Getting and Losing

"A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away." Ecclesiastes 3:6

The blessed Spirit saw fit under the old dispensation to make much use of proverbs and aphorisms; and there seems to be in that mode of instruction something peculiarly suited both to the character of the people, and also to the time in which the holy Scriptures were written. In those days, compared with our own, there was very little reading or writing; and therefore it was very desirable that instruction should be conveyed in short sentences (such as we find in the book of Proverbs), which might be easily remembered. And when these pithy sentences were written in what is called an "antithetical" form (that is, where one clause is opposed to, and as it were balances the other) like the point of an arrow, it gave the instruction a keener edge, and fastened it more deeply and firmly in the heart.

But, besides this, we are to bear in mind that the Old Testament was given to the whole people of Israel. That dispensation did not resemble ours, in being restricted to the elect of God—it was a national dispensation; and therefore the Old Testament was, to a certain extent, a national book. We find, therefore, not only in the books of Moses, but scattered up and down the Sacred Writings, and especially the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, most clear and beautiful lessons on what is generally called "morality," and the guidance of conduct in the various relations of life.

But though the genius and character of that dispensation were national, yet God had an elect family, who were spiritually taught, in the same way as God's elect family are taught now. The Holy Spirit, therefore, in revealing these Proverbs, pointed sayings, and aphorisms, so indited them, that under the external cover of moral instruction there was spiritual instruction deeply couched. So that, while the Proverbs afforded the most beautiful lessons of morality to those who looked no farther than mere morality, they also afforded blessed lessons of spiritual instruction to those who were enlightened by the Holy Spirit to see into the kernel, and were not satisfied with merely handling the shell.

Thus the Holy Spirit, in this chapter of Ecclesiastes, treating on the various incidents of human life, declares, that "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under 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 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." Here is a great deal of moral, natural truth. It is true, literally and naturally, that "There is a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted."

But, under these natural incidents is contained spiritual instruction; and what appears to me to prove that there is an experimental meaning couched under the whole, is the expression—"a time to kill." It cannot surely be true, literally and naturally, that there is "a time to kill;" for that would make the Holy Spirit sanction murder. "You shall not kill" is one of the precepts of the Decalogue. The blessed Spirit, therefore, could never mean, literally and naturally, that there was "a time to kill." So that from this clue I gather that the Holy Spirit had a spiritual interpretation in view—"a time to kill" by the application of God's law to the conscience; a season to slaughter the soul, so as to cut off all hope and help. And thus, this one expression, "a time to kill," seems at once to take our minds from the literal and natural interpretation of the whole; and to show us there is a spiritual, experimental interpretation which lies hidden beneath the surface.

But what says the text? "A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away." When God favors a man in providence, when he smiles upon his plans and arrangements, it is with him "a time to get." But if the Lord does not prosper a man in providence, he may rise early, and go to bed late; he may keep the best accounts, and lay out his plans in the most complete way; if it be not "a time to get," every hope and fair expectation will be entirely blighted. Thus also, there is "a time to lose." How many of the Lord's people have experimentally found in natural things there has been "a time to get," when the Lord has prospered every undertaking; and how painfully have they also found there is "a time to lose," when, as with Job, messenger comes after messenger to tell them of the loss of their worldly prosperity. So also, literally and naturally, there is "a time to keep" what a person gains by honest industry; and there is "a time to cast away" in acts of charity and liberality.

But shall I confine myself to this mere literal interpretation, which floats upon the surface? Shall I merely dip my hand into the froth and foam of the text, and leave untouched the spiritual treasures that are couched beneath? I cannot do so. I shall therefore, with God's blessing, entirely discard all further allusion to the literal and natural interpretation of the passage; and come at once to the spiritual and experimental signification.

The text, you will observe, is divided into two portions, each containing two clauses; these, I hope, with God's blessing, to take up and consider separately. May he who alone can give the blessing, clothe with power what may be spoken in weakness.

I. "A time to GET." The Lord, in answer to a question put by his disciples, declared that "The Father has put the times and seasons in his own power." (Acts 1:7.) Thus, there is anappointed "time to get." But to get what? Why, that which shall do our souls good for eternity; that which shall save us from "the wrath to come;" that which shall translate us from "the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son;" those "treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." (Matt. 6:20.)

But let us examine more closely the spiritual things that a living soul "gets." Of the things thus got some are painful, and others pleasurable; some are attended with sorrow, and others with joy; some kill, and others heal; some bring down, and others raise up.

A. Among the PAINFUL lessons experimentally learned in the school of divine teaching are,

1. A spiritual knowledge of GOD'S holy character; a gracious sight into, and a divine acquaintance with, Jehovah's perfections, his purity, his holiness, his majesty, his greatness, his omniscience, his omnipotence. Thus to know "the only true God" by the manifestations of himself to the soul, is a branch of heavenly getting. But this we cannot get this view of God, without a corresponding discovery of our own deformity and vileness, our loss of the divine image, our alienation from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us, because of the blindness of our heart. Job had this discovery of the purity of Jehovah, when he said, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job. 42:5, 6.) Isaiah, under a view of the glory of the Lord in the temple, cried out, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5); and all Daniel's loveliness was turned into corruption when he saw the Lord by the side of the great river. (10:8.)

2. A knowledge of the spirituality and breadth of God's holy LAW, whereby the soul is brought in guilty before God, is another of those painful gettings which a living man has to experience. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Through its application guilt falls upon the conscience. "Whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Rom. 3:19.) This cuts up self-righteousness, brings to light secret iniquities, and makes the offence to abound. It discovers sin of the eye, heart, hand, and tongue, and curses and condemns the least deviation from a perfect righteousness.

3. A sound conviction of SIN is also one of the things got by the Lord's living family; not merely those natural convictions that go and come, that ebb and flow, and leave the soul for the most part as they found it, under the power of lust, and in the services of Satan; but that sound conviction of sin which penetrates into the very heart's core, and never leaves the sinner's conscience until it brings him to the Redeemer's feet; which never wears off until the blood of atonement is applied to the conscience; which brings out of the world, separates from dead professors, makes a man honest and sincere, leads him to sigh and cry to the Lord for a sense of his pardoning mercy, and finally issues in a blessed deliverance.

4. A knowledge of the corruptions of our fallen nature—of our unbelief, infidelity, pride, hypocrisy, worldly mindedness, carnality, sensuality, and selfishness, with all the abounding evils of our deceitful and desperately wicked heart, is another branch of this painful getting. Without it there will be no humility or self loathing—no dread of falling, nor desire to be kept; no knowledge of the super-aboundings of grace over the aboundings of sin; no justifying of God, no condemning of ourselves.

5. A knowledge of Satan's temptations, wiles, and snares, of his craft and power, subtlety and malice, serpent windings and lion roarings, is another part of this painful getting.

B. But there are gettings of a different kind—of a pleasurable nature. Such as,

1. A spirit of grace and supplication; and the "time to get" it, is then, and then only, when the blessed Spirit is pleased to communicate it. Wherever, by the Spirit's application of God's holy law to the conscience, there is gotten a sound conviction of sin, there is gotten, under the operation of that only and almighty Teacher, a heart to pour itself out in supplications, sighs, tears, and breathings at the footstool of mercy. "They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them."

2. There is, also, "a time to get" a knowledge of Jesus; as we read, "this is life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3.) There is "a time to get" this knowledge of Jesus Christ; a knowledge of him as the Savior from "the wrath to come;" a knowledge of him as "the Mediator between God and men;" a knowledge of the efficacy of his atoning blood to cleanse a guilty conscience; a knowledge of his justifying righteousness to clothe the needy, naked soul; a knowledge of his dying love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit; a knowledge of his glorious Person; a knowledge of his tender sympathizing heart; a knowledge of him as "able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by him."

3. There is "a time" also "to get" faith. When the blessed Spirit is pleased to raise up this precious grace in the soul, he draws it out to lay hold of the promises that he applies, the blood that he sprinkles, the Savior that he reveals, the love that he sheds abroad, and the truth that he makes experimentally known.

4. There is "a time" too "to get" the pardon of sin by the sweet manifestations of pardoning love to the soul.

5. And to mention summarily other branches of this heavenly getting, there is "a time to get" a knowledge of a saving interest in the love and blood of the Lamb; at "a time to get" a spiritual sight of the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings; "a time to get" that union and communion with him which is life and peace. There is "a time," also, "to get" heavenly affections, spiritual delights, tender sensations, holy longings, divine feelings. And, to add no more, there is "a time to get" everything which fits the soul for a glorious and happy immortality.

C. But you will observe that the blessed Spirit has said, there is "a time to get." And this time is in his hands who holds all times and seasons at his own sovereign disposal. This indeed is a lesson which the Lord's people have, for the most part, painfully to learn; that though they see the blessings revealed in the gospel, they cannot get them except when they are dropped into their heart and shed abroad in their soul by the Holy Spirit. But what are these times to get?

1. One time is a time of affliction. This is, for the most part, the time that the Lord first begins the work of grace upon the sinner's conscience. The Lord often makes use of affliction to take the sinner aside, as it were, that he may speak to his heart. A sick bed separates him from the world, or some family affliction shows him the emptiness of all human happiness, or some reverse in circumstances brings down his pride and ambition. And at this season the Lord often opens his ear to receive instruction; and thus the time of affliction often proves "a time to get." So also, with respect to the manifestations of grace, mercy, and love—it is, for the most part, in times of trial, of sorrow, and despondency; in times when there is no hope for the soul except in the free mercy of God, that any real blessing is got from the Lord.

2. A time of temptation is also usually "a time to get." In seasons of temptation, we get a knowledge of our own weakness and wickedness, learn our helplessness against Satan's temptations, and experience the Lord's delivering hand.

3. There is also a time to favor Zion and when that set time comes it is "a time to get." Before that time arrives, we may try to get; but, like the disciples, we toil all night, and get nothing. But when the set time arrives, the net is cast on the right side of the ship, and the blessings come as it were spontaneously to hand.

II. But there is not only "a time to get," there is also "a time to LOSE;" and the one season is set over against the other. And just as it is the blessed Spirit, and he alone, who brings about the "time to get;" so it is the blessed Spirit, and he alone, who brings about the "time to lose."

But what does a man lose? In the same way, as what he "gets" is for his soul's good, his everlasting profit, his eternal peace; so what he "loses" is only that which, were it not parted with, his soul would be a sufferer. For instance,

1. There is a losing of our own righteousness. O how many there are who are building their hopes of heaven entirely upon this sandy foundation! But not so with the Lord's family. There is "a time" for them "to lose" this cobweb garment; a time when creature righteousness is taken from them, and they are stripped of those filthy rags which cannot shield them from the eye of omniscient justice. And when is this time? When there is a discovery to the conscience of the perfections of Jehovah; of the purity of his law; of that holy majesty and justice which eternally dwell in him, which require a righteousness pure, spotless, and undefiled, and can accept no other. Thus, when the Lord is pleased to bring before the eyes, and let down into the soul, a sense of his greatness and majesty, and applies the edge of his spiritual precepts to the conscience, then is the time when we begin to lose our own righteousness; then it appears in our eyes as nothing but filthy rags; then we know, that if we have no other righteousness, we must be eternally lost; and thus we are made to part with it, that we may be clothed with the Lamb's imputed righteousness, and so stand before God without spot, or blemish, or any such thing.

2. There is a losing also of our fleshly holiness. What Christian in days past has not aimed at creature holiness? Even after he had been convinced that his own legal righteousness will not save him, yet how hard he has toiled and tugged to get some gospel holiness, something in himself that he can look upon as spiritual and heavenly, something of an evangelical nature that he can present to God, and lay down before him as acceptable in his sight.

But there is "a time to lose" this fleshly holiness, however dressed out in a gospel garb, as we lost our legal righteousness. And when is that time? When the corruptions of our heart are laid bare, when sin is allowed to come in like a flood, so as to sweep away all those dreams (for dreams they are) of fleshly holiness and creature perfection; when we are put into Satan's sieve and have our religion shaken backwards and forwards until every sound grain seems gone, and nothing rises to the top but the chaff which the wind blows away; when the Lord puts the soul into the furnace of affliction, and nothing comes to the surface but the dross and scum which are taken away by the Refiner—then is the "time to lose" this fleshly holiness that we once so dearly prized, and so ardently and anxiously longed to obtain. It is lost, utterly lost, when the Lord gives us a sight of what we are, and gives us a glimpse of what He is.

Next Part Getting and Losing 2

Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons