When Good Men Die

waiting-on-godEvil seems to be winning and it is definitely on the rise. What used to be shameful is today just the ordinary. We shake our heads in disbelief and disgust and wonder what has become of our nation. The late Adrian Rogers once put it best; our nation has lost its ability to blush.

And evil is becoming more and more bold as was evidenced last week in Austin, Texas where abortion supporters were singing praises to Satan to mock Christians. This may be a surprise to some, but this is not something new:

    “At evening they return, they growl like a dog, and go all around the city. Indeed, they belch with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for they say, ‘Who hears?’” (Psalm 59:6-7)

I’m not trying to say that the words of the wicked are not hurtful, but we must keep faith in the Lord that in the end He will defend us and punish the evildoers:

    “Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the rebellion of the workers of iniquity, who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows—bitter words, that they may shoot in secret at the blameless; suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly they shall be wounded.” (Psalm 64:2-4, 7)

The boldness of depravity is the beginning of Satan’s last stand. He knows his days are numbered so he is emptying out hell and pulling out all the stops. While it is easy to dwell on such madness, let us be mindful of how this all turns out. David had to constantly remind himself of this truth:

    “Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, and uproot you from the land of the living. Selah” (Psalm 52:1-5)

David’s son, Solomon, no doubt learned much from his father and this wisdom is wonderfully captured in the Book of Proverbs. Teaching his son on the value of wisdom, Solomon wrote:

    “For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.” (Proverbs 2:21-22)

Sometimes is seems as though the opposite is true of what Solomon has written. I remember a song in the late ‘70s by Billy Joel called “Only The Good Die Young” and this can be especially true in times of war. But when the good die, that is the righteous who have been made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ, something wonderful and eternal happens. Commenting on Psalm 52, Matthew Henry writes:

    “Those that glory in sin, glory in their shame. The patience and forbearance of God are abused by sinners, to the hardening of their hearts in their wicked ways. But the enemies in vain boast in their mischief, while we have God’s mercy to trust in. It will not save us from the guilt of lying, to be able to say, there was some truth in what we said, if we make it appear otherwise than it was. The more there is of craft and contrivance in any wickedness, the more there is of Satan in it. When good men die, they are transplanted from the land of the living on earth, to heaven, the garden of the Lord, where they shall take root forever; but when wicked men die, they are rooted out, to perish forever. The believer sees that God will destroy those who make Him not their strength.”

In the end, God wins. That is what the Bible teaches, that is what I keep my focus on, and that is what I am encouraging each of you to do. We can indeed pray that God redeem His holy name by destroying evil all the while praying that evil men come to repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ.

It takes great faith to believe that what we see all around us will turn out for God’s glory.

Be sure that you don’t have faith in your faith, but faith in a faithful God.

The believer always makes God their strength…

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2013 David Jeffers

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