94-15 Suffering: Faith on Trial – A Shabby Belief System

The following sermon by Dr. Chuck F. Betters is from a 7-part series on suffering.

In this scripture-packed sermon series, Dr. Chuck F. Betters walks suffering believers into the honest, holy language of the Psalms, where God’s people bring their doubts, fears, questions, and grief into the presence of the Lord. Beginning with Psalm 73, Chuck helps listeners wrestle with the questions pain often raises: Is God truly sovereign? Is He perfectly good? Why do the wicked seem to prosper while God’s people suffer? This series reveals the building blocks of a shabby belief system, like proof-texting, a lack of understanding of the omnipotence and goodness of God in an evil world, and then builds a theology of suffering that is more than a belief system. Such a strong biblical understanding of suffering equips God’s people to turn to Him when crisis comes. It points hurting hearts to the steady love of Christ, the purposes of God that cannot be shaken, and the comforting truth that in our weakest moments, we are held securely in His grip.

Transcript

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Butters, produced by Marking Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Butters as he preaches today's message.

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I've begun a series entitled Faith on Trial. Is our God omnipotent? It's what we talked about the last time. Today I want to talk about shabby belief systems. Psalm 73, the Psalm of Asaph, he says in verse 1, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Verse 2, but as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. And then from verse 3 through verse 28, he begins to raise a series of questions, a series of concerns centered around that goodness and that omnipotence of God. He says, For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Now is that true? Well, of course that's not true. But that's his perception. He looks at his own life and then he looks around him and he sees that arrogance and materialism and godlessness seems to flourish. He says their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man. Now, he very well may have had specific people in mind. He may have even had members of his own family in mind. Or maybe political leaders, or some of his enemies. But whoever these people were, he looked at them and he said, something's wrong with this picture. And he goes on and develops this theme of, well, here I am, a God-fearing man. Here I am committed to the integrity of holiness. Here I am trying to do the right things, trying to please the Lord, trying to worship the Lord. And I look around me at people who are doing anything but serving God, who are doing anything but seeking to please God, who have no thought of serving Him whatsoever. I see their prosperity, I see my own suffering, something's wrong with this picture. Even says later on, I've been punished every morning. That's how this man felt. I've been punished every morning. He speaks of a bitter spirit. He speaks of almost slipping. But then about halfway through this wonderful psalm, he reaches a turning point. He begins to put some very specific applications or wheels to his theology. He says, when I tried to understand all of this, it was oppressive to me until, and this is the turning point, until I entered into the sanctuary of God. In other words, something happened that changed my understanding. Something happened that changed my perspective on suffering, on pain, on the seeming prosperity of the wicked. Then I understood their final destiny. You see, they have their reward. When you look around at the prosperity of the wicked, when you see people seemingly advancing in the world without any care whatsoever, who pride themselves in the fact that they do not believe in God, that they do not love the Lord, that they have a superficial religious system at best. When you look at all of that, you have to conclude: is this all there is? Do they not have their reward? And Asaph says, surely you place them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrorists? A few years ago, the top entertainer in the world, making 80, 90, 100, 120 million dollars a year was Michael Jackson. How quickly things change. How many of the stars and celebrities who just roll in success are here today and gone tomorrow? How many empires have fallen? How many kings and rulers and princes have fallen? They're here today. They're gone tomorrow. He concludes all of this by saying at the end, but as for me, it is good to be near God. Isn't that wonderful? It is good for me to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge. I will tell of all your deeds. So you see where he ends is where he started. He starts off by speaking of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God and the omnipotence of God, expresses to us and allows us to eavesdrop on his struggles as he observes the success of others and measures it against the backdrop of his own pain and then comes right back to the sovereignty of God, who is our refuge. Well, last time we were together, we raised the old $64,000 question: why does God allow pain and evil? Is our God omnipotent or isn't he? And here is where we went with that. We said, well, now let's take a look. If God is omnipotent, all powerful, and all good or perfectly good, then how can he permit evil? If he is willing, listen, if he is willing but unable to check evil, then he is not really omnipotent. If he is able but unwilling to check evil, then he is not perfectly good. So we're caught in this dilemma. Is he both omnipotent and perfectly good? And these lines of reasoning will bring into question for many people the very existence of God, especially for Christians who become suddenly aware of pain and evil and suffering. We begin to question: is God really God? Is he really perfectly good? Is he really omnipotent? We talked about the need to be in his grasp. We talked about the need to fill our lives with good assumptions. There are a whole variety of false assumptions that contribute to a shaky, at best, belief system. What are they? Well, we talked about an imbalanced view of scripture. We look at the great heroes of the Bible, who are seemingly men and women of faith, who always seem to rise above their circumstances, always walking away in faith, rejoicing in the God of their salvation. But that kind of faith does not come without a high price tag. You want that kind of faith, you're going to have to pay the price. You want that kind of hero status, you're going to have to experience severe pain and severe testing. And so we tend to take scriptures and it contributes to our faulty system. We have an imbalanced view of scripture. We say, well, Elijah called fire down from heaven, didn't he? Yes, but he also battled great bouts of depression. There's a price tag. Especially for those who are a threat to the kingdom of hell. Whenever you get serious about the omnipotence and the goodness of God in your life, you become a threat, a lightning rod to the kingdom of hell. You become a severe test to Satan and to the demonic powers that exist in this world. And don't you think for one minute that when you get serious about your faith in Christ, that Satan isn't going to pull out all the heavy artillery to bring so much pain and suffering and testing into your life to reduce you to rubble. Why? Because as men and women of faith who are trusting and believing in God, then and only then are you a threat to Him. So you want to be a hero of the faith. There's a price tag. Another thing that contributes to this shabby belief system is we bow too often to the tyranny of the urgent. Say, what do you mean? God needs to take away our struggles and he needs to take them away when? Right now. Any delays, then you must not love me. Any questions, then you must not love me. But have you ever noticed how God dealt with the giants of faith? Moses' life didn't begin until he was 80. He was really a nothing for 40 years living on the backside of the desert. Until God got a hold of his life. Joseph had to wait nearly 20 years for vindication from false charges. Even the anguish of the saints under the altar. You read about it in Revelation 6. They say, How long, O Lord? How long? Now these are people in heaven. Before you avenge your people and avenge our blood. You see, God is not constrained to our timetables. Sharon and I have learned that God's dictionary is different than ours. When he says a little while, when he says a little while, and when I a little while, we're talking about two different little whiles, aren't we? God is not constrained to my timetable. And yet what we tried to point out to you is listen, nothing, nothing, nothing that ever happens to you. Nothing that happens to you in the way of temptation or testing or trial or pain or suffering or evil, nothing that strikes at the core of your life happens to you unless it is first filtered through the hands of a sovereign God who is working all things out for his purpose. We've got to grab that. We've got to understand that. We miss that, we miss the boat. We looked at a whole variety of scriptures. Thirdly, what contributes to a shabby belief system is we key in on and proof text certain verses. Top of the list, Romans 8.28. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose. There it is, doesn't it say all things? And doesn't it say for the good of the electric? Yeah, it does. But look at the context. Look at the book ends of Romans 8.28. What is the context of this passage? Suffering. Testing, trial, hardship, attempts by the very kingdom of hell, by the forces of hell, to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. And I think every one of you can look as Christians at experience after experience after experience where Satan pulled out the heavy artillery in an attempt to separate you from the love of God in Christ. He may throw some temptation at you, some testing. Maybe you have a troubled marriage. What does Satan do? Throw some other woman at you, some other man at you. Somebody who will flatter you, somebody who will tickle your ego. Somebody who will make you feel good about yourself. Somebody you can quote talk to. And you begin to talk to that person. And words are exchanged, flattering words. The old ego is built up. The next thing you know, you are entangled and entrapped in serious sin and you don't know what happened. The bookends of Romans 8:28 speak of intense suffering. Notice what he says in verse 27 of Romans 8. Turn to that. Romans chapter 8. Look with me at verse 27. I want to underscore one phrase. We cannot proof text certain verses in order to support a shabby belief system. He says, verse 27 of Romans 8, and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit. Now, this is what I want you to underscore, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with their own wishes and desires. Right? Wrong. Did you pick that up? The Holy Spirit living in me. Now we're talking about all things working together for good to those who love God, to the elect of God. The Holy Spirit residing in my spirit, and by the way, the Holy Spirit resides in every believer's spirit. I don't have a part of the Holy Spirit, I have all of the Holy Spirit. Every believer receives the full portion of the Holy Spirit at the moment they are converted. Let it not be misunderstood. There is not more of the Holy Spirit to get. So confused I don't have perspective. So distorted I don't know what the next day is going to bring. So confused. There are times when my spirit is in that state. Anybody here with me? It is at that point that my Bible says the Spirit of God who is in me, the one who is my advocate, my counselor, my mediator, my intercessor, he takes the true need of my heart before the throne of grace and intercedes, intersecting what is in my spirit with what is the my will and purpose of God. Now I gotta tell you, you can't get any more secure than that. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. You see, God has a purpose. In that context, he says, and we know that all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called, here it is again, according to his purpose. Now the question then becomes, does God owe you an explanation of that purpose? Not in this life. Not in this life, he doesn't. He doesn't have to answer any of your questions in this life. But one thing we know, that when we get to heaven and when we stand face to face with a holy God, that same Holy Spirit who intercedes for me with moanings and groanings that I cannot even utter. When I don't even know how to pray, the Spirit of God prays for me. When I don't know how to access the throne of grace, the Holy Spirit accesses the throne of grace for me. I know that in this life, God owes me no explanations, but in that life, all of it will come together in a beautiful mosaic, and God will show me this was my purpose all along. Can you get any more secure than that? A shabby belief system pulls that verse out of context and says, Well, now God's got to explain this to me. I gotta see some good come out of this in this life. And you may never see any good that comes out of it. I've told you before, I'll tell you again, what we have gone through and are going through. I can't see any, any possible way in which whatever happens in this life, in this life, will somehow justify the loss of our son. You say, well, what about if somebody comes to Christ? I say, it's not worth it. Now I'm speaking honestly to you, it's not worth it. Not to me, it isn't. And God is not going to explain that to me. You say, well, what? You don't love the lost enough. Well, you see, I happen to love my son more. I can't explain that to you. I can just share that with you and tell you that God owes me no explanation. And whatever explanation he gives in this life isn't going to cut it. Only when I see the whole picture. Only when I stand before God and see the whole picture. You see, that's what Thomas went through. We put a bad rap on Thomas, we call him the old what? Doubter. Oh, this man was anything but a doubter. Study the life of Thomas. Get my sermon on Thomas. We examined Thomas very closely. He was anything but a doubter. What he needed was perspective. You see, he couldn't put the pieces together. But when God put the pieces together, when Jesus in that post-resurrection appearance stood before him and said, Thomas, now come here and put your hand into my side and put your fingers into the nail prints. What did he do? Drop down on his knees and said, My Lord and my God. You see, God gave him perspective. Up until then, he didn't have the full perspective. See, when we go to heaven, God's going to give us full perspective. Romans 8.28 does not guarantee you a solution in this life. Not at all. Not at all. And when we begin to pull those verses out, we box God into some theological corner, and when he disappoints us with no answers, our system falls apart, and we usually give up. Well, fourthly, contributing to a shabby belief system is what I call an imbalance between truth and experience. Now, by the way, I don't think any of this is on your outline. This is from last week. An imbalance between truth and experience. Say, what do you mean? We pride ourselves on good doctrine. In fact, I think as reformed people, we pride ourselves too much on good doctrine. You say, can you ever be too doctrinally correct? Yeah, I think you can. I think you can become so locked into your systematized doctrinal system that you have all the answers for everything. This is why this happens, and this is why that happens, and God is this, and God is that, and my theology says this, and my system says that. And then when tragedy strikes, the doctrinal truth offers very little hope for comfort. Why? Why is that? Isn't good doctrine important? Of course it is. But listen carefully. I think the reason sometimes our doctrinal system fails is because our doctrinal system leaves, in some cases, very little room for mystery. Very little room for what can't be explained. Our despair grows bleaker and our hope is crushed because the doctrinal system was neatly wrapped and packaged in such a way that we thought it was foolproof. But it wasn't foolproof. Why? Without allowance for the mystery of our faith, we then question the validity of our doctrinal system that we once held so dear. Yes, I believe in a sovereign God who does all things well. But now stop and think, Chuck, what do you mean by that? What do you mean that God is sovereign? Well, if I say God is sovereign, God does what he pleases. And I have no control over what God does. God does what pleases him. And there are some things that God does that he's not going to explain to me, they become what? Mysteries. I have to drop back for a moment at that point and say, wait a minute, a Christianity that leaves no room for the mysterious or the unexplained becomes arrogant and rigid and unbending. And I have seen even great theologians holding to the dearness of the Reformed faith who become, in their doctrinal system, legalistic because they allow for nothing short of what they can explain doctrinally. No mystery. You see, the God of that kind of Christianity is just not big enough to be trusted when you're up to your neck in the muck and the mire of defeat. On the other hand, now, Christianity that is nothing more than mystery, and nothing more than experience, leaves nothing to believe in and nothing to proclaim. Especially when the experiences fade behind some dark clouds of grief and pain. So we need a balance. We need a balance of what is true and a balance of what is mysterious, and we need to see that what is true and what is mysterious is all a part of a sovereign God. Fifthly, a shabby belief system is one that has a single-dimensioned focus on the cross. We missed the full message of the cross. Listen, I know this might confuse some of you. But the cross of Jesus Christ is more than just the means to your salvation. It is all of that. It is the only way by which we can be saved. We can only be saved by believing in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for our sins on the cross, trusting in Him and Him alone for our salvation, repenting of our sins and believing that Christ has justified us freely by the shed blood on the cross. But the cross is more than that. Go over to Matthew's gospel, chapter 10. I believe a single-dimensional focus of the cross contributes to a shabby belief system. Matthew 10. And look at verse 38. Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me, underscore this, is not worthy of me. Now hold that thought. Six chapters later, Matthew 16. Matthew 16. Look with me at verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, underline now, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now compare that to Luke chapter 9 and verse 23. You don't have to turn to this. I'll read it to you. He said to them all, if anyone would come after me, now this is Luke's account of the same verse, same thoughts, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross, and this is what I have underlined, daily and follow me. Later, Luke would say, Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Put all these together. He has said that if you fail to carry your cross, you're not worthy of him. You cannot follow him, you cannot be his disciple, you must take up that cross every single day of your life, that the cost of discipleship is counted in the carrying of that cross. Put all those pieces together. And what do you have? All of a sudden, things begin to flesh out that you didn't understand before. Hey, the cross of Jesus Christ is more than just the means to my salvation. After that great 11th chapter, where it speaks of the great heroes of the faith and their absolute dependence upon the grace of God, he says in the 12th chapter, seeing we are encompassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the one who is the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the Father. He says, now that's the model. Picking up the cross. Now later in our series, we're going to talk about that. We're going to look a little bit closer. But for right now, I'm just asking you a question. What kind of cross-bearing is he speaking of? I thought we were saved by the grace of God alone. Is he saying that I must also bear the cross in order to be saved? Well, of course not. Of course he isn't. Our salvation is purely dependent upon the finished work of Christ on the cross. All of these verses in their context are speaking of one thing and one thing only, and that is the need of a Christian every day of his life to learn how to deny himself. We must learn how to deny ourselves. Anything short of that is a shabby belief system. Well, okay, having said that, as we continue to pursue our understanding of suffering and pain, I want to ask you what your worldview is. How does your worldview answer the question? Why does God permit suffering and evil? How does your worldview, how do you view things? Consider, first of all, the atheistic worldview. Let me tell you what the atheist does. The atheist or the materialist, the materialistic worldview, he views life this way. Now keep in mind, he has to answer the same question you and I do. Why do we have pain, evil, and suffering in this world? So we have Mr. Atheist sitting over here. Now I would venture to say that none of you sitting here are atheists. Maybe there's one or two. Maybe somebody listening by radio is an atheist, but for the most part, you're not. But let's pretend that you are, right here. Let me ask you, Mr. Atheist, a question. We've got a problem. You say there is no God. I say, all right, if there is no God, then there is no criterion of measuring goodness, and the atheist will agree with this. You don't measure goodness outside of the universe itself. So we live in this closed universe, and within the context of that closed universe, we have to address the question of goodness, morality. The atheist will tell you that everything that is happening is the wastage of evolution. That is the chance bumping of atomic and subatomic particles. What rational person could feel justified? I ask the atheist. What rational person then could feel justified in having any moral outrage against any evil at all in that kind of a system? How can you be outraged when you have defined moral goodness as some sort of abstract concept in a closed universe? So you see, atheism solves nothing at all. It simply says that evil doesn't exist, it isn't there. Although atheism often presses Christianity on this point of suffering and evil, they say, Well, what kind of God are you serving? You say you believe in God, then why do you have all this suffering and evil in the world? You can very easily turn the tables right on the atheist, the materialist, and say, by what standard do you measure moral goodness? And whatever your standard is, you still have to answer the question, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Where is your good and omnipotent God, they say? And yet they offer even less to the solution of pain and suffering. That is why, by the way, the psalmist says in chapter 14, verse 1, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, their deeds are vile, there is no one who does good. That's a foolish worldview. But yet it's a worldview that many people hold. Well, most of you aren't in that boat. But I see an even more dangerous worldview. When it comes to addressing this issue of pain and suffering. Now here it is. Remember what Asaph did when he started off his chapter? Remember what he did when he started off his complaint and how he ended his complaint? He bookended it around one issue and one issue only: the sovereignty of God. God is a sovereign God. But now here is where I think a lot of us as Christians get into serious trouble. Not atheism, not the materialistic worldview that answers nothing. But we get into trouble in saying that God is less than omnipotent. We do that several ways. This is in what we would call Christian circles. We say God is not really omnipotent by saying that we believe in, well, for example, dualism. What is dualism? Dualism says that there are two opposing forces in the universe. Over here, you have one that's good. Over here, you have one that's evil. And since one neither completely masters the other, neither God nor Satan is really omnipotent. Now there are Christians who believe that. That God has turned Satan loose in a dualistic world. Good and evil, striving together, contending together, good over here, evil over here. And since one never really masters the other, neither God is omnipotent nor is Satan omnipotent. And I'll give you an illustration of this. Remember a few years ago a book came out written by Harold Kushner. Harold Kushner was a Jewish rabbi who had lost his son, tragically. And the grief that Harold Kushner, the Jewish rabbi, had, drove him to question the very roots of his Jewish belief system. He wrote a book entitled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Now you know what the conclusion of that book was? He came to the conclusion. Now listen to this carefully. He said, God could not have prevented his son's death. I'm quoting him now. Listen carefully to what Kushner's saying. You say, well, he's a Jewish rabbi. Many Christians believe this too. This is sad. He said, quote, I can worship a God who hates suffering but cannot eliminate it. More easily than I can worship a God who chooses to make children suffer and die. Do you hear what this man is saying? Neither God nor Satan is omnipotent. And he said it's easier to defend God if he was powerless to prevent my son's death. That's dualism. That's a belief system that many Christian people hold to. There's evil in the world and there's good in the world. And they battle and they conflict, but one is not omnipotent over the other. Well, there's a second form of making God less than omnipotent. I call it free willism. Free willism. Now let me define this for you. Here's what the free willers do. They say God has purposely limited himself within the borders of man's free will. Although he's omnipotent, he has said, Well, I'm not really going to be omnipotent. I'm going to draw a circle, and within that circle, I'm going to allow man free will, and I will not exercise control over what's in that circle. Closely tied to that, I think, is a third view, which we call deism. Now, deism says this. The deist believes that God is a transcendent God who, even though he may be personal, does not reveal himself personally. And he cannot be personal. The deist thinks of God as the creator. In fact, he views creation this way: God created the heavens and the earth. The affairs of men, he's not attached at all. He gives laws and rules, natural laws, natural rules that govern the universe, just winds up the clock like a little doll and lets it run by itself. That's a deist. God simply, they say, has created the earth with certain laws, certain principles, wound up the clock of evolution, detached himself from it, and lets it run its course. Similar to what the free willers say, God has limited himself and has allowed man to do what man wants to do. You see, this God is too big, they say, too transcendent to bother with little things like human beings. And what we perceive to be evil and suffering, God says, no, that's not my cup of tea, that's not my problem. You're just living within the universe that's a closed system, in much the same way that we human beings do not give a lot of thought to whatever suffering and accidents may befall us, say, you know, drugs or headlights or whatever. God is detached, divorces himself. I want to tell you, that's a very dangerous system. Free willism and its more extreme form of deism. Make God less than omnipotent, too big to care, too big to be involved, and so a Kushner can come out and say, it's easier for me to worship that kind of a God, because then I don't have to defend him. Then I can say that the problem of evil and suffering is not in his hands. Well, there's several problems with this view. Several problems with these views. Turn over to Genesis chapter 41. The first problem with these views is they cannot be defended scripturally. That's problem number one. They simply cannot be defended scripturally. Now, Genesis chapter 41 and verse 32. Now, here is this detached God that winds up the clock, limits himself in terms of power and authority, and allows man to just suffer and experience evil in a detached, transcendent sort of way. Genesis 41, 32. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms, and there's a lot of background on this, and you need to study it. But he says, the reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms. Remember that conflict? Remember that battle? He says, is that the matter has been firmly decided by God and God will do it soon. Not only in the form of dream one, but the form of dream two. God was intimately involved in the decision-making process. You say, why? Because God decided it. Now study the context of that passage. I don't have the time to do that now. But go to Genesis chapter 50. A very familiar verse. You've all heard and read this verse. Remember the story of Joseph, how he was falsely accused, he was sold by his brothers, he came under Pharaoh, he was accused of rape by the wife of Potiphar and sent to prison and all these other things. And he goes back and he reviews his life. And in talking to his brothers to whom he was reunited, he says, You intended to harm me. But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. How do you justify a transcendent God who is detached from the personal needs of his people with verses like that? Go over to the next book, Exodus chapter 4. You know, I'm often asked, are babies born deformed as a product of chance or evil? Are children that are formed in utero and the parents know that this child is going to be deformed? Should they not abort that child? The deist would say God wound up the clock and let the natural processes run its course. That he had nothing to do with the fact that the child is born deformed. Well, what do you do with Exodus 4.11? Which says, the Lord said to him, Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf from mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not pure chance, says the Lord? Is that what he says there? Is it not I, says the Lord? You know, parenthetically, we talk about children being retarded. We talk about, oh not awful, children are retarded, they're abnormal. You know what's always amazed me when I see retarded children? They're always smiling. Did you notice that? They're always smiling. They must look at us and say, these people are abnormal. They never smile. Amen? Who makes the blind blind? Who makes the deaf deaf? Is this a detached deistic God? Exodus chapter 14. Wonderful story of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and the deliverance under Moses. He says in verse 17, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Who was hardening Pharaoh's heart? God was hardening Pharaoh's heart. Yet in that book of Exodus it says, And Pharaoh hardened his heart. Well, which was it? It was both. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, but it was God who was sovereign over the experience. You say, wait a minute, Pastor, are you saying, are you saying that God is sovereign even over the evil acts of men? Absolutely yes. Absolutely yes, yet without himself becoming sin. You know, it's interesting. Job 5, verse 6. You don't have to turn to it, but in Job 5, 6 it says, For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. What's the context? Hardship and trouble is filtered. Through the hands of a sovereign personal God. The same book of Job, chapter 36, says, He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark. Strike its mark. How can you believe in a detached God? How can you believe in the sovereignty of God and hold to a view that does not make him responsible ultimately for everything that is filtered through his goodness, sovereign plan, and purpose, including the evil acts of men? Surely, the psalmist would say in the 76th Psalm, surely your wrath against men brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained. Does that sound transcendent? Detached? What about Proverbs 21, verse 1? The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. You hear that, Mr. Clinton? The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like the watercourse wherever he pleases. Isaiah 45, verse 7, I form the light and I create the darkness. I bring prosperity and I create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things. You getting a picture of God you didn't have before? Jeremiah 15, verse 2. And if they ask you, where shall we go? Tell them, this is what the Lord says. Get this now. This is the Lord now, saying where they should go, those destined for death to death, those destined for the sword to the sword, those destined for starvation to starvation, those destined for captivity to captivity. And who's directing the course? Who's the orchestra director? Who is the one making it happen? A detached deistic God? Transcendent yet impersonal? Powerless to change the affairs of men? Is that what Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebendigo said in Daniel 3, 17? If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it and to rescue us from your hand, O king. It's not in your power. Joel chapter 2, verse 25. Listen to this verse. I will repay. I will repay you for the years the locust has eaten. I gotta tell you, I take and my wife takes and my family takes great comfort in this. I will repay you for the years the locust has eaten. Now get this. The great locust and the young locust, the other locust and the locust swarm. And that verse doesn't stop there. The great army of locusts that I sent you. Who's taking responsibility for the locust? The Lord. Amos 3, 6, when a trumpet sounds in the city, do not the people tremble? When a disaster comes to the city, has not the Lord caused it? When a disaster strikes the city, is it not the Lord that causes it? Oh no, it was just the quirk of nature out in Los Angeles. That's all it was. Just a little glitch in the evolutionary process in the Midwest that caused all those floods. Or we would even go as far as to say, well, now Satan did all of that. Satan did all of that. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 3, for the revelation awaits an appointed time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. Oh, but we have a detached God who's wound up the universe. And he certainly doesn't care about your headlights, does he? He certainly doesn't care about your little problems. He certainly cannot care about mere human beings. He's too busy for that. He sends rain, he sends earthquakes, he sends locusts, he's in control from top to bottom. He is a sovereign God, and nothing, nothing, nothing that happens to you isn't first filtered through his hands. Even Judas' betrayal. Luke 22 says, the Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. Woe to him who betrays him. Turns to Judas and says, Go do what you must do. Don't you know I have the power to execute you, Pilate would say. John 19, 11, you have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. You do not take my life from me, I lay it down freely. The apostle would preach. Acts chapter 4, 27. Indeed, Herod Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus. This is the preacher standing up after Pentecost, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Wait a minute. Pilate and Herod did what you decided beforehand they would do. Herod slapped you, ridiculed, mocked you. Pilate hung you on a cross. Early church leaders stand up and say, God determined that, not Herod and not Pilate. Different image of God, isn't it? James chapter 4, verse 15. He says, Hey, when you get up tomorrow and say, I'm going to go here and I'm going to go there, say this first. If it's the Lord's will, we will live and do this or do that. You just cannot scripturally justify deism, free willism. Any view that shows us a dualism that shows us that God is anything less than omnipotent. It cannot be scripturally supported. Secondly, believers can never be sure how the world will turn out. You can never be sure how it's going to turn out if you hold that kind of view. And thirdly, I gotta tell you, at least from my point of view and my understanding of scripture, you hold to any of those views of God being anything less than omnipotent, that will offer you very little comfort, if at all. To abandon belief in the absolute sovereignty and omnipotence of God, it may solve, as it did for Kushner, the problem of evil, but the cost is a God who is incapable of helping us. He may be giving us a little bit of help here and there, some sympathy, maybe even groan and moan with us a little bit, but he cannot help us now, and he will not help us in the future. He's doing the best he can, you see, but it's really all up to us. Sola bootstrappa, once again. God is omnipotent, they say, but he's chosen to limit himself and has ordained evil only within certain bounds in order to achieve some higher good. I say that is not the God of the Bible. And that is not a God who can comfort me when I'm experiencing pain and grief. What about you? Who is your God? How big is your God? My Bible says he knows how many hairs you have on your head. He says, not even a crusty old bird can fall from the air without him knowing it. He said, Solomon, arrayed in all of his glory, was not arrayed like one of these, pointing to a measly old flower and comparing that to you. Aren't you of much greater worth and value to that kind of a sovereign God? That's where Asaph came back to. That's what he returned to. Lord, I see all this happening. But ultimately I have to bow and say, although you don't owe me an explanation now, one day you will make sense out of all of it. And I bow to know you. The atheist offers no hope. The dualist offers no hope. The free willer offers no hope. The only hope we have is a belief in the absolute sovereignty of God, omnipotent and perfectly good, even over the evil affairs and acts that are allowed to be filtered into your life.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said it.

SPEAKER_01 54:21

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