Invite your attention back to
where Pastor Gabe just read, Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Let's read verse 1. Solomon writes, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. What a glorious statement. What
a glorious statement our Lord had Solomon write. The word season
there means appointed time. To everything there is an appointed
time, nothing just so happens. I say that a lot. It just so
happened. No such thing. Everything that
comes to pass, no matter what it is, there are a lot of evil
things that I see and hear about that come to pass, but I must
resign to this. Everything that comes to pass
is simply the unfolding of our God's providence. Everything. Not most things. See, God is
sovereign. I rejoice to know that. I'm so
honored to get to repeat that. Everything happens according
to God's will and exactly in God's time. Everything happens
at God's appointed time. Everything. everything. And I
tell you this, concerning everything our God does, we heard it this
morning, He does all things well. He hath done all things well.
When my time comes to leave here, I believe and I pray that I'll
be able to honestly say, no matter what condition I'm in as I leave
this place, He hath done all things well. Truly, He hath done
everything for me, for my good, for His glory, well. Verse one
again, to everything there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven. I love that word purpose. Our
God, the only God, is a God of purpose. Everything he does,
he does on purpose. I'm not that way, but our God
is. Everything he does, he has a
reason for doing it. We may not understand it, but He does. The
word purpose here means, and I like this, that in which God
takes delight, His business, His matters, I especially love
this one, His good pleasure. His good pleasure. That's what
happens everywhere across this world and beyond this world,
everywhere all the time with everyone and everything is the
unfolding of God's good pleasure." Don't you like that? Aren't you
happy to know that? His purpose, His counsel shall
stand. Praise the Lord. He will do all
His pleasure. No one or nothing is going to
hinder Him. I get hindered a lot. I get stopped from doing what
I think I'm going to do. I have things I plan on doing
tomorrow. Tomorrow may not go as I have
it planned, but it's going to go according to His purpose.
And I can rest knowing that. I mentioned the end of my life. I don't know what state I'm going
to be in. I don't know how I'm going to go. So much happens in life that
we just flat out don't understand. We just don't. But what we can
do in those times is look to our Lord, whose will and purpose
is coming to pass, and we can wait on Him. You know, sometimes
we'll use the term, put it in His hands, just cast it all on
Him, wait on Him, be of good courage. I can honestly lay down
at night at peace. Sometimes I'll lay down and wonder,
is the car locked? It's outside. Is my door locked? And I foolishly worry about these
things sometimes, but my soul is at peace. No matter what happens
in the night, no matter what terrible news I might wake up
to tomorrow, I rest at peace, trusting my God, who does all
things on purpose, all things in His time, and all things well.
Our text again, verse one, to everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven, A time to be born
and a time to die. That's what I want to look at
tonight. First, a time to be born. There's a time to be born
physically. According to the purpose of God,
all of us were born, right? Now, in my life, I've had the
great privilege of having two children born to me and Rachel. Our first child, Hazel, she was
born on her doctor-given due date. Our second child, Isaac,
according to the doctor, he was around a week late. But did you
know that we're all born on our due date? And the doctors have their ways
of saying, well, they're due this day. I would venture to
say most people are not born on their doctor-given due date,
if I had to guess. But even if they were, they wouldn't
know the time. Does this not comfort you to know that you
and I were born at the exact, precise moment, I mean to the
very millisecond that God appointed us to be born? Precisely on time. Everything
happens precisely on time. Everything. And know this about people being
born. When somebody is born, where'd
that life come from? Well, you know, we decided to
have a baby. Well, a lot of people decide
to have babies that can't have babies. Sad reality. If a life is gonna come about,
God must give that life. Men and women don't create life. According to God's command and
his ordained means we're fruitful, we multiply and replenish the
earth. That's what he commanded, that's what he ordained, and
so that's what comes to pass but it's the eternal, always
existing God who creates life. All life comes from him. God made us, he's our maker.
God purposed our life. When he created Adam, he said,
and man became a living soul, not merely a body of clay. We
all come from the dust, the clay, but we're living souls. And our
God said this, he said, all souls He's our creator. We're his creatures.
He's the potter. We're just the clay, cut from
the same lump of clay. There's a time to be born physically.
But oh, how I rejoice to declare there's a time to be born spiritually. We're all born physically alive,
obviously. but spiritually dead. And that's
a statement that just does not make sense to our puny little
minds. How in the world can we be born
dead? It doesn't make sense, does it? Well, Ephesians 2 verse
1 says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses. And since we died in our father
Adam, David said this. He said, I was
shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. We also read that we come forth from our mother's womb
speaking not the truth. Oh, far from it. Far from it.
We come forth from our mother's womb speaking lies, all of us.
God is true and every man is a liar. It's just so. We're born
dead in sin. Not merely bruised dead. No life, completely dead. Now,
if we are going to have life, okay? If we are going to have
spiritual life, here's what must happen. Our
Lord said this in John chapter 3. A man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus,
came to him and he had some questions about who's going to enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And our Lord said, except you be born
again, you're not going to enter in. What he's saying is, Nicodemus,
I see you. You're alive physically, but
you're dead spiritually. You must be born again. It's
so for every son of Adam, every son and daughter of Adam. We
must be born again. Well, how in the world is that
going to happen? And Nicodemus said the same thing.
Can a man enter into his mother's womb again and be born? What
foolishness. That's not what he's talking
about. Born of the Spirit. You see, The spiritual birth
is very similar to the physical birth. And here's what I mean
by that. We play no part in it. Which of you wanted to be born? What a foolish question. Nobody.
And sadly, none of us want to be born spiritually either. It's
God's work from start to finish. We do not conceive ourselves.
We do not birth ourselves. Here's what happens. We simply
open our eyes and see, is that not what happened to you? I was
in the hospital for the first birth and then in my home for
the next birth. I'd never seen my children's eyes before. They
were there, I never saw them. And then one day, at the appointed
time, they opened their eyes. They were born. Life was there. We don't get saved as so many
people say, but rather we find ourselves believing. I thought
of that blind man in John 9. He said, all I know is this,
I was blind and now I see. And he also knew this, he didn't
give himself sight. Somebody else did, and he revealed
himself to them. Praise the Lord. You mentioned crying out this morning.
When we cry out to God, That's not what prompts God to
save us. David prayed, have mercy upon me, oh God. Hear my cry,
forgive me. That's the evidence of life.
Again, when a baby's born, what do they do? They cry. You who have children, do you
remember it? That precious moment when you heard your baby first
cry? God had given life. When God
gives spiritual life, we can't help but cry unto him who loved
us and gave himself for us. It's the evidence that he saved
us. It's the evidence that we've been born again, that we cry
unto him. Ascribe all praise, honor, and glory to him who made
us, gave us life. And just as we rejoice when our
child is born and we hear that precious cry, I think whenever
Isaac was born, if I remember right, it's not been that long
ago, I think you said, why is he not crying? Well, just wait
a second, he cried. God hasn't saved us, we're not
gonna cry. There's no life, we're not gonna
cry out unto him. Oh, may the Lord give us life,
and when he does, There's rejoicing in heaven when that newborn babe
first cries out, when God enables that child to repent and believe
on Christ. Oh, the joy. May we likewise rejoice when
God is pleased to give life. It's a glorious thing. Our text says there's a time
to be born and a time to die. Just as there's an appointed
time to be born physically, there is an appointed time in which
we must depart this life, this body, physically. I know you've
heard it mentioned several times today, but we were privileged
to go to Brother D's funeral yesterday. Every time I go to a funeral,
I'm reminded that it is inevitable that our time is coming. His body wasn't even physically
there. Brother Chris said he didn't
want it to be a distraction to the worship, and to just, God
bless your heart. But still, we knew what happened.
And I thought, he was here? No, he's not here. So it's gonna
be for me, and for you, all right? Now, knowing that our appointed
time awaits us, and knowing that people leave this world on a
daily basis, Let's acknowledge this. There
are no accidental deaths. I'm certain someone somewhere
died in a car crash today. Happens all the time. And I'm
sure it will be referred to as an accident. I've referred to
these things as accidents, knowing they're not really accidents.
How often do you hear someone say, oh, well, that death could
have been avoided. Well, that should have been avoided. Well,
if it could have or it should have, then it would have. That's
the truth. Now, there are no deaths that
shouldn't have happened, and let me say this, both inside
the womb and outside the womb. No accidents. Tragic to us. Heartbreaking to us. You who've
been through these things or touched by these things, I don't
want to diminish what you went through, not at all. Heartbreaking
to us. Sorrowful, painful, crushing
to us. Unexpected to us. But not to
our God. Not to our God. Never. Again,
our brother D, the doctors will say he passed away from cancer.
Know this too. Cancer or heart disease, whatever
it is, is not sovereign over God. You know, people speak of
cancer like it's the end all. No. Cancer's not sovereign over
God. God is sovereign over cancer.
It's a simple statement, but one that I feel needs to be said.
God's completely sovereign over that and everything else. It
may just be so that cancer is the means by which God's pleased
to take me away from here. It just may be. It's that way
for many. But let's not fear cancer, let's
fear reverence, worship God. He's the one able to destroy
both soul and body in hell. Cancer can't do that. God alone. Death is coming. It's coming. Job said, is not there an appointed
time to man upon earth? Are his days not few and full
of trouble? God has appointed our bounds so that we cannot
pass. Isaac was not born a second too
late. I'm not gonna live here a moment too long. It may feel
too long to me, but it'll be right on time. And not only that,
everything that happens in our day-to-day life is right on time. You may be late, but it was on
God's time. We may miss our appointments,
but God didn't miss his. He never has, he never will.
Turn with me to James chapter four. You know, speaking of appointments,
we'll make appointments and reschedule them. Cancel them. We just heard,
Brother David Edmondson's flight got canceled. That was unexpected,
wasn't it? Well, wasn't it? God doesn't reschedule. God doesn't
cancel. All His works were known unto
Him from the beginning. Everything He would do was known,
it was set, it was done. That's what comes to pass. The
King that executes His decrees in a far country, He's simply
doing the will of God. What God before ordained should
be done. Look here, James 4 verse 13. It says, Go to now, ye that
say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue
there a year and buy and sell and get gain." What's he saying?
You that say, tomorrow, well, I'm going to go do this. I'm
going to go do that. I'm going to go here, go there. You who are set on tomorrow,
and I'll go ahead and tell you, that's me and you both. Here, may we hear what God has
to say, all right? The next verse, verse 14. That's
true right there. We don't know what today's gonna
bring forth. Boast not thyself of tomorrow. We don't know. We don't know. And he asks a
good question here. What is your life? Oh, may we
ask ourselves that question constantly. And may we answer like the scriptures
answered. It's just a vapor, just a vapor. I've seen a lot of vapors. It's there for a second, then
it's gone. That's our life, all right? Here today, gone tomorrow. That's our life. Naturally, I
know we don't like to think about it. We don't like to think about
death. We don't want to talk about it. We want to put it off,
put it off, put it off until we're gone and we never even
gave it a thought. God forbid we die without giving death a
thought. It's important. It's crucial
that we consider it. Look here at verse 15. This is
why. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live. And do this or that if the Lord
will. if the Lord will. May we honestly,
and I'm talking to me first and foremost, may we honestly go
about our day, maybe not even saying it or praying it, but
just being mindful of this, that whatever we're set on doing,
that it hinges on whether or not the Lord will. You see what
he said here? You plan on going out and doing
all these things, this is what you need to be saying, if the
Lord will. Not only are you going to go to the city and buy and
sell, but if the Lord will, shall we even live? I'm not guaranteed
another breath. If the Lord will, we shall live
and maybe go here and do this or that. And not only that, brethren,
consider this in a spiritual light. If the Lord will, we shall
live. If the Lord will, we shall be
born again. We shall believe on Christ and
be one with Him. Only if the Lord will. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Absolutely nothing. Have you ever pondered this question?
I feel like you've heard it up here a fair amount of times,
but honestly, just in our own time, you ever thought about
this? Why must we die? Why do we have to die? It's a
decent question to ask. Well, let's see what the Word
says. Turn to Romans chapter six. Why do we have to die? Why is there an appointed time
for us to die? Why couldn't we just be born
and live here forever? Why must we die? Romans 6, look at verse
23. Last verse. Romans 6, 23. For the wages of sin is death. You recall In Genesis, God told
Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof of the forbidden fruit,
thou shalt surely die. You read the account, say, well,
he didn't die. He just went and found some fig
leaves and covered his nakedness and went and hid from God. He
didn't die. Well, God begs to differ. God
said that he did die, spiritually. and his body began to die physically. Death is not the result of old
age and weak bodies. We think that often, don't we?
Death, well, you get old, you get frail, your body starts to
quit working. There are a lot of people who
die at a young age and with a strong body. Happens every day, all
over this world. I think the better question would
be, why do we get old and gray and frail and begin to die? The only answer is what we just
read, sin. That's it. Sin, that's it. Now, here's a sad reality, okay? There are many, we're all gonna
die physically, unless the Lord comes. But here's a sad reality. There are many who will die,
not only physically, but spiritually. And to that I say, may God have
mercy on our souls, and on our children, on our loved ones,
on this city, on this world. Whoever he's pleased to save,
Lord, save them. The death that we die physically,
that's the death we think about. But there's another death the
scriptures speak of, spiritual death, it's called the second
death. It's the final death. The most terrible death I can't
even begin to fathom. A continual, never-ending death. What a terrible, dreadful thing.
There was a rich man in Luke 16, very sumptuously every day
in this life, And yet we're told that he lifted up his eyes in
hell and he still is being in torments. Never ending. And what an awful, awful thing
to think about. I praise God for having mercy
on Lazarus. I thought of a few. Cain, remember
God had respect unto Abel and his offering. His offering picturing
Christ, the Lamb of God, bloodshed from the perfect spotless Lamb.
But Cain brought the the fruits of his works, the ground he tilled,
and God wasn't pleased with him. Esau, he said, Jacob have I loved.
Now Jacob was a conniving trickster. Esau was a hardworking man, daddy's
boy. And yet God loved Jacob and let
Esau perish. God loved Jacob and hated Esau.
Loved one, hated the other. Judas, I hear this said all the
time, what was the difference in Peter and Judas? Christ prayed
for Peter. Christ chose Peter. He did not
choose Judas, one of you is a traitor, son of perdition, that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. Now, those men that perished
and men that perish today, they may be highly respected in the
eyes of men. They may be loved and adored
by many, but that means nothing. How we stand in God's sight is
the only thing that matters. It doesn't matter what men think
of us. All who die trusting in themselves
that they're righteous and despising the Lord Jesus Christ will surely
perish in their sin, perish with their riches. Whatever they had,
if we don't have Him, we have nothing, absolutely nothing.
Punishment for sin is not temporary. It's eternal, forever. Now, let's
understand this. We all deserve eternal death.
There's no exceptions. I've read about many exceptional
people in this world through the years. I liked studying history.
A lot of exceptional people, but there's only one exceptional
in God's sight, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only
one. The only one. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die, and that captures all of us. We've all sinned and
come short of God's glory. Now, it doesn't stop there. If that's
where the message stopped, we'd go home pretty pitiful and sad,
wouldn't we? You should be hearing Romans
6. Let's read this verse again. Praise God for this. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Physical life is a gift. It truly
is. I've been gifted with beautiful
children. I'm so thankful for them, thankful to our Lord for
them. But how much more glorious is the gift of spiritual life?
I thought of Mary. Martha was running about serving,
which is a good thing. But there was just one thing
needful. Mary was sitting there at the feet of her Savior, worshiping
Him, hearing His words. And our Lord said, that's never
going to be taken from her. That's eternal life. Never going
to be taken away from Him. Never going to be taken away
from our Savior, our Lord. Never. Now this gift of spiritual
life, it cannot be earned. It cannot be purchased or influenced
by us in the slightest. We play no part in it. But it
was earned. It was fully purchased. It was
forever secured. by our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, once and for all, for all His people. Now, I'm gonna
try to be quick in this last point here. Turn with me to the
book of John, chapter 10. Here in John 10, verse 11, our Lord says, I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life, and I notice this, for the sheep. Look down at verse
14. I am the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life, look at it, for
the sheep. For whom did Christ lay down
his life? For everybody? Well, God so loved the world,
his sheep, whom he chose out of the world, all right? Now
look down at verse 24. We're gonna see right here, some
people, he says, you're not my sheep. Verse 24, then came the
Jews round about him and said unto him, how long dost thou
make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you believe not.
The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me,
but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep. As I said
unto you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. He goes on to say, My Father
which gave them is greater than all, and no man can pluck them
out of his hand. We're one, we're one. The sheep have been born
again. The sheep have been given, freely
given, what did he say? Eternal life, and they shall
never perish. No one's gonna pluck them out.
They can't pluck themselves out. Well, they don't want you. Well,
I think we heard it this morning. Praise God, he wouldn't take
no for an answer. Almighty love arrests that man. That's what
he does. He comes and gets us. In tenderness, he seeks us. What
a wonderful song. Well, who are the sheep? Who
are they? Turn to Hebrews chapter nine.
It'd be the last place to turn, Hebrews nine. Look down at verse 27. Hebrews 9, 27. And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation. The sheep are those for whom
Christ died. Right here it says, he was offered to bear the sins
of many. That's the sheep, okay? Now who are they? You notice
what the end of verse 28 says? Unto them that look for him.
That's who the sheep are. The sheep are looking to him.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, our faith.
Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. I'm
God, there's none else. The sheep are looking to him. and we're
looking for him. Again, I didn't speak to him
personally, but you did. He told you he was looking for his savior,
didn't he? Are we not, too? Oh, if we're God's sheep, we're
gonna be looking for him, looking unto him, trusting in him and
him alone. There's nothing else worth trusting.
I'm not worth trusting. Oh, but I can trust him. I can
hang my soul on him. If this night my soul is gonna
be required of me, all my hope is in him. It's all in it. Now we're told
right here that it's appointed unto men once to die and then
the judgment. But I rejoice to know that it
was appointed unto our Lord once to die. It was appointed to our
Lord once to be born. And you just consider that. The
one that spoke this world into existence. It was appointed unto
him to come into that very world and be born. And you read about
the humility in which he came. Now, why did he do that? Why
would he do that? I'll tell you why. For us. If we're his sheep, he did that
for us. Now here's a verse I thought
of in John 11. When Lazarus had physically died, okay, Martha
and Mary were all torn up, they were all troubled, which rightfully
so, right? Our Lord said this concerning
Lazarus. He said, this sickness, the sickness that physically
took his life, He said, this sickness is not unto death, though
he had physically died, understand? This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. He went on later in the chapter
to say, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
We say our brother died. God said he lives. He's living. Living like he dreamed of living
for years. Living like I dreamed of living
too. Like one day we will if we're found looking for him.
Lord, cause us to look for you. You cause me to seek your face,
Lord, and one day he'll show us. Do we believe on Christ? The
sheep believe on Christ. Are we hoping only in Him? You
know what the sheep cry? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. I have Him, I have everything.
I have the desire of my heart and my soul, and I'm gonna dwell
with Him in His house forever. Behold His beauty. Oh, if we
have Christ, oh may God give us Christ. May we win Christ
and be found in Him if we have Him. When our appointed time
of death comes, and just know, it is coming. It is surely coming. If we have Christ, if we're in
him, if we're one with him, we have nothing to fear when that
moment comes. The body may ache, but our soul shall rejoice forever. There's a time to be born and
a time to die. Let's not fear death. Paul said,
for me to live is Christ. What a statement. And to die
is gain. May God enable us to truly believe
that. And I'll leave you with this verse, Psalm 3115. This
is a comfort to me. Because it's in God's word, I
believe it. And I'm hanging my soul on every word God's written
for us. But he said, Psalm 3115, he said,
my times are in thy hand. That's something we can go home
trusting, brethren. Our appointed times are in His hand. May the
Lord encourage and comfort us with these words. Amen.