Isaiah 45, 5, I am the Lord,
and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is no one else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. Now, what I intend to deal with
this morning is just simply this. I call it the evil problem, the
evil problem. In other words, why is there
evil? Why is there evil? The evil problem. The question
is often raised, how did sin and evil ever arise in God's
creation? Have you ever thought about that? If God is absolutely sovereign,
absolutely holy, and absolutely good. Now, if he created all
things good, how is it that pride was found in Lucifer's heart? That's the first mention of evil. Pride was found in one of God's
angels named Lucifer, found in his heart. How is that possible?
How were the fallen angels led to rebel against God's throne
and try to overthrow Him? How did that happen? How was
Adam seduced to sin? See, these are questions. Of
course, it's all one question. It's the evil problem. Why is there evil? And frankly, if you listen to
me this morning, When I'm finished, you'll still have more questions
unanswered than answered. The existence of evil is a problem
which vexes our minds continually. If you're a thinking person,
you have thought about this, and it vexes your mind because
you cannot come to any any solid answer in this thing. So we must,
whenever considering such a subject, be like one man said. He said,
when you consider this subject, clip the wings of curiosity. Don't get too curious about it. Knowing that God is not the author
of sin. We know that, don't we? God's
not the author of sin. and that he never tempts any
man to sin, any person to evil. We know that James chapter 1
teaches that. There's no need for us to read
that. James 1, 13 through 17. And we know that nothing comes
to pass without God's all-wise decree. We know that, don't we? So the matter cannot be resolved
in a more God-honoring way than to use the words of our Lord
when He said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy
sight. And so that's what we say, Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. So we bow
before God in reverent submission, and we
confess to Him that we're nothing but darkness, and that he's light,
and we are ignorance, and he's wisdom, and we're creatures,
and he's our Creator. And we see nothing, and we know
nothing, and we understand nothing clearly. And God sees all things,
knows all things, understands all things perfectly. We admit
that, don't we? And before Him, of whom are all
things, we have to acknowledge our utter ignorance. We're ignorant. Some men think they're very smart
in these things, but we're all so ignorant. So ignorant. Our minds are perplexed about
all the evil. We think about evil. We think
about murder and rape and adultery and abortion, drunkenness, envy,
jealousy, greed, racism, pornography, war, idolatry. homosexuality, incest, fornication,
the abandonment of families by selfish, self-loving men and
women. We think about the murder of
children by their parents. We think about the murder of
parents by their children. Now, these are all great evils. Why? Why is it that way? But I have a far greater problem
than I have with the evil. With those evils, the evil that
I really have a problem with is down in here. It's the evil
in me. I have a real problem with that.
That's disturbing a whole lot more than the evil around me
is the evil within me. And yet, we know that this too,
the evil inside of us, is according to God's purpose, and it's under
God's control. And if it were his purpose to
do so, God Almighty could destroy the influence of sin and eradicate
it from his people as easily now as he shall when he takes
us to glory. He could get rid of it now if
he desired to. But he's not chosen to do so.
Why not? Well, I've thought about this.
I believe God has purposed that as long as we are in this world, God's people will have to struggle
and fight with the sin within us. And as long as we are here,
we are a people at war with ourselves. We are fighting ourselves. And this is best that God left
us that way. God has arranged things this
way because of good reasons. And he has done so in order to
make us humble before him, to make us look to him to teach
us to be kind and gracious and forgiving and to keep looking
to Christ and to keep us aware that salvation is by grace alone
and to wean us from this world. And that's why he leaves the
evil within his people. And it is there, isn't it? Oh,
yes, it is. I know it is. You know it is.
If you don't know it is, you're very mistaken. This all came
about. I mentioned to a man a few days
ago. I talked to him. I said, do you
know anything about the Lord? And all of a sudden, he blurted
out to me. He said, if you can answer this
question, I'll listen to you for a few minutes about God,
but you answer this question first, and I'm not going to listen
to you until you answer it. And he said, If there is a God
in heaven, why does he allow war and famine and disease and
poverty and all other things to abound in this world. So I got to thinking about this,
the reason for the message this morning. Could you answer that question,
if somebody asked you? All I had time to say was this,
all of those things are not God's fault, They're your fault and
they're my fault. That's all I had time to say
to him. But he didn't like that. Any unregenerate man does not
like that answer. And what he did, he did what
most men do now. He smirked and got a smart-headed
look on his face. And he thought he had embarrassed
God again. You know, God doesn't have a
reason for that, and so God's embarrassed about that. And that's
the way they feel about God. Now, there's much sorrow and
pain in this world. Ask Brother Ray. He'll tell you
about some pain. I can tell you about some pain.
All of you folks can tell us about pain. And sorrow, you've
had sorrow, we've had so much sorrow. I think about my dear
loved ones every day and I shed more tears and I'll never be
through shedding tears about the sorrow of losing those who
are so close. And you won't either. We are
greatly insulated from the condition in which most people live. In our society, most people live
in relative ease and comfort and luxury, don't they? In our realm. But in other lands, it's not
so in much of the world. War is a way of life. People
wake up every morning expecting for someone to burst into their
house and kill them. And the shells and bombs burst
all around all day, every day. And millions are starving to
death in many parts of the world. And in many countries, disease
seems uncontrollable. The AIDS virus is rampant in
Africa, just completely decimating the country. Poverty holds the vast majority
of the world's population as slaves. Poverty, nothing, have
nothing to eat. Well, have you ever asked a similar
question? If there is a God in heaven,
why is this so? Have you ever asked that? Well, the Word of God gives us
the answer, as it does about all other questions. So I'll do my best. I'll do my
best. First of all, it must be understood
that all these things are the works of God in His wise
and good providence. The works of God. God does not
simply allow these things to happen. God brings these things to pass. And I know that most religious
people think that God has nothing to do with the affairs of this
world. I've talked with some of them.
God didn't have anything to do with that. Well, if it's in his
world, he had something to do with it. Most people think the world is
ruled by Satan. These great healers run around
healing everybody. They get all their money first,
then they heal something. I don't know what. They say Satan
is going to turn you loose today. People say the world is ruled
by Satan, ruled by chance. What is this chance? Where is
that? I always try to get a hold of that. Where is chance? or not ruled at all. It's just
running. Breakneck speed to nothing. Nobody's
in control. That's what people believe. But I want to say to you that
God is not a spectator. He's not sitting on the sidelines
wondering how his creation is going to turn out. God is an
absolute sovereign who totally rules this universe. And that includes you right now. He's totally controlling you
right now. All things come from God, and
all things are ruled by God. All things happen according to
the purpose of God. And this is what he said
in our text here in Isaiah 45, I'm the Lord, there's none other,
there's no God beside me. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. I, the Lord, have created it. And that's what's taught all
the way through this book. And so, the first thing that
we know is that all these things are the works of God, and he
is wise and good providence. The second thing that this book
teaches is this, it must be understood that the God of heaven is a God
of judgment. He's a God of judgment. And you
go back and read your history books and your newspaper, and
when you read them, read them in the light of the Word of God. War, famine, disease, poverty
are in this world because of one thing, S-I-N, sin. Sorrow is the result of sin. Were there no sin in the world,
there would be none of these things. God does judge sin. God does judge men, and God does
judge nations. And it is God's judgment that
withdraws the rains of heaven and causes a once fertile land
to become nothing but a barren desert. That's what West Texas
is like right now, I understand, a barren desert. God has withheld
the rain. It's God's judgment. We saw,
what did they call that thing, a tsunami? You talk about a wall of water,
it was high enough to absolutely, completely destroy that whole
nation. No, that wasn't a tsunami, that
was God. A tidal wave will sweep across
an island and destroy every person on the island. And it's God's hand that directs
the path of the hurricane. And the tornado, if you have
a big hurricane, if we have one here this year, we just say,
well, the hand of God has finally turned one our way. And we'll
praise Him. It's God's hand that directs
the path of that hurricane. Tornado, that terrible wind that
goes 200-300 miles an hour around and around and takes everything
in its path. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind
and the storm. Nahum 1, verse 3, if you want
to mark that down, it says He has His way in the whirlwind
and the storm. We don't need to look at it.
We know it's there, don't we? Most people would rather charge
God with foolishness than charge man with sin. But with the Apostle Paul, I
say, let God be true in every man and liar. And war and famine and disease and death, death I have to bow
before the sovereign God when I think about those two boys I bow before. A sovereign God. And all these things are the works of God's hand. And God brings these things upon
man and nations in judgment because of one thing. That's because
of sin. And if you're judged by God,
it'll be because you're a sinner. And some of you sit right now
and you couldn't give a flip about what I'm saying. But I'm
going to tell you something. One of these days you will. You're
going to really care what I said. One of these days went too late.
You will. I warn you in the name of God,
you will. Now, another question is this,
is there any good in sin? And I say, yes, there is good
in sin. Those attributes of God which
seem to require the destruction of sinners are most clearly revealed
in the salvation of sinners. Think about this now. It would
naturally appear to anyone whose reason has not been perverted
by false religion that fallen man must be destroyed by a holy
God. You would say that, wouldn't
you? He must be destroyed by a holy God. And the justice and
the holiness and the truth of God seems to require the destruction
of every sinner, doesn't it? And the holy God does punish
every sin. But wait a minute. Although he
is merciful and gracious, He's merciful and gracious. And the justice of God requires
that sin be punished as it deserves. And it deserves to be punished
with what? With everlasting destruction. The wages of sin is death. Death. You think about that word,
death. Death. The holiness of God cannot bear
to look upon sin, and the holiness of God demands that sinners be
banished forever from His presence. The truth of God demands eternal
death to be executed upon every transgressor. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Then where is the good of sin. Where is the good of
sin? Well, here it is. Sin exalts the great wisdom of
God in that he found a way to save sinners
in a way that is not only consistent with, but is glorifying to his
justice and holiness and truth. Look at Romans chapter 3. We'll read that. Let's read that. Romans chapter 3. Romans 3 and verse 24, you all
can just about quote all these scriptures. Romans 3, 24, being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that have passed, through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. What's the good of sin through
the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
place of sinners, what? Justice is vindicated, holiness
is maintained, and truth is uncompromised. And this, then, is the good of
sin. What is it? For in the salvation
of sinners, The great wisdom of God shines forth. Now, if
every sinner for whom Christ died is not saved, then the good
of sin would not be accomplished. For God would fail in his purpose
for sin, that is, the salvation of all his elect. His wisdom
would be defeated. If one of them is lost, for whom
Christ died, therefore it must not be forgotten that even in
judgment God is merciful to his own elect. Isn't that wonderful? You're one of his elect, he's
merciful to you. Judgment is one of the ways in
which God wisely populates his kingdom. Did you know that? Thousands and thousands of infants
are starving to death in godless lands, never have anything to
eat and starve to death. That's the wisdom of God, is
it not? Because God is wise and gracious
and good, and if those poor children were to grow up among such people
as over there, they would become heathen idolaters like their
parents, or God-hating rebels in a pagan land. But God has
chosen them. And so he takes them to glory
in infancy rather than allowing them to perish in hell as men. Isn't that merciful? Oh, I can
see the mercy of God. That's mercy. God knows what
he's doing. Behold, therefore, the goodness
and severity of God. Oh, the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out! For of Him and through Him
and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Now, you and I, let's do what
we can to relieve pain and suffering of men and women. As our Lord
Jesus, by example, has taught us, let's do what we can to help
people, poor people, hungry people, hurting people. Help them, but
also recognize the wise hand of God's providence is ruling
all things for the accomplishment of his own purpose for the glory
of his own great name and the eternal good of his elect. And the justice and holiness
and truth of God demands the eternal salvation of every sinner
for whom Christ died. And so we believe in an effectual
atonement, that the Lord Jesus actually redeemed every soul
for whom he died. And by his death upon the cross,
he infallibly secured the eternal salvation of God's elect by his
own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And so the
justice of God, having been satisfied by the blood of Christ, demands
the salvation of every believer. And the truth of God demands
that every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ be saved. And if you haven't believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ, you better get to doing it, because if you
don't, you never will be saved. You hear me? You better believe
on Him, because there's no other way. And so I say there's good
in sin. God Almighty has been glorified
in the destruction of sinners, but much more and the glorious
salvation of sinners by his free grace in the blood of Christ. Why does God allow sickness?
Sorrow? Why am I sick every day? Why
do I hurt every day? Why is that? Why is Ray hurting
this morning? Why are you hurting? Where is
your pain? Why does God allow that? Sorrow! Why do I sorrow? Why do we cry
tears of sorrow? Because for His own glory and
for the good of His elect on this earth, all these things
take place. Your sin and mine is a reason
for all bad, but God rules all in his divine, wise providence. And he sends all these things
for his own glory and the good of his elect. And the enmity
of sinners is mad at God for what they have
caused. Isn't that amazing for what they've
caused? So, can you answer the question?
Now, they always start off, if there is a good God, in other
words, you're saying right there, I don't believe there's a good
God. I think there's a God, but He's
not worth anything. That's what they start off with. Then they say, why? Why? Why did this happen to me? This
is not fair. I'm not bad as others. Why am I having all... Oh, you
see how we are? Oh, my. I have the Lord do all
these things. Let's stand for prayer, please. Lord, we don't even know how
to pray. We're so dumb and ignorant, but we just ask Thee, Lord, to
impress on us the great truth of these things. Help us to believe
that You do control every minute thing in this universe. Everything is Yours. I pray for anybody in this auditorium
that does not know the Lord Jesus and the free forgiveness of sin.
I pray you'll give them sense enough to trust you and believe
what you say. And I pray you'll break their heart
a million times until you bring them to the place of thanking you for your great
salvation. Thank you for these dear people.
I pray we'll love the truths of God. Bless this church, Lord, and
add to it. We would like to have more people
to preach to, but you're God, and you control that, too. So we'll bow before you. Thank you, Lord, in Christ's
dear name. Amen. God bless you. It was wonderful. Thank you. Are you feeling better? Getting there?