The Missing Piece

The only hope we have is when measured against the holy standard of God, we have one John describes to us as our advocate.

He has already spoken on our behalf to the jury of God's righteous judgment on that cross. I have already then experienced in their place the sentence of separation. I have already experienced the penalty for every one of their sins. That's why they get to go free. A day is coming when God's justice will be rendered. Sometimes it seems as if wicked people are getting away with it and that there will be no justice.

That's not the case. King Solomon pondered things like this in the book of Ecclesiastes. He realized and God wants us to realize that life is filled with puzzles and it often seems as if a piece or two are missing. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.

Today you'll be reminded that God is and God will be and God will always be the final piece tying all of life together. Over the years I have pulled the same trick on my children and now I'm able to pull the same trick on my grandchildren. When we're putting together a jigsaw puzzle, kids love putting those puzzles together. Of course it starts out where the pieces are wooden and they're as big as dinner plates but when you get to the 250 pieces I like pulling the same trick. I'll slip one of those pieces off to the side and put it in my shirt pocket.

Just one of those simple pleasures in life for grandfathers. We'll work feverishly away at that challenge and they're entirely dedicated to conquering it. We're nearing the goal, just a few more pieces. They're going to insist of course that they put the last few pieces on and I'm more than happy to let them. Then comes that moment, that moment of sheer terror.

There is a piece missing. I keep a calm expression. I suggest they look on the floor, be in the box, and then at some point they'll see me smiling. I just can't hide it.

And I'll open my hand and I'll say, well, would you look at that? Then they put me in time out for the rest of the afternoon. Frankly there is nothing, if you like doing puzzles, there's nothing like coming down to the end and missing one piece. That just ties it all together. It just doesn't seem right. Frankly, it's true in life.

It's not any more challenging and difficult than missing pieces. Confusing? Discouraging?

Certainly. Solomon has been recording for us in his private journal some of these puzzling moments that are frightening and confusing and disappointing. There's a missing piece somewhere and in that first half of the journal it would end often with cynicism. And now in the second half of the journal, Solomon has been recording these moments and he turns the corner for us in a way and points to the Lord. We're back today in chapter 8, if you're new to our study, and Solomon is going to bring up what I'll just call four more puzzles. He's dealt with some of these in the past, but he sort of strings them together here. He's making observations of life down here under the sun. You could easily be led to bitterness and frustration and despair, but he's going to point us ultimately to God. Let me give you the first puzzle and then we'll look at the text.

Here it is. Why is it that people in power often abuse the lives of others? Look at verse 9. All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun when man had power over man to his hurt. Now that opening line where Solomon says I've observed all these things down here under the sun, it isn't a reference to all the things that preceded it.

Verse 9 is sort of a categorical heading. It really ought to front this next section. These are observations that now follow. Here's what I've seen down here under the sun. This is how life seems to work. The first observation is those in authority often misuse their authority. It ought to immediately inform us that if you think that your boss or your supervisor or those in authority over you in your world or in your culture are doing something new, that you're experiencing something new, that maybe mankind is just getting worse than ever. Keep in mind, Solomon is observing this behavior more than 3,000 years ago. This has fallen corrupt human nature.

There's a reason we have a saying in our own English language. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. One historian writing 100 years ago said this. He said that it seems that a person's sense of morality decreases as their power increases. Solomon essentially says this is what I've seen over the course of my life, which is kind of interesting because Solomon is doing it too. In fact, when he finally ends his reign and his son gets on the throne, they say, look, would you please, Rehoboam, give us some relief?

Your father's taxation and his forced labor, it's wearing us out. They were abused by this king. So he's really reflecting his own life, but he's also observing it in others that it just seems that you give them a little power and their care and concern for others diminishes proportionately.

Here's another puzzle in life. Secondly, why is it that hypocrites often receive the loudest praise? Look at verse 10. Then I saw the wicked buried.

They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. Then I saw the wicked buried. Solomon's evidently been to a funeral.

He specifically watched more than one, we'll narrow it down to just one, one individual who's wicked being buried in a rather elaborate funeral. The Hebrew word, by the way, for wicked is used in Job 9 24 of someone who was guilty of crimes. In Genesis 18 verse 23, someone who refuses God's moral standards.

It's used by Isaiah the prophet in chapter 14 verse 5 for someone who oppresses the innocent. You notice here, though, the implication is that these people are well known. This person is well respected in the community as a following. He's evidently well enough to have a funeral where even the king is in the audience.

I mean, you've got to be somebody to have the king at your funeral. But according to Solomon, this person had only just stayed, you know, kind of one step ahead of the law. They never really found out what he was really like. Solomon knew.

He didn't tell us how he knew. But everybody in the city is praising them. Well, this person is amazing. They got a following, a lot of likes, you know, or whatever.

Solomon says, I know that they're actually corrupt. Kind of reminded me of one illustration I came across recently, another side of the story I didn't know. Wealthy man in Chicago known for his generosity. He lived during the difficult days of the Depression in the early 1900s. He was rich, financially diversified. Wall Street's crash didn't really affect him all that much.

He considered himself, quote, blessed by God, end quote. In 1930, at the height of the Depression, he, with his own money, bought a huge three-story building downtown, turned it into a soup kitchen, paid for the building, and paid for all the food. They would feed in that massive building 3,000 people a day. A big sign out front said food for the jobless.

By the time they had given away more than 100,000 meals to the unemployed and their families, they just quit counting. He was anonymous. With all this widespread philanthropy and gratitude from others, newspaper reporters began to search for the one they called Mr. Good Deed. It was the nickname they gave him. They finally identified him. This businessman, this wealthy philanthropist, was honored immediately by throngs of people.

They wanted his autograph. A well-known school of journalism even awarded him among the top 10 most influential people in modern world history, right up there with Lindbergh and Einstein and even Gandhi made the list. He even cited publicly then, using his influence, he agreed that the motion picture industry needed to be censored. In one interview he said, and I quote, honor and truth and the law are falling from public respect.

Only near the end of his career did public opinion change when a full story came out about the career of Mr. Al Capone and who he really was. He was found out before he died. Solomon saw a few of them buried who were never found out and it bothered him.

It bothered him that hypocrisy would be so praised. In fact, notice Solomon adds this rather interesting fact about this individual. Look at verse 10 again.

They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city. So now add the element of piety. Now add the element and not just Mr. Good Deed, but this is the guy that never misses a service. He's religious. He's righteous. He's a holy man. This person would go in and out of the holy place.

It's as if Solomon is saying the guy had a key to the front door. The priest would have known his name. He met all the festival obligations. He brought all the sacrifices. He prayed all the prayers. Solomon says, I saw that wicked individual buried.

You should have heard how they praised him in the city. They made him out to be a saint. You should have heard the sermon at his funeral. He was just going through the religious motions.

The religious motions are vastly different from a regenerated heart. Solomon asks, why is it that the worst hypocrites often receive the most praise? A third puzzle, Solomon points out, why is it that the wheels of justice turn slowly and sometimes not at all? Look at verse 11. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Look at him. A sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life. He lives a long time. He doesn't only not get caught.

He's the guy that has the best health in the community. Yet I know, Solomon moves from I saw to I know. I know that it will be well with those who fear God, that it is those who trust him. It will not be well with the wicked.

Neither will he prolong his days. They're just like a shadow. But what Solomon does here in this illustration is he takes us full circle. He shows us how the missing piece eventually fits in.

But notice how he begins. Justice isn't served. They think they're getting away with it.

And then they'll do it again and end up to a hundred times. Hey, I'm getting away with it. Lightning didn't strike. The wheels of justice aren't turning and if there's a God in heaven, well, he's asleep at the wheel.

Looks like it. Solomon says here one of the puzzling things about life is that evil people seem to be getting away with breaking the law. They repeat the crime a hundred times. Maybe they're clever. Maybe they're clever enough to evade the law. Maybe they had a good lawyer. Robert Frost once wrote tongue in cheek that a jury is 12 people chosen to decide on who has the best lawyer.

Maybe they had connections. Never mind. Notice here how Solomon says their lives are like a shadow. Well, think about this for a moment.

Shadows get longer and longer and longer when just before the sun sets. The Bible fills in the missing piece of what Solomon refers to. Revelation 20, the judgment day when all the unredeemed of all of human history will be brought into that court. And Paul will describe it in his inspired letter to the Romans in chapter 3 and verse 19 to the point where every mouth will be closed.

What that means is there will arrive at that individual moment in every person's life when their mouths will stop. That is, they'll run out of excuses. They'll run out of reasons. They will be, and this is the terror of it to me, they will arrive at that point where they will become then convinced of God's holy justice and that they are without excuse. That gavel will strike the bench and the sentence of everlasting judgment will be delivered. It will be undeniable. It will be unarguable. It will be unavoidable. It will be unchangeable. It will be eternal. But what hope do you have?

What hope do I have? This day we all filled another volume with sin. The only hope we have is when measured against the holy standard of God, we have one John describes to us as our perfect advocate. He has already spoken on our behalf to the jury of God's righteous judgment. Yes, he sinned. Yes, he sinned again.

Yes, she sinned and she sinned again and again and again and again. Oh, how they sinned. But because of their faith in what I did on that cross, I have already then experienced in their place the sentence of separation. I have already experienced in their place the wrath of holiness. I have already experienced the penalty for every one of their sins. That's why they get to go free.

It's the only hope you have. But for all who refuse to acknowledge Creator God, for all who refuse the gospel they heard, Revelation 20 gives us the missing piece. They may have avoided the courts of earth, but they will not avoid the court of heaven. There's one more puzzle in the mind of Solomon here. Number four, why is it that someone isn't rewarded fairly for what they accomplished in life? Why is it that someone wicked gets treated as if they're good, and why is it that somebody who's good gets treated like they're wicked? I thought life was supposed to be fair.

I had a guy come up after the second service and tell me, yeah, that's only in October when it's fair. I'm sorry. I thought it was funny. I thought it was all supposed to work out. I thought if you worked hard, if you did your homework, if you paid your taxes, you kept your nose clean, you smiled, it'd be one treat after another. And yet the cheater became valedictorian.

The slacker got the promotion. Someone innocent was punished and someone evil got away with it. Why? That's because there are pieces to the puzzle that are still in the hand of God. They're just not on the table yet.

They're not lost. So what do we do until it reveals them? Well, let me give you two things. First of all, I want you to go to verse 15. Here's what Solomon does as he turns the corner and gives us two pieces of advice. And I commend joy for man as nothing better unto the son but to eat and drink and be joyful for this will go with him and his toil through the days of his life that God has given him.

God has assigned him, God has prescribed for him, God has created for him unto the son. Now Solomon isn't recommending what sounds hedonistic to your ears and certainly to mine. This sounds a lot like eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow you die.

That's not what he's saying. That's the fatalistic philosophy of the unbeliever. Solomon is actually recommending joy that comes from trusting the Lord and thanking the Lord for all things he's given to us to enjoy. First Timothy 6 17.

So in principle form Solomon is giving us this advice. Thank God for blessings that have arrived from every corner and the truth is we often overlook them. He points up very simple ones. Did you have something to eat today? Did you have something to drink? Did you have clothing?

Did you have a job? None of those same things seem all that great until you don't have them. That job becomes quite the treasure. Money for food and the food to eat becomes a blessing and so on. Thank God for blessings that have arrived from every corner. Secondly, trust God for burdens that are just around the corner.

Notice verse 16. When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, in other words I'm going to figure this thing out. Notice how neither day nor night do ones I see sleep. It took all my sleep. I couldn't sleep. I tried to figure life out.

I couldn't sleep. Then I saw the work of God. This is the work of God. That man cannot find out the work of God that is done under the sun.

He can't figure it all out. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Wisdom's great but it doesn't give you all the answers. Even though a wise man claims to know some people are in the church, in the community, I got to figure it out.

Well, never mind though. The Bible says you can't figure it all out. There's just no way to know what's coming around that corner. You can't figure life completely out.

Why? Because they're missing pieces. You can't see the full picture. And you got to lose sleep, he writes here, if you worry about what you can't see coming. The problem is you can't see around a corner and life is filled with corners.

It's filled with corners. What's going to happen? I'm going to stay up. I'm going to lose sleep because I got to figure out what I'm going to do if it happens. Well, that's misery.

It might not happen at all. Love the way Mark Twain once wrote it with a smile. And he said, there has been much tragedy in my life and at least half of it actually happened.

You thank God for what's happened that you can see and trust God for whatever is going to happen that you cannot yet see. That's great advice. When I put those puzzles together with my children, now lately my grandchildren, and that last piece is missing, I might say, oh my, I wonder where it is. And they'll start searching, shake the box, get on their hands and knees.

Well, I mean, we worked for an hour on this thing and he got one little piece missing. I'll tell them to check their pockets and they do. I love that. And then I'll show them it's in my hand. Now, let me tell you the convicting part of this as I thought about this. The convicting part of this is that I can only do that with them once or twice.

Some of them are a little slower than the others. And then that next time I do it and they immediately look at me and they come over to me and they say, you've got it, you've got it. Lord, there's a piece missing.

Where is it? And we start looking. We crawl all around. We shake the box.

We fuss and fume. How often do we learn and then forget and relearn and forget and relearn and forget how slowly we go to him and say, you got it. It's in your hand. Life is filled, frankly, with puzzles and there are a lot of them and every one of them is missing a piece. And I think that's the Lord's way of reminding us to come to him, to thank him and to trust him and to recognize that he must be that middle piece. He must be that primary piece. He is.

He is. He is the final piece that just sort of pulls it all together and makes the picture complete. It might be that right now, as you're listening, there are parts of your life that don't make sense.

It might seem as if the puzzle of your life is missing a piece. Even if God seems slow in revealing it to you, he is the one who ultimately makes sense of everything. I hope this time in God's word will cause you to trust him more fully as you continue to follow him more faithfully. Thanks for joining us today for this broadcast of Wisdom for the Heart. Wisdom for the Heart is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. I encourage you to spend some time visiting our website, which is wisdomonline.org. You'll be able to access the complete archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry.

Stephen has been the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina, for over 35 years. And all of those messages are posted online for you to access and listen to. Not only can you listen to each one, but we provide the written manuscript that you can read. That content is available to you free of charge at wisdomonline.org. That archive is also available on our app. The Wisdom International app is available for your iPhone or Android smartphone. Download that app today and take this Bible teaching with you wherever you go. Thanks for joining us. Be with us next time for our next message here on Wisdom for the Heart. We'll be right back.