Good vs. Evil
If God is Good and Holy and In Control, Why is
there Evil in the World?
Much thanks to John MacArthur, who has been so helpful in bringing clarity to this
question in his sermon “The Problem of Evil”
Tonight weʼre looking at a pretty important question.
Itʼs something that you will eventually have to deal with either in
your own life, or in answering the questions of others.
How many of you were either in The Question, or came to see
The Question a couple of weeks ago?
This question was raised in the musical and discussed a little.
We all deal with this question on some level every day. Some
days more than others. Every one of you in this room deal with
this. I deal with this.
Tonight weʼre talking about evil.
Almost every action movie takes on this topic to a certain
extent.
I havenʼt done the research, but thereʼs a significant percentage
of movies out there that deal with this.
Good vs. Evil.
Thatʼs the theme, right?
Transformers - Autobots and Decepticons.
Harry Potter - good wizards vs. Voldemort, the evil one
Star Trek - evil Romulans want to destroy the Good Federation
James Bond - the evil guys trying to take over and/or destroy
the world. James Bond is fighting this evil.
Thor - out right now - Thor is protecting us from evil
Priest - this is a good vs. evil movie. The evil vampires....
Angry Birds RIO - smugglers - youʼre helping the good birds.
We see this theme over and over again.
Because itʼs something we all deal with.
So letʼs look at the flow of logic first, then what the Bible says
about all this:
Hereʼs the logic flow.
Itʼs pretty simple. You donʼt have to be Mr. Spock from Star Trek
to figure all this out.
There is evil in the world. I donʼt think anyone would argue with
this fact. There is suffering in this world.
Has anyone here ever suffered on some level? Of course.
We are impacted by the reality of evil and suffering every day.
Now we donʼt battle Romulans or fight alongside Thor, but the
truth and reality of evil and suffering is something that impacts
us every day.
Yesterday - the 9 year old grandson of one of our members was
killed in a car accident.
A couple of years ago a senior at ACA was killed in a
motorcycle accident.
My uncle, who was quite wealthy, found out after being a little
sick for a few weeks that he had cancer in 9 different areas of
his body and two months later he was dead.
Someone who was in our youth group just last year had their
house broken into earlier this week and lost some stuff.
We face evil and suffering (they go together) every day.
You donʼt have to be at theologian or a philosopher to know that
evil and suffering exist. You just have to exist.
Does anyone in here exist? Yes - you all do.
Many people have a hard time reconciling a supposedly “good”
God and the presence of evil and suffering.
Joni Erickson Tada
As a teen, went to the beach, out in a raft, dived off the raft into
the water. Snapped her neck. Now, sheʼs a quadriplegic.
Paralyzed from the neck down. In a wheelchair permanently.
She grew up in church. This is what she writes about all this:
“Let me get this straight, God. When bad things happen, whoʼs
behind them, you or the Devil? Are you permitting this or
ordaining it? Iʼm still a young Christian; if youʼre so loving, why
treat your children so mean?”
She thought that 38 years ago. She goes on to say, “Not once
in those years has God been mean. Whatʼs more, He has
satisfied my questions with an intimacy, softness, and
sweetness of fellowship with Jesus that I wouldnʼt trade for
anything — not even walking.”
Sheʼs figured it out.
A couple of guys guys wrote a book looking at some of the big
questions of life a few years back and they outlined it pretty
well:
Here we go - The four statements:
1. God exists
2. God is all good (and holy and just...)
3. God is all powerful (sovereignty) in control of all
4. Evil exists
1. Atheism solves the problem by denying proposition one, that
God exists.
2. Pantheism, the belief that God is everything and that
everything is God, denies proposition two and allows that God
could be both good and evil.
3. Polytheism, the belief in many gods, denies proposition
three, and reduces God to just one of many gods.
4. Idealism, the belief that reality is a product of the mind,
rejects proposition four and states that evil is just an illusion.
5. Christianity, on the other hand, affirms all four principles and
denies that there is any inherent contradiction between them.
Now you have to make sure to not fall into this category:
I found a Christian Website that says this about the issue:
Just because we may not be able to figure out what that reason
is does not mean it does not exist.
These people tend to become
6. Rescuers,
Enter the concept of free will. Now - donʼt get too hung up here.
We could spend an hour talking about “free will” and still not be
done.
The rescuers would put Godʼs sovereignty (in control of
everything) as competing with manʼs free will.
They think that itʼs either “free will” or “God is in control”
Some people think they need to rescue God from what the
Bible says about God because they donʼt understand this issue.
They think that free will is the most important thing God could
do for us and so evil is necessary so that we have a choice.
We have to be able to choose evil in order to choose God.
Without evil, there would be no free will. And there has to be
free will, so there has to be evil.
This is a well-meaning situation. I think the intentions are good,
but itʼs not the God of the Bible. God doesnʼt need to be
rescued from a bad press report of who He is.
The rescuers use some Bible and then work around it so that it
all works out logically in their mind. Ultimately, they think that
they have to somehow force the things together.
7. Diverters,
Many people think that this is the unanswerable question.
You canʼt really answer this.
You have to divert attention and look somewhere else.
Deuteronomy 29:29 – The secret things belong to the Lord our
God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our
children forever,
Well, they work together, but you just have to go with faith and
know that youʼll never know why all this is.
We trust God (obviously a very good thing)
We donʼt know the answer to that - so, letʼs talk about
something else...
Actually - the Bible clearly answers this question you donʼt have to make something up. You donʼt
have to worry or stammer or say... Umm... I donʼt
know...
So Who Is Responsible?
There are a couple of answers that many people give when
looking at this question:
1. Adam and Eve are really the source
This doesnʼt work.
(but why were Adam and Eve allowed to make the choice?
Why did God create them with the ability to sin?
Who decided who would be in the Garden in the first place?
Why did God allow a talking snake in the Garden.
(That snake didnʼt create himself)
2. Lucifer/Satan is responsible - well, again: God created
Lucifer, right
Mark out both of those answers - theyʼre both wrong.
Sin started in heaven!!!!!
Shocking, right?
If you really think it through, youʼll have to track it back to
heaven.
God created the angels who fell
God created the humans who fell
Now Iʼm not saying that God sinned. Or created sin.
Donʼt make leaps. Just hang with me and weʼll get there.
Theodicy (the technical term for what weʼre talking about)
A defense of Godʼs righteousness in the face or the presence of
evil
1. Evil exists
This is obvious. Unless youʼre a Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy Patterson Glover Frye
“all evil is an illusion”
Evil is a fact you just canʼt argue with.
• Natural evil diseases, disaster, tsuanmi, earthquakes, volcanoes
the natural world has bad things.
All of creation is corrupted.
• Moral evil
internal spiritual - wickedness, sin, and transgression
this dominates the life of humanity
Romans 3:10 – as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Genesis 6:5 – Every intention of the heart is only evil
continually
James 1 – Our own evil desire (inside of us) It grows inside us
and brings death.
These two evils impact everyone.
Every relationship you have will be impacted by sin.
every relationship (marriage, friends, family, etc)
challenge, dissapointment, heartbreak.
war, rumors of war, etc.
Two corrupt people together
Ever know two friends who arenʼt friends anymore?
Something happened....
This is because of evil.
• Supernatural evil
this is what we would call Demonic evil
Weʼre not talking about vampire movies.
Weʼre not talking about the horror movies that end up with
demons flying around killing people.
Ephesians 6:12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Remember that the Devil and his demons have been around
since creation. Theyʼve been doing what they do for a long time
and theyʼve gotten really good about it.
They have a way of encouraging the evil thatʼs in us so that it
comes out more and more.
Evil is going on all the time. No breaks.
like a super-intense chase scene in a movie.
The intensity never stops.
The Bourne movies.
• Eternal Evil
Some say that God brought evil in to existence so that He could
destroy it.
Eternal evil will exist in eternal hell.
Thereʼs been some controversy about hell recently.
There are those who donʼt think that hell exists.
But itʼs something you have to understand is real.
Daniel - a place of shame and everlasting contempt
"
"
(Dan. 12:2).
2 Thessalonians – a place of endless destruction and
punishment (2 Thess. 1:5-10).
Jude – a place of eternal fire and darkness (Jude 7).
Revelation – as a place where sinners suffer everlasting
torment, with no rest day or night (Rev. 14:9-11).
Jesus spoke more about hell than He did about heaven.
• weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12)
• spiritual and bodily destruction (Mt. 10:28)
• fiery furnaces (Matt. 13:42, 50)
• outer darkness (Matt. 22:13)
• unquenchable fires (Mark 9:48-49)
• endless torments (Luke 16:23-24)
Not a good place.
Evil and suffering go together
Suffering is a result of evil on one level or another.
What Do We Know:
God exists
The God of the Bible is who weʼre talking about.
There is no other God.
Colossians 3
We know that Jesus is God
We know that Jesus and God are creator.
We know that Jesus and God are sustainer
Last week Jacob talked about the Bible - why you can trust it.
You can trust what the Bible says about God.
In fact, ultimately, thereʼs no other source.
Iʼve got this big, thick theology book. (Grudem)
...several more like it.
They are only good so far as they line up with what the Bible
says. Iʼve got books in my office that go against the Bible.
Thatʼs why itʼs so important to read and study your Bible.
So youʼll know when you read something thatʼs not right.
Story about Youth Specialties a few years ago: Rob Bell.
So what does the Bible say about God?
Quite a bit actually.
Surprised?
God is
He is all powerful.
He is all-knowing
He is good
He is loving
He is holy
He is sovereign - He controls absolutely everything.
There is nothing that has ever happened, is happening, or will
happen that is not in His control.
1 Chronicles 29:11-12 – Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and
the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all
that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the
kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12
Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In
your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make
great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our
God, and praise your glorious name.
4 times - All
All means all
Psalm 115:3 – Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he
pleases.
Daniel 4:35 – he does according to his will among the host of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can
stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Isaiah 46:10 –
Ephesians 1:11
Psalm 135
Over and over the Bible clearly affirms the sovereignty of God.
Absolute - Infinite - Irresistable.
• He is Sovereign
I was watching an episode of 24 last night.
The president needed to distance himself from something.
Say he wasnʼt aware of it, so they didnʼt tell him.
This is not what God does in Scripture
• He is not trying to Distance Himself
Deuteronomy 32:39 – See now that I, even I, am he, and there
is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
God doesnʼt seem to be trying to push off responsibility for
these things
Psalm 105:16 - God called for the famine
2 Kings 17:25b - Therefore the Lord sent lions among them,
which killed some of them.
God isnʼt trying to separate Himself from bad things happening.
We try to do this, donʼt we?
"
Well... I wasnʼt there when it happened.
"
It wasnʼt me! etc. etc.
God doesnʼt ever do this.
Lamentations 3:37-38 – Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it? 38Is it not from the mouth of
the Most High that good and bad come?
Noah - God did this. He sent the flood. He drowned the entire
human race and saved only 8 people.
This is a problem for liberal theologians
And some people who just canʼt handle a Good God and evil
God is obviously okay with being in charge of everything, even
all the bad things.
Itʼs not negative press that Heʼs trying to get away from.
Paul writing to Timothy - God is the only potentate (king)
Revelation 4:11 - you are worthy.... you have created all
things...
Proverbs 16:4 - all things, yes even the wicked for the day of
evil
2 Samuel 10:12 – Be of good courage, and let us be
courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and
may the Lord do what seems good to him.”
God isnʼt surprised by anything thatʼs going on in your life.
Suffering?
Trouble?
Parents getting divorced?
Something worse?
God isnʼt trying to figure out how to work it all out.
Psalm 103:19 – He rules over all – The Lord has established
his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Isaiah 14:27 - nobody can change it.
1 Samuel 2:6-8 – The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings
down to Sheol and raises up. 7 The Lord makes poor and
makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. 8 He raises up the poor
from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make
them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars
of the earth are the Lordʼs, and on them he has set the world.
Amos 3:6 - if there is a problem, will not God have done it?
Remember - God is not surprised.
So
Evil Exists
God exists
God is in control
What Do We Know:
3. Therefore: God wills evil to exist
without there being any evil in Him
There is no other possible conclusion
Now donʼt get upset.
This isnʼt a problem.
It might be something you havenʼt ever really considered.
But understanding it will help you.
Understanding why is vitally important - and weʼre going to get
there pretty quick now.
You have to know and understand that God is firmly
and completely in control of everything. Even the
existence of evil and suffering.
Isaiah 45:5- I am the Lord, and there is no other,
#
besides me there is no God;
#
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6that people may know, from the rising of the sun
#
#
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
#
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7I form light and create darkness,
#
#
I make well-being and create calamity,
#
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
Now before you jump to conclusions that arenʼt biblical,
Psalm 5:4 – For you are not a God who delights in wickedness
Remember - we tend to try and avoid being responsible.
Adam - “the woman that you gave me...”
Eve - “the snake...”
Some people just canʼt allow God to be responsible for evil.
He didnʼt do anything bad, because He is good.
And itʼs actually some work and effort to know and understand
the Bible.
They donʼt mind God getting the credit for saving, but He canʼt
get the credit/fault for NOT saving people.
At the beginning - we talked about some of the responses that
people have. Flip back over
Some say God has limited power.
One of these two:
"
doesnʼt have the power
"
doesnʼt use the power
Because - He gave sinners complete freedom and autonomy.
This is what He had to give us.
Ultimately, people donʼt want God to be responsible for sending
anyone to hell (the ultimate destination of all evil).
Some say God has limited knowledge
These people think that God is growing & getting better at it.
Heʼs growing as He gets more information.
Remember - you have to think Biblically.
And you donʼt have to be there tomorrow - donʼt think - “well I
could never figure out all this on my own.
Well - I didnʼt figure out all this on my own either.
I had the help of some other Pastors and writers who have a
right view of Scripture who have mapped all this out for us.
You need to have a God-Centered, God-focused,
God-dominated, God-exalting view of the way things are.
Most of us think way too much of ourselves.
We think that others are thinking about us all the time.
We tend to want everything, even the activities of God, to be
about us.
But itʼs not about us.
When we try to make it about us, you get the stuff on the other
side.
You get people trying to re-invent God to make Him fit the
framework that they think works okay.
He didnʼt create it - He is holy
It occurred in a rebellion against Him.
He willed and ordained that it occurred
When you step back and look honestly at the sufferings of our
lives, you start to see how God uses these things in our lives.
Sometimes to bring discipline on our lives.
Sometimes to humble us Jesus - Luke 22 - to Peter - Satan wants to sift you like wheat.
John MacArthur says - I would have said “you told him no,
right?”
2 Corinthians 12 - Paulʼs thorn in the flesh. Messenger of
satan.
These things happen to us to keep us humble.
Ultimately the reason is something you probably already know,
but maybe havenʼt connected the dots yet.
The Reason. Why is it this way?
For His Own Glory
How do we get there?
Turn to the book of Romans
Ironically - all of that setup gets us here, where we probably
should have started. Now we look at the “WHY”
Just so you know - we win!!
Romans 3:5 – our unrighteousness serves to show the
righteousness of God
demonstrate, manifest, disclose
Our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God.
Sin, evil, suffering - shows us the opposite of sin, evil, suffering.
The passage goes on to clarify and make sure we know
Our sin doesnʼt cancel out Godʼs goodness.
It only makes His righteousness all the more glorious
Hereʼs the Bottom Line (John MacArthur)
Contrast – We would never truly understand love and
forgiveness of God if we didnʼt have sin, evil, and suffering.
Iʼm going to walk you through just a few verses in Romans and
then weʼll be done.
I hope you leave tonight understanding all of this clearly.
The front and back side of your note sheets work together.
Romans 5:8 – demonstrate again – but God shows his love for
us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The presence of sin allows God to demonstrate His
righteousness and love. How else could He show the character
of love that loves enemies and sinners if there were none?
Romans 9:22 – What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to
make known his power, has endured with much patience
vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
God will punish sin. Itʼs worded and phrased “demonstrate His
wrath.”
Hell will be a reality for many.
If there was no sin, Godʼs wrath never would be on display.
Romans 1:18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by
their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
God is patient with many sinners at this point.
He puts up with our attacks on His holiness.
Romans 1 - evil is an attempt to attack holiness of God
We know how good a nice cold soda is because weʼve had
them when theyʼre not cold anymore.
We enjoy a delicious cup of hot coffee more because weʼve had
a cold gross cup.
Weʼve eaten something bitter and nasty and so we can enjoy
eating something tasty and delicious.
We wouldnʼt know Heʼs as loving as He is if it wasnʼt for sin.
We wouldnʼt know Him as holy as He is if it werenʼt for
judgment.
How holy is God? So holy that He must send out of His
presence everlastingly anyone who is not fit.
Revelation makes it clear that those people are excluded from
heaven.
The God of the Bible is righteous. Perfectly Good.
The God of the Bible is loving, staggering in His love.
The God of the Bible is holy
The God of the Bible is gracious
The God of the Bible does exist.
He is the only true God.
Verse 23 – in order to make known the riches of his glory for
[us who are believers]
Itʼs because we should go to hell.
Because we deserve punishment.
That going to heaven has meaning.
God did all of this so that He could bring us into heaven.
He did all of this in order that He might gather into heaven all
the people who will repent and believe in Him and be saved.
The whole Red Sea Parting - Egypt - Pharoah thing:
Weʼre back to good guys and bad guys
Thatʼs the story line.
Bad guys chase - good guys run.
God did it to demonstrate His wrath toward Egypt.
To demonstrate His love and mercy and grace for those who
believe in Him.
Evil Exists so that Good can be seen (demonstrated)
The greatest evil in the world - the crucifixion
Was planned ahead of time so that God could achieve almost
unimaginable glory.
The crucifixion led to our salvation.
Thatʼs an awesome and good thing.
The Greatest evil led to the greatest
good.
Thereʼs so much we could talk about when it comes to evil and
suffering and dealing with it.
Ultimately – Itʼs all here to point us to God.
Donʼt ask why “bad things happen to good people” because
ultimately, there arenʼt any good people.
You should be asking why anything good happens to you in the
first place.
You certainly donʼt deserve any of the good that you have.
I donʼt deserve any of the good I have.
Remember - you only have life because, according to
Colossians 3:17, He is giving you your very breath right now.
The bad things happen in your life - ultimately - to point you to
God. To point you to Christ.
To cause your sanctification. So that you wonʼt be proud, but so
that you will be humble.
Our troubles should drive us to get rid of the sin in our lives.
1 Peter 4:10 – Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm
yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has
suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
Joni Erickson Tada says this: God ultimate goal is not to make
my life happy, healthy, and trouble free, but about teaching me
to hate my sin and to keep growing in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus.
Romans 8:28 – And we know that for those who love God all
things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 – For this is the will of God, your
sanctification:
God wants His children to grow in the knowledge of His will in
spiritual wisdom and understanding.
He wants us to be strengthened.
He wants us to walk in a manner worthy of Him.
Because He has delivered us from His wrath.
We have redemption in Christ.
He wants us to be holy and blameless and above reproach
before Him.
The more we understand what we deserve (Hell)
The more we will understand what we donʼt get. (His wrath)
The more weʼll appreciate where weʼre going. (Heaven)
Our sufferings take on new meaning.
James 1 – Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of
various kinds... that you may be perfect and complete, lacking
in nothing.
I want you to understand this so that as you face the difficulties
of life, they will only serve to point you to Christ.
To who He is
To what He has done on behalf of all those who trust in Him.
Let everything drive you to Him in whom we live and move and
have our being (Acts 17:28)
Letʼs Pray.
James Montgomery Boice says - His conviction that a reality
among the damned is that they will know they got exactly what
they deserved.