Would you turn back to the third
chapter of Ecclesiastes, and I know it's not New Year's Eve
yet, but the New Year is a time of reflection, the past and the
future. So let's read this passage of
Scripture in light of that. I've been thinking about preaching
on this for several weeks. I wasn't thinking about the New
Year's, but this seems like an appropriate time to bring this
message. The wise man says, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time
to die. 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
sow, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, a time to
love, and a time to hate, a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh
in that wherein he laboureth? I have 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 hearts, 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's the gift of God.
I know, he's been talking about all these changing things, set
against each other, but he says, 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. The only men and women who truly
fear God are the men and women who believe what that verse says.
Nothing can be added to the work of God, nothing can be taken
from it. And God does this that men would
fear before Him. I love that scripture in Psalm
130, there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. That which hath been is now,
and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth
that which is past. The ending of 2012 and the bringing
in of 2013 is a time of reflection and I was thinking about this
past year. This has been a very tough year for some people. Very
difficult. There are three people in this
assembly who have buried their spouses. What a painful time
that is. There have been troubling economic
uncertainties. There's been conflict. There's
been turmoil. There's been conflict in homes.
There's been conflict between brethren. There's been health
problems. There's been problems with children.
Been some tough times. There have been what we would
call good times as well, hearing the gospel. What's better than
that? There have been births. There
have been marriages. There have been times when we're
keenly aware of God's blessing. Now, Tuesday will bring a new
year, and who knows what's in store, when I think of what is
in store in the coming year. Lord knows. I'm happy with that. The Lord knows. Nothing is going
to happen that He didn't ordain. In verse 1, it says, "...to everything."
There is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. He is in control of everything. And everything that takes place
in time, He determined in eternity. And there's nothing outside of
that. He controls everything. And everything takes place according
to His will, according to His timing, and according to His
purpose. Turn with me to Proverbs 16. I love this chapter. The preparations, the disposings,
the inclinations of the heart in man, and the answer of the
tongue, the thing he says, is from the Lord. Now that covers
everything. Look in verse 4. The Lord hath made all things
for himself. Why does God do what He does
for Himself? For His own glory. He's made
all things for Himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. Verse 9. A man's heart deviseth
his way. We make all these plans. But
the Lord directeth His steps. Look in verse 33. The lot is
cast into the lap. And that's what we think of as
luck. The lot is cast into the lap. But what's it say? The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. I do not understand how the Lord
does this, but He does. Now listen real carefully. We
do what we want to do. We do what we want to do freely. We weren't coerced. We weren't
pushed. We do what we want to do. The Lord doesn't manipulate us. We do what we want to do freely. And God controls each step. And do I understand that? No. But I believe it all together. We do what we want to do and
God controls each step. Even the things that we think
are insignificant, He controls. I love what the Lord said, there's
not a sparrow that falleth to the ground without your heavenly
Father. If an insignificant sparrow on
the other side of the world dies in flight and falls to the ground,
it's because God willed it. He controls everything. There's nothing outside of His
glorious sovereignty. What happens tomorrow has already
been determined. Turn to Isaiah 46. Verse 9. Remember the former
things of old, For I am God, and there's none else. I am God, and there's none like
Me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times
the things are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do..." How much of His pleasure? "...all My pleasure."
calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executes
my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it, I will
bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it." Now that's
God. Anything less is no God at all,
is a false God and an idol. That is the God of the Bible. And everything that happens,
He is in control of. Now, back to our text in Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. He sets some things beside each
other. There's a time to be born. It
was decreed by God. And there is a time to die. Do you know that the day, the
moment, the second of your death has already been determined and
there's not one thing you can do to extend your life? God controls
all of that. Now, I'm glad I don't know when.
I'm glad I don't know when. But it's all been determined. There's a time to plant, and
there's a time to pluck up that which was planted, a time to
reap, and a time to sow. Verse 3, there's a time to kill. It's the right thing to do. And
there's a time to heal. It's the right thing to do. There's
a time to break down. Break down walls. Break down
barriers. And there's a time to build up. There's a time to weep. And there is a time to laugh
and rejoice. There's a time to mourn. You
know, when you mourn over something, it's because you know there's
nothing you can do to make it better, and you mourn. You know
when people mourn and people die? That's when they mourn,
because there's nothing you can do to bring them back. There's
a time to mourn, and there's a time to dance with joy. There's a time to cast away stones,
verse 5. A time to clear the road and
to get rid of every obstacle. Make everything simple. And there's
a time to gather stones together. Build something. There's a time
to embrace in true love. And there is a time when it would
not be appropriate to embrace. ought to be held off. There's
a time to get, to seek is what my marginal reading
says, and there's a time to lose. There's a time to keep and cherish
in our memory, and there's a time to cast it away by the grace
of God, not even to think about it again. It's as if it never
happened. Throw it away. There's a time
to rend and tear, And there's a time to sow and mend. There's a time to keep silence. I love what Jack Shanks said,
never miss an opportunity to shut up. That's good advice. And there's a time to speak. And not to speak would be wrong.
There's a time to love. And there's a time to hate. Ye
that love the Lord hate evil. There's a time of war and there's
a time of peace. God has set all these things
together. Here's the circle of life. Things
set against one another. That's our life. I mean, we've
experienced all these things. I mean, you look down through
here, you think of the times of peace and the times of war,
the times of love, the times of hate, the times to get rid
of stones, the times to gather them together, the times you
ought to forget and the times you ought to cherish. All of
us have experienced this. This is life. Now, he says in
verse 9, I'm going to come back to this in a minute, I want to
look at it in another light. But he says, verse 9, "...what
profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth?" The
answer is nothing, because all is vanity. Wise man said that,
didn't he? Vanity of vanities, said the
preacher, all is vanity. Our life, it's vanity. It comes
right down to it. I was talking to Joe McSherry
the other day, and I love what he said. I'd never heard it put
like this way. He said, this is about how much impact our life
has. You stick your finger in the water, pull it back out,
don't even know it ever happened. That's about the significance
of all of us. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Verse 10, I've
seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be
exercised in it. There's a lot of trouble that
goes on in those first eight verses. A lot of travail. A lot
of heartache. I've seen the travail which God
hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. But look
at verse 11, He hath made everything beautiful in His time. One of these days, we're going
to see that clearly, that there was a must needs to everything
we have experienced. A must needs. Romans 8.28 says,
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. And
He's made everything beautiful in His time. Everything. Now,
when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. It was painful. When he was falsely accused and
thrown into prison, it was painful. I mean, he had a series of horrible
events in his life. false accusations. Oh, how painful
it was when he interpreted the dream for the butler, and the
butler forgot him. He said, remember me, and the
butler forgot him, and he was left there in a rotten prison.
He had so many difficult things in his life that were so painful.
But turn with me to Genesis chapter 45. Verse 3, "...and Joseph said
unto his brethren," they didn't know who he was, they just thought
he was the king, he said, Joseph. Can you imagine how that blew
their minds? They thought he had been dead.
They were scared to death. This is Joseph, the one we sold
into slavery? He says to them, I am Joseph. Does my father yet live? And
his brethren couldn't answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near
to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore,
Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither,
for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two
years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five
years in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest,
and God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the
earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now,
it was not you that sent me hither, But God, and he hath made me
a father to Pharaoh, and the Lord of all his house, and a
ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." Look in Genesis 50,
this is after Jacob has died. Verse 15. And when Joseph's brethren
saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will prevent
your hades, and will certainly requite us all the evil which
we have done unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee, now the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin. For they did unto
thee evil, and now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants
of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake
unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his
face, and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph
said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God. But
as for you, you thought evil against me. You had bad motives,
bad intentions. There was no justification for
what you did at all. But God meant it unto good. to bring to pass, as it is this
day, to save much people alive. Now therefore, fear ye not. I'll
nourish you and your little ones." And He comforted them and spake
kindly unto them. Isn't that beautiful? He hath
made everything beautiful in His time. And one of these days, we're
going to see it clearly. But look what else He says in
verse 11. Also, He has set the world, and that
word world is eternity. He has set eternity in their
hearts. Now how much do you understand
eternity? It blows my mind. When I think that God never began
to be, There was never a time when He began, He's always been,
and He always will be. I don't understand that. I mean,
all we can understand is time. We understand yesterday, today,
and tomorrow. There's no time with God. He
dwells outside of that. A thousand years, but it's yesterday. A watch in the night. He sees
everything in the present. He is the great I Am that I Am. And what happens with us? With
this un-understanding of eternity, no man can find out the work
that God maketh from the beginning to the end. You know, I don't
know what the Lord's doing. I really don't. I don't know
why He does what He does, but He does. And all we're left with
is to trust Him. We can't understand what He's
doing, but I don't need to. I really don't need to. I trust
Him. He knows what He's doing, and
He's all-powerful, and He's too wise to err, He's too kind to
be cruel, and He makes everything beautiful in His time. Verse 12, I know that there's
no good in them, But for man to rejoice and to do good in
his life. Rejoice! Rejoice in Christ! Rejoice
in the Lord! Rejoice the Lord reigneth! Do
good! And also that every man should
eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It's the gift
of God. That's God's promise. Now we're
going to come back to verses 14 and 15 in a moment. But I
would like for us to look at these eight verses not just as
the circle of life, dealing with the good and the bad, the prosperity
and the adversity, but as needs be in the believer's experience. There's a time to be born. You
must be born again. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. There's a time to be birthed
by the Spirit of God and given spiritual life. And there's a
time to die. Paul said, For I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I died to all hopes of self-salvation. I was made to see I'm in the
hands of the living, sovereign God, and I can't save myself. It's out of my control. You know,
it's a blessed thing to realize that you have no control. As
long as you believe you have some control, that means you
believe you have some control over God. And that is not the
case. Paul said, when the commandment
came in His holiness and its purity, sin revived and I died. There's a time to plant. The blessed man is the man that
walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way
of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight
is in the law of God. And in His law he doth meditate
day and night. He shall be like a tree planted.
by the rivers of water. He bringeth forth his fruit in
his season, and whatsoever he doeth prospereth." Now, that's
the Lord, first of all, but that's every believer planted by the
Lord. Remember what he said to the
Pharisees? They came up to the Lord and they said, don't you
know they were offended by what you said? He said, let them alone. They'd be blind leaders of the
blind. Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up. That's a solemn thing to think
about, this thing of being plucked up. I was thinking, there are
churches. It'll happen to this one day, this church, if the
Lord doesn't come back. There are churches that'll lose
their candlestick, that'll lose their light. The Lord will leave
them. The machinery will go on. But there will be no spiritual
birth. There will be no life. Christ won't be there. It'll
be just going through the motions of religion. There are individuals
who profess to believe that God is going to pluck up because
they didn't really believe. There's a time to pluck up. Remember
when the Lord said about that plant, why cumbers it the ground? It bears no fruit. Why cumbers
it the ground? Dig it up. pluck it up. And on
Judgment Day, all the tares will be plucked up and exposed. There's a time to plant, and
there's a time to pluck up. He says in verse 3, there's a
time to kill. You know, there was a time for Christ to be killed,
wasn't there? He died on the cross and there was a time to
heal. By His stripes we are healed. You think of the healing that
comes from this blessed time to kill when our Lord died on
Calvary Street. He says in verse 3, there's a
time to break down. and a time to build up. There's a time to break down
our false refuges. There's a time to break down
the walls that we build. We build so many walls, and there's
a time to break them down. Contrary to grace. They're contrary
to the gospel. Oh, to build walls against people.
Break those down. But there's a time to build up.
There's a time to build up a wall against all which is contrary
to the gospel. There's a time to build people
up. They need it. To speak a word in season to
him that's weary. To build them up. I want to be
built up, don't you? By the grace of God. Verse 4. There's a time to weep. You know
what the shortest verse in the Bible is? Jesus wept. He looked over Jerusalem and
he wept. And he said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that stonest the prophets, how often would I have gathered
you together as a hen gathers her brood under wings, and you
would not. He wept. The psalmist said, Rivers
of water run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law.
You know, I ought to weep over my own sin. I ought to weep over
the sins of others. There's a time to weep. You see,
it's not just something we're hard-hearted about. There's a
time to weep. And there's a time to laugh.
I was thinking about this Paul, David, you were reading out of
2 Corinthians 12 recently, in the last week or two. And I remember
when he read that scripture, my grace is sufficient for thee. I laughed. I laughed. I thought, why do you worry about
things? He tells me His grace. I laughed in joy. I laughed in
happiness. I'm so glad it's that way. It's like the Lord said
to me, My grace is sufficient for thee. And you know, I'm satisfied to
be saved by sheer grace. Are you? I'm satisfied with that. I love it that way. I don't want
it to be any other way. My grace. I laugh at that. Laugh with joy. There's a time to mourn. Mourn
over my sin. You know, my sin is ever before
me. If I'm not mourning over my sin
right now, it's because I'm hard-hearted and far from the Lord, because
you can't be in His presence and not mourn over your sin. But just as truly as there's
a time to mourn over sin, there's a time to dance, dancing joy,
The blessedness of the Gospel. Verse 5. There's a time to cast
away stones. Remove all the impediments and
all the obstacles. Cast them away. And here's the
verse I thought of when I thought of this thing of casting away
stones. I thought of those fellows coming up to the Lord in John
chapter 6, and they said, what must we do that we might work
the works of God? And notice the works, plural.
And the Lord answered, This is the work of God, that you believe
on him whom he hath sent. You know what comes after that?
A period. That's it. That's the work of
God. Clear the road. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's that simple. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Get rid of all the additions
and the man-made additions. Cast away the stones. And there's
also times to gather up stones together to build something for
the glory of Christ. bringing people together, promoting
unity in the kingdom of God, building on the one foundation,
Christ Jesus the Lord. Then he says in verse 5, there's
a time to embrace and there's a time to refrain from embracing.
There's a time to embrace. Sweet fellowship around the gospel.
That's what friends do. Sweet fellowship in the gospel
of God's grace, unity, communion with one another. And there's
a time to refrain from embracing. You know, Paul said in 1 Corinthians,
if a brother be, and he names five or six things, you can look
at it in 1 Corinthians 5, he says, with such a one, know not
to eat. Remember that fellow in 2 Thessalonians
3, he said, if anybody obey not our word by this epistle, note
that man and have no fellowship with him. But don't treat him
as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. There are times
when it would be inappropriate to embrace. Verse 6, there's
a time to get, a time to seek. That is what my marginal reading
says. And you know, is there ever a time when it's not time
to seek the Lord? I mean, the best advice I can give myself
for you is seek the Lord. If somebody, if God puts it in
your heart to seek the Lord, everything's going to be fine
if you're seeking Him. There's a time to get, a time to seek,
and there is a time to lose. It's not worth keeping. There's
a time to keep. And I think of the times to keep.
I'm not just talking about times in my life, but things that have
happened in time. What I thought of is when the Lord said from
the cross, it is finished. Do you know I keep that? I hold
on to that. I hug up to that. That's my hope.
It is finished. What a time that is. What a time
it was when the Lord was raised from the dead. What a time to
keep that is and to hold on to. A time to cherish in your memories. And there's a time to cast away
misunderstandings, offenses, cast them away. Wouldn't you
love to be able, by the grace of God, all the times you've
been offended, to just forget them so that you don't even think
about them anymore? And the Lord doesn't remember
our sins. There's a time to cast away, throw it away. It's not
worth holding on to. Verse 7, it says, there's a time
to rend. No, when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, it was time for that veil to be rent, wasn't it? And you
know, Joel said, rend your hearts and not your garments. That's
just an act. Rend your hearts before God. There's a time to
rend and there's a time to sow. There's a time to mend. Don't always be ripping. Oh,
be a sower, someone who mends and restores. Verse 7, there's
a time to keep silence. You know what that is? Anytime
God speaks, keep silent. Listen to what He says. Listen. Oh, don't... Listen. Don't be... A fool is known by a multitude
of words. Whenever God speaks, listen. Let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath, slow to pop off in objection.
A time to keep silence, and there is a time to speak. When men
need to hear the gospel, when the truth is denied and God's
glory is at its stake, there's a time to speak a word in season
to him that is weary. Verse 8, there's a time to love. Isn't there always a time to
love the Lord God? To love Him as He is? To love His attributes? To love
His Word? To love His people? To love your
enemies. There's a time to love. Oh, may
this be me. A time to love, but there's also
a time to hate. The Lord said, if any man will
come to me and hate not his mother, his father, his children, his
brethren, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Now let me tell you somebody
you ought to hate yourself. Me too. I know there's a sense
in which you've got to love yourself, but there's also the sense when
you hate that evil self. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. And you know, David said in Psalm
139, he said, Do not I hate them that hate thee? I count them
my enemies. I hate them with a perfect hatred. Now that's the Word of God. There
is a time to hate. He says there's a time of war.
No man that warth. entangleth himself with the affairs
of this life." Fight, Paul said, the good fight of faith. Be a
good soldier of Jesus Christ. And there's a war that goes on
on the inside all the time. The flesh lusting against the
Spirit. The Spirit lusting against the
flesh. And these are contrary to one the other, so that you
cannot do the things that you would. There's a time of war,
but there's a time of peace. He made peace. He made peace
by the blood of His cross. Henry David Thoreau, when he
was dying, someone said, have you made your peace with God?
He said, I didn't know we ever had a quarrel. He found out differently,
didn't he? He made my peace with God. Well, I've talked about all these
things that are said against each other, but look at verse
14. I want to close with thinking about this. I know the wise man said, that
whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put
to it, nor anything taken from it. Now, salvation. I love thinking about this. Salvation
is what the Lord does for me. It's not what I do for Him. It's
not what I allow Him to do. It's what He does for me. You remember when the Lord said
to the gathering demonic after He healed him? He said, you go
home and tell your friends and family the great things the Lord
hath done for thee. He foreknew me. And He can't stop foreknowing
me. He predestinated me to be conformed to the image of His
Son. And that can't miscarriage. He justified me and I cannot
be unjustified. He called me by His grace and
that call is without repentance. It's irreversible. He preserved
me. He gave me life. Whatever God
does, whatever God does, nothing can be added to it. Aren't you
glad? What if you had the pressure
of trying to add something to what He did? Well, I'd be miserable. I'd be wondering what I'm missing.
But nothing can be added to what He did. Don't try to take the
ditch water of your works and try to think that's going to
enhance His work. It won't. Nothing can be added
to what He did. Michelangelo had a finished painting
and it was just the greatest painting of all time. And all
of a sudden I looked at it and said, let me put my last little
mark on it to make it a little bit better. Why I'd get kicked
out, wouldn't I? I mean, people would be so offended
by that to try to add something to the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nothing can be added to it, and
thank God, nothing can be taken away from it. It's irreversible,
it's forever. Whatever He's done for you is
eternal. I love it that way. 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. Now this is what the true fear
of God is. It's not, oh, I'm afraid that
if I mess up, He's going to squash me. I'm afraid if I don't do
this, He's going to take it out in a coffin. I'm afraid if I
don't mess... No, that's not the fear of God.
That's foolishness. That's all it is. The fear of
God is that reverence for seeing that Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Well, when I hear the gospel,
that's what makes me fear and revere and respect Him. When I see what He has done,
nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken from it. Now, an
unbeliever might hear that and say, well, if I believe that,
I'd see it all I want. Well, I know you would. I know
you would. Go for it. A believer doesn't act that way.
A believer doesn't conduct themselves. That's not what they think of
it. It makes them fear God. And look what verse 15 says. That which hath been is now. Now, that which hath been, I was justified in the past. Scripture
says He was delivered from our fences and raised again for our
justification. I was justified when He paid
for my sins and raised from the dead. Let's take a bit before
that. I was justified in the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. I've always been united to the Lord Jesus Christ. That which hath been is right
now. And that which is to be, when
I stand before God, accepted on judgment day, hath already
been." It's history. And God requireth that which
is past. What's your past? What's your past? God requires it. Let me tell
you what my past is. My history is His story. My past is the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. Now God requires that which is
past. He requires me to be brought
into glory, accepted, perfectly conformed to the image of His
Son. That's my past. That's my past. That's the glory
of the Gospel, isn't it? It makes my past. This really
is my history. My history is perfect. And if
I'm outside of Christ, God will require my past. Every sin, I'll
give an answer for. God requires that which is past. Well, as we look forward to this
coming New Year, we don't know what's going to
happen. But we know this, to everything
there is a season and a time to every purpose under
the heaven. And when we think about all this
stuff that takes place under the heaven, remember, there's
one over the heaven. And He controls everything. So, I look forward to the New
Year. Things about it I dread. You
too. Things that could happen. But that being said, I know the
Lord is in control. Right now, anyway, I feel carefree. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. Let's pray together.