 Amen, so keep your place there in Luke chapter 16. We're going to be going through the story that we find at the beginning of the chapter. So this morning, what are we talking about this morning? So last week we talked about this topic of why bad things happen to good people. And I'd encourage you, if you didn't hear that sermon, to go back and listen to that sermon to understand what the Bible says about that topic. These are two questions that a lot of people ask themselves. They become even stumbling blocks for some people to believe in God and to trust what the Bible says and trust the Word of God. So if you want to know why bad things happen to good people and the answer to that kind of general question, I'd encourage you to listen to the sermon last week. But this morning, we're going to kind of be flipping that around and we're going to be asking another question and answering that question from the Bible. And that is why good things happen to bad people. So you say, you know, a lot of times people think, and turn to Matthew 19, keep your place in Luke chapter 16. But you know, first of all, you know, a lot of people look around this world and they see a lot of injustice. They see a lot of things that are going well for bad situations or bad people. So that is what I want to look at from the Bible this morning. But let me just give you another definition this morning, some precursors before we begin the sermon. Of course, we looked at last week, we looked at why bad things happen to good people. We see that there is none good, first of all. So there's no good people out there according to the Bible. You know, for all that sinned and come short of the glory of God. But turn to Matthew chapter 19 and verse number 17. So before we can understand, you know, why good things happen to bad people, let me just reiterate one more time that there is none good. No one is good except, look at Matthew 19, verse number 16, Matthew 19, verse number 16. The Bible says this, it says, and behold, one came and said unto him, good master, what thing shall I do that I may have everlasting or eternal life, sorry? And he said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. But if thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. So here is, you know, the rich young ruler coming up to Jesus and he's saying, good master, what shall I do that I may have eternal life? So you know, the problem is in the question, we know that. But Jesus answers him and says, why do you call me good? And what Jesus is saying here and a lot of people will miss in the Bible is Jesus is actually telling this man that he is God. Because he's saying there's only good, there's only one good and that is God. So you know, he didn't rebuke him for calling him good master, he basically just told him, I am God. So I am good, I am that one that is good. And then of course he teaches the rich young ruler, he exposes, you know, his sin, he's trying to work himself to heaven, all those types of things. But for the purpose of this sermon, we must understand, if we're looking at why good things happen to bad people, first of all, let me just, you know, say at the beginning that we're all bad, there's none good, okay? But for the purpose of answering this question, we will talk about bad people. Let's just define bad people for this sermon. Let's just look at people. Why good things happen to people in this category? Let's make a category this morning. Let's look at people that aren't saved. Let's look at people that have no interest in the Bible, that have no desire for the Lord, nothing like that. Let's look at why good things happen to those type of people, okay? That's what we'll look at this morning. People that are, they're not seeking God, they're just living, they're just living for themselves. So as you know, hopefully you're saved this morning, hopefully you've trusted and believed on Jesus Christ and you've received eternal life in a moment and you're saved. So let's look at why good things happen to people that just want nothing to do with any of that, all right? We understand that we're all bad, we get that. But people just living for themselves is who we'll look at this morning. Selfish people, immoral people, you know, maybe even wicked people, you know, fit into this category for sure. We looked at that as well last week. So why, why is there somebody like this, somebody that not only are they not saved, you know, maybe they're not like rejected from the Lord. Maybe they're not a hater of God. Maybe they're just somebody who's just, you know, completely indifferent to God. Look, we meet those people all the time. We go and knock on people's doors with a Bible and we want to show them what they're like. They could just, it's not that, you know, it's not that they're like serial killers. They just have no interest. They have no interest in the Lord. They have no interest in doing anything except just serving themselves, just going out and being successful and living the best life that they can live. So let's look at why God would allow good things to happen to people that want to basically have nothing to do with him. Look at Luke 16. To understand that, we need to understand this story in Luke 16 about the unjust steward, the unjust steward. So why do good things happen to these type of people? Why do nice guys always finish last, as many people would say? Look at Luke 16. Let's look at this story in the Bible and then we'll start to answer some specific reasons on why this is the case. Look at verse number one. Jesus says, and he said unto his disciples, there was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his good. So this guy, there's this rich guy and he's got, this is like, this is like a personal manager or an accountant or a business manager that this guy has running his affairs for him. And this rich man, this powerful man finds out that the person that's running his affairs, you know, I'm reminded of like, you always hear about this, you know, about like, you know, wealthy Hollywood people. They have some accountant that ripped them off for years and stole all their money or something like this. This steward was found by this rich man. And it was told to him that this guy was wasting his goods. So he was not doing a good job of managing this guy's affairs. And he wasn't paying attention, but it came to his attention that this guy was wasting. He didn't say he was stealing. He just said he was just wasting. He was just being careless with his goods. Look at verse number two. So he confronts him about it, and he called him and he said, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayest no longer be steward. Then the steward said within himself, what shall I do? So notice how the steward didn't say, you know, that's not true. He didn't say, you know, that's not the case at all. He just like, oh man, I'm fired. You know, he's like, I'm in trouble. I'm caught. He says, for my Lord, take it away from me, the stewardship. So I cannot dig. And to beg, I am ashamed. So right away, he knows he's guilty and he's getting fired. OK, he's guilty and he's getting fired. And he's like, I cannot dig. And to beg, I'm ashamed. He's like, I don't want to go out and stand on a street corner asking people for money. He's like, that's embarrassing. I wouldn't want to do that. Look, that should be embarrassing for everybody, by the way. Shame is a good thing. Shame is a good thing. And shame in the Bible should drive people from that. So this guy was ashamed. He didn't want to beg for money. And look, he didn't want to work either. I mean, he didn't want to go out and get a manual labor job and actually work for a living. He was much happier just living off this guy's money and just wasting this guy's money. So what does he do? Look at verse 4. I am resolved what to do that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. He's talking about other people, people outside of the current house that he's in. So he called every one of his Lord's deaders unto him. And he said unto the first, how much oas thou unto my Lord? And he said, and 100 measures of oil. And he said unto him, take thy bill and sit down quickly and write 50. So first of all, this guy knows he's getting fired and he's not fired right away. This story right here is why companies, and I've always kind of wondered this and I always thought it was kind of cruel that companies did this. But this is why companies, when they let somebody go, they walk them out. Many times they just walk them out the door right away. You know, I remember in Texas I was working in the semiconductor design industry. And it was just brutal when they would lay people off. I remember I had a friend of mine that he worked for the company for like 25 years. And it wasn't that he was bad at his job, it wasn't that it's just his department wasn't making money. And they literally, when they would lay people off, they literally walked up to his desk with two security guards and they said, take your hands off your keyboard. Just like that, 25 years. And they literally walked him out the door. And then on the weekends, they would escort them back into the building and they could take their pictures and things like that, their personal effects with them. But the reason that they do that, look, I'm not saying that that's right. Okay, that's pretty cruel to do that. But the point is, the reason that people do that is so this doesn't happen. Because what this unjust steward did was he knew he was gonna be let go. So he literally goes and he starts just making, friendships outside the company, so to speak, outside his Lord's household by basically stealing the money of his boss. He takes somebody who owed his boss 100 measures of oil and just says, yeah, make it 50. Now they love him, but he basically just stole 50 measures of oil from his boss. Then in verse number seven, he does it again. And he said to another, how much owe us thou? And he said in 100 measures of wheat and he said unto him, take that bill and write four score, that's 80. So he says, you owe 100, just write 80. So he's basically, he's stealing his master's money. You can see the character of this person. He just cares about himself. He just cares about feeding his own interests and he's doing it at the expense of this man that he works for. And then in verse number eight, many people are confused by verse number eight, but that's really what I'm gonna explain to you this morning. Verse number eight, the Bible says, and the Lord. Now this isn't the Lord Jesus, okay? This is his boss right here. And the Lord commended the unjust steward. You're like, what? Because he had done wisely for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. Now we're gonna come back to that in a minute, but look at verse, let's just finish out the story. Look at verse number nine. And I say to end you, make yourselves friends of the mammoth of unrighteousness that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful, now here we get the lessons from the story. He that is faithful in that which is leased is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. So that's what we see with this man. We see that he was unjust, he wasted the goods of his master and then when it came down to him being in trouble he was just happy, he was fine, stealing those same goods, just stealing what wasn't his. Look at verse number 11. If you therefore have not been faithful in the unrighteous man who will commit to your trust the true riches. And if you have not been faithful in that which is in other man's, who shall give you that which is your own. No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. So there we see that where your heart is is where you will put all your effort and we'll get there in a minute as well. But basically verse number eight, you have a man here that gets in trouble and he ends up getting fired because he was wasteful with his boss's goods. He was wasteful with the household's goods and then when he gets fired in order to make himself a nice soft landing out in the world, out for other people out there, he goes and he literally steals from the same man that he had already been unjust to in the first place. But the boss tells him in verse number eight, he says, he's like, you've done wisely. He's like, because look, the boss is just recognizing, he's like, as far as the things that you care about, as far as money and success and all these things that you care about, he's like, that was pretty smart for you to do that because then you won't have to dig ditches or won't have to stand there with a sign. So the first thing is why are bad people good at things? Why are they successful? Is one of the questions that we're looking at in this world is what we're looking at. Why do bad people, people that have no interest in God, why do you find them many times with money, with fame, with success? I mean, comfort, why is that? And the answer, part of the answer is this, is that, turn to Matthew chapter six, part of the answer is this, they care most about those things. That's where their heart is. That's where their heart is. That is one of the lessons of the unjust steward because look, the Bible is saying that you can't love God and this world or the things of this world at the same time. It's one or the other is what the Bible is saying. And this guy, he loved the things of the world. So he did the things that would get him the things of the world. And that's why he did wisely according to the Lord. Look at Matthew chapter six and verse 19. We, look, we as saved believers, we are warned against this in the Bible. And Matthew six 19 warns us against this. It says, the Bible says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust stuff corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven or neither moth nor rust stuff corrupt where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there it is again, there will your heart be also. So this is a warning to us. But on the flip side and applying it to the sermon this morning, the Bible here is saying that look, if you don't care about the things of God and all you care about is the things of this world, look, that's where your heart's gonna be. And guess what? If all your, if your heart, you have nothing to do with the Lord, you have no spirituality in your life. If all you care about is treasure, that's where your heart will be. And guess what? There's a lot of people who get pretty good at it. It's very simple. I mean, if people's heart and soul is dedicated to just making money and being successful, there's a lot of people who get, you know, I mean, if all you wanna do in your life is get rich and you work hard towards that goal, a lot of people will achieve that goal. It's very simple. I mean, many people out there are very good at making money because that's what they care about. And guess what? Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter two. Don't get me wrong here. Don't get me wrong here. God is not against you making money. You know, God is not against, you know, having, you know, financial success. But that is not where your heart and soul is to be as a Bible-believing Christian. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter three and verse 13. Just as a caveat here, you know, God's not against you having good things, being successful. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3, 13, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. There's a lot of things there, but basically, you know, he should enjoy the good of his labor, by the way. Not anybody else's labor. You should go out and you should work hard as God tells you to do. And it's okay. Those things are God's gift to you. It's God's blessing to you that you can get up and go to work every day. And then if good things come from that, from your labor, you know, that is the gift of God. Just don't ever forget that it's the gift of God. Don't start being this person that's like, oh, I worked so hard and I have all these things. I worked for these things. I used to know a lot of people like that. They're like, I worked really hard and, you know, I did this and I did that. Look, that's a danger even for the Christian. You have to remember that. But the point is this. So God is not against you, you know, doing well. Because when you work, guess what? We talked about this a couple of weeks ago as well. When you work hard and you go out there and you labor with all your might like you're laboring for the Lord, guess what? You're gonna end up with some stuff. Because, you know, if you go out and you work hard, especially in this country, if you go out in this country today, yes, even today, and you do what you're supposed to do, you're gonna end up with some stuff. And if you don't waste it all, you know, you're gonna have a couple of nickels to rub together at some point. If you work hard, all right? But to us, it's not the prize. And you always have to remember that. It's the gift of God. And it's not the prize. But on the flip side, back to the sermon, if your main goal in life, the people that we're talking about here, if your main goal in life is only to acquire things, only to acquire comfort, only to acquire wealth, only to acquire worldly things, you may get good at it. You may get good at it. That's why the Bible says in verse number eight, it says, you know, they're wiser. They're wiser than the children of light. Because when it comes to the things of the world, you could definitely look at somebody who's a saved believer, who's living their life for the Lord. And yeah, they're working hard and all this and they probably have, you know, some things if they're responsible with their money. But then you look at somebody who's just working to get rich and you may look at the person who's just working to get rich and both things being equal and you say, this person's much more successful than this person. But that's because they're just wiser when it comes to the mammon is what he's saying in verse number eight. But here's another thing. So they're wiser, that's where they're, because their heart is in the mammon and that's all they care about is the mammon. So they might be better at it because that's all they want to acquire. Because guess what? You know, from the point of the world standpoint, I should probably spend my time, you know, somebody in the world who just wants to make money would look at where I spend my time and they would be like, you know what, there's no profit in that. There's no profit in going walking around with a Bible and just asking people if they know how to get to heaven. There's no profit in that. And people would look at that and they would say, that's not why. So in the sense of caring only about mammon, that's why they're wiser. And that's what verse number eight means. But here's another thing. Here's another thing. They are not bound by God, either. So they are literally these people that are literally out there and their heart is just for the mammon. They may also be more successful at it. They may be better at it. You may be look at somebody who you think, oh, that's a bad person. They don't care about God and they're much more successful in the things of the world and you may look at it and you say, man, they're just like, things are really working out for them. But guess what? They're not bound by the same rules that you are. You know, I have an example that we got on Friday night. We went out for Chinese food on Friday night and I got a fortune cookie. I'm gonna read you my fortune cookie here, but here's my fortune cookie. I mean, fortune cookies used to be cool. I don't know what's going on with fortune cookies today. But you know, fortune cookies used to at least make up something silly that was gonna happen to you or something like that. But here's what that, this is literally my fortune cookie from Friday night. Here's what it says. So we're talking about, you know, us being bound by different rules than everybody else in the world. Here's my fortune cookie from Friday night. If you want it, take it. What in the world? If you want it, take it. I wonder if I could, you know, just go up to somebody at the next table and be like, you know what? I like that coat. This is what my fortune cookie says. Give me your coat. You know, but the thing is, we can't do that. You know why? Because you know, I don't know, that's stealing. That's pretty much what the unjust steward did. He wanted something, so he took it. But we're not bound. Look, we are bound by different rules. The unjust steward, he stole. Just to get himself ahead. He did whatever he needed to do. He was unhindered. He was unhindered by a morality. He was unhindered by the Bible. It's like, think about it this way. It's like playing a, if we were gonna go out and play basketball later today, how about if we play a basketball game and you can't go past, and you can't go any closer to the hoop than the three point line. But I can just run anywhere I want on the court. I mean, who's gonna win? Who's gonna win that basketball game? This is basically what is going on. Like you're just gonna lose that game is what's gonna happen. I figured this out years ago. I figured this out years ago. I'm like, you know what? There's probably, as I saw people that like made that next few bumps in their career and went to these big management and executive levels and all this. I'm like, yeah, you know what? I'm probably just never gonna be that type of person because you gotta be running in certain social circles and doing certain things. And I'm just like, that just doesn't fit with who I wanna be with what the Bible says I should be with the kind of man that I should be. So I mean, the point is, is that the Christian may just have to realize that you'll only go so far. This is why I wanna, you know, I challenge the kids and my kids, you should really kinda own your own business if you can because then you're not hindered by all these different, you know, unfair rules that people are playing with out there. Because look, it's really in corporate America today, it's the person that would just go and just willing to just do anything to get ahead. Many times, I'm not saying every company, okay? But many times, that person does very well in these types of, because look, people just perceive, you know, things different. Some people are very good at selling themselves to be something that they're not. But you know, we can't do that. You know, we can't do that. We're bound by different rules. So look, the problem is, the problem is, so you see, they're playing by different rules than us and they only care about the things of the world. Those two things right there, that's why you see successful people that could care less about God right there. They're playing by, they have no rules that they're playing by and they just, all they care about is just driving towards that success. That's it. I mean, is that something that you're envious about this morning? You shouldn't be. But here's the problem for these people. Here's the problem for these type of people. As you care only about worldly things, turn back to Matthew chapter 19. As you care only about the worldly things and getting better at acquiring things and getting better at having a more comfortable life, here's the problem. Look at Matthew chapter 19 and verse number 24. Matthew 19 and verse number 24. And the soul winner out there today knows this because you see this, you live it, you see it every single time you go out soul winning. Look at verse 24 of Matthew 19. And Jesus said, And again, I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, who then can be saved? But then Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. So the reason that this is actually not a good thing for these people is because the better they get at acquiring things, the more comfortable they get in their lives, the more good that happens to the ungodly, the less likely they will ever be to turn to the Lord for anything. This is the problem. But there's hope. Like a camel can never get through the eye of a needle. There's no way. There's no way. So there's no way a rich man could ever be saved. But it says with God all things are possible. So God can intervene. So a good, you say, I know somebody like this in my life. I know somebody who's just, they're very, I mean, look, I have had the privilege of meeting many people like this. They're not even bad people. They're not even what I would call bad people. They're decent people. They just have no interest in the Lord. And they happen to be extremely good at whatever it is that they do. Whether they're electricians, whether they're mechanics, whether they're whatever kind of trade engineers and they're just really, really good at being an engineer. I look at those people and I say, I appreciate how good they are at what they do, but they will likely never turn to the Lord. Why? Because they're awesome at what they do. And in their mind, they've got it all figured out. So this is why this is really not a good thing for these people. So a good prayer, if you know somebody like this, a good prayer for somebody like this that you would know in your life is for God to do whatever it takes to bring that person to a place where they realize that they need him. That's a good prayer. You know, maybe that has to be someone who's brought low in their life. Maybe that has to be somebody who gets knocked down a couple notches. But in the case of this person that cares nothing about God that is extremely successful, I think that that's what it takes in most cases is that they're brought to a level where they realize that they need something else other than mammon in this world. And for you, turn to Mark chapter four in verse number 19. And we're gonna talk about this in detail from your perspective a little bit this evening in tonight's sermon. But for you, for you, look at Mark chapter four in verse number 19, because there's risk for you too. I'm not saying, oh, you know, I'm saved. So all of a sudden I'm never gonna care about worldly things. No, it's just as much of a risk to Christians as it is for those that are not saved. But the difference is it's not gonna cost you an eternity in hell. The difference for you is Mark chapter four in verse number 19. Because guess what? Christians, just as much as non-Christians can fall into this trap of starting to just care about the things in this world to the point where they just become what? Look at verse number 19. And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. See, because all these things, all these things, all these people that think that I just need to look, these people that are just experts at getting rich. They just like, I met a guy once it's like he couldn't make a wrong decision when it came to his finances. Like he would walk, he would just trip over a nickel and find a dime, this guy. And it is everything that happened to him in his life just ended up just he just, and you get it more and more and more and more. But, and this you just, he just loved this about his life and he loved this and he was very successful person in all this. But look, it's deceit. That's what it is. It's deceit because that is keeping him from anything that actually would matter for eternity in his life. So look, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. Let's talk about you. And the lusts of other things entered in and what they choke the word and it become unfruitful. Look, the Bible here is saying, look, if you're saved today, if you've believed and trusted on Jesus Christ, you're saved, it's done. There's nothing that can ever stop that. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is in you. But look, the word can be choked in your life. The word can be, you can get the deceitfulness of riches. You can have the cares of this world strangle your life and you become what? You don't become unsaved. That's not what it says. It says you become unfruitful. If you, all of a sudden, all you care about is cars and riches and your job and your career and all these things, look, which are things that are gifts of God, by the way. This is how dumb it is for the Christian to do this. God blesses you with these things. God says, go out and work hard. Go out and do this. Ladies, you know, teach your children, work hard, be a good mother and all these things. You do all these things and good things come from it and then you take those things and strangle your spiritual life with them. And you basically turn your back on the God that gave you those gifts. You're not gonna be unsaved. You're gonna be unfruitful because then you drop out of church. You could care less about telling anybody else about the Bible and even, you know, maybe you start going and getting into a bunch of sin. You get into a bunch of sin, you get into whatever and then, you know, maybe you do wanna share the Bible with somebody and they just laugh at you. Like, are you kidding me? Look at you. You just make a huge hypocrite of yourself. You become unfruitful. You become unfruitful. Look, but the people that have no interest in God that are not saved, they're never gonna get saved because of this. That's why, so that's why it's not a good thing. Go back to Luke chapter 16. Go back to Luke chapter 16. So what are we talking about? The main reasons that you'll see good things happen to bad people is that's because that's what they care about. They care about those things in the world and they're unbound by the rules that you're bound by. Look at verse eight again. And the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. There's an interesting little phrase in there that says in their generation, they're wiser. Look, they're not wiser. That's not what the Bible is saying here. It says for now they are. Turn to Matthew chapter 18. Let me give you an example of this. It's saying for now it seems like they're wiser. Look at Matthew chapter 18. Look at verse 23. I just wanna read through this story real quickly showing an example of this. For now they seem wiser in the Bible. And look at how it plays out. Look at Matthew chapter 18 in verse number 23. The Bible says there is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. So here's a man that owed a bunch of money to somebody. And he was gonna be sold to work off this debt and pay this debt back. And he begs this master, he begs his Lord or the person that he borrowed the money from. Because look, the borrower is servant to the lender, okay? That's, you know, you say, this doesn't seem right. Look, today, the borrower is servant to the lender. You wanna be a slave today? Go borrow a bunch of money. That's how it works, folks. That's a universal truth in the Bible. The Bible here is saying that he just begs this guy, forgive him. And the guy just forgave him the debt. He just said, that's it. But then look at verse 28. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants. Now he goes out and he finds somebody that borrowed money from him. Which owed him in 100 pence, a much smaller amount. Then he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou o'est. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw that this was done, they were not, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord after that he had called him, said unto him, oh, that wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desirets me, because you begged me. Shouldest thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee. And his Lord was wroth and delivered into the tormentors till he should pay all that was due him. So likewise, my father shall do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone as brother of their trespasses. We understand that the main application here is that you've been forgiven everything by Jesus for you to hold grudges against somebody is like, you're this guy. Basically is what the Bible is saying. But the point I'm trying to make for this morning sermon is that it worked out for him for a while. It worked out for him for a while. I mean, that's what the Bible is saying. In this generation, he seems wiser because look, he got all his debt for Gaven and then he went and he just forced everybody else to pay him what they owed him. And it was going pretty well, just living this selfish life until the Lord stepped in is what happened. Because look, after all, with both of these sermons last Sunday and this morning, we have to remember that all this for the bad people, it seems to work out in their favor for a while. And that's what people are seeing when they look at these people that don't care about the Lord and they look at them and they see that they're successful. And I put successful in quotes. They look at it, but it's just in this generation. It's just for a season. It's just until that master gets ahold of them and realizes what has been done and then things will be made right. Because look, folks, we all deserve to go to hell. Everybody. And someone that pursues these selfish desires, this mammon in their life, to the point where they will never reach or care about spiritual things, look, they will pay the ultimate price, the ultimate eternal price. Because remember, there are none that are good. None. They are all gone out of the way. All. And I mean, for the truly evil person we talked about that last week, they've already been given over, given up. There's no chance there. There's already no chance there. But look, for these people that we're talking about this morning, they will just never come to the truth because of the things that are choking their life. They could care less about those things. So why do good things happen to bad people? First of all, we're all bad. But second of all, they aren't really good things. Are you seeing that? They aren't really good things. Anything that is keeping an unsaved person. You say, but look at their life. Look at the yachts and the success and just the happiness that they have. But those are not good things because they are keeping them from the spiritual things that they need for eternity. That's not good, folks. That comfort for them turned to Romans chapter seven. That comfort that those people are seeing and look, as a mature Christian, you shouldn't look at those things and say those are good because those things are a prison cell for them. They're keeping them locked up. They're keeping them from that eternal freedom that they can have. That's free. And look, look at Romans chapter seven. They're keeping those things, or just strangling them, they're keeping them chained and they're less likely to ever look. The door to the prison cell is wide open and they're sitting inside it willingly because of the love of that mammon, because of those good things that we're talking about this morning. Look at Romans chapter seven. Look at verse 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me where? Bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, this is someone who's saved. This is Paul saying this. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? And then he answers the question in verse 25. He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ. So look, Jesus Christ is gonna be our deliverance from this body. As long as I have this body, I'm struggling with this idea of like sin, if you willingly go into sin, if I willingly go into sin, we are willingly walking back into the prison cell. We're literally putting ourselves back into captivity, not to lose our salvation. But the point is, someone that's not saved that's what it could cost them is they'll never be free. We will be unfruitful if we do that. They will remain unsaved. These are not good things is what I'm trying to get at this morning. Something that keeps you from the truth, something that sends you to hell, not good, not good. So you see the super successful folks, when you see the rich and famous. I mean, look, it's not hard to see these things. It's not hard to see sin ruining people's lives out there. But when you look at it in this light and that you pursue these things, and if you look at people that pursue those things, look, your life, if you became like them, see the problem is, if we look at somebody who's rich and successful, and we're like, oh man, they're rich and successful. You know what we're doing? We're gonna start following that. We're gonna start heading in that direction ourselves. And then we will become unfruitful and unprofitable. And guess what? If you're unprofitable, that means that other people around you are gonna be affected. If you stop going soul winning, that means that other people's eternity will be affected. It's very serious. People are like, oh, you know, eternal salvation. You can't teach people that. First of all, that's what the Bible teaches. But look, there is serious consequences to a Christian falling into sin, a Christian wrapping these thorns of the world around their neck, because you will never go out and get other people saved. You will never bear fruit yourself. That means people for the Christian that becomes unfruitful, for the Christian that pursues these good things, they're not good things. We must reject the question. Is the answer this morning? They're not good things, because if you pursue those good things, other people will not get saved. That's what being unfruitful means. Because fruit is you bearing fruit with the word of God. Is you going out and sharing the word of God. So look, folks, there's plenty of successful people out there that you're gonna see living luxurious lives that, and you know what? They're probably having fun. You can't even really go up to somebody. The prosperity gospel kind of falls apart in this area because you can't even really go up to people and say, look, you gotta stop living that luxurious life because you'll find more fun in the Christian life. Look, you'll find joy in the Christian life. But fun, there's plenty of people that have plenty of fun. There's plenty of people that are probably enjoying that successful life, but they're just thorns that are just dragging them straight into hell is the problem. They're very comfortable. It doesn't sound good to me. Look at Psalm 119. Psalm 119, this is the answer right here. Psalm 119, look at verse 127. Psalm 119, of course, you know, all it does is just talk about just God's law and how wonderful God's law is. But there, look at verse number 127. Verse number 127 is an interesting perspective where the Psalmist says, therefore I love thy commandments above gold. Then he says it again, yay, above fine gold. Think about that. The Psalmist is saying, I love the word of God more. This is exactly where we need to be. We need to love the word of God above any of these things. So the two sermons from last Sunday to this morning, first of all, we know that there are no good people. So the sermons themselves were kind of just kind of catch phrases that people ask themselves today, but why do bad things happen to good people and why do good things happen to bad people? We're all bad. We're all bad. And the good things that we're talking about this morning, they are far from good. They are far from good because the only thing that's good is God. The only thing that is good is Jesus Christ. So first of all, we need to reject the question. And when you come to thinking about these types of questions or if you've come across people that are debating these types of questions or thinking about these things in your mind, you just have to remember that in the end, not just for this generation, but in the end, not just for this time, not just for this next few years, in the end, all will be fair. All will be made fair on both sides, on both sides. God's gonna be handing out rewards in heaven. God's handing out free eternal life all the time on earth to whosoever wants it. And on the other end, for the extremely wicked people or the people that have rejected him or the people that just lived their life to the point where they just didn't care what God sent his son to do. They didn't care what God was offering them. They could just care less about those spiritual things. Look, all will be fair in the end. And that's what we need to remember. So we need to reject the questions. The questions were kind of just catchphrases, but all will be made fair in the end. And guess what, folks? That's why churches today need to be preaching the whole Bible. They need to be talking about hell. They need to be talking about, oh, look, Jesus talked about hell 10 times more than he talked about heaven. Why did he do that? I tell people this all the time at the door. You know that Jesus talked about hell all the time? And they're like, what? Really? Yeah, Jesus talked about hell all the time. Guess what, because he doesn't want you to go there. And guess what? Most people are gonna go there. That's why he's telling the disciples. He's like telling the disciples, he's like, few, few there be that they're gonna get saved. He's like, there's few. Most people are going to hell. There's few. They're going to heaven. It's not his choice. I mean, he's out there telling people constantly. That's why people need to understand, you know, that there is none good and that is what they deserve. So they can be saved. Because look, it's free. It's a shame. It's the biggest travesty in the history of the world is that most people will go to hell because it's free. It was all done for us. So all will be fair in the end. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.