Again, if you have a copy of the Word of God, turn it with me to the book of Psalms. Part of being a believer is that you are adopted into a family. And being part of that family, God never meant for the Christian life to be lived in a vacuum alone. He wants us to encourage one another, and that's what that song was about, to minister to one another. And if you've never needed that, you just buckle your belt. Because you will. You will need other people. It's just part of living. Yesterday afternoon, I went into my study and I was sitting there in the choir in a moment and I reached over and grabbed Pilgrim's Progress. And I read, first of all, I read about John Bunyan's life a little bit. Then I read a little poem he had written at the front of the book called The Apology for his work, which needs no apology. And then here's how it began. He said as he was traveling, he lighted upon a place and he went to sleep and he dreamed a dream. And in his dream, there was a man standing there with a troubled look on his face, a burden on his back and a book in his hand. And he said, finally in despair, he said, What shall I do? That's how the book begins. The book in his hand is, of course, the Bible. The burden on his back is the burden of sin. The look on his face is the conviction and the trouble that comes to our hearts when God reveals to us our lostness. And eventually, God drives us to the point to where we say, what shall I do? What shall I do? And a man named Evangelist comes up to him and points him to a wicked gate. And he goes to the wicked gate. And boy, I'll tell you what, that just spoke volumes to my heart because that was me. I was the man with the book in his hand. It was the Word of God that showed me my lostness. my hopelessness that revealed to me the burden of sin that was upon my back, upon my life. And thank God someone came to me and pointed me toward the wicked gate, the straight and narrow way, which is Christ alone. Psalm chapter 10. I want to read to you the whole psalm. Of course, you know that these were songs that were written and they were sang in Old Testament Jewish worship. In my Bible, there's a little title. It's not in the Scripture, but it was just a little heading that they placed over this psalm, and I like it, so I'm going to share it with you. A Song of Confidence in God's Triumph over Evil. And that's a pretty good title to this psalm. We're going to read the whole psalm, then we're going to go back and we're going to look at it for a little while this morning. Begin at verse 1. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boast of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. His ways are always prostrate. Your judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved. I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He sits in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws him into his net. So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten, he hides his face, he will never see. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations have perished out of his land. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear. To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed. that the man of the earth may oppress no more. And we'll stop our reading there. And I would like to ask you, if you would, if you don't mind, to keep your Bible open to this psalm this morning. And we're going to look at this psalm and consider some of the things that we can learn from this portion of God's Word this morning. Now, really, this psalm deals with an age-old problem that man, I guess, from the very beginning, from Adam's sin in Genesis chapter 3, has always wrestled with and always struggled with as he lives his life and he observes the events that go on around him. And it's this simple problem here. Why is it that oftentimes the wicked and the proud prosper while the poor and the humble suffer? And what's more than that, Many times it seems like God is indifferent to the plight of those who are in need. Have you ever wrestled with that? As you've lived your life, have you ever looked at those who were ungodly, and those who were proud, and those who were wicked, and yet they seem to prosper in their wickedness, they seem to prosper in their sin? And at the very same time, those who were godly, those who were humble, those who were lowly, those who were meek, they suffered, and many times they were oppressed and victimized by the high and the mighty of the land. And what's more, as you observe the situation, it seemed like God was totally indifferent to what was going on. God remained silent. God remained quiet. God did not act on the behalf of the humble and on the behalf of the lowly. If you've never wrestled with that or you've never thought about that, there will come a time in your life Well, you'll see that. You'll see that in the lives of the people around you. You'll see it in the life of a neighbor, a friend, a relative. You'll see it in the life of someone that you know, someone who is proud, and arrogant, and godless, and wicked, and yet they prosper. In everywhere they turn, they seem to prosper. And maybe they oppress the poor, and the humble, and the meek, and the lowly, or the godly. And yet, God seems to be indifferent to it, as far as you can tell by what you look. You look at the circumstance and you think, now, if I was God, I would judge that man. If I was God, I would do something about that. If I was God, I would act about that. I wouldn't let that remain as it is. And yet God allows it to go on and on and on and on and on. And God remains silent. And God remains quiet. And God does not act in the way that you expect Him to act. I wrestle with that. I've wrestled with it many times throughout the course of my Christian life. When God awakened me and God opened my eyes, there have been many times that I've looked at people's lives around me and I've said, God, why is it so? Why is it this way? Why is it that the godly prosper? I mean, the ungodly prosper. Why is it that the proud oppress the godly and the humble and the lowly and the meek, and yet the humble and the lowly and the meek seem to get no relief? Seem to get no help. And God, you seem to be silent and indifferent to the plight of those who are oppressed and those who are in need. Well, that's what this psalmist is doing in this psalm, the tenth psalm. He's writing a psalm, but in the psalm he's addressing this very question. how the godly many times suffer, and the meek and the lowly suffer, how the ungodly prosper in their arrogance and in their pride. And he asked the question, God, why aren't you doing something about this? So let's look at the psalm. We're going to look at basically five things in this psalm. Everything I say, we'll be able to see right here in this psalm, and then we'll be done this morning. The first thing I want you to notice is what this psalmist says about those who are proud or the wicked. Now, if you go down through this psalm, you'll find out he has a lot to say about the ungodly, those who are proud, those who are arrogant, those who are wicked. And he says thing after thing, as you go down through the psalm, about this class of people that he deems to be the proud or the wicked. The first thing he says is that they oppress the poor, or they oppress the needy. Look what he says in verse 2. The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Now, have we found that to be true in our culture? Is that true? Are those who are poor, not just materially poor, but also the Bible, not only when it talks about poverty, it's not only always speaking about physical or material poverty, it's speaking about the lowly, the humble, the nothings in this world. And that's exactly, I believe, the way that the word is used here. It's not just talking about people who are poor in the sense that they don't have money. He's talking about people who are lowly, people who are easily stepped upon, people who are easily oppressed, people who are easily looked over and bypassed and ignored in our culture. And this is what he says about the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. And that word persecute there means to kind of hunt down, to hunt for a way to take advantage of those who are lowly and those who are poor. And I don't think you can deny that that takes place in our culture, does it not? I mean, how can we deny the fact that those who are the nobodies in our culture are many times oppressed, are many times persecuted? It's true. Many times of Christians. Is it not true that Christians are looked down upon, despised in our culture, and because of that, many times they are oppressed, they are victimized, they are stepped upon, they are bypassed in our culture? It's true of those who are materially poor. Can you deny the fact that those who are materially poor cannot receive the same attention or justice? that those who have money have in our culture. We know that's true. I mean, for instance, we could talk about O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson and all of that. The reality is if you've got enough money, you know, in our culture, you can get by with about anything. That's just part of the culture. Not only our culture, but practically every culture and the world that we live in. And that's what it says, those who are proud, they persecute the poor. Not only that, notice the next thing these verses teach. They plot and scheme evil against those who are innocent. Now look how it puts it in verse 2. The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. And then the psalmist says this, let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Now what's he saying? He's saying these proud, these arrogant, these wicked, they are plotting against the innocent. They are plotting against the poor. They are plotting against the weak. And the psalmist said, let them be caught in their own schemes. Let them be caught in their own plots. Now, look how he puts it down in verse 8. And this is pretty interesting to me, how the psalmist puts it. He's talking about the proud and the arrogant again. He said, he sits in the lurking places of the villages. and the secret places he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws them into his net. So he crouches. He lies low that the helpless may fall by his strength. Now notice how he pictures the proud who are trying to oppress the poor. Notice what he says. He says it's like they're lurking in the villages looking for someone to trip up. Looking for someone to take advantage of. They murder the innocent. They got their eyes set secretly upon those who are helpless because those who are helpless are the ones that they can take advantage of most easily. And then he said this, they're like a lion in a den waiting secretly for someone to come by so that they might pounce out upon them and take advantage of them. And he said, they're like someone, they've got a net and they're trying to draw someone into their net and to capture them and to take advantage of them and to deceive them in some way. So he says this, these who are proud, they oppress the needy and they plot and scheme evil against those who are innocent. Another thing, they boast about their plans and their schemes. Look what it says in verse 3, the wicked boast of his heart's desire. He brags about, I did this and I did that and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, and they boast. about the plans that they have to take advantage of those who are the poor and the weak and the innocent. Another thing they do, they praise the greedy. Look at what it says at the last part of verse 3. He blesses the greedy. He blesses the greedy in the New King James. In other words, those who are greedy, those who are covetous, He praises them as if they were the ones that were praiseworthy and worthy of honor and worthy of glory. Look at the next thing. He renounces the Lord. In other words, He says, Who needs the Lord? I don't need the Lord. I can do whatever I want to do, live however I want to live, be whatever I want to be, and I don't need the Lord. Now, is that common in our culture today? Very common in our culture today. He renounces the Lord. Look at the next thing. Not only did he renounce the Lord, using words, but he doesn't seek God. Look at verse 4. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. Not only does he not seek God, he doesn't want to think about God. Look at the next part of that verse. God is in none of his thoughts. Now, that's a pretty good description of our culture, is it not? We've renounced God. We've turned our back on God. Who needs God? We don't want to think about God. And we do not seek God. And we do not seek God because we feel no need of God. And that's exactly what he's saying about the proud here. Notice, he says they prosper in their ways. Verse 5, His ways are always prospering. Now I'll give you something for homework. You ought to go read Psalm 73. And if you read Psalm 73, the psalmist in Psalm 73 deals with the very same issue. He looks at the wicked and he sees them prosper in their pride, and he gets his eyes off of God, and he nearly stumbles and falls. because he gets to looking at the wicked and how that they prosper in their wickedness. Isn't it true that many people prosper in evil ways? That's just the truth. It's not just that the Bible says that all you've got to do is open your eyes and look around you. It is true that there are many who prosper in evil. They prosper in their pride. They prosper in their arrogance. A man told me just this week about a man he knew once. who, in a storm, lightning struck one of his animals. And it killed one of his animals. And when he found out that his animal had died, he raised his fist to heaven and dared God to strike him with lightning also. And you know what God did? He did nothing. Now, if you and I had been God, we'd have popped him, wouldn't we? We'd have got him. We said, you dare me, I'll show you I'm God. I'll put the lightning to you. You want lightning? I'll give you lightning. But God did nothing. And people do that, do they not? They prosper in their evil. And God seems to do nothing about it. They don't want to think about God. They don't seek God. They act like they don't need God. They renounce God. They prosper in their evil ways. They have no ability to discern the ways of God or the Word of God. Look at the next part of verse 5. His ways are always prospering. Your judgments are far above out of His sight. In other words, God's ways and God's Word and God's will, they're far above. The proud, arrogant, self-sufficient, wicked man, he can't see them, he can't understand them, he can't get them because they're a million miles away from him. He can't discern the judgments of God. He can't see and understand God's ways and God's will and God's Word because his heart is darkened and his heart is closed. And then the Bible here says that they think adversity will never come to them. Look at verse 6. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved. I shall never be in adversity. Aren't there many people that even though they might not say it, that's the way they live their life. I'll never be moved. And adversity will never come to me. Can I tell you, as long as you're above ground of adversities on the way, Adversity will come. Trouble will come. Difficulty will come. The difference between us and these people should simply be this. We know adversity is coming. And we expect it. And we rely on the Lord in the midst of it. But they say, oh, not me. Adversity will never come. I'll never be moved. That's a foolish way to live your life. Because there's never been anybody so big that God couldn't bring them down. And there's never been anybody so secure that God could not step into their security and bring adversity into their life. Not only do they think that adversity will never come, they think that God doesn't see and God doesn't care about their life. Look at verse 11. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see. He's saying, well, God doesn't care. God's not looking at my life. God doesn't see. God's forgotten. God doesn't care how I live my life. I live as I please. And God's not going to do anything about it because God doesn't see and God doesn't care. Not only that, they think they won't be held accountable. Look at verse Thirteen. Well, let's read verse 12 and 13 together. Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, You will not require an account. Now, that's not going to hold me accountable. I'll live any way I please. Do as I please. Be what I please. Number one, I'm not going to sink God. I'm not going to... I don't need God. I'm not going to think about God. God's not going to hold me accountable. I'll never be moved. I'll never see adversity. I can be what I want to be. I'll do it my way. And God, He doesn't see and He doesn't even care. Now isn't this pretty much the description of our culture? Not everyone. But I'm talking about our culture is driven many times by the proud. and the arrogant and the mighty and the wicked. The very same things that this psalmist says under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about the proud is the very things that could be said about our culture. So the first thing I want you to see was this attitude of heart that the proud have. But now notice something about the poor. Notice some of the things that this psalm tells us about the poor. This psalm tells us that the poor are often persecuted by the evil and victimized by the proud. Now that's just a fact of life. And notice once again in verse 2, the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. The poor, the humble, the lowly in this world, in this life that we live in, they are often persecuted by the evil and they are often mistreated by the proud and the arrogant and the self-sufficient of the world. And that's just a fact of life. And you need to understand it. That's the way it is, the way it always has been, and the way it always will be until Christ comes and rights all wrongs. That's just the way it is. But not only that, They are victims. Many times they are victims of the plots and schemes of evil people. Now think about that, because this bears thinking about a little bit. Just because you're a Christian, does that mean that if someone endeavors to do you wrong, does God stop in or step in and say, Stop! That's my servant. I'm not going to allow you to do that. Is that always the case? Now, there are cases when God does that, right? Isn't it true that in the case of Joseph, that God did not allow his brothers sin? to do him ultimate harm, and God in His providence worked it out for the good, and even Joseph said, you meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for good. Yes, they did him evil, and God allowed them to do him evil, but yet God in His providence turned it around and used it for His purpose and for His good. But let me give you a few other examples. Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Naboth? Naboth was a godly man who lived, during the reign of King Ahab and Jezebel, two of the most wicked persons ever to rule over the northern kingdom of Israel. Ahab gets the idea that he wants to possess the vineyard of Naboth, which was by his vineyard. So he goes to Naboth and he says, listen, your vineyard's by mine and I want your vineyard. I'll pay you for it or I'll give you another vineyard for it. Sell me your vineyard. And Naboth wouldn't do it. And you know why he wouldn't do it? Because the old law, in the old law, it was forbidden for them to sell the inheritance that was given unto them and that was the inheritance of their family. So it wasn't just that Naboth was being difficult. He could not sell the property to Ahab. In doing so, he would have been violating the Word of God. So Ahab, like any great king, comes home, lays on his bed, and pouts. He gets all upset, turns his pout, like any great king would do. Just lays on his bed, pouts. His wife comes in and says, what's the matter with you? Why are you sad? What's wrong? Well, Naboth won't sell me his vineyard. Well, aren't you the king? What was she saying? Aren't you the king? Can't you do whatever you want to do? I'll get you that vineyard. You know what Jezebel did? She sent word to Naboth's city for them to have a celebration and to set Naboth on high. And she planted two evil men in the crowd because nobody was to be put to death except on the witness of two people. They planted two evil men in the crowd and they stopped the celebration and said, we heard Naboth blaspheme God. You know what they did? They took him out and stoned him to death. And Ahab came down and took possession of his vineyard. Now couldn't God have stopped that? But did he? No. Wasn't it the scheme of a wicked woman who didn't like the preaching of John the Baptist that got his head cut off? And isn't it true that Herod killed James with the sword and many of the other apostles were persecuted and killed and mistreated and lived upon this earth under great trial and great persecution? And did not Jeremiah get let down into a cistern and stand waist deep in the mud and he would have died there had God not of got him out? So isn't it true that good people, godly people, humble people, poor people are often the recipients of great pain and great sorrow and great evil at the hands of others? Now, that's understood, but that's not the problem. The problem, here's what the psalmist is doing. He said, I look over here and I see the proud, and their arrogance, and their wickedness, and their prosperity. And I look over here and I see the poor, and their suffering, and their pain, and they are mistreated, and they are victimized. And if that were not bad enough, the part that bothers me is that God seems to be indifferent to it. Look at his question, verse 1. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? And why do you hide in times of trouble? That's the question, isn't it? God, when your people are hurting and they're in trouble, why aren't you standing way off over there? Where are you at? And when the poor and the humble and the meek and the lowly are in trouble, why does it seem that in times of trouble you hide yourself? Boy, that's a question for the ages, isn't it? And, you know, if you've ever thought that way, you've just not thought about it. Because there are times when that's exactly what it seems to be. That's exactly. There are times when as you live your life, the wicked seem to prosper, the humble seem to suffer, and God seems to remain silent. And the proud get prouder, and the poor get more victimized, and we're standing there asking, God, why are you so far away? Why are you standing way out over there? God, this is a situation. that you should be doing something about. How many of us have thought that we were qualified to instruct God what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and then when He didn't do it, we accused Him of evil and wrong? I've had to really guard myself in my own prayer life. Because sometimes your prayers become attempts at commanding and manipulating God. And instead of God being sovereign, you pray from the standpoint that you're sovereign and God is there to serve you. And I've had to guard myself in my own prayer life not to be instructing God. And sometimes many of you have different times come to me and said, would you pray about this? And I do endeavor to pray about it. And I endeavor to pray about it quickly so that I don't forget that I promised you that I would pray about it. But I don't command God about it because I'm not qualified. If you come to me and say, I've got this terrible problem, pray that God will remove it. I will. I'll say, God, remove it. If it be your will. But if that's the very thing that you're using to glorify yourself in their life and to draw them to yourself, God, who am I to tell you to remove what you put there for their ultimate good? Now when I tell people that, they never come and ask me to pray for them again. But that's exactly how I've learned that I have to pray. And I hope you would pray for me the same way, because is it not true that in the midst of a painful circumstance, all we can think of is God remove the pain, God remove the pain, God remove the pain, and we go to all our brothers and sisters, pray with me that God will remove the pain, and in our pain we can't see that God has a purpose that is greater than the pain, and the pain is the very thing that God is using to perform His great purpose. When it's all said and done, you'll find out that the pain was worth it to get to the purpose. Now, I know you can't see that when you're in the pain. I can't either. But can I tell you the pain is worth it to arrive at the destination that God is endeavoring to bring you to. So here's the thing. He looks here and he sees the proud. He looks here and he sees the poor. But then he wrestles with this problem. God, why are you so far away? And why don't you do something about this? Why won't you act? And notice how he prayed. Notice his prayers. Look at verse 12. Arise, O Lord. What's he saying? God, get up. Wake up. God, arise. Do something about this. Are you asleep? Wake up. Arise, O Lord. Stand up and do something about this situation. Look at the next line. O God, lift up Your hand. What does His hand symbolize? His power. His authority. His ability. He's saying, God, Lord, get up and show Yourself strong. Do something. Act in this situation. Look at the next line. Do not forget the humble. That's how he's praying. God, I see the proud over here in their arrogance and their sin and their prosperity. I see the humble in their suffering. And yet you seem to be doing nothing. God, please arise, bear your arms, show your power, do something. Don't forget the humble. Look at verse 15. Notice his prayer, break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. So what was his prayer? God, wake up, arise, act. Don't forget the humble and God deal with the proud. That was the way he prayed. But notice the conclusion that he come to and I'm done. Because you know that ultimately, this is where you always have to come to. The conclusion he came to was found in God's promises. First of all, he found out that God seeks. Look at verse 14. But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief. Do you know that God knows? Let me give you an example. Do you know that for 400 years, 430 years, while the Jews were in the land of Egypt, And somewhere in the midst of that 400-year period, a pharaoh arose to power that didn't know Joseph and didn't regard Joseph, and they began to oppress the children of Israel, and they put taskmasters over them. And for probably hundreds of years, those people cried out to God, and God remained silent. But when God did decide to act and He sent Moses to Egypt, you know what God told Moses? I've seen their affliction. I know what's going on. So he said, first of all, God sees. Next of all, God hears. Look at verse 17. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble, and you will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear. God sees and God hears. God sees what's going on and God hears us when we cry to Him. Not only that, God is King. Look at verse 16. The Lord is King forever and ever. The nations have perished out of His land. Why did He say that? He's sovereign, isn't He? He rules. He's in control. See, he's saying, yes, the proud, they seem to prosper in their wickedness and their arrogance. And they oppress the poor and the humble. And there are times when it seems like God is silent and God is indifferent. And I can't understand it. I can't process it. I can't figure it out. And the whole time, I'm saying, God, arise. Do something about this. But he said, what I've got to understand is that God sees. And God hears. And He's King. He's in control. Not only that, verse 14, God will help the humble. You have seen, for you observe trouble and grief, to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Yes, God is King and God does help the humble. God helps the lowly. God helps the poor and the fatherless. And He's King. Verse 14, God will repay. Do you really believe that vengeance is His and He will repay? It says up there in verse 14, to repay it by your hand and that God will do justice. Look at verse 16, 17, and 18 together. The Lord is King forever and ever. The nations have perished out of His land. Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more. And here's the whole point. As you live your life, it is absolutely impossible for you to live your life without witnessing and experiencing the prosperity of the proud and the wicked. Not only will you witness it, many times you may be the recipient of injustice and wrong at the hands of the proud and the evil and the godless and the wicked. And not only that, you may go through long seasons of suffering as a result of injustice from some evil individual or some group of evil individuals. And you may feel like God doesn't care and God doesn't see and God's standing a million miles away. And you've got two choices. You can rest in the truth that God hears, that God sees, that God is just, that He's king, He's sovereign, He rules. That He will recompense the evil and that He will do justice. You can rest in that. and bed your head on your pillow each night in the reality that yes, I don't understand this and this is the way it is, but yet I know that God has promised and this is what God has said and I know it's going to be okay. Or you can become bitter, cynical, unhappy, and you can go through life always feeling like you're getting the short end of the stick. and be angry at God and everybody else. Because in reality, most of you, I guess all of us pretty much spiritually speaking at least, we're in the same boat. We'd be classified as the lowly. I know that's, you know, my first qualification is I'm a nothing. Less than nothing. But you know, in the end, all you really have, the only recourse you have is in God. That's the only recourse you have. There is injustice in this world. And I believe that as Christians, we should strive for justice. We should seek justice. We should honor justice. We should exalt the right and rebuke the evil. But can I tell you, we live in a fallen world, full of fallen men. The rulers of our nation do not always do the right things. The officials that we are commanded to pray for do not always do the right things. The people that you work for, They may use you. Understand, they may use you. How many people in our own area work for particular companies for years? And then as times got a little difficult, they had pinned their hopes up on retirement and everything, and they walked in one day and said, we're moving to Mexico. See ya. What about my retirement? It doesn't exist anymore. We'll give you severance pay and we'll re-educate you and help you to be a plumber or something like that. And I've talked to people who had that very thing or some version of it happen to them and they have to process all this, look at what I've given to these people, look at how I work for these people, look at all I've done for these people and look at what I get. Can you imagine the possibility of bitterness? Hatred? Every night when you lay in bed, seeing the CEO and thinking if I could just, if I could just find him. Your supervisor that walked in that morning that you were so happy to be at work and he said, oh by the way, we're downsizing and you're part of the big part that's gotta go. Believe it or not, I am convinced, after 10 years of talking, I am convinced that there are men and women in prison who were there who committed no crime. If you don't believe that can happen, any of you men in here, listen to me, any of you men in here, If someone wanted to destroy you, all they would have to do is get somebody to agree with them and accuse you of molesting or touching a child. Everybody in Barron County would turn against you in 24 hours and you could very easily go to prison for a crime that you did not commit. The whole time saying, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it. Any one of us men in here, that could happen. And if you don't think you can, you're living in fairyland. But what if you are treated unjustly? What if you are done that way? How do you deal with that? How do you grapple with it? The proud are going to prosper at times. The poor are going to suffer. And the problem is that there'll be times when it seems like God is indifferent to the whole matter. But He's not. God is sovereign. He sees. He hears. He rules. He will do justice. He will repay the wicked. But you know what the problem is? Our problem? He doesn't do it when we think he should. Or how we think he should. But can I tell you? Just because the trains of God's justice do not arrive on your schedule doesn't mean they won't arrive. And some of us will die. without ever seeing. Some of us will die without ever having seen God's justice fall in some particular area. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it won't happen. Because God is just. Can I tell you, there's great rest in that. The only recourse we have is, Lord, I don't understand. Lord, I know you're holy and you're sovereign and you're in control, and I rest in you. And I leave the judging to you, and I leave the justice to you, and I'll leave it up to you to do and rule in your world the way you see fit to rule in your world. And I don't want to be bitter, but I want to rest in the Lord. What happens when your grandmother, who's the godliest woman you ever knew, gets killed by a drunk drive? What happens when your husband or your wife or your child that you love so much is taken away in some tragedy? And let's say that person is taken away in some tragedy at the hand of an evil individual. How do you process that? It can happen. You say it can't happen? It happens all the time. Our rest is in God, though. My ten years in prison, I heard some amazing stories. But one of them is a man that I love, I love him dearly and he'll listen to this CD and I know he wouldn't mind, I don't think he would mind me sharing this story. He was drinking or under the influence of drugs and if I remember correctly he hit a car and killed five people. Been in prison for years. And I don't know, I can't remember exactly. He told me how much longer he's got to go. You know what's amazing about that is that one of the relatives of this family of people that he hit has come to the prison and visited with him and told him that she forgave him. And they become friends and they correspond. And this lady's on his visitation list when she comes and sees him. on occasion at the prison. Now, can you imagine that? But is the gospel that we preach able to give that kind of grace? To forgive in such horrific circumstances and to cause you to love when the most natural thing in the world would be to hate? And isn't that the wonder of the gospel? And you know what that lady could have done? She could have spent the rest of her life bitter, angry, angry at God, angry at the man, angry at the world. Or she could bow her heart before God and say, God, you're in control. Give me the grace to forgive and to love. And give me peace. And help me to reach out in love and forgiveness. That's the gospel. Yes, the poor are going to be victimized. Good people suffer. Godly people hurt. Lowly, humble people suffer. The proud prosper. And often the problem in our mind is, God, why don't you do something about this? He will. In his own time. And in his own way. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the Word of God. So many things in life that we don't understand. So many things that are just big question marks in our mind. Lord, we know you do all things well. Help us not to despise your workings and your ways. And help us not to despise those who are arrogant and proud. Help us to love them and to reach out to them, even when we suffer at their hands at times. Help us not to accuse you of wrongdoing because you don't act the way we think you ought to act in the time we think you ought to act. Help us to pray and to find repose in your promises. Help your dear people this morning. If there are those among us that don't know you, I pray that in your grace you would call them. But I pray for your dear sheep that you would feed them and help them for your truth, in Jesus' name, amen.