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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.