Living a Good Life; Making Sense of Justice, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. With the presidential primaries upon us, it's a good time to ask ourselves, how does God call us to treat those put in authority over us?

How should we react in the face of injustice? Today's broadcast addresses these questions using Ecclesiastes 8, 1-13, in this message titled, Making Sense of Justice. You're listening to the second part of this sermon, which was first preached on June 10, 2018.

It's from a series in Ecclesiastes called, Living a Good Life, Making Sense of the Journey. There is a higher authority, even in matters of injustice, when we look at the authorities over us, and we see injustice, we must remember this, there is a higher authority. And listen, yes, we live in a democracy, but the higher authority is not the people. Why?

Let me tell you why. You are just as wicked as those in authority. That doesn't make you the higher authority, and a majority does not make it right. I think we can see that in some of our laws going on today, right?

A majority does not make it right. No, the higher authority is the law giver. So, Christians, do remember that in the injustices that you see, there is a higher authority, there is a law giver. And verse 9 and 10 tell us that everyone is under authority and will give an account. Remember that. Hold on to that. And that is why we must plant seeds of justice and mercy.

Plant seeds of justice and mercy. I watched a video last week, watched it again last night with family. It's a video series called, I Am Second.

I encourage you to look this up. I Am Second Conversations. And then this one is entitled, particularly, it's entitled Unlikely Friends. And it is two people sitting in a chair. They're in the white chair. It's called the white chair, okay? And one of them is, his name is Michael. He's a former neo-Nazi, and he has the tattoos to show it. And sitting in the other chair is a black female parole officer.

Her name is Tiffany. And Michael is talking about all the atrocities that he did, how he was introduced to racism, and then all the atrocities that he did. And there was a turnaround for him when he had his own son.

He said, I'd kill anybody who did anything to my son, realizing that he had done damage to other families in his racism. He went to jail, of course, and he got out of jail. And his parole officer was Tiffany, a black female parole officer. Now the parole officer has to go visit the parolee, right? She came, now there's a parole officer, she's dressed in SWAT outfit, right?

She's got a gun, she's got the boots and all that kind of stuff, so it looked pretty intimidating. She shows up at his house alone. And he was astounded by that. You showed up alone? And she says, yes, is everything okay?

Right? And he says, I have respect for you because nobody, even people of my own race, have never showed up at my house alone. But the relationship continued because Tiffany is a believer. She didn't tell Michael like a project or a number. She helped him. She invested in him. And here he is sitting in the chair asking her, why?

Why did you do this? Because eventually he was invited to church. He's a believer now, right? It's because of Tiffany's investment in him. She worshiped God through her job as a parole officer. And that video ends of Tiffany talking about God's love and her forgiveness of him and his racism as odious as it is.

And the video ends with Michael standing up and giving Tiffany a hug. That's planting seeds of justice and loving mercy. That's how we can make sense of this journey.

You see, we do that by walking humbly with God. As Solomon tells us, wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it. Those who demand justice, they do so often with wicked acts.

I mean, look at the news, right? Riots all over the place because they're demanding justice. They're countering injustice with wickedness and it's self-defeating. Because if you do that, then what you're going to do is you're going to replace injustice with anarchy.

That doesn't work. That's not how the world works. There are certain things that we must be certain of here as we continue in this text. Three things that we must be certain of. These are matters that we must hold on to in times of injustice, recognizing that injustice is a reality in the fallen creation. And we will often experience injustice at the hands of those who have authority over us.

What do we do? Three things we must remember. Number one, order.

Order. Civil authority is a reflection of God's order. Verse five says there is a proper time and a just way, meaning you do right, even if you experience injustice at the hand of those in authority over you.

You do right. James teaches us the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. So it is never right for us to do wrong because we're demanding right. You do justice, plant seeds of justice and mercy. Solomon tells us there is a time and a way for everything, recognizing that there is a supreme authority.

And even as we are experiencing injustice at the hands of authority, we are to endure hardship for a time. Remember the apostle Paul? Did the apostle Paul do anything wrong? He did a lot of things well.

He did a lot of things that are good. He was communicating the gospel and yet it was considered illegal by many. And that's why he landed in jail. He was experiencing injustice, injustice. But he referred to it as what? This light momentary affliction. Do you realize how many times Paul was beat? He was whipped, he was stoned.

How many months he spent in prison? And he refers to at this light momentary affliction. Peter also refers to it as now for a little while if we need be, if needs be, we endure these various trials for a little while.

There is a time and a way for everything. Verse 10 makes it very clear. When I saw the wicked buried, they used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they done these things.

This also is vanity. Verse 10 is telling us that the self-serving received their just reward. The self-serving, those in authority, those who are self-serving in authority, they receive their just reward.

And what is that just reward? They are forgotten. History is unkind to the self-serving and oppressive leaders. Consider the likes of Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, Karl Marx, Lenin, Hitler, Fidel Castro. None of these men are celebrated by reasonable people today. Hundreds of millions are dead because of their ideologies. And yet they are forgotten.

And these were men in positions of civil authority. What does Proverbs 10, 7 tell us? The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. There is order in God's universe, and this is part of it. This is God's created order. We must remember that all things were created by Him and for Him.

And God does not share His glory. The second certainty that we must remember is that death is coming. This is a theme throughout this whole book in Ecclesiastes. Death is coming.

Once again, back in verse eight. No man has power to retain the spirit or the power over the day of death. You can't keep yourself alive.

You cannot. You had nothing to do with your birth and you can't keep yourself alive. Death is coming. What does that do for your here and now? Does that impact the decisions you make, the priorities you have? Man's time is limited.

Know that man's time is limited. We are tempted to think when we are experiencing injustice. We are tempted to think that evil is in charge, but it's not.

A turnaround is coming. And death has a lot to do with that. But even though that turnaround is coming, as Tommy Nelson says, don't hold a clock on God because it might not be coming according to your time frame. But there was one death in history that changed everything. The oppression that exists is because man, thinking he knows better, brought death and destruction and despair because of our separation from God.

That is why there is injustice. But I like how John Stott puts it. Sometimes we picture God lounging, perhaps dozing in some celestial deck chair while the hungry millions starve to death.

It is this terrible caricature of God which the cross smashes to smithereens. That death made the difference. And it made a difference that will actually be realized by all. So secondly, death is a certainty. The third certainty we must hold on to is accountability. Accountability. Accountability is necessary and it is certain.

If we look at verse 11, it says, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. The lack of accountability perceived, the lack of accountability exacerbates the problem of evil. It feeds man's appetite for self-serving behavior.

If I get away with it, I'm going to do it. Self-serving behavior is living at the expense of others. Serving yourself at the expense of others. That's oppression. And it happens at all levels.

At the individual level all the way to the national and the global level. But as Solomon has told us, there is a proper time and a just way. There is a time and a way for everything.

Why? Because there is a sovereign God and He has made everything beautiful, fitting in place in its time. God is in control of history. So once again, verse 4, there is a supreme authority. There is one who has a final word.

There is one supreme opinion, and that is the opinion that matters. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m.