Kaleo San Diego Church

INTRODUCTION

What movies are sad because of unhappy endings?

Schindler’s List, Leaving Las Vegas?

You and I want our life’s stories to have tidy, happy endings. And even though we enjoy happy endings in movies, we don’t insist upon them. We know that there are stories in life that don’t end with a romantic kiss of the couple at their wedding altar, or where the hero defeats every last one of his enemies, or close friends meet again in the end. So we accept these stories even though we prefer happier ones.

Sampson defeated the Philistines, and it cost him his own life. Romeo and Juliet’s love is left unfulfilled. The king’s horses and the king’s men can’t put who back together again? That’s right, good ole Humpty Dumpty.

Not all stories have the endings we would choose. Yet you and I learn to live with these sad endings because it reflects reality.

But what is harder to live with is a story that leaves us with a sense of injustice. We don’t mind sad stories, but we can’t stand stories of injustice.

We could cope with William Wallace’s sacrifice for the freedom of his country men, but we won’t tolerate King Longshank’s ultimate victory over those he oppressed. We don’t mind if Russell Crowe dies for his countries honor, but we would never stand for the victory of the emperor and his long reign after the gladiator’s death. Heck, we don’t even mind that Cinderella’s coach returns to a pumpkin at midnight, but what we couldn’t cope with would be the injustice of having her cruel stepsister rewarded rather than Cinderella.

Injustice is something that makes each of us uncomfortable and edgy. We see fairness as a virtue that we all intuitively prize. We want our life’s stories to have nice tidy endings- where all accounts are balanced and all offenders are punished. There is something disturbing and gut wrenching about the wicked turning out to be the victor. A world where that happened more often than not would be a world that you and I could not bear.

But where do we get this idea of fairness? Where did we learn about justice and injustice? To what standard do we appeal to say something is right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust?

I believe that it is because God is there and He is not silent. God has spoken to mankind and given to us a sense of fairness and justice. God has planted in us an awareness of His Law. God has given us word which has so influenced our thinking, our judicial system, and our culture that to speak of fairness is to speak from a standard that we don’t even realize we are referring to when we do speak.

God’s image within us and His word outside of us gives us our sense of fairness, it gives us our bearings for justice. Even though this image is tarnished by our sin, it hasn’t been destroyed. It may cause our consciences to call to account those who offend our sense of justice, and it triggers emotional reflexes within us when we experience or witness injustice.

We have this weird relationship with justice; we both love it and hate it. We love justice when someone wrongs us, but we hate it when we are the ones who have wronged another. We want those that break the law to be held accountable, but when we break the law by speeding we are angry and complain about being picked on by the police. We don’t want justice for us, we want mercy. But we do want justice for others. This is why some of you don’t evangelize. You honestly think that they are simply going to get what they deserve. Did you? Did you get what you deserved? No!

Hurt me, and you should apologize, but if I hurt you, you should be forgiving. That’s the strange relationship we have with justice.

Some call this a judicial sentiment. Which is to say that it is a sense of outrage that bubbles up within us when we feel that we or others we are close to have been treated unfairly.

This is why we need happy endings. Unhappy endings places the burden on the audience to figure out how to justify injustice or inequity. Just as unhappy endings under the sun, places the burden of figuring out how to justify injustice in our own life.

This sentiment was something the Preacher of Ecclesiastes felt strongly. He saw by his own investigation that some of life’s stories- too many of them- ended untidy.

His opening to this book cries out his view of injustice in the society he lived- “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

This oppression was perplexing to Solomon as he tried to rationalize injustice apart from God, under the sun. He can’t help but pacify his frustration by slipping God in his equation.

This morning we are going to be talking about the popular topics of death, injustice, hopelessness and judgment! How’s that for a time of joyous celebration?

Don’t miss the hero in our story!

Ecclesiastes 3:16-22

Verse 16- Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

This is one of our great problems on this earth. People are sinful, selfish, bent and crooked. Each of us here this morning is sinful and have given scars to others and have scars from others. We are both victims and perpetrators.

We organize as a society to keep some semblance of peace and safety. This is why we have judicial systems, laws, jails, etc. It’s to keep people in order and to keep them from doing horrific and deplorable acts to one another. If those pieces were not in place, we would understand the depravity of man with a more clear view.

Solomon looks at this system and says that instead of justice there is wickedness. Instead of righteousness there is wickedness.

In other words, the system fails because sinners are at the helm steering our society by their sinful motives. Our judicial system is only as good as the person that oversees and is supposed to ensure that justice is served.

Do any of you actually believe that all the innocent are free and all the guilty are behind bars? No! Why? Because we know that there are guilty that are walking around free and there are innocent that have been wrongly prosecuted and sentenced.

I believe that our judicial system is the best in the world. I think it may arguably be the best in human history thus far. But, does that make our judicial system consistently just without fail? No! Not even close.

It seems as if our probability of freedom is in direct proportion to our digits in our bank account. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to think of examples over the last decade in which those that are rich have a much better chance of being set free than those that are not.

This system doesn’t work perfectly because sinners can’t bring about ultimate and perfect justice upon other sinners. We are imperfect, flawed and have too many mixed motives and presuppositions that we take into our judgments.

Solomon sees this and says that because of this rampant sinfulness and wickedness, there is no justice.

But he takes comfort in thinking about God. He can’t comfortably answer his dilemma without God in his equation.

Verse 17- I said to myself, "God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man," for a time for every matter and for every deed is there.

He sees that man will not get away scot-free. He sees that God, who is a perfect Judge and always judges justly, will make sure that the righteous man and the wicked man are weighed in a time that He has set (referring to 3:1).

Solomon takes comfort that even though in this life there is no justice, there is coming a time when justice will be meted out.

Even if our motives our better than the next guy, because we are sinful and don’t have all knowledge, our judgments can simply be mistaken. They are never perfect like God who is perfect.

Realizing our proclivity to error, sinfulness, poor motives, and lack of total information, how should this affect how you and I judge one another in this life?

You and I, people who have been saved by grace, can be the most judgmental and ungracious people. At times we act as if we have never tasted of the grace and mercy of our God because we don’t seem to grant to others what has been freely granted to us.

We cut each other with disapproving looks, sarcastic comments, judgmental attitudes, gossip, and a host of other tools we like to employ when we are dissatisfied with what someone else has done.

Here’s the weird thing; it doesn’t even have to be something that someone had done to us, it only has to be something that we don’t like or something we simply disagree with. Rarely is it ever sin, it is usually our own preferences. And yet we wound and scar each other with impunity and wonder why no one wants to be our friend, or why no one takes up our cause to defend us.

Knowing that one day God will judge every idle word, every attitude and intention of our heart, every comment whispered under our breath, should cause us to be a very humble people.

And when we are the victims, we are often confused and frustrated because we don’t see accountability and justice being perfectly worked out in our time.

Often times we will never see justice take its course because we die before it comes.

This is what Solomon says next…

Verse 18- I said to myself concerning the sons of men, "God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts."

Human beings when separated from God and with no fear of God’s judgment in them, act like beasts. We fight like dogs, we work like dogs, we call each other “dogs” as a word of male comradery; “whazzup dog?”

We run in packs, we hunt the innocent, we do despicable things to others, we are bloodthirsty, perverse and only care about our immediate desires.

So is it any wonder that when we act like one it seems natural?

To some small degree I can empathize with evolutionary theorists when they say we came from the beasts. It certainly looks like it at times doesn’t it.

I don’t think we should insult the monkeys with such a cutting statement. We act at times worst than beasts.

There were times in my past when I gave myself over to my base nature and committed acts that were so heinous and despicable that I no longer appeared to be an image bearer of God, but resembled more of a beast than a man created in God’s image.

We too have conducted ourselves in ways that look like an animal. But you and I didn’t come from animals but from God.

It is so sad when we see those that were created to be image bearers of God who are supposed to be full of integrity and honor and beauty, become image bearers of Adam who lie, ignore God, and try to hide from Him because of our shameful sinful condition. It is heart wrenching.

When you see a prostitute on the street, do you see someone that is like an animal? You shouldn’t. She was created as someone’s little girl. She was created by God as an image bearer of God who was to live with dignity and love. But she has given herself over to the lie that she is worth nothing more than the dog that dies on the street and no one cares enough to even bury it.

We need to preach people up from the lie of evolutionary idiocy. We need people to hear that they were created for something more than their actions suggest.

Some of you have committed such disgusting acts in your past that in the moment you felt like nothing more than a beast. Others have seen it first hand and it sickens you.

Because of that, because of the perplexing paradox that man seems to possess as an image bearer of God and a sinner given to sin, man has had to come to grips with this by explaining our existence as being like beasts and nothing more.

We are more than that. We are capable of such beauty. We are capable of such love. We are capable of lives of truth and integrity. But not apart from God giving us beauty, giving us love, giving us truth, and giving us Himself in Jesus.

Do you believe that we are all image bearers of God? Let’s test this. Is there anything positive that the democratic party stands for that you would agree with? What is it? Social justice? Caring for the poor? Caring for our environment? Are these things that are akin to being image bearers of God? Yes! How about the republican part? Promoting faith? Desiring to keep God in our creeds and anthems? Wanting a right to life for unborn babies? Yes! Of course!

This fact shows us that as image bearers and not animals we do care for more than our animal instincts trigger as a stimulus.

He then tells about the parallels between man and beast.

Verses 19-20- For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. 20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust.

There are some things that we do in fact share in common with the animals. We have both been made by God, and we both are going to die.

I have certain advantages over Mojo Jojo my Boston Terrier right now. But one day the same will happen to him that will happen to me, we will both end up in the dust of the earth.

In chapter Ecclesiastes 2:14-15 there is a contrast between the wise and the fool, but like us and beasts the wise and fool both die.

Apart from God there seems to be nothing but futility in death.

This is the third week we’ve talked about death and though it isn’t exactly a sexy topic, it is in fact the “end of every man” (Ecc. 7:2).

You and I don’t like thinking about death because it seems to be such a sad topic, and without God it is in fact a very sad topic.

Some of us try to drown out the message of death by living in the past, some of us try to drown it out by living in the future, and both never really seem to live today.

Without the hope offered to us in Christ, who defeated death and has made a way for you and I to live eternally with the Father, we are forced to cling on to life and extend it as long as possible.

When we begin to think of the ethical implications of stem cell harvesting from an aborted fetus, we see that we are a people willing to either end or support the ending of a life in order to lengthen theirs. They have no moral imperative that would stop them. All they have is this life, and since that is all there is, then morality isn’t the issue, survival is.

Solomon then considers this great mystery of what happens to us when we die.

Verse 21- Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?

Who knows? Without God it is a good guess.

Solomon here considers this question empirically, with only his senses and his three pound brain to guide him.

And with the brute facts before him and us, we can’t prove a thing. At best it is a guess. If we are only to consider what we can see, taste, touch, hear, and smell, your guess is as good as mine.

From Solomon’s perspective maybe all dogs do go to heaven and all people go to be meat on a shishkabob. Who knows?

Everyone has their own guess when left to their own finite brains. What is one thing that you and I hear when someone dies? “Well, I guess there in a better place.” What exactly is that better place? And how would you know?

According to Barna Research, 8 out of 10 people believe in life after death. Another 9% said that they thought there may be some kind of life after death but they weren’t certain. I guess this category would fit into the “who knows?” category.

A large majority of Americans (79%) believed that “every person has a soul that will live forever, either in God’s presence or absence.”

Here is the weird thing. 71% of Americans believe that hell exists but only .5% or one-half of 1% expect to go to hell upon their death. 64% of Americans believe they will go to heaven. And the rest that believe in heaven and hell are honest enough to say that their not sure where they would go. In other words “who knows?” It’s just a big crap shoot.

One of the biggest growing segments in the report recently done different views of afterlife show that 1 in 5 adults now believe that people are reincarnated after death. Why you would want to go through perpetual reincarnation in hopes of getting it right, I don’t know. Sounds more like hell than hope to me.

But when we are left to our speculation and conjecture, all we have is crossed fingers and closed eyes.

One view I have never heard of or seen people championing is a view that we are all sinful and every single one of us go to hell. But, since that isn’t very attractive few people vote for that option, unless of course you’re into the Goth scene but that’s another topic.

Without special revelation, without God breaking into human history, without the prophets and apostles being carried along by the Holy Spirit, without Christ coming- God in the flesh to show us the Father, we would be left to nothing more than a best guess.

Philosophy is a guess. Atheism is a guess. Agnosticism is a guess. Can they prove their view? No, it is a guess by faith in their presuppositions, it is faith in their world-view.

With man beginning with man and trying from man to answer metaphysical questions of our existence and afterlife apart from the God who created us and knows our history, our present, and our future, we are left to best guess estimates, and frankly that isn’t good enough.

Some of you like to read books and some like to write about near death experiences. But the key is “near” death.

We don’t want to guess with matters of eternity. We don’t want to offer our opinion when absolute, objective truth has been spoken and recorded for us.

If you’re here tonight, and you don’t know Jesus, you’re rolling the dice and guessing. You’re taking a gamble with your eternity and with your soul, and you can’t prove anything because you only have a guess, and you are hoping and wishing it is the way you hope it is.

We ask the question because as Solomon taught us last week in 3:11- God has set eternity in our heart.

Apart from God, under the sun, all we have is here and now, and we should try to find happiness in our activities….

Verse 22- I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?

When we are all standing in the shadow of death, can we enjoy our activities? No. If we have not assurance of what comes after, our happiness is fleeting.

Should you and I as believers in this infinite and personal God be happy in our activities? Of course, because we know that our labor is not futile and it is not in vain. In all labor there is profit.

As long as you are alive, you should live!

Then Solomon gives us another of his favorite buckets of cold water.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

Verse 1- Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.

Solomon now speaks of those that are victims of oppression. He is moved by this horrible display of power which is wielded by those in authority to be a benefit to the weak and instead they prey upon the weak.

There are people that are in places of power and authority in our lives that have caused us grief and tears. This could be a teacher, an older brother or sister, a mother or more commonly a father.

Who is the one person on this planet, apart from God, that is supposed to demonstrate grace and love, protection and care, benevolence and loving discipline to you and I? Our fathers, our dads.

Some fathers did a great job with some of you, and some fathers took their position of authority and abused it for their own sick gain. Some tried to get back at their father by hurting you. Some were burdensome and withheld their love. Some simply ignored your existence as if you were a ghost. It has caused many tears to fall from your cheek, and it has caused a ripple effect with your husbands or your friends, or your employers as you view those in authority as tyrants and not blessings.

In the movie Fight Club, Brad Pitt was sitting in a bathtub talking to Ed Norton about his father. He said “Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?” Then he goes on to say- “Listen to me . . . you have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you.”

The conclusion is totally incorrect, but we understand the emotion and disappointment behind it.

Those who hold such sway over us should be the ones who most care for and love us, when that is not the case, when those people care more for their own gain, they become oppressors and tyrants.

What about Christians being martyred? Are we willing to do anything about it? Who will wipe away their tears?

Revelation 7:9-17:

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen." 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 "For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. 16 "They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

Verse 2-3- So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. 3 But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.

Solomon sees that life is filled with injustice and oppression, and then it painfully ends in death. He concludes that the dead are happier than the living. But the unborn are most fortunate of all, because they have not had to see all the sin, oppression, suffering and pain caused by each of us.

Solomon arrives at the only conclusion that any sane and honest person can arrive at- apart from God revealing His grace, His love, His mercy, His justice and Himself in His Son, life is terrible and then you die.

Fortunately, God came to us, the one that Solomon spoke of in verse 17, to reveal to us the goodness and justice of God, the darkness of our sin, and the promise of the resurrection.

We are no longer bound by our limited information under the sun because God has shown us, in Jesus, how to escape this slavery to sin, death, oppression, and hopelessness. Jesus lived without sin, yet he paid the penalty for our sin, namely death.

When He did, He died in the place of all who trust in Him to forgive their sin, endure their judgment, and take their death upon Himself.

Everyone who trusts in Him will live forever with Him. Those who reject and ignore the warning signs from our loving God, will also live forever, but they will live under His judgment with unending tears, paying for their many sins.

Either way, Solomon is correct that both the righteous and the wicked will be judged. The wicked will be judged at the end of time and punished forever. The righteous were judged when? 2,000 years ago at the cross of Jesus and will be blessed forever by their gracious God.

John 5:19-30

19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. 20 "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. 21 "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. 22 "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. 25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;,27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.,28 "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,,29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.,30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

 

God will ensure that our endings will not be endings of injustice. His perfect justice will ensure that no one slips by without giving an account and having the books settled.

The question is- which judgment will you face? Are you gambling? Will you trust Jesus and believe in what He has done upon the cross, or will you close your eyes, plug your ears, and wait to see if it will work out for you in the end?

Don’t be foolish, trust in Christ and be a child of the Father, adopted into His great family, loved by a perfect Dad to always does right.

John 14:1-6

1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 "And you know the way where I am going." 5 Thomas *said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" 6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

0 Comments | Login to Post Comments

• Calendar
• Agenda