The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his107/ss260.arj/SS260.TXT

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YOUR PLACE IN GOD'S WORLD



Thank you, and again, for the 400th or 500th time─I don't know
how many times─good morning to students and teachers of the word
of God. It's a blessing to be on the radio and have the chance to
bring you the word of God, and study awhile together, and open
the Book, and learn the word of God. This broadcast, as you know,
is designed specifically for a staggering minority that is left
in America today─the people who believe the Bible and have been
called to teach it, and the people who are interested in the
Bible and want to learn it. That's why we call this a "Bible
Believers' Hour," or an hour for students and teachers of the
word of God.

Our lesson this week is called "Our Place in God's World," and
is found in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 15. In this
passage, first of all, we see there is a time (Ecclesiastes
chapter 3, verses 1 through 8), then there is a testing (verses 9
and 10), then there is an illusion (verses 11 and 12), then there
is happiness to be found (verses 12 and 13), and there is a
judgment to come (verses 14 and 15).

   In the passage, we find a time, a testing, an illusion, the
attainment of happiness, and the arrival at judgment.

   This weekend, I'll be preaching in Zachary, La., in a Bible
conference, and I trust you'll remember me in your prayers there
and remember our work here, and especially our bookstore
ministry, which has grown and grown and grown. Thanks be to
people who are interested in the word of God, and some generous
donors from time to time─not very many; matter of fact, just one
or two. But we thank God for the interest in the word, and the
word has gone out. I'm sometimes amazed when I walk through the
bookstore and just look; I can't believe what I'm looking at. The
first books I wrote were in the back end of a little house on 24
St. John Street, back in the back room on a little table that was
about two feet square, with one of these old stationary, manual
typewriters, which wasn't even electric. I sat back there in dim
light and typed those books. The first tapes I made were made in
a garage; I had to make them in the winter, and there wasn't any
heat there. I had ear muffs over my ears sometimes and an
overcoat on while I was making the tapes. I come out here now and
I see an operation that's just hard to believe. It's really hard
to believe─just a bookstore covered with tape cassette albums,
covering almost every verse in the Bible. I see volumes out here
on Genesis and Exodus and on Samuel and on Jeremiah, on Isaiah,
on Daniel, on Ezekiel, volumes and volumes out here on Matthew
and Luke and John and Acts and Romans. And the word of God is
getting out. And the word of God is getting out by means of books
and commentaries and tracts, and we thank God for it. As we know,
of course, we have very little time left; I'm sure you all know
that. Especially, we have little time in America. In spite of a
temporary revival of conservatism, I'm sure you know that the
situation our government got into since 1933 was of such a state
that there's no way to pull out completely. All you need is one
good moral, left-wing man in, and you're gone! There are certain
items that don't ever get broadcast. You have to get by the daily
newspapers to find them out. The daily newspapers, of course,
have never printed the truth, and never will. They're not about
to. It would hurt their income; it would hurt their circulation.
But, when Kennedy was President, two things happened which you
wouldn't believe. I have the number and name of the book
published under the State Department, and the number of the bill
passed. The bills were passed when Kennedy was in that would give
the President of the United States complete and power and
authority to confiscate your storage room, your food, your
supplies, your tools, your house and your land, and remove you
and your children to any designated place by the government. This
was in what we call an "emergency act." Concurrent with that,
when Kennedy was President, was a book published by the State
Department, which said the ultimate plan and policy of the United
States would be to make the United Nations so powerful that it
would be an international police force that would control all the
nations, and no nation would be able to rise against it. Now,
that's what went on in this country back there 27 or 28 years
ago.

   I believe one of the most remarkable things I ever read was by
a converted German named Derks. Derks, of course, had an I.Q.
twenty points higher than Albert Einstein. Dr. Gerhard Derks was
an East German. His I.Q. was 208, which is 50 above genius. You
may not know it, but Gerhard Derks holds 140 patents with IBM. He
has even attempted theoretically to construct the human brain.
The man I'm getting ready to quote is at least three times as
smart as anybody you know. You better listen to this. This man is
certainly smarter than anybody in the state of Florida; it would
do you well to listen. He was a firsthand eyewitness of a
Communist takeover of a city. Here's what he said:

   "When the Communists take over a city, they put in some of
their own very competent people. Then these competents appoint
the grossly incompetent. They take a man of no education, or a
man who cannot read or write, but has a social promotion and no
training, and they say, `You are a mayor,' or, `You are a
superintendent,' or, `You are a secretary.' And they pay him or
her and put them in a good place to stay. Then they take someone
else, maybe someone out of jail or out of court, and they say,
`You are the new superintendent,' or, `You are the new
principal,' or, `You are the chief of police,' or, `You are a
commissioner.' Then they point out to these men and their friends
that they never had it so good before. And they're right!

   "Pretty soon the city doesn't run very well. Pretty soon the
police department isn't functioning. Pretty soon there's trouble
with the city finances. They don't know what to do. So, they're
desperate. They don't want to lose their new positions. So, what
can these incompetent people do? They go to the one who appointed
them and say, `What do we do?' Now, this is what the new
authorities are waiting for. The man who appointed the
incompetent now tells them what to do. The orders of the
dictatorship can now be carried out willingly by the incompetents
that have been appointed. They are kept in power through fear."

   You know what Gerhard Derks said? He said, "I see this thing
going on in the United States. Anyone with political power for
political reasons appoints somebody under him who would not
otherwise be qualified for the job, in order to increase his own
power. You can rule a whole country with an iron fist by
appointing people who don't really qualify, but will do anything
to stay in office, because they don't really know what they're
doing."

   Now, how do you spot this Communist movement? I'm quoting from
a man who has an I.Q. of 208: "One thing troubles me. Communists
and all dictatorships for that matter use paperwork and red tape
to control things. You have to have a permit for everything! I
see this growing in America at an alarming rate. To build
something, to do something, to operate something, you fill out
more and more papers. And the incompetents who keep an office,
keep an office because of their superiors, and they have become a
tool for someone to come along and use. It can spell
D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R! Once you try to pretend that people are
competent who are not competent, and set up your own standards
for competency which don't make them competent, and once you try
to say a person qualifies because of something they do, where the
requirements weren't met that enable them to do the job, and put
in those people, and you create a thing where they will be kept
in their position through fear─then they'll do what they're told!
You don't create a democracy that way; you create a fascist
dictatorship or a Soviet comintern. That's how it's done."

   Who said that? A man smarter than anybody you know in the
state of Florida. So, there's not much time left; we need to get
it out while we can. We have to tell it like is now, even in
Chinese. I've got a letter the other day from a Malayan
individual who wanted more tracts, more "Tell It Like It Is," and
he didn't even have them in his own language! We don't have it in
Vietnamese or Malay language yet. But he wanted some more,
whatever he had. I guess he had an English copy.

   We're in Ecclesiastes 3, where the main theme is, "There is a
time." Ecclesiastes 3:1: "To everything there is a season, and a
time to every purpose under the heaven." That is, things are not
as disordered and as confused as they look like. God has His own
schedule, His own calendar, His own time planned, and works
things out according to His own clock. "There is...a time for
every purpose." There was a time for Jesus Christ to come the
first time; there's a time for Him to come the second time.
There's a time for a man to be saved and grow in grace and
knowledge of the Lord, and there's a time for him to be tested
and tried. There's a time for a man to die; these times are
ordered by God. Our times are in his hands.

   Now, what are the times? There are 28 of them given─one for
each phase of the moon. Never forget that the moon, sun and stars
were originally for "times and seasons" (Genesis 1).

   Verse 2: There is "A time to be born." You have it in your
birth certificate. There is "a time to die." It's on your death
certificate. Someone preaches at your funeral. There is "a time
to plant." Plant root crops with the moon going down; plant top
crops with the moon coming up. Go by the signs. All the people
who make their living off crops─that is, I'm talking about people
whose survival depends upon gardens─they plant by the signs.
There is "a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is
planted." There is a time to dig the potatoes; there is a time to
pull up the onions and the radishes, to "pluck up" that which is
planted.

   There is "a time to kill." Of course there is! If you don't
believe it, go down to the stockyards. There is a time to kill;
the animals are slaughtered there. "There is a time to kill." Of
course there's a time to kill; a man who doesn't believe there is
a time to kill is not a sane man. Of course there is a time to
kill; if somebody is trying to kill your wife or kill your child,
it's time for them to be killed. The Bible always backs up
capital punishment. These soviet, Roman socialists and
humanitarians who are trying to take over a community and jam
their religious convictions down their throat with all this junk
are the same whitewashed hypocrites, the very bunch, are the ones
who go around when you give them a tract and say, "I don't
believe in jamming religion down people's throats." They'll take
advantage of the press and free time and go around and see
committees and social groups and community groups in the town and
try to jam their own convictions down your throat. The Bible
approves of capital punishment throughout.

   I've got a letter here from a good friend of mine here in
town, a fellow named Noble Boyette, a fine Christian man I've
known for years, a man who taught me how to cast a mullet net for
which I'll always be grateful; I'm still casting it. Brother
Noble Boyette showed me a letter that he sent to a newspaper, and
the letter he got back. The letter he sent was a very simple
letter, simply stating the Scripture reasons why capital
punishment was Christian practice, and why a man who denied
capital punishment couldn't be a Bible-believing Christian. The
newspaper would not print his letter. Don't you think for a
minute that Pensacola Speaks tells what Pensacola speaks! Don't
you believe that! Let me tell you something; there are certain
subjects that are forbidden on radio and newspapers that nobody
in this town would dare mention! Because they are under a
religious dictator who has pressure on every piece of news media
in the world. I'm not talking about a Communist dictator, either.

   "There's a time to kill." Of course there is! If somebody
comes through your bedroom window at night, you tell them to
stop, and they don't stop, and they come through there, crawling
through that bedroom window at night under cover, and you warn
them to stop and they keep right on coming─it's time to pull the
trigger. There's a time to kill.

   "There is a time to heal." There's a time to rest when you're
wounded; there's a time to rest when you're sick. "A time to
break down." That's not talking about a nervous breakdown, but in
the sense of breaking down the old house and building a new one.
Break down the old wall, and put up a new one. Break down the
motor and repair it. Of course there is a time to break down. A
man who isn't partially negative is insane. "There is a time to
be born"─positive. "A time to die"─negative. "A time to
plant"─positive. "A time to pluck up"─negative. "A time to
kill"─negative. "A time to heal"─positive. "A time to break
down"─negative. "A time to build up"─positive. When you have all
these negative thoughts, these bad thoughts, and they hurt you,
and this and that─why, that's what keeps you sane, son! A man who
thinks positively all the time about everything is just as mad as
a March hare. "There is a time to break down, and a time to build
up." Build up character, build up a work. Build up your family;
build up yourself in the faith.

   "There is a time to weep"─negative. "A time to
laugh"─positive. "A time to mourn"─negative. "A time to
dance"─positive. The Bible is clear. A man who believes in
positive thinking and positive believing and positive talking and
releasing his faith and all this and that, is just as nutty as
any booby in the hatch you ever saw! Why, the most "positive"
thinkers in the world are in an insane asylum; they think they're
normal─or above normal.

   "There is a time to weep." Weep over souls. Paul says, "Weep
with them that weep." "There is a time to laugh." Paul says,
"Rejoice with them that rejoice." "Laughing doeth good like a
good medicine." There is a time to laugh; some things are
genuinely funny. We saved people know what's funny and what's not
funny. What is the unsaved person laughing at? He might be in
hell in the next five seconds. Isn't that something? Unsaved
people sitting around in front of a television all hours of the
day and night just laughing themselves sick, and at any time,
with a heart attack or a coronary or a blood clot, they could be
in hell? What are you laughing at?

   "There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh." The Bible says
about the Jews at the restoration, "Then was our mouth filled
with laughing, and our tongue was singing."

   "There is a time to mourn." Yes, of course there is. Mourn
over a nation. The Lord told Ezekiel one time, "You go through
the city, and you mark the fourheads of the men that mourn and
weep over the city, and I'll spare them. The rest of them, I'll
kill them!" Did you ever read that back in Ezekiel? There are
some strange things in that Bible, aren't there?

   Jesus Christ mourned; He wept over Jerusalem. He said, "O
Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, that stonest the prophets," and so forth
and so on, "how often I would have gathered you as a mother hen
gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." The Lord
told Ezekiel back there in the Old Testament, "You go in that
place, and walk through that place, and you mark those fellows in
the forehead who sigh and weep and cry over the spiritual
condition of this city, and I'll spare them. And the ones who
don't mourn, that aren't concerned about the city, that don't
weep over the city and moan over the city, I'll take them and
wipe them out." He said, "I'll tell you something else. It'll
begin at the sanctuary." He said, "You start with the elders. You
start with the religious people. You start with the people who
are leading that place the wrong way, and go through there."

   "There is a time to mourn." It isn't always time to laugh and
be happy and have a good time. There is a time to weep. All this
positive kick these psychological nuts are on! You hear them on
the radio from morning to night; to them you'd think the only
thing to do is just be glad and rejoice and have a good time and
be a happy hooligan, a happy harrigan, and just spend all your
time just laughing and smiling and singing and praising and
thanking God. Why, you irreligious nut! There is a time to weep
over lost souls, there is a time to weep over your sins, there is
a time to weep over your lost loved ones. And, if you're not
weeping and mourning over some things, you are a perverse,
unbalanced Christian. You're like a car with a battery in it, and
all it's got is a positive battery, and no negative battery. You
can't move five feet down the road. The car won't run.

   You see that thing in Ezekiel 9? Read that thing in Ezekiel 9.
Ezekiel 9:4: "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst
of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh and that cry..." The negative mourners! "...for all the
abominations that be done in the midst thereof." Then go through
and "...slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little
children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the
mark; and begin at my sanctuary." That's Ezekiel 9.

   "There is a time to dance." Of course there's a time to dance.
And the Bible always tell you what it is. You sinners who are
looking for an alibi to sin, you wouldn't dare open the Bible to
see what is said about dancing; you wouldn't dare! In this
program, we try to give you what the Scriptures say about the
lesson, not merely what it is presumed to teach. Do you know why
we do that? Every time you find a passage like this where it
says, "There is a time to kill, a time to be born, a time to
dance," then these unsaved, godless people, and these backslidden
wretches run off to every place in the world to justify their
sins. They don't wait to see what the Book said about the
passage. You can always spot them; as soon as they run across a
verse there, about which there is any trouble, they duck it! They
duck it for two reasons: ignorance─they haven't checked the Book
to see what the Book said about the verse; cowardice─they're
afraid if they did, it might say something they or their friends
wouldn't like.

   That's why you have hours and hours of radio time taken up
these days by so-called Bible teachers and preachers, where it is
just simply one unending stretch of hot air from start to finish!

   Now suppose I was a phony. Suppose I was a bread-and-butter
"prophet" after your billfold or your attendance or enrollment,
or some other pagan idol. Do you know how I'd expound that
passage? I'd say, "There's a time to dance. So we see that, yes,
dancing is good. Yes, under the proper circumstances. Yes, God
gave us joy. Yes, joy is part of our living. Yes, sometimes we
could almost dance for joy. And certainly there is nothing wrong
when the joyful Spirit of the Lord fills our heart with joy. Of
course, there may be some who think that the dance is...and there
may be some...and there may be those who disagree...but I think
we can all agree..."

   Now, you see what that is? That's the work of an ignorant
coward. Number one, the fellow doesn't know what he's talking
about. And, number two, he's afraid to find out. So, you know
what He's going to do? He's going to make you feel just fine by
pouring honey and molasses all over you, until you are just as
blind and stupid as he is. That isn't Bible teaching, and that
isn't Bible preaching. That's a hot-air expert.

   Now, about that "time to dance." Look at Psalm 150, verse 4:
"Praise him with the timbrel and dance." A Bible dance is where
God Himself is praised in the dance. Psalm 149:3: "Let them
praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with
the timbrel and harp." When the prodigal son came home, do you
know what happened? Luke 15:25: "Now his elder son was in the
field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick
and dancing." Now that's the difference between a Bible dance and
the kind of dancing that goes on in Pensacola or any place else.
In a Bible dance, God's name is praised in the dance. The dance
is never for secular purposes. The dance is an expression of joy
in God and salvation in God. The first dance in the Bible that is
recorded is recorded in Exodus chapter 15, where God is being
praised for deliverance. Exodus 15:20: "And Miriam the
prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and
all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances."
Notice that is women with women; no men present!

   Go to 2Samuel chapter 6, verse 5: "And David and all the house
of Israel played before the LORD on all manner of instruments
made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on
timbrels, and on cornets." What's that there? That's David
bringing up the ark of the Lord to the city of Jerusalem "with
timbrels and with dances." What is it? It's a dance to God.

   Look at it again in 1Chronicles, chapter 15, verse 29: "And it
came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the
city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a
window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him
in her heart." When the Bible says there is a time to dance, it
is very careful to tell you exactly when that time is, what it's
for, how it's to be done, and what the motive is that is
involved. And that's why you never heard the passage expounded in
your life. That's why if you went into the average Sunday school
this Sunday morning, you wouldn't hear one teacher open his mouth
on those references. All he'd do is just try to alibi or cover up
the jungle dances that go on, or justify Christian rock in the
church. They don't know what the Book says! And they don't care.
"There is a time to dance." When? When a soul gets saved (Luke
15); when God has delivered you from something (Exodus 15). The
women dance in one group, and the men in the other. That's a
Bible dance. You been to any of them lately? Oh, you bet your
booties. There's nothing like a Bible to clear up a college
education─or a "PTL" Christian.

   "A time to cast away stones"─negative. "A time to gather
stones together"─positive. "A time to embrace"─positive. "A time
to refrain from embracing"─negative. "A time to get"─positive. "A
time to lose"─negative. "A time to keep"─positive. "A time to
cast away"─negative. "A time to rend"─negative. "A time to
sew"─positive. "A time to keep silence"─negative. "A time to
speak"─positive. "A time to love"─positive. "A time to
hate"─negative. "A time of war"─negative. "A time of
peace"─positive.

   Throughout, there is equal time for positive and negative.
It's fifty-fifty. If you don't hate something, your love life is
messed up. If you can't fight, your peace is a temporary peace.
If you tear up a piece of cloth, you can't sew it back together.
If you can't keep your mouth shut when you ought to keep it shut,
you can't speak when you ought to speak. There's a time for
everything. A man who doesn't love God and love God's Book and
love God's people is an unbalanced Christian. And a Christian who
doesn't hate sin and hate death and hate hell and hate the works
of iniquity is a lopsided Christian. A Christian who wants to be
at peace with everybody all the time is a perverted Christian.
There is a time of war.

   Paul overdid it; his whole life was a war. And when he died,
he said, "I fought a good fight. I have kept the faith." He told
young Timothy, "War a good warfare, that you may please him which
hath chosen thee to be a soldier." There is a time for war.

   Now, the summation of this lesson is very plain. The summation
is, "There is a time and a place for everything. Everything
includes negative as well as positive. God Himself is the Author
of these times. A man who is smart will find out what the time
and the season for each one is and redeem the time, for the days
are evil.

   May the Lord bless you, and good day.