(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Good evening, we're continuing tonight in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and the Bible reads 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 sew, 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 peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? I have seen a travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work 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 man should fear before him. That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireteth that which is past. And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there, and a place of righteousness that iniquity was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time that for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. I said in mine heart concerning the state 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 sons of man befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them, as the one diet, so diet the other, yea they have all the one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast, for all is vanity. All go on to one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward 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. We thank you Heavenly Father for this wonderful church, dear God, for wonderful brothers and sisters. We thank you for our pastor and we ask that you please bless him with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word tonight. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay we continue this evening with the book of Ecclesiastes and we're in chapter 3 tonight. Let me give you a bit of review from chapter 2. Of course chapter 2 we saw Solomon's pursuits and his endeavors. He sought to quest for mirth, labor, and folly. And what he's doing there is he's trying to figure out what the end of that pursuit is. What is the end of the pursuit of mirth, happiness, joy, delight? What is the end of labor and folly? And the conclusion of that, and of course we see later on that he's basically saying it's just all vanity. And not because he's depressed with the outcome of what he's receiving, but because of the fact that these are things that he's only gonna be able to enjoy under the sun. And the conclusion of chapter number 2 was that we need to enjoy the fruit of our labor while we have it, right? And not just you know tear down our barns and build up greater and just kind of hoard our resources. We should use it to enjoy life but also use it to invest in eternal things. And so now here in chapter 3 we're gonna see that although God has given man the liberty to work and to enjoy the fruit of his labor, there are restrictions to what man can do. And one of the overriding themes of chapter 3 is that man is basically made with margins, okay? That he cannot exceed. Man is basically placed in a system that God created within barriers known as time and seasons, alright? And so you know people often say the sky is the limit and that is true to a certain extent under the sun. The sky is the limit under the restrictions and the barriers of time and seasons. We only have a certain amount of time to do anything, right? Whether that's labor, serving, being with our families, etc. And it reminds me of James chapter 4 verse 14 where it says, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor which appears for a little time and vanishes away. And what James is trying to emphasize there is the brevity of life. The fact that though we think that we may live here for 80 years you know with strength, you know at the end of the day our life is still a vapor. It's here for a short moment and then it completely disappears. We go away. We all have an allotted amount of time on this earth and this chapter is reminding us that within this slot of time known as our lifespan, you know there's different borders such as life and death, being born and dying, laboring, doing different things of that nature. We'll see a list of that here in chapter 3. Now before I get into the actual chapter, you know this is actually a really popular chapter not just amongst Christians but even in the secular realm. It's actually a song that was written in the 60s called Turn, Turn, Turn. How many of you ever heard that song? Okay and literally it quotes basically verses 1 through 8 not in that particular order but it uses the King James and it actually literally quotes that and I think it had to do with like the Vietnam War or something like that something stupid but you know it shows you that even unsaved people know about this song or about this chapter because of that song and so let's get into this real quick. Verse number one it says to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. The first thing we're gonna look at is the balance of life and here in these first couple verses, actually verses 1 through 10, we're gonna see a contrast in life and really reading this passage helps us to understand that life is full of negatives and positives okay can't just have one and you have people in this world that only want positive right they only want positive reinforcements, reinforcement, they only want positive statements, positive speeches, positive preaching, positive outcomes but that's not real life. Real life is filled with positives but it's also filled with a lot of negative things that happen and chapter 3 is being realistic about life. It's telling us hey yeah there's a time to be born but guess what there's also a time to die yeah yeah you know there's a time to love but guess what there's also a time to hate okay he's given those contrasts there and he's basically showing that life is filled with both bitter and sweet events and we have to be able to embrace both okay and understand that both of them are a part of life don't have this Star Wars Jedi philosophy where it's just like oh it's all about love and all about peace and hate leads to the dark side and you know no hate and no you know that's nonsense folks you know the reality is life is full of both of these and in fact God has created us to have both of those emotions okay we'll get into that later on this is true balance here and he's saying that to everything there is a season you're gonna go through a season where you know you are enjoying the fruit of your labor you're gonna go through another season where there's no money in the bank account okay those are two real seasons that actually exist in this world you're gonna go through a season where there's babies being born and you know what there's a season in our church where there's just a lot of babies being born and thank God and I think that season is gonna last for a very long time but you know what our church will go through a season where we will start having funerals and that's what happens with churches you know our church is very young we have a lot of young people you know ages 20 30s we have a lot of young couples a lot of young married couples a lot of little children so there's a lot of life in our church okay there's a lot of it's a lot it's very vibrant very filled with life and excitement but as the years go by we're gonna start seeing deaths okay cuz guess what happens well there's a time to be born and there's a time to die okay you know the church obviously we can still remain vibrant and excited and zealous over the things of God but we still have time against us where people grow old and they you know they die okay and so you know I know of churches that have funerals all the time unfortunately you know and it's not necessarily an unfortunate thing it's just a way of life right so we have to realize that right now we're in a season of life we're in a season of births I mean the the the bulletin is filled with ladies that are expecting and that's how it's gonna be for the next couple of years especially as I emphasize you know preach against birth control and preach against you know abortion and preach of the importance of having children you know if I emphasize that the natural byproduct of that is that people are just gonna have children and in fact I'm reminded of my father-in-law he pastored a church of over a thousand and it was the only church independent fundamental Baptist Church that I knew there was over a thousand where the pastor emphasized having large families okay and in fact he had eight kids okay brother Albert and his family come from that church and as you can tell he he caught on to that vision you know how many 10 is a 10 yeah yeah 10 kids okay and that's great you know now in Mexico that's like that's that's that's novice stuff right there but in America is like well that's you know that's great and so you know obviously that's not very popular today especially amongst independent fundamental Baptist to have children but you know it is biblical and I'm gonna actually talk more about that on Sunday but let me just say this is that right now we're in a season of births right we're a season where children are being born it's great it's exciting look at verse number two it says the time to be born in a time to die time to plant in a time to pluck up that which is planted so it's talking about the lifespan there the time someone's born to the time someone dies verse three a time to kill and a time to heal time to break down the time to build up so now he gets into the equity of justice and I like what he says he says look there's a time when you have to kill someone and there's a time when you have to heal someone as well now let me just make this very clear this isn't referring to murder because people automatically when they think of when they see the word kill or here where it says a time to kill they hear pastor like me say that pastor just said it's a time to kill sometimes you got to kill people you know automatically I'm for murder that I'm violent that's not the Bible's teaching and that's not what I'm saying you know the sixth commandment says thou shalt not kill and that's actually referring to premeditated manslaughter okay when someone actually goes out of the way because they have mouths towards that individual they premeditated murder and they take that person's life unjustly okay that is called murder that's what the Bible means when it says thou shalt not kill okay but here's the thing in the Bible there is a time to kill via public execution of a criminal right who has basically forfeited their right to live such as you know a pedophile a rapist or in the Bible you have you know sodomy is people who commit sodomy were put to death people who committed an adultery were put to death other murderers were put to death there's various crimes capital crimes that someone would commit where it would say well the Bible says it's time for that person to die they forfeited their right to live because they committed a crime worthy of death okay so that would be a time to kill right you know the executioner who's been hired to carry out that job has the responsibility of putting people to death and that's not referred to as murder it's not considered murder it's considered justice okay but here's another way that here's another time when it would be a time to kill would be you know protecting innocent life okay you know for example if if you know you as a husband you see that your wife's in danger someone is trying to rape or beat or kill your wife you as a husband have the responsibility to protect your family protect your wife protect your children and you know what sometimes that calls for you taking that other person's life in order to spare the life of the innocent your wife your children that would be a time to kill now look this is not a public service announcement to say all right everybody you know it's time to kill you know it's just like a bloodthirsty sermon this is just a reality okay and God expects us as men God expects us as husbands to take the responsibility and to be valiant to protect our family by any means necessary okay and that means if someone's breaking into our house in the middle of the night and you know they have the intention of raping killing or you know just being like a Richard Ramirez type person well you know we have a responsibility to kill that person if they're trying to take the our family's life okay you know if you walked into your house and someone had broken in and they are you know molesting your child you know biblically you have the right to take that person's life in order to save that child from being violated and your wife any innocent person for that matter okay now obviously that's not always the case you know sometimes people stop a raid where they stop a molestation and they just beat the living snot out of that individual but from a biblical perspective that individual has every right to take that person's life in order to save the life of the NSA okay and even in Exodus 22 verse 2 it has the example of a thief breaking up and referring to breaking into a house and it says that if he is smitten he's beaten to the point where he actually dies the Bible tells us that no blood shall be shed for him in other words the person who took that other individual's life who is breaking into their house is not held responsible for that person's life it's not held responsible for taking that person's life why because of the fact that if a person is breaking into your home in the middle of the night you have no idea what their intentions are you don't know what they're coming to do you say well what if they're just a thief and they're just trying to steal something from your house but you don't know that we don't know that you know we just think this person's coming in and who knows what they could what their intentions could be we're not mind readers and so we have a responsibility to protect our family and even God says look if you take that person's life no blood shall be shed for you now obviously in the United States or depending on what state you live in within the United States laws are different you'll probably go to jail you probably will go to jail to probably convict you of murder you know and say that it was your fault you shouldn't have to but you know from a biblical standpoint that's not what God says and you know what I'll do time in prison if it means saving my son and my wife from being raped from being molested from being violated or from being killed I will do life in prison to protect my family's life he said what about yourself well you know nuts to me you know if someone comes and tries to take my life for me to live is Christ and to die is gain okay if they take my life because of what I preach and so be it but you know what that's not the same philosophy I have for my for my family I'm not gonna I'm not gonna impose that upon my wife and say hey to die is game honey you know just take it like a man honey you're just gonna die and that's just it you know no I have the responsibility as a husband as the authority of my household to take care of my family and to do whatever it takes to make sure I protect their innocence so what do we see here we see the equity of justice that God says hey sometimes there is a time to kill okay go to Numbers chapter 35 if you would Numbers chapter 35 and there's many things that the Bible actually says about this in the Old Testament for example you know in the Old Testament if a man killed an individual on accident you know he smote him on accident uh you know they're working and accidentally hit someone with an axe head or something like that and just kills him they were actually instructed to go to what's referred to as a city of refuge okay in order to protect them from the revenger of blood you know because if you get news you know people would get news in those days that you killed their son or their brother or their father whatever it may be even if it was on accident a man's passion would be to take vengeance upon that individual because you took that person's life someone who's near and dear to their life so God created a solution where with he would say okay you didn't do it on purpose but you still needed to go to the city of refuge so that you're protected from the revenger of blood okay look at Numbers 35 verse 14 let's read it it says ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan which shall be cities of refuge these six cities shall be a refuge both for the children of Israel and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them that everyone that killeth any person unawares may flee thither so when it says unawares it means they didn't have the intention of taking that person's life okay they didn't wake up in the morning and say you know i'm gonna take someone's life today i'm gonna kill someone unaware is just there was an accident verse 16 and if he smite him with an instrument of iron so that he die he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death so if this person has the intention of killing that person smiting him with the with the instrument of an iron bludgeoning him killing him well the penalty with that would be the death penalty for that person verse 17 says that if you smite him with a throw with a throwing stone wherewith he may die and he died he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death or if he smite him with the hand weapon of wood wherewith he may die and he die he is a murderer the murderer shall surely be put to death the revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him he shall slay him picture this this is god saying this who's the revenger of blood the son the relative the father the person who wants vengeance he's saying well he has every right to go and take your life because you took the life of his you know uh relative or whatever it may be out of malice premeditated murder okay he says in verse number 20 but if the but if he thrust him of hatred or hurl at him by laying laying of weight that he die or an enmity smite him with his hand that he die he that smote him shall surely be put to death for he is a murderer the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him now folks this this type of violence is way different obviously even from today today people you know they can they can take a gun and shoot someone and kill them this is talking about like beating someone to death with their hands i mean that's brutal killing a man with your own hands your bare hands just taking that person's life using your own hands that requires a lot of malice okay today you have gang members who just do a drive-by they don't even know who they're aiming at kill random people or something like that they don't even have to see the person getting shot this is referring to someone who's like they're are falling at the hands of the person i mean they're right there right so that's why he tells them look the revenger of blood is able to take your life because of that verse 22 but if he thrust him suddenly without enmity or have cast upon him anything without lying weight or with any stone wherewith a man a man may die seeing him not and cast it upon him that he died and was not his enemy neither sought his harm then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge whether he was fled and he shall abide in it until the death of the high priest which was anointed with the holy order so what is he saying look if this guy did it on accident it was just a freak accident they were working together the head of the axe flies off it hit your relative it kills them it's an unfortunate thing that took place but this person didn't do it out of malice it was an accident okay you know we need to send him to the city of refuge why because even though it's an accident the revenger of blood is still mad right still upset still was inflamed with passion against this individual took his relative's life and so the solution was we'll put him somewhere else and easy he needs to stay there until the high priest dies so once the high priest dies he's basically free to go back to his home wherever he needs to be this is for his protection okay verse 26 but if the slayer shall at any time come without the border of the city of his refuge whether he was fled and the revenger of blood find him without the borders of the city of his refuge and the revenger of blood kill the slayer he should not be guilty of blood man these are some pretty crazy laws here huh okay it works though this would work so basically god tells the slayer okay you did it on an accident i'm not going to hold you accountable but you need to now you need to relocate where you live got to go live somewhere else it's called the city of refuge so that the slayer doesn't catch you okay because i'm trying to protect you however if you choose to leave prior to the high priest dying and that guy finds you he's not going to be held accountable for taking your life because i instructed you to stay there and you disobeyed okay verse 28 because he should have remained in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest but after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession so he's saying look what do we see here what we see is god telling us when it's a time to kill all right and he's telling the the i mean the revenger of blood is reading this law and he's probably like all right i'm gonna wait to see if this guy slips i'll be watching that city of refuge see if he comes out and if he doesn't then he can't strike vengeance but if he does it's justifiable in the eyes of god for that person to take his life now we don't have that today and there is no city of refuge today of what we find here obviously our city of refuge is jesus right from a spiritual perspective jesus christ is our city of refuge he's the one that we run to because of the fact that at the end of the day we've all committed crimes worthy of death and the death that's being referred to is hell right we all deserve to die and to go to hell and eternally pay for the for the crimes that we've committed against god because we transgressed his laws okay and what we've done is we've ran to the city of refuge which is jesus christ he's sealed us he's protected us from the revenger of blood known as satan okay trying to take our uh eternal soul and obviously the only difference is this is that we can never leave that city of refuge and why because here the city of refuge uh the high priest would die well we have our high priest that will never die so we're just there forever okay we are in the hand of jesus christ you know he gives them to us eternal life and we shall never perish neither shall any man pluck us out of his hand okay go back to ecclesiastes chapter three so what do we see there we see the equity of justice hey there's a time to kill and there's a time to heal now let me just say this is that don't put such a heavy emphasis on the time to kill that you just completely negate the time to heal right most people are like yeah kill get my 45 just keep it ready at all times folks never be a bloodthirsty christian right it's not i've never taken anybody's life i i pray to god that i never have to take anybody's life even if it's in defense of my family my wife and my children you know it's a scary thing i'm sure to take someone's life and i'm sure it messes you psychologically even if you were just in doing so because you're protecting your family you know even people who have been involved in an executions for example and they are deputized to carry out that office and messes with them psychologically why because of the fact that you're taking people's lives okay and so we should never take this with a grain of salt and think well i just can't wait for my time to kill i can't wait for my opportunity to do that no folks we should steer clear of any type of violence or having to take someone's life in order to to to save our wife or our children we should just pray god protect us lord protect me lord protect my wife protect my children obviously the horses are prepared against the day of battle but safety is of the lord yes we must do everything we can on our part to make sure that we're safe and we're protected but at the end of the day it's god who would allow them to come to our house or not okay and you know what you can be as armed as you possibly can have all the artillery and the weaponry as much as you can but you know what god can change that in just a bit he can cause you to pull out your gun the gun jams and you die then what right well he could cause the guy to draw faster than you and kill you and then you're done see at the end of the day it's god who protects us at the end of the day it's he who you know guards us and keeps us safe and that's what we need to depend upon okay not trust in the arm of the flesh but trust in the lord okay so there's a time to kill yes but also there's a time to heal there's a time where we need to help others and and heal whether that's emotionally or even physically etc look at verse number four we're going to look at the equity of emotions it says in verse four a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance so what we see here is that god is sanctioning all these emotions here it's okay for you to weep it's okay for you to laugh it's okay for you to mourn and it's okay for you to dance okay now this is not referring i'm sure it's not referring to salsa dancing right you know cumbias and merengue or or or breakdancing you know uh pop locking uh what else we got someone throw something out there i didn't know who really know pastor anyways rope that was so geeky he said the robot yeah i mean i guess you could throw that in there yeah obviously a time to dance basically means it's not this this is not referring to like a party or something right it's not referring to clubbing or anything like that this is referring to rejoicing because dancing can simply mean just jumping up and down leaping for joy you know just being excited and leaping and you know just kind of being overwhelmed with joy and zeal okay and when he's saying there's like hey there is a time to dance like when like when you get persecuted leap for joy the bible says dance okay you know uh be joyful dance but you know there's also a time to mourn whether that's because of a death of a family member you're going through a difficult time these are a natural state of emotions in the spectrum of emotions okay so it's okay to weep it's okay to laugh it's okay to mourn it's okay to dance these are emotions that god gave us to use at its appropriate time through different seasons and i think anybody here would would would readily admit that there was a time in your life where it was a season under the sun where you mourned there was a season under the sun where you wept and you might think to yourself well i'm in that season right now you know i go home and cry myself to sleep or whatever you know i i'm i'm mourning right now i'm having a difficult time i'm weeping others may say well you know i'm actually laughing this entire time i'm laughing i'm having a great time i'm dancing i'm just i'm filled with joy but it's it's you know it's both okay we go through seasons like this and it's it's inevitable okay we're going to experience things like this look at verse five now verse five the beginning of verse five has always perplexed me because i didn't really understand what it meant but i i'm going to tell you what i believe the interpretation is to this we're going to look at the inevitability of problems okay he says a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together a time to embrace and the time to refrain from embracing now go to leviticus chapter 14 if you would leviticus chapter 14 so what does that mean when he says there's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones now there's various things i was thinking about as i was preparing the sermon i thought to myself well maybe this is referring to like landmarks right you know where there's there's a landmark you place a stone there at the landmark to basically define where your area of jurisdiction is what your property is okay and there's a time to gather stones to do that but obviously you're not always gonna have property you're gonna have to cast away stones and i thought well maybe this is actually a reference to a time to kill because you know sometimes you gotta gather stones and you know cast them away at people put them to death but i don't think it's actually referring to either of those i believe what this is actually referring to is leprosy okay you're like what leprosy how does that even well look at leviticus 14 verse 33 and the lord speaking to moses and unto aaron saying when he come into the land of canan which i give to you for a possession and i put the plague of leprosy in a house of land of your possession and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest saying it seemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house then the priest shall command that the em that they empty the house before the priest go in to see it to see the plague that all that is in the house be not made unclean and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house and he shall look upon the plague and behold if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes greenish or reddish which which in sight are lower than the wall then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days the priest shall come again the seventh day and shall look and behold if the plague be spread in the walls of the house then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city so what we have here is that when there's a pandemic going on within a household there's leprosy and they're trying to do their best to make sure to cure the leprosy so that it doesn't spread if the priest goes there goes back into the house and there's still leprosy on the walls also known as the stones that are used to build up the walls of the house he instructs the owners to remove those stones and cast them away to an unclean place okay without the city verse 41 and he shall cause the house to be scraped within with roundabout and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into a unclean place and they shall take other stones what are they doing they're gathering stones and put them in the place of those stones and he shall take other mortar and shall plaster the house so in ecclesiastes chapter 3 when he says there's a time to cast away stones and the time to gather stones he's referring to the fact hey sometimes you have to clean house right he's saying look there's gonna be times when yeah you put in all this work to build this house these walls of stone but then leprosy kicks you know creeps in and when leprosy creeps in if it can't be cleaned you need to take that stone and cast it out right what am i gonna do about my wall get a new stone and you have to rebuild once again pretty pretty basic little truth there right but obviously there's a spiritual application to that is there not you know because leprosy is a picture of sin okay and the the application that we can derive from that is the fact that you know within a household or how about this the house of god you know the bible tells us go to first peter chapter 2 if you would first peter chapter number two you know if there is leprosy creeping into the church if there's a little leaven you know coming into the church it's going to leaven the whole lump the leprosy is going to spread throughout the entire house so what do we have to do you have to cast it out right lest it spread and the church becomes a cesspool of iniquity and sin and filth you're in first peter chapter two looking for i'm going to read to you from first corinthians chapter five verse six it says your glory is not good knowing not that a little leaven leaven at the whole lump purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as you are unleavened for even christ our passover is sacrificed for us what does it mean when it says purge out the old leaven means cast away the stone if the stone is not clean if it refuses to repent it refuses to get right with god then what do you do you cast out the stone because are you comparing people to stones well look at it says in first peter chapter two verse four to whom coming is into a lively stone disallowed indeed of man but chosen of god and precious ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god by jesus christ so yeah we're just like stones being built up a spiritual house so every single saved individual within the local new testament church is like a stone and sometimes because it's just the nature of the beast stones accumulate leprosy they get disease and what is the priest supposed to come then do what is the pastor supposed to come and do assess the leprosy try to clean it up you know try to cause that provoke that person to repent of their sin but if they refuse to what are we supposed to do take the stone and cast it out we don't say well we'll just give it some time you know we're just gonna let this leprosy here you know it's not hurting anyone it's a stone in the corner you know it'll be fine we need to be merciful with these stones and my great-grandfather gave me this stone and he helped me build this house and this person i've known this person for so long folks we can't have a biased opinion biased judgment when it comes to leprosy we need to purge out there for the old levin he said man i don't know man how are you gonna build a church like that how in the world are you gonna build a church when you're just throwing people out because of sin well you this is what you do you just go get new stones right yeah you go you go gather stones why because it's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones okay and look obviously it's jesus christ who builds the bible says that you know thou art petered upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it is jesus who builds the church but from a practical perspective you know we need to go out and reach people invite our family invite people get people saved bring them in bring in those stones but this is also applicable for you know in in a home okay if there's leprosy found within the walls of your household whether literally or spiritually it's time to cast it out it's time to get rid of the stone that has been defiled by sin and leprosy and it's time to gather new stones it's time to get rid of that which is worldly that which is wrong and sinful and start gathering in some new stones okay some new habits reforming your mind reforming your household etc okay so go back to ecclesiastes chapter three if you would so that's what it means when it says it's time to you know there's a time to cast away stones and there's a time to gather it and you know what church discipline is a practice that has been lost in local new testament churches today a lot of churches don't want i mean you bring in the bring up this concept of church discipline to to pastors or churches or christians they're just like what in the world that's cultish you know what in the world i can't believe you would do that you're not loving and all these things and it's just like they would just simply read even just a new testament right you would see that it's a biblical concept you know you would see that this is something that the new testament church practice over and over again and you have to okay and the problem with these people is that they're glory they're glory in the fact that they can keep the fornicator and they're drunkard and you know the sodomite the the pedophile the rapist and oh we can reform them we can help them folks that's a reprobate stone some of those stones are not even real stones right it's a reprobate rock that thing is done okay not to be used to build up the house of god it's meant to be cast out and trotted under the foot of man and cast into a pit of fire we need to do to it oh man what are we going to do just gather other stones let's reach new people okay and one of the reasons that a lot of pastors don't like doing casting out the stones is because they're no longer gathering stones yeah they're like man well if you cast these people wow what are we going to do i mean do you go soloing do you encourage people to invite people to church you know like are you actively out there reaching people for christ preaching the gospel inviting people to church then there should be no problem right but folks even then if even if that weren't the case even if the church would not grow thereafter who cares amen integrity and principle says cast out the stone no matter what happens whether you're able to find stones together or not why because it's the right thing to do and you know what pastors today need to wake up and start being men of integrity and stop being man pleasers and trying to build up their own kingdom and you know i want to just get this mega church going on here and i just want like the highest attendance and by any means necessary wrong folks if there's leprosy you cast it out whether the church grows thereafter or not because it's the right thing to do right but you know what the reality is there's always more stones to gather always if you're preaching god's word if you're serving the lord if you're doing that which is right in his sight there's always going to be more stones together okay so we see that there look at verse six a time to get and a time to lose a time to keep and a time to cast away talking about the harmony of gain and loss verse seven a time to rent and a time so time to keep sons and a time to speak this is referring to when i i believe verse seven is referring to you know a time to you know rend your hearts you know the bible talks about rending your hearts and being broken over the state of you know people that the fact that people are going you know there's people out there that are going to hell or being you know saddened over the state of churches and pastors or preaching or christians or whatever it may be and then there's a time to sew to try to bring a solution to that problem we've talked about this two weeks ago a time to keep silence and a time to speak now i looked it up when it says it's time to keep silence in the hebrew it actually means shut your mouth there's a time to shut your mouth would you would you would you believe look at that that's it's right there but you know there's also a time to speak so obviously we don't want to go too heavy on one side or the other we need to recognize hey there's a time when we've got to shut our mouths can't say anything or there's other times when we need to speak up open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel okay verse eight this is my life verse a time to love would you look at that and a time to hate the harmony of love and hate well hold on a second when it says it's time to hate just means hate sin that's funny you wouldn't apply that same definition to a time to love do we ever say we gotta love their righteousness not the not the brother we gotta love their righteousness we gotta love their works we gotta love the things that they do no we gotta love them we have to love the people and so the main object of the person who's doing the loving is the person who's being loved not their actions not their righteousness not their their just acts okay it's referring to the person so let's go ahead and take that definition and now it's a time to hate to hate their sin no to hate them you know and look people have a knee-jerk reaction at that aren't you glad i didn't preach this on sunday there's a time to love and a time to hate now again we don't want to be imbalanced in both of these and just think well it's always a time to hate it's always a time to hate oh you know it's always a time to be angry no because there's also a time to love and look folks people there are people like this who are just constantly haters and they're some of the most bitter just misers of this world it's miserable people who are just constantly hating you know they're known as the lgbtq because they're haters of god and they perpetually hate god but you know hate is a natural emotion for people to have and in fact god sanctions an allotted amount of time when it's okay to hate okay in fact david inspired by the holy ghost holy sanctified ghost god said do not i hate them oh lord that hate thee and that i agree with those that rise up against thee i hate them with perfect hatred i count them mine enemies now no one would say that david was wrong with that no one would get up no bible scholar would say that david was wrong no because there's a reason why god allowed it to be penned down in the psalms for us to read and sing amen in the new testament why because it's appropriate now look folks the entire book of psalms is not a book of hatred right it's not like hate hate hate hate we just gotta hate but there is a time to hate and you know what the month of january for me was a time to hate amen the month of february was a time to hate okay and there is a designated time when my blood boils because of the unrighteousness of wicked workers of iniquity or you know what i think to myself i hate those people with perfect hatred amen so when is it a time to love well we have multiple designated times in our church when we go out and love people amen in oxnard amen in riverside amen in south central different areas here where we go out and preach the gospel that's the time to love hey you know what when we come to church it's time to love it's not a time to hate you don't hate each other hope not you know you shouldn't hate your brother right when we come here three days out of the week three times out of the week you know we're here loving each other exhorting one another daily you know encouraging each other having mirth with one another enjoying fellowship it's a time of love and you know what everyone to a certain extent leaves church with a sense of euphoria thinking man i love church i love my brethren i can't wait till the next service now if you're the person that says man i hate this church hate the pastor then you probably need to go somewhere else okay but i don't think there's anybody like that here right i think everyone treats this hour and a half as a time to love right so we see that there's a harmony of this okay now but if you're learning from christianity jedis master jedis out there they'll tell you though hey hey's wrong you know can't can't hate nothing okay only the devil okay you know only the devil and only sin and hate you know it's just like what in the world it's nonsense it's crazy when god himself i mean some of these people are a lot nicer than god they're more loving than the lord i'm being facetious because god said that he hates all workers of iniquity right i mean would they invite him to come preach you know from his own words to say you know i mean that was him saying that he hates all this is not a false accusation from david to god because he said thou hatest all workers of iniquity psalm five five amen right i don't see the next verse saying by the way you know i speak this by permission not by commandment you know no he's inspired by the holy ghost saying that stating that god hates all workers of iniquity and if you don't believe it then uh let's talk about hell a little bit let's talk about all the billions of souls that are in hell today we wouldn't say that god loves them right they're suffering the vengeance of eternal fire they're weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever that's something you do to someone you love no that's something you do to someone you hate now please don't mistake this again we don't believe you're supposed to be in this mindset of just perpetual hate right you understand but there is a time slot when that is absolutely sanctioned it's appropriate to do so okay now look you shouldn't be the kind of person that's always hating because then you're just gonna be miserable can't enjoy life can't enjoy your family can't enjoy work you know because you constantly think about hatred but you know what at the drop of a hat if the time calls for it you should be able to switch that on and say yeah i hate that i hate that iniquity i hate workers of iniquity i hate pedophiles i hate rapists i hate sodomites because the lord hates them i hate those who hate the lord amen and look you know to do a callback from what happened in months prior when we get before we got bombed you know i'm sure there's people who hate our guts they hate i'm sure there's people out there and i know there's people out there that want me dead that have hope that i would die they feel bad that i wasn't there in the building when the church got bombed and you know all that loving stuff they like to talk about i'm sure there's a and let me say this i'm sure there's plenty of those people that are not reprobate they've just been carried about with the devices of the wicked and manipulated into to believing that narrative i don't hate those people right i don't hate those people at all if there's some if there's some person out there who supports a reprobate but they're not reprobates themselves but they hate me i do not hate that individual amen in fact you know what i pray father forgive them for they know not what they do right and if that person ever came to our church and said you know what i still don't like you but i'm really sorry for what happened i'd say everything's forgiven completely forgiven i have nothing against you because i'm supposed to love my enemies yeah man right yes we're supposed to love our enemies those who hurt us and do us wrong but you know what there's a small pocket of people who are not them who are a bunch of filthy reprobates who actually hate me not because of anything that i do but because they hate god that's why okay and at that point it's a time to hate folks now i don't think we need to just be talking about reprobates and hatred like 24 7 because there's a ton of other stuff in the bible to talk about right right a lot but you know what this does need to be mentioned because of the fact that it's not talked about at all because pastors are too scared to preach from ecclesiastes chapter 3 and they rather focus on the time to love and not talk about the time to hate okay verse 9 says what prophet hath 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 he's basically saying look i've seen both of these contrasts i've seen people who love i've seen people who hate i've seen people who were born and seen people who have died this is just something that god has given to us to exercise to be a part of just part of life okay so number one we see the balance of life but number two we're going to see the boundaries of mankind look at verse 11 he says he hath made everything beautiful in his time also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that god maketh from the beginning to the end now i'm only going to have time to actually go over this point so i'm actually have to break this sermon in half and preach the other half next week but i do want to talk about this okay now in times past i've read verse 11 and and the second the little uh middle portion there it's kind of perplexed me where it says also he had set the world in their heart i always thought like what does that mean when he set the world in their heart and many modern versions of the bible actually render this completely wrong it'll actually say also he has set eternity in their heart and i remember long ago i heard something from ray comfort and when he would give his little false gospel presentation he would always talk about how he had set eternity in their heart and i was listening i'm like what is he quoting i've never even seen that verse in the bible set eternity in their hearts and he would apply it to say you know everyone knows about eternity and they have a desire for eternity and you know they're mindful of eternity because he had set eternity in their heart and then i looked at it i was like wait a minute this doesn't say eternity it says the world i'm like these modern versions are always doing this they'll always literally put the exact opposite of what's actually written set the world put eternity you know it says jesus put devil you know it says good put bad i mean they just always go with the most ridiculous translation okay because they are wicked people who are translating the editors of the of those modern versions so what does it mean when he says also he had set the world in their hearts well what he's stating there is that all man has ever known is that which pertains to this world when he has set the world in their hearts all we've ever known is this world we don't know anything else we don't know what each other i mean we can talk amongst ourselves and conjecture what eternity is like we have no idea what it's like right because we have the world in our hearts we're born with a worldly mindset that's all we've ever known and in fact you know this is why he says so that man no man can find out the work that god maketh from the beginning to the end because we're confined to time and seasons and we know only the things of this world you know the bible says he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth speak it up the world that's all we know about whereas god on the other hand because he dwells in the vastness of eternity he's the alpha and the omega he is the beginning and the ending okay he sees everything from from start to finish so we only know the world unless there is divine intervention to teach us of the eternal he set the world in our hearts and that's all we know until someone comes and gives us the gospel and tells us about that which is eternal you know it's only by man apart from divine intervention can only know the world but when someone brings the word of god into us at that point now we know of the eternal when a soul winner comes and gives us the gospel gets us saved at that point we understand we're eternal beings and now we know of eternity okay but in general human beings only know of the world because he set the world in their hearts and when god says here that he has made everything beautiful in his time because man only has the world in their hearts we really can't understand and fathom what that really means why because when he says he makes everything beautiful in his time he's referring to the culmination of everything everything will be beautiful in the new heaven the new earth everything will be beautiful at that point when the tavern when the temple of god comes to dwell with man at that point it becomes beautiful but you know what it's hard for us to fathom that because right now we see through a glass darkly and i always give the fishbowl illustration because it's like the best way for me to explain how that works you know we have a my my kids they have a fighter fish that thing is a survivor man we barely feed that thing it's just like we're abused sometimes we forget or we overfeed it or whatever you know he's just but he's he's a survivor his name is john king okay that's what they named him at first it was king john and he's like no let's switch that around john king and they love john king okay and i was explaining to my children about this concept i said you know john king sees us through that little bowl but all he will ever know is that little bowl that little leaf that we put in there so he can like lay on and stuff my wife yesterday was like i think john king's dead you know because he's just laying there lifeless i'm like man now he's good man john king is tough and i gotta i don't know if i tap the glass or something he just woke up but you know that's all he's ever gonna know all john king will ever know is that bowl that water that leaf and the the the measly pebbles of of food that we give them once a month i'm just kidding i'm just kidding we we do i don't give him any food my wife does my children do but that's all he's ever gonna know because he's a fish but you know what we're like we're like that fish in a bowl and every human being unless they get saved will only know the bowl of the world they'll only know the things that pertain to this life all they'll know is that there's a time to be born and a time to die all they'll know is there's a time to love and a time to hate there's a time to plant there's a time to pluck up that which is planted but when we receive a divine intervention by a soul winner when we receive the word of god when we are expounded upon of that which is eternal then we recognize yeah there's a time to be born and there's a time to die but there's also a time to be born again yeah there's a time to plant time to pluck up that which is planted but you know what whosoever you know whoever's planted by god shall never be rooted up so now a divine element is added to that once there's divine intervention but you know what if there's never divine intervention if we never go to the lost if we never teach them the word of god all they'll ever know is the world and you know what if it wasn't for someone giving you the gospel that's all you would ever know as well that's all i would ever know all we would ever know is verses one through ten that's it just the things that pertain to this life not knowing that there's actually something more all we would know is that which is under the sun nothing more not knowing that there's actually something above the sun called the third heaven you know the place where god dwells where we can live for him you know live with him forever okay you know he that coming from above is above all he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth he that coming from heaven is above all hey if it wasn't for jesus we wouldn't know of any of this right because he came he proceeded from the father to tell us of these things go to first corinthians one chapter one we'll finish there and the point that i want to drive across with this last thing right here is that you know doesn't matter how much how much success someone reaches here on this lifetime in this world doesn't matter how much knowledge they have how many books they've read how many degrees they get how much money they make they will never know of that which is eternal no matter how successful they become no matter how big how many buildings they've built how many possessions they have it's still under the confines of this world they're still stuck in the boundaries of this world and they'll never know of the eternal look what the bible says in first corinthians 1 18 for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved is the power of god for it is written i will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this world hath not god made foolish the wisdom of this world for after that in the wisdom of god the world by wisdom knew not god and pleased god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief so all the wisdom in the world couldn't tell the world about god right it required foolish preaching that divine intervention of preaching more specifically the gospel to tell us of that which is eternal so i'm going to end it right there but you know the the what we can grasp from this first portion of ecclesiastes 3 is this is that you know be merciful to people amen who don't know of the divine who don't know of the eternal why because god has set the world in their hearts that's all they've ever known this world system is all they will ever know unless you come and intervene with the truth to tell them of the eternal let's fire our heads in our word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word and thank you lord for that minister of reconciliation who came to us lord and gave us the gospel when we only had the world in our hearts lord the worldly mindset and the fact that we were born and one day we would die then we can plan and we will um pluck up that which is planted we will gather stones and cast them away just living life aimlessly here on this earth until someone came to us and intervened with the gospel and gave us that which was needed lord to tell us of the eternal and help us to keep that in mind each and every time lord that we go out and give the gospel lord help us to be mindful of the souls that are out there there is a time there was a time for them to be born and there will be a time for them to die but they don't have to die twice they can be born again and i pray god that you that you'd help us to recognize that we love you so much lord and we take you pray these things in jesus name amen