Word of Salvation – Vol. 33 No. 27– July 1988

Man’s Place In God’s Time

Sermon by Rev. J. Haverland on Eccles. 3:1-15

Reading: Psalm 90, Romans 8:28-39

Brothers and sisters, beloved in the Lord,

Most of us here today have watches on.  Probably even most of the children have a watch.  We all wear a watch because we like to know what the time is.  We want to know when to do different things during the day.  When to get up, how late we are for school, when lunchtime will be, how soon it is before we can knock off, when to expect dinner or our visitors.

None of us can escape the fact that our lives are governed by time.  You are especially reminded of this if you have one of these digital watches that bleeps away every hour or half hour!  All of us are aware that there is a routine to life, a pattern.  No one can get away from this.

Life has an order, a structure.  The theory of evolution would have us believe that this is a random structure, a pattern that has occurred over time plus chance.  But the Christian believes that the world is ordered by God.  God is in control of time.  This is where Eccles.3 is the answer to chapter 2.  Chapter 2 asked: what is the meaning of life?  Chapter 3 responds: Life has meaning because God is in control of time.  Life has meaning because man has a place in God's time.  This is the theme of our text: Man's place in God's time.  So today we will consider two things:

1.  God's time.

2.  Man's time.

1.  God's Time

a.  Our text begins with the declaration that God is sovereign over time.  "There is an appointed time for everything.  There is a time for every event under heaven."

The following verses then go on to describe in a beautiful poem all the areas of life that God is in control of.  The poem begins by drawing the outside boundaries of man's life in the world.  There is a time to give birth, and a time to die.  We all know that.  We are all reminded of that every time a new baby is born and every time a person dies.  Then there follows a description of the whole range of events in human life.  All the activities we are engaged in.  For everything there is a time and in everything God is in control.

This is what vs.15 is also stressing.  God knows everything that goes on.  God has all things in mind.  There is nothing past, present or future which lies outside the mind of God.  You see, He is the Creator.  He is God.  He is the Lord.  And He is sovereign over time.

b.  The second thing to notice about God's time is that it is beautiful: (vs.11) "He has made everything beautiful (appropriate) in its time."  This is what Gen.1 records about the creation of the world: "And God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good."  The same could be said of God's work of salvation.  The psalms are full of the beauty and harmony of the works of God.

But you may be thinking that not everything we see around us today is beautiful.  We can all think of things that are far from ordered, far from good.  There are many things that seem terribly inappropriate to us.  You may have experienced some of those things yourself.  Unexpected death.  Illness, suffering or pain or trial.  We can look wider in the world as well.  We can look at the uprooting, the killing, the tearing down, the mourning, the famine, the war.  Are they all beautiful?  And the answer is: No!  Not all that happens seems beautiful to us.  Why is that?

i)  One reason for this is that God's good creation is distorted by sin.  The creation is groaning.  It has been subjected to futility.  We live in a sinful world and are constantly confronted by the effects of sin.

ii)  The other reason we don't see the appropriateness of things is because we are human and limited.  Because we are human we don't see the whole picture of what God is doing.

Some of you may have seen Rembrandt's "Nightwatch" in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  It is a very big painting.  It covers a whole wall.  Because vandals attacked it with knives one day you are not allowed to get close to it.  You have to view it from a distance.  You have to stand back.  But in fact this is the only way to appreciate it properly.  If you stood a foot away from it you wouldn't see it in perspective.  You wouldn't see how the part you are looking at fits in with the whole painting.  Yet this is often how we look at God's plan.  We are too close to see it in perspective.

This is what The Preacher means in vs.11 when he says that man cannot find out the work that God has done from beginning to end.  We don't see everything.  We don't see the whole canvas.  This is, in fact, why we are called to live by faith.  We don't have answers to all our questions.  We don't understand everything.  But we hold on to the things that we know to be true.

We believe that all things work together for good for those who love God, even if at times we see through the glass darkly.  We believe that all that He does is beautiful.  We believe that somehow God is working out His purposes in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega.  He stands at the beginning and end of history.  All that God has done and is doing finds its focus in Him.  He is the one who brings harmony and direction to the confusion of our lives.  Our ascended Lord is the Lord of history.  He will do all things well.  And so we believe that His time is beautiful.

c.  The third thing we confess is that God's time is perfect (vs.14a).

Some of you may have seen the film "Amadeus" on the life of Mozart.  In the film someone was commenting on a piece he had written.  "It was perfect!", he said.  "There was not a note out of place!  It was all just as it should be!"

Now, in a way that is beyond our comprehension, all that God does is perfect.  No one can add to it or take from it.  It all has a harmony of purpose, a great comprehensiveness of design.  It is all part of God's perfect plan as it centres in our Lord Jesus.

But now we need to face a question.  If God is in control – what about us?  If God's time is sovereign and beautiful and perfect, what is there left for us to do?  What about our responsibility?  What is the point of us doing anything if God has it all sewn up anyway?  The question occurs to The Preacher of course: vs.9... (read it)

Which brings us to consider:

2.  Man's Place in God's Time

What is your place in the plan and purposes of God?

a.  The Preacher tells us that our first responsibility is to be busy for God (vs.10... read it).

The word "task" can be translated as "task" or "burden".  The NIV uses burden.  The NASB uses "task".  The translation of this word depends on how you interpret the context.  The context of this passage is giving us God's perspective on things.  This is the believer speaking from a position of faith.  For this reason the translation of the word as "task" is to be preferred.

As the believer looks at life in God's time he sees that we have been given a job to do.  God gives us a task, a position of responsibility, something to be busy with.  That was true even of Adam in a perfect world.  He wasn't supposed to be idle.  No, he was to be busy in the garden.  Busy for God in God's world.  This is true for us as well.  All of us who believe are part of the kingdom of Christ.  The King has given each one of us a responsibility.  He puts all of us in a particular place and tells us to be busy for Him.  Paul explained this to the believers in Corinth: "Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil in the Lord is not in vain." (1Cor.15:58).  This call and word of encouragement comes to each one of us too.  Be busy with your task!

b.  Not only are we to be busy for God but we are also to seek God (vs.11).  This is what The Preacher means when he tells us in vs.11 that God has set eternity in the hearts of man.  The Preacher is reminding us that we have been made in the image of God.  That means that we were made spiritual beings like God.  We were made for eternity.

Now the fall into sin has distorted and warped this spiritual nature.  The fall means that we cannot find God on our own anymore.  But we still have this spiritual awareness.  All of us have a need and a longing for spiritual realities because this is how we were made.  We were made for God and for eternity.

St. Augustine expressed this in his famous words: "Man's heart is restless till it finds its rest in Thee".  We were made for eternity.  We need to find the eternal God.  So we need to seek Him.  As we live in God's world and in His time we need to seek God.  We must do that all the time.  If you have not begun to do that yet, then you must begin today!  "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart" (Ps.95:7-8).  "The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber" (Rom.13:11).  So be busy for God.  And seek God.

c.  Thirdly we are to rejoice in God (vs12-13).  According to vs.12 life is meant to be lived!  God did not make us to be gloomy and subdued and unhappy in this world.  He created a world that is resplendent with beauty and bursting with his goodness.  He wants us to enjoy it!  There is nothing better than to rejoice!  To be happy!  To enjoy your meals!  To make yourself a delicious drink!  To come home satisfied after a good day's work!  To find satisfaction in your labour!  These are the joys of life!  These are gifts from God that He wants us to enjoy!  So be glad in them.  Take pleasure in them as gifts from the Great Giver.  Be busy for God, seek God, rejoice in God.

d.  Finally we should also fear God.

We have left this until last because this is the ultimate purpose of life.  The highest calling in life is to praise and honour God!  To recognise Him as the One who is!  To give our Lord Jesus the worship He deserves!  To love Him with all of our being!  This should be our greatest concern.  Our central goal in all of life.  To fear God!  A God who is Sovereign.  A God who has done all things beautifully.  A God who orders everything to perfection.

We live as finite creatures before the infinite God!  We live as small creatures before our Great Creator!  But God has, in Christ, made us a new creation.  We have a place in God's eternal time, to be busy for him.  To be seeking him.  To be rejoicing in him.  To be worshipping him.  May the Holy Spirit help us find our place in God's time.  And as we do this we will experience a foretaste of how we will spend eternal time with God.

AMEN.