“A TIME TO SEEK, AND A TIME TO LOSE”

W. S. Chellberg

Ecclesiastes 3: 6; Luke 9: 23–25

It is a time to lose. It is interesting the way that the wise preacher says it, “A time to seek, and a time to lose”. Then he says, “A time to keep”. I think I would have said, ‘It is a time to keep, and a time to lose’, ‘but he says it is a time to seek, and a time to lose, and I think that is the gospel. That is the present day; it is a time to seek. And the Lord says, “whosoever shall lose his life for my sake”. We do not often think of that in connection with the gospel, losing, but it is an interesting thought. The preacher brings it in, and the wisdom of Solomon is amazing as we

read this book. He says interesting things. He says in another place, “I turned, I and my heart”, Ecclesiastes 7: 25. So I trust that that may be so this afternoon in relation to the gospel, that I might turn, “I and my heart”. That is, that something will happen in my heart in relation to God and in relation to Jesus.

So Jesus says, “Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, he shall save it”. Men are greatly concerned about saving their lives, and in a human sense that is right; in regard of others that would be my action, I would desire to aid in any way to save a life; and that would first be in relation to eternal things. It is an awful thing to think of a person who dies, in some cases in a violent way, thrust, you might say, into eternity; young people thrust into eternity, persons in the prime of their life thrust into eternity, suddenly. Scripture speaks about that, “then sudden destruction comes”, 1 Thessalonians 5: 3. You cannot but be affected as you think of it in regard of men, in regard of the world around, even perhaps persons you know—thrust into eternity. The scripture says the pitcher is shattered at the fountain (Ecclesiastes 12: 6). That is a chapter for young people, beginning, “Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth”, but it also says, “before … the pitcher be shattered at the fountain”. The fountain is the spring of things, it could refer to the prime of life; but “the pitcher is shattered”.

So we begin by thinking of persons seeking to save their lives, and they do all manner of things to attain their goals. Men set high goals; young people in this present day are setting goals, even the young people here set goals for themselves. That is, you have some thought of what you want to do, what you want to be when you finish school,

when you get to a certain age. Set your goals in relation to the things of God, in relation to the sufferings of the man Christ Jesus. I would just urge you to do that. Do not have divergent goals, aims, or objectives, but set your goal, set your heart, in relation to God’s things. You may say, ‘Well, you are not so very old so you do not know’, but I believe that those who are older here today would agree with that. Set your mind and your aim in the way of God’s things; that is the way to save your life in the sense of what the Lord is saying here, “he shall save it”. The Lord says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God … and all these things shall be added unto you”, Matthew 6: 33. It is a hard thing for younger persons; I know because it has been a hard thing for me to learn, that one is to be content with clothing and shelter and food. Be content; we are so prone to be energized by this present materialistic world where things have to be better and better, and the best, and the most, and the biggest; but that is not the gospel—that is not God’s way. So as we follow what the Lord says here, the thought is the saving of life, but how do you arrive at that?

The world has its own ideas of how to become a millionaire in three years on real estate. I read that book, and other books like it—‘How to be a Success in Business’. That is the world’s way of saving your life, but the end is “the penalty of the loss of himself”. So I would just urge everyone to pause at the present moment in relation to the gospel, “the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God”, 1 Timothy 1: 11. Think of how God has come out to us, how He has given everything; think of God giving His Son, Jesus. Think of the sacrifice that it was to God to give His own Son, as the parable that the Lord spoke indicates. The vineyard owner said, Well, I will send my son

and they will have respect for him. But they took him, they cast him out, and they killed him (Matthew 21: 37–39). How awful it is! Well, let us allow the sufferings of Jesus to bear into our hearts. I would suggest that we all read where Jesus was before Pilate; read it slowly and consider what it meant to Him to be before that governor, to have false witnesses brought against Him, to be spit upon, and to be hit, struck in the face; “his visage was so marred more than any man”, it says (Isaiah 52: 14). Think of the sufferings of Jesus. Oh if they could just bear into our hearts, how Jesus went to that cross, the suffering of it, the way that He went, and what He did. He went that way in His love. He went that way that you and I might be secured.

Now I trust as we consider this it will strike a note in our hearts regarding Jesus. I trust that it may strike through into your heart this afternoon, as you think about it. Think of Jesus hanging on that cross, and they said, “He saved others; let him save himself”, Luke 23: 35. Oh the hardness of men! He would not save Himself, He would not save Himself. Why? It was because of you. It was because of me. He said, “It is finished”. Oh think of those hours on the cross; think of the suffering that He endured for your sake. When you think of that how can you want to save your life? Are you prepared to seek and to lose? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6: 33); that is what Jesus says. I trust everyone here is, and will be as the days go on, more prepared to seek and to lose, to lose all that men want you to be. You might lose that title, you might lose that thing that is looming so big in the world, that they want you to be, or that they think you could do. You lose that in view of Him. You lose that in view of another

life.

Well, I trust that we may, each one, be stimulated in this line. Usually we do not speak about losing things; we speak about gaining things, and in christianity you gain a Saviour, you gain eternal life—“that they may lay hold of what is really life”, 1 Timothy 6: 19. The world has its own idea about life, they have what they call life, the jet set or whatever they call it; the bright lights and the music, and the hustle and bustle; they call it life—it is certainly not eternal life. I trust we each one may be stimulated and encouraged to lay hold of what is really life; lose whatever else is there, lose what stands in the way. “What shall a man profit?” Well, you sit down and figure it out; the corporate head may earn four or five hundred thousand dollars—you think, ‘That is for me’. Then you figure it out, and you say, ‘How does this stand up? So I have this job and I have it for five, eight, ten years, and I suffer the loss of my own soul; is it worth it?’ Will you suffer the loss of your soul to go in for something else? I trust there is no one here who would do that. Lose those things, and seek what is of God.

Let us, dear brethren, allow our hearts to be affected by the sufferings of that Man, Jesus, as He went to the cross. Why did He do it? All these questions you have to answer yourself, you see; you determine to lose certain things and to seek other things, and “he shall save it”. I trust that everyone here will be saved. I trust you have a Saviour. Now that is something that is right to ask, and I ask it often, and I trust you will answer it. Are you saved? Do you have a Saviour? It is a constant desire of God—Are you saved? The apostle says, “Knowing therefore the terror of

the Lord we persuade men”, 2 Corinthians 5: 11. Think of the greatness and the almightiness of God, the surety and the verity of His word, that what He has said will come to pass, “and forasmuch as it is the portion of men once to die”, once to die, “and after this the judgment”, Hebrews 9: 27.

Well, these things all come into the gospel, and we need the warning, but I trust that we will be encouraged as we think of the sufferings of Christ. It says elsewhere that God will “judge the habitable earth ... by the man whom he has appointed”, Acts 17: 31. Thank God for that Man! I trust that everyone here knows that Man, and loves that Man—Jesus, and will aspire (in a right way) to save his life and not suffer the loss of his own soul. Just these few words, but I trust that they have gone into your heart and will produce a result for God. It is “a time to seek, and a time to lose”, and I trust we will be active in it, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Toronto, Ont.
13 July 1975