Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and
reading from our text, verse 15. That which hath been is now,
and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth
that which is past. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 15. In this chapter we have the greatness
of God set forth in all of those things that come to pass in this
world. So many different things. And yet so evident that God is
in control, and that he appoints the timing. We are in time. And as we near to the end of
another year, we are reminded of the passage of time. And in this portion of scripture,
We have time mentioned again and again. A time to be born
and a time to die. That is in God's time. Not just
a time that happens by chance. We know of the certainty of births
and of deaths. But to know that God appointed
that birth and when. Jeremiah it was said that Before
that, he was born. The Lord knew him and appointed
him. John the Baptist was foretold
many hundreds of years before he came. Cyrus was even named
many hundreds of years ago before he was the ruler used to bring
the children of Israel out of Babylonian captivity and back
to their own land. Josiah was named by the prophets
as he that would defile the altars of Jeroboam, who raised up false
altars to idols. And we have again and again those
that their birth, their timing, when they were born, and when
they were to die, was all known and appointed by God. And between that time, the time
of our birth and the time of our death, there are all these
other times, all set before us, many changes, many contrasts,
a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to
cast away. You know they apply to the smallest
things in our lives. I always remember with that verse,
I've just quoted verse 6, and the car I first had, when I first
learned to drive, and I was very, very fond of it, but it's not
really, it ended up not fit for purpose after some eight years,
but the Lord knew that I would not let go of that without being
helped, as it were, to do so. And he brought it about. He brought it about in such a
way. And I was so troubled. I was going to reverse the deal
and try and go to the auction house and get that car back again. And I sat at my meal table and
hardly knew how to pray or open the Word of God. And I opened
it. And this is the word I read,
a time to get and time to lose, time to keep and a time to cast
away. And immediately it set on the
matter and I could let it go. I've never forgotten the occasion.
And when this word was used to help me, to cast something away
and let it go. And the Lord knows how to use
his word, how to bring it to our remembrance, bring it through
the ministry, bring it through our reading, in opening up the
word of God, and in this portion There's all of these changing
times, what a great God we have, what a mighty God, a God who
controls not just one person in their thoughts and in their
lives, but all those that dwell upon the face of the earth and
whoever will dwell. Have we ever been so humbled
as to think upon the greatness and might of our God? But the first part, leading up
to our text here, is speaking of things that are changing all
the time. From weeping to laughing, from
mourning to dancing, from casting away to gathering together, all
those changes, change and decay, and all around I see, O Thou
who changest not, abide with me. And it then is in our text
where we have the balance, the contrast between that which is
all the time changing and that which doesn't change. And that
is what is upon my spirit this evening. There's God's plan,
God's timing, but there's also that which remains the same in
the midst of a world full of change. And we have with our
text, that which hath been is now, and that which is to be
hath already been, and God requireth that which is past. Hey, looking back, are looking
at now, and looking at that which is to be, and it brings it all together. Often think with the Lord's Supper,
you do show forth the Lord's death till he come, is a looking
back to his death, it's a showing forth in the present, and it's
looking until he does come, a gathering together past, present, and future. And that is what is in our text. And then there is the statement,
and God requireth that which is past. There are those things
in the past that relate to now and the future, and they're happening,
taking place in the past, God requires that there be a fulfillment
or there be a continuance of that now. That which hath been
is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God
requireth that which is past. And so a contrast between all
of the changes and that which doesn't change. I want to look
with the Lord's help at a pattern, firstly established by God, that
which was and is and will be. And then secondly, the past that
God requires. but firstly a pattern established
by God. Now some might say, well, how
can our text stand up when we think of, especially in the last,
say, a hundred years, how many changes there's been, how many
inventions that are brought about that instead of from the beginning
of the world to say 200 years ago, there was just travel by
horse, stagecoach, animal means. And then suddenly we get the
mechanicalised age, steam, electricity, the motor car, the aeroplanes,
the rockets in the last 150 years. Changes that have never been
before. The Word of God says that in
the last days, man shall go hither and thither, and he does. Knowledge
shall increase, and it has increased. Those things are being fulfilled,
they are fulfilled. But really the Word before us,
it looks even beyond those things that we have mentioned coming
upon the earth. God's Word is such that it will
never wear out. Itself is timeless. It will still
be applicable right to the end of time. And so those things
that change, those things that are spoken of in the first part
of this chapter, they still apply however many inventions in computers
and vehicles and everything else. But what is it then that God
has established a pattern and established that that will not
change. We have right at the very beginning,
after the flood, the Lord then established his covenant with
Noah, that while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest and cold
and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. So though we may say there are
changes, seed time and harvest, and then the contrast, cold and
heat, and summer and winter, and the day and night, they're
changing. But it's changing in a cycle
that is known, is foreestablished and appointed by God. And so it is in that way that
we are to take comfort and strength in our texts, that which hath
been, is now, and that which is to be, hath already been.
That which has been in the changes, in the seasons, and night and
day, those things have continued, they continue now and will continue. Though there is within that which
is solid and immovable, there is change. And of course there
are those things that are material things that do not change. We may say concerning the sun,
the moon, the stars, the planets that God has set them in their
orbit, have you ever thought, What Adam and Eve saw in the
sky that we see, what Abraham saw, that what Joshua did, we
see the same sun, the same moon. Now we can look into the sky
here in the daytime and you can see the moon here in the UK. And we know that in Australia,
where some of my relatives are, that they'll look up into the
night sky and they will see the moon. From one side of the world
to the other, we look and we see that same planet. And do you think then going back,
not in distances, but in time, that that was seen the same. And this earth, of course, man
was created on this earth, it is the same earth, and that remaineth. That which is established by
God for time, in his purposes. Another thing to consider is
God's throne. God's throne. In the Lamentations,
in chapter 5, we read, Thou, O Lord, remainest forever, thy
throne from generation to generation. We read also the same in the
very first chapter in the epistles of the Hebrews. where we read there, Thou, O
Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall
perish, but Thou remainest. They all shall wax old as duffer
garment, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up. and they shall
be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. We know that those things we
mentioned, the sun, the moon, the stars, they shall be folded
up. But we know that while time remains,
while man is upon earth, while it is the day of grace, then
the Lord remains, and these things remain. and the Lord is in control
and they are sustained by his power and by his might. And we have to remember that.
God does not lose his power because things change, because of all
that is happening, all what seems to be confusion in the world,
that is not with the Lord. There's a perfect plan, there's
a pattern, We only need to think of the laws of nature. Scientists can study this. We
rely on them constantly. In engineering, we needed to
know the laws of nature to be able to design things. In electronics,
if there was no pattern as to how things happened or relationship
between voltage and amps and resistances, If that all the
time changed, then we wouldn't know where we are. If the mass of things changed,
we wouldn't know where we were. If one moment steel weighed so
much and the next it changed and it weighed something different,
you say, well, of course, it's the same thing. No, you take
it up into space and it's weightless. It doesn't have any weight. got
the same mass, but there's no weight to it. And so we have
laws, laws of physics, laws of science, and God has put those
there. He has established those laws. However much there might be variables,
as it were, there's enough that's established that we can make
plans, we can design things, we can make things, We can tell
from one generation to another how to do things because we know
that those laws will not change. And God has established those
and he is on the throne to make sure that that part of his creation,
it remains. Then what about the plan of salvation? When man fell, Adam fell. Then there is the need of a saviour,
and the saviour is promised. God has a plan of salvation. How he shall save sinners, how
he shall deliver from the wrath to come, how he'll bring a people
to heaven to be with him. And that plan has never changed. In the scriptures we read of
it as traced through the history of the children of Israel. But
we would remember that everyone that is saved has been saved
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Has been saved because
they were amongst the elect people of God. Whether it be the unborn,
the aborted ones, God knows how many that he has chosen and appointed
to salvation. Possibly all of such number,
and of those who've come to years, those who've been brought to
believe in and trust in Him. There is only one name given
among men whereby we must be saved. Where would we be in all
the changing scenes of time if we thought, well, in years gone
past, it could be the Lord, And then we need some other saviour
later on, some other way. No. The gospel in Abraham's day,
Moses' day, it was shown forth in the types and in the shadows
of the sacrifices. But it was the same gospel. It was the same way of salvation
through faith in Christ. And that is told us in Hebrews
11. Tracing out through Abel, Enoch, Abraham, all these died
in faith. They all died believing and trusting
in the Lord. That still is the same. That
has not changed. We think of the path of prayer. Then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. That is not changed. That will
remain. The Lord will regard the prayer
of the destitute. He will not despise their prayer. We don't need any other way. We don't need to look for another
path or another way. When the false church of Rome
devised ways of praying with beads or praying through Mary,
never appointed by the Word of God, never appointed by God.
But there is a way appointed. And it is that men should pray
and not to faint and that we come to the Lord, come to God
through the Lord. If he asks anything in my name,
I will do it. Always the Lord has given a way
that man shall have access to God and God shall hear his petitions
and answer them. Our Lord so reinforces that men
ought always to pray and not to faint. That remains the same. I wonder how much that we value
a path of prayer. how much we use prayer, how much
we realize that that has not changed. We may think about it in another
way as well. I hope some of the things that
we mentioned, you may think of others that are a great comfort
in a changing world, maybe in things that we look at in our
own lives, with somewhat of dismay or sinking because there's so
much changed. But there's other ways where
we may think how this is appointed. We're warned in the scriptures
not to say, why are the former days, or why are these days not
like the former, and that the former days were better than
these. And the word of scripture is
that thou dost No, not wisely, because the Lord
has appointed each generation those same recurring trials,
tribulations. And so when we think of Cain
and Abel, and we think of the persecution between two brothers
there, and to do with worship, And is not that a pattern that
is followed right through the scriptures? Old Testament and
New Testament, sin enters into the world, enmity, hatred, murder,
those things, in a sad, a solemn way, that continues when our
Lord was asked about the signs of the times and the last times.
He said, there shall be wars and rumors of wars. Nations shall
rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And you see
that happen, that most solemn appointment of God to a world
that is under the sentence of death, a world that really deserves
eternal damnation and destruction, but a world in which His grace
and mercy is, and that He continues to save sinners. Yet what does
not change? And I know many think they long
for there to be peace on earth. The Lord said, think not that
I came to send peace on earth, yea, rather division. And it
shall be. Because as the Lord plucks His
people out of the world and brings them to serve him, then the way
the world reacts is the same way they did to him. Away with
him, away with him, crucify him. I have given them thy word and
the world have hated them. And that will remain the same.
The word remains the same. Our Lord says heaven and earth
shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. and what
is set forth in the Word, then that must come to pass. We'll
consider that perhaps in a moment. So then, they that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's one of those
things that though we would love it to change, yet it does not
change. The Lord has also said in the
world ye shall have tribulation, in me ye shall have peace, but
be of good cheer. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And those
are also things that the Lord has set in his counsel and in
his purpose, that we are to expect those things. And when they come,
not be tossed to and fro, dismayed, as if suddenly the Lord is not
in control. The Lord said to his dear disciples,
before the crucifixion, I tell you before it come to pass, that
when it is come to pass, you may believe. And really in the
Lord's plan and purpose, that is set before us in the Word
of God. So when we come to the words
of our text, And when we see that, that which is, that which
hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, you
think of in the way of persecution, affliction and trial, that which
hath been is now, the persecutions, the trials, the way that those
of descendants or those like Cain hated those that are godly,
like Abel, that is now, and that which is to be, there's still
that conflict between those that fear God and those that fear
him not, hath already been, it has already been in the past. Those things, they have not changed. And so, may this be a help to
us, not just in considering those things that do not change as
consistently, stay exactly as they are, but also viewing it
as God's plan and the pattern, the pattern of believing, the
pattern of persecuting those that are believers, the patterns
of wars, rumors of wars, pattern of those things that happen and
come in cycles through the world, though it is speaking of change,
yet in one sense it is not change. It is doing exactly what God
had appointed and that came into the world because of sin and
that shall be the pattern. right through to the end. So it is a pattern established
by God. And may we think in our further
meditation on that, the patterns established by God for men to
live in, in the midst of these patterns, established patterns. We want to look then, secondly,
at the past that God requires. Our text says, that which hath
been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and
God requireth that which is past. How does God Right at the very beginning God gave
to our first parents the command that they should be able to eat
of all the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat thereof. In the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die. And that sentence we We're in
the loins of our first parent, Adam, and that sentence has passed
upon all men, in that all have sinned. That is another one of
the patterns, that as each one is born into this world, we're
born in sin. We're born as fallen, shapen
in iniquity. We're born under condemnation. We are born to die. And that
is very evident from one of the very first things that is mentioned
here. Time to be born and a time to
die. The only reason why there is
a time to die is because of man's sin. And because God requires
that which is past. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And every one is born into this
world from original sin to their own sins, God requires that they
die. His holy righteous law requires
it. And it is of that which is past. Our sentence is under Adam. And so any thoughts that We could
somehow live a perfect life or somehow by the deeds of the body
disannul that sentence or take away that sentence. No, God requires
that. There is only one way of escape
from death and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall
still pass through But instead of in wrath, it is that we should
pass into eternity and to be with Christ. The Apostle Paul
says, absent from the body, present with the Lord, that death loses
its sting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have another thing
that is required then, that sin be punished. either in the sinner or a substitute. May we remember that. God requireth
that which is past. And so in the Lord Jesus Christ,
he came to endure the wrath of God, made under the law, made
of a woman, made like unto his brethren, yet sin accepted, the
holy, pure, and sinless son of God, he that is from eternity,
he who is truly God and truly man in one person, he endure
the punishment due to his people, because God required that which
was passed. Everyone that went to heaven
under the old dispensation went there on the promise of God that
his son would come and that he would put away their sins at
Calvary. Sin must be punished and so the
Lord Jesus Christ must come and must endure that punishment in
the place of his people. At the time when our Lord was
crucified, We have in the inspired, infallible Word of God, the Holy
Bible, again and again written that it might be fulfilled which
was written by the Prophet, saying. And the Scriptures are full of
prophecies of what should happen when Christ should come, how
he should suffer, how he should die. And those prophecies had
to be fulfilled. It was required. When our Lord
was in the garden of Gethsemane, and Judas came, and Peter took
the sword, our Lord said, Put up thy sword within its sheath. The cup which my Father hath
given me to drink, shall I not drink it? Thinkest thou not that
I could presently pray my Father, and He would give me twelve legion
of angels, seventy-two thousand angels, But how then should the
Scriptures be fulfilled? What the Lord was saying, it
is required that the Scriptures, that which was written before,
and the prophecies written before, it is required by God that they
be fulfilled. And if you fight, if I have angels
to deliver me from this death, from this substitutionary offering,
then these scriptures will not be fulfilled. God requires that
which is passed. We think of that with prophecies. We think of that where his people
have been given promises and expectations. God requires that. The children of Israel were told
that God would accomplish 70 years in Babylon for the children of
Israel, and then he'd bring them out. God required that they would
be brought out, that he didn't just say and then it never come
to pass. God requires that all that he
has said in his holy, sacred, infallible word, that it should
come to pass. We might make many mistakes in
our interpretations of him, But especially in the crucifixion
of our Lord, the two on the way to Emmaus, they thought the Lord
had made a mistake. They said, we trusted. It should
have been he that should have redeemed Israel. He had redeemed
Israel, but not in the way that they thought. And the Lord then showed them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. In other
words, saying to them it was required He did say that, really,
in these words, ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and enter into his glory? In other words, was it not required
of God, required of Christ, that this actually come to pass? Another thing where God requires
that which is passed, you read in Romans 15, of what the apostle sets forth as
a use of the Old Testament scriptures and teaching. He says, for even
Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, reproaches
of them that reproach thee, fellow me. For whatsoever things were
written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. So that which
was written aforetime, that which was written thousands of years
ago, God requires that those words be used for our learning,
used for our patience, used for our comfort, and used to give
us hope. And God requires that that be
so. So those things that are written,
they still apply. They still are for the comfort
and good of his people. God requires that that be so. May when we read the word of
God, we think of that. That these things are written
down and God requires that they be for our comfort. And to bring
that about, do not we need the Holy Spirit to bless that word? For God himself to bring these
things about, to perform his word, to perform his promises? If a church of God is to learn
from the past, God requires she does. What about Christ's sacrifice? What is required of that? Is
it not that those that Christ has suffered for, paid the payment
for in full, that they be redeemed when they be born into this world,
that they then be born again, be quickened by His Spirit? Of
course it is required. May we think on that? That it
cannot be that the Lord Jesus Christ should have laid down
his life, shed his flesh, his blood, and the eternal God never
requires that those for whom he died be called by grace, be
given eternal life, be quickened into life. He does require it. He does. God requireth that which
is past. May we remember that in our lives
as well. Our sins. Those things that we've done.
We shall have to give an account of the deeds done in the body,
whether they're good or bad. Sin is not to be a light, a cheap
thing, a thing that we think, well, time will erase it. No, God will require it. either
at the hand of the Lord or at our hand. Maybe you remember that. But then what of the intercession
of the Lord? In John 17, we read our Lord's
prayer. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory. Did that just apply to his immediate
disciples? Does he not say in the same prayer,
I pray for them? I pray not only for these whom
thou hast given me, but for them who shall believe on me through
their word. And so all that the Father hath
given to the Son, he says, I have lost nothing, but will raise
it up again at the last day. And God requires that. He requires
that the petitions offered up by our Lord on this earth be
fulfilled. And the petitions of His people
that are offered in the Spirit, those prayers are laid up before
God and they must be answered, they must be fulfilled. We think
of those things that were said, said to Simeon, that he should
not see death until he'd seen the Lord's Christ. He saw the
Lord's Christ. and it was brought to pass, it
did happen. And as we then come to the close
of a year, maybe there's things still that we have laid out before
the Lord, and God requires that they be fulfilled, that there
be closure to them, there be answers, there be a completing
of it, We think of the word, he which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. God requires
that he performs that and still continues that word spoken in
the past but applies so much to the present. May the Lord then give us some
further meditation upon this word. that in a changing world
will give us some stability in the Lord's pattern of how he
orders this world and how that he has established his word and
his word will not return unto him void. It shall accomplish
the thing whereto he sent it and God requires not a jot pass away. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
says our Lord, but my word shall not pass away. What a comfort,
a strength to us in time. That which hath been is now,
and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth
that which is past. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.