Living a Good Life: Bearing the Image of God, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. As image bearers of our great God, we are hardwired for justice. Yet injustice often seems to reign all around us. It's not surprising to read Solomon's frustration in Ecclesiastes 3 over the abundance of injustice. He also grieves that men have no more power to avoid death than the beasts in the wild. Life under the sun without the self-disclosure from our good Father would leave our hearts to despair over the pain and injustice of this life. But God gives us Himself, and the beautiful truths from His Word change everything.

Let's listen in. Ecclesiastes 3 in your copy of the Word of God. The title of the series is Live a Good Life, Making Sense of the Journey. The theme for today in this paragraph that was previously read, verses 16 to 22, is pain and satisfaction. Something we all experience and something that we all long for.

Pain and satisfaction. In the context of chapter 3, the theme verse there, the key verse, is verse 11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in man's hearts, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. The theme of the context is that the seasons of life are orchestrated by a wise and good Creator.

A wise and good Creator. Even though verse 16 is true, look at it with me. 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. What a stark verse that is.

It's so true. And He says, I saw. And there's a pattern to this paragraph. He says, I saw, and then He said, I said in my heart, and then again, I said in my heart, and then lastly, I saw. And what is it that He sees here? Living with wickedness. In the context, the truth is that the seasons of life are orchestrated by a wise and good Creator. And yet we understand that we live with wickedness.

And it surrounds us, and it's been throughout human history. In northern Kyrgyzstan, they have built a great monument complex in honor of the Kyrgyz people called Atabeyit. It's a place that was built specifically as a monument to magnificent defeat. Specifically, there are three heartbreaking defeats that the Kyrgyz people remember on that scenic hill. There is a soaring monument on the defeat of 1916 when Tsar Nicholas II decreed that all Kyrgyz men be conscripted into the Russian army to fight in the First World War. And on that mountain, some 100,000 died, massacred by soldiers or lost in the brutal winter. The second monument on that hill remembers 1938, when at the personal instruction of Joseph Stalin, 137 leading citizens, writers, teachers, artists, politicians were rounded up and led up those hills to be murdered. And the third monument remembers 2010, when 84 young people were killed in a single day for protesting against yet another brutal regime. And they've built this monument to defeat.

Often life under the sun does not make sense. And we seek justice and we want justice when? Now.

We are hardwired for justice. At 2.25 a.m., a fight erupted on the second floor of a nightclub in Chicago. This was back in 2003. When security personnel arrived, they used pepper spray to break up the brawl. The fumes from the spray set off a rush down the front stairwell. In the panic, 21 people were crushed to death or asphyxiated at the bottom of the stairs.

Witnesses said that the stack of bodies reached nearly six feet high. Deshaun Ray, a young man studying broadcast journalism, got crushed to death that night. And all this time later, Howard Ray, his father, is outraged that no one has been held accountable for a preventable catastrophe. He is still seeking what he calls real justice. And though many urge him to let it go, Howard Ray said, My son loved me.

He trusted me. I can't stop until justice is done. If I didn't want justice, what kind of father would I be?

Life under the sun doesn't make sense sometimes. And David Gibson puts it well, deny bereaved parents justice for their child's killer. And there are no words for the terror and fury that can consume their hearts and overwhelm their broken home.

Trample on someone's rights and dignity and demean their self-worth and get off scot-free for having done so. And we give birth to the kind of indignation that can smolder for decades with devastating effect. The world is not meant to be like this. Will there ever be a time for justice?

It is a question that everyone asks. We are hardwired for justice and we want it now. So what does Solomon say? Verse 17, 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, God will judge. And who is he going to judge? The righteous and the wicked. That includes everybody. No one is exempt from that. Not one person alive ever will be alive or ever has been alive. What is the truth of this statement? Tommy Nelson puts it well, God is not in a tennis match with evil.

They are not equal opposites. Every bitter thought, every evil deed will have its day in court before a holy God who is a consuming fire. In 2 Peter 3 verse 10 makes very clear, the day of the Lord will come and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. God is a God of justice and that theme is repeated soundly throughout the scriptures. Look at some examples from the Psalms. Psalm 9 verse 7, but the Lord sits enthroned forever, he has established his throne for justice. Psalm 97 2, righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Psalm 103 6, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Psalm 140 verse 12, I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and will execute justice for the needy. Here's a very familiar verse. Isaiah 9 7, of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. And on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. And Isaiah 42 4, he will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice on the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. God will judge. I said in my heart, Solomon says, God will judge.

There is a time for every matter under the sun. I saw that we live with wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge. And then look what he says in verse 18. I said in my heart with regard to the children of men that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. Now this is a very interesting text, that they are but beasts. I said in my heart that word testing, God is purging out.

That's the sense of purging, testing of purging out like testing metal and it burns away all the dross. God is in a selecting process, if you will. Those who will acknowledge God out of those who will not. Look at verse 18 again. I said in my heart with regard to the children of men that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.

What is the meaning of that? That they themselves are but beasts. He says they have the same breath. They have the same breath. This is down at the end of verse 19. They all have the same breath.

What is that? That means they have the same intellectual frame of mind. And that is as Jude says, Jude 10, they are called unreasoning beasts.

For man and beast to have the same breath, it means they have the same intellectual frame of mind. All that means is they have no acknowledgement of God. They do not acknowledge God. And this is what Paul brings out very clearly in Romans 1. Romans 1 18, they suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. Verse 21, they knew God but did not honor Him or give thanks. Verse 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Verse 28, they did not see fit to acknowledge God or to keep God in their knowledge. That's the same intellectual frame of mind as a beast. That is to not acknowledge God. That's life under the sun, only under the sun.

Kyle and Dale, let's say it very well, lose sight of God and the distinction between life of man and life of beast disappears. Do you get what's going on today, folks? We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.