Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And the Bible's in front of you. I believe our passage begins on page 657. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up what 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 seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What gain has a worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. Also, that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to man. I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. God has done it. So that people fear before him. That which is already has been. That which is to be already has been. And God seeks what has been driven away. Moreover, I saw under the sun, that in the place of justice even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?" Let's pray. Our gracious God and our Father, we ask that even according to your promise that your Spirit would draw near to us even as we draw near to you by faith and by the same Spirit. And to this end, we pray that you would send out the light of your grace and your truth deep within our hearts, that as a people of faith, that we would embrace the word that you've given to us today, and most especially that we would embrace the word become flesh, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father. And so we pray that you would teach us And may you get the glory for yourself. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me start with a question this morning. What season is it? What season is it? Is it? Now, depending upon your perspective and what it is that you enjoy in life, that will change your answer. Some of you are saying, well, it's obvious it's fall. Look around you. Look at all the color. Some of you are saying, obviously, it's football season. That may actually be a painful thing to bring up at this point, depending upon who your team is. If you're from where I was raised, it would be pheasant season. depending upon what kind of interest you have. I have one friend who knows whether or not it is opera season, but I assure you, I only have one friend who knows the answer to that question. In Southern California, where my wife and I live, it is tourist season, it always is. And we lived in Chicago for 12 years, and we had a saying there, there are only two seasons in Chicago. There's a winter season and then the construction season. Of course, that is not what our passage is about, when it talks about seasons. is talking about the seasons of life. The season that you're in right now. And some of you are in a season where you've been doing a lot of crying. And some of you in a season you're doing a lot of rejoicing. Some of you are in a season of life that is extremely busy. Some of you in a season of life where you are retiring and still wondering how busy can a retired person be. Some of you are in a hard season. Some of you are glad that this season is easier than the one that you just got out of. Some of you are beginning a new season, and some of you are wondering if this season you're in will ever, ever end. And some of us in this room have friends very close to us who are literally in their final season. These are the patterns of our life. It's not just experiencing time, but seasons of time. And as we look at this passage this morning, we're going to look at it in three sections. First of all, verses 1 through 9, which is simply called Time. And then verses 10 through 15, Time Eternal. And then finishing out, verses 16 through 22, Time Runs Out. So Time, verses 1 through 9, Time Eternal. verses 10 through 15, then time runs out, verses 16 through 22. And some of you of a certain age are wondering, is he going to ever refer to the song Turned by the Birds? I just did. So what is time? Augustine said, I know what time is until somebody asks me to explain it. But Augustine also said, time is really about how we experience it. And experience tells us that time is relative. Einstein was right. Time moves at different speeds. It runs at different speeds and cadences. Anybody here who's been raising children knows exactly what I'm talking about. that in those golden moments when that child is taking a nap, every moment is like precious gold. It cannot be long enough, but when you're in the supermarket and your child is throwing a tantrum because you're picking up the wrong kind of fruit snacks, time just slows way down too far. Or take something innocent like sitting in a chair. Time runs in different speeds. When you're sitting in the chair in the dentist's office with that hygienist who is malpracticing upon your mouth with inhumanities, time is going way too slow. But when you're sitting in that chair in the movie theater watching Top Gun Maverick, where did the hours go? That's the way we experience time. It's relative that way. And our passage is telling us there's a time for everything and that human life is seasonal. It's not just about moments. It's about the collection of those moments and adding up to these seasons, these stretches of time. And that's what the preacher in Ecclesiastes is talking about. It's about how we experience time and how we experience events in that time, in that season. And he says there's a time when you're beginning and there's a time when you're finishing. A time when you plant, a time when you reap, a time when you gather, a time when you spread. There are seasons when you're encouraged, seasons when you're greatly discouraged, seasons when you laugh, seasons when you cry. Times when you seem to be building up, other times when you're tearing down. There's a time even for hugging, there's a time for hostility. But notice what he does, he lays out these categories that are polar ends from each other and he's saying life is in these but it's also in everything in between. You don't simply go from laughing to crying, it's all the emotions that we feel between these polar ends of emotions. The poem is meant to push us towards the completeness of life that's found in these things, but also everything in between them. These times go, and they come and go, and we're caught in these seasons, but also everything in between them. It's all of it. But there's an important point that you and I need to perceive as we stand back and just kind of look at the construction of this poem here that's trying to make the point that you and I can't do anything about it. It's making the point that you and I are not in control. We're not the author. We can't anticipate these seasons. About 12, 15 years ago, every high school prom ended with one song like Green Day. And it went like this, time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go, so make the best of this test and don't ask why. I hope you had the time of your life. And it really captures it. Time has control of you. You don't control time. You don't understand when these seasons are coming around. You can try to resist these seasons if you want to. You can live in denial if you want to. Like another group who put it this way, can you teach me about tomorrow and all the pain and sorrow I'm running from because tomorrow is just another day and I don't believe in time. Well, it doesn't matter, time believes in you. I need to be like the farmer. Scripture is always a hero, and he understands there's a season for everything. There's a time for plowing, a time for sowing, for cultivating, feeding, pruning, and a time to harvest. Your life is shaped by these seasons. And the reason I underline this point is that if you look at the poem, you understand one thing. It has no order to it. There's not a sequence here. There's not a pattern. It just jumps back and forth. It doesn't line up all the good things on the left side and all the bad things on the right side. There's no predictable pattern here. We would actually say it's random. The literary form is meant to point you towards the theology of the point that it's making, that you can't predict what's coming next in that list. Just as you cannot predict this next season of your life. You cannot control time. There is no wrinkle in time. It's a beautiful song by Jim Croce in the 70s. He said, if I could save time in a bottle, and the poem's saying you can't. It moves on, going on to the next season. We can't even say whether some of these things are good or bad. Gathering stones? Well, why are you gathering them? To build a wall? Or to inflict capital punishment? Casting away stones? Is this good or bad? That's the point that the poem is making, that we're out of our depth when it comes to time and the seasons of our lives. So he draws a conclusion to verse 9. This is actually a question that comes up so often in this book where the author is saying, so what does this have to do with my work? If this is true, then what does it have to do with my labor and what I do every day? Because my labor, that's part of the purpose of why I'm here. Am I laboring in vain if this is true? And he's going to answer us later on. That's not the case. But as you go about your work, you have to understand you can't control what comes and what goes. That is out of your hands. It's like the stock market. And everything else is caught up in the web of time, and everything is. This is just simply fundamental. You should hear in the back of your mind Julie Wilson singing in Casablanca, a kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. The fundamental things apply as time goes by. That's kind of getting at the point of what he's saying here. But now he draws a conclusion in verses 10 through 15. What we've uncovered so far, what we've learned from this poem, and we have a problem here. And the problem is this, that God has created us within this created order of time, and this creates attention. And here's attention. In verses 10 through 11, he says, we're busy with time. You and I were very curious about eternity. God has placed us within the context of these seasons of life, and so we're concerned about time, we're actually obsessed about it, everybody wears a watch. Think of the popularity of Christopher Nolan's movies, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, even Inception. They're all fixated with chronology and with time and these sequences of life. And he says, this is part of our concern, eternity. We think about it. We dwell upon it. We ask ourselves about question. And in moments when we are brave, we ask ourselves, what happens after this? What happens after death? What happens to time then? So here's a problem. We're caught up in time. Eternity burns in our hearts, but it's hidden from our eyes. There's a tension. We're fixated about this, we think upon it, we can't escape it, but we can't see what God is doing, we can't see what God has designed, what he's accomplished. We cannot see, he says, from beginning to end. We never get that kind of vista. As God says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts and your thoughts. This is out of your field of vision. because we don't have the master plan. We cannot see anything from beginning to end. And yet it says in verse 11, this is where we have to trust him. He says, God has made everything beautiful in its time. The word beautiful there could also be translated appropriate, it's proper. It's happening at just the right moment. This is the right season for this time of your life. God's made all of it beautiful and appropriate in its time. And if you're paying attention to the poem, you're saying, beautiful? Really? A time to kill? A time to break down? A time for war? How can we call that beautiful? Now the question is this, according to whom? You see, it's making the point again, according to God. According from His perspective, from what He sees, we cannot see. We cannot see everything and how it's working out in God's time and we cannot see His purposes. And remember, this is a God, when He makes, He stands back and looks at it and He says, this is good. When he created the world, he said, this is good. And it's saying here in his providence, he makes everything good in his time. But we can't see that. So he draws two more conclusions here. The first conclusion is found in verses 12 to 13, where he says something that kind of surprises us in the book of Ecclesiastes from how people think of this book. It says, be happy and take pleasure as long as you live. He said this in chapter 1 and chapter 2. He says it again in chapter 5, verse 8. It's amazing that this sort of phrasing appears more often in this book than any other book in the Bible. It's not how you and I think of Ecclesiastes, yet it's making a point, sitting against the backdrop of all we cannot see, all we can understand. He's saying, this is a gift. This is God's gift to you to be happy. And he's saying, it's OK to enjoy the fruit of your hands. When you've worked hard on a plan together with your team at work, or you yourself as a builder, as an artist, and you see it all come together, you've managed it well, and you see the fruit of your hands, and it's good. He said, it's OK to enjoy that. Well, this will go even more simple, to enjoy what you eat and what you drink. Or you do something good, and it reaches its right end, and you savor the fact that this other person was helped by what you do. All these things we do in time, it's OK. to enjoy these things in the time that you have. When Oliver Wendell Holmes turned 94 years old, he decided to learn Greek. And somebody said, you're 94, why are you learning Greek? And he said, well, it's now or never. And you see, that's right. That's what the New Testament is saying about redeem the time. It's what the psalm goes on to say, we didn't sing this far in the psalm, but to have a heart of wisdom and to number your days and to appreciate what you have because it's a gift from God. But the second conclusion is verses 14 to 15, it brings us back to what we've already seen, that what this shows us is our limits and that God is unlimited. He says, think of the nature of the works of God. You can't add to them, you can't take away from them, which is simply another way of saying they're timeless. His works are awesome. They're great. This is why people worship God and they fear Him. They see this. His work is unusual. Nobody else can do this sort of thing. And secondly, He says, the nature of life in terms of time, that which is already has been. what is to be already has been, and what it's saying again. The way you and I experience life, it's like we're on a loop. We can't break this, this pattern, this loop of seasons. Somebody has said the more things change, the more they stay the same. It wasn't Bob Dylan who said that the first time. Nothing stays the same, but it's coming around again, as Carly Simon's saying. We seem to be confined, is what it's saying. We're limited, and we can't get out of this creational category that God places in this context. But we're supposed to understand that it's not out of control because, he says, God does what we cannot. He says, he seeks what have been driven away. That word seeks is important here. It's a very quick line, but what it's saying is kind of wrapping things up. To seek means to go searching for something and to go get it and to gather it. It's like a shepherd. That God is like a shepherd when it comes to time. And the point is that there's so many things that you and I do not remember. There's so many memories that just flitter away from our brain and our memory. Things that get lost, details that we assume are just totally insignificant. But they were significant. And they're those minutiae, small details that we've completely forgotten all about. But God has not forgotten about them. In fact, what God does, He seeks these things. He fetches them all back home and someday God will corral them all together and perhaps show you and me their meaning. But probably not until heaven. But He sees them. He is not limited as you and I are by time. And it brings us back again to this position of faith to trust in Him who sees. But what about when time runs out in verses 16 through 22? There are some moments in life where we really need the right thing to happen right now. We have a saying that justice delayed is justice denied. And there are those moments when we especially need justice to arrive. We need it to be timely. Just at that moment, verse 16 says, when you expected the right thing to happen and you were right to expect righteousness, what happens? Here is wickedness again making its appearance. Perhaps you've been in a situation, you've seen a friend go through a lengthy, brutal trial. Evidence was clear. And yet the judge came back with something that was crazy. The jury came back either with guilty or non-guilty. This is so wrong. This is so unjust. And of course, what he's saying is life is filled with these moments. This is how you and I experience life. This is how we experience time. Why? Because, he says, we live in a world under the sun. This is a life under the cloud of sin. Because of Adam's first sin, this world was broken, that we fell with him. And so all of creation groans, Paul says in Romans 8, and we groan along with it, especially at these moments when there is just exactly the wrong thing happening at this preposterous time. And yet the author says, no, there's hope. Verse 17, there's hope. God will address this wrong. He will judge the righteous and the wicked. Why? He says, because there's a time for everything. There's a time for every matter, every work, including judgment. There are those details that the jury missed, those things that the judge missed, information that they forgot, or they lost, or they said, well, that's not important. They ignored something that was actually important. But God did not miss those things. And God does not forget. He remembers. And nothing is lost on Him. And the significance of details are not lost on Him. But until that time when he judges, the author tells us, these seasons test our faith. They test us. Do you walk by sight, or do you walk by faith? Do you walk according to what you see and experience in time, or do you test the one who is Lord over time? And never is this question so significant as when death approaches. And that's how he finishes out. Death is the great silencer. This is when time runs out. And look the way he puts it. It's very crass. He said, death does not discriminate against species. Everything that has breath dies. As one dies, so dies the other. There's no advantage. to being an image-bearer in this, dust returns to dust. That's how it seems. If you judge by appearances, if you look at just the outside of things, who knows where life goes after. Do animals suffer? Do they have souls? Where do people go? It's a test of our faith. Is that really the case? Is there just death? That time runs out and that's the end? Capital E, the end? We know the answer to that. But he says, enjoy the time that you have. Enjoy the work that you have. Rejoice in that. That is our portion in this life. Because again, it brings us back to that hard reality, verse 22, because no one knows what follows. Just as you cannot see the beginning of it, you will not see the end of it. You cannot see all of it. That is something only God sees. So that brings us back to the initial question. What season is it for you? And see, the point of this whole chapter is that God sees what you and I cannot see. That God knows better than you and I know what is best. And what is best for you right now in this season? Ecclesiastes 3, this poem is telling us this season it seems to be random, but it's not. It strikes me as arbitrary, it's not. The Bible tells us that nothing just happens to you, even though we experience it that way. It's quite the contrary. Our God is in control and He is sovereign. And what Scripture tells us is that everything is actually directed to us and for our good. That's the promise that we have in Romans 8, 28. We know that for those who love God, all things work together. for good, for those who are called according to His purposes. We don't always see His purposes, that's the whole point of the chapter. And yet it tells us that everything is consecrated in order to bring about that plan that God had for you from the very beginning, which you did not see. Which means that all of it comes to us at just the right time, in just the right way, in just the right measure. Otherwise we'd be broken and crushed. So do not be frustrated. By this season, he sees everything from beginning to end and everything in between. And as our passage tells us, God created every season as beautiful for its time. So persevere. Remember what James 1 says? He says, these trials, when they come, let steadfastness have its full effect. Let that endurance run its course. Don't stop. Don't pray. God, make it stop. Let it endure. Continue to run. What is he doing? He wants you to be complete. He wants you to lack nothing. He's trying to perfect something in you. And this season that you're in is so important. In fact, this very testing of your faith, Peter tells us, is in order to produce this, this steadfastness. There's something that's happening right now in this season that is crucial for your development, for your growth and maturity. in Christ, something vital for your faith, and what you're thinking to yourself is that God is breaking me. But He's not. He's breaking you down so He can build you back up again. This is a season where you feel like you're almost finished. No, He's getting you ready as you begin this next season. And you feel humbled by this season, perhaps. Yes, but He will exalt you. There are some of these seasons where some of us undeniably are undergoing tremendous temptation. But these are the very things that make us wiser to face those temptations in the future. Some of us, perhaps those near to us, are experiencing tremendous affliction. Yet these are the things that cause us to depend upon Him even more and to learn what we never knew before. We're at a time of tremendous suffering. All of us know somebody that's experiencing something like that right now, but their faith is being strengthened in ways beyond what they ever thought could possibly happen. But you see, this is the perspective of faith. It's the right perspective on time. And we have to, Scripture says, put these things in the context of time. In fact, it says that our present suffering in these seasons have to be seen in light of eternity. Like Romans 8, 18, it says, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that's going to be revealed to us. and in us. Or 2 Corinthians 4.17, this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. The things that are unseen are the things that are eternal. That's the work God does. He is interested in that work which is timeless, and that is beautiful, and that which endures. That's what He's doing in you. You cannot see it. But you have to trust God for it. And so what Scripture tells us, we wait upon the Lord in this work. but that waiting upon the Lord does not mean we do nothing, or we sit back passively. No, Scripture tells us that in Hebrews 4, to draw near to Him in this time of need. That's the whole point. It's exposing the fact that you need to depend upon Him. You need to go to Him. And it says, go to Him in the name of Christ with confidence that you'll receive mercy and find grace in what? In this time of need. It's your hour of need. Go to Him. But underlining all of this is the completeness to our salvation. From beginning to end, it belongs to Him and everything in between. We trust in Him that those who He foreknew, He predestined. Those He predestined are those that He is conforming to the image of His Son. And those are the ones He has called and justified. And those are the ones He will glorify. From beginning to end, it all belongs to Christ. And we trust in Him who is the forerunner and the finisher of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. It belongs to Him. He's the Lord of all of it. All of it is beautiful. And He's making it beautiful. Why? It's because He loves you. Hasn't He proven that already? We've not even talked about the most amazing thing when it comes to time. And it is this that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has condescended to us. How did He do that? In this way, the eternal Son of God entered into time. Galatians 4 says that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son. Everything in its right season. even for the Son of God. Even for the Son of God, there is a time to be born, a time to seek and to save the lost, a time to heal and a time to love poor sinners. And what's interesting is that we're given this window into the self-consciousness of Christ that He knew exactly every season. He knew the right moment. And again and again, we hear Him saying that, my time has not yet come. We see this in John 2, at the wedding feast there in Cana, when His mother comes up to Him and says, they've run out of wine. And He says, why are you involving me? He says, my time has not yet come. The time when the crowd wanted to stone Jesus, but he walks through the crowd. The scripture says, because his hour had not yet come. His brothers say, go up to the feast, make a name for yourself. That's how you do it. And he says there, any time is good in your eyes, but my hour has not come. But then comes the eve of his passion. And what does He say? He literally says, My time has come. The time has come for Him to suffer and to go to the cross and experience an agonizing death. In John 12 we give this insight to how difficult this is for Him and what He feels in His soul. He says, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. Again, even for the eternal Son of God, there is a season for everything. Even though He is sovereign over space and time, there is a time for every season. And just as there was a time for Him to be born, now there is a time for Him to die. There was a time for Him to bless, but now it is time for Him to be cursed. There was a time for Him to heal, but now is a time for Him to be afflicted. There was a time for Him to rejoice, but now it is a time to weep. It was a time for Him to comfort others, but now it is a time for Him to be condemned for others. And the Gospels teach us we should not think of Christ as a helpless victim, as so many people think, that he is the wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. That is exactly wrong. God demonstrates his love for us in this, that Christ died at just the right time, when you and I were weak, when we were sinners, when we were enemies of God. This is the whole reason why Christ came. This is the whole purpose of his life. This is the right season. This is timely. And in fact, what we see in Scripture is that all the ages turn on this one moment in time. This is the hour of darkness, our Savior says, but this hour of darkness is consecrated by God's sovereign purposes to be an hour of redemption. The cross was a time to die, but it is also a time to defeat sin and to rescue sinners like you and me. And just as there was a time to die, there's a time to rise and to gain victory over death and to win eternal life. There was a season for humiliation and for death, but now is a season for exaltation and life and blessing. It's Christ who holds the keys to death and Hades. It is Christ who gets the last word as the alpha and the omega. He is the first and the last. He is the one who is sovereign over the beginning and the end, that time is now the servant of Lord Jesus Christ, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. I ask you again, what season is it? And Christ says He has made everything beautiful in its time. Again, we do not always experience time that way, but we will. Just wait and see. The time is near. We heard this morning, Christ is coming soon. Let us pray. Gracious God and Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the way in which it stretches our minds the way it feeds our faith and builds up our confidence in you and what you alone can do, what you alone can see, what you alone control, not only as our Creator, but as our redeeming God. We thank you again for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find ourselves again this morning rejoicing in Him, our crucified and our risen Savior. And we thank you that all things are in His hands, including ourselves. We pray with great confidence and peace and joy this morning in these things. And we pray them, we ask them in Jesus' name, amen.