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All right, this evening, turn with me and your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Tonight we're going to be looking at verses 16 through 22. And yes, I took the heading from inside the ESV for the sermon tonight because I thought it fit well and I couldn't come up with anything better. The title tonight is From Dust to Dust. From Dust to Dust. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 beginning in 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. 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 beast. 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? It's quite fascinating and revealing how human beings enjoy reading books and watching movies that are filled with horror, torture, and death, but never want to face the reality that they're going to die. As one author notes, and it kind of really fits with our time of the year, when you consider how much people will go all out with the gruesome on Halloween, and he used the illustration of dismembered limbs out on a yard or lawn and so forth, fake, not real, clarify that, that people go in for that. But he said, what would their response be if you invited them to church for a series of seven sermons on death? They would think you're weird. They would think that's weird. And yet, humans give themselves to all kinds of thinking about death, but never personally. Always more abstractly and outside of self. Ecclesiastes is emphasizing to us that life is filled with many times and seasons, ordinary rhythms of life that come day after day, that joy is to be found in the ordinary when we see it in the proper light of God. But death is one of those regular occurrences that no one wants to talk about in a personal way. Yes, we'll watch the slasher flicks. We commented last night, my brother did, he said, I know that this is, what, the eighth or tenth Terminator movie that's coming out, 35 years after the first one. He said, isn't that crazy? We said, I'll go see it, probably. So, you know, there it is. There we are. We'll go watch all that. And also, historically, men and women would fill public squares in 19th century America. Mothers would bring the picnic baskets, and everybody would go there to watch the public hanging. That was considered something to observe. It was an entertainment event to watch the criminal be executed. How do we make sense of that, though? We'll do that kind of stuff. But yet, if somebody brings to us, especially if we're engaging a person who's not a believer with the subject of death, they shrink back and want to end that conversation. It's critical that we face the truth that this life is filled with much that doesn't make sense. Simple joys that encourage us and bless us, but also grave injustices as well. All around us, we can see in the present those who are corrupt, who disregard the law, the land, and yet they seem to prosper all the time. One does not have to read very much history to see dictators who have slaughtered thousands, even millions of people. and yet they were in the position of the most power in their country. Civilized nations, which we would consider ourselves to be one, here in the United States we disregard life by killing millions of babies while at the same time people worship plants and animals. Solomon shows us for all of our thinking of who we are, he makes a startling statement. One that has puzzled people in this section when he says basically the curse of sin has brought us as humans to the same level as animals. What does he mean by that? We do die and we return to the ground. We decompose just like them. Yet there's more to the story than just that. Humans can enjoy life in the light of God as well as have hope and assurance that God will set all things right at the end. We need to understand that from dust we came, to dust we shall return. But by union with Christ we have a life and a hope that we understand there's something beyond from dust to dust. So I want you to see with me, first of all, in verse 16 and 17, that in order to understand this from dust to dust, there must be a recognition of the final judgment. There must be recognition of the final judgment. He starts verse 16 with saying, moreover, which we could say, I saw something else under the sun. So we're kind of into a new section in the text. He says, I saw this. He spoke about themes like death, vanity, and enjoyment are tools. He'll speak of them again, but now he adds some new categories. He says, I saw that in the place of justice, there's wickedness. The place of righteousness, there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time, so we're back to where we started in the chapter, for every matter and for every work. So we've got new concepts here, wickedness, righteousness, justice, and then we can infer injustice then. Now verse 15, remember, he talks about everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen comes under the authority of God. Past, present, future is subject to God. Keep that in mind now. So Solomon now speaks of how he saw injustice on the earth. And he takes comfort in knowing that God will judge all of this in the end. And he will do so in righteousness, a pure righteousness that cannot be found here on this earth. Notice where Solomon says, I found the injustice, the wickedness. He says the place of justice. So we could look at that as the civil realm, the civil courts. And he said, in the place of righteousness. Now that's the sacred places of worship. Just as a side note, we don't want to read too much into the text, but there's almost a sense of irony that he makes that statement when you know what Solomon had begun practicing in his own life. That because of all the marriages he was in, that he had begun to build high places for these different gods in the land of Israel. So he had contributed some himself. to the unrighteousness in the sacred realm in the land. It's kind of interesting to think about maybe as he looks back. But it's a statement, quite a statement. As the king of Israel, he says that he sees injustice and wickedness everywhere in the civil realm and in the religious realm. But that's not out of the ordinary in the Bible. We see this throughout Scripture, don't we? If we were to go back, we can see in the opening chapters of 1 Samuel, we can see wickedness in the place of justice and in the place of righteousness in the sons of Eli. They were committing both. We would say they committed sexual immorality, and that they were laying with the women who came to worship at the doors of the tabernacle. They were also cheating the people with the meat offering. So we see that they were immoral in that sense of defiling the sacred, and they were also being unjust in stealing from the people in the sacrificial system. So the place where righteousness should have been exemplified was not. We see it in the New Testament, don't we? We see it exactly with what Jesus Christ experienced. In both the sacred court and the civil court, He is met with injustice. He goes before the Jewish council, before the high priest, before the keepers of the law, and they ran a sham trial. They did so many things that broke their own law. Then we think about him standing before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, that civil court, where Pilate said three times, can you imagine a judge pronouncing three times that a person is innocent, yet still executing them? That's exactly what took place in the trial of Jesus. So Christ was treated unjustly, both by the religious round and the civil. So it shows to us here, as Solomon speaks of, the pattern is deep. Depravity and corruption is real. In place of justice and righteousness, there is injustice and wickedness. In our own times, we can see many instances where criminals who have the right attorney, the right name, they're let go. There are those in authority who abuse their authority, left and right, but they're given a light sentence or no sentence at all. People in high places walk free. They seem to escape any justice that they deserve. And it's fascinating to me, though, what's one of the indictments of us as human beings is we want to reject God. And rejecting God means you must reject any standard of morality and right. And yet when we see things like that, we collectively cry out about the injustice. Because we've been made in his image. We know that there's a right and a wrong that is established by somebody higher than us. So that happens. It happens, sadly, in churches. Men who hold power and influence can commit sins that disqualify them from the ministry. And I can't remember if it was Carl Truman or Robert Godfrey said the biggest issue that we have today is the church has not figured out the issue of the automobile. And what he meant by that is that a church can say, this man's disqualified. He gets in his car and he packs up and goes to the next town. And he starts over. rebrands himself. And that's happening in what we would say is the sacred realm. So Solomon's observation reminds us that ultimate justice, ultimate holiness, it will not be found on this earth. So, what does he do? Well, as the preacher observes this on earth, he says, what? I've got to look somewhere else. I can't look here on the earth if they're not finding it. So what's he do in verse 17? I said in my heart, God. All right, now, so we're moving from earth to heaven. God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. The preacher says, I'm not going to find it here, but I do know the place where true righteousness and true justice are found. He remembers truth, revealed truth. Objective truth. He declares that God will judge everyone because every person is either righteous or they are wicked. That's the only two groups that exist. And every person, every person in here, is in one of those two groups. And we will all stand before him. And just as there is a time on this earth where it might seem like the wicked prosper, there is coming that final day when their eternal sentence will be declared. We have images of courtrooms and all that kind of stuff. What's going to take place on that day? I don't think we even have really any idea what that's going to be like. Because we like to talk back. And I don't think that's happening on that day. The psalmist said Psalm 9, 7, and 8, but the Lord sits in throne forever. He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness. He judges the people with uprightness. We must acknowledge that there will be injustice and evil in high places, both in the civil realms and in the sacred realm. And yet, while this is tragic news, our hope is not found in any civil or ecclesiastical court. Our hope is found in God. We know that God will judge injustice and wickedness. We know that there's nothing that takes place on this earth that's outside of his sovereign authority. So, there's nobody getting away with anything in the long run. Isaiah 5, 22 and 23, woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing drink who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right. And then Jesus said in Matthew 23, 23, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. There we are. There's a picture of how in the civil and the religious, there's failure in being just and righteous. Not so with God. And the Bible shows us that the corruption that can fill our hearts can easily make us delusional if we begin to have any type of authority, power, or influence. Charles Bridges, his commentary on Ecclesiastes, wrote on this text, so dangerous is worldly elevation. The pinnacle is a hazardous position. Our corrupt nature can bear but little raising. There is one ever ready to help us climb. There is, because somebody will say, well, I'll benefit from this. But then he said, but let it be our desire to be kept upon lowly ground. We cannot know what is in our heart till the stirring power of temptation has brought it before our eyes. So whatever authority we might have in the home, maybe we have a position of authority at a job. church, whatever, that we always keep in mind whose authority we're all under, who we'll give an account to, and that we would honor him and reverence him in what he has given to us. And what we need to remember is that while as believers we should stand for and pursue justice and righteousness on this earth, we need to be broken over how what takes place is imperfect on this earth. And we should be encouraged to know that God will judge all things perfectly and rightly at the end. So what should our posture be if we're a recipient of injustice, wickedness, mistreatment? We must remember, and we are called to remember, our Lord. 1 Peter 2, 21-23, For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. There's no one who has been more treated in an unjust and wicked manner than Jesus Christ. He didn't just go through one sham trial. He went through a few in that whole night and early morning. And he had the authority and he had the power to have ended it all right there. But he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. So while we should do all that we can to see justice and righteousness now, we do have a place of the people of God to speak out when we should, but we need to be aware there's gonna be limitations to that on this earth. We're not gonna create a utopia here. We can't do enough. We couldn't pass enough bills, march enough, whatever, to change. Doesn't mean issues aren't important, but it's also being aware of We can't change people's hearts. The gospel alone can. Now, that shouldn't depress us or discourage us, for we do know what happens on this planet is not the final verdict. There is a time for every matter, he said in verse 17, and for every work. Sometimes justice is served here. Sometimes the brutal dictator is executed here. Sometimes he's not. Sometimes it will only be served in the life to come. And we hear the cry at the end of the Bible from the saints of God in Revelation 610, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge? I think about it, it seems week after week, news reports show of another church, a large church in China, being blown up by their government. How long will that go on? I don't know. It's an injustice against the people of God. There have been many Christians who have been killed for the faith, many who are dying for the gospel even now as we speak. But there is a time coming when God will judge. He has appointed a day, and He has appointed the one who will come and execute that judgment. As Paul finished his sermon there at Mars Hill in Acts 17, he said in verse 31, because He, God, has fixed a day on which He, Christ, the Son, 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. The one who on this earth was treated unjustly will be the one who meets out perfect justice on the last day. And for those who know how they stand, we will not be there before that court saying, God, be just to me a sinner. We will say, God, be merciful to me a sinner. That all that I have is because of his grace. And I want you to know tonight, church, that in God's time, He will bring forth beauty and glory from the ugliness of sin and injustice that took place on this earth. This is not the end. This is not the final story. He will destroy and purify and recreate a new heaven and new earth where in what dwells? Righteousness. Righteousness. Yes, the pain is still real on this earth, but we take solace in comfort that God knows those who are his, and not one of them will perish, nor will any escape who have persecuted and opposed his people, which means also they have opposed him. Judgment is a certainty, and all of us have an appointment with it. How will you stand on that day in judgment? Solomon states, he said, I know in my heart, I believe God will judge the righteous and the wicked. The righteous are not those who are righteous in themselves, but they are clothed by righteousness outside of themselves. And that comes from Jesus Christ. By faith we lay hold to His righteousness. Have you laid hold of His righteousness? That is the only thing that will stand the purity and fire of God's holiness. Judgment is certain. And with that in mind, I want us to understand that from dust to dust, we must understand judgment is to come. But second, the realization of life's brevity Verses 18 through 22, the realization of life's brevity. Life goes by quick, doesn't it? I was commenting, we'll talk about Facebook memories again this evening, but six years ago was when we had our first time to have classes in the fellowship hall. Jayden, Jackson, and Graceland, my how they've grown in six years. Goes fast. Moves fast. Another six years will be past. We can't stop it, can we? There's not any of us that can wake up in the morning and say, Tom, I command you to stop. It's going by. So he says in verse 18, Solomon says something that seems strange. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man, God is testing them that may they see that they themselves are but beast. How do we make sense of that? How do we understand Solomon saying God is trying to show us we are but animals? All right, and he says, verse 19, for what happens, he gives us the elaboration, 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. Now, some take these verses here, and they come up with some really bizarre theological stances, okay? Number one, when you come up with a theological stance, you don't just take two or three verses, pluck them out, and say, oh, that's why I believe. That's bad, because you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say out of context. All right, so, but some of the propositions that people put it that way have presented is that Solomon's saying humans are animals. Hussein. And others have tried to say that when he makes that statement, I'll go to one place that he's arguing for annihilation. The animals die, they cease to be. Men die, they cease to be. There is no eternity. There is no afterlife. Now, the Bible affirms that there is a distinction between humanity and animals in creation. Genesis 1, 27 through 30 says, man was made in the image of God. That is not given to any other part of creation, that language. Psalm 8, 5-8 speaks of how we were made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, and given dominion over creation. The New Testament affirms that, quoting that very psalm in Hebrews. No other part of creation receives such a testimony to the work of God. So yes, while man is depraved and corrupt, we must remember we've also been made in the image of God. Therefore, life is precious. Every life is precious. We also need to see this question in verse 21. This is not a strange question. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? Ain't nobody at the funeral home can tell you that. They didn't see the spirits moving somewhere. And that's his point. There's nobody here who can give you an elaboration on exactly what happens when that last breath is taken. You can't see it. So we put it this way. Solomon says, there's nobody on this earth who possesses empirical evidence that says, I know exactly what happened when they passed from life to death. So he's saying, there's nobody here who's going to say, well, I saw a human spirit go up and animals go down. This is why Solomon states the same thing happens to both humans and animals when we die from the world's perspective. We both decompose. We both decay. We both return to the dust of the earth. We can see that. One of the early church fathers, Jerome, commented that the most beautiful woman and the ugliest hyena both return to the same place and that they both disintegrate into the dust. So that's what he means when he says that man needs to see their end. And he's quoting and alluding to Genesis 3.19, when the curse is given after Adam's sin. God said, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. What had Adam and Eve committed when they sinned in the garden? They committed cosmic treason. They wanted to be God. They wanted to be God's themselves. And instead of becoming God, their fate was now to die and return to the dust which they were created from. Quite a change, isn't it, from what was promised by the serpent? some sense of power and glory and immortality to now from dust to dust. Sin promises a lot, but the returns are destructive and deadly. And Solomon's point is we're speaking from an earthly sphere. What happens to the animals and what happens to humanity is the same thing. Douglas Sean O'Donnell writes, human beings can do many things that animals cannot do. We can read, write, draw, cook, fall in love, and lament that our bodies will turn to dust. And we can drink spinach soup smoothies, not me, pop vitamins, and invent all sorts of incredible gizmos. It's the first time, by the way, I've ever read anybody use the word gizmos. And it was spelled the way that I thought it should be spelled. Such as treadmills and life support machines. But nothing we can do. changes the reality that our mortality makes us more like animals than like God. That man in his pump, the psalmist says, will not remain. He is like the beasts that perish. Brother Tim read a quote from Elizabeth I, and her famous words were, as she was propped up in her bed, knowing she was dying, was time. Time. Oh, for just a little more time. one of the most powerful people on the face of the earth in her day, and I could argue historically. For all her power, though, she couldn't add time. She couldn't make time continue. She realized time was leaving. Solomon says men and women need to see just who they are in the face of God. He remains, yet we return to the dust. So we need to recognize our frailty and the brevity of our lives. Humans conduct their lives as if they are immortal and that they will continue on this world for a long time. We do everything we can to keep ourselves here, but the grim reality is we're going back to the dust. Each of us will be there sooner than we expected. So what are we to do? Well, he says in verse 22, So I saw there's nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Now that's what we've been called. Man was given work in the garden. He's still called to work, but now the curse has affected it. It's more toil now. But we're still, all of us are working in some capacity. We should learn what we're good at, what talents we've been blessed with, and we should seek to do an honorable job glorifying God with it. Work is a part of what we've been designed for. So yes, there's an aspect of the curse with our work that we are reminded of, but there's also a different outlook for the man or the woman who sees his or her work for the glory of God. So tonight, whether it is working, on IT with computers, painting, now for the local school district, government, taking part in the design and construction of ships, caring for an elderly family member, raising your children, serving in your home, or preaching to the local congregation. All of it should be done with an eye on our mortality and an eye upon our Creator, who made and fashioned us." Solomon said, let's find joy in the work and the reward of our work that God allows us to see. When you complete your task, there's nothing wrong with being proud of the work that you've done. Now, humbly, not boastfully in a braggadocious way, but with a humble heart, seeing myself for who I am in the sight of the Almighty, but giving thanks and feeling a sense of accomplishment that God has given me the ability to bring to completion a task. Solomon says that's what we need to keep in mind. But he's got another question for us to think about. Last question, last part of verse 22. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Now, here's the question to ask tonight. Does Solomon in these verses deny an afterlife? Is he a proponent of annihilation? That when we die, it's it. It's like the animals. We're gone. Well, first of all, it would be rather inconsistent of him in the same paragraph here where he just said in verse 17, God will judge the righteous and the wicked. When's that going to be? He's talking about something after this life. So there's an affirmation of a final judgment. It can only come after we've died. So death is not the end for us. And such a belief in eternity and the afterlife is found in the Old Testament. But there's something different about the Old Testament than all the pagan religions around Israel in their day. The pagan religions around them in the ancient times had a lot of fanciful depictions of what the afterlife was going to be like, filled with books and different stories about what it would be. You don't find that in the Old Testament. You do find an affirmation of the resurrection. Job 19.26, Isaiah 26.19, Daniel 12.2 are all texts that show that the Old Testament saints affirmed and believed in eternity and the resurrection. That Daniel 12.2, he talks about, I saw the righteous raised and the wicked raised. But it's also true that the Old Testament doesn't state much more than that. about the afterlife. Because the doctrine of eternal life, eternal death, the resurrection, they are more fully developed in the New Testament because of the mystery of Christ. That it's brought to full light. The resurrection and life eternal is only fully understood in Him. So, back to the question. Who can bring Him to see what will be made after Him? And the answer is only found in one place. And that's in Jesus Christ. No one on this earth can die, come back to life, and tell us all about what the experience is like. However, as Christians, we are filled with joy and excitement because our hope is in the one, not only who died, but who conquered death. And he came back to declare it. So Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1.10, our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. It's fully made known in him. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Christ. Christ can. Because it is Him we're our hope. So I want you to see this. Back to the... I don't know where the spirit of man and the spirit of the beast go. Nobody can see that. So that means that we're putting our hope and confidence not in some subjective experience. or subjective truth. Our belief about eternity is an objective truth revealed by God in His Scripture. If we didn't have God's revelation, if we did not have the Word, we would not know these things. Solomon's right. Based on what we see, we wouldn't know the answer to these questions. But God has revealed it to us in His Word. Therefore, we must believe what He has said. Now, we have questions. For example, I don't know exactly what Paul means in this passage I'm going to read, but I believe what he said. Philippians 1, 21-23, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am alive in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better. He says to be absent from the body is present with the Lord. What does that exactly look like right now, before the final resurrection? I don't know. I don't know. But I know what the Scripture says. that for the believer, before the return of Christ, that when they die, the body is in the ground, but they are present with the Lord. And what did our Lord promise to us? What is the promise and hope He's given to us in His farewell discourse? John 14, 1 through 3, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. And my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." I don't know what the house looks like. I don't know. I don't know how much is literal and how much is imagery. But this I do know. He said he's gone to prepare a place for us. and that where He is for all eternity, guess who's going to be with Him? The people He purchased. And on His hands and on His side and on His feet are the signs there of what He has done to redeem us. So, life's short. How will we live it as the people of God? We need to know joy in the work that we carry out daily and know joy in the place that's been prepared for us. David Gibson writes, living well in God's world means recognizing that when it comes to our own lives, we are not many gods, and this is His creation, not ours. We have all the pieces of our life given to us, and things come and go, and seasons change, and it is only God who knows exactly where everything is meant to go, in which order, at what time, and why. Now, on one hand, that's frightening. if we're always wanting to be in control. But as we grow past that, it's comforting to know that this really is in His hands. So from dust to dust is the truth about what lies before us all. The most powerful and the poorest will both return to the dust from which they were created. What is the point of it all if we're going the way of the animals? The point is that we can know God, worship God, and find joy in the simple task of life. Furthermore, in Christ, we understand that there is life that exists beyond this earth. Judgment will come upon the righteous and the wicked before the throne of God. What will be found out about us there? What will be the verdict there? May it be that we plead Christ and Him alone, and that we would remember what He's prepared for us, that yes, we are creatures made from dust, but we've been made in the image of God, marred by the curse, being restored by Christ, fully and perfectly realized on the last day when we will see Him. Let's pray. Father, tonight we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the comfort of Scripture. We thank you for life in Christ. May we remember indeed that life is short. As James says, it is a vapor. Judgment is real and coming. May we delight in our Lord each day. Help us this week, Father. And the things that we might think are small, tedious, insignificant, that we would examine our hearts and minds and pray and ask for strength and to remember that we do it all for the glory of our God. And we cannot wait to see Christ and to be with Him. And until that day, bring us daily reminders of that which has been promised for us. I pray in Christ's name, amen.
From Dust to Dust
系列 Ecclesiastes
讲道编号 | 1021192221555108 |
期间 | 39:52 |
日期 | |
类别 | 周日 - 下午 |
圣经文本 | 宣道者書 3:16-22 |
语言 | 英语 |