Why Not Destroy Evil Right Now? Series

Intro: A) The Sentiments of Asaph in Psalm 73

B) We can relate to his questions. Why is it that evil is so prevalent and appears to prosper while those who do good seem to get trampled upon. And why does it seem that those who do evil seem to get away Scott free? Is there any hope for justice?

C) We find the answers to these questions in the parable that was read to us earlier this morning. It’s found in Mark 13 starting with vs. 24.

Matt 13:24-25 “Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.”

I. Now the first thing I want you to see here is that we are called to co-exist with evil in this world.

A. Notice how the wheat and the weeds are both located in the same field. Now it’s no surprise that we

live in an evil time and in a world that is filled with evil people.

1. Now evil is a term that many in our culture is not to fond of hearing. We dare not say that a person or a nation is evil lest we be viewed as judging them or being intolerant.

A) My sister used to have a dog who she eventually had to put to sleep, named Dee Dee. This dog would snap, bark and bite anyone who came into their house and when we said she was a bad dog, my sister would respond, “She’s not bad, just misunderstood.”

B) Well that’s how many view evil today…we say their not evil, we just don’t understand their viewpoint.

C) You might recall the ruckus that was aroused when George Bush in his state of the union address referred to the North Korea, Iraq, and Iran as an axis of evil. The same response was made earlier when then President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Empire as the “Evil” empire.

2. The fact is that there are evil people in this world.

A) We have seen in our time some of the world’s worst dictators. Pol Pot murdered millions in the fields of Cambodia. Stalin executed millions of his own followers. Hitler, Hussein. Is there any doubt an anyone’s mind that these individuals are evil?

B) There are devious people who are agents of Satan in this world who lure unsuspecting persons into hell. It might be a classmate who takes you to a party and offers you drugs, they are attempting to lure you in and enslave you. It might be a college professor who takes delight in attacking established truths. He is devious. He knows that he is leading young minds astray, He knows that he is presenting an hypothesis as a fact, but he is out for reputation and he actually delights in destroying your faith. It may be an attractive but promiscuous woman at work, She is beautiful her personality is charming and the chemistry between you two is there and she knows that and she exploits it and tries to really boost your ego, but she is a deceiver, and whoever is led astray by that is not wise

C) These people want nothing more than to choke the wheat and to see it whither away. Paul warned the Thessalonian church of the same thing in 2 Thess. 3:2.

2 Thess 3:2 “And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.”

B. Now the effects of co-existing in this world with evil is that we often suffer from it.

1. Many innocent victims suffer at the hands of evil people.

A) Headline this week of Brownsville, TX couple murdering their 3 kids, decapitating.

2. We also see it in the persecution of the things of God in our world today.

A) The Voice of the Martyrs says that we are living in the most persecuted time in history

B) Also we see the doing away of anything from the public square dealing with God.

1. The Alabama governor’s weekly Bible study classes in his Capitol office constitute what some local atheists are calling "Christian terrorism" and must be stopped, reports the AP. Gov. Bob Riley, a Southern Baptist, holds Bible study classes with cabinet members and his senior staff each Tuesday morning. No state business is discussed, says the governor’s chief of staff. But Larry Darby, Alabama director for American Atheists, said the classes are not truly voluntary. "It’s a form of Christian terrorism," he says.

2. A public radio station in Pagosa Springs, Colo. refused to air a local dentist’s underwriting message because it had the word ‘God’ in it, reports the Durango Herald. The motto of dentist Glenn Rutherford’s practice is: "Gently Restoring the Health God Created." Rutherford said it is not so much a statement of faith as “an acknowledgment that we don’t create health. "I was called and told that there was a meeting of the (radio’s) staff and they unanimously agreed that I can’t put the word ‘God’ in our sponsorship spot," he said. KSUT Executive Director Beth Warren declined to comment on specifics of the station’s business relationship with Rutherford. The station’s motto is, "Diverse programming for a multi-cultural world."