Bad Things, Good People
Notes
Transcript
I’m going to break from the sermon series, as a result of recent events, and I hope to answer many of the questions being asked about why God would allow bad things such to occur. To answer this question, I truly feel we have to go back to the beginning of time. From Genesis 1, we find a description of the world as God originally created it.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And then, after the creation of all the earth, God declares it “very good”.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
So, all God created was “good”, but all of it together completed His creation of earth and it was “very good”.
Now, to understand a little better what God meant by “good”, we have to define “good”. So, according to Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible it is “A moral quality that represents righteousness, virtue, and benevolence”. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines the root word as meaning “pleasant, beautiful, delightful, glad, joyful, precious, correct, righteous”.
So, when God created the earth, it brought Him delight and joy because it was beautiful because it was righteous. And then, by definition, righteousness is what is seen as being right and pleasing to God. God created and then described His creation by what was pleasing to Him.
Now, if God declared His creation GOOD, then could there be anything BAD in it?
So what changed? How did something BAD enter the earth and change what God declared good?
First, we have to see what is described in Ezekiel 28.
12 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.
16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you.
18 By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you.
This describes the fall of Lucifer - the grand angel of God. Now, we tend to think of Lucifer (pre-fallen Satan) as being in heaven, but look at these verses closely. Where was he located at the time of his rebellion? In EDEN, God’s “good” creation. He was put in charge of, or at least had a high position in one of God’s most magnificent creations! God CREATED him for this position, adorned him with precious stones, and elevated him to the level of an “anointed” guardian cherub. He had been created to look over and protect God’s perfect creation.
We get a further description of the fall in Revelation 12.
7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,
8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
There was a struggle, a battle, war that arose between good and evil. Satan rose against God, thinking himself better than God (even though he was created by God), and thought he could defeat His creator. Now, following a time line of events, we would have to conclude that Satan’s fall had to occur somewhere between the creation of earth, and the original sin (the downfall of mankind).
This scripture tells us from the beginning of Satan’s sin, he was defeated. And, while he continues to fight against God today, he remains defeated and will never win.
But it is this constant fighting that brings us to the problems we face today. It’s the same problems that were faced in the beginning, also. Mankind was given the choice to freely CHOOSE to do God’s perfect Will, or they could choose to REJECT God’s perfect Will. We know what the choice was, and sin separated us from God.
To go a little further, I want us to now turn over to Genesis 4 so we can see how sin further defined the fall of mankind.
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
So, God allowed Adam and Eve to have two sons - Cain (the first born) and Abel (the second born). It is of interest to me that their occupations are even listed - one a herdsman, the other a farmer. They are trying to complete Genesis 1:26 by having dominion over the things in the earth:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Both were doing the work of the Lord, both were providing for basic necessities of life, both were honorable occupations, and both then knew the need to provide offerings to the Lord. But, they are two different offerings based off how their occupation. With this, we find that offerings can be pleasing or displeasing to God, depending on how it is given. Notice, there had been a sacrifice (animal skins to clothe them because of sin) before there was an offering. God sacrificed, the animal sacrificed, and now mankind “should” be giving a sacrifice through their offering.
Notice how verse 3 describes their offerings:
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
For whatever reason (scripture does not reveal exactly why) Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s rejected.
To me, the description may give insight - Cain brought “an offering” - could it be that Cain brought whatever he had extra, whatever was lying around, did he just give out of convenience?
In contrast Abel brought the firstborn and their fat portions - he brought the best of the best! He regarded his offering as something that should bring honor to God.
Now, we won’t get into a tithing sermon here, but I think it brings up the point that we should give to God through the church a prayed over and pleasing tithe and offering that brings honor to God.
But, was it the condition of the heart that made the offerings between Cain and Abel different in the eyes of God?
Whatever the reason, we see Cain grows angry with God for rejecting his offering, and with Abel for being accepted by God. Now, I want us to look very closely at how God addresses Cain’s anger in verses 6-7.
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
If you do well - if you choose to do what God expects of you
will you not be accepted? - God accepts faith as righteousness!
If you do not do well - if we make the willful choice to disobey God, do contrary to God’s will, etc
Sin is crouching at the door. - Let me be very clear in this - Satan is just waiting on something to happen so he can get us to disobey God and sin.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Its desire (sin/Satan) is contrary to you - we were not made to be in opposition to God, but instead to have a personal relationship with God.
But, you must rule over it. - The bottom line is it is each individuals willful and personal choice to either accept or reject Satan’s lies. It is up to each individuals willful and personal choice to accept or reject God’s Will for our lives.
Ultimately, we must choose to accept or reject Jesus and the free offer of Salvation.
The next few verses show an evil side of humanity, when Cain kills his brother Abel.
Cain willfully and deliberately chooses to take the life of his brother - even after being spoken to about his anger and the warning against sinning by God Himself.
Folks, let this sink in very clearly - in the beginning of time there were people willing to kill EVEN THEIR OWN FAMILY for what they perceived as being accepted by God.
God did not allow the evil to happen, instead evil happened because someone chose to not follow God. The root cause of evil, church, is sin. Sin separates us from God. Sin is when we choose to turn away from God and turn towards our own selfish wants, our own selfish desires. Sin is when we allow Satan to lie to us, and we believe him.
But, church, can I tell you God knew how sin would impact each and every one of us and He chose a better way. He sent His only Begotten Son so that whoever would believe on Him would have eternal life.
Let’s not look at current events and question why God would allow it, but instead look at it for what it truly is. Satan’s impact on sinful mankind and the personal, individual, willful choice to sin against God.
Closing
Closing
We have to make the choice to believe God has something good in store for each of us.
We have to decide whether we will work honorably for the Lord.
We have to decide how we gift God with our offerings, and whether they will be acceptable to Him based off our actions, our attitudes, and our sacrifice.
We have to decide how we respond to sin, and whether we will accept or reject sin in our lives.
We MUST decide whether we will follow Jesus, or whether we will continue to follow Satan in sin.
What is your choice right now?
