Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:16

Please turn back in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and 4, page 554-55555 in the Black Church.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

Let me pray one more time as we come to God's Word.

Our Father, we ask that you would speak and that we would listen because we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, Mohammed Al-Fayed was back in the news this week. You'll have seen that.

The one-time owner of Harrods. He died last year, but he was back in the news this week

because dozens of women, former staff, have come forward to say that he assaulted them.

It's the age-old story. The rich and the powerful do what they like, and then they die and get away with it.

Jeffrey Epstein, New York financier, jailed for trafficking minors for his and his wealthy friend's pleasure.

Then he dies in very dubious circumstances in prison, and he takes a lot of secrets, his and others, to the grave.

Jimmy Savile, the same.

The rich and the powerful do what they like, and then they die and get away with some terrible things.

Where's the justice?

Where's the justice?

And it isn't just them, is it?

People seem to get away with all kinds of wickedness all the time.

We don't need to look too far to see that.

There's plenty of crime that goes on around us day by day that the police don't even bother to deal with.

They don't have the resources, and so it just goes unchecked.

The security guard can do very little when the people help themselves in Tesco.

He might be able to get his body cam kind of in the way to get a photograph of them,

but that's about as far as it goes.

And they get away with it.

And yet we heard last week, if you were here, in Ecclesiastes 3, about God's complete, total sovereignty.

He has total control over everything under the sun.

So what's going on with the injustice?

The obvious question that was left hanging last week was,

well, if God has made everything fitting in its time as He says He has,

what does this mean for all the injustice and all the oppression that we see around us?

Solomon isn't blind to that question.

In fact, he addresses it straight on.

Chapter 3, verse 16.

Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness.

And in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.

He looks to the places where justice and righteousness should be upheld,

where they should be promoted, and he only finds wickedness.

It's very familiar.

The place of justice, the law courts, where the weakest in society, the unborn, are unprotected.

The place of righteousness, the church, where in many cases concerning doctrine and morality,

good is called evil and evil good.

Just this week, another story broke of a pastor defiling the pastoral office through adultery.

Justice, where is it?

Righteousness, where is it?

So how do we reconcile this injustice, 3, 16 and 4, 1?

Have a look.

Chapter 4, verse 1.

Oppression.

How do we reconcile injustice and oppression with this great claim in chapter 3 to God's sovereignty?

If God is in control of the whole world and His plan is fitting, it is beautiful, as He says,

if He is both all-powerful and all-good, what do we do with the problem of all this wickedness?

Well, Solomon, it won't surprise you to know, has reflected on the question,

and he tells us we need a three-pronged approach.

If we're going to be able to handle this, this reality that is in the world that we live in,

we need a three-pronged approach.

And the first is this, we need faith.

Faith.

It said in my heart, verse 17,

God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

In the same way that he declared last week God's sovereign plan for the world to be fitting,

chapter 3, verse 11, so also when it comes to justice, Solomon makes this confession of faith.

You remember last time I said, when you look at the world, it doesn't seem like God's plan fits together perfectly.

And Solomon's no different to us.

He looks on the circumstances of his life and of the lives of others,

and he has to declare it in faith that God has a good plan that is fitting, that is beautiful.

And it's the same here.

He has to make this confession by faith, because this isn't what his experience tells him.

This isn't the way of the world.

Everywhere he looks, he's just told us, he sees wickedness.

So the fact that God will judge the righteous and the wicked is something that he must take on faith.

There is a time for every matter and for every work.

That means there is a time for injustice and a time for justice.

And God can be trusted with it all.

One day, God will bring every deed into light, and perfect justice will be done.

Now that's a great comfort for you if you have experienced injustice of any kind.

Boys and girls, if someone has lied about you or has called you names, God will one day sort that out.

And for the rest of us, if you have been betrayed, if you have been cheated on,

if you have been slandered, been ripped off, scammed, assaulted, abused, injured by a drunk driver,

suffered because of medical negligence,

if you have experienced a time of unrighteousness,

in any way, a time of putting things right is coming.

And God will do it.

Every wrong will be put right.

Every single unborn child that was killed will get justice from the judge of all the earth.

That's what Solomon is saying.

But because we don't see this now, we need to do what Solomon does here.

We need to take that on faith.

We need to believe that that is the case.

But here's the thing for us.

Here's the thing for us here this evening.

We, gathered here as we are, are better equipped to do this than Solomon was.

Because we have the benefit of living this side of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

We can trust that justice will one day be done because we have already seen God enter the world.

He has come in the person of Jesus to go to the cross, to bear the curse of sin and death in himself.

And then in his resurrection, he showed himself as Savior and Lord of all.

Now what that means is three things.

First of all, it means that for all who have put their faith in him,

the judgment that we deserve has fallen on him.

And so we go free.

If God is going to judge the wicked, let's be honest.

We know that we're implicated in that.

We know that we haven't lived in a way that has pleased God perfectly in his world.

We know that we're implicated among the wicked.

So we need that issue to be resolved.

And he broke into the world all those years ago in order to do that at the cross.

Secondly, any injustice, therefore, that we experience now, we experience in union with Christ.

So it is a sharing, Paul says in Philippians 3, a sharing in the sufferings of Christ becoming like him in his death.

What that means is any suffering that we experience now, we experience it in union with Christ.

And God is using those things to make us more Christ-like.

Then thirdly, Christ's resurrection is the guarantee of his future judgment.

That's what the Apostle Paul preached in Athens in Acts 17.

He said,

God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

We look back to the empty tomb and the empty tomb is proof to us that God will one day judge.

All unrighteousness, all injustice, all wrongs of every flavor and every kind will be put right on that day.

It's interesting that the Apostle gave this as a reason why people should repent of their sin and put their faith in Christ.

I want to say if you're here this evening and you need to do that, I want to encourage you to do it.

To have the judgment that you deserve because you have lived in God's world according to your rules.

Because you have actually sided with the wicked.

Put your faith in Jesus Christ and have the judgment that you deserve credited to him.

It's taken away then and you're free.

But notice it is also the reason, the resurrection is also the reason why we can trust that the Lord one day will put your injustice right.

On that day, that injustice will be overturned and Al-Fayed and Epstein and Saville and whoever tells us that they didn't get away with their evil.

They will one day give an account before the bar of God's justice which is a far higher court than any human court.

And on that day, perfect justice will be done.

When we look around in our world, this is a great comfort.

And we take it on faith because the tomb is empty.

Well, what someone might say, well, is that not a bit of a cop-out?

Actually, it's just hoping for the best.

It's a power of positive thinking trick that you're employing there to make a corrupt world bearable.

If God really cared about justice, in fact, he'd do something now.

Well, here Solomon takes us to our second point.

If the first point is that we have to live by faith that God is going to deal with injustice,

the second point is that he reminds us of our finitude.

Our finitude.

Verse 18,

To the person who won't trust God with his plans for the world,

to the person who won't trust God with his promise to put everything right one day,

Solomon reminds them of their finitude.

By making us wait, God is testing us to see if we will accept that he is God and we are not.

To see if we will accept that he is the creator and we are his creatures.

To see, to test us to see if we will live by faith according to God's word in God's world.

And the way that Solomon does this is by reminding us of our death.

Do you see that?

Of our death.

He says in that regard we're no different to the animals.

It's not that animals and humans are of equal value.

He's saying no, that we are the same in that we both die and we both decompose.

Verse 20,

All go to one place.

All are from the dust and to dust all return.

Since our first parents, since they sinned in the garden,

death has been a messenger to remind us over and over again,

funeral after funeral,

graveside after graveside,

that we are finite,

that we're not in control,

that we're vapor,

here for a season and then gone.

We find it so hard to accept and yet it is impossible for us to ignore.

Death is the ultimate case study that proves that we're not in control of our lives.

You can train as diligently as you want.

You can eat as clean as you want.

You can get as much sleep as you feel you need,

but you do not control your destiny.

You don't.

None of us do.

And Solomon adds to this,

You have no idea what happens after you die.

Look at verse 21.

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward

and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

We talk about people when they die going to a better place

or we say that they'll be looking down on us

from whatever vantage point they now occupy.

But who actually knows this?

No one.

Nobody has first-hand empirical evidence

of what happens to the human spirit after they die.

Does the spirit go upward to God

or does it go into the ground and that's the end?

When you go to a funeral,

where is the person that you once knew?

Where are they?

And do you have any first-hand evidence of that?

None of us can provide that evidence.

Which means we all take what we believe about the afterlife on faith.

All of us.

The question is,

does the ground beneath that faith actually hold?

You see what I'm saying?

See what Solomon is saying?

None of us know actually empirically what happens after death.

So all of us believe what we do about the afterlife on faith.

The question is,

does the ground beneath that faith actually hold us?

For the Christian,

our faith is in the one who has dealt with the problem of death

by dying in our place.

He died in our place and then three days

in the tomb he walked out again,

alive.

We have someone who went into death

and came out the other side glorified.

So we have one who has shown us

actually what happens to a human soul

such that now we,

quote,

await a Savior from heaven

who will transform our lowly body

to be like his glorious body

by the power of his resurrection.

We are finite.

And the curse of sin drags us into the dust.

But if our faith is in the Lord Jesus

who went into the dust

and came out the other side,

then we have confidence that our future is sure

and that his promise to put things right

will come to pass.

We must live by faith

recognizing our finitude.

What's interesting is

living in a world that is full of wickedness.

It's one thing to say,

live by faith

and if you're tempted to question God

and what he's doing,

remember your finitude,

remember how limited you are,

remember how finite you are.

But then what?

How do we get through?

What do we do?

Well, Solomon here then moves

to push us towards a very practical help.

The first thing we need is faith.

The second thing is

an awareness of our finitude.

The third thing he's saying

we need are friends.

Friends.

Point number three is friends.

For one, again I saw all the oppressions

that are done under the sun

and behold the tears of the oppressed

and they had no one to comfort them.

On the side of their oppressors

there was power

and there was no one to comfort them.

Solomon seems to accept

injustice and oppression

as a fact of life in a fallen world

but what really grieves him

is when those who suffer

do so alone.

There was no one to comfort them.

Indeed he goes so far

as to say that it is better

to be dead

than to face injustice alone.

And best of all,

verse three do you see

they have never been born

in the first place.

Better than both

is he who has not yet been

and has not seen the evil deeds

that are done under the sun.

Companionship,

community,

having your people

in the tough reality of life

is one of the ways

that your faith endures

and you can find joy

in the midst of it.

See in a sense here

Solomon is giving further shape

to the life

that he's calling us to

in the book as a whole.

So when he says in 3.22

can you see

he saw that there is nothing better

than that a man should rejoice

in his work for that is his lot.

This echoes,

you remember what he said

back in 2.24.

There is nothing better

for a person

than that he should eat and drink

and find enjoyment in his toil.

And the point now is

that these things

should be pursued

in relationship with others.

Eat and drink with friends.

Work as part of a community.

Especially the community

of the faithful.

This would have been the case

for the festival meals

that Solomon would have enjoyed

within the life of God's people.

This was where those

who were oppressed

strengthened their bonds

in the face of opposition

and injustice.

This is one of the reasons

why hospitality

is such an important element

in the Christian life.

And why we encourage it here

as part of our regular

Lord's Day routines.

Eating and drinking together

is central to building

good relationships with others.

And those relationships

are what we need

as we seek to live faithfully

in a culture that is awash

with injustice and oppression.

We need friends.

But you see as well

in light of that

it isn't just the threat

of the oppressors

that Solomon identifies.

He can identify

he also identifies

how we damage ourselves

in all of this.

Look at verse 4.

Then I saw

that all toil

and all skill and work

come from a man's

envy of his neighbor.

This also is vanity

and a striving after wind.

Solomon is nothing

if not honest.

I hope we've seen that by now.

And here

he presses the

uncomfortable point

that so much

the point is this

that so much

that we accomplish

in life

is motivated

by our envy of others.

Who they are

and what they have.

Lance Armstrong

the disgraced

American cyclist

fascinating individual

he writes

and speaks about

how the German cyclist

Jan Ulrich

was the single

biggest reason

for Armstrong's success.

He said he couldn't

stop thinking about him.

What he was doing

what he was eating

what he was training

all that kind of stuff.

That was what drove him.

Now that can be

okay in sport

actually.

That can be

a great motivator

to try and win

in sport

but when we bring it

into everyday life

let's be honest

it is a really

destructive way

to live.

when we view

others

as rivals

it is

yes

a powerful

motivator

for productivity

but it destroys

relationships

and in the end

it's going to leave us

isolated

and it is the

antithesis

of what we need

in the context

of oppression

and injustice.

Plus

if Solomon

has said

that well

motivated labor

is vapor

then what must

this sort of envy

driven labor be

vapor of vapors

and here's why

look at verse 8

one person

who has no other

an isolated individual

either son or brother

yet there is no end

to all his toil

and his eyes

are never satisfied

with riches

so that he never asks

for whom am I toiling

and depriving myself

of pleasure

this also is vanity

and an unhappy business

the solitary worker

laboring for himself

in his own ends

is never satisfied

either with the work

verse 8

or the reward

that he gets

for the work

or what purpose

or person

his work

is serving

and all of this

is because our work

is designed

to be done

alongside others

indeed verse 9

can you see

verse 9

is very important

it is the first place

in the book

where we see something

that actually returns

a reward

something that isn't

vapor

verse 9

two are better

than one

because they have

a good reward

for their toil

for if they fall

one will lift up

his fellow

but woe to him

who is alone

when he falls

and has not another

to lift him up

again if two lie together

they keep warm

but how can one

keep warm alone

and though a man

might prevail

against one

who is alone

two will withstand him

a threefold cord

is not quickly broken

here are the benefits

of companionship

someone to lift us up

when we fall

someone to keep us warm

someone to help us

against attack

and if two

is better than one

verse 12

three

is better again

threefold cord

is not quickly broken

unfortunately

this text

has been used

at a million weddings

to describe the relationship

between husband

and wife

and God

that's the threefold cord

who's heard a sermon

like that

who's given a sermon

like that

it's not about that

you know

if it's just the two of you

you're vulnerable

but if you have God

in your marriage

well then you'll be strong

a threefold cord

is not quickly broken

yeah fine okay

but that's not what

he's talking about

he's referring to

human companionship

and to the strength

that there is

in numbers

we live in a broken world

a world that is marked

by injustice

and oppression

by rivalry

by falling down

by getting cold

and being knocked down

and God will one day

sort that all out

but while we wait

it is far better

to face this life

with friends

than to do so alone

and don't confuse

real companionship

by the way

with popularity

or recognition

that's the point

of 13 to 16

at the end there

he's talking about leaders

and how leaders

need trusted friends

to tell them the truth

verse 16

they can be surrounded

by people

but without someone

to give wise counsel

their leadership

is also vapor

it's all about

having companions

having friends

in the context

of injustice

and opposition

here's the point

we need one another

and we have been

given one another

that's what the church is

a key part of salvation

is the creation

of a community

as we are reconciled

to God

we are also reconciled

to one another

we are incorporated

into a new humanity

the body of Christ

the church

and so what is true

of us theologically

should be expressed

practically

as we pursue friendship

that is genuine

to help us endure

in the context

of injustice

and oppression

we need to pursue friendship

and if this is the case

if that is

how we are supposed to be

we should be aware

of those in our midst

who are particularly

susceptible to isolation

those who live alone

singles

divorcees

widows

internationals

who just arrived

in the country

and don't know

their way around

now of course

those sort of relationships

and starting that

it's not easy

but it's what God requires

and it's what God will bless

we all wish

that injustice

didn't exist

whether it's Al-Fayed

or Epstein

or Savile

or your own experience

we wish that that

wasn't the case

but it is

it does exist

and it will

until the Lord returns

it's one of the things

that we bear

in a fallen world

but we trust

that he will return

he will come back

to put it right

on a day

that he has set

the Lord Jesus

will bring

every injustice

to account

the whys

and the wherefores

and the timings

those are beyond

our finite grasp

of things

but because of the resurrection

we can be confident

that God will bring

this justice to pass

and so we live

by faith

and while we wait

we should forge

bonds with others

that will enable us

to endure

until that day

friends who will

keep us going

friends who will

stand with us

friends who will

help us

by not neglecting

to meet together

as is the habit

of some

but encouraging

one another

all the more

as you see

the day

draw near

that's what the writer

of the Hebrews says

we come together

Lord's day

by Lord's day

we build relationships

in the context

of the church family

because we need each other

if we're going to keep going

Martin Luther speaking

on this passage

said this

and I'll close with this

it is better

to be in association

with others

and to enjoy

things in common

in society

meaning in relation

with others

there is mutual help

common work

and common solace

let's pray together

let's pray together

Thank you.