Proverbs 17 13 who so rewardeth
evil for good Evil shall not depart from his house I've turned
this microphone up a little bit. I know it's really loud. So I
will talk softly Is it humming or anything like that? Okay Now rewarding evil for good who
comes to mind in the scripture when you think of someone rewarding
evil for good Judas might well come to mind because the Lord
took Judas into his very select group of 12 and taught him the
gospel and welcomed him into the fellowship of his very choice
disciples and apostles and protected him and the others when the Pharisees
wanted to eat their lunch. And the Lord called Judas friend. and yet Judas returned evil for
good. You might think of this conversation
with the Pharisees when you think of returning evil for good. The
Jews took up stones to stone the Lord. And Jesus answered
them, many good works have I showed you from my father, for which
of those works do you stone me? Of course, they said it's not
for a good worker because You make yourself God. That's always
man's problem with God and his son. They make themselves God. We don't make them God. They
make themselves God. And we don't like it by nature. This sin is sin that every man by nature
is guilty of. Listen to Romans 118, for the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, For God hath showed it unto them,
for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they were without excuse.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. and their foolish heart was darkened. So it says they weren't thankful.
There was so much, there's so much to be thankful for just
being born into this world. We knew God. We knew that God
provided everything. He gave us life and health and
everything we have. You think about all the things
that God has done for us. of our lives and yet by nature
We change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the
creature more than the Creator Adam himself in the garden as
our representative and the father of mankind What did he do? Well, he sinned against God the
first the original sin is what's called because of original sin,
speaks of the sin nature that was Adam's after the fall and
all of our sins. But have you ever looked at it
this way? He returned evil for good in the garden. God gave
him paradise. Before he ever made him, he made
paradise for him. God didn't need a paradise. He
made one for us. and all that God had done for
him, and this is really a characteristic, as you see there, of all sin.
We think of sin as being defined as disobedience to God, transgression
of the law, and that's right, but all sin is a recompensing
to God, evil for good. Even the original sin, even when
the Lord brings a man now into this sin-wrecked world. God gives
life and usually health, And as a rule, a mother's love, a
father's love, something to eat and drink all
of our lives, you can't even count all of the blessings that God
bestows upon man just by nature. And we have to be honest about
this. It's us. It's us. We think about how evil
man is. How about how evil I am? That's
just the truth of it now. We'd be overwhelmed to think
of all that God has done for us all of our lives and what
return has God gotten on his investment. Thank God that that's not the
issue. He didn't do it. because he expected
something in return from us. Thank God that that's not what
it's about. He blesses his people because
he loves us, expecting nothing from us but evil. Every ounce of glory that God
receives in his dealings with us comes from something he did. Not from us. We do the sinning and God does
the saving. And so what is God gonna do with
people who all their lives return evil for all of his good? Another
example that comes to mind is Hosea and Gomer. When God would
show us something of his love for us, he caused Hosea to fall
in love with Gomer. And though she was wretched and
unfaithful to him, he still wanted the best for her. He still left
good things for her at her door and loved her yet. You read the
book of Hosea and look for that one word, yet. And we'll learn
something of the love of God for sinners. Yet, go yet and
love a woman that has done nothing but shame you, disgrace you, break your heart over and over? Go yet and love her. So what's God gonna do with us
who've returned evil for all of his good? Well, I'll tell
you what he did with a whole bunch of us. The number which
no man can number, he redeemed us. He gave himself for us. Because
of the evil that we are in the face of the good that he is,
as our text says, evil can never depart from our house. It's always
going to hang over us. We are under the wrath of God
by nature, by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. And as we've said, this can easily
be seen as a metaphor for all of this whole wretched world.
Mankind has done nothing but return evil for good unto the
Lord. And so our house, this world, is full of only evil continually,
is the way God describes it. And so it is with every individual
in their house. But with those whom God loves
there is exception. God hath made a difference between
his people and the rest of the world. Think of this verse, now once
in the end of the world hath Christ appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. the evil that is upon our house
by our own doing, Christ put it away. And by the sacrifice
of himself, he took the sin of his people on Calvary upon himself
and suffered every consequence of our sin in this world and
in the world to come. And you think about that this
morning. He suffered every consequence
of our sin in this world and in eternity. You might think,
well, Chris, there are consequences for our sin in this world. In
a sense, there are. But God turns everything for
our good, even here, even now. The consequences that we face
for our sin in this world are not the judgments of the Holy
God, but they are the chastisements of the loving Father. So why is that? Because Christ,
by the sacrifice of himself, took away our sin. Both here
and in the world to come, all of the consequences for our sin
were suffered in our place. And that's the clear, simple
gospel of Christ. And so, as in all of scripture,
may God give us grace to once again rejoice in the truth, that
though we're guilty of every sin mentioned in this book, Each
and every one of us has returned evil to God for all of his good
to us. We're guilty of every sin mentioned
in this book, and yet by the grace of God in our crucified
and risen Savior, we are the objects of every mercy promised
in this book. To those who he loves and who
love him by his grace, And may God give us grace in Christ.
I believe this is part of this too. We're exhorted here as believers
to at least return something other than evil unto God. For all the mercies of God upon
us in this sense that we worship him. And I know that our worship
is full of sin. Yet by his grace because of Christ
in us the hope of glory we're able now to worship God we couldn't
do that before May he give us grace to do that and to serve
him and to witness of him in this world Not in order to be
saved Christ is all of our righteousness and our only righteousness and
salvation but because he has saved us and May we render unto
him, as the scripture put it, the sacrifice of our lips, even
thanksgiving unto our God. Just saying thank you is not
what that's talking about. Just saying it, but to be thankful
indeed. And prove by his grace the sincerity
of our love. a gift. May He make it so. Amen.