To help us to understand why God permits evil and suffering to occur.
Text: Luke
13:1-5.
Introduction.
1. The atheist says:
a. God is all powerful.
b. God is all loving.
c. God could never permit evil and suffering to exist.
d. Evil and suffering exist.
e. Therefore, God does not exist.
2. The problem of suffering is a big stumbling block for a lot of people.
3. Many just don't see how a loving God could allow anyone or anything to suffer.
4. Consequently, they doubt the very existence of God.
5. The question that we want to answer today is; What is the cause of evil and suffering.
Body.
I. Insufficient Views.
A. Suffering is just an illusion.
1. This is the teaching of a woman named Mary Baker Eddy.
2. She teaches that all suffering is just the result of negative thinking.
3. This has no Scriptural support whatsoever.
4. Further, common sense just tells us that it can not be so.
B. Suffering is a result of an individual's sin.
1. This idea is sometimes true and sometimes false.
2. It is true that, sometimes, suffering results directly from disobeying God's commands.
a. Those who drink alcohol will eventually suffer the consequences.
b. Those who abuse their bodies in any way will one day suffer the consequences.
c. Those who break the law bring suffering on themselves.
3. However, many people suffer when they have done nothing wrong.
a. Innocent babies often suffer and we know that they have not sinned against God.
b. Job was one who had not sinned against God and his friends tried to convince him that he must have sinned or else he would not be suffering. They were wrong.
c. Jesus suffered and he never sinned.
d. Notice Luke
13:1-5; "There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
4. Suffering is not always caused by the sins of an individual.
II. What does cause Evil and Suffering?
A. Man's inhumanity to his fellow man.
1. God made us after His own image. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
(Genesis
1:26).
2. He gave us the greatest gift that He could possible give us: Free will.
3. When God gave man the freedom to chose, He gave him the ability to chose good OR evil.
4. Without free will, life would be absolutely meaningless; we would simply be mindless robots doing what we were commanded.
5. God wants people who chose, of their own free will, to serve Him; "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." (John
4:23).
6. A great deal of suffering in the world today can be attributed to man choosing to do evil to his fellow man.
7. This is not God's fault, He wants just the opposite; "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
(Matthew
22:37-39).
B. Natural Calamities cause suffering.
1. For example: Gravity.
a. It is a good, beneficial natural force.
b. Without it, there could be no life on earth.
c. Yet, if someone falls off of a high cliff, that same gravitational force can cause great suffering.
2. Rain is an extremely important part of life.
a. Without rain, there could be no life.
b. Yet, too much rain can cause suffering.
3. Everything must have rules to function.
a. In a football game, players have to stay in bounds.
b. What if, a team could change the boundary lines whenever they wanted to.
c. The game of football could not be played.
d. Life is the same way. If God were to change the rules every time something bad was about to happen, the world would be a place of chaos.
III. Suffering has a definite purpose.
A. Notice the following passages:
1. James
1:2-4; "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
2. 1 Peter
1:6-7; "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ"
3. Hebrews
12:5-11; "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
4. 2 Corinthians
1:3-4; "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."
B. We must remember that the most important thing in the world is faithful obedience to God.
1. Usually, those who live a life of luxury, never feel the need to serve God.
2. It is often the one who is undergoing great trials and suffering that decides that they need to follow God.
3. Suffering is usually what makes us who we are.
4. It helps us to appreciate life more.
C. Those who follow God are not immune to suffering.
1. This goes against a lot of what the world teaches.
2. Christians have been promised that they will be persecuted if they live a godly life;
"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
(2 Timothy
3:12).
3. But we must remember that suffering has its purpose.
Conclusion.
1. Hopefully, we have seen why there is suffering in the world.
2. God gave us a perfect world where there would be no suffering and death, but we messed it up.
3. Yet He still continues to give us the best gifts; "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
(James 1:17).
4. He desires for us to live in a place where there will be no suffering; "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
(Revelation
21:4).
-- Ralph Price (Streetsboro
Church of Christ), January 2002 --
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