WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:20.879 Let's just bow our heads in prayer for a moment. Father, you know how many of us 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:29.920 would don't like uncomfortable truths. You know how many of us regularly choose distractions 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:36.959 over uncomfortable truths. But you also know, Father, how deep in our hearts we desire to be 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:43.039 thoughtful. So we ask, Lord, that you would do a wonderful and gentle work in each of our hearts 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:50.080 this morning. That you would, Father, put to death our love of distractions. You would grow within us 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:56.560 our desire to be thoughtful. And you would open our hearts to receive your word written this morning, 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:04.400 allowing you to do a wonderful work in our lives, that we might learn day by day by day the beauty of 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:11.680 gratitude in the joys you give. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:13.439 Please be seated. 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:23.120 So it's amazing how often something connected to the Bible text that I have to preach on on a Sunday 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:28.960 ends up happening in my life during that week. And I don't know how many of you were paying attention 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:36.719 when Ecclesiastes was being written, but it talked about injustice and it talked about death. And 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:42.879 fortunately, I didn't have death, I didn't experience a death of a close loved one this week. But 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:48.879 unfortunately, I did come face to face with some real injustice, I think. I have to be a bit careful 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:54.960 about it. But I have one of my favorite places to have coffee, which I've been going to for quite a long 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:00.480 time. On Thursday, towards the end of the day, it was around quarter to five or whatever, I went there 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:05.600 to have a decaf coffee, try to finish my emails for the day. And there was a sign on the door that it was 00:03:05.600 --> 00:03:09.680 closed for a private function. And I thought, well, that, you know, too bad for me, but you know, 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:17.680 didn't think anything of it. That was on Thursday. Friday, I go just before lunch to get a bit of work 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:22.240 done there. And there's a sign on the door that the coffee shop was closing at the end of the workday on 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:30.879 Saturday. And so the reason the place had been closed on Thursday was to inform the staff that 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:39.680 they were unemployed very shortly, in basically in 48 hours. And the manager then had to call people 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:45.360 on Friday, Thursday night and Friday morning to tell them they were out of a job. And it was just 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:51.840 very, very, very sudden, and sort of made even more uncomfortable by, because two weeks prior to that, 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:57.599 it was told to the staff that they were going to be hiring, going to be promoting somebody from within. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:03.599 And so people who wanted to apply for that, and they went through interviews. So you don't normally 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:08.879 think you're going to go through interviews about promotions only to get fired, have everything shut 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:13.520 down a week and a half later. But that's what's happened. And it just seemed unjust. And obviously, 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.199 there can be other things going on. I don't know why they couldn't have given it a month's notice or 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:24.159 two months notice. I feel especially bad for those who had been working, you know, there for a long, 00:04:24.159 --> 00:04:30.879 long, long time. And also, as Bell, for the students who are working there, to have your job cut out, 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:35.599 you really think you're set up to dealing with your student, you know, the debts and paying your way and 00:04:35.599 --> 00:04:40.079 working your way. And then to have that completely taken out on you towards the end of September, I just 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:45.839 thought the whole thing was really quite unjust. And it was a very, very, very, very sad place on Friday. And I 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:55.119 didn't go there on Saturday for the last time. I mention this because the text talks about injustice 00:04:56.239 --> 00:05:03.599 and in very, very interesting ways. And so we're going to look at it. And what we need to know as 00:05:03.599 --> 00:05:10.319 we're going through this, this is the book of Ecclesiastes, is on one hand, the book of Ecclesiastes 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:15.679 is the most philosophical book in the Bible. But it's not philosophical in the sense that it has 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:22.560 a whole pile of, you know, thesis and antithesis and synthesis or, you know, like a whole series 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:28.560 of lines leading to an argument. It's philosophical in the fact that it deals with your, how you 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:34.319 understand and view the world. And it regularly gives you these things that you need to think about. 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:41.360 And I compare it to, it's always putting pebbles in your shoe. And when you have a pebble in your 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:47.520 shoe, I wear Birkenstocks. I know it's a weird thing that I do. But they're always getting pebbles 00:05:47.520 --> 00:05:51.840 in them. I try to decide how many steps I can take before the pebble is so irritating that I have to 00:05:51.840 --> 00:05:57.280 stop and get the pebble taken out. But we all know that experience of having a pebble in our shoe and 00:05:57.280 --> 00:06:01.840 it's just uncomfortable. And that's what the book of Ecclesiastes is doing. It wants to regularly give us 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:07.199 these pebbles, these stones that force us to think about certain uncomfortable truths 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:14.560 in the hope that we desire to be thoughtful. And so the very, very first thing is that today, 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:18.639 in fact, today, what we're going to look at are two very important things if you want to be thoughtful. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:24.079 If I was to go into a coffee shop or any place and say, by the way, if you want to really be 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:28.399 thoughtful, you have to think through the question of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:33.519 Well, everybody would just think I'm completely insane. Like, obviously, all sorts of world, 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:40.879 like, who would ever think about that as important to a worldview? But if I was to say, 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:46.319 if you really want to be thoughtful, how you understand the world, whether you have a very 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:50.719 consistent, well thought out philosophy, whether it's bits and pieces of things that you're sort 00:06:50.719 --> 00:06:55.839 of working on, you know, willy-nilly, but if you want to be thoughtful, surely everybody who wants to 00:06:55.839 --> 00:07:05.359 be thoughtful has to think about death. Because death is inevitable to you, not just as an abstraction, 00:07:05.359 --> 00:07:16.079 to you. You will die. I will die. And you cannot be thoughtful if you don't consider death. And you 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:23.839 also can't be thoughtful if you don't consider the problem of injustice and the problem of the evil that 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:29.279 human beings do. And those are the things that this short section of Ecclesiastes are going to 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:34.799 press in on and try to have us to think about. So if you turn with me in your Bibles, it's Ecclesiastes 00:07:34.799 --> 00:07:44.319 chapter 3, verses 16 to the end. It's a very short little unit of the Bible. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:50.799 verses 16 to 22. It's just seven verses. And here's how it goes. It starts like this. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:59.680 Moreover, I saw that under the sun in the... Sorry, I'll begin again. Moreover, I saw under the sun 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:06.879 that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness. And in the place of righteousness, 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:14.720 even there was wickedness. Now, just sort of pause here. The way that this little unit starts is 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:18.560 something which those of you who've heard a couple of the other sermons might remember or might not, 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:25.040 but it's very important to understand in the book, is the phrase under the sun. And so what under the sun 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:32.720 is, it's a regular thought experiment to look at the world as if the triune God doesn't exist. It's not 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:38.320 looking at the world as if religion and spirituality don't exist. It's looking at the world as if the 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:44.480 triune God doesn't exist. He hasn't spoken. You don't know anything from him. And how do you see the world 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:49.840 if the triune God is completely and utterly absent? And that's what he's talking about. 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:56.159 And what he does here, he says something which really fits with what happened, the experience of 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:02.080 the staff and the regular customers and the sadness that was there on Friday. And the sadness was probably 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:06.960 vastly greater on Saturday. What you'll notice here, first of all, is he says something really 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:13.040 important about human experience. Look at it again. It says, I saw that under the sun, that in the place 00:09:13.040 --> 00:09:19.840 of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:27.600 And what this means is that on one hand, it can just refer to the fact that there's institutions 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:37.200 that should be just and should behave in a right way. Like you'd expect that judges actually are just. 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:44.800 You hope that people in parliament actually pass just and good laws. But it's also just referring 00:09:44.800 --> 00:09:50.879 to something different about human experience, that there is in fact, well, here's the thing, 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:56.160 and we're going to come up to it a bit towards the end when it says vanity. And as I've said before, 00:09:56.159 --> 00:10:02.879 one of the big ideas 37 times in the book of Ecclesiastes is to understand this word vanity, 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:07.199 which literally means vapor. And I've used the expression, if you go outside in a very cold day 00:10:07.199 --> 00:10:11.519 and you can see your breath, that's what the word is trying to communicate. And it's trying to 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:19.519 communicate to us how transient things are, how things fall apart very easily. But if we take that 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:24.319 image and we grasp that it's talking about transience, that's good. But if we think of it a bit more 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:28.879 vapor literally as vapor, like the vapor of steam or the vapor of our breath, we're going to be 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:34.320 confused about the world because the world isn't like that. It isn't like unreal that you can sort 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:42.000 of see through just a bit dim. The world is brief and it doesn't hold itself together, but the world 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:48.960 has a type of a context. It has a type of a givenness. It has a type of flavor, a type of shape. It's not just 00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:55.360 nothing. And one of the things which characterizes the world is that there is a sense of oughtness 00:10:55.360 --> 00:11:02.879 about justice. And there is a sense of oughtness about right and wrong. And obviously you can talk 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:06.480 a little bit about how some of those things can be a little bit different and there's sophisticated 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:11.759 ways to show that some of them aren't as different as you think. And people's views of what justice is 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:18.399 and what's right and wrong. Those things can have a bit of, you know, incompleteness in them. But I can 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:24.720 tell you that on the coffee shop on Friday, like one of the fellows that I've met who goes there is an 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:31.200 Antifa sympathizer. And I can tell you he would have thought that was unjust. And a guy that I've met at 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:38.159 that place is a guy who wears a Black Rifle Coffee Company t-shirt. And some of you might not know who 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:44.639 they are, but they're very, very conservative. Started by SEAL Team 6 veterans and had very pro 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:49.360 Second Amendment. I asked him once if he felt nervous being in a place like the gay village 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:53.759 wearing a t-shirt like that. And he's all covered in tattoos, huge muscles. He said, no, I'm not 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:58.879 worried in the least. But I can tell you he would have thought it was unjust. The Antifa fellow would 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:03.120 have thought it was unjust. The gay activists would have thought it was unjust. The civil servants would 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:09.759 have thought that it was unjust. The poor people living in subsidized housing who would come into 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:16.399 that place, they would think it was unjust, what was happening to the staff. There is some common sense 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:22.560 of injustice in there. And that's what this is saying, that there is some common sense that human 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:31.359 beings have of something like injustice. And that's how God has woven together the world. 00:12:33.119 --> 00:12:40.159 And in fact, actually, see, this actually gets at like... One of the things I'll tell people if I have 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:44.639 an opportunity and I get into a conversation with them about... They'll say that the problem of evil 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:50.639 disproves God's existence. But I'll say to them, well, that's a very interesting question about evil and 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:57.519 why it exists. But you, as a skeptic, as a naturalistic person, as a secular person, you also have that 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:02.000 problem. And they say, no, I don't. I said, yes, you do, because you have to account for where goodness 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:08.559 and justice come from. I can tell you I, as a Christian, can account both for goodness and justice 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:14.080 and for evil and injustice and a solution. But you need to account for where on earth that ought 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:20.399 comes from. And that's what the text is saying. There is a type of structure to this world, 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:26.480 which is very transient. And then the guy, the writer, teacher, the Solomon says something. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:31.039 He takes an interesting turn. Look at verse 17 and the interesting turn that he takes. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:37.199 And this is sort of an ambiguous term. Not ambiguous. I think people in Canada have a double 00:13:37.199 --> 00:13:42.480 type of love-hate relationship with it. It says this in verse 17, I said in my heart... 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:46.639 So now he's actually going beyond the sun to talk about God. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:52.000 God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Notice he's going to judge the righteous too, 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.120 and the wicked. For there is a time for every matter and for every work. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:06.799 Now, I bet if I was to say to the coffee shop people, you know, God's going to judge those people. 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:14.080 Like, he's going to judge that if there was just some guy or some gal sitting on the beach in Hawaii, 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:19.440 drinking their pina colada, typing away on their laptop and saying, yeah, I think I'll close this door. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:24.880 Boom, this one, boom, this one, boom, this one, boom, this one, boom. Another drink. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:31.200 Servant, can you come and bring me another one? This one. Those guys are going to get judged. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:38.720 That would be an appealing thought, I think, to them. They might ask me, which we're going to talk 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:46.639 moment, why doesn't God do it quicker? You know, why didn't even... But there's this... On one hand, 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:52.160 there's this idea that we like the idea that God will judge evil, but the problem starts to come when 00:14:52.160 --> 00:14:58.720 we realize that once you give God the power to judge, maybe he will judge me. 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:05.440 And so on one hand, we like the idea, but we actually, without always being aware of it or putting 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:11.120 it in words, we'd only like it if we can control who he judges. But if that happens, then I'm God, 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:17.600 right? And let me tell you, it is really good that I am not God. And I don't want to demean you, 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:23.440 every one of you here, it's really good you're not God. Because you'd screw the world up big time. 00:15:24.400 --> 00:15:29.920 You really would. Just imagine how you would judge the world when you were 16 years old, 00:15:29.920 --> 00:15:35.280 if you had that power to control things. Maybe all your parents and family would be dead, 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:39.839 by now you'd be an orphan. I mean, you can just think about it for a moment. It would be terrible 00:15:39.839 --> 00:15:46.480 if you had got to control who God judges. So on one hand, there's this very, very good idea, 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:52.240 but the question is, why does he wait? Why does God wait? Well, that's... Once again, Solomon gives a 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:55.759 very surprising answer in verse 18. Look what he says, verse 18. 00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:04.319 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, listen to this, 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:12.240 that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. Now, by the way, just to be clear, he's 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:18.720 talking about me here and each one of you. I said in my heart, verse 18, with regard to the children 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:25.360 of man, all human beings, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:33.279 Now, the word test there is obviously a bit of a scary type of word, but you have to take that, take it in a, 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:39.600 in the right type of sense. So, you know, I just, I sit in amazement. No, I don't sit. I stand in amazement 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:44.639 every Sunday when I hear Jono just effortlessly play things, you know, and if you, if you come up here 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:49.519 and look at him, you'll see during communion when he's playing, he has no music. He just plays, and I just, 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:54.159 boy, that's just fantastic, okay? He also teaches piano. So, if you're looking for a piano teacher, 00:16:54.159 --> 00:17:00.000 here's a little plug for Jono. But one of the things he would do in September, probably, when 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:06.639 the students have had a time off, is he probably has them play a few pieces to test them to see how 00:17:06.639 --> 00:17:14.160 much, whether they've practiced all summer or not, or whether they haven't, and where he has to begin 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:19.200 his lesson. In other words, he's testing them to expose and bring to light where they are. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:25.200 And that's how you should understand this phrase, testing. That I said in my heart, verse 18, with 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:30.800 regard to the children of God, that God is testing them, exposing to them that they may see that they 00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:37.040 themselves are but beasts. And in this text, he's going to now use beasts to connect injustice, and 00:17:37.040 --> 00:17:42.400 he's going to use beasts to connect it with death in a very, very clever way. And what does he mean by 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:50.480 saying that human beings are beasts and comparing us to injustice? Well, here's... My wife loves dogs, 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:58.640 and I love my wife, so we have dogs. And I'm fine with dogs. But one of our dogs kills rabbits and 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:07.840 squirrels in our backyard. She is fast enough that she can burst out of the door and chase down a squirrel 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:14.799 or a rabbit and kill it. Which is a bit distressing, obviously, for my wife, and still distressing for 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:20.000 me, but not maybe as distressing as it is for my wife. And I can't imagine what the grandchildren would 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:30.879 say if they saw sweet Billy killing a baby rabbit in the backyard. But the point of this is, you don't 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:38.720 say that Billy's a bad dog for doing that, because dogs are amoral. Morality doesn't apply to them. It's 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:42.800 the nature of dogs to do something like that. Just most dogs we've ever had haven't been fast enough 00:18:42.800 --> 00:18:50.080 to catch the squirrel or the rabbit and kill them. And it's just the nature of dogs. But if I was to say 00:18:50.079 --> 00:19:01.279 that a human being is amoral, what I'm really saying is that they are immoral. Because they should be moral. 00:19:03.439 --> 00:19:12.480 And the fact of the matter is that when we do evil things, we are often acting in a completely amoral 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:19.360 way. Not considering the person that we're doing, that we're putting out of work, that we're oppressing, 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:25.839 the promises that we're breaking, the lies that we're telling. In a sense, for that moment, in a sense, 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:30.079 we step out of morality and act purely out of selfishness or whatever our interests are. 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:36.400 And when we act in an amoral way, we are acting in an immoral way. And so to say that you are acting like 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:44.720 Billy becomes an insult if it's not true, but a troublesome thought about yourself if it is true. 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:54.160 Why is it that human beings, why is it we can know the right thing and do the wrong thing? Why is it that 00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:59.040 that is the case? Why is it that we can even have pressure to do the right thing, but we do the wrong 00:19:59.040 --> 00:20:04.720 thing? Why is that about human beings? How can you be thoughtful? How can your system of thought about 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:09.839 the world really be thoughtful if you don't consider that reality about human beings? 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:19.440 And then he takes an even darker turn. And beast is, by the way, it's an in-your-face word. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:28.720 But you have to view it as it's a pebble in your shoe word. It's meant to get under your skin. 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:35.600 But look what he goes on to say, and he connects now the other aspect of us being beasts in verses 19 and 00:20:35.600 --> 00:20:36.880 following. Here's what it says. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:48.000 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:58.960 so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:03.839 I'll go on to read in a moment, but we'll just pause here. Here you see the word vanity meaning both 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:09.920 aspects of being impermanent, but also vain. So I don't know who the richest man or woman in the world 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:15.359 is right now, but, and I don't know, maybe they are unbelievably humble, unbelievably kind, unbelievably good, 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:18.879 and maybe I shouldn't pick the richest, but one of these people who are very, very rich, 00:21:18.879 --> 00:21:23.679 a person who thinks they're the master of the universe, and they think they have godlike powers, 00:21:23.679 --> 00:21:28.079 and they think that everything they do comes from them, and they have no compunction at all about 00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:32.159 just clicking, pressing on a button. Yeah, I'll fire this person. I'll fire. I'll close this place. 00:21:32.159 --> 00:21:35.839 I'll close this place. I'll close. Servant, can you bring me another? I'd like a rum and coke this time, 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:41.119 not a pina colada. And just, yeah, I'll fire them, fire them, fire them. And they might think they are a master of the universe. 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:45.199 They might think they are a god, and they might think all of those things, and they're in their 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:51.120 car one day with their dog, and they drive too fast, and they go over a cliff, and being a master of the universe 00:21:51.120 --> 00:22:01.200 doesn't stop them from dying just like their dog, does it? Being a billionaire doesn't protect them from that. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:09.440 They die. They have no advantage. And now here, the writer Solomon, the teacher, is thinking from the 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:16.000 perspective of under the sun. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast for all his vanity. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:22.720 We are vapor. We are transient. And for those of us who are transient, but think that somehow or another we are like gods, 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:28.960 that is an unbelievably vain thing to think, for vapor to think, when we are but vapor. And then he goes on. 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:37.680 Solomon, Solomon, the teacher, goes on, all go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:43.200 I'm going to return to this in a moment. Some of you who know the Bible very well know that he's just quoted 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:52.079 Genesis 3. Verse 21, who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes down 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:56.799 into the earth. Now here he's just being very, very profoundly un-Canadian. 00:22:59.919 --> 00:23:04.879 I have been to countless funerals. I always allow people to get up and make their own little speeches beforehand. 00:23:04.879 --> 00:23:09.599 And I've heard that poem about, don't think of me as having died. I've just gone into the next room. 00:23:09.919 --> 00:23:12.720 And the writer of this would say, really? Like, why do you think that? 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.799 Like, why do you think that? Like, what's your evidence for it? 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:21.240 You could see how annoying Solomon would be. Go to the funerals. Really? You think that? 00:23:22.399 --> 00:23:28.000 They'd be calling the police, getting him kicked out. But if you ask it, like, okay, what proof does 00:23:28.639 --> 00:23:33.759 Hinduism have for this idea of reincarnation? Like, what proof do you have for it? What proof 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:38.559 Buddhists do you have for that? Like, Islam, what proof do you have for that? You know, natural people, 00:23:39.439 --> 00:23:43.759 secular people who think, say things like that. Well, what, like, why do you think that? Like, 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:45.679 what evidence do you have for it? What proof do you have for it? 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:50.640 You could see he wouldn't get invited to a party a second time. 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:56.480 He's asked a very uncomfortable truth. From the perspective of under the sun, 00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:05.519 why the evidence just is that if I die on the same day that Billy dies, both of us will go to dust. 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:16.879 Now, we're going to come back. You get a bit of a hint in this really weird way that it, 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:21.440 well, no, actually, what I'll say is this. I'll say something about this. This, by the way, 00:24:25.280 --> 00:24:30.240 what he's done is he's put together a series of puzzles. Why is it that we have a sense that 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:34.640 there's an oughtness around justice? Why is it we have a sense of oughtness around right and wrong? 00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:40.640 Why is it that we don't want to face the uncomfortable truth that when we die, we go 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:45.680 back to dust? But why is it that we think that there should be something more that, like, we really 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:50.799 do think that justice shouldn't win? I mean, injustice shouldn't win. We really think that 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:55.440 evil shouldn't win, and we really think that death shouldn't win. But why do we think those things, 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:59.759 and what evidence do we have? We have a sense that that death can't be the final word, 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:04.559 but where is the evidence for, like, where does that come from? And what he's doing is it's as if 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:12.559 he's putting together a lock with pieces of a lock, and then he's going, it's opening, 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:18.960 it's preparing us for later on when we read the gospel and to realize that only Jesus and only the 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:25.039 biblical teaching is the key that goes into the lock that unturns it and opens the door to hope. 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:26.720 You see, 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:36.399 he quotes Genesis 3, to dust, from dust you have come and to dust you will return. And it's a text 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:47.279 of judgment against Adam and Eve for the fact that they have desired to be like gods and have turned 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:55.039 their back on God and chosen lies and selfishness and self-centeredness. And so part of the punishment, 00:25:55.039 --> 00:26:02.319 the judgment of God on our human beings doing that is death. That's how Christians understand death. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:09.599 But if you listen to the text and if you read the rest of the Bible, you, and I get this phrase from C.S. Lewis, 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:14.319 I didn't think of it myself, death is a severe mercy. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:21.759 Mercy is the noun. It's a severe mercy, but it's mercy. 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:26.160 Mercy. Well, why on earth is it a mercy? Well, it's mercy in this particular sense, 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:34.559 because death for us as human beings is unavoidable. And we have a sense that there's something not right 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:41.519 about it that shouldn't be final. But God created or allowed death to come into the world. 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:53.440 That's a whole other bit of a topic of conversation. It's a severe mercy because of course death is 00:26:53.440 --> 00:27:03.359 terrible, but it warns us of the true and greater death that awaits human beings in our rebellion 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:13.839 against God and living amoral lives and abusing power and living as if the triune God does not exist. 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:23.279 And so he has left death there as something unavoidable for us to think of, hoping that we realize as we 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:33.279 consider death that there must be a God, God, please show mercy. It's a pointer, a hint, a clue, 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:40.559 clue to a true and greater death of judgment from God. And so realizing that we will die, 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:45.439 there is the hope that God has that we human beings will call out for mercy and relief. 00:27:48.399 --> 00:27:53.439 And only Christianity provides that key because, you see, here's the first thing about this. This 00:27:53.439 --> 00:27:57.539 text is preparing us to hear the gospel. And who is Jesus and what is the good news? 00:27:57.539 --> 00:28:07.139 Jesus. The good news is that God, the Son of God, stepped down from heaven to become a beast like you and me, 00:28:09.220 --> 00:28:13.859 so that by faith in him, we can become the adopted children of God. 00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:23.859 God, in his profound love for you and me who takes no delight in the death of a sinner, 00:28:24.979 --> 00:28:32.179 he stepped down from heaven to become a beast like you and me, that when we put our faith and trust in 00:28:32.180 --> 00:28:40.580 him, we are united with Christ and become God's adopted child, his adopted son and daughter. 00:28:42.180 --> 00:28:48.180 He suffered that lesser judgment and that greater judgment when he died on the cross, 00:28:48.740 --> 00:28:56.180 and he suffered it in my place. Every wrong thing that I have ever done, all my pride, all my amorality, 00:28:56.180 --> 00:29:03.460 all of those things that I have done wrong, he willingly comes and puts his arms on me, so to speak, 00:29:03.460 --> 00:29:09.299 and puts his arms on you and says, George, out of love for you, I will take your place. 00:29:10.340 --> 00:29:15.299 I'm not being forced and there's no compelling. It's purely and utterly out of love. I will take your place. 00:29:16.500 --> 00:29:20.900 So it isn't that just, you know, it's not like other religions where the mercy of God just means, 00:29:20.900 --> 00:29:24.660 yeah, yeah, I picked favorites. Yeah, I like you. Yeah, yeah, you've done all sorts of terrible things. 00:29:24.660 --> 00:29:28.180 You know, you've committed, you know, these horrible things, but yeah, you know, whatever. I'm going to 00:29:28.180 --> 00:29:31.620 give you a pass and all that type of stuff. I'm going to judge that person. I'm going to let that 00:29:31.620 --> 00:29:37.860 person go. That's not what happens. Nobody's let go. God's justice always remains just. But there's 00:29:37.860 --> 00:29:44.820 this profound love and grace and mercy which is, doesn't turn justice into injustice but is greater 00:29:44.820 --> 00:29:48.820 than justice, which is this love and compassion of him taking our place. 00:29:48.819 --> 00:29:59.379 And only Jesus has tasted all there is to taste of death and all to taste there is to taste in a sense 00:29:59.379 --> 00:30:06.659 of the judgment of God and emerged on the far side of death. His resurrection vindicates him and there's 00:30:06.659 --> 00:30:16.099 evidence. There really is. Read some books, Who Moved the Stone? Read the biographies of people. Read the 00:30:16.099 --> 00:30:19.939 cold case detective who thought he was going to prove that Christianity wasn't true and ends up 00:30:19.939 --> 00:30:25.939 becoming a Christian. Lee, the guy who wrote the case for Christ, Frank Morrison. Like, countless 00:30:25.939 --> 00:30:30.099 people have looked into the evidence and been shocked how much historical evidence there is 00:30:30.099 --> 00:30:34.579 for the true death and true resurrection of Jesus. And there's evidence. And it's not just evidence in a 00:30:34.579 --> 00:30:42.099 vacuum. It's an evidence in the context of books like this. And the whole story, it's so astounding. I was 00:30:42.099 --> 00:30:50.899 watching an interview with Douglas Murray talking about the Charlie Kirk funeral. And it's just so 00:30:50.899 --> 00:30:56.980 interesting. Here he is, an agnostic gay man. I mean, he's a man of, I have a huge respect for him. I just 00:30:56.980 --> 00:31:02.980 think he's so courageous. And he just casually just says that it was a celebration of the Christian faith 00:31:02.980 --> 00:31:08.339 in the funeral for Charlie Kirk, a wonderful proclamation of what Christianity is all about. 00:31:08.339 --> 00:31:12.740 And he said, for people like me, it's very important to hear. And then he just says casually, because of 00:31:12.740 --> 00:31:17.299 course, everything that we value in the Western world is ultimately a product of the Christian 00:31:17.299 --> 00:31:23.459 faith. He just says it casually. And he says, anybody who's, anybody who denies that is just ignorant of 00:31:23.459 --> 00:31:31.059 history. You know, human rights, the, you know, the value of women, the seeds of the destruction of 00:31:31.059 --> 00:31:35.379 slavery, the grounds of slavery, the grounds of science. And it's in that context of this profound 00:31:35.379 --> 00:31:42.019 worldview that Jesus comes in fitting with all of the, all of these riddles and all of the prophecies 00:31:42.019 --> 00:31:48.740 and Genesis three and all of that. It's in that context that he dies. He steps down from heaven 00:31:48.740 --> 00:31:55.859 to become a beast like you and me and to take our place in death, a death of judgment, 00:31:55.859 --> 00:32:03.939 so that when we put our faith and trust into him, God adopts us as his son and daughter. 00:32:04.819 --> 00:32:12.179 And he does know about death and can speak to it. And we should listen. There is no one else to listen to. 00:32:12.180 --> 00:32:20.259 And that helps us to understand the odd ending of this literary unit. Look at, look at verse 20. 00:32:20.580 --> 00:32:26.180 We'll read verse 21 again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the 00:32:26.180 --> 00:32:31.539 beast goes down into the earth? He's speaking like one under the sun. He's setting up a puzzle, a lock, 00:32:31.539 --> 00:32:37.140 that only Christ will empty, will open. And it's also pointed out in a very, very odd way, 00:32:37.140 --> 00:32:42.340 because the book of Ecclesiastes is a book designed to be pondered and discussed with others. And it says 00:32:42.340 --> 00:32:50.820 in verse 22, so I saw that there is nothing better than that a man or a woman should rejoice in their 00:32:50.820 --> 00:32:58.020 work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Now this word lot is a, 00:32:58.020 --> 00:33:04.020 is the, is the interesting word. One of the things, if you go back and listen to my sermon from last week, 00:33:04.019 --> 00:33:10.259 one of the things which the writer Solomon of Ecclesiastes is trying to set the stage for is 00:33:10.259 --> 00:33:16.500 that we are vapor and we have a problem with pretensions and arrogance and thinking that we 00:33:16.500 --> 00:33:22.180 can control our lives and that we can create these things that will give long lasting meaning and all 00:33:22.180 --> 00:33:28.819 of that type of stuff. And, and, and I mean, I mean, I sure hope this doesn't happen, but like if a year 00:33:28.819 --> 00:33:34.339 after I stepped down as rector from this church, the person who comes in so completely butchers it 00:33:34.339 --> 00:33:40.099 with horrific acts that the church ceases to exist. And for, for many people, and it would be the same 00:33:40.099 --> 00:33:44.419 as if, you know, you die and you leave lots of money to your daughter because you really, really want to 00:33:44.419 --> 00:33:48.819 bless her. And, and then, you know, a year after you've died and she has all this money, she marries 00:33:48.819 --> 00:33:53.619 some huckster who ruins her and steals all of her money. And if you know that in advance, you would just 00:33:53.619 --> 00:33:58.179 feel really, really bad about it. And that helps to reveal that we have these other aspects of 00:33:58.179 --> 00:34:02.979 thinking that we can control the future and our eternity projects and all of that type of stuff. 00:34:02.979 --> 00:34:09.059 And, and, and, and, and so what's going on here in this text is it's, it's, if, if we want to think 00:34:09.059 --> 00:34:14.259 that our actions and our behavior are going to be able to control the future and create this legacy that, 00:34:14.259 --> 00:34:19.460 that will, people will still be aahing over us when they think about us, that just is creating a way of 00:34:19.460 --> 00:34:24.179 enjoying, of, of being in life that just going to crush us. And it's foolish because we don't know 00:34:24.179 --> 00:34:31.860 what's going to happen in the future, but this idea of lot, of stuff that comes to us day by day, 00:34:32.579 --> 00:34:37.780 it's trying to create a framework not of controlling the future and everything about the future, 00:34:38.579 --> 00:34:45.780 but that the fundamental way for us human beings to understand our life here under the sun is a receiver 00:34:45.780 --> 00:34:50.500 of gifts. 00:34:50.500 --> 00:34:55.860 Not a master of the universe, but a receiver of gifts. 00:34:59.940 --> 00:35:01.380 That's a good sip of water. 00:35:03.780 --> 00:35:10.820 How many of us don't even enjoy a sip of water because we're inwardly pouting that it's not ice cold coke? 00:35:10.820 --> 00:35:16.260 And we can't even enjoy the glass of water because we think we'll do something better. 00:35:18.260 --> 00:35:24.660 How many of us don't enjoy a family gathering because maybe one person is missing? And, and we, we should miss 00:35:24.660 --> 00:35:30.740 people. I'm not saying that. But how many times have we gone to family gatherings and maybe the mom or the 00:35:30.740 --> 00:35:35.220 dad is completely depressed because one person is missing? And you think to yourself, one moment, 00:35:35.220 --> 00:35:39.539 there's like 15 people here and they're all happy. They're all having a great time. Like, why aren't you in the joy of 00:35:39.539 --> 00:35:46.900 this moment? Like, why is it that I can't just think this has been a really beautiful day of worship 00:35:47.619 --> 00:35:51.539 and it doesn't have to bear the weight of something that will continue? This church doesn't have to 00:35:51.539 --> 00:36:00.340 continue 400 years if Jesus tarries. I can be present. And, and the, the, just the final thing about it, 00:36:00.340 --> 00:36:04.099 it's really interesting that it doesn't say here, notice what it says. It's very, very profound. 00:36:04.099 --> 00:36:10.739 There's nothing better than that a man or a woman should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. 00:36:10.739 --> 00:36:14.420 It's the whole idea that's going on in the book that there's these lot can also be translated as 00:36:14.420 --> 00:36:19.139 a reward or gift. And so there, there's these gifts that are constantly coming from God and that we're 00:36:19.139 --> 00:36:26.980 to learn to enjoy them. And it's connected to work, not leisure. Very un-Canadian. And work doesn't just 00:36:26.980 --> 00:36:32.980 mean capitalistic work so that all of you stay-at-home moms, or if there's a stay-at-home dad there that you 00:36:32.980 --> 00:36:38.980 just somehow are second class. No, it's, it's all labor and work and creativity. It's the setting 00:36:38.980 --> 00:36:44.340 of a table in such a way so that when your, your, your daughter comes over, you can have a really, 00:36:44.340 --> 00:36:48.179 really nice cup of tea with some nice shortbread cookies and you can just have a wonderful time. 00:36:48.179 --> 00:36:52.980 And that's the work that goes into that. And it's not just an attitude of like eat and drink for 00:36:52.980 --> 00:36:57.139 tomorrow we die. We should just gorge ourselves, get as much as pleasure as we can right now because 00:36:57.139 --> 00:37:01.460 we're going to die. It's saying that part of the pleasure of work is dreaming and planning. 00:37:03.699 --> 00:37:08.900 Simple thing. What's a common lesson in carpentry? You measure twice, cut once, right? That's planning. 00:37:09.460 --> 00:37:16.500 You have a sense of what it's going to look like. It's, and, and, and so it's, it's this whole thing of, 00:37:16.500 --> 00:37:22.579 of the things that we do. And as we do these things, often unbidden, we have these moments of joy. 00:37:22.579 --> 00:37:29.139 And we are to understand that the whole fabric of reality is centered around the fact that God is 00:37:29.139 --> 00:37:35.619 a giver of gifts and that we should receive and accept these gifts. And the greatest gift, 00:37:36.739 --> 00:37:43.779 the greatest gift is of course the gift of God, the Son of God, sent down from heaven to become a 00:37:43.779 --> 00:37:49.779 beast like you and me, that through him, by faith in him, we, not counting our merits, 00:37:49.780 --> 00:38:00.740 that we can become the adopted Son of God. I stand before you as vapor. I have done bad things. God has 00:38:00.740 --> 00:38:08.420 put eternity in my heart. Day by day, he gives me things that I should receive with joy and often I 00:38:08.420 --> 00:38:17.059 don't. And I am his adopted child, not because of my merits, but completely and utterly by grace. 00:38:18.019 --> 00:38:24.180 And my hope and prayer is that if you have not yet received him and received his grace, 00:38:24.820 --> 00:38:29.940 there is no better time than today to say yes and ask him to be your savior. 00:38:29.940 --> 00:38:38.099 And begin to have grace, be that which rules and governs your life. 00:38:40.099 --> 00:38:41.139 I invite you to stand. 00:38:48.980 --> 00:38:50.420 Let's bow our heads in prayer. 00:38:50.420 --> 00:39:08.500 Father, we're very Canadian here. And maybe, yeah, we're very Canadian. I don't know if there's tourists 00:39:08.500 --> 00:39:14.659 here from the United States or other places, but I'm sure they're very American or British or Australian 00:39:14.659 --> 00:39:21.460 or wherever. And it's hard for us to think about death. But Father, we see here that by not thinking 00:39:21.460 --> 00:39:27.859 about this, it actually means that we lose out on joy and we lose out on grace. And so, Father, 00:39:27.859 --> 00:39:34.019 we thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he came among us, that he is Emmanuel and he died on the 00:39:34.019 --> 00:39:39.859 cross as Emmanuel to make us right with you. And we ask, Father, first of all, that you help us to 00:39:39.860 --> 00:39:45.780 to value and marvel. And once again, especially at the Lord's Supper, where we can remember his death 00:39:46.340 --> 00:39:50.820 and the fact that he's going to come again, and we can feed on him spiritually in our hearts. Father, 00:39:50.820 --> 00:39:54.420 the miracle we know isn't in the bread. The miracle is what you do in our hearts 00:39:55.059 --> 00:40:01.860 as we think of Christ and receive and remember him and receive him into us. And that's the miracle 00:40:01.860 --> 00:40:07.620 you do. And we ask, Father, you would do that miracle in our lives today. And Father, part of, 00:40:07.619 --> 00:40:16.819 we also ask that you would help us to be ones who understand life as gift and receive with joy 00:40:16.819 --> 00:40:21.619 the gifts you give us this day as we do the things that we do for your honour, for your glory, 00:40:22.420 --> 00:40:26.819 for the good of this city and the good of the world. And we ask all these things in the name of Jesus, 00:40:26.819 --> 00:40:29.539 your Son and our Saviour. Amen.