turn with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 or brother Jason just read there. Ecclesiastes 3. This morning I pray that our
Lord would give us a message of comfort and peace and rest
and that he would make this plain and simple to our hearts and
that it would just be a blessing to us. Ecclesiastes 3, let's
read verse 1 again. To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven To everything there
is a season. Everything. And a time to every
purpose under the heaven. There's a season for everything
that happens in our lives. And every one of those seasons
are purposed by God Almighty. Every single one. Aren't you
thankful that this verse doesn't say to some things there are
a season? To most things there are a season?
To good things there are a season? No. To everything. To everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven."
And then Solomon goes on to write that there's a time to these
28 things in the next eight verses here. These 14 pairs, these contrasts
There's a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time
to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to
heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to
weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a
time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together, a
time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time
to get, a time to lose, a time to keep. and a time to cast away,
a time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and
a time to speak, a time of love and a time of hate, a time of
war and a time of peace. All these different things that
happen throughout our lives. They're seasons. And some of
these seasons, we really enjoy. And we don't ever want them to
end. I think fall, that's my favorite season. I love the leaves
changing. It's cool some of the time. And I'm not ready for fall to
end. But every year, without fail,
winter's right around the corner. We always have winter. And that
brings me to my next thing, which is there are seasons we don't
like. There are seasons that are hard, that we don't enjoy.
I'm not a big fan of winter. I don't like it being 20 degrees.
I think Aaron loves winter. But I don't enjoy it. It's too
cold. It gets dark at 4 o'clock. But we always have winter. And
it lasts as long as winter does. But there's an end to it. And
spring's right around the corner. All these things that happen
in our lives, things we consider good, things we consider bad,
they're seasons. They have their beginning. They
have their duration. And they have their end. Our Lord has determined all the
seasons of our lives, and we're thankful for that. Look down
at verse 11 of our text here. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time. Also, he has set the world in
their hearts so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from the beginning to the end. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time. That's past tense. He hath. It's already done. And then,
He hath made everything beautiful. And I look that word up, and
obviously it means beautiful, but it can also mean fair, it
can mean well, it can mean the fairest, it can mean pleasant.
He hath made everything pleasant in His time. He hath made everything
well in His time. He hath done all things well. And that gives us comfort, and
it gives us peace, because He's on His throne, and He has ordered
all things from eternity. And He sends these things in
His perfect time. All of God's people have experienced
these seasons of trial and hardship and difficulty. And if you're
not in one right now, you're going to soon be in one. Because
it seems as our lives as believers, we're either going into trouble,
we're in trouble, or we're coming out of trouble. And we get these
little lulls in between that we get to enjoy. But the life
of a believer is a hard one, and it's full of these seasons
of trouble. I mean, honestly, I can think
of any time I've been in trouble, I'm always surprised. I'm always
just surprised when it happens. I'm like, man, I didn't see that
coming. And yet we're promised tribulation
in this world. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. Why is it so surprising when
it happens? If it was up to me, I'd never
be in trouble. And I would say, you guys are probably similar
in this. If it was up to you, you'd never be in trouble either.
But that wouldn't be good for us. It wouldn't. And thankfully,
that's not up to us. Because our Lord sends these
trials because He loves us. He chastens us. He draws us to
Him. He calls us to beg Him for mercy,
to look to Him, to know that He is our only hope. And as hard
as it is still, He calls us to believe these things. He calls
us to know these things. But just like that, we forget
them. In a moment, we forget everything. And it just seems
like everything around us is just crashing down and falling
all to pieces. And we always just like, what
am I going to do? What am I going to do? Don't do anything. There's nothing to be done. Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing we can do. Our
only hope is in Him. And that's not just talking about
the things that come up in this life that are painful for us.
That's in salvation. That's in everything. Just look
to Him. Look to Him. He's our only hope. And we need
a good hope, we do. Because again, these seasons,
they're not just trials of this life, but trials of being weighed
down by our sin. Aren't there just some days where
our Lord really exposes our sin to us? He really shows us who
and what we are. Turn with me to Romans chapter
three. Romans chapter three. A lot of
times, our sin doesn't bother us like it should. It really
doesn't. But then there are some times
where we really feel like we can enter into what Paul's saying
here. Romans chapter three, look at verse 10. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps
is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery
are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. That's true of every one of us.
unprofitable, full of cursing and bitterness, no fear of God
before our eyes, and guilty. The whole world, that's all of
us. There's no exceptions in that.
We are guilty before God Almighty. And yet in these seasons, when
our sin rears its ugly head, and this old man seems like it's
on full display, our Lord comforts us in His word. He draws us to
Him, and He speaks to us, and He says, He says, be still, be
still. So for a few moments, I just
wanna look at a few passages of scripture this morning. I
believe are a comfort and a help to us when our Lord sends these
trials of hardship to us, these seasons of distress. Turn with
me first to Isaiah chapter 41. Isaiah 41. I said a minute ago, it seems
like our first reaction to when trouble comes is that we're surprised.
We're shocked, we're caught off guard. But you know another emotion
that always comes? Fear. How often do we become
afraid? I know I get scared. I get scared
when trial comes. Well, what's our comfort? What's
our assurance when these seasons of fear arise? Well, look at
verse 10 of Isaiah 41. The Lord says, fear thou not,
for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness." Our Lord speaks to us and says, fear not. Fear thou not. Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid. Don't you want the childlike
faith just to really do that, to not be afraid? Back in the
fall, some of you guys were over at the house, and we had that
giant scarecrow out in the yard for the Halloween party. And
me and Aaron and Luke and Brady, we were all out in the yard.
And Sailor was there. And I'm about as immature as
a sixth grader at times. And so I was trying to scare
Sailor with this big scarecrow. And she'd get real scared for
a second. I did it a couple times. And
the last time I did it, she turned and she ran to big A. And he
picked her up and he put her on his shoulders, and she was
still kind of scared there for a second. And then she got like
as serious as could be, and she just kind of glared at me. She
said, I'm not afraid of you. And it kind of caught me off
guard, so I kind of chuckled. I'm like, well, why not, sailor? And she goes, I'm on my Paul's
shoulders. She wasn't afraid. I don't want
to be afraid. I want to have that. And how
much more, when our Lord says to fear not, that we don't have
reason to be afraid. We really shouldn't be. And then
he says, for I am thy God. It's not just that he is God,
he's our God. He's our God and we're his people.
I'm his and he is mine. Right now, he's sitting on his
throne and he's ruling and reigning everything. And everything that
comes to pass in this life, it's for our good, and it's for His
glory. He's our God. We're His people. He cares for
us like a shepherd. He's our shepherd. David said
in Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow
of death, I will fear no evil. Why, David? Why aren't you afraid?
Why can you fear no evil? For thou art with me. Well, who's
thou? Who's David talking about? We
said at the beginning of the psalm, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. And if the Lord my shepherd,
if he's with me, I've got no reason to be afraid. Read verse
10 again here in Isaiah 41. The Lord says, fear thou not,
for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. In
times of trouble, in these seasons of trouble, we are weak, and
we feel weak, and our Lord shows us, I'm weak. He says, I'll strengthen
thee. He's our strength. What a comfort
that is. In times of trouble, in these
seasons, we feel absolutely helpless. We've all been there. What am
I gonna do? I'm helpless, I can't do anything.
He says, I will help thee. He's our help. That makes us
glad. Because I know, and we know this,
we can't help ourselves. We can't. There's nothing we
can do. And in times of trouble, we feel like we're going to fall
to pieces. We're going to fall apart. He says, I'll uphold thee. I will uphold thee. And He does
it with the right hand of His righteousness. That's Christ.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't we thankful that He bears
us up on His shoulders and He carries us through these seasons
of trouble? He's our rock. He's our security. He's our safe place. There was
a ship that was wrecked one stormy night off the coast of England,
and all were drowned except this little Irish boy, because the
waves swept him up onto a great rock. And in the morning, this
little boy was rescued, and they came to him. They said, lad,
didn't you tremble out on that rock? He said, sure I did. I
trembled all night. But that rock didn't tremble
once. That's Christ, He's our rock. When all the troubles and
the fears of our sin and of this life, when they come crashing
down on us like these big waves, just remember, Jesus Christ is
our rock. He upholds us, He helps us, He
strengthens us. To everything, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
When these seasons arise, what reason we have to be comforted.
And what a comfort it is to know that this is all according to
His purpose. Turn with me now to Romans chapter
8. You all know this one, Romans 8 verse 28. Romans 8, 28 says, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose. All things, all
things, to everything, all things, all these seasons, they're working
together for good. You know, I don't think any of
us have had a trial yet that has felt good. I would be shocked. I don't think that's a real trial
if it's feeling good. They don't, they don't feel good,
they hurt. And yet, it's for my good. It's working together
for our good. It's not for everyone's good,
though. It's not. We read, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. These things
are working together for the good of God's people. Not to
everyone on this earth. These words are not comforting
to those who are not God's sheep. These are words of comfort for
God's elect, for His people, for those He came to save. Aren't
we thankful that God chose to save a people? We saw earlier
in Romans that there is none that doeth good. We're told in
Scripture that the wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. And yet it pleased God Almighty
to save a people, to save a sinful fallen people, just a remnant,
just a small number, just a few. God's election. Don't shy away
from this. This matter of election, it upsets
a whole lot of people. How many places that claim to
be a church right now are preaching this truth? I don't know very
many. I know one. I know a couple scattered
around the nation. I know here in a few hours in
California there's gonna be. And it's all throughout the scriptures.
Isaiah 45 says, Romans 11 verse 5 says, 1 Peter 1-2, elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Aren't we thankful that God chose
to save a people? That gives us hope. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose. Purpose. Hang on to that word. Everything
that God does, He does it on purpose. There are no accidents.
It's all according to His purpose. And God, who purposed to save
His people, He has purposed all these different trials and troubles
that come our way. Isn't it comforting to know that
He has purposed all these things? It's already been determined.
And you know, we'd like to think when these troubles happen, man,
I wish it wouldn't happen that way. And really what we're saying
in that is, I wish it happened my way. That's what we really
want. But aren't we thankful that's
not how it is? His thoughts aren't our thoughts. His ways aren't
our ways. If it was up to us, we would mess it up every single
time. We have all these projects going
on in our house. I mean, we've been married six
years now, and we've been working on projects for six years. And
I'm told that that does not stop anytime soon. And you can ask
Claire to verify this, but I'd be working on a project, and
I'd just be smooth sailing. Like, everything's coming together.
This is looking real good. And that lasts for about 25 minutes.
And then I go in the kitchen. I grab the keys to my truck.
I'm like, all right, hon, I'm going to Lowe's. She goes, Lowe's?
You were there like an hour ago, weren't you? Yep, I messed it
up again. I messed something up again.
We mess everything up. We do. We can't help it. That's
all we do is mess it up. But how thankful we are that
we can't mess this up. When it comes to the matters
of eternity and this life, and more importantly, in salvation,
we can't mess it up. We can't. Look down at verse
35 of Romans 8. Paul asks a good question here.
He says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? That's
a big question. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Is there anything that can separate
us from him? Is there anything we can do to
mess this thing up? No. Look at verse 37. Nay. In
all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us. For I am persuaded, I'm convinced, I am sure, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, these trials we're in right now, or
these seasons to come, what tomorrow brings, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, nothing in this creation, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord." Nothing. Nothing can separate us from
Him. We can't mess it up. And we try to every single day.
We try every moment to mess it up. But we can't. We mess up
all the time, but we cannot mess it up. When our Lord Jesus Christ
hung on the cross, He cried, it is finished. There's nothing
to add to that. There's nothing to take away.
It's finished. We can't mess that up. Isn't
that a comfort when these seasons of trial come our way? It's finished. It's finished. Nothing can separate
us from His love. To everything, to everything
there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
These seasons are hard, and how hard they seem when our Lord
feels far from us. We can't see Him. We feel like
we can't see Him. It doesn't even seem like He's there, and
our unbelief creeps in. That's an us thing. That's us.
Turn with me to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. This was after
our Lord had hung and died on the cross and had been buried
and rose again. And at the beginning of this chapter, our Lord had
been raised from the dead and he appeared unto Mary. And Mary
had went and told the disciples that she'd seen the Lord and
that he had told her to tell them that he ascends unto his
father. And now in verse 19, we read, then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were
shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,
came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be
unto you. And when he had so said, he showed
unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. The disciples were glad. When? When they saw the Lord.
When they saw Him. You can imagine how sad and how
heartbroken they had been to this point. I mean, they had
watched their Lord be crucified. They had watched Him die on that
cross. And even though He had told them time and time and time
again that this was what He was come to do, that He was gonna
die and be buried and be raised again, they didn't believe. They didn't believe. And then
the Lord, in His mercy, He came to them. And he said, peace be
unto you. And he showed himself to them.
He revealed himself to them. And then the disciples were glad. When they saw the Lord, they
were glad. How excited and how happy they had been. They hadn't
seen their Lord in three days and they were, they had been
down. They definitely weren't glad. They were sorrowful. They
were in trouble. They were in a season. And then
the Lord revealed himself to them. And what a time to rejoice
and be glad. And for us, how many times have
we been in the midst of a trial, and the Lord gives us a glimpse
of Him, just a nugget from His Word, and it makes us rejoice,
it makes us glad. And yeah, the trial still hurts,
the season's still painful. We're glad, we're glad in Him.
But look down at verse 24. But Thomas, one of the 12 called
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. All the rejoicing
in this house overseeing the Lord, and how sad for Thomas. He didn't get to see him. He
wasn't there. For whatever reason, Thomas wasn't
there. And you know, this is true for us sometimes. You know,
sometimes it might feel like it's going on for a long while.
Maybe our brethren, they're being blessed by the word, and yet
it seems so cold to us, and we still can't see him. These winters
that our Lord brings us into, they are hard. They are hard.
And sometimes it seems like they last for a long, long time. Look
at verse 25. The other disciples therefore
said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But Thomas, he said unto
them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails
and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe. The disciples told him, they
said, Thomas, Thomas, we saw the Lord. He's risen. We just
saw him the other day. But Thomas didn't see him, so
he didn't believe. He said, unless I see, unless
I put my finger in the prince, unless I thrust my hand in his
side, I won't believe. And how sad it is when we're
in the same boat as Thomas. We'd like to say that we're not.
We'd like to say, oh, I'd never do that. Are you kidding? Believer
wouldn't do that. Believer wouldn't say that. Don't
be so sure. I heard a man say this one time.
Don't be so hard on David just because your Bathsheba hadn't
come along yet. We are capable of absolutely anything and everything.
How many times have we said, I can't seem, I won't believe,
I can't seem. Aren't we thankful that these
are just seasons, that in His time, our Lord brings these seasons
to an end. They might seem like they last
for a long time, and I'm sure these days for Thomas felt like
forever, but it wasn't. Look down at verse 26. And after
eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with
them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the
midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas,
Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach
hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless,
but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God. Aren't we thankful that just
like Thomas, our Lord comes to us in his time? Not when we think
it would be convenient for us, not when we think it would be
good for us. I'm sure Thomas wished all that time, I wish
I'd have been with them that day when he came to them the
first time. But that wasn't what the Lord had ordered. That's
not what he had purposed for Thomas. And that's good. Because
he came to Thomas in his time. He said, Thomas, peace be unto
you. Reach hither, put your hand in
my side, don't be faithless but believing. He says that to us
and he causes us to say with Thomas, my Lord and my God, to
everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under
the heaven. To everything, to everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven. I wanna know that,
don't you? I wanna believe that. In closing,
I'd ask you to turn with me to the book of Job. Turn to Job
chapter 38. This morning we've been talking
about all these seasons of trouble that we go through, and I don't
know if there's anyone, worldly speaking, in the Scripture that
endured trouble like our brother Job. Job, who in a very, very
short amount of time, again, worldly speaking, he lost everything.
He lost his children, he lost his wealth, his health, all of
his worldly comforts, gone. Just like that. And yet in all
this, we're told that Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. That wasn't anything of Job.
Our Lord kept Job through all of this, just as he keeps all
of his people through all of the trials that he sends us.
But anyway, God spoke to Job and he answered to him out of
this whirlwind. Look at verse 11. The Lord speaking
and said, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. And here
shall thy proud waves be stayed. Hitherto shalt thou come. but
no further. These great waves that we see
at the beach that wash up on the sand, our Lord has said for
each individual wave, some go out far and then they go right
back. And some crash and they just
barely hit the shoreline and then they go back. For each and
every one of those waves, our Lord has said, hitherto shalt
thou come, but no further. No further. One of my people's
favorite things to do was go to the beach. And when they go
to the beach, he'd run through that house, and he'd go down
to that shoreline, and he would immediately, he'd go where that
water meets the sand. And right as each wave would
hit its peak, it would go out. He'd stand there, and he'd gaze
at our God's great ocean. He'd be reminded of this verse.
God said, right here and no further. God said that. God said, right
here and no further. For every wave of the shore,
God has said, right here and no further. And I can't think
of how true this is in light of our text this morning and
our lives here below. To everything, there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven. For all of us, the
end of our journey has already been determined. Our Lord has
already spoken from the foundation of the world and he says, hitherto
shalt thou come, but no further. And we're not gonna leave this
world a moment sooner or a moment later. He has said right here,
and no further. And for all these seasons of
trial and hardship that we face, our God has determined every
single one. He's determined the beginning,
the duration of it, and the end of it. And even though it seems
like these trials and these seasons are gonna overtake us, our God's
grace is always sufficient. He's gonna keep us through every
single one. If we're one of His, He's gonna keep us. Now unto
Him that is able to keep you from falling, But these trials,
they're hard. But we can take comfort in this.
For every trial he's appointed, there's an expected end. And
just like every wave that hits the shoreline, some big, some
small, for these trials, for these seasons, God has purposed
it to be right here and no further. To everything, there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Amen.