When I was barely 16 years old, a little bit after my 16th birthday in early May,
I watched my father die of a heart attack. After the ambulance took his body
away, I remember going out on the street, maybe
three or four in the morning, and thinking how angry I was at God for
letting him die. He was 53 years old. It would be a long time before I would
talk to God again. I think there are a lot of people who are like I was when I
was 16 - mad at God because something bad has happened to themselves or someone
they love. As a matter of fact, there are many people in this world who cannot
seem to believe in God, because they can't accept the idea that a good and
merciful God would allow so much evil and misery and suffering to happen in
this world. If I could go back in time, there are many things I'd like to
explain to that angry teenager about why a good God allows suffering in this
world. The first thing I'd talk about would be
the problem of evil itself. Answering that question requires us to examine
evil up close. There are two kinds of evil in the world. One is
natural evil, where things just happen to us without our willingness: fires,
accidents, disease, earthquakes. All of the many things that just happen that cause
suffering and death. And then there's moral evil, where human will and human
action are in evidence: crime, violence, immorality, selfishness. The
things that people do to themselves and do to other people, in order to make them
suffer. The problem of evil in this world is that it, first of all,
affects both the innocent and the guilty. There doesn't seem to be any justice.
Sometimes innocent people suffer. This is a sad reality of life. Some people think
that a good and all-powerful God, what the Christian concept of God is, that a
good and all-powerful God could and should prevent evil if He wanted to.
So there are people who want to believe, who have heard the gospel, but they look at
the problem of evil and they refuse to accept a God who would allow evil, and
its effects to exist in this world.
It's the bridge too far. It's the mountain too high for them to
climb. In order to help develop faith despite the evil we see in the world, we
need to understand three things. First of all, where evil comes from. Secondly, why
it exists. And thirdly, how does God actually respond to evil. So let's start
with the source and the reason. Evil, in all of its forms, is the result of
disobedience to God and His laws. It began with the disobedience of Satan
before the creation of the world, Second Peter chapter two, verse four. It continued
with the successful temptation by Satan of Adam and Eve, to disobey God, Genesis
3:1-7. And it multiplied as the descendants of Adam and Eve continued to
disobey God and His laws, until this very day and to the end of the world, Romans
chapter five, verse 12. In other words, evil has been there since almost the
beginning and will be there all the way to the end. Now, the result of this
disobedience is the evil that we see in the world today, and the suffering that
is caused by it. We see it expressed in both moral and natural evil. Moral evil
causes suffering. The violence and the immorality, the hatred in the
world is caused by man's unwillingness to love and obey God and to
love his neighbor as himself, not just ignorance and poverty. Ignorance
and poverty are the result of sin, not the cause of sin. If you could trace
every crime, every broken home, every case of emotional and physical abuse, at its
root you would find pride and lust and selfishness and anger. You would find, in
a single word, you would find sin. Either someone is guilty of it or someone is
victimized by it. Paul says, "That the wage of sin is death," Romans 6:23. And death is
manifested in this world through evil, not just funerals. I mean, where does
suffering come from? It is the result of man's disobedience. God says, do not kill.
And what does man do? Man kills. And in doing so creates the suffering that
comes with this sin. And then there's the question of natural evil, what about
natural evil: disease, catastrophe, a little child has leukemia and dies, what
did that child do? Doctor Henry Morris, in his book, The Genesis Record, explains
that after the fall of Adam there was not only a broken relationship with God
causing moral darkness resulting in evil and suffering, he says there was also
social breakdown, evidence by the shame that Adam and Eve felt and the murder of
Abel by Cain. In addition to this, he claims that there was an ecological
breakdown as well, beginning with the departure of Adam and Eve from the
Garden, the difficulty in childbirth and their toil to live from the earth, which
was not there before. He goes on to show that social disintegration continued
until the greatest natural disaster in history occurred - the great flood. In his
book he demonstrates how hydrologists - a hydrologist is a scientist who studies
the effects of water on the earth. So in his book he demonstrates how
hydrologist scientists have done experiments to find out what would
happen if the world was suddenly covered with water in a very short amount of
time. And so, his scientists built a model to simulate this phenomena in a lab.
Here are some of the results of their findings: if all of a sudden the earth
was covered, the entire earth covered with water, what would happen?
And by the way, these scientists, they weren't ministers, they weren't preachers,
they didn't have an agenda. They were just curious what would happen. Well, the
first thing they found out is if the earth were suddenly covered with water,
like in the great flood, the earth would shift on its axis causing the north and
south poles to freeze. Secondly, this would drastically change the weather
patterns, which would severely affect animals and plants. Thirdly, the Bible
tells us that the earth was originally fed by underground streams and protected
by a ring of vapour in the atmosphere, Genesis chapter seven, verse 11, which were
both dissolved in order to create the flood. He says that without the vapor
shield, one of the results was be that new strains of bacteria would enter into
our environment, causing disease to man and beast and plants. Morris has a pretty
long and detailed book, but essentially what he is saying is that the flood
created an ecological disaster, which explains the disease, the imbalance in
nature, the environmental catastrophes that have plagued man since that time.
But, however, the reason for the flood in the first place was man's sinfulness.
Remember, the flood was sent by God because man was on the pathway to
self-destruction, since every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And I think this is one of the passages that Marty was talking
about this morning. And again, we didn't discuss what we were going to be
preaching in much detail. And so, moral and natural evil can find
their source in man's disobedience to God and His laws. Man disobeyed God's
command, destroyed his relationship with God,
he destroyed his relationship with other men, and ultimately caused the breakdown
of the very environment that God had created to sustain and to satisfy him.
Do you ever think that God created the world for man's pleasure? Flowers smell
sweet and beautiful, why? Because God created it that way. The sunset is
magnificent, the Sun warms our faces, why? Because God created it that way. Sweet is
sweet and enjoyable, why? Because God created us to enjoy. If you
just thought about it, just for a little while, all of the things that have been
created have been created in such a way to give us pleasure, to give us joy. And
man destroyed all of this through his disobedience. So where does evil come
from? Well, it doesn't come from anywhere. It is the natural result that takes
place when man violates God's will in any way. And so the next question is, why
does God permit it then? In order to answer this question we have to talk
about free will, the topic of free will, the necessity of free will. God permits
evil to exist because it is the downside of free will. And free will is necessary
if man is to be made truly in the image of God. In Genesis 1:26 God said, in
creating man, "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." God had
created the universe, the earth and its environment, the creatures that inhabit
it, and completed this with the creation of man, similar to the earth, in that he
was made from it and thus could perfectly interact with it.
Man could breathe its air, eat its food, understand, dominate,
and exploit it if he wanted to for good, but he was also made similar to God as
well, so that he could interact with God. The only thing in creation that could do
so. Only man interacts with God. In being similar to God, in His image and likeness,
this meant that man also shared godly attributes that plants and animals could
not and did not. For example, God could communicate. Well, so could man.
God said, let there be light. He was communicating. Man said, the woman you
gave me, Lord. Man also could communicate. God could perceive goodness and beauty,
after all, God said, it is good, it is very good, when He saw what had been created.
And so could man. Man saw Eve, Adam saw Eve and he said, this is bone of
my bones. He communicated. He was able to appreciate beauty.
God had the power of creating, and by virtue of reproduction, so did man.
God had will, most importantly, the ability to choose. After all, we read in
the Bible that God says, let Us make man in our image. That's a choice. And so does
man, the choice to eat or not to eat of the forbidden fruit. He was given the
power of free will. You see, without free will, man is not in the image of God.
That's the important thing. He is less than human. He is not all that he was
created to be. Man must be able to glorify God willingly
and freely, because worship which is not offered freely and willfully, which is
automated, is no worship at all, it is an insult to Almighty God. In other words, in
order to be in the image of God, man had to have, had to possess free will. Now,
here's the problem, the problem with free will is that man had the choice to obey
and enjoy life in perfect harmony without evil, without suffering,
or disobey and destroy his relationship with God and other men, the creation
itself, and bring evil and suffering into the world. He had the power to do both.
We know the story, don't we? It should have been an easy choice, but because of the
previous disobedience of Satan and his seductive ways, man chose to disobey and
bring all of the calamity of suffering crashing down on his, and of course, our
heads today. Now, somebody might say well, why create man at all? If God knew that
all of this evil and suffering was going to happen, why did He do it?
The answer to that question is that when God was faced with the choice to create
or not to create, He chose to create man anyways. He chose to say, let Us make man,
because it was the right thing to do despite the suffering to come. To create
was better than not to create. The fact that God chose to create indicates that
this was the right choice. God didn't make a mistake. He didn't make a bad
choice. He didn't use His freewill incorrectly. Man is the one that used
freewill incorrectly. God did the supremely right thing in creating man
with freewill. It is man that has misused his free gift, but God is greater than
man, and God is greater than evil or suffering, because he had a way of
dealing with the evil and suffering caused by man's bad choice, and his
failure to exercise his free will correctly. So this is the part of the
lesson where we see God's response to evil. This is where evil comes from: man's
disobedience to God, in all the ways that that has manifested itself throughout
history. So how does God respond to evil?
Evil exists in this world and it causes great suffering, absolutely. This is an
undeniable fact, however, the mere existence of evil does not mean that God
ignores or is not active in dealing or responding to evil in this world. There
are a variety of ways that God confronts, deals with, and resolves the problem of
evil in this world, if we only take the time to note it. First of all, God limits
evil. Now there is a terrible evil in this world and the rate of suffering is great,
but from the very beginning God has used a variety of ways to limit the amount of
evil and the scope of suffering. Believe it or not, it could be much worse.
One of the ways in the use of His power to limit evil, one of the
ways is that He limits the lifespan of man. Have you ever thought of that?
Before the flood, when the earth was still in relative harmony, man lived for
centuries. Notice that after the flood man's lifespan diminishes to threescore
and ten. And then if there's strength, maybe another ten, another decade. This
limits the time of evil men and their pursuits, as well as the time that good
men must suffer. In the context of eternity, 50 or 60 years is not a very
long time. I'm not minimizing the evil and the suffering that anyone has to
suffer, but God has called us to eternal life and the life that we have
here lasts only a few years in comparison. Secondly, God has created man
in such a way that despite the sin within him and the weakness of his flesh,
man is still capable of great good. Life still has an element of joy that comes
from our appreciation of beauty, and family, and the delights of the creation
around us, and our work, and our activities. God could have completely
cursed us that there would be no possibility of joy on this earth, but He
didn't. We can still find things to smile about despite the evil and the suffering
in the world. This is God's doing, not Satan or man's.
If it was up to Satan there would never be any joy. I've said that to you
before, sometimes Satan can't tempt you to
willfully sin against God, but sometimes he's able to just
take your joy away from you. Sometimes he's able to distract us enough so that
we don't enjoy what we have at hand. We start worrying about tomorrow or we
start feeling bad about yesterday and we can't appreciate what God has given us
today. That's the work of Satan, not God. And then God has provided knowledge to
man to solve the problems here on earth caused by sin: scientific breakthroughs,
discoveries of medicine, technological advances. All of these things are
possible, why? Because of the mercy of God, that's why.
The rain falls on the just and the unjust, but so does the sunshine on the
just and on the unjust. All knowledge comes from God, and the progress that man
has made in understanding and exploiting the creation for his own good and the
relief of suffering is nothing more than what God commanded in the garden when He
said that man was to fill the earth and subdue it, in Genesis one, verse 27. Man has
not improved his lot despite God, he has reduced suffering and mitigated much
of the evil in the world through God's mercy and enlightenment. I mean, in the
last 2,000 years most major scientific discoveries have been made by believers,
not atheists. Atheists keep putting forward ideas and theories
about how the world came to be, that are discounted
every 10 years or so. Another way that God responds to evil in the
world: He limits the time that man has and the time of evil; secondly, He uses
evil to teach us something. God doesn't arbitrarily remove evil
because, first of all, it is the direct result of man's choice, and to remove
evil is to remove choice, and to remove choice is to eliminate man as a free
thinking, independent, eternal being. We need free will if we're going to be
eternal. One goes with the other. So God uses the evil in the world
to teach mankind lessons about good. Things man once knew, but lost because of
sin. Throughout the Bible we have examples of this type of teaching. For
example Job, Job is a prime example of God's use of evil to teach and mature
one of His sons. Job is the victim of both natural evil - his children
are killed by a storm that destroyed their home and Job, himself, suffered
from a terrible skin disease - and he's also a victim of moral evil, his servants
and his property were plundered by attacking tribes. Job couldn't
understand why a righteous man like himself should suffer from the effects
of evil. He finally learned that he couldn't judge God and understand the
universe based only on his limited experience. His experience was valid, but
it was limited. His suffering taught him that he should trust God to run the
universe and even if there were some things wrong with the universe, things
that caused Job to suffer, God was still capable of taking care of it and taking
care of him too. The big problem with suffering is we
think everything has fallen out of control. Maybe we're out of control, but
God is never out of control. This is just one example of God's use of evil and
suffering to teach important spiritual truths, but the Bible is full of stories
where through the experience of hardship God teaches men and women important
lessons concerning hope and perseverance, mercy, forgiveness and victory, through
the ongoing faith that we have in God. In Second Corinthians chapter 12, verses seven to 10,
Paul writes the following, he says, "Because of the surpassing greatness of
"the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
"me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me - to keep me from
"exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it
"might leave me. And He is said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that
"the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with
"weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for
"Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."
So Paul the Apostle served God faithfully. He succeeded in planting
churches throughout the Roman world. He wrote a good portion of the New
Testament. And yet, it was through his suffering and defeat that God was able
to teach him the priceless lessons of contentment and trust and submission.
Another person writes, James, he tells us that we should consider it all joy when
we meet various trials, James one, verse two. Why should we rejoice when
we experience trials in life? He answers, because through the evil
and suffering in this world God is able to teach us the most important lessons
of our faith, that cannot be taught in other ways. And then finally, God allows
evil to exist, but not to win. God allows evil to exist, but not to win. People who
become discouraged at the evil in the world and refuse to believe in God
because of it, have a short view of history and a very small view of God.
Evil has damaged the earth and caused suffering, but despite its worst attacks,
people still rejoice when goodness in any form appears and seems on the rise.
God has allowed evil to exist, but He has answered the problem of evil once and
for all through His Son Jesus Christ. We've said that sin is the
source of evil, and death is its inevitable end, but Jesus Christ died on
the cross to pay the penalty due for every sin of every person that ever
lived. What does Peter say in First Peter two? "He gave Himself
"for our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to
"righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed." Healed of what? The evil that's in
your life, the sins that you have committed.
That evil is healed by His suffering. The problem of evil, sin was taken care of by
the cross. The problem of death was overcome by Jesus's resurrection, John 6:39-40.
Evil and it's result, death, are removed by God through the cross of
Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His son. And so, evil exists now,
it creates suffering now, it leads to death now, but God has dealt with evil,
suffering, and death, by first of all offering forgiveness for the evil that
we do, by providing a measure of relief for the suffering that we experience, as
well as support and reassurance while we go through the trials. And finally, a
promise of resurrection and eternal life after death, confirmed by the
resurrection of Jesus, and offer to everyone in the world through the gospel.
And so, evil and suffering exist, yes. There's no denying it, but God offers
help for now, and a promise for the future, that one day there will be no
more suffering, no more evil ever again. I think it's the thing that I hope for the most.
People say, boy, when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God this
question. I'm going to ask God that question. Who's the man of lawlessness?
How did this work, or why did You do that? I think the thing that I'm going
to enjoy the most about heaven? No sin. Never mind no sin, like, in other people,
no sin in me. That's what I'm going to enjoy - no sin in me. So I ask you the
question, are you a victim of evil in this world?
Have you suffered because of injustice? Are you suffering because of illness or
grief? Are you suffering because of the evil of others against you or simply
because you've made some bad choices? Please know that even though God permits
this evil and suffering to exist in this world, in your world, He also offers a
solution to all suffering, and that solution, I repeat again, is Jesus Christ.
It's why we're here. It's what we do. It's what the church
does, it offers the solution to suffering. Isn't it sad that people see the evil in
the world, but they refuse to accept the solution for all of this evil. Jesus Christ
reveals and proves the existence of God. In Romans chapter one, verse four,
"Paul, the bondservant of Christ Jesus,
"called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised
"beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son, who
"was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared
"the Son of God, with power," how? "by the resurrection from the dead, according to
"the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord." Jesus Christ removes the barriers
of sin and condemnation, and makes peace between God and ourselves,
Romans chapter five, verse one,
"Therefore, having been justified by faith," why do we have to be
justified? Because there's evil in our life, that's why there needs to be
justification. So, "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with
"God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ allows a person to be at peace
with himself and have hope for the future, how do we know? Romans chapter eight, verse one.
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for
"those who are in Christ Jesus." If you have no condemnation, you have no fear.
And if you have no fear, you have the capability to love. And if you have the
capability to love, then you have peace. That's the trajectory. And Jesus Christ
empowers all who believe in Him to live in harmony and love with others in this
world. How do we know this? Again, Paul says, "Therefore I urge you,
"brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and Holy
"sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do
"not be conformed to this world," why? Because evil is in this world. "But be
"transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of
"God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." If the Bible is true, then
the worst evil a person can do in this world is to refuse to believe and obey
Jesus Christ, the antidote to evil. And the greatest thing that a person can do
in this life is to proclaim Christ as Lord. The very best thing you can do to
love your neighbor and to love the world is to participate in the proclamation of
the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. It is within your power tonight to stop the
evil, perhaps not all the evil in the world, but to stop the evil in your own
life. Today, if you have not already done so,
come then, confess your faith in Jesus. Come, return to serve Him today. Come and
be baptized, wipe away the sins, wipe away the evil in your life and begin to live
for and through Christ, proclaiming that He and only He is the answer to the evil
in this world. If you need to respond to our invitation tonight
as brother Dayton leads us in a song, then we ask you to come forward now as we
stand and as we sing.