All right, Romans chapter 11,
and we're gonna begin reading at verse 33. Let's go to the
Lord before I start reading. Heavenly Father, we come to you
now and we thank you so much for Christ Jesus. We thank you
for salvation that's through him. Thank you, Father, for all
that you do for us. Lord, we just are grateful today
that we have the opportunity to come together in your name.
We pray, Lord, today as we gather in your name and worship you,
that you will be exalted, that you might help me speak truth,
Lord, that you'd be with all the brethren here, that you might
give them ears to hear, give them understanding. Lord, I just
pray that you might exalt yourself through the preaching of the
word, that you might bring forth the things that we're gonna be
reading today, talking about. Lord, I just ask now that you
just might minister to our hearts today, encourage us, build us
up in the most holy faith, And again, as I've already asked,
Lord, that you might exalt Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And
that's our heart's desire today, that he might be lifted up. It's
in his name that we pray. You know, we often, we often hear, or may even say
it ourselves once in a while, you know, well, I sure hope God
gets the glory and all of that. You ever heard anybody say that?
I've said it actually. The reason why I'm even talking
about this is that a lot of times we just kind of inadvertently
say things and a lot of times the things that we say is so
rooted in our default mind which is the Adamic man, the fleshly
man, you know. And we think after those things,
and a lot of times we'll just blurt four things. A good example
is, you know, when we say this all the time, good luck, you
know, and we all know that the Bible's very clear, there's no
such thing as luck, but it's just a euphemism that we use,
you know, to say hope everything works out for you, right? But,
you know, a lot of times we just spout off things, and a lot of
times, the things that we spout off really isn't rooted in the
scriptures. And I pray that the Lord continues to help me to
modify my speech so that whenever I do speak, I am not speaking
in such a way that is speaking false things, you know. But,
you know, we often say, you know, well, I hope God gets the glory,
or it's very close twin brother, oh, that does not glorify the
Lord, you know. That isn't bringing glory to
the Lord. And, you know, I'm kind of thinking about that and
thinking about those sayings. Is that biblical? Can we really
say, well, that doesn't glorify the Lord? Now, I can say that
the scriptures are very clear that there are some things that
do not honor the Lord. And there are some things that
do not exalt the Lord. But can I say that there is something
that does not glorify the Lord? And so we can debate that all
day long. We can go to theologians and
read their theological books. We can look at creeds and confessions
and see what men of old have said about this. But that's not
going to get us really anywhere because the only truth that we
know is what the Word of God says and how God has revealed
Himself and how God has revealed how He operates. And God hasn't
revealed everything about himself to us. Only what we have here
is what we know of God. And so we have to go to God's
word to see whether or not these things be so. And so that's why
we want to look and see is the thought or is the phrase, you
know, well that doesn't glorify God or is there something that
doesn't glorify God? And a lot of people will say,
well, yeah, well, this thing doesn't glorify God. Well, sin
doesn't glorify God. That mass murder over there doesn't
glorify God. That abortionist over there doesn't
glorify God. But a lot of times we let our
emotions, we let our, again, our human reasoning dictate to
us what is true and not what God's Word says is true. Are
those things evil? Is sin evil? Yes. Is mass murder
evil? Yes. Is abortion evil? Absolutely
it is. No matter what our modern day
America says, it is evil. It's murder. Okay? But what does God say about these
things that matters? That's what we want to find out,
right? So in Romans chapter 11, And I want you to look with me
if you would, starting at verse 33. And I want us to look for... I'm heading into just a specific
point here, as we'll get there, if the Lord wills, here in just
a few minutes. But let's start here, because
we want to see what does the Lord say. We need to lay a foundation
of what God's Word has said. before we move on to those sticky
situations, to those sticky questions, those confusing questions, those
really heart laboring questions that comes up, those emotional
questions that we have to face. In Romans chapter 11, look at
verse 33, it says, O the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out." Now, I want to just pause there for a minute
and just kind of break that down a little bit. It says here that,
for one, the wisdom and the knowledge of God is deep riches. Meaning that what God knows and
what God has purposed, His knowledge known unto God are all His works,
right? His knowledge or his foreknowledge
is what God has purposed. See God doesn't, we've said this
a lot around here and especially this week, I've talked about
this with another gentleman about this quite a bit, but foreknowledge
is not God looking ahead in time and seeing what's going to happen
and then making decisions based upon what he sees. The foreknowledge
of God is what God knows, because what God has determined will
be. And because God knows what is
going to happen, because this is how He is going to direct
the flow of history, by His providence, He knows every action, every
thought, every word, every deed, every thing. He has predetermined
that. Therefore, He knows. He has foreknowledge
of what will happen, not because He sees it happening down the
corridor of time, but because he knows, because he has predestinated
all things. And so the depth of the riches
of that is beyond knowing. It says here. So I know that
I can't, it says how unsearchable are his judgments. That means
that I can search these scriptures, I can search philosophy, the
wisdom of man, I can use every tool in the world to try to figure
out God, but I'm not going to figure out God and why He does
what He does. Matter of fact, He is who He
is. He said, I am. I am that I am. I am self-existent. I am the
one who determines all things and nothing causes me to do anything
outside of myself. The only thing that makes me
do anything that I do is my own will, the pleasure of my own
will. moves and motivates me is my own will. That's why we
always talk around here, nobody has free will, only God has free
will. God is the only one that has
free will and that means that all of us, while yes we make
choices in life, those choices are governed and directed by
God. He has determined what choices we make by what He has determined
before the world began to what to let and to not let, if you
allow me that word, or to allow and to not allow. Those things
are determined by God, so while we may make choices and decisions
in our mind, our ways, God directs them. And He does that. And what
is that directing? Well, that's God's providence.
Well, what's God's providence? God's providence is Him working
out His predetermined plan. So, while yeah, it may seem like
we're making all these decisions, making all these choices, yet
it's the Lord who either causes us to resist from doing something,
or causes us to go forth with whatever we were wanting to do,
and that is what God's plan was to begin with, even though it's
just now working out. Can I figure out his judgments?
No, because I have no clue what God is doing. I have no clue
with what God is doing. A good example of that, two or
three examples of that, is Israel. You remember whenever Joseph
was sold into slavery by his brothers, and that was a bad
thing, right? And he went through a lot of
bad stuff before the Lord exalted him to be the governor over Egypt. But the reason that God did that,
that was all part of his predestinated plan. And the purpose for that,
even though what happened was bad, the whole purpose for that
was that Joseph would be governor over Egypt so that Israel would
come into Egypt and be taken care of during the famine. That Israel would come into Egypt
and would flourish. They went from just a small group
of people going into Egypt to whenever they went out of Egypt,
there was millions of them. But listen, God also brought
Israel into Egypt through the work of Joseph being sold into
slavery so that he might have a picture for us of redemption,
of salvation. Israel being delivered from Egypt
So God had multiple purposes there. And you think that people
during that time seeing what was happening, you think Joseph,
whenever all that was going through to him, say, well, I know that
God's doing this because you're going to make me this. And and
it's going to be for people way down the line to be able to see
how God brought us into Egypt, flourished us and brought us
out of Egypt and all that. No, he didn't have any clue that
what was happening. Everyday life, everyday life
was just going on and on and on and on. Choices were made,
actions were happening, all these things, but not one thing was
happening apart from God's predetermined work, okay? And so we cannot
understand or search out His judgments on why God does what
He does. And a lot of times, whenever
we, especially with this phrase, well, that doesn't glorify God,
we immediately are jumping on and saying, we know God's judgment.
Why is God doing that? Well obviously it's not God doing
that because that doesn't glorify God and God only does those things
that glorify himself. So obviously we have these two
categories, things that glorify God and things that don't glorify
God, people that glorify God, people that don't, or there are
times in my life where I'm glorifying God and I'm not glorifying God.
And so there again, you know, was David glorifying God whenever
he laid with Bathsheba? Well, there was something that
came out of that, and that was Solomon. Solomon came out of the relationship
with David and Bathsheba. So, brethren, my point here is
that it's hard to say, does that glorify God or does that not
glorify God, when the Bible is clear that we cannot understand
His judgments. So, whenever we only see in a
minuscule time, in a little minuscule area, and especially as it relates
to us, I love you guys and appreciate
all the fellowship that we have together. We see each other.
I'm glad to see everyone every week and we know things about
each other. We may even correspond back and
forth throughout the week or something like that. But I know
my family and most of the week, my mind and my life is consumed
with what's going on with me and mine, right? And my work,
my family, my you know, livelihood, all whatever, you know. We're
all consumed with that. And so a lot of times everything
is focused in on how is that affecting me, and a lot of times
we're not seeing the broad spectrum of what's actually happening.
So to think that we can figure out, to think that we can figure
out God's judgments, we're pretty naive if we think we can. But
it says here, his ways are past finding out. That means to tell
me, until we're glorified and work with Him, we're not going
to understand these things. We might understand some of it.
We may even come up with a whole entire scheme of what we think
God was doing in a situation, and it might sound right, it
may even be biblical, and it may even bring comfort to us
to know that. But in the scheme of things,
we may find out there was even a bigger cause than the big cause. Why did God do this? Why did
God do that? Okay? And so, his ways are past
finding out. We're not gonna figure God completely
out. And I'm the first one to admit, whether I'm a pastor,
whether I'm a preacher, it doesn't matter. I don't know everything.
I don't have all the knowledge. I can't tell you what everything
in this Bible says. I can only give you what the
Lord has taught me and what he has given me to understand, and
I can only give it in the way that he's given me to understand
it. And you know what? He may teach me further on something,
on down the line and I'm going to have to mend what I say. So,
you know, it's not about perfectly knowing the things of God. And
there's a lot of people out there that they think they've got everything
figured out and they know everything that's in here, how to interpret
everything in here. And brethren, we just have to,
we just have to know that God is not going to be figured out.
Matter of fact, there's a passage of scripture that says, can man
by searching find out God? I mean, it's a question, a rhetorical
question, but can a man find God by searching? No, he can't. He can find some things about
him, but he ain't gonna find out everything. So we gotta understand
that God's ways are way above ours, and that another thing
is that God is God, and he can do whatever he wants. That's
kind of the perk of being God. You can do whatever you want. There is no law that is above
God, so God is not, restrained by any law because the law that
has been given by God, He'd give it for a purpose and that was
for man. It was to manifest the sinfulness
of men. That's why the law was given.
It wasn't given to make us right or make us righteous or make
us holy. It was given to show that we were not right. We were
not holy. And so The whole entire thing
of God having to be constrained by his own law that he's given
man is ridiculous because God is not under the law. So with
that being said, it says in verse 34, for who hath known the mind
of the Lord or who hath been his counselor? That right there
again even solidifies what I said a while ago. God doesn't look
down the corridor of time and do something and God says, oh
man, that's what's happening? Okay, well I'm gonna have to
do this and do this and do this. That would be God's counselor.
If God is making determinations in time based upon the actions
of men, then that is men dictating to God what must be done or changing
God's plan, therefore God has to boot them back into line so
that they align with His plan. No, He's directing all things.
according to His plan. Nobody is His counselor. Nobody
is teaching God anything. God isn't learning. God isn't
looking and seeing and learning something and then making a decision
based upon what He learns. God knows all things, and because
He knows all things, therefore everything that He knows... I'm
going to chase this rabbit this room in if you let me. There
are a lot of people that say that God looks into time and
He sees what man does, whether it's choosing for salvation or
whether it's due actions and God manipulates that and works
all things to the counsel of His own will. That God manipulates
everything so that it will bend back into where He was wanting
it to go. So like in the instance of Joseph
and his brothers. The brothers threw him into Egypt,
but God bent that back to work for good by making him the governor
of Egypt. No, the whole process, because
Joseph, if you remember, whenever his brothers come before him,
he said, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. What you
meant to do harm to me, all that evil that you did to me by throwing
me down in a pit acting like I was dead and telling my father
that I was dead and then selling me into slavery and all that
kind of stuff. That was evil, but what you meant to do was
evil and was meant for evil, but God meant all those actions
for good. We think about it in Acts whenever
the Bible talks about Christ being crucified and it says that
by wicked hands you have taken and you have crucified the Lord
Jesus. Well, how did that happen? Well,
it says right there in that passage, it says, by the determinate counsel
of God. So we see that God's determinate
counsel was not just that there was an activity of redemption
take place, although that was part of it, but even the very
minuscule acts that led up to that, and the very wicked men
with wicked hands taking and crucifying Christ. That was all
predetermined. But God didn't look down and
say, oh, this is going to happen, so I'm going to have to do this.
He didn't look down and say, uh-oh, Adam sinned, now I need
to come into time and elect a people and save a people. No, God didn't
do that. All of that was already predetermined.
That was God's purpose from the very beginning. And so whenever
we see God looking down the corridor of time and seeing Oh, well that
person chose me, well I'm going to elect them to salvation. That's
God being a counselor. That is God being taught something.
God learned something. And we know that God doesn't
change, right? So if God looked down the corridor
of time and seen something that happened in time and made a decision
to change the course of what He was planning, that is God
being changed by what He saw. That is being His counselor,
being His teacher. That is God not being self-existent. the I am, that is Him being the
I am also. So, He says here, for who hath
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor,
verse 35, or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed
unto Him again. Who has given anything to God
that God needs to repay them? See, a lot of times I hear people
say, well, you know, now that the Lord has saved me, I'm going
to give my life back to Him so that I can repay Him for everything
He's done. Listen, friends, I understand
your intent. I understand your heart. We love
Him because He first loved us. As Christians, if we've been
born from above, our heart's desire is to serve Him and to
honor Him and to do those things that He has said. We desire those
things in our heart. But listen, we could never repay
God for anything that He has done. There is not enough of
us to repay. The only thing that we can repay
God with is unrighteousness. The Bible says that all of our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So even the very best things
that we do cannot repay God. See, we are beholden to God's
grace. We look to God's grace. We look
to the faith that the faithfulness of Jesus Christ on our behalf,
whenever He kept the law for us, whenever He died in our place,
those are the things that we look at, that's the righteousness
that God is looking for. And so we just trust in that
righteousness. But it says here, verse 36, and
this is the verse that I mainly want to get to, it says, for
of Him, meaning of God, for of Him, Through Him, that means
not only was it the purpose of God, for of Him, it came from
Him, it originated in Him, He is the source of these all things. But through Him, through His
providential work, it's not only His plan, it's not only His purpose,
but it's also His activity in bringing it about. The Bible
is very clear whenever it says that as I have purpose, It will come to pass, right?
As I have spoken, as I spoke it, it will be, it will come
to pass that as I've mentioned it, but he says, I will do it. He says, I will do it. Well,
how does he do that? He does that by his sovereign
control over all things. So God's sovereign control in
working everything out for the counsel of his own will is not
ever separated from his predestination. His predestination is worked
out by His sovereign will, by determining and bringing forth
everything that will happen by His providence. So we see here,
for of Him, and through Him, and then it says, and to Him. So it's a reciprocal thing. It
starts in the purpose of God, And it comes forth from the activity
of God, working all things according to His will. And then all of
that is for the purpose of coming back to Him for glory. Look what it says there. For
of Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be
glory forever. So that right there answers my
question that I had at the very beginning. Does God get glory in everything? Yes, because all things, all
things, it says here, are to Him glory. For of Him and through
Him and back to Him are all things. Now, some may say, well, I don't
know about that. Well, let's look at a few more
verses And see, the Bible says that in the mouth of two or three
witnesses a thing is established, right? So let's look at Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verse 16.
Now this is speaking in reference to Jesus, right? Of course, we
know Jesus is God. And Jesus has been fully, fully,
fully, fully revealed as the image of the invisible God. The Godhead that we know of Scripture
found in the man Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, if you keep
reading in Colossians, it's going to tell you that. We won't read
it today, but it will tell you that. But this is speaking of
Jesus Christ. Verse 15 even says it. Who is
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature?
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. So everything that has been made
has been made by God and for God. It was created by Him, made
for Him. And it says here, it's not just
talking about inanimate things like rocks and trees and people,
but it says whether they be visible or invisible. Can you drop it
down there, honey? He says that all things
are created by him whether they be visible or invisible. Now it's kind of hard to comprehend
creating something that's invisible. Normally when we talk about creating
something, it's something that's tangible. We can touch it, we
can feel it, we can move it, we can mess with it. Right? But he says invisible. Now I
would take that to mean that that would talk about angels.
Those angels, including the elect angels and the non-elect angels,
which would include Satan. Okay? All those things were created
by God and they were created for God, right? He said they were created by
Him and for Him. So here again we have another
witness of Scripture saying that all things were created by God
and for God. Okay? Was the abortion clinic
part of God's plan? Unfortunately, possibly yes.
But I think it was done by man. Absolutely. Absolutely. The wickedness
of man, it comes from the wickedness of men's hearts. But see, it
doesn't ever come about because of, or outside of, I should say,
the purpose of God. God has a purpose in those things. And we'll see that as we continue
to move on. But look with me, if you would,
at John chapter 1. Again, all things were created
by Him and for Him, including principalities, including
powers, dominions. In John chapter 1, speaking again
of Jesus here, look with me if you would at verse 1. It says, In the beginning
was the Word, And the Word was with God and the Word was God. So therefore we know that this
is speaking of Jesus. Jesus is the Word, but we also
know that Jesus is the One who is God and is with God because
He is with God in His manhood. Right? So He's with God in His
manhood. He is God in His deity. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. So here we see that God has made
all things. Everything that is made was made
because of Him. It was made by Him. Now, whenever the Bible says that
all things were made for Him, Let's kind of clear a couple
of things up. Some people will say, and I've
heard this argument made, that God made those because He needed
something. I grew up, I've heard this before,
I grew up believing myself and even preaching this at one time,
that God created us because He needed someone to love. that God made us because He needed
us to show forth His glory. See, God doesn't need anything.
Again, we go back to that phrase, I am. God doesn't need anything. He is self-existent. He has no
need outside of Himself and He has no influence from the outside
in. Okay? He is self-existent. He doesn't need anything. God
never needed anything. So the question would be, If
God doesn't need anything, then why did He make something? Well, the reason that He made
anything was to serve Him. God doesn't need. God desires
service. He created all things for Him. So that phrase, for Him, isn't
that He had a need. He didn't need someone to show He didn't need us to show who
God is. I've heard all those arguments
in my lifetime that God needs to get God back in the man so
that men can see God. Well, that's what Jesus was for.
Jesus was the one who came to show men God in the flesh. Not
to tell us that we can be that. We will never be God in the flesh.
This flesh will never be able to do what Jesus did. We'll never
be able to be what Jesus is. So God doesn't need anything.
So whenever the Bible says that we were created and all things
were created for Him, it means it was created to serve a purpose. We were created for Him to serve
Him for a purpose. And whether we are the elect
of God or whether we are the reprobate, We were created to
serve a purpose. In Romans chapter 9 the Bible
says that He has created vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.
There are vessels of wrath, vessels fit for destruction. That's the
purpose for them. We'll get to that maybe a little
bit later, turn to that. But we are created for Him to
serve Him for His purpose. That's why the for Him is there.
Created by Him and for Him. for of Him and through Him and
to Him be glory forever." It's the to Him part. It's the to
Him part. We're serving a purpose. Everything
that he just said, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, powers, principalities,
all things are serving a purpose for God. Now, let's ask the question,
the big glaring question. Well, what about the wicked?
What about the wicked? Does that include the wicked?
Does that include evil? Does that include sin? Is God
surely involved in these things? Well, turn with me, if you would,
to Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs chapter 16. And again,
let's not run to the theologians Let's not run to our favorite
preacher or our favorite creed and confession. Let's go to God's
Word and let God's Word dictate to us what should be believed. Let's search the Scripture to
see whether these things be true. Proverbs 16. Look with me at
verse 4. It says, the Lord hath made all
things, so here we go again. The Bible says in the mouth of
two or three witnesses, a thing established. Well, now we have
four things here. And brethren, there are actually a lot more
that I won't get to, but there are more. But it says here again,
the Lord hath made all things, what does it say there? What
does it say there? For himself. He has made all
things for himself, again, The for Himself isn't because He
has a need. It's because He has a purpose
to be served. He has a purpose to be served.
All things were created by Him and for Him. And here it says,
the Lord hath made all things for Himself. And here's the clarity
of it. Yea, or even so, or including. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. Now that right there, that obliterates
a lot of people's theology that's out there. The modern theology,
the popular theology that is out in the world today, especially
in the United States. I tell you what, brethren, people
in other countries, they don't have quite the problem with God's
sovereignty and election and predestination like America does. America is rampant in false beliefs
about God and about Christ and about how He operates. But listen,
in other countries, these people understand these things. The
Lord has given them the understanding. This ain't a big problem. That's
because they don't have what we have in America, such the
affluence and such the ability to get out false doctrine as
fast as it can get out through radio and TV and social media
and a church on every corner that pops up just because, you
know, somebody's brother-in-law thinks that he wants to be a
preacher and wants to start a church. It says here, the Lord hath made
all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of
evil. That theology is not in most people's mind, that God
has created the wicked for himself. They believe that God can't touch
it, can't smell it, can't look upon it, don't want it, doesn't
desire it, it's not His purpose. That all came because of Adam's
sin, that Adam is the one who caused all this to happen. Well,
Adam was the one who brought sin and death into the world.
It's by one man that sin entered into the world, death by sin.
The Bible teaches that. It is by Adam, but it was God's
purpose to create, to put Adam where He put Adam, in the garden,
to give Adam a law that Adam couldn't keep, and to tell Adam
in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He told
him what would happen in advance. Before he even did it, he told
him. The day that thou eatest thereof, he didn't say if. If
you eat of this, you're gonna die. He said in the day that
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. See, God didn't have
to put the tree there. He didn't have to make the serpent
and put the serpent there. He didn't have to make Adam in
such a way that his nature would have a lust to say, you know
what? I will do that. But he did. God did do that. Why? Because
he had a purpose. We learn that before the foundation
of the world, God had elected for himself a people, loved the
people for himself, and to show forth his glory, He predestinated,
predetermined, foreordained, knew that He would bring sin
and death into the world so that He might glorify Himself by having
a Son that would be crucified, that would die for the people
that He loved. Okay? So how could that even happen?
If Christ stood, as the Bible says, as the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, If He stood as that Lamb, then
that means before the foundation of the world, God's purpose was
that Christ would be crucified. And if that was His purpose,
how would Christ be crucified lest there would be sin and death? There has to be sin because that's
the purpose for why He was being crucified. He came to save His
people from their sins. So sin had to exist for Him to
come in for the purpose of dying. But yet it also says that there
has to be death. Sin and death had to come into
the world because Christ can't die unless there's death. There
has to be death. So death came by sin. And sin
came from Adam's lust. But Adam was made by God. Made
by Him and for Him. And for that purpose God made
Adam. Therefore Adam was made good
just like God said. Whenever he looked and seen Adam,
he said, that is good. Why? Because Adam was holy and
righteous and perfect? No, Adam was good because Adam
was serving the purpose for which God had created him. God created
him to be the man that sin and death would enter into the world.
Thereby, his whole entire redemptive work be glorified and all of
his power and wrath be made known, as we'll see here in a few minutes
a little bit. Now look, that word there in Proverbs, that
word wicked, just to make sure that nobody thinks, well, that's
just talking about this or that. That word wicked there is found
252 times in the Old Testament, that Hebrew word. 252 times. That word is also
translated in our King James Bible eight times as ungodly
and one time as condemned. So God, defining His own terms
here, God hath made all things for Himself. Yea, even the wicked,
we can say, has made thee ungodly or has made thee condemned for
Himself. In Psalms, you can leave your
finger there in Proverbs, but in Psalms 109, I want to point
out to you that one place where the Lord translates it as condemned. Psalms 109, I believe it's verse
seven. Yeah, it's verse seven. It says, when he shall be judged,
let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. That word
condemned there, same Hebrew word as found back in Proverbs
16, where it says the wicked. The wicked and the condemned.
So God has made, created, brought forth from his purpose the wicked. And it says why? For a purpose.
For the day of evil. That word evil also is found
in the Old Testament 440 times. Out of that 440 times, this blew
me away whenever I looked at this. Out of that 440 times,
most of the time it was used as evil, right? 59 times it's
used as wickedness. God had, now let's look, The Lord hath made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the day of wickedness." 26 times it's translated wicked,
for the day of wicked. 19 times it's used as mischief. But here's one that really blew
my mind. The Lord also translated this word, and we don't have
a word like this really in English, today's English I would say,
but the King James has this word, and the word was evil-favoredness. God hath created all things for
himself, yea, the wicked, for the day of evil-favoredness. Now, brethren, this isn't me
trying to make up something or follow after some man's theology.
I'm just saying what God says. God has created the wicked man,
the wicked actions of men, and he has created that for him.
He has created it for his purpose, to serve a purpose. So as we
go back to the abortion clinic, the mass murderer, whatever the
case might be, is that evil? Absolutely. And will it escape
God's judgment? No, it won't. But God, who is
sovereign over all things and has under no law can purpose
and can predestinate even the very actions, the very people
and actions of wickedness to serve his purpose. And in Romans
chapter 9, none of us can ask God, why have you made me this
way? We're not going to be able to
get before God. It doesn't destroy our accountability before God
as many limited predestinarians want to make it. It doesn't destroy
accountability. For God to predetermine all things
doesn't destroy accountability. Every man will give an account
for himself, as we talked about a few weeks ago. Every man will
give an account for himself. We're going to give an account
before God and we can't say, well, why do you still find fault? It was you who can resist your
will. The Romans argument is the very
argument that we hear from limited predestinarians and from conditionalists. You're saying that if God predestined
everything, every action and every person and who's going
to be saved and who's not going to be saved, then whenever we
stand before God, we don't have any responsibility. You're right.
You don't have any responsibility, but you do have accountability.
You are a sinner. You have sinned. You have fallen
short of the glory of God. Therefore, you will be held accountable
for that unless Christ Jesus was your substitute. If he was
your substitute, he's accountable for you. The account that I give
before God is the account in the mouth of my advocate, Jesus
Christ. He is my advocate. But anyway,
back to what we were talking about. Evil. He has created the
wicked for the day of evil. Not some day in the future, but
for the purpose of the evil acts that they will do, for the purpose
of the times that evil will take place. He has created the wicked
for That very thing. Look with me if you would at
Job chapter 12. Job chapter 12 verse 16 again. The mouth of two or three witnesses
of the thing established, right? Job chapter 12 and verse 16. It says, with him is strength
and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are his. So here we see that God owns,
controls, has made both the deceived and the deceiver. Now who's the
deceiver? Well, that's surely Satan. We
know he's the deceiver. And all his children are the
deceived. And the Bible says these are
his. God doesn't have a problem owning
that. These are mine. Whenever, especially in view
of the context of this book of Job, Job was a man who love God
and to shoot evil. Job was a man who worshipped
God, gave God credit for all things. And God, Satan didn't
come to God and just start saying, hey, I'm going to attack Job. No, everything was going hunky-dory
for Job, and then it was God who asked Satan, what are you
doing? He said, have you considered my servant? Job. And then God allowed, if you'll let
me that word again, allowed Satan to do what he did, but he put
restrictions on him. You can go this far, no further.
You can do all these things to Job, but you can't take his life. And Satan did that. See, Satan
was at the service of God to do to Job what all happened to
Job. and couldn't do anything more
and surely didn't do anything less than what God allowed him
to do. Was Job's children all being
killed? Job's wealth all being taken?
Was his health and all the boils that he got on him, was all of
that a bad thing? Absolutely it was. But God had
purposed that. Who did it? Satan did it. But
it was God who said, consider my servant Job. Here's what you
can go do to him. And that he did. So nothing happened
in that whole entire scenario. And even Job said, the Lord take
it and the Lord give it. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And the Bible says that when Job said, the Lord is the one
who took away from me, God's the one who allowed, and it was
God's purpose, it was God's plan that what all happened to me
happened to me. The Bible says that in all that
Job did not sin or accuse God of unrighteousness. God did not,
or excuse me, Job knew that it was God, and it was God who ultimately
was the one who took all that away, but yet, The Bible says
that Job was not a sinner for saying God determined and executed
those evils upon Job. But yet we have limited predestinarians
and conditionals everywhere that say because we say that God is
the one who has purposed and predestined all these things,
that we are making God the author of sin and blaspheming God and
saying that God cannot do those things, when the Bible is clear
that God does do those things and that it is not a sin to declare
Him as a God who does such things. Because Job did not charge God
And it was called a sin. Job rightfully charged God that
God was the one who brought this upon him, but yet the Bible says
that was not sin to do so. For me to say that God predestinated
the abortion clinics, the mass murders, the things like this,
is not disfaming God or bringing some unrighteousness to God.
Because of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. Yea,
even the wicked for the day of evil. And brethren, while it
is evil now and while they are truly looking like they're running
rampant and controlling all things, they don't control all things.
And one of these days, whether it's in this lifetime that they
experience or see anything, surely in the life to come, their deeds
will be found out. They will be judged before a
holy God who will not acquit the wicked. they will be accountable. So
there's two witnesses there. The deceived and the deceiver
are His for His purpose to be used by Him. Look with me if
you would at Psalm 76. We're just about done. Psalm
76. Look with me if you would at
verse 10. It says, Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee." The wrath of man. Now the word
wrath of man there, that means his fury, his anger, his hatred. The Bible says that we in our
Adamic flesh, that we are at enmity with God. We are enemies
of God. The Bible says that we by nature
are children of wrath, not under wrath if we're a child of grace.
But we are children in the Adamic flesh. We are children of wrath.
That means that we are in a wrathful state against the God of the
Scriptures. The God, the true God. We don't
like His, we don't like His Gospel. We don't like His actions. We
don't like how He governs things. We don't like that God is sovereign
over all things. We don't like that God is predestined
everything. We don't like that Christ died for only His people.
We don't like those things in the flesh. And only by God's
grace are we given to understand and to have faith to believe
and then also love to cherish the plan and work that God has
done in salvation of being a God that predestines, elects, that
He does all these things. That is given because God has
caused us in the new birth to be able to believe and love these
things, whereas our nature hates these things. That's what the
wrath of God is. or the wrath of man is. The wrath of man is
his hatred and anger towards the God revealed in scripture.
And these men who want to say that God cannot do this and will
not do this and has not done this, that's the wrath of man
coming out of them. I still say that it's their incessant
desire to preserve their free will at the end of the day, which
is the ultimate sin that Adam had. The serpent came and said,
you can be as God, knowing good from evil. Adam and Eve didn't
even know the difference between good and evil until they ate
of the fruit and sinned. The serpent said, you can be
as God, knowing good from evil, meaning you are the one by your
will to determine what's good and what's evil. You, by your
own will, listen, You can choose, if you want to eat this and think
that it's good, you go ahead and do that. If you want to do
that, you can determine what's good and evil. See, that's sitting
in the place of God. That's sitting in judgment against
who God is and His Word. And that is saying that I want
to make myself above God. That's what Satan wanted to do,
right? Why? Because sin was found in him.
That's what Adam and Eve wanted to do. Why? Because sin was found
in them. And so we see that Adam only
did what God had purposed him to do. And that ultimate sin
of being God, being as God, is still what Satan is using today.
that limited predestinarian and that conditionalist is saying,
from the wrath of man, God can't do that. Who art thou, O God?
Why hast thou? Who can resist your will? See,
that's the wrath of man speaking. It's definitely not the voice
of the child of grace speaking. Now, I pray that all those men
I pray the Lord to give them repentance. I pray the Lord would
give them understanding. Look here. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise Him. The anger, the vitriol, the hatred
that man has towards God, the Bible says will praise Him. Now
how will that praise Him? How is that going to praise Him?
Well, number one, we see temporally that the wrath of man against
God would show down like, say, Pharaoh. God said, Moses, go
down and tell Pharaoh to let my people go, but I'm going to
harden his heart so that he will not let them go, that my power
might be made known. So God had a purpose in Pharaoh
not obeying God, and he was going to harden his heart to make sure
that Pharaoh would not let his people go. That was his predetermined
plan. And he told Moses, go down anyway
and tell him, but I'm going to harden his heart, and he won't.
But the whole purpose of all this thing is that my name might
be made known, that I will get glory over Pharaoh. So see, the
very disobedience of Pharaoh was to bring glory. That's what
the wrath of man will praise him in a temporal fashion. In
the temporal, this time period that we're in now, God receives
praise from the wickedness and from the wrath of man by God's
judgment upon men. God did whatever He wanted to
do with Pharaoh and He did it. But God also delivered Egypt
out of Pharaoh's hand and then destroyed all of Egypt in the
course of that. And God received glory from them,
from His people. What happened? As soon as they
got on the other side of the Red Sea, they began to burst out
in song and singing about how God had done all that for them.
It brought forth praise from the children of grace that God
had done that over their enemies. So there is a temporal thing
about that. But brethren, in the final say-so of all things,
the wrath of man is going to praise God because every wicked
deed, every wicked activity, action, everything that is against
God, that is unrighteousness, and listen, let me say, that
includes your unrighteousness of trying to be religious to
make concessions with God. Listen, the unrighteousness that
the Bible talks about a lot of in Scripture is not necessarily
the evil acts that we do that would be like hate and greed
and lust and fornication and things like that. A lot of the
unrighteousness that the Bible speaks of is the unrighteousness
of trying to be self-righteous before God by putting up our
good works that God would look at those and say, good for you. That we would be accepted before
God because of some activity that we've done, or that we are
kept by God for some activity we've done. That is the overarching
unrighteousness that the New Testament teaches, is the unrighteousness
of self-righteousness. Unless your righteousness exceeds
that of the Pharisees, See, the righteousness of the
Pharisees was a self-righteousness, unless your righteousness is
above theirs, because all their self-righteousnesses are filthy
rags. Unless your righteousness is
perfect, and there's only one who's perfect, and that's Christ.
Unless your righteousnesses are His, meaning that He did the
work for you, and His activity before God is the only thing
that's being counted, unless that is the case, then you're
going to be found in your unrighteousness. And so here, in the end, all
unrighteousness will be dealt with. fix a tire, or whatever they
might do that might be considered good. We think those are good
things. See, God didn't bring up all
the bad things. He said, Lord, Lord, have we
not done all these things in your name? And the Bible says
that Jesus will look down on them and say, did Parker make
you workers of iniquity? What a shock that's going to
be to many people to think that all these religious acts that
they've been doing are going to be considered works of iniquity.
works of sin, works of wickedness. He said, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. So see, we see here
that the wrath of man is going to be dealt with at the judgment
seat of God, that it will be thoroughly dealt with. And it's going to be all those
things that they did that was truly evil, but also all those
things that they thought they were doing good to gain righteousness
with God. All that stuff is going to be
dealt with, and it's all going to be to his praise because he
will judge rightly. Listen, God's not going to be
fooled. We have judges now that they can be fooled. They might
think somebody's really being honest in their testimony, and
they may judge in their favor because of, oh, they was up here
crying, and I could really see that they didn't mean to do that,
whatever. They could be swayed. They could be bought out, right?
be bought off. But listen, when the judgment
of God comes, there will be no blind eye turned. There will
be no deceiving. God who is righteous, God who
is holy, and God who is just will see and know all things. The Bible says that he knows
the very intent of the heart. And it will be laid open. It
will be judged. Therefore, the wrath of man will
praise Him in the fact that God's power, His righteousness, His
justice, and His wrath will be seen and carried out. So let's finish with one last
verse, Romans chapter 9. Maybe we can answer the question. Romans chapter 9 verse 21 says, Romans chapter 9, hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honor and another unto dishonor? That's a rhetorical question
there because we know that this is a quotation going back to
the Old Testament where the Old Testament declares that he is
the potter and we are the clay. So yes, the answer is yes. Does
the potter have power over the clay to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? Yes, for of him and to him and
through him are all things. He has made all things he's made
all things that by him and through him are
all things made. So yes, he can make one vessel
into honor and one into dishonor. It says, what if God willing
to show his wrath? Okay, so God willing to show
his wrath. Well, think about this thing,
brethren. And again, it's not a cut and
jerk. These doctrines that we hold
to, aren't black and white in the fact that we can just cut
and dry and say, okay, let's turn to one verse and there it
is. It's a systematic look throughout the scriptures. And I don't mean
a systematic theology look at this. I'm talking about it takes
looking at what does the Bible say overall. Think about it. What is God willing to show His
wrath? If God is going to show His wrath,
again we go back to our message from the last two weeks. If God
shows wrath, it's because there's been no propitiation. That means
Christ didn't die for them. If Christ died for you, then
that means your sins have been forgiven, you've been justified
before God, and God's wrath is not on you. That's what propitiation
means, no wrath. Well, if there is wrath, then
that means Jesus didn't die for you, and your sins are not forgiven,
and you have not been justified, and God's wrath abides on you. And it says here, what if God
is willing to show His wrath? So if God is willing to show
wrath, then that means that God is willing that there are some
that will perish. Even though He is willing that
not all of His elect will perish, He is willing that some will
perish because God is willing to show His wrath. See, I mean, everywhere you go
in Scripture, you can't get away from it. You cannot mask the
fact that God is sovereign over all things and has predestinated
all things and that His salvation is going to be accomplished the
way that He intended it to be accomplished, by Christ and Christ
alone. And everyone for whom He died
has the effect of what Christ died for. None will be lost.
None will be missed. Everyone that Christ died for
will be saved. But it says here, what if God
willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto glory? So
we see here that God can make vessels of Vessels of honor and
vessels of dishonor. Vessels fitted for destruction
or fitted to have wrath poured on them. And those who will be
fitted for glory. So if God has the power to do
that, then the fitting of destruction, the wrath, the wickedness, all
the evil that they were created for the purpose of showing that
glory of God in wrath, all that was for His glory, right? So
let's answer the question. Is there anything that doesn't
glorify God? No. Because ultimately, at the end,
all things glorify God because of Him and through Him and to
Him are all things to be glorified forever, right?
His glory forever is going to be the fact that He has created
all things that ever will happen and will be and determined all
those things. Creation and determination are two different things. I'm
not trying to say it's the same thing. But God has created all
things for the purpose of bringing about His predetermined purpose. And that purpose is to glorify
Himself. And He does that through good
and through bad, through evil, through wickedness, He does that
through His people's redemption, their faith that He gives them
to believe upon Him, the love that He sheds abroad in their
heart that they might love Him and love His brethren. They're
looking to Christ. All these things are to show
forth His glory. That's why God said earlier in
Romans 9, it doesn't have anything to do whether anyone did anything
good or bad, but that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. one or the other. He's chosen the wicked for the
day of wickedness. He's chosen the righteous for
the day of righteousness. He's chosen the wicked and will
destroy the wicked and receive glory through all the wrath and
excuse me, through all the righteousness that he has displayed, that they
have transgressed, that they could not keep themselves. He's
going to throw wrath upon them and he will be glorified in that.
And then all the people that Christ died for? He will receive
glory because those people there are the same as these people
over here, but yet Christ died for them, and so God will receive
glory and mercy and grace and compassion upon the salvation
of a people who deserve this wrath, but yet God gave grace
to. Therefore, they will be vessels
of glory and honor because of Christ. These will be vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction because of them, and therefore
God will be glorified. And no man's gonna be able to
say, well, why'd you put me over in this pile and not over into
that pile? Nobody can say that. We don't have that right. God's
already answered that question. So I pray that whenever we think
of some of these things, we not let emotion, see, we try to get
God off the hook for being something that we think that he's not.
But if the Bible is clear and says something about God that
he is, then we shouldn't be ashamed to preach that or teach that.
And those who are born of God, they will eventually come to
believe and to learn these things and to cherish these things as
the Spirit of God teaches them and leads them into all truth.
Now, I'm not saying that the brethren that disagrees with
this, the limited predestinarians and the conditionals that I was
talking about, I'm not saying that they're not the elect of
God. I'm not saying that. But I'm just saying that they're
in error. And I believe that they are trying to save God from
being something that the Bible never says that He is. He is
not evil. He has never sinned. He can't
sin. He can't sin. But can He do things that He
told man not to do? Yeah, He can. God killed people. When God says not to kill, He
tells us, thou shalt not kill, but God is fine whole nations, whole people,
men, women, children, animals, wipe them off the face of the
earth. And is God unjust for doing that? No. Now I've heard
some say, well, that's because of judgment upon them. Well,
it doesn't matter what it is. God did it. God did it. And he has the right to do that
where we don't have the right to do that. So anyway, does anybody
got any questions or comments? Any corrections or rebukes? I'm
not above correction for being wrong. It's not a popular subject
and surely isn't received by many. It says, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Now, again, people are going
to say, well, that evil is talking about calamity, not evil. What we've just seen in other
places is that He does create evil, create the wicked for the
day of evil. thereby he is the first cause
of all the secondary causes that come from the wicked by creating
them in such a way that they would bring forth wickedness,
right? We can't charge God with being a sinner. But this whole
thing, this argument about making God the author of sin, the Bible
doesn't say anywhere in it that God is not the author of sin,
okay? It doesn't say that. That's a
theological term that men have brought up. So you have to define
what you mean by that. If you mean God is not the author
of sin, meaning that God has done some sort of sinful thing
or whatever, that he's a sinner or anything like that, I would
agree. Yeah, God is not that. But if you say that God didn't
purpose and predestinate and make man in such a way that he
would sin, I would have to disagree with you that because the Bible
screams all over the place that he did. And so, Whether you want
to use that term or not, I know it's a divisive term, and it
has brought a lot of division. And I even hate using the phrase
just because people have a knee-jerk reaction to it. A big knee-jerk
reaction to it. But you've got to define your
terms. You've got to say what you're saying. A lot of people say that we're
saying God is saying something that we're not saying. They're
assuming that's our thoughts because of what we're saying.
So, you know, is God sovereign over sin and evil? Yes, He is.
Has He predestinated sin and evil? Yes, He has. But God has
done that for His purpose, for all things are by Him and through
Him and to Him, to Him be glory forever. So even creating the
evil, creating darkness, creating these things so that they would
be what they are, you know, that's what God did to bring forth His
purpose. And He will be glorified in it. Nothing's gonna stop Him. Anybody else got anything you'd
like to add? Another verse? I know there's a lot of verses
in here. I didn't. Didn't even begin,
I mean, just if you're in Isaiah 45, chapter 46, declaring the
end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will do
all my pleasure, calling Ravenous Burke from the east, the man
that executed my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken
it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also
do it. I mean, that's God in control from the beginning of
time, declaring all things, And it's after the counsel of His
own will, not after ours. See, that's the other thing,
looking down the corridor of time. If God is making choices based on stuff
that, He is doing all things after the counsel of man's will,
not His own will. Anyway. All right. Nobody has
any questions or anything? Let's bow and have a little prayer. Heavenly Father, we come once
again. We thank You. We honor and give glory to You
for who You are. And Lord, may our hearts never
rise in pride thinking that we know everything because we know
that you are past finding out that your ways are higher than
our ways. We know, Father, that we can never search and find
the depths of all your knowledge and wisdom and why you do what
you do. We can only declare what you have revealed yourself. And
Lord, we just pray that as we do so, we pray that we do that
in truth. Lord, if I am in error, I pray,
Lord, that you would bring teaching to my heart and mind and correction,
Lord, through your word. And, Lord, I pray that you just
might continue to reveal yourself to us and teach us what your
word says about you and grow us in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for these brethren
that are here today. I ask, Lord, that you be with them this week,
that you might keep them, that you might have watch care over
them, Lord, and that you might minister to them throughout this
week. Father, we just pray that all the things that we've done
here today has been honoring to you and has exalted the Lord
Jesus Christ. And again, we know that there's
nothing in us that can ever bring merit. There's nothing in us,
Lord, that would ever cause you to do what you've done by grace
alone. And so we ask now, Lord, that
you would keep our hearts contrite, that you would keep our hearts
meek, and that we might not boast in the arm of the flesh, but
we might truly look to Christ and Christ alone. It's in His
name that we pray. Amen.