So I thought today we would give
consideration to what's happened or what's the deal with God not
giving swift justice on the earth? We're going to end up in Psalm
73, which is one of my favorite Psalms concerning why do the
wicked prosper. And I'm sure you've thought of
this, and this is a Psalm of Asaph, not of David. And we're
not going to read it quite yet. We're going to get to it. The
whole thing about Asaph is he's kind of feeling sorry for himself,
and he's seeing how the wicked prosper, and they do real well
in the world, and seems like God's people sometimes don't
and have troubles. And he just is pretty forthcoming
with that whole thought, and he comes to a conclusion that's
really, really neat. So let's just give some thought
to that. You know, when this whole thing started out on the
earth with Adam and Eve, it seemed like God might that performed
swift justice, because you know what happened to them in the
tree, with the tree incident in the paradise. And he was pretty
quick to punish them, if you want to say it that way, and
the whole human race. And so he kicked them out of
the Garden of Eden, and that was that. And so they got theirs
for what they did. And you would think, well, that's
the way the world's going to be. and not so. God is not a
God of swift justice on the earth. He has not promised that we will
have the books settled day by day here on earth. It's just
not true that good things happen when you do good things, good
things happen to you when you do good things, bad things happen
to you when you do bad things, either for Christians or for
the lost. So let's turn to Romans 9.22. I think this is a real key thing
for us to understand as Christians, because we see the evil prospering
before our faces every day, and we just can't get all that worked
up about it. Because God is going to have
justice eventually. And that's the important thing
for us to remember, is that there is going to be a judgment day
upon all acts that have ever been done on this earth. That's
what we need to remember, and leave it to him. Romans 9.22
says, what if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and
to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of
wrath prepared for destruction? That's quite a verse, isn't it? And it's not just a question,
it's a statement of fact. He is saying this is the way
it is. that God, our God is willing to demonstrate his wrath. He's
not a weak God. He is able to exert tremendous
power and wrath, but he is long-suffering. That's one of God's characteristics,
isn't it? One of his traits. So he's willing
to demonstrate his wrath and make his power known. But he
is right now in this time creation, enduring with much patience,
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. We all know that
the Bible teaches there are vessels of wrath and then there's vessels
of glory. And we, by the grace of God, are in the latter category.
But there are vessels of wrath, the lost that are gonna remain
lost, that are not elect, that are not part of his plan for
heaven. And that they will receive, not
swift justice, but they will receive justice someday for every
single act they have done. Doesn't it make you just boil
when you hear, we hear all news these days and we hear too much
news, but when you hear politicians or entertainers or whoever, famous
people blaspheming God and essentially shaking their fist in his face,
And haven't you had the thought, God, why don't you just strike
him down right there? It would be quite a testimony.
Well, he chooses not to. He's long-suffering. He's waiting. And look now at, well, we'll
just quote it. 1 Peter 5, 20 speaks about when
the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. There once
again is a mention of his patience. Now turn to Romans 2, and let's
read 1 through 11. And Romans 2 proves that God
will have absolute justice someday. Therefore, you have no excuse,
every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another,
you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment
of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But
do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who
practice such things, and do the same thing yourself, that
you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly
of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not
knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness
and unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath for yourself
in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God." Boy, is that a scary verse. The lost, the unrighteous are
storing up wrath every day. There is a book being kept and
they're storing up wrath. Little things, big things, it
all is going in the books. And when you see the wicked and
they look like they're getting by with something, they're only
getting by with it for the time being. Who will render to each
person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance
in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal
life. But to those who are selfishly
ambitious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness,
wrath, and indignation, there will be tribulation and distress
for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also
of the Greek. but glory and honor and peace
to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. So there's no partiality with God. Now, this section just
by itself, you might think is teaching works oriented for righteousness
and for evil, but it of course is not. Those of us who do the
good in verse seven and verse 10, only do any good by the grace
of God, and it's because of his grace in our lives that that's
done. It's not our own good works.
We know that as the elect. So the evil and this earth are
storing up wrath for the revelation of the righteous judgment of
God. And we know that that's going to happen someday. that
there'll be the judgment of God. Okay, He will judge righteously
someday. But until the judgment, there
is no guaranteed justice on this earth. It's just not gonna happen. We better not count on it. A
few comments on that. First of all, the negative side,
calamities. We've had calamities and evil
works before our eyes in 2017 galore, haven't we? We had the
church shooting the most recent one. We've had the flood. We've
had natural wonders happening and we've had evil people doing
their thing with all the mass murders in the mostly U.S. So,
what's the deal with calamities like that? They only happen to
the wicked, right? No, they don't. Calamities happen
to Christians and lost. Okay, let's turn it around. How about blessings? Blessings
only happen to the good, right? No. Well, let's look at a few
scriptures here. Turn with me to Luke 13, one
to five. You know, God could have set
up this world that way, where every single good act gets paid
off in a good way, and every single evil act at the very moment
or within a day is paid off with some kind of punishment. He could
have set it up that way, but he chose not to. In Luke 13,
I find this very interesting, one through five. Now on the
same occasion, there were some present who reported to him,
this is Jesus, about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed
with their sacrifices. So Pilate killed a bunch of Galileans.
And Jesus said to them, do you suppose that these Galileans
were greater sinners than all the other Galileans because they
suffered this fate? So put your mind back to the
church shootings there near San Antonio, same kind of deal. I
tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Or do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam
fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who
live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you
repent, you will all likewise perish. You see what he's saying?
He's saying, I'm telling you about two calamities that happened
to people, some of whom were good, some of whom were bad.
So there's no telling the good from the bad, just from the calamities
happening. He says, there's a bigger picture
here that you need to understand. And unless you all repent and
you understand the spiritual side of things and you repent,
you'll all likewise perish. Like the tower that fell on those
people, you're all going to perish in a worse way if you don't repent. That's the lesson Jesus was teaching.
But in that lesson, he taught that calamities don't just happen
to bad people. Okay, the other way around. You
know the verse in Matthew 5, 45. It says, so that you may be sons of your
father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on
the evil and the good. And he sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. So yes, look around you. Good
things happen, the sun shines on our evil neighbors, and the
rain doesn't just partition itself on your house, kind of like the
children of Israel with Pharaoh, which God did do at that time,
but the rain falls on everybody. So, blessing, right now during
the now time, Blessings happen to everybody, the good and the
evil. Calamities happen to everybody, the good and the evil. So you
can't tell the scorecard yet. Justice is not being performed
on a daily basis. There is no swift justice right
now. It's just the way it is. Okay,
what about human government? In Romans 13, It states that in verses one
through four, let's read that. I mean, God has ordained an institution
for justice, right? It's called human government.
But it's far from perfect, if you've looked around. Is there
justice being performed in North Korea? No, because of who's in
charge there. Now, God's in charge of that.
He put him in power. But in essence, the government
is there for the gross justice, I would call it. Let's just read. Every person is to be in subjection
to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except
from God. and those which exist are established
by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority
has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed
will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not
a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil." Do you want to
have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will
have praise from the same. Now, I take that in a general
sense, not in an absolute sense, because there are some governments
around that punish the good, right? For it is a minister of
God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be
afraid. For it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it
is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who
practices evil." Okay, so there is one way in which justice is
to be performed in our world on the evil, and that is human
government, or the police, or however you want to frame it.
So that's why God ordained human government and some ordered things.
It can be a communist government. He doesn't say it has to be a
democracy. It can be a communist government, and a communist government
should hold and reign over the evil in some way, but we'll see. Now, another subject, and then
we'll get to the psalm. There is an island of temporal
I'm not gonna call it judgment, it's not judgment, of temporal
spankings that go on in the world for bad deeds. You know what
I'm gonna say? It's chastisement for Christians.
Now, it's very important for us to realize as Christians that
when we get spanked by the Lord for doing something wrong, it
is not judgment, and it's not the strict word punishment. because
our judgment for those evil things we do happened at the cross. Once and for all, our Lord Jesus
paid for every single wrong thing we have done and will do. He
paid for it. So God is not going to exact
judgment on us during time now. because it's already been done
at the cross. So what is it then? Why? What
is going on there? It's chastisement is behavior
correction for the Christian. It's not judgment. So let's turn
real quick to Hebrews 13, the definitive passage on chastisement. Once again, the whole time we're
talking about in the framework of, on this earth, when are bad
things visited as payment for somebody doing them? We've already
said the wicked aren't paid back in time on this earth, but Christians
can't get away with murder, with bad things as Christians, can
they? We can't. We have a heavenly
father and he's going to spank us. Hebrews 13, five through
seven. Make sure that your character
is free from the love of money, being content with what you have.
For he himself has said, I will never desert you nor will I ever
forsake you. So that we confidently say, wait a minute, I think I'm,
let's see. I got the wrong chapter, right? That's chapter 12, isn't it? Okay. Let's go to chapter 12, five
through seven. And you have forgotten the exhortation
which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly
the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by
him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he
scourges every son whom he receives. For it is for discipline that
you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom the
father does not discipline? And then verses 10 and 11. For
they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them.
This is our earthly fathers. But he disciplines us for our
good so that we may share his holiness. All discipline. for the moment, seems not to
be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained
by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."
So what's a great example of that? Ananias and Sapphira. That was swift, wasn't it? They
lied to God, they lied to the church, and they both died. So
that's swift. No, that's not swift justice. That's swift chastisement. I hope we see the difference,
because every single thing we've done wrong was paid for at the
cross, period, as far as judgment. So we are righteous through atonement,
through the cross, and we will never have to pay for those sins
as far as judgment's concerned. The lost, on the other hand,
who don't have Christ, have not been paid, those sins have not
been paid. They need to be paid for, and
they'll be paid for by the person himself, herself at the judgment. So it's a very simple concept.
Judgment is gonna happen one time to everybody for their sins,
because we're all sinners. For the lost, it's gonna be horrible
at the judgment. For the Christians, it's already
happened at the cross. And then we need behavior correction
for the things we do wrong in this time, in this time on earth. All right, finally, let's get
to the Psalm and read it. Psalm 73. So, have you ever felt
sorry for yourself in light of Some famous person, I mean, we
hear about them all in the news, we hear too much news. Some famous
person who's prospering and he's wicked, and you're just sad about
that. Well, that's what Asaph was.
So let's read Psalm 73. I want to read through it without
comment, and then I want to just tell you two categories that
I kind of wrote a summary of. One is what happens to the wicked
on earth, generally, and two, what are their attributes? Okay. Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close
to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant
as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains
in their death. Their body is fat. They are not
in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind.
Therefore, pride is their necklace. The garment of violence covers
them. Their eye bulges from fatness.
The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly
speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They
have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue
parades through the earth. Therefore, And I believe this
is still talking about the wicked. It's kind of confusing, but I
think this is still talking about them. Therefore, his people returned
to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them. They say,
how does God know? And is there knowledge with the
most high? Behold, these are the wicked.
And always at ease, they have increased in wealth. Surely in
vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence.
for I have been stricken all day long and chastened every
morning. If I had said I will speak thus, behold, I would have
betrayed the generation of your children. When I pondered to
understand this, it was troublesome in my sight, until I came into
the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. Surely you set them in slippery
places. You cast them down to destruction.
How they are destroyed in a moment. They're utterly swept away by
sudden terrors. Like a dream when one awakes,
oh Lord, when aroused you will despise their form. That's a
neat one there. When aroused, you will despise
their form. When my heart was embittered
and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant.
I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually
with you. You have taken hold of my right
hand. With your counsel, you will guide
me. And afterward, receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but you? And besides you, I desire nothing
on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far
from you will perish. You have destroyed all those
who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, the nearness of
God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge. that I may tell of all your works."
So here's how I would summarize it. Asaph is envious of the wicked
and their prosperity. He was very short-sighted about
it until he came into the presence of the Lord, and then he knew
what was going on. So here's the things I wrote
down that happened to the wicked that he explains here. First of all, they prosper, verse
three. They have no pains in death,
verse four. Their body is firm, also verse
four. They're not in trouble, verse
five. They're not plagued, verse five. They have more than they
wish for, verse seven. They have an abundance, verse
10. And they're at ease and wealthy, verse 12. What are their attributes? They're proud, verse six. They're
violent, verse six. They mock God, verse eight. They oppress others, verse eight. They're arrogant, verse eight. And they brag against God, verses
nine and 11. Now, the plight of the Christians
and the righteous is that we're stricken and chastened. Now he
was feeling a little bit sorry for himself when he said all
that, but still it's true, that Christians are often stricken
and they're often chastened. He was bothered by this until
he came into the sanctuary of God where he realized that God
will judge the wicked, verses 15 through 20. And I've actually,
the neatest part of this whole Psalm to me is in verse, the
last part of it, verses 21 to 28. where he says, God is with
us as Christians. This is so great. This is on earth. This is during
time. This is now. He's with us. He should be our
greatest desire on earth, is him. He is our strength and portion. He's near to us. And that nearness
is our good, that's significant. His nearness is our good. He's
our refuge for when times get tough, and we are a witness of
that to others, we're supposed to be. So in summary, I think
Psalm 73 is a good example real wake-up call to Christians
that we need not to be feeling sorry for ourselves or getting
depressed about the fact that all is not right with the world. All is not judged yet. Judgment is not happening for
the most part yet, but it will. And our judgment happened at
the cross. I mean, we're not any better
than the wicked. We are wicked. but we have been
judged at the cross and have been given grace by the Lord.