John MacArthur: Why Does God Allow So Much Suffering and Evil?

I have been assigned a easy question to answer I don't know how I'm going to fill the time I'm just going to give you the answer why does God allow evil and suffering in the world this is a very very important question this is a question that I will tell you on a personal level is the single question that my friend Larry King always goes back to as well you didn't know about that friendship that he always goes back to to demonstrate why he cannot believe he that there are some agnostics and that's usually a word thrown around as if it were noble but the Latin equivalent is ignoramus just to put it in perspective but there are some people who are agnostics simply because they don't care to know there are some people who are agnostic sand they can give you an apologetic defense of their agnosticism no matter what you say they'll take you through a rational series of arguments as to why they cannot believe and with him it is always the fact that there's so much evil in the world how can God be good we we never get past that dilemma for him try as we may one of the I think favorite justifications for biblical skeptics and theological liberals inability to accept the scripture is they cannot resolve the issue of God being good loving wise kind powerful and the world being dominated by evil in all kinds of forms syllogism might go a little bit like this the biblical God is loving the biblical God is good the biblical God is holy the biblical God is wise the biblical God is all-powerful massive evil exists in the world therefore the biblical God does not exist how can you tell me that God is all loving all good all holy all-knowing all-powerful and then explain to me evil therefore in the minds of some the biblical God cannot exist therefore the Bible that presents such a God is not to be believed now there are some who see this as such a serious dilemma that it sort of puts the Christian that may be fourth and 40 on his own 10-yard line and the only option is to punt change the subject or snap back with Deuteronomy 29:29 the secret things belong to the Lord and kick that as far as you can into enemy territory is that the best that we can do and pressed against our theological endzone absolutely not if you know the divine playbook then you know there's a perfect play designed not just to get us temporary escape or get us the first down or get us in field goal range but there is an answer in the Bible with which we will score a touchdown it'll take us all the way to triumph in victory scripture gives us an answer not only an answer that you can understand but an answer that you can joy fully accept an answer in which you can rejoice and it's not one of the inadequate short answers like well God's not responsible Adam and Eve are which only poses the question as to why God allowed Adam and Eve the option of making sinful choices he created them if God knew they were going to make those kinds of choices then why did he make them capable of making those kinds of choices that doesn't help well you say well God's not responsible devil is which only then poses the question why did God create angels knowing that they would fall one of them would become the devil and lead the whole human race into sin if he knew he was going to make those choices and lead to these issues why did he make him and since he's the creator who created them from nothing he could have made them any way he wanted to make them so that doesn't help all the answers that are legitimate answers lead us back to God you can't stop asking the question at Satan and you can't stop asking the question at man even Adam and Eve you you're going to wind up in heaven if you really want an answer to this question it'll take you all the way back to God but that's basically true of every aspect of foundational theology everything ultimately goes back to the nature of God and the purposes of God so this is not unusual in that sense although for some people it seems to be more mystifying than some other issues now let me give you a little sequence of things and we're going to be a little bit theological but this is a theological issue before us so let me just give you some two little bullet points okay and move you along toward an answer to this question would you agree with point one evil exists can I hear an amen yes evil exists you're not equivocal on that are you you understand that unless you happen to belong to Christian science and follow the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy Patterson Glover Frey who believed there was no such thing as evil including adultery and divorce if you are and death if you are somehow stuck in Christian science which is like grape-nuts it's not grapes or nuts and it's not Christian or scientific well I don't know why they call it Grape Nuts to you this kind of thinking is for people who think they're poached eggs aren't even dealing with reality playing metaphysical games we all understand that evil exists it exists massively it exists in a dominating way in our world a dominating way now there are several ways to break down evil just to give you some categories to think about it first of all let's talk about natural evil or maybe you like the word calamity we're not talking about moral evil first of all we're talking about the presence of that which is dangerous destructive and deadly which is a reflection of that which is most emblematic of sin which is decay and death there is natural evil in the world you want to be a fool to deny that this in a sense is not a personal issue it is a part of the creation itself in its fallen condition it is impersonal it is external to us it is temporal diseases disasters catastrophes from tidal waves to tiny bacteria from viruses to volcanic eruptions this this planet is a very dangerous place to live a very dangerous place I I preached last Sunday night kind of an interesting sermon on what the Bible says about global warming be ready for it second Peter 3 the elements will melt with fervent heat and the whole earth will be burned up okay yeah but you're not going to do that with your hairspray so spray away walk on the grass kill a deer and drill for oil what that those were some of the conclusions I drew Sunday night I read a book this summer called the great influenza that's normally out of my reading zone the great influenza by John Barry it is it is a magisterial work it is one of the most thoroughly researched books of any subject I've ever read in my entire life and once the started reading couldn't put down it's not graphs and scientific data it's the story of the great flu epidemic that hit the United States in the teen years 1918 and in 24 months the best estimates are 100 million people died on this planet 100 million people they faced a virulent virus that had morphed itself and mutated itself into such virulence that the normal process of viral infection didn't didn't operate it was so virulent some people died of the sheer trauma to the body that the virus brought some people died of secondary causes primarily pneumonia most people who died died between the age of 20 and 40 who had the strongest immune system because their own immune system killed him in its effort to fight the virus it killed the person 100 million people all of that happened because of a tiny virus and some pigs in Kansas all viruses come from birds got in pigs some people who were around the pigs were conscripted to go into World War one they were sent to a base in Kansas 25,000 soldiers infected the soldiers there and it went all over the world a virus isn't like a bacteria it's not a fully live entity it only has half a life in order to reproduce itself it has attached itself to a living cell and then it takes over the encoded genetic system in that living cell reproduces itself through that living cell what kind of a what kind of a mysterious evil is that and it could happen again this is a very dangerous place to live I am so glad to be living on this end of human history do you know there wasn't a disease in the history of humanity cured scientifically until 1885 didn't know what caused disease they were bleeding people so you can be thankful for advancement right you can be thankful you're living on this end of man subduing the earth but this is a dangerous planet to live on I want all the energy I can get and I want it for all the world because people who are poor and deprived of energy are the ones that die in natural disasters so this is a very very very hard place to survive and you know that natural evil that's why Romans 8 says the whole creation does what grows there secondly moral evil moral evil is personal internal spiritual wickedness sin transgression this dominates the human race and I'm not just talking about moral evil like you heard in those presidential kind of discussions on television I'm not talking about what goes on in Darfur we all know that's evil at massive proportions but this kind of moral evil is so pervasive it's in every single human heart and is a dominating and controlling force Bible says is not one who's good no not one all the thoughts of the heart our only evil continually man is driven by lusts that produce sin and death and so the world is itself under a curse which makes natural evil everywhere present and it's inhabited by people who are evil to the core morally all these amoral sinners trying to survive in a fallen world colliding with each other in malfunctioning marriages and families and friendships and rivalries that escalate into wars are manifest evidence of the moral evil in the world thirdly there is supernatural evil there is not only the evil that is in the heart of man but there is a force of demonic beings that are as old as their creation which would have been around the time of the creation of everything else who are spiritual entities who by disposition and nature spiritual nature are corrupt their evil spirits they are liars and deceivers and first John 5:20 says the whole world lies in the lap of their leader and their system revelation 12 tells us a third of the holy angels fell out of heaven and constitute the force of demons who develop their ideologies the fortresses that become the tombs of people as Paul describes them in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 these are vile beings who really in some ways were a little bit more clandestine until Jesus arrived and when Jesus arrived they made an all-out effort to try to stop him and so they surfaced in a way that we don't have any record of in biblical history during the life and Ministry of Jesus he was demonstrating his power over them but at the same time was unmasking the reality of them they infect our lives as we learn from job God sometimes even allows that as we learn from job and from Peter and from Paul who was given a messenger of Satan to buffer him to keep him humble they have a delegated sovereignty in the world you understand that Satan is the Prince of the power of the air he has a temporary right to rule over the world system so you have evil on a natural level you have evil on a human level moral evil and then you have evil on a supernatural level with a force of demons who use their powers to seduce and deceive humanity and to fight the purposes of God and they are primarily involved in the development of false religious systems they are the purveyors of doctrines of demons boy are they sophisticated one of the more prominent ones currently is Mormonism which is making all-out effort to be accepted as a form of Christianity you need to understand this nothing is more explicitly pagan than Mormonism it is more like Hinduism than it is like Christianity Christianity has one God the Mormons have Millions that should be enough they believe in millions of gods they believe they become gods they believe some God created the God who created the world and the God who created the world had some kind of spiritual sex with the mother God and produced Jesus the the cleverness of this putting it in a moral context a superficially moral context with a kind of commitment to families and giving it the facade of acceptability morality only makes it more deadly we do not wrestle against what flesh-and-blood principalities powers there's a structure there's an order in the demonic world and then just to add a fourth there is one evil that will last forever and I just call it the evil of Hell the evil of Hell evil forever unmitigated for all the people who are there but for now evil is not just present in our world it is pervasive it is subtle it is powerful it is dominant it is outside of us it is in us it is around us so we start with the obvious evil exists and it's not just minimal and it's not just the kinds of things that we see on the television and read about in the criminal realm or the social realm in deprived places in the world it is everywhere in everyone out of control systemic evil the second thing we can affirm is that God exists evil exists and God exists the God of the Bible is the true and only living God he is the God whom Scripture reveals him to be because Scripture is his self revelation he is the god that scripture reveals and scripture tells us that he is the only God he is a Trinity but he is one God in three persons he is the only God and he is according to scripture absolutely sovereign now by that I mean he's absolutely in charge of everything everything he controls everything he created everything out of nothing he controls everything and he will consummate everything he is governing history in every minut detail there's not one molecule in the universe that's out of line with his purposes yes this earth will be destroyed but not because the polar ice caps melt and it gets flooded every time you see a rainbow you know that's not going to happen and Genesis 8 22 says as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest day and night morning and evening and the way it's all going to come to an end is when God determines to uncreate it in an atomic implosion he is in control of everything the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof 1st chronicles 29 says die no Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom oh Lord and thou art exalted as head above all that Reynes over all and in 9 hand is power and might and in 9 hand it is to make great and to give strength to all and I love what it says in psalm 115 verse 3 our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases Daniel 4:35 and he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him what are you doing calling to question any act of his scripture repeatedly as we well know and appreciate tells us that God is absolutely sovereign absolutely sovereign you say what's a difficult concept oh not nearly as difficult as believing that he's not if you're having trouble accepting the sovereignty of God then think a while on the idea that he's not in charge how do you like that I'm so glad that he is in charge that just goes with being God by the way it's not a stretch deuteronomy 32:39 see now that i I am he and there is no God besides me it is I who put to death and give life I have wounded and it is I who heal and there is no one who can deliver from my hand God is not trying to protect himself from the idea that he might actually have a purpose for evil Exodus 4:11 the Lord said to him that was to Moses who made man's mouth who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind is it not I the Lord Psalm 105 16 God called for a famine on the land second King 17 25 they didn't fear the Lord therefore the Lord sent Lions which killed some of them so for all those folks who are trying to get God off the hook he's happy to leave himself on it lamentations 3 37 and 38 is it not from the mouths of the Most High that both good and ill come forth I'm not sure how anybody could miss the fact that God exists as sovereign and allows evil especially if you read the book of Genesis and read about the flood what was the population of the earth when the flood came I've heard estimates from 10 million to a hundred million depending on how fast they multiplied when they lived to be nine hundred years old I'm just glad there weren't home schoolers in those days how fast they multiply we don't know but we know that God drown millions of people personally took responsibility for that so while liberal theology and the sordid other so-called evangelicals feel desperately the need to rescue God from this perception God has quite content to make it clear that he is in fact unhesitatingly sovereign over everything that exists without a hint of reluctance he's not asking to be rescued from bad press that's fallen upon him because he's been blamed for all the bad things that are in the world don't be mistaken he is holy he cannot do evil he cannot look upon evil positively he is the God who is incapable of doing anything evil he is holy holy holy but he is content to leave the responsibility for evils existence and even its action with himself another way to say it would be to borrow the words of first Timothy 6:15 he's the only potentate he's the sole ruler of the universe and why does he do what he does Jesus gave us a good insight into that John or in the Matthew 11 when he said even so father for so it seemed good in your sight he does what He wills job 23 13 he is in one mind and who can turn him and what his soul desires even that he does Psalm 33 he spoke and it was done he commanded and it stood fast the Lord brings the counsel of the heathen to not he makes the devices the people of no effect the counsel of the Lord stands forever the thoughts of his heart to all generations Psalm 103 19 the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all Isaiah 14 27 the Lord of his purpose and who shall dis annul it his hand is stretched out who will turn it back I say ax 46 9 and 10 remember the former things of old I am God there is no else no one else I am God there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning from ancient times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand I will do all my pleasure for Samuel - 6 - 8 the Lord kills and makes alive he brings down to the grave and brings up the Lord makes poor and he makes rich he brings low and lifts up for the pillars of the earth of the lords and he has set the world on them or Amos 3:6 if there is a calamity in a city will not the Lord have done it here is God taking full responsibility for the existence of evil since he is God and controls everything evil is no disruption in God's purpose so comes to a Third Point evil exists sovereign God exists inescapable is the third point God wills evil to exist he wills evil to exist and certainly there are scriptures I don't want to be labor the point but just to give you one to think about in Isaiah 45 verse 5 I am the Lord there is no other beside me there is no God I will gird you though you have not known me that men may know from the rising to the setting of the Sun there is no one besides me I am the Lord there is no other the one forming light and creating darkness causing well-being and creating calamity I am the lord who does all these or verse 9 what are the one who quarrels with his maker and earthenware vessel earthenware vessel among the vessels of Earth will the clay say to the Potter what are you doing or the thing you are making say he has no hands woe to him who says to a father why are you be getting or to a woman - what are you giving birth thus says the Lord the Holy One of Israel is maker asked me about the things to come concerning my sons you shall commit to me the work of my hands it is I who made the earth and created man on it I stretched out the heavens with my hand I ordained all their hosts again and again God takes full responsibility for the existence of evil unfolding in this world now at this point panic strikes the heart of our minions they their eyes roll back in their heads they become short of breath and they go into rapid heart rate their palms become sweaty they were okay with evil exists and they were okay with God exists they were even okay with God is sovereign as long as you limit his sovereign power or his sovereign knowledge they don't want to deny the power of God they don't want to deny the knowledge of God they just want to limit that the panic attack hits them because they just can't let God be held responsible for evil and they want to save God from a fate worse than death being responsible for the existence of evil in the world now how do they go about doing this well they reinvent God and you have to understand that this is a diminished God okay while scripture commands us to exalt God and to lift him high the Rif the restructured God the reconstructed God let's say is a diminished deity they have to pull him down at some point and you really only have two options many would say God has limited power he he can't stop evil can't stop evil either because he doesn't have the power in his nature or because he has willingly limited that power in some way nonetheless God God has limited power he is powerless to stop it I heard that so many times growing up as a young person when I post the question I would say something like why doesn't God stop evil in the world and I would get answers like this we didn't start it and then I would hear an illustration from a pulpit like if you saw a fight going on you didn't start it you might not stop it those answers did not help either he doesn't have the power to stop it and so God is in a very difficult position like everybody else he doesn't like what's going on but can't do anything about it any more than we can or he he has the power but he somehow limited in his knowledge of what's going to happen and so it catches him by surprise when it happens you think that's a pretty lay concept it isn't behind that is a whole theology called processed theology you've heard of that you better off if you haven't truthfully here's what processed theology says God is in process he's developing and the more stuff that goes on the more information he gets the better he becomes at dealing with it really that's processed theology he's God is getting better at doing his god work yeah you know nothing teaches like experience right he's a deity in process he's becoming what he is not yet but we'll be in the end what he should be we also meet another little group of theologians in this category of limited knowledge and they are known as the openness group and they simply say this it's another form of the same thing God doesn't know the future God can't know the future because the future can't be known because it hasn't happened that God does not know the future you understand all the match nations you have to go through to write a book to make that convincing argument using the Bible but they do God the newly-designed God has a huge limitation he does not know what hasn't happened so everything God does is a reaction and I just want to say well then how do you explain Psalm 22 which starts out my God my God why have you forsaken me because Jesus said that on the cross and Psalm 22 gives details of the cross explicit details of the cross and that's just one important passage to bring up but the idea is that God is reacting and he feels so bad about the way things worked out well do you mean then that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a surprise he was hanging in there on Thursday night thinking hey I don't know how this is going to go it's not Friday yet really really and then when Christ did get on the cross god quickly came up with this great idea long as he's going to die anyway I might as well make him a substitute for sinners what a great concept unfortunately that entire concept was revealed in Isaiah 53 in explicit detail but all of this overturning of the nature of God and the truth of Scripture to get God off the hook and God doesn't want to be off that hook he's God will never be able to divest God of the responsibility for the existence of evil he allowed it and designed it into this universe without being responsible for it I don't really think he was in the garden keeping his fingers crossed hoping for the best from Adam and Eve and I'll tell you one thing if positive thinking for God doesn't work you can forget about it oh you can be anything you want to be really since he's not able to know what's going to happen he had to adjust with everything that surprises him along the way now all of that is foolishness but I pointed out to you because these are efforts that are being made by educated theologians to get God out from being responsible for evil you know they all jump on the hare the Kushner bandwagon remember the rabbi that wrote the book when bad things happen to good people problem with that title is there are no good people but that's that's his view he knew that God was the issue and in the problem of evil you're going to end up with God you're never going to get away from that unless you invent a new God and that's the ultimate blasphemy you talk about violating the commandments you take in the name of the Lord your God in vain when you create a God of your own making and making and call him the god of Scripture it's an idol you can't get God off the hook all these kind of answers come from people who have a warped theology proper a warped view of God now okay let's then move on in our little discussion what now that we understand God exists evil exists and God allowed evil to exist we could say well why how are we to understand the existence of evil what what kind of theodicy do we use theodicy from thais god decay righteous or just how do we how do we defend the Justice of God what kind of system do we use maybe philosophical at first there are metaphysical systems I'll give you a couple metaphysical system says that evil is an inevitable reality a corollary of good it has to exist because yin has to have yang in fact I had a fascinating experience I was on Larry King one night and I was talking about the exclusivity of Christ is the only Savior we'll talk about tomorrow and I was talking about the single authority of Scripture and I was just really you know people say what do you how do you prepare to go on there when you don't know what the questions are going to be and it's easy I know what I want to say I really don't care what the questions are so there's there's two things I want to get to one is the singular authority of Scripture and the other is the singular reality of Christ is the one and only Savior I'm just looking for places to say that but but I also I was banging on those two drums this night and I went I went back to my office the next day and I got a phone call and I got a phone call and it was from Guy Ritchie the husband of Madonna now I don't think I'm on his favorite five pretty sure I'm not so I I don't know what resurrected him out of the woodwork but he said could you come to my house and talk to me sure so I got in my little car and I drove to Beverly Hills and I went to their house and he said to me you know this is a very have to have a very serious conversation with you I said really I said this is great what what's the issue he said you you are so dogmatic you are so absolute in your affirmation of truth you are throwing the universe's equilibrium off Wow my response was are you kidding me hmm throwing the universe's equilibrium off so I said I said tell me about it so he was we sat there and face to face and he spent an hour telling me all about Kabbalah and metaphysics and yin-yang and all that and so when he got done I spent an hour telling him about the gospel so it was a good opportunity but that there there are people who have this metaphysical concept that there is a necessity of evil by virtue of the fact that there has to be something opposite good it isn't created by God they would like to say no it just exists it's just there and that's the way it is because for every plus there has to be a - etc etc it is a it is a fact of privation and you know there's actually some truth in that it is an element of finitude it's just there because it has to be there by contrast and there is a sense in which evil is ad privation it is not something God created it is something that reflects the rebellion against what God created and who God is so there is some truth but it still doesn't get to the issue of why then there are other theodicies that fall into what I call a category of freewill and that this is the most popular way to answer this problem or it's the it's what keeps people in the dilemma the longest it is that you just can't have a God who takes away our free will can't do that we're Americans this is a democracy I'll promise you this though if you grew up in medieval England or if if you were living in a tribe with a chief or if you grew up in a totalitarian dictatorship you wouldn't be wrestling quite as much with human rights you would have a better understanding of unilateral power and sovereignty than you do the American experiment doesn't really help our theology at this point freewill is more important to God than disallowing evil that's an interesting concept freewill trumps evil on God's value scale I am so committed to freewill that it's going to mean I have to allow evil God prized human autonomy and to protect human autonomy he had to allow evil so evil backs in the door because freewill trumps everything humans have to have the self determined freedom to act and if God acted as the primary cause on them if God decided and God co-heirs then God compelled it would violate their will again you'd still have to answer the question as to why if God knew they would have freewill and make stupid choices he made them capable of doing that doesn't help you you see to design a god that has limited knowledge to design a god that has limited power to design a god listen to this who would rather have us do our will than him do his will is to design a God that is not in the Bible so God is all-knowing God is all-powerful evil exists God willed evil to exist he didn't create it that would be impossible for him as it is impossible for him to do any evil but he willed that it exists now that leads us to the question why and I think maybe we just have time to address that why well you might be glad to know that I'm not here to be the first person to give you the answer how about the Westminster Confession listen to this God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures nor is the Liberty or contingency of second-hand causes taken away sinfulness proceeds only from the creature and not from God who being most holy and righteous neither can be the author and approver of sin and later it says all that God decrees and providentially brings to pass is all to the praise of his glory therefore the existence of evil is in the end to the praise of his glory and if you answer this question right my friend it will take you to heights of worship that you would never be able to experience if you don't answer it correctly because you have a diminished God the reason God ordained evil is for his own glory simple question is God made more glorious because evil exists or as he made less glorious because evil exists I will tell you this God is made infinitely more glorious because evil exists we praise him because of what he has done to over come evil so our fourth down winning play in the playbook listen to some things from Romans and turn to Romans 9 if you will that was introduction now I'm going to go to the text Romans 9 but I'm going to talk about a couple of other passages where we get there I want you to kind of capture a word if you can't there's a great little statement in Romans 3 5 and this is what it says our unrighteousness here's the key word demonstrates the righteousness of God our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God in other words our unrighteousness and in that case he's talking about Israel particularly our unrighteousness our sin our fallenness our iniquity our corruption our wretchedness puts the righteousness of God on display and that is singularly a reality at the cross isn't it where you see the full manifestation of the righteousness of God displayed as he punishes the holy harmless undefiled son for our sins to satisfy necessarily his righteousness Romans 10 Paul says the Jews have a problem they do not understand the righteousness of God what do you mean by that they don't they don't know how gracious God is how is that reflected they go about to establish their own righteousness they think the righteousness of God is attainable to them in other words they think god is less righteous than he is and they are more righteous than they are and so they can earn acceptance with God they can meet his standard they don't understand that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness you never will understand how righteous God is until you go to the cross and you will see there that as loving and gracious and merciful as God is as eager and willing as he is to forgive the sinner he still has to carry out infinite punishment on a substitute to deal with his righteousness you know that's a I don't know if you've read that that whole cross scene thoughtfully but from 9:00 in the morning till 12 when he's hanging on the cross he he says some things first thing father forgive them and then today you'll be with me in paradise and and then it goes dark and it goes dark for three hours and he says nothing and then the darkness is gone and he speaks his final words and I don't know if you ever think about that darkness most people think that that's the absence of God I've been really thinking that lately there are Old Testament accounts that tell us that God reveals himself in the darkness Sinai the covenant with Abraham the darkness emblematic of the presence of God in judgment maybe that three hours of darkness was the infinite punishment of an infinite person by God for all our sins and it's when that ended in the text that he said my God my God why have you forsaken me maybe he was saying you've been here in judgment presence and now you're gone as if there was no immediate comfort there it's interesting you think about that but what was on display at the cross was the righteousness of God in the necessity of pouring out an infinite punishment on an infinite person who therefore had an infinite capacity to absorb it all in three hours which all the sinners of all the world who end in hell will never be able to absorb in all eternity this puts the the righteousness of God on display we would never see the majesty of that righteousness if we didn't see the cross we'd never see the cross if there were no sin so for the sake of demonstrating his righteousness he would allow sin but look at Romans 9 just a couple of comments verse 22 what if God although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known endured with much patience vessels of Wrath prepared for destruction and he did so in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of Mercy which he prepared beforehand for glory so in Romans three five Paul says that God demonstrates his righteousness in response to our unrighteousness in Romans 5:8 he says that God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us here God demonstrates and economy God demonstrates two things he demonstrates his wrath and his mercy does God not have a right to put his wrath on display does God not have a right to put his holy anger on display verse 22 says he does what if what what if so what doesn't God have the right to demonstrate his wrath on vessels of Wrath prepared for destruction God gets glory from his wrath God gets glory from his judgment but on the other hand he also has made known verse 23 the riches of his glory on vessels of Mercy we wouldn't know what wrath was and we wouldn't know what mercy was if there were no sin and in both cases Romans 11 ends with that great paon of praise that doxology that God is demonstrating the riches of his glory he's putting the full range of his attributes on display in Revelation 15 listen to this after the wrath of God is finished verses verse 1 says I saw a sea of glass mixed with fire those who had come off victorious from the Beast and His image and from the number of his name standing on a sea of glass holding harps of God - glorified Saints and they sang the song of Moses the bond servant of God and the song of the Lamb and this is how it went great and marvelous are thy works O Lord God the Almighty righteous and true are thy ways thou king of the nations who will not fear o Lord and glorify thy name for thou alone art holy for all the nations will come and worship before thee for thy righteous acts have been revealed God puts his righteousness on display by the way he confronts and deals with sin and that becomes the very essence of heavenly worship perhaps the greatest illustration of this is to understand that the greatest evil the world ever did the murder of Jesus greatest evil that men ever did the crucifixion of the Son of God was in fact was in fact ordained by God Himself acts 2:22 men of Israel says Peter listen to these words jesus the nazarene a man attested to you by god with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst just as you yourselves know this man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death by the predetermined plan of God the most evil thing that men have ever done in history the execution of the Son of God in mocking sarcasm was in fact planned by God so that he could display his righteousness in the fourth chapter of Acts verse 27 truly in this city they were gathered together against our holy servant Jesus whom doubt is denied both herod pontius pilate along with the gentiles people of israel to do whatever they hand and thy purpose predestined to occur the writers of scripture understood it perfectly just a final final passage tough talk from God job 38 this is really tough talk on this issue Joby remembers posing all these questions as to why God has done what he's done because she suffered all this stuff and all this evils come into his life in all this calamity and he was a good righteous man so the Lord answered job out of the whirlwind and said this who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge huh that's a pretty straightforward indictment now gird up your loins like a man and I will ask you and you instruct me divine sarcasm oh you tell me then job you tell me what I should have done tell me how to do it better by the way where were you and I laid the foundation of the earth tell me if you have understanding who said it's measurement since you know who stretched the line on it well what were its bases sunk who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy who enclosed the sea with doors when bursting forth it went out from the womb when I made a cloud its garment thick darkness its swaddling band and I placed boundaries on it and said of Boulton doors and I said thus far you shall come but no farther where were you when I bounded and bordered the oceans have you ever in your life commanded the morning job have you ever caused the dawn to know its place have you entered into the springs of the sea have you walked in the recesses of the deep have you seen the gates of deep darkness have you understood the expanse of the earth by the way where's the way to the dwelling of light and darkness where does it belong who cleft the channel for the flood and a way for the Thunderbolt and he just goes on like this this is just one shot after another can you bind the chains of the Pleiades and loose the cords of Orion are you in charge of the stars and the constellations do you understand how stupid it is to oppose these kinds of questions that call the nature and purposes of God to account to you then it gets even more earthly in verse 1 of chapter 39 do you know the time the mountain goats give birth goes all the way down through all these ostriches and horse and other animals this is just a just a dia tribe against the folly of asking stupid questions and thinking God needs to explain himself to you and then he asked him if he thinks he can control a dinosaur then he comes down to 42 job 42 okay then job answered the Lord and said I know you can do all things and no purpose of your hand can be thwarted end of discussion that's it you got it that's it who is this that hides counsel without knowledge therefore I have declared that which I did not understand I admit it and the beautiful part of it is verse five he says I had heard of you with the hearing of mine ear you know I had a certain understanding of you but after all this I really see you and I repent in dust and ashes let God be God and worship Him for the sovereign that he is unfolding the glory of his own nature through wrath and mercy which necessitate evil this is our God I'll tell you this I don't want to live in a world where evil controls God no such world exists but that's the choice you have you either believe in the God who is in complete control of evil or you believe evil is in control of God and he's reacting to it the best he can that's not the god of scripture we worship your Lord with Thanksgiving these things in many ways are simple to understand and yet mysterious to us but there's no mystery about the purpose you had to demonstrate to demonstrate your righteousness demonstrate your love demonstrate your wrath demonstrate your mercy demonstrate forever your glory through allowing evil in this world and through triumphing over it and Lord if we thought for a moment that you were not in control of evil we would have no guarantee that it wouldn't appear again in heaven and heaven wouldn't be the heaven Scripture where there is no sin and no corruption and no death you are in control of it and when it's day is done and you have made your demonstration complete we will live forever in the glories of the new heaven and the new earth where evil will never ever exist again because you are the sovereign we worship you we praise you and we rest in this great confidence thanking you that all of this has been committed to us through the grace that has come in Jesus Christ and we pray in his name amen

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

Views: 2,302,886

Rating: 4.62391 out of 5

Keywords: ligonier, ligonier ministries, ligonier conference, suffering, the fall, total depravity, god and suffering, evil, theology, john macarthur, john macarthur sermons, dr macarthur, problem of evil, evil and suffering, god and evil, bible, christianity, ligonier conference 2008, questions for christians, god is evil, god is good, does god create evil, reformed theology, reformation theology, god, jesus, christ, christian, dr john macarthur, sermon, truth, suffering and evil, why does god

Id: 6LFzk1afiD8

Length: 64min 52sec (3892 seconds)

Published: Tue May 12 2015