Ecclesiastes 2: Trusting God

We just saw a video about how God is using the Mission New Mexico offering to support Christian Challenge on college campuses to train up, inspire, and send out college students like Carson, or like some of our very own here at Eastern Hills: Alisa and Will, to proclaim the name of Jesus throughout the country and around the world. We are taking this special focus offering during September and October, and our goal as a church is $10,000 this year. Last week started this offering season off strong, as we’ve given $2,850 so far. Pray and ask the Lord what He would have you give to support the Mission New Mexico Offering this year, because there’s still room at the table of the Lord in New Mexico.

You’ll find a connection card in the back of the pew in front of you, it’s this black card with “WELCOME” on the front. If you wouldn’t mind filling that out during the service and either bringing it down to me at the end of the service, or dropping it in the plates as you leave later on, I would appreciate it. We’d love to get to know you better. If you’d rather fill out a form online, you can do that by texting the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004, and you’ll get a link back that takes you to our digital communication card.

Announcements

Sundaes on Sunday today. No questions about Endeavor? Great! Hang out and enjoy time with your church family.

Business meeting next Sunday night at 5:30 pm.

Opening

Last week, we opened up the book of Ecclesiastes with a look at the first 11 verses. We saw that the question the Teacher, King Solomon, aka Qoheleth, was essentially asking in this book is, “What in the world can bring meaning to life?” And we saw that his conclusion was that everything is futile, or hebel in the Hebrew, meaning that all of the earthly things that we chase after in life are ultimately like a vapor, weightless, meaningless. But the escape from that cycle of chasing the wind was in something truly new occurring, and that something occurred in the arrival of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, onto the scene of history, God in the flesh. Our purpose in this study is to learn in the classroom of Solomon’s life, through the field trip that he took. This morning, we are going to jump over to chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes to consider why we can trust God in the midst of the uncertainties of life. As we are able, let’s stand in honor of God’s holy Word as we read our focal passages from chapters 3 and 9 this morning:

Ecclesiastes 3:16–20 CSB

16 I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness. 17 I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.” 18 I said to myself, “This happens so that God may test the children of Adam and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.” 19 For the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile. 20 All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

Ecclesiastes 9:11–12 CSB

11 Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them. 12 For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

MOMENT OF REFLECTIVE SILENCE IN REMEMBRANCE OF 9/11, PRAYER (FBC Moriarty, Pastor John Holmes—student ministry leadership)

I’m going to confess that I got pretty frustrated this week. I was angry, annoyed, and agitated. Something happened that was a major distraction in life and ministry. How many of you received one of the fake emails from “me” this week?

We’re still not completely sure how that happened, but we have checked our network and don’t see any evidence of strange things occurring. For the future, however, just so everyone knows: all of the staff members’ emails are the same basic setup: our first names@ehbc.org. The really sneaky thing about what happened this week is that whoever managed to get our email information created these new email addresses that seemed like they were me, only they weren’t. And they all had ehbc in the address. So far, I believe there are three of them: billconnors.ehbc@gmail.com; bill.ehbc@gmail.com; and pastorbill.ehbc@gmail.com. These are all fake. It is possible that whoever did this will try again, using another staff member’s name. If you get some email that super vague, always check the email addresses: if it’s not from ehbc.org, then it’s not from us. Don’t answer them. And of course, we would never ask you to risk personal funds like the scammers were asking. Fortunately, no one lost any money as far as I know.

Sorry for that little public service announcement there. So how does this connect to our sermon this morning? Well, in a couple of ways, actually. First, it happened “under the sun.” Don’t forget that when Qoheleth uses this phrase, what he’s referring to is everything that happens in the world, from the human perspective. He’s not talking about spiritual things. He’s talking about earthly things. So when we are considering something “under the sun,” we are seeing it from the general vantage point of humanity.

Second, one of the places that I struggled with what happened was that I did a fair bit of complaining to God about how it wasn’t “fair.” Yep, I admit it. I complained to God this week from my lack of understanding about why He would allow that email scam to happen when it did. And while I wrestled to get back to a place where I could focus on my study and writing again, that email scam and my response to it, coupled with my conviction from God and a healthy bit of repentance on my part, helped me to see this week’s passage in a more personal light. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I did a fair amount of wallowing this last week.

So as we look at our two focal passages this morning, both of them refer to things that happen “under the sun.” And what Qoheleth saw under the sun was about what he considered to be unfair, and how he also found what seems to be fair as well.

1) From our perspective, life is often “unfair.”

As people, we tend to want things to be what we basically “fair.” When we play games, we are quick to point out if one player or team has an excessive advantage over another. In the workplace, we expect to be treated fairly by our employers. We even bring this concept of “fairness” into our marriages sometimes, as we negotiate the meaningless and the mundane of life together. But the reality of life is that sometimes life is just not what we would call “fair.” Qoheleth observed such things occurring “under the sun:”

Ecclesiastes 3:16 CSB

16 I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness.

Most commentators look at these two places—the place of judgment and the place of righteousness—as the same place: the courts. And when wickedness is found in the courts, travesties of justice are going to happen. Evil is going to be called good, and good is going to be called evil, just as Isaiah spoke about:

Isaiah 5:20 CSB

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Think about some of the things that our courts have declared to be “legal” at times over just our country’s history: slavery, the denial of U.S.-born citizenship based on race, child labor, women being unable to vote, Japanese internment camps during World War II, racial segregation, abortion, the redefinition of marriage, and this is just a small slice. When justice is tainted, when the concepts of good and evil are reversed, the people suffer for it.

Another thing that Solomon saw as unfair was that things don’t always go the way that we might think they should go:

Ecclesiastes 9:11 CSB

We would expect that those who have what is most necessary for success in whatever they are attempting will actually succeed in their attempt: that the swift will win the race, the strong will win the battle, etc. But because of “time and chance,” these things don’t actually work that way. When Solomon says “chance” here, he doesn’t mean that in the way we do in our modern English, such as with a throw of the dice. The Hebrew word simply means “occurrence,” something that seems to just “happen,” and may or may not have the appearance of being random. A lot of things in our lives look like this. When two cars collide, we call it an “accident.” We notice when things are “coincidences,” or we might fail at something by “luck,” or a “fluke.”

So what Qoheleth saw was that there was wickedness where there should be justice, and that the best equipped for success do not always succeed. These weren’t the only things that he saw in life that seemed unfair to him. He also saw as hebel the reality that people don’t necessarily receive treatment that corresponds to their actions, or lifespans that correspond either.

Ecclesiastes 7:15 CSB

15 In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 CSB

14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

Would any of us say that we have experienced these kinds of things? Of course we would.

You know, in some ways, adults aren’t much different from teens. All of us want life to be fair. And we complain when it’s not. I’m not sure how many of you know that I was the student pastor here for over 18 years. During that time, one thing that I heard regularly from students was that something wasn’t “fair.” For some reason, the most common occurrence of this statement was when we were getting in cars to go somewhere, like a campout or a retreat or something. When you’re transporting several dozen students in multiple vehicles, it’s just going to work out that some people aren’t going to be satisfied with where they end up. And that was when they would complain: “That’s not fair.”

Sometimes, they were right. Sometimes, things weren’t fair. But sometimes, they were wrong: it wasn’t that it wasn’t fair—it was that it wasn’t going the way they wanted it to go. And something was only fair if it actually became unfair—that the complainer got what they wanted at the expense of another not getting what they wanted.

Do any of us act this way? I did just this week, as I already shared. The email thing happened at a terrible time for me (is there a good time for something like that?), and I acted just like my students used to act—I declared to the Lord that it was unfair that I was going through that. When really, it was just that it was happening to me that I felt was unfair. I shouldn’t expect to not have difficulties in this life, and others have experienced exactly what I experienced.

Can I just say this? The thing that Solomon discovered as he applied his great wisdom to looking back at his life and everything he had seen is a lesson that all of us need to learn and relearn. That lesson is this: life “under the sun” is often not going to be fair by our standards, because the world is broken because of sin as we saw last week. In fact, because of sin, life under the sun is going to be decidedly unfair a lot of the time. And while we should address unfairness and injustice as we have opportunity and ability, if we trust in life being “fair,” we trust in the wrong thing: something that Solomon declared was hebel. No, only one solution to the ultimate unfairness of life exists:

2) Ultimately, God will address unfairness.

Qoheleth looked at the injustice and unfairness of the world, and realized that there was only One who could make things fair again: God Himself. He also realized that it was in death that true fairness would be found, because every person and every animal has the same fate to look forward to, and none of us will escape it. First, let’s consider the fact that God will make things fair through His judgment:

Ecclesiastes 3:17 CSB

17 I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.”

We can trust that God’s judgment will be absolutely accurate, because only God is in a perfect position to judge, because only He sees everything clearly and truthfully. He is the One who has the authority to judge, because He is the creator of all things, and everything exists because of His will and power. He is the ruler over everything, and the concepts of right and wrong, of good and evil, are defined from the objective standard of His very character. He has established that His throne is a throne for judgment:

Psalm 9:7 CSB

7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for judgment.

The Lord will sit on His throne in judgment on every single person who has ever lived or will ever live. He will judge in righteousness and fairness. He will not take any bribes, no one will be able to talk Him out of rendering His judgment, no one will be able to manipulate Him by fear or greed or pride to get Him to change His mind, and no one will have a valid excuse for their sinfulness. He will not be negotiated with or bargained with. His judgment will be final, and there is no higher authority to appeal to than Himself. This is how Scripture speaks of this time:

Revelation 20:11–15 CSB

11 Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books. 13 Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works. 14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

And while those who belong to Christ will not face the lake of fire because of what Jesus has done, we will have to give an answer to our Lord for how we have stewarded such an incredible gift of salvation from Him:

2 Corinthians 5:10 CSB

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

So we all have a judgment to look forward (or not) to, and we should take that fact incredibly seriously, because it’s assured: it’s GOING to happen after we die, and it is that death that is the great equalizer of fairness under the sun, because it awaits us all. Qoheleth saw that by observing that as far as our physical lives go, we are actually no different from animals, because we all came from dust, and we will all return to dust at the end of our lives:

Ecclesiastes 3:18–20 CSB

18 I said to myself, “This happens so that God may test the children of Adam and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.” 19 For the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile. 20 All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

This is what the Lord said to Adam after the Fall, when He was proclaiming the sentence on Adam for failing to trust God’s good commandment:

Genesis 3:19 CSB

19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

We may be special and set apart from the animals as far as our ability to reason and make moral choices, and certainly where our capacity for relationship with God is concerned, but we are still essentially made of the same raw materials, subject to the same physical end as they are. We physically have the same limitations: death will come to us all. The sons of Korah also noticed this limitation, and wrote in Psalm 49:

Psalm 49:12 CSB

12 But despite his assets, mankind will not last; he is like the animals that perish.

And not only that, but we can’t even be certain of when that will be! As we saw earlier, sometimes the righteous die the early death the wicked seemingly deserve, and sometimes the wicked live the long life that we think the righteous deserve. In chapter 9, Solomon expands on this idea as well:

Ecclesiastes 9:12 CSB

12 For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

Could there be a better illustration of this than 9/11? That event came on our nation without warning, and those in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, Flights 11, 175, 77, and 93, and those officers and firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty found themselves trapped in the “evil time” of that day. We face the results of the brokenness of the world because of sin every day in various ways and to various degrees. We don’t know when our last day is—when we will face judgment. Even if we live until the return of Jesus, we will find that day “sprung” upon us unexpectedly, like a trap, according to what He said in Luke 21:

Luke 21:34–35 CSB

34 “Be on your guard, so that your minds are not dulled from carousing, drunkenness, and worries of life, or that day will come on you unexpectedly 35 like a trap. For it will come on all who live on the face of the whole earth.

This is why it is so vital for us to hear and apply and live out and preach the message of the Gospel! Because of sin, we owe a debt of judgment, and the sentence that we deserve because of our sin is death. So we have both a debt problem and a death problem. But the wonder of the Gospel is that God has taken it upon Himself to offer the solution to our dilemma in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God:

3) Jesus is the solution to both our debt problem and our death problem.

Just as last week, we saw that the escape from the futility of life under the sun was that something new would come, so in Christ, we are offered an escape from the unfairness of life, from the coming judgment, and from death. Just as the evil time and the Day of the Lord each will come upon us unexpectedly like a trap, that doesn’t mean that we cannot be prepared to meet the Lord or to face His judgment.

It is to Jesus that we can turn in faith, trusting that He will provide for us His righteousness, because He offers it to all who would believe in Him:

Romans 3:22 CSB

22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

This is the hope that we have in Christ: that He took the judgment that we deserve, and that He defeated death so that its sting is removed for those who belong to Jesus.

A) Christ was judged on our behalf.

Yes, the judgment of God and the wrath of God against sin is certain to come. It is guaranteed. And Hebrews 10:31 says that, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” However, the almost unfathomable beauty of the cross is that that someone else chose that terror for us! Jesus, the only one who didn’t have to die because of sin, willingly went to the cross and took the judgment for our sin and the wrath of God against our sin on Himself.

Galatians 3:13 CSB

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

Our sins, the ways that we reject or rebel against the will and desires of Almighty God, demand satisfaction if He is going to be righteous and holy. That is a debt that we could never pay, because we can never be good enough because of the hold that sin has on us. But Jesus could pay it, and so He did, and thus canceled that debt, as Paul also said in Colossians.

Colossians 2:14 CSB

14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

This was simply out of God’s love for us. He could not abide sin, and so His perfect Son suffered the judgment in our place so that we could be forgiven if we surrender ourselves to His lordship, trusting in Him and Him alone for our forgiveness and salvation. The righteous One suffered for the unrighteous, put to death for our transgressions so that our sins would be covered:

1 Peter 3:18 CSB

18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

But as Peter wrote, that was not the end. Just as He took the judgment against our sins and died, solving our debt problem, He also rose again and defeated death, solving our death problem.

B) Christ was raised to give us life.

Even though our debt problem was paid through Christ’s death on the cross, we still have to deal with the brokenness of creation because of sin: we still will die. But according to the testimony of holy Scripture, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus overcame death, completely defeating it, so that those who belong to Jesus through faith will not only have forgiveness of their debt problem, but will also have eternal life, overcoming death as well.

1 Corinthians 15:20–26 CSB

20 But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. 22 For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he abolishes all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be abolished is death.

Death is the final enemy to be completely defeated. Jesus has overcome the grave, but He’s not going to stop there: He’s going to abolish it completely. There will come a time when Jesus will return to restore His creation back to what it should be, and when that happens, it will be judgment time. He will give the eternal life promised to those who belong to Him by faith.

Hebrews 9:27–28 CSB

27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Closing

Are you waiting for Him? Have you trusted Him for your forever? Jesus died in your place and my place, so that we could be made right with God, and overcome the brokenness of this life by the power of His Holy Spirit living in those who belong to Him by faith. Have you surrendered to Him?

During this time of invitation, ask yourself if you’ve trusted Christ to cover your debt problem and your death problem. If not, then surrender to Jesus, turning from your sins, believing that He died and rose again so that you could be forgiven, and trusting Him as Savior and Lord. Whether you’re here in the room or online, give up your rights to yourself and escape the unfairness of life. In a moment, the band is going to come and play, and Joe and Kerry and Trevor will be here at the front with me. If this morning you’re surrendering your life to Christ, please come and let one of us know. We want to celebrate that with you and help you as you start this new journey of faith. If you’re online and you’re surrendering to Christ today, please send me an email to bill@ehbc.org so that I can rejoice with you and get you some materials to help you as you begin your new life with Christ.

Church membership

Prayer

Offering

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading plan (Joshua 24 today, start with Ecclesiastes 1 tomorrow)

Pastor’s study tonight, remember we sing hymns there.

Prayer meeting Wednesday at 5:45

Endeavor Q&A times through September

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Colossians 3:1–4 CSB

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

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