He is Good, Just, and Full of Mercy

Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, enlighten with celestial fire.

Father, we deal with evil within ourselves.

Often we don't deal with it as we should, or even as we could.

We deal with evil all around us.

We deal with doubts and questions.

We deal with the questions which others throw against the faith

and the challenges which are thrown against the faith

to which we do not often know the answer.

And Father, in such a world we give you thanks and praise

that you are still sovereign, that Jesus is still the Lord and the Savior,

and that the Holy Spirit is still at work.

And we ask, Father, that in your kindness and mercy to us

the Holy Spirit would move deep within our hearts,

deep within our minds and our wills,

that we might be gripped once again with the truth of your word

and the truth of the gospel and learn to live for your glory.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, we're going to look today at the idea that God is good, just, and merciful.

Now, right off the bat, we have a very, very big problem,

which is that, as probably every single one of us know,

the main argument against the existence of the God that Christians worship,

the triune God, is the problem of evil.

That, in fact, people will, if they, you know, get past their Canadian-ness

and actually want to criticize your faith,

they'll say, listen, God can't possibly exist.

You just look at the world.

I think it was, was it just in Scotland or something or England?

Just the other day, some lone gunman shot four or five people and killed himself.

And you just look at all the evil that's going on in the world.

Do you know that in Afghanistan is the Taliban take-back areas?

One of the things they do, and there's actually precedence for this,

is they go up and they round up the unmarried women, including girls up to 12,

and they either take them as forced brides or as sex slaves.

That's going on in Afghanistan right now as the Taliban takes areas.

Girls as young as 12, taken as either a wife against their will or as a sex slave.

And so to many people in our culture, they just look at the evil in the world

and they say, George, there is just no way that there can be a God who is good

and who is all-powerful and all-wise,

given the evil that's going on right now in Afghanistan and all over the world.

And for many of our friends, it's one of those, you know, mic drop moments.

They say that, they drop the mic, they walk away,

and there's not much they feel that we can say against it.

So let's think about this problem.

Because on one level, the idea that God is good, when I get to my points, it's very simple.

The triune God is good.

I mean, that's sort of an easy idea, but it's a hard idea for us to get our mind around in a world

where, for many people, the basic thing is that God can't possibly exist

and can't possibly be good when there's things going on,

like what the Taliban is doing in Afghanistan.

So let's think about it.

But there's three problems about thinking about it.

And the first problem is, and I know this can be a little bit hard to say,

is that, in fact, the pattern is that many times when I talk to people about it,

it's a bit of a, it's a common human problem,

but I think it's a bigger problem today than it has been in other times,

that there's a fundamental incoherence

in people and lack of moral seriousness or attentiveness in a lot of people.

Like, people are very moralistic and legalistic nowadays.

In fact, I was just joking with somebody the other day that about four years ago,

I'd have to regularly talk with people who said that all morality is relative,

that there's no right and wrong.

And somehow or another, there's been the invasion of the body snatchers,

and all of those people have been taken over by aliens

who now are legalistic cancel culture warriors.

Like, I don't know how the culture shifted so fast.

But here's the problem.

There's, even though there seems to be a lot of moralism,

there is, in fact, often a fundamental incoherence

or lack of attentiveness about moral beliefs.

And I had a perfect example of this this morning.

I wished I had my phone, and I would have seen if we could put it up on the screen.

I went to my local favorite coffee shop to get a coffee between the services,

and it happened to be, it's just one of those days, like, the lineup took forever.

Everybody in the lineup ahead of me all seemed to want to order two or three or four drinks.

All of the drinks were complicated,

and in every case it seemed as if the person getting the drink

wanted to negotiate freebies at the same time.

I know you used to work in a, you know, can I have whipped cream with that?

Well, you're going to cost money well, and then they blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm just thinking there.

Anyway, so I'm standing in the lineup for a long time looking,

and then I noticed that behind the barista is a sign that says,

Be loud, be proud, be you.

Okay?

Now, give me some mercy.

You all know what that's connected with.

Be loud, be proud, be you.

But beside the barista was another sign,

a scary-looking sign in bright red and very formidable and far bigger than the other one.

And the other sign was, wear a mask.

And then it even went on, it has to cover your nose,

like there are all these other types of things, all very, very scary.

And I almost was going to go up into the barista and said, you know,

I was going to take my mask off and said, I want to be me.

And I want to be proud.

And I want to be loud.

And I don't like wearing masks because that's me.

I almost said that to the barista.

But you think about it.

You see messages like this all over the world.

Like there's no sense that there's one moment,

be loud, be proud, be you.

Wear a mask.

Like in even bigger, scarier language.

Well, that doesn't fit.

That's incoherent.

And if you don't understand that point, you have a deeper problem of incoherence than you realize.

Now, the reason I didn't say anything just to finish the story is I came up to the barista.

And the first thing I said is, I have a ridiculously simple order.

I would like a black, tall coffee.

And he looked at me and said, he put it in and he said, that's all?

I said, I'd just like a black, tall coffee.

It's ridiculously simple.

He smiled at me and said, for that, it's on the house.

So I didn't ask him about the incoherence of the signage.

Because, gosh, that was a very nice thing for him to do.

Anyway, so here's the first thing.

There's often just people don't think about things.

They don't put A together with B together with C and realize that they're inconsistent.

And by the way, I'm not saying that Christians are good at that or perfect at that.

But it's just a general problem of how do you live and examine life and really look at moral issues seriously if there's, in fact, unconscious incoherence going on in each of our lives.

But the second problem that we have to discuss this issue is what I call the myth of Switzerland.

Now, obviously, when I say the myth of Switzerland, I believe that Switzerland exists.

In fact, I've been in the airport in Zurich several times in Switzerland.

So I know that Switzerland exists.

But what I mean by that is that a lot of times people have this myth that they can be neutral,

that they can give you these objections to your point of view and articulate them very well.

But then they just sort of go like this as if they don't have to answer any of the issues which have been raised.

That somehow or another, if there's, you know, a problem of how do you have a world where there's good and evil in the same world

and there might or might not be a God and how you put these things together, they can just sort of criticize you.

But they're Switzerland.

They're neutral.

They don't have any view.

They don't have to account or answer for anything.

But that's not true.

Like, why should that be true?

Like, who made, who died and made you God?

Like, you've got to answer, you've got to put these things together as well, right?

I mean, that's just fair.

And then the third thing is that when we consider this problem, right, the argument is that there's terrible, evil things going on in this world.

Therefore, God, as you describe him, can't possibly exist.

And they just look at one type of experience around this sort of mystery.

Because really what they're doing is they're highlighting to us there's this mystery about good and evil.

There's a riddle, an enigma of good and evil that goes on and exists in the world.

But the problem is that they stop too soon.

There isn't enough attentiveness.

There's not enough attentiveness to the real moral experience that we have to sort of account for, not only in our own lives but in the world.

Like, if you think about it, how is it that there is both good and evil in the world?

Like, you think that every system of thought, every ideology, every religion has to be able to account for why it is, how come there is both good and evil in the world?

And how is it that you can account for the fact that there is differences about how you understand what good and evil are that exist between people?

But even though there's differences about the specifics, there's not a difference fundamentally about the idea that fundamentally there is something which is good.

So we might disagree with whether or not, obviously we're going to disagree with the Taliban on whether or not you can have a 12-year-old girl as a sex slave.

But at some point in time, the Taliban, well, it was easy with the Taliban because they clearly believe in right and wrong.

So we might disagree on the particulars, but the idea that there is a good and that there is a bad is, in fact, something which is, in fact, part of the world.

Well, how is it that you account for that?

Like, why is that the case?

And why is it the case that it is true, I think, in every culture?

This is even true in Canada, even during the time when there were most moral relativists.

One of the things that you saw all of the time was this phrase that I'm a good person.

If you saw any of Ricky Gervais' little comedy sketches or series that he did, he did two series of them, at least two.

By the way, when I say things like this, I'm not necessarily recommending you go out and watch them.

I mean, it's, but he is a, really, in many, many, many, many ways, you know, anyway, he, I mean, he's very, very clearly an atheist.

But one of the things which was very telling is that every episode, two, three, four, five, six times, he'd say that he was a good person.

And so it's always understood, so there's a world with good and evil.

There's a world where we disagree about the particulars, but we understand that there is a fundamental thing that's good and evil.

And we understand that we should seek the good, that that's what we should do.

That's what a moral person should do, that they should seek to become more good.

And the other thing about our experience is that we are a mixture of good and evil.

That if we're honest about it, that we understand that there is both good and evil that I have done.

I have done good things and I've done evil things.

And if you have a system of thought or a religion that says that you never do anything good, we don't know, that can't be right.

I mean, obviously, some people do good things.

And if we have a system of thought that says nobody ever does evil things, we say, no, no, no, no, that doesn't it.

But, you know, I do good and evil.

How is it that I understand my own experience of doing good and evil?

And then another thing with it is that for many of us, in fact, I think for all of us,

if we live long enough and have enough of an examined life, we'll realize that there is something within us which is evil,

which is scary and wrong and we really need to deal with.

Like those of us who've struggled with addictions, those of us who've struggled with alcoholism or drug addiction,

know very, very powerfully that there is, in fact, some part of us that desires this thing that will only destroy us

and has been destroying us and consuming us.

But many of us also have the same thing with whether it's lust or anger,

whether it's greed or gluttony or a range of other types of things,

that we come to realize that it's not just that there's a mixture of good and evil within me,

but there is something within me which is ravenous.

And why is that?

Like, why is that?

And then with that, there's this other part of human experience is that how do I become good?

Like, how do I deal with the evil in me practically?

And then another part of the human experience is how do I live in the world,

in a world where there is evil and there is good?

How do I live?

So, you see, now what we've done is we're still now going to have to look at the problem of good and evil.

But, you see, when you raise the problem of good and evil and you just stop at this one little tiny bit,

you're not actually really living an examined life.

You're not really...

The people who raise that objection, they're really on to something.

Like, they're really on to something, but they stop too quickly.

They somehow or another think that they don't have to account for these things,

that only somehow I have to.

Like, why is it that I'm the only one asked to account?

If I'm talking to three people, why am I the only one asked to give an account for this?

Like, all of us have to give an account.

And don't stop just with this problem of good and evil and God.

Like, broaden it out.

So, well, here's...

Before we...

Let's look at how some of the other attempts to answer this question are.

And that...

You see, here's the thing.

If you realize that nobody's neutral,

if you start to actually think about the three...

I think it's three...

Three principal ways that people in Canada and throughout history

try to answer this thing outside of the Christian faith,

if you actually start to think about it for a second,

you come to realize that the Christian answer is very beautiful and very wise.

And wise and beautiful and actually hopeful

at a very, very, very, very deep level.

That, in fact, the Christian answer is not only wise and beautiful,

but to use some postmodern language, it's thick.

It's deep.

So, let's just think about it.

The most common Canadian view on this particular issue

is that, ultimately, I talked about this last week,

and we're going to look very briefly at it again today,

is that everything that came to exist has come to exist

as a result of naturalistic evolution.

It's how they teach it at Ottawa, you at Carleton, CBC,

how the Supreme Court would understand it,

most of them at least, fundamentally, not all of them, but most of them.

It's how the opinion makers understand things,

and that's the fundamental bedrock view of the secular world that we inhabit,

that everything that exists has come about as a result of naturalistic evolution.

I talked about this a little bit last week.

But here's the particular thing.

It means there's no God,

that ultimately things just came to be.

But if this is the case,

where on earth does good and evil come from?

Like, where on earth does good and evil come from?

You see,

not even picking an evil bird.

For my dogs,

there's just breakfast and supper.

There's no world of moral striving.

There's just breakfast and supper.

In the world of evolution,

as it's taught,

as it's understood,

is that basically the strong survive and the weak die.

In fact,

often the strong survive by eating the weak.

I mean, we eat chickens.

I mean, those of us who aren't vegetarians

eat chickens.

The strong survive by eating the weak.

Well, you will never, ever, ever be able to go

from the strong survive and the weak die

and the strong survive by eating to,

you can never go from the strong survive

by eating the weak

to therefore love one another.

The strong survive by eating the weak,

therefore love one another.

That makes no sense.

I mean, in fact,

the matter is,

is that the lesson that

if,

it's just,

if that thing's just happened,

then, I don't know,

like, why,

why shouldn't I hurt the weak?

Like,

what ought

are you going to give me?

And,

and if this is the case,

then,

how on earth does anything,

all of these things,

how does it account for good and evil in the world,

good and differing about it,

about seeking to be good,

about mixture of good and evil within us,

and,

and even if we try to say,

well,

that's just all a matter of adaptation

and all of that type of stuff,

you say,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

no,

it's just a matter of adaptation.

Taliban forcing 12-year-old girls

to be their sex slaves.

In fact,

you know what,

from an evolutionary point of view,

that might be very evolutionarily successful

because the strong

are breeding with the weak,

hopefully providing some strong.

And,

you see,

the thing about this whole naturalistic worldview

is all you need to do

is acknowledge one thing

that isn't cultural

and one thing

which isn't to deal,

to do with evolutionary survival,

just one thing which is good

and your whole worldview falls apart.

And the fact of the matter is,

is if you don't think it's wrong

for a Taliban fighter

to take a 12-year-old girl

as a sex slave,

shame on you.

Shame on you.

You have not become more moral.

You have exited the world

where taking morality is serious.

The other very popular response

to the whole issue

is what's called pantheism

or panentheism.

For our purposes,

they're basically the same here.

One of them is that pantheism

is that everything is God.

Panentheism is that God is in everything.

And at the end of the day,

they share the relevant point,

which is that

at the end of the day,

there's just the one.

That's what we're moving towards

is the one.

There used to be everything was one

and now we've gotten

this appearance of difference

but in the classic line,

the end of all things

as you go through cycles

of living and rebirth

and living and rebirth

and eventually achieve enlightenment,

you are like a drop of water

that finally joins the ocean

and become one with the ocean.

And at the end of the end

of the end of the end,

there's just the ocean.

But within this point of view,

then really what they say

is that God is beyond good and evil.

Really?

God is beyond good and evil?

What on earth does that mean

for 12-year-old girls

being taken as a sex slave?

Like that sounds very nice.

It looks good on a t-shirt

that God is beyond good and evil.

But really, what does that mean?

Like how can that mean anything

other than giving evil a pass?

If that was true,

shouldn't we all be revolutionaries

against that God

rather than seeking to join it?

Now obviously,

Buddhism and Hinduism

is vastly better than that.

It's a type of an incoherence

within its worldview.

But the fact of the matter is

is that if in fact

it's just an appearance

that some things are good

and an appearance

that some things are evil,

how does that fit

with our immoral experience

that there is good and evil

in the world,

that there's difference

about particulars

but at the big picture

there really is something

and it's wise to be good

and that you and I

are a mixture of good

and evil answers

and actions

and how do I live

in a world like that?

How is it that pantheism

or panentheism

really actually handles it?

And the final thing

which is the classic answer

and sort of seen

in the Star Wars thing

with the understanding

of the force

is dualism.

That somehow

there's the good force

and the bad force

that they're always

sort of somehow

or another

at each other's

other sides

and there has to be

some type of a balance

and blah, blah, blah, blah.

But here's the thing.

What they do is

that type of thought

often it cheats.

You see,

what happens

if you rename

the two forces

the blue force

and the yellow force?

Now you really have

two separate forces

that are just different.

And then we might even say

well who cares

if some people

like Manchester City

because of their

powder blue uniforms

and some people

like Sweden

because they love yellow.

Like, you know,

big deal.

Like who, you know?

You have something

against Swedish people?

You have something

against people

who like Manchester City

as soccer team?

But you see,

they don't say blue and yellow

which is obviously

in a sense

amoral category

somehow or another

perennially

butting heads

and working

within experience.

They smuggle in

good and evil

by calling them

good and evil

as if there's

some other standard

above them.

In other words,

they undermine

their idea

just in fact

in speaking about it.

In fact,

as I used to say

back in the days

when I was having

to deal with

lots of moral relativists,

the fact of the matter

is that human beings

can't speak

or think

without moral categories.

It's impossible.

It was always

just perennially

frustrating

to try to talk

to somebody

thinking that

they were

a moral relativist

while they constantly

use moral categories

that I oughtn't

to think,

I ought not to think

there's something

that's different.

One moment.

I ought not to think

there's a difference

between right,

isn't ought like

a moral term?

You can,

it would be almost

as if you try

to argue with somebody

whether oxygen

or air exists

and they're arguing

against you

while they breathe

without being aware

of the fact

that they're breathing

while they argue

with you

and they're using

moral categories

while they argue

with you.

So now in light

of these problems,

in light of in fact

the three historic,

ancient,

and most common ways

of trying to deal

with our moral experience,

let us consider

what the Bible

has to say

and let us consider

once again

how the Bible

addresses the reality

that there is

a good God

and there is evil

in the world.

If you take it

to the first point,

if you could throw it up,

is that the triune God

is good.

The triune God

is good.

We're just going

to look at,

this is just so

throughout the Bible,

I'm not going

to give you

a hundred verses,

we're going to look

at just one thing

in the Old Testament,

one thing in the New Testament.

If you turn in your Bibles

to Psalm 100,

this very,

very powerful psalm,

make a joyful noise

to the Lord

all the earth,

serve the Lord

with gladness,

come into his presence

with singing,

know that the Lord,

he is God,

it is he who made us

and we are his.

We are his people

and the sheep

of his pasture.

And just as a bit

of an aside,

there's a bit

of a double meaning

in the Hebrew

and so in the Hebrew,

it can also say

it is he who made us

and we are his

or it can say

it is he who made us

and not we ourselves,

which is really

a very,

very important idea

for us post-modern

Canadians

who sort of somehow

want to always be

like a self-made person.

We don't make ourselves

at a very,

very deep level.

And then the psalm continues,

enter his gates

with thanksgiving

and his courts

with praise,

give thanks to him,

bless his name,

for the Lord

is good,

his steadfast love

endures forever

and his faithfulness

to all generations.

The Lord

is good

and his steadfast love

endures forever.

And it is a constant theme

in the Psalms

and in Israel's worship.

Let's just look

to one thing

by Jesus

in Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10:18

verse 18.

Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10:18

verse 18.

And this is all

in part of a dialogue.

A rich young man

has come to Jesus

and says,

good teacher.

And it isn't that

Jesus is denying

that he's God.

It's just Jesus

trying to tease out

from him

what exactly

he's saying.

Does he realize

what he says

when he calls

Jesus good?

It's in a sense

Jesus trying to get

the guy to go deeper

to understand

that if he's serious

about what he says

in his introduction

then he's implying

that Jesus is God.

So here's what

Jesus says,

verse 18.

And Jesus said to him,

why do you call me good?

No one is good

except God alone.

Now,

here's the thing

very, very simply.

the Bible understands

goodness

theologically.

God is good.

God,

it isn't that

there's the good

and then there's God

and by this standard

of goodness,

God is God.

That's not how it works.

God is good.

He is good.

Everything,

our understanding

of good and evil

ultimately,

completely and utterly

are in keeping

with who he is

and things

which are congruent

with him,

in keeping with him,

his character,

his nature,

his attributes,

his creation.

God is just good

and it's from that

that we understand

what good and evil is.

And just by the way,

I'm focusing primarily

on God is good

as opposed to

justice and mercy

because,

you see,

if human beings

had never fallen,

we would not know

that God was just

and merciful.

because,

you see,

justice and mercy

are necessary

when evil exists.

Justice and mercy,

in fact,

you see,

you can't really think

of something being good

if it's unjust.

That wouldn't make any sense

and if there was a goodness

that never showed mercy,

we'd think there's something

lacking in that goodness.

And so,

goodness,

we see justice and mercy

when there is evil.

How does the good,

how does goodness

deal with the reality

of evil?

Already,

you're starting to see

the thickness

and the beauty

of how Christians

and the Bible

is going to understand

this particular issue.

And then,

the second thing,

if you could put it up,

is that the triune God

made all that exists

good.

The triune God

made all that exists

good.

Now,

we're going to look

very quickly

at seven verses,

all from Genesis chapter one.

And,

this is part of the foundation

of the whole Bible.

Those of you

who are curious

about how I deal

with the seven-day creation

and Adam and Eve

and all of that type of stuff,

I did a sermon series

a few years ago

on the first 11 chapters

of Genesis.

You can look it up.

But,

what you can see here

in this foundational text

that introduces the Bible,

is that seven times

in this first story

it is declared

that God

made everything good.

And the final time,

the seventh time,

it says very good.

And,

basically,

that's a symbolic

type of number.

Seven times

is the number

of completeness.

It's the number

of perfection.

It's emphasizing.

It's why,

it's emphasizing.

Even though there's

six days of creation,

the seventh day,

God rests,

there's seven times

where it's said

that things made are good.

Look at verse 4.

And God saw

that the light was good.

And God separated

the light from the darkness.

See?

He saw that it was good.

Look at verse 10.

And God called

the dry land earth,

and the waters

that were gathered together

he called seas,

and God saw

that it was good.

Look at verse 12.

The earth brought forth

vegetation,

plants yielding,

seed according

to their own kinds,

and trees bearing fruit

in which is their seed,

each according

to its kind.

And God saw

that it was good.

Look at verse 18.

This is about

the creation

of the lights,

the one to rule

over the day

and over the night,

and to separate

the light

from the darkness,

and God saw

that it was good.

Look at verse 21.

God created

the great sea creatures

and every living thing

that moves

with which

the waters swarm

according to their kinds

and every winged bird

according to its kinds,

and God saw

that it was good.

Look at verse 25.

And God made

the beasts of the earth

according to their kinds

and the livestock

according to their kinds

and everything

that creeps on the ground

according to its kind,

and God saw

that it was good.

That's six times

it's been said.

And now we come

to verse 31.

And verse 31

goes like this.

And God saw

everything that he had made

and behold,

it was very good.

And there was evening

and there was morning

the sixth day.

Now,

here's the thing

from this teaching

that the triune God

made all that exists good.

For many people

in our culture,

a human being

needs the triune God

like a fish

needs a bicycle.

That would be

how many of us,

that's sort of

just one of those things

that might never say that

but it's in their bones.

Like we,

you know,

I need God,

I need Jesus

like a fish

needs a bicycle.

Like I'm fine

with my own life.

But what we see

from this

is very significant

when we're trying

to think of

our moral experience,

our experience

of the world

in terms of good

and evil.

You see,

what it's actually saying

is that

when it describes

a God who is good

made everything

that is good

and he made human beings

in this good world,

to inhabit in this good world

and if you go back

and look at it

and he made us

to be fruitful,

he made us to multiply,

he made us to flourish,

he made us to have dominion

over the earth,

he made us to,

in a sense,

you take the Garden of Eden

and the whole earth

is to become a garden

and the whole earth

is to become a temple,

the whole earth

is where we walk with God

and maybe if we hadn't fallen

it would have gone

to the moon

and Mars

and Venus

and stars beyond

and beyond

and beyond

and beyond

and to care for it

and to flourish

and what we see is this,

that just as God

made fish

to dwell in water,

God made human beings

to live

immersed

in goodness.

See,

that's why

every human being

thinks that they

should be good.

That's why

every human being

when they experience evil

and are living in evil,

they know that

that's not the way

it should be

because God

made human beings

to be immersed

in goodness

as a fish

is immersed in water

and not only that,

God made us

to be infused

with goodness

as water

infuses

tea.

That in fact,

it's not just a matter,

like I mean,

the fish

inhabits the water

but in a sense,

most of the fish

is just fish

but that God

made us

to be

infused

with goodness.

That it actually

is to get right

into us

which is why

we understand

why we want

to be able

to say

that we're good.

It's why we want

to be able

to say

that we're good

and that goodness

is better

than evil

and at the same time,

you know,

the average Canadian

thinks that somehow

another goodness

emerges from them

but that's a bit

of a problematic

because evil

also emerges

from them

but this idea

of being infused

helps to capture

but the Bible

has something

which is even deeper

and truer to say

which is that God

made human beings

to reflect his goodness

that a human being

is not a,

just as in a sense

the hot water

doesn't emerge

from the tea

but the hot water

comes into the tea

leaves,

that's the word

I was looking for,

that in a sense

the tea leaves

don't create water

that leave the tea leaves

to go into the cup

that in fact

the goodness

comes into the tea leaves

and infuses it

but now to switch

the analogies

because human beings

are weird,

we're a little bit

like aardvarks,

it's almost as if,

you know,

an aardvark is as if

God had spare parts

left over for different animals

and threw them all together

in some ways

human beings

are the same way

that on one hand

we're immersed,

on another hand

we're infused,

on another hand

we're like a mirror

that because God is good

and that he is the source

of all goodness

that we're meant

to reflect that goodness

at the same time

that we're immersed

in goodness

and infused in goodness

and finally

when we see

in Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

how God designed

human beings

to walk with him

in the garden

it means that we are

to understand

that we were designed

to walk with goodness

and in goodness

in the path of goodness

that that's how God

designed us to be

and if you think

about that

it becomes clear

why some of these things

in our moral experience

about why it's wise

to be good

how there really is good

and how

and how

the goodness

seems to be something

that should be

that goodness is right

that when we

experience

like something

like at this time

of the year

when you got a day

with the perfect temperature

at the end

of the perfect day

and you've been

with your best friends

and with your family

and you've had a good meal

and you have had

just the right amount

to drink

and you're feeling

completely healthy

and your conscience

is clear

and there's a beautiful sunset

and everything's still

and you hear the sound

of the loon

and it just seems

as if there is something

good inside

and outside

and that those things

are in harmony

the harmony of the beauty

the harmony of the world

a peace within your family

and your friends

a cleaning of your own conscience

and there is just something

about that

which is so

dang right

where you say to yourself

I was made for this

no 12 year old girl

being captured

by the Taliban

as a sex slave

says to herself

I was made for this

if you put up

the third point

the triune God

did not create evil

he is always and only opposed

to moral wrongdoing

this is the biblical teaching

you see the thing is

is that the biblical teaching

emphasizes something

which is of the highest value

to Canadians

which is freedom

and if in fact

God makes human beings

truly, truly, truly free

it means that they have

the option

to truly, truly, truly

choose that which is evil

and that's what happened

in our spiritual ancestors

our physical ancestors

our representatives

Adam and Eve

and in particular Adam

that there come a time

described in Genesis 3

which I'm not going to read

just for reasons of time

where human beings chose

to not trust God

to not trust his word

to desire to be above God

to judge God

to be the standard over God

so that they would be

they would determine

what's good

not God

and that they would be over him

and that when they do that

what they do

is that there is something

within them

which is broken

there is something

within them

which is bent

you see

because the fact of the matter

is that Christians say

that since evil

comes by human breaking

not God making

that in a sense

all

in a very, very real

and powerful sense

all evil

is a perversion of good

a corruption of good

a disordering of good

a removing of good

a breaking of good

a bending of good

a bending of good

that that's what all evil is

God made the world good

but we pervert

corrupt

disrupt

disorder

remove

unbalance

the words can go on

and on and on

God is always opposed

to evil

and that's why

his justice

comes in

that he is always

opposed

to evil

and so it is

if you understand this

you can see

why is it that there's good

and evil in the world

why is it that we

can differ in particulars

well we differ in particulars

because

I don't want to acknowledge

that what I'm doing

is evil

I will come up

for complicated reasons

as to why it is

I mean to my

to my Muslim friends

who are watching

the big problem

that you have

is that the Taliban

will appeal

to Muhammad

and the Hadith

and the Quran

to explain

them taking

12 year old girls

as sex slaves

and I know that

if there's any Muslims

watching this

or eventually watch it

I know that you're

far better than that

but in fact

this very very thick

encounter

and understanding

of evil

and why it is

that we think

and why we can't even

argue or talk

the Christian

revelation

ultimately based on

Jesus

makes our experience

very powerful

and real

and know that

God is always

and only opposed

to all moral

wrongdoing

he never

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

ever

gives in

if you could

put up the final

point

your only hope

is the Lord

Jesus Christ

your only hope

is the Lord

Jesus Christ

see this is one

of the things

which the Christian

faith provides

for us

that our Jewish

friends don't yet

realize

and our Muslim

friends don't have

that particular

option as well

you see the fact

of the matter

is

if I want to

know how to

deal with evil

I want to

know how to

deal with the

evil within myself

and I want to

know how to

live with evil

it's not just

that I can do

it by myself

I need someone

to walk with me

and I need to be

delivered

and that's what

the Christian faith

provides

that in fact

what we have

is we have

this ancient

promise

which is in

the Old Testament

scriptures

that God

would send

an Emmanuel

that God

would send

one who

would crush

the serpent

that God

would send

one that

means by which

all things

would be

renewed

and that's

who we have

in the person

of Jesus

you read

Matthew chapter

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

1

that in fact

God

sends

his son

to be

in the midst

of all of

our mess

and all

of the evil

and he has

the same

nature as

us

and he has

evil that

happens to

him

he lives

in a world

where there's

very clearly

evil

the Jewish

people are

a conquered

people

there is

the empire

which is

over them

there's

the Roman

authorities

which are

over them

which will

eventually

in the year

70 AD

which will

destroy them

as a nation

and destroy

their temple

and he is

part of that

subject people

and he's

misunderstood

by his

parents

and his

family

and his

friends

and he's

put to

death

on trumped

up charges

and the

demands of

justice

that should

be there

by the

different

authorities

are completely

and utterly

done away

with for

reasons of

political

expediency

and he lives

and he lives

amongst human

beings

he lives

amongst our

mess

he lives

amongst the

injustice

and the

evil

and the

pride

and the

vanity

and the

lust

and the

gluttony

and the

sloth of

the world

and he

lives

amongst

us

but he

never

does

evil

and so

it is

that when

he dies

upon the

cross

as an

unjust

victim

listen

John was

a good

worship

leader

but he

can't

die

for the

human

race

Andrew's

a good

geek

but he

can't

die

for the

human

race

his wife

is way

better

than him

she

can't

die

for the

human

race

they're

just

people

but surely

the creator

of all

things

can die

for all

is creation

and that's

what we

hear

the creator

of all

things

enters

his

creation

lives

the life

that you

and I

could not

live

lives

amidst

among

and amidst

evil

and injustice

and hatred

and prejudice

and racism

and discrimination

and law

and all of

those things

and name

calling

he lives

but never

succumbs

to evil

and when

he dies

he dies

in your

place

and mine

he dies

to take

the punishment

that you

deserve

and he

offers

in exchange

he the

creator

can do

this

for every

single

one

of his

creation

and he

does this

on your

behalf

and offers

you

the perfect

life

that he

lived

that you

were not

able to

live

but you

should

live

and the

doom

that you

deserve

falls on

him

and God

is a God

of justice

he's a God

of mercy

and it's not a matter

of favoritism

favoritism

is when you let

somebody off

and justice

is not

the demands

of justice

are not met

but this is

true mercy

and it's out of

the goodness

of God

that God

would send

his son

to die

in your

place

that you

could be

reconciled

to him

that you

could

he would

do for you

what you

cannot do

for yourself

and he's

not just

a savior

that does

this

and then

leaves

you

alone

but the

Christian

life

is a matter

of learning

to walk

with him

walk with him

towards the evil

that you do

walk with him

and walk with his

people to learn

how to do good

walk with him

as you enter

into the valley

of the shadow

of death

walk with him

as you get

the cancer

diagnosis

as you get

the diagnosis

of dementia

walk with him

as you deal

with the injustice

in your workplace

or in your society

walk with him

as you suffer

under it

walk with him

as you enter

into the veil

of the shadow

of death

and beyond

into death

he is your savior

there's not only

an understanding

of the world

which is thick

and beautiful

and makes sense

of it

but also

it is an

account of the world

that points you

in the direction

of where you

should be going

and it's not

merely a pointer

he walks with you

when you put

your faith

and trust

in Jesus

as if you put

your hand up

to him

that he might

take you

that he might

be your savior

and you can

never reach him

but he can reach

you

and he reaches

down

he grabs

your hand

he will never

let your hand

go

you might feel

at times

that you aren't

holding on to

his hand

and that might

be true

but he never

lets go of

your hand

when you put

your hand

on his

and he is

the one

who fits

you for heaven

and he is

the one

who walks

with you

and he is

the one

who is your

hope of glory

and he is

your righteousness

he is your

peace

take him

as your savior

remember

that he is

your savior

and we come

together

because we

forget

that's where

we come

together

to remember

the lord's

supper

to remember

he died

to remember

that he will

return

remember

that evil

will not

have the

final word

remember

that justice

will finally

be done

that no one

who has done

wrong

will ever

avoid it

they might

avoid it

on this

side of

the grave

but it

will not

end that

way

they

every single

act of

evil

has been

dealt with

by jesus

and if you

don't accept

the covering

of him

it will be

dealt with

to your

misery

and undoing

in the

final judgment

walk with

jesus

take him

as your

savior

invite you

to stand

please

stand

just bow

our heads

in prayer

father

first of

all

we just

father

right now

it seems

as if

all we

can do

is pray

and we

just pray

for those

precious

young girls

taken as

sex slaves

in afghanistan

father

all we

can do

is commend

them into

your hands

right now

father

that's all

we can

do

if there

is more

that we

can do

father

we pray

that there

would be

something

maybe

governments

could do

but father

we commend

them into

your hands

and we

ask father

that your

holy spirit

would move

in their

lives

we ask

father

for the

conversion

of the

taliban

i confess

i don't have

the faith

to pray

it but

father

i ask

that you

would

you would

turn their

hearts

from evil

you would

turn their

hearts

to jesus

the prince

of peace

and father

we ask

that you

would help

us

to walk

with jesus

to know him

as our

savior

and our

lord

to walk

with him

as we

confront

the injustice

in the

world

and walk

with him

as we

confront

the evil

within

ourselves

that you

would help

us father

to walk

with jesus

we give you

thanks and

praise that you

are transforming

us from one

degree of glory

to another

that your

means of grace

are preparing

us for an

eternity with

you

that one

day we

will be fully

infused with

your goodness

and reflect

your goodness

and dwell in

your goodness

and walk

in your

goodness

and that