The sermon in the video focuses on the book of Ecclesiastes, which confronts the vanity of life and the gravity of death. The preacher emphasizes that there is nothing certain about life except for the certainty of death. He highlights four main points from Ecclesiastes: the vanity of life and the gravity of death, the agony of life and the ecstasy of death, the brevity of life and the certainty of death, and the blasphemy of life and the calamity of death. The preacher emphasizes the brevity of life and the need to acknowledge the certainty of death in order to plan and live differently.

Thank you, dear brother, for that prayer. I so deeply appreciate it. And I do thank you, again, for the privilege of being here with you. It has been a great joy to me, and in many ways I have been, I think, more blessed than anyone through the lives that I've come to speak to and become conscious of walking with God, young and old. And I am very, very grateful that God gave me this privilege to be here. I hope and pray that the Lord will spare us, and if he does, that somehow I might come back here and have more fellowship with you. I have been to America, I think, six times now, Canada twice, and I have been so privileged and so conscious that each time I've come, it is the godly of the godly of the godly that God allows me to preach to, and I am so conscious of it. I think if I was to go to other larger churches, perhaps, and liberal, my heart would break. And I think the Lord has had to protect me and only bring me to people who wouldn't break my heart. And I can tell you my heart has been lifted up being amongst you, dear folk. And I hope with all my heart, if God spares me and he wants to let me live longer in you, also that he will let me come back to this lovely place. Obviously, a lot of people travel the far way to come to these meetings, and we appreciate that. I, one after the other, was telling me how they get my wife's newsletter. I don't know how they ever got to do that. But she sends this out, small, humble little newsletter. If you look at the beautiful newsletters today, this really is shameful, isn't it? But she sends it out every couple of months, just with the report of where we've been, what I've been doing, and the program where I'm at now, all the different places. And many, many, many folks pray all over the world through this little letter Jenny sends out. She writes a poem on each newsletter. And we've had phone calls from across the waves, across the seas, from people who've said, well, I was giving up. The minister in Scotland phoned up and said I was packing my bags to leave God's service. I couldn't go on. I was so destroyed. And somehow someone handed me this little newsletter, and I read this poem. And I have never met with God in my life so profoundly as I did reading that poem. And I unpacked my bags, and I'm back in the pulpit. More fire than I've ever had in my life, just through a poem. So, pray for her, for her poetry. They put it on the radio, the Christian radio, and she reads it, and it's always printed in many Christian magazines and booklets, her poems. And, of course, she does share her poetry at different ladies' outreaches and special meetings, which has been very honored by God and the little newsletter. Anyway, that's where Jenny puts her poems, one after the other, as they come out. I'm not really a lover of poetry, but I can't wait for my wife's poems, you know. I've learned to love them. If you're a prayer warrior, you know what it is to groan for souls and for the world and for your nation. You know what it is to weep for revival to come back, and you're broken-hearted for your land and the world state, the church especially. If that is you, I would be so grateful if you would put your name down on a piece of paper and somehow get it to me or write to, oh, brother, I can leave someone a copy of this, and you just let us know, and we'd be privileged to send you a newsletter. Don't get it if you're not a prayer warrior. It'll just be a waste of paper, and it'll become a burden to you in the post. But if you weep for souls, and you groan for your nation in agony, for revival, I would be so privileged if you received the newsletter when Jenny sends it out, that you would be giving us an honor. So do think of that. I think quite a few of you do receive it. I don't know where you ever got the addresses and all from, but thank you for however you got to receive it. And thank you for your prayers, those of you that do pray for us. I think I would have been wiped out a thousand times if it hadn't been for all the prayers going up in many countries now, from the godliest of the godly. I'm very conscious of that. And I'd like to say one or two little thank yous with all the love I received in the home of the Coffmans and the kindnesses and the fellowship, which was very sweet, and the others I met up with when I was walking or just somehow standing outside of the building there and suddenly someone came along. Thank you for the fellowship. For the two little girls that did all this, this was precious. You made my night last night and the night before. You have no idea what that meant to me. I won't read you these words because they're too precious. And they were meant for me, weren't they? From Bethany, Bethany Ford. And from Elizabeth. Well, I'm taking this home to show my children and I'm excited to show them this. You won't believe what drew me, brother. I have different values to other people, but this really drew me, these little things from little girls. And bless them. Thank you to you both for doing that. And thank you for, well, each one of your prayers and each one of your testimonies this morning and standing up. I felt that was so encouraging to my heart, the way you stood and were willing to stand for some amazing things, to confess they were you. The one thing I didn't ask for people to stand up for, those who were broken and bruised wreaths and smoldering flaxes who came and knelt here weeping that first night. And I don't want you to stand this age with me, but I know there were people here who really trusted God to heal them and they thought their wound was incurable. I thank God for you and I trust God has begun a healing of these wounds from your seeking Him that night and trusting Him and putting your faith in Him, in Christ and in His promises. But bless you all, every one of you that met with God, that sought God with all your heart through these messages. It is worth coming across the world just to see people seeking God. I don't have a bank balance, you know. I wish I could explain that to you. It's safe. I've learned to pray, give us this day our daily bread. I don't know if you pray that from your heart, brother, but it's a wonderful way to live. I just look to God. But my bank balance is full of souls. That's the only thing I have any value attached to. In all honesty, oh, we do need material things, but my treasures are in heaven and I haven't ever attempted to make them on earth. Not once. I lay up treasures in heaven and I can't wait to get there to see how much did get to heaven, what I believed God was doing. I'll actually be stunned if anyone is missing. Now, some theologians won't like that statement. Am I a Calvinist? Am I a Minniest? Well, I've said that in some meetings before that send shockwaves through your country already. I better not shock you tonight. What I am, the best you don't know. And it's good you don't know. That means I'm a good... When you say good, I mean you teach correctly if nobody knows whether you're a Calvinist or a Minniest. Something wrong with you if they know you're a Calvinist, brother. And a Minniest. In half of the Bible you can't preach. You lose your liberty once you brand yourself to some group, you know. I refuse to do it. You can kick me out of the purpose. I think some of you have already in America. So long as you don't take away my right to have every liberty to preach on every single thing in this book without making myself some group. And with such conviction, just one thing, the soul is all that matters. Not doctrines. I'm not here to defend a doctrine. God forbid. Some people stand up and all they have compassion for is the doctrine they're defending. There's nothing cared for the soul. Brother, if you don't have one long throbbing thrust from your soul in half and you're in the pulpit just for souls. And people are conscious of that only. A Calvinist sitting wonderful. Is he a Calvinist? Is he a Minniest? That's all that matters. And you reach them all. No one gets truly offended, you see, if they're not too sure. They all come. You don't know what I'm talking about, some of you children, but you will know what the doctrines have split them, torn the church apart. They can't even allow you in their pulpit if you say one word wrong concerning their doctrine. Oh, God forbid. Anyway, I bless the dear Lord for all those Calvinists who are good and Minniest. And all those Minniest who embrace a lot of what Calvin taught. Anyway, if I don't stop now, you'll be really confused, okay? I have this terrible thing my wife says of going off on a tangent when you're tired and you never seem to get to the point. So I'm tired, okay? I love to see the reaction of doctors of theology. You know, they allowed me to speak once in a university, our largest. Oh, I better not tell you where it was. Anyway, they were mostly professors of theology and doctors of theology. And, well, by the time I finished that sermon, you should have seen that meeting. You wouldn't believe it, what I had to face at the door. But I thank the dear Lord with all my heart. The dean of the whole faculty came and he put his arms around me and sobbed. And he said, when I was young, I preached like you. But all this has robbed me of everything and I only found out tonight when I heard you. The whole dean, professor, I won't tell you his name. But I thank the dear Lord. You don't tremble with who you preach to, brother. You just preach what you are, whether you preach there in a varsity or anywhere else. Souls have one need, compassion. And if you give it to them, no matter who they are, they break. God's compassion, not yours. That's what you've got to prepare for. Well, thank you from my heart for all your prayers and your love. And if you do continue to pray for me, I'll be grateful. I do want to thank you for what was handed to me this morning from you as a congregation through, I think, what we'd call your treasurer and your pastor beside him. And I told him from my heart my reward was to stand here in your pulpit. That was all I wanted, that privilege. But if God has laid in your heart to do that, I thank you. And I accept it from God's hand. And I do thank you as a congregation for that which I know I can send back home and get my wife and children just surviving a little. And I know that it's just in the right moment and just the amount God knew I needed, and it came here. And I do thank you for that. God bless you from my heart. I think my dear wife will write the letters to you that I hope your pastor will read just to say thank you from us as a family ethically for what you've done. May God honor you for that from the depth of my heart I say it. But my true reward was to just preach here in your pulpit. Thank you for that. God bless you. Father, I do pray that thou will take thy word now. Thank you for the book of James that thy servant before I stood here read to us so from his heart and with such reverence. Thank you for every word we heard. Thank you for the Bible, Lord. What it means to us. How it stirs us and thrills us like nothing else on earth. Because God's voice is heard. And nothing means more to us daily than to know God speaks to me louder, more clearer than anyone else on earth. I hear his voice through this book. Thank you for that, Lord. Come, take thy word now in these closing moments of this little outreach and this series of meetings and just bless and break open thy word, Lord, in mercy. In Jesus Christ's name for his sake, amen. I was praying about what to preach tonight and I had so many different things going in my mind and the Lord almost surprised me in leading me in my heart and through one or two other things to bring to you, share to you what I have lectured on just before I left South Africa in one of the seminars there, the theological seminars that they asked me to preach on the book of Ecclesiastes. And I, of course, found myself not lecturing but preaching again and I'd like to just share with you not all that I gave them but very briefly some of the thoughts from this lovely book of Ecclesiastes. Just after Proverbs, we read Proverbs the other evening and then came Ecclesiastes by the same writer, same man, Solomon. Ecclesiastes, and if you read in the margin or under the title you'll find it means the preacher, teacher, the preacher. It's a sermon. If I was to give you the notes now it would be so different. Ecclesiastes is in essence a sermon delivered by the preacher. That's the name, the preacher, Ecclesiastes. The whole thing's a sermon. He tells us to consider in the sermon four things, the vanity of life and the gravity of death, the agony of life and the ecstasy of death, the brevity of life and the certainty of death, the blasphemy of life and the calamity of death. Well, you might listen to those four points given by this preacher in the Bible, the four things he preaches on, the four things that his whole sermon centers on, but I'd like to bring it a little bit more simplified than just the doctrines. Ecclesiastes, more than any other book in the Bible, confronts us with the vanity of life and the gravity of death. The vanity of life. There's nothing you can be sure of about life, you know. There's nothing certain about life. If you think about it, the only thing you can be certain about life is that you're going to die. Apart from that, you have no assurance of one thing, of sickness, health, riches or poverty. You don't know if tomorrow, if you're rich, you're going to lose everything in one moment. There's nothing in life that's certain. There's only one thing certain about life, and that is that you are going to die. And more than anything else, in the book of Ecclesiastes, he speaks of death. You will find every single, every single thought in the whole book of Ecclesiastes ends with this thought, you will die. That's all you know for sure, you will die. You will face death. If you take every thought in its context, as he's bringing them, you'll find this is the one thing he points you to, and makes you seek and prepare and change your whole life to be sure you can face this thing called death. He speaks of the vanity of life, and you find that he speaks of this term thirty-six times, just this term, the vanity of life, in this one book. The vanity of life is the first point I'd like to bring in, the gravity of death. The gravity of death. Death is a terrible gravity. You don't know when it's going to come. I was in a home the other day of a doctor, back home, a godly man, godly woman, and their son, who was at university, twenty years of age, decided he was coming home. So he was to surprise his parents, and he did everything to get home. Got off a bus, got into a taxi, trying to get home for this little weekend, surprising them. And in the taxi, wicked men just suddenly appeared and shot people. Many were killed, and that boy dead on the way home. Twenty years old, the gravity of death was so horrific, though they were godly, that their son was just taken away. With no thought he was ever going to be taken away so soon. With no thought that suddenly they didn't have a child. Death and its gravity when it comes. The gravity of death is spoken of in this book. It's a grave thing when death comes to whomever it comes. The first time I ever became conscious of the gravity of death was when I was five years old. I was five years of age, and I remember my uncle running into the door sobbing, this big man, and he was sobbing like a baby. And I peeped through to look through at this man sobbing as he took hold of my mother. And I heard my mother groaning and sobbing like I'd never heard my mother weep. I'd never seen my mother weep until then. And I stood trembling, and I listened. And he, trying to get the words out, told how my grandmother was coming to us with little clothing she had made for me and my brother. And just crossing the road before she came, a bicycle came out from nowhere and was in such speed that it hit her and she was stoned dead. And my uncle, who had just dropped her from that side of this bus that was there when she'd stepped out, he ran over and lifted her up and she was dead. And he ran over to us to tell us. And the gravity of death hit me. I remember standing at the grave as the coffin went down. I'd never seen a funeral. I'd never known what a funeral is. But as a five-year-old boy I stood there and watched this coffin going down and I, I saw the hurt as the coffin went down. It was like the most hurtful moment. It was like the last glimpse of even what was. Even though she's dead. And the hurting and the groaning at that grave. I looked at my mother as that coffin was lowered and she was like suffering. She was in pain. It was like she had been robbed of the things she had treasured in life. Her mother was just going. And all the grief that came in that home. The funeral was held in the Stillerwood Cemetery which is the largest cemetery in our city when I was a boy. It just goes over valleys and valleys. It's just not one stretch of gravestones. You can drive and you go down valleys and up and down other valleys. It's just gravestones. Hundreds of thousands of gravestones. And I knew that our home wasn't far so I ventured at the age of five days after her death to find where she had been buried. There was no stone yet. But I somehow at the age of five walked up over the hill into the cemetery all alone and stood beside her grave where I knew she was buried. Just sand still. And I began to speak earnestly to my granny as a five-year-old boy saying telling her what grief my mother was going through. Telling her what terrible grief and sorrow that had caused my mummy and my simplicity as a child of five. But then suddenly suddenly as a five-year-old boy something came upon me and I became conscious in one moment she's not there. She's not there. There's nothing there of granny. I don't know how God did that to a five-year-old boy reasoning grieving with his mother and trying to go to where I knew the body lay and my lack of understanding of what happens at death. She's not there. And I looked up as a five-year-old boy and I remember standing and suddenly opening my eyes to what I'd seen before but it never dawned on me. All these stones as far as my eye could see down the belly and something said to me they're not there. No one's there. Five years old and I looked up into the sky and I remember saying God where are they now? Where have you taken them? I remember saying as I looked up into the sky where have they gone? What happens after death? What happens when a person dies? Listen to what Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7 says. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was but the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. The spirit shall return unto God who gave it. You see the soul is eternal. Death doesn't end life. For eternity the soul lives. There is never to be a moment where a soul will ever end. At that terrible moment God says the dust will return to the earth as it was but the thing that was life the only thing that kept alive the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Then what? Then what? Well now come things that might hurt. I saw a man standing out there this morning who asked me about hell. He's probably here tonight. Then as I was talking and my coldness I wanted to move away and he said my brother is there. He died a few days ago. My brother is there and as cold as I was I stopped and my heart went out to know that your brother is there. What then? What happens when God takes the spirit? What happens to that spirit the moment God takes it? Listen to what God says in the light of the other scriptures. And then we'll come back to see it right here in this profound book. Oh He says in chapter 12 verse 14 God shall then bring every work into judgment. He's, yes just needs nothing else you know. Nothing. God shall then bring every work into judgment. Hebrews 9 verse 27 It's appointed unto men once to die. But after this judgment. God says that. No changing your mind. Nothing else to face. God says you have to die. There is a moment you must die. It doesn't take God by surprise when you die, sir. Whether you're one year old whether you're twenty years old whether you're fifty years old it is appointed. That means there's a moment. The hairs on your head are numbered. There's something profound about this great sovereign God. Doesn't make him guilty of things. Believe me. His sovereignty never made me look upon him as guilty because he's sovereign. Oh no not this God. He's not sarcastic in his sovereignty believe me. But I believe with all my heart that when God says it's appointed He knows now I cut off life. Now is the moment gone. It's appointed unto men once to die God says. But after this the judgment. 2 Thessalonians 1 Sorry Hebrews 9 verse 27 Revelation 20 verse 11 Revelation 20 verse 11 I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead I saw the dead small and great stand before God. Imagine that moment. That death wasn't the end Oh to men who lived and died and thought I live like I want to all life is this is what I want to do I land up six feet under the ground little wooden box that's all there was to it there's nothing more in life no thought further than a little wooden box no matter how I live that's it that's the end no imagine suddenly finding that isn't it I'm still alive do you know the profound thing about damnation is what Jesus said is that a man found himself after death able to feel he left behind his physical body he could see he could see what he had missed he could recognize people who made it safely to God and to safety and preparing to meet with God and here he was he could see what he had missed that must be the worst part of hell of all he could feel he could speak it didn't mean leaving behind the physical body he couldn't I am tormented in the flame send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his thing and want to touch my tongue I am tormented oh he could feel leaving behind your physical body doesn't mean you can't feel the smoke of their torment ascendeth up ever God says and ever God of love said Jesus the same God who said he takes the death for every man promises you it's forever the sorrow will never die the sorrow will never ever when you talk about a billion years brother that's nothing eternity will go on beyond that there is no end of eternity and God says the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever they have no peace day or night there is no ending to the soul the soul is eternal I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead small children and great grown-ups stand before God oh oh it wasn't the end I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things as written in the books according to their works and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast oh that word's horrible into the lake of fire brother the hands that will show you wounds that died for you it's a fearful thing to fall into those hands if you have not prepared to meet the living God it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God and they'll only be angry brother sister the souls who he died for that didn't want him but wanted sin even if it meant eternal damnation it's a fearful thing 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 8 he will return he will return in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God this is the God of love that tells us this he is love preach it loud and clear that you don't love anybody unless you tell him what he'll be if they haven't prepared to meet him when he returns he will return in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction God says man comes up to me and says boy you're wrong you need to get to know the Hebrew and the Greek before you go out and preach you're twisting things he said to me I said how? he said the word hell for instance like you find in your old King James that you're so fond of preaching from it has different meanings it has different meanings it's not all torment and you need to preach the truth I said to him sir go and get a pair of scissors he said why? I said I want you to cut out every verse I want to bring to you right now and I want you to give me the Greek and the Hebrew and the Greek and the Hebrew unless you're a liar says it's everlasting it will never cease and I started quoting and I said tell me the Hebrew sir tell me the Greek sir and I quoted on about 20 minutes later he was sobbing and walked away I said to him sir you have no right to carry that Bible back into your pulpit because you don't believe it cut out all the verses you don't believe in and are not willing to preach on and then walk back with very little but walk back with what you're willing to say you believe don't walk back with that book and say you represent God and I wept it's eternal the gravity of death sir there is nothing more grave than death there is nothing more of a gravity to think of that you would ever think of in life but death nothing is so grave than death the vanity of life the gravity of death terrible thing it's appointed unto men once to die but after this judgment don't doubt it God said it judgment judgment judgment judgment one moment after death you don't have to wait for the great white throne the moment after death you face terrible judgment what we call hell and only in the day of the white throne will hell all who have been in hell since they died from the moment they slipped and last breath came will find themselves all in hell been thrown to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death you know why God calls it the second death we call this death brother you don't know what death is until you know that it's eternal an eternal death God calls is the white the great lake lake that burneth with fire and brimstone that's what God calls the second death he can't think of another word to give it but death but it's eternal it's not a moment like we know it so he says it's the second death the true state where you're cut off from life in heaven but the soul never dies never dies the key passage to this whole book of Ecclesiastes and it's good to know the key passage of the book is chapter 3 a lovely chapter verse 1 to 8 is the key passage for everything centers around these words to everything there is a season oh look at the seasons here beautiful strong lovely trees but suddenly the leaves are dying beautiful then they're gone to everything there's a season not only trees to you sir your life to your baby to the old man that suddenly is taken away there's a season to everything there's a season a time to every purpose under heaven Solomon says there's a time to be born and a time to die there's a time to be born there's a time to die do you know that God is saying here there is a perfect time to die in his eyes for those who prepare to meet with him so precious so prepared is a man by God for death that God actually says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints it's precious the way you die you can be prepared by God for death in such a way that not only God but man even your loved ones will look and know this is precious that's how you can face death if you face it according to Solomon having prepared to meet with God that is not for judgment there's a time to be born and there's a time to die the verses that follow what God does in between birth and death how God prepares a man so that he lets go of life willingly if he's ready for God how does God prepare a man for death that becomes precious in the sight of the Lord how does God do that with us well, that's the next verses right up to verse 8 listen how God prepares the man this isn't just some poetic utterances of extreme opposites this is what God does to prepare you to let go of life, brother he slowly makes a man let go of this world and he knows just what to do just what to do don't doubt it now he knows just what to do we all come to a moment in our lives in which we become conscious we're prisoners of the earth and God knows how to make us do that well, what does God do to prepare us what happens between this birth and death that makes us ready for death in God's eyes well, listen to what God says time to plant there's a time to pluck up that which is planted you think this is talking of your little deeds it's time to kill you know what the word means of course you look at a margin of a good King James it's to wound there's a time to heal oh, God knows how to heal that which he wounds in the school of God but the wounds are necessary to make you lose all your confidence till you've got nothing but consciousness of grace God knows how to do that there's a time to break down and there's a time to build up there's a time to weep life with God, beloved God knows when to make you weep and how to make you weep and we weep in the school of God don't tell me you don't don't tell me you won't it'll come on all of you strong men sitting here look at the future you young people so bravely like there's nothing to fear well, there is nothing if you're right with God but you'll be weeping there'll be times to laugh there'll be times to mourn God knows there's times to dance there is joy I'm not saying become someone who's negative and self-destructive and everything's just horrible in this world you know, it's not so there's the times you laugh God gives you joy unspeakable and full of glory but to the same men you will have times when you will weep God will make you weep God will apply the wound do you heal? yes like He healed lots of you down here but do you know why you were wounded? do you know why? it wasn't just your mistake there's times we're wounded by people circumstances but they're allowed by God why? oh, to make you let go of this world, brother and realize this isn't where I want to spend eternity there's a time to cast away stones that you gathered, brother there's a time you let go of them and you cast them away God brings that out in your life, you know there's a time to embrace there's a time to refrain to leave there's a time to give there's a time to lose there's a time to keep there's a time to cast away there's a time to rend there's a time to tear there's a time to sow there's a time to keep silent there's a time to speak there's a time to love there's a time to hate there's a time of war there's a time of peace and all this is the preparation of God for death between birth and death what God does believe me what God does in wounding the soul that He lets go of life God knows how to make us let go of this world, you know and I'll share with you how this steps out and right through the sermon through the whole of Ecclesiastes He starts explaining what He says here how God allows these things that you land up casting away what you built, sir what you treasured letting go of it throwing some things away and the time will come in your life just like the time of death will come so these times will have to come in your preparation for death God knows how to make let us let go of one thing after the other and He touches on everything from your loved ones to anything you embraced in life whether it was achieving things I remember my wife's grandmother when I first met my darling wife I was taken to her family and there we all sat in this old farmhouse big, it must have had majesty in its day but it was not kept up perfectly and here was this dear soul Jenny's granny who loved God with every breath in her body Godly woman Godly Godly grandfather and I sat looking at this Godly woman and all the relations were there to have a good look at me by the way who was this man coming to their darling Jenny no man had ever never dared been near her wouldn't have got away with it here I was in the home meeting the family and the granny was sitting there and the conversations went about and the one daughter said but mummy how is it that mummy doesn't do anything with the house why don't you let us come and just rectify this and break that down we could look at what we could do over here why did you don't allow us to somehow get this place looking what it was when we were children we're willing let us come and let's think of this and this grandmother this grandmother looked up startled and she said no, no, no, no, no, no God's taken all that out of me long ago can you believe that God took it out with a flood there was a flood when Jenny's mother was a child about 400 people were washed away she woke up and she heard the rumbling as the dam had broken its walls and this wave came down others didn't wake up to survive in the hundreds and hundreds there's books written in our country about this tragedy and what happened there and she grabbed her children and started running screaming she didn't grab any belongings just her children praying and the water was rising she held them rising and rising she just made it to a cave up on the hill in the dark she just knew everyone everything was gone and she said as her daughter said those words God took all that out of me with the flood she says I have one thing now to lay up for myself treasures in heaven I have no treasures left on earth that I regard as treasures God took it right out of me God knows how to do that you know but a people who live for the beauty and the majesty of antique furniture and ornaments and what more can we do now you know God comes to a place you don't think that's what's been preached in the book of Ecclesiastes listen to this turn with me to chapter 2 to see what this man's speaking about look at verse 4 I made me great works oh here we are I builded me houses and Solomon did I planted me vineyards I made me gardens oh we all have that time in our lives of life you know when excitingly thinking this is all that we need great possessions great and small oh verse 8 I gathered me also silver and gold treasures oh but look let's skip all this and go to verse 11 then I looked and all the works that I had had wrought and the labor that I had labored to do behold suddenly it dawned on me some point of life it was all vanity and vexation of spirit the man who built a zeal the man who tried to just think this is everything gathered everything together as if this is all there was for eternity there comes a day brother this is not only this man that found this out you're going to find it out because God will bring you to let go of it all suddenly you'll see what he saw I looked at it all all that I had done and everything was vanity and vexation of spirit everything was vanity God knows how to let you go make you let go of material things God knows how to let you go and I'm not going to be able to go and all the things that you read through the book of Proverbs you'll be stunned five things that God makes you let go of and literally cast away that you once embraced and built and held on to as treasures oh God knows how to do that and he will don't doubt it don't doubt it don't you dare doubt it Ecclesiastes amazingly points to death now I'm coming straight to the point here otherwise you're going to be here all night he points to death as a deliverance a deliverance from this earth no one's talking about suicide here it's not God's way sir, lady don't you dare think of it no matter how hard things become in this world but Ecclesiastes amazingly points to death as deliverance God's moment of death for you God's way deliverance from the earth sufferings deliverance is quite a strong word to look at when you talk of death but look at chapter 4 verse 2 where for I praise the dead more than the living if I could just take you into the context of all that's been said here it's when God eventually makes you let go of this world I praise the dead more than the living which are yet alive verse chapter 7 verse 1 the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth there comes a point when we want to let go of life this man is saying we become more conscious with Job that we're prisoners of the earth we're prisoners of the earth now God knows how to do that I was with a godly woman her son is one of the most renowned theologians in my nation loved and revered and I was preaching in a town of Port Elfridge and here was this Mrs. Cook Professor Calvin Cook's darling mother who was a missionary herself for most of her life her and her husband in Africa and she sent a message while I was preaching and there was this message on the pulpit that I read from Mrs. Cook my heart is with you boy but my body can no longer make it to the meetings I have little time left but know my heart my spirit is there with you I'm praying for you try and visit me if you can so I went down to the hospital to the ward private ward walked in there and there was this godly old woman and greeted her sat beside and talked as she lay there in her prioty of joy in her eyes peace in her eyes with all her sickness and prioty and then I said can I pray for you before I go she said yes you pray for me so I prayed Lord bless her thank you for her Lord Lord if it be thy will thou canst heal her if she could leave the hospital and will thou not just heal her in mercy from these things that she's suffering and she said what so I opened my eyes you do not pray for me to be healed you stop now and say sorry to God can you believe a woman would say that to me I was so startled I began to tremble she said now you ask God to take me now I'm tired boy I have nothing left I've done my work and I'm suffering and I don't want it to go on now you ask God to take me now and you ask him with all your heart I'm going to say amen oh have you ever prayed for God to take someone now I can't tell you how shocked I was but I prayed it and she died three days later God took her wonderful woman oh there's a moment God somehow gets us in life if you're so prepared to meet with God brother you want to go you're longing you look upon earth as prisoners of the earth that comes upon us and God knows how to bring us to that point Job 3.21 those he speaks of those who suffer greatly which long for death God knows how to make you long for death you won't think that as a young person it's so far out of your view you think young people would never think that but do you know I wonder if the most young people on earth right now do you want to know how many millions have never had a meal in their life a real meal who their bones are hurting their skin do you know that how do you know what famine does in Ethiopia and Uganda and India do you know how many millions right now have never known anything from birth but a knife they say starvation for a child is like a knife is continually being plunged it's not that they just then it's the agony of like a cutting knife going in and out of you do you think that young people don't long for death in this world it's a terrible thought that but there are many young people not only in Ethiopia and these countries and their millions long for death you don't thank God you don't what life is there it's a gift hold on to it but you will come to a place young people like Job which longs for death but it cometh not who prays the grave when it appeareth oh when we're truly saved it comes the time that we are deeply conscious we're prisoners of the earth I was in a bedroom sitting on a bed in the winter it was so cold and there was Andrew Murray's great-great-grandchild sorry great-grandchild Opakruki young Andrew Murray one of the most loved young fellows in South Africa today and I he and I went around in suitcases you know all we had was suitcases in life and we just wanted to win the world for God oh what a holy life that young boy was I'm quite sure God if he spares him will find another Andrew Murray in him for my nation he is loved across our land something of this godly man's prayers are upon the third generation like we heard the other night well Andrew Murray and I were in this bedroom we had a day of rest or something and there was just this rain and bitter cold and I must be honest we were under the blankets we weren't on our knees it was so cold I had the Bible you know and he was in the other bed next to me and suddenly he shocked me he is the most down to earth person sincere but not hyper emotional and he started praising in a way that I've never heard in my life he just began to worship in a way I I couldn't believe he wasn't speaking in tongues by the way he just was worshipping in a way I couldn't I got out of bed I threw the blankets open I looked at him and he was tears flowing down his face a glow and his hands up and he was worshipping God he didn't know I was there anymore and in the end I I walked up and said Andrew what what happened what's happening to you I was worried and then he looked in shame when he realized that he had forgotten all about me I'm just reading the Bible I said what made you worship God like this he said oh Keith I'm just reading about heaven and he said it's just as well God tells us no more than he does because I don't think I could bear living on earth another day if God gave us any more insight when I've looked at what I looked at today there's nothing on earth to hold us back that I wouldn't want right now to be there Keith oh we know how to realize we're prisoners of earth only when we know there's something better for us waiting but oh we become conscious of it we become conscious we're prisoners of earth look at Romans 8 verse 21 brother staggering words Romans 8 verse 21 listen to these words of how we become conscious that we need to let go of this world as this makes us prisoners once we've glimpsed heaven every creature the creature itself shall be delivered from the bond into the corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and not only they but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption for the deliverance that is the redemption the redemption of the body God knows how to get you to that place brother where you groan Paul wrote it clearly there's a deliverance from this earth thank God imagine if we were living here forever imagine if this was eternity we really would be in trouble thank God we don't have life forever but we come to a place where we groan waiting longing for this deliverance the redemption of our body but if we're not saved that's something different then death is to be feared I've seen it even if we're suffering oh to see a man who I remember an old song from America I don't know if you remember but as a boy heard it in my home when this old negro sang I'm tired of living but scared of dying if you're not saved doesn't matter how weary you are in life you'll be scared of death only if you're conscious of a better place of this place become a place to escape I remember standing watching a man a while back with pipes in him with emphysema and problems all over his body and he was suffocating and he was in agony not just a little bit every breath caused him pain he groaned he cried he suffocated but you know he wouldn't let go of life that's all he had of life he wouldn't let go it's a terrible thing this thing called death if you're not saved and then someone some godly person walked up to him whispering in his ear about Jesus some godly person started calling him why don't you just get right with God you know the way what makes you not get right with God let me pray with you and he prayed and the man prayed a word and at a time suffering for Jesus' blood to cleanse him that hell and I don't know how God gave him the witness of the spirit but within moments you know that man who was clinging to life said take me God take me now he wanted to let go of the moment he was prepared to meet with God and he knew and you know we know we've passed from death unto life beloved John says so he knew oh death is to be feared even if we're suffering if we're not saved but the moment we're saved we want to let go of it if we're suffering these things make us want to let go desperately and groan please God deliver me do you know how many millions do that right now is the vanity of life is the gravity of death is the agony of life and the ecstasy of death the ecstasy of death oh the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth if you're ready to meet with God and then Ecclesiastes shows us the brevity of life and the certainty of death how soft life is how certain one thing is death comes swiftly chapter 8 verse 12 to 13 Ecclesiastes tells us 8 verse 12 to 13 oh it comes in verse 13 and talks of your days even if they're prolonged like a shadow just a shadow Psalm 90 verse 10 the days of our years the three score and ten if by reason of strength they become four score years 80 well there's only labor and sorrow in them but soon gone and we fly away God says chapter 11 verse 8 if a man lives a little bit longer don't rejoice just notice the days of darkness will be many if you die without God those few verses around there I wish I could quote them all right now I haven't got time I remember reading through the Bible the first time and becoming conscious of the brevity of life and all through Ecclesiastes this is his third great point that he goes right through the book saying it's brief it's a moment it's a shadow seek God now before suddenly it's gone where all you can look back on the brevity of life are things you're going to grieve at and it's going to be gone in a moment he cries out almost every page you just see it crying out chapter upon chapter the brevity of life James chapter 4 verse 13 go to now either say today or tomorrow you're going to such a city and continue there a year and buy it and sell and get gain where is he known of what shall be on the morrow but what is your life it is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away for that he ought to say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that don't be confident about anything James says your life is like a little shadow that vanishes away you can't plan anything unless you say if God spurs me another day I might be able to do that plan it with that in mind and you'll plan differently let me tell you cause death is all that looms death is all you have certainty about the brevity of life the certainty of death James 1 verse 9 let the brother of law agree the poor let the brother of law agree rejoice in that he is exalted but the rich in that he is made low because of the flower of the grass he shall pass away for the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withers the grass and the flower thereof the beauty of it vanishes away so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways just suddenly it's gone suddenly it's gone Proverbs 20 verse 29 says the glory of young men is their strength that's true you want to see my sons it's not sin the glory of young men is their strength God says the beauty of old men is the grey hair God says I don't know I haven't got too far with it so but God says the glory of young men is their strength you want to see my one boy he's 18 years old we've got a mountain that most mountaineers walk up and they respect themselves for getting to the top my boy runs from the bottom to the top I've never seen strength like it he's amazing but he's he glories in it you know oh the fact that he can run up that mountain I don't say you're sinning you're proud just a moment just a moment that's what young people glory in God says my other boys are just oh Roy you want to see him run like the wind and he glories in it that he passes everybody in sight some don't even see him coming he's just gone he's so wonderful the way he floats through the air when others are popping and panting and almost crawling I can't believe it but the glory and you see it in my boys the glory of young men is their strength of the beauty of old men is the grey hair but there's just one moment between those two things it's a moment called life it was amazing I've been saved 32 years you know and I'm not exaggerating it is so fast that honestly it seems like a month ago not a year a month just went suddenly by it is so fast this thing called life it's a moment the little bit of lift of life is going to be a moment that's why I'm playing with both hands and I don't want to lose any opportunity because I know it's going to be gone in one moment I've seen men who were bold and confident they were so bold and strong and confident that they were revered just through their strength in the work of God the next moment I looked at them and they were frail just a moment I remember looking at these men who just a moment ago we trembled at as Mr Engelbrecht one of our leaders he turned to us when we were young and said you don't say you're tired when you're a missionary a man doesn't talk about tiredness men women do that now go and work there's no such thing as tired I don't believe you he was godly but he spoke like that to us boys when we were missionaries you couldn't get tired when Mr Engelbrecht was around suddenly you realized you weren't tired with such strength with this bold man nobody nobody argued with him he was strong he was a leader and he was revered and loved by the young fellows who all wanted to be like him do you know suddenly I think it was about three times ago when I came to America about three times ago and I was about to leave and he travelled far and he walked in the door and he said I wanted to find you Keith I just wanted to pray for you before you go God will be with you boy but I looked and walked through the door and he took my breath away suddenly this strong man was just frail weak all that confidence was gone all that strongness was gone there was just tenderness in his every word he had nothing of fight in him nothing of solidness nothing of confidence there was just I looked at him and there was this beauty written across his whole frailty and the first I thought as I looked at him was the next step you take you are ready to take him to heaven you are so prepared for heaven I couldn't have said that about him when he was serving God as a strong man it didn't occur to me heaven but I looked at him and suddenly I saw God had made this man in a moment just a moment in my life ready and do you know he died that night God brought him to me showed him to me and I thought the next step you are going to take you are ready to take him to heaven and the next step virtually he took was into heaven he was so ready to meet with God I met a man in France in our country this fellow Afrikaans speaking was so feared because he knew the Bible backward you couldn't argue doctrine and there he was and he would he would wipe the floor with you if you dared to challenge the doctrines he was strong he was a student of the word he was an authority and he was a character he didn't bow he dominated the conversation do you know what it was about I think nine months later I went to another town and a man walked through the door that I stood up as this frail man walked through the door and I didn't know it was the same man he had no argument in a few months God had taken all his argument and he was no one knew God was going to do a fast work to prepare him for heaven for days after I saw him he was gone and the same thought came when I realized who it is I trembled that such work could be done so fast by God that all I could think and the only thought I could think was all I thought of Mr. Engelbrecht this man's next step is ready for heaven just a step into heaven all the fight was gone out of him all the boldness all the confidence he sat there no argument didn't want to dominate didn't want to challenge anybody didn't want he just sat listening nothing in him left to fight and I looked at this man how God can swiftly just take everything out of you brother and he does he does and so we looked at these amazing things that God speaks of in Ecclesiastes you find them in every chapter these three things just again and again all just pointing to you the brevity of life the certainty of death this one thing so sordid the certainty of death is coming and it's coming fast it's coming fast no matter who you are the last thing the blasphemy of life and the calamity of death I'd like to bring all the scriptures of Ecclesiastes of those who live in blasphemy that Solomon speaks of whose lives are wicked and against God and brazenly against God in the defiance of all that God demands of their lives the blasphemy of life and the calamity anyone who lives in blasphemy of life will face death as a calamity death will be a terrible calamity I talk of blasphemy you know I know a man who stood on a stage in a theater and he said these words there is no God and he laughed scornfully he said something about religious fanatics you know weaklings people who need a prop but there's no such a thing as God scientists proved it and then he said these words if there's a God let him strike me dead now and you know right then and this sent shockwaves through that nation right then one split second after he said it lightning came through that window right onto that stage and he burned to one cinder there was just smoke don't play the fool with God be careful be careful death is a calamity to those who live in blasphemy to everyone who lives in blasphemy Voltaire was the one who turned more people in the intellectual age of Europe when intellect meant more than royalty and you got into palaces for those of you who had an intellectual mind Voltaire wrote volumes against this book he read through the Bible 26 times did you know that and went to hell he read through it carefully seeking how to disprove that this was divinely inspired where there was any contradictions that just found one contradiction it proved dead if you can find one mistake in this book it can't be divinely inspired and all the things he found the arguments that only because it is dark in mind he couldn't understand what God was saying brother there is no such a thing as a contradiction in this book let me tell you not once you get through it and go through it your contradictions become blessings in the end you see what God is saying but here was Voltaire writing volumes turning literally millions to this day had Voltaire instead of the Bible on their shelves the intellectual of him to this day he's the hero of intellectualism and the academic not Darwin Darwin got saved thank God and said all that he professed was garbage you know that I wish you'd tell that to the professors and the teachers who tell you that Darwin's theory was basically how we came from apes you know you want your father to be a baboon fine but don't tell me mine is I was created in the image of God if you want to stoop to that and think that's wonderful and fight for it fine I pity you though and I certainly don't want to say I came from a baboon I said that in the university years ago you should have seen them all arguments stopped well Voltaire here with all his blasphemy and all the billions that were turned and still are turning against God with all his arguments careful arguments calculated arguments of the intellect do you know when Voltaire died he died with a nurse others were watching it wasn't a mistake but the nurse that was saved was in there and she said Voltaire died the worst death she ever saw in her life as a nurse he died in such torment and he screamed to the God who he claimed didn't exist forgive me have mercy on me God forgive me in torment she said such as you cannot believe a man was in you talk of being an atheist do you my uncle said to me in the war that every single man that spoke of being an atheist without exception every single one that he watched dying crying out to God for forgiveness you think men are atheists do you watch them at their death watch the most brazen as they suddenly face death and calamity and they always do when they're atheists when they live a lie until they have to let go of life the blasphemy of life and the calamity of death oh it's just been all over the book of Ecclesiastes I'm not going to take the time to read all the verses because I just know we can't do this I took a whole lecture here to put in the sermon and I'm trying so hard to do it so hard to do it death can be the last enemy the Bible says don't be brazen about this it's not just all like Mrs. Cook you know please you pray for God to take me to some in deep suffering I was with a man just days before I flew here to America that they took me to and he said oh sir I've I've heard all your messages for years and I've seen your videos and I'm so grateful you came to the hospital I didn't know God would ever let you come he said I am dying he says you know I don't fear death he said I'm just so scared that with all the pain I might deny God I'm in such pain don't pray for God to hear me just pray God don't let him deny thee I'm so scared I'm going to deny God I don't I don't want to hold on to life but this pain death is the last enemy the Bible says even to Godly it's not easy to suffer excruciating pain such pain as you cannot begin to imagine can go in the body even if someone's saved why God allows it I don't know but I do know this I prayed for him and peace that passes all understanding flooded him and they say he died praising a few hours later I couldn't be there to go and preach and my daddy died oh I so loved my father God gave me a dream I know I'm so scared of dreams let me tell you most people who come with visions and dreams are not going to heaven they're going to hell most people that came to me with dreams that they say were from God I said when were you saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost witnessed that you were born again and you're not going to hell they say what's that and I say your dreams are not from God they have nothing to do with God and your visions lady but I had a dream when my father died I woke up with this vivid dream and I normally forget seconds later after I wake I don't remember dreams but this dream I sat up I was startled and too tripped I was totally awake at the vivid reality of the angels taking a soul and sweeping into this bright light and I woke up and what is this and I was weeping I said but God I don't dream this what is this I don't dream like this and I reached for the Bible and fear because I fear dreams and I opened the Bible at random anywhere the tears were just flowing from my face and I fell on here the verse where Jesus talks of the angels being the heavenly pallbearers you know and escorting the soul from the body at the moment of death and I knew as I read that verse it was God I just swung open to another page and the same verse in another of the gospels and I knew it was God and they phoned within hours about three hours that your daddy is dying I flew down and I sat there oh I had failed him much in life but I was determined I wasn't going to fail him the last opportunity God was giving me I sat there for hours and hours through the night I wanted to be there every moment he woke up just to say you're not alone I'm here I'm here daddy and pray for him and sing and hymns and I began to argue with God when I saw daddy begin to suffer this godly man why God why didn't I not take him please God just take him I go on pain suffering I know he's going now why let it go on and God whispered in my heart and flooded me with pieces and seconds and he said Keith trust me even to the moment I take a soul I want you to trust that I'm perfect that I am perfect even to the way a man does even to the moment I take him when he's mine trust me don't doubt me don't argue and within seconds I was saying to God as peace flooded me like a wave oh God forgive me I don't care if I stay here for a few days watching you I won't question me again I'm just gonna be here it might be an enemy but don't doubt God's ways now don't doubt the perfectness of God don't even question why it's God it's God he comes to the appeal you know every sermon has an appeal if it hasn't then there's something wrong with you go in the book of James that you quoted brother you want to hear the appeal that man makes you've got to act now and he tells you to do it now and what to do step by step don't tell me there's no such a thing as appeals and so this sermon of Ecclesiastes ends in the last chapter with an appeal that's all it is listen to the appeal you want to know how to make an appeal young preacher well here's how he makes his appeal after all he says remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not just remember now thy creator is seek God now literally did you know that seek God now in the days of thy youth while you're young before the evil days come yours do and I when you would say I have no pleasure in them don't let life this brief thing called life suddenly be gone and you've wasted it on things that didn't matter on things in the end you threw out don't waste it seek God now point him while you're young oh what an appeal the whole thing before you face death and judgment before it comes on you verse 5 I won't read all the verses it all points to this terrible thing of death before desires pale because man goes to his home and no one has gone by the streets the code of life is cut off the dust will return to the earth because it wasn't the spirit will be taken back to God and then he comes and says in verse 30 let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter everything I preached on dear God keep his commandments this is the whole duty of man for God so bring every work into judgment don't doubt that now with every secret thing in your life whether it was good or evil it's coming fast what an appeal from a faithful preacher from a faithful preacher I know you don't have what we call solo singing of hymns well forgive this poor man with his weak voice the song they made in America I believe the negroes but something I did to ask God to make reverent and sanctified for it really spoke to my heart when I heard it I heard it as an unsaved boy when I was saved and I picked up the words I began to sing them from my heart this world is not my home I'm only passing through my treasures I've laid up there beyond the blue the angels wait for me at heaven's open door oh I can't feel at home in this world anymore oh Lord I know I have no friend like you and if heaven's not my home oh God what shall I do for the angels beckon me from heaven's open door oh I can't feel at home in this world anymore loved ones wait for me in glory land and I don't expect to start until I take their hand they wait for me right now at heaven's open door so I can't feel at home in this world anymore and there in glory land we'll live eternally the saints on every hand will sing of victory the songs of sweetest praise just back from heaven's door oh I don't feel at home in this world anymore can we stand please I have greeted numbers of you I'm going to stand at that door to those I haven't greeted that just want to say goodbye I don't blame you if you don't go through the door but through the side doors if you're late you don't need to say goodbye to me but just in case so I can be ethical to those of you that would just say goodbye if most of you do will you just say goodbye God bless you otherwise we'll be here all night but it would be a joy to take the hands of those of you that just want to say goodnight please pray for me trust me about this like Paul it's better if he takes me now I won't hesitate to grab his hand but if he wants to spare me for a purpose I'm willing to stay and pour my soul out for him on earth even if it's just for a few more days but I'm not at home in this world anymore even amongst so many of God's people I just look at them and I say oh God I'm a total stranger I'd love to go home I think I say that daily but I'm not negative I have great joy in serving God but all this isn't our home brother whatever comes on you sister young girl it's just God saying let go of this world let go and I'll take you when you finally let go of everything I'll just take you into heaven trusting nothing will come in your life that isn't the preparation for heaven nothing even the good things brother will you come and pray for us please our dear father in heaven we praise you and we thank you that you are the God of all over all and Lord as we heard tonight the frailty of life our mind goes to the words if life is a joke then death is a calamity and Lord we know that we may live some of us may live to be 80, 90 years old and even more perhaps but we know that it is still a vapor that vanishes away perhaps some of us tonight will never again meet perhaps there is someone here tonight that will not see tomorrow we do not know but father I pray that each one tonight would make that would make their calling in election sure that they would not pass from this place Lord if they are not ready to go until they are ready father I pray that you would bless brother Keith and his family oh God I pray that you would build a hedge round about them you would protect them from the evil you would protect them from the evil one and Lord you would increase their faith and strengthen them especially father I pray even at this very moment that you would descend into his home in a wonderful way and you would embrace and strengthen his wife as she is at home with the boys bless her father for her willing to sacrifice for her willing to let her husband go and to support him and to believe it right father I pray that you would increase her faith and strengthen her even more and bless the boys though I have never seen them yet Lord I pray for Noah and I pray for Roy and for Samuel Lord oh God minister to them that they would continue to search and seek God that they would be those godly men lifting up the banner of truth being strong soldiers of the cross bless Keith father bless him with strength physical spiritual that he could continue to be that soldier that vessel that is in your hands oh Lord work through his life work through his sermons and father may each one of us as we heard this evening not be forgetful hearers but doers of the word even as we heard it this weekend father dismiss us with your presence with your blessing and Lord may each one of us as we go to our homes recognize that we are more responsible than what we had been and Lord may we in faith look to Jesus Christ and claim the blood be washed through and through with that blood and experience that full deliverance and the joy of the Lord each day of our lives and God I pray in Jesus name should you tarry that you would again allow us to meet Keith someday and perhaps we can again worship together for your glory and for your praise I pray these things in the wonderful name of Jesus our Lord our only hope Amen