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That's a great chapter but the part that I wanted to focus on there is beginning in verse number 7 where the Bible reads, Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success. And so in these two scriptures we're told that if we keep God's commandments, if we do what we're supposed to do, God's going to make our way prosperous. He's going to cause us to prosper and he's going to cause us to have good success. He starts out in verse number 7 by saying only be thou strong and very courageous. And let me say this, in the year 2013, if you're going to keep God's commandments and live a life that's pleasing God, you're going to need both strength and courage to do that because there's going to be so much opposition to the life that you're trying to live. Now you've probably heard of, and turn if you would to Psalm chapter 1, right in the middle of your Bible is the book of Psalms, you've probably heard people talk about prosperity preaching or prosperity preachers. Who's ever heard that term before? Put up your hand. And basically prosperity preaching or being a prosperity preacher is this idea that if you keep God's commandments and if you serve him and do what's right, that basically you're not going to have any problems in your life. Everything's going to go well for you. Everything's going to work out great. You're going to be healthy. It's often called the health and wealth gospel. You know, and some people that are these prosperity types or these prosperity preaching types will tell you, you know, if you're sick, that's just because you're, you know, you're living in sin. That's why you're sick right now. Or if your finances aren't going right, that just means you're living in sin. And basically what that false doctrine teaches is that if you do right, bad things will not happen to you because you're doing right. Now as with all lies, there's always a little bit of truth mixed in with every lie. You know, in order to get you to believe a lie, I have to mix in a little bit of the truth. If it was just pure falsehood, no one would believe in it. And so there is some truth to that doctrine, okay, because the Bible does clearly teach in many places that if you keep God's commandments and if you serve him with all your heart, that you will prosper and that you will be successful. But the lie that's out there is the lie that says you're not going to go through any adversity. You're not going to go through any suffering. You're not going to go through any hard times. Look down, if you would, at Psalm 1 verse 1. The Bible reads, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Now this is very similar to what we saw in Joshua 1-8 where Joshua was told to meditate in the word of God day and night, and if he did so, and if he kept the commandments, that God would make his way prosperous and that he would have good success. So the Bible says, in his law doth he meditate day and night, look at verse 3, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Watch this, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. That's a pretty good promise, isn't it? If you keep God's commandments, if you meditate in his word day and night, go to Deuteronomy chapter 30, the 5th book in the Bible, toward the beginning of your Bible there, Deuteronomy chapter number 30, and the Bible reads in verse 15, See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil. Deuteronomy 30 verse 16, In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, why? That thou mayest live and multiply, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that thou and thy seed may live, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him, for he is thy life in the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. So here again, it's emphasized, do what's right, and you're going to be better off. God's going to give you length of days, he's going to take care of you. Do what's wrong, and you're just bringing a curse upon yourself. Your life is going to be a failure. Your life is going to end in misery and shame. And all throughout the Bible, you know, we're just turning to a few scriptures, we could see this principle again and again and again in the Bible that could be summed up in this way. The path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience. You want things to go well for you, you want God to bless you, you want to be successful, you want to prosper, then you need to do what's right, you need to listen to God's commandments, you need to meditate on them day and night, and you need to implement them in your life. That is what the Bible teaches cover to cover very clearly. Go to 1 Peter chapter 3, let's see it in the New Testament. 1 Peter chapter 3, to the very end of the Bible, there's a couple of books before Revelation, 1 Peter chapter number 3. And again, this has nothing to do with salvation. You know, when it comes to salvation, the Bible's clear about what it takes to be saved. You know, the question is asked one time in the Bible, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. But let me say this, even once you're saved, and by the way, once you're saved you're a child of God. The Bible says, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So if you believe on the name of Jesus Christ, the Bible says that you're a son of God. He says, but ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. So when you're God's child, you're God's son, he says, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. He says, I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So once you believe on Jesus Christ, you're saved and you're saved forever. But does that mean that you can't make a mess out of your life on this earth? I mean look how many people in the Bible were saved, went to heaven when they died, but wait a minute, the end of their life ended in ruin. Look at Samson. I mean Samson was a man of great faith, Samson was saved, Samson's in heaven, but did Samson end his life in a glorious way or a shameful way? He ended his life in a shameful way. King Saul also ended his life in a shameful way. Bible teaches in two places that he's in heaven. And we can go down the list, you know, King Solomon ended up his life in a shameful way. Just because you're saved doesn't mean that you can't mess things up down here on this earth. And look, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a failure in my life. You know, I'm glad I'm going to heaven, I'm glad I'm saved, I'm glad that as far as the east is from the west, so far God has separated me from my sins. I thank God that I will never face the wrath of God and the punishment of hell, but I'll say this, I don't want my life to be a failure, I want my life to be a success. I don't want to ruin my life. I don't want my children's lives to be ruined. I don't want my wife's life to be ruined. I want to do what's right, I want to prosper, I want to succeed, I want to do something great for God, I want to do something great, I don't want to get to the end of my life and be a failure and be a loser and have ruined the opportunities that I've been given. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 9. The Bible reads, "...not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrary-wise blessing, knowing that ye are there unto cold, that ye should inherit a blessing." Verse 10, "...for he that will love life and see good days," he's saying look, do you want to see good days? Do you want to have a life that you enjoy as opposed to a life that you hate? He says, "...let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." So again, the choice is ours. You know, whether we want to be blessed or whether we want to be cursed. If we keep the commandments, if we obey the voice of the Lord, if we do what's right, we're going to be blessed. Going back to the illustration of being a child. You know, we're God's children if we're saved. If we believe on Christ, we're his children. Nothing can change that. Just like my children, lined up there in the back, will always be my children. No sin that they commit would cause them to no longer be my children. You know, my children have broken my rules often. And when they broke my rules, could they get to a point where I say, that's it, you've gone too far, you're not my son anymore. Now I would never say that, and even if I did say that, it wouldn't be true, would it? Or what if my child looked at me and said, Dad, you're not my dad. You know, that wouldn't change the fact that I'm his dad. Nothing can change that. It's the same thing with us. Once we're saved, we're God's children. Now look, does that mean that I let my children do whatever they want? Does that mean no matter what my children do, they're going to have the same outcome? No, because if my children break my rules, they're going to be disciplined, they're going to be spanked, but they're not going to be kicked out of the family. And if my children do what is right and obey my voice, they're going to be blessed. They're going to have a better life living in the home by obeying their parents than by disobeying their parents. And really the choice is up to them. You know, they might think, oh man, I'm being disciplined too often. You're breaking the rules too often. You know, the choice is up to you how much you get disciplined. The choice is up to you whether you receive a blessing or whether you receive discipline. It's your choice. Look if you would at Ephesians chapter 6 while we're on that note and see again the concept reiterated that if we keep God's commandments and obey His voice, we're going to be blessed as opposed to being cursed. Look at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 2. The Bible reads, "'Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.'" So God is again saying here, look children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right and if you obey your parents and honor your father and mother, He says it's going to go well for you. Your days are going to be long on the earth. And obviously the converse is true. The Bible says, "'The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it.'" So there's a curse associated with disobeying that commandment and there's a blessing associated with obeying that commandment. Now go to Job chapter 1 if you would. Right in the middle of the Bible is the book of Psalms. If you open your Bible to the dead center is Psalms. Right before Psalms is the book of Job. Now the book of Job is a great book to illustrate what I'm talking about because we know that there's a doctrine out there that's a prosperity gospel that's a false doctrine that says look, if you do what's right, if you keep the commandments, you're never going to go through any suffering. You're not going to become ill, you're not going to have financial problems. And look, we know that's just simply not true because as we look at the Bible we see great men of God constantly suffering, constantly going through trials and tribulations, okay? And the Bible teaches very clearly, it says, "'Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.'" So suffering is going to be a part of our life when we're serving God. The Bible says, "'For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.'" So the problem with the prosperity gospel doctrine is that they teach a life that is free from suffering, free from tribulation, free from pain if you do what's right. That is not biblical because the Bible says, "'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.'" So we know that that's not true, but again, we don't want to take the opposite. Some people look at that false doctrine of prosperity preaching and they react too far the other direction. You know, they overreact to it and then they just say like, no, I mean if you do right everything's going to go bad for you all the time. You just need to accept that. You just need to embrace it. You need to just want to just go down hard all the time and just fail in every area. This prosperity gospel is a lie. You're going to be poor, you're going to be in misery, you're going to suffer, everything's going to go bad, everyone's going to hate you. I mean, so do you see how you could go to an opposite extreme that is equally false? Because I just read for you all these scriptures that talked about things going well if you do right. So what's the balance? I mean, what is the truth here? We know this extreme isn't true and we know that that's not true either. I think the book of Job gives us a great illustration of how this works, okay? Look if you would at verse number 1. The Bible reads in Job 1.1, the very beginning of the book here. It says, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Let me just point out, the word perfect in the Bible never means sinless. In 2013 we hear the word perfect, we think it means sinless. And again, that's a whole other sermon. I could show you all the times the word perfect is used. It's basically talking about somebody who's, when it says perfect, it means complete. Basically he's doing right in all areas of life. It doesn't mean that he's sinless, but he is righteous in all areas. There are many people who do right in several areas, but then they have one major area where they're doing wrong. For example, a lot of the kings of Israel will say, hey, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but he didn't remove the high places. Or but, he's still clave unto this sin or that sin. But he's still this. Job didn't have any inconsistencies like that. Was he sinless? No. But he was perfect in the sense that he was righteous in every area of life. He prayed, he read his Bible, he kept the commandments, he wasn't perfect in the sense that we would think of, but that's what that means. It says, a perfect and an upright man which feared God and eschewed evil. Look at verse 2, and there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. Now you say, oh man, that's a pain. But you know what? In the Bible, children are viewed as a blessing. The Bible says, children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Okay, so if you have this attitude that says, well, 10 children, what a pain in the neck. That just shows that you've been brainwashed by our society and the whole population reduction agenda of teaching people to voluntarily not have children. Children according to the Bible are a blessing. The Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply. I'm not worried about this world getting overpopulated. This world's not going to be here forever. I'm going to have as many children as I can and I already have seven of them and I'm just going to keep on having more. People say, are you done? I just tell them there's no end in sight. You haven't seen nothing yet. It's like John Paul Jones said, I've not yet begun to fight. I'm just getting started. I'm 31 years old, alright? And so it says there that he had 10 children basically. Verse 3, his substance also, talking about what he possessed, what he owned, his substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yokovoxins and 500 chias and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. So look, is Job prospering financially? Now I couldn't really put a dollar amount on all this livestock but it sounds like a lot to me. I mean he's got thousands and thousands of animals and that's where he's deriving his wealth. Well look at verse 8. This is where of course, and I'm just going to blow through this really quickly for sake of time and skip a lot but I'm just going to give you the gist of it here. This is where the Lord is speaking with Satan and Satan is trying to basically criticize Job unto God and tell God that, you know what, the only reason that Job is serving you is because you blessed him. Look at verse 8. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Now look, that right there tells us that at that time Job was the greatest man living on the earth. Is that not what it says? Was there anyone on the earth that was as good of a man as Job? No. The Bible says he was the best man at that time. And God is rubbing Satan's nose in this, you know, and showing him, look, am I serving Job. Verse 9, then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for naught? He said he's not fearing you for nothing. Blessed not thou made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. Go to chapter 2 verse 3, and you know, in the ensuing verses there, we see of course that God allows Satan to just destroy everything that Job has. Job's ten children die in one day. All of his cattle is stolen or destroyed and he loses all of his wealth and he loses all of his children in one day and he goes through just these horrible events in the rest of the chapter. And then of course he gives the famous words in verse 20 and 21 of chapter 1 that is, Then Job arose and rent his mantle and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolish. So was the devil right about Job? He's completely wrong, I mean Job is still righteous, he's still retaining his integrity. Look at chapter 2 verse 3, The Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou moveth me against him, to destroy him without cause. So look, God is reiterating again that this man is a great man, he's a righteous man, and that God had no cause to allow these bad things to happen in his life. He said, You moved me against him without cause. Now what's funny about this is that a lot of people misinterpret the book of Job. And they claim that Job was written by Elihu, who at the end of the book, a young man named Elihu rebukes Job, tells Job that he's lived a life of sin, tells Job that God's trying to humble him and God's trying to show him that he's not as great as he thinks he is. Is that what the Bible teaches here? The Bible teaches very clearly that God brought these bad things upon Job for one reason, because he said it was without cause. It was only because he was proving unto Satan that Job would retain his integrity. He was only testing Job, that's the only reason. That's what the Bible actually says, my friend, that only reason, not because of some sin in Job's life, not because he had this horrible pride that he needed to deal with, no. He brought it upon him to test him and to try him and for his own glory. That's why he allowed Job to go through this suffering. And it says he was moved against him without cause. Look if you would at verse 4. And Satan answered the Lord, see Satan is still not convinced, and said, Does Job fear God for not? I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong place. Satan answered the Lord, verse 4, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job, watch this, with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. So Satan says, well, okay, yeah, you destroyed his wealth, yes, you killed all his children, but wait a minute, what about his health? Job would give all the money that they have to have good health. He said, touch his body. Allow him to become physically ill, then he'll curse you to your face once he's lost everything. So of course, Satan goes and smites Job with sore boils from head to toe, and he's scraping and scratching them and burning. So now not only has he lost everything, but he's in physical pain and agony. And of course, jump if you would forward to chapter 21 of the book of Job. So then what happens is, of course, Job's three friends come over. And Job's three friends, they came to comfort Job, but the way that they do that is by basically teaching the prosperity, health, and wealth gospel. Because they show up and they say, look, Job, you must have some sin that we don't know about and God's punishing you right now. And Job keeps telling him, no, I mean, I'm not living in sin, you know, I've been living a righteous life, I don't know why this is happening. God's testing me, God's trying me. And his three friends are all with one voice saying, no, Job, if you did right, you'd be blessed. You must be doing something wrong, there must be some sin that you're not thinking of. And then Eli, who comes and chimes in and says the same thing. Now look what Job says in chapter 21 verse 7. This is while Job is kind of going back and forth with his friends and discussing this with his friends, he's defending himself to his friends. He says in verse 7, wherefore, wherefore means why. Wherefore did the wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in power. So he's confronting these three prosperity preacher types who are telling him, hey, if you were doing right, these bad things wouldn't be happening to you. And Job answers them and says, okay, well why do the wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in power. Now let me ask you this, as you look around the world today in 2013, do you see wicked people that are wealthy, healthy, becoming old, prospering, succeeding? So isn't that a pretty good question? It says in verse 8, their seed is established in their sight with them, saying that their children inherit the money. I mean, and they continue to prosper. And this flies in the face of this prosperity gospel that says, you know, if you do wrong, bad things happen. If you do good, or if you do right, good things happen all the time. Keep reading. Their houses are safe from fear, verse 9, neither is the rod of God upon them. Now look very carefully at that phrase. Neither is the rod of God upon them. What does the rod represent in the Bible? Discipline. You know, the Bible talks often about, you know, spare the rod, and so, you know, you've heard the saying, spare the rod, spoil the child, the Bible says he that spareth his rod hateth his son, and the Bible tells us the rod of correction. The rod is something that's used for discipline, and the Bible is saying the rod of God is not upon them. Basically these wicked, ungodly people, God's not disciplining them at all. Look at the next phrase. It says there in verse 10, their bull jendereth, and faileth not, their cow caveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. He's saying basically they die just a quick, painless death, just in a moment they go down to the grave. Just, you know, they live a happy, prosperous life, and then it ends. Verse 16, he says, I'm sorry, I jumped down too far. Verse 14, therefore they say unto God, so because everything's going so well, they say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what prophets should we have if we pray unto him? Why should we even go to church or read the Bible? We don't need this stuff. Verse 16, though their good is not in their hand, Job is just saying, look, the counsel of the wicked is far from it. He's saying, I'm not going to follow their path, I'm just asking the question. But then he explains it in verse 17, how oft is the candle of the wicked put out? And how oft cometh their destruction upon them? God distributeth sorrows in his anger, they are a stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carryeth away. God layeth up his iniquity for his children. He rewardeth him, and he shall know it. His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? He's saying, look, that's humanly speaking what I think when I see the wicked is why are they prospering, why is everything going so well? But he says, wait a minute, I remember the fact that when his months are over, when his days end, he's going to face the wrath of God. Basically what he's saying, he's going to burn in hell. Look if you would at verse 29, have ye not asked them to go by the way, and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. Now go to chapter 42. So what is Job explaining there? He's explaining, look, it's easy to look around and see wicked people prospering in this world. But one must not forget that the end of that man, the end of them is to spend an eternity in hell to face the wrath of God, to be punished more than you can even imagine. So the question is, are they really getting away with it? No they're not. Now look at Job chapter 42. This is at the very end of the book of Job. This is after he's lost everything, he's lost all his wealth, he's gone through this horrible physical pain. Then his wife looked at him and said, does thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. That's what his wife told him. So his wife's turned on him, his children are dead, his employees have all left him, his friends are telling him he's a sinful, wicked man and that he deserves everything that's happened to him, even though he didn't deserve it at all. They're saying, you deserve it. They're adding insult to injury. He's lost everything. He's in pain. Job goes through this trying time and he never, you know, he never sins foolishly with his lips. He retains his integrity. He still trusts God. He gets all the way through it and at the very end of the book, God turns things around for him. Look at chapter 42 verse 10. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and obviously I'm kind of condensing the book, I mean read the whole book, but the Lord turned again the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. So the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Did you catch that? Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they that had been acquaintances before and did eat bread with them in his house and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, for he had 14,000 sheep. I mean basically it's double what he had in chapter 1. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 sheasses. He also had 7 sons and 3 daughters, so his wife gives birth to 10 more children. And it says basically, and he called the name of the first Jemima. You know, it's more than just a pancake syrup, I mean this is Job's daughter. It says he named the first Jemima, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Karen Hapok. In all the land there were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job, and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons, even four generations, so Job died being old and full of age. Now go to James chapter 5 in the New Testament, very end of the New Testament, you find the book of James, because in James we find reference to the story about Job, and he interprets the story of Job to us a little bit in James chapter 5 verse 10. The Bible says, take my brethren, the prophets, James 5, 10, who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. So he's saying there, look, look at the Old Testament and see the prophets, see great men of God. They suffered. They went through affliction. They patiently endured trials and tribulations. He says take them for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Verse 11, behold we count them happy which endure. You've heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Look, did Job suffer? Yes. So that shows that the prosperity preachers are lying, because they say you're not going to suffer, you're not going to go through pain, you're not going to lose your money, you're not going to have a loved one die, you're not going to go through pain and suffer. No. But here's the thing. Yes, Job suffered. Yes, Job went through trials and tribulations and afflictions, but in the end he was blessed. Do you see that? In the end he was blessed. In the end he had twice as much as what he had in the beginning. So does it ring true when God says that if you obey him and serve him and keep his commandments, that he'll make your way prosperous and give you good success? See what people misinterpret is they think that there's no suffering along the way. That there's no pain along the way. That there's no persecution along the way. In the end you end up blessed if you do what's right and you end up cursed if you do what's wrong. Now, let's just briefly talk about the difference between those that are saved and unsaved. If we look at a person that's not saved, a person that does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you would go to Hebrews 12 so I can show you this, if we look at a person that's not saved and they're a very wicked and ungodly person, that person will often, as Job kind of was wondering about, they will often live in prosperity, wealth, and a lot of times they seem to be getting away with everything they're doing and no punishment comes upon them. You know, I think a good example would be Joseph Stalin. You know, one of the most wicked people who ever walked the face of the earth, yet he lived to be an old man and he died in peace. There are a lot of other people that you could think of the same way, okay, that were not cut short in this life. They did not receive their retribution in this life. And you look at that and say, well God, you said you're going to repay the wicked. God, you said you're going to bless the righteous and curse those that are evil. So we look at a very wicked and ungodly person that's prosperous, that's wealthy, and think of Bill Gates. He's prospering, he's healthy, he's doing great, right? Very evil, very wicked man. And you look at that and you say, well how can that be, where's his punishment? Here's why he's not being punished, it's explained in Hebrews chapter 12. Because the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, in verse number 6 it says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Chasten means punish. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement. So look, let me ask this, are there some people who are without chastisement? Who go through their life committing sin and wickedness and not being punished? Yeah, and he says, look, if you are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. So he's not saying everybody's getting punished in this life, he says there are some that are not getting punished. But they are not the sons of God. They are bastards, they are not sons, do you see that? So when the Bible is teaching here is that people that are not saved may go through life prospering in their wickedness. But if you are saved and you live a wicked life and you disregard and disrespect the commandments of God and you're not reading your Bible, you're not praying, you're not obeying his commandments, you don't go to church, you're going to be punished for that in this life. And he says if you don't get punished, that just means you're not even saved. Because he said all are partakers of God's chastisement. When the Lord loveth, he chaseth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So it's not that you might get disciplined. If you're saved and you live a sinful life, you will be punished, you will be disciplined. You might look at someone else and say, well he's not getting disciplined. That's because he's not God's son. Quit comparing yourself to him, he's in a different family. That'd be like if my kid said, you know, well I'm not going to get a spanking for doing thus and so because the kid across the street does it every day and I've never seen dad spank him. Well that's because if I spank the kid next door, I'm going to jail. And by the way, I have no desire to spank the kid next door because he's not my kid, it's not my responsibility. So you see how foolish it would be to compare those two things? Well that's how it is when we look at some wicked ungodly heathen who doesn't even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we see them getting away with murder literally and we say, well this isn't fair. Okay, he's going to burn in hell for all eternity. Is he getting away with it? He's not getting away with it. Now look, I'm preaching today to those that are saved because I'm sure that 90 some percent of the people here are saved. Okay, already, but I mean if I ask for a raise of hands right now, you know, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ their savior and knows for sure that they're going to heaven and they have everlasting life, you know, almost every hands, hands are already popping up and that was just a hypothetical, okay? So hands are going to be popping up all over because why? I'm speaking predominantly to the saved. And let me say to you that are saved, you will not be successful in life disobeying the commandments of God. You will fail, you will be a loser, you will fail, you will suffer, and you will end up your life having wrecked it. Now an unsaved person can often succeed doing that which is wrong, but God does not allow his children to just do whatever they want. Sure they can do whatever they want and still get to heaven, but you know what? He's going to punish them and bring his, and look, there's numerous examples in the Bible of saved children of God who committed big sins and suffered big consequences in this life. So if you do wrong, you know what the end's going to be, my friend. You're going to mess up your life. It's that simple. You're going to be punished, you're going to go down hard. But if you do right, you say, okay, well if I do right, the Bible says God's going to make my way prosperous, I'm going to have good success. I believe that. Who believes that you're going to be prosperous if you do what's right? Of course you will. But here's the thing, you just have to understand it's not always just an overnight success. God's going to put you through trials and tribulations. No one can look at Job's life and say that he did not end up prosperous. He ended up extremely prosperous. He ended up doing very well, but look at everything he had to go through along the way. Some people will be even killed for the cause of Christ, but look at their end. They get all kinds of glories and rewards in heaven. You see what I'm saying? So the bottom line is, the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience. If you go out and live a life that disregards the commandments of God and disregards the Word of God, don't be surprised when bad things happen in your life. Don't be surprised when everything goes bad. Now if you're doing right and bad things happen, you can have the assurance of what Job said. He said, when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold. You know, if you're doing right, if you love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and then you go through bad times, you know. You know what? This is just a trial or a tribulation. I'm going to go through this and God's going to bless me and in the end I'm going to have good success. In the end I'm going to prosper. I just need to endure this short time. You know, the darkest hour is just before dawn. Weeping man doer for the night but joy cometh in the morning. But when you're living a sinful life and bad things happen, it's just the chastisement of God and it's just only going to get worse unless you get it on track. And so the Bible is really clear and look, you've seen people in your life that illustrate these points. I mean you see people all the time who start living a life of sin as Christians and watch their life go downhill. You've all seen it. And then you see other people who live right and do what's right and love God. Do they go through trials? Yes. Do they go through tribulations? Yes. Do they suffer? Yes. But you know what? You look at the end of their life and you say, man, that guy's been blessed by God. Or that lady has succeeded in life. That person has been blessed and successful and prosperous. The end of that man is peace. The Bible says, turn to Psalm 37, this is the last place we'll turn, Psalm 37. And really the entire chapter of Psalm 37 deals with this subject. And while you're turning to Psalm 37, let me just bring up another guy by the name of Joseph. You know in the book of Genesis, Joseph was a guy who the Bible teaches really clearly loved the Lord. The Bible says the Lord was with him. He was a good guy, but he went through some serious suffering. When he was 17 years old, his brethren beat him up, threw him into a pit, and then sold him into slavery to the Egyptians and then they told his dad that he was dead. Imagine that. I mean, they take their brother, beat him up, sell him into slavery, keep the money, and then tell dad, oh, he was killed by a wild beast and they took his coat and tore it up, put blood on it and said, we found this. We don't know what happened, but we found this out in the desert. Is this his coat? And then his dad said, man, he must have got tore up by a wild beast if that's all that's left, this bloody coat. You know, he couldn't do the DNA testing on the blood and figure out it wasn't even human back then, you know. But anyway, that's a pretty bad thing. I mean, look, can you imagine something worse happening as a 17 year old? You're sold as a slave into a foreign country, you don't speak the language. I mean, it's a pretty bad outlook. But the Bible says over and over again that everything Joseph did while he was there prospered. Was he a slave? Yes. Did he sit in a prison cell? Yes. Was he falsely accused and arrested for a crime he didn't commit? Yes. But all through it, the Lord is with him, he prospered. And how did he end up his life? He ended up his life ruling over the entire nation as the second in command and he ended up his life seeing his children's children under the fourth generation and being blessed throughout the end of his life. So again, it's very consistent throughout the Bible. If you live a life where you serve God and where you're pleasing to God and where you do what's right, you will prosper and succeed and in the end you'll be better off. Are you going to suffer along the way? Yes. Look if you would at Psalm 37 verse 1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Let not thyself, fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth for yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. Yea, they shall diligently consider his place and it shall not be, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. And you know, it just goes on and on and on along those same lines. But if you would, jump down to verse 37. And this is reminiscent of what it said about Job in chapter 1. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright. Those are the two words that were used to describe Job. It says he was a perfect and an upright man, the exact two words. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Did it say his whole life's going to be peace? Every moment's going to be peace, every day's going to be peace? No, but the end of that man is peace. Look, I am willing to go through trials and tribulations. I am willing to suffer. I am willing to go through battles and fighting in my life. That is part of what I'm on this earth to do. That is part of what God has called us to do. That is part of what strengthens us and makes us a better person. That's what made Job a better person. The Bible says through the sorrow of the countenance, the heart is made better. Look, suffering, pain, trials, tribulations, hardships, obstacles are a part of life, but the end of that man is peace. He will prosper us in the end. We will succeed in the end. And you know what? That makes the trials more bearable when you realize, you know what? When I'm tried, I'll come forth as gold. I will succeed in the end. I will be blessed in the end. This is only a temporary setback. But you go out and live a sinful life, and again, I'm talking to believers now. There's a difference. Unbelievers, yeah, they do well prospering in wickedness and then they burn in hell. I don't envy them. I don't want that life. I don't want to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season like they do. And many of them get punished in this life. But I'll say this. When you're saved, you've got two choices, my friend. You're saved today, I don't believe for one second you could lose your salvation. The Bible's very clear that it's eternal life, it's everlasting life, all our sins are forgiven and forgotten. But let me tell you something. You, saved Christian, have two choices this morning. You can live a life of reading and meditating in God's Word, keeping His commandments, seeking the Lord with all your heart and obeying His voice, or you can live a life that disregards and disrespects His commandments. And let me tell you something. That is what determines how your life will end up. I can't tell you the exact path you're going to take. I can't predict exactly how that's going to play out. I can't tell you the timing of when the prosperity will come and when the success will come. I can't tell you how long your trials are going to be, how long your suffering's going to be, how great your reward's going to be. But I can promise you that if you go down the path of obedience, you will be blessed by God. You will succeed in the end. You will get to the end of your life and you will be glad and thank God that you obeyed Him. And it will be worth it all and Paul said, I reckon the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And when you get to the end, you'll think everything I've gone through, all the pain, all the suffering was nothing compared to the reward. But on the other hand, you go down a path of disobedience and disrespect to God, you will be miserable and suffer and there will be no silver lining to it. You'll just realize, I've wasted my life. I've blown it. I've messed up. I've ruined my life. I've wasted my opportunities that God has given me. Look, that is the most important thing you decide in your life. More important than what you do for a living, more important than what kind of prosperity you have financially. Look, just decide this day, life, death, blessing, cursing, good, evil. It's all right there in front of you. Choose which path you're going to take. You walk out of here and go live according to this world, blow off church, blow off the Bible, blow off prayer. I can already tell you how your life's going to end up in destruction. But you go out of here and say, you know what, as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. I'm going to meditate in a day, I'm going to be strong and have a good courage. You know what? You will be blessed in the latter end. You will succeed. You will prosper. You will have good success. I guarantee it. Just bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and your promises. They've been misinterpreted by many who have misconstrued this doctrine to teach that we're not going to go through any suffering or hard times. The Joel Osteens of this world with their gold and silver and precious stones all over their hands and all over their bodies claiming that this is because I'm serving God. We know that they're liars that will split hell wide open. We know that Joel Osteen and Billy Graham will spend eternity in the pit of hell for teaching lies for filthy lucre's sake, for teaching a gospel and teaching a doctrine that will make them financially rich and wealthy on this earth. We know why they don't get any discipline. We know why they don't go through any suffering or chastisement because they're not saved. But Father, help us to understand the truth that if we do serve you, we will go through hard times but in the end we will be blessed and we will succeed and have good success. Father, thank you so much for everything that you do for us and all of your promises and blessings. Help us to understand them and help us to take them to heart and to rest our lives upon them.