I would invite you to turn now in your copy of God's Word to the book of Ecclesiastes. We're going to continue our sermon series through the book of Ecclesiastes this morning. We took a brief break last week from it, but this week we're going to be back in the book. And we're going to be looking at the end of chapter 3 and the beginning of chapter 4. It's found on page 554, page 555 in your Black Pew Bibles if you're looking on in there. specifically chapter 3 verse 16 through chapter 4 verse 6. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version of the Scriptures this morning. So give your attention once again, for this is the reading of God's holy, infallible, and inerrant Word. It is the final rule of your faith and your life. Indeed, it is our Father's Word to us this morning. So give your attention to it. Beginning in v. 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. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. I said in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? 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. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. May he bless also the preaching of it. Let us go to him in prayer to ask his blessing. Dear God, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you for what you have revealed to us. And Lord, we pray that it would work new grace in us as we hear it and believe it. We pray, Lord, that we would indeed express our faith in light of it, expressing the resurrection life that we have in Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that your word would go forth and that it would not return void to you. We pray and ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. People of God, one of the iconic symbols of justice is the symbol of Lady Justice. You may have seen a statue of Lady Justice outside of a courthouse somewhere. It's a rather universal symbol of justice. And the symbol is this. Lady Justice has on a blindfold, and she is holding a scale in her hand, and most depictions also have a sword in her other hand. And this image is meant to symbolize the idea that justice is supposed to be blind. It is not supposed to take into account one's race, one's age, one's economic situation, one's power or influence or prestige when meeting out justice. But rather, justice is supposed to be impartial. And the merits of a case or a law are supposed to be placed in honest scales. where the truth comes forth by weighing the facts. And what is deserved is what is given, whether freedom or punishment. And so you have Lady Justice with a blindfold on, with honest scales, and with a sword to defend justice. Yet as we unfortunately know all too well in this life, justice is often not blind. and justice often fails. Criminals go free while the innocent are accused and found guilty. In the place of righteousness, where righteousness should prevail, corruption spreads like a virus. And in our passage this morning, this reality under the sun of injustice and oppression is the topic that is taken up by Kohelet in no uncertain terms. Verse 16 says this, "'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.'" The places on earth, friends, where we hope to find a fair hearing, are places prone to bribes and low dealings. Moreover, the places on earth where we should find righteousness, even places such as churches, we find scandal and hypocrisy and worldliness. And this is now where the gaze of the preacher in Ecclesiastes turns. In observing simply how things are in life, the preacher turns to this topic of injustice and oppression, this sad reality. Things are backwards in this fleeting life. Things are backwards right in the places where we would hope to find things as they should be. Yet it is not so. and the preacher observes this reality and at the very same time it provides the occasion for him to place true and unfailing justice in the place where it needs to be. That is, the preacher here places true and unfailing justice into the hands of Almighty God, who dwells in the highest of heavens, who is always true and always just. Indeed, the triune God of heaven and earth has revealed Himself, that He is a God who does not take bribes and has no part of low dealings. In Deuteronomy 10, verse 17, God says this to His people. for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords the great the mighty and the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe that's how God has revealed himself and in verse 17 of our text back in chapter 3 notice the preacher declares I said in my heart I God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. And indeed, this harkens back to the beginning of chapter 3, where Kohelet, the preacher himself, has said that there's a time for every matter under the sun. And now we really see him applying that truth when it comes to justice and when it comes to upholding the rights of the oppressed. Kohelet remembers what he's just written and said there will be a time when perfect justice will come. So although there are many distortions of justice, there are also hopes of blind and true justice as well. Not only in the ultimate judgment, but we also at times see that in life under the sun. In 1997, there was a woman by the name of Susan Mellon who was accused of murder. And a man known to be a pathological liar testified against her in court, swaying the jury to a guilty verdict. And while I believe it was maybe just last month, down in Torrance, after 17 years in prison, Susan Mellon, by order of a new judge, was set free. And the crimes she was accused of were no longer held against her. And as she was released from prison, her lawyer said this to all the reporters that were gathered around. Everything wrong with our justice system happened in 1997. Everything right with our justice system happened today in 2014. That's what her lawyer said after she was let go. And when interviewed, Susan Mellon said she never lost hope that the truth would come out because her faith was in God, who is always true. She said that whether the truth came out in this life or at the Judgment Day, she knew that God knew the truth, and she knew that she was innocent. She even wrote freedom on the bottom of her shoe as a daily reminder that she was ultimately free in God's eyes, even though behind bars because of our courts. Justice was perverted, but justice also prevailed at the end of the day. And as it was in that case in Torrance, so it will ultimately be at the last day for all people. And what I believe Kohelet is trying to push us to see here is that unless there is an appeal to justice and mercy above the Son, life under the Son will only disappoint in this area. There must be an appeal to higher justice. There must be an appeal to higher mercy and higher protection for the oppressed. Look at verse 1 of chapter 4. Our preacher goes from injustice to oppression and they're definitely related He says this 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 under the Sun if your only hope is in the temporal world and in the scene world there can be ultimately no comfort for you in the day of Injustice and oppression is what this passage is saying only tears can fall Only tears will be your lot. If your only hope is here in this life Kohelet says Tears will fall and there will be forgotten and even worse. They will be trampled upon a lot of times and Yet at the same time, Kohelet also tells those who spend their time under the sun oppressing others and going after power grabs and trying to climb their way up to the top that they also have another thing coming to them. Kohelet doesn't leave them off the hook either. He addresses both the oppressed and the oppressors. And Kohelet here brings out the reality of death on this score. The ultimate and undeniable reality that all die. There are those in the world that say about themselves that they are untouchable. And in fact, there might be some in the world that we think they're just untouchable. And the case is not true. They too will one day collapse and they will die. They will be put in the ground. Dirt will be thrown on their face and people will eat potato salad, as I've heard it put crassly. Harsh, but true. On both sides of injustice in this life, the same fate will be met for both the oppressed and the oppressors. V. 18-19 of chapter 3 says this. You can read along with me. It says, I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. And at first we read these verses and we can kind of think to ourselves that Kohelet is saying things that do not jive with the rest of the Bible. These verses can make us uncomfortable. Doesn't the Bible say elsewhere that we have dominion over the animals and that we are made in God's image? Well, yes, it does. And those things are absolutely true. But what Kohelet says here is also true in the sense in which he means it. Psalm 49.12 says, quote, "...man in his pomp will not remain. He is like the beasts that perish." So it's not just Ecclesiastes. Elsewhere in Scripture we have this image. When it comes to death, men and women fall like the beasts. Human beings are like beasts in that they are both created beings. they both die. This is a humbling reality. Just like animals fall to the ground and die and they are done, so too it is with us. The most powerful people who have ever lived at some point have fallen to the ground and have no more life in them and can do nothing. And so for all the differences between man and animals that the Bible does teach us about, we do share this common thing regarding our physical bodies and that is They perish. And here it's as if the preacher is putting himself into the shoes of those who seek the wrong kind of gain in life under the sun. Remember the thesis statement of the book that we talked about that comes in chapter 1 and verse 3. The preacher says there, what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? And Kohelet has already told us that there's no such thing as getting an advantage in this life with things under the sun. And once again here, Kohelet comes around to saying death is the great equalizer in this. Death is the great preventative in this. Death is the spoiler in the humanistic parade. Kohelet is looking at death from one who is seeking a kind of gain and advantage under the sun. It's as if Kohelet kind of puts himself in the shoes of one who wants to get a leg up in life. And from that vantage point, the preacher here compares man and beast, and even questions what happens at death. If your only perspective, if your only vantage point for life is what happens in the observable world, then you can understand how Kohelet starts to ask these questions. Many people can read verse 21 where it says, Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? And kind of say that, wow, here's where Kohelet really gets unorthodox and unbiblical. Because he's saying that he doubts the afterlife. But that is clearly not the case. Qohelet has just said in chapter 317 that his hope is in the final judgment to come. Also, if you turn over to chapter 12 in verse 7, Ecclesiastes says, the dust returns to the earth and the spirit returns to God who has it. That's found in chapter 12. So it's not as if Qohelet is doubting the afterlife here. What he is saying is, is if your life is caught up trying to gain advantage over others, the ultimate anxiety of death cannot be solved. There's no cheating it. It is the common curse that was put in place due to sin. And so as the preacher kind of puts himself in the character of one who is trying to see if you can ultimately win In Life Under the Sun, Kohelet shows how this pursuit fails when it comes to the mystery of death. And this theme is powerfully unpacked later on in Ecclesiastes chapter 9. The whole first part of Ecclesiastes 9 deals with the mystery of death. You cannot avoid it. You cannot crack death. If your only referent for life is your own limited observations, who knows what even happens at death? Your observations cannot tell you that. Science can't solve that. Technology has not prevented it, nor will it. We have no video footage for what happens when one dies. There is no after-death selfies that have surfaced anywhere. And although given the rest of the teachings of Scripture about life after death and how those who know the Lord will have their souls go immediately to be with them, indeed the Scriptures teach us that. We know that's true. Much mystery still remains about the mechanics of that. We don't know exactly how all that works out. The Bible doesn't reveal to us all those details. So even from an Orthodox perspective, you can understand how Kohelet asked these questions. And the point here seems to be that because there is a great deal that we do not know about life after death, the great and encouraging point here is we need not be anxious about that, the way that so many people are. But rather, we ought to simply seek what is truly good and what is simply before us. As one author writes, we are not to give ourselves, quote, to endless speculating, but we are to give ourselves to the God-given callings and joys given to us in our lot in life. End quote. You see, the way forward in life, beloved, is not speculating about or rehearsing the things that we do not know, but in remaining faithful to what we truly do know and what God has given us to know. Notice that the preacher lands where we have seen him land before and where we will see him land again when observing life under the sun. Look at verse 22. He says, I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? You see what he's trying to say there. You can't see what comes after you. That's an impossibility. There's no access to that kind of knowledge. And Kohelet is trying to assure us that the way forward in life isn't to be anxious about that or to even pursue that. He says it's out of reach. You can't worry about that. but rather enjoy your lot that is given to you. One author puts it this way, quote, to strive after unattainable knowledge or to reach for elusive gain is to miss and thus refuse the gifts of God. Kohelet has redefined joy here, stripping from it all trappings of gainful pursuit. To appreciate the momentary pleasures of a good meal or a good day's work is our lot in life. Like an inherited plot of land, such enjoyment must be cultivated, first and foremost by welcoming it in gratitude. I love that quote, especially the last line of it. Our enjoyment of life is like enjoying a newly inherited plot of land. I'm from the Midwest, as you know, and enjoy the company of a great many farmers who have had this experience of getting a new plot of land. It's not readily enjoyable. It actually takes years to appreciate the land, to appreciate what it can produce. It is a slow enjoyment that happens over time, through each and every day, through each and every season that is before them. Kohelet's saying this. We are to receive the good gifts that God has given to us under the sun. And we're not to enjoy life in a self-interested way, but in a self-giving way. For as God gives us gifts under the sun, and as we enjoy our lot in life, we are not to be focusing on what we do not know or what we do not have, like the oppressors, but we're to be focused on what we have been given and how we can love our neighbors as ourselves. And so, Kohel, it's driving us to see that there's these absurdities in the realm of justice and in the realm of righteousness. Yet, we cannot have access to knowledge that we don't have access to, but rather we are to enjoy the lot given to us. And indeed, we do that as we enjoy the gifts that God has given to us. And the greatest of gifts that God has given to His friends in life under the sun is His great and merciful and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. For it is Christ who has dealt with our sin. It is Christ who forgives our sin, forgives you of your sins. And as you turn to Him in faith, it is Christ who then leads and guides you both in life and in death. We confess that first question and answer in the Heidelberg Catechism that's so wonderful that both in life and in death, we are not our own. God has given us the gift of Christ. who leads us and guides us in enjoying life under the sun. 2 Timothy 1, verse 10 says, Christ Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. You see, although we die and although death is guaranteed to all lest Christ returns, there is the light of Christ that now shines on our death. is what the Bible is saying. That's why Paul can rejoice that whether he lives or dies, it is the Lord's will and there's gain in both. There's light now that shines on our death, and it is the light of Christ. For you see, friends, by faith you have been united to a resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit now leads you in light of that resurrection power in life under the sun. So when you receive the great gift of Christ our Lord, You can then live by the power of the resurrection each and every day. Even as you face death, you can live in the power of resurrected life. And that means that as Christians, you and I can then pursue justice in an unjust world. That means that as Christians, you and I, we can pursue righteousness where there is wickedness, knowing that ultimately God will dole out perfect justice and perfect mercy We can then work each day and strive against those tides as Christians. As the Lord gives to us, yes, we can strive to prevent abuse. We can strive to help the poor. We can give and serve organizations that want to help with those groups. We can give and serve groups that, give to groups that desire to prevent poverty and to prevent oppression and to prevent sex trafficking and the like. Indeed, by the power of the resurrection, we can pursue these things knowing that a day is coming when it will truly be dealt with full well. Kohelet never says that we just need to remove ourselves from the world and interacting with the world. Rather, he actually always lands on the other side of that. Because there's these absurdities, because there's injustice, because there's wickedness in the place of righteousness, Kohelet says enjoy your work. Pursue the gifts that God has given you. pursue resurrected life under the sun. For in that we can acknowledge the vanities of life, but by the grace of God, seek to be faithful in working in the great light that has shown in the world through Jesus Christ and through his death and resurrection. And so in the face of injustice and oppression, the light of Christ now shines. And the light of Christ grants you and I perseverance. For we know that one day God will make right all that is wrong. But part of what it looks like to live in the power of the resurrection is to know that you have the power to endure. You have the power to endure all the distortions of God's character that now exist in the world. You have the power to endure the absurdities that we find in life. For we know, we know that the great injustice and the great oppressions of the day will come to an end. And we know that God ultimately uses them for good. Remember that the great injustice and oppression that took place at the cross ultimately did not serve evil, but served your redemption and mine. And that is the worst injustice, the worst evil. God brought it about and used it for good. And so it's my prayer that we can go forth from here today, saints, and rejoice in the work that is given to us, knowing better that it's better to have a handful of quietness, as verse 6 says, in Christ than two hands full of toil and striving after win. For that's how we're naturally wired. naturally wired to be wind chasers. And Kohelet says, in Christ now, you can have calm and you can enjoy the simple gifts that have been given. The gospel, friends, frees us to enjoy all of life's gifts and to persevere in the face of life's absurdities. So my prayer is that Christ might work ever greater grace in our hearts this day to love and to serve Him with all that He has given to us freely. Amen? Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word once again. And Lord, how we pray that you would help us be people who live in light of the resurrection as we live life under the sun. And Lord, we pray that you would help us to endure the great injustices and oppressions that we see and face and experience. Lord, knowing full well that at the last day, justice will prevail. And Father, knowing full well that by the power of the Spirit, You would have us endure as our Lord Jesus Christ endured all the false things done against Him. And so, Lord, we would pray and ask for an abundance of new supplies of sanctifying grace in this regard, and that You would help us in the many things You've called us to do. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.