Proverbs 1. Last Sunday morning,
we saw that everything that Solomon has written in the book of Ecclesiastes
is all pointing to one conclusion. Fear God. Fear God. He said that's the conclusion
of the whole matter. If we want to get to the end
of the whole matter, fear God and keep His commandments for
this is the whole duty of man. That's what he said. Fear God
and obey God. But we also saw that we do not
obey God in order for him to save us. That's an important
thing to make very, very clear. That would be works. That would
be all error. If you want to know where everybody's
going wrong, why are we so narrow? Why is that gate so straight
and that way so narrow? It's because the work belongs
to Him. The glory goes to Him. And we don't do anything for
Him to save us. Not one thing. The Apostle Paul said, it's not
of works lest any man should boast. We obey Him because we
are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Now, simply put,
I was thinking about salvation. We talk about We're looking at these works
as a result of our salvation. This is about the simplest way
I know for us to understand our own salvation. If we want to
understand what God in three persons did for his elect sinners,
all we have to do is think of a man going into a pound to get
a dog. That's all we have to do. If
we want to truly understand salvation, here are all these dogs in cages. They are all bound in captivity. Every one of them. Right? They
are all dogs. They're all dogs. They may be
red dogs, yellow dogs, black dogs, white dogs, big dogs, little
dogs. They're all dogs. They've always
been dogs. They were born that way. They are owed nothing. They have earned nothing. But a man walks in, and out of
all those dogs, he says, I'll take that one. Why that one? Because that's the one I want
to take. It is my right to take the one I want. Well, here's how much he's going
to cost you. And he's a dog. He doesn't have
any money. He has no money. You're going to have to pay the
price in full. So the man lays every penny on
the counter, and it is acknowledged with a receipt the price has
been paid in full. So that man walks over to the
cage, opens the door, and says, come on, boy. And then he takes that dog home.
And he feeds it, and he shelters it, and he draws it near to himself. Isn't that how it works? That's salvation. Now you ask
that dog, if you could speak in dog language, ask that dog,
how did you get here? This is what he'd say. I was
chosen, I was paid for, and I was called. That's how I got here. That's salvation. That's how
a captive dog makes it all the way into the master's house every
single time. Our Lord told that woman whose
daughter was grievously vexed with a devil, it is not me to
take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. She said, you're
right. Truth, Lord. I'm a dog, but I'm
your dog. I'm your dog. That's what we
are. We're just the master's dogs. Now that's where our heart
of obedience comes from. Anytime we're going to talk about
obeying God and obeying his word and obeying his law, I thought
the law was put away. You know a better way to say
that? I thought the law was satisfied.
It is. God said, our Lord said, I didn't
come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. So anytime
we talk about this law, it's coming from the heart and the
motivation of love for the master. That's what it is. Love and thanks
for the great things that he's done for us. Now with that in
mind, we're going to read through a few verses in Ecclesiastes,
but before we do, I want us to read Proverbs 1 together. A few verses here, Proverbs 1.
Verse 1 says, The Proverbs of Solomon, the
son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction. To perceive the words of understanding. To receive the instruction of
wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity. Wouldn't we love
these things? All of these things are Christ.
He's our wisdom. He's our, you know, you get some
equity in your house. That's the part you own. That's
Christ. He's our equity. He's our justice.
He's our judgment. We were judged in him, weren't
we? Verse four says to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man,
knowledge and discretion. I hope I can say I'm still a
young man. I'd love some knowledge and discretion.
Verse 5 says, a wise man will hear and will increase learning,
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. To understand a proverb and the
interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and
instruction. Is that not truth? I don't want
to hear it. Don't want to hear it. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction
of thy father. And forsake not the law of thy
mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head
and chains about thy neck. He said a wise man will hear
and will increase learning. May the Lord increase us. May
he increase us. Now go with me over to Ecclesiastes
3, the next book over. May our Lord increase our wisdom,
increase our faith, our grace, our knowledge, our obedience,
all because of what the Master did for us. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1 says,
to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under
the heaven. Man, if we could get a hold of
that. The first thing we see is this. Everything that God
does is on purpose. God does everything. Every single
thing he does, he does on purpose. There is a time to every purpose
under the heaven. If we ever learn something about
God's purpose, we'll learn something about God. It's all on purpose. It's all on purpose. It's all
on purpose. It's all on purpose. All of it
is on purpose. It's all on purpose. Every day, everything, every
way, it's all on purpose. It's all on purpose. It's all
on purpose. It's all on purpose. All of it
is on purpose. It's all on purpose. That gives
us peace, doesn't it? Why? Purpose. What's the purpose? Good. To them that love God. It's all on purpose. It's all
on purpose. The second thing we see is everything
has a time and a season. everything. There's a time for
this. There's a time for that. There's
a time to do this and there's a time to not do this. Right? Here is a wise example. Here's
a wise, wise example. I'm going to speak to myself
on this one. I'll just talk to me. and I'll just think out loud
and you guys can listen to my thoughts, okay? We would be wise
to go through a bunch of these things and really understand
the wisdom in it, the wisdom in it. I'm gonna tell you one,
because this happened to me, this was my experience, and this
made such a huge impact on me, such a, I mean, It's just, anyway,
three years ago, I was 36 years old and the pastor of this church. All right? I hadn't been pastor
long. You all called me at the age of 35. The following spring, I was asked
to go speak in the conference in Rocky Mount with Brother Todd
Niebuhr and Brother Alan Jellett. Friday night, Saturday morning,
Sunday morning. Our family was staying the weekend
at my sister Hannah and my brother-in-law Sammy's house. Spending the night
there. Saturday night, a bunch of people
came over to their house for snacks, fellowship, all that
kind of good stuff. We had a great time. Around 9.30,
9.45, everybody started to go home or go back to where they
were staying. And I was staying there, so I
was seeing everybody out with Sammy. I'm a hugger and all that
kind of stuff, so I'm telling people about it. The last person
to walk out was Brother Todd Nyberg. And as he walked out the door,
he turned around and he looked at me, and he looked at Sammy,
and he said, now y'all go to bed. Don't stay up all night
talking. And I thought, what am I, 12?
I've been asked to speak here too. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I own my own house. Sammy was
older than me. He was in his forties. And we
kind of laughed a little bit. We said, okay. He said, no, I'm
serious. He said, we have worship in the
morning and we need to be rested and alert for it. I'm preaching. I looked at Sammy,
he looked at me, and we said, OK. Sammy shut the door. He said,
well, good night. See you in the morning. I said, see you
in the morning. We would have stayed up talking.
That's just what you do. And there's no sin in staying
up and talking with your brother. But we did get a good night's
sleep, and I did wake up rested. Saying that, that sounds old-fashioned. That sounds like you don't want
anybody to have any fun. That sounds like you're an old
fuddy dud. That's not it. That's not it at all. It's just
there's a time for everything. Does that make sense? There's
a time for everything. I believe I have wisely been
instructed there's a time to go to bed. There's a time to wake up and
present ourselves before the Lord. Friday night I believe is a great
time. I really do. I think it's a great time. Let's
stay up. If we don't have to go to work,
let's sleep in on Saturday morning. That's a great time. But I really
do believe, that has impacted me. I believe that I was wisely
instructed the night before worship. It's just not that time. It's
just not that time. Why are you, this is a little
weird, why are you bringing this up? The fear of the Lord. the fear of the Lord. I bring
it up because we must fear and reverence this holy God. We need
to present ourselves before our holy God, rested and alert, ready
to worship. Ready to worship. Verse 1 says,
To everything there's a season and a time, to every purpose
under the heaven. There's a time to be born. Thank
God there was a time for Christ to be born. The angel said unto you is born
this day a savior. Thank God. God made a time to
be born. There's a time to die. Thank
God it was appointed Christ a time to die. Concerning us, there is a time
to be born, there is a time to die. We have an appointed time. Both of those times and everything
that happens in between them are in the hands of our God.
They're not in our hands. Those times are not in our hands. David said, we were in Psalm
31 Wednesday night. David said in Psalm 31, my times
are in thy hands. All of my times, they're in your
hands. And verse two goes on to say,
there's a time to be born and a time to die. There's a time
to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. I know
that there's a certain season for gardening. I know that. But
do you know what, what our true desire is? Our ultimate desire
in this life, not only for our kids, but for all of us. It's
that God would plant a seed. That's all we want. That's all
we want. There's a time to die. Death
is coming. What we know is earthly death.
It's coming. You can't undo it. Oh, he has
cancer. Well, God is predetermined for
this one to have a car wreck. And God is predetermined for
this one to die of old age. And this one, death is coming. There's a time to die. But our
hope is that God would plant a seed, make it grow, cause it
to bear fruit, pluck it for Himself, make it His own. Verse 3 says,
there's a time to kill. Only God knows that time. He
said, I kill, didn't He? But here's why we preach the
gospel. This is the reason we stand up
and preach the gospel. There's a time to kill. That
brings me such hope. Just keep preaching the gospel.
There's a time to kill. This is what the Apostle Paul
said. He said in Romans 7, when the commandment came, when God's
law came to me through the preaching of the gospel, Jesus Christ preached
to that man. And when the commandment came,
he said, sin revived. It came alive. I saw it for what
it was. I never saw it before. Sin was
dead to me. I had no conscience toward anything.
But all of a sudden, when the law came, sin revived. And I saw it for what it was,
and it slew me. It killed me. I died. I died. This flesh needs to be
killed. And I had references on that,
we're not going to go there. Romans 8 talks about mortify
your members. Mortify the deeds of this flesh.
All those things we just need to kill them. There's a time
to kill, but verse 3 says there's a time to heal. Thank God there's
a time to heal. Paul said, it was revealed to
me through the same message that I was crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me." That's healing. Oh, this flesh is terrible, but
look what Christ did. Verse 3 goes on to say, there's
a time to break down, there's a time to build up. If God is
going to build us up, we must understand that He will first
break us down. That's hard to believe, hard
to enter into, and hard to go through. But if God is going
to build us up, he must first break us down. And he will, not
might. He will. I mean, he will. He's going to put us down and
make us cry to him. Not in theory. Not in doctrine. Oh yeah, we're
sinners and we cry to Him. No, we cry to Him. And it's all
good. It's all good. He must break
us and it's all good. If there's a time to break down,
there will be a time to build up. Verse 4 says, if there's
a time to weep, there will be a time to laugh. If there's a
time to mourn, there will be a time to dance. Our Lord said
the exact same thing. We were going to turn, but we're
not now. Matthew 5. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We're poor in everything but
in Christ. He said, blessed are those that
mourn. Those that mourn over their sin.
Not those that mourn over the things of this world. There are
people all over Center Street mourning over the things of this
world. But, oh, why am I the way I am? I'm so disgusted with
me. He said, blessed is that person.
They're going to be comforted. There's a time for the one. There's
coming a time for the other. Verse 5 says, there's a time
to cast away stones. and a time to gather stones together,
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. Peter
said that God's children are lively stones built up a spiritual
house. That's what he said they are.
And there have been times throughout the ages that God's spiritual
house has been persecuted to the point that it was cast apart.
And every time that happened, The gospel thrived everywhere
it went. God sent the gospel far and wide. And there may come a time when
we're persecuted. There may come a time. We are
all embracing right now. There may come a time when we
have to refrain from embracing. But look at verse 1 with me.
To everything there's a season and time to every purpose. Every
purpose under heaven. It's all on purpose. And our
God is the one who's in control. Our God, not their God, our God. Verse six says, there's a time
to get and a time to lose. Job said, the Lord giveth and
the Lord taketh away. Sometimes we have to lose things
to get the gospel. Sometimes we have to lose things
to get the gospel, but really what have we lost? We'll lose
some worldly relationships. We'll lose some worldly status,
but what have we lost if we get the gospel in return? Verse six goes on to say, there's
a time to keep and a time to cast away. Not only will we lose
this world for the sake of the gospel, But he goes on to say
there's a time to cast it away. And that's wisdom. That's true
wisdom. Whatever is a hindrance to our relationship with our
Lord, whatever is a hindrance to our relationship with Christ,
if it hinders my worship, if it hinders my walk, if it hinders
my fellowship with him, it's time to cast it away. Verse 7
says there's a time to rend and a time to sow. That's the work
of God's Word. It's not my work. It's not your
work. It's the work of God's Word.
The truth rends the heart. The gospel sows it back up. One man said, the law is the
needle that pierces the heart. But with that piercing, a way
is made for the threat of the gospel to pull through and bind
it all back up. It's the way God works. There's
a time to rend. There's a time to sow. Now listen
to this one. Verse 7 goes on to say, there's
a time to keep silence and a time to speak. There's a time to keep
silence. All of those horrific things,
what we see to be horrific things that happened to Job. He lost
it all. I mean, he lost it all. He lost
his children. All of them. All of them. Can you imagine? He lost it all.
He lost his possessions. He lost it all. And Job's wife
said, why don't you just curse God and die? You know what the scripture says?
In all of this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. At the end of it all, Job said,
I think I'll just put my hand over my mouth. There's a time
to keep silent. His wife, can you imagine her
just, God hates you. God's punishing you? I think
I'll just put my hand over my mouth. There was a time when
King David was marching with his men and there was a man named
Shimei running along beside him on the hill, cursing David the
whole time, cursing David, giving him down the road. One of David's
soldiers said, do you want me to go over there and take his
head off? David said no. This was from the scripture.
God said to him, Go curse David. Don't you love that? You want
me to go kill that man? No. God said to him, that's believing
that your God controls all things, isn't it? God said to him, go
curse David. And David said, it may be that
the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord will requite
me good for his cursing this day. God might have done this. just for the purpose of looking
on my affliction and doing good to me. There's a time to keep
silence. And there's a time to speak.
When is that? It's when the glory of God is
at stake. When Christ crucified is the
issue. That's the moment that we stand
up and we declare the truth. Verse 8 says, there's a time
to love. When is that? Anytime we're dealing
with our brethren. If God's sheep are involved,
then it's a time to love. That's how God dealt with us. This is what he said. Thy time
was a time of love. I saw you laying there polluted
in your own blood, cast out, rejected. No, I pitied you. But
your time was a time of love. Another time is when we're dealing
with men and women who are completely ignorant of the things of God.
Totally ignorant to the truth of salvation. We need to deal
with them in love. We need to tell them the truth
in love. So when is it a time to hate? Job said, I abhor myself
and repent in dust and ashes. Any time this old man starts
to rear up, and he will, finally he will say, that's it. I've
had all I can stand. Here I come. That's when it's
time to start fighting, hating, pushing. David said, do not I hate them
that hate thee. that absolutely hate the true
and living God. And I thought a lot about that
and I agree with that. And I believe we ought to leave
they in God's hands. I think we have plenty of hating
to do right here. Our Lord said, love your enemies, didn't he?
So I believe we leave that in God's hands and we just keep
it right there. Verse 8 says, a time to love,
a time to hate, there's a time of war and a time of peace. Christ
went to war. That was truly our time of war. He went to war with our adversary,
with sin, with death, with hell. He did that so there could be
a time of peace. And because of that, The only
time that we should be at war with each other is over the issue
of the blood of Christ, over the issue of His war. That's the only time. When it's
over the issue of did Christ finish salvation, that's the
only time. If it's not over that, then it
should always be a time of peace, always. Verse 9, now let me just
read these down to 14 and we'll be done. Verse 9 says, what profit
hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I've seen
the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised
in it. He hath made everything beautiful
in his time. Also he hath set the world in
their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good
in them but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life, and
also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good
of all his labor. It is the gift of God." This
is the same thing he was saying in chapter 2. It's all from the
hand of God. Verse 14, he said, I know that
whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put
to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that men
should fear before Him. God does everything. He does
it in His time. He does it in His time. He does
it that men should fear before Him. And everything that He does
is forever. That's our comfort. If He's shown mercy to us, that
mercy is forever. If He's loved us and if He's
put a love in us for Him, that love is forever. It's forever. All of His glorious works, everything
He's done, they will outlast time. And eternity can't be outlasted,
but if it could, they would outlast eternity. It's forever. Okay, you're dismissed.