Notes from a sermon by Noel Darragh on Sunday 9 March 2013
"Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Romans 8 verses 18 – 25
2 Peter 3 verse 13 “nevertheless
we, according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness.”
I often mention the fact that a country
man I used to visit quite often when I was in the work of the church didn’t
come to church because didn’t like to be told he needed to be saved. His wife got saved and eventually he did come
and got gloriously saved. I enjoyed him
and his quaint sayings, the way he put things across. Talking about a neighbour who was not well
and had gone into hospital he said “the news is not good.” I asked the question ”I suppose he is well up
in years.” “Yes he is, you know the way
it is if you stay about here long enough you will get something.” Don Carson put if another way “if you live
long enough you will suffer.”
We live in a situation full of
problems and difficulties of all kinds.
I want us to take a little look at the subject and get any light on this
matter. Every pastor and every Christian
knows there are many problems in life we cannot avoid. Many people have looked at this problem. One man who wrote on this subject was a
Jewish Rabbi in an effort to square the circle about God being omnipotent. God is not all powerful or else he sets his
omnipotence aside to allow bad things to happen. We cannot go down that road because it is
totally against scripture. God is all
powerful. We must never rob him of that
factor and attribute. Some people say should
not look at this question because God should not have to personally explain
what he is doing in our lives. He doesn’t
owe us any explanation. God can change
any of us, punish any of us if he wants to.
One thing we need to be careful is you and I try to dictate that we know
what God is doing. “Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8 verse
34) You and I must be careful we don’t
condemn someone else or even ourselves by saying ‘it is God who is punishing me’. A cold shiver goes down my spine when I hear
people saying ‘What did I do to deserve this?”
What kind of picture do they have of God? Is he some tyrant just longing to throw some
brick on me? Is that your picture of
God? Others believe he is a God of love,
care and compassion and whatever I go through he is with me in it and will
bring out the best out of it even though I cannot see that at the time.” Others want to philosophise this question –
how do you define good people and define bad things? We all face difficulties and problems in life
but look at it seriously. Proverbs 25
verse 20 refers to light words to a heavy heart is like leaving off a garment
in cold weather.
Let’s think of scripture – in Genesis
we will get to the end of Genesis chapter 1 and we read that everything God
created including man was not only good but very good. When we get to Genesis 6 the picture is so
sadly different and it is maybe worth reminding us what that says “And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (verse 5) What an amazing amount of truth in those 10
generations. From everything being very
good to everything being very bad. Now
of course you and I know that standing between Genesis 1 and 6 is Genesis
chapter 3. The record of what we know to
be the fall when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they broke God’s command to
them and ate the forbidden fruit and broke fellowship with God and fell into a
state of sin. A state of rebellion
against God. We describe that as the
fall. We need to keep that in our
minds. That man, that all of mankind is
a fallen creature. This is how we find
ourselves. Whether we think we are self-righteous
it doesn’t matter. We are fallen
creatures and man is not only a fallen creature he is a falling creature. He is not evolving into something better but
he is falling into increased rebellion against God. If you ever listen to any religious debates
in the media you will find it interesting that those who take a stand as
evangelicals for biblical truth are talking down and those who promote secular
ethos always get the field. I cannot go
into depth some others do but my mind asks simple questions. If this whole thing about God and not to be
saved why is it the more secular we become as a society the more problems we
have? I want to also ask how many evangelical
Christians are out there murdering and killing and abusing as compared with the
rest of the population who have no time for God or the Bible. We are fallen and we are now living in
society that has fallen in the last 50, 100 years. We have in fact fallen a lot since the turn
of the millennium. Man is a fallen
creature and can only be raised up by the sovereign grace of God in
redemption. There is no other way. It is the consequences of the fall. It is not easy to grasp that. It becomes a natural tendency to rebel
against God but it is more than naturally tendency, it is the ability because
the fall brought the knowledge of good and evil. With that knowledge we then have the ability
to rebel against God. That is what Paul
said in Romans “because the carnal mind is enmity against God.” (chapter 8 verse
7) The Bible dictionary says “man is now
a perverted creature, no longer living for God’s glory and finding all his
enjoyment in God.” The Presbyterian catechism
says “man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” That idea of pervasion is highly significant. Look at sin and ask yourself what is it as it
works itself out? What is pride? I’m sure there was not one of us who didn’t
stand up in front of a mirror and said to ourselves ‘look at me people will
notice me today.’ That is pride. Self-respect was given by God but is now
perverted. If you had no self-respect
you wouldn’t have stood in front of that mirror nor washed yourself. God gave you self-respect. The fall of man into sin means that the devil
can pervert that self-respect into pride.
Road rage – what is it? I was
angry with that person. What is
temper? It is God given. The ability to feel indignant, to feel that
which is wrong. Perverted by Satan. Jesus clearing out the temple using the whip
was not angry. That word is never used
of him. When we talk of anger it is
someone who has lost their temper and control.
Jesus was indignant about the wrong and we have got the ability given by
God to feel indignant, to know wrong that we cannot control. Sex is a God given gift that has been
perverted into lust which is rocking society.
Abusing children all goes with it.
Every time I turn the news on I hear this information. Why because man has fallen and is falling,
because Satan is pulling him down since he yielded to Satan’s control in Eden’s
garden. Another major issue arising from
the fall is the sentence of the curse.
You know what a sentence is – it is handed out by the judge that either
decrees toil, sorrow, suffering or death.
“For the creature was made subject o vanity, not willingly but by reason
of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God.” (verses 20 and 21)
Creation in corruption because of the fall of man. God said to Adam “you will rule over creation”
at the end of Genesis chapter 1. When
the fall came man lost that authority.
In actual fact he handed it to Satan in Eden’s garden. What do we find – man is out of harmony with
God. He is hiding when God comes to the
Garden. Out of harmony with fellow man –
Cain murders Abel. Man is out of harmony
with creation. Instead of governing
creation now works the ground in toil and tears. When you think of those words “God said to
Adam be fruitful subdue it, have dominion over every living thing” think of where
man is now with regards to the whole of creation. By the end of Genesis chapter 3 man is out of
the Garden. That is where you and I
are. We need to remind ourselves. We were made to live in the Garden where
there were no problems, no difficulties, every relationship would be
perfect. Now we are out of the
Garden. There will never be a perfect
relationship again because there are no perfect human beings any more even when
we are redeemed. The effects of the fall
can still so easily make me selfish. I
have not been a perfect husband. I have
never been a perfect minister. We are
not perfect, we are out of the Garden. There
are thorns and briars to harm us. Even
the rose with all its beauty has a thorn.
Because we are out where the curse is, where the enemy is, where
creation is in rebellion. That is where
we have to live. The magnitude of the
disaster brought about by the fallen man.
It is not easy to get our heads
around that. We live in a broken world,
that is seriously broken. How did this awful
thing happen? Before Eden’s garden
Lucifer the devil set himself up against God.
“I will exalt my throne against God.”
God cast him out of his presence.
He appeared again in Eden. He was
bringing the battle that existed between God and him, bringing it into the
human race. In the first chapters of Job
we find the devil is saying to God “you cannot do such a work in a human life,
you cannot be so real to a human person, you cannot get a human person to so
trust you that they will trust you no matter what happens in that circumstance.” That is what the devil is saying to God not
just Job. This is when it started, a
challenge to God. Do you believe that
God can do that in a human person’s life?
A person like you and I with all our weakness wanting to be free of
sickness and pain, wanting our families to be all OK, that he can be so real,
bring us to a place where we can trust him even when things go wrong. God says to the devil “yes I can.” All conflict is played out in Job’s
life. Chapter 13 verse 15 is the climax
of this whole thing “though he slay me yet will I trust him.” God is so real to me that no matter what
happens to me I trust him. Is God real
to us like that? We learn that as we
read through Job and in Romans in the New Testament when it says “I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us.”
The battle of the ages ever rages.
It will not ease until Jesus comes again. We have natural disasters – earthquakes tsunamis,
typhoons, hurricanes, floods – what is happening? The natural creation is in rebellion. Sometimes it has to be down to people as a
lot could have been avoided if they had acted correctly. It all has to be kept in balance. These things can be put down to the rebellion
of creation since the fall. Famine is
man’s fault. Everyone knows that there
is enough food produced in this world every year to feel all of its
people. That is a known fact among
government agencies involved in these things.
Wars, whether between a husband and wife, in a church community, in a
country, in the world are all man’s doing.
Thousands lose their lives – that is man’s doing not God’s. Why is man doing these things? Because of the fall in Eden’s Garden. He is a fallen creature. Think about sicknesses. Some sickness that we have to endure are as a
result of living n sinful world. Broken
people, imperfect people. Physical
qualities we have mean that our immune system fails. We catch germs because of what happened in
Eden’s Garden. We are not in the Garden
any more. We are out there and things
and things are going to go wrong. We are
affected by sin. Some sicknesses we
bring on ourselves and abuse our bodies.
Sometimes we under eat, sometimes we over eat, abuse our bodies with
alcohol and drugs whether they are legal or prescription. Sometimes we have too little exercise and
sometimes we overwork wanting to make money.
Because we are fallen creatures we don’t handle life properly. Then of course, even within the Christian
church we harbour attitudes, envy, jealousy, bitterness, an unforgiving
spirit. These can cause many psychological,
physical and emotional problems. Some
bad things come to us because of others.
What about child abuse? It is the
result of sin. The magnitude of the
disaster caused by the fall.
You probably want to say to me – ‘can
God not stop all these bad things?’ Yes
he could stop them all but there are a number of reasons he doesn’t. We are thankful he didn’t create robots but
made us in his image. We have the
ability to make choices and suffer the consequences with ourselves and the next
generation. If we would like God to
prevent all bad things, if we are a parent how would you go about preventing
your child being in a situation that could happen to them, something you wouldn’t
want to happen to them? How would you go
about doing that? If I want God to stop
all bad things happening how would he do it?
Jesus’ prayer in John 17 when he was about to be separated from his
disciples asked for them not to be taken out of the world but keep them until
it was time to take them home to heaven.
We have looked at the magnitude
of the disaster by the fall. Let’s look
at the magnitude of the redemption by God.
In Genesis 3 we have the first promise of Jesus. Notice an interesting thing here – verse 20. Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she
was the mother of all living things.
That just took place after the fall.
He did not call her the mother of death but the mother of life. Maybe he grasped something of the promise of
the redeemer in verse 15. In verse 21
God provides a covering for Adam and Eve pointing us forward to the redemptive
work of Christ for us. Verses 22 and 23
shows us that Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. God was preventing Adam and Eve eating from
the tree of life. He knows it is the
worst thing that could happen to them is to live for ever in a fallen world. Redemption is promised. You know what that tells me? That I can have a Garden in my heart. I can have Jesus as my Saviour and my friend,
know peace in the midst of the storm. I
can have comfort in the midst of pain and suffering. When everything about my life is shifting and
one day God will put an end to it all.
In Revelation we are told God will wipe away all tears. He will remove every cause of tears. That day is coming and I read also in
Revelation that those who are with the Lord rest from their labours. You will now have to struggle with creation
in toil and tears. That will end but
right now
I have found a friend in Jesus
He is everything to me
In sorrow he is my comfort, in trouble he is my stay
He tells me every care on him to roll.
Do you know him like that? He all my grief has taken and all my sorrows
bore. The magnitude of the plan of
redemption. When all else is wrong I can
say “it is well with my soul.” When all
around me is shaking and unsure and unsecure I can have the assurance I am
hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand.
How can I have a Saviour like that?
I can only have a Saviour like that because of what happened to Jesus. The baddest thing every happened to the
goodest person there ever was at Calvary.
I am not talking about the greatest miscarriage of justice or how he was
nailed to the cross. Just think of all
that has happened in the world – it is rebellion against God. List it all and it was poured out on Jesus at
Calvary. He took our sins just like the
scapegoat in Leviticus. When the sins of
the people were laid on that goat he was taken out into the wilderness and
slain. Just like John said “behold the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Don’t think of the bad in terms of the
unrighteous but also the self-righteous.
They gather in every Sunday, perhaps sit at the communion table, or come
in at Easter and Christmas for the special services. They have pride in their heart and cannot bow
their knee and say ‘I am a sinner, I need Jesus.” All that self-righteousness was poured on Jesus
on the cross. God had to turn away from
him and Christ cried out “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” He was made sin for us that we might be made
righteous.
The magnitude of the redemption –
Romans 8 verse 22 “we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in
pain together until now.” All creation
is waiting to be delivered from the fall.
The effects of the fall. All of
creation is waiting for it. The day of
release is coming when all the effects of the fall will be transformed through
the redemptive work of Christ and we will have a perfect situation to live in.
