Last week, we started on a topic and hit a topic that was just simply, Why Lord? That was the title of the message last week. And this is kind of a continuation of it. We focused on one main answer to the question, why, Lord? We went over several examples of just crazy things that have happened and strange ways that people have died and some of the different circumstances. And when you see something like that, you're bound to ask the question, why? It's a very normal question. We talked about Isaiah 55, and one of the reasons and one of the things to consider when you're trying to figure out why God is doing what he's doing, and that is, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. That's just a good verse to keep in the back of your mind when you don't understand something, because you can always default to, well, of course I don't understand it, I'm not God. Amen? And it doesn't necessarily give you an answer that you'll understand, but at least it gives you a measure of comfort knowing that, hey, even though I don't understand it, I know God does. And so we talked about that. We talked about the main reason why evil or bad things happen in this world is because of sin. Because from Adam, one man's sin entered into the world, and that if sin never entered into the world, folks, none of the things that you and I see wrong in the world would have ever happened. So we talked about that. But we talked about the fact that we live in a world where God did give us freedom. He gave us freedom of thought, freedom of beliefs, freedom of choice, and that we're responsible for making those choices. And for 6,000 years, men have been making choices. And they've made some good ones, and they've made some bad ones, and probably more bad than good. But 6,000 years of that, and how that, through all of that, every time you make a choice, there is, to some degree or another, a little domino effect. You begin affecting other people, and we talked and spent a lot of time talking about that sin issue, and how that sin traps you like a spider web, and how that's typically our perception of a spider web, but as we looked at last week, that's what, That's what the world is really like after 6,000 years. And that's why so many things happen. You can't get out of it. They interact with one another. I mentioned this very briefly last week, but we kind of ran out of time. And that is the second point that I brought up was that why do bad things happen? And the second reason that I wanted to talk about why bad things happen is that is to serve a purpose. When you think of the story of Job, you think of all the things he went through. And at the end, the Lord turned the captivity of Job. And when he prayed for his friends, also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. What you find out when it's all said and done is you find out that the Lord had a reason. The Lord had a purpose. And the Lord knew what he was doing all along. And that's something that you have to consider as well when you're asked the question, you know, why? Why, Lord? Why is this happening? Why am I in this situation? Why did this situation happen to me? And so I'd like to actually touch on this a little bit more this week and maybe kind of complete the thought process that I had from last week. So that's what we're gonna be doing. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you again for an opportunity to be here. I know that this is kind of a shortened version, Father, I finished up on last week, but still there's some very important things here that we need to understand, we need to be reminded of. I'm sure many of them we already know. But Lord, you're a great God. Help us never to forget that. I pray that you might bless the service this morning and speak to our hearts and give to each individual here what they need. Lord, you know how to do that. I certainly do not. This thing is in your hands. I pray that you would show up and that you would minister to your people. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So with the overriding kind of theme of to serve a purpose, why do things happen? Why, Lord? Why did that happen? Well, because of sin and the web of sin that we spoke about, but also to serve a purpose. And I just kind of drew a little triangle here. The general aspect of things, like I said earlier and last week, everything that's gone wrong in this world can be attributed to sin one way or another. uh... if we didn't have our fallen natures of our body wasn't corrupt if our uh... d n a wasn't corrupt of our blood wasn't corrupt of our thoughts were corrupt we wouldn't be living in the same world so in general you have that overall umbrella of sin that is true uh... two other questions come up often to oftentimes when you when you begin to look at this topic and that is uh... hate why do bad things happen to righteous people Why do bad things happen to good people? And then conversely, why do good things happen to bad people? Or why do good things happen to the wicked? And those two questions, you know, I mean, it's easy to just say, because of sin. And that's true. It is under that umbrella. But I wanted to look a little bit deeper at that and delve into that just a little bit more this week. If you will, open your Bibles to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. And I'd like to read here, and this is kind of a summation, but this is David. And when you read through Psalm 37, You'll see that David's struggling or answering some of those things. And David says this in Psalm 37, For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. You know, if we just get our mind off of other people, and just concentrate on us doing good, a lot of our problems would go away. But we're always worried about somebody else. And brethren, that's where you fall into the trap. If you can drop that, then a lot of our problems would go away. And how do you do that? Well, you do it by trusting in God. Hey, God's gonna take care of that person. Maybe that other person did do something bad. Maybe they did do something bad to me. Maybe they are wicked above all sinners who've ever walked the face of this earth before. But that's not your problem to deal with. Your problem to deal with is to take care of you, right? You can't take care of them. All you can do is take care of you. How do you do that? Verse three, trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass, and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Don't, don't. Trust in the Lord. Don't fret yourself because of that individual. Cease from anger. Hey, how often do you get angry because somebody else is doing well and you're not? Right? Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Don't let what somebody else is doing cause you to do something bad, right? For evildoers shall be cut off They'll get theirs. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. In short enough time, those wicked people will be gone. Right? In God's timeline, it's a short time. I know in yours you're impatient, but trust me, God's okay. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him, that is the wicked, for he seeth that his day is coming. Remember that thought, hey folks, his day is coming. Now we just read this, that wasn't this week's reading assignment, but last week's, which is kind of why part of what's prompted last week's, but we're continuing. The wicked have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and the needy and to slay such as be of upright conversation. That's very true. Their sword shall enter into their own heart and their bows shall be broken. Look at verse 16. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. Hey, that's a good thing to remember, folks. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. There is a... There's just so many things in Psalm 37 that are great. I'd encourage you to go back. I'm just gonna highlight a couple more verses. Look at verse 20. But the wicked shall perish. Look at verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Hey, if you're doing good and you're doing right, guess what? The Lord delights in the way that you're doing and what you're doing, and that's a comfort. You can rest in that. Now, if you're not, okay, don't rest. Look at verse 24, though he fall, that is the good man, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Hey, when those times when things do come about that are troublesome and that are wearisome and that are trials and storms, hey, don't, you know, the Lord will still uphold you. The Lord will not cast you out. Take a look at verse 27. In the end, folks, things are going to be made right. We get so tied up on seeing things that are happening right now, and so wrapped up in that, and we get our minds so focused on this supposed injustice that's happening right now, usually it's happening to me, that we forget, hey, God's in control of everything, and everything in the end is going to be all right. Look at verse 32. Yes, it is true. The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him. Sure, that's true. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. In the end, folks, it's all gonna turn out okay. Look at 35. I have seen the wicked in great power. Yeah. Of course we have. They have been. and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Hey, the Lord's gonna take care of him, right? Verse 37, mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. 39, but salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in Him. Again, just a great psalm that kind of goes along with this theme of why, Lord? And you get through, and you listen to David, and David wrote that psalm, and he kind of put it in perspective, and overall, David said, hey, don't worry. God's gonna take care of the righteous, and God's gonna take care of the wicked. Amen? And in the end, it's all gonna be said, or it's all gonna be made right and just and true. So you need to remember, when you face this question of why, Lord, you need to remember this. God is just. No matter what you see, no matter what circumstance you're in, even if you're tangled up in the middle of that spider web at the current moment and you can't figure out how to get out, hey, God is just. It's just you haven't seen the end of how things work out yet. Amen? So you've got to remember that. You have to remember that God is just. And so I'd like to start with that triangle, and I'd like to just kind of take a look at, hey, why do bad things happen to the righteous? And I'm going to try to hurry through this, because you should know this pretty well. But why do bad things happen to good people? Well, there's two main reasons why bad things happen to good people. Number one is because one way or another it's going to be profitable to you. Or there is always the possibility that it is some sort of a punishment, or you're reaping what you're sowing, right? When bad things happen to the righteous, those are the two things that you ought to consider. I'll take a look at the profitable section to start with. And one of the ways that a bad thing that happens to you, one of the reasons why a bad thing happens to you is because it can be profitable to you in this respect. That is, it can prepare you. it can prepare you. It says in 2 Corinthians 1, it says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. right, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. All right, so we know that answer. One of the reasons why you go through trials, one of the reasons why, quote, bad things happen to you is because in the long run it's gonna be profitable to you because it's gonna prepare you to help somebody else. You know, if you've never, ever, ever lost your temper, and I can't imagine there's anybody in here that's ever suffered from that situation, but if you've never lost your temper, it'd be kind of hard to explain to somebody how not to lose their temper. But when you learn to deal with your own, and you have to struggle with that, and you have to struggle with that character flaw, and you have to wrestle with it, and the Lord has to, you know, take you through some turbulent times and some storms in life because you see that, hey, my attitude is the one that's a problem. When you have to struggle through that, it's a lot easier on the other side when you've had some success. When you see somebody else going through that trouble, to sit down with them and talk with them and counsel with them and help them through it. Amen? Hey, when you've been through a tragedy in life, it's much easier to sit down with somebody that's going through a similar tragedy and help them through it. You say, why do bad things happen to good people? Well, sometimes the Lord takes you through a tragedy because he wants to use you to help somebody else down the road, but in order for you to be prepared to help them down the road, you need to go through this so that you learn this lesson. And all too often, we get in the middle of this training session, and we can't figure out why God is doing this to me, And we get so self-consumed that we don't consider the fact that it's actually going to be profitable. Because in our mind, we can't see how this particular thing, whatever it is, how can that ever possibly be profitable for me, because look at what I'm having to go through. And we're short-sighted. Right? But all of you know, 90% of getting a project done is the prep work. Right? You gotta start off with that good foundation. You gotta start off with everything being ready. If you just jump right into the middle of trying to help somebody and you've never been through anything yourself, you're gonna make a mess of things. You're gonna make a mess of yourself and you're gonna make a mess of them. The Lord doesn't do it that way. The Lord sometimes takes you through difficult times because he knows it is going to be profitable to you. Or it's going to be profitable in the fact that it'll strengthen you, right? Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Why? Well, because the battles that you're facing next week, next month, next year, may be tougher than the ones that you're facing today. And in order for you to get ready, you need to be prepared. Hey, one of the reasons, folks, why bad things happen to good people is because in the end, in the long run, it's going to be profitable for you. That's a hard one to swallow. I'll admit it, it is a hard one, nobody likes to think of it that way, but again, God's ways are higher than our ways. God is just, that's why I said you gotta keep that in the back of your mind. David knew when he wrote Psalm 37, hey listen, in the end God's gonna work everything out, but we're not at the end yet. we're at the beginning, or in the middle, and we're still in the training session when it comes to this kind of stuff, and it's hard to see, I mean, how many of you have ever been in a class, and let's say the class lasted, whatever, four months long, and you get about a month into it, and you're going, is this ever gonna turn into anything that's gonna be useful for me? Because you get bogged down in the details. Right? You get bogged down in the intricate details of what it is you're learning and all the minute paragraphs and subparagraphs and all the codes and all the rules and all the laws and all the steps and all the procedures. I mean, I used to do that in the middle of the radar stuff all the time. You get in the middle of this procedure that's like pages and pages long, and the procedure says, adjust this resistor and put it to 47 volts. You're in the middle of all that, and it's easy to lose sight of why did you even bother to do that. And then you get down towards the end of the process, and you realize, oh, I just set a threshold so that I can determine what is and what is not an airplane. Because in the grand scheme of things, that's pretty important when you're working on a radar. Right? Because that's what a radar is supposed to do, is find airplanes. But it's easy to lose sight of that in the middle of the procedure because you just have to do the next step. And as you well know, if you skip steps, when you get down to the end, in my case, that radar is not going to detect the airplane. Or it's not going to detect the airplane as well as it should have. Same thing with these things. You have another challenge that's coming up. It's to prepare you. Another thing is it's profitable, not just to prepare you folks, but when bad things happen to you, the righteous, your savior this morning, I know most of you are, when bad things happen to the righteous, it's profitable to prepare you, and it's profitable in this, in that maybe the Lord's just using it to prove you. That's what Job was going through. Maybe the Lord's just allowing you to go through something because maybe, hey, maybe, I don't know that I've ever been at this level of my spirituality, but maybe the Lord is looking at you and saying, hey, look at this guy. My fear is I fail that test all too often. But maybe the Lord is putting you through this so that somebody else can look at you and see you go through it. Hey, why do bad things happen to good people, to the righteous? Well, because... One answer is because it's profitable for them. The Lord's got a reason for what He's doing. We get so caught up in the details and the nitty-gritty, we miss that. Another reason, I need to hurry along here, another reason that bad things may very well happen to the righteous, is for punishment. That is true. Hey, you know, Ecclesiastes Chapter 8, Ecclesiastes Chapter 8, Says, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set on them to do evil. Talked about that a little bit this morning at Sunday school. Right? You know, one of the reasons why bad things happen to you sometimes is because the Lord is allowing you to reap some of what you've sown. And the problem is, when that happens, we're looking at, well, I've been pretty good this last week. Why is this bad thing happening to me now? Well, hey, maybe the Lord wants you to sit back and look at the past. Maybe the Lord does want you to look back and maybe there are some things back there that were never really fully taken care of. Maybe there are some things back there that you know that you did and you've never really sought forgiveness for them. That's always a possibility. Right? That's what Israel ran into. Israel ran into the Lord finally getting fed up with them, and when he looked at it, he's referring to a lot of things that happened back in the past. When bad things happen to good people, you know, maybe it is because it's profitable for you, but maybe, maybe you do need to sit back and say, hey, did I do something foolish? Hey, did I, am I the one that made the mistake? Now, if you've gone through that and you've questioned yourself about those things, and every one of us can look back and point to, oh yeah, there was that, oh yeah, there was that, oh yeah, there was that, and you know, your list may be this big, your list may be pages long. Probably just equates to your age. But you can look back, you can look back and, you know, and if you look back and you go, you know, yeah, I've already talked to the Lord about that. I've already gotten that taken care of with the Lord. I've already, I've already spoken to the Lord about that. I've already repented of that. Okay, you know what? That's probably not it. But there's always a possibility, there's always a possibility that there are things in the past that you haven't really dealt with. And I'm not talking about beating yourself over the head at some sin that you forgot when you were seven. That's not what I'm talking about either. I'm just talking about, hey, my two cents for whatever it's worth is, hey, if the Lord is dealing with you about a particular thing, I kind of figure he's gonna let you know what that thing is. Right? He's gonna bring it to your mind. You're gonna remember it, right? He's not gonna deal with you something and not tell you what it was. So, if you've dealt with it, praise the Lord, that's probably not what it is. Don't get stuck on that one, but that is something you should consider. Another thing you consider is, hey, maybe there's something you're doing in the present. Right? And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God deal with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Hey, there's always the possibility the Lord is chasing you for something that's happening now, right? And you have to keep that possibility open. You can't just say, oh, God is love and forget to think about the other side of it. God has a paddle. Right? Yeah, God obviously has both. He'll put his arm around you and keep you safe. But if he needs to break out the paddle, then he can break out the paddle. And you gotta at least ask yourself, if you're going through a difficult time, hey, is that why the Lord has gotten my attention? Right? When bad things happen to a righteous people, pretty much, It's gonna be, I mean, we talked about the whole general accident thing last week, just that web of sin, that kind of covers everything, but it's pretty much gonna be either because it's profitable for you to go through it, or the Lord's dealing with you because of something specific, either in the past or the present. Amen? Pretty, that much of it, pretty straightforward. Pretty easy to understand. But when you're going through those difficult times, you've got to at least ask the question. I don't know which one of the four cases there that you were looking at that it may be, but chances are pretty good it's probably one of the four. right you can blaming it all under the umbrella of sin that's that's true but it's kind of nice to narrow it down a little bit more so you have an idea of what's happening the best you can and my advice is is something bad happens you look through the the past you look to the present you go you know what hey i'm i've i'm walking with the lord and and i have I've taken care of those things in the past and I'm confessed up and I'm trying to do right, then you jump to profitable and you go, okay, Lord, I'll go through this and I'll figure it out later. At that point, you just come to the conclusion, okay, Lord, you must be doing something with me that I need to learn, so I'm gonna be patient and I'm gonna try to learn whatever it is you're trying to teach me. And maybe you won't know for a while, You go through that storm and, you know, let's say, you know, whatever. Let's say you go through the storm of being in a very bad auto accident. Why God? What did I do? God's punishing me. Well, no, maybe, maybe not. And then you, and then you make it through the car accident. You, you recover and now 10 years goes by. And then you find yourself in a different position and in a different place in life and now somebody that you know goes through a bad car accident. Ten years later and now you're ready to help them in a way that you wouldn't have been ready before. I mean, car accident's probably a very bad example, because none of us want to go through that. But the reality is, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to happen immediately after you've been through it yourself. You may wind up dealing with people multiple times throughout your Christian walk with something that you experienced 10, 15, 20 years ago. You may be able to help several people along the way. There's no way you're going to know that when you're going through it. But God will certainly help in that regard. Why do bad things happen to good people or to the righteous? Well, there's just a couple of good examples. And then the flip side of that is the other question. That should be why. Why, why, when good things happen to the wicked? I guess it can be when. We'll leave it there. When good things happen to the wicked, you look at it and you don't understand. Right? That's a hard one. That's a tough one to, you know, resolve in your mind. And I'll just tell you this. Good things happen to wicked people. because A, it's a testimony of God's mercy. Somebody put it this way, because they're gonna become a monument of God's mercy. You watch somebody and you watch this individual and they go through life and they're just wicked, they're reprobate, and they're just against God, and they're just sinning along the way, sinning along the way, and you look at them and they've got more money than you, They have more toys than you. They have a better job than you. They have a better position at work than you. They have, you know, a better, maybe even a better family life than you. And you look at that and you struggle with that and you go, why God? I'm righteous and I'm trying to follow you. And that wicked person there, everything about their life is better than what I have. But they're wicked and everybody knows they're wicked and then, you know, at some point in time, they get caught. Or you take that wicked person, maybe it's not they have more than you, you take this wicked person and, you know, and maybe that everything around them is falling apart. But they have a lot of money. And you ask yourself, why would God waste good money on that person when all they're going to do is spend it on drugs? All they're going to do is spend it on sin. All they're going to do is... and yet they keep seeming to have more and more and more, and you don't understand it. Again, God's ways are higher than our ways. Well, folks, Maybe what the Lord's doing is letting that person's wickedness build up and build up and build up and build up. Because you know what? At some point in time, like a David Spurgeon, they're going to get saved. And their life is going to turn around. and they are going to be on fire for God and they're going to do something for the Lord that most people would never accomplish. Why? Because they've been through the wicked part before and everybody is going to stand back and look at that individual and go, man, look at how wicked they used to be. Look at what God did to that wicked individual. If God can do that to him, he can do something with me because I haven't been that bad. Right? Hey, why do good things happen to wicked people? One of the reasons is because God's gonna let that wicked person go for so long, and God knows, hey, at some point in time, that person's gonna turn around, and they are gonna be such a testimony to me of how merciful I am. Hey, if God can be merciful to somebody like a David Spurgeon, He can certainly be merciful to me. And name whoever it is that you think is the most wicked. Right? Why do good things happen to wicked people? Well, because sometimes God's planning on using them as a monument of mercy. It's a testimony to God's mercy. But the problem is, we're looking at their wickedness here, and we don't understand it. God's being good to them here, and we don't understand it. We don't see that their life isn't going to change until down there. Right? So when you see somebody that appears to be wicked, doing well, you don't know what God's going to do with that person. God may change their heart around, and that individual may be a great pastor, a great evangelist, a great missionary, or just a great witness. for the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do good things happen to the wicked? Well, sometimes it's just because God's gonna use them as a testimony of His mercy. Hey, look, if I can be merciful to this person, I can be merciful to anybody. I'll tell you another reason why good things happen to bad people. Well, I guess I should. So, I forgot I had that slide there, sorry. talking about God's mercy, and then we'll hit the next point. Gracious is the Lord and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. Hey, of course he is, right? We know that. Look, Joel 2.13 says, Hey, God puts up with an awful lot sometimes. And then when a person When a person rends his heart, when a person turns his heart towards God, God makes that individual into something completely different. And that's what he did with you. You may not have been, quote, that bad, but I think all of us can testify we were bad enough. God's mercy. I'll tell you another reason why good things happen to wicked people, because it's a testimony of God's long-suffering. God gets to show forth his attribute of long-suffering by letting a wicked person live a long time and be prosperous. Right, long-suffering is putting up with pain against you for a long period of time. You say, does it bother God that that person's living wickedly? Oh yeah, of course it does. But in order for it to be long-suffering, it has to be pain directed at you that you put up with for a long period of time. If God zapped everybody in an instant when they messed up, he wouldn't be long-suffering. By definition, right? But, but, you look at somebody that's wicked, and they seem to be doing well, and they seem to be moving on, and they seem to be living a long life, and they seem to be prosperous, and they seem to be enjoying everything, and they seem to be having more fun than you're having, and you wonder, hey, why doesn't God step in and stop them? Well, maybe he's just using them to prove how long-suffering he is. Amen? Maybe God is just letting them go and letting them go and letting them go because that way nobody can ever look at God and say, yeah, but you never put up with us. Hey, here's another way to look at that. If God put up with that wicked person for that whole extended, let's say their whole life, they never got saved. If God put up with that wicked person for their whole life, let's say they lived a nice long life. Let's say they lived to be 100 years old. Excuse me, Melville Jane, 110. A nice long life. And they were wicked the 110 years. You know what you and I can do? We can look at that and say, well, if the Lord was long-suffering with them, I am sure glad He's long-suffering with me too. And the Lord would put up, not that you should push the limits, but it's good knowing the Lord's not going to drop the hammer just because you made a mistake along the way. You see that testimony that, what, God is long-suffering. Sometimes God lets somebody get away with it just to show he's willing to put up with it. It proves his attribute of long-suffering. Right? Sometimes he's, he shows how merciful he is when that individual turns around and becomes something mighty for God. But that doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes they die wicked. Well, God, why'd you do that? Well, it just proves that I'm long-suffering. Just proves I'll put up with it. Amen? Why do good things happen to wicked people? Well, it's a testimony of God's Mercy is a testimony of God's long-suffering. Romans 9.22 says this, it says, what if, what if God, question, hey, think about this, how about if God's acting this way? What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." Hey, what if God let him go? What if God did endure with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath? The people that are wicked. Well, He did. It shows His long-suffering. It shows His long-suffering. See, God's not like you and me. You see, you and me, when something goes wrong with us, we're very quick to lose our patience and lose our temper and lose our cool and get back at that person who did me wrong. I'm glad God's not like that. Hey, what if God did that to you every time you did something wrong? I'm glad God's long-suffering. Amen? And so you learn that attribute about God. You learn of His mercy. You learn of His, you know, His long-suffering. And you know what you ought to take away from that? You take away from that, hey, that's how I should be with others. Because if God lost his temper like some of you lost your temper, there wouldn't be anybody here this morning. So we see an attribute of God that for us Christians, even though you're not, quote, the wicked. Now you might be wicked, but you're not the wicked. You're saved, right? But you see that attribute of God of long-suffering and you learn, hey, that should be how I act. That attribute should be my attribute. God shows a testimony of being long-suffering. And finally, Why do, when good things happen to the wicked, it's a testimony of God's justice. Now, take a look at, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Right? Hey, if somebody does you wrong, don't be, don't be angry with them. Don't be envious of them. for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as a green herb. Hey, God is good to this individual all their life. God is good to them maybe for years and years and years and years, and you know they're wicked. Everybody knows they're wicked. It's very evident they're wicked, and God is still good to them. But at some point, like we read in Psalm 37 at some point God's gonna step in and he's going to use that individual as a picture of his justice even though he was good to them for a long time God's gonna step in and at some point drop the hammer and you're gonna look at that just uh... that that wicked person who people would say, oh, he was blessed his whole life, and then you're gonna see in the end a very tragic end, and you're gonna realize, oh, God really does pay back. God really is just. See, God can do it a lot of different ways. And he doesn't necessarily do it the same way with everybody. I mean, you take, you know, you take a couple people like, you know, Hitler or Mussolini and, you know, back during World War II and, I mean, you watch them and the rise to power and they had whole nations under them and, I mean, for a while everybody was wondering, hey, are they ever going to get stopped? And we're sitting here thinking, well, they're wicked people. They're wicked people and yet they keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger and, you know, had God not intervened, they could have very easily taken over all Europe. And people are sitting back, God, why are you allowing this to happen? You got concentration camps going on, you got Jews that are being slaughtered in the gas chambers, along with all the other prisoners, a lot of other prisoners from a lot of other places, but millions and millions and millions of Jews and people, God, why are you letting this happen? and God, you know, and yet they kept rising in power for a long time, just kept rising in power and getting stronger, and there was a while there it looked like, hey, they're gonna take over. We can't stop them. I bet that's what all those people at Dunkirk thought. I mean, they were surrounded. They were going, yeah, England's next. There's no way out of this. God, why are you letting this happen? And he let it go, and he let it go, and he let it go. Why? Because in the end, he knew exactly what he was gonna do. And he was gonna show his justice. And in the end, of course, you know, Hitler wound up committing suicide so he wouldn't get caught. So the story goes. So that's one. Mussolini tried to get out of, you know, out of Italy and tried to make his way up to Switzerland or Sweden. I think he tried to make it into Sweden to get away from being caught. And he wound up, he was in his car with his girlfriend and wound up, long story short, I've got to hurry. He wound up getting caught, the two of them together. They put him in jail. Next thing you know, a couple days later, they wound up executing him and her. And then their bodies wound up at his main train station. And the public just went nuts, beat him, shot him, threw food at him, just then ultimately hung him upside down. Everybody got to see the end of that. Sometimes God lets a wicked person go and go and go, and they appear to be blessed. They appear to have good things happening all along the way. God's intent at the end is to bring that person down in a way that it shows, no, there is justice. So you'll see God handle things a lot of different ways. Why? Well, we all know because of sin. That's an overriding umbrella that covers everything and explains everything. But the second part of that question is, why Lord? And that is to serve a purpose. Now, I don't know exactly what purpose God has for you and me and what you're going through in this individual trial or struggle, but but I promise you, you know, God has a purpose for bringing you through something. There's a reason for it. It's not arbitrary, right? If you're righteous, because maybe it'll be profitable for you. Maybe it's a punishment. That's always a possibility. To the wicked, when we don't understand why God's doing something with, or not doing something with the wicked, then hey, maybe it's God just being merciful. Maybe that individual's gonna wind up getting saved and be just a great testimony of what God can do when it comes to saving somebody. Maybe God's just letting him go, just to simply prove he's long-suffering. Or maybe God's blessing him and letting him go along the way and allowing him to be prosperous because he knows, well, this individual in the end, I'm gonna make a symbol. I'm gonna show my justice on them. And our biggest struggle when it comes to this question of why is we focus on why as it relates to today and right now. God's looking at things in a much bigger picture. His ways are higher than our ways. Amen? So when you're going through something like that, you gotta remember, hey, there are multiple possibilities. But in all of them, like we read through in Psalm 37, God is just, God's got it under control, and the best thing that we can do is to step back, let God do His work, and we just do right. Amen? Don't get wrapped up in trying to do God's job for him. God'll take care of it. You may not understand what he's doing with that other individual, but I promise you, God will take care of it. He's just. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, thank you again for just an opportunity to be here on a Sunday morning, just to sit back and look at a few different ways that you operate and how you've operated in people's lives. Lord, there are dozens and dozens of examples that we could that we could look at in the scriptures and just, quite frankly, even in human life, where these principles show true. But Father, pray that you'd help us to remember those things. Help us to remember that when we see something that we don't understand, Lord, our job is to figure out how we can do right. and then let you take care of the other things. You're a great God, you're a just God, and Father, you've got things well under control. Help us to put things in a better perspective, not to get too self-centered and too focused on ourselves. Help us to remember that you do things, Father, patiently, that you're in this for the long run, and that in the end, it's all gonna work out well. I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.