When Good Things Happen To Bad People

WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE

Based on the work of Warren Wiersbe

Read Psalms 73 “Almost Gone”

It's important that we gird ourselves with basic truths. Life isn't free of painful experiences. Because we don't understand all things in life, we must fall back on things we do understand. I understand that God is in control of my life and is working in all circumstances (Romans 8:28). Chuck Smith

I. HE LOOKS BACK -- GOD IS GOOD

He cannot part with this truth, but he doubts God’s providence and provision for him.

Though wicked people receive many of the gifts of His providential bounty, yet we must own that

He is, in a peculiar manner, good to Israel; they have favors from Him which others do not.

(M. H.)

II. HE LOOKS AROUND WITH AN EARTHLY VIEWPOINT:

Keep in mind that these things had existed around him for an unknown period of time. However, his view point changed due to his focus on the wicked and their prosperity and not on God.

He saw:

A. The prosperity of the wicked v. 3

But he failed to see the prosperity of others even within difficulties.

1. Gen. 39:23 Joseph -- The LORD made him prosper

“The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing [that was] under

his hand; because the LORD was with him, and [that] which he did, the LORD made [it] to prosper.”

Prosperity in a Prison? It sounds like an oxymoron. Joseph went from the pit, to Potiphar’s house, to the prison, to the Prime Minister.

With the right viewpoint, you can put a man like Joseph in prison and he will come out as a Prime Minister.

You can put a man like Paul in prison and he will write a large part of the New Testament and do it with joy (Philippians). You can put a man like John on the isle of Patmos and he will see the Lord and pen the Revelation of Jesus Christ. You can put a man like John Bunyan in prison and he will write what was the second best selling Christian book to the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress. You can let a woman like Fanny Crosby lose her eyesight as a child and she will write dozens of hymns praising His name. Think of Brother Whaley. I didn’t hear him complain. He had a great attitude.

2. Daniel 6:1-3

“It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;”

Dan 6:2 “And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel [was] first: that

the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage.”

Dan 6:3 “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes,

because an excellent spirit [was] in him; and the king thought to set

him over the whole realm.”

But then comes the den of lions. What next? What now?

Dan 6:28 “So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus

the Persian.”

Daniel had been taken from his home and imprisoned as a teenager after his country and people had been conquered by a hostile invader. He became a prince among princes yet his troubles did not end. He landed in the lions den, but came out victorious. When the chapter ends, Daniel is prosperous, his enemies are destroyed. It was all because of God.

3. Deut. 29:9 Keep the covenant -- prosper

“Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.”

4. Joshua 1:7 Observe the law -- prosper

5. II Kings 18:1-7 Hezekiah -- clave to the Lord -- prospered

6. II Chron. 20:20 believe His prophets -- prosper

7. Neh. 2:20 The God of heaven -- prosper

8. Psalms 1:1-6 (READ) Righteous prosper

9. Job 9:1-4 (READ) without Him, who can prosper?

10. Then who causes or how does it happen that the wicked prosper?

a. The Psalmist Asaph considers it

b. Job considers it: Job 12:6; Job 21:7-15

c. Jeremiah considers it: Jer. 12:1-4

B. He saw that they had no bands (pangs, pain) in their death.

C. He saw that they are not "troubled . . . and plagued like other men" v. 5

The psalmist observes characteristics about the wicked. These remarks about prosperity and case of life aren't always true. Satan often exaggerates appearances in our minds in order to deceive us. Chuck Smith

D. He saw that "pride was to them as a chain ornament about their neck" v. 6

E. He saw that "they have more than heart could wish" v. 7

F. He saw that they "speak loftily and set their mouths against the heavens" v. 8-9

G. He saw that they willfully ignorant of God saying, "How doth God know" v. 11