What Time Is It? – Part 2
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
June 13, 2021
LAST TIME we met we worked our way through this important text.
• We noticed that the preacher has now jumped subjects.
• He has covered the temptations of wisdom, pleasure, and legacy.
• Then he jumped to another subject the young man needed to understand and that is time.
We covered the entire text last time, but there is so much more than still needs to be said and understood
Regarding the time before we move on even to verse 12.
What was made abundantly clear to us last time was this.
GOD IS SOVEREIGN over all time and events.
We read:
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”
• The preacher was clear that there is an “appointed” time.
• Events aren’t random.
• God is sovereign over time and over the events of earth.
And we learned that there are APPROPRIATE RESPONSES to all that God orchestrates.
This was the preacher’s point in verses 2-8
Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 “A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.”
What you have listed there are reminders that
There are appropriate times for all events under heaven.
For example,
Take the last part of verse 2, “A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.”
• You know that is true.
• Right now it is summer and perhaps you are planting black-eyed peas or okra,
• But if you’re planting onions or broccoli, you’re too late.
• You don’t plant tomatoes in November, and you don’t harvest them in January.
WHY?
Because God has appointed the seasons.
God has sovereignly determined when seed will germinate
And when plants will grow and produce fruit.
SO, there is an appropriate response to every event which God orchestrates under heaven.
• Sometimes it is appropriate to plant, sometimes to harvest.
• Sometimes to kill, sometimes to heal.
• Sometimes to mourn, sometimes to dance.
• Sometimes to love, sometimes to hate.
And that is the point of the preacher.
Understand that there are appropriate responses
To the events that God orchestrates under heaven
And each event may require a different response.
NOW, because God is the One who sets the event,
Then we also learn something else.
THERE IS A JUDGMENT in which man answers to God for how they responded to life, or how they managed their time.
We learned this in verses 9-11
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”
Now first the preacher followed his custom by asking that famous thought-provoking question: “What profit is there..?”
He loves that question.
He loves to get you thinking about how important your actions really are.
And the first application is depressing.
• If God is sovereign over all events and all times under heaven, then really,
what are you accomplishing through all your work?
And the answer is that here, you aren’t really accomplishing anything.
In fact the preacher actually said that “I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.”
It may just be that God is merely keeping you occupied.
• I told you about my cousin who was asked to join us in painting the barn, but
because he was little, my grandpa only gave him water in his paint bucket.
• He soon figured it out and wanted to know the same thing. What is the point?
Well that is what the preacher asked.
BUT THE POINT OF IT ALL IS SEEN LATER.
For the preacher went on to tell us that God “has made everything appropriate in its time.”
God is the one who determined whether or not
Your response to His sovereign event is appropriate or not.
And “He has also set eternity in their heart”
• God has instinctively taught us that there is more than this life.
• Somehow, inwardly, we know that this life is not all there is.
• We know that after this life ends there is One to whom we will answer.
Now, God HAS NOT given us all the information.
“man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”
• God hasn’t chosen to give you all the answers.
• God doesn’t expect you to know why He does what He does.
But God does expect you to respond appropriately
To all the events that He orchestrates.
God expects you to use your time on earth appropriately,
Because some day you will give an account for how you lived.
The payoff is not here, the payoff is in eternity.
And so the overarching point to be made by the preacher is that
God has not put us here to live for today, but rather to live for eternity.
We are in time, making decisions that will have eternal significance.
Or to quote R.C. Sproul again.
“We live in time, but we live for eternity.”
And this causes us to have to answer the question each day, “WHAT TIME IS IT?”
THAT WAS THE QUESTION WE CLOSED WITH LAST TIME
And before we move on to the next text,
I just want to spend one more moment thinking about it.
• I gave you some passages in closing last time, but I want to revisit them a little
• And perhaps consider a few others because I think this issue of understanding our time is so important.
I do want to SHIFT YOUR TERMINOLOGY a little if I can as we begin.
When we talk about time this morning, I want you to think about it,
Not simply as a moment on a clock, or a date on a calendar.
I want you to think about it as “YOUR ALLOTTED TIME”
Perhaps it is better to say it as your “life span”.
Ephesians 5:15-16 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”
Think about your “allotted time”
The time in which God has allotted for you to live upon this earth.
• What are you doing with the time God has given you?
• Are you making the most of your time? (As Paul would encourage)
And secondly I want you to think about APPOINTED TIME
That is God’s sovereign timetable.
Acts 17:26 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”
We learned from the preacher last week that God is sovereign over it all.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”
• We know that God’s timetable is real.
• There is a timeline that God has orchestrated.
• He has set all events and knows their times.
Consider passages like:
Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”
Jesus spoke of THE FATHER’S TIMETABLE;
A time which while on earth even Jesus didn’t know.
Remember:
Revelation 9:15 “And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.”
• That is a future judgmental event from God,
• But you’ll notice the hour and day and month and year are set.
• We are barreling at it at the rate of 60 seconds per minute.
The point is that God has appointed the timing of events.
So we have God’s APPOINTED time,
Which is His orchestration of all events of eternity,
And then we have our ALLOTTED time which is
The small portion of time God has given you to live on earth.
God who appoints all things,
And God who allots us a small amount of that time.
For perspective purposes
YOUR LIFESPAN AS COMPARED TO ETERNITY
Is actually considered a vapor by James.
James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”
Or as Moses taught:
Psalms 90:10-12 “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away. Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
Or as David taught:
Psalms 39:4-5 “LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.”
By comparison, we are not allotted much time.
But we do have time; our allotted time; our lifespan.
And the objective of humanity is to determine
What is our appropriate response to God’s appointed times
As we live in our allotted time.
• The goal IS NOT to understand everything.
• The goal IS NOT to know why God does what He does.
• The goal IS simply to make the most of our allotted time.
I read to you last week a passage that really spells this out.
Acts 1:6-8 “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Knowing God’s appointed times is not for us.
We are to concern ourselves with faithfulness during our allotted time.
Hopefully that makes sense to you.
So it brings back the question where we left off last week.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
• What time is it in your life?
• What time is it in the life of your spouse?
• What time is it in the life of your children?
• What time is it in the life of this church?
• What time is it in the scope of our ministry to this world?
Is it a time to plant or a time to uproot?
• Should you be pouring something into your life or weeding something out of your life?
• Should you be pouring something into the life of your spouse or kids or should you be weeding something out of their life?
• Should we be planting seeds of truth in our community or challenging weeds of deception in our community?
What time is it right now for us to be faithful to God’s eternal purposes?
Is it a time to kill or a time to heal?
• Are there things that must be destroyed, or are there things that must be repaired?
There is a quote I love from Martin Luther:
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is more flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
(sited in: MacArthur, John; The Truth War, Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception; [Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN; 2007] pg. 26)
That is exactly what Luther was saying.
You can do the right thing, but if your timing is off, it is still inappropriate to your calling.
What is the appropriate response to the times in which we live?
Because if you respond the right way at the wrong time
You are missing what is appropriate.
• OUR WORLD is hung up on being positive all the time.
• OUR WORLD is hung up on being “loving” at all times.
• OUR WORLD is hung up on being tolerant at all times.
There are times when those things are certainly appropriate responses,
But there is also a time to kill and a time to hate and a time to tear apart.
You get the idea.
• Is it a time to tear down (Jeremiah)?
• Or a time to build up (Nehemiah)?
Is it a time to weep or to laugh; to mourn or to dance?
Jesus healed people and the Pharisees mourned;
• Their response was wrong.
John preached repentance and the religious elite scoffed;
• Their response was wrong.
Matthew 11:16-19 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Is it a time to throw stones or a time to gather stones?
Is it a time to embrace or to shun embracing?
Is it a time to search or a time to give up as lost?
Is it a time to keep or a time to throw away?
Is it a time to sew or a time to rend?
Is it a time to be silent or a time to speak?
Is it a time to love or a time to hate?
Is it a time for war or a time for peace?
What time is it?
Consider Paul’s admonition to Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
What time was it?
• It was time to preach.
• It was to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort”
Now, that wasn’t going to be easy because it was also “out of season”;
Meaning the world didn’t want to hear it.
They had already gathered a multitude of teachers to tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear, but that was inappropriate according to God’s eternal mandate.
Paul told Timothy, it’s time to stand and preach.
Don’t respond wrongly to the time in your life.
Now I just want you to think for a moment
About your life and the events of your life
And the events of the lives of those around you.
(What is going on in your life right now?)
We know that God has sovereignly appointed them all.
(3:1) “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.”
• There are all kinds of varying events that are taking place under heaven according to the sovereign prerogative of God.
• And our calling is to recognize the appropriate response to those events.
BUT HERE IS THE IMPORTANT POINT.
When we contemplate what time it is,
We must make the decision not based upon today,
But BASED UPON ETERNITY.
And this is the preacher’s point.
In the life of your spouse or your children or your community,
What is the appropriate response in regard to their eternity?
If your objective is not to make today better, but to make eternity better,
Is it more appropriate to plant or uproot?
If your objective is not to make today better, but to make eternity better,
Is it more appropriate to tear apart or to sew together?
This is perhaps the BIGGEST MISTAKE we make in our lives as parents, friends, spouses, and even ministers of the gospel in our communities.
When we lose sight of the eternal goal
We tend to make decisions based on what makes today better
Instead of what makes eternity better,
And this is totally out of step with God, who always works for eternity.
God knows that this life is a mere vapor
And to work for it is vanity and striving after wind.
SO AGAIN, WHAT TIME IS IT?
Someday in eternity everything regarding how you lived this life
Will be brought to light.
Matthew 10:26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”
And so you must consider eternity as you live in this small allotted time.
TO THAT END we read a couple of passages to end up last week.
Romans 13:11-14 “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
Certainly we should consider:
Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Consider:
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
We would also do good to consider:
Hebrews 3 and 4.
TURN TO: HEBREWS 3
Look at verse 7, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me”
• God had delivered those people out of Israel,
• But they quickly grumbled against God and hardened their hearts against Him.
The writer of Hebrews speaks there of the opportunity of every man.
The opportunity to respond to the spoken word of God
Or the opportunity to reject it.
And he points to “Today” as your day to respond.
Israel failed, you shouldn’t.
He goes on down in verse 12, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
Look at the children of Israel and consider “Today”
And the opportunities you have today that you might not have tomorrow.
Furthermore know that David took that same passage about “Today”
And OFFERED IT AGAIN to his contemporaries in Psalms 95,
Which means God is still calling men.
You see it in 4:7 “He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Do you get that?
• Back in the Exodus, that was their allotted time and they blew it.
• David offered it again to his contemporaries and that was their allotted time.
• And now we read it today.
TODAY IS YOUR DAY, TODAY IS YOUR TIME.
You don’t know how much more time you get, but you get today.
DON’T WASTE IT.
Because of this the writer of Hebrews also says:
Hebrews 9:27 “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”
God has placed eternity in your heart.
• You know eternity is real (even if you wish you didn’t)
• You know there is a judgment coming
• You know that the soul will live forever either in heaven or hell
• God has seen to it that you know that
And you understand that today you are making decisions
That will have profound impact on your eternity.
2 Corinthians 6:2 “for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,
AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”
AND THIS IS SOMETHING THAT YOU MUST CONTEMPLATE.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
If we have learned nothing else from the year of 2020 and beyond
We should have learned that time is not guaranteed.
Your time, your life-span has been appointed by God.
Psalms 139:16 “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
And the days that God has given you are so that
You might call upon Him and prepare for eternity.
Let me go back to that great statement by Paul to the Athenians.
Acts 17:26-31 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Do you grasp that?
If you asked Paul what time it was
He would say it was time to repent and seek God because judgment was coming.
If you asked John the Baptist what time it was he would say:
Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
If you asked Jesus what time it was He would say:
Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
I HOPE YOU GRASP THAT.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
In your life
And what time is it in the lives of those around us?
• It is not about trying to make this life better.
The preacher asked (9) “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”
And if you are seeking this life the answer is: NOTHING
But if you are working for eternity the answer is: GREAT PROFIT
Men are today making decisions to repent and trust in Christ
And it makes all the difference for their eternity.
Even in ministry how we use today is of great significance, consider Paul again:
Romans 1:13-15 “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
• Paul saw ministry today as an opportunity to gain fruit for tomorrow.
• He saw work today as a chance to gain treasure in heaven.
THIS IS THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
THAT WE MUST HOLD REGARDING TIME.
• Time is precious
• Time is a gift from God
• Time is mysterious
• Time is fleeting
• Time is sacred and we must make the most of it.
There will come a day, and you don’t know when,
When your time on earth is over, when your allotted days are done.
God already has an appointed day when He will put an end to your allotted days.
And all you will have before you is eternity.
And here is the sobering truth.
In eternity you cannot change your path or your fortune.
• There is no opportunity for repentance in eternity
• There is no opportunity for salvation in eternity
• There is no chance to store up more treasure in eternity
• There is no chance to witness to your friend in eternity
• There is no chance to confront sin in your child in eternity
• There is no chance to comfort the bereaved in eternity
All of that must be done now.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
“We live in time, but we live for eternity.”
“Make the most of your time because the days are evil.”
That is the message of the preacher to the young man.
How many of us, as we age,
Can look back on our life and see the waste that is there.
• Surely we understand the grief of the preacher as he talks about his quest for wisdom…
• Surely we understand the grief of the preacher as he talks about his quest for pleasure…
• We even understand the grief of the preacher as he realizes the futility of trying to sustain a legacy…
But how many of us can also look back and see wasted time?
• Not because we weren’t busy
• Not because we didn’t accomplish stuff in the world.
BUT BECAUSE WE ONLY ACCOMPLISHED STUFF IN THE WORLD.
• The futility of raising a child for 18 years and ONLY teaching them manners or how to live in the world.
• The futility of coaching a little league team and ONLY teaching them about baseball.
• The futility of working and building and ONLY leaving buildings behind.
It is the cry of the preacher:
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE
Don’t waste this precious time which God has allotted you under heaven.
So again, WHAT TIME IS IT?
Contemplate that in your life and start making decisions
Based on a Biblical view of time and not a worldly view.
And because we certainly view all passages through a gospel perspective I most certainly tell you that it is time for you to repent and trust in Christ.
God placed you on this earth to seek for Him and to find Him only through Christ.
• Only Jesus Christ satisfied the righteous requirements of God.
• Only Jesus Christ propitiated the holy wrath of God.
• Only Jesus Christ offered to do both of those things for you.
He is the only way for a man to be prepared for eternity.
And so this morning, I’m telling you that
TODAY IS THE DAY for you to repent of your sins,
To trust in the work of Jesus Christ,
And to confess Him as your Lord.
Today is the day of salvation.
