This is God's word. Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In his arrogance, the wicked man hunts down the weak who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts of the cravings of his heart. He blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. In his pride, the wicked does not seek him. In all his thoughts, there is no room for God. His ways are always prosperous. He is haughty, and your laws are far from him. He sneers at all his enemies. He says to himself, nothing will shake me. I'll always be happy and never have trouble. His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats. Trouble and evil are under his tongue. He lies in wait near the villages. From ambush he murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims. He lies in wait like a lion in cover. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. His victims are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength. He says to himself, God has forgotten. He covers his face and never sees. Let's stop there. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless the reading and the study of your word this morning. We are so thankful for it, thankful for the fact that it corrects and guides both our thinking and our emotions. We look around and it seems that everything is out of control, that the wicked are winning. And we ask that you would teach us through your word this morning, teach us to cry out to you, to know you, to trust you, in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. I suppose every family has a number of stories that are told and retold. One such story in my family from my growing up goes something like this, and remember, this is from the perspective of the older brother, so it might be slightly skewed. When I was about six or seven, which would make my younger brother Jason four or five, our youngest brother Nathan wasn't even born yet, but Jason got sick when he was four or five years old, It was just a cold, but he's moping around the house, belly aching about how bad he felt, or at least that's the way I remember it. Mom, like any good mom, was trying to comfort him. I, on the other hand, thought he just needed to drink a warm glass of Harden Up so we could go out and play. So Mom and Jason had a conversation that went something like this. Jason asked, why do I feel so bad? Mom, because you're sick. I don't want to be sick. Well, we could pray that God would heal you. But why am I sick? I guess God is allowing you to be sick for a time. But why? Mom says, I guess God wanted you to be sick. And Jason, after thinking for a few minutes, says, why would God make me sick? Dad pays him every Sunday. Now, I tell you that story not only to embarrass my little brother. As every good older brother, I take every opportunity. And I have to be careful because he knows a lot more embarrassing stories about me than I ever know about him, so I have to be careful. And it's not to expose his poor theology of suffering when he was five. I could say that it's much better. I tell you that story because it captures in the question of a five-year-old boy the question that God's people have asked throughout history. Namely, that if we are God's people, why aren't things going better? If we are God's people, why do we suffer so much? If God is good and he loves us, why does it seem that it's going well for those who aren't God's people? Why do God's people seem to be no better off, and in some cases worse off, than those who care nothing for God? In fact, on the face of things, we would have to say that the wicked seem to be winning. It appears that we might be better off if we abandon any sense of right and wrong and just did whatever we pleased. This psalm, like many psalms, is a cry out to God against the apparent triumph of evil in the world. Dave Anderson said in our first study of the psalms that they have a correcting effect on our thinking, that they set our hearts straight. And this is certainly a psalm that does that. I've titled our study this morning what we should do when the wicked seem to be winning. Now, you'll have to forgive the alliteration. I might have gotten a little carried away, but what we should do when the wicked seem to be winning. I'd like to clear the deck of any technical issues before we really get started so we don't have to come back or slow our progress. First, in the Septuagint, the original Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, Psalm 9 and 10 are one psalm. So they had one fewer psalm in their Psalter, and it probably formed an acrostic poem where Each line started with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, something like, apples are awesome, bananas are great, coconuts are round, something like that. That's an acrostic poem. But they definitely go together. We're gonna treat it as a separate psalm, but it is similar to Psalm 9. And if Psalm 9 is about the wickedness of nations and groups of people corporately, then Psalm 10 about the wickedness of individuals. Second, and it's the only real translation issue, we find that in verse 2, the second phrase, who are caught in the schemes he devises, where it says the who or the they, it could mean that the who is the wicked. So in that case the psalmist is asking for the wicked to be trapped in their own schemes, in their own devices, and that's the way the ESV translates it. It could be that the they or the who is the weak. I think in light of the fact that it's mostly about the success of the wicked in this first section, I would understand it to mean that it's the weak and the poor who are caught in the wicked's schemes. And that's why I'm reading from the 1984 NIV, the old NIV. Third, this is a lament psalm. A lament psalm usually has several parts or sections, an address to God or an initial plea, a complaint to God, an affirmation of trust, a petition and an acknowledgment of response. And if you look carefully at your Bible, you'll see that most modern translators divide those sections with an extra blank or space. So if you look at Psalm 10, that's after verses 1, 11, and 15. Westerman says that the theological significance of the lament is to express trust in God in the absence of any evidence that he is even active in the world. Through a sequential and deliberate structure, the lament moves from articulation of the emotion of the crisis to petition for God to intervene, to an affirmation of trust in God, even though there has been no immediate deliverance from this crisis. Now, there are many good ways to study a lament. but I'm gonna focus almost exclusively on what we can do practically with our laments. What we can do practically in the face of our emotional response to this broken and fallen world in which we live. And specifically in the case of Psalm 10, what we should do in the light of the fact that the wicked seem to be winning. So let's begin in verse two. Here in verse two we are introduced to the wicked man, the wicked person. In his arrogance, the wicked man hunts down the weak who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts of the cravings of his heart. He blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. This is the distinguishing mark of the wicked, pride. He is arrogant. He rejects God. He goes it alone. accept any direction or accountability from God. And the wicked prays on those who are weak. He looks for them, he seeks them out. And the weak fall victim to the tricks and schemes that he devises. The wicked boasts about all he has done. He says things like, I want, I am going to, look what I have done. He approves of and admires the greedy. He wants what the greedy man has, and he will do what the greedy man does to get it. And he hates God, and he speaks against God. His standards are, in fact, inverted. He should bless the Lord and revile the greedy, but he does the opposite. May I suggest that pride kills. During the Battle of Spotsville and during the Civil War, Union General John Sedgwick was inspecting his troops. At one point he came to a parapet, which is a low point in the wall, over which he gazed out in the direction of his enemy. And his officer suggested that maybe that wasn't a good idea and perhaps he should duck. He said, nonsense, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance. But as those words left his mouth, he fell to the ground mortally wounded by a Confederate sniper's bullet. As I think about it, pride in the spiritual realm is the thing that keeps people from repentance and damns them to hell. And pride usually falls into two categories as it relates to Christ. One is, I don't need Christ, I'll do it on my own. This error supposes that God grades on a curve or some kind of sliding scale. That if my good works outweigh my bad deeds, then maybe God will accept me. But God does not grade on a curve. The standard is perfection. The second and perhaps even more disastrous pride as relates to Christ, even though it sounds humble, it supposes that somehow I'm too bad to be saved, that somehow I could out-sin the cross, that somehow Christ's sacrifice is not sufficient to satisfy God's punishment for my sin. Verse 4 continues, in his pride the wicked does not seek him. In all his thoughts there is no room for God. I believe that the physical world is created in such a way that we are constantly bumping into the fact that there is a God and that he is awesome. Every day, everywhere we look, we see the handiwork of God. Oh, look at the stars of the universe. God must be immense and powerful. Look at the flowers of the field. God must be beautiful. Oh, look at the complexity of the human body. God must be wise and intelligent. Look at the atom. God must be holding it all together. The proper response, the intended response, is that we worship God, that we say, praise him for his mighty works. But the wicked do no such thing. Romans 119 says, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. We are constantly confronted by the power and nature of God. His strength, his wisdom, his majesty, his beauty are always on display in the creation around us. But the wicked choose to deny it. Romans 118 talks about the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. It is not that they are ignorant, it's that they willfully deny it, willfully suppress it. The truth, however, keeps popping up. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering the things that I learned in Bible class or theology classes, but one thing that has always stuck with me is an illustration that a professor gave in light of Romans 1. He said that the truth of God is like a beach ball that someone holds under the surface of the water. And the unredeemed is always pushing that thought of God, that knowledge of God, out of their minds below the surface of the water, so to speak. But just like keeping the ball down underneath the surface of the water takes energy, it takes concentration. And if you get jostled or bumped or things come up, that ball pops up, doesn't it? So also the unbeliever has the truth of God pop up when they least expect it, when they're shaken by life, or they have a difficulty, or when they're tired. So the wicked try to deny the existence of God by filling their minds with entertainment, or intellectual arguments, or numb themselves with drug or alcohol. They deny God so that they may continue in their wickedness and sin. In all his thoughts, there is no room for God. The wicked are proud and they deny God. Point two, the wicked imagine themselves to be safe. Verse five, his ways are always prosperous. He is haughty and your laws are far from him. He sneers at all his enemies. He says to himself, nothing will shake me. I'll always be happy and never have trouble. The wicked, because they've gotten away with wickedness in the past, think that they will continue to get away with it in the future. He does not consider God's laws. In fact, he relentlessly breaks God's law without concern, without remorse. It reminds me of our study in the book of Revelation where the wicked city of Babylon, representing the world system of enterprise, says to herself metaphorically, excuse me, Revelation 18 7 in her heart. She boasts. I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow. I will never mourn She sounds confident But that safety is only apparent. It doesn't last in the very next verse Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her death mourning and famine She will be consumed by fire for mighty is the Lord God who judges her I? was thinking about the recent arrest of several highly prominent men who had systematically abused women over many years. For many years, they would have said, nothing can shake me. I'll always be happy and never have trouble. They were rich, famous, they lived glamorous lifestyles. The world loved them, but they were harming others. But now they are on trial for their crimes. The wicked may apparently be living the good life, but it is only temporary. It is only illusory. King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was great, declared himself to be such, and the Lord brought him low in Daniel 4. The wicked believe themselves to be safe. Perhaps the most distressing thing about the wicked is the untold havoc that they wreak on the lives of others. The wicked injure others with their tongue. Verse seven, his mouth is full of curses and lies and threats. Trouble and evil are under his tongue. It's as though curses and lies can't wait to come out. They jump out as though they were spring loaded to escape as soon as he opens his mouth. The tongue can be used to injure. A rough word from a father, scornful comment from a classmate, threatening words from an enemy all leave people damaged and hurt. The internet and social media has laid bare the hearts of many of our fellow citizens. The anonymity of the computer allows people to air the vilest and most wicked things, curses, vilest threats, things they would never say in public. They're commonplace on the internet, and we see the effect in people being bullied. in the schools and other places as they feed their wickedness. The wicked also injure others by what they do. Often the wicked pick on weaker ones, those who are already injured. If you ever watch Animal Planet, you'll see how predators pick out the ones that are isolated, the ones who are most defenseless, the ones who are already injured. And they sneak up on them, using cover to spring at them when they least expect it, or they drop their guard. Human oppressors act the same way. And David uses this analogy from the animal kingdom to show how the wicked operate. Verse 8, he lies in wait near the villages. From ambush, he murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims. He lies in wait like a lion in cover. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. Those who ought to be protected and cared for, those are the people that are the actual targets of their attack. And those victims, they collapse under the weight of the wicked person's attack. Verse 10, his victims are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength. The wicked injure others with their words and actions. The last thing that David is exercised about, the last thing that concerns him is that the wicked deceive themselves in regards to God's judgment. Verse 11, he says to himself, God has forgotten. He covers his face and never sees. But nothing is hidden from God, nothing escapes his notice. God has not forgotten. He has seen all the evil done by mankind throughout history and he will judge. Psalm 90 verse eight, you have set our iniquity before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. But the wicked suppress the truth of God's judgment of sin just as they deny the truth of God's existence. It is intentional. Turn with me to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, verse 3 says this. Above all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, where is this coming, he promised. Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. but they deliberately forget that long ago, by God's word, the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also, the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. They deny that God judges. They deny that God has judged in the past. They deny that he will judge again in the future. I was up in the mountains this past weekend with our dear brother Doyle Roth, and he said that that valley that we were looking up at hadn't changed in 60 years. 60 years that he'd been going up there. And it reminded him that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, Hebrews 13.8. My first thought was, wow, Doyle, you're really old. Just kidding, that was not my first thought. My first thought was amazement that there was any spot in Colorado that hadn't changed in 60 years, because I was away from Colorado, living outside of Colorado for 20 years, and it seems like everything has changed. So it was amazing that things hadn't changed for 60 years. And my second thought was the same joy that Christ is the same forever and ever. But I had a thought later that that frying pan river valley hasn't always been the same. In fact, it was created by a worldwide flood where sin and wickedness were judged and destroyed. So one of my favorite places in the world, one of Doyle's favorite places in the world, is there because God does, in fact, judge sin. We look at the mountains out there, beautiful. We love them, we enjoy them, we love to go there. But it bears the mark of God's judgment on the world, God's judgment of sin. The modern ethos is, I can do whatever I want as long as I'm not hurting someone else. But that simply is not true. We are in rebellion against God, and God will judge us. But the wicked deny that God judges, and therefore they deceive themselves. So everywhere we look, it seems that the wicked are winning. If we were to close our Bibles at this point, or to look at our favorite news source, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, I hope not, or Facebook or Twitter, I really hope not, we might be tempted to crawl into a box, suck our thumbs and give up, or we might be tempted to go grab our guns, exert some vigilante justice, or we might think we need to turn to politics and government to correct all these things. Or we might think we need to self-medicate. May I remind you it is into this very messed up world that God speaks. It is into this world which Christ comes. The influence and oppression and brokenness of this sinful world is the very reason which he came. Luke 4, 17 says this. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, unfolding it. He found the place where it is written, the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind. To release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began by saying to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. He says, it's me. I am the one. I am the one sent by God to proclaim freedom, restore sight, release the oppressed. In other words, all of God's promises to deliver from poverty, from oppression, from captivity, from physical disability, they're all tied up in Jesus Christ and not necessarily given in this life. God delivers from this messed up, wicked, and oppressive world only in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The only way out is in Jesus Christ. It's not in hiding or pretending that these things don't exist. It's not in vigilante justice or revolution. It's not in politics, it's not in drugs, it's not in alcohol. The only way out, the only way to be delivered from the evil of this world, the only way to be delivered from the evil within ourselves is in Jesus Christ. It's true that we are impacted by the wicked. We can be oppressed, we can be attacked, we fall victim to their threats. to their actions, to their pride. But the real problem is the wickedness within us. It is popular in our culture to think that everyone else is the problem, to blame others for our problems. We may be able to escape the attacks of other wicked people, but we can't escape wickedness within us. The great human problem, the great human issue is not social justice, it is sin. We are sinners, each and every one of us. We are proud. We injure others. We deny God's judgment. We deny God. And as we said, God will judge us for our sins, and the penalty is death. If you're not in Christ, you will die in your sins. You cannot shift the blame to someone else. Let me make it clear. No one will be saved by the good works they do. No one is saved because their parents were saved. No one is saved because they came to LBC week after week. No, in fact, the only way to be rescued from wickedness within and the wickedness without is to put your trust in Jesus Christ. I implore you, be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. If you have any questions, please talk to me afterwards. I'll be downstairs, see one of the pastor elders, the ushers, they can point you in the right direction. Please don't leave here without knowing Jesus Christ. Not just knowing things about Jesus Christ, but knowing him in a personal way. I could go on and on. There are two ways. The wide road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to life. And the reason why the Bible speaks of people in these binary terms is ultimately because that's the way God looks at people. He looks At those who are in Christ, those who are united to Christ, and he sees us as holy, righteous, redeemed. Those who are not are objects of his just wrath, deserving punishment for their rebellion against a good and holy creator God. But for those who are in Christ, what is our response to this present world, where the wicked all around us seem to be winning? where they seem to prosper. As citizens of our society, we should certainly speak against injustice. We should certainly care for the oppressed and afflicted. But our hope is not in government. It's not in good deeds. So what then should we do? May I submit that we should do three things. One is we should cry out to the Lord. Here is David's petition, verse 12. Arise, Lord. Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, he won't call me to account? But you, O God, do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evil man. Call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out. I think sometimes we're shocked or even appalled by the frank and bold addresses and petitions of the psalmists. We think maybe it's okay for them, as after all it is in scripture, but certainly it wouldn't be okay for us to speak this way, to address God this way. Damon told us a few weeks ago that we shouldn't let our reverence or formality keep us from coming to God, keep us from pouring out our hearts to God. We need to notice to whom the lament and petition is directed, not to a friend. not to a brother, not to the enemy, not even to a spouse, not that any of those things are necessarily wrong, but the lament, the emotional response, the outpouring of sadness is toward God, the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-compassionate God of the universe. I think we need to be more transparent in our prayers. We can be bold because he's bigger than any of our questions, than all of our questions. Not that we should step over into complaining or grumbling, I remind you that grumbling to God was a capital offense in the Old Testament economy. I don't want to encourage irreverence or arguing, but I do want us to be real in our emotions. As my wife would tell you, or at least she tells me, you can say the same words but have two different meanings. The difference between complaint and lament are in attitude and humility. Attitude and humility, let me show you. Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? That's one way. Or, why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Two different ways. of speaking, the same words, different meanings. Same words, different heart attitude. Same words and a different message. Same words, but one is arrogant and telling God. The other is humble and seeking God. We need to cry out to God in accordance with the character of God and according to our emotions. Our second point of application is to know the Lord, and really this is the springboard for the other two points of application. If we don't know the Lord, we won't cry out to him. If we don't know the Lord, we won't trust him. David says, verse 16, the Lord is king forever and ever. Where does David get that? Is it what he sees? You know the life of David. Is it what he feels? Obviously not based on what he says in his lament. Is it what he's experiencing? Is it what the world is telling him? No, he got it from God's word, from scripture, specifically from Exodus 15, 18, which says, the Lord will reign forever and ever. And Exodus is just the first of many places where the Bible tells us that God reigns forever and ever, there are many, here are just a few. Lamentations 5.19, but you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. Luke 1, speaking of Jesus, He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. And do you remember Revelation 11.15, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." Now, obviously, only Exodus was in the Scripture that David knew, but the point remains that David knew this from Scripture, and we know it from Scripture. We must know God by knowing Scripture. As we said before, there are some things that we might know about God from this physical world, from general revelation, but we cannot know God's character, We cannot know his dealings with mankind, cannot know about man's sinfulness, God's gracious provision of Christ, et cetera. None of that is available to us through the world around us. No one can go up into heaven, examine God, come back and give us a report. Only that which God reveals about himself can we know to be true. We can only know that through the word of God. You might say, Dave, you're hanging an entire point on Just one phrase, but really it's implicit in the entire petition of Psalm. What does David ask of God that is directly from the promises of scripture? Don't forget the helpless, Matthew 9. Why does the wicked say he won't be called to account when God will call him to account, Ecclesiastes 3. God does see the trouble and grief, Job 31. God does do something about it, Deuteronomy 32. The victim can commit himself to God, Psalm 37. God is the helper of the fatherless, Deuteronomy 10. God will make it so that the wicked can no longer harm others, Psalm 37. God knows the secret things that man may never know, 2 Samuel 12. Know scripture, know the Lord, know his character, know his faithfulness, know his promises, know that he loves and cares for his people, know that he loves to answer our prayers and our requests, know the Lord. And that leads us to our final and most important point of application, and that is to trust in the Lord. Psalm 10 begins with the general angst of where are you, God, in the midst of all that I perceive and see around me, the wicked are prospering, They seem to be doing whatever they want without concern for God or His law. In short, the wicked seem to be winning and the righteous seem to be on the losing end. Now, I can relate to that. I think we all can. We can see it in the world around us. I personally don't have too much experience with being oppressed by the wicked, not too much experience with injustice. But I know that some of you have. And I don't think I would like it I don't even like going to Mexico because the government of corruption down there really bothers me. It chafes me. So I look at injustice and I cringe. I think we all do. We who are redeemed cry out for justice. We long to see God's judgment of the wicked. Now I have to confess that I was not itching to preach Psalm 10. It's kind of obscure. There's not much written about it. The occasion of its writing is not known. It lacks the pithy inside of Psalm 1. It's not a messianic psalm. It lacks the emotional depth of Psalm 51. I doubt it's going to suddenly replace Psalm 1 or Psalm 8 or Psalm 23 or Psalm 40 as your favorite psalm. But over the last few weeks I've really come to love Psalm 10 and that is because of the movement we see in the psalm. David moves from an outpouring of his emotion over injustice and the apparent success of the wicked to the confident statements of trust and reliance we see at the end. He moves from sorrow and brokenheartedness over this fallen world to joyful praise and faith that God will one day set all things right. Verse 16, the Lord is king forever and ever. The nations will perish from his land. You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted. You encourage them and you listen to their cry. defending the fatherless and the oppressed in order that man who is of the earth may terrify no more. The nations, synonymous with those who oppose Israel, the people of God, will eventually perish from his land. You got that? His land. It's God's world. He is in control. Likewise, being of the earth is in contrast to those who are the Lord's. Those who oppress, those who terrify others right now will eventually be stopped. There will be no more predators, no more arrogance, no more denial of God or denial of his judgment. In fact, we saw in Revelation that all heaven rejoices with the judgment of God. Oh, that we would live in full confidence of that, that he is king forever and ever. that all those who oppose God will perish, that He does hear the desire of the afflicted, that He does encourage us and listen to our cry, that He does defend the fatherless and the oppressed, and that God will one day set all things right. Our study of the book of Revelation should give us great confidence for all that we have to look forward to. I invite you next week, we get to the really good stuff. God will judge the wicked, he will return, he must return. But for now the world is broken. What we see now is not what it will be at the end. It is hard to look around and say everything is going great. But it is only with knowledge, only with the hope, only with the sure conviction that God is in control that we can patiently endure. Like I said, I don't have too much experience with injustice or oppression. But I do have experience with brokenness. I have known the heartbreak of things not being as they should be. I know the pain of looking around at those I love and thinking, where are you, God? And that's why I love this song, because of its movement from perplexity to confidence in the Lord. And I think it's applicable to our many aspects of our life in a fallen world. There are many reasons for lament that we can find in the psalm, many types of suffering, many different consequences of our sin and the sin of the fallen world, but we miss the point if we never move from pouring out our sadness, our questions, our fears, without ending up with a renewed confidence and assurance that God is in control, that he is working all things for our good and his glory. that he is sovereign over all things. Nothing is outside of his control and we need to believe it. We need to say what the father of the epileptic boy, we believe, only help our unbelief. One of the statements that has been helpful for us as Nicole moves through breast cancer, I think it's from John Piper, says that there are no rogue cancer cells. There's not one cell, not one molecule in the universe that is going against what God has ordained. And that is so much more encouraging to me than the idea that God didn't have anything to do with it. For if God had nothing to do with cancer, nothing to do with Caleb's epilepsy, nothing to do with the fact that other people I see whom I love suffer, then how would I know that God is working all things for good? If anything happens outside of his control and plan, how can we know that God is king forever and ever? How can the afflicted cry out to him with any hope? How can he defend the fatherless? It is only because he is in control, only because he is sovereign, that we can be sorrowful yet always rejoicing. One of my fellow elders at a previous church in Philadelphia said that you need to determine before trials, before suffering, that God is good. Oh, that we would believe at church. We need to know that God is great, that he is big, that he is good. And so we say with the disciples, increase our faith. It's only in light of this God's sovereignty that we can say with the Apostle Paul, we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed. Perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down but not destroyed. Those words have been a constant companion for me in the last few months and a blessed promise. It's only if we believe in eternity that we can say, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. I don't myself look at the life of Paul and say light and momentary. Three shipwrecks imprisoned multiple times, scourged, beaten with sticks, literally and figuratively snake bit. But they are light and they are momentary in the pale of eternity. When Dave Anderson told us that he wanted to take a break after Revelation 19, my first thought was, no, don't stop before we get to the good stuff, the really good stuff of Revelation 20. I was thinking recently that this time, this church age, this life is the pause before we get to the really good stuff. We have a taste of the good stuff, but nowhere near the fulfillment of it, and we need to live in light of his soon return. We need to love his appearing. Lord, make us love his appearing more. Earlier I spoke of deliverance in Jesus Christ. I was not saying that your life was going to be easy from now on. You may not be delivered in this life. You may have to suffer infirmity, persecution, injustice, but all of these things are being worked by God for your good and his glory. And if we look forward, look into eternity, then all these sufferings can be, in fact, an occasion for joy. Hebrews 12. says this, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him, excuse me, consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Christ is our example. He endured unimaginable injustice. He suffered unimaginably. It is because of eternity and looking forward into it that Jesus did entrust himself to him who judges justly. We ourselves can suffer injustice. We can be oppressed and we can look forward to that day when he judges the wicked and calls them to account for all that they have done because of his promises. We may trust the Lord. May he move us from frustration to faith. from being sorrowful to being sure. Please stand as we close this morning. I want us to read the last three verses of this psalm together. Trent, if you could put up verse 16, 17, 18 on the screen. This is our hope. This is our joy that one day all will be set right. One day all the wickedness of this life will be judged. All the wickedness of our own hearts will be removed. He will wipe away every tear. Verse 16, together. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations will perish from his land. You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted. You encourage them and you listen to their cry. defending the fatherless and the oppressed in order that man who is of the earth may terrify no more heavenly father give us eyes to see into eternity into all that you have prepared for us into all that you have promised because all around us we see the wicked winning we see the apparent triumph of evil. Would you teach us to cry out to you? May we desire to come to you as children in distress, to you, our Father, who is mighty to save and full of grace. May we know you by diligently studying your word. not haphazard, not as an afterthought, but as a priority, something that we'd love to do so that we might know you. And Lord, we ask that you would help us to trust you, overcome our unbelief. Would you move us from confusion and fear to relentless faith and trust in you? And we ask all these things in the name of the one who loves us and gave himself for us, the name that is above every name, the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, amen.