Grim Realities And Great Expectations - [Ecclesiastes 4]

Well, this morning we continue going through a book of the Bible that one man said is the only book of the

Bible that was written on Monday morning. Ecclesiastes sees the world as it really is.

Even Melville said it's the truest book that's ever been written. Problem is there's some very difficult truths in there, but they're good truths for us to hear as they're in God's Word.

There are many effective preachers in the world. One of the most effective preachers in all the world is the world itself.

The world is a good preacher of bad content. And we come to a book of the

Bible today, and if you have a Bible, turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. This is a book called a wisdom book.

There are five books of wisdom in the Bible because we need wisdom. Left to ourselves, we're foolish, but we have

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and the book of Ecclesiastes considered wisdom literature so that we could be wise.

I love the Bible when it talks about wisdom. Proverbs chapter 4, the beginning of wisdom is this.

What are the next two words? Get wisdom. That's how you need to approach life.

The beginning of wisdom is I realize I'm not wise and I need wisdom. Not just my father's wisdom, that might be good.

My mother's wisdom, that might be fine. But what does God himself, who made us, want us to think?

And the world, of course, is going to preach, and it will preach things like this. There's no heaven.

Reality is just what you see here. There's no God. There's no judgment day. And yet we know from the scriptures that wisdom preaches something differently.

Wisdom preaches this world isn't heaven. Wisdom preaches there is a

God who has a son who rescues sinners. And especially we need to be reminded as we approach

Ecclesiastes 4 that wisdom preaches this, that we are to walk by faith and not by what?

Sight. The just shall live by faith. And I'm telling you, if you come to Ecclesiastes 4 without that paradigm, without that lens, this is a crushing chapter.

Before I get up to preach it today, I thought, this might be the most depressing chapter I've ever preached in my life.

Welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church. So here's what we're going to do, because we're going through Ecclesiastes chapter by chapter, and so we're not going to skip anything and just pick out what we think is good and what maybe isn't.

Wisdom wants us to know this. The Spirit of God wants us to know this. So here's my goal today.

We're going to go through Ecclesiastes 4 and just see the brute, grim reality of a fallen world.

Adam's sin affected everything. And we're going to take a look at that, but then

I'm going to want you to read this like a Christian. Let me put it this way.

If you read Ecclesiastes like you would on Proverbs, you think, oh, it's the fifth of the month

I read Proverbs 5. It's the 24th of the month I read Proverbs 24. If you approach

Ecclesiastes that way, you're going to come to chapter 4 and just think, what is going on? So today is simple.

I'm going to preach through Ecclesiastes 4 and let you see all the grim realities of it. And then we're going to take a look at how we would see

Ecclesiastes 4 from the perspective of faith, because Jesus really is alive.

He really did live in this fallen world. He really did die for our sins. He really was raised from the dead.

And you can look at Ecclesiastes chapter 4 now as a Christian. Does that make sense? I said it two times, but I'm going to say it one more time, because otherwise we're going to get into Ecclesiastes and you're just going to go, what is going on?

The world is full of oppression, rivalry, isolation, and changing governments.

But when you look at Ecclesiastes through the lens of there is a risen Savior and foolishness says there's not another world.

Wisdom says I'm going to read this in light of all the scriptures, even as Scott Brown prayed, that Jesus is alive and I can see everything properly.

So today is Ecclesiastes 4, 1 through 16, as all of us desire to be wise and learn and grow.

Now, one of the things you have to do if you come to chapter 4, and it's been a while since we've been in Ecclesiastes, and by the way, weren't you encouraged last week when

Evan Burns was preaching? I don't know if this is true or not, but I think he prepared that sermon for his wife, who's just gone to be with the

Lord when she couldn't get out to church. So he prepares a whole sermon about heaven to preach to one person, and that's his wife.

That was very, very sweet. Ecclesiastes 4 has a context, and so remember chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Just a brief review. Here's Ecclesiastes 1, 2, and 3. Verse 1 of Ecclesiastes 1, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

And so Solomon, or whoever writing this, a king, says life is frustrating, it's fleeting, it's vain.

Remember the word vanity? It can mean temporal, it can mean vexing, it can mean fleeting, and life is difficult.

And so Solomon takes a look at life, and he assesses things properly, realistically, honestly.

And he says in chapter 1, you know, maybe if I was just smart enough to see how vanity worked,

I'd be fine, but it didn't help. And he thought, well, you know what? The life we have on earth is difficult.

If I could just maybe live with a lot of pleasure and not much pain, maybe that would help. And we saw that's not the solution either, especially when we all know what's coming in chapter 1.

We're all going to die. So now how can we work through things? And the answer is found at the end of chapter 2.

These are the words where the sun finally comes out on that cold day at the beach, cloudy, you've got your coat on, and here comes the sun.

And you take your coat off, and you think, finally some warmth in the midst of a depression almost. What do we see in chapter 2, verse 24?

It says, there's nothing better for a person than he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in all his toil.

This also I saw is from the hand of God, a gift of God. For apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

And with him, dear Christian, you can eat and have enjoyment. Even though the world is fallen,

Adam's sin was real. The creation groans, longing to be redeemed. And that's chapters 1 and 2.

There's also some good news in chapter 3. Remember all these times. Do you see it in chapter 3, verse 1?

As we have a little more review for everything, there's a season, a time for every matter under heaven.

And then in verse 11, he made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he's put eternity in man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what

God has done from the beginning to the end. Now, I like the doctrine of sovereignty.

Remember R .C. Sproul said, if I were God, my favorite doctrine in all the world would be the sovereignty of God.

Well, we see the sovereignty of God, but not with language of confessions. God has ordained whatsoever has come to pass.

This is the sovereignty of God in wisdom literature, in poetry. And how do you describe the sovereignty of God in poetry?

There's a time to be born and a time to die. There's a time to plant. There's a time to pluck up. Everything is determined by God.

And so the way to get through this world of sin and oppression and loneliness and envy, it has to be through the lens of, oh yes, with God I can have enjoyment.

I can have a life that's fulfilled. I can have purpose in my life. And I know God is sovereign.

It doesn't look like he's sovereign, but he's sovereign. And, of course, then he says, since he is sovereign, verse 12,

I perceive there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and do good as long as they live.

Yeah, life might be short. We might die, but we can do good. We can love other people. Great commandments, love

God and love others. And then we can also fear God in verse 14. At the end of verse 14, it says,

God has done it so that people fear before him. And that's kind of the summary of chapters 1, 2, and 3.

And remember that key word, fear. What does chapter 12 say in Ecclesiastes?

If you summarize everything, the summary and conclusion is this. What? Fear God and keep his commandment.

And you say, what kind of fear must we have as children? Remember, for the unbeliever, and if you're here today and you're not a believer, you should fear

God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. God's holy and you're sinful.

I mean, we're all sinful. And then to stand before God on that judgment day, that's terrifying.

But once you have the advocate, the Lord Jesus, once you have the mediator, the Lord, once you have a friend that sticks closer than a brother,

Jesus Christ, and you embrace him by faith, then we don't have this cringing fear of God as executioner and judge.

You have more of a son fear, a daughter fear of a father. And some of you have great fathers and great mothers.

And you say, my dad is so wonderful. My dad is so honorable. I want to live a life of obedience and honor.

And I want to revere him because he's so great. That's the kind of fear that we have before our

God as Christians. We're not crouching and cringing because perfect love casts out what? Fear.

So how can I fear God if I'm a Christian? With reverence and honor and obedience because he's so great.

And so the theme in Ecclesiastes, I almost said Ephesians. I mean, Ecclesiastes 4 is so grim, maybe we should turn to Ephesians.

We're going to get there at the end. You think to yourself, oh, fearing God and keeping his commandments to have the right view of God.

The key to Ecclesiastes is not to forget about who God is. Who lets us enjoy good gifts because of Christ.

Who is sovereign and we've got to keep these blinders that go like this. We've got to keep them away.

Otherwise, we're not going to be thinking about who God is and not reading Ecclesiastes 4 as a

Christian. So we come to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. And here we see this grim picture painted by Solomon that shows the effects of sin.

And this is Solomon's observation and it should be yours. Do you notice in chapter 4 verse 1,

I saw. Verse 4, then I saw. Verse 7, again

I saw. Verse 15, I saw.

Here Solomon is observing life. He's looking at life under the sun. He's looking at a life of people striving after the wind, running after everything.

And it's a fallen world but he's got to see it properly. It's good for us, by the way, as Christians to do that too because this world is not our home.

We're just a what? Passing through. Is that a revivalistic tent song or is that a good song to sing?

For my purposes it will be fine because I think I'm going to quote the Beatles later. So here we go. As we see oppression, rivalry, isolation and changing governments, there's going to be observations of Solomon too.

And in the back of your mind I just want you to think, this is the world that the Lord Jesus came into.

Jesus is not eternally submissive to the Father. But you know Jesus became submissive at the incarnation because he became obedient to the point of death.

What? Even death on the cross. Here we have the transcendent, glorious, second person of the

Trinity, Jesus. And he comes into this world. And you want to talk about condescension?

You want to talk about humbling? You want to talk about what it takes to rescue those that you love? He's coming into this

Ecclesiastes 4 world that frankly stinks because of Adam's sin.

So we're going to see these four grim realities of the world fallen and then we're going to see some hope at the end.

First grim reality is the world, because of sin, is full of oppression. It's full of oppression.

Verses 1, 2 and 3. And if you look for key words repeated, you're going to see that key word.

And again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed.

No one to comfort them. And on the side of their oppressors, there was power. And there was no one to comfort them.

And of course, if you're reading this like a Jewish person, you're thinking oppression. What kind of oppression is there?

Well, Satan's oppression in the garden, that's really true. But you're thinking about Israel and Egypt, are you not?

Here, make the bricks without straw. They understood oppression as a people. You can think of Esther chapter 7 and 8, and let's kill the

Jews and annihilate them and murder them, that kind of language. There's a lot of oppression because of sin.

If you read Lamentations chapter 1 sometime, it's a refrain of there's no one to comfort. There's no one to comfort.

There's no one to comfort. There's no one to comfort. It's one thing to be oppressed. It's another thing when there's no one to comfort.

Lord Acton, with the famous quote, Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts.

Absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Of course, the Lord Jesus had ultimate power and He was not corrupt, but everybody else falls into this. There are people that have things, like power and money and positions, and they suppress, and they oppress, and they go after the little guy or the little gal.

So much so that when you look at the world, you might just think, maybe with exaggeration, maybe with a little hyperbole, it'd be better to be dead than oppressed and have no comfort.

That's what He says in verse 2. And I thought the dead who are already dead, more fortunate than the living who are still alive.

But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Remember, this isn't Romans. This is not, oh, it's better to be dead in terms of then there's some kind of annihilation or purgatory or this, that or the other.

He's just saying, using this hyperbolic language, if that's the case, why live if you're just going to be oppressed?

I mean, the cruelty of people. Maybe that's a way out of all this cynicism is just, let's die.

Of course, I think of the Lord Jesus and how He knew of oppression and would say things like this to oppressors. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, oppression, it would be better for him to have a great, what?

Millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. This world is filled of unjust gain.

This world is filled with those who don't comfort. And Solomon realizes this is true.

He looks at a courtroom and says, there's oppression. Now he's going to look elsewhere. He's going to look at the marketplace.

So we move from oppression to envy or rivalry. The second grim reality is rivalry or envy.

Oppression is the first halls of justice. There's no justice. And now we go to the marketplace and we see envy.

The fallen world is full of this. And that's why, as I read this, I say to myself, just a side note, dear congregation.

Well, sometimes we get mad at maybe unbelievers for defaming the Lord Jesus and speaking ill of Him, and that's right.

But don't you feel sorry for unbelievers? This is their world, a world of oppression.

They think this is all they have. And by the way, this is all they have because hell is real. And it's going to be worse than this.

And I see people who are enslaved to sin just like we used to be before we were saved. And they're just locked in this world where all they have all the time is an oppressed world and now this rivalrous world.

Doesn't that make you feel sad for them? Doesn't it make you want to preach the gospel to them? Doesn't it make you want to say, oppression, bad news, envy, bad news, rivalry, bad news.

I have some good news for you. I love my wife for lots of reasons. But when she's at the store that she's working at and she has some people that come in with little white collars and habits and stuff like that, she helps them with the paint.

And then she says to them, do you have any good news, Mr. or Mrs. Religious Leader?

Or Miss Religious Leader? And they're like, what? What kind of good news? Yeah, there's good news that we know about as Christians right now.

This is the world we live in. It makes me think, okay, I don't want to love the world. You can almost hear

John the Apostle say, don't love the what? Verse 4,

I saw all the toil and all the skill and work come from what? Productivity, trying to build a kingdom.

Probably with a little exaggeration here, but a lot of people work really hard because they want to be number one.

What's the text say? All the toil and all the skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor.

This too is fleeting, our vanity, our vexing and striving after wind. This is amazing.

Wow, people work for lots of reasons. And one is because they want to be better than someone else.

Somebody's got a bigger car, a bigger boat, something better. And so they work really hard.

Wow, it's amazing. I think Solomon is trying to tell us what are our reasons for working.

He comes to this marketplace and he watches people scurrying around. Competitive envy.

I want to be superior. I want to be number one. I'm better than you are. I mean, to do work that's well done, good.

To do work that no one sees but you would do with all your might, great. But here, within us has that drive to climb to the top.

And when people try and climb to the top, you've got to crush people's heads to get there. Healthy competition, fine.

But here, so you know what? I just won't work. That's a good solution to the problem. I'll just stay home.

COVID money is real. Verse 5, the fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.

That's vanity too. I'm going to work to get, I'm going to be better than you, drive better cars than you, have better houses than you.

That's why I work. No, the opposite side is I just won't work at all. And it's like cannibalism.

He eats his own flesh. You hold your hands. It says he folds his hands. You fold your hands like this.

Kids, can you fold your hands like this? Now you have to eat your hands. What part of your hands would you eat? Your knuckles.

My dad used to say, I'll give you a knuckle sandwich. That's a different sermon. You're like eating your own hands.

It's like Esau's fable in the grasshopper and the ant.

Folding hands in the Bible is I'm lazy. Folding hands in the Bible is I don't work.

Proverbs 6, how long will you lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.

You know what? Work. It's all about competition. I'm going to get out of that rat race and I'm just going to do nothing.

By the way, what does the Bible say? If you're able to work and you don't work, you shouldn't what? Eat. Maybe a balance would be better, verse 6.

Better is a handful of quietness than two handfuls of toil and striving after wind.

That's a good balance. By the way, children, if you're ever told by your parents you can have as much candy as your two hands will hold, never take two handfuls.

The way to get the most candy in your hands, just telling you, your parents are going to let you go trick or treat.

Somebody says you can take some candy, put both of those hands in. You little pagans.

I mean, as you look at the text, you think, oh, one little handful of quietness are two big handfuls.

You can get like three times as much as one hand full of toil and striving after wind. You'd rather be full of quietness.

Solomon looks around and says, here's the world with the fall. What's it look like? Oppression, envy, and now loneliness.

Verses 7 through 12. This is all true. This is the world. This is the world Jesus came into.

And without Jesus, this is it. And at the end of the sermon, we're going to see how this is all redeemed because of walking by faith.

Loneliness. By the way, social media's effect on loneliness is making it skyrocket.

COVID isolation skyrocketed. This is a world full of lonely, lonely people.

Verse 7. Again, I saw all the vanity under the sun. One person has no other, either son or brothers, yet there's no end to all this toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches so that he never asks, for whom am

I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This is also vanity and unhappy business.

I mean, maybe there's a little connection between the last section. You just work to get to the top, and to get to the top, it's going to cost you everything like your wife and kids, your family.

And now you're at the top, and now you're all alone. I've heard this song sung a lot of times, but I never paid attention to the lyrics except the refrain.

All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name. Nobody came.

Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, and no one was saved.

Oppressors, maybe they do win. Envy, I guess it's understandable. And loneliness, we can all see it.

Probably, again, this person that just works their way to the top, and they're by themselves. It costs you everything to be

Ebenezer Scrooge. And then we have verses 9 through 12.

You'll see a lot of times the word one repeated in verse 8, verse 9, verse 10, verse 11, verse 12.

There's a lot of ones here. But this little section here talks about benefits to companionship, benefits to not being alone.

Well, when you work with somebody else, you get more of a profit. You get more of a reward, verse 9. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil.

Can't you hear God in Genesis chapter 2? It's not good for man to be what? Alone. Well, not only that.

Somebody gets hurt or falls, you can help them, verse 10. If they fall, one will lift up his fellow.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. I think he's talking about literal falls here.

You fall into a pit, and how do you get out? Somebody has to help you. Of course, it could apply to spiritual restoration in Galatians chapter 6.

And if you're struggling with sin and enslaved to sin, you need other people who are spiritual to help you get out.

But loneliness isn't good. Third, there's physical warmth. There's emotional help, verse 11.

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Of course, this is used in weddings very often.

This could be of a marriage partner, but it probably isn't. It's probably two travelers out in the wilderness on the road in Israel, and they would sleep next to each other to stay warm.

No sexual connotation at all. That's kind of imported into our modern Western world.

But here they lie down. They keep warm. And then there's protection in verse 12.

There are benefits to having friends and companions and not being alone. And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, somebody's going to jump you on the road, and you're by yourself.

Two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. You're going to go someplace, maybe kind of house to house, and proclaim the

Lord Jesus. Jesus sends him out, what, one by one? He sends him out two by two.

There you go. This is a sharp congregation. A man was going down Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

And he was by himself. So the idea here is sin isolates, and it's so much better to have friends and family and a community to be part of the benefits of friends.

The threefold cord of unity, what's that? Well, it's obvious. It's the Trinity. No. You didn't correct me.

What happened to that? Oh, it's Scripture and the holy writings of Judaism and right conduct. No, no, it's husband and wife and God.

No, no, he's just trying to use wisdom language to say it's better not to be alone.

Three is even better. If two is good, three is better. Former Secretary General of the United Nations said, what makes loneliness and anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this,

I have only my own burden to bear. And if that's not bad enough, the fourth grim reality is the revolving doors of government.

Oppression, envy, loneliness, government, and then we'll get to the good news. Verses 13 through 16, it just shows whether you're poor or young or wise or foolish, in they go and out they go when it comes to leaders.

Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, verse 13, who no longer knew how to take advice.

For he most likely the poor wise youth, some disagree, but I think that's the easiest reading.

For he went from prison to the throne, almost kind of Joseph -like, isn't it?

Though in his own kingdom he had been born poor, and I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place.

There was no end to all the people, all of whom he led, yet those who come later will not rejoice in him.

Surely this also is vanity and striving after wind.

He gives a little example story and says, these governments come and go, you can be young, old, wise, foolish, and it's just repeat.

And it's President Clinton, and then it's President Bush, and then it's President Obama, and the list just goes on and on.

Well, that's the world we live in. Oppression, envy, isolation, and revolving governments.

Pretty dreary, pretty dreary. So here's what

I'd like to do now. I wonder if we read those four problems through the lens of all the

Scripture. I wonder if we looked at those four problems and said, I'm going to read it on the other side of Calvary and the resurrection, that things would be different.

All right, let me put it this way. Christian, is your life full of oppression, rivalry, isolation, and revolving governments?

Well, you say the revolving governments will always stay. Okay, let's just push that one to the side. How do

I get along in a world that everybody's oppressing each other? Does God make any difference in my life?

Am I oppressed and have no comfort? Remember Chapter 4, they have no comfort, they have no comfort.

Just listen to this. Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we abundantly share in comfort too.

If we're afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation. And if we're comforted, it's for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Dear Christian, this is not your lot in life, oppression. Because although people may oppress you and we live in an oppressive world, guess who's not oppressing you?

The Lord Jesus doesn't oppress His people. He doesn't take a bruised reed and crush it. He doesn't take a smoldering wick and snuff it out.

What does He do? He's called the God of all comfort here, over and over. God of comfort, who comforts us, may be able to comfort with the comfort.

And it goes on and on and on. So that we, dear Christian, because of the Lord Jesus, can sing songs like this.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail.

Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

With compassion,

Jesus gave great healing to the afflicted.

Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

And when He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd.

I just want you to know, for me personally, I look at the world full of oppression and I think, while I deserve to be oppressed by God and judged by God, I'm not because Jesus took that penalty, and now

I have the God of all comfort for my comfort. And you have Him, too, by faith.

Well, what about the envy part? What about living in a world that's full of oppression and also envy?

People just serving themselves for themselves. Is there anything you can think about who Jesus is and what

He's done for us that would help us not to live for ourselves and not to serve ourselves? Of course, you can even think of the

Lord Jesus when I read these words from John 13. When Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the

Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray

Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside His outer garments, taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.

And then after He was done, Jesus said, Do you understand what I've done for you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you're right, for so I am.

If then your Lord and Teacher has washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

For I've given you an example that you should also do just as I have done for you. Truly, truly,

I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master. And so we look around the world and think there's a lot of oppression.

And so certainly with the Lord, we have great comfort. And also when people are scurrying to get to the top, we as Christians say, look at Jesus' example.

It wasn't to scurry anywhere except to the bottom to serve His people. To wash their feet.

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give what? His life a ransom for many.

And one of the great things about this whole idea of rivalry, solutions to the rivalry problem and envy problem and everything else is,

God has given us the local church so that we don't have to climb to the top.

We can serve one another. And we can say, you know what? We need each other. I love

Hebrews chapter 10. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more as you see the day drawing near. Instead of climbing to the top because of the

Lord and how He loves His bride and has redeemed His bride and has equipped His bride with spiritual gifts.

Now we serve one another. If you look to your left and you look to your right, which you don't have to do.

I'm never really that big of a fan of people that say from the pulpit, look to the person to your left and say,

I don't know, your best life now, whatever they say. But you need people here.

In a world of oppression and envy and rivalry, that must not be here because we have the example of the

Lord Jesus. When Paul writes his last letter, his last chapter, before he's beheaded according to church tradition.

You know what was most valuable to Paul? He has four imperatives in 2 Timothy chapter 4, and they all had to do with people.

Do your best to come to me. 2 Timothy 4 .9 Luke is alone with me, get

Mark and bring him with you, for he's useful to me for ministry. Verse 11. Tychicus I've sent to Ephesus.

When you come, bring the cloak, books and so forth. Do your best to get here,

Timothy, before winter. Paul knew. Paul knew he needed those people.

Doesn't that tie in even to the loneliness thing? I have the Lord. I don't have to be lonely.

I have the spirit of God dwelling in me. I don't have to be lonely. But I also have the church.

I have the church. Paul leaning on his friends, fellowship, ministry to be direct.

I think some of us see the church as we're to come to worship on Sunday, so we get here last minute and we leave right away, and we rightfully have participated in corporate worship.

I would never want to say that's bad. But then all the rest of the times of the week and before and after, we or maybe you function as,

I don't need God's people. I can go this alone. And I always think about ships that are out in the ocean.

Those that are easily attacked by pirates are always the solo Christians. And so I just watch this, and I watch how important it is for the

Christian church. As we see what's wrong in the world, we don't want oppression in the church. That's certainly true. You don't want oppressive leaders who lord it over people.

We don't want envy in the church, people climbing all over each other to try to get to that spot. And certainly we don't want loneliness in the church.

We need each other. You can look around and say, we need each other. Because sometimes we're strong, we help the weak.

Sometimes we're weak, and we're helped by the strong. You say, well,

I don't know about friends. They kind of just burn you. Oh, are you talking about Jesus' friends?

Yeah. It's true. Of course it's true in marriage where you have a companionship, but even in the local church.

One man said this, you may not think you need the people sitting around you, but you do.

The Bible tells us we need one another, and there are no unimportant members of the body of Christ. For if one falls, the others will lift him up.

Woe to the one who is alone, but when he falls, he has no one to lift him up. Do we lift up others to build them in Christ, or are we critical and judgmental about them?

I think that's good advice. Lastly, would you turn to 1

Peter 1. I just want to remind you, in this kind of a world, how do we end a service like this?

Oppression, envy, rivalry, isolation, loneliness, corrupt government.

What do we say? Now, if we go to Ecclesiastes 4 and only read that, and somehow we study the

Bible, and we're like, my pastor goes verse by verse, and he just takes it as it comes, and we just only isolate to that verse, those verses, that chapter, then there is no good news.

And I am to proclaim Christ Jesus, Him we proclaim. I've determined to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Yes, that is the text. But how do I see it as a Christian? How do I live in a life that's full of this?

We don't want it in the church, but the world is full of this type of stuff. What do we do? So here's my question as we wrap up.

What do you tell a bunch of suffering Christians? If you were me, what would you tell a bunch of suffering

Christians? If you were the Spirit of God, what do you tell people who are suffering? They're on the run, they've lost their homes, and they'll probably never get them back.

They're people in the dispersion. Here's what a dispersion is. You have a, what's a kind of a fruit that would easily get smashed?

Oh, I know, grapes. We have all kinds of grapes. You want to come over, kids, and pick some grapes? Yeah, please.

Spit out the seeds, though, and give them to me. Not the seeds, but the grapes. I mean, I'm such a first world person,

I can't eat grapes with seeds in them. No watermelon, please, it has seeds.

We have all these grapes, and so you take a big clump of grapes here, and you take your fist, and you go like that to the grapes.

What happens? Welches. You get grape juice. It's all scattered, and here,

God in His providence, has Satan and his hordes take the clump of grapes, the church, and he goes like this, because he knows that's going to scatter.

God knows providentially, just like in Esther, that everybody's going to spread, and then the gospel's going to spread, but it still hurts.

It's still hard to be crushed, even though you know it's for a better purpose. So, 1 Peter chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is written to a bunch of Christians who have just been crushed, and spread apart by the dispersion, and how do you comfort them?

It's going to be okay. Que sera, sera. You're going to make it through. God works everything for good.

What does a pastor tell a group of people right here, that live in a world today and tomorrow, when you go there, is full of oppression, envy, rivalry, and isolation?

Here's the answer. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the smashing of the grapes, dispersion, in Pontus, Galatia.

See how they're everywhere? Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. According to the foreknowledge, God loved them before,

God, the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with His blood.

May grace and peace, you dispersed people, be multiplied to you. Not even just added.

And here He comes. Here is what we all need to be reminded of, as we live in this world.

It's who God is. It's walking by faith, not by sight. It's with the lens of Scripture, and not only living in Ecclesiastes 4, but all the

Bible. Here comes the eulogy. Good word. Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us, dear

Christian, He caused you to be born again to a living hope.

That's unlike oppression, rivalry, and isolation, is it not? Through only one thing, the event that changed the world, through the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the dead.

And what do you get, dear Christian, because of what Christ has earned for you? You don't have much if you're smashed grapes, persecuted.

Not in this life you don't have much, but in the future, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, can't be smashed like grapes, kept in heaven for you.

Who are, by God's power, being guarded through faith.

Maybe not from human enemies, maybe not from oppression, rivalry, and loneliness, but for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And when you put your eyes on who God is, no matter what the trial is, here's the response. In this you rejoice.

Now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to result.

Here's our response to this world because of Jesus Christ. Praise, glory, honor, because He's coming back at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Dear Christian, I know you're suffering. I know you go through a thousand trials, and you live in a world of oppression, isolation, envy, and loneliness.

Through, though, verse 8, we see the walking by faith.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Nobody here has ever seen

Jesus, but you love Him. Though you do not see Him now, just wait. You believe in Him, and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, and filled with glory.

By the way, you are going to see Him, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The only solution to living in a life full of Adam's sins, fruit, Adam's sins, rotten fruit, oppression, sin, isolation, difficulties in marriage, the list could go on and on and on.

The list could. And you think, yes, but God. So the only way you get out of Ecclesiastes chapter 4, is by faith, and not by sight.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. I'd ask for these dear people that they could do that very thing.

No matter what trial we are in, or they're in, we can rejoice, because there is, a risen

Savior named Jesus, who has demonstrated, and demonstrates His love toward us, that while we were yet sinners,

He died for us. And Father, if your Son would love us so when we were enemies, how does

He love us now as children? It's good to be reminded of that very fact, as we have to go deal with the world now.

Would you give us the eyes of Christ, as it were, that we could see the people, not as enemies, not as oppressors, not as lonely, but souls that need to hear some good news, that Jesus Christ died for people just like them.