That was a blessing. Let's turn back to Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. The earth has revolved around
the sun one more time. Another year has passed, and
I don't suppose there's any time We think about time more than
December 31st. We think of how, what has transpired
in the last year, looking forward to the year to come. I've entitled
this message, Jesus Christ and Time. Jesus Christ and Time. Christ made time. In the beginning, when there
was no time, was the Word. And the Word was with God as
a distinct person. And the Word was God. The same was eternally. The same was in the beginning
when there was no time, when all there was was eternity with
God. All things were made by Him. And that includes time. Jesus Christ and time. Now in the passage of scripture,
I just read, time is mentioned 30 times. And I was talking to brother
Gabe Stonerger about this passage of scripture. And he said, I'm
cursed every time I read it because I think about that song by the
birds. It came out in 1965. Probably everyone here has heard
it. Uh, it was the number one song
in America for some time. And, uh, the first eight verses
of Ecclesiastes are quoted in that song. And I think it's interesting. I looked up who wrote that song
and they said, Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger was a folk singer
from way back when, but Pete Seeger didn't write Ecclesiastes
three, one through eight. God, the Holy Spirit did. And
this passage of scripture is looked upon kind of as a philosophy. Uh, this will happen. Then that will happen. One thing
said against the other life, death, time to gather stones,
time to throw them away. All these 14 different juxtapositions
of things. And it's looked upon kind of
as a life philosophy, the cycles of life and He says in verse
nine, with regard to these things, these cycles, these 14 different
cycles, what profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?
I mean, it's like a treadmill. This happens, then that happens.
This happens, then that happens. The cycle of life. And he says,
I've seen the travail. That's what it is, travail. It's
difficult. Life's difficult. Life is difficult
in so many ways. I know that, and you know that,
and Solomon knew that. He called these cycles a travail,
which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Troublesome. However, verse 11,
he hath made everything beautiful in his time. Now we might not
see it as beautiful yet, but we will. This is the Old Testament
version of Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. He's made everything beautiful
in his time. You and I aren't able to see
it yet. We can believe it, but we can't see it. But one day
we will. And look what he says next in
verse 11. So he hath set the world in their heart. And that
word world is eternity. I'm not sure why the King James
Version translates that as world, because in every other English
translation, it is eternity. He hath set eternity in their
heart. in every man's heart. Do you know every man born into
this world is born believing in eternity? Every man has some
understanding of God's eternal power and Godhead. The creation
of the world tells us somebody made this and nobody made him. Everyone is born with that understanding. Somebody says, I don't believe
that. There was a time you did. There was a time you did. No
man by nature is an atheist. You have to turn off the lights
in your own mind to be an atheist. You weren't born that way. God
has set the world of eternity in every heart. And you know
what that means? Since eternity is in your heart, nothing in
time will satisfy you. Nothing in time will satisfy
you. Not going to happen. It's not
going to happen. That's true with everybody. So
he goes on to say that no man can find out the work that God
maketh from the beginning to the end. You know, how much do
you grasp eternity? You believe it, but you don't
grasp it. And what he's saying is, is we don't know what God's
doing. I know he's glorifying his son.
I know his end. But as far as what's going on
right now, I have no idea what God is doing. We just don't get
it. We don't get it, do we? We don't get it. But what does
he say? Well, let's just give up. No,
he says, I know that there's no good in them. There's no good
in. in the things of time that we
do with them, but still for a man to rejoice and to do good in
his life. You shouldn't just be pessimistic and fatalistic
and say, what's the use? No, you ought to do good in his
life. And also that every man should
eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It's the gift
of God. Life is to be enjoyed. That's what he tells us. You
might not understand everything, Surely everything's vain. He
said that in the first of this book, vanity, vanity, all is
vanity. Still life is to be enjoyed. It's the gift of God. Eat and
drink and enjoy the good of all of his labor. Now look what he
says in verse 14. I love this verse of scripture.
He says, I know that whatsoever God doeth. Isn't salvation what
God does? Whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be forever. It's eternal. Nothing can be
put to it, nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from
it. And God doeth it that men should
fear before him. And that which hath been is now. And that which is to be hath
already been. There's nothing new under the
sun. And God requires that which is past. Now, if that's all I see, what I just
said, it will do me no eternal good. I've not really understood
this passage of scripture. Like I said, it's used as a philosophy
of life. Take the good with the bad, try
to make the best of it. A lot of things in Ecclesiastes
is looked upon in that light because it's people looking at
the scripture without the Holy Spirit, without God teaching
them what it means. But I want to remind you of this. The Lord said, you search the
scriptures and they are they, including Ecclesiastes chapter
three, verses one through 15. They are they which testify of
me. And this testifies of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we could very well call this
the life and times of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him in all
14 of these descriptions. Now, I realize that there's good,
quote, practical things that can be brought out of this, no
doubt, but more than anything else, this is to teach us of
the eternal work of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he did in
time to give us a complete eternal salvation. Now let's look in
verse one. To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under heaven. There's nothing mundane. There's nothing unimportant.
There is a time, a season, a purpose for everything. everything under heaven everything
that takes place and that is most especially true with regard
with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ certainly nothing was
meaningless in his life and beloved nothing's meaningless in your
life either sometimes you think my life's meaningless no it's
not No, it's not. God is in control of every event
for His glory. Now, this gives a description
of the life of Christ. There was a time for Him to be
born. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. to redeem them that are under
the law in the fullness of time. There was a time for that child
to be born, wasn't there? Who was the son who was given?
The son wasn't born, he's the eternal son. But there was a
time for that child to be born and to be given. A virgin shall
be with child and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. Listen to me, Jesus Christ came
in the flesh. You know what that means? That means he was before he came.
He's the eternal son of God. He was before he came. Before
this creation, he was. God over all, blessed forever. He was before he came, but he
came in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh
and thank God he did exactly what he came to do. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And that's what he did. He didn't
make salvation possible. He didn't make it available to
you. He saved his people from their
sins. There was a time for him to be
born. And there was a time for him
to die. You see, he was born for this
purpose. He came here to die. He came here to die. As the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, he came here to put away sin. I love it the way
he said, Father, the hour has come. He's talking about the
hour of his death. The hour is come. Glorify thy
son that thy son might glorify thee. There was a time for him
to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which was planted. Paul says we'd be planted together
in the likeness of his death. You see, when he died, there
was some planting that took place and there was some life that
came forth from that. If we'd be planted together in
the likeness of his death, we'll be plucked up together with him
in the likeness of his resurrection. When he was raised, we were too. Verse three, there's a time to
kill. Well, the Lord Jesus was killed. He was murdered by men,
but it was the justice and law of his father that killed him.
And because of that, you know what he does with us? He kills
us. Before he gives us a life, we're
made to see we're nothing but dead. Dead in sins, unable to
do anything to save ourselves. Oh, it's a blessed thing to be
killed because that's when you're able to hear by whose stripes
we are healed. The time to kill, And it's only
when you're dead that you're able to hear, by his stripes
were healed. I see at that time that the death
of Christ completely accomplished my salvation and I'm healed by
what he did. He says once again in verse three,
there's a time to break down and there's a time to build up. Well, he hath broken down the
middle wall of partition. Everything that was against my
salvation, he broke it down by his great work on Calvary's tree. By his death, he broke down the
middle wall of partition. He removed all the obstacles
for my salvation. He removed everything that would
prevent me from being saved. Romans 8 32 says for he that
spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he
not also with him freely give us all things nothing to prevent
him from doing it because he has broken down that middle wall
of partition, and there's a time to build up. Christ said, thou
art Peter, upon this rock will I build my church. All of the
building of his church comes from him breaking down all the
obstacles to our salvation by what he did on Calvary's tree. Verse four, there's a time to
weep. What's the shortest verse in
the Bible? Jesus wept. As the man of sorrows acquainted
with grief, Jesus wept. There's a time to weep, but there's
also a time to laugh. At that time, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that you've hid these things from the wise and prudent
and revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. The next one is very similar. There's a time to mourn. and
how the Lord mourned over sin. Now, I mourn over sin, but nowhere
like I should. He's the only one who ever truly
mourned over sin. When the sins of his people became
his, he's the only one who understood why he needed to mourn as he
did. And he did mourn. He said, is
there any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord has
meant stricken me in the day of his fierce anger." Talking
about the cross. Oh, how he mourned when he was
made sin. I don't even know what it means,
but sin entered his body. He bore our sins. He never committed
sin. He never committed sin, but the
scripture says he bore our sins in his own body. on the tree and how he mourned
over that sin. But he's also the same one who
said, thou has turned my mourning into dancing. I think of the
Lord being raised from the dead. I don't know how he walked out
of the tomb, but there was dancing involved of joy, of joy. I say that reverently, but he
was so happy. He was so glad. He was so thankful. Looking into the Jesus who for
the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, the joy of
pleasing his father, the joy of doing his father's will, the
joy of completely saving his people. Oh, weeping may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. A time to mourn,
a time to dance. Verse five, there's a time to
cast away stones and a time to gather stones. The stone which
the builders rejected and cast away. And I think of, I couldn't help
but also thinking of the way to the city of refuge. I don't know if this was in the
Bible. This is tradition that priests would keep the road clear
to remove any obstacles. there would be and there might
be you know there might be a sign saying city of refuge this way
somebody could have maliciously turned it around they'd keep
it they wanted that way straight well the lord removed every obstacle
in that way when he said i am the way i am the truth i am the
light No man comes to the Father but by me. The time to cast away
stones and time to gather stones. Ye also as living stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. You see, when Christ
was cast away, he was building his church and building this
spiritual house. He says in verse 5, there's a
time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. Now,
we've thought of that, well, there's a time to embrace and
show your affection. There's times when you probably
ought to withhold it. Well, maybe that's so, but that's
really not what that's talking about. How he embraced his people
when he was made bone of their bone and when he was made flesh. How he embraced his people. How he embraced his people when
he took a second stoop and was made sin. What an embrace that
was. And when's the time to refrain
from embracing? Do you remember after his resurrection when Mary
came up and wanted to grab him and hold him? He said, touch
me not. He wouldn't say you can't touch me because I'm glorified
now. What he's saying was, is this
is not the time to hold on to me. Your understanding of me
is now going to have to be spiritual. I'm not something you touch so
much as someone you believe. What's that, whom having not
seen, you love? And we're depending on one we
can't see and physically touch, but we're depending upon him
to bring us into heaven. and this is this time to right
now is the time of not embracing we will one day we will embrace
him physically and see him physically but not right now this is not
the time to embrace verse six a time to get and a time to keep
the time to get or seek you know the lord said my hour is come
Many times when they wanted to kill him, the scripture says
his hour had not yet come. But this is the hour he was looking
to, the hour of his death. He said, but at one point, what
shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this cause came I in to this hour. This is the time
to get, and because of this time, there's a time to lose, a time
to vanish away and be destroyed. You know what that is? Our sins.
That time, that time that you've spent sinning, a lot of time,
isn't it? Not a time. Actually, it's every
second from the day you open the womb to right up to you die. That time is lost. He said, I
make all things new. You have a brand new history. And it's all good because that
time he got, there's a time to lose. And the next one is very
similar. He said, a time to keep and a
time to cast away. time to keep his perfect life. Now, my time casted away is no
good. His time, keep it. His perfect
obedience, his righteousness, his merits, his perfection before
his father, keep it. And the time to be cast away
Then thou has cast all their sins in the depth of the sea.
That's the same word used. That's the time to cast away,
cast away all their sins. So they are no more. Verse seven,
the time to rend. What do you think of? to rent
veil when he rented in two from top to bottom and the way into
God's presence is now right there for every believer into the very
holy of holies. He ripped that veil. And I love
to think of when he ripped that veil, everybody thought it was
false religion. That's what was going on with
the people behind the veil. They didn't even have a Ark of
the Covenant. That had been gone a long time.
All of a sudden it's exposed as Nothing, but the bell represents
our freedom to enter into the very presence of God. There's
a time to rend and there's a time to sow. Hebrews 13, 20, 21 says,
now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, the Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect. And that word means
mend you. Mend you. Oh, there's a time
to mend. Sew you together. And then he
says in verse seven, there's a time to keep silence. We could say a whole lot about
that, couldn't we? I wish I'd learned something about it, the
time to keep silence. But that's not really talking about, there
was a time when the Lord kept silence. When he stood before
his accusers and he didn't defend himself. He kept silence. Why? Because he's guilty. His
mouth had been stopped. Now we know that one thing. So
ever the law sayeth and sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped. His mouth was stopped, but there's
also a time to speak. You know, when the high priest
said, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? He said,
I am. That's the time to speak. When Pilate said, don't you know
that I have power to crucify you and I have power to release
you? It's time to speak. Thou couldst have no power at
all over me, except it be given thee from above. I'll tell you
when it's gonna be time to speak. When my name is called and he
speaks for me, he's one of mine. I'm representing him. I think
of him saying, come ye blessed of my father. That's him speaking.
Come ye blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. There's a time to
love. Oh, how he loved his father.
How he loved his people. And there's a time to hate. anything
that's contrary to his father or his people, he hates. There's a time to love. There's
a time to hate. You can't love and not hate. That's impossible. There's a
time to love and there's a time to hate. And his hatred's not
like our hatred. It's a holy hatred. It's a perfect hatred. And there's a time to hate. He
says, there's a time of war, the battle of the cross. And there's a time of peace that
comes from that. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.
What peace there is in what he, in him winning that battle and
accomplishing the full glory of the Father, the complete defeat
of Satan, and the complete salvation of all of his people. Now, verse
nine, what profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he labors? Is there any profit in salvation
by works? None. None at all. None. I wish we really believed
that. I hope we do. None. And he says
in verse 10, I've seen the travail which God hath given to the sons
of men to be exercised in it, but he hath made everything beautiful
in his time. Time's coming when this will
be seen. Romans 8, 28 will be realized. Not just believed, but seen,
experienced, and realized. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. Also, he has set the world in
their heart. He has set eternity in their
heart so that man can find that no man can find out the work
that God make it from the beginning to the end. Do you know that
you're not going to be able to be satisfied with anything in
time? Nothing you do. Nothing anybody
does for you, you'll never find any satisfaction in it. You will
only find satisfaction in that which is eternal. Now listen
to this scripture. He saved us and he called us. I've asked this question many
times before. What came first, the saving or the calling? The
saving came first. And after he saved us, he called
us. Now, does that not totally destroy
any notion of salvation by works? You were saved before you had
any works. He saved us. And He called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. And the only thing you're gonna
be able to have any satisfaction in is that which is eternal,
the eternal work of the Son of God. And until now on Judgment
Day, you're not gonna know what's going on, other than the fact
that God reigns, but that's enough, isn't it? Knowing he's in control,
that's enough. That's enough to satisfy you.
Verse 12, I know that there's no good in them and there's not. There's nothing good about anything
happening under the sun as far as what we can tell. What does
that mean? We're supposed to just, well, all right, just give
up. No, even though there's no good
in anything, what are we called upon to do? But to rejoice and
do good in this life. to rejoice in God our Savior,
to rejoice in Christ and to be excellent in whatever I do by
the grace of God. Seek excellence. Seek excellence
in whatever you're doing for His glory. You're to rejoice
and do good in this life and also that every man should eat
and drink and enjoy the good of all of his labor. It's the
gift of God. Don't you want to enjoy life?
I do. I do. But he comes to the part we rest
in. Now, before I read this, hold
your finger there and turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Let me remind you of one thing. The
writer of the Hebrews says in Hebrews 4.3, all the works were finished. from the foundation of the world.
Now, you can't rest in anything but that which is already finished
from the foundation of the world. Now look what he says in Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 26, whose voice then shook the earth. But now
he hath promised saying yet once more, I shake not the earth only,
but also heaven. And this word yet once more signifying
the removing of those things that are shaken as of things
that are made. Anything made in time, it can
be shaken. Like an old rotten stick. You're
shaking a rotten piece of wood and stuff just falls apart. Anything in time, it can be shaken. that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Now here is what
cannot be shaken. Turn back to Ecclesiastes chapter
3 verse 14. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be eternal. It shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it. You
can't add anything to what Christ has done, nor anything taken
from it. There's nothing you can do to
mess up what he's done. It's perfect. It's eternal. And there's nothing me or you
can do to add to it. or to mess it up. You are complete
in Him. And God doeth it that men should
fear before Him. You know the only thing that's
gonna cause the fear of God is you to see you're complete in
Christ. And when you see you're complete in Christ, you'll fear
God. You'll respect him, you'll have
awe and reverence for him. The law never produced this kind
of fear. It produced slavish fear, scared to death what God's
gonna do to you because you did something, but that's not the
fear of God. That's the fear of the consequences of sin. The
fear of God is that awe of his person. And then he says in verse
15, that which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath
already been, and God requireth that which is past. Now, one way to look at that
is there's nothing new under the sun. What's going on now? Nothing new. And it's gonna be
the same way tomorrow. You know, things are gonna be
better next year. No, they're not. No, they're
not. That's not being pessimistic,
but it's being factual. As long as men are around, You
know, I hope I didn't sound too negative, but I don't mean for
it to be, it's just the way it is, it's realistic. But what
this is talking about, that which hath been the perfect obedience
of Christ is now. And that which is to be the believer
standing perfect in Christ Jesus justified, glorified, conformed
to His image, hath already been. You see, God's eternal. Somebody
say, explain that to me. I wouldn't, I had no ability
to. But God is eternal. He's the everlasting God. And God requireth that which
is past. He requires your past. Here's the thing, if you're a
believer, you have a new past, and it's all perfect, and it's
all righteous. All those things that you're
ashamed of, they never happened. In the annals of heaven, you
have lived a perfect life without sin in Christ Jesus. And God's gonna require that,
and it's gonna be good. Now, if you don't have Christ,
You're in bad shape. I can't even begin to describe
that. But in Christ, you are perfect. Let me show you a passage in
Ecclesiastes chapter nine. Verse seven. Go thy way. Eat thy bread with
joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth
thy works. Let thy garments be always white,
and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom
thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity. You know,
even when he's given us these good things to do, this is right. Your life is a life of vanity.
It is, isn't it? Under the sun, all the days of
thy vanity, for that is the portion in this life, and in thy labor
which thou takest under the sun, whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy might. For there's no work, nor device,
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whether thou goest. Now, let me close with these
statements. If God is on the throne, and
He is. If Christ is all in salvation,
and He is. If salvation really is all of
grace, and it is. If God now accepts your person
for Christ's sake, and He does. If Romans 8 28 is true and it
is, if God controls the future and he does happy new year, let's pray.