So good to be here. I've been
here several years ago. I just came by when I was helping
Brother Tom a little bit on his house. Enjoyed that trip, but
I've never had the opportunity to be able to worship with you,
and I've looked forward to this for a while. It's always a privilege
that we can gather and worship our great God. And just adore
him and worship him and exalt his name. Tonight I want us to
be looking in probably a familiar text, Romans chapter 11. Be looking
at verses 11 and 12. We're looking at other verses, but
this will be where we'll start this evening. Romans chapter
11, I mean Romans 13 verse 11, and that knowing the time, that 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, because of
this, cast off the works of darkness. Let us put on the armor of light,
knowing the time. You know, our great God and our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came to this world, he
came on time. and everything that he did from
the time he was born till he died happened exactly on time. It said when the fullness of
time was come, the fullness of time. You think about this for
thousands of years. God had determined when the Lord
Jesus Christ would be born and it happened that exact Our God's
a God of order, not a God of confusion and disorder. Order. Everything happens on time. God sent forth His Son made of
a woman, made under the law. Then in His life, we read when
He was 12 years old, Remember, he was in the temple and Mary
went back to look for him, and when she found him, he said,
do you not know I need to be about my father's business? This
is why I came forward. And many times, if man had done
what they'd wanted to do, they would have came and taken him.
You remember when he went to Nazareth, they wanted to take
him on the brow of the city and throw him off headlong, and they
couldn't, why? They could not kill him till
his time was come. His time wasn't come. I want
you to turn over, just I want to show you this in John chapter
7. John chapter 7. Look in verse 1, it said, After
these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he walked not in
jewelry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast
of Passover was at hand, and his brethren therefore said unto
him, Depart from this place and go into Judea, that thy disciples
also may see the works that thou hast done. You know what they're
saying? You're wasting your time here. You need to go down to
Jerusalem. You need to let all them people
see the works that you're doing. Why would you want to do it in
a little place like this? They said, For there is no man
that doeth anything in secret, but himself seeketh to be known
openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. For neither, and why did they
say this? For neither did his brethren believe in him. But
Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time
is always ready. The world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil.
Go you up to the feast. I go not up yet to the feast.
Why? For my time is not yet come. But when his time was come, he
rode that donkey into Jerusalem and this very bunch that would
have killed him on the spot starts throwing down these palm trees
saying, Hosanna, blessed to the Son of God. He controls all things. If I can get one thing across
to all of us this evening to be reminded of this, I don't
have anything new to say, is our God is in control of all
things. The times are in his hands. In John 17, our Lord prayed,
these words spake Jesus, verse 1, and lifted up his eyes to
heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son
that thy son also may glorify thee. When his hour was come. He set his face like a flint. He delivered himself over to
their will because the hour was come. He died at the exact time when
the Passover lamb, because he's the Passover. He died. God's appointed lamb, the one
that God provided before time ever began. This is him on time,
on time. Romans 5, 6, for when you were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. When he came, it was the time
of his humiliation. But when he comes again, it will
be the time of his exaltation. And every eye shall see him. They'll see the one that they've
pierced and he'll come back as, he won't come as the lamb slain,
he'll come back as the lion of the tribe of Judah the next time.
The next time. He controls all things. This
is God's day. This is God's time and Spurgeon
said, God's time must be our time. We see the times have changed. I'm only 50 some years old and
times have changed a lot just since I was a young boy. But
let me tell you this, this is God's time. God's time. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1. 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, a time
to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill, and a time to
heal. And that's how God always works.
He kills, and then He makes alive. God may leave a person alone
for a long time, but then God says, this is it. Paul said,
I was alive without the law once, but when the law came, sin revived,
and I what? I died. God killed his pride. God killed his self-righteousness,
and he said, he kills. But thank goodness he makes it
alive. A time to kill, a time to heal,
a time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to weep,
a time to laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance, a time to cast
away stones, a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace,
a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get, A time to lose. A time to keep. A time to cast
away. A time to rend. A time to sow. A time to keep silence. Boy,
I wish I could learn that one. And then know when it was time
to speak. A time of love. A time of hate. A time of war. A time of peace. Our times are in God's hands. Here's what David said in Psalms
31 verse 13. He said, I have heard the slander
of many. Fear was on every side while
they took counsel together against me. They devised to take away
my life. You can apply this to David,
but you can also apply this to the son of David. The next verse,
but I trusted in thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my God. My times
are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of mine
enemies and from them that persecute me. David knew that God was his
God and God controlled his life. He knew it. When everything around
him seemed to be coming in on every hand, they said, we're
going to get you, David. We've been going through David
in our Bible class. And King saw everywhere David
went, Saul hounded him. And David even one day said,
one day I'm gonna perish at the hands of Saul and runs down to
the Philistines. But you know what? David's times
was in God's hands. Saul couldn't kill him. Because
David's got to sit on the throne. They couldn't kill our Lord,
you know why? He's got to fulfill all the law, all the demands
of God, and he sits upon the throne. God raised him from the
dead and set him there. All this is fixed by him. Job said, is there not an appointed
time to man upon the earth? We have a time. There was a time
when we were born, and there's a time when we're gonna die.
And it's fixed. And you won't die one minute
earlier, and you won't die one minute later. It's fixed. And as I thought about this,
they were a lot of great men. Top Lady, David Brainerd, and
others, very young men. Brainerd died in his 20s. died. Spurgeon in his fifties? Fifty-eight. That's a young man. But their
times, and they served their time, their time. Psalms 89 and 47, remember how
short my time is. You know what Job said, man that
is born of a woman, is a few days and full of trouble. He
didn't say he's a few months. He didn't say he's a few years.
He said he's a few days. Man, it's born of woman, it's
a few days. Few days and full of trouble. You notice when I
read there in Ecclesiastes 3, it says there's a time to be
born and a time to die, but it doesn't even mention there's
a time to live. Because from the time we're born, we start
dying. Our life is even a vapor. It's
here for a little time, and it just vanishes away. I watched
my two granddaughters back in the summer. My daughter had a
bubble machine. This thing was creating all these
little bubbles, and they were just amazed at these. You know,
they were chasing them, but they just was there for just a few
seconds, and then they were gone. That's our life. That's our life. Our times, our lives are determined
when and even where we will leave. I've told this, I don't know
how many times and I'm gonna keep telling it. I'm from North Carolina
and you can probably tell, some people say I have an accent,
I don't know. Lived there 50 something, my whole life. And
if you'd have told me I'd have been anywhere in the world, I'd
have been anywhere in the world but West Virginia. But God put me there at a specific
time. That's amazing. Just like he
said 30 years ago, at that time, he went to the same place. And
that's amazing. That encourages my heart. God controls all things. All
things. He hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and hath
determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. Why were you born in America?
Or maybe you weren't born here, born somewhere else. You didn't
have a choice in it. where you would be born and when
you would be born and who you'd be born to. I was born to Nell
and Bill Walker October the 30th 1959 at 1045 at night. That's when I was born. The first
time. Why am I not born somewhere else? I know why. My times were appointed
and the bounds of my habitation were set." That's it. You know, when our
Lord told Simeon, Simeon going into the temple, And our Lord
had told him, said, Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose
name was Simeon, and the same man was a just and devout man
waiting for the consolation of Israel. He's what? He's waiting
and he's looking. He's looking for the Christ.
That's the consolation of Israel. He's looking. He's anticipating. and the Holy Ghost was upon him,
and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ." You know
what he said? We don't know how old he was. And I don't know
how long he'd been looking. But God had told him. And how
he told him, I don't know, but he told him. He revealed it to
him. He said, Simeon, you cannot die. You cannot die! Do you see
the Lord Christ? And one day, I picture him going
in just like he had a lot of other times. And he goes in there,
but this is a different time. This is a different day. And
Mary and Joseph just happened to be bringing our Lord in because
he's eight days old to the temple. And Simeon sees him. What a time. He said, now I can die. What
is that saying? If you're one of God's elect,
you cannot die and you will not die till you see the Lord's Christ. You cannot. Putting it plain, when I think
of the hail that I caused my parents, the life that I lived,
but all that time, God partook me, cared for me, carried me. I looked at Sunday, were you
talking about God being our refuge? Deuteronomy 33, He's not only
my refuge, but His mighty, His everlasting arms are under me.
The world carries their God. Our God carries us. And there's
never been but one set of footprints in the sand either. That's right. He carries you. You know, times change. I couldn't
help but think about Tom and things y'all went through. Here's
the church with all the water and all those. When that was
going on, that was a troublesome time. But it's a different time now.
And you look back and you maybe couldn't see it at the time,
but you see and understand that God was in control of all things
and it happened on He will save his people. It says
in Ezekiel 16 verse 8, and when I passed by thee and looked upon
thee, behold, the time was the time of love. He passed by you. It was a different
He said, it's a time of love, and he put his skirt over me,
spread my skirt over me, and covered my nakedness, and I swear
unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saying, the Lord God,
and thou becamest mine. Let me tell you this, our lives are
not left to blind fate. If you're hearing, I pray everybody
here is a believer. I pray everybody here that God
has made himself known to you, but if you're not, I pray that
tonight is that time of love. And he passes by. God speaks
at an appointed time, and when God speaks, I pray that we're
wise enough to listen. He said in Hebrews 4, 7, again
he limiteth or fixed a certain day, saying in David, today,
after so long a time, it is said, today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your heart. In 2 Corinthians 6, 2, listen
to this verse. For he saith, and he said this
in Isaiah 49.8, I have heard thee. Now he's talking about
hearing Christ. He said, I've heard thee in a
time accepted. And in the day of salvation have
I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Remember what he said in Luke
chapter 4? This is the acceptable year. Lord, you know what that
year was? That was the year of Jubilee.
You remember the year of Jubilee? It only happened every 50 years.
I heard Fortner say one time, he said, if you live the average
lifespan, you may be only have lived to see one Jubilee year
every 50 years. But I can... and when it... that
year of Jubilee, which was the acceptable year of the Lord,
all debts were paid. If you had sold your property,
it went back to the original owner, and there was a trumpet
that sounded. A distinct trumpet. It was the
Jubilee trumpet. You may have only heard that
trumpet one time in your life, but if you ever heard it, you'd
know what it meant. If you've ever heard, if God
ever gives you ears to hear the gospel, it has a distinct sound. That's what he's saying. Behold,
behold, behold, now is the accepted time. What is this? What is this
time? We live in the day of salvation
accomplished. I don't have to wait 50 years
for the Jubilee. This is the Jubilee. That's good
news. Now is the accepted time. What's
this? Behold, now is the day of salvation. Today. Today. It's done. There's nothing left
to do. It's done. It's finished. Sometimes God speaks more than
once. You remember Samuel in the temple
as a young boy? God called and said, Samuel,
Samuel gets up, he thinks it's Eli. And he runs to Eli and said,
Eli, did you call me? He said, go lay back down. He
said, maybe it's the Lord speaking. That's pretty good advice. And
the Lord came and stood and called as at other times and said, Samuel,
Samuel. Then Samuel answered and said,
Speak, Lord, for thy servant here is. You remember Jonah? You remember
what God told Jonah to do? He said, Jonah, go to Nineveh.
Jonah says, I'm not going to Nineveh. He goes down to the
port or wherever that he could get a ship. He goes down there.
Well, just as fate would have it, he finds a ship. He says,
well, the fare's this much. Well, he pays the fare. He gets
on the ship and he says, boy, I got out of that real easy,
didn't I? But then God sent the storm. And Jonah knew why God
sent the storm. And God prepared a fish and swallowed
Jonah. And what did Jonah learn in the
fish? That salvation is of the Lord. And God's not done. And the word of the Lord came
unto Jonah the second time. saying, arise, go into Nineveh. He didn't change. He didn't change. But who he did change was Jonah.
He's ready to go now. You know what's amazing when
I read that story? That fish spewed him out right
on the shore of Nineveh. But God speaks, and he speaks. You remember Joseph. Joseph is
in Egypt. His father doesn't know he's
alive, and his brothers don't know he's alive. And there's
a famine, and Joseph is in Egypt, and he has all these storehouses
full of corn. And Jacob has to send the brothers,
the same brothers that tried to kill Joseph, to Egypt. And
when they go to Egypt, they don't recognize Joseph. And Joseph
treats them a little harshly. And I think he keeps Simeon and
sends him back, sends the rest of them back, and says, you go
get Benjamin. Bring him. And Jacob will not, says, I ain't
gonna let Benjamin go. And eventually he does. And here
these same boys have to go face this man, and they have no idea
who he is. It's like God bringing you under
conviction. He knows exactly who you are,
but you have no idea who he is. And in Acts 7, it says, at the
second time, Joseph was made known unto his brethren. You remember the stoic, bless
my heart, they went down there and Joseph said, I'm Joseph. The second time. God don't have
to speak, he's not obligated to speak any. There will be some
people that live upon this earth that will never hear the gospel. Isn't that right? And for God
to let you hear one time. And then one day, He says, I
am the Lord Jesus Christ. And he makes himself known. And
when he does that, that's the day of salvation. That's the
time of his life. We need to take it serious when
God speaks. God help us not to be like Felix.
In Acts 24, 25, as Paul preached to this man, And can you imagine everything
that God allowed to transpire for this preacher to stand before
this man? And he reasoned of righteousness,
of temperance, and judgment to come. Felix trembled, trembled,
and answered, go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient
season, I'll call for thee. In essence, Felix said, I know
I need to repent. Just not now. It's getting colder, and soon
it will be cold probably all the time. And you know what happens
in winter days? The ground will freeze, the ice will freeze,
and if the sun comes out during the day, it might thaw just a
little bit. But you know what's gonna happen when the sun goes
down? It will refreeze. This man's conscience begin to
thaw just a little bit. He said at a more convenient
season. I don't ever read he had another convenient season.
And it's not at your convenience. But God brought this man, his
preacher, in front of this man and preached the gospel to him.
And this man said, not at this time. Give you another one. Many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet. and not
a single one of them lepers in Israel, he didn't send him to
none of them. Many of them. Why did God send his son to you? Why is Pineville, Kentucky, Cottageville,
West Virginia, Kingsport, why? When our Lord, He told those
people, He preached, He said there was many of them, there
was many widows in the time of Elijah and He didn't save any
of them but that old Gentile widow in the time when they lived. My advice to us Back to our text, it says, knowing
the time. It is high time to awake out
of sleep. You know what it says in Song
of Solomon, chapter five, verse two? She said, I sleep, but my
heart waketh. That old man, he grows drowsy,
doesn't he? I'm just gonna be honest. It's
the only way I know to be. I couldn't wait to get up here.
I thought I was gonna go to sleep before I got up here. Supper was so
good and we sat down and I got, and I know you've never experienced
that. But you know what it is when
you just, it's like you can't hardly hold your head open. or
hold your head up. It can become that way spiritually.
I sleep. But let me tell you something,
there's a new man in there who never sleeps. He never slumbers
nor sleeps. But there's both. I sleep, but
my heart waketh. Remember what our Lord asked
the disciples? Now you imagine this. Peter,
James, and John go with him into the garden. And he goes just
a stone's throw from them. And he falls on his face. And
he's praying in such agony that his sweat becomes as great drops
of blood. He comes back and finds him asleep.
You know the first thing he asked him? Why sleep you? Why sleep you? He goes, prays, comes back, and
sleep again. Then when he come back the last
time, you know what he said? Sleep on now and take your rest. I believe it was Gil or Spurgeon
I read behind one time, he said that, I know those men were tired,
but he said, I think that there was something supernatural about
that. And I believe that sometimes
the enemy... I've come to church before and it's all you could
do to focus. Right? And you know, I don't
want to miss anything. If God speaks, I want to hear
him speak. And the enemy just lulls us to
sleep. Lulls us, don't he? The wise and the foolish virgins
both slumbered and slept. Our Lord told the people in his
day, he said, you can discern the face of the sky and of the
earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time? Anybody that has any spiritual
discernment, you have an unction from the Holy One and you know
all things. You can see that there's something going on in
this world. This is a different time. Isn't it? I think it is. We're
living in perilous times. We're living in times of judgment.
God is a holy God. God is a just God. And I know
sometimes people When I was in religion they used to talk about
your days of grace and all that. I don't know about all that.
I know if you're his, he's going to bring you. But I do know this. God said, I've stretched out
my hand all the day long and you refused it. He said, one
day you're going to cry and I won't hear you. He said, I'll laugh
when your fear comes. You know what he said about Esau?
There was a time when Esau sold his birthright. And then there
was a time he sought repentance carefully with tears and he was
rejected because God left him alone. I do know God's that way. And I can see, I can see the
hand of God's judgment on this nation. I can see it. And it seem like if things are
happening awful fast, but let me tell you something again,
God is in control of all things. Do you know when the children
of Israel, were there in Jerusalem and they were preaching the gospel
and thousands of people were being saved. He said, you go
into all the world and preach the gospel. You know what they
wanted to do? Stay right in Jerusalem. You know what God caused? He
allowed persecution. He allowed Stephen to be stoned.
He allowed James to be killed. You know why? It drove them out. God knows exactly what he's doing. He says, listen, 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. You know what that means when
their conscience is seared with a hot iron? Has no feeling. Totally
dead. Reprobates. This know also that
in the last days, and we've been in the last days from the time
of Christ, perilous times shall come, and here's how he describes
them. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontent, fierce,
despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded,
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. And who are these
people? Having a form of godliness. These
are religious people. Denying the power of their love.
I've never seen so many religious people until this day right here. Everybody's religious. It's the
popular thing to do now. It's the end thing. God will send them strong delusions
and they will believe a lie. But you know what it says in
Revelation where it says the serpent spewed out the water
out of his mouth to try to destroy the woman. You know what it said
about the earth? It said the earth helped the woman. What
does that mean? It just swallows it up. Swallows it up. When David's getting ready to
come to the throne, all the nations, all the tribes of Israel were
gathered together to make him king. In his first Chronicles
12.32 said about this little tribe of Issachar. You know what
it said about Issachar? Which were men that had understanding
of the times to know what Israel ought to do. What are we supposed
to do? We're going to make David king.
That's what we're going to do. That old Benjamite Saul, he's
been on the throne too long. David's king. This is what we're
going to do. I tried to find this quote. I'd
heard Henry quote it years ago and I can't get it exactly, but
Martin Luther made this statement. It's similar to this. He said,
wherever the honor of our Lord is being attacked in our day,
that is where the true soldier of Christ will rage his battle. And that's it. Where it's being
raged in our day, that's where we rage battle. Remember Haggai, that little
book? Haggai comes in, the children of Israel, some had come back
from Babylon, been there for 70 years, and they came back
and started building the temple. You know what they did? They
just quit. They just said quit. And God sent Haggai to stir these
people up, and here's what he said. Thus speaketh the Lord
of hosts, saying, this is what God said. This people say, the
time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.
Then came to the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
they're saying, well, the time's not right for us to build God's
house. God says, is it time for you? Oh, you to dwell in your
sealed house and this house lay waste. He said, you're saying
it's time for you to build your house, but not time for you to
build God's house. Oh, you to dwell in your sealed
houses and this house lay waste. Now, therefore, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways. God help every one of us to consider
our ways. There's so many illustrations
of this in scripture. In the little book of Esther,
remember the book of Esther, Esther becomes queen and she's
a Jew. and they keep it hid, her and
her uncle Mordecai keep it hid and there's a wicked man named
Haman who hates the Jews and he's plotting to kill every single
Jew and he don't know that Esther's a Jew and he's trying to get
the king to make the decree that they're all gonna die and Mordecai
you just imagine this you don't know if this is the last night
you're gonna live If the king makes the decree, you're a dead
man." So what does Mordecai do? He goes to Esther. And Mordecai
commanded to answer Esther because Esther said, I can't go to the
king just any time. The only time you can go into
the king's presence is when he reaches out his golden scepter.
And she said, I've not been able to go in. Do you not see that
picture? How can we come to Christ? Because
he reaches out to gold and such. But then Mordecai commanded to
answer Esther. He said, Think not with thyself
that thou shalt escape in the king's house. He said, Don't
you think just because you're in the king's house that he won't
kill you more than all the Jews? For thou altogether holdest thy
peace at this time. He said, If you won't speak for
these Jews at this time, then there shall enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place. He said, If you won't
do it, God will take care of his people. God's going to save
his elect people. He's going to save his chosen
people. But what's this? But thou and thy father's house
shall be destroyed. But here it is. But he said,
But who knowest, Esther, that thou wert come to the kingdom
for such a time as this? You know what he's saying? He said, Just maybe, Esther.
God has allowed you to be queen. For such a time is this. And you think about this. God
has allowed us to live. God has put you here in this
place for such a time is this. God raises up a church like in
Kingsport for such a time is this. Isn't that amazing? Amazing. Let me give you one
more. You remember the woman with the
very precious ointment that comes and our Lord listened. In Mark
chapter 14 verse 3. It said, And being in Bethany
in the house of Simon the leper, as he said it meet, our Lord
said it meet, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment,
of spike and lye, very precious. And she broke the box and poured
it on his head. And there were some that had
indignation within themselves and said, Why was this waste
of the ointment made? It might have been sold for more
than 300 pence and been given to the poor. And they murmured
against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone. Why trouble you her? Now watch
this. She hath wrought a good work
on me. He called what she did, and I
never read anywhere else he ever called anything else a good work.
He said, she hath wrought a good work on me. You have the poor
with you always, and whenever you will, you may do them good.
He said, anytime you want to, you can help the poor. But me,
you have not always. She hath done what she could. What I believe this is saying,
I believe she knows in her heart, she's been saving up this ointment
for a long time, a long time. And she knows that if she don't
do it now, she won't get the opportunity. Because when he's hanging on
the cross, she won't get to anoint his body. But somebody said,
do you know when she anointed his body? When he dies, he still
has this fragrance on him. She anoints his body. She had
done what she could. I can't do what somebody else
can do. You can't do what somebody else can do. But he said, she's
done what she could. She's come to anoint my body
for the burial. God help me and God help us to
do what we can while we can. 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 unto
her. She done what she could. Knowing
the time, it is high time that we awake out of sleep. Amen.