Great Texts of The Bible | Ecclesiastes 3 | Pastor William Hixson

Okay, last last Sunday we looked at the

book of Ecclesiastes, the poem of time.

And as I was thinking about it this

week, I thought,

how can you teach the poem of time

without teaching the interpretation of

the poem of time and the application of

the poem of time that's at the bottom of

the chapter? So, this is your

opportunity to get that part of it.

We've taught on this several years ago.

I'm sure

a lot of it has gone past your memory at

this point. But let's go to Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

Remember, there's two parts to this

chapter. There's the poem that at the

beginning of the chapter that we looked

at already and then there's the pros

which interprets the poem. And so what

we're looking at in verses 9 to 15 is

the interpretation

of the poem.

Now a lot of times poems

there's no interpretation that comes

with them. You have to think through it

yourself. And that's part of what it's

all about. But in this particular one,

uh, Coal the preacher

gives us an interpreta. It gives us an

interpretation.

But let's go back and reread the poem of

time and then we'll begin in verse 9

with what we're looking at the Sunday

school hour. To everything there's a

season and a time to every purpose under

heaven. A time to be born, 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, a time to break

down, a time to build up, time to weep,

and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, a

time to dance, 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, a time to

lose, a time to keep, and a time to cast

away. A time to tear 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 works in that

wherein he labors? I've seen the travail

which God has given to the sons of men

to be exercised in it. He's made

everything beautiful in its time. You

notice the he you you see what's

happening here. Um he's still talking

about the times, right? Everything

beautiful in its time. Also, he set the

world or eternity in their heart so that

no man can find out the work God makes

from the beginning to end. And I know

that there is no good in them. But for a

man to rejoice and do good in his life,

and also that every man should eat and

drink and enjoy the good of all his

labor, it is the gift of God.

And I know that whatsoever God doeth, it

shall be forever. Nothing can be put to

it, neither can anything taken from it.

And God doeth it that men should fear

before him. That which has been is now,

and that which is to be hath already

been, and God requires that which is

past. Moreover, I saw under the sun

place of justice, that wickedness was

there, and the place of righteousness,

that iniquity was there. I said in my

heart, God shall judge the righteous and

the wicked. For there's a time for every

purpose and for every work. There's our

word time again. And I said in my heart

concerning concerning the estate of the

sons of men, that God might test them,

and that they might see that they

themselves are beasts. For that which

befalls the sons of men befall a beast.

Even one thing befalls them. As the one

dies, so dieth the other. Yay, they have

all one breath, so that a man hath no

preeminence among a beast, for all is

vanity. All go into one place. All are

of the dust and all turn to the dust

again.

And again, he's speaking as someone

who's observing things from under the

sun. All go to one place. All are of the

dust. All return to dust again. Who

knows? The spirit of man that goes

upward and the spirit of the beast that

goes downward to the earth.

Wherefore I perceive I perceive that

there is nothing better than that a man

should rejoice in his works for that's

his portion. For who shall bring him to

see what shall be after him.

Father help me to teach and each of us

to hear this most precious word from the

book of Ecclesiastes in Jesus name.

Amen.

Now the preacher or Kaleth's poem

in the first eight verses

I believe is unsurpassed among poetry.

It's a incredibly

well constructed,

wellthought through poem

and I think we would say since it's

inspired by God even though it's moving

through the empirical analysis of

Solomon that it's one of the most

important poems ever written.

This is a very very important poem

and but the poem does not stand by

itself.

The preacher's pros

in verses 9 to the end in it interprets

the poem and that interpretation is

unsurpassed in its profoundity.

It's packed with philosophical,

theological,

and spiritual

insight.

So, you've got a powerful poem

and then you have the practical

applications

from the poem. Now, of course, these are

not all the applications, but they are

some of the applications,

and they go together

as a key does to a lock

and are meant to be pondered and applied

together

like a pair of binoculars.

You need to look through both eyes of

the binoculars to get the full picture,

right?

Uh so a pair of binoculars we see with a

pair of binoculars we see things much

better and with greater clarity uh

because of them. But you you got to use

both eyes, right? And you look through

both lenses.

And so what what Coaleth wants is for us

to look at our lives in God's world with

the aid of God's binoculars.

In the left eye, we have the eight verse

poem. In the right eye, we have the 14

verse exposition

and application.

So they go together.

they they're they're meant to be looked

at together.

Now, when scholars who've written on the

book of Ecclesiastes

try to put a label on all of this,

I picked three of the most uh aerodite

scholarly

people that I've read on Ecclesiastes.

And these men are at the top of the top

of the academic chain uh on Old

Testament studies and quite all of them

are quite uh quite um capable.

The first one said titled the poem God

sets the times.

God sets the times. Another one said

entitled it all in God's time.

A third one entitled that everything is

in the hand of God. Everyone mentioned

God, right?

Everyone mentioned God.

And so I'll read those again. God sets

the times. God all in God's time.

Everything is in the hand of God. That's

Ecclesiastes chapter 3. We're dealing

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

with the interpretation of the poem of

time.

Now the poem goes to verse 8. We've

already looked at that uh in yet last

Sunday. But the interpretation of the

poem is very helpful.

Without the interpretation, we are not

able to um

appreciate the poem as we should or even

understand the poem as we should.

So Solomon's not leaving us in total

darkness here. Uh he is going to

interpret for us what he meant. So in

verses 9 to 14 we see questions,

observations, reflections and

applications

all in the light of the poem of time in

the first eight verses of Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3.

And so we're meant to read

the poem

but not stop with reading.

When I was in junior high and even in

high school, uh, and I believe somewhat

even at OU, my beginning years, I

thought if I read the textbook, that was

all I need to do. I didn't comprehend.

You're supposed to. Yes. Read the

textbook. read it again and then start

studying it

and begin to reflect on it and apply it

and so forth. I didn't understand the

difference between reading and studying

and it took my time in seminary where I

finally figured that out.

And so obviously in 9 to4

Kaleth who wrote the poem is going to

help us. He's going to coach us. He's

going to direct us in our meditation.

And the questions and observations and

reflections and applications that he

gives in ver the 9-14 are in light of

the previous poem.

And so let's think about that

and

uh rejoice in what God has done here.

First of all,

God is the great doer

in the poem.

God is the great doer in the poem.

Preacher asks questions. What does the

doer gain? He's talking about the human

doer.

But one of the things the human doer who

has to live his life within the

parameters that God gives us in this in

history is that God is the great doer

and we have to bring in God here. He is

not mentioned in the poem itself.

That's very interesting.

You go down verses 1 to8, you will never

see

the term God.

You just see a time for this and a time

for that and a time for this and a time

for that.

Yet behind everything,

God sets the times. We do not.

And if you observe in verses 9 to 15

and you count the name God and al with

the pronouns that also refer to him

uh you you get a very interesting uh

result.

Nine times

in verses 9 to 15 it refers to God.

in 1 to8 it never uses the term God

but nine times

in verses eight or verses nine to to the

end it refers this chapter it refers to

God and so this is interesting isn't it

if you don't have God in your life if

you don't recognize God if you leave God

out of the calculation of trying to

understand life with all its ups and

downs downs and ins and outs. You'll

never be able to answer the questions

about this life properly.

Without God, this greatest question

cannot be answered correctly.

And this is where the book of

Ecclesiastes written 3,000 years ago

is really applicable today.

21st century man

is trying his best to ask the big

questions of life

without God.

The Marxists are doing it.

Materialists are doing it.

The uh uh different individuals in our

own country are doing it for different

reasons.

The post-modernists are doing it.

The big questions, the real issues of

life cannot be correctly or properly

answered

without God.

And 21st century man is doing his best

to answer the big questions

without God. And therefore, none of the

answers,

none of the answers that men are coming

up with

last very long.

Isn't that what a what philosophy is all

about? One philosopher corrects the

earlier ones. That's all it's about. One

philosopher corrects the ones before

him. He picks something he doesn't like.

That one doesn't work very well. And

it's just, if you ever study western

philosophy, it's just one thing piled on

another. One thing piled on another.

Now in verse 13

of Ecclesiastes

also every man should eat and drink and

enjoy the good of all his labor. This is

a gift of God. We have our limits.

We have our limits.

We We could try to spend our life trying

to figure everything out. That's that's

even with God. we're not going to have

it all figured out because God's not

telling us everything.

And so the burden that he's talking

about

uh

uh in this section and the the

situations here reflects both human

uh finitness and the fact that it's a

fallen world. We are finite and the

world is fallen. We're finite and

fallen. Those are limitations, right?

We're not infinite or unfallen.

We're finite and fallen.

You've never met an unfallen person

in this world.

You've never met an infinite person in

this world. Now, if you met God, you've

met someone who's infinite and not

fallen. But besides him, you don't have

anyone to answer the questions, the big

ones. So the burden reflects both human

fin by finitness and the fact that it's

a fallen world and its limits do not

operate independently of the providence

of God. Inability to understand time or

timing or to understand how things were

in the world adds significantly to the

burden of life. We have to live life not

knowing what's going on.

That's kind of frustrating, isn't it?

We don't know.

We know a lot of things,

but we don't know the total program. We

just are one little part of it and we're

one little slice of history.

So, what is heavy about life or evil

about life and that it's difficult is it

cannot be controlled and manipulated so

as to render the rewards sought after.

And uh we're we're never here long

enough to enjoy everything that we hope

we can enjoy.

And it's amplified when people refuse to

acknowledge their limits and live and

strive and play as if those limits don't

exist. We are limited.

We are limited.

Uh you know, I'm 77. I'm seven years

past my expiration date,

you know. So it's just like we we are

limited though, right? Some don't get to

70. Some get into 70 and some go past 70

quite a while. But nobody knows, right?

Nobody has a, oh, dad lived this long,

so I'm going to live this long. We don't

know that, do we? There's no way to know

that.

And so, but we can't help, and this is

what this explanation in verses 9 to 22

is talking about. We have to live life

uh with an eye on the clock.

We have to recognize there's times for

this and times for that. You know, if

you play basketball, basketball cannot

be played if you're not looking at the

clock correctly, right? Or football,

Mike, you're the football guy. Every

everybody's looking at the clock. It

determines what you do and what you

don't do. Sometimes in football, you're

going to throw a pass. Sometimes you're

going to run the ball. What's one of the

differences? The clock.

Same thing in basketball, right? So, you

you realize where you're at in the game

and that determines whether you pass or

run the ball or try to run out the clock

or stop the clock.

So, but we can't do that in life.

That's it. We There's no clock.

There's no clock that we have access to.

only God.

So, we have to live life not long how

long we're going to be living our life.

Am I going to die young, middleage, old?

Am I going to lose my health? Am I going

to have lose my job? How long am I going

to be here? How long I'm going to be

there?

We know there's a clock. That's very

obvious. We know there's a clock, but we

don't know. We can't stop the clock. And

we can't even see the clock. We can't

call timeout. God, I want to stop. I

want to get my footing here. We don't

know if it's halftime. We don't know in

our life.

I don't think I would want to know. How

about you? Would you want to know

halftime?

No. I I would have no interest in

knowing that. But we know the Lord Jesus

is coming and the whole issues of time

are going to be concluded properly and

that's the whole book of

Revelation.

Now the ultimate question is what's the

gain?

What do you gain out of living your

life?

What are you going to get out of it?

That's what verse 9 says. What profit

hath he who works in all that wherein he

labors?

What's the profit? What's the gain?

And so he's wrestling with this. One

generation go comes and another one

generation goes and another comes.

That's chapter one of Ecclesiastes. It's

just like you're on the merry ground so

long and then somebody else is on it and

we don't know when we're going to get on

or get off. And Derek Kitner said,

"We're all like desperately nearsighted

people inching the way along some great

tapestry or fresco in attempt to take it

in. We see enough to recognize something

of its quality, but the grand design

escapes us. For we can never stand back

far enough to view it as the creator

does. who who has the whole and entire

from the beginning to the end. So God

sees the whole thing, right? We don't.

When Andrea and I were in Turkey, we

went we were on this island. I forget

where it was. And it was a place that

sold these Persian carpets, really

beautiful carpets. And you know, every

every time you go on some kind of tour,

they take you somewhere where you're

going to spend some big money. And you

know, you know that that those people

are paying the tour directors to do

that. And it was all right. It was a

beautiful experience. And I got pictures

of many of these beautiful

turkey carpets. But they that they took

us into this great big hallway. It was

probably as big as this whole church

building. And there was nothing in it at

all except carpets on all sides rolled

up. And then they unrolled the carpets.

And these were expensive carpets. I

mean, they had carpets for se few

hundred dollars or a few thousand

dollars and then it went up. These were

way beyond my budget. I wasn't

interested. And that didn't have any

room in my suitcase for them either. So,

I wasn't It was just feudal for them to

try to sell me a carpet. Oh, they'd send

it. They'd send it to you, but

they're giving their pitch. And so,

they'd rolled these carpets out and the

carpets were a lot of the carpets would

be about half the size of this room. one

carpet.

Beautiful.

Now, I got to see when they rolled it

out how beautiful it was. I got to see

something of the whole picture.

But suppose you're an ant and you're

crawling on the carpet

and you're going to crawl across the

carpet. You are examining the carpet.

You don't have

you don't have the human's eye view. You

have the ants eye view. There is no way

the ant could see all that carpet or

even understand what was going on. Now

we're like the ant in life. We get to go

our little part. We got our little three

score and seven, maybe a little more in

life.

And that's what Kitner said. We are like

a desperately nearsighted. We are like

desperately nearsighted people inching

our way along some great tapestry or

fresco and attempt to take it in. We see

enough to recognize something of

quality, but the grand design escapes

us. That is

the book of Ecclesiastes.

The smartest man probably who ever lived

was Solomon other than Jesus. and he is

writing that he's trying to figure life

out apart from God under the sun wisdom

not above the sun revelation coming down

I want to see what makes life work

and

um what he finds out in the poem is that

God the creator has a providential plan

in a broken world full of broken people

there's a time to be born a time to die

that's what he's talking about what he's

observed her. She's He's not going by

Revelation. He's put the Bible aside

here. And he's just looking at life, the

empirical analysis of the affairs of

men. What's going on?

He had the time to do it. He had the

money to do it. He had the wisdom to do

it. Sharp guy.

And one writer said, "Give up the quest

for profit. Reorient life towards the

creator. Stop trying to get ahead apart

from God.

Realize you need God in your life

because you'll never understand it if

you live as long as Methuselah.

You you're not going to live that long

in this world. So give up the quest.

This is Ian Proven, another scholar.

Give up the quest for profit. Reorient

life towards the creator. To struggle

for anything other than harmony with

this reality, that's the creator is to

act insanely and with utmost

folly.

Now, if you take verses 9 to 22

and you count the times Solomon refers

to God,

it comes out nine times.

Nine times.

He either uses the word God or he uses a

pronoun

for God. But if you count the pronouns

as well as the word God, you come out

with nine times.

So the ultimate reality of life is God

himself who sets the times. He has a

plan. He has a program. He has a

purpose.

And fallen m man today has ceased to

define himself as a creature with a

creator. We don't look at ourselves that

way.

We have a uh philosophical concept of

atheistic materialistic

uh uh philosophy that leaves God out.

How does the book of Ecclesiastes end?

What's chapter 12 and the palm of old

age? Turn over there just a minute and

hold your place in chapter 3 and you'll

have an idea of where Solomon is going.

Ecclesiastes 3

and chapter 12, last chapter.

In the last chapter of the book, he says

what?

Remember now thy creator in the days of

your youth.

remember him.

Don't put off recognizing him. Don't put

off putting him into your life and your

life plan and your life activities.

Remember now your creator in the days of

your youth. The book of Ecclesiastes is

written to young people.

It's written to young people. See 11:9.

Rejoice, oh young man, in your youth.

It's a wonderful book for young people.

I think young people should read this

book. They're not going to understand

it. They're going to be puzzled by it.

They're going to come away with all

kinds of questions. Why' you said this?

Was he say that? But it's a wonderful

book for young people to ponder.

But that doesn't mean the old uh uh the

older generation can also benefit. But

he says, "Remember your creator in the

days of your youth, while the evil days

come not, nor the years draw near when

you'll say, 'I have no pleasure in

them." That's when you're on the north

side of uh 70

where according to Solomon uh palm and

uh Psalm 90 uh things get a lot tougher

and our years are three score and 10 and

by reason of strength they're four

score. They're labor and sorrow.

So he says remember your creator in the

days of youth of the evil days or the

calamitous days is what it means. It's

not talking about sin there. It's

talking about difficulty days that are

hard. What nor the years draw near when

you'll say I have no pleasure in them.

And then in verses two and following he

talks about the falling apart of the

human body. The way a house falls apart.

The fallen man today has ceased to

define himself as a creature with a

creator. The point of the book of

Ecclesiastes is that that whole approach

is seriously deficient.

No amount of physical or mental or

intellectual ability or maturity or

talent can enable us to escape our

position.

We are finite. We are fallen. God is

sovereign and God is there.

As Francis Schaefer said in one of his

great books in the 1960s, he is there

and he's not silent. He is there and he

hasn't been silent. He's written this

written the scriptures. But father man

has ceased to define himself as a

creature with a creator. He's refused to

do that. He's not only ceased to do it,

he's refused to do that.

And Ian Proven said that God, not mortal

beings, controls the times is a

fundamental biblical conviction.

I'm going to quote I'm going to quote

that again. That God, not mortal human

beings, controls the times is a

fundamental biblical conviction.

You know, every president when they get

elected, they got an agenda, right? I

mean, why would you run for a president

if you weren't trying to accomplish

something?

You got to have something you want to

accomplish in that office to put

yourself through all the pressure and

difficulties of that office. So, you run

with an agenda.

But did you know everybody in this world

if they don't have God's agenda, they

got their own agenda and then they're

upset with God when their agenda doesn't

work out. But every president when he I

it's amazing to me how many presidents

come into office and they they want to

stop wars. They don't want any wars.

They don't want wars. They run on that.

They mean it.

Uh Woodro Wilson wanted that. Guess what

happened to him? World War I.

You know what happened to Roosevelt?

World War II,

you know. So, just because you don't

wars does, in fact, I almost and and

Donald Trump didn't want wars, but guess

what? He got wars.

It's interesting. You uh as the Rolling

Stones said in one of their rock songs,

you can't always get what you want. And

that's true of all kinds of things in

life, not just what they were singing

about.

So that God not mortal being controls

times is a fundamental biblical

conviction. God is the decisive actor.

He is the decisive actor

and

we need to learn that

you know we but we don't control the

times do we?

Now, this is a political fact that's

very interesting. The Democrats always

want a long election, several months,

and bailin ballots plenty of time after

months after the people can vote be long

time before, long times afterward. Why

do they do that? They do it for a

reason. Everybody knows the reason

they're in the ballot boxes with votes.

They got time to do that. They don't get

enough, they make up some more. The

Republicans want to move it along and

make it happen faster, right? Not that

they're totally honest. They just got a

different method.

And both are trying to control time.

Neither one of them are very good at it,

right? Things always mess up.

You know, God's in control of who's in

office.

I'm not saying we shouldn't vote. I

believe in voting. I was a political

science major. I believe we we have it's

a responsibility to vote. But it's not

our vote that counts. It's God's.

Powers that be are what? Ordained of

God.

That includes Neero and the Roman

emperors and others that Paul was

talking about in that chapter.

Um,

one one writer said on this chapter, "It

would appear that the preacher is

forging a link between man's gain and

the eternal acts of the deity." In other

words, what's our gain? To align oursel

with God's program. Get with the

program.

Get with the program. And the main point

of the poem is that God has established

periods, moments of time for a wide

diversities of motions and activities

as one said. And Chuck Swindoll always

had a good way of putting things. It's

empty.

It's empty.

Thine there is nothing down here under

the sun that will give you and me a

sense of lasting satisfaction.

There's nothing down here under the sun

that'll give you and me a sense of

lasting satisfaction. It's planned

that way.

How else would we realize our need for a

living God?

You see, God, the living God knows that

men are running from him, hiding from

him. Adam and Eve started singing right

after the fall, "Hiding from thee,

hiding from thee." And God said, "Where

are you, Adam?" "Well, I was naked. I

hid myself." So, people been hiding from

God since the fall. It's not new.

And so, God gets our attention. And one

of the ways he gets our attention is our

plans don't work out. Everything doesn't

seem to go exactly like we thought they

were going to go. And we realize, I'm

not driving.

God's driving. God's in control of my

life.

And I need to recognize God. I need to

bring God into my plans. I need to bring

bring God into my life.

Life on planet Earth without God is the

pits. And that's the way God designed

it. Everybody tries to live without God

and be happy. I'm gonna be happy, so I'm

going to leave God. God doesn't make

God's not making me happy, so I'm going

to get away from God. But life without

God is the pits.

And you find out nothing satisfies

without God. There's no hell on earth

like horizontal living

without God.

That is kind of hell on earth.

People don't want God around. They try

to live without God.

and uh

shocking.

Um

remember the unjust judge in the book

gospel of Luke that feared not God or

cared about man. What a miserable way to

live.

What what a miserable way to a judge.

You don't care about people and you

don't fear God.

What kind of life is that? Well, he was

obviously he was just in it for what he

could get out of it financially. That

was that was the horizons of his life.

He was living for himself. We are not

meant to live for ourselves. We are

creatures with the creator. We are

fallen people with the redeemer. And we

you you try to get a better life apart

from him is not a good thing.

I I asked this question when I was

teaching this years ago. Think about the

rich man and Lazarus. Remember those

two? Lazarus was begging every day at

the rich man's door and the rich man

spared sumptuously every day and uh

Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom when he

died and the rich man went to hell. But

I want you to ask, have you ever asked

this question? Who had the better life

in this world?

I'm not talking about the next world.

I'm not talking about when Lazarus was

in Abraham's bosom and the rich man was

in hell. I'm talking about what happened

before that.

when the rich man was fairing

sumptuously every day without God

and Lazarus was begging every day with

God.

Cuz see, Lazarus had a faith that the

rich man didn't have. Lazarus didn't get

to heaven because he was poor. Lazarus

got to heaven because he was saved.

He is in Abraham's bosom is how it puts

it and because he had Abraham's faith

and that's why he uses Abraham instead

of Moses or somebody else because

Abraham is the great example of saving

faith.

I believe Lazarus was all his problems

had a better life on this

on this planet than the rich man. A life

without God is not a life worth living.

Now Jesus did say Lazarus received his

evil things and you your good things.

That's true when it comes to finances

and health and position.

But I I would rather be Lazarus.

Wouldn't you begging for my food every

day than be rich man even in this life?

Lazarus had faith. The rich man did not.

Lazarus had God in his life. and rich

man did not. And people look for gain in

all the wrong places. We look for

answers in all the wrong places. It

stuns me. Stuns me when I talk to

atheists about they don't even want to

consider that God exists. They've ruled

that out. They don't even want to talk

about it. To them, that's not on the

table. Anything but God and the Bible

and the gospel is an option for them to

explore.

That's the one thing they don't want to

do. They'll read the Quran. They'll read

the vadas. They'll read philosophers.

They'll read all kinds of stuff if

they're so inclined. But they won't give

a serious attention to the Bible other

than to want criticize it. But if they

can read it to find fault, so they can

get an excuse for their unbelief, but

not really that they can find God.

They're doing what Adam and Eve did. I

was naked and I hid myself.

Now back to our text in Ecclesiastes 3.

The word time, time, time in the poem of

time.

One writer said, "God's timing makes us

aware of our helplessness. We cannot

control the times. God's times make us

aware of our helplessness. We cannot

control the times. God's times make us

aware of our total dependence on in God.

We are not even we don't even know the

time.

We don't even know the time. You know

when you're going to die? No. Do you

know when you're going to get sick? No.

Do you know when you might get a

windfall of a lot of money? No. That God

has surprises in life

that we completely don't know about.

And those are wonderful things.

We are dealing with a sovereign and

inscrable deity. And we are not God. He

is. And we need to know our place. We

need to know our limits.

What do you do if you're lost in the

mountains?

You're hiking in the mountains. You get

off the trail. I'm I'm talking about I'm

talking about just out by yourself on a

trail and you get off you get lost.

What's the rule? Go up,

right? Get your bearings. Go up. Get get

climb the hill. See where you are.

Uh that's how you get out of being lost.

You get up and get the bigger picture.

You can't see down in the valley.

But we can never go up high enough to

see the whole view of things in life.

But we can do as best we can get to God

who knows the whole thing.

So we need to go to him

and trust in him and rest in him.

Martin Luther

had a very interesting comment

on this and I think it's very

interesting and uh this one fellow is

quoting him. Coal ranges across life's

experiences of ordinary people

demonstrating to reflective minds that

the events that shape our lives are much

larger than any pretensions we might

have to exercise control over them. And

then he quotes Martin Luther with

characteristic bluntness gets to the

heart of the matter. All this is

directed against the free will of man

and against all human pes purposes and

fancies,

but especially against the notion that

is in our power to determine seasons and

hours and persons, the measures and

place. that we can settle

that we can settle how the affairs of

this world shall go. How its great

potentates shall rise and fall. How joy

and sadness building up and pulling down

and war and peace shall succeed and take

the place of each other. How how shall

they begin and end? We don't have

control over any of them.

How many people started a war and

thought they could finish it and it went

a lot longer than they thought?

Ask a Putin that.

Probably ought to ask our president

that, too.

You know, there's mysteries.

There's profoundities.

We are We are We have to learn over and

over again. We are not in control.

Peter asked Jesus something. He got all

upset about uh uh excuse me, John. Peter

heard the speculation about John and he

wanted to know what about this man, you

know, and everyone's gossiping about it

and trying to figure it out and he

wanted answers from the Lord.

The Lord said to what is that to you?

Follow me.

You know, you're you're going to go to

the cross. You're going to be crucified

upside down. He's going to live a long

life, but I'm not you don't need to know

about him. you just need to do what

you're supposed to do.

So, there's some tremendous uh if you go

back to Ecclesiastes 3, we'll close this

out. There's some very interesting

observations here, great observations,

answers to the big questions.

Nothing less than God gives significance

to time and eternity. There's three

things here. Number one, God made

everything beautiful or appropriate in

time.

Number two, God puts eternity in our

hearts. That's what it says. I think

King James says world, but the word

means eternity. We all know that things

are bigger than our lifespan.

We all know we're part of something

bigger than our lifetime.

And number three, we cannot discover the

whole thing. We're at a dead end.

Everything is beautiful in its time.

Everything's appropriate in its time.

It's very interesting, isn't it? And

it's something the Have you ever watched

uh countries trying to get into

population control? China did that with

great disaster, right? One child policy.

That's when I was young. The Chinese put

in one child policy. That was a total

disaster. They haven't recovered from

that yet. Man's wisdom. We're going to

cut down on all the children. So, just

one child per couple. Well, what

happened in that society? They aborted

the girls and kept the boys cuz the boys

could work for them when they were

younger. And then the boys don't have

any women to marry.

That was dumb and dumber.

And so, and now they're suffering for

that in all their great wisdom.

And you know the Europeans tried

something similar. They got stopped

having babies

uh the whole uh uh thing about the the

world coming to an end because of an ice

age or you know we're going to run out

of stuff. They bought into it. Now

European cultures did a dead end and

they brought in all these Muslim people

and that what what are the problems they

got? They stopped learning be fruitful

and multiply and fill the earth.

I don't have a baby because the culture

is going to be a a big disaster coming.

I don't want my baby to be in that.

Young people are doing that following

human wisdom rather than God's word

and uh

God's made everything appropriate in its

time and he sustains the world so his

purposes can be accomplished. And

amazingly, if you just let things take

their course, try and interfere with

God. Amazingly, the right amount of

people were born and die and the right

amount of boys and girls are born so we

can keep going. But men interfere,

people interfere.

Now, I I it's amazing. They'd rather go

with their wisdom than God

in his time. In his time, he makes all

things beautiful in his time. Lord,

please show me every day as you're

teaching me on the way that you'll do

just what you say in your time.

Um, so what's Coaleth saying?

Swindoll puts it this way. I see purpose

in tragedy. I see reason and calamity. I

see sovereignty, sovereign sovereign

hand of God at work. and he's reminding

me he's still in charge and I

acknowledge my need for greater

dependence. As I do, I willingly

relinquish the controls to him. So easy

to say,

so hard to do. I'm not saying we

shouldn't make plans.

There's nothing there's nothing wrong

with having a plan.

We we in fact, we need to make plans,

but we need to let God change our plans.

We have to let God do that because he's

God. And recognize I made a plan. It

seemed like a good plan, but God

God had a better plan. And I've I found

every time my life went different than I

planned it to go, God was in charge and

it was better than my plan. I can say

that as an older man who's had a lot of

plans and God has his plan.

So may God help us.

Um,

thank God for Romans 8:28. All things

Romans 8:28

work together for good to those that

love God, to those that are called

according to his purpose.

It doesn't say some things. It doesn't

say the good things work together for

good. Good things, bad things, in

between things. The times when God slams

doors in your face. Shut doors are God's

leading as much as open ones. We have

our plans. God has his plan. And the

great thing in life is to do what? I had

this plan. It seemed like a good plan,

but you blew up my plan.

Oh, that might live in your sight. I

want my plan, God. No, it's not going to

be Ishmael. is going to be Isaac. That's

a better plan.

And so may God help us to understand

those things that those things are all

written for our learning.

Philip Reiken said, "Not only is there

time for everything, but God always does

things at just the right time."

Have you watch I used to watch a lot of

baseball with my grandpa because he

played major league baseball. was a

catcher and he he really knew what they

were going to do before they did it

and uh it was fun on the black and white

television watching the Yankees play,

Yogi Barra behind the plate, Mickey Man,

all those old time and I spent a lot of

time watching baseball, but my

grandfather could often tell me what

they were going to do before they did

it.

He would say, "They're going to do this,

they're going to do that." And almost

always, he was right. He was a catcher.

He was in on the strategies. He

understood

And uh but uh have you ever watched a

baseball game when there was a double

play or a triple play? It's almost

music.

I mean it's beautiful when it happens,

right? Doesn't happen too often. Double

plays happen sometimes, triple plays

almost never, but when it happens,

everybody does moves exactly the way

they should move and gets the ball to

who they should get it. And they it it

all the strategy works. They've worked

on that. They've worked on that. And it

the timing is just a beautiful thing.

God's bigger than any baseball coach.

God's bigger than any baseball team. God

has his plan. It's a perfect plan.

And we need to experience God's timing,

not our own.

We all want God to do things for us in

the time we want him do it.

God's not interested in that.

He may,

but there's a time for every purpose

under heaven, and that time is God's

time.

So you I found that out as a young man.

I spent I spent my I was 31 when I got

married. That wasn't my plan. I would

have liked to been married at 22.

But God kept slamming doors in my face

for this reason or that. And I look

back, I been I'd have been terrible if

I'd have got married at 22. I wasn't

ready to be a husband or a father. I

wasn't ready for that. I thought I was.

So when when God had his time

and

so there's a time for every purpose

under heaven

and God is in control of time. You ever

notice Joseph in the book of Genesis?

And didn't Jacob and his family

experience God's timing?

Joseph did.

And God even told them what was going to

happen and they didn't believe it.

And yet it all happened. How about Paul

in the book of Acts? Same thing.

And so it's a blessed thing.

Everything's beautiful in its time, in

his appropriate time. When God works it

out, it's really great. You realize,

wow, that was something that was better

than I could ever plan. And it happened

just at the right time.

Um,

second, God's put eternity in our

hearts. That word olam,

God has made everything right in its

time.

The same God that makes everything right

in its time also put timelessness in the

human heart.

We know things are going to happen when

they're supposed to happen, but we also

know we're just one little piece. were

just one little part of this thing

called history.

I would have liked to live back in

cowboy days except when I start reading

how bad they were

living conditions.

But I fantasize that I I'd have been

fine, I think, riding a horse and

driving cattle.

But

God has a time for every purpose in

heaven. You can't go back. Can't go back

to those days.

Can

God puts us on this earth for a certain

time and then God works in our life in

that time what he wants to accomplish

and his plans are always better than

ours. Sometimes our plans and his

coincide. Sometimes our plan is his

plan. We got insight into that. But

other times we find out, nope, his plan

is better. One writer said, "God who's

made everything right in its time has

also put a sense of timelessness in

human hearts." That's that phrase, "He's

put eternity in their hearts." That's

what it says in uh the second part of

this section. He's not only made

everything beautiful in his time, he's

put eternity in their hearts. And it's

it's uh in verse 11, he's made

everything beautiful in its time. Also,

he set eternity in their heart. That's

the best way to translate that word.

Word world is not the best way to

translate it. So that no man can find

the work that God makes from beginning

to end.

We all have a sense that we're part of

something

that started long before we were born

and will go on long after we die.

And we just get to live and enjoy a

little bit of it on this planet.

And so God who made everything right in

its time also gave us a sense of

timelessness

of eternity.

And whatever God does will not be

confined to time. It's transcends time.

That's good.

We are part of something that transcends

time because we're under a God who

transcends time. And therefore, we can

have a sense of timelessness.

that transcends the present. We get a

bigger picture when we know about God.

I'm glad I'm part of something that's

big. Bigger than me, bigger than my

lifetime, bigger than my dreams, bigger

than my plans. I I'm playing one little

part in it. I'm just glad I got a little

part to play.

Time bound humans being intuitively

beings intuitively sense that there must

be more to life

than what we see.

We're time bound. We only got a little

bit here. We know there's more.

Um

I I was born and raised in Chilikathy

about an hour from here. Most of you

have been to that town. But I was

visiting my aunt who was dying in

assisted living over there. And they in

the in the nursing home there, they had

a a library in a place where the or

piano and books. And so for whatever

reason, we were waiting to see my aunt.

I think they were doing something with

her. And I pulled down a book, the

history of Chilikati.

And I read about the Baptist churches,

which I was raised in one of those

churches.

And I I was saved in 1962,

but the church I was saved in

was started in 1880s.

That was started in 1880s.

So 80 years before I got saved, there

was a church that started in that city.

And that church continued to the time I

my parents found it and then I went to

it.

And what those people did in the 1880s

is affected my life.

I didn't know them. I don't even know

their names.

But what they did and what God did

through them affected my life.

That's true of you. That's true of me.

Think of all the things that happened so

that we would live where we lived and

marry who we married and all the stuff

that happened

that wouldn't have happened if other

people didn't live their lives and do

their thing.

What if OU had never been started?

You know, think about things like that.

Who who somebody found at Athens?

So

uh we have eternity in our hearts and so

we know we can't figure everything out

here but we know the story is bigger

than what we can figure out or even

experience.

There's a

one writer said Kaleth has failed to

find anything on earth that can fully

find satis satisfy the human mind or

heart but this still leaves open the

possibility of finding satisfaction in

God and in his heaven.

So rather than giving up our desire for

understanding, we should conclude

instead that our longing for eternity

proves that we were made for another

world.

Our our we're limited in time. We're

only here for a time, but we know it's

all bigger than that. Everybody does. We

have a sense of that.

We have a sense of that.

And everything in life points to that.

Most of us don't know our great great

grandparents,

right?

I I had great great-grandparents who

were alive when I was born. I've got a

picture of me with them. I don't

remember them at all.

So, they died. I was when I was a little

baby, but their life affected me. So,

whenever we're in experience like that,

I would like to known him. I would have

liked to known her. I would like to know

my grandma James. I would like to know

my grandpa Nixon. I I did know Grandpa

Joe a little bit. He was my great

great-grandfather. But um I just knew

him a little bit.

Knew he drove fast. You know, he was a

postmaster over at one of the cities

near Cincinnati.

And he scared me driving with him in the

car.

But that's about all I knew about him.

So we have people like that before us

and after us

and Kaleth has failed to find anything

on earth that can finally satisfy the

human mind or heart. But this still

leaves open the possibility of finding

satisfaction in God and in his heaven.

We can't know the whole story here, but

we know the one who wrote the story.

So rather than giving up on our desire

for understanding, we should conclude

instead that our longing for eternity

proves that we were made for another

world.

TS Lewis put this perfectly, didn't he?

And Philip Reichen quotes him here. CS

Lewis said, "If I find in myself a

desire which no experience in the world

can satisfy, the most probable

explanation is that I was made for

another world.

If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy,

that does not prove that the universe is

a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were

never meant to satisfy, but only to

arouse and to suggest the real thing.

The sweetest thing in my life, Lewis

wrote, has been the longing to find the

place where all the beauty came from.

Elsewhere, he describes the longing as

the scent of a flower we have not found,

the echo of a tune we have not heard,

news from a country we've never yet

visited.

That's the book of Ecclesiastes.

That's the poem of time. And um

we can't discover everything. We can't

experience everything. We have an itch

and animals do not have.

Animals have no concept of time.

Basically,

they're remember Alice in Wonderland,

the rabbit said, "I'm late. I'm late for

a very important date." That's a

fantasy. That's fantasy. They don't have

any concept of time.

And and they might have some concept of

time, but it's on some level, but it's

very minimal. But they have no concept

of eternity. They have no sense of time

as we have.

They live in the present

and uh

unlike animals who live for present

time, we can study the past and

contemplate the future. God's given us

this kind of self-consciousness that

enables us to transcend the present and

reflect on the past and the future.

That's the book of Ecclesiastes. That's

the poem of time.

Now, how's he end up? Fear God, keep his

commandments. This is the whole duty of

man. That's how the book ends.

Bring God into your life.

It's a recognition that God is God and

that people are human and that we have

significance beyond history that makes

everything here worth doing. Well,

time's up and that's been helpful to

you. Uh, Father, we thank you for what

we looked at this Sunday school hour.

Direct our thoughts in the Lord's Supper

today we pray. Amen.

Lord, as we go from this place,

loving you more,

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine

to a sin, darkened world. As we go from

this place,