The Mercy of the Unknown Hour

It’s one of my favorite psalms. I just feel my heart being lifted up with the prayer. The oldest of the psalms, Psalm 90. The expressions of the challenges of this world, and the longing, the longing of those who have had their sorrows in this world, calling out that God would be merciful to the next generation.

But there’s a little line there that’s particularly pertinent for this evening. Verse 2: “Lord, teach us so to count our days, that we may prize them duly.” The language of Moses teaches us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

To that end, I turn your attention this evening to Ecclesiastes 9.

If you’re not familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, it’s one of the more challenging books of Scripture. It’s full of certain verses that we may think we understand, seem clear, but when we read the entire book, we find ourselves at times wondering what is going on.

And we may think, well, I know what he’s saying here, and then, all of a sudden, there, he pivots in a different direction, which is what happens here.

So, we’re going to read from verse 1. We’ll take time to read Ecclesiastes 9 from verse 1, and read through verse 12.

Let us hear God’s Word.

“For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

“All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

“This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

“For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

“Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any thing that is done under the sun.

“Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.

“Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.

“Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

“For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”

Amen.

We’ll end the reading of God’s Word to the close of verse 12. What you’ve heard is the Word of the eternal God, beloved, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray.

Lord, we’re thankful that we can open up Thy Word and glean from the study of life that Thy servants have given themselves to in time past. And there is for us treasure, and we pray we might not miss the treasure.

Help us. Teach us. Yes, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. What does that mean, Lord? What does it mean to number our days? Help us to understand that, and then to apply our hearts to wisdom, to give ourselves to that which is wise.

Oh, how we drift through life. How we just move from one day to the next. And we move from Monday into Tuesday, and from Tuesday into Wednesday, week after week, month after month, year after year.

Help us, Lord. Our time is so short.

Come by your Spirit and give us the education we need so we do not waste the gift of life. So give the Holy Spirit now. Thou knowest every heart and life. Move, extend thy kingdom, arrest every conscience. Apply thy Word so that we may live with greater profit to thy praise.

Please give the Holy Spirit. In our Savior’s name we ask, Amen.

There is an appointment in the calendar of your life that you cannot see, that none of us can see. It’s an appointment that we cannot cancel, an appointment we cannot postpone, an appointment that no one can reveal the specific time to us.

It’s one of the unique things about our Lord Jesus. This morning, as we were considering John 13, that the hour of Christ had now arrived, with that was His understanding. He knew the hour. He knew what was coming His way.

And it multiplied His sufferings to understand exactly what was coming towards Him, exactly what was going to happen to Him, to know that He was heading to Jerusalem to suffer, to be accused wrongfully, and ultimately to die, that His people might live.

He knew all of that.

But the detail of your death is not revealed to you. The time in which you will die is not yours to know.

We read in verse 12 of Ecclesiastes 9, “man also knoweth not his time.”

From verse 7, Solomon is given wisdom in how to live, encouraging the godly to go their way, enjoy the blessings of life. Enjoy the favor and all the wonderful things that come in this life. He’s not denying that there are blessings, real blessings in this life. He calls us to live joyfully with the blessings of even our spouse. All of this.

And whatever our hand finds to do, do it with our might. Apply ourselves to our calling, our vocation. Give ourselves to productive living. God is in these things. These are favorable things.

And in verse 11, he pivots.

“I returned, and saw under the sun.”

You would think that those who live in a certain way, who give themselves to God, who are thankful for the gifts of life and return praises to Him for all the things that they enjoy, you would think such then would go on and prosper, and everything would go exactly as you might hope for them or that they might hope for themselves.

But he returns, and he sees under the sun the surprise, the awful reality, that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.”

It doesn’t fall out the way you think it should. You think the swift will win the race, but they don’t always. You think the strong will win the battle, but they don’t always. Those of understanding, that they will have their bread, and so on, but it isn’t always the case.

Life can change in a moment.

The retirement plans, those years of study given to a particular career, the prosperity that’s enjoyed, up-and-to-the-right movement of salary and investments and all of that may seem so stable and certain. And without warning, no genetic predisposition to a particular illness. No reason why the business all of a sudden should go belly up. No warning.

It changes.

So the swift don’t win the race. The strong don’t win the battle.

This is the alarming thing. Solomon observes the world. It doesn’t always fall out as you might think it should.

Time and chance. Chance, he said.

Here we are in the Presbyterian church. Do we believe in chance? Luck?

It’s one of the interesting things, a lot of talk about Tyndale and his translation of the New Testament, 500 years of that, since that. And there’s one little translation he has, I think, in Joseph in Genesis, where he said that Joseph was a lucky man.

And I think it’s translated in the Authorized Version that he’s prosperous, or I can’t remember exactly the way it is. I’m just going from memory here. But he was a lucky man.

Tyndale is not meaning what we mean by luck today, that there’s nothing just random falling out. It’s the fact that things tended to go in a favorable way for Joseph. God’s favor was upon his life.

Time and chance means that which is unexpected. The unfolding of providence brings that which is unexpected.

You think you know the direction you’re headed. You think you know the destination. You think you know how the plan is going to unfold, and you don’t. None of us do.

Solomon says in verse 12, “man also knoweth not his time.” It relates to time and chance. The unexpected happening. It’s not random. God is in control. But the unexpected happens to man with regard to his time.

And he illustrates it: as the fishes are taken in an evil net. They’re going about their business, swimming about their rivers and their seas or whatever, minding their own business. No warner. And all of a sudden, they’re captured in a net and it’s over for them.

As birds are caught in the snare, same idea. “So are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”

Man also knoweth not his time.

One day you’re here, and then you’re not.

And I would imagine most people here have had your near misses. Your near misses.

Right, we’re all living in Greenville. I have lived in the United Kingdom and traveled across the roads of the United Kingdom, all over the place, in Australia, in Canada. I’ve never seen driving in Western nations like I see in Greenville.

It’s like the light’s red and it’s more of a suggestion, right? It’s like, you know, you might want to think about stopping, you know?

Never was rear-ended before until I moved here. It’s happened twice, sitting. Normal traffic, at light, you know, there’s nothing, no surprise. It wasn’t like something braked up ahead. You know, you’re just sitting in the normal traffic and someone behind you just, boom, straight into the back of you.

It’s like, are you watching at all?

Oh dear.

And you’ve seen things, as I have.

I was in Orlando. Maybe Orlando breaks Greenville, actually. I was in Orlando just for a matter of days, a couple of days. I was driving up. I was actually going to see the Fioriccis. I was driving from Orlando, driving north about an hour or so to see them before they moved here.

And I was on I-4, and I witnessed three accidents in the space of like 10 or 15 minutes. One of them happened right in front of me, just right there, just plowed straight into the stopped traffic.

And you see all of this. And sometimes, thankfully, people walk away. But sometimes they don’t. They don’t walk away. Emergency services are called. Bodies are cut out of vehicles.

And all they were doing was driving home.

Time and chance happeneth to all. A man knoweth not, he knoweth not his time.

With that in mind, you may look at that and wonder, well, it would be helpful to know. But what I want us to reflect upon this evening is the mercy of the unknown hour.

The mercy of the unknown hour.

There is a mercy in not knowing. A mercy in not being like the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew His hour. He knew why He came into this world, knew that it was all culminating in suffering. There’s a mercy in that not being the case, and even specifically, too, the very timing of our death.

As we consider this mercy of the unknown hour, note with me, first of all, the unknown hour humbles presumption.

It humbles presumption.

Men live with a presumption. We imagine that tomorrow will be the way we imagine it will be, and the next day, and the next day. And I know most of you here are educated enough to recognize that it may not be that way, but generally speaking, you’re not looking into this incoming week imagining the worst. A certain presumption is upon us.

As you think upon that, first of all, we do not control tomorrow.

We do not control tomorrow.

Turn to James. James chapter 4.

If you turn to James 4, you’ll find helpful instruction. If there is a New Testament book of wisdom, it’s the book of James. If there’s an equivalent to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the New Testament, it is James.

James 4, we’ll read from verse 13:

“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain.”

So he’s describing a certain spirit of people who have left out God in their plans. They have responsibilities in their planning, their future, but they’ve left God out entirely.

Verse 14:

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.”

“For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

So this is life. It gives one of the clearest descriptions of the brevity of life, the passing nature of it.

It’s like the vapor.

We have this illustrated for us very easily. Put on the kettle. You boil the water and you see the vapor, and there, after about a foot above the kettle, it’s gone. It disappears.

And that’s your life.

Not just some people’s life, that’s everyone’s life. It’s a vapor. It’s here and then it’s gone.

And that’s a truism. James isn’t bringing some great enlightening truth here to those who are paying attention to him. He’s not blowing their minds, saying, oh, I’ve never realized that, James.

He’s playing into what they know in the observable world.

And since that is the case, then, in verse 15, “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

If the Lord will.

That’s the reason why a lot of my correspondence, text messages, emails, so on, talking about plans—see you tomorrow, whatever—I’ll often add in the little DV, Deo volente. The Lord willing.

So I was reminding myself of that. Only if the Lord wills. Even for something the next day, later that same day. Let’s grab a coffee, four o’clock later today. See you there, DV. God willing.

We don’t control tomorrow. That’s the point. We’re not in control of it. We may schedule our appointments, but we must write over every appointment: if the Lord will. If the Lord will.

And it used to be that people, even the unregenerate, the non-Christian in places like the United Kingdom and America, even they would understand that. They would acknowledge that. They would say that: God willing.

In Luke 12, our Lord Jesus gives a warning of that rich man, rich fool, who has prospered, right? He’s Ecclesiastes. And it appears that everything is going his way. All of his skill has brought about his wealth and riches and so on.

But man also knoweth not his time, and that’s what our Lord describes.

In Luke 12, speaking about that man, he describes his attitude of spirit, puts the words that were coming from him:

“I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.”

You’ve got it all settled. It’s done. Look, the bumper crop, the storage of all of this, I’m set.

God said unto him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”

He hadn’t given any thought to that. He hadn’t thought about that, which is, he’s not in control of his own life, of his own tomorrow. He has the grain, he can build the barns, he can go about all the planning of establishing what he thinks he needs for the next forty, fifty years, or whatever. He can do all of that, but he cannot promise himself tomorrow.

Tomorrow belongs to God.

This presumption then.

I’m not here to convince you that you don’t control tomorrow. At least I hope not. I hope I don’t have to build that argument that you do not control tomorrow. I’m just highlighting what you already know.

And so the unknown hour, it humbles the presumption, because tomorrow may be my last day. I may not even see tomorrow.

We do not control tomorrow.

Also, we do not command our breath.

It’s tied into the same idea, but I want to just emphasize it, not just in terms of the happenings of life, but the very life that we possess.

In Daniel, Belshazzar, man of power, authority, and yet Daniel tells him the truth in Daniel 5:23: “The God in whose hand thy breath is.”

I love this.

You know, it’s like saying to this obnoxious man who thinks that he’s in control of everything: the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.

It’s that point: the God in whose hand thy breath is. Your breath is in His hand.

It’s like the manna that was given daily. They had to go and gather it up. It’s like the feeding of the 5,000. They were all told to sit down and the disciples went and handed it out.

And God, every time you breathe in, He’s handing out the breath. Every time. There’s another breath. There’s another breath.

You’re sitting there right now, breathing in, and He’s handing it out. He’s handing out each breath. And you’re not in control. And it can be over like that. He just stops handing it out.

Oh, we will describe it as a stroke, heart attack, some other medical description we will give to it. Sudden death.

Seeing these sports, professional sports people at times, and quite a few of them in soccer, which is a sport I would understand more than any other sport. Some of the fittest people on the planet constantly sprinting, constantly sprinting for 90 minutes. And some of them have been out there living professionally as a sports person. This is all they do, preparing their bodies like weapons, like machinery, to optimally perform. And they’re on that, what we would call, what you call a field, we would call a pitch.

And they just drop.

God is giving every breath. That’s how Daniel describes it.

I don’t think most of us live that way. It’s such a frequent thing. Breathe in, you breathe out. You breathe in, you breathe out.

Sometimes you’re made to think about it a little more. Go to take singing lessons and your instructor’s going to make you very much conscious of your breathing. Maybe you’ve got asthma and they make you conscious of your breathing. Or maybe you get pulled over by the local law enforcement, and they make you conscious of your breathing too, for different reasons.

Mostly we don’t think about it. And every one, a gift from God. You don’t control it.

In Job 14 verse 5 we read, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”

So presumption gets humbled.

And the psalmist knew this in Psalm 31 verse 15: “My times are in thy hand.”

There’s breadth to the meaning there, but I think we can apply it. My life, who I am, where I’m going, what’s going to happen to me is in the hand of my God.

So it humbles presumption.

If you’re here tonight and you’re without Christ, you are thinking that tomorrow you’re going to get up, and you may have things to do, and you’re going to do it. But you’re not in control of tomorrow, and you do not command your own breath. God does.

So all that presumption, especially if you’re not converted, if you’re not ready to die—all the readiness—we’ll get to that in just a moment.

It humbles presumption.

In the second place, the unknown hour awakens watchfulness.

The unknown hour awakens watchfulness.

This is why it’s a mercy. Because it’s not good to live with this presumption. It needs to be humbled. And it’s not good to live in a sleepy fashion through life. We need to have a watchfulness.

In the first place, a watchfulness to the significance of each day.

A watchfulness to the significance of each day.

I don’t think we understand, early in life at least, the significance of each day.

Now, when you’re brought to a point in which you are made aware that you only have a matter of days to live, then you start counting your days.

But what we sang in Psalm 90, old Moses is communicating, teach us to number our days, to number them. He doesn’t want to know the number of them. That’s not the point.

It’s not curiosity, it’s carefulness.

Curiosity is like, how many days do I have? Carefulness is, help me to number them, to value each one, to see each one as a gift from God. Every day matters. Every day might be my last.

I have duties, responsibilities, things to do, calling upon my life. I should worship God, I should pray to God, seek and impart forgiveness. I should perform loving deeds to my loved ones and those around me, and so on and so forth.

Again, verse 10, if you go back to Ecclesiastes, if you’re still in James like I am, if you go back to Ecclesiastes: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”

There’s a sense of, I need to number my days, right? If I’m going to work, acquire knowledge and wisdom and so on, I can’t do that after, so I must do it now.

If I number my days, if I understand that they are limited, each day is a gift and I must use it, then it will awaken a watchfulness in me.

Now, Lord Jesus had this. He had a watchfulness to each day, a watchfulness to His life. John 9 verse 4, He said, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day.”

“The night cometh, when no man can work.”

You know, the cloud of the end of His ministry is looming. Every day that passes, it’s another day closer. And so He’s numbering His days. He understands the significance of each day. And every day He is giving Himself to the works of Him that sent Him.

I have a work to do, something I must do.

So every day He’s busily engaged in that endeavor.

Now, if you think you’re going to just keep on living and you’re not thoughtful about this, then you’re not living watchfully. And that’s expressed in the fact that you don’t understand the significance of every day.

Now, some of you know this. I mean, you know what I’m saying. All of this is not new to you, but you know how easily it comes and it goes, right? You’re hearing it now and you’re imbibing it. You’re saying, yes, every day matters.

And then it fades. It fades. We are lulled into this sense of just drifting, drifting through our days.

But, oh, for more watchfulness, more vigilance.

It awakens watchfulness. Watchfulness to the significance of each day, watchfulness to the significance of eternity.

You see, eternity looms. And we don’t know when it’s going to come to us. You don’t know when it’s going to be absent from the body, present in eternity. You don’t know that.

And the watchfulness then, the unknown hour, should press upon us a sense of watchfulness.

In Matthew 24, our Lord drove that point home. In verses 42 and 44, He said, “For ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

There’s a sense of He’s coming to close. It’s going to close out this epoch. And you don’t know when it’s going to come. You don’t know when He’s going to arrive.

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

When you don’t think, He will arrive.

And so the ignorance of the hour, this is the mercy, the mercy of the unknown hour. The mercy of it is that ignorance elevates watchfulness.

He’s pressing watchfulness upon you because you don’t know and I don’t know.

Watch therefore.

This is a gift. The fact you don’t know is a gift to drive you to watchfulness.

In Mark 13, verses 35 and following, He says similar language: “Watch ye therefore.” He goes on then to say, “Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”

“Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”

You’re not watchful. And there’s a danger in that, a danger in not being watchful. But if we rightly comprehend the uncertainty, the unknown quality, when man knoweth not his time, if we grasp that, it should drive us to a watchfulness, thinking about the fact that this is looming. I don’t know when it’s going to come.

The danger, especially in the church, I think, is this quality of sleeping. This characteristic of sleeping. Lest, coming suddenly, He find you sleeping.

I wonder how He will find you. I wonder how He will find me.

In an hour you think not, He comes. “Watch ye therefore, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”

And then He says, “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

What I say unto you, I say unto all. It applies to all.

Time and chance happeneth to all. A man does not know his time.

Are you sleeping? Are you?

Is that a good description of how you’re moving through life? I’m not talking about are you sleeping in the service. I hope that’s not the case.

I’m talking about the posture of slumber in life, right? It’s just, you know what it is. It’s a lack of energy, a lack of purpose, a lack of embracing the moment. Just slumbering your way through this old existence.

And Jesus said, this is a real danger.

He says it. He’s turning a spotlight right on this generation. A slumbering generation. Taking things for granted.

A problem that Moses could see. It’s the reason why he’s saying, teach us. He knows the ignorance. Moses knows it.

Teach us to number our days, Lord, because we don’t do this. We are ignorant. We aren’t driven to this. We’re not inclined to this.

We’re not those that naturally do this. We just kind of meander, are wandering through the wilderness in circles, as illustrative of how we kind of handle life. And it shouldn’t be.

Teach us to number our days.

Yes, Paul writes in Romans 13:11, he sees the same problem: “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

It’s pressing in, the closing hour. The eternity that awaits is coming, and it is high time to awake out of sleep.

The preacher sees it. He sees it first in himself, a proneness to it, to be sleepy. Then he looks at his audience and he sees it as well.

He sees in them a sleepiness. There isn’t a sense of urgency. Eternity just seems to be a concept. It’s not a motivating principle.

There’s a certain horror to it, like this is coming, this crossing over from here to there, that will fix everything.

As in, what I mean fix is everything is set then. Like, if I’m going to love people, I need to love them now, here. If I’m going to serve in labor, it’s now, here. If I go to the grave, the opportunity’s gone.

We just drift through our lives. It’s such a danger. Every day bringing us nearer to eternity. Every day bringing the unbeliever especially nearer to judgment without Christ.

So the unknown hour awakens watchfulness. It ought to.

Right? Man also knoweth not his time.

You put your own name in there.

You know not your time. You don’t know your time.

You could be one of those people. One of those people that all your acquaintance will talk about, occasionally you will come to their mind, in which they say, the tragedy of that person taken so early, so young.

It’s your name on their lips. It’s your memory.

So the unknown hour is a mercy because it humbles presumption, it awakens watchfulness.

In the third place, it rebukes delay.

It rebukes delay.

And specific delays that are really important that we need to get right, or nothing matters.

In the first place, the delay of faith and repentance.

We walk through our lives imagining, I can repent and believe some other time.

Conversations with people like this. You know, in the past you have these conversations with people because you can see at times that God is working. You can see it in them. Sometimes they’ll even admit it. They’ll come to inquire, to receive counsel, to talk about their fears and their concern and inquire about how they can be rightly related to God.

And there’s a stirring in them. And that stirring is heightening a sense of the pressing need to put this matter right.

And you open the Word and you encourage them. You try to alleviate their fears or whatever may be causing them to be hesitant. You try to address those things. And you point the way.

That’s all you can do. You can’t carry them over the threshold, right? You wish at times you could. Like you just grab people and say, let me just fireman’s lift you over my shoulder and throw you into the arms of Jesus.

But you can’t do it. They have to go. They have to make their own way there.

And you point the way and you explain it to them, that He invites. Come to Him, He will in no wise cast you out. Turn from your sin. Repent of them. Confess your sins. He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

You press it, and you press it, and you press it.

And at times—oh, it is the tragedy of all tragedies in the ministry. It is the tragedy of all tragedies in life itself. Watching those whose conscience has been alarmed turn and walk away.

When right in God’s Word itself: “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week.

I told you, tomorrow doesn’t belong to you. It’s not your property. You don’t have the deeds to tomorrow. You don’t have it.

It’s just imagining. You’re thinking, I’ll get this settled another time.

And God’s Word is screaming at you, making it plain, no, no. No. The only time you have is now. This is the moment that God has given you. It’s the present. And everything future is uncertain.

So you must act now.

And man not knowing his time is a gift. It’s encouraging them to not delay in faith and repentance. Not to wait and imagine, I’ll be like the thief that was on the cross.

Was there not a man, preacher, was there not a man there with Jesus and there on the cross? Did he not call out for salvation just before he died and he was saved?

Yes, there was. It’s true.

Well, can I not be like that man? Can I not just wait to the end?

Number one, you’re assuming you’ll have the opportunity. And that’s not guaranteed, because you could be taken suddenly, with no warning.

And number two, you’re assuming that you’ll want to when that time comes. And that’s not guaranteed either.

Because there was another man, there was another man, on the other side of Jesus, there as well, also dying, who also saw the same truth, heard the same words, struck by the same scenes. He was there as well.

And he is but seconds, moments from death.

His friend who’s dying with him over there is, do you not fear God? Seeing you’re in the same condemnation. We indeed justly.

Do you understand the urgency of this matter?

And then to hear his friend, “Lord, remember me.” He sees a conversion happen right in front of him. He sees another person he knows getting converted right before his very eyes, just before they both die, and he still doesn’t come.

He still doesn’t come.

It’s amazing.

And you could equally just be that person. You could be that person. There’s no guarantee you’re going to be the thief who cries out for mercy. You could be the one who doesn’t.

Man knows not his time. That’s why you act now.

Like right now, I’m telling you, let’s get to brass tacks here. Don’t even wait to the end of the sermon. Seek the Lord now. This very moment.

The unknown hour rebukes delay. “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

If you hear it. Is He speaking? Do you hear Him speaking? Is the appeal penetrating? Is there a sense of alarm in your soul?

Today. Today. Today, not tomorrow.

Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

The delay of faith and repentance. The unknown hour rebukes it. It says, you don’t know your time. Why would you delay in this? This is crucial. If you get this wrong, you wait too long, you end up in hell.

Let me also say, in terms of the rebuke of delay, delay is not only the delay of faith and repentance, it’s the delay of fruitful living.

If you want to make something of your life that matters, it has to be today. Like, you have to be giving yourself to it now. If you’re going to do something of significance, you have to start now.

Even as Christians, we need to understand this. The Lord would have us to be fruitful. And that means responding to His call to live for Him now.

The Romans 12 appeal: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies.”

That’s present your bodies, like give yourself. Okay, I’m going to live for you, Lord.

I’ve been cold and backslidden for far too long. I’ve been in a wilderness. I’ve been in a barren wilderness.

And He reaches out and He says to the believer that looks at years of wasted time and energy, where they just were drifting, and it seems impossible to make up that time—because time once passed is gone—and yet the Lord turns to His people and He says that He can restore the years that the locusts have eaten.

You want to see a miracle? You see how God takes a wasted life and makes it more fruitful in the remaining years than they could ever thought was possible. He gives bumper spiritual harvest.

But in order for that to be so, you have to give your life to Him. There has to be handing of the life to Him.

You know not your time.

There’s been discussion recent days, one of my childhood heroes. I don’t quite feel similar towards him these days as I did when I was a young person. But Sir David Attenborough turned 100.

If you don’t know who Sir David Attenborough is, if you’ve ever seen one of those BBC nature programs, the narration in all likelihood was Sir David Attenborough. His own unique cadence of narration.

And you might live to 100. Or you might not see 30.

Time and chance happeneth to all. Man knoweth not his time.

It has to be a certain haunting thing about lying there in the last days and hours and knowing that you have just frittered away the gift of life in carnal indulgence, making the Christian life as easy as possible, managing to circumvent any sense of accountability or responsibility.

Opportunities arise, doors open. Are you interested in this ministry? Invitations to be involved in something where you might get the gospel out and do something. A feeling even in your youth that maybe God’s called me to be a preacher or a missionary, and you’re wrestling over that, but you manage to shelve it and go on and just fritter away your life.

And you get to the end, and the nature of the experience is going to have you reflect, ponder, calculate, and assess your life. You see it in men. Some of you have seen it. You’ve seen people who’ve lived very hard. They’ve lived a real scaly kind of heart. When they’re staring death, they know the time is gone. You just see them begin to melt.

And the regrets.

It’s not how to live, my friends. It’s not how to live.

Paul encourages Titus in his ministry. He said, Titus, here’s what I want you to communicate to your audience, to your people, about Jesus, who gave Himself for us, who gave Himself for us, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.

And he goes on in that argument, but then presents that we might be zealous of good works.

Preach Jesus, who gave Himself for us, that they in turn might be zealous of good works.

In other words, that they won’t waste their life.

The unknown hour rebukes delay.

Finally, the unknown hour deepens dependence.

It deepens dependence.

Man knows not his time, so it ought to deepen dependence.

You might say, firstly, dependence on divine providence more than our plans.

In Proverbs 16 verse 9, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”

We plan. It’s okay to plan, but the directing belongs to God. He is in control. And so when you make your plans, don’t worship them. Don’t hold on to them as if this is all my life, right, this year.

Oh, this can happen to the preacher. Yes, it can.

You know, he gets, his whole life is caught up in ministry. His identity is so wrapped up in ministry, and then something happens and ministry is no longer an open door to him. And having preached up the gospel and the satisfaction that is in Christ, and the glory of the position that the children of God possess by virtue of their union to Jesus, having preached that up, they just enter straight into the slough of despond.

Their purpose is gone, they feel.

But God has a plan, another plan, a perfect plan.

And so we are to hold on to our plans loosely, knowing He may direct differently.

Oh, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We have no idea what the future may hold. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. We have no idea.

So, dependence on divine providence more than our plans, but also dependence on divine promises more than our perspectives.

And we have a view of things. And Paul tells us, he warns us, walk by faith and not by sight.

Be careful about that sight living, that perspective that comes about by everything you see. And you make assessments based purely on what you can see. And he warns, no, no, that’s not how to walk the Christian life.

Walk by faith.

And so how do you walk by faith?

Well, the promises of God. Because your eyes see one thing, and the promises of God say something else.

And not knowing, not knowing your time, ought to motivate you, become a mercy that motivates you instead of being governed by the perspective that you have of life, being governed by the promises of God that are settled in yea and amen in Christ Jesus to you.

It makes all the difference. It makes all the difference.

It means that whatever happens, you know, Paul has a plan. I want to get the gospel to the world, right? I’m a missionary to the Gentiles, and my goal is to go as far and wide and have as big an impact as I can.

And then, then, he ends up in prison.

And that would seem counterproductive. You could just see him there, this active, zealous, driven character, chained and walled in. And he could enter into despair and begin to question the wisdom of God.

But he doesn’t. He doesn’t.

And he takes up his pen there. He writes to the church at Philippi. Oh, you’ve heard about my imprisonment and you’re all worried about it. Don’t be. This has fallen out, rather, to the furtherance of the gospel, verse 12.

And I want to remind you of something, verse 21: “For to me to live is Christ.”

Whether it’s on the streets, in the marketplace, in the synagogue, or the temple, or here in this prison, for me to live, Christ.

And so it’s, how do I live for Christ here?

Yes, that’s living by promises rather than perspectives. That’s allowing the Word to govern, and positionally to understand who you are in Christ, and know He’s in control, and embrace all that.

Oh, so much could be said.

Here’s the thing. There’s the mercy in the unknown hour, the mercy in it.

And we’ve just touched on some things that drive us. Not knowing our time should drive us in a particular direction.

You don’t know. And the fact that you don’t know when you’re going to die, when you’re going to pass, isn’t something you just say, well, that’s meaningless. It doesn’t matter. Because I don’t know, it’s irrelevant.

No, because you don’t know, it is massively relevant in the ways that we’ve considered and perhaps other ways too.

He hides it from us.

Oh, I wonder. I wonder how long I have left. Do you? Do you wonder?

Most importantly, are you ready? Are you ready? I mean, are you ready? Do you feel ready?

I guess I’m living the way I aim to live. I’m doing what I know I ought. By God’s grace, I’m trying. I feel myself in the place where I’m meant to be and I’m doing my calling and I’m embracing that. So if the Lord calls me to go and be with Himself now, then so be it. I’ll not have regrets.

Is that how you’re living?

If you’re without Christ, the horror of all horrors.

The Christian, you see, the one resting in Christ, he may get in by the skin of his teeth, so to speak. He may be judged and pass, so as by fire. He’s in there, but he’s safe.

If you’re not in Christ, there’s no safety. If you’re not in Christ, there’s no hope. If you’re not in Christ, if you die, that is it. You perish. Everlastingly. Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Where there’s weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Where there’s no relief to the agony. There’s no pardon. There’s no gospel. There’s no escape.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

I’m going to plead with you one more time. If you’re not saved, I urge you, I plead with you in Jesus’ name to come to Him tonight.

Do not walk out into that parking lot and go home still unsaved, unsure, unforgiven.

Get the matter sorted here, now. Right now, where you are.

Cry for mercy. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Repent of your sins. Turn to Christ. Believe on the Son. See the significance of His crucifixion. Wounded there on the cross for sinners such as me and you. And that bloodshed has the power to wash away all your sins.

Only believe.

Lord, have mercy. Have mercy on us all.

We know not what a day may bring forth. Man knoweth not his time. Please help us to number our days. Please help us to watch and to not be found asleep. What you said unto them, you say unto all, watch.

O gracious God, please help us to watch. Answer prayer now. Let us remember what we have heard and thought about.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit, be the portion of all the people of God now and evermore. Amen.