Now verse number 1 of chapter 94 here, it says,
O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth,
show thyself, lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth,
render a reward to the proud.
Now what I want to preach about this morning, and I'm going to come back to Psalm 94,
but I want to preach about God's justice, and the fact that everyone will reap what
they've shown in life, and that God is a God that will reward both
the just and he will reward the wicked.
If you would, turn to Galatians chapter number 6.
Galatians 6 in the New Testament, we'll come back to Psalm 94.
But in Galatians chapter 6, beginning of verse number 7, of course,
the famous verse the Bible says, be not deceived, God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
So God's explaining to us here that whatever we sow, we're going to reap.
And that goes for the bad things and the good things.
Now, focusing on the good for a moment in verse number 10, he says,
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Now, he said, therefore, let us do good to all men.
Why?
Because we're going to reap what we've sown.
Because if we do good unto others, good is going to come back to us.
And he says, therefore, we ought to do good to all men,
especially them that are of the household of faith.
Because whatever we sow, that's what we're going to reap.
Now, go to Ephesians chapter 6, and the longer I live my life,
the more I realize how true this is.
Because the longer you live, you'll begin to see people reap what they've sown.
And you in your own personal life will reap some of the things that you've sown,
some of the bad things, some of the good things.
But nothing can be more true than what I'm preaching this morning,
that whatever I'm going to soweth, he's going to reap.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6, first of all, it says in verse 5,
Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh,
with fear and trembling, and singleness of your heart, as unto Christ,
not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service,
as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth,
the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
The Bible is clear, whatever good thing we do, any good thing that we do,
we will receive the same from the Lord, whether we be bond or free.
Go to Genesis chapter 31.
Genesis 31, let me just show you a quick story here that illustrates this point.
This is a story about Jacob, and he went to live with his uncle Laban.
And his uncle Laban is a deceiver.
And his uncle Laban continually lies to him.
First he tells him, first, Jacob, he's a very smart young man.
He was a very hard worker, and that's part of the reason why God blessed him so much.
But the first thing Jacob did when he showed up,
let me just bring you up to speed in the story.
Jacob is trying to get away from his brother Esau,
because he's afraid his brother Esau's going to kill him,
because he had deceived Esau and ripped him off for his blessing and his birthright.
And so Jacob is fleeing away, and he wants to go stay with his uncle in a distant country,
just to get away from the problems that he was having with his brother.
And the first thing he does when he gets there is there are people there gathered,
there are ladies that are gathered there to water their flocks from the well.
But there's a great big stone on top of the well,
and he asked these ladies and he asked these servants that were there,
he says, why don't you water your flock?
And they said, well, we can't.
We have to wait till everybody shows up,
because then we can all, everybody get around and lift the stone off the well's mouth.
And Jacob, of course, just said, just let me stretch out a little here.
He went over and he lifted the stone off by himself.
So he's a very strong man, and he's a hard-working man.
And so he was very smart, because when he started working for his uncle Laban,
he didn't even talk to him about the wages.
He just worked for him for a month for free, and he was just working,
just not worried about it, knowing that God's going to take care of him.
He just worked for free for one month.
And then at the end of that month, Laban looked at him and said,
man, you know, you're working hard.
Just because you're my relative, I'm not going to make you work for free.
You know, name your price.
Whatever you want, I'll give it to you.
And he said, OK, he said, I want to marry your daughter, Rachel.
And he said, you know, I'll work seven years.
And basically, that would be the payment, the dowry,
and you'll let me marry your daughter Rachel.
And he said, sure, great, sounds good.
So he works for the seven years, and of course, Laban deceives him.
And Laban gives him Leah instead of Rachel.
He gives him the sisters, not the one that he wanted to marry.
And he dressed her up, and she had the veil, and everything like that.
And he didn't realize that he married the wrong person
until it was too late.
And then he realized that he had married the sister.
So he was tricked.
He was deceived, wasn't he?
And Laban continually deceived him.
Now, part of that was Jacob reaping what he had sown,
because he had deceived his brother.
He had deceived his father.
He had done a lot of deceiving, and then it came back around to him
when Laban deceived him and tricked him into marrying the wrong person.
But not only that, after he worked the seven years for Leah,
and then he worked seven more years and married Rachel also,
which obviously the Bible does not condone polygamy,
but that's what he did.
He married the second wife.
Well, then he worked another six years for Laban
in order to earn just money and cattle.
Look what it says in Genesis chapter 31, verse 5.
And said unto them, I see your father's countenance,
this is Jacob speaking, that it is not toward me as before,
but the God of my father hath been with me.
And ye know that with all my power
I have served your father.
He's talking about serving his uncle Laban.
And yet your father hath deceived me
and changed my wages ten times,
but God suffered him not to hurt me.
If he said thus, the speckled shall be thy wages,
then all the cattle bear speckled.
And if he said thus, the ring straight shall be thy higher,
then bear all the cattle ring straight.
Thus God had taken away the cattle of your father
and given them to me.
And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived
that I lifted up mine eyes and saw in a dream,
and behold the rams which leaped upon the cattle
were ring straight, speckled, and grizzled.
And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream,
saying, Jacob, and I said, here am I.
And he said, lift up now thine eyes
and see all the rams which leap upon the cattle
are ring straight, speckled, and grizzled.
Watch this, for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
So here we see that Jacob has been ripped off by Laban.
Laban has changed his wages ten times.
First he tells them that these sheep are gonna be his,
the speckled, and then, oh no, it's the ring straight.
No, it's the grizzled.
And he keeps changing the deal, keeps ripping him off.
It's kinda like, you gotta put it into today's story.
It'd be like if you went to your job
and they say they're gonna pay you a certain amount
and then you don't get paid that amount.
It'd be like if they tell you, oh, put in this overtime,
you'll get time and a half, and then your check comes
and you just, 40 hours.
It'd be like if you get hired and they say,
oh, this is what it's gonna be.
And then this is what the bonus is gonna be
and it's not there.
Oh, this is what your commission's gonna be.
They give you half that much.
And you can imagine that this would make you angry.
Has anybody ever been in a situation like that?
Put up your hands if you've been in a situation
where you're in a job and somebody told you,
well, you're angry.
You get upset, it makes you mad.
They told you it's gonna be one way.
And that's the way it was with Jacob here.
Not only did he deceive him to marry somebody
that he didn't even wanna marry,
but then he keeps ripping him off financially
and changing his wages and lying about
what he's gonna get paid and deceiving him.
But you see, God looked down and he saw Jacob
working hard for Laban and doing a good job.
And God said, I've seen what Laban is doing to you
and that's why I've blessed you
and that's why Jacob ended up with way more wealth
and way more cattle than what Laban expected to give him.
Because God knows what's going on
and God sees when someone rips us off
and he'll take it out of them
and he'll make sure that we get blessed with it.
And the same thing, if he sees us rip someone off,
he'll balance that score as well.
You see, there's nothing that gets past God up in heaven.
And if people aren't rewarded today for their actions,
they're gonna be rewarded tomorrow or years from now.
But the bottom line is, whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
Because Jacob spent 20 years working hard
and struggling to do his best at his job,
God made sure that he acquired great wealth
as a result of that because he earned it.
He worked hard, he deserved the wealth.
And God will make sure that we get what's coming to us.
Now this is a two-edged sword
because sometimes that can be a good thing.
If you've done a lot of good in your life,
if you're doing a lot of good things
and sowing a lot of good seeds,
well then this sermon is really encouraging to you
because you're thinking, great, I'm gonna reap the rewards
for all the good works I do.
But if you're doing evil today,
let it be known that you're going to reap the whirlwind.
You're gonna reap evil for the evil things that you've done.
The Bible's clear about this.
And so when you're on the job,
don't get an attitude on your job.
And we live in a time right now where the economy's bad
and people are struggling financially
and they're struggling to make it.
And a lot of people are struggling to find a job.
You know, when your boss does you dirty at work,
you shouldn't get this attitude,
well, I'm just not gonna work hard.
I'm just not gonna do my best.
I'm gonna slack off on the job because they're not.
You know, God would rather look down and see you
working hard as unto the Lord, doing your best.
We're putting in a good day's work.
God will make sure and reward you
for everything that you're doing.
Whenever you go to work and work hard, it's never in vain.
The Bible says in all labor there is profit,
but the talk of the lips tend to fall into penury.
And so God expects us to work hard,
whether our boss is a nice guy or not,
whether our boss is honest with us or not.
And he says, I'll take care of you.
I'll make sure that he reads what he has sown
and I'll make sure that you read what you've sown.
And so good things that we do,
if we do good unto other people,
especially those that are in the household of faith,
if we do good to our brothers and sisters in Christ
and in the local church,
if we help them out when they need help
or if we do them a favor,
God sees that and God will reward us
for the good things that we do.
But he will also reward the evil.
Go back to Psalm 94 where we were.
Psalm 94 is where we started.
Actually, you know what?
Put your finger in Psalm 94
and go to Revelation chapter 13.
Revelation chapter 13.
And here's where I take the title of my sermon this morning
from Revelation chapter 13.
The Bible tells us in Revelation 13,
and verse number 10.
Great verse, Revelation 13, 10 says this,
and this is where I get the title of my sermon.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.
He that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
And the title of my sermon is this,
the patience of the saints.
The patience of the saints.
You see, everyone will reap what they've sown
and this is the patience and the faith of the saints.
What do you mean by that?
This is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Go to Revelation 14.
He says pretty much the same thing,
isn't he, to try to understand this this morning?
I want you to understand this term,
the patience and the faith of the saints.
Look at Revelation 14, nine, the Bible reads.
And the third angel followed them,
saying with a loud voice,
if any man worship the beast and his image
and receive his mark and his forehead
and his hair in his hand,
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the lamb.
And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever.
And they have no rest day nor night
who worship the beast and his image
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Here is the patience of the saints.
Here are they that keep the commandments of God
and the faith of Jesus.
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, I'm gonna be right.
Blessed are the dead which died in the Lord from henceforth.
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors
and their works do follow them.
The Bible is saying again here,
here is the patience of the saints.
What is the patience of the saints?
Well, he described the fact that those wicked people
who had taken the mark of the beast
would basically burn in hell forever and ever.
And he said, this is the patience of the saints.
Here is the patience of the saints.
Go back in chapter 13, what we saw in verse 10.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity.
He that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
See, what in the world does that have to do with patience?
Go back to Psalm 94.
What does that have to do with patience?
What is patience?
Patience is when you're waiting for something
that takes a long time, right?
For example, if I were to make a meal for you
and I were cooking in a lab for a meal
and you said, man, when is it gonna be ready?
And I said, have patience.
It's gonna take time to make a good meal.
I mean, I could throw something in the microwave for you
and have it ready in two minutes.
But if you have patience,
you can get something better if you wait for it.
You see, patience is waiting for something.
It's staying with something over a long period of time.
The Bible says that we should patiently wait.
And so it ties into the word waiting with patience a lot.
You see, God's justice takes a long time to come
in many cases.
But if we're patient, we understand.
If we have faith, we understand that it's coming.
It's gonna take faith to believe
that God's justice will eventually come.
That's why he said here is the patience
and the faith of the same.
Because it's gonna take faith to believe
that God one day will settle the score.
And it also is gonna take patience to wait for it
because it could be decades or even longer
before that judgment comes.
But let me tell you something, it will surely come.
Look at Psalm 94.
Let's go through this.
Verse number one, it says,
"'O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth.'"
What does vengeance mean?
Vengeance is the settling up of a score.
Vengeance would be termed in our day payback.
And he says, "'O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth,
"'O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself,
"'lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth,
"'render a reward to the proud.'"
What's a reward?
It's something that you deserve.
It's something that you've earned for what you've done.
He says, "'Render a reward to the proud.
"'Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph?
"'How long shall they utter and speak hard things,
"'and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
"'They break in pieces thy people, O Lord,
"'and afflict thy heritage.
"'They slay the widow and the stranger
"'and they murder the fatherless.
"'Yet they say, the Lord shall not see,
"'neither shall the God of Jacob regard.'"
So what's he saying?
He's saying, look, I look around,
and all these wicked, ungodly people are lifted up,
they're exalted, they're prospering, they're doing well.
It doesn't seem like they're being punished
for the wrong things that they're doing.
And I see God's people trampled underfoot by them,
and they boast themselves, and they blow off their mouth
and say, God's not gonna judge it.
God doesn't know what's going on.
There is no God.
He's saying, how long until your justice is gonna come?
How long until vengeance comes?
It's easy to get that attitude
as we look around our world today.
We see a lot of things in our world that are not fair,
don't we?
You look at things and you don't see justice.
You see wicked people getting away with wicked things.
You see the righteous suffer wrongfully,
and you look at so many things in life
that you think are unjust and unfair,
and if you're not careful,
so many things could make you just become
a very angry and bitter person,
to where from day to day you're just mad
and you're angry and you're bitter about it,
and you're upset, because there's a lot
to get upset about today in our world if you look around.
You see wicked people, and there's no punishment,
there's no consequence, it blows my mind.
Just this week in the news, I hear about this guy,
this congressman, who knows what I'm talking about,
this filthy congressman, and he's sending out
filthy images to teenagers and young adults and strangers,
and this is supposed to be the Honorable,
I mean, that's what they call him.
If this guy sends you something to your house,
you know what it's gonna come from?
The Honorable Representative, so and so.
I remember one time I got something from our congressman
at the time, Harry Mitchell, and I sent him back
this petition that I wanted him to do whatever,
and on the little envelope they already printed
the Honorable, I crossed out Honorable and sent it to him.
And he wrote back to me and said he was gonna do
what I wanted, that was cool, but then he didn't do it.
Isn't that shocking?
But he said he would.
So anyway, I sent him this thing, I crossed out Honorable,
but this Honorable Representative, I mean this guy,
who is making laws, think about the hypocrisy thing,
he's making laws to govern your life,
he wants to tell you what to do.
That's what they do over there, they legislate,
they make love.
And he wants to tell you what is right and what is wrong.
He wants to tell you how to live your life.
He wants to tell you how to run your business
while he is committing the most filthy, sinful acts,
according to God's word, of fornication and worse,
and sending out pornography and filth as a congressman.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Put up your hand if you know what I'm talking about.
Yeah, almost everybody's heard this in the news this week.
Is he fired?
No.
Is he resigning?
No.
Is he being punished?
Is the Congress voting to censure him?
And to have consequences for his actions?
I mean, let's face it, if you worked at a job
working in minimum wage today,
and you engaged in that kind of behavior,
you would be fired from that job, would you not?
You'd be fired from any job,
for engaging in that kind of disgusting habit.
But these are our leaders today.
These are our representatives.
They took a poll of his district,
and in his district, according to their poll,
56% of people said he needs to stay on the job.
Keep him on the job.
Well, it sounds like he represents
that district pretty well, then.
You know, if that's who they want represented.
That's the kind of filth that they want in that job.
It sounds like they've got what they wanted.
And you look at that and you say,
where's the consequences for this guy?
I mean, this is the same guy that would make laws
that if I, you know, cross the street
when there's not a crosswalk,
you know, he wants me to be fined.
You know what I mean?
Or if I don't cross the T and dot the I on my income taxes,
you know, he's gonna be all over me.
But this guy can get away with anything.
And we can, you know, we can go down the list
of all the other leaders, Bill Clinton, you know,
who've done the same kind of obscene things,
and there's no consequences, no justice,
and you know, it can begin to make you angry.
You can get upset about it,
and get infuriated and get enraged,
but you know what, I don't wanna go through life
enraged and bitter and mad,
but it's easy to become that way
when you look at all these things that happened.
But you see, the Bible says this,
and you don't have to turn there,
stay in Psalm 94,
because I'm gonna show you more in this chapter.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 12, verse 19,
dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath,
for it is written, vengeance is mine,
I will repay, saith the Lord.
So the Bible tells us to give place unto our wrath,
and the Bible also tells us
not to let the sun go down on our wrath.
It's okay to get angry.
I mean, Jesus Christ many times on this earth became angry.
The Bible says he was angry.
He was filled with wrath.
Anger is not his sin, but the Bible does tell us,
be ye angry and sin not.
Let not the sun go down on your wrath.
So we shouldn't just go from day to day angry.
We shouldn't go to bed angry and then wake up angry
and just be filled with anger.
The Bible says anger rested in the bosom of fools.
Anger should not just permanently be a part of you
all the time where you're just mad all the time.
But how, you say, Pastor Anderson, can I not be angry
when I've been personally wronged in my life?
I've been wronged on the job.
Our government is wronging me.
Everywhere I turn around, I see injustice,
and I see wickedness, exalted,
and I see righteousness dragged through the mic.
How can I not be angry?
God says, give place under that wrath
because I will repay because vengeance is mine,
say the Lord.
I will repay.
He says, don't worry about representative, you know,
even his last, I don't even want to say his last name.
You know what I mean?
And that's not even how that name
is even supposed to be pronounced.
You know, I look at that name.
I look the way that name is spelled.
Okay, and I speak German.
It's a Germanic language name.
Okay, it should be pronounced like Viner
is the right way to pronounce that.
Okay, but he probably just goes around
pronouncing it like a pervert.
It's probably some psychological thing
why he even pronounces his name that way
because that is not the way that that name is pronounced.
Okay, E-I makes I like Einstein.
Okay, and that's how it's supposed to be pronounced.
Okay, if you go to a restaurant in Germany
and get a Wiener schnitzel and it's spelled I-E, okay,
so I don't know, you know, of course,
you walk around with this obscene sounding last name
and of course the media, they just think it's funny.
You know, they just want to joke about it
and how funny it is that this guy has such a stupid name,
you know, in regard to what he's doing.
It's just ridiculous, but you look at that
and it can make you mad, but you know what?
He will be punished.
He will receive a punishment that is far worse
than anything you can imagine.
Anything you can imagine that you'd say,
well, I wish they would do this to him.
I wish he'd be publicly humiliated.
Well, he already has.
I wish that he'd be fired.
I wish that he'd be thrown in jail.
I wish he'd be publicly beaten and flogged.
Let me tell you something.
God has much worse than that in store for that man.
So does it make any sense for me
to just get all mad about it, get all upset about it,
I can't believe it.
Just, you know what, let it go.
He will get what's coming then.
And that's just an example because it's a famous person.
What about the personal enemies in your life
that have done you wrong?
What about people who've ripped you off?
What about people who deceive you and trick you
and lie to you and harm you and hurt you
or hurt people that you love?
You know, it's easy to become consumed
with wrath and anger and bitterness,
but you know, God says keep placing the wrath
for one reason, because I'll repay.
I'll recompense.
Vengeance belongeth unto me.
And so he continues to say this in Romans 12.
Let me get back to my place here.
In Romans 12, he continues by saying,
he says vengeance is mine.
I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him.
If he thirst, give him drink.
For in so doing, thou shalt heat coals of fire on his head.
Now, does he think coals of fire on someone's head?
Does that sound like something that you wanna do
to someone that you like?
No.
He's saying, look, people who've done you wrong,
let God take care of it.
And he says, if you'll do good unto them,
God will heat coals of fire on their head.
And he says, be not overcome of evil,
but overcome evil with good.
I've literally before, I had an enemy
that had done me wrong and done me dirty,
I literally put a $20 bill in an envelope
and just anonymously just mailed it to him
and just said, you know what, God?
Here you go, God.
This is what I'm doing here.
Because I believe that you're gonna punish them.
And if by saying them this $20,
you're just gonna punish them more.
Because you're seeing that I'm doing good to my enemies.
I've done them no wrong.
How many times did David pray in the book of Psalms?
We could read the whole book of Psalms this morning
and this is what 90% of it's about.
How many times did David say, look, God,
I treated these people nicely, I treated them well,
when they were sad, I mourned with them,
when they were happy, I rejoiced with them.
And here's what they've done to me in return, God.
Plead my cause, avenge me of my adversaries.
You know, God can take care of those
that are wicked in this world.
And some people have this attitude
where they feel like they have to right every wrong.
They have to punish everybody who's done them wrong.
And they're gonna show them.
But you know what?
That's not what God tells us to do.
God tells us to just move on.
You know, people who've done us wrong,
we don't have to just sit there and plot and plan
how we're gonna pay them back.
And we're gonna get them.
Because let me tell you something.
I've had so many people do me wrong in my life.
I mean, it could be like a full-time job.
Plotting proper revenge for every person
who's ever gotten me a dirty.
You know, and you know what?
But there's some people who that's how they are.
It's called being vindictive.
You know, they just have to,
everybody who lied on the job,
and look, when you're on the job,
people are gonna lie to cover up for their own mistakes
and blame you.
But you don't even have to right that wrong.
I mean, you know, you can do the best you can,
but sometimes you just have to say,
God, you know the truth.
You know that I wasn't at fault here.
You know that it's a lie.
Leave my cause.
Take care of this for me.
Avenge me of my adversaries.
And not go through life angry and bitter and mad
about people who've done you wrong,
knowing that God is gonna take care of it someday.
You do a lot of great work and you work hard
and you don't get paid.
Hey, that hurts, but you know what?
God's eventually gonna settle that score.
I own a business.
I own a fire alarm business.
And in business, anybody who owns a business can tell you.
You know, you don't always get paid
for the work that you do.
Now, the good, one good thing about being an employee
is that you pretty much get paid.
I mean, you know, your check is gonna come
no matter what happens.
Your paycheck comes every Friday
and the law is there to protect you.
Man, if you don't get that paycheck on Friday,
you can pretty easily go and the law
will take care of that for you
and the law will get you paid
in Arizona or California or wherever I live.
But let me tell you something.
When you're a business owner, forget about it.
I mean, I've been stiffed in my business
for thousands and thousands of dollars.
And I mean, that doesn't feel very good.
When you go out and you buy parts
and you go out and you put gas in your tank
and you work hard and you spend days and days
or even weeks working and then you don't get paid.
I mean, can you imagine that feeling of doing a job?
A company that I worked for in the past,
this was not the company that I own,
but a company that I worked for in the past,
one time we had a company that owed us over $40,000
and they went bankrupt and we didn't get paid any of it.
That's a lot of money, isn't it?
It wasn't my money.
You know, I was working for a company,
it was the boss's money and he wasn't made of money.
And just 40, I think it was like $42,000 just gone.
Well, that'll make you mad.
That would be a change.
But even me personally, I've been stiff for money.
You know, companies get bought and sold
and go out of business
and they don't really go out of business.
They just change, you know, they go bankrupt,
change the name or whatever.
You know, and rip you off.
I've had other people just plain rip me off.
I've had a customer where I called him up and said,
hey, you owe me this money.
And then they said, well, you know, we're gonna pay you.
We're just a little short right now.
Just give us some time, time's up.
We're gonna pay you, we're gonna pay you.
And then, you know, months and months go by.
I told him just, you know, just send me a little bit,
send me a tiny bit each month.
Just let me know that you wanna pay this off.
And then months and months go by
and then they just start saying,
well, we don't owe you that much.
And then they falsified a bunch of documents and stuff
to say that they don't owe the money.
Even though for a year they've been saying,
we're gonna pay you, give us time, give us time.
You know, people are gonna rip you off.
And that's one thing, you know,
being a business owner has a lot of benefits.
But it also has the detriment of, hey,
hopefully I'm gonna get paid someday.
I might get paid.
And guess what?
If you don't get paid, you can't.
Good luck going to court like it's not gonna work.
Don't even think about that.
And so people are gonna rip you off.
But you know what?
I personally firmly believe,
based on what the Bible said,
I read you a little earlier in Ephesians 6,
what I see in Genesis 31,
that I was not wasting my time when I did that work,
when I did those jobs.
Even though I didn't get paid.
You say, oh, you wasted all the time, you wasted all money.
No, because God's gonna look down at that
and see me working hard every day as you provide my needs.
And He might provide them from a different source.
But because He knows that I worked hard,
I did my best, it wasn't my fault
if somebody goes out of business
or doesn't pay their bills.
The bottom line is that God sees what I'm doing,
the work that I'm doing,
He's gonna pay me for that work.
One way or the other, I'm gonna get paid.
And people who don't pay their bills,
I mean, they're gonna receive the punishment
for not paying that.
The Bible says the wicked borrow with the payeth not again.
And so we need to understand
that going to bed every night,
we should have a clear mind,
not bitter, not angry, not upset.
And by the way, that's bad for your health anyway.
Just people who are just agitated and upset all the time
and they can't let things go.
It's not good for you to live your life that way.
It's not a healthy way to live your life.
You've gotta be able to let things go.
And the only way to let things go
is to know that God is going to bless you for your work.
He's gonna reward you for the things
that you do for Jesus Christ.
And He's gonna punish the wicked
for the things that they've done
that they seemingly have gotten away with.
Now, those who don't believe in God,
those who are not Christians, they don't have that.
They don't believe that.
They don't believe in God.
They don't believe that there's any real justice.
And so that's why they have to always go out
and avenge everything themselves.
Or just go through life for the rest of their life,
bitter and angry and mad.
And the world will try to tell you,
they'll try to tell you, oh, just let things go.
Just let it go, just forgive, just don't worry about it.
And you know, that's pretty easy to say.
But if you don't believe that God's gonna settle the score,
that'd be pretty hard to do.
I don't think I could do that.
If I didn't know that there was a God
that was gonna take care of it,
I'd feel like, man, I need to go take care of this myself.
Or I'd be a very angry, bitter person.
But thank God for the patience and the faith of the saints,
knowing that God is just, He's fair, He's righteous,
and at the end of the day,
those who worked hard will receive the wages.
And those who slacked off and did not work
will receive nothing.
And those who've been righteous
and those who've been faithful to their wife
and they weren't on the internet
with all this filth like that congressman,
and those who've actually done a good job,
and those who've actually stood up for the truth,
and those who've actually read their Bibles
and prayed and memorized the Bible
and sang songs and hymns and spiritual songs,
let me tell you something,
God is going to bless you more than you can ever imagine,
both in this life and in the world to come.
For all of eternity, you're gonna be reaping the rewards
of doing what's right.
For all eternity.
And the Bible says,
For I reckon that the sufferings of this life
are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us.
As it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard
neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
We can't even imagine how great heaven's gonna be.
We can't even imagine how great the millennial reign
of Christ on this earth is gonna be.
We can't even imagine how great it's gonna be
to live in a place, no sorrow, no crying, no sadness,
no pain, the former things passed away.
Jesus Christ ruling and reigning with us
for all eternity.
We can't even imagine how great that's gonna be,
how perfect it's gonna be.
It's something that we can't even comprehend.
And so we need to understand that nothing we ever do
that's right is a waste or in vain.
He said, be steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain
in the Lord.
It's not in vain.
Now you gotta have patience though.
Because you may suffer in this life for the next 10 years,
20 years, 30 years, 50 years,
but at the end of it all, it will surely come.
At the end of it all, you will be paid.
The Bible says, be patient therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord.
If you wait for it, it will surely come.
It will not tear, as it says in the back of 2.3.
And so we need to understand that there is so much reward
laid out for those who do right,
but it's the other way around too.
Those who do evil, those who do wrong,
those who seem to get away with everything.
I mean, first of all, those who are not saved.
And obviously this wicked representative is not saved.
He doesn't believe in Jesus Christ.
He doesn't even claim to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
as his savior.
He's gonna spend eternity tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels
and the presence of the lamb
and the smoke of their torment
ascended up forever and ever
and they have no rest day nor night.
And he says, hey, here's the patience
and the faith of the saints.
You say, well, I don't think that you should even
think about that guy going up.
But God says, you know what?
When you've got a lot of wrath and you've got a lot of anger,
he says, just remember that the wicked will be punished.
The Bible says in Proverbs 11, 30, famous verse,
the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life
and he that win its souls is wise.
Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth,
much more the wicked and the sinner.
Now, God has promised to reward us, hasn't he?
He said, man, if you give up, whatever you give up,
I'll give you a hundredfold.
He said, I will reward you greatly for what you do for me.
But he says, you know what?
I'm gonna reward the wicked and the sinner even more.
I'm gonna give what's coming to them even more.
So God is promising us, he said,
the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth,
much more the wicked and the sinner
are gonna receive what's coming to them,
according to the Bible.
Let's go, let's finish up in Psalm 94 here.
Just wanna bring out a few more things here.
In Psalm 94, it says in verse 20,
shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee,
which frameth mischief by a law?
They gather themselves together
against the soul of the righteous
and condemn the innocent blood.
But the Lord is my defense,
and my God is the rock of my refuge.
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity,
and shall cut them off in their own wickedness.
Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.
It's foolish for you to be envious of the wicked today,
because they are going to be punished severely,
more than we can even imagine in hell.
But then you say, well, wait a minute,
what about people that are saved that they do wickedly?
Yeah, there are a lot of people that are saved,
but they still do a lot of wicked things
and they harm people.
What about them?
Well, they're gonna be punished in this life.
The Bible tells us that they will be chastised
and scourged and chastened in this life.
They're not gonna go to hell, of course,
because by believing in Jesus Christ,
they have been completely forgiven of that penalty
and they're gonna go straight to heaven when they die.
But if they commit sin and wickedness in this life,
they'll be punished in this life.
And it's a warning, obviously, today,
I'm preaching to the safe, I mean, we're in church.
We're in a church filled with people
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
who know for sure that if they die today,
that they go to heaven.
What about you in your life?
If you commit sin and you do wickedly,
if you steal from your neighbor,
if you rip off your neighbor,
if you don't pay people what they should be paid
when they work for you
and you don't treat them fairly and honestly,
if you go out and commit filthy acts and sin,
you will be punished severely in this earth,
you will be chastened.
Look at the people in the Bible,
we don't have to go on all day with examples,
but we saw, of course, Jacob, he deceived someone,
guess what, he turned around, he got deceived.
Laban tried to rip off Jacob financially, what happened?
Jacob ended up ripping him off financially.
He ended up walking away with all the money.
You look throughout the Bible,
you see David commit adultery with Bathsheba
and murder her husband and what happened?
His own son committed adultery with his wives
in the sight of all Israel
and four of his sons died as a result
of him killing an innocent man.
He paid it back four fold out of his own children.
Look at King Saul,
King Saul started out a very righteous man,
but then he went into a lot of sin and wickedness,
he started to disobey God, jealousy took over,
he tried to kill David,
who was his most righteous servant,
he even threw a javelin at his own son.
But look at the miserable life that he lived
and look at the shameful death that he died
and even his son, Jonathan, even died
as a result of his wickedness and sin.
And so we see throughout the Bible,
people constantly reaping what they've sown.
You gotta look at this in the big picture.
Do right, live your life the right way,
serve God, obey God, do the right thing
even when it's hard to do the right thing
and know for a fact that God's gonna reward you for that.
And today, maybe things aren't going your way.
Maybe your finances are shot,
maybe your health is shot,
maybe everything's going against you.
You say, God, I'm doing all these good things for you.
Why am I suffering like this?
But you have to understand that when you sow a seed,
you don't reap it the next day.
You don't sow a seed for the next day.
Oh, wow, look, here's the harvest.
That'd be great farming.
You're probably trying to genetically modify
something like that.
But the bottom line is, you've gotta wait.
The Bible says in James 5, I'll close with this.
Let me turn there quickly, James 5.
Give me a second to get there, it wasn't in my notes here.
James 5 says this, verse 7, be patient.
And he's talking about people who've been ripped off
of the hire, of the laborers.
They weren't getting paid right from their job.
He said, verse 7, be patient, therefore, brethren,
unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waited
for the precious fruit of the earth.
The husbandman is the one who's growing vines.
He's a farmer that's farming basically grapevines.
He says, behold, the husbandman waited
for the precious fruit of the earth
and had long patience for it
until he received the early and latter rain.
Be ye also patient, establish your hearts
for the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh.
He said, one day, it's all gonna be settled.
Get that established and nailed down in your heart,
that just as when you plant a seed as a husbandman,
you have to wait a long time to harvest those grapes,
to reap that harvest.
He said, it's gonna be the same thing
with the righteousness or unrighteousness in your life.
You're gonna wait a long time,
but it will be received eventually.
You will reap that harvest.
You will be rewarded.
And so that's the patience and the faith of the saints,
waiting for God's justice to kick in,
waiting for God to take care of you,
and waiting for God to reward both the good and the evil.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God,
and your promises here,
and thank you that as events happen to us in life,
we can know for a fact that you're gonna take care of it
and you'll balance the score.
We don't have to settle every score ourselves.
We don't have to punish everyone who does us wrong.
Help us to just realize
that you've already got it taken care of
and that you will reward the good
and that you will punish the evil.
And Father, help us to take it also as a warning,
that if we treat people wrongly and if we rip people off
and if we're dishonest,
that's exactly how we're gonna be treated.
Help us to keep that in mind as well.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, let's go ahead and sing one song before we go.
Let's sing, let's see.
Who's got a song that ties in with the sermon here?
Did we just sing that, though?
I feel like we just sang it on Wednesday night.
I think we just sang it.
Who's got a song besides When We All Get To Heaven
that'll tie in with reaping what you've sown?
Come on, help me out here.
One of my songs is Well With My Soul.
It is Well With My Soul?
All right, we'll tie that in.
That's a good song.
Let's sing it, 145.
145, that's a good song about the second coming
of Jesus Christ.
And that's what we're patiently waiting for.
We're patiently waiting when things will be settled
once and for all.
And you know, it's interesting.
Let me just keep preaching for a while.
You know, Luke 21.
You know, the famous passages about end times,
prophecy in the Bible and the four gospels
when Jesus taught about the second coming
and the end of the world and all these different things.
And of course, Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 17, and Luke 21
are the four big chapters where Jesus really taught
on the second coming.
And in Luke 21, he says,
for these be the days of vengeance.
You know, he explains that that's what the second coming
is all about.
He said, for these be the days of vengeance
that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
See, this is a whole page of notes I didn't even get to.
That was from that page.
So, 145, let's sing it out on that first verse.
It is well with my soul.
145.
When peace like a river attended my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll,
whatever my heart, thou hast taught me to say,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul.