FBC Morning Light – April 1, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday to you. I hope your week has gone well, and here we are at the end of another week, and also the first day of the month of April.

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So, happy April Fool's Day. I thought about trying to come up with some good April Fool's joke, but then

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I thought, no, that's not necessary. You probably get enough of those on your own.

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You don't need my help with that. But anyway, it is first day of April and on Friday, so a couple of days from today, we gather together as God's people at church, and looking forward to that time together.

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Just as a reminder, this coming Sunday, we get back at church to the spring, summer, fall schedule of the evening service at six o 'clock.

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That's more of a fellowship service, we call it. We sing some songs, share some testimonies, preach a message from the

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Gospel of Mark. That's in addition to the regular morning service and the

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Sunday's Bible study as well. We're continuing the Bible study on Sunday morning at 930 by Dr.

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Foreman, fearfully and wonderfully made. Just a couple of those lessons left, and look forward to that time.

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Then in the morning service, still in the book of 1 Peter, looking at some truths for troubled times.

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This Sunday, how should Christian couples, husbands and wives, live and conduct themselves as strangers and pilgrims in this world, in times of trouble?

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How should we do that? This is what we'll be looking at this Lord's Day. But today, I want to zero in on one of the verses in the book of Proverbs that was in our

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Bible reading plan, and specifically verse 15. I want to read it from the ESV, because the way it's translated is much clearer in the intent and the message of the verse.

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Here's what it says, when justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous, but terror to the evildoers.

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Boy, how critical it is for social well -being, that justice be upheld at every level.

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Yet, what are we seeing in our world, in our own nation today?

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It seems like if you have enough money, if you have a certain social standing and status in the culture, if you're elite, then you seem to be able to get away with all kinds of stuff.

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Just think of the Jussie Smollett thing. Would the commoner, the everyday commoner, be able to get out of jail just a couple days after he's put in jail, like he was?

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I don't think so. Would a common person be able to get away with the kind of shenanigans that he pulled and not even be prosecuted at first?

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It took all kinds of strings to be pulled before the guy was even brought to trial, and then found guilty, and yet out of jail.

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It's just grievous to see that kind of thing. We see it over and over again.

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Not only that, but we're seeing very real crimes that are just poo -pooed.

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Shoplifting, you have different prosecutors in different cities of our country who are saying, we're not going to prosecute any shoplifting crimes that are under a certain dollar amount.

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You see the videos, the surveillance videos of people just walking into a store, picking up armloads of stuff, and sometimes shopping cart loads of stuff, and just wheeling right out, right by the security guard, and nobody says anything, nobody does anything.

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They just walk, and they don't want to cause any trouble. They know, the security guards and the people, they know if they confront them that there's going to be trouble, and they know that the police are not going to arrest them because the police aren't going to arrest them because the prosecutors aren't going to charge them.

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This is a travesty. We see not only that, but you see in contrast to those who get off scot -free, you see the lack of interest in addressing violent crimes.

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The activist crimes that we saw in the rioting and so forth in 2021, what was done to these activists and these rioters?

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Very, very little. You contrast that with the so -called January 6th insurrectionists and how they have been just really almost brutally treated,

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I mean, harshly treated, above and beyond any potential crime that's been committed.

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They have not been given due process and so forth. You see all of that lack of justice, and it grieves you.

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It grieves you, but it's not only in the matter of crime. It's a matter of things like what we saw recently with this man who is competing as a woman in swimming competition for his college, and he keeps dominating the sport, just crushing any female competition because he says he's a woman and he's done some things biologically and probably chemically to try to do away with his manhood, but it still doesn't change the fact that he's a man, and he is.

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Yet, he's competing in women's sports, in swimming competitions, and he's just crushing the competition, and winning these first -place results, and being up on the podium and getting these first -place medals, and knocking off women who should be standing where he is standing.

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That's an injustice. That is an injustice to the women.

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Yet, it's being accepted, it's being tolerated, and if you say anything against it, then you get censored.

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People have spoken out against that kind of thing, and their Twitter account gets suspended, or they get censored from Facebook, and I don't know what will even happen to this video.

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YouTube may censor this video because I bring that up, but this is an injustice.

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It's an injustice. In contrast to the aggravation and frustration that we feel at the injustice of it all, there is a corresponding sense of delight when

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Ron DeSantis, for example, governor of Florida, issued a decree declaring that the woman who was competing against the guy in that swimming competition took second place to him.

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Ron DeSantis declared her to be the winner, and the first -place winner of the women's competition.

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I don't know about you, but I read that, and I said, yes, that's right. That delights me to see somebody in a public way upholding justice.

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That's a confirmation of verse 15. When justice is done, it's a joy to the righteous, and it is also a terror to evildoers.

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Why is it that there is so much of this, I wouldn't even call it petty crime, why is it there's so much of this crime?

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Carjackings, shoplifting, stealing, even violent crimes against people.

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Why is this just skyrocketed in the last couple of years? The answer, justice isn't being done, or at least those who are committing the crime certainly don't feel like they're going to be treated with justice, at least as it should be.

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They are emboldened. They're not afraid. They have no fear of their doing evil.

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As a result of that, our social fabric is unraveling.

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It is unraveling, and it is as it should be expected. When we so belittle the very practical, even the practical matters that God's Word lays out, then we can expect for society, for culture to unravel.

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It all makes sense that when justice is done, it'll be a joy to those who do right, and it'll be a terror to those who do wrong, to minimize their plans and intentions and actions of doing wrong.

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What we need to pray for is that there would be a return to sanity, a return to a desire for justice, true justice to be served.

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May that be the goal of our lawmakers, and as we pray for our president, for those authority over us, let's pray that there would be a return to justice.

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Our Father and our God, we are burdened and we are concerned over the lack of justice that we're seeing in our own country and the grief that it causes us.

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Lord, we long to delight in and to find joy in justice.

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Lord, would you work in those who are in authority to make laws and to enforce those laws, to have a heart that longs for justice, so that the righteous may rejoice, and so that the unrighteous would be filled with terror.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. All right, well, have a good rest of your

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Friday. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and again, join us together in God's house on this coming