Life is Harsh

Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter three. We'll begin at verse 16. Ecclesiastes chapter three, beginning at verse 16. If you're using the new King James pew Bible provided for you, you'll find that on page 589. Ecclesiastes chapter three, beginning at verse 16.

As we read through this together, I'd like you to keep in mind the theme of justice and oppression. Justice and oppression. Let's read together God's perfect word together now. Ecclesiastes chapter three, beginning at verse 16. Moreover, I saw under the sun. In the place of judgment, wickedness was there. In the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked. For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

I said in my heart, concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them that they may see that they themselves are like animals. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals. One thing befalls them. As one dies, so dies the other. Surely they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

Who knows the spirit of the sons of men which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth? So I perceive that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his inheritance. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun. And look, the tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter. On the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter. Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead more than the living who are still alive. Yet better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

Prayer for Illumination

This ends this portion of the reading of God's word. Grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God, brothers and sisters, will endure forever. Let's pray. God, please wake us up in this passage to the realities of life and of eternity. Lord, we pray that you would keep our eyes from glazing over our hearts from going cold, our minds from being distracted. Lord, we pray that you would teach us in your word. Father, we pray that you would encourage us, but also rebuke us and correct us wherever we have thought, loved, felt, or lived wrongly. And God, please train us. Lord, equip us righteousness, for a life doing work for your glory in an eternity with you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. There's a phrase, I don't know where I picked it up, maybe you've heard it before, a two by four across the face. That's what Ecclesiastes is like. Ecclesiastes, he's just looking at life and it's just a reality check. It's just a two by four of reality right across the face.

Sermon

He's not gonna care. It's not poetically trying to smooth out all the nuances. Some people have even looked at Ecclesiastes three and the first part of four, and they even wrestle like, is this preacher even Orthodox? Because he's wrestling with the real stuff of life, and life is hard. And the preacher here, in this passage, his name is Koholeth, that's how he's described, that's what he's named in chapter one. He doesn't want to sugarcoat life for you. He doesn't want to make you think that you live in a fairytale land. But there are hard things of life that he just confronts and deals with. And the first is that there is injustice, that there is injustice in the world, but there is a just one.

Look with me at chapter three, verses 16 and 17. Moreover, I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, wickedness was there. And in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and every work. The preacher goes and he looks, and where would you go, a good Jewish person, to find the seats of justice? Well, two places.

If you walked into any Jewish city, there would be a wall, and you have to get through the wall to get into the city somewhere, and inside that, the entrance to the city, it was called a gate. And in the gates are where the elders would sit. And if you got a problem with your neighbor, if they stole your donkey, or if they killed one of your animals, or if they hurt your child, or if they did whatever, you could go to the gates of the city, and you could appeal to the elders of the city, and you could find a judgment. And if the elders were gridlocked and they thought, ah, we don't know, it would get escalated and it would eventually make itself up to the king. And you would find at the throne, like Solomon's throne, a place to find out who's right and who's wrong, who's just and who's wicked.

But as the preacher looks and he surveys the land and he sees the state of humanity, he says, in the place of judgment, in the seats where there's supposed to be people pronouncing guilty and innocent, and they're supposed to have a right standard, there's wickedness.

There's wickedness. Now the authors of the New King, or translators of the New King James Version, they have wickedness and iniquity in verse 16, if you see that. In place of judgment, wickedness was there. In the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. But the word wickedness and iniquity are the exact same word in the Hebrew.

And it's this idea that it's impious, irreverent, where there's supposed to be people who are judging, their wickedness is that they don't care about the people nor about God. He sees the seats of justiceness, and he sees that they don't care about God's law. They're supposed to be the elders of the city, but they don't have room for God's word in their hearts. They don't go by the standard of his word to say, here is what righteousness is, here is what justice is, here is what we're supposed to do.

Instead, they're making up in their own minds What they want righteousness and justice to be. How it's going to benefit them or their friends. It's cronyism and pragmatism. He says, he looks at the gates where there's supposed to be judgment. Where there's supposed to be righteousness. Instead he finds evil. The ungodly refusing to follow God's law. It's a sad day. It's a sad day in any society when the judges are judging willy-nilly whatever they want to do.

We're actually the inheritors of an English system partly in our country. I was reading through the Magna Carta recently, and I was thinking about how English common law has translated into American law. And did you know that before the Magna Carta, before English common law came into effect in England, if you committed a crime in one area, let's say you stole somebody's bushel of wheat, and as you stole that grain in one part of the country, they could cut off your hand. Another part of the country just had to give the wheat back. In another part of the country, you had to give over your entire estate. And nobody knew what the punishment was for different laws anywhere.

Until they came up with, hold on, instead of having all these different judges all over the place, they would have circuit judges. So the judge would go from town to town, the same judge, and so you would have one law and one standard. That's why we have circuit courts in America today. Maybe you've heard about circuit courts, but the point is here, what standard are they using?

What are they deciding here? How are they deciding it? He says, there's not justice in these places. There's not righteousness in these places. That's what's supposed to be happening here. But the rulers, the rulers have failed. And so what's he saying in his heart regarding this in verse 17? It's not that there's no hope whatsoever, but he realizes God is the ultimate judge. Did you see that? You have the place of judgment, the place of righteousness in verse 16, and verse 17, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked. For there is a time And there is a purpose for every work. Who will ultimately judge? It is God.

I don't know about you, but this should give us a whole lot of comfort and hope. Because maybe you've been in the judicial system in America before. There is all sorts of challenges and difficulties and injustice that happens in our country today. All over the world, whether you read the news in India or in South Asia or you read about things happening. I've talked to South Sudanese missionaries and they'll tell me about wrong judgments that have happened in South Sudan. We read about them happening in the European courts as well.

Where the wicked are let off scot-free, and the righteous are condemned. Where the innocent are punished. But it's not always going to be that way. For it is appointed for every man to die once and after this, the judgment. But the question is, who is the judge? That's why we read John chapter five. The judge is Jesus Christ.

The one who is tempted in every way as we are yet without sin. The lamb without spot or blemish will also be the one who judges the world with equity. Who will judge and knows every thought and intent of the heart. The one who is omniscient, who knows all things and knows the right measure for all things. is the one who will bring all things into account at the last great day. God the judge will judge the judges and the people.

It's right for us to have outrage at miscarriages of justice. It is right for us to be angry when we see those who are oppressed who are innocent. It is right for us to be angry when we see somebody who is innocent cast away as the guilty. It is right for us to be outraged when we see the wicked prosper in their wickedness, and those in power encouraging their wickedness. That is a right thing, and it is part of who we are. When we see that, that is part of that image of God in us, that we know that there is a standard of justice, and that something about this is wrong.

But my question is, is it your heart that's the standard, or is it God's word? And are you the final judge, or do you leave judgment to the Lord? Because Solomon is getting to the point here as the preacher is saying, it's gonna happen. It happens in every land, it happens in every time, it happens all over the place. And so his only hope is in God judging. That's what Paul gets at in Romans chapter two. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles with me if you have them in front of you. Romans chapter two. Romans chapter 2 verses 6 through 11. Romans chapter two, I'm gonna start at verse five actually.

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each according to his deeds. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good, seeking for glory, honor, and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek. but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with God. God will bring into judgment every single person. This is a universal statement that Paul is giving us, that Solomon alludes to it here in verse 17, and the New Testament makes explicitly clear for us.

God, the living God, who is perfectly righteous, will judge without partiality. He's not gonna care if you were rich or if you were poor, if you were a slave or if you were free. If you were a king or if you were a pauper, it's not going to matter. Your station in life, your color of skin, your economic place in society isn't going to matter before him.

He will judge in righteousness. He will judge in truth. And Solomon knows that somehow God shall judge. the righteous and the wicked. And he's content on waiting on God's judgment for that day. So what do we think of the judgment? When we come to verse 17 of Ecclesiastes 3, it's easy for us. I think the natural thing for us is to be like, yeah, God is going to judge the wicked. But if we just flipped a page in the book of Romans from chapter two to chapter three, we would be another two by four in the face hit with a hard problem.

For there is none righteous, no, not one, not one seeks after the Lord. And the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. See, we as Christians must not see ourselves as the heroes of Ecclesiastes chapter three. But when we see ourself in this, do we see ourselves as those who stand before a God without Christ, absolutely afraid of his judgment?

Because if you have ever committed any sin, If you've ever blasphemed the Lord, if you've ever loved anything else more than the Lord, your job, your family, your wealth, your comfort in life, the judgment's guilty. If you've ever lusted after somebody with your eye, you've committed adultery. If you've ever told a white lie, you're a liar. If you've ever hated somebody in your heart, you've committed murder. If you've ever stolen even a little piece of candy, or cheated on your taxes, or not given to somebody they're due, you're a thief. You're a lawbreaker. You're not the righteous. I'm certainly not the righteous. But as he says here, the wicked.

God's not going to show partiality to us. outside of Christ. Each and every one of us wants judgment to go our way when it's our issue. But if we're put on the standards of God's righteousness, we're without hope. See, none of us want what is fair. We all want mercy. We all want God to grade on a bell curve to show us a little grace. But that's not how God operates.

God's justice must be meted out or else he would be no better than these wicked judges in verse 16. But do you see, brothers and sisters, this is why there was a phrase in Romans 2 again and again and again, in Christ. because God poured out all of his judgment for all wickedness for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus drank down the cup of God's wrath and curse for my sin. This is why Paul says it's a trustworthy and faithful saying, Jesus Christ came to save sinners of whom I am the worst.

How do you think of yourself? Do you think of yourself as a redeemed lawbreaker or as righteous in your own heart? If you think you're good enough to stand before a blazing white hot holy God and all of his righteous fury against wrath in your own perfect keeping of the law, You're gonna be no better on the judgment day than the Pharisees who were trusting themselves. You must trust in the righteousness that comes outside of you from Jesus, who kept the law perfectly. Our only hope is in Christ. And I'm begging you, I am begging you to see that now because what he comes to in verse 18 and following is just the truth. Every single one of us is going to die. Look with me at verses 18 through 22. I said in my heart concerning the condition of the sons of men, God test them. that they may see that they themselves are like animals. What happens to the sons of men?

Same thing that happens to animals. I think we've gone through something like 13 different barn cats or something at our house in the seven years we've been living here. It's one of the harsh realities of living in the country that our kids have had to get used to is we have cats, they have a purpose, they chase mice, and then they get run over by cars or they get taken by hawks. I don't know what happens to them, they just disappear. But what's gonna happen to you someday? The harsh reality of life is each and every single one of us is going to end up in a hole six feet under the dirt.

And the allusions here to Genesis chapter three are palpable. Look at verse 20, all go to one place. All are from the dust and all return to the dust. That's what God said in his punishment of man when he cursed him in Genesis chapter three. And this question for what happens to the sons of men, the word there is adam, for men. What happens to the sons of Adam? All of us, just like the cow, just like the pig, just like the sheep, just like my dead cats, we're all gonna die. Each and every one of us. But what happens? Since we can't escape that fate, since God's, it's just gonna happen. What's gonna happen at that time?

That's what Solomon puts a question mark in in verse 21. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth. Solomon's willing to say, I just don't know. At this point, he just says, I don't know. Now, if we take a little sneak peek at chapter 12, verse seven, he comes back to that idea and he has a more firm conclusion.

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. God has given us our spirit. It's not just nothing when you die. You go somewhere. Your body will rest in the grave, but your spirit is either going up or going down, is the imagery that this uses for us. This is exactly what we find as the scriptures go on in time and they get broader in scope and we get more and more pictures and more and more scenes from God about what people think and what he says about the spirit at death.

We especially see in the New Testament, even Luke 23, 43, the thief on the cross, who asks Jesus to remember him when he enters into his kingdom and Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. The guy's gonna have his kneecaps broken so he dies before sunset. And yet Jesus says that day he's gonna be with him in paradise. And then in the book of Acts, as Stephen is getting stoned, as he's being martyred and they're pummeling him with heavy rocks and he's becoming black and blue and he's about to go unconscious, he looks up into heaven and what does he cry out?

Father, receive my spirit. And in Philippians chapter one, Paul the apostle wrestles and he says, his desire is to depart, which is to be with Christ, which is better. He's sitting in a jail cell and he's awaiting what might be his execution sentence. He says, I'm wrestling, right?

Because if I live, that's for Christ, but if I die, that's gain, right? Because to be apart from the body is to be present with Christ. And so for the Christian, we have a hope We have a hope that Solomon is still wrestling with in verse 21. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men which goes upward? Right, we could know if we are in Christ that we are going to be with him.

Physical death is real, and yet Jesus tells Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believeth in me shall not taste death, but, what's gonna happen? He will live forever. I have eternal life. Jesus is the resurrection of the life and not even death can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

So I need to ask you, are you in Christ Jesus? Do you have a big question mark about what's going to happen to you when you go into the ground? Do you wonder, am I gonna go to heaven or am I gonna go to that place we don't like to talk about? I'm begging you to make up your mind today. Will you rest in Jesus Christ alone to rescue you from your sin? Will you bask in the glory of His forgiveness that's freely offered out to you? Will you love the Lord and follow Him? Are you in Christ?

Because in this life, That's the only hope we have when we face oppression. And that's what we come to in the last three verses, verses one through three. Over start 22, so I perceive that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works. For that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun, and look, the tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter. On the side of their oppressors, there is no power, but they have no comforter. And then a very sad part, therefore I praise the dead, who are already dead, more than the living who are still alive. Yet better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

He says, if we're all just gonna go to the grave, there are simple pleasures, simple joys we can enjoy in this life, but we need to just be honest that oppression is going to be with us. Oppression is a weird old word, isn't it? We don't use that word oppression anymore. Maybe we use like oppressed sometimes in our modern vocabulary, but normally the word that is its close synonym, its closest meaning today is the word abused, abuse. When power is abused, oppression is devastating.

But we must remember, even though Solomon in verses one through three starts to despair of life, what God says about himself, that God is on the side of the oppressed, that he is the God of the fatherless and of the widow and of the poor. of those who are taken advantage of by those in power. Oppression today is termed abuse, and we see it all over the place. We see it in the family. We see it as parents are entrusted to care for their children. I would encourage you, as you think about this idea of abuse, I'd encourage you to go sometime look at the Westminster Larger Catechism.

What are the duties required of superiors to inferiors? What are the duties required of superiors to their inferiors? God entrusts parents to pray for, provide, disciple, love, care for their children. They have the authority from God to rule over their lives in a sense that they order their days, but not for their own ends, but for God's glory and for their children's good.

And that's what makes abuse in the family so twisted and wicked. When fathers or mothers treat their children in ways in which they're just nothing more than pawns for their own pleasure, or problems or inconveniences to the things that they want and they desire, it's a twisting of the picture of God's loving care for us as his children.

When those who are in authority as civil magistrates, whether they're local judges or there are state legislatures or governors or the president or the Supreme Court, whoever it is who's making laws and making judgments, they have requirements by God to be about the good of those under them, but when they twist that, And they do not duly chastise or correct those who are doing evil, but instead support those who are doing evil.

That's a twisting of power. And so each one of those judges and kings and rulers and lawmakers are nothing more than smaller pictures of who God says he is. And so when they twist that, they make an idol of themselves and they destroy people underneath them. This is what we see even in the church. When there are pastors and elders who will twist their power and manipulate and be heavy handed and control and be more about building up their own little kingdom and wanting people to just shut up and obey. It destroys people's souls in the church and even turns them away from God himself.

Why? Because those shepherds were supposed to model the chief shepherd. which is why God says that shepherds will be judged more severely. This is why those who are in the workplace, You may be a boss, you may be an employer, you may be one of those who's caring for people underneath you. If you take your power of position and you treat that person's job as nothing more than a tool for your economic and your money-making cogwheel that's just spitting out your own desires of hedonism on the other side so you can live your best life or build your best business, but you don't care about the people who are working for you, don't care about their families, don't care about their souls, don't care enough to just give them a day off once a week to rest and to worship and be with their families. The Lord says, you've taken my beautiful picture of the economy, of the way the world works, and have twisted it into something dark and ugly, ruining their health and ruining their person, ruining their families and their souls.

I remember talking to a guy in India one time. In India, there's this caste system, right? There's this religious and racial type of oppression that happens in India. And if you're born to certain parents, you're born of different castes, right? So you might be a Brahmin, you might be like a priestly caste, or you might be the lowest caste, the Dalits, the untouchables.

And I remember talking to a man eating in his home. He told me that he was born a Dalit, and as a boy, When he was looking at the children here, he was still some of your young boy's ages, he was shipped off to a factory and there with a grinder in his hand and a saw, he was forced to cut tiles that would later go and be put into luxury hotels. And as he ruined his lungs and he was denied an education and as he was told he would never amount to anything and was not allowed to marry certain people or he would die and he was kept out of certain jobs for nothing other than being born. He could be used, oppressed, treated not as an image of God, not as somebody inherently dignified and worthy of love and of respect and of encouragement. but he was oppressed by the system placed over him. We might think like, oh man, this just seems so removed from Christianity. Do you know the population difference between those who become Christians in India, between Dalits and Brahmins? Scores and scores and scores and scores and scores. of people come to Christianity as untouchables because they realize that Christ frees them from shackles that should never have been placed upon them.

This is why those in the South who were in cotton fields as slaves, did you notice Psalm 19b? I love that. Or not 19, 13b as we were singing that. Simon picks out the Psalms for us and he always picks out better ones than me and I was really encouraged because that's an African American spiritual.

You go and you read some of the slave spirituals when they were picking cotton in the fields and they're singing about redemption and the day that God will finally judge and release them from their bondage. See, it's not like this doesn't have anything to do with eternity. This has everything to do with eternity and everything to do with today.

Because when we're able to hope that there is a God who cares for us in the harsh realities of life, we can have hope that the one who, even though things are wicked and run by evil people today, will one day make everything right. And we long for that. We long for it. So my encouragement to you this morning, my hope is that you will remember that there is one who can wipe away the tears from your eyes.

As you suffer, even under the oppression of sin and death itself, there is a God who cares for you. There's a God who knows what you are going through, a God who is mindful of every sinful act done against you. But he's also mindful of every sin you've ever committed. And if you are in Christ, he shows you immeasurable mercy, a depth of grace that could never be measured.

Closing Prayer

And so I beg you, I beg you to find your hope in Christ. who is both the Redeemer of God's elect as well as the judge of the world who is to come. Trust in Christ, brothers and sisters. Hope in Him. Rejoice in Him forever. Let's pray. Father, we do pray.

Lord, we pray for those who are being persecuted, even this hour. We pray for our brothers and sisters around the globe who this morning, and some of them at nighttime now because it's the next day, have suffered in their prison cells and in exile, who have been refused food and drink and clothing, who are beaten for their faith in you, Lord, we pray that they would have their tears wiped away knowing that there is a comforter in heaven. And you have sent that comforter into our hearts. Lord, we pray for us that you would please correct us if there are areas in our lives, Lord, where we have been those who ought to have been judging righteously, but instead we have forgotten your word. Forgive us, God. where we have been those who have oppressed and abused our power and authority and our places of privilege. Lord, we pray that you would shine a light upon those areas in our hearts and that you would convict us and turn us from sin. Lord, we pray for even in our own land where there is oppression and unrighteousness, that you would please convict our civil magistrates Whether it's the president, Supreme Court justices, lawmakers, governors, mayors, councils, Lord please let us be those who would champion the causes of biblical justice and of righteousness. knowing that we ourselves are declared righteous only in Jesus. Help us, God, we pray. Give us strength, give us courage, give us comfort. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.