The sermon titled 'What Time is it?' by Kyle Nickerson explores the profound themes of time, purpose, and divine providence as illustrated in Ecclesiastes 3. Nickerson emphasizes the idea that time is marked by God through events and seasons, each with its purpose under heaven. He contrasts human perception of time, marked by clocks and calendars, with God's eternal nature, where time is irrelevant. The sermon addresses the futility of human toil under the sun without divine purpose, highlighting the importance of aligning our 'clocks' to God's eternal plan. Nickerson discusses the presence of evil within justice and righteousness, explaining it as part of God's plan to judge every matter in its time. He reinforces the significance of living in the present, 'today,' as the day of salvation, urging believers to recalibrate their lives according to God's purpose and time, rather than human constructs of time like calendars and resolutions.

Today's text will be from Ecclesiastes 3 verses 1 through 18. Let us hear the reading of God's Word. 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. 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 the 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 the gift of God to man. I perceived 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 that which 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. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

I don't have a directive on that in my liturgy. That is typically what we do, and the people respond with thanks be to God. So the hymn today was wonderful, it was beautiful, it was a perfect dovetail to the text actually that we read and the commentary. You know, I'm sure everybody knows, but I feel it's my obligation to let you know that that hymn was written by a man who had just lost his four children at sea no three I think three daughters at sea and one son to to a chronic illness a kinda like a flu kinda thing And that was the context of it is well with my soul. And so as we read these kind of things in the day we live, is it well with our soul?

I think it is well with our soul. I think because our hearts and our souls and our lives are in the shelter of his wing. We're tucked away in the nook that God has provided for us. The other safety in the world is false. It's not true.

And so I rejoice that today is the day of salvation, that he works all things together for the good and that it is well with my soul. So I first preached this message at my church right after the turn of the year when people are prone to make New Year's resolutions and everybody the cacophony of our nation was all I'm glad 2020 is over and they're all looking forward to 2021 exactly and that really doesn't mean anything That's just a date on a calendar. Because as I've been saying as I teach this message, you never know what be careful what you ask for, you might get it. 2021 could be worse. It could be worse.

And I think right out of the gate, I was experiencing a lot of things that were difficult. And I said, well, this is just another day that the Lord has made. So in light of that, the name of the sermon today is what time is it? And so I'm in Ecclesiastes 3. How do we measure time?

By seconds on a clock or by events that occur? Are not seconds on a clock just evenly spaced events that occur for the sake of continuity that we can all agree on so that we can all be on the same page. Our world is full of clocks and calendars that are set to certain standards for the sake of continuity once again. Yet there are 24 time zones telling or pointing as assigned to a different time, all at the same time. After all, we all know it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

The one unifying factor to which all clocks are set is a solar day. Time on planet Earth is set to the unifying standard of one rotation of the Earth relative to the sun. So like seconds on a clock, we keep track of events by the repetitive rotation of the earth to the sun. The earth is the secondhand clock regulated by the relative positions of sun, moon and stars. Everybody following that?

Yeah. Regardless of the calculus micro as in nanoseconds or the macro eons of time and everything in between seconds, hours, years, we are simply keeping track of events. Time is marked by things that happen or occur. Date, distance times rate equals time, which is kind of a circular formula when you think about that. It's really explaining itself by itself.

God has set in motion His creation. So I like to exercise this in this thought whenever we come to these things. The Bible says that God is eternal and we often refer to creation as when time began. And so, and this has been a quest of Western philosophy since its earliest stages. What is motion?

And what is going on with motion? And motion is that ratio. Distance times rate equals time. It's clocking motion. The motion of what?

Of every little passing event. But with God, there is no time. God is not outside of time. Time is an irrelevant factor to who He is. I had a fancy word in fellowship last night.

I dropped in there, ontology. God's ontology, his state of being, who he is, what he is, what makes him who he is, is that he never changes. There is no motion. God does not have to go... God spans the universe.

He's omnipresent. He's at that end and at this end all at the same time. When God wants to know what's going on on that end of the universe, He doesn't got on His sneakers, run over, get a little reading, and come all the way back to the other side. God is motionless because He's there all at the same time. There is no distance and ratio for God.

There's no how fast He gets from one place. So therefore, there is no clocking of events in that regard, at least empirically, physically. How it works metaphysically, I don't know that yet. But I know this, there's no motion. God is not scurrying around.

God doesn't clock himself by turning one way or turning the other. James says there are no shifting shadows. There is no turning. God is always the same now, today, yesterday, and forever. And that is very comforting.

That is called stability. In philosophy we call that actuality. God never has potential. He's never going to become something. You're a human being and you're also a human becoming.

But that's not true with our Lord. He's an always is and always will be and always has been. This is the Asceti we call it of God. The self-existent being who never changes. So time has no relevant factor to him as to who he is and what he does.

Time is something that occurs when he makes things, when he creates something, and now it comes into existence and has a starting point and it moves forward. And so when I was talking about time and seconds, just think about second hands on a clock. Event, event, event, event. That's all we're doing. We're just saying, hey, let's all get our event on the same page and marshal it by some standard.

Genesis 1, 3, and 5 says, And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and darkness he called night and there was evening and morning the first day.

So evening and morning isn't really regulated by the sun moon and stars it's actually regulated by God and what he did was, now if you want to follow me in night and day, I'm going to give you a mechanism, a timepiece, so that you can see how it works. But that's already occurring. There's already morning and evening for the Lord. He's just giving us the sun, moon, and stars so we can clock with him and be on the same page. Isn't that neat?

Genesis 1, 14 to 19, and God said let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons. Sounds familiar to our Ecclesiastes. And for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, the moon, and the stars.

And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good and there was evening and there was morning on the fourth day. His plan has a beginning and an end. It is his creation, his plan, and his story that is unfolding. Although we can't see every little second, every little event in his plan, in his story, past, present, and future, we know and trust that it is secure and beautiful in him.

He makes all things beautiful in his time. As we come to a new year and prepare for the next, are we taking note of the seasons, times, and matters that God gives us under heaven? We may all be running on slightly different time zones, but if our clocks are not set relative to the Sun, SON, we will be in big trouble. We will be caught unaware and out of time. So The basic premise of all that was to say that we and God clocks history by events.

The scripture says, for everything there is a season, a time, and a matter under heaven. An occurrence, a thing that passes forward. There is a purpose to all things that happen. There is a certain functionality and a synchronization in a complementarian relationship as to the seasons, times, and events that occur. So when we look at the passage of time, we're really looking at God's plan unfolding.

Ecclesiastes 2.3 says, I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life." And I bring that text to bear because In Ecclesiastes there's two phrases, under the sun and under heaven. And under heaven, as the first verse here says, every matter under heaven means under the Lord's providence. Under the sun is the futility. It's the meaningless that Solomon or whoever wrote the book is declaring that you know if you're looking at life like this and there's no this it's very futile it has no meaning it's unwinding but without any purpose it's it's spinning out of control as you will but under heaven God is giving us the clear evidence that no, under heaven means under my providence. That events are not just marching randomly.

That I have a purpose and a reason and I have control. That is comforting to know that when evil is doing its thing in planet Earth that it is for a purpose. Evil does not tell us there is no God it tells us that there must be a God because evil can only exist if something good exists previous to it. So I am comforted to know that my father has a plan and is in control. Nothing that happens is just happenstance.

We just had two very large lotto winners. Did you know that none of that was by luck? That was not somebody's lucky day. There's no such thing as luck. Luck means random chance.

Just God's at His desk one day managing the universe, and well, how did that happen? That's never a moment in God's plan. There's no such thing. You know, I tell people, if you want to play the lotto, I mean, that's your business. But it has nothing to do with luck.

If God wants you to win, you'll win. If He doesn't want you to win, you won't win. And I'm not getting into a lotto discussion and all that. But that's a fact. There is no happenstance.

There's nothing lucky going on. And He made for one man every nation, Acts 17, 26 and 7, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him, yet He is actually not far from each one of us. So everything you do, You didn't just get lucky one day and land on a certain location on planet. God planted you there. Ephesians 2.10 says that he has worked out every step of our life going forward.

That's how I became Reformed. I had an older brother who passed away, and I was scratching my head about that. He was not a believer to my knowledge, and I really had to confront that theologically. It didn't shake my faith. It didn't move me.

Is Jesus real or not? But it made me wonder why me and not him? And I remember one thought that I had that I feel God was speaking to me in my meditations, not with a voice or anything crazy. Well, it's much bigger than that, Kyle. Why do you live here and not in some other country?

That was the thought that came to my mind. And that's what this text says. Why are we placed here and not someone else? Why are you in Conroe today? How did you guys land in Conroe?

Had great fellowship last night at the Cornell's. And I love to hear people's stories because what I'm really hearing is God's story unfolding. That's the joy of it. I get to rejoice with my brothers and sisters and hear how God is working in their lives and see what he's doing and see how that matches up with my circumstance Because the bottom line is we're all on different time zones because of the fall. You know that?

Nobody in this room is on the same time zone. We're all in just a slightly different... And that's what makes it so easy to get along. Because none of us are synchronized. What's the first thing you see in the movies that like the they're about to do a raid in the military?

What's the first thing they do? All right gentlemen, synchronize our watches. And do you know that everybody in this room now we're synchronized to the Sun, Jesus Christ, but we're not all completely on the same page are we? We're all working kind of slightly different, slightly different like shall I say time zone if you will, let the metaphor sink in and kind of help you. We're all looking at the Sun but like some of us are in the central time zone, some of us are in the eastern, some are over in Timbuktu on like where did you come from?

You know? Like some of those, so some of those other guys that we were talking about last night. What in the world, how is God managing all of that? Isn't that amazing? We're all, you know, it's a chore, it's an effort, just to get the same people in this room to synchronize.

That's the difficulty or the joy of pastoral care. So many different people on so many different little things that God is having to work out through time and eternity. And so in order to do that, God brings us gifts called events, seasons and times so that we can all appreciate. We may all be on different time zones on the Northern Hemisphere, and that even makes it worse. Right now we got two hemispheres.

We're not only on 24, we're 24 split in half. It's winter for us and it's summer for them. But God gives us a season so that we can all learn, even though we're on different clocks, we're all learning. But there's a unifying factor here. There's a time and event stamp going on here that tells us that something bigger than us is doing something.

It helps us regulate. Acts 1-7, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed. Acts 1-21, so know one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went out and in among us The times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord Acts 321 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoration God has set in order times And what God calls us to do as we walk with Him, what does the scripture say? To be aware of the times and the seasons. Amen.

And I'm so thankful that God is, that there's someone running the machine basically. I'm glad that there's one clock in the universe. Because if there wasn't, boy, that would be crazy. That would be chaos. See, we think there's chaos and disorder in the universe, and there is to a certain extent because of the fall because God has allowed it but he is that he is that stabilizing factor verse 2 says now I'm not going through all these these verses of time to do this and the time to that although they're very illuminating if we're gonna do a series on please yeses there's a lot of meat in there.

There's never a time to say, where was God in the middle of that? He was right in the middle of it. Where was he when the twin towers collapsed? He was right there. Where was God during 2020?

I think the scripture says this is the day that the Lord has made. The Lord made every day in 2020. Some people had great years in 2020. They had, they got new jobs, had children, bought a new house. I know some of those people.

Now the people had difficult times in 2020. But God was in control of the helm, changing things, maneuvering things. Why? Well, because He has a plan. It says in verse 2, and I'm only going to highlight this one part of that verse, A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted.

That's probably the most defining one of that whole section because it all starts with when you're born and when you die. And then there's that little dash on the cemetery stone. That's where all the activity happens right? In between born and die. And that's why I say there is no such thing as luck.

This is what God's plan has brought to us and we'll get on to purpose soon. That Mr. Cornell would be the teleology. There is no such thing as dying before your time. There is such a thing as a tragic death because the Lord does not delight in the destruction of the wicked and and for the believer death is not tragic it's moving from one spot to another and it's actually glorious.

But there's no such thing as dying before your time. And just as it is appointed Hebrews 927 for man to die once and after that comes judgment You were appointed to be born one day and you were appointed to die one day It's an amazing thing it it It makes us very helpless and it makes this statement very true. He is God and we are not. He is the timekeeper, we are not. He's the author and finisher of our faith and the events that occur in our lives.

I don't know why these difficult things always occur. I have moments, many moments, I've lost two brothers at young ages, and my mother and father, and et cetera, and we've all had losses, and I sometimes say, Lord, I don't know why, and I'm looking forward to resolve. I'm looking forward to seeing the tapestry when it's completed. But until that time, there's no mystery as to who's doing all the work on the tapestry. So whose story is it?

It's God's story. It's not our story. So verse 9 says, what gain has the worker from his toil? And the key there is his toil. So what's at play in this next section of text, really, verses 9 through, say, 15, is whose story are we following?

And what's the consequence of that? So what has the worker to gain from his toil under the sun? The emphasis there is his toil. And so here's the dilemma for all us people on different clocks. And this is what's beautiful about God being in your life, he's reorienting your toil.

But what man does, he scurries around toiling thinking that he's going to rearrange the universe just enough to make it comfortable for his life. He thinks that his clock is actually the best clock and if everybody could just learn to see my clock, life would be great. Life would be great if it weren't for all those people. If they could just get their act together and know my clock. Don't you know this is my movie?

I have a plot and you can be in my movie. I love it. Just could you play the roles I want you to play to make my life better? And I'll compromise. I'll give you a little of what you want.

And in fact, I know that's necessary and I even enjoy that. That's part of my movie too. That's part of my clock. Considering that God has determined purpose and time for everything, what room is left for man's purpose and toil? So if we're all running around trying to set the universe to our clock.

Are we really getting synchronized with the clock? Or are we just frustrating ourselves and driving us down in that spiral? And as a believer, you can do the same thing too. You can shipwreck your faith. You can say, I like my clock.

And that's why today when I was praying, I said, God, give us repentance. Grant us the ability to confess our sins to You. Because we're stubborn people. I love my wife and my daughter, and it's appalling to me that I would ever fight and fuss with them. But I do.

Not all times, mostly then, but you know. Psalm 127, 1 says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city the watchman stays awake in vain. Verse 10 says I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. So there's two things we can be busy with our business or his business? What's God say that when we're busy with his business, verse 11 says, he has made everything beautiful in its time, not you, him.

It is a beautiful symmetry according to his plan and design like architectural plans or musical scores in a symphony Romans 828 as I've said already quoted probably two or three times out of my head today And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose You know that That right along with Romans 1 and several other key texts in the Bible you could just live on those verses You could live just on those verses Am I saying the rest of the Bible is not necessary? No. What I'm saying is if you just had a few and you were stuck on that island, that'd be a good one. That'd be a real good one if you were stuck on that island, wouldn't it? That'd be kind of important.

Oh, God is working all this for the good of me because He's called me to love Him. You know the hard part of these truths? Your clock. Your clock is so out of sync that when you hit hard truths, you go, wow, I have to go to the clock shop. I need some serious rearrangement.

And it's coming face to face with that truth that is so hard to deal with. And God is gracious and God is kind. In fact, I don't know if I've said it at this church before, one of my prayers for my little girl, and she's not little, she's 24, but she's always my little girl. Lord, please sanctify my daughter and do it gently and gradually. Because it must come.

Sanctification must come. Our clocks are all out of whack and God must reset them. Verse 11, also he has put now this is what I like this this text this section of text is to demonstrate whose clock it is, whose story it is, whose plan it is. He says also he has put eternity into man's heart. Now listen to this, he's put eternity into your heart.

Here comes the teaser, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. He's given you a clue, He's told you eternity, it's evident. If you start counting from one to wherever, you'll never run out. He's given you a clue, He's given you infinity. In fact, if you try to divide the atom when does it stop dividing I Like what Robert Godfrey says he says God gives us this little shelf of eternity that we're always just just Getting to the end, But it just never we can never get far enough We can never really finish and God frustrates our ability to know what he knows Because he wants us to know that he's there, but he knows more than we do Amazing God has made it plain to them in Romans 1 19 for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, metaphysical, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse everybody knows there's something bigger than you I like what Steve Lawson says If you don't like the way God has done it, just go create your own universe.

A little tough. By faith, God has marked out limitations, hidden treasures and surprises. This is like the best video game you could ever be in. I'm not a video game player but my daughter has this little game years ago she was playing Mario Sunshine and I guess the well it is your job is just to go find stuff and clean up all the sin in between. There's all this dirty stuff, and you've got to clean it up with a guy shooting a water gun.

And when you do, you find these little treasures, little stars. Really, I look at that, and I look at most things, and I think any believer can, with the mind of Christ. You can look at all of life and see God at work. It's an irreducible reality. God's fingerprint is on the universe.

And so, God gives us hidden treasures and surprises. That's why He gives us events. He gives us tasks and chores. God doesn't need those. God gives Adam and Eve chores.

He says, hey, see that? Go make something great with it. And you know what? He's put in them. Awesome!

We get to make something great with that. God gives you gifts and abilities and opportunities. Opportunities are their seasons, their times, their matters. What would we do without seasons and times and matters? We'd never rake the leaves.

We'd never play in the snow. We'd never do the things that we enjoy doing. We never figure out how to make a better plow. We would never figure out how to fly a plane. I love having pilots in the audience.

I have a pilot back home. It's just fun. I mean, how often do you meet pilots, right? You meet plumbers all the time. Verse 12 says, I perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.

Now that is wisdom. Be joyful in what? In the day that he has made. For starters, and not only for starters, that kind of sums up everything. Doesn't that kind of box you in?

I've tried to exercise my family in this truth. There's two truths this past eight, nine months that I've tried to exercise in. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it. Kind of hand-eaten 2020. And just recently it's better to give than receive.

Now that's not necessarily towards this particular sermon, but sure is not part of our clock If we really believe it's better to give than to receive Why wouldn't we just give and give and give? But we are sinners and we say actually it's a lot better to receive Do we not live that way most of the time or do we live in the opportunity zone that says, hey, another opportunity? I was explaining some circumstances to the Cornell's in our lives. So the question is, is it better to give or to receive? We're having some trials, not in our home itself, but we're having to take care of a man who can't take care of himself right now.

Is that an opportunity to grow and be sanctified, or is that a drag? Is that a bummer? Is this not how we live and talk at home? Now maybe some of you are more refined than I am. You have different words.

This is a very difficult circumstance, darling. I don't know. I'm just saying. Look at all these opportunities to give. Can you imagine Christ gave 100% of the time from the day He was born?

Incredible, incredible. Jesus is my superhero. Real joy comes from following the law of the Lord and obeying His commands. God gave us a mechanism to try and get us in the rhythm of who and what He is. Sabbath.

Is Sabbath an opportunity or an impingement on your clock and your events? I teach concerning Sabbath that God is trying to get us to be Sabbath-minded people. Not just obey the Sabbath on Sunday, but be Sabbath-minded. It's an opportunity for us to... Years ago, earlier in my walk with God when I was a younger man trying to make a way for my family, I would be like, well, I could make up some ground if I just worked Sundays for the next two months.

Because I thought I was really, you know, wow, that seems like a good idea. Like, where did I get that idea from, by the way? Is that what God said? Six days shall ye work and take advantage of the next six Sundays and get ahead? I didn't get that from the Bible.

Now one of my favorite practices on Sunday, holding the continental view as I do, I go home after church and I'm usually very tired because Sunday is a very busy day for me. And the joy of Sunday is that you can turn on a golf tournament, which is very peaceful and quiet, and you can fall asleep. And when you wake up, you get to see the end of the tournament. Anyways, I've learned to rest on the Sabbath. I've learned that my Sunday revolves around church and rest.

That's a clock, guys. Marriage, there's another clock. Is marriage between a man and a woman. Is it a covenant for life? Is it a covenant at all?

That's a clock that helps regulate our times and seasons and keeps us stable. How about work? Is work a clock? Yes, it is. God gave us these things called creation orders that set the universe in sync.

And because of the fall we run from those clocks and we get on our own clock and we come up and invent our own times and seasons. And God says, no, no, I've made times and seasons. I perceive that whatever God does, it endures forever. Not what I do, what He does. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it.

It is solid. It is not moving. God has done it so that people fear before Him. God is the eternal plumb line. Everybody know what a plumb line is?

It's when you hang a string. I know you know what it is. So God hangs himself as the string in the universe. A plum line is when you hold a weight and it swings and it falls straight. Now you know, so you have a wall when you're building so it doesn't look like that.

It's nice and straight. God is the plumb line of the universe. He's the standard by which we know. He is the clock. He is the eternal standard.

God's truth and His plans are not a moving target. They're fixed and eternal. He doesn't move the goal post. This is not outcome-based education. There's a real answer.

You ever take math? Well, we've all taken math, right? And you go through all those things and they go, You got it wrong. You got the answer right, but you got the method wrong. You've got to go back and fix it.

Is that not? Well, for math people, that's probably a lot of great. I can't wait. But for me, it wasn't always so fun. That was a frustration moment where I said, who cares about how we got the answer?

I got it right. But God, in verse 15, says, now this is a really funny scripture, and I have it in the Amplified. That which is now already has been, and that which is to be already has been and God seeks what has passed by so that history repeats itself. Isn't that funny? God is actually repeating events.

Why? Because you never get it right the first time. You don't get graded on a curve. I had an English professor who went on to actually, this was when I was in Bible college, to write probably two, three hundred books for a Christian publishing house, all historical narratives fiction. And he, he would make us turn in a paper every week.

Every week, we had to do at least three pages, tell a story, do whatever, I forget what really the theme of it was, I think it was anything you wanted. He wanted a title, and he wanted everything correct. And I thought, this is great, alright. And he would just mark that thing up, red spots everywhere. And I go, a 55?

And you know what? History kept repeating itself. And for a reason. This is what God is saying. History is repeating it.

I'm just going to keep red marking your papers. It's because I'm so mean and I love red marking your paper. Or is it because he's teaching us to spell perhaps, because I'm a terrible speller. Is he teaching us about clauses and indirect objects which, forget that, right? I'm just So, my wife is an expert on that, he not so much.

So, God causes us to repeat history, and that professor, he said, well Kyle, why don't you just take it to another professor and have him correct it first, then you can bring it back all fixed up. And I said, I can do that. He said, sure, I don't care. I just want you to get it right. I think God wants us to get it right.

He repeats things. There's nothing new under the sun it says. Like what Steve Lawson says, if it's new, it ain't true. God wants to, he says, don't forget. You know why you forget?

Because you don't remember. God wants us to remember. That's not original. But it is one of my favorite new phrases. So there's things, there's events and times and seasons and God has orchestrated all this for his purpose, his plan.

It's not our plan. And what is his plan and his purpose? Well, for the good of all. But this last section, if you read in the, I think it's the NIV, I'm not sure, they kind of list each of these chunks of text, which can be a dangerous thing, but it works here. The last one is dust to dust.

Why evil? In verse 16, moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice there was wickedness. And then in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there also. If God has set the times and seasons, then how has injustice and wickedness occupied the places of justice and righteousness? That's the question.

Well, if God's doing all this, this is what the average person will do, is what we are prone to do, why is there wickedness in the place of justice? You know, the psalmist says, Lord, why do the wicked prosper? And he didn't understand why until he actually went into the house of the Lord and reflected and gave God an opportunity to, in his meditations, help him understand his plan and the scriptures and what the law says about such things because there is a time You know why it exists in time and space and it's the most obvious answer on the page But we miss it because there is a time and a season to judge every matter, the wicked, for every work under heaven. That's why. Because God for whatever reason in his plan has done this thing and said I'm putting it all out because in this process, I'm going to raise up the righteous and judge the wicked.

So that at the end of the universe, at the judgment seat, all will be seen clearly for what it is. God doesn't have to do that for his sake. He does it so that we can see it. God is proving all things. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time appointed for every matter and purpose and for every work, not just the good ones, the bad ones.

Revelation 22, 11, let the evil doer still do evil and the filthy still be filthy. Isn't that something? And the righteous still do right and the holy still be holy. Behold I am coming soon bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I said in my heart regarding the subject of the sons of men God is trying this is verse 18 and this is the amplified I said in my heart regarding the subject of the sons of men, God is trying, that is testing, proving.

Testing also means proving. He's proving his case in court. What court? The court of existence. The court of material reality, time and space.

He's proving his case. God is trying and separating and sifting them, that they may see that by themselves, under the sun, without God, they are but like beasts. Now we are not beasts and we are not like beasts because we are made in the image of God but under the sun in your feudal existence you really know better than a beast you're just dust to dust. You're just something that comes lives for a whisper of a moment, and passes away. God is proving all things.

Let God be true, the Scripture says in every man a liar, Romans 3, 3 and 4. What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and his fidelity to his word, rhetorically? Obviously not, and Paul says by no means. Let God be found true through every human being, though every human being is false and a liar as it is written, that you may be justified and shown to be upright in what you say, that is you, Lord, and prevail when you people are judged by sinful men.

And the point there is the only thing that makes us righteous is him. So in conclusion, Hebrews 3.13, well, In conclusion, what I want to say is time is running out. So at the beginning of the message, the title of it is, What Time Is It? Well, what time is it? I can't say it's 7 o'clock on God's calendar, because I don't know what clock he's using.

I just know that whatever he's using, I need to pay attention to it. I don't have to know when and where we are in human history. I can have my theories about it. But what does the Bible tell us when it says what time is it? Hebrews 3.13 says, but exhort one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

2 Corinthians 11, 6, 1, 2 through 6, working together with him then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain for he says in a favorable time I listen to you and in a day of salvation I have helped you behold now is the favorable time behold now is the day of salvation so when we ask ourselves what time is it the answer is it's today today is the day of salvation the Bible says redeem the time because you're not guaranteed tomorrow. I've had to learn that in my life when you get a phone call that someone has passed away. That's not something that was on your calendar. That was not your time. That just happened.

And it teaches me that you know what? Tomorrow is not a predictable reality. When I leave my wife and my daughter every day, I don't know that I'm coming back that night. I don't know that. Today, that's what time it is.

Today is the day. It's today. This is the day. Jesus says, now don't worry about tomorrow. Today has enough of its own.

You know what time it is? It's today. Now Proverbs tells us to plan for tomorrow and I get that. But if you understand the center of this clock that we're on today, looking at the sun, watching him. There's a lady that walks a dog in our neighborhood and she has a Labrador and it is constantly walking just in front of her, literally turning around, turning around, you still there?

Is that how we're walking and living our lives? Are our clocks constantly getting recalibrated? We have to constantly sync our clocks with God because today is the day that we have to pay most attention to. Today is the day of salvation. If you live your life today like it was your last, how would that change?

Now I know we've all heard the famous story about Martin Luther, I'd plant a tree. It's not really sure that he actually said that. But the point is we need to live our lives in the light of the sun today like it's the most important day of our lives. It will cause you to think differently and hopefully complain less, murmur less, and rejoice more. So it is my counsel that we when we're asking what time is it, Does it really matter if it's 2020 or 2021?

Those are just, that's just a calendar we made. It works, it's efficient, but that has nothing to do with God's time. That's just how we help calibrate ourselves. Let's learn to calibrate ourselves according to the Lord's time. Amen.

Okay, now I'm going to jump back into your liturgy. See where we're at. I'm I think we're going to sing a song. Psalm 139. You know, before we sing that prayer, let us just pray.

I like to pray after message. Lord I pray that you would it truly give us the grace to follow you to follow hard after you the psalmist says. As the pair as dear pants for water Lord let our souls thirst after you I pray that we would learn to receive the truth that today today is the day of salvation that today is the day that you have Made that we may rejoice and be glad in it what the tragedy of the day know and the author of the day Knowing trusting and believing that you made that day, that we might grow closer to you, and that you might be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen.