God Judges a Rebellious People

Appreciate the seriousness of rebellion against God and the various expressions it takes. Rebellion against God always takes the form of rejecting His Word.

The Problem of Evil

If God is all powerful, he could have kept evil from existing.

If God is all perfectly good, he would destroy evil

If God is perfectly good, he would have kept evil from existing.

Evil exists in the world.

Therefore, an all powerful and perfectly good God does not exist.

If God exists at all, he is either not all powerful or he is not perfectly good.

The nature of this objection to Christian belief is logical. The opponent is claiming that Christianity contains and obvious contradiction.

What is evil?

Ask the antagonist to define evil apart from God.

What is being assumed in this argument?

There could never be a morally good reason for the existence of evil.

Would a perfectly good God give humans free will if he knew in advance that they were going to use that free will to commit moral evil?

Free will doesn’t get Christianity out of the dilemma.

There are a variety of heresies that arise when people attempt to tackle this problem.

The greatest God is God’s own glory. God had a morally good reason for the existence of moral evil in the world: his own glory. There is no greater good than that.

The purpose for God creating is not soteriological, it is not redemptive, it is not to display his love. God’s purpose for creation is His own glory.

We must begin with this simple mindset in life if we want to avoid unhealthy living and unnecessary spiritual and psychological harm:

All the good we receive in this life, we receive by God’s grace. We do NOT deserve the good we have. All the bad or evil things that happens in our life we deserve and we never receive the evil we do deserve.

The person on the planet who is has the less good and the most evil in their life has received more good and less evil than they actually deserve.

God is a kind and merciful and gracious God.

What are some explanations you have heard for why bad things happen to good people?

Bad things never happen to good people.

Rebellion against God results when the heart is hardened

2 Chronicles 36:11–14 NASB95

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the Lord. 13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. 14 Furthermore, all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful following all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of the Lord which He had sanctified in Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar brings Jehoiachin (8 years old) who did evil in the sight of the Lord to Babylon.

In his place, Zedekiah was appointed the puppet king.

שְׁמוֹנֶ֤ה

Eight: שְׁמֹנֶה

Eighteen:שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשֶר

2 Kings 24:8 NASB95

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

2 kings

Hebrew writes 11 through 19 by writing in this case, 8 + 10. When we are looking at textual variants one of the questions we ask is if a scribe would be more likely to add a word to the text or miss it. Scholars believe the scribe misses 10 (ASAR) and just wrote SHEMONEH.

According to ancient Babylonian documents, Jehoiachin had 5 children by the 592. If he was 8 in 597, it would seem difficult for him to have five sons within 5 years.

First Question:

What are some ways we demonstrate pride in our lives?

How do we in the churches follow the abominations of the nations and defile the house of the Lord?

When the worship service is constructed with my supposed wants, needs, and wishes in mind, it is designed for ALL the wrong reasons.

I watched a youth conference that claims to be for the glory of God where they were actually line dancing.

Many churches have turned worship into a lights-off rock concert atmosphere.

We defile the house of God when we tolerate false doctrine and moral laxity in the churches.

We defile the house of God when we bring in unbelieving pagans and make them members of the community.

When our values become the same values as those in the world.

Feminism. Homosexuality. Racism.

Rebellion against God results when God’s Word is rejected

2 chr 36 15

2 Chronicles 36:15–16 NASB95

15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; 16 but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy.

Genesis 3:1 NASB95

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Matthew 23:27–39 NASB95

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 “So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? 34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

27-39

Matthew 23:37–39 NASB95

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

Matthew 7:26–27 NASB95

26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Acts 7:51–53 NASB95

51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52 “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

What are some ways we might respond to a word of correction, and what might those responses reveal about a person’s heart?

Matthew 18:15–28 NASB95

15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” 21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’

Matthew 18:15–18 NASB95

James 2:20 NASB95

20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

James 1:21–22 NASB95

21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. 22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Sin as Rebellion: Because the Bible portrays people as responsible beings, called to respond in faith and obedience to God’s revelation, the Bible often portrays sin in terms of defiance and rebellion toward God the King.

Rebellion against God results in God’s wrath being stirred

Clarification: God’s wrath is never directed to those who are his. Christ has once for all taken God’s wrath and given to us His righteousness. The great exchange.

But, God disciplines those who are his.

2 Chronicles 36:16–21 NASB95

16 but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy. 17 Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. 18 All the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his officers, he brought them all to Babylon. 19 Then they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its fortified buildings with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. 20 Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.

2 chr. 36

What problems arise if we downplay God’s wrath in our theology?

Gods judgment for the sin of believers has already fallen upon Christ on the cross; therefore, God’s wrath no longer remains for those who are in Christ (). Instead, God uses only faithful, loving discipline to correct His beloved children in their sin and guide them on the path of holiness.

Romans 8:1 NASB95

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:3–8 NASB95

3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

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