What a blessing to be here. What a precious, precious time. Hmm. I'm always afraid that happened
to me. I've surely enjoyed being here.
I've known your pastor for a few years, but I was so delighted
this evening to be able to sit down with him and just spend
some time. That was just such a blessing. It's a blessing to be with God's
people. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world than
right here. His people. Gathered around His
gospel. and worship in our Lord. I want
us to turn, if you would, in your Bible to Romans chapter
13. I want to begin reading in verse 11. Romans chapter 13, beginning
in verse 11. And that knowing the time, that'll
be the title of the message, knowing the time. That now it
is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness,
and in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy. But put
you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provisions for the
flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He said it is high time for us
to wake and not sleep. And we find out there in verse
14, why? Because of the lust of this flesh.
This flesh, as Todd said last night, I wish we could just get
rid of it. And even as we stand, as I try to stand tonight, we
deal with this old flesh. It hinders us, it aggravates
us every which way we turn. And it wants to make us spiritually
drowsy. The Shulamite said in the song
of Solomon chapter 5 you remember when the Beloved came to her
door, and he knocked on the door And she said well, it's not time
to go to the door. She said he'll be there at another
time And he reached in by the hand by the hole of the door
and touched her heart and brought her to himself But when she went
to the door he was gone. You know what she said I sleep
But my heart wake us I sleep, that's the old man, but my new
man, that's heart, wake us. I pray God wouldn't stir us up. He said, it's high time. It's
high time. This is a serious time. Serious. Precious time. We will never
have this time again. We look at our clocks and we
say, well, what time is it? Well, it's ten after six. Everything's
on time. Everything is ordained and purposed
by God on time. It is no accident that we are
here tonight at this time. Before the world was made, it
was ordained that we be here at this time. You know, everything
that was connected with our Lord Jesus Christ, His incarnation,
His life of obedience, His death, and His resurrection was all
divinely appointed by God Almighty. Divinely appointed. It's said
in Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. When did He came?
He came on time. Exactly. the precise time he
lives, Mary and Joseph live in Nazareth but he's got to be born
in Bethlehem, now how's that going to come to pass? well God
just works upon a wicked king and he makes a decree that all
the world must be taxed and they wind up and have to go to Bethlehem
because he must be born in Bethlehem at the precise time the precise
time his brethren One day told him
in John 7, he was in Galilee and it was the Feast of the Tabernacles.
They said, it's time for all the males to go up to Jerusalem.
And he said, and actually you know what they said to him? They
said, if you really are doing these miracles, You just don't
need to do them right here. You're wasting your time doing
them here. You need to go up to Jerusalem
and do the miracles so everybody can see you. And then they'll
make you king. And you'll not only be king,
but we'll be part of your kingdom. That's what they said. And you
know why they said that? Because they didn't believe. But here's what he said.
My time has not yet come. But your time is already beginning.
The world cannot hate you, but me it hated, because I testify
of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go you up to this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast
twice. My time is not yet fulcum. And when his time was fulcum,
he went up. It's important for us to know
that. There's no accidents. Nothing. Everything, every step
he made was ordained. I love that in John 4 where he
said, I must need to go through Samaria. You think it was an
accident, he just happened to be there on the way, well here
come that Samaritan woman on time. On time. Many times they tried to take
our Lord and he said unto them, mine hour is not yet come. But
in John 17 verse 1 he says, he lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy
son also may glorify thee. Our Lord lived and he died at
the appointed time. He died at his, I want you to
listen, he died at his time. His time. Right at that moment, in the
afternoon of the evening sacrifice, when the Passover was offered
up on the day of atonement, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he
gave up the ghost on time. On time. When we were yet without strength
and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. When he came, it
was the time of his humiliation. And when our Lord was here, let
me remind you, he never wasted time. Never. Remember when Mary
came looking for him that day, and he said, I must be about
my father's business. And he always was. He was always
aware of the time. When He came again, when He comes
again, it will be another time. It will be the time of His exaltation. I know that He's now sitting
upon the throne, but every eye is going to see Him. And every
knee will bow before Him and worship Him. What I want us to
see is that time is in His hands. and he controls all things all
things this is God's day and these are
God's times Spurgeon said God's time must be our time Ecclesiastes
chapter 3 if you want to turn there we begin reading in verse
1 Ecclesiastes 3.1, probably a
familiar scripture. It says, to everything there
is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time
to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to
heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to
weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together.
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A
time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. A time to rend and a time to
sew. A time to keep silent. Boy, we
need to learn that, don't we? And a time to speak. A time of
love. A time of hate, a time of war,
a time of peace. Our times are in His hand. If you want to read this sometime
in Psalm 31, it talks about David, and David talks about all the
enemies that had come against him. and he said that they devised
to take away his life and then he said but I trusted in thee
O Lord thou art my God and my times are in thy hand deliver
me from the hand of mine enemies you know why the enemy could
not kill him he was in God's hands and David's times was in
God's hands we've been trying to go through the life of David
at home Everywhere he went Saul chased him like a dog. Tried
to hate him. I mean tried to kill him. Why
couldn't he? His times were in God's hands. And your times are
in God's hands. Your time. Your time is in God's
hands. Job says there is not an appointed
time to man upon this earth. Psalms 89 47, remember how short,
remember how short my time is. Did you notice when I read there
in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, he said there's a time to be born
and a time to die. He didn't say anything about
a time to live. It's not even worth mentioning.
It's too short. There's a lot of kids here and
you think you've got your whole life ahead of you. It seems like
only yesterday I was your age. Really, your time is in God's
hands. That's right. I thought about this. I have
two little granddaughters and I love spending time with them.
Because we live in a different state now and every time I get
to see them, my time is precious. And you know what it is to be
a grandparent. And Macy, she's just turned two years old and
she was out there and somebody got her a bubble machine for
her birthday. You know when things would spin
and the little bubbles were going everywhere. Oh, she was just
enamored with them little bubbles, just going crazy. That describes
our life. It's just an empty bubble. She'd
touch it and she thought, well that's some substance to that.
And when she touched it, it just disappeared. It just vanished
away. James 4.14, or as you know, not what shall be on tomorrow.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears
for a little time and then it vanishes away. Our times are determined. Our
times are determined where and when and how long we'll live. And he hath made of one all blood,
all nations of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth. And
he hath determined the time before appointed, and the bounds of
their habitation." Why were you born in America? I see Tony's kids, some of them
were born not in America. But they're here now. Why? You could have been born somewhere
else. But you wasn't. Your times were appointed by
God and the bounds of your habitation. I lived my life for 50 some years
in North Carolina at the foot of the Woodridge Mountains. And
I never thought you'd ever found this boy living in West Virginia
at any time. But that's the bounds of my habitation.
When the bounds of my habitation, it reached its full time, God
said, okay, it's time. And that's what's going to be
with you. When your time is finished, when your appointed days are
accomplished, He's going to say, it's time. And you'll be removed. But we need to be reminded of
that. Boy, we forget it. We talk about what we're going
to do tomorrow. We don't have the promise of tomorrow. This
could be the last time we ever meet. That's right. As I thought about this, I was
born to Nell and Bill Walker on October 30, 1959 at exactly
10.45 p.m. Why? As I thought about this, I hope I'm
not too personal and don't get real emotional. When I was 13
years old, I don't know if I've ever told this from the pulpit.
I was in the car with my mother and my 16-year-old sister, us
three. I was right in the back seat.
And my mother was taking my sister to work. It was raining and she
was in a curve and when she started hydroplaning, she turned in the
last thing. I remember my mother saying,
what in the world am I going to do? We were t-boned in the
side. killed my mother and my sister
instantly. Why was I spared? Why? My times was in his hands. Their time was up. I had other sisters. They were
not in the car. Why? It was not their time. Do many dangers, tolls, and snares,
I have already come. His grace has brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead you home. They may be hard times,
they may be trying times, but all those times are in His hands. His hands. I love this scripture. Our Lord
told Simeon in Luke chapter 2, he said, you should not see death
before you've seen the Lord's Christ. What was he saying? You can't die. You cannot die
until you've seen the Lord's Christ. And every elect child
of God cannot, will not die physically until they see the Lord Jesus
Christ as He's revealed unto them through His gospel. And you know when that time is?
Ezekiel 16. You were cast out. None eye pities
thee. Nobody wanted thee. Nobody cared
for thee. Just like an infant born and
just throwed out till he left to die. And he says I passed
by thee and I looked upon thee. And when I looked upon thee it
was thy time of love. I pray it's God's time of love
for you. When He passes by, He passes
by. Our lives are not left to blind
fate. We're not just floating out here
on the sea of life just haphazardly. It's ordained and it's decreed
and I pray you think about that just for a little time. First
of all, I want to speak to unbelievers. I can't see your heart, but God
can. And if you don't know Him, I
pray that He'd be pleased to speak to your heart. And when if He speaks, I pray
you're wise enough to listen. It says in Hebrews chapter 4,
again he limit us a certain day saying in David today after so
long a time as it is said today if you will hear his voice harden
not your heart. We say in 2nd Corinthians 6 I
have heard the inner time accepted and the day of salvation have
I succored thee behold now is the accepted time now is the
day of salvation. You know sometimes God speaks
more than once and I'm glad he does. You know what he said about
Samuel? He said in 1 Samuel 3.10, And
the Lord came and stood, and called as at other times, and
said, Samuel, Samuel. And then Samuel answered, Speak,
Lord, for thy servant is ready. He called him one time, and he
didn't think much about it. He called again, but then he
went and woke up Eli. And he said, Eli, did you call me? And
Eli had enough sense to say, you go lay back down. Maybe it's
the Lord calling. And if He calls, you say, speak,
Lord. And that's what he did. It's
amazing if God ever speaks once. Isn't it? What if God speaks
again? You remember Jonah? God says,
Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. And I can see Jonah saying, it
ain't my time. I ain't going to Nineveh. He
goes down and he finds the ship. He has the money to buy the ticket.
He gets on the ship and he says, well, I think everything's fine.
Then God sent a storm. Didn't he? And he knew exactly
why God sent the storm. He knew it was for him. And he
said, you cast me overboard. And when they did, God prepared
a fish to swallow that man. And in the belly of that fish,
you know what he learned? Salvation is of the Lord. And
you know what it says? Then God spoke to him the second
time. And said, you go to Nineveh.
You know what he did? He obeyed God. I tell you, if
God ever puts you in the belly of a fish, And He makes you see
and makes you understand that salvation is of the Lord. And if He ever speaks to you
again, you'll say, whatever you want, Lord. You know where that
whale or fish fit Him up at? Right on Him. God didn't change
His mind. But God changed Jonah's mind. You remember Joseph? He was in
Egypt. And now God had brought him to
the throne. And Jacob hears that there's
corn in Egypt. They don't have any desire to
go to Egypt for years because everything's fine. But then God
sent a time of famine. And they hear that there's corn
in Egypt. So what does Jacob do? He sends
his sons to Egypt to buy corn. All of them except for Benjamin. And they go down to Joseph, and
Joseph recognized them. He knows exactly who they are,
but they don't know him. And he treats them kindly roughly.
He puts them in prison for a few days. And then he says, I'm going
to keep Simeon here. You told me you've got another
brother. I want to see if you're telling the truth or not. You
go get your younger brother and bring him back, or I'm not turning
Simeon loose. They go back and they tell their
daddy, they said, Daddy, that man down there spoke rough to
us. He said, we cannot get any more corn until we bring Benjamin. And his daddy said, you're not
taking Benjamin. I don't know what happened to
Joseph, but you're not taking Benjamin. Eventually the corn
ran out. And Jacob passed this in Benjamin
and the rest of their sons back to Egypt. Don't you remember
what was ready to go back to Egypt? But what he did with us
roughly the last time. But when they go back this time,
it's a different story. The second time, Joseph revealed
himself unto his brethren and he said, I'm Joseph. You see what I'm talking about?
I pray God would reveal himself to you. you need to take it serious when
God speaks there was a man in the book of Acts named Felix
and Felix and his queen called for Paul to be brought to hear
Paul preach you imagine that time God has given the apostle
Paul an opportunity to preach to this king And he preached
to that king, and as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come, Felix, that wicked ungodly king, he
trembled. He shook in his boots. And you
know what he said? Go thy way, for this time, when
I have a convenient season, I will call for you. He was moved, he was affected,
but he said not at this time. Explain that I can't. But that
man's responsible and that man's in hell. Felix said, I know I need to
repent, just not right now. You say, I know I need to believe
Christ. I've heard the gospel for years.
I've heard that I don't know how many times. But I know I
need to repent and bow to Christ. Why don't you? You don't want
to. That's it. That's it. It's rebellion. This is serious. Every time the gospel is preached,
It's serious. God don't have to let you hear
one time. God allowed that king to hear
the gospel from that man in chains. God sent Paul to Rome in chains
and used him to preach the gospel to that man. Someone said his
conscience began to thaw. But it froze again at night.
You've seen we've had bad winters this past winter. Sun would come
out during the day, the days would warm up and everything
begin to thaw. But you let it get below freezing
that night and everything goes right back to its original condition.
That's what happened to your head. His conscience was pricked. He knew he needed to look to
Christ and he said no. Not today. They were many lepers in Israel
in the time of Eliseas the prophet and none of them was cleansed
save Naaman the Syrian. It's amazing when God sent prophets,
isn't it? In that wicked time God raised
up Elisha and there was a lot of widows in Israel and not any
of them was cleansed. I mean, a lot of lepers, none
were cleansed but Naaman. I pray you're one of God's Naamans. So now some advice to believers. At the beginning of the message,
the text read, knowing the time, it is high time to awake out
of sleep. You feel like you're just asleep
spiritually. It's drowsy. I need somebody to wake you up. Most of us have to set alarm
clocks, don't we? Was Peter not drowsy when he
denied our Lord three times? And you know what? It says when
the clock proved the second time, he remembered. Our Lord told the righteous people
of His day, He said, you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the
sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern
the time? They said, you can see a cloud
coming out of the west, and you know that there's going to be
rain. You see the wind coming out of the south, and you say,
well it's going to be hot. He said, you can discern that,
but you can't discern the times. They could not discern when Christ
was walking in their midst. They had the scripture just like
we were talking about Nicodemus. He was a teacher of the law.
He knew what the scripture said but did not understand. He could
not discern the time. It is our responsibility in the
day in which we live to observe God's work and to discern the
times in which we live. We are living in perilous times.
Times of judgment. Times of apostasy. My daughter
called me last night. It was kind of odd. She works
for a dentist. And she said, Daddy, something
happened this odd today. And I said, what was it? And
she said, a patient came in and it was a lady. Her and her husband
and children come in the office a lot. The lady just got to talking
and she said, me and my husband's separated and we're probably
going to get a divorce. And my daughter said, really?
She said, yeah. She said, it's over religion.
She said, over religion? She said, yeah. She said, it's
been going on for about two years. She said, my husband just went
plum off the deep end. She said, he don't believe that
a man's got a free will. said he don't believe that when
Christ died, he died for everybody. You know, and she just went on
and on and Erica sent her going. Because you know this woman was
talking to her in confidence and God has been pleased to reveal
himself to my daughter so she knew exactly what the woman was
saying. And you know what she said? She says, we're going to
get a divorce over this. She says, my husband won't take
our kids to that church anymore. He said, I will not take them
there. He said, I'll leave them at home and I'll try to teach
them. He said, I don't know of any church anywhere that believes
this right here. That's perilous times. Isn't
it? Look around. Can we not discern
the times? Verse 74, 1-3, Now the Spirit
speaketh expressively. that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisies, having
their conscience seared with a hot iron, unable to feel anything. In 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 5,
Paul is telling this young preacher, this know also that in the last
days perilous times shall come. And here's how he describes those
times. For men shall be lovers of their
own self. Man thinks he's God. He thinks everything's in his
hands and he can do with God as he sees fit. He's going to
find out differently. Men shall be lovers of their
own self. Don't they? Just look at me. I'm so special. We live in a day of entitlement.
Man thinks that he's entitled to God's favor and all these
things. Read on. Covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection. It's natural for a woman to love
her child. That's exactly right. But we
live in an age when people are without natural affections. truth-breakers, false accusers,
incontent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors,
heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof
from such turn away." He's describing religion of our day. They have
a form of godliness and deny the power thereof. That's the
day in which we live. Isn't it? That's it. God help us to see the time. When David had just come to the
throne, Saul had just been killed. Some wanted to keep Saul's throne
going, but others could discern differently. And it says in 1
Chronicles 12.32, and the children of Issachar which were men that
had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to
do. It's time for David to reign. Christ reigns. These men of Issachar
are set before us as an example. If we would be useful in our
generation, we need to be able to understand the times in which
we live and to know what these times require of us. You remember the book of Haggai?
The children of Israel had come back from Babylon and they began
to build the temple and you know what happened? They just quit.
They just stopped. So God raised up a prophet named
Haggai and it said in the first chapter verse 2, Thus speaketh
the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come,
the time that the Lord's house should be built. They said, Well,
it's not time. Then came the word of the Lord
by Haggai the prophet saying, Is it time for you? to dwell
in your sealed houses while this house lay waste. Now therefore,
thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways." You say, well, it just ain't
time. How many of us have ever said, I just don't have time?
We all have 24 hours in a day. No one has the same time. I heard Henry Megan make a statement
one time, it blessed my heart and it stuck with me. He said,
you say, well you don't have time to read God's Bible. You
don't have time to read God's Word. He said, He can fix it
so you do have time. Yes, He does. You know how it is. It's easy
to pick up a newspaper. It's easy to do anything else.
It's easy to spend time on us. I'm not preaching down to you.
I'm preaching to me. I'm preaching to us. Consider
my ways. Give me another example. The book of Esther. Mordecai had a niece named Esther
and he raised her. And she gets favor, God gave
her favor with the king and she becomes queen. And Mordecai tells
her, he said, don't you tell anybody that you're a Jew. And
a man named Haman, the king exalts him and he's walking out one
day and Mordecai has just happened to be sitting there at the gate
and everybody bows to Haman, but Mordecai ain't bowing to
him. And it made Haman so mad he couldn't stand it. So he convinces
the king and he says, I'll give you money to put in the treasury,
but I want all those Jews killed, every one of them destroyed.
In every province, I don't care where they're at, I want them
all killed. that's the saying and Esther's Queen and Mordecai sends a letter to
Esther and here's what he said and Mordecai commanded to answer
Esther thank not with thyself that thou shalt escape the king's
house more than all the Jews She was telling him she didn't
want to go to the king because she hadn't been with the king
to the king in 30 days and you just didn't walk into the king's
presence. She said I've not been invited to the king and unless
you walk in and if you walk in uninvited you're dead. And she
said what am I to do? And Mordecai I said you think
just because you're the queen that you'll escape judgment?
more than all the Jews, if thou altogether holdest thy peace
at this time," now watch this, "...then shall their enlargement
and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place." If
you don't do this or not, God's still going to deliver his people. But here's what he's saying,
"...but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed, and
who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such
a time as this. God has put you right there for
a time like this. God has put this church here,
the Church of Kingsport at Millside and any other church represented
here, God has put that church here for such a time as this. That's sovereign. Sovereign. Listen to me, maybe God has put
you where you are for such a time as this. Let me give you one
more illustration. Remember the woman, if you want
to turn to this one, Mark chapter 14, beginning in verse 2. Mark chapter 14 verse 3. And being in Bethany in the house
of Simon the leper, as he said it meet, there came a woman having
an alabaster box of ointment of spot knot, very precious,
and she broke the box and poured it on his head. And there were
some that had indignation within themselves. We find out in other
Gospels that, you know, it was Judas. He said, what a waste,
what a waste. And it said, why was this waste
of the ointment made? A print might have been sold
for more than 300 pence to be given to the poor. Doesn't that
sound like a good reason? And they murmured against her
and Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? Now I want
you to see this. She hath wrought a good work
on me. He called what she did a good
work. That's what our Master said.
What she did. He said it's a good work. For
you have the poor always with you, and whereso, whensoever
you may do them good, but me you don't have always. She hath
done what she could. She has come aforehand to anoint
my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever
this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this
also that she hath done shall be spoken for a memorial of her."
What are we to learn from this? She did what she could. While
she could. I believe she knew in her heart,
if I'm going to do this right here, I may never have another
opportunity to do it. We know from reading the other's
pictures that she didn't have time to come and to anoint his
body for the burial. And somebody said, you know that
when he died, he still smelled from this fragrance. And she
done what she could. He said, she's done what she
could. You may not can preach the gospel. God may not call
you to preach the gospel, but there's a lot of things you can
do. And you know this, what you can do, nobody else can do. That's
a good thing, right? What you can do. What God gives
you the ability to do. He said, she has done what she
could. God help us to do what we can
for His honor and for His glory. We don't know how long she saved
up. And she looked for just the right
opportunity to honor her God. God enable us to honor our God
in this day in which we live. Amen. I'll tell you an expression we've
all used.