Thoughts About Time, Part 3

If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes, the third chapter. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And as you're turning, I want to remind you of what took place back in Exodus chapter 14. Egypt was bearing down on the sons of Israel. Israel had just been emancipated. They had been set free by a series of plagues that had taken place in the land of Egypt. As a result of that, Pharaoh did finally let them go, and they were on their way out of Egypt, on their way to the promised land.

But Pharaoh and his army began to go after them. He wanted to destroy the Jewish nation. So the Bible says in verse number 10 of Exodus chapter 14, As Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened.

So the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, Is it because there were no graves in Egypt, that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. All Israel could see was the army bearing down upon them. They did not see the Almighty God that was above them.

So they began to blame Moses, thinking that if they would have remained in Egypt, they would still be alive, because they thought for certain that death was imminent. So Moses responds. He says to the people in verse number 13, Do not fear. Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. He says, Stop fussing, and start focusing on the Lord.

The Bible says in verse number 31, When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord.

You know the story. Moses, as he took the rod, placed it down in the Red Sea, and the waters departed, Israel went through on dry land, as if it had never been wet. And yet the waters destroyed Pharaoh and his army. And the people feared the Lord. The psalmist, having written about this, says these words in Psalm 77, verse 15, You have by your power redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw you, O God. The waters saw you, they were in anguish. The deeps also trembled. The clouds poured out water.

The skies gave forth a sound. Your arrows flashed here and there. The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, and your paths in the mighty waters. And yet your footprints were not known. The psalmist would record the fact that God's power was seen. Oh, the waters saw the living God. The deeps saw the living God. The winds heard the living God. And the psalmist says, You led them through the waters, but yet you were not seen.

Vance Havner, an old country preacher from way back when, said these words, We might not always be able to trace God's hand, but we can always trust God's heart. And that is so very, very true. It was an appointed time for Israel. It was appointed time for them to be emancipated. Their time in Egyptian bondage was also an appointed time. It was a little over 400 years, 430 years to be exact. But they would be let go because God had made a promise. And their coming to the Red Sea, on the banks of the Red Sea, that time too was an appointed time, for God was going to do a great and mighty work.

Yet all they could do was focus on their misery and not focus on the master of that moment in their misery. That was a problem. And that's a problem all of us tend to face. So in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon begins to answer that question for us by talking to us about how everything is appointed by God. And because everything is appointed by God, verse 11 says everything is beautiful in God's time. It's appropriate in God's time. So he gives a simple summation. Then he gives a strong affirmation that everything that happens during those appointed times is absolutely beautiful in the sight of the living God.

Which begs the question, if that's the case, does that mean my sin is appointed? Does that mean my sin has been predetermined in eternity past? If God is the cause of all things, if everything is from him, through him and to him, Romans 11, 36, does that mean my sin is from him, goes through him and back to him as well? Well, yes and no. Your sin is an appointed time. But yet God did not cause you to sin in that appointed time. James answers that in James chapter 1 when he says this, let no one say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil.

And he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. In other words, when you sin, you sin of your own volition. God does not cause you to sin. But yet that appointed time in which you sin has been predetermined by God. Now that's a hard thing to understand. God's sovereignty and man's iniquity.

Or God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. The Bible teaches both. You will never be able to reconcile that this side of eternity. It's impossible. Because God is sovereign, he rules over all, he's in charge of everything. So when you think about Joseph, in his appointed time, and how his brothers sinned against God and sinned against him, by throwing him into a pit because they hated their brother, because he was a special son in the eyes of his father. He was special not because of anything he did.

He was the son of his old age, the Bible says. That means that he was the son of character. That's why he received the coat of many colors. That's why his other brothers did not. There was something unique about Joseph. His brothers hated him because of that. They threw him into a pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites because they didn't like his visions. They didn't like the things that he said. They sinned against Joseph. They sinned against God. That was an appointed time for Joseph. And you know the story, because when you come to the end of Genesis, he says, you meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for good.

Why? Because God saved an entire nation because of the sin of the brothers. Because God worked in conjunction with their sin. The same is true when you think of Judas. His betrayal of the Lord, it produced salvation on Calvary's hill. Israel's apostasy produced salvation for the Gentiles. Paul's imprisonment produced the New Testament. The martyrs of the early church produced the spread and growth of the church. It's so important to realize that God is at work. He's never not at work. So let me illustrate it to you this way.

Yes, we're going to come to the book of Ecclesiastes. Just one second. David had a house. He had a palace. He felt it necessary to build a house for God because he didn't think that his God dwelling in the tent was what needed to happen. So he tells the prophet Nathan what he wanted to do, and Nathan says, go for it. And God comes to Nathan and tells him, no, this is not going to happen this way, because David is a man of bloodshed. And God says this.

Listen carefully to what God says in 2 Samuel 7, verse number 12. He says to David, When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you who will come forth from you. He shall build the house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. There is going to come a seed who will come forth from you in the future. In other words, right now you have seven wives. Right now you have several sons. It's not Absalom, it's not Ammon, it's not Adonijah.

There's going to be a seed in your future that will build the temple. Not a seed from the past, but a seed in your future. God had a plan. Well, you know the story. When you come to 2 Samuel chapter 11, he becomes very idle and lazy as the king. And therefore, when the time of year happens when kings go to war, David decided to stay home. Like our mother used to always say, idle hands are the devil's workshop. So he became idle, he became lazy. And idleness and laziness always lead to sinfulness.

And that's what happened with David. He saw Bathsheba, he left Bathsheba, he called her to his chamber. They slept together. She became pregnant. So through a series of events, and trying to bring Uriah, her husband, back, trying to get Uriah to sleep with his wife, which he never did because he was a noble man, he ended up having Uriah killed. And so, from that, Nathan confronted him. When Nathan confronted him, the prophet, David realized he had sinned against the Lord. He was wrong. He repented of his sin.

And Nathan said, the Lord has forgiven you, you will not die. But your son will die. And of course, his son did die. The baby born to Bathsheba. And you know that story as well. But notice this.

In verse 24 of 2 Samuel 12. After the death of his son, David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, went into her, lay with her, and she gave birth to a son. And he named him Solomon, man of peace. Now the Lord loved him, and sent word through Nathan the prophet that he named him Jedediah, for the Lord's sake, which means beloved of the Lord. Solomon was the evidence and expression of God's pardoning love to David and Bathsheba. That was the seed that was promised in 2 Samuel 7. In other words, before David had ever met Bathsheba, before David had ever had the inkling of sleeping with Bathsheba, God tells David, there's going to come forth from you a seed that's going to build the temple.

It's not a previous seed, not a previous son. It's going to be a future descendant. Did God know that David was going to sleep with Bathsheba? Yes. Was that an appointed time? Yes. Was David tempted by the Lord? Did God cause David to lust after Bathsheba? No. He did not. Did God know it was going to happen? Yes, he did. Did he know he had a son named Solomon? Yes. Was the plan of eternity past that Solomon would build the temple? Yes. It goes to show you how God is so powerful, he can override every sin you commit.

That's why the Bible says in Romans 8, 28, For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

For those who love God and are called according to His purpose, we know for certain, we don't think, we don't hope, we know that God causes all things to work together for good. And God would use the sin of David and Bathsheba to bring about a descendant through which the Messiah himself would come, establish his kingdom forever, and be the son, the beloved son of the Lord. See, God knows all those things because God's in charge. And so your sin can't override God's providence. Your sin is not bigger than God's sovereignty.

Like we told you on Sunday, God only has one plan. Doesn't have a substitute plan, doesn't have an alternative plan. He just has one plan. In that plan, sin is a part of that. Does it make man sin? But sin's a part of His decreed plan. It has to be. Why? Because that's how He brings about the redemption of man, the salvation of man. That's how man understands the forgiveness of God, the mercy of God, the justice of God, the wrath of God, the love of God. All that is clearly seen because of sin. If there was no sin, our view of God would be skewed.

But because sin entered the world, that was the plan from the very beginning. That was plan A. God had it all mapped out. God wasn't caught off guard. He didn't say, oops, what happened? And God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit huddle up and think, we've got to think of something new. We've got to have another plan here. Nuh-uh. It was always one plan. And therefore, Solomon would come along and say, there's an appointed time for everything under heaven. And in that appointed time, everything is beautiful in the sight and mind of Almighty God.

Solomon tells us this. So we can begin to look at our lives and begin to realize God is doing a work.

So when you think about God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, it can be very mind-boggling. If I was to ask you, how do you know you're saved? You would say, because I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that would be true. And you could go to John 1, 12 and say, to as many as received him, to them give you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. But if you go to verse 13 of John 1, it says, In verse 12, you have man's responsibility.

In verse 13, you have God's sovereignty. How do you reconcile that? You can't reconcile that. Because that's God's plan. That's how God did it. If you go to Acts 2, verse 38, it says, If you go to Acts 2, verse 39, it says, So which is it? Does God call you or do you repent? Answer, yes. How about this one? Who killed Jesus? Well, if you read Acts 3, the Jewish people killed Jesus. If you read Mark 10, the Gentiles killed Jesus. If you read Acts 2, Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God the Father.

So who killed Jesus? Jews, Gentiles, or his father? Answer, yes. That's the answer. Because that's what the Bible says.

God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are two things that will never be reconciled in your mind, your finite mind, this side of eternity. It's impossible. The Bible teaches both. Therefore, you believe both. And just because you don't understand it doesn't mean anything to God. Because you're not God and you never will be. It's his plan. It's his time. He's in charge. And so when God allows disaster as a part of his plan, I was listening to a pastor from this area, from a very prominent church that if I gave you his name, you would all know his name.

He said very clearly on this past Sunday that the storm on the Sea of Galilee in Mark 4 was caused by Satan. He also said that the disaster of what took place in Florida this past week and in the Carolinas the week before that with Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Leen was an act of Satan. No, it's not. Who said that? Where do you see that in the Bible? If I go to Mark 4, there's nothing about Satan there. Why am I going to blame Satan? God caused the storm. We saw last week where God causes the wind to blow.

It's his wind. They're his waves. They do what he tells them to do. So when the wind blows and the waves rise and the floods rise, that's because of Almighty God. Just read the Psalms. It's over and over again. And so you begin to realize that, wait a minute, what really is happening? God's in charge. And a couple of weeks ago during prayer time, I told you, why does God do this? Sometimes it's to enact judgment, right? We know that. Genesis chapter 6. With destruction of the world, with the flood.

Or with Sodom and Gomorrah. He caused the fire to come down out of heaven and destroyed the city. Amos 3, 9. If there's a disaster in the city, it's the Lord who caused it. Doesn't say Satan caused it. It says God caused it. Isaiah 45, 7. He's the author of calamity. So we need to realize and think theologically about what happens in our lives. See? God's, listen to this one very carefully. God's in the process of already passing judgment on America. Romans chapter 1. So listen carefully to what I'm going to say.

Whoever is elected in November is part of God's judgment upon America. Whether it's a Republican or a Democrat. Because God is moving us in that direction. He's coming again. Right? And so you must look at things from a biblical perspective and look at things from what the Bible says.

God does what He does sometimes because He's going to judge nations. He's going to judge people. He's going to judge situations. But not every calamity or disaster or tragedy is because of God's judgment. We said that to you a couple of weeks ago, remember? It's also maybe to show people their helplessness. Psalm 107. Psalm 107. Verse number 28. When they found themselves in trouble, they cried out to the Lord and He delivered them. Why? Because God sometimes allows disaster to happen to show you how helpless you are, that you need Him.

Sometimes He does it just to warn us. Luke chapter 13. Remember? When those Jewish people went to worship and Caesar would take them and sacrifice them along with their sacrifices? And the Jews were up in arms. Jews going to worship God were slaughtered. And Christ's response was, you better repent or the same thing is going to happen to you. And then He gives the illustration about the Tower of Siloam falling over and killing 16 people because they happened to be walking by. And Christ says the same thing, you better repent or the same thing might happen to you.

It's a time of warning. When disasters happen, when tragedy happens, God says this is a warning sign.

Make sure you're ready to die because everybody's going to die. How you die, you don't know. Only God knows you must be ready to die. They happen because God is in the process of warning us. Sometimes He does what He does to cause us to fear Him. Like He did in Exodus chapter 14 and Exodus chapter 15. Like He says in Exodus chapter, Ecclesiastes chapter 3. So that men will fear Him. Sometimes He does it to display His glory. Like He does with the blind man in John chapter 9. Sometimes He does things just to teach us about Himself and who He is.

Sometimes God allows things to happen just so you'll experience His comfort. So that you'll be able to comfort others when they go through similar situations. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

So Paul says, listen, sometimes things happen just so that you'll be comforted by God. So in turn, you'll be able to comfort others who go through similar kind of situations. Do you ever think about it that way? Of course not. Because when we're going through an uncomfortable situation, when we're going through tragedy and hardship, all we can think about is our present misery. In that moment, it's to the Master who controls that moment. February of 2022. My wife and I and Avery and AJ, they were the only ones still left at home at the time, decided to go out and spend the evening together.

So, as we were getting ready, Lori got up to get ready as well. As she went back to her room, we had a new dog, Tucker. So we had gates in our home to make sure Tucker only stayed in a certain location. Instead of opening the gate, Lori decided to step over the gates. She does it all the time. So did I. So did AJ. So did Avery. That's all we ever did was step over the gate. We were just too lazy to open the gate. So Lori decided to step over the gate one more time. Except this time, she tripped. Tried to catch herself, but she couldn't.

And she hit her face on our hardwood floors and broke her jaw. That was in February of 2022. Eight surgical procedures later, it's now October of 2024, she still has at least one more surgical procedure to go through. She still finds herself in pain. And of course she, like everyone else, would say, why didn't I open the gate? Why'd I have to step over the gate? If I just would've opened it, I'd have my teeth. I wouldn't have a broken jaw. Interesting. Through the whole process that she's been through, and I'm with her every day, she has yet to ever complain about the pain she has in her mouth.

And it's constant. It's every day. Just recently, she's found relief from that pain. But for two and a half years, it was day and night, constant pain. Through every surgical procedure. She would end up coming to church without her front teeth. I don't know of any woman who would come to church without her front teeth. But my wife did. And she used to tell me, you know, I have no excuse to stay home. I know I don't have any front teeth, but am I going to let vanity keep me from church? So she would come, she'd sit in church, and she'd be here with no teeth, with a swollen face, after surgical procedures, because she believed she should be in church.

I tell you that story simply because why did God have that as an appointed time for her life? We don't have an answer for that right now.

We might not ever get an answer to that. But I tell you what, she's been my source of encouragement for the last two and a half, almost three years. Because she doesn't complain, doesn't cry. In fact, she says many times, you know what, complaining doesn't do any good anyway. And there are so many people who are far worse off than I am. I have no right to ever complain to the Lord. She's an encouragement to me. She brings comfort to me. And we might not ever understand why these things happen, or this particular thing happened to her.

Her bone structure has changed. Her smile will never be the same. Her face will never be the way it was before the fall. All that's changed. She knows that. But yet she realizes that God somehow appointed that time for her. And she is bound and determined to learn all she can about her God through the process. She says she will better represent Him in the future. Interestingly, when our grandchildren lost their front teeth, they would be able to take pictures together because they were both toothless.

So she found a way to be humorous in spite of the pain and the loss of teeth and a broken jaw. But that's just a small thing in her mind. Because there are many people who go through greater tragedies than that. Greater heartache and pain than that. Solomon comes along and says, I want to make a very simple summation of everything under the sun. He says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse number 1. There is an appointed time for everything and there is a time for every event under heaven. Every event under heaven.

From that simple summation, he gives that strong affirmation. Verse 11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. And from that we are looking at significant applications. And I must read to you what Margaret Clarkson said about God's sovereignty. In a book entitled Grace Grows Better in Winter. She says this. The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock in which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident. They may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God.

All evil is subject to him. And evil cannot touch his children unless he permits it. God is the Lord of human history. And of the personal history of every member of his redeemed family. He does not explain his actions to us any more than he did to Job. But he has given us what the sufferers of old never had. The written revelation of his sovereignty and love and his manifestation of himself in the Savior. If those saints could triumph so gloriously without such revelation, shall we who have it go down to defeat?

What a great perspective. Job didn't have the revelation that you and I have about God's sovereignty, about how there's an appointed time for everything under heaven. Job didn't have that. He just had to trust what God was doing and what God said. He never, never, ever knew that God personally handed him over to Satan. He didn't know that until he died and went to glory. You know it because you can read the story. You can read the narrative. He didn't know that Satan could touch his life but not be allowed to kill him.

Oh, there was time he wishes he was dead. He was in such pain he wished he had never been born. But he did not know that God told Satan, you can touch him, but you can't kill him. He didn't know that until he died and went to heaven. Then he knew. But before that he didn't know. And Margaret Clarkson says, listen, we have the revelation of God. How can we go down to defeat with all that is written in the Scriptures to understand the sovereignty of God if the saints of old didn't go down to defeat?

How can we go down to defeat? And we have the written revelation of God's sovereignty should cause us to trust him even all the more. So the significant application begins to flow from the pen of Solomon. We covered the first one last week.

What was that one? We learn to acknowledge that God has a reason for everything that happens under the sun. God has a reason. You might not know the reason. You might not ever know the reason. But we must acknowledge that God does have a reason for everything that happens under the sun. That's why he lists all he says. A time to be born, a time to die. There's a reason you were born. There's a reason you were born when you were born, where you were born, the family you were born into. There's a reason behind all that.

And there's a time to die. You will die. How? And when? I don't know. You don't know. But God knows because it's appointed unto man once to die. And if all of our days are numbered before there's even yet one of them, God knows the time of our birth and the time of our death. He goes on to list all these other things. We're not going to go through them for you, but they're all there. As he begins to look at things under the sun because all these things have an appointed time.

And then he says in verse number 9, these words, What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the tasks which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. So, he says, not only do we acknowledge that God has a reason for everything that happens under the sun, but we need to learn to appreciate God's purposes and control over all that happens. He says, look, what profit is there for the worker? Can't change anything. Can't change his birth. Can't change his death.

Can't change when he laughs, when he cries. Can't change when he loves and when he hates. Can't change anything amidst all the toil and all the labor he does. So he says in verse 11, He has made everything appropriate or beautiful in its time. So Solomon says you need to appreciate that all the things that God does in his time is beautiful. Because God's the creator. And God does these things. God's in charge. That's the Romans 828 Christian. That's the Genesis 50 verse number 20 vision of Joseph.

You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. It's what Job says when he's tried me, I will come forth as gold. It's that vision. It's that perspective. It's Paul's perspective in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. When he says these words, he says, We are afflicted in every way. But we're not crushed. Perplexed but not despairing. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus. So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake.

So that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us but life in you. There's something that God's doing in us whether it's affliction or persecution or even death experiences so that you will live. Then he says this verse 16. Therefore we don't lose heart. We don't give up. We don't quit. 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. See, Paul would not focus on his misery in the moment but on the master of that moment because he needed to fulfill the ministry that God had given to him. So he did. Peter said it this way. He says in verse number 6 of 1 Peter 1 In this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials.

In other words, they're necessary. If you had them, they're necessary. They're very timely. They're very taxing. But they are necessary. So that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not see him now but believe in him you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Now who is he writing to?

He's writing to Jews that are scattered abroad. Why? Because Nero is killing their brothers and sisters in Christ and family members. And how is he doing this? He's taking them and rolling them in animal skins and throwing them to the lions so that they're eaten alive. He's taking them impaling them, wrapping them in pitch setting them on fire so he can light his gardens at night. So he says in this you greatly rejoice. What? Who does that? Even though you don't see him you love him, you believe in him because there's something that's awaiting you inexpressible inexhaustible joy.

It's coming your way. You can focus on your misery in the moment or you can focus on your master of the moment. Choice is yours. Focus on the master begin to realize and appreciate appreciate that the reason and purpose behind all that God does is beautiful in the sight of God. God has a plan. Sometimes he's going to comfort you so you can comfort others. Sometimes he's going to teach you about himself. Sometimes he just wants to display his glory. Sometimes he just wants to warn you of impending judgment.

Sometimes it is for judgment. Sometimes it's just to show you your helplessness. But he's doing something. He's never not active in your life. God is never not involved in your life. He's always there. He's always present. He's always among you. That's why I love that verse in John 20 where Mary clings to Christ after his resurrection. When she recognizes that he's not the gardener but he is her risen Lord. And what's Jesus say? Stop clinging to me Mary. You've got to let me go.

Why? Because I've yet to ascend to my Father. You see there's a new relationship Mary. Because you see when I was at your house, I wasn't at the house of Thomas. When I was with you, I wasn't with Andrew. But if I ascend to my Father I will be with everybody at the same time. Because there's going to be a brand new relationship. I'm going to be in everybody. So he knows that he must ascend to his Father. That's the beauty of God's presence. He's never not among us. He's never not with us. Because he's the ever present, omnipresent omniscient, omnipotent God who's always with his people.

So Solomon says it's imperative that you learn to acknowledge that God has a reason for all that happens. That was last week. Number two is you need to learn to appreciate God's purpose and control over everything.

Because it's all beautiful in his time. And thirdly you need to anticipate your future destination in eternity and the work that God is doing in your life.

You do anticipate that. For he says this He has also set eternity in the heart so that yet so that men will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. You need to anticipate your final destination as well as anticipate the work that God is doing in your life because you don't know what he's doing. He set eternity in the heart of man. This is very important. That's why we take there are no atheists or agnostics that have ever existed. People will claim they're atheists.

They'll claim they're agnostic. But I'm going to go with what the Bible says. God has set eternity in the heart of man. In other words, God has done something in the heart of every man that knows there's something beyond death. He knows that. He might not know what it is but he knows that. In fact, John says it this way in John chapter 1 verse number 9 There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. Not certain men but every man. The true light who is the Lord came to the world enlightens every man.

Well, how does he do that? Well, number one, through creation. Psalm 19 verse number 1 The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament declares its handiwork. So we understand that man, because of creation, knows of the existence of God. That's why Romans 1 says that man suppresses the truth. He pushes the truth down. He does it through his sin. That's why John says in John 3 verse number 19 This is the judgment that the light is coming to the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for the deeds are evil.

For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. See that? Why do men not come to the light? Because they don't want their sin to be exposed. They don't want to be accountable to a higher being. That's why even though they knew God, Romans 1, they refused to worship God. They knew Him. Why do they know Him? Because eternity is set in the heart of man. Every man has been enlightened. To who? The character and nature of a supreme being who is God himself.

And because of his own sin, he suppresses the truth about God that he sees in creation plus he sees it in his conscience. Romans chapter 2 tells us that. Romans chapter 2 verse number 14 In that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them on the day when according to my gospel God would judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. So not only has he, through creation, given man the opportunity to see him, but through his conscience because the law of God is written on his heart.

There are no atheists. There are no agnostics. There is no such thing as that person. They do not exist. Why? Because biblically it's impossible for them to exist. God made it impossible. So he said eternity in the heart of man. That there's something about my life that continues on after death. Years ago when I was a college pastor, a young man came to me and he was graduating from high school. He was excited about his future prospects in college because he was going to come to the college where I was a college pastor.

He couldn't wait to get there. I said, so what are you going to do? He said, I'm going off to college. I said, what are you going to study? He said, I'm going to study engineering. I said, wow, that's great. So what are you going to do then? I'm going to graduate. What are you going to do after you graduate? After I graduate, I'm going to get a job as an engineer. I said, that's great. What are you going to do next? He said, I'm going to get married. I want to get married one day. I said, that's great.

That's a great plan. I'm all for marriage. Right? So after you graduate and you get your job at engineering and you get married, then what's next? He said, well, I'm going to have kids. That's a good plan. You want to have kids after you get married, not before you get married. So that's a good plan. I'm all for having kids. I got kids. So after you have kids, what are you going to do next? He says, well, I guess I guess I'm going to retire. I said, okay, that's a good plan. Hopefully you make enough money as an engineer that you can retire.

So I said, what are you going to do next? He said, I'm going to die. I said, you got that right. And then I said, what are you going to do next? He says, next? I never thought about that. I said, you need to think about that. I said, because all that stuff about going to school and getting your degree and getting a good job and making good money and getting a beautiful wife and having kids, that's all great. It's all going to pass away. It's all going to be done with. You're going to have grandkids.

You're going to grow old. You're going to retire. Have a house in Malibu. That's great too. Right? But you're going to die. What are you going to do next? And he said to me, he said, you know, I've always known that there's something next. I just don't know how to get there. So I presented to him the gospel about the eternal God who put eternity in his heart. When you dedicate a child, dedicate it on Sunday morning, it's past Sunday, right? The greenery represents what? Eternity. For those of you who've been here for the last 30 years.

Eternity, right? In the heart of man. That baby that's being dedicated has eternity already set in their hearts. They know there's something beyond the grave. They know there's something coming next. They know. And the unbeliever suppresses that truth. Does not want to know it. Why? Because if he knows it, he's accountable to it. And he loves his sin too much to want to walk away from it. That's why people don't get saved. They love their sin more than they love God. See? See? So we come to this place in life where we begin to realize that Solomon says, look, appreciate what God is doing.

Acknowledge he's in charge. Acknowledge that he's in charge of everything because he is providentially and purposefully and powerfully handling everything. And then begin to appreciate that what he's doing is going to work out for your good and his glory. And then anticipate the fact that although you don't know what's going to happen next, you can anticipate the opportunity to trust him and to believe in him and wait on him and see what he is going to do next because he has set eternity in the heart of man.

And man is always looking to do something that's going to outlast him. It's going to live forever. And the only thing that lives forever are God's Word and people. That's it. It's Charles Spurgeon who said this about God's sovereignty. There is no doctrine more hated by the world, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne. They will allow him to be in his workshop to fashion the worlds and make the stars.

They will allow him to sustain heaven and earth and bear up the pillars thereof. They will even let him light the lamps of heaven and rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean. But when God ascends to his throne, his creatures gnash their teeth. And when we proclaim and enthrone God as preachers, and his right to do as he wills with his own, to dispose of creatures as he thinks well without consulting them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated. Then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us.

For God on his throne is not the God that men of the world want to love. So true. So true. To know that God is sovereign, ruling over everything, who appoints times and seasons. Jesus said that about the Father. In Acts chapter 1, verse number 7. When the disciples ask him, is this now the time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Christ said to them, it is not the time for you to understand. It is not for you to know the times which the Father has fixed in his own mind. There's a fixed time for the return of the Messiah.

A certain time. A specific time. And everything that's happening on this planet is moving toward that time. Everything that happened before Matthew chapter 2 and Luke chapter 2. Everything that happened before that was moving everything and everyone to that moment. To that time. Why? Because everything was moving toward Calvary's cross. We've told you this before. It's the apex of redemptive history. Everything was moving toward one event. One specific time on one specific hill to die in one specific way at the hands of specific people.

It's all mapped out. It's all planned by Almighty God. Because he's gonna redeem his people. He's gonna redeem them. He's gonna buy them back. He had to die for them. But since that time and his death burial and resurrection he's made the promise that he's going to come again. So from now on everything is moving now to that time. Everything that happens in the world happens because we are moving toward the event of Christ's return. He's coming again. We need to have a biblical perspective. We need to think theologically not logically.

Think biblically and scripturally about every event that takes place in our lives. God is in absolute control of everything. We need not worry. We need not be anxious. Are you an anxious person? Do you worry and fret about what's gonna happen tomorrow or the next day? Christ says don't be anxious.

You can't add one more day to your life. You can't do anything about tomorrow because tomorrow's not even here yet. So stop worrying. By the way that's a command that God makes. Don't do that. Don't worry. Don't be anxious. Don't fret. Why? Because I have it all under control. So it was Horatio Bonar who was a great preacher, Scottish preacher, wrote many hymns. Wrote this hymn. Thy way not mine, O Lord. However dark it be, lead me by thine own hand. Choose out the path for me. Smooth let it be, or rough it will be still the best.

Winding or straight, it leads right onward to thy rest. I dare not choose my lot. I would not if I might. Choose thou for me, my God. So shall I walk aright. The kingdom that I seek is thine. So let the way that leads it to be thine. Else I must surely stray. Take thou my cup, and it with joy or sorrow fill. As best to thee may seem, choose thou my good and ill. Choose thou for me my friends, my sickness or my health. Choose thou my cares for me, my poverty or my wealth. Not mine, not mine the choice.

In things both great or small be thou my guide, my strength, my wisdom and my all. That was his prayer. May it be ours as well. Let's look to the Lord. Father, we thank you for today and thank you Lord for the opportunity you give us to spend time in your word. There are so many things to cover. Your word is filled with so many illustrations, so many truths, so many stories about your sovereign work. You're in charge, Lord. It's your will, not ours. We want your will to be done in our lives. We know that you're in charge and we believe that you are sovereign and we believe that you're almighty God and we believe that you rule over all and yet Lord there are times in our lives where we ask, what is going on?

What is happening to me? It's during those times we ask that Lord you would strengthen us through your word. You'd comfort us through your word. Reminded of the psalmist who said, when my anxious thoughts overwhelm me thy consolations will delight my soul. May our souls be delighted because of the truth of your word. May we rest in your sovereign grace. May we learn to trust in your providential care. May we learn to lean on the power of our God as we trust you for each passing day. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.