I say this every time, and I
mean it every time. It is such a joy to be able to
be here and to have the honor and the privilege to be, number
one, asked to be here, to stand before people that I'm convinced
The Lord's everlastingly loved, called out of darkness, and given
a heart to want to be together. I too say, as Gabe said, we speak often, one to five times
a day is what I tell people, and I mean that, I'm serious
about that. But what a joy to be able to
have fellowship, fellowship, really fellowship. I'm looking
around at this group as I was sitting here and I'm thinking
how many people that I have seen grow up, watched them grow up. Eric, Jessica, all you that,
I'm so thankful that we're here. I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn back to Ecclesiastes. I'd like to look at one verse
out of this passage that Brother Brandon read. I want to look
at verse 8, but coming up to it, starting in verse 1, especially
verse 8, the scripture speaks of this theme, if I can
say it this way. It says in verse 1, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. And that that season. When it says season, this is
what it means. There is a set or an appointed
time. It's set. And then when it uses
the word time, it sets forth the experience or the occurrence
of that which the Lord has purposed. So now we're living in a world
that is established and it's ordered by the determinate counsel,
will, power of Almighty God. The scripture declares concerning
the Lord and His people in whom we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. That's Ephesians
1.11. There was a king named Nebuchadnezzar
and Nebuchadnezzar one night was standing out overlooking
the kingdom there in Babylon and he said in his heart outwardly,
God knew, look at this great Babylon. that I built. While the words were in his mouth,
God took his mind, put him out in the field, let him stay there
for years. And when the Lord was pleased
to give him his mind back, this was Nebuchadnezzar's confession,
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest
thou? So according to the Word of God,
according to God's revelation, the Lord has appointed, He's
ordained all that's going to come to pass. And He's ordained
the time when He's going to bring all things to pass that He's
done. Now this evening for a few minutes
I want us to think why did the Lord Jesus Christ come into this
world? Why? The scripture declares that
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. The Lord has
a people. He has a people that He's everlastingly
loved. They were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world that they should be holy and without
blame before God in Christ. Now, when we start talking about
all these, I started going through the book of Ecclesiastes, and
as I started going through these, there's a time to be born, a
time to die, a time to pluck up, that's planted, killed. These
precious scriptures, if we miss the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
this book, what did he tell the two on the road to Emmaus? Beginning
with Moses, prophets, in all the scriptures, He expounded
unto them those things concerning Himself. So we're here tonight
to consider Him. I want to consider Him. And I want to consider His will,
His season, His time for calling out His people. And what happens,
this verse of Scripture, verse 8, this one verse of Scripture,
Brother Bob, encompasses the glorious totality, if I can say
it like that, of the Lord calling His people, teaching His people,
revealing unto them something of themselves, and of Him, and
the joy that they receive Him. This one verse of scripture here
is the glorious gospel of God's grace right here. Let's look
at verse 8 and remember that all of these scriptures, this
is speaking of Him, it's speaking of the Lord, His purpose, His
work, bringing about, accomplishing His salvation to a people of
His everlasting love. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world, bore their guilt. He was made sin for His people. And when it pleases Him, He's
gonna call them. And we're gonna see right here
for a few minutes the truth of Jonah 2.9. It's what Jonah said. The Lord taught him something. Taught him something of who Jonah
was, Taught him something who the Lord was. Taught him something
about when God was going to deliver him. And this was Jonah's confession
when that whale vomited him out on the sea. He said, this is
it. He said, I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay that which I vowed. And this is what he said, salvations
of the Lord. What does that mean? That means we don't have anything
to do with it. That's what it means. Salvation is of the Lord. So here, let's just look for
a few minutes. One verse of Scripture, Ecclesiastes 3a. Here's what
Scripture says. There's a time to love. A time to love. You say, well,
I thought that You said that the Lord everlastingly loved
His people. He does. He does. But they don't know it until
He's pleased to reveal it. There's a time. Turn with me.
Hold your place. Mark it right there. Turn over
to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. I'll look at the first few verses
here. Ezekiel 16 verses 1 to 3, Again the word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to
know her abominations. And say, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. Father was an Amorite, and thy
mother an Hittite." Now the Scripture is setting forth here through
a prophet. God's going to teach His people.
He's talking, He said, you say to Jerusalem, well there's a
physical Jerusalem over here, a piece of property over on the
other side of the ocean. I'm not talking about that physical
place, I'm talking about a heavenly Jerusalem. You tell the Jerusalem. Thy birth and thy nativity is
of the land of Canaan." What does the Lord teach us? First
of all, He's going to teach us something of ourselves. We're
all descendants from a fallen man, and we're all idolaters
by birth. We all worship the little G-God
of me. We're idolaters. You tell Jerusalem,
Thy birth in 950 is of the land of Canaan." Canaan was a cursed
land. Father in Amorite, mother in Hittite. Verse 4 and 5, And
as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, thy navel was
not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee, thou
wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee
to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee,
but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of
thy person in the day that thou wast born. Not only are we fallen
creatures of dust, sinners from the garden, we're totally helplessly
frail, weak, impotent, spiritually impotent, and we have no ability
whatsoever to change ourselves, we don't have a will. People
start talking about a will. I tell you, I got a will. I mean,
here's a will I'm born with. I'll not have this man rule over
me. That's my will. That's the way I'm born. I'm
dead, dead spiritually. And in Adam, we are totally depraved. What does that mean? Turn over
to Isaiah 1, verse 5 and 6. Isaiah 1, 5 and 6. This is what, when we say total
depravity, here's what it means. There is no part of us. You can
talk about whatever parts you got. Not physical, your mental,
emotional, you know, spiritual, whatever. Nothing, there's nothing
that's not polluted. Isaiah 1, verse 5 and 6. Let's
start in verse 4. Isaiah 1, 4, 5, 6. Ah, sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They've provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger. They're
gone away backwards. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more, the whole head's sick. The whole
heart faint from the sole of the foot even to the head. There's
no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises, putrefying sores,
they've not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment. I'm telling you, man is born
spiritually polluted. He's polluted. We're dead. I've said this before. Turn over to Psalm 14. Psalm
14. We talk about, I've heard people
refer to this especially in talking about whenever the Lord chose
His people. He chose a people before the
foundation of the world and they'll relate that and they'll say,
the Lord looked down and saw who would choose Him so He chose
them. You heard that. And I always tell people, He did look. But
this is what He saw. Psalm 14, two and three, the
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. They're all gone
aside. They're all together become filtered.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. So back in Ezekiel 16 here. Here we are. We know where we
are. We know where we've come from.
We know what we're made of. We're polluted creatures of the
dust. So what does a fallen creature
What hope does he have? We can't do anything, William.
We're dead, we're dead. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. But the Lord has revealed there's a time of love. There's
a time of love. Here's the hope for any fallen
creature of dust. Ezekiel 16, six to eight. And
when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. And thou hast increased and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned,
thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. When
I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine." There is a time when Almighty God who has everlastingly loved
his people when it pleases the Lord. That's what, turn over
to Galatians. Galatians, you know where I'm
going with this. Galatians chapter one. There's a time whenever
it pleases the Lord, he who has everlastingly loved his people
is going to tell them about it. Until then, they don't know it.
They don't know him. He said, but when I pass by,
When I saw you, I saw you, I saw you in your blood. Your navel
wasn't cut. I spread my skirts over you.
I covered you. Robes his people in righteousness.
Washes them in his precious blood. And he said, there was your time,
the time of love. Galatians chapter one, verse
13, 16. Paul, the apostle, says, for you have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews'
religion above many mine equals in mine own nation, being more
exceeding zealous of the traditions of my fathers, but when it pleased
God. separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood." Brethren, there is a time of love. There's a time of love. That
time is according to the Lord's will. There's a season that He's
ordained. There's a season. This season
is the ordination of what God has purposed. He's ordained.
There was a time when Almighty God was going to call His people
out, and that time is when He calls them. And when He says,
live, the Spirit of God removes a heart of stone and gives them
a heart of flesh. He said, I'm gonna write my law.
That law of love, write that law on your heart. I'm gonna
be your God, you're gonna be my people. There's a time of
love. Then back in Ecclesiastes 3,
the scripture says, in a time to hate. Now you know there's
so much, I thought about this as I was looking at this, there's
so much that's spoken. in the scriptures concerning
hate. I mean you can go through and you can take a concordance,
you can see just different, you know, time to hate Jacob, have
I loved Esau, have I hated him? But in keeping with the context,
whenever the Lord calls one of his own out of darkness, something,
something happens. He's revealed unto us, his people,
he's revealed what the world's attitude is toward the Lord. And when I say the attitude toward
the Lord, this is what I'm saying. The God of this Bible is sovereign. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said,
he doeth as he will in the army of heaven. And he's not at anyone's
beck and call, I can tell you that. He does as he will, we're
grasshoppers. And this is the attitude of the
world. I'll just read this, it's Psalm
69, 4. The scripture says, they that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then restored that
which I took not away. So I know what, according to
the scriptures, I know what the attitude of the world is toward
the Lord. Because he's the Lord. Man wants to be the Lord. But
the Lord is Lord. And He said this is their attitude. And then He warned us concerning
those that hate Him. He warned His disciples of the
hatred that the world would have because of His love for them. Let me just read John 15, 18
to 19. Listen to this. He said, If the world hates you,
you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, not only the evil secular world, but the world's
religion that hates God who is God, sovereign God. He said,
if you were of the world, the world would love his own, but
because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. So I know that there's a
hatred of the world toward and a hatred of the world toward
God's people. I know that. But that's not in
keeping with the context of verse 8. I want to tell you I understand
there's a lot of things to be said about hate. But in keeping
with this context of the Lord passing by His people. There's
a time of love and that regenerating grace. And then there's a time
to hate. And I'll tell you what this is.
It's that attitude of the new man toward those things that
he still sees found in himself. I want you to turn over to Romans
chapter 7. Romans chapter 7, under the inspiration
of God's Spirit, the Apostle Paul penned this truth, Romans
7. When the Lord comes in mercy
and compassion, and calls one of his own. Something happens to that believer. He begins to see something of
himself. Romans chapter 7 and let's just look at verse
14-15. Paul said, For we know that the
law is spiritual, But I am carnal, sold unto sin. For that which
I do, I allow not, I know not. But what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it's good. Immediately when the
time of love and the Lord blesses His Word by His Spirit to His
people, and He calls them out of darkness and reveals Himself
to them, and they see something of who He is and something of
themselves. Immediately, according to the
Word of God, Paul says, But what I hate, that's what I do. Have you ever just trying to
pray, and all of a sudden you realize, where am I? What was I just, what was I thinking
about? That attitude that I had toward
that person, he looked across at me, and immediately, if they
only knew what I thought, That which I do, Paul says, I
hate it. There's a time, until then, I
loved my attitude. I was not that bad. I'm not as
bad, I guarantee you I'm not as bad as most. I had somebody
tell me the other day, he said, well Marvin, you know, you're
a preacher and everything. I said, listen, don't go there with me.
I said, you don't have any idea. You have no idea. I said, what
goes through my mind and my attitude, and I hate it. Coming up, getting
ready to stand in this pulpit, sitting in that chair a few minutes
ago, I'll just go ahead and confess it to you. I said, Lord, please
help me. I don't deserve the least of
your mercies. You know my thoughts, you know
what I, please have mercy upon me. Lord, don't leave me to myself. The Lord's people, they know
something of what they are. Turn over to Philippians 3. Philippians
chapter 3. Philippians 3. The Apostle Paul,
he gave a little exhortation of what he used to trust in.
How after the Lord stopped him on the road to Damascus, Saul
saw why persecute shall he. And here's a Pharisee, Jerry,
a Pharisee. One of the strictest of the sects
of that time frame. Moral, upstanding. One of them
went into the temple one time to pray. And he lifted up his
eyes and says, God, I thank Thee I'm not as other
men are. I tithe. I'm certainly not like this publican
right over here. This low life, I'm not like that.
Paul the Apostle said in Philippians chapter 3, this is after it was
his time for love. Philippians 3, 5 to 9, I've circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel. Told somebody, I said,
now here's what he said. You know what? You go back and
look in the account when Ishmael, Ishmael I think was 13 years
old, you know, when he was circumcised. Paul said, that was not me. I
was circumcised on the day of the law. Eighth day. Stock of Israel. Tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of Hebrew. My mom and
daddy were Hebrews. I come from pure stock. There's
no tainted blood in mine. Touching the law of Pharisee
concerning zeal, persecuting the church. He persecuted the
church that in his mind was against the law. Touching righteousness that's
in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost. Lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless
I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ
and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. So there's a time of love. There's
a time when God's going to call His people out of darkness. And
there's a time to hate. They hate. Every believer is
just like this. You talk to any believer, and
this is what they're going to tell you. They're going to absolutely
agree with you. I hate what I see. Lord, deliver
me from myself. But then the Scripture says,
back in Ecclesiastes, there's a time of war. Time of war. Oh, what happens? Well, as soon
as the Lord calls them out of darkness and they see something
of themselves, they realize there's a battle going on here. There's
a battle. Back in Romans chapter 7, verse
18, 25. Now this is what's happening. They see themselves. Paul just
said in verse 14, 15, that which I do, but what I hate, that's
what I do, I hate it. And listen to this battle that's
going on. Romans 7, 18 to 25. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. for
the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not,
that I do." Now look here, back and forth. Now if I do that which
I would not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity of
the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin." What did he mean that last verse? I'm so thankful God taught
me this. I see this battle going on and
I know it's going on. And here I am, I see a law in
my members, that law of sin, that body of death, and it's
warring against me. And the flesh lusteth against
the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and they're contrary
one to the other, and there's a battle. Lord, thank you for
showing me that. I'd never know what was going
on until there was a time for war. You taught me something,
I said, time of love, Time of hate. Time of war. But the last one said there's
a time of peace. Time of peace. Turn over to Colossians 1. Oh,
what a blessed revelation. There's a battle that's going
on in every believer. They hate what they see within,
and the Lord's called them, revealed Himself, and they're They're
struggling with themselves. You know, I tell you what, I
sure don't want to have to fool with that out there in that world.
Buddy, I got the biggest problem right here. What a, what a miracle. Peace. There's a peace. There's
a time of peace. In the midst of this hatred against
what we see, what we are in this battle that's going on. What
a miracle that the Lord has established and revealed. There's a time
that he's revealed it. that there is some peace in heart. What a peace. But it was peace
that came at a great cost. To be able to just rest in this
gospel right here, and realize that what the Lord's done for
me, the Lord did for me. I didn't do anything for myself,
but what did this cost? I made a statement one time,
there's a high cost of what we call free grace. Colossians 1
verse 16-20, For by Him were all things created, that are
in heaven, that are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All
things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all
things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of
the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, and in all things He might have the preeminence,
for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, there's a time for peace. And I didn't know it. I didn't know. I didn't know
that Almighty God had reconciled me unto the Lord. I didn't know
that until there was a time of love. And then that battle ensued. But in the midst of that battle, what peace, when I can contemplate
and realize what the Lord has done for me in the shedding of
His own blood, bore all my guilt. I'm just going to have to say
that I believe Him, I believe Him. When He bore all of the
sins of His people, for whom did He die? Well, I can tell
you what He said. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. That's who He died for. He's
got a sheep, He's got a... And He's come, and He's gonna,
He paid the debt, He bore me, and the scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5, 21, He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And that righteousness which
we're made is His righteousness. And here's the settling of a
believer. Here's a piece right here. Robed
in His righteousness, I stand before God accepted in the Beloved,
righteous. He has predestinated us unto
the adoption of children that we should be holy. Someone says,
are you saying though, are you saying that you're holy? I said,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm holy. Holy. Gabe and I was talking one morning,
this thought, truth. You remember in the day that
we'll all stand before God and the books will be opened. Everybody's
going to give account of what they've done in their body, in
their body. Whenever the Lord comes in a
time of love, And he regenerates. Removes that heart of stone,
gives a heart of flesh. There's a new man created there.
There's a new man. And he's created in righteousness
and true holiness. That which is born of God sinneth
not. Sinneth not. That which is born
of God sinneth not. cannot sin because he's born
of God. Now here's something that every
believer is just going to have to believe. You just have to
believe this. You believe God, you believe the Lord's called
you, there's a new man there that sins and sinneth not. And in that day when we're called,
we're not going to all sleep, Paul said, but we're all going
to be changed. That which is corruptible is going to put on
incorruption. That which is mortal is going to put on immortality.
We stand before God in that new man and the books are going to be
open and the book and all is found written in the book created
in righteousness and true holiness justified. No record. No record. No record. Never sinned. That which is born
of God sinneth not. Enter in. Enter in that which was prepared
for you from before the foundation of the world. Now there's peace
there. I believe God. There's a time
of love. time of the open manifestation
of God's love toward His people in regenerating grace. There's
a time to hate, a time when that believer begins to see what's
within him. There's a time of war, that spiritual
battle whereby the flesh and the spirit, because they're contrary
one to the other, that battle is going to rage until we leave
this world. And finally, there's a time of
peace, a time of peace while we're in this world, peace within
the heart, because God has established by His blood, peace for the sheep. But there's a time of coming
peace. We'll be with Him. There'll be
no more tears. It'll be over. Brethren, Colossians 3.15, let
the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you're called
in one body and be you thankful. I pray God bless us to our hearts
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the peace and comfort
of his people. Amen.