Thank you. We welcome you to the service
this morning. We invite you to turn to hymn number 18, Thou
the God who changes never. Let's stand as we sing. Our Lord's glory is thine own. Yes, her day to death o'er us
is ending, upon the throne. Thine own was our day, thy grace
is worthy. Thou who didst give life to me,
grace my soul to thee. ? By justice has set me free ?
? Thou alone, O Queen, enthroned me ? ? Bringing with Thee many
sorrows ? ? Save my grace, I now implore Thee ? ? Show me no more
thou hast won ? Thank you, may we be seated as
we take our bulletin hymn. And it's sung to the tune of
According to Thy Gracious Word. For anyone who lives on MPH and
the floor, he serves our people. His words are God and He alone,
the God of all creation. ? Sets all his people free ? ?
He saves our God and he alone ? ? His master now remains ?
? He gives eternal life ? ? In Christ and God his spirit sings
? It is good to see you in the
House of the Lord today. As you know, Brother Gary and Sheila
are out of town down in Florida, so remember them in prayer as
they travel back sometime this week. Also remember those that
we recall that are sick, especially for Jewel, as she continues her
recovery with her foot surgery. For Roger and for many others
that are sick, we pray for them and ask that the Lord heal in
accordance with His will. If you will look in Ecclesiastes
this morning, Ecclesiastes 3. We'll read just a short portion
of what we'll talk about today. In verses 14, it says, I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can
be put to it, nor anything taken away from it. And God doeth it
that man should fear before him. which hath been is now, and that
which is to be hath already been. And God required that which is
past. Let's bow our hearts in just
a word of prayer. Heavenly Fathers, we come to you just now, we are
thankful, Lord, for the time that we have to come to worship
thee. We pray that our hearts and minds will be open unto thy
word, and that we may learn from these scriptures, Lord, that
you have taught in your word, even in the Old Testament, Lord,
You teach each and every day. We do pray, Lord, just now for
those that we have mentioned, Lord. We pray, Lord, that you
will answer prayer in accordance with thy will. We do ask, Lord,
just now for all those that preach the gospel this morning. We ask,
Lord, that you will bless them in their services. May the ears
of their congregations be open to thy word. May we receive it,
Lord, and use it and be blessed by it. We're thankful, Lord,
for all that you do for us. We're thankful for the way that
you truly are a sovereign God. the way that you take care of
us, the way that you look after us, the way that you bless us.
We're thankful, Lord, that you called us unto yourself, that
you chose us before the very beginning of time, and we're
thankful, Lord, for all these special blessings, but most of
all, Lord, we're thankful for thy precious Son. In his blessed
name we pray, amen. Our next song is hymn number
16. Just a couple pages back. To
God be the glory. than Brother Tim, if you'll wait
on the congregation. Oh O come, O come, O come, O come,
O come, O come, O come, to Bethlehem. The perfect redemption, the purchase
of God. To every believer, a promise
to follow. A promise to render, a truth
to believe. Jesus, our Lord and Messiah. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people O come, O come, O come, O come,
O come, O come, O come, O come, to Bethlehem. Lord, praise the Lord. To God be glory. The victory is won. All praise to God. has only begun. And Hendrix, remember, will join
with the dawn, and praise him forever in jubilant song. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the angels
roar! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice! O Father, Father, give Jesus
a son, and make him noble in things he hath done. So, you Oh, for a thousand times to sing
Blessed be the name of the Lord The glories of my God and King
Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be the name,
oh blessed be the name Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus,
the name that charms our fears Blessed be the name of the Lord
The music in the sinner's ears Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be the name, oh blessed be the name, blessed be the name
of the Lord. Blessed be the name, oh blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. He breaks the power of cancelled
sin, blessed be the name of the Lord. Yet what can make the foulest
claim, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name,
oh blessed be the name, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, oh blessed
be the name, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Purposed in Christ before the
world began Blessed be the name of the Lord To save my wicked
soul from sin Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be the
name, oh blessed be the name Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be the name, oh blessed be the name Blessed be the name
of the Lord Thank you, Brother Bill. We will go back to Ecclesiastes
3. When I started working on this
particular topic, I didn't realize that the day was Time Change
Day. I won't give you my take on time
change. As Janice knows, I don't like
it at all. I have friends that like it, so that's okay. But
when we think about it, man thinks that he's in charge of everything,
that he can change time and that'll work, but actually not in God's
time. As we look at today's topic,
in sovereign God's time, the sun rises every day and the sun
sets every day. even though man would never admit
to it, he bases his very keeping up with days and time of days
on the advent and the death of the Savior. But yet man thinks
that he's in charge. But as Ecclesiastes 3, 1 tells
us, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under
the heaven. When we think about the person
who authored this book, who by God's sovereign hand laid the
words upon his heart. As he had spoken of in previous
chapters in this book, he spoke of the vanities of man and all
that man does for himself and all the gains he makes in the
flesh and all that he has in this world is for nothing. He wants us to understand here
in these verses what he has learned the hard way, is that unless
the actions of man has an eternal value, then it goes no further
than man's earthly sojourn. Here was a man that had everything
one could imagine. He had all the latest and the
greatest for his time, There was nothing that the world had
to offer that he could not obtain. Yet in it, he found no happiness.
There was no peace of mind. There was no comfort or no satisfaction. And from the world's standpoint,
one would find it hard to believe that Solomon was not a happy
or satisfied man in these things that he had. For he had wisdom,
he had riches, he had property, he had food, he had drink, he
had buildings, He had kingdoms, he had women, there was nothing
that he could not have, yet he states that none of this brought
him happiness. He states here that to everything
there is a season, that God in his sovereignty has appointed
a time for each and every occurrence on this earth and for each and
every person on this earth. Sinful man would argue the point
because in his pride he believed that man can change the plan
and purpose of God himself. He believes that he is in charge
of his own destiny and that God can have nothing to do with it
and the only time that he needs God if he gets in trouble. He
calls upon him for help. He calls upon him for wealth.
And only then we find most of the time this is his last resort.
But we know, those of us who are believers know that God is
the one who sets the timetable. Whether we speak of nations,
or governments, or individual man himself, man does everything
in his power to change that, but it is set before the world
was ever made. Solomon said the world we live
in, a world of changes. Do we accept those changes as
being acts of God, or do we believe that we can alter them in our
own ability? We're to understand that every
change that we experience is fixed and determined by God himself
and certainly not in ourselves. He is supreme. He is sovereign
in all these things. We must understand that his acts
are unalterable. They can't be changed. That God
is not going to change his mind. He is not going to change his
method. He is not going to change his gospel, no matter what man
may think. He is not a source that can be
negotiated with. What he has set forth is set
forth in stone and cannot and will not be changed. Because
if that were so, then he wouldn't be God. How often we hear the
statement that God didn't mean that, or that is not fair. Yes, he did mean it if he said
it and he promised it. and God does not have to be fair.
He is the almighty sovereign. This is His world, and He does
with it as He pleases. He has to be just, and He has
to be the same. He is the very definition of
the word consistent. He has to be true to His word,
or He cannot be God that He has promised He would be. God has
set everything in turn. Chaotic, God views them as exactly
as He has set them in place. He has set day and night. He
has set summer and winter. He has set all those things that
we view today. And understanding this, Solomon
came to realize what was most important. If God is in charge
of all these great and wondrous things, then why, as mere man,
do I not think that God What God has called upon me to do
is not important. As men, we have, as sinful man,
we have the cart before the horse. Man in false religion sees his
pleasure and fulfillment come first. If there's anything left
over, then maybe we'll throw a few scraps to God. Solomon
understood it the other way. Solomon understood it the way
that we must understand it. that there is no pleasure and
fulfillment in what man can do on his own. It is all temporal,
it has no value whatsoever, and when death knocks on our door,
it's gone. The writer here shows how that
God is in complete and total control of all things, of all
creation, of all man, of everything, and that no matter the thoughts
and intents of man, he does not change matters One bit. So we
look at that second verse, it says, a time to be born and a
time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which
is planted. It says a time to be born and
a time to die. God has determined when man is
born. Each and every individual's human
life beginning has been determined by God. Man does not set his
own birthday. He does not pick into what generation
or in what circumstance he is born. He does not choose his
parents. He does not pick his ancestry
or family. He does not pick his economic
status. He does not pick his race or
his creed under which he is born. Christ's own words to us speaks
of the process of the birth of man. John 16, 21 tells us a woman,
when she is in travail, has sorrow. because her hour is come. But
as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no
more the anguish for joy that man is born into the world. God
in his sovereignty has determined this even before the beginning
of man upon the earth, before the creation of Adam, before
the first child was ever born upon this earth. Note that the
time to live here is not mentioned by Solomon. He didn't say a time
to be born, a time to live, and a time to die, because in his
thinking and in what God laid upon his heart, that time to
live is so brief compared with eternity that he mentions the
very advent and the exit from this world is what marks his
stay. As soon as we are born, we begin
a process, and that process is of dying. The day we take our
first breath, it begins our journey to our last breath. This is true for each and every
one of us as soon as we are born. It's just a matter of time. Time
that is set by God, time not set by us. As Job 14, 13 tells
us, O thou wouldst hidest me in the grave, that thou wouldst
keep me secret until thy wrath be passed, and thou wouldst appoint
me a set of time, and remember me. Certainly, I don't know if
you do, I do, read the obituaries every day. You see people of
varied ages, from inference to 100 plus years who die. It is
not determined by us. It is not, despite what we think,
determined by doctors, or medications, or health care, or exercise,
and is often heard as taking care of oneself. It is determined
by our sovereign God. It is set in His particular time. Solomon is conveying here that
we are to live life As saints of God, in looking to eternity,
and not looking at the present, as saints, how important it is
for us to keep first and foremost in our hearts and our minds that
we have no idea when death will come. It may be a matter of minutes,
it may be a matter of years, but we can be assured that unless
God raptures His church before, we will die. As Hebrews 9, 27
says, and it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. Our heart will cease to beat.
Our lungs will stop processing air. Our brain will discontinue
all functions. As far as the body is concerned,
this is true. But Solomon states that the most
important is that our soul will live on forever. This is the
important thing. What are we doing as we traverse
toward this transition? Totally involved in the things
around us? Are we totally involved in what
other people are doing? Are we totally involved in the
things of the earth or our hearts on things eternal? Is what we
do vanity, as the writer speaks so much about, or is it valid? Only eternal things are valid. We can, as Solomon, accumulate
all the world has to offer, but it will do nothing for our eternal
well-being. Not only in man's case, but in
the very son of God, he came and was born, and he came to
die. He came forth as a babe into
this world, that his redemptive plan for all of his own would
be fulfilled. It could not be any other way.
This perfect sacrifice could only be accomplished in that
he be both God and man. Therefore, he was born as a babe,
just as each and every one of us. And so it was that very familiar
scripture in Luke. And so it was that while they
were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she bought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for
them in the end. Our Lord sojourned on this earth,
just as you and I. Then according to God's plan,
he had to die. Die as each and every one of
us will if he tarry. Only he chose when to die, and
he chose why to die. When all human life ceased to
function in his body, only after he paid the price of each and
every one of his chosen. By taking their sin upon himself,
and he proved that with his words when he spoke his prayer to his
father, there in Matthew 27, and about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, my God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken
me? That's proof positive in that
God the Father could not look upon the sins. There had to be
a mediator. There had to be one that could
bear the sins. And only Christ met that criteria. And he bore for each and every
one of us. And then he died, just as you
and I will. His breast stopped. His heart
stopped. His blood came to a standstill
till he was pierced by that soldier. in accordance with God's word.
The distinct difference was he commanded it. It was his words
that brought on his death. As John 19 tells us, when Jesus,
therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And
he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. And then that verse
tells us there's a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which
is planted. In this, we see the sovereign
hand of God dealing with nations. And Acts 17 26 tells us, and
have made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face
of the earth and determine the times before appointed and bounds
of their habitation. God is in charge of time. Considering When He planted His
chosen people in the land of Canaan, look what happened to
those people that were there. He plucked them all out that
were currently resigning there, that His promise to His people
be kept, that His plan be carried out. God is completely in control
of all nations. We don't believe that today in
the world today. All you got to do is listen to
the media. He controls kings. He controls powers that be. It
is He that puts in power and it is He that takes people out
of power. It is God that raises nations up and it is God that
takes nations down. As Jeremiah 18 tells us, at what
instance I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom
to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it. At what instance
I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build
and to plant it. We see this also. in the eternal
plan of man. There is a time in our lives
as we serve the Savior that we are to plan, a time to sow, that
is each and every day, to go forth in his service, to render
unto him what he has commanded us to do, to preach the gospel,
unadulterated, not anything from man, but exactly what he has
said, not in what man believes in pressuring people to do good,
to walk the aisles, to make a decision, but to preach the crucified Christ. These are eternal things for
all men. As one of his elect, we are to
be planting the gospel. Our time in eternity is that
of plucking, reaping the joys of being with the Savior and
being plucked of our sinful nature. And we are the sheep, as Matthew
25 tells us, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand,
but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the very foundation of the
world. And certainly that is equally true for sinful man.
For those that do not believe, he reaps an eternal damnation. He reaps an eternal hell, the
results of believing that he must do something to save himself. Believing that Christ's work
on the cross was incomplete and believe that there is something
good himself these Christ defined as the goods and he says later
in that same chapter then shall he say unto them on the left
hand depart from me ye curse it into everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels and then in the third verse it
says a time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down
a and a time to build up. We look at that time to kill
and a time to heal. When we look at what we're bombarded
with today from churches and from the media and from other
things, certainly they say that there is no time to kill. But
there is a time when men lose their lives in the plan and purpose
of God. He is not the pansy grandfather
figure that false religion makes him out to be. And we have that
vividly defined for us there in Exodus 12 and verse 12. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord. It was his plan and purpose that
Israel occupied the land. It was his plan and purpose that
Israel, due to their sin, be taken into captivity. It was
his plan and purpose that he have a people of his own. Psalm
90, make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted
us and the years wherein we have seen evil. Men's lives were lost. You think about that. They died. You think about the number that
died in Egypt on that one night. You think about the number of
young men, boys, these firstborn died on that one night in God's
punishment of those people and showing that he was truly who
he said he was, that he was the sovereign God. And think of those that died
in the wilderness. because they never saw the land
of promise because of their unbelief. The same is true in the day in
which we live. There is that loss of life due
to the plan and purpose of God, of both saved and unsaved. There
is a loss of life due to the judgment of God, falling upon
man because of his sins. As in the case of Israel, when
those times were over, there is that time of healing, that
time of restoration, that time of solace and comfort. The same
is true in our lives as Hosea 6 tells us, come and let us return
unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us. He has smitten
and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive
us. In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live
in his sight. There is a time in God's plan
when severe methods are called for as we have seen in our own
nation's history. Even in the history that we see,
Being made today, ultimately, we will see the time of death
come to an end. A time when there will only be
eternity. Eternity in one of two places. There will be no more death,
saints of God in eternal bliss, all others in eternal torment. And then he says a time to break
down and a time to build up. There's a time when a group,
a kingdom, a nation, a family, even a church or individual comes
to a time to break down. We see this especially recorded
for us in biblical history, when one of these has moved away from
God, bringing down his judgment upon them. We see it many times
in the history of Israel. We see it many times in biblical
characters, when one is ripe for destruction due to failure
in following the commands of God. David saw it in his own
life. as well as the nation of Israel.
Pharaoh experienced in his dealing with Moses. We see the believer
and the unbeliever experiencing the incident with Samson and
the Philistine. Many times God used this ripening
for judgment and the eventual judgment resulted in Israel being
blessed and restored to fellowship as we see in scripture. God uses
it in our lives, in the life of the believer. Many times uses
it to get our attention. to show us the error of our way
and the perfection of His way. And it all shows us His grace
and His mercy when He restores us. As Psalms 102 says, thou
shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her,
yea, the set time is come. When the Lord shall build up
Zion, He shall appear in His glory. We are told in scripture
to get the point of the building then all the impurities have
to be removed. All the dross and the slag has
to be burned away. We must get down to the total
foundation. When all the things of the flesh
and the world have been put aside, then there is room for restoration.
When we understand that our only restoration can come through
the Savior, that He is our rock, that He is our Savior, and that
He, as a rock, will never be taken down. I believe in the
time in which we live, we're seeing that time right ripening,
a time of ripening for judgment in our own nation, a nation that
has drifted so far from God that there is absolutely nothing sacred
anymore, even in the religious realm. It is all about man. It is all about self. It is all
about allowing the number one tool of Satan, that being pride,
to overcome and to take control. We as a nation and world refuse,
as Solomon has pointed out today, to believe that our God is in
control, that he is the only sovereign. Those that think that
they are presidents, kings, leaders, men in power over others who
think that they're infallible and sovereign are just puppets
in the hand of God. The era of false religionists,
in this era of false religionists, they refuse to believe that he
did enough on Calvary to pay the redemptive price. They refuse
to believe He actually meant it when He said, it is finished,
as we read in His prayer. Natural man wants to add to or
take away from His all-encompassing act. They refuse to believe His
holy word. The majority of you refuse to
believe that God has the power to call us unto Himself. They
believe you can take Him or leave Him. He has no power to call
us, He has no power To sustain us, if our God has the power
to create this world, if he has the power to save when one is
born and when one dies, when one is raised up, when one is
taken down, how can we believe that it is our choice and not
his as to whom he saves? How can we believe that whether
it is our choice and not His as to whether He keeps us or
not. Only when our Lord calls us unto
Himself can we control, can we understand that we are in control
of absolutely nothing, that He is in control of everything,
control of every soul that has ever been and ever will be born
upon this earth. He is the great I am. His choice, His power, throughout
all eternity. How ridiculous and how arrogant
for sinful men to believe that he knows more than God. Isaiah
46 tells us, remember the former things of old, for I am God and
there is none else. I am God, there is none like
me. Then in the fourth verse it says,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a
time to dance. For those of you that know me
really well, know I like that time to weep step. But when we look at this time
to weep and mourn, time to laugh and dance, how much pressure,
false teaching brings upon man that says if you are truly a
saint of God, truly doing what he wants you to do, There is
no time of sorrow. In their pious and holier-than-thou
attitude, they view any sorrow as God's judgment upon us, but
that is not the case. That was what Job's friends were
trying to tell them. They believed there was something
that he had done to bring the wrath of God upon him, when truly
it was the working of Satan that was allowed by God and not the
wrath of God. Instead of being one of the greatest
saints or greatest men of God that we read about all the time
in the New Testament, to have ever lived, if this were true,
Paul would have been one of the worst, would have been listed
as one of the worst. So much for the health and wealth
gospel of our day. He didn't have, when he proclaimed
the gospel, he didn't have any wealth. When he proclaimed the
gospel, many times he was in bad health. If it were according
to the teaching of false religion, Paul would have been the healthiest
and richest man of all time. There is those times, God has
promised, there are those times when we experience heartache,
those times when our grief is overwhelming, but God has promised,
whatever our lot, he will provide. In all these beliefs, the pride
of man is revealed in believing there is something that he must
do. There is something that he must
choose. Yet in times of sorrow and persecution
for the sake of God, God makes himself so evident in our lives
when he is so real, when we can feel his very presence, when
he gives us all the grace that is needed, when he gives us all
the mercy that is needed. Only that grace allows the child
of God to do hymn writer that wrote, it is well with my soul
as he sailed over the very waters where he had lost his four daughters,
he penned those words that described his grief as sorrows like sea
billows roll. But then, followed with the praise
of the Savior for his redemptive work of the cross and his longing
to hear the sound of the trumpet and to meet the Lord Certainly
there are days and times of sorrow, sometimes due to judgment, sometimes
not, sometimes due to the timing of God. Yet in all it we have
the Savior as our helpmate, for there is no more comfort and
there is no more solace than in Him. Isaiah 22 tells us, and
in that day did the Lord of hosts call to weeping and to mourning
and to balding and to girding. It is in these times that our
Lord shows us our total inadequacy and his great mercy and grace
upon us. Then there are those times of
rejoicing, as it says here in this very scripture, when our
heart is full and our soul runneth over. Times when the Lord reveals
to us truth of his word, reveals the blessings with which he so
richly bestows upon us. It is often a time of sowing
in tears and reaping in joy. Even the most dire of circumstances,
God reveals Himself unto His own and gives Him peace and joy
that is found nowhere else. In the words of our Lord Himself,
He says there in John 16, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and
you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrows shall be turned to joy.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full. And then we look at
that next verse there in verse five. It says, a time to cast
away stones, a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace,
and a time to enframe from embracing. There is a time of taking down
and a time of building. Throughout her history, Israel
experienced this. during his time as King Solomon
had built much in the way of physical facilities, built the
greatest temple ever. Yet, in judgment, after his time,
there would be a time when the temple that he had been in charge
of constructing would be taken down. Even as prophesied in the
scripture, the stones would be pried apart and all would be
restored. Even in the realm of building
and fortresses God controls the accumulation of fortifications
and the destructions of the same. In our own country, in this century
that we live in now, we have seen destruction by the enemy
and casting apart stones. Destruction that we believe was
not possible, that we were so pompous that we thought that
we were impenetrable, but just a handful of Religious assaults
brought us to our knees with just weapons of a plastic knife
in just a matter of hours. Think of the destruction that
is possible with the weapons available to man today. Think
of the things that can be done with man not even on the site
can be done by radio-controlled drones. Think of the destruction
that has been prophesied in end-time events with just a word from
the Savior. Man's whole philosophy of life
is to what we can gain, how much wealth we can accumulate, how
much property we can put beside our name. That is what the world
judges every man by, his bottom line. Yet that is for nothing,
absolutely nothing. As the old saying goes, the brink
truck is not in the funeral procession. You leave here just as you've
arrived. when you were born with nothing.
Our hearts and minds are to lean heavily on spiritual things.
For the things of this world, things accomplished by man, are
just a vapor, a minute particle when compared with our eternal
destination. James 4 tells us, whereas ye
know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appear
for a little time and then vanisheth away. then it says a time to
embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. If you're looking
at it from man's eyes, I like the last part, to refrain from
embracing. But since I've been here, I've
learned to embrace a little bit. In God's time, set aside for
man, there is peace and there is conflict. When you think about
yourself, When you think about what you face, you have to say
the same thing. There are times when man thinks
he has figured out the formula to have and to find peace, world
peace, yet man does not have that ability. At times in history,
God has allowed peace. At other times, he has not. There
is no lasting peace other than in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though
the world looks everywhere, but there is no peace. Man can claim
to have that formula for peace, but it's just another of his
vain imaginations. But as saints of God, in Christ
alone, no matter the action of the world around us, we have
a lasting and eternal peace, and which can only be found in
the Savior. John 16 says, These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation. Be of good cheer, for I have
overcome the world." Certainly, as we look in biblical history
and we look in church history, we have recorded many who have
suffered much and endured great persecution, yet they had a peace
that passed all understanding. One of the most vivid examples
we have given to us with that in scripture is in Acts 7. And
it was the account of Stephen, which we're very familiar with.
When they had heard these things, they were cut to the heart and
they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he being full of the
Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said,
Behold, I see the heavens open. and the son of man standing on
the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice and stopped there he is and ran upon him with one accord
and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses
laid their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. As children of God, we have the
blessing that he has afforded us to be at peace. all that is
right with the Lord, for he is our peace. We have the same right
and responsibility to be in conflict with all that is not right with
him. If the belief of those around us, no matter how close it may
seem, no matter how much we want it to be right, but we know that
it is not. If it does not fit the criteria
of the truth of God's word, therefore, it must lie in conflict with
his own. And then it says in verse six,
a time to get, a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to
cast away. Solomon says there is a time
to get. Not all, but that does not mean,
as he has explained, all that the world has to offer. Instead,
it means to use the wisdom that God has given us to make correct
decisions in life concerning all that we do. Most of the time,
this is viewed as financial. As we see promoted each and every
day on each and every advertisement, it's all about financial. Our
endeavor is to be from God's wisdom point of view, from a
spiritual point of view, not from the worldview that we are
bombarded with 24-7 in this world. God, in his sovereignty, owns
it all. It is his. It is our responsibility
to be honorable stewards, not to hold God's money, and we're
certainly not to squander it. Most important is what we gain
in our spiritual relationship with the Lord. We're to gain
understanding. We're to know what his word says.
We're to be able to talk about his word. We're to keep it in
our hearts, first and foremost, what our Lord has done for us,
that it is in him alone that we have been delivered, not in
anything that we have done, that He truly is our sovereign, and
there is absolutely nothing in ourselves worthy. In those things,
if those things that we have accumulated become a detriment
to us, to the Lord, then we're to cast them away, to be rid
of them, all that comes between us and our relationship with
Christ. The scriptures that speak of
those things cut right to the heart. It says there in Matthew
10, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy
of me. He that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. He that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. That's pretty strict
right there. If one be as a writer of these
passages, the richest and wisest man recorded in the world, it
does not compare to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Though
false religion has turned its emphasis from Christ to what
man can accomplish with his vain proclamations of good health
and great wealth and all you can gather in this world, we
find that not to be so according to the words of our Lord. As
Matthew 6 tells us, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
the earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, where thieves break
through and steal. No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and mammon. The very words of our Lord emphasizes
what things of the world versus the people of Christ should mean
to the saint of God, as he said there in Mark 8. And when he
had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said
unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow
me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospels, The same shall save it. For what
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be
ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him also shall the son of man be ashamed when he cometh
in the glory of his father with the holy angel. And then in that
seventh verse, it says, a time to rend, a time to sow, a time
to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time to rend. Rend speaks of tearing apart,
as you would rip a garment. And then many times we see in
biblical time, this is used when people were in great sorrow,
how they would tear their garments, how they would put on sackcloth,
how they would sit in ashes. These can be times of judgment
when our times and our hearts are so heavy that we can't understand
what we're experiencing or seeing. It can be times that God has
chosen to put us through, that we must experience for our own
strength. But after that time, there's
a time to sow, a time to repair, a time to restore the damage. It is a time of undoing what
we have done and doing back what we have undone. It points to
a time of renewal, and certainly we have those times, after a
time of sorrow, and many times after a time of correction by
the Lord for our failure. We see this many times in Israel's
history. There are those times that we're
to keep quiet, when it is not required for us to speak, when
in our silence we listen to what God has to say to us, that we
may know his word in our hearts. But this leads to the next day,
Once we know what that Word is, once we know His truth, we're
to speak of it. We're not to keep silent. We're
to proclaim His Word, to live as if our lives are His Word,
that others can hear and see the Savior in us. Then there's
a time that we're not to speak. When we speak just for the sake
of arguing or for the sake of showing off our so-called spiritual
knowledge, or we attempt to overwhelm those with which we are speaking
with our so-called knowledge. As Amos tells us in Amos 5, therefore
the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil
time. We're to never to speak amiss. We're never to cast our pearls
before swine. We're to never argue for the
sake of arguing. We're to proclaim the truth of
God's word, not our opinion, but His total, unadulterated,
absolute truth. As Matthew says, give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again
and rend you. And then in that next verse,
in verse eight, it says, a time to love, a time to hate, a time
of war, and a time of peace. In God's time, certainly there
is a time to love. a time to experience the love
of the Lord, to experience what He has done in our hearts, to
experience His choosing and calling us unto Himself, to pay that
redemptive price that only He could pay. And in that time,
that teaches us to love the brethren. Scripture tells us that this
is a telltale sign of the true child of God. 1 John 2, He that
saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness
even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth
in the light. There is none occasion of stumbling
in him, but he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh
in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth, because that
darkness hath blinded his eyes. Christ's personal command to
each and every one of us as his children reminds us that it was
what He done in our hearts that resulted in this love. Not in
us, but in Him. John 13, a new commandment I
give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another. But this shall all men know,
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. There is a time to exhibit our
love, a time to show our love to the brother. There's times
that we show our love to those that are not brothers, but what
we're showing our love as is what the Lord has done for us,
what the Savior means to us, to show the traits of that same
love that our Savior has for us. There are times to love when
we're not loved, when the love is not reciprocated. That is
a natural thought of man that if you love someone, they got
to reciprocate when violence and hatred are given in return
for love. And often that is the time that
is experienced in the proclamation of the gospel. And then he says,
there's a time to hate. We always are to hate our sin. We're to hate what is evil in
the sight of God. There is never a time when that
is not true. We must be sure that our hatred
is not personal. We must be sure that it is not,
excuse me, because of our emotions, that it is not a sinful, selfish
hatred. We inherit that righteous hatred
from our Heavenly Father. Despite the counter-teachings
of false religion, their belief that God loves everybody permeates
all their teachings. God testifies to his own faith. God testifies that he hates sin. He testifies that he cannot bear
to lay eyes upon it. Thus the redemptive work of Christ
was necessary that his purpose could be fulfilled. As prophesied
by Malachi, it says here of God, I have loved you, saith the Lord,
yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau. And I laid his mountain and his
heritage to waste. for the dragons of the wilderness.
No, despite what we hear every day, what you hear basically
at every sermon preached by false religion, no matter what denomination,
it says there in Romans 9, as it is written, Jacob have I loved
my own, speaking of my own, of those that he has called and
chosen, but Esau have I hated, those that have been condemned.
certainly it says a time of war and a time of peace and we covered
that in earlier verses but we must remember it is always a
time of war when we live in this world when we deal with the world
when we deal with its father satan when we deal with our own
self there can never be a time of compromise there can never
be a time of kicking back putting our feet up and said well i've
done all i can do a time when we can drop our guard That is
when sin makes its inroads into us. Only in the Lord Jesus Christ
can we have this peace that he talks about. Peace, John 14. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you, not as a wall given, give I unto you. Let not
your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And then we
drop down to verses, in closing, drop down to verses 14 and 15.
that we read in our scripture reading this morning. For I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can
be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that
men should fear before him. That which hath been is now,
and that which is to be, excuse me, hath already been, and God
requireth that which is past. Solomon here acknowledges the
sovereign God. He acknowledges that He is in
control of all things and that there is absolutely nothing that
can be above Him. There is absolutely nothing more
powerful, nothing more just, nothing more in control of everything. As James says, every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above. and cometh down from the Father
of Light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. All
that He has planned, all that He has purposed will come to
pass. There is nothing that slides
under the radar. He knows all things. He has all
things planned down to the minutest detail. There is nothing that
escapes Him. even to each and every breath
that we take, and to each and every beat of our heart. He knows
what we say or even think before we proclaim it, or the thought
crosses our mind. There are no surprises with God. There are no changes with God. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, throughout all eternity. Hebrews 13, Christ Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. Man can claim all the changes
he wants. That's all it is. It's just a
claim. We can rest on the promises of
our Lord because all that he has said is. It says right here,
nothing can be added to, nothing can be taken away. These truths
are to cause certainly fear, respect, and joy in our hearts
to show us the supreme almighty being that we serve, almighty
God, that our mediator in Christ alone, the real savior and the
real king. God requires all that he has
promised. He requires it in creation. He
requires it in redemption. There is no stone left unturned. He is the author and the finisher. To claim that he is not is pure
heresy. Yet it is the canons of false
religion. From the fall of Satan, to the
fall of Adam, to the condition of every man born on this earth,
a sinful nature which number one results in man is pride. Pride that makes man believe
that God is incomplete, that there is something that HE must
accomplish to fulfill the promise of an Almighty God. Christ's
very words reveal what natural man is. And he said there, in
Mark 20, he said, And he said, That which cometh out of man,
that defileth man from within, out of the heart of men proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murderers, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, and evil lie, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness. All these evil things come from
within. That is what our sinful heart
is all about. And defile the man. Only when
our eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit are we able to see and
believe that this is what we really are. This defines us in
our natural state totally. We see ourselves as God sees
us, totally deprived, just as Christ defined us in these verses. Nothing in us can be or ever
will be acceptable to this sovereign God that we have seen today that
is in control of all things. Yet in His perfect and sovereign
plan, He has chosen and called unto Himself a people, His people,
They are His sheep forever in His hand, never to be wrenched
away. No matter our sin, no matter
our weakness, no matter our inadequacies, we are His for all eternity.
No one, not even the thoughts and actions of our sinful self,
can wrench us away from Him. What a joy and comforting thought One that brings peace unto us
when peace in this world is not to be found. What rejoicing it brings to our very soul when
we see our utterly undeserving sinful self. Recall the title. of two tremendous
hymns. How can it be that I am his and
he is mine? Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the words that you provided today. We're thankful, Lord,
that you are truly our Father. We're thankful that The sun is
truly our mediator. We're thankful that the Holy
Spirit dwells in us as our help me. As we read those, the prayer
of our precious Savior there in John 17. We're thankful that
you we are one of yours. We're thankful that we are one
of yours throughout all eternity. There is no. Taking it back. There is no. relinquishing it. We belong to you. You provide
the love. You provide the grace. You provide
the mercy. It is all in your doing from
start to finish. Nothing in ours. Thank you for
being the sovereign God that you are. Thank you for being
in control of all things that you are. And thank you most of
all for your redemptive plan through that precious son. In
his blessed name we pray. Amen. Thank you.