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:54.000 If a youngster falls out of a tree and breaks an arm in six weeks, he's back in business. 00:27:54.160 --> 00:28:01.200 But if it happens to an older person, the recovery is not there. 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:12.319 They shall be afraid of that which is high. 00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:15.759 And the next phrase says, and fears shall be in the way. 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:21.200 As one gets older, the endocrine system loses its balance. 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:28.960 Especially the adrenal glands and all kinds of emotional disparities arise. 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:31.039 Fears. 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.359 Many of you know this. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.079 You were younger, you were daring. 00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:42.240 Now you're even afraid to drive the car to the store. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:45.200 And you wonder why. 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:51.039 The system is wearing out. 00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:54.240 Fears are in the way. 00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:56.079 And the almond tree shall flourish. 00:28:56.160 --> 00:28:58.000 That means the hair turns white. 00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:01.359 And with some men it turns loose. 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:15.039 Years ago, when I was preaching as a youngster after the sermon one night, an old man who was bald headed came up to me and he put his arm around me and said, You know, when I was young, I had waves in my hair, like you have. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.759 But he said, All I have left now is just the beach. 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:28.480 The almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper becomes heavy, becomes a burden. 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:32.880 Strength is gone. 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:37.359 You know the muscular system of the body is a beautiful miracle. 00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:40.799 Six hundred and forty some odd muscles in the body. 00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:47.759 Some are small, very small, like the ones in the eye, and some very large, like the muscle in the thigh, the sartorius muscle. 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:52.720 And uh all you do with muscles is just lengthen them and shorten them. 00:29:53.279 --> 00:30:06.000 All the creativity in human existence on the manual or physical level is based upon that binary expression of lengthening a muscle or shortening it. 00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:18.720 When a gifted surgeon performs a delicate operation, all he's doing with fingers and tips of fingers and parts of his hand is just shortening and lengthening muscles. 00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:27.359 Youngster kicks a football, runs a mile in less than four minutes, or plays a Beethoven concerto. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:31.519 All he's doing is just lengthening muscle and shortening it. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:38.319 But as one gets older, the neural connection between brain and muscle is impaired. 00:30:39.359 --> 00:30:45.359 And that function doesn't operate at optimum level. 00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:50.079 The grasshopper becomes a burden. 00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:56.319 Next phrase, desire shall fail, referring to the diminishing of sex. 00:30:57.680 --> 00:30:59.519 Desire shall fail. 00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:08.559 Because man goeth to his long home, see, death is coming, and the mourners go about the street. 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:12.480 Now he describes four categories of death. 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:14.559 Or ever the silver cord be loose, Dr. 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:17.519 Mo Winkle says that's referring to the spinal column. 00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:21.839 The Hebrews call the spinal column the silver cord, be loosed. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:23.599 Or the golden bowl be broken. 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:30.880 There's a picture of uh high blood pressure or strokes, or the inflammatory diseases of the brain like meningitis. 00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:34.400 Or the pitcher. 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:45.119 Broken at the fountain, the Hebrews call the heart the pitcher, heart attacks. 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:51.039 Or the wheel broken at the cistern, the next phrase says. 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:54.319 The Hebrews call the liver the wheel. 00:31:55.680 --> 00:31:57.599 One of the most important organs in the body. 00:31:57.680 --> 00:32:01.279 Did you know a hundred years ago we thought the liver had no function in the body? 00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:05.920 The physiologists, the scientists, thought that it was a leftover from the past. 00:32:06.319 --> 00:32:08.079 They called it vestigial. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:15.279 But now we've discovered the liver performs more than a hundred chemical functions in the body. 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:29.119 And next to the brain and the heart, the liver is one of the most important organs in the human symphony, in the human physiology. 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:39.119 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was. 00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:42.480 Now the show is over. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:45.200 Death has come. 00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:50.079 The dust returns to the earth. 00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:58.480 You know, when God made man from the dust of the earth, that's a very scientific statement. 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:05.200 The sixteen chemical elements in our body are in the ground beneath our feet. 00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:10.880 That's why we eat plants or the animals that ate the plant. 00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:19.759 Because they gather all of these ingredients that sustain human existence in our bodies. 00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:29.920 But the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit, look at the next phrase, the spirit returns to God who gave it. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:35.440 The spirit, not the body, because when you die, they put you in the ground to await the resurrection. 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:40.480 The mind, allied to the brain, is also in that category. 00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:45.200 But the real you, the spirit. 00:33:47.119 --> 00:33:51.119 Did you know when you become a child of God, God gives you a human spirit? 00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:53.599 Before you're saved, you're dichotomous. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:05.839 You have a body and a mind with a potential for a human spirit, but unfulfilled until you open the door of your life to God and say, Come in and take over. 00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:26.159 36 things transpire immediately in your system, in your spiritual life. 00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:27.840 Number one, you were born again. 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:29.280 Number two, you have eternal life. 00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:30.400 I can mention some of them. 00:34:30.559 --> 00:34:33.039 Number three, your name is written in heaven. 00:34:33.199 --> 00:34:34.800 Number four, you're an heir of God. 00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:36.719 Number five, you're a joint heir with Christ. 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:39.039 Number six, you're an ambassador of God. 00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:42.639 Number seven, you're a priest of God. 00:34:44.239 --> 00:34:49.679 Number eight, let's say it, you have a God gives you a human spirit. 00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:52.559 You see, before you're saved, you're dichotomous. 00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:58.239 You know, often we say glibly, man is made in the image of God, which means trichotomous. 00:34:58.320 --> 00:34:59.920 God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:01.599 But that's not true. 00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:06.800 Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. 00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:11.280 You and I are made in the image of fallen Adam and fallen Eve. 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:13.039 That's how we begin the trip. 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:19.840 But when you kneel at the foot of the cross, you become trichotomous. 00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:22.400 You receive a human spirit. 00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:26.719 That's why it says here that the spirit returns to God. 00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:29.920 Who gave it. 00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:30.960 When did he give it? 00:35:31.199 --> 00:35:32.480 When you got saved. 00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:38.719 That's why 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14 says, the natural man knoweth not the things of God. 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:46.079 The word natural there in the Greek is the word phukikos, which means we get our word psychology from that same root. 00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:55.599 Which means the soulish man, the man with a body and a mind, knoweth not the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. 00:35:56.719 --> 00:36:02.320 You see, and he doesn't have a human spirit until he gets saved. 00:36:02.800 --> 00:36:06.239 And along with the human spirit, God gives you the Holy Spirit. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:13.760 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, Romans 8:9, he is none of his. 00:36:15.519 --> 00:36:20.880 Alright, so therefore, when you die, the spirit, the real you returns to God who gave it. 00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:28.400 The body is placed in the ground to await the miracle of the resurrection. 00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:47.519 When God will resume the thirty trillion cells of your human system, wherever they are, and immortalize the body for an eternal existence in fellowship with God. 00:36:48.719 --> 00:36:52.079 So you see, the other writer is simply trying to say to us, here's the answer. 00:36:52.159 --> 00:36:55.440 And after trying for 11 chapters now, he's been trying everything. 00:36:55.519 --> 00:36:57.039 And now he says, Here's the answer. 00:36:57.199 --> 00:36:59.280 Let God take over in your life. 00:36:59.599 --> 00:37:15.760 And now, in closing, I want to give you a running resume of the other 11 chapters and show you the background to this beautiful, beautiful chapter or beautiful passage we have just exegeted for you here, where the writer is saying, Do it when you're young, open the door of your life to God. 00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:22.159 Don't wait until the keepers of the house shall tremble, the strong men bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few. 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:33.599 But right now, while the eye is clear and the cheek is red and the step is firm and the voice is strong, let God take over. 00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:40.639 Life is difficult and complex and full of potential. 00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:48.239