Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, enlighten with celestial fire.
Father, we deal with evil within ourselves.
Often we don't deal with it as we should, or even as we could.
We deal with evil all around us.
We deal with doubts and questions.
We deal with the questions which others throw against the faith
and the challenges which are thrown against the faith
to which we do not often know the answer.
And Father, in such a world we give you thanks and praise
that you are still sovereign, that Jesus is still the Lord and the Savior,
and that the Holy Spirit is still at work.
And we ask, Father, that in your kindness and mercy to us
the Holy Spirit would move deep within our hearts,
deep within our minds and our wills,
that we might be gripped once again with the truth of your word
and the truth of the gospel and learn to live for your glory.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, we're going to look today at the idea that God is good, just, and merciful.
Now, right off the bat, we have a very, very big problem,
which is that, as probably every single one of us know,
the main argument against the existence of the God that Christians worship,
the triune God, is the problem of evil.
That, in fact, people will, if they, you know, get past their Canadian-ness
and actually want to criticize your faith,
they'll say, listen, God can't possibly exist.
You just look at the world.
I think it was, was it just in Scotland or something or England?
Just the other day, some lone gunman shot four or five people and killed himself.
And you just look at all the evil that's going on in the world.
Do you know that in Afghanistan is the Taliban take-back areas?
One of the things they do, and there's actually precedence for this,
is they go up and they round up the unmarried women, including girls up to 12,
and they either take them as forced brides or as sex slaves.
That's going on in Afghanistan right now as the Taliban takes areas.
Girls as young as 12, taken as either a wife against their will or as a sex slave.
And so to many people in our culture, they just look at the evil in the world
and they say, George, there is just no way that there can be a God who is good
and who is all-powerful and all-wise,
given the evil that's going on right now in Afghanistan and all over the world.
And for many of our friends, it's one of those, you know, mic drop moments.
They say that, they drop the mic, they walk away,
and there's not much they feel that we can say against it.
So let's think about this problem.
Because on one level, the idea that God is good, when I get to my points, it's very simple.
The triune God is good.
I mean, that's sort of an easy idea, but it's a hard idea for us to get our mind around in a world
where, for many people, the basic thing is that God can't possibly exist
and can't possibly be good when there's things going on,
like what the Taliban is doing in Afghanistan.
So let's think about it.
But there's three problems about thinking about it.
And the first problem is, and I know this can be a little bit hard to say,
is that, in fact, the pattern is that many times when I talk to people about it,
it's a bit of a, it's a common human problem,
but I think it's a bigger problem today than it has been in other times,
that there's a fundamental incoherence
in people and lack of moral seriousness or attentiveness in a lot of people.
Like, people are very moralistic and legalistic nowadays.
In fact, I was just joking with somebody the other day that about four years ago,
I'd have to regularly talk with people who said that all morality is relative,
that there's no right and wrong.
And somehow or another, there's been the invasion of the body snatchers,
and all of those people have been taken over by aliens
who now are legalistic cancel culture warriors.
Like, I don't know how the culture shifted so fast.
But here's the problem.
There's, even though there seems to be a lot of moralism,
there is, in fact, often a fundamental incoherence
or lack of attentiveness about moral beliefs.
And I had a perfect example of this this morning.
I wished I had my phone, and I would have seen if we could put it up on the screen.
I went to my local favorite coffee shop to get a coffee between the services,
and it happened to be, it's just one of those days, like, the lineup took forever.
Everybody in the lineup ahead of me all seemed to want to order two or three or four drinks.
All of the drinks were complicated,
and in every case it seemed as if the person getting the drink
wanted to negotiate freebies at the same time.
I know you used to work in a, you know, can I have whipped cream with that?
Well, you're going to cost money well, and then they blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm just thinking there.
Anyway, so I'm standing in the lineup for a long time looking,
and then I noticed that behind the barista is a sign that says,
Be loud, be proud, be you.
Okay?
Now, give me some mercy.
You all know what that's connected with.
Be loud, be proud, be you.
But beside the barista was another sign,
a scary-looking sign in bright red and very formidable and far bigger than the other one.
And the other sign was, wear a mask.
And then it even went on, it has to cover your nose,
like there are all these other types of things, all very, very scary.
And I almost was going to go up into the barista and said, you know,
I was going to take my mask off and said, I want to be me.
And I want to be proud.
And I want to be loud.
And I don't like wearing masks because that's me.
I almost said that to the barista.
But you think about it.
You see messages like this all over the world.
Like there's no sense that there's one moment,
be loud, be proud, be you.
Wear a mask.
Like in even bigger, scarier language.
Well, that doesn't fit.
That's incoherent.
And if you don't understand that point, you have a deeper problem of incoherence than you realize.
Now, the reason I didn't say anything just to finish the story is I came up to the barista.
And the first thing I said is, I have a ridiculously simple order.
I would like a black, tall coffee.
And he looked at me and said, he put it in and he said, that's all?
I said, I'd just like a black, tall coffee.
It's ridiculously simple.
He smiled at me and said, for that, it's on the house.
So I didn't ask him about the incoherence of the signage.
Because, gosh, that was a very nice thing for him to do.
Anyway, so here's the first thing.
There's often just people don't think about things.
They don't put A together with B together with C and realize that they're inconsistent.
And by the way, I'm not saying that Christians are good at that or perfect at that.
But it's just a general problem of how do you live and examine life and really look at moral issues seriously if there's, in fact, unconscious incoherence going on in each of our lives.
But the second problem that we have to discuss this issue is what I call the myth of Switzerland.
Now, obviously, when I say the myth of Switzerland, I believe that Switzerland exists.
In fact, I've been in the airport in Zurich several times in Switzerland.
So I know that Switzerland exists.
But what I mean by that is that a lot of times people have this myth that they can be neutral,
that they can give you these objections to your point of view and articulate them very well.
But then they just sort of go like this as if they don't have to answer any of the issues which have been raised.
That somehow or another, if there's, you know, a problem of how do you have a world where there's good and evil in the same world
and there might or might not be a God and how you put these things together, they can just sort of criticize you.
But they're Switzerland.
They're neutral.
They don't have any view.
They don't have to account or answer for anything.
But that's not true.
Like, why should that be true?
Like, who made, who died and made you God?
Like, you've got to answer, you've got to put these things together as well, right?
I mean, that's just fair.
And then the third thing is that when we consider this problem, right, the argument is that there's terrible, evil things going on in this world.
Therefore, God, as you describe him, can't possibly exist.
And they just look at one type of experience around this sort of mystery.
Because really what they're doing is they're highlighting to us there's this mystery about good and evil.
There's a riddle, an enigma of good and evil that goes on and exists in the world.
But the problem is that they stop too soon.
There isn't enough attentiveness.
There's not enough attentiveness to the real moral experience that we have to sort of account for, not only in our own lives but in the world.
Like, if you think about it, how is it that there is both good and evil in the world?
Like, you think that every system of thought, every ideology, every religion has to be able to account for why it is, how come there is both good and evil in the world?
And how is it that you can account for the fact that there is differences about how you understand what good and evil are that exist between people?
But even though there's differences about the specifics, there's not a difference fundamentally about the idea that fundamentally there is something which is good.
So we might disagree with whether or not, obviously we're going to disagree with the Taliban on whether or not you can have a 12-year-old girl as a sex slave.
But at some point in time, the Taliban, well, it was easy with the Taliban because they clearly believe in right and wrong.
So we might disagree on the particulars, but the idea that there is a good and that there is a bad is, in fact, something which is, in fact, part of the world.
Well, how is it that you account for that?
Like, why is that the case?
And why is it the case that it is true, I think, in every culture?
This is even true in Canada, even during the time when there were most moral relativists.
One of the things that you saw all of the time was this phrase that I'm a good person.
If you saw any of Ricky Gervais' little comedy sketches or series that he did, he did two series of them, at least two.
By the way, when I say things like this, I'm not necessarily recommending you go out and watch them.
I mean, it's, but he is a, really, in many, many, many, many ways, you know, anyway, he, I mean, he's very, very clearly an atheist.
But one of the things which was very telling is that every episode, two, three, four, five, six times, he'd say that he was a good person.
And so it's always understood, so there's a world with good and evil.
There's a world where we disagree about the particulars, but we understand that there is a fundamental thing that's good and evil.
And we understand that we should seek the good, that that's what we should do.
That's what a moral person should do, that they should seek to become more good.
And the other thing about our experience is that we are a mixture of good and evil.
That if we're honest about it, that we understand that there is both good and evil that I have done.
I have done good things and I've done evil things.
And if you have a system of thought or a religion that says that you never do anything good, we don't know, that can't be right.
I mean, obviously, some people do good things.
And if we have a system of thought that says nobody ever does evil things, we say, no, no, no, no, that doesn't it.
But, you know, I do good and evil.
How is it that I understand my own experience of doing good and evil?
And then another thing with it is that for many of us, in fact, I think for all of us,
if we live long enough and have enough of an examined life, we'll realize that there is something within us which is evil,
which is scary and wrong and we really need to deal with.
Like those of us who've struggled with addictions, those of us who've struggled with alcoholism or drug addiction,
know very, very powerfully that there is, in fact, some part of us that desires this thing that will only destroy us
and has been destroying us and consuming us.
But many of us also have the same thing with whether it's lust or anger,
whether it's greed or gluttony or a range of other types of things,
that we come to realize that it's not just that there's a mixture of good and evil within me,
but there is something within me which is ravenous.
And why is that?
Like, why is that?
And then with that, there's this other part of human experience is that how do I become good?
Like, how do I deal with the evil in me practically?
And then another part of the human experience is how do I live in the world,
in a world where there is evil and there is good?
How do I live?
So, you see, now what we've done is we're still now going to have to look at the problem of good and evil.
But, you see, when you raise the problem of good and evil and you just stop at this one little tiny bit,
you're not actually really living an examined life.
You're not really...
The people who raise that objection, they're really on to something.
Like, they're really on to something, but they stop too quickly.
They somehow or another think that they don't have to account for these things,
that only somehow I have to.
Like, why is it that I'm the only one asked to account?
If I'm talking to three people, why am I the only one asked to give an account for this?
Like, all of us have to give an account.
And don't stop just with this problem of good and evil and God.
Like, broaden it out.
So, well, here's...
Before we...
Let's look at how some of the other attempts to answer this question are.
And that...
You see, here's the thing.
If you realize that nobody's neutral,
if you start to actually think about the three...
I think it's three...
Three principal ways that people in Canada and throughout history
try to answer this thing outside of the Christian faith,
if you actually start to think about it for a second,
you come to realize that the Christian answer is very beautiful and very wise.
And wise and beautiful and actually hopeful
at a very, very, very, very deep level.
That, in fact, the Christian answer is not only wise and beautiful,
but to use some postmodern language, it's thick.
It's deep.
So, let's just think about it.
The most common Canadian view on this particular issue
is that, ultimately, I talked about this last week,
and we're going to look very briefly at it again today,
is that everything that came to exist has come to exist
as a result of naturalistic evolution.
It's how they teach it at Ottawa, you at Carleton, CBC,
how the Supreme Court would understand it,
most of them at least, fundamentally, not all of them, but most of them.
It's how the opinion makers understand things,
and that's the fundamental bedrock view of the secular world that we inhabit,
that everything that exists has come about as a result of naturalistic evolution.
I talked about this a little bit last week.
But here's the particular thing.
It means there's no God,
that ultimately things just came to be.
But if this is the case,
where on earth does good and evil come from?
Like, where on earth does good and evil come from?
You see,
not even picking an evil bird.
For my dogs,
there's just breakfast and supper.
There's no world of moral striving.
There's just breakfast and supper.
In the world of evolution,
as it's taught,
as it's understood,
is that basically the strong survive and the weak die.
In fact,
often the strong survive by eating the weak.
I mean, we eat chickens.
I mean, those of us who aren't vegetarians
eat chickens.
The strong survive by eating the weak.
Well, you will never, ever, ever be able to go
from the strong survive and the weak die
and the strong survive by eating to,
you can never go from the strong survive
by eating the weak
to therefore love one another.
The strong survive by eating the weak,
therefore love one another.
That makes no sense.
I mean, in fact,
the matter is,
is that the lesson that
if,
it's just,
if that thing's just happened,
then, I don't know,
like, why,
why shouldn't I hurt the weak?
Like,
what ought
are you going to give me?
And,
and if this is the case,
then,
how on earth does anything,
all of these things,
how does it account for good and evil in the world,
good and differing about it,
about seeking to be good,
about mixture of good and evil within us,
and,
and even if we try to say,
well,
that's just all a matter of adaptation
and all of that type of stuff,
you say,
no,
it's just a matter of adaptation.
Taliban forcing 12-year-old girls
to be their sex slaves.
In fact,
you know what,
from an evolutionary point of view,
that might be very evolutionarily successful
because the strong
are breeding with the weak,
hopefully providing some strong.
And,
you see,
the thing about this whole naturalistic worldview
is all you need to do
is acknowledge one thing
that isn't cultural
and one thing
which isn't to deal,
to do with evolutionary survival,
just one thing which is good
and your whole worldview falls apart.
And the fact of the matter is,
is if you don't think it's wrong
for a Taliban fighter
to take a 12-year-old girl
as a sex slave,
shame on you.
Shame on you.
You have not become more moral.
You have exited the world
where taking morality is serious.
The other very popular response
to the whole issue
is what's called pantheism
or panentheism.
For our purposes,
they're basically the same here.
One of them is that pantheism
is that everything is God.
Panentheism is that God is in everything.
And at the end of the day,
they share the relevant point,
which is that
at the end of the day,
there's just the one.
That's what we're moving towards
is the one.
There used to be everything was one
and now we've gotten
this appearance of difference
but in the classic line,
the end of all things
as you go through cycles
of living and rebirth
and living and rebirth
and eventually achieve enlightenment,
you are like a drop of water
that finally joins the ocean
and become one with the ocean.
And at the end of the end
of the end of the end,
there's just the ocean.
But within this point of view,
then really what they say
is that God is beyond good and evil.
Really?
God is beyond good and evil?
What on earth does that mean
for 12-year-old girls
being taken as a sex slave?
Like that sounds very nice.
It looks good on a t-shirt
that God is beyond good and evil.
But really, what does that mean?
Like how can that mean anything
other than giving evil a pass?
If that was true,
shouldn't we all be revolutionaries
against that God
rather than seeking to join it?
Now obviously,
Buddhism and Hinduism
is vastly better than that.
It's a type of an incoherence
within its worldview.
But the fact of the matter is
is that if in fact
it's just an appearance
that some things are good
and an appearance
that some things are evil,
how does that fit
with our immoral experience
that there is good and evil
in the world,
that there's difference
about particulars
but at the big picture
there really is something
and it's wise to be good
and that you and I
are a mixture of good
and evil answers
and actions
and how do I live
in a world like that?
How is it that pantheism
or panentheism
really actually handles it?
And the final thing
which is the classic answer
and sort of seen
in the Star Wars thing
with the understanding
of the force
is dualism.
That somehow
there's the good force
and the bad force
that they're always
sort of somehow
or another
at each other's
other sides
and there has to be
some type of a balance
and blah, blah, blah, blah.
But here's the thing.
What they do is
that type of thought
often it cheats.
You see,
what happens
if you rename
the two forces
the blue force
and the yellow force?
Now you really have
two separate forces
that are just different.
And then we might even say
well who cares
if some people
like Manchester City
because of their
powder blue uniforms
and some people
like Sweden
because they love yellow.
Like, you know,
big deal.
Like who, you know?
You have something
against Swedish people?
You have something
against people
who like Manchester City
as soccer team?
But you see,
they don't say blue and yellow
which is obviously
in a sense
amoral category
somehow or another
perennially
butting heads
and working
within experience.
They smuggle in
good and evil
by calling them
good and evil
as if there's
some other standard
above them.
In other words,
they undermine
their idea
just in fact
in speaking about it.
In fact,
as I used to say
back in the days
when I was having
to deal with
lots of moral relativists,
the fact of the matter
is that human beings
can't speak
or think
without moral categories.
It's impossible.
It was always
just perennially
frustrating
to try to talk
to somebody
thinking that
they were
a moral relativist
while they constantly
use moral categories
that I oughtn't
to think,
I ought not to think
there's something
that's different.
One moment.
I ought not to think
there's a difference
between right,
isn't ought like
a moral term?
You can,
it would be almost
as if you try
to argue with somebody
whether oxygen
or air exists
and they're arguing
against you
while they breathe
without being aware
of the fact
that they're breathing
while they argue
with you
and they're using
moral categories
while they argue
with you.
So now in light
of these problems,
in light of in fact
the three historic,
ancient,
and most common ways
of trying to deal
with our moral experience,
let us consider
what the Bible
has to say
and let us consider
once again
how the Bible
addresses the reality
that there is
a good God
and there is evil
in the world.
If you take it
to the first point,
if you could throw it up,
is that the triune God
is good.
The triune God
is good.
We're just going
to look at,
this is just so
throughout the Bible,
I'm not going
to give you
a hundred verses,
we're going to look
at just one thing
in the Old Testament,
one thing in the New Testament.
If you turn in your Bibles
to Psalm 100,
this very,
very powerful psalm,
make a joyful noise
to the Lord
all the earth,
serve the Lord
with gladness,
come into his presence
with singing,
know that the Lord,
he is God,
it is he who made us
and we are his.
We are his people
and the sheep
of his pasture.
And just as a bit
of an aside,
there's a bit
of a double meaning
in the Hebrew
and so in the Hebrew,
it can also say
it is he who made us
and we are his
or it can say
it is he who made us
and not we ourselves,
which is really
a very,
very important idea
for us post-modern
Canadians
who sort of somehow
want to always be
like a self-made person.
We don't make ourselves
at a very,
very deep level.
And then the psalm continues,
enter his gates
with thanksgiving
and his courts
with praise,
give thanks to him,
bless his name,
for the Lord
is good,
his steadfast love
endures forever
and his faithfulness
to all generations.
The Lord
is good
and his steadfast love
endures forever.
And it is a constant theme
in the Psalms
and in Israel's worship.
Let's just look
to one thing
by Jesus
in Mark chapter 10,
verse 18.
Mark chapter 10,
verse 18.
And this is all
in part of a dialogue.
A rich young man
has come to Jesus
and says,
good teacher.
And it isn't that
Jesus is denying
that he's God.
It's just Jesus
trying to tease out
from him
what exactly
he's saying.
Does he realize
what he says
when he calls
Jesus good?
It's in a sense
Jesus trying to get
the guy to go deeper
to understand
that if he's serious
about what he says
in his introduction
then he's implying
that Jesus is God.
So here's what
Jesus says,
verse 18.
And Jesus said to him,
why do you call me good?
No one is good
except God alone.
Now,
here's the thing
very, very simply.
the Bible understands
goodness
theologically.
God is good.
God,
it isn't that
there's the good
and then there's God
and by this standard
of goodness,
God is God.
That's not how it works.
God is good.
He is good.
Everything,
our understanding
of good and evil
ultimately,
completely and utterly
are in keeping
with who he is
and things
which are congruent
with him,
in keeping with him,
his character,
his nature,
his attributes,
his creation.
God is just good
and it's from that
that we understand
what good and evil is.
And just by the way,
I'm focusing primarily
on God is good
as opposed to
justice and mercy
because,
you see,
if human beings
had never fallen,
we would not know
that God was just
and merciful.
because,
you see,
justice and mercy
are necessary
when evil exists.
Justice and mercy,
in fact,
you see,
you can't really think
of something being good
if it's unjust.
That wouldn't make any sense
and if there was a goodness
that never showed mercy,
we'd think there's something
lacking in that goodness.
And so,
goodness,
we see justice and mercy
when there is evil.
How does the good,
how does goodness
deal with the reality
of evil?
Already,
you're starting to see
the thickness
and the beauty
of how Christians
and the Bible
is going to understand
this particular issue.
And then,
the second thing,
if you could put it up,
is that the triune God
made all that exists
good.
The triune God
made all that exists
good.
Now,
we're going to look
very quickly
at seven verses,
all from Genesis chapter one.
And,
this is part of the foundation
of the whole Bible.
Those of you
who are curious
about how I deal
with the seven-day creation
and Adam and Eve
and all of that type of stuff,
I did a sermon series
a few years ago
on the first 11 chapters
of Genesis.
You can look it up.
But,
what you can see here
in this foundational text
that introduces the Bible,
is that seven times
in this first story
it is declared
that God
made everything good.
And the final time,
the seventh time,
it says very good.
And,
basically,
that's a symbolic
type of number.
Seven times
is the number
of completeness.
It's the number
of perfection.
It's emphasizing.
It's why,
it's emphasizing.
Even though there's
six days of creation,
the seventh day,
God rests,
there's seven times
where it's said
that things made are good.
Look at verse 4.
And God saw
that the light was good.
And God separated
the light from the darkness.
See?
He saw that it was good.
Look at verse 10.
And God called
the dry land earth,
and the waters
that were gathered together
he called seas,
and God saw
that it was good.
Look at verse 12.
The earth brought forth
vegetation,
plants yielding,
seed according
to their own kinds,
and trees bearing fruit
in which is their seed,
each according
to its kind.
And God saw
that it was good.
Look at verse 18.
This is about
the creation
of the lights,
the one to rule
over the day
and over the night,
and to separate
the light
from the darkness,
and God saw
that it was good.
Look at verse 21.
God created
the great sea creatures
and every living thing
that moves
with which
the waters swarm
according to their kinds
and every winged bird
according to its kinds,
and God saw
that it was good.
Look at verse 25.
And God made
the beasts of the earth
according to their kinds
and the livestock
according to their kinds
and everything
that creeps on the ground
according to its kind,
and God saw
that it was good.
That's six times
it's been said.
And now we come
to verse 31.
And verse 31
goes like this.
And God saw
everything that he had made
and behold,
it was very good.
And there was evening
and there was morning
the sixth day.
Now,
here's the thing
from this teaching
that the triune God
made all that exists good.
For many people
in our culture,
a human being
needs the triune God
like a fish
needs a bicycle.
That would be
how many of us,
that's sort of
just one of those things
that might never say that
but it's in their bones.
Like we,
you know,
I need God,
I need Jesus
like a fish
needs a bicycle.
Like I'm fine
with my own life.
But what we see
from this
is very significant
when we're trying
to think of
our moral experience,
our experience
of the world
in terms of good
and evil.
You see,
what it's actually saying
is that
when it describes
a God who is good
made everything
that is good
and he made human beings
in this good world,
to inhabit in this good world
and if you go back
and look at it
and he made us
to be fruitful,
he made us to multiply,
he made us to flourish,
he made us to have dominion
over the earth,
he made us to,
in a sense,
you take the Garden of Eden
and the whole earth
is to become a garden
and the whole earth
is to become a temple,
the whole earth
is where we walk with God
and maybe if we hadn't fallen
it would have gone
to the moon
and Mars
and Venus
and stars beyond
and beyond
and to care for it
and to flourish
and what we see is this,
that just as God
made fish
to dwell in water,
God made human beings
to live
immersed
in goodness.
See,
that's why
every human being
thinks that they
should be good.
That's why
every human being
when they experience evil
and are living in evil,
they know that
that's not the way
it should be
because God
made human beings
to be immersed
in goodness
as a fish
is immersed in water
and not only that,
God made us
to be infused
with goodness
as water
infuses
tea.
That in fact,
it's not just a matter,
like I mean,
the fish
inhabits the water
but in a sense,
most of the fish
is just fish
but that God
made us
to be
infused
with goodness.
That it actually
is to get right
into us
which is why
we understand
why we want
to be able
to say
that we're good.
It's why we want
to be able
to say
that we're good
and that goodness
is better
than evil
and at the same time,
you know,
the average Canadian
thinks that somehow
another goodness
emerges from them
but that's a bit
of a problematic
because evil
also emerges
from them
but this idea
of being infused
helps to capture
but the Bible
has something
which is even deeper
and truer to say
which is that God
made human beings
to reflect his goodness
that a human being
is not a,
just as in a sense
the hot water
doesn't emerge
from the tea
but the hot water
comes into the tea
leaves,
that's the word
I was looking for,
that in a sense
the tea leaves
don't create water
that leave the tea leaves
to go into the cup
that in fact
the goodness
comes into the tea leaves
and infuses it
but now to switch
the analogies
because human beings
are weird,
we're a little bit
like aardvarks,
it's almost as if,
you know,
an aardvark is as if
God had spare parts
left over for different animals
and threw them all together
in some ways
human beings
are the same way
that on one hand
we're immersed,
on another hand
we're infused,
on another hand
we're like a mirror
that because God is good
and that he is the source
of all goodness
that we're meant
to reflect that goodness
at the same time
that we're immersed
in goodness
and infused in goodness
and finally
when we see
in Genesis chapter 3
how God designed
human beings
to walk with him
in the garden
it means that we are
to understand
that we were designed
to walk with goodness
and in goodness
in the path of goodness
that that's how God
designed us to be
and if you think
about that
it becomes clear
why some of these things
in our moral experience
about why it's wise
to be good
how there really is good
and how
the goodness
seems to be something
that should be
that goodness is right
that when we
experience
like something
like at this time
of the year
when you got a day
with the perfect temperature
at the end
of the perfect day
and you've been
with your best friends
and with your family
and you've had a good meal
and you have had
just the right amount
to drink
and you're feeling
completely healthy
and your conscience
is clear
and there's a beautiful sunset
and everything's still
and you hear the sound
of the loon
and it just seems
as if there is something
good inside
and outside
and that those things
are in harmony
the harmony of the beauty
the harmony of the world
a peace within your family
and your friends
a cleaning of your own conscience
and there is just something
about that
which is so
dang right
where you say to yourself
I was made for this
no 12 year old girl
being captured
by the Taliban
as a sex slave
says to herself
I was made for this
if you put up
the third point
the triune God
did not create evil
he is always and only opposed
to moral wrongdoing
this is the biblical teaching
you see the thing is
is that the biblical teaching
emphasizes something
which is of the highest value
to Canadians
which is freedom
and if in fact
God makes human beings
truly, truly, truly free
it means that they have
the option
to truly, truly, truly
choose that which is evil
and that's what happened
in our spiritual ancestors
our physical ancestors
our representatives
Adam and Eve
and in particular Adam
that there come a time
described in Genesis 3
which I'm not going to read
just for reasons of time
where human beings chose
to not trust God
to not trust his word
to desire to be above God
to judge God
to be the standard over God
so that they would be
they would determine
what's good
not God
and that they would be over him
and that when they do that
what they do
is that there is something
within them
which is broken
there is something
within them
which is bent
you see
because the fact of the matter
is that Christians say
that since evil
comes by human breaking
not God making
that in a sense
all
in a very, very real
and powerful sense
all evil
is a perversion of good
a corruption of good
a disordering of good
a removing of good
a breaking of good
a bending of good
that that's what all evil is
God made the world good
but we pervert
corrupt
disrupt
disorder
remove
unbalance
the words can go on
and on and on
God is always opposed
to evil
and that's why
his justice
comes in
that he is always
opposed
to evil
and so it is
if you understand this
you can see
why is it that there's good
and evil in the world
why is it that we
can differ in particulars
well we differ in particulars
because
I don't want to acknowledge
that what I'm doing
is evil
I will come up
for complicated reasons
as to why it is
I mean to my
to my Muslim friends
who are watching
the big problem
that you have
is that the Taliban
will appeal
to Muhammad
and the Hadith
and the Quran
to explain
them taking
12 year old girls
as sex slaves
and I know that
if there's any Muslims
watching this
or eventually watch it
I know that you're
far better than that
but in fact
this very very thick
encounter
and understanding
of evil
and why it is
that we think
and why we can't even
argue or talk
the Christian
revelation
ultimately based on
Jesus
makes our experience
very powerful
and real
and know that
God is always
and only opposed
to all moral
wrongdoing
he never
ever
gives in
if you could
put up the final
point
your only hope
is the Lord
Jesus Christ
your only hope
is the Lord
Jesus Christ
see this is one
of the things
which the Christian
faith provides
for us
that our Jewish
friends don't yet
realize
and our Muslim
friends don't have
that particular
option as well
you see the fact
of the matter
is
if I want to
know how to
deal with evil
I want to
know how to
deal with the
evil within myself
and I want to
know how to
live with evil
it's not just
that I can do
it by myself
I need someone
to walk with me
and I need to be
delivered
and that's what
the Christian faith
provides
that in fact
what we have
is we have
this ancient
promise
which is in
the Old Testament
scriptures
that God
would send
an Emmanuel
that God
would send
one who
would crush
the serpent
that God
would send
one that
means by which
all things
would be
renewed
and that's
who we have
in the person
of Jesus
you read
Matthew chapter
1
that in fact
God
sends
his son
to be
in the midst
of all of
our mess
and all
of the evil
and he has
the same
nature as
us
and he has
evil that
happens to
him
he lives
in a world
where there's
very clearly
evil
the Jewish
people are
a conquered
people
there is
the empire
which is
over them
there's
the Roman
authorities
which are
over them
which will
eventually
in the year
70 AD
which will
destroy them
as a nation
and destroy
their temple
and he is
part of that
subject people
and he's
misunderstood
by his
parents
and his
family
and his
friends
and he's
put to
death
on trumped
up charges
and the
demands of
justice
that should
be there
by the
different
authorities
are completely
and utterly
done away
with for
reasons of
political
expediency
and he lives
amongst human
beings
he lives
amongst our
mess
he lives
amongst the
injustice
and the
evil
and the
pride
and the
vanity
and the
lust
and the
gluttony
and the
sloth of
the world
and he
lives
amongst
us
but he
never
does
evil
and so
it is
that when
he dies
upon the
cross
as an
unjust
victim
listen
John was
a good
worship
leader
but he
can't
die
for the
human
race
Andrew's
a good
geek
but he
can't
die
for the
human
race
his wife
is way
better
than him
she
can't
die
for the
human
race
they're
just
people
but surely
the creator
of all
things
can die
for all
is creation
and that's
what we
hear
the creator
of all
things
enters
his
creation
lives
the life
that you
and I
could not
live
lives
amidst
among
and amidst
evil
and injustice
and hatred
and prejudice
and racism
and discrimination
and law
and all of
those things
and name
calling
he lives
but never
succumbs
to evil
and when
he dies
in your
place
and mine
he dies
to take
the punishment
that you
deserve
and he
offers
in exchange
he the
creator
can do
this
for every
single
one
of his
creation
and he
does this
on your
behalf
and offers
you
the perfect
life
that he
lived
that you
were not
able to
live
but you
should
live
and the
doom
that you
deserve
falls on
him
and God
is a God
of justice
he's a God
of mercy
and it's not a matter
of favoritism
favoritism
is when you let
somebody off
and justice
is not
the demands
of justice
are not met
but this is
true mercy
and it's out of
the goodness
of God
that God
would send
his son
to die
in your
place
that you
could be
reconciled
to him
that you
could
he would
do for you
what you
cannot do
for yourself
and he's
not just
a savior
that does
this
and then
leaves
you
alone
but the
Christian
life
is a matter
of learning
to walk
with him
walk with him
towards the evil
that you do
walk with him
and walk with his
people to learn
how to do good
walk with him
as you enter
into the valley
of the shadow
of death
walk with him
as you get
the cancer
diagnosis
as you get
the diagnosis
of dementia
walk with him
as you deal
with the injustice
in your workplace
or in your society
walk with him
as you suffer
under it
walk with him
as you enter
into the veil
of the shadow
of death
and beyond
into death
he is your savior
there's not only
an understanding
of the world
which is thick
and beautiful
and makes sense
of it
but also
it is an
account of the world
that points you
in the direction
of where you
should be going
and it's not
merely a pointer
he walks with you
when you put
your faith
and trust
in Jesus
as if you put
your hand up
to him
that he might
take you
that he might
be your savior
and you can
never reach him
but he can reach
you
and he reaches
down
he grabs
your hand
he will never
let your hand
go
you might feel
at times
that you aren't
holding on to
his hand
and that might
be true
but he never
lets go of
your hand
when you put
your hand
on his
and he is
the one
who fits
you for heaven
and he is
the one
who walks
with you
and he is
the one
who is your
hope of glory
and he is
your righteousness
he is your
peace
take him
as your savior
remember
that he is
your savior
and we come
together
because we
forget
that's where
we come
together
to remember
the lord's
supper
to remember
he died
to remember
that he will
return
remember
that evil
will not
have the
final word
remember
that justice
will finally
be done
that no one
who has done
wrong
will ever
avoid it
they might
avoid it
on this
side of
the grave
but it
will not
end that
way
they
every single
act of
evil
has been
dealt with
by jesus
and if you
don't accept
the covering
of him
it will be
dealt with
to your
misery
and undoing
in the
final judgment
walk with
jesus
take him
as your
savior
invite you
to stand
please
stand
just bow
our heads
in prayer
father
first of
all
we just
father
right now
it seems
as if
all we
can do
is pray
and we
just pray
for those
precious
young girls
taken as
sex slaves
in afghanistan
father
all we
can do
is commend
them into
your hands
right now
father
that's all
we can
do
if there
is more
that we
can do
father
we pray
that there
would be
something
maybe
governments
could do
but father
we commend
them into
your hands
and we
ask father
that your
holy spirit
would move
in their
lives
we ask
father
for the
conversion
of the
taliban
i confess
i don't have
the faith
to pray
it but
father
i ask
that you
would
you would
turn their
hearts
from evil
you would
turn their
hearts
to jesus
the prince
of peace
and father
we ask
that you
would help
us
to walk
with jesus
to know him
as our
savior
and our
lord
to walk
with him
as we
confront
the injustice
in the
world
and walk
with him
as we
confront
the evil
within
ourselves
that you
would help
us father
to walk
with jesus
we give you
thanks and
praise that you
are transforming
us from one
degree of glory
to another
that your
means of grace
are preparing
us for an
eternity with
you
that one
day we
will be fully
infused with
your goodness
and reflect
your goodness
and dwell in
your goodness
and walk
in your
goodness
and that
that is our
hope in
christ
and father
if there are
any who are
watching this
who have not
given their
lives to
jesus by the
holy spirit
fall upon
them
they might
open the
door to
their life
and ask
jesus to
come in
and be
their
savior
and lord
and all
these things
we ask in
the name
of jesus
your son
and our
savior
amen