Shabbat Shalom everyone. This ministry meeting, I would like you to open to the book of Ecclesiastes. In Hebrew, the book of Kohelet. And we are today going to read chapter 3, verses 1 to 22. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which 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 get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to rend 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 of war and a time of shalom, of peace. What profit has he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He has made everything beautiful in His time. Also, He had set the world in their hearts, so that no man can find out the works that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it nor anything taken from it and God doeth it that men should feel before him that which hath been is now and that which is to be has already have been and God requireth that which is past. And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts for that which befalleth the son of man befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth, so dieth the other, yet they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast, for all is vanity. All go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goes upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downwards to the earth? Wherefore, I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him. And I'm stopping here in verse 22 of Kohelet chapter 3. Again, brothers and sisters, this man with the description, Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, in the book that we are studying, is a man that is called Shlomo. In Hebrew, Solomon, in English, the king of Israel, the one who was the son of David, David the king.

We read in Ecclesiastes chapter one and verse one, the words of Kohelet and the King James, the preacher, the son of David, king in Yerushalayim. Kohelet come from the root word Kahal. Kahal come from the word congregation, an assembly of the people of Israel whom Shlomo, Solomon, have gathered together, assembled them together in order to minister to the nation of Israel. I mentioned that and I'm repeating it once again. When he was young, he wrote the book of Song of Songs, Shir Hashirim, a little bit older in his life, when he got somehow wiser, because God had given him wisdom, he wrote the book of Mishlei, which is the book of Proverbs.

Now, later on in his life, after all the mistakes that he had made, and after all the departure from the Lord, from the God of Israel, Shlomo returning in confession, and he's presenting before Israel this book that is called the book of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes. He's speaking to Israel, the nation, and he's speaking to you and I as well today, and he's teaching us the importance of living life, living our life in such a way that God is in the center of our life. We cannot continue our life without God because he said in chapter 1, verse 2, Vanity of vanities, sayeth Kohelet. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What profit hath a man of all that he labor which he have taketh under the sun? Under the sun, in Hebrew, Tachat Hashemesh. In chapter 3, Under heaven, Min Tachat Hashemayim. That which is under heaven, under the sky, here and now in this world, not above the sky, not above the heavens, not in the presence of God in glory, but here and now in this world of sin and corruption and failure and all that which the world is characterized by. And we believers are part and parcel of this world. We can see in our own lives that we have this sinful nature which oftentimes fail the Lord in honoring Him here in this world.

So in chapter 1, He began by presenting the fact that all is vanity. The cycle of life, when people finish this life here, they leave everything behind. Even the believers leave everything behind. Only that which was done for the Messiah will last. This is chapter one. Human wisdom doesn't help us if God is not the center of our life. This is the presentation that he had for Israel in chapter one. Chapter 2, which we have finished in our previous ministry together, Shlomo showed Israel that he searched for meaning and purpose in his life, and eventually he found out that everything is vanity. He tried wine, it didn't help.

He tried pleasure, it didn't help. He tried building himself houses and vineyards and gardens and orchards and pools, He had many servants and male servants, maiden servants, possessions of cattle and silver and gold and peculiar treasures, men singers, women singers, musical instruments. He had everything beloved brothers and sisters and he concluded that having all this and having not God as the center of my life all is eventually is hevel havalim vanity or vanities and so he's preaching he's gathering the nation and he said to them as I mentioned again and again at the end of the book in chapter 12 and verse 1 remember Israel remember Bible believers remember believers in Yeshua the Messiah now your creator in the day of thy youth don't wait till you get old because later on when we're going to get old you will see that you don't have any desire anymore for anything here in this world it's going to be too late remember now your creator in the day of thy youth.

Fear God, keep his commandments, for God eventually will bring every work into judgment. And here now, beloved brothers and sisters, where we move along into chapter 3, Shlomo, Solomon, present before Israel the truth of the providence of God in time and in season. Under the sun. What does that mean, the providence of God? The providence of God simply means that God directs all things to do his own will in this world. While we know that men in general said to God, no, I don't want you in my life. Yet God directs the affairs of the human race here in this world. But beloved, not only that he directs the life of all humanity, he also directs our life, your life and mine, who are already believers in Yeshua, the Messiah.

Of course, Shlomo is not now speaking to us today because he's already in heaven but he was speaking to Israel a chosen people a nation that God had brought to himself and to them he said Israel you need to remember your creator in the day of your youth because you will find out that if you live life without God as a believer as a people of God you will notice that there will be no purpose in your life so in. Chapter 3 the fact that God is sovereign beloved brothers and sisters the providence of God in Hebrew we call it God is observing he sees he pulling the strings he allow everything to happen in the life of the people of God today, even though we don't realize that.

I remember the verse in Romans 8, verse 28, when Shaul Paul said to the believers at Rome, For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. So whatever happened in our life, God knows the good things, the bad things, the easy things, the hard things, The things that are complicated and the things that are easy. The trials and the sorrows and all that we experience in our life. God, who is sovereign, he knows all things that are going to happen in our life. So, Shlomo HaMelech, the King Solomon in chapter 3, gathering Israel and he's showing them the providence of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And so he began, notice, in the first 15 verses, we can divide this chapter into mainly, you might say, two major sections. Verses 1 to 15, we have the unexplainable purposes of God here in this world. We don't understand everything what God allows for the people of God to experience here in this world. But then in verses 16 to the end, verse 22, we see that God purposed that ultimately he will judge those who live here in this world and how they live their life. He will ultimately evaluate this in the time of judgment. So let me begin with the first eight verses. In verses 1 to 8, God purposed for man for eternity here that he knows everything that is going on here under the sun.

He began of course with verse 1 and in verse 1 he set things in order right at the beginning. It says to everything there is a season and a time in every purpose under the heaven. Let's just pause here for a moment. He began, before he continued on, and he gave us those 28 statements, which are really 14 pairs of opposites. In verses 2 to verse 8, he first of all declared effect. The fact is, to everything, there is a season, in Hebrew, zman, And a time, in Hebrew et, and to every purpose under the heaven. In other words, whatever is happening here in this world, in the life of God's people, and in the life of all humanity, to everything, there is a season and there is a time.

There is a season and there is a time to every purpose here under the sun. And God had a purpose and a time to whatever is going on here in this world. You know, things that happen in the life of the people of God did not happen by accident. God had a purpose. God had a plan. You remember again, I mentioned Romans 8 and verse 28. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, In other words, God said through Shlomo, there is a real purpose in what's going on in your life. Don't think for a moment that God allow you to go through those challenges without to have a purpose behind it.

God who is pulling the strings, as we read here, He's the one that is controlling the affairs of this world. He has a purpose with what's going on for you and for me in my life. Everything has a season. It's going to happen in a certain time. And eventually there is a motive and a purpose behind it. You know, we may ask the question like many done over the years. Why am I here? What's happened to me right now in my life? I'm experiencing problems. I'm experiencing perhaps disappointments, problems maybe at home and problems at work. Why, Lord, you allow this for me to experience in my life?

And the Lord says, listen, you have to realize that whatever experience you're experiencing in your life, there is a time, there is a season that it comes. Later on, it disappear, and then another challenge is going to come into your life. I don't know who was there the other day who told me, Brother Gideon, I finished with this problem, and I'm very thankful, but another one is going to come not too long from now. And there is a purpose in this as well, beloved brothers and sisters. So Solomon is pointing to the fact that although men have sinned, and when he was born into this world, he was born in sin, and we all have been experiencing the truth of fallen nature, but still we are still to submit to God who is in control over the affairs of this world.

He has a purpose. He has a plan for mankind. And what he's going to accomplish here in this world. Now I just want to pause here for a moment. And mention this fact. That when Shlomo wrote this. He specifically wrote it for the people of Israel. And obviously the people of Israel were the people of God. The chosen people. And he didn't present it necessarily with the unbelieving world. The unbelieving world do not recognize that God is really existing. They rejected God. That's the unbelieving world. For you and I today, it's the same. This passage is written for us who claim to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah.

We are saved. We are forgiven. We are part of the church, you might say the assembly, the congregation. And we are responsible to appropriate this for ourselves. I don't expect this for the unregenerated world. He or she need, first of all, to become saved. Then they can appreciate what is written here in this passage. And so now, after Shlomo is mentioning in verse 1 that there is a season and a time in every purpose under the sun, notice he gives us 28 times in which he used the word there is a time for this and there is a time for that. And it is interesting, 28 times he's using the word time.

In Hebrew, the word time, it's his et, very similar to moed. There's an appointed season that God have allowed things to occur in this universe. And then he's using these 28 times, and it's actually 14 times that we have really pairs of two opposites. 14 times plus 14, 28, and he's using that expression, there is a time for that, and there is a time for that. 28 times, he used the word et in Hebrew, time in English. 14 pairs, and every pair have a positive and a negative. There are pairs that you have the two sides of the presentation. So notice that I'm just going to go through some of these verses together.

And we usually read these verses in a funeral service, for example. Many a time we find someone began in a funeral service where somebody passed away. He was just alive not too long ago and now God took this individual. So the preacher, Shlomo, is saying in verse 2 to verse 8, there is a time to be born and there is a time to die. There is a time to plant and there is a time to pluck up that which is planted. There is a time to kill and there is a time to heal. There is a time to break down and a time to build up. And he continues on in verses 2 to 8 using this expression there is a time there is an appointed season and we learn here immediately that he began with a time to be born you know none of us have made a decision when you and I will be born we never knew the day we will be born we never knew the hour that we will be born we never knew the minute or the second that our mothers will bring us out here into this world no man is in control over these thing only God set this at this season this time that a baby will be born think about it beloved.

Brothers and sisters when Yeshua the Messiah was born when God in the fullness of time Galatians 4.4 sent forth his son made of a woman this is Miriam this Hebrew woman and then he was made under the law he was born to the nation of Israel who were at that time under the law that God had given to the nation they sought you might say to follow the instruction of the Lord and God had made it happen exactly at the right place at the right time to the right woman by the name of Miriam and part of the nation of Israel. It is divine design. No man planned it.

No man ordained it. God in a supernatural way brought about the Messiah to this world. But it's you and I in the same way. Our parents gave us life. And the time that we were born, it is a gift from God which God had provided for us here in this world. There's a time to be born and also beloved brothers and sisters notice it says in the very same verse there is also a time to die now no one knows when one will die you know today they are trying to fix things they call it an assistance in causing someone to die and you know there was a struggle over the years in many countries what to do how to handle this situation because only God gives life and only God takes life away.

And therefore, the king of Israel, Shlomo Solomon, is saying to Israel, to the congregation, Kohelet is saying, listen, there is a time to be born, but there is also a time to die. He says, everything is set in order by divine design. God is the one who gives life. God is the one that takes life away. I remember the verse that came to my mind is in the book of Job. Eov, when he was going through so many trials in his life, and his wife told him, you know, curse God and die. And he told her, you know, the Lord gave and the Lord took away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. In other words, he realized that everything that was given, including life and death, was the provision that the Lord had provided for men. So a time to be born and a time to die. Another reminder, if you remember when Abraham wanted so badly to have a son, Yitzhak, his son, and then he could not wait any longer, and his wife couldn't wait any longer, Sarah. And Sarah said to him, you know, we can't wait any longer. Just take Hagar, my maiden, and bring me children through Hagar. And God said to Abraham, in the right time, in the moment, in the right time, Genesis chapter 18, Sarah will be with a child and she will give birth.

God is the one who set up the time for Abraham. But of course, Abraham did not listen at that time. He listened actually to his wife and he had a child from Hagar and he ended up to have the conflict that exists between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael until today. Because when we don't obey the Lord, not realizing the Lord's timing, then we fall short of what God is intending for mankind. So there is a time to be born. There is a time to die. Death is separation between the body and the soul and the spirit. God is the one that removes a person out of this world.

We don't set up the time. No one set up the time except God himself. A time to be born, a time to die. Notice in verse 2b, a time to plant and a time to pluck up. See, even in nature, God's divine nature here, we need many to know when to plant the seed that there will be growth. You cannot plant it at any time, any days of the year. The farmer needs to know there is a time to plant and there is also a time to pluck out that which was planted, knowing it's not going to bring fruit at all, and the time is to pluck out.

Verse 3, a time to kill and a time to heal. Nonetheless, it doesn't say a time to murder, but to kill. And then it says a time to heal. If you remember in the governments of God, in Genesis chapter 9, We find out that God declared governmental judgment. He that takes life, his life shall be taken. He that took blood and his blood shall be taken away from him. This is government of God. It's not that everyone take it to himself to kill somebody. It's got to be in a right judicial way in which God had set it up here in this world. So a time to kill and a time to heal and how we need to learn that there is a time to help and to heal and to restore one that have been in a need of healing.

And so God is setting the time even to heal. Notice a time to break down and a time to build up. You know, there's a time that one needs to learn to break down that which is contrary to the will of God, to set it aside. And then on the other hand, there's a time to build when things are falling apart and God set it in life here for humanity, the necessity to build and to be an asset among mankind here in this world. He continued on with that 14 opposites, and I'm just going to go to one or two more. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

You know, to know when to weep, when to mourn when someone has a need, and to mourn with someone, to identify with someone. To do so in the right time, or a time to laugh. In Hebrew it says lishok, to have laughter and so on. One needs to know when to do so. Sometimes we don't weep with those that weep. We don't identify with them. On the other hand, when we need to enjoy and to have laughter, we do not know how to participate in this. And so King Solomon reminded Israel, and he reminded you and I, There is to everything under the heaven there is a purpose.

There is a season. There is a time to every purpose that is here under the heaven. And even though we have inherited a sin nature, we are still responsible to submit to the Lord and to have a sense of building and a sense of doing that which the Lord have called us to do. There is a time to plant and there is a time to pluck up that which was planted. Yeshua said in Matthew chapter 15 verse 12, those words to the disciples about the religious leaders of Israel who are not living in a way that is pleasing the Lord. Notice what he said in verses 12 and 13.

Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he, this is Yeshua, he answered and he said, Every plant which my heavenly father has not planted, it shall be rooted up. In other words, there's a time to plant, but there's also a time to take it out. And he, of course, gave a spiritual lesson about those that did not follow the Lord. And he said that there will be a time that they will be rooted up. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, those 14 twins, you might say, or pairs of opposites are being presented by King Solomon for the people of Israel.

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Remember, it is under the heaven, it is on earth where we live in today. We need to be wise and to accept things from the hand of the Lord and to realize that there is a time and there is a season for everything that is going on in this world. We are to submit to the Lord and we are to seek to obey Him and to live for Him while we are experiencing those opposites in this life. And so I'm going to move along because there is so much to be said about those eight verses.

A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to render, a time to sow, a time to be silent and a time to speak. By the way, how many a times when we should be silent, we speak? We say the wrong things. We say things that we shouldn't have said. And how many times when we should speak, we keep silent and we don't speak. Isn't it true, beloved brothers and sisters? You see, that shows that we are not in tune and submissive to the Lord when there's a time that we should just don't say things and keep it to our hearts, to ourselves, and humble ourselves before the Lord.

And there's a time that we should speak, maybe to challenge a brother or a sister, maybe to encourage them maybe to correct them you know sometimes we need to be corrected and it's so important for us to speak when someone carry on in a wrong way in a wrong path he or she need to be corrected but to speak the truth in love rather than to criticize and to put people down on the other hand when we need to be silent We are not silent. We speak and we should have just been silent before the Lord. Notice, by the way, in verse 8 at the end, a time to love and a time to hate.

Now, what does that mean, that we are to hate people? The answer is no. We are to love humanity. For God so loved the world. But we are to hate sin. We are to hate evil. Sometimes we reverse that. We love the pleasure of sin for a season. As the Bible tells us that men love darkness rather than light. We hate that which is pleasing to the Lord because our sin nature takes its way, its own course. And so we learn from these beloved brothers and sisters that the people of God need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God as to how to conduct ourselves here in this world when there are so many opposites, born and death and love and hatred.

Notice the last thing it says here, a time for war and a time of shalom, of peace. You know, there is a time that one has to stand for that which is right and to seek to be faithful for that which is right. That does not mean to war in a sense of going just for no good reason to harm someone, but there is a time that one has to go out. You look at the history of Israel. Israel, many times when the Lord has led Israel into the promised land, How many times he sent Israel to war against the enemies of Israel? Now, they were not supposed to just carelessly to do so, but the conflict was there.

And how, beloved brothers and sisters, spiritually for us, we are to war against the flesh and against the world. We are to resist Satan and his influence against the people of God. But there is also a time that we are to seek shalom and to seek peace. It's so beautiful to see when believers are in harmony, when there is shalom among the brothers and sisters, how wonderful it is through forgiveness and through enabling the Lord to work in the midst. There is a time to fight a war. There is a time to seek for peace because to everything there is a season. And a time in every purpose here under the heaven.

Are we in tune, we can ask ourselves? Well, King Solomon said to Israel, Israel, I'm telling you, these rules of life, the providence of God, allow it in such a way because men fall into sin that eventually there is a time and a season to everything that is going on under the sun because God purposed it to be so in order to allow us to be under his authority. So now, verses 1 to 8, we have the first declaration of Solomon, the purpose or the order for men in time and everything under the sun. So he moves along now in verses 9, 10, 11, and 12, all the way to verse 15, and he shows us in those verses that God ordered for men to honor him every time whatever he allowed him to experience in his life.

We need to learn to honor the Lord in our life. And so he began in verse 9. He asked the question, well what is the purpose then of everything that is going on here in this world. Notice, what profit has he that worketh in that wherein he is laboring? We are laboring here in this world. We continue on to walk here in this world. What is the benefit of what I'm doing here in this world? So he's now pointing in verse 10 to the fact that there are trials in life. Notice verse 10, I have seen the travail which God had given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

In other words, God have allowed us to suffer, to go through trials. To have challenges in life. Notice he used that word travail. It's the Hebrew word for burdens that we are experiencing in our life and then the expression to be exercised in it means that men will be ultimately afflicted through this you know when we are experiencing trials in our life we are being afflicted and when the affliction come our way how do we handle that do we turn back to God or do we depart away from him apparently Solomon with his experience could say that at time he was not, when affliction came his own way, or when things have drawn him away from the Lord, he did not submit to the Lord.

He did not really allow God to mold him later on when he had been astray from the Lord, to mold him and to shape him and to draw him closer to himself. So verse 9 and verse 10, Solomon asked this question, what is the prophet for me? In all the labor that I do here in this world, eventually he says, really, the trials that I'm experiencing, God have allowed them especially to come across my life. And so in verse 11, he gives us a very beautiful statement. The first statement in verse 11, he says, God has made everything beautiful in his time. Just pause here for a moment. In other words, Everything that is going on in this world, God had made it in Hebrew, the word yaffe or good.

Everything that God had allowed to happen in this world, he made it to be beautiful in his time. In his time, in other words, the life in its process and its trials and its challenges eventually work together for the benefit of mankind. Everything, beloved brothers and sisters, he had made everything. Don't think for a moment that there are certain things that are hidden from God in our own life. He made everything beautiful, but he also made it in his time. Why didn't he rush to fix my problems a little faster, you know? You and I might ask, and the Lord says, no, I know you, Gideon, and I know you, and he can call you by name.

I know why I delayed my fixing or helping you with this trial in your life, because I know that you needed it. You needed it. It was for your own good, in order that you will benefit from that eventually. You know, you look for a Job and you apply here and you apply there and you hope to get that Job and it didn't come across. And you get discouraged and you don't know how to handle it. What should I do? The believer who is waiting on the Lord is trusting the Lord and saying, Lord, I will wait on you until you will give me the right Job.

Maybe you will open the heart of this boss and maybe he will bring me the thing that I really long for. God had made everything beautiful in his time. Maybe someone is waiting to get married and he want to find or she want to find a suitable husband or a suitable wife. And God is allowing if they are in the will of the Lord to wait on him because he had made everything beautiful here in his time. Our thinking of the verses that is found in the book of Psalms, Psalm 27, Isaiah chapter 40, they that wait upon the Lord, that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength.

If we wait on him, he will ultimately fulfill that which he has in mind for us. So in verse 11, number one, he had made everything beautiful in his time. But secondly, brothers and sisters, in verse 11, he also, notice, he has set the world in their heart. What does it mean, he set the world in their heart? The Hebrew word is olam. And the word olam means in Hebrew, eternity. In other words, God has set eternity in humanity. God has set eternity in humanity. You see, the difference between we as men and the animal kingdom or the plant kingdom is that we were made in the image and the likeness of God.

We have spirit, soul, and body. In other words, we are creatures that are not going to live here only for a season. We're going to live forever and ever, either in the presence of God, forgiven people, or away from God, and unforgiven people. And God has set the world, or eternity, in their heart. We learn from this that because God has set eternity in our hearts, we are not only going to live these 60, 80, 100 years old here on earth. We are people who are going to live eternity with God. And therefore, we are responsible to live for Him here in this world. We cannot live our life without God.

We cannot live our life like the animals. We're going to see this in a moment. No animals get up in the morning and say, oh God, I thank you that you have created me. No plant get up in the morning and a bright shining and say, oh God, I thank you that I belong to you. But every human being that is part of the race of Adam, God has placed within us eternity, everlasting. Either everlasting away from the Lord or everlasting life with the Lord because of his provision. So God made everything beautiful here in his time, but realize, Shlomo is saying to Israel, that God set eternity in your heart.

You belong to God. If you was born as a descendant of Adam and Eve, you have eternity in your heart. Did you turn to God or did you reject God? Have you confessed your sins and became saved and forgiven or you rejected God and continue on in the path of sin here in this world? Let me read with you a verse in the book of Psalms. Look what Moses said, the man of God said to Israel in Psalm 90. It says here in verse 2, Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

The Hebrew word is the same word. Me'olam ve'ad olam ata Elohim. From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 11b. The Lord hath set eternity everlasting in their hearts. And so Solomon understood that he was not an animal. That he was the king of Israel. That the people of Israel were not animals. They were the people who were chosen by God. And God had placed eternity in their hearts. And they are accountable and responsible to a living God. Now imagine what happened to the world that rejects God. The world is saying, well God, there is no God. We don't believe in God.

There is no God. And you know, when they do so, they're actually claiming to be atheists. No God in their life. But in reality, they know very well in their inner hearts that they are accountable to a living God. That's why man is making gods out of gold and of silver. They take a tree and they form it and they say, this is your God. Because man, the way he was made, created in the image and the likeness of God, God had placed within man the necessity to be accountable to a living God. He hath set eternity in their hearts. That's why, beloved brothers and sisters, a man that rejects God or a person that rejects God, He claiming to be an atheist and he rejects the God consciousness that he has.

We all have a conscience that relates us to a living God. We are responsible. Oh boy, I'm accountable to this living God. I have one day to give an account of how did I live my life. And so we read in this passage that God had set eternity in their heart. And that there is the plurality of humanity. It's Adam and Eve. He's the descendants of Adam and Eve. He has set that eternity in their heart. From eternity to eternity, God is indeed the living God who created us in the image and the likeness of God. I just want to elaborate just a little bit more about this.

This is why men should have never offered a human sacrifice upon an altar. Yesterday in our Bible class, we studied the prophet Isaiah. And then we read in the book of Jeremiah, in the valley of Hinnom, Gabe and Hinnom, just outside of Jerusalem, the nations used to offer human sacrifice. And in Israel, when they disobeyed God, also themselves adopted this lifestyle. You could never offer a human sacrifice. Why? Why? Because God has set eternity in the human race. We have spirit, soul, and body. When we die, the body goes to the grave, but we are related to a living God. The soul and the spirit is going to spend eternity with the living God.

And this is why God allowed animals to be killed and offered as a sacrifice. Because when an animal dies, he doesn't live any longer beyond the grave. That's why the sacrificial system was allowed as a type of the Messiah. The lamb and the ram and the goat and the calf, they could be killed to serve a picture of the death of the Messiah. But you could never offer a human sacrifice. That is exactly what God is saying here. He has set eternity in their heart. And that's why the human race is precious to the Lord. Because the Lord knows that when they leave this world without forgiveness of sins, they're going to spend eternity away from God in judgment.

And he's inviting all to come and accept the Redeemer and the Savior. So verse 11 is an extremely interesting verse. Number one, verse 11a, he has made everything beautiful in his time. Number two, he has set eternity in their hearts. Every one of us is an eternal being. We have spirit, soul, and body, and we belong to the Lord. But notice thirdly, in verse 11, it says that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. You know, even though we are creatures of God, we have spirit, soul, and body, we have eternity in our heart, but we are not gods.

We can't know everything that God, as he did it from the past, from the beginning to the end. We don't know everything. We are learning here in this world. We are learning. We are growing up. We are learning more about God, more about how to live our life here in this world. Even the oldest one in our midst can always tell us, oh, you know, the more I know, the more I find out that I know very little. God is supreme. He is above. He is the creator. We are the creatures. He is the sustainer. We are being sustained. No man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.

People are trying to be gods, even by, if you notice, by medicine, they're trying to clone someone as if they can create a human being. But no, God did not give it to men to know. We are limited because we are creatures. He is divine. We are men. We are women. We are people. And therefore, as it says here, no man can find out what God maketh from the beginning to the end. Paul said it in Romans 11 and verse 33. He says, and I'm reading that verse, very interesting verse. Or the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who knows the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor or who has first given to him and it shall be recompense unto him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever and ever.

You know, when I think of these verses, can you imagine the God that we have? He made all things beautiful in His time. He placed in our hearts eternity. We belong to Him. But He limited us because He is divine and we are creatures. He is our God and we are to worship Him and to praise Him. So in verse 11, Shlomo is saying that God made everything beautiful. He has set eternity in our hearts and we cannot fathom this great God of ours. We are limited in how to know and how much to know about this God. And yet, the amount that we know, we will worship Him.

The more we know of Him, the more we appreciate His love for us beloved brothers and sisters. So please let's move along. In verses 12, 13, and 14, Shlomo knows by experience that there is no good in men. And I think we'll have to learn that. Notice verse 12. I know that there is no good in them. This is in men. But for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life. Realize this. There is no good in men. Don't try to improve your human nature. Your human nature, my human nature, is declared to be dead. You are dead in your trespasses and sins, the apostles said.

The Bible teaches us that this human nature, this is a sinful nature. God had to judge this old man. Paul said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Romans chapter 7. Now, do you think it is something new that only Shaul Paul found out? Well, King Solomon said, I know. Like Shaul Paul said, I know. I know that there is no good in them, in the human race. Why there is no good in you and I? Not because God did not create us innocent. We were created in innocency but we have fallen into sin we rebelled against God we say to him if you and I were in the garden of Eden God I want this thing that you have commended me not to eat and we would have fallen the same thing as Adam fell some 6,000 years ago I know Shlomo said there is no good in them no good in humanity All have sinned, Romans 3, verse 23, and come short of the glory of God.

So what then? If we have sinned and we are fallen creatures and we have been brought into this world in that condition, what should we do? Well, the answer, of course, is to repent before the Lord, to turn to Him and become a believer, a child of God, forgiven person, and to rejoice and to do good here in this life, Solomon said. Live your life close to the Lord. Use it for the glory of the Lord. Do the right thing. Rejoice in what the Lord had provided for you. This is verse 12. In verse 13, he said, And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor.

It is a gift of God. In other words, whatever the Lord has given to us, to rejoice and to be thankful. Remember, James said in James 1, 17, Every good and perfect thing came from above, from the Father of lights. Everything we have, the good that we have, came to us from the Father of lights. It's a gift that God had given for man. So we are to rejoice, but not to set God aside. Not to say, God, move aside. I don't want to have you in my life. I want to have good time. Don't bother me in my life. No, no. Solomon said, no, no. He said, you are to enjoy the good.

You are to realize that it is a gift that was given to you from God. Rejoice and enjoy it. Shaul Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 6, God had given us all things to enjoy. He said this to Timothy. Everything is a gift of God, beloved brothers and sisters. Have God as the center of your life and enjoy what he had given to you. And then verse 14, Shlomo is stating a fact for life that whatever God do, he will ultimately, notice I'm reading verse 14, he says, I know that whatsoever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it and not anything can be taken out of it and God doeth it that men should feel before him if you read the book of Revelation this is the last words of the Lord no one can add anything to it nor remove anything from it lest God will place upon him the curse of the Lord Deuteronomy chapter 4 he said to Israel the same thing In fact, I better read that.

Revelation 22, verse 18 and 19. For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. Verse 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. He said the same thing to our people Israel in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 4 before Israel have entered into the promised land to Canaan.

God, whatever he did, it is set forever. Nothing can be put to it, to be added, and nothing is to be taken out of it. And God has set it in such a way that we should fear him. We should revere him and honor him because He is in control of the affairs of this world. And so the word for fear is not to be afraid of Him, but to give Him reverence. Solomon said in chapter 1 of the book of Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of God, brothers and sisters, it's so good to know that we have a living God who loves us and want us to honor Him in our life and to be enjoying Him for time and for eternity.

Notice what it says in verse 15 by King Shlomo. With God, time is eternal. What was, it is already now. What will be, it has already been. In other words, God is eternal. That which has been is already now. And that which is to be, it was already in the past. God requires that which is past. In other words, Shlomo is saying God is eternal. He is not limited to time and space. You and I are limited to time and space. Not God. With God, what has been is already now. What will be in the future has been already in existing in the past. Peter took it in the book of Peter and he's quoting the psalmist of Israel.

A thousand years is as one day. And one day it is as a thousand years. You know, we are struggling here in this world. What's the time? How long? How long? And God says, yo, one minute or one hour for me is a long time has already passed. You just wait a little bit longer. Wait on the Lord. Whatever has happened is already now. Whatever will be has already happened. God is without limitation. He is eternal God. One day is a thousand years with the Lord. So, verses 1 to 15, beloved brothers and sisters, Shlomo is sharing with Israel the unexplainable God to which we are to submit and recognize that to everything there is a season and a time in everything.

Every purpose, under the sun. Now look quickly. This will be a little bit shorter. In verses 16 to 22, we find out that God have ordered that ultimately He will judge all men. Ultimately, brothers and sisters, we are going to stand one day before God, the believer and the unbeliever. The believer not for salvation anymore because we have repented and accepted the Messiah. The unbeliever is going to be standing before God and ultimately being rejected and cast into the lake of fire. But for the believer, we're also going to stand before the Lord who is going to be our judge. He's not going to judge us for our salvation, no, because we are already forgiven.

But He's going to judge how did we live our lives. So I gave you life right he said I forgave your sins right I paid for every sin that you have committed I sent the Mashiach the Messiah well how do you live your life now are you living for the Lord or are you living for yourself are you saying well hallelujah praise the Lord I belong to heaven and I carry on my own way or you say no no God I want you to fill my life guide me and lead me I don't want to have my own way in my life. I don't want to set you aside.

So in verses 16 to 22, Solomon realized and he shared with Israel that ultimately God will bring everything to justice. We cannot fool God, Shlomo is saying to Israel. Notice verse 16. He says, and moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment that wickedness was there and the place of righteousness that iniquity was there. He's looking down and he says, really, I see that in this world there is wickedness. It should have been justice. It should have been righteousness, but nothing like that. There is wickedness. There is evil that is going on here under the sun. So in verse 17, Solomon concludes that in time, again, he used the word time, God will bring everything into judgment.

And so we read in verse 17, I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked. For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. See what Shlomo is saying? You know, I realize now, now that I'm getting older, I've experienced all my life. I've been young. I began very well. Later on, I began to depart from the Lord. And eventually, I needed to repent after my later part of my life. I didn't live it in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. And so Solomon is saying to the younger generation of Israel, he says, I realized one day that God is going to judge.

He's going to judge the righteous, and he's going to judge the wicked. For there is a time, therefore, every purpose and every work. You know, sometimes, brothers and sisters, isn't it so, when we don't judge ourselves and examine ourselves, and we allow ourselves to carry on in our own ways, not realizing that we're only turning away from the Lord, and we forget, oh, one day I have to give an account to the Lord. I will have to stand before him at the judgment seat of the Messiah after the rapture of the church. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 10.

The believers the Lord will have to evaluate. How did you live your life? How did you behave? Did you search your heart? Did you realize that you cannot go on in that way? Do you think I don't see it? God is saying, do you think I don't know it? You might fool everybody else, which we often think we do. But King Solomon says, no, no, no. God shall judge the righteous and the wicked in the coming day. It will be in his time, not in your time, in his time. You know, sometimes God judge us sooner rather than later. Sometimes things happen to us in our life.

We have gone wrong. And the Lord says, I'm going to remove this from you. I'm going to take away from you that which you thought you're going to have in your own way. I'm going to remove this from your life. I'm going to discipline you like a father. Discipline his children. He gives them sometimes a spanking, not because he want to hurt them, but he want to discipline them. He want to correct them. And one day, King Shlomo says, God will judge. Notice verse 18. God will expose men who deny him. Notice what he said in verse 18. I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are like beasts.

You know, God will expose men in a sense that he's going to show us. Listen, here underneath the sun, Here you will see that if you live your life without me, setting me aside, you're going to be like an animal, like a beast. And then he developed that in verses 19 and 20. He concludes, look at this, for a man or a woman who belonged to God to live without God's purposes in his or her life, he's going to be like beasts living here and dying here outwardly. We are like animals. It says in verse 19, For that which befalleth the Son of Man, befalleth the beasts. Then he continued, Even one thing befalleth them, as the one dies, so dies the other.

Yet they have all one breath, so that a man has no preeminence above beasts. For all is vanity. Verse 20, All go unto the one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. And you notice what he says, when a person lives life without God, he's like an animal, like a beast. When a man dies, when an animal dies, both go into the ground. When a man lives this world, he's just like the animal who dies and lives this world under the sun. He's not talking about what's happened to the soul and the spirit of men. So in verse 21 and 22, I'm going to conclude.

It says here, Who knoweth, God knoweth, the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of beast that goes downward to the earth? Verse 22, Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion, for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him. In other words, he concludes and he says, God knows what's happened here at the end of lifetime. He knows what is going to happen to mankind or to animals, but you and I, as people of God that belong to him God had placed in our hearts eternity.

And therefore, we are to seek to live our life for the Lord. There's so much here in this third chapter. I want to conclude chapter three together with you. There is a time and a season to every purpose that is going on under the sun. May the Lord bless his word. Can we say Amen to that?