Our first scripture reading comes from the very last chapter in the Bible, chapter 22 of the book of Revelation, and I'll be reading the first 13 verses of that chapter, and then we will turn to Ecclesiastes 3, which is the sermon text. Revelation chapter 22, verse 1. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. In night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true, and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, 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 am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. And now turning to the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Ecclesiastes, just after the book of Proverbs, I'll be reading chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sow, 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 perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to man. I perceive that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before him, that which is already has been, that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away. Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. I said in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath. And man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth. So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Let us pray. Our gracious God and our Father, we come now to sit at the feet of our true teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we seek his spirit and his truth to minister to us this evening from this word of God. There are things that you want us to see afresh this evening, perhaps things forgotten, things neglected. There are things that you wish us to embrace, perhaps things to confess, things to be comforted by, and all these things, O Father, we need to receive them as humble children. So here again, we ask for your Spirit to be at work in us. We come to you in our emptiness, looking to you to minister to us from your fullness. Have mercy upon us, and do according to your promise. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. so what season is it well you answer that question depends upon who you are and the things you're interested in for some of you when i said what season is season is it you thought immediately of football would football season basketball season is beginning baseball season is just ending if you're from where i was raised the first thing you would have thought of is what hunting season is it and is it fishing season perhaps some of you perhaps two of you were thinking it's opera season. And somewhere in Imperial County, it's harvest season. Something's being harvested there. In California, it's always tourist season, it seems. My wife and I moved here from Chicago. There are only two seasons in Chicago. There's winter, and then there's construction season. But this passage is not about these types of seasons. It's talking about the seasons that people experience. And some of you are in a season where you are rejoicing. And perhaps someone here in a season where he or she is crying. Some of you are in a very busy, busy season. Some of you perhaps in a season where you are retiring. For some of you, you're just beginning a new season. Some of you are ending a season. And some of you are in the other one, but you don't know it yet. These are the patterns of our life, and that's what this passage is about. It's about seasons. It's about time. As we look at this chapter this evening, I'd like us to consider it in three sections. Verses 1 through 9 is about time. Verses 10 through 15, time eternal. And then verses 16 through 22, when time runs out. Again, verses 1 through 9, time. 10 through 15, time eternal. Then verses 16 through 22, when time runs out. But we begin with a simple question that's not a simple question. What is time? Augustine said, I know what time is until somebody asked me to explain it. It's the most often used noun in the English language, but it's kind of a hard thing to explain. But we're not interested this evening on the concept of time as much as we are in time is how we experience it, and that's what Augustine said as well. Time is about how we experience it, and experience tells us that Einstein was right. Time is relative. It seems to run at different speeds. Anybody who's had children understands this perfectly well. In that afternoon, that child is taking a nap, time cannot slow down enough. But when that same child is crying in the line at the grocery store, time seems to slow down to the speed of a glacier. Sitting in a chair seems like a simple task, and time flies. If you're sitting in a chair in a movie theater, two and an hour goes like you can't believe, but if that same chair was in a dentist's office, Time is very, very different there. We have a friend who says, when our children are young, the days are longer. As our children get older, the years go faster. That's true. We experience time differently. And that's what this is all about. And verse one tells us there's a time for everything and the way we experience it. Life is seasonal. And that's what the preacher is getting at about how we experience time and events in time. And he says, there's a time for beginning and a time for finishing. There's a time when you plant and there's a time when you reap, when you gather, when you spread, when you're encouraged, when you're discouraged, times when you laugh, times when you cry, times when you're building up, times when you're tearing down. There's a time for hugging. There's a time for hostility. And you see what he's done. He's listed here the polar ends of the seasons that we experience and everything in between. So it's these polar ends and it's everything in between. It's not just like life is only laughing or crying. It's laughing and crying at all the emotions that we experience within these things. It's pointing to the completeness of our lives and the way which we experience all these things. At these times, they come and they go, and you and I are caught in these seasons. But part of the point that's being made here is that you and I can't do anything about it. We're not in control of these seasons. You and I are not the author of these seasons. We're kind of swept up in the flow and the current of them. We don't have a blueprint for these things. It's like time gets hold of us. About 10 years ago, every high school prom ended in this song that went like this. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go, so make the best of this test and don't ask why. I hope you had the time of your life. The song's exactly right. It's exactly right. That's the point that's being made here. You're caught up in this time, and you can try to resist it, but that would be living in denial. Like a song that was popular in 95, it says, that goes like this, can you teach me about tomorrow and all the pain and sorrow I'm running from? Because tomorrow's just another day, and I don't believe in time. Well, it doesn't matter. Time believes in you. And the patron saint of the Bible is the farmer, and he understands these things very well, that there is a season where you plow, another season when you sow or you feed or you cultivate or you prune and you reap, and he is content knowing that his life is caught up in these seasons. Or to put another song, the fundamental things apply as time goes by, as you hear the voice of Dooley Wilson singing that song. And so this is true, that life is about seasons, we're caught up in these seasons, and so he asked this question in verse 9, and the preacher of Ecclesiastes is always asking these questions, since I'm caught up in these endless seasons, what is there to gain from my work? He's always asking this question, what does this have to do with my job? I've committed my life to certain work, and so how does this impact my job? He asks this question in chapter 1 and 2 and chapter 5, and he comes back to in chapter 8. He's concerned about this question, if I committed my life to something that is meaningful, if this is true. In order to answer that question, you have to notice something about this poem as you look at it and how it falls out. There's no order to it. There's no sequence. There's no pattern. It's not as if he lists all the good things first and the negative things second. Or he doesn't go back and forth. There's no sort of pattern this way. It's what we would call random. And the point is that you can't predict when these seasons are coming. You can't control these seasons. You can't control time. You can't save time in a bottle, even if it's sung beautifully by Jim Croce. You have no control over these things, and you can't squeeze in between the moments of time. There is no wrinkle of time. And furthermore, who's to say which of these times is good or which are bad? To gather stones. Why are we gathering stones? To clear a field so that we can plant crops in it? Are we gathering stones for war? Who's to say? And that's the whole point. To answer this question as we go about our work, we do so knowing that we cannot control what comes and what goes. It's kind of like the stock market and everything else that gets caught up in the web of time, and everything is. Everything in life is. Well, if this is true, it creates a problem, he says in verses 10 through 15. Because God has placed us within this created order of time, it creates a problem. And here's a dilemma that he lays out in verses 10 and 11. On the one hand, we are busy with time, and yet we are curious about eternity. God's placed us within these seasons of time. We're concerned about time. Almost everybody wears a watch and is looking at it constantly. We're fixated and watching movies like Interstellar and Tenet and Dunkirk, these movies that are obsessed about time. We're always thinking about eternity as well, though. It's something that we think upon, we dwell upon, and we're asking the question, what happens after death? Is there any time after that? So this eternity burns in our hearts, and yet look what he says. It's hidden from our eyes. We cannot see. We cannot see what God has designed. We cannot see what he's accomplished from the beginning to the end. It's like he says to the prophet Isaiah, my thoughts are not your thoughts. And my ways, neither are your ways my ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts, and my thoughts than your thoughts. And you see, he's underlining again the point that we don't have a master plan when it comes to these things. We can't see anything from its beginning to its end. And yet, look what he says in verse 11. God has made everything beautiful in its time, literally everything proper or fitting in its time. Beautiful, a time to kill, a time to break down, a time to hate, a time for war. Beautiful. According to whom? According to God. And what he sees and what he understands, but we cannot see. We can't see how everything works in God's time, and we can't see possibly how this season could be regarded as fitting or beautiful or appropriate, how it fits with the next season. These are the things that we cannot see. And so there's two conclusions he draws from this. The first conclusion is in verses 12 to 13, and he says, be happy and take pleasure as long as you live. This is a gift. It's a gift of God. It's okay to enjoy the fruit of your hands, to see a good plan come together, to manage a team and to have success in that project, to make something with your hands and to rejoice in it. Or it's okay to enjoy the simple things of life, to eat and drink and to do good and to save it, to enjoy the season of life that you're in. When Oliver Wendell Holmes turned 94, he decided he wanted to learn Greek and somebody said, why are you learning Greek at the age of 94? And he said, well, it's now or never. And you see, he understands. Well, he did understand. And that's exactly what he's saying. That you can't understand, discern these things, enjoy the seasons and the times God gives to you. But then he has a second conclusion in verses 14 through 15. He's already hinted at this. And it's how our limits bump up against God who is unlimited. the nature of God's works is that they endure forever, you can't add to them, you can't subtract from them, this is why people fear God, this is why we have regard for God, and the nature of life itself and time, that which is already has been, what is to be already has been. You can't break the loop of these seasons, the more things change, the more they stay the same, somebody said. This is all seen by God, but not by us. And then God does especially one thing that we cannot do, in this phrase, he says, he seeks what has been driven away. And the word seeks is like a shepherd, is to go searching for something, to go get it, to gather it, to bring it home. And the point here in the context is that there's so much in our seasons of our lives that you and I do not remember. There are memories that are lost or that get swept away or details that seem insignificant, that get lost. But they are significant, and they were not lost. And God, as it were, comes and fetches each of these back home, and someday he'll corral them all together. And perhaps you and I will see the meaning of these things. But again, this is something only God can do, only God can see that you and I cannot. Well, he talks about time and how it runs out in verses 16 through 22. But he has a little interlude here where he says there is a time for that righteous thing. There are those moments when we especially want to see justice done. And he says in verse 16, just at that moment when you expected the right thing to happen, everybody can see is what the right thing is and what should happen. That's the very moment when something wicked takes place. It's the very moment when you're confronted with wickedness and you're surprised. It's like a terrible crime that's been committed and there's been a trial. It's gone on for several, several weeks. The evidence is clear. Everybody knows which way it should go, but the jury comes back and says, not guilty, and we're shocked by those results. And he's saying life is like that. It's filled with these moments. This is how we experience life as well and the times in which we live. But he says in verse 17 that there is hope. He says, God is going to address this wrong. He's going to judge the righteous and the wicked. For there is a time for every matter and for every work, including judgment. And that gives us hope that all these things that we can't understand, these things that we can't figure out, there are these details that the juries and judges miss, information they forgot, things that were lost or things that were ignored, perhaps even on purpose. But God did not miss them. And God will not forget them. They're not lost. and the significance of them are not lost on him. That day is coming, but until then, these are the very things that test our faith. These are the seasons that try us and push us and stretch us, even as they strike us as absurd or vanity, as the preacher here in the text says. But then comes death, the great silencer. This is one of the most important leitmotifs of this book. Death is when time runs out. And he puts it very crassly and starkly according to a person's observations in verse 19. He says, death does not discriminate between species. Everything that has breath eventually dies. As one dies, so dies the other. There's no advantage. Dust returns to dust. At least that's how it seems, he says. If we're judging by appearances, who knows where life goes after death? Do animals have souls? Where do people go? And you see, this is a test of faith as well. Is this really the case? Where do people go? Are we just dust in the wind? So again, he says, enjoy the time that you have, the work that you have, rejoice in it. This is our portion. Because, look at verse 22, no one knows what follows. And you and I cannot see the beginning. And we cannot see how it ends. and that's the point of what we're reading here this evening, of what you and I cannot see, and what God alone sees, the things that you and I cannot know or discern, that he alone knows and discerns, and it's all about the seasons that you and I experience in life, and this passage is very much about the season that you are in right now in your life, that I don't know anything about, that even people that are close to you perhaps cannot really properly discern. This season that you're in, and what this passage is telling us, that it may strike you as random, but that is most certainly not the case. But our God knows better than we do what is best. And you see, there's nothing that is arbitrary in our lives. There's nothing that just happens to us. Everything is directed towards us and for our good. That's the promise of Romans 8, that we know that for those who love God and who are called according to His good purpose, that all things work together for good. In the season you're in, do not be frustrated, but He sees everything from its beginning to its end and everything in between, and He takes all these seasons, all these things, and He consecrates them in order to bring about that plan that God had for you from the very beginning so that everything that enters into your life comes at just the right time, in just the right way, in just the right place. Because this is the God who brings light out of the darkest of all seasons. This is the God who brings joy out of our misery. He's a God literally who brings life from death. In that season of temptation that you're under and perhaps filled with many failures, He's making you wiser for it. And all those failures that you've experienced, these are the things that are humbling you and making you more dependent upon him, this suffering that you and I experience, this character that he's building in you so that you will endure. And that's why verse 11 is perfectly right, that God created every season, beautiful for its time. It's fitting. James 1 says, when these trials come, rejoice in them. But he also says this, as he encourages us to be steadfast, he says, let steadfast have its full effect. Hang in there, let that steadfastness have its full effects in order that you would be complete and lack nothing. Don't abbreviate this season, don't think this is enough, but to hang in there, this testing your faith in order to produce the steadfastness. In this very season, you think God is breaking you down. He's actually building you up. the season where you feel like, I'm finished, but he's just beginning, and a season when truly you are weeping, when he will bring joy. And yes, maybe it's true, he's humbling you, but there'll be a season to follow, and perhaps he will exalt you. But you see, all these things I'm saying are not the things that come from seeing. They're from the perspective of faith. It's from the perspective of time that understands that our present sufferings in these seasons have to be seen in comparison to the eternality of the glory God has reserved for us. That's what Romans 8 says, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Or 2 Corinthians 4.17, this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. The things that are unseen are eternal. The things unseen are the things that transcend time in our present experience, and you can't see it. I can't see it, but we trust God for it. I do not know whether these are weary ways or golden days, but I know whom I believed, and we need to wait upon the Lord in these seasons. you see this applies to the completeness of your salvation from beginning to end and everything in between this is what god is doing those that he foreknew he predestined and those he predestined he is conforming to the image of his son and those he predestined he has called those he called he has justified those he justified he has glorified and jesus christ is is the one we can trust for it he's the formatter and the finisher he's the alpha and the Omega, the first and the last and the beginning and the end. He is the Lord over all of it. And all of it is beautiful. Consecrated by Him who is Lord of your life, sovereign over your life, and who loves you. This is a beautiful thing that God promises to us. For those of us who are fixed in time, you can't see beyond it. But we trust in the One who can. this is a beautiful thing he promises to us but there's one more thing that's even more amazing than all this about time and it is this how the lord himself has condescended to us as you think of the gospel in terms of this text we understand the gospel in this way the eternal son of god has entered into time for you and me eternity has entered in the time galatians 4 said when the fullness of time had come god sent forth his son you see everything comes in its right season there's a time to be born for christ a time to seek and to save the lost a time to heal and a time to love it's interesting when we read about the earthly ministry of Christ that he knew exactly every season. He knew exactly the right moment. And many times we read of this saying that he had, especially in the Gospel of John, where he says, my time has not yet come. It's interesting. In the very first miracle, his mother seeks to engage him at the wedding feast in Canaan and tells him about they've run out of wine. And he says, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come. His brothers say that if you want to make a name for yourself and you need to go up to the feast. And he says to them, well, any time is good in your eyes, but my hour has not yet come. We read once how the crowd wanted to stone Jesus, but the gospel tells us his time had not yet come. But when it comes to the eve of his passion, one of the words that we hear from his lips, He says, my time has come, the time to suffer and to agonize and die on the cross. He pours out his heart to his Father in heaven, and he prays, now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. And think of that, Christ, the eternal Son of God, the one who is sovereign over all rule, authority, and power, and dominion, the one who is Lord over all space and over all time. For him, there is a time for every season. There was a time for him to be born, and now there is a time to die. There was a time for him to bless many people. Now there's a time for him to be cursed by many people. There was a time for him to heal, but now is the time for him to be afflicted. There was a time for him to rejoice with his disciples, but now is the time to weep. There was a season for Christ to comfort, but now is the season for him to be condemned. This is why he came. This is the purpose of his life. He is not the wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. This is exactly why he came. And to think of it, all the ages turn on this one moment of time, which he calls the hour of darkness. But you see, he consecrates all things, and this hour of darkness becomes the hour of redemption. The cross was a time to die, but it's also a time to defeat sin and to set sinners free. And just as there is a time to die, there's a time to rise and to gain victory over death and to win eternal life for all those who love him. You see, just as there was a season for humiliation and for death, there is a season for life and for blessing. And now is the time for captivity to be taken captive. Now is the time for the devourer to be devoured. Now is the time for death, that great silencer, to be silenced. It's now the time for Christ to hold the keys to death and to Hades. It's Christ that gets the last word. He is indeed the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last and the beginning and the end. Time itself is now the servant of Christ, that he is the one who drives all things forward to his glorious purposes. He's the one who causes all things in your life to work for good. He is the one who carries forward that good work he began in you. He'll carry it forward to its completion. We do not always experience time this way. But we will. Just wait and see. Let us pray. Our gracious God and our Father, we read in your word this evening that the time is near. That Christ said, I'm coming soon. So we must watch and pray, come Lord Jesus, come soon. But until then, give us eyes of faith that we would trust you in season and out of season. This we pray and ask in Jesus' name. Amen.