Understanding Evil in Our World | Ecclesiastes 4 | Gary Hamrick

we're here in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 if you'll take your Bibles and join me in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 that's all the laughing you're gonna have today because this is a serious matter that we're gonna be looking at from chapter four today if you need a Bible you can raise your hand the ushers will have Bibles in hand as they come up and down the aisles and they'll be glad to give you a Bible if you wave in their direction Ecclesiastes chapter 4 is where we're going to be that's page 473 in those church Bibles page 473 now here we are in chapter 4 and this is the fourth week in the book of Ecclesiastes I will be honest with you hadn't planned on taking only one chapter a week but that's what it's turned out to be so far every time I have planned to take a section or a couple of chapters of Ecclesiastes at a time I read a section and then the Lord puts me on pause and so I'm just taking it at the pace I feel he wants us to go but I know for some of you you feel like wow this is painful this this is paint this is like watching curling at the Winter Olympics a sport I do not understand I suppose if you're good with a broom your Olympic bound but but some of you're like you know this is this is can we please breeze through Ecclesiastes and get to the fun stuff in Song of Solomon but but listen didn't your mama teach you to eat your vegetables before you have dessert okay and Ecclesiastes in some ways I mean it's it's hard to swallow some of this it's it's a little difficult it can be kind of sad but it's only sad if you recognize that solomon is writing from a perspective of a guy that has reduced God to the fringes of his life at best and so if you're going to be sad reading Ecclesiastes be sad for the people like Solomon who are trying to navigate life without God because otherwise this is a great book this is a rich book that reminds us of the true remedy for all that ails us in this world but without God in the equation then you can look at the world you can get weighed down you can read what Solomon writes and you can get weighed down because that's the perspective from which Solomon is writing he's writing from the vantage point of a guy who's looking at life through the lens of a life without God so here's a guy who has all the possessions that money can buy he has all the women that men can lust after he has all the wine that vineyards could produce and he has all the success that life has to offer but he's still unsatisfied and he's still unfulfilled and he's unhappy and and he's overwhelmed he gets depressed when he looks at the world around him without God in the equation and and he is weighed down by all this because he's more obsessed with the horizontal 58 times in this book he talks about life under the Sun so he's always fixated on the horizontal and he has very little room for the vertical and that's why 38 times in the book he talks about how life is meaningless the Hebrew word is heaven it's like heaven means smoke or mist or vapor and that is true about life it is fleeting like like mist or vapor or smoke and it's also hard to grasp in that same way and so Solomon is writing here from that standpoint 3,000 years ago as the king of Israel who has done everything and experimented with everything but still finds his life very empty because he has not made room for God in the equation well when we come here to chapter 4 there's something else that Solomon finds upsetting which is jaded him about life and it is something that has affected many people even today and I think that you will note with me just really how pretty timely this passage is I'm only gonna read the first three verses but take a look with me here at chapter 4 this is what it says verse 1 again I looked Solomon writes and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the Sun I saw the tears of the oppressed and they have no comforter power was on the side of their oppressors and they have no comforter and I declared that the dead who had already died are happier than the living who were still alive but better than both is he who has not yet been who has not seen the evil that is done under the Sun let's pause there and pray Lord as we look into chapter 4 here of Ecclesiastes we pray that the words of Solomon would challenge our hearts and that we would come to draw near to you because we can see what he says is true about our world and yet Lord our hope is in you our eyes are focused on you and so Lord as we draw near to you we thank you that you promise to draw near to us in a crazy mixed-up messed-up world Lord we draw our strength our comfort and our hope from you despite Solomon's sense of meaninglessness in life Lord we thank you that we can turn to you and so we pray that you'll help us now and remind us of these things as we study your word together it's in Jesus name we pray and everyone said amen so Solomon writes here in chapter 4 about how troubled is by all the oppression and evil in the world that's what these first three verses are all about he's weighed down when he takes a look and he kind of surveys the landscape of humanity and he's troubled by all the oppression and evil in the world in fact in verse one he uses some form of the word oppression three times in verse one he uses the word oppression and then he writes about how he has seen all the tears of the oppressed also in verse 20 he talked about how he has seen all the power of the oppressed sores so right there in verse one oppression oppressed oppressors and twice he says in verse one about those who have been oppressed and they have no comforter and they have no comforter and then he adds for good measure in verse three how he has observed all the evil that's another word evil that is done under the Sun now we're not sure exactly what Solomon has been exposed to or what specifically that he has witnessed in terms of oppression or evil or injustice in the world but I think it is safe to say that not much has changed in 3,000 years from the time that Solomon penned these words because wherever you have people you will have oppression evil and injustice in the world you have to look no further than the recent events in Broward County Florida to come to that conclusion that this world is full of evil injustice and oppression here we have another school shooting that has left many dead many injured and many with lifelong memories that they will not be able to shake and this is yet another tragedy it has reignited the gun debate it has once again turned a spotlight onto mental illness and it has raised the issue of school safety people are hurt people are angry people are sad people are afraid and a whole most of other emotions as a result of this singular event now be honest with me when you first heard the news of what happened in Broward County was there something in you that said where was this again versus what was this because we've become all too familiar with the what unfortunately so now what we're typically asking is where where did the latest thing happen where did the latest thing happen now I'm not trying or even want to wade into the gun debate the fact of the matter is that it's much bigger than that it's much bigger than that incidences like what happened in Broward County and now unfortunately they are numerous are much bigger than just guns there's a common denominator to all of these unfortunate horrible incidences whether whether someone brings a gun into a school or a university campus or whether someone detonates a bomb in a federal building or whether somebody drives their car or truck up onto a crowded sidewalk or whether somebody takes box cutters to gain entry into an airplane cockpit the common denominator to all of that is that there is undeniable evil in the world there it's not a debate about one particular weapon that common denominator to all of this is that there is undeniable evil in this world and this evil has caused a lot of people to question the meaning and purpose of life and to question God in the equation and Solomon is no exception because this is what he's focused on here he's out of place in his life where he looks at all the oppression and all the evil those are the words he uses in the first three verses and it causes him to question them in life and it causes him to question things about God now for some people the matter of evil in the world has so impacted them that it has caused them to question God in in two ways number one it has caused some people to question the very existence of God the the problem of evil in our world has caused some people to question the very existence of God this may be the very thing that some of you wrestle with some of your friends wrestle with there might be people later later who will watch this buy video or listen to it by podcast and you'll say yeah yeah that's kind of my story I wrestle with the existence of God because I see all this evil I see all the suppression I see all this injustice in the world and it seems that all those things are incompatible with the loving God and so many people who have postulated this this question in their minds that in their hearts wrestle with all this because after all how do you reconcile evil in the world with an all loving God and some would say if evil is allowed to exist that maybe God doesn't oppression injustice and evil seem more consistent with the non-existent God than with an all loving God some would say and some would say that pain and suffering in the world and in their lives personally is evidence for the absence of God because a true God would not allow such evil to exist therefore God must not exist and that's how some of the reasoning goes now I'm gonna give a logical answer to that but before I do I want to say in advance that I understand giving a logical answer can seem insensitive because people who have been deeply impacted by some oppression injustice or evil personally that they've experienced are not really at a place where they want to hear a logical answer and I get that and I don't want to appear insensitive and just kind of come out with some kind of a trite logical answer but on the other hand I don't want the question to go unaddressed either so I submit to you a logical explanation to that question can go even exist in the midst of an evil world and and I draw this in large part from a great apologist of our modern times Ravi Zacharias and I would encourage any of you can get a hold of anything at Ravi Zacharias is written it will help you immensely to sort out some things I mean you know he's a brilliant apologist and theologian and in fact if you want help on a personal level with some of this at a deeper level you can I encourage you to get one of his books that he wrote entitled why suffering and then the subtitle is finding meaning and comfort when life doesn't make sense again the author is Ravi Zacharias and the title is why suffering finding meaning and comfort when life doesn't make sense and so this is one of the logical arguments that he makes in the book about how it is true that God exists even though there's evil in the world and so the reasoning goes like this if evil exists and I think we all will admit and acknowledge that evil exists in our world if evil exists then one must assume that good exists in order to know the difference and if good exists then one must assume that a moral law exists by which one can differentiate between good and evil and if a moral law exists then one must recognize that there has to be a supreme moral lawgiver - the moral law and thus that leads one to the existence of God you see where there is no moral lawgiver then there can be no moral law if there is no moral law then there can be no definition of good if there's no definition of a good then there can be no evil but all of us know that there's evil so the logic of the argument is that God exists but God exists apart from all the evil in the world and therefore God has to remain in the paradigm of the of the conversation otherwise the question itself has no value now questioning the existence of God was not Solomon's issue he did not question whether God exists because there are many times that he makes reference to God throughout the book of ecclesiastes Solomon's issue was not that he questioned the exist of God Solomon's issue was something that others might wrestle with and that is the goodness of God he questioned the goodness of God not the existence of God and if injustice and evil and wickedness in the world don't cause you to question the existence of God it may cause you to question the goodness of God this was Solomon's challenge and and the question that goes with this is why would a good God tolerate such injustice and evil in our world how can a good God stand idly by while so many people are so horribly impacted by the evil in our world now these are hard questions and these are real questions offered by real people who experience real pain and real confusion in our world as a result of all the oppression injustice and evil around us and some of you here today are asking similar questions and if not you your friends and and I pray and trust that at some point if not in the course of this Bible study that afterwards at some point God's going to bear witness to your heart about his existence and about his goodness and so let me frame the conversation this way and in order to do it justice I have to go all the way back to the beginning to where stories start and that is to the book of beginnings and that's the book of Genesis now you don't need to turn there I'm just gonna summarize some events from Genesis so we can get a better understanding about evil and injustice and oppression in the world and the fact still that God exists and that God is good so in the book of Genesis here's what we learn in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth six days of creation after each day of creation God looked at what he created and said it is good after the sixth day when God created mankind he said it is very good it is very good at some undisclosed time prior to the creation of the universe God created angelic beings because job 38 verse 7 tells us that the angels were present rejoicing and singing praises at the time that the universe was created so at some in time angels were created prior to the universe of heavens in the earth they're there giving praise to God for creation among the angelic beings that God creates was one guardian cherub Ezekiel 28 describes this angelic being as supremely beautiful and ranking among the highest of the angelic order his name was Lucifer or Satan the Bible says in Ezekiel 28 that when God created him he was the Satan's being Lucifer's actual being was inlaid with precious gems and stones and framed with gold I mean it he must have been an incredibly beautiful angel to behold but Ezekiel 28 also tells us that on account of his beauty pride filled his heart and that he not only wanted to be like God the Bible says he wanted to be God and so he rebelled against God and he led an undisclosed number of angels with him in this coup but Revelation chapter 12 tells us that Satan and his angels were not powerful enough and thus God expelled them from heaven and kicked them out of heaven and hurled them to the earth jesus said in Luke 10:18 because Jesus is God and as coexisted being Cohee ternal with God Jesus even said in Luke 10:18 I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven Jesus saw when Satan was expelled from heaven to earth along with his other angels that had been a part of this rebellion who are now today otherwise known as demons when Satan first appears in the Bible on earth it's in the Garden of Eden in the Genesis account Garden of Eden was paradise on earth it was perfect and in the Garden of Eden God had placed Adam and then immediately thereafter Eve and the first man and first woman had it great but unfortunately Satan targeted them as the crown jewel of God's creation Satan in his hostility towards God and his rebellion towards God targeted Adam and Eve and persuaded them and convinced them that God was not good and that God was actually holding back on them and that if they were to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil their eyes would be open they would be wise like God it was the one thing the one and only thing that God had instructed Adam and Eve don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die literally the dying process will begin the reason why God gave them that option was so that their relationship with God would be based on love not on law you see if God had not put the option of choice in the equation that mankind would have been relegated to a relationship with God because he was forced to he's like a robot this is what I have to do this is how I'm programmed but God said there's gonna be one tree in the garden amongst all these other wonderful trees this one tree don't eat of it for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die so that they could choose life choose God but Satan persuaded them don't believe God did God really say and the aid of that tree and when they did they join Satan in his rebellion against God sin filled their hearts and filled the human race and the human race became corrupt shortly thereafter immediately thereafter you see all the imaginable and unimaginable sins and wickedness and evil manifest in the human race you just see you see the first murder before you get barely out of the first couple of chapters where Cain kills his brother Abel and on and on you go you see all the injustice and evil and wickedness you see murder you see betrayal you see adultery you see slavery you see all kinds of hatred you see everything against man against man man against God it's just a horrific scene and thus the world became corrupt humanity was spoiled listen if you want to get mad at somebody for the way the world is so wicked and evil and oppressive and in just don't get mad at God listen get mad at Satan or get mad at the fallen human race but don't don't raise a fist and anger to God the reason why we see all that we see around this world is because there was an instigator behind it and his name was Satan and he persuaded mankind to rebel against God and ever since then humanity in its fallen state now manifests all this wickedness and evil in our world and Satan is still alive and well in his influence the Bible says in 1st John chapter 5 verse 19 the whole world is under the control of the evil one as what the Bible teaches Satan is still at work influencing in a major way the world's ideals and ideas and opinions and values and thoughts and actions he influences philosophies and education he influences that he's the reason behind false religions that have been spawned as a result of his lies in his deception this is all Satan's playground and he's having a heyday with humanity the Bible calls him the ruler of the kingdom of the air in Ephesians 2:2 the Bible says that he's the one who leads the whole world astray in Revelation 12:9 and Jesus said of him that he's the prince of this world in John 12:31 so solomon sees this he sees all the injustice the evil the wickedness in the world whether or not he understands the dynamics of Satan behind it is unknown to us but he sees the result for sure he sees all of this and it weighs him down and he's depressed about life and he and he questions the meaning of life and he questions God in the midst of all this oppression and evil and injustice and so here in verse 1 look again at the text so what happens is here that he says in verse 1 I saw the tears of the oppressed I saw the tears he saw hurting people he saw people who were in pain and distress from the evil in the world crying and weeping b meyer once said quote through all the centuries tears have flowed enough to float a navy and it's true i mean if you could bottle up all the tears that humanity has shed in the course of the past several millennia just in dealing with oppression and evil injustice in the world i mean there's a lot of tears that have been shed and solomon says i see all this it troubles me he'd also notes in the rest of verse one and i saw the power was on the side of the oppressors he says it grieved me how much bad people were able to get away with bad things and then he says in verse two he says and I declared that the dead who had already died are happier than the living who were still alive in other words he says you know the dead are better off than the living because at least the dead now are gone and they don't have to experience this misery on earth but then he takes it a step further and in verse three he says but better than both better than living and the dead is he who has not yet been who has not seen the evil that is done under the Sun in other words Solomon says that the one who has an advantage over the living and the dead is a person who has not yet been born because they haven't experienced any of it now look I think all of us would agree yeah I hear you Solomon I wish we could all be spared from having to see and experience and be a part of the evil and injustice and oppression in our world I wish paradise had never been lost I look at my grandkids now and and I think to myself what will they be exposed to in the course of their life that try as best as they might their parents or their grandparents can't protect their innocence from because look it out the world has changed in the last 50 years in the last 15 years and I think to myself what will the next generation be exposed to in 15 years from now in 50 years from now I shudder to think if some of the things that we're experiencing now wasn't even on the radar are to our parents generation so what does that mean for the next generation of the generation after them yes the world is evil yes the world is wicked yes the world is full of oppression but Solomon's problem in the midst of that was once again he lost sight of God he looked at all this horizontal mess and he says this is troubling to me I don't even know about God and I don't even I don't even I'm questioning all that and I'm questioning the meaning and purpose of life and how do we know that he lost God a lost sight of God in the in equation because again he says twice in verse one as it relates to the oppressed twice in verse one and they have no comforter and they have no comforter yes they do Solomon yes they do the Lord is our comforter but you have forgotten him because you have forsaken him and you don't even remember the words of your father Solomon because David got it and David understood that's why David would write in Psalm 86 verses 7 and 17 in the day of my trouble I will call to you Lord for you will answer me for you O Lord have helped me and you O Lord have comforted me even Solomon's dad understood this but Solomon lost sight of the god of his father's and therefore as he looked at all the stuff on the landscape of humanity became depressed about it and he forgot ok in the midst of all this that's right that's right even my father said that God is our comforter and God is our ever present help in time of need and God is the one who will never forsake me and God is the one who will never abandon me and God is the one who loves me in the midst of all this chaos and wickedness he lost sight of it and he lost sight of this other question and who will judge all the injustice and oppression and wickedness in the world God will God will jude verses 14 and 15 says see the lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts that they have done so if I could just this in a few bullet points here's what it would be first evil does exist but it exists apart from God God is not the author of it Satanists it is Satan's influence his wickedness that has instigated and been behind what we see is a part of the fallen race now of humanity evil does exist but apart from God the perfect world God intended for us was spoiled a long time ago when Satan rebelled and mankind sinned against God and as a result every form of evil and injustice now affects all of us to some degree to some degree but God put in motion a plan to save us from our sins to comfort us in our sorrows and to rescue us from this wicked world through Jesus through Jesus and he will judge the world with justice and punish every evil act now some of you might say in response to this well ok great what is his delay I mean if God exists and God is good then what is he waiting for maybe you maybe he's waiting for you God doesn't want any to perish but all to come to repentance he's still waiting for people to get saved he's still waiting for people to get saved you see for those of you who know Jesus you could be anxious for God to settle this mess but I still have friends and loved ones who don't know Jesus and in that regard his delay is his mercy see let's say you got saved in the last year and you came to faith in Christ what if Jesus had come two years ago you wouldn't be as happy for his quick return who he is waiting for and how long he will wait is his prerogative but I know that in his delay it is mercy for as many people to get saved yeah but pastor G doesn't that mean though that with every generation that he waits there's a greater number of people who will not respond to his love and they will be condemned so what's the deal there I know but who he's waiting for and how long he waits is his prerogative his delay is his mercy for as many people to get saved and all I know is this it's what John the Baptist said in Luke chapter 3 he was quoting from the prophet Isaiah in Luke three five and six he said every Valley shall be filled in every mountain and Hill made low the crooked roads shall become straight the rough ways smooth and all mankind will see God's salvation in other words he says all that seems out of order and all that seems out of balance and all that seems crooked in this world will be leveled and will be made straight every injustice will be judged every oppression will be lifted and every evil will be punished and the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this so don't turn from God please turn toward God and find His grace at his comfort and his hope in a wicked world God will take care of this wicked world and in the meantime he will help us to persevere and he will comfort us along the way amen let's pray together Lord this is this is troubling to us and we think about the many people in our world some maybe who were listening to this Bible study and they have questioned your existence or your goodness and we we get it Lord we're not detached we recognize that because of the evil and wickedness that people can experience and the oppression that people have experienced it can be hard it can be painful it can be brutal we pray for your comfort on all those who have been oppressed we thank you for the hope of heaven we thank you for forgiveness of sins we thank you that you comfort us in our sorrows and you offer us the hope and the promise of heaven when we die Lord are you waiting for someone here even in this Bible study are you waiting for someone who will turn their lives to you and surrender to your lordship I pray Lord that if so they would respond to you today they wouldn't wait another minute they wouldn't wait another day to get right with you we don't profess to have all the answers Lord but we know that you do and so we trust you we rely on you we lean on you and not our own understanding and all our ways we acknowledge you and we trust you to direct our paths and for those who don't know you today Lord I pray right now they'd open their heart to Jesus and I'm gonna pause them my prayer with your head still bowed and I'm just gonna give you the invitation to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior God's gonna sort all this wicked world out but right now at this moment it's about you and him alone and if you don't know the Lord if you're not right with them I invite you to accept him into your heart today and acknowledge him as Lord and Savior you can do it by praying a simple prayer I'll lead you in this prayer and if you want to pray this with me you just pray it silently where you're seated you can just repeat it after me you can just say Lord Jesus thank you that you came into this world to save sinners like me I'm gonna trust you to sort out all the wickedness in the world but right now it's just about you and me that my sins will be forgiven that you'd comfort me and my sorrows and that you take me home on that great day whenever you return again or whenever I die whichever happens first that I go to be with you forever so I surrender my life to you right now I confess Jesus is Lord with my mouth I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead that I might be saved I surrender to you Lord come into my life take over be my Savior my lord and together father all of us just look to you the author and finisher of our faith help us Lord to persevere in the midst of a sin filled world we thank you that you loved us so much you entered into this chaos to rescue us and redeem us to save us and we hold on to that hope Lord and it's in your precious name Jesus that we pray these things and everybody said amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 22,549

Keywords: evil, oppression, Injustice, Gary Hamrick, Cornerstone Chapel, goodness of God, Calvary Chapel, existence of God

Id: vtSZy9XYXAk

Length: 35min 55sec (2155 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019