Core Training | The Problems of Evil

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. All right, well, welcome to this

episode of Core TRAINING. Tonight we're going to talk

about a very difficult subject, to be honest with you, which is

why the notes might be a little longer.

I promise it won't take more than 3 1/2 four hours to work

through this. Now I'm kidding.

Next episode, next time together, I'm going to talk

about spiritual gifts. And it's a, it's a very

important study that I don't know if that rings your bell or

not, but we need to talk about whether or not all the gifts are

still active or not. So we'll be talking about

continuationism versus what's called cessationism.

Have some of the sign gifts cease to exist or they still

continue. We're going to talk about that

next time as well as just some more general language about

spiritual gifts and how important they are.

And then I would encourage everyone that starting, starting

this on September 7th, this weekend, we are starting our new

sermon series about discipleship.

That's vitally important. So I just pray that everybody

will be there and, and, and you'll keep coming.

It's really important. We're going to be talking about

our, our new mission and vision statements, even some logo

conversations, as well as our discipleship definitions and

goals. So I hope they're there.

If you're listening online, thank you so much for joining us

as well. For those of you who are live,

thank you again for a good group here as well and that we

appreciate you being here. So I find myself discussing this

issue regularly and and I'm sure that you have at some point in

your life or you will, depending upon your life experience.

These are questions that are often driven into our lives,

whether we want them to be or not.

And so these are questions like why do bad things happen to

quote UN quote, good people? And I'll explain the quotation

marks later. Or if God is good, why does he

allow evil to exist? Why do the innocent suffer?

If God is love, why does he allow such things?

Or how can a loving God send people to hell?

Why would a person open fire on children at a Catholic school?

Why is that person healed but my friend was not, or my spouse was

not? Why, why, why?

This is quite a place, this Earth, and that's part of the

explanation that we'll talk about.

And sometimes we're never going to know the answer to why

specific horrific events take place.

And there's no way tonight I can satisfy those specific answers.

I know that that would require specific individual

conversations about specific individual situations.

And so, and probably much more time than we have, but, but

there are some things that we do know, there are some things that

can be shared. And I hope that these truths and

these principles will at least give you a framework that's

helpful if it's not completely satisfactory to you.

Because I'm confident that what I do know, even though it may

not hurt, hurt or satisfy your hurt or your pain or your

confusions or your questions, but I do know that we can

understand, at least generally from Scripture, why some of

these things take place. And then we can continue to

search further together for more specific answers about your

specific situations. So I do strongly encourage you,

and this is really important, don't cut me off.

At some point in this one, you need to listen to everything

because they tie together. And so you're going to sense at

times some redundancy. You're going to sense at times

where you already said that, yes, you're right.

I'm repeating it on purpose because there are different

principles, but these are related to one another and they

often support and or network within the next.

So I strongly encourage you to listen to everything before you

turn your ears off because of that.

And then it will be helped more helpful to you.

And so to begin, we need to acknowledge, and this is may

seem interesting to you. It may seem weird to you inside

the church, but but we even have to begin in this discussion,

especially if we're talking to people out in the world about

these types of questions. We have to begin with even

understanding what the definition of evil is or what is

the definition of bad, what is the definition of morally wrong?

Because that's not clear anymore in our world today.

That is so our current world that is so subjective, so

individualized, and it's understanding and definition of

truth. It's it's and, and the myriad of

nebulous opinions about what is wrong or right that even that

definition can be difficult. So when someone says why do bad

things happen to good people? Both the word bad and the word

good have to be defined in our conversations today.

And so for us and our purposes, what is considered evil or bad?

So for our purposes, because we're looking at scripture and

scriptural answers, we're simply going to say this, that evil is

the opposite of God and wrong is the opposite of God's word and

will. And that's where we have to

start. So why does evil exist in the

1st place, and why do bad things happen at all?

Well, I'm going to share with you about 9 different aspects of

this. I don't know that they're

separate principles. They're probably different views

of the same thing, sometimes from different angles, frankly.

But the first thing we have to recognize is that we do have a

real supernatural enemy who has an army and that and that group

tempt and war against us. The devil is real, Satan is a

real thing, and you may or may not accept that, but the devil

scripturally is a fallen Angel and so are his demons that fell

with him. There are several passages that

are attributed to that part of theology, and I'll share a

couple with you that they rebelled against God.

They fell from perfection. Interestingly enough, one of

those passages is at the end of the Bible in the Book of

Revelation, where it says now war arose in heaven, Michael and

his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his

angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer

any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown

down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan,

the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth

and his angels were thrown down with him.

There's passages in Isaiah where the reference to Lucifer or the

light bearer are made. Scholars debate on whether or

not that's even really referring to Satan or not.

Traditional view says yes. Some modern views say no but but

there is this aspect of perhaps that he was actually a powerful

light bearing Angel at one point.

But Jude 6 is clear. The good thing about Jude is you

don't have to have chapter numbers.

Jude 6 says this, and the angels who did not stay within their

position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has

kept an eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the

judgment of the great day. Someday I'll share with you a

study that I've often called Heaven, Hell, and the hereafter.

And we talked about heaven and hell, obviously, but what I also

share and talk about angels and demons.

And it seems that there are some demons that are so bad that they

haven't been allowed loose and that they've been chained up.

And so it's an interesting passage.

But we do know this from Genesis that Satan then tempts man in in

the Garden of Eden and man made the wrong choice.

Now don't forget that part because that's a key part to all

of this. So we we read about the fall of

man and then sin entering into the creation back in Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. And in the case of the fall of

Satan and the case of the fall of man, in both cases, what we

see is that pride and rebellion were both primary issues in both

of these stories, where Satan falls from heaven and where man

sins in the garden. They both wanted to take the

place of God. They both wanted to be God

themselves. They wanted to be able to make

the choices that they wanted to make.

Don't forget that word choice. It's a key part of the story.

And so, to be honest with you, little has changed and little,

little will change until time itself is gone.

Since we studied the Second Coming and our previous time

together, let me read from Second Thessalonians chapter 2

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

where it says this. Let no one deceive you in any

way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes

first. And the man of lawlessness has

revealed the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself

against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he

takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be

God. So many would say this is

referring to the Antichrist or some other eschatological story,

but what we see is, is that the same issues of pride and

rebellion, if still run rampant ever since the fall of Satan and

the fall of man. So because of that, Satan brings

as much evil. Our enemy, our real supernatural

enemy, brings as much evil and suffering and temptation as he's

allowed. And that word allowed is

important to this too, and I'll talk more about that later.

So we are at war, frankly. And the Bible is very clear

about that. Paul.

Paul puts together this portrait of warfare that we we fight

against in multiple letters that he writes.

But we're at war and Satan will indeed attack.

And so we recognize that sometimes suffering, sometimes

pain is because we have a real enemy and he's seeking to 'cause

that destruction. And we can't discount that part

of this, this issue. We also, though, sometimes

probably give Satan credit for things that he didn't or may not

have done. There are also natural

consequences that we'll talk more about as we walk through

this together. I mean, if you go without sleep,

you don't eat, right? You go out into a cold rain and

get wet and you catch cold, Is that Satan's fault?

Right. But Satan could even use natural

consequences like that to tempt you to do even more evil.

And so all these things are going to tie together.

So we have an enemy. We see that one.

But the second thing, which is a significant, real, significant

part of the answers to these questions, why do bad things

happen and why is evil exist, is number 2.

We live in a fallen world where sin exists and even the creation

groans. And it's always interesting to

me how we don't seem to grasp this.

I don't know who what that is. You all probably all do because

you're brilliant people and you come to great studies and then

you come to these two. But but I run into people on an

individual basis all the time who can't seem to get a hold of

this one and I don't know why. They just don't want to or

something. But we got to remember that God

created the world in a perfect state.

In Genesis chapter one, we hear that the creation is good,

right? It's good and there was no sin.

And then we are humanity is created in the image of God.

But you've got to understand that part of being created in

the image of God includes free will.

It includes the ability to choose.

Don't ever miss the how many times I'm going to say that kind

of phrase choice is a major part of the answer.

And so we have the freedom of choice now and and one of the

reasons for that is that God wanted real love from us and

real love has to be freely given.

Forced love is not real love. Robots don't love, puppets don't

love. And so the, the issue with that,

though, there's a problem that created and the fact that

freedom, that freedom of choice also demands and requires the

possibility to refuse it. It includes the the possibility

to reject it. It includes the possibility of

making the wrong choice. And So what we see in that is

that Love Actually requires the opportunity to hate.

It may have to wrap your head around that sentence, but free

love, freedom of choice, opens up the possibility of hate and

of rejection and of wrong choices.

And so the Lord decided in his infinite wisdom that that true

love, free love, real love, was worth the pain.

And so, strangely, and this is a sentence you may or may not

agree with, but you're going to have to think through it before

you tell me you don't agree with it.

Strangely, God allows pain because he loves us and wants us

to love him freely. That may sound like a weird

oxymoronic, backward kind of statement, but it's at the root

of a lot of the answers here. God allows evil in the world

because he loves us, and that may seem so counter intuitive to

us because of our limited view. He allows the same thing today

though. You've got to understand this

and hopefully you admit it. He allows the same thing today.

He allowed an Eden. He allowed Adam and Eve the

right to choose. In fact, listen to Genesis

Genesis 2:16

chapter 2, verses 16 and 17. And the Lord commanded the man,

saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you should not

eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

But He gave them the opportunity to choose.

He allows us to choose. So in an interesting way, free

will is at the root of evil. It's it's a, it's wrapped up

together. And we got to, we got to think

through this. I'm not done.

Don't leave me yet until you hear the whole picture.

Because he, God loves us so much.

He created us with that ability so that we would choose to love

him, that we would choose to be with him.

See, but we abuse this freedom and we say no to God and this

hurts him, and then we also say no to each other and it hurts

us. So man chose sin in Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. And you've got to understand

this theologically. At that moment, the entire

creation fell. It wasn't just man.

It's the entire creation. And that's where a lot of our

problems today come from. So the entire creation is now

fallen. Disasters, A weakened genome, in

other words, disease, violence, are all part of that fallenness.

And so sin and evil are here now, and then our sinful nature

becomes a part of us. It's a part of the creation.

We're born now with a sinful nature.

Just listen to what the Bible says.

Listen to Romans 5. Therefore, just as sin came into

the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death

spread to all men, because all sin.

For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but

sin is not counted where there is no law.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose

sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a

type of the one who was to come. In the words, we're all sinners,

we all have a sinful nature. We've been that way ever since

Genesis 3. Perhaps a more telling passage

is in Romans 8. For I consider that the

sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the

glory that is to be revealed to us now.

Listen to this verse. For the creation waits with

eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but

because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself

will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain

the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we, we know that the whole creation has been groaning

together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first

fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for

adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So creation fell when Adam and Eve sinned, so not only did

their bodies begin to die, but nature itself changed.

The world changed from what it once was.

The genome, our physicalness, who we are changed, and disease

and decay started. Man started to die and man

started dying from the moment he was born.

In a sense, he starts that decay.

Lions begin stalking lambs. Roses grew thorns.

The earth itself became a dangerous place to live and

still is. And so we are mortal human

beings living in a dangerous world.

And it's made dangerous by sin, by the choice of sin.

So the fall of nature means earthquakes will happen.

The fall of nature means tornadoes will come.

And I grew up in Tornado Alley. I spent every spring in the

basement. Now, fortunately, my grandfather

had a moonshine room. And so it was an interesting

experience. But tornadoes will come,

hurricanes will flood, volcanoes will erupt, and we will suffer

from all of this. So sin created a new natural

order because of its entrance into the creation.

And prior to that moment, you got to remember there were no

natural disasters. Prior to that moment.

There was no sickness part of that moment.

There was no physical or mental illness, no violence, no

addictions, no corruption, but the creation itself now groans

until its restoration at the end of time, just like we do, which

is why our study, the second coming, becomes really

important. So we're surrounded by an

imperfect state, but we ourselves are also in an

imperfect state because we're sinners and we're born in a

sinful nature. So God has allowed this to take

place for a season and I'm going to talk more about that

allowance again later. But but we got to remember that

the Bible is a story of God's desire to have fellowship with

man, to have man freely choose to love him and to know him and

to and to to rely upon him and to abide in him and and and the

and it's the story of the Lord's bringing back man to himself

through Jesus Christ. We also bear personal

responsibility for some of this because of the next one number

three. See, not only is the creation

fallen. But we have to admit that we

suffer sometimes because we are falling, we sin, we make bad

choices. It's always interesting to me in

in some of these conversations and, and, and I know I'm not

covering all the situations yet. Don't worry.

Hang in there with me until we're done.

But but in a lot of these situations, it's always

interesting to me how, how often people don't want to take any

personal responsibility for what's happened.

We make bad choices. Sometimes we make really stupid,

dumb choices, and then we're shocked at the consequences.

So we do, we say, and we think things that are contrary to

God's word and God's will for our lives.

And then we wonder how come everything isn't perfect?

Proverbs chapter 5 says this. The iniquities of the wicked

Proverbs 5 · chapter mention

ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

It's like we're bound. We're, we're, we're tied up in

our own sin and when we sin, we suffer.

We suffer both spiritually and we can even suffer natural

consequences, things right here physically, etcetera.

Romans 623 says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift

of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So there's a right way to live. We have to choose to live that

way, see, And if we choose to live a different way, we will

suffer. And so some of the suffering is

because of that. Bad choices have bad

consequences. And many, many just don't

understand. And part of the problem here,

and this is part of the problem out there, because of their

definitions. Their definitions are wrong and

they don't understand the seriousness of sin.

Sin is not that big a deal out there.

Maybe it's not that big a deal in here, but we've got to

understand the seriousness. I don't know that we take, that

we take sin seriously enough. We like to rank them.

There's certain sins that we think are a lot worse than other

sins, but we've got to understand you, you go back to

the story of Satan and his demons, go back to the Garden of

Eden and, and, and remember, it's still the same thing.

We, we got to be careful because sin is rebellion against God,

much like, just, just just like Satan rebelled against God, just

like Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

It's an affront against his sovereignty.

I need to say that again because I'm not sure you've heard that

phrase before. Sin is an affront against the

sovereignty of God. Your way is not right.

My way is right. I choose my way, not your way.

I'm sovereign at that moment. I'm the authority at that

moment, not you. So sin is an affront to a holy,

perfect God. And God will not be challenged,

not by a rebellious Angel and not by a rebellious you or me.

So there's a price to pay. Our God is holy, our God is just

and he must punish sin or he is not God.

It would be inconsistent with his nature.

I've talked about that in other places, at other times.

It this the sins wage must be paid, and the wage of sin is

what death and it must be paid. It has to be paid.

And on the cross, Jesus took our punishment and paid that debt,

and we will experience that freedom if we choose to follow

him. So as his children, we also have

to recognize, even as believers, that God will chasten us at

times for our sin. And we don't like that either.

We don't like to submit to authority.

We don't like to be disciplined. We don't like to be in trouble.

But we got to recognize that that's also part of the

Christian life. Listen to what Hebrews 12 says.

It's very clear. And have you forgotten the

exhortation that addresses you as sons?

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor

be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one

he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

And then verse 11. For the moment, all discipline

seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields

the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have

been trained by it. So the Lord's trying to steer us

away from stupid, dumb, sinful choices and trying to protect us

from a horrible, real, supernatural enemy, And he tries

to steer us away from the danger of sin like a loving father

would correct a child. But we got to be careful about

this one, too. I appreciated the question a

week or two ago about Job. We got to be careful about this

one because we don't, I don't get to declare, well, God's

obviously chastening you. You know, we don't get to, we

don't get to judge anybody guilty except ourselves.

Only judge yourself guilty. It's not your job alone to do

the rest. And, and, and often the, it's

kind of like Job's comforters. You know, he was, they said that

he's suffering because somehow he's sinned against God and he

should repent. But of course, we know in the

story that they were wrong. And often the confusion about

these questions stems from the fact that we begin with

incorrect presuppositions and and assumptions and

expectations. And you need to hear that again,

that's a big part of this. We start off at the wrong place.

We start off with the wrong expectations.

We start off with the wrong assumptions.

We start off with the wrong presuppositions.

See, we somehow think that we don't deserve any of this.

We somehow think that that that we're innocent.

And you got to understand, none of us are innocent.

All of us have sinned. All of us are born with a sin

nature. But people generally begin with

an anthropocentric, in other words, man centric, humanistic

centric, me centered philosophy where we believe we're owed

something. They didn't deserve that.

How do you know? Now, I'm not declaring that

either. That may sound harsh, but how do

you know? And what and what should they

deserve? What do they deserve?

We've got to think about how we think we believe we have the

right to something and, and we believe that, that, that, that,

that that puts God in the place of someone who's mean or God's

unjust because he's done something we didn't think he

should or allowed something we didn't think he should.

But if you begin from the proper theological perspective, it

really does make a lot of difference in these stories and

in these questions. We are not even deserving life,

people. Life is a gift.

You didn't deserve to be born. You didn't deserve, You don't

deserve to breathe. That's not where this starts.

We're sinners. You know what we deserve?

We deserve death and punishment. That's what we deserve in our

rebellion against God. But we don't ever think that

way. That's too hard.

That's that's too mean that you know, the next thing you're

going to do is you're going to use words like Hellfire and

brimstone or something. But you got to understand this.

See, God created us and because of what Adam and Eve did in the

Garden and because of what has been passed on generation to

generation, we are born with a sin nature.

You don't have to teach your little children to misbehave.

It comes naturally. And because of our nature and

our own personal choices and sin, anything that we do or

anything that we say or anything that we think that is contrary

to God's Word and God's will, we are all in a place of sin.

And the wages of sin is death. And we assume somehow we deserve

something else. We assume somehow we deserve

good things. Listen to Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except who? The Father.

Yeah, even our definition of good.

It's all human, humanly driven. It's, it's our own perspective.

It's, it's, it's my definition of good.

See, humanity loves to do that. I talk to you all the time about

being on the holy scale. We, we like to, you know, we, we

think that there's a works righteousness balance somehow

and that if we do more good than bad, somehow it's OK.

And that's just not how grace works.

Romans 323 You know what? For all have sinned.

And what? Fall short, hamartia.

We we've missed the mark. We've fallen short of the

target. The arrow didn't make it far

enough. And we fell short of the glory

of God, all of us. But God never sinned.

He's never sinned. Yet God the Son died a cruel

death to save us from ours. And so sinless and perfect, He

came to those who hated, abused and ignored Him.

People who made bad choices, and yet He died for him anyway.

In Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through 8, it says for why we

Romans 5:6–8

were still weak at the right time.

Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a

righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare

even to die. But God shows his love for us,

and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Why? Why would He do this?

What? What did he see in us that made

it worth it? What value did He have in

creating us in the 1st place when He knew we would make these

bad choices? See, that's perhaps the better

question. That's perhaps the greatest

mystery of all is why did He go through all this?

Well, that's His nature of love and we need to thank Him for it.

But even sins of foolishness, or sins of what I call them sins of

stupidity, can lead us to results that match.

I mean, listen, if you use or abuse certain substances,

they're going to destroy you. If you're unloving, likely you

will be unloved. If you jump from A10 story

building, I promise you the law of gravity will go into effect.

If you drink and drive and you die in a car wreck, don't blame

God for that. And so we sin.

We make bad choices, but we're just getting started because

it's far more complex. There are many more layers to

the wise. So we have an enemy who hates

us, especially those of us who have followed Christ.

He hates you, He hates you. He wants to destroy you.

He wants to stop Englewood Baptist, I promise you.

And we live in a fallen creation that's sinful.

We're surrounded by it. So bad things happen in this

world. Bad things, natural disasters,

disease pandemics, they happen in a sinful world.

Cancer happens in a sinful world.

A fallen creation has cancer. And then we make bad choices

ourselves. Sometimes.

We sin sometimes, and sometimes it's our fault.

Sometimes we're bringing suffering on ourselves because

of our bad choices. But #4 says we also suffer

because others are fallen. Others sin and make bad choices.

We also fall prey to those around us who are sinful, and

that affects us. So building on everything else

we see that the Bible is clear. We suffer sometimes because of

the sins of others. That same drunk driver runs into

a family and kills somebody. A robber shoots a clerk.

A disturbed person shoots children at a school or a

church. We suffer from the sinful

decisions of others because we live together in this fallen

state. And ever since Cain killed his

brother Abel, there has been hurt committed by 1 fallen human

against another. We suffer the wrong evil choices

of other men and women. We suffer because of their

mental and emotional disease when they commit horrible acts.

We suffer from their physical disease when they spread it and

another person dies because of it.

We suffer from their relational disease when families are torn

apart. We suffer from their spiritual

disease when they help to lead us astray.

We affect one another in this fallen world.

It's part of the reality of this existence.

And we can shake our fist or we can share the gospel.

You got to make a choice because people need grace.

They need to be saved from this. They need to be free and be able

to live beyond this. And then #5 we suffer because we

stand for Christ and make right choices.

This is a whole different angle. We might even call this the best

suffering. Christians may must accept the

fact and the Lord's right to actually purify us by trial.

It's for our own good and it's good for our testimony.

It's good for our the witness that we present.

And this suffering, the Bible says, can even be counted as joy

of all things. Remember what James wrote in

James One. Count it all joy, my brothers,

when you meet trials of various kinds.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces

steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its

full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in

nothing. It's painful.

Persecution can hurt. I've worked with so many around

the world, so many I know right now as I stand here before you

who are suffering persecution right now, people who are being

killed, people in slavery, people whose houses are

bulldozed, people's whose churches are torched all around

the world. It's painful, but it's can also

be a cause to rejoice because I've also heard them share their

testimony. Because persecution can actually

produce maturity in us. It can be a testimony to others

because we can suffer when we live like Jesus.

Matthew 5 Jesus tells them he warns them he says blessed are

you and others revile you and persecute you and utter all

kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so

they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Think about the craziness of what he just said.

Blessed are you, rejoice and be glad and the fact that this

really hurts, it really stinks. You're going to you're going to

really suffer from this. You might die, but rejoice in

that, be glad in that, be blessed in that.

So we don't think like that. It's hard for us to think like

that, especially in this culture, in this country, in

this comfort. Hard for us to think like that.

But I have friends who've shared testimonies how they rejoice in

their suffering and so we recognize this suffering also

makes us like Jesus. Philippians 3 says that I may

know him in the power of his resurrection and may share in

his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

So suffering like this is, can be a privilege.

Remember in the book of Acts, how, how, how the apostles would

actually rejoice that they were counted worthy enough to be, to

be beaten, to be imprisoned, to, to be, to be scourge, to be

whipped because of their love for Jesus.

So that could be a part of some of it, but this next one's a big

part of it. I've been leading up to this

one. See, God permits suffering for a

time as part of our created image and free will.

All this stuff ties together. Some say that God, and I've

talked about this in the past and other sessions about about

deism. Some, some people, some say

God's like a clock maker who wound up creation and then kind

of set it on the shelf and has no interaction with it anymore.

It's just a clock running over there on the shelf.

And God really isn't personally involved or not.

That's an ISM, but the truth of the matter is, is that God

actually is working today in at least two different ways, two

major categories of his will. In his permissive will, God

permits certain things to take place for a season, and part of

our problem is our perspective of time.

So he he he allows things to take place for a season in his

permissive will. He wants us to choose Him.

He wants us to freely follow Him.

He wants us to be saved. But because of our free will,

humanity makes very bad choices, and the creation itself is

allowed to continue to fall. And God allows Satan to have a

season. In fact, the Bible says that in

first John 5, we know that we are from we are from God and the

whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Now God could stop Satan at any time, but God permits Satan to

work for a time for probably a number of reasons, some of which

we will probably never know, at least this side of heaven.

But we we do know that one of the reasons is to show us what

will happen if we don't choose him.

Satan is a poster child for what not to be and we're told what's

going to happen to him at the end of time.

We're told what happens to those who follow him.

God shows us ahead of time what the what the result of our

choices will be and this ought to help humanity to choose him.

But we still make bad choices and we fall victim to living in

this fallen state again. God could have just created us

with no choice. We could have had no option

whatsoever but to know Him and to love Him and to live for Him.

But again, without evil, how can we know good?

How can we understand Him? Evil has been allowed to exist

because of our free will. He wants us to have faith.

He wants us to believe. He wants us to depend upon Him.

He wants us to trust in Him. So He allows choice and choice

doesn't surprise him, but choice can lead to suffering.

And you got to think about that. He even loves us by choice.

It's a part of his nature. And so we know that at the end

of time, not everyone will choose to trust in Jesus Christ.

I've read the end of the book. It tells us this and that not

everybody will trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and they

will face severe punishment. And even this seems unfair to

some people. How could a loving God send

people to hell? And it reminds me a little bit

of students who come into my seminary classes, assuming

they've already made 100%. They almost come in and it's it.

And it's only when they miss something that they lose points.

Like they start off at 100 and if they get something wrong, now

they're at 99 and now they're at 98.

When in fact, in my class, guess what you start off with.

Nothing. That's correct.

Fortunately, with grace, we don't just start with nothing.

Huh. But in the same way we make that

wrong assumption I mentioned earlier, we're assuming that

we're starting off deserving some kind of perfect score.

A perfect life, an easy life, a life with no problem.

And when something bad happens, we feel like it's unjust.

You got to remember God doesn't send man to hell.

Man sends himself there. Romans one is clear.

And by the way, this is a side note just for what it's worth.

If you ever see a dumb media clip.

I'm trying to use my adjectives carefully.

The Hebrew word is is idiotic. But anyway, So if you ever see

one of these media clips where it says you want to hear what

Jesus said about homosexuality and then there's silence, you

need to read the Bible. Because if you read all of Roman

1, Romans 1, you would have no doubt whatsoever about what the

Bible says about homosexuality. Now, I'm not going to read that

specific passage because it's not germane to our topic

tonight. But if you ever want to know

what the Bible really says about homosexuality, and if you're

struggling with same sex attraction and you want to know

what God thinks about it, read Romans 1.

The Romans 118 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from

heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who

by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God

has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes,

namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly

perceived ever since the creation of the world in the

things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

So this is what we call general revelation that I've mentioned

in a previous time together, where through creation, through

our consciousness, God reveals His existence to where there's

an awareness of God. Verse 21 says, for although they

knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him,

but they became futile in their thinking and they're foolish.

Hearts were darkened claiming to be wise.

They became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God

for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and

creeping things. Then verse 28, And since they

did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a

debase mind to do what ought not to be done.

Jesus didn't give up or God didn't give up on these people.

He allowed Him to choose. But then we got to leave, see #7

because this is the other way God works.

You have God's permissive will, and you have God's active will.

There are other words for those things, but those are the

simplest terms I could give you. And in God's active will, He

saves, He protects, He listens, He answers, He blesses.

God is working hard to help us choose correctly.

He's not. He's not some distant clockmaker

who doesn't care about the clock.

He's intimately involved. His spirit is moving and

intimately engaged. He desires that everybody knows

him, that everybody is able to bring him glory.

And he warns us over and over and over again in his word about

the wrong choices. Think of the entire Book of

Revelation. It's it's nothing but a warning.

First, John 38 says whoever makes a practice of sinning is

of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the

works of the devil. So Jesus comes to destroy

Satan's work to fight against him, and he created the church

to carry out his mission to share this truth with the whole

world. That's why we're still here, and

He's here to help us. 1st Corinthians 10 No temptation is

overtaking you. That is not common to man.

God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your

ability. But with the temptation, He will

also provide the way of the escape that you may be able to

endure it. If we'll choose Him, He'll help

us to make the right choices. So He's actively moving to

overcome evil through Christ. Romans 5 says, For if because of

one man's trespass death reign through that one man, much more

will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free

gift of righteousness reign in life.

Listen to that phrase, reign in life through the one man, Jesus

Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led

to condemnation, to condemnation for all men, so one act of

righteousness leads to justification and life for all

men. For as by the one man's

disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's

obedience the many will be made righteous, and he will bring

evil to an end. That is a promise.

One day it's all going to be over, and he's destroyed Satan's

work. If we believe in him, Satan

can't have us anymore. If we've trusted in him, if

we've chosen Christ, Satan can't have us anymore.

And there come a time when there will be no more evil, because

the very sources of evil will be castaway.

And Satan's going to burn in a lake of fire forever.

And I love saying it out loud so that his army can hear me,

because that's where they're all going.

And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess

that Jesus is Lord. But Satan will not only end up

in that lake of fire, unfortunately, those who have

chosen to follow him will go there too.

For those entrusting Christ, though, here's our future.

Remember what he says at the very end, almost of the whole

book, toward the very end in Revelation 21, Four.

Often we would quote this even at a funeral.

But what an encouragement. He will wipe away every tear

from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

The wage is paid. The sin wage is paid, So death

doesn't exist anymore for us, and neither shall there be

mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.

For the former, things have passed away.

So He wants us to make right choices now.

He wants us to help one another make the right choices now.

He wants us to share the right choice with others.

Now, we also need to consider their proper biblical view of

death and eternity. This is where I come back to the

idea of time a little bit. We, we've got to talk about this

just for a moment, because this is also where we experience

problems. Because what we experience here

is extremely temporary and doesn't seem like it when we're

in the middle of it, does it? Because this, this life is all

we know. And this, the first many of this

is all they believe there is, which is part of the problem,

but it isn't. We focus a lot on the temporary

because it's all we know. But everybody is going to

experience eternity. You got to wrap your head around

that. Some of us are going to

experience eternity in heaven. Some people are going to

experience eternity in hell, but everybody will experience

eternity. I am not an annihilationist, and

you either know what I just said or you didn't.

But that's not what the Bible teaches.

The what the Bible teaches, and I'll share this one day in depth

with you because this is what Jesus believes.

If Jesus believes that, I think it's probably right.

If heaven is forever, then hell has to be forever because he

uses the exact same Greek words for both.

You can't make one without the other.

They're both eternal. To help deal with the current

questions of evil, then we need to focus more on eternity.

For the believer, death may actually be and you're not going

to like this sentence. Some of you, and I get it

because you, some of you are still grieving loss.

And I'm, I'm really sensitive to that.

And I, I want to be sensitive to that.

I really am sorry because I've, I've been through loss myself.

Maybe not through the same loss you've been through.

I don't want to say I understand how you feel because I, I don't

know how you feel, but I've, I've been through loss myself.

But but for the believer, death may be God's welcomed,

intentional way of healing. I've known a lot of people who

had a hard time here and God took them home.

They're not having a hard time anymore.

When I preach my own mother's funeral and my father's funeral,

I said that if they could come back for 10 seconds, they say

don't you worry about me, take care of my family.

I'm just fine. I don't even want to come back

the story often I don't know how it really worked, but there's

there's all kinds of jokes and stories about like Lazarus and

Lazarus. What like, you know, wait a

minute, what I got to come back here?

God may actually bring people home to be with him earlier than

we had expected. And sometimes he does it in

unexpected ways that we don't like and we don't approve of.

We don't think are right and we don't think are just.

I get it. But we need to remember that

this life here on this planet is only a vapor of the beginning of

our existence. It's a flash.

We're only here for a little bit, but we're an eternity

forever. And our brains have a hard time

with that. Our brains have a really hard

time with that because this, this is what we love.

This is what we know. This isn't even who we really

are. This is not really me.

This is just a shell fact. I'll read a verse about that.

We need to allow our present suffering to teach us more about

eternity. Romans 818 says.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to

us. Are one of my favorite passages.

I've never really known why, it just always encourages me.

The 2nd Corinthians 4. I've gone to this passage during

difficult times in my life. But we have this treasure in

jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God

and not to us. We were afflicted in every way,

but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair,

persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed,

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life

of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus

sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our

mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but

life in you, since we have the same spirit of faith according

to what has been written. I believed and so I spoke.

We also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that He is that

he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus

and bring us with you into His presence, for it is all for your

sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may

increase Thanksgiving to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting

away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we

look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are

unseen. For the things that are seen are

transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

We also recognize that He allows or even takes us through storms

to strengthen and draw us closer to Him.

Similar perhaps to an earlier point, but I want to just ask

you, did God ever promises otherwise?

Listen to what Peter wrote, a person who ends up being

crucified upside down for the sake of Christ.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes

upon you to test you as though something strange were happening

to you. And that verse right there is a

verse to dwell on for a second. Don't be surprised when this

happens to you. Don't be surprised if you choose

to follow Christ and you suffer, but rejoice insofar as you share

Christ's suffering. That you this kind of blows away

the prosperity gospel, didn't it kind of just shoots a hole in

it. As Christians, we don't get to

escape. We go through, we rise above.

But G But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's suffering, that

you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are insulted by the name of Christ, you're blessed for

the name of Christ. You're blessed because the

spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an

evildoer, or as a meddler. None of that meddlin.

Now notice we like to rank sin. How many of you put murder and

meddlin on the same level? Stop it stopped your Meddlin.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be

ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name for just a It is

time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those

who do not obey the gospel of God?

And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become the

ungodly and the Sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer

according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful

Creator while doing good. He promised us this in this

Word. He promised us more than once in

His Word that we would struggle here but to choose to trust Him

and to overcome this world. So why are we so surprised when

bad things happen? How do we even know they were

bad? Is our definition even right?

Maybe God had incredible good things to produce through the

middle of that difficulty. Genesis chapter 50 verse 20.

Genesis 50:20

You might remember the story of a little boy who wore a multi

colored coat named Joseph. He went through some stuff and

at the end of that story, remember what the Bible says.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for

good to bring it about. That many people should be kept

alive as they are today. God saved an entire nation

because Joseph had to endure severe suffering for it to

happen. So this earthly life has its

problems, no doubt about it. We're promised that Jesus said,

he said in John 16, these things I've spoken to you that in me

you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation.

I mean, that's not even, there's not even a question mark there.

You will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

Why? Because I've overcome the world.

This isn't home. This is a temporary working

space for us to do what God wants before we go home.

We're on assignment and He has overcome.

Remember that. Allow that to guide you.

Allow that to strengthen you. Now, that doesn't answer all the

questions I promised you at the beginning.

It wouldn't. There are specific situations

that require specific conversations and specific

discussions as to why that happened.

Why did children die in a horrible, sinful shooting?

Here's my honest answer to you. I don't know.

I can't tell you. All I can do is trust.

But I can tell you why Lazarus died, which was just as painful

for those sisters who didn't understand at the time why their

brother had to die. And later on, the Bible actually

tells us why he died. It's so that he could be brought

back to life for God's glory. Or, or, or I can, I can, I can

tell you why the man was born blind in John Chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

Because the Bible tells us it was for the glory of God.

But sometimes we don't get the answers.

I wish we did. I guess I'm not sure we could

understand them even if we had them.

But we need to learn from what we experience, and instead of

driving us away from God or questioning God, which is what

happens to so many, it ought to make us run to God and cling to

Him and trust him even more because He's the only hope you

have to get through it. We must learn to trust Him.

That's called faith. Stand on the fact that God is

good and God has a plan, and so run to him.

Cling to Him. Realize that God can see a

picture that we cannot see. There's an old classic

illustration of this that perhaps gets overused, but I'll

use it again. And that's that's of the woven

tapestry. You know, when you look at an

old fashioned tapestry, if you see one, then on on one side

it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful picture that's created

by various threads of various kinds and colours.

And you know, you see this whole beautiful picture of something.

But if you look on the back, if you look on the back, it's a

tangled mess, A thread, some long, some short, some with

knots, some some some without. Why is that thread longer?

Why is that one have 4 knots in a?

Why? Why is that one torn to bits?

And that's what we see. We see our little thread and a

few little threads around us. But God sees the picture.

His perspective is totally different than ours.

His perspective of time, our life is our.

I mean, it's not even not even that in the scope of eternity,

but God still sees the picture and he still cares about that.

That's amazing, isn't it? Even though we're that's always

that's he still cares deeply about that.

He created you for that. He wants you to live in that for

him to choose him in that he gives you the chance to do that.

And you can sit there and say, well, I know it well, you're

here now. You do.

He sees past, present and future.

I've told you before, all at the same time, he knows.

So where's God amid the hurt in this world?

We all suffer from it. We suffer from the need for

hope. We suffer from the temptation to

panic at times. We just suffer from the desire

for encouragement. We just we suffer from the

search for answers. So I've been thinking a lot

about how sometimes we speak of these uncertain times we live

in. Let me just push back for a

minute because there's several things I know for certain.

I know for certain that God is certain about what time it is.

He knows exactly what time it is.

I know for certain that I know, and I believe in God, and I know

for certain that He is completely sovereign.

And I know for certain that He has not stopped working,

distanced, or cancelled Himself. I know for certain His grace and

love have not been stopped. I know for certain that He can

and is working out good things even during the fallenness

surrounding us. I know for certain that the

Church belongs to Him, and the gates of hell will not prevail

against her. I know for certain I am saved

and beyond any shadow of a doubt, if I were to drop dead

right now, standing behind this podium as you're listening to me

online, I would spend eternity with him immediately, forever.

Therefore, I know for certain that I must not live in some fog

of fear or perspective of panic. Because I know for certain I was

never promised the understanding of tomorrow.

I was never promised the understanding of even what's

going to happen to me 10 seconds from now, for that matter.

But I do know for certain, I know the One for certain, who

knows for certain what the next 10 seconds and tomorrow do hold

for certain. So are these times really any

more uncertain than any other from God's perspective?

I think not. It's only by my definitions.

It's only by my limited sight and perspective that they appear

so. But I'm certain we're supposed

to live by faith and not by sight, and I'm certain the Bible

is not uncertain about that. So I'm certain during these

times that the things of earth will go strangely dim in the

light of his glory and grace. So today is on all days.

I know we must for certain turn our eyes upon Jesus because in

Him, and only in Him will we find Shalom, will find peace

with him, with one another, and with ourselves.

We must move forward in faith and wisdom.

We must be defined by His Word, we must be devoted to prayer,

and we must be absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.

Those are the 3DS of life. You ought to remember I was

listening to a song. It's not a new song.

You may laugh at me when I tell you who it's by, because some of

you will have no idea who this is, and others will know too

well who this is. It's a song by Big Daddy Weave.

I know it's been around a while, but so have I.

Listen to these lyrics. You don't answer all my

questions, but you hear me when I speak.

You don't keep my heart from breaking, but when it does, you

weep with me. I don't understand the sorrow,

but you're calm within the storm.

Sometimes this weight is overwhelming, but I don't carry

it alone. You're still close.

When I can't feel you, I don't have to be afraid.

And though my eyes have never seen you, I've seen enough to

say I know that you're good. I know that you are kind.

I know that you are so much more than what I leave behind.

I know that I'm loved. I know that I am safe.

Because even in the fire, to live is Christ.

To die is gain. I know that you're good.

And on my darkest day, from my deepest pain, through it all, my

heart will choose to sing your praise.

Father, thank you for your word. I wish I had more specific

answers for everybody's specific problems, Father.

Sometimes I feel incredibly inadequate at that point.

But Father, all I can do is what Your word tells us and reveals

to us, Lord. And no matter the circumstance,

no matter how bad, no matter how horrific.

And Lord, you know, I have walked through some pretty

horrific things with people, tragic things, sinful, evil

things. The Father through it all, all I

know is, is that you're right there.

And Father, you hurt with us, just as Jesus wept with those

sisters. And I can trust you.

I can depend upon you. I can believe in you.

Father, I think of the people that I've worked with over the

years who don't know you who've lost and father, the way they

had, no, they had no anchor. They had nothing to hang on to.

They had no hope. They had no, no ability to

recover because all they saw was the darkness.

And so, Father, I just pray that anyone who hears any of this,

Lord, if they they agree, they don't agree with me, at least,

Father, they'll listen to this one thing that Father, no matter

what else they might think that you love them and you have a

plan for them. And you're the only source of

light and hope that is possible to get through what sometimes

this life throws at us. And Father, you don't promise us

that we get to avoid. You never did.

I don't know why we think we should.

I don't know why we think we deserve something else.

But Lord, it's just the way we are, I guess.

But Father, you promise that you'll take us through the

promise. You'll guide, you'll guide us

and lead us if we'll trust in you.

But Father, we have to choose to do that.

We have to choose to do that. We have to choose now.

Father, you'll help us. You'll help us to have the

faith. You'll help us to have the

strength. You'll help us to have the

wisdom. Father, the Holy Spirit will

help remove spiritual blindness and ignorance and deafness from

our our senses, Lord, so that we might believe in you.

You'll, you tell us all that. But Father, not only do we have

to choose you, we have to choose to live for you.

We have to choose to trust. We have to choose to believe.

Because, Father, if we don't, we're going to get caught up.

We'll we'll get swept away in the vortex of this fallenness,

and all we'll see is the decay around us.

I don't know why certain things happen, Father.

And Father, sometimes I wonder, when we get to heaven, are we

going to have all the answers or will we care about those answers

then? Because all we're going to see

is perfection. But Father, I have to trust that

you know, you see, and you're at work.

And so, Father, let us trust in you and depend upon you.

Lord, I pray that if somebody is hearing any of this and they've

never trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, Father, I

don't know where their hope's going to come from.

I don't know where their help's going to come from.

Father, if your spirit is not living inside of them, I don't

know where they're going to get the strength.

And so, Father, I pray that they'll contact me, that we can

talk together about what that means.

And Father, I know sometimes people might even be angry with

you. They don't understand.

They don't believe they deserve this, or some innocent person

they believe is innocent doesn't deserve that.

I get it. And Father, you can handle the

anger. You can handle that.

Father, I pray that you'll turn that anger into faith, a fierce

faith that withstands the trials and storms of this life.

So, Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for these feeble attempts to explain an extremely

complex problem. But I thank you, Father, that

you saved me. And I thank you, Father, that

you'll condemn evil one day, and the Father will be saved from

the presence of evil one day. And in the meantime, help us,

Lord, to face the power and the presence of sin now.

And so, Father, guide us as we move on from this session that

Lord, we would choose you. We would choose to be your

disciples who make disciples, who make disciples in Christ's

name, Amen. God bless you all.

Thank you. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

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you and your families. Thank you once again.