Living a Good Life; Making Sense of Justice, Part 3

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 third 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. 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. 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 8. 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, which is why we are called to fear God.

Living for the opinion of one. That's where justice begins, right here. Solomon then leads us in verses 12 and 13 to understand that there is ultimate justice. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, what is that saying?

It seems like there are all kinds of people who are getting away with all kinds of injustice and it hurts to watch it sometimes, doesn't it? You feel like so many people are just getting away with injustice, who he says, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before Him, but it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow because he does not fear before God. It will be well with those who fear God. It will not be well with the wicked.

So what's the point here? To fear God. To live for the opinion of one because as it is before Him, we will stand in the end.

Wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it, he says in verse 8. There is one opinion that matters and so what is necessary for mankind? It is necessary for mankind to be justified before God. You want to talk about justice? The root question is this, are you justified before God?

Are you accepted before the one whose opinion counts? And secondly, what mankind needs is peace with God. If you are justified before God, then you will be at peace with God.

So I want to leave this morning with us contemplating on some scripture and this scripture is from Psalm 146 verses 5 to 10. And here's what I want you to think about. There's a lot of injustice in the world and you know what your tendency is? Your tendency is to look at the injustice of other people. What I want you to do is to draw that back in.

You live for the opinion of one. Do your actions. What can you do in your world? What can you do? What actions can you take to plant seeds of justice and mercy?

You provide the sequel to the good samaritan. What actions can you take to plant seeds of justice and mercy and to do so building a bridge for a message to address the root issue? The root issue is in the heart. The root issue is in the heart. The root issue of injustice is in the heart.

Let's contemplate this. Read Psalm 146. What can you do to plant seeds of justice and mercy with a message to address the root issue?

God, you are good. You are the God who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. You set the prisoners free. You open the eyes of the blind. You lift up those who are bowed down. You love the righteous.

You watch over the sojourners. You uphold the widow and the fatherless. Thank you, Father, that you are a just God. Thank you that you have taken care of justice for us in the person of your son, the Lord Jesus, that only in him can we be justified before you and accepted before you. Father, I pray that if there's anyone in here this morning that does not know that justification, that does not have the peace of God, they do not know the forgiveness of God, that you would lead them to find Christ through communicating with one of your followers today. Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts this morning, that you would change our focus instead of demanding justice in others, that we would look to ourselves to be seed planters of justice and mercy, to communicate the message that addresses the issue of the heart, the forgiveness of God. Do a work in us today, Father, and among us that we will be your church, the pillar and ground of the truth, the lighthouse that is set on a hill, the salt of the earth to preserve. Father, may we be your church as we leave here this day. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. And God's people said, Amen. 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.