How Could a Loving God....
“God is Love” 1 John 4:7-10, 16
“God so loved that he gave” 9-10
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God ? for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
One of the main objections to the faith is the problem of pain. The most haunting question we face concerns the problem of evil. Why is there evil in the world if there is a God? Why isn’t he doing something about it? Many assume that the existence of evil disproves the existence of God.
A Woman is "Battered" every 15 seconds.
· 1.3 Adult Women Are "Raped" Every Minute.
· 45 Americans were Killed in "Alcohol Related Traffic Crashes" Each Day in 1994.
· Approximately 6 Children Are Reported "Abused and Neglected In America Every 60 Seconds.
· There was a "Murder" Every 24 Minutes In 1985, and has only increased since.
· There is a "Robbery" Every 51 Seconds.
· There is a "Violent" Crime of Some Kind Every 18 Seconds.
· There is an "Aggravated Assault" Every 29 Seconds.
· There are 20 Employees "Murdered" and 18,000 "Assaulted" On The Job Every Week.
· A Recent CIA Report Estimates 2 Million Women and Children are "Sexually Trafficked" From All Over the World, Including the U.S. Each Year Into Prostitution and Pornography. They are sold to Brothels Where they are beaten and Raped.
· Natural Disasters, Disease and Third World Hunger.
Man’s LOGIC
God is all-powerful, loving, and perfect.
1. A perfect, loving God would create a universe that was perfect (e.g., no evil and suffering).
2. The universe is not perfect but contains evil and suffering.
Therefore, God does not exist.
Or
A Good God would not allow or cause bad things to happen.
Bad things happen
Therefore God must not exist (Ken Ham p49 How Could a Loving God)
A preacher and an atheistic barber were once walking through the city slums. Said the barber to the preacher: "This is why I cannot believe in a God of love. If God was as kind and loving as you say, He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor. He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."
The minister was silent until they met a man who was especially unkept and filthy. His hair was hanging down his neck and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face. Said the minister: "You can’t be a very good barber or you wouldn’t permit a man like that to continue living in this neighborhood without a haircut and a shave."
Indignantly the barber answered: "Why blame me for that man’s condition? I can’t help it that he is like that. He has never come in my shop. I could fix him up and make him look like a gentleman!"
Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said: "Then don’t blame God for allowing the people to continue in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to come and be saved.
Ted Turner
In a New York Times interview, Ted Turner, an avowed atheist having lost his faith after his sister Mary Jane died of a painful disease. “I was taught that God was love and God was powerful,” “I couldn’t understand how someone so innocent should be made or allowed to suffer so.” Suffering caused him to lose his faith. In suffering some draw close to God, and others flee from him.
I God Created Paradise for Us (Genesis 1:31 “It was good, very good”)
People say:
“If God is so good why didn’t he create a world free of pain and suffering?
That is a great question, and I have a great answer.
He did, and man’s sin destroyed it. What you see in the world today is not how God created it. As beautiful as nature is that God created it is only a glimmer of what it was in creation.
II God Created Us with Free Choice (Gen 2 “Eat of all, but..)
God created us with the ability to choice to love and obey him, and not as robots. God wanted us to love him because we wanted to, and to do that we had to have a choice not to do so. God took a risk when he gave us the freedom to choose. And we choose wrong.
III Man Fell into Sin (Genesis 3)
A. All of Mankind was affected
1. His Spiritual Life affected - Separation from Creator -Now he hid from God
-sin nature within that pulled him to more disobedience wasn’t there before.
-temptations increased from one
2. His Physical Body affected - Disease and Death (cancer, heart trouble, birth defects)
-Death introduced not live forever
-Pain introduced -childbirth
-Disease followed
B. The World Affected
-work would now be frustrating
-paradise lost -
-everything in creation warped
The apostle Paul described it in Romans.
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. 21 All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children. Romans 8
C. Our continued Sin problem
1. Original sin brought pain and suffering to the whole world
2. Our personal sin continues to brings pain and suffering into our lives
3. Others sin brings pain and suffering into our lives (We bring pain to theirs)
Kelly Willard was the solo voice in many Maranatha Music Songs in the 80’s. She recorded 10 solo albums for her Lord. But in 2004 her world fell apart. Her marriage of 29 years ended in divorce, her parents died, and her 18 year old daughter Haylie committed suicide after battling severe depression and quit taking her medicine. She just released and new album this year, the first in eleven years, called PAGA which means intercession. She wrote most of the songs out of her pain. In “Charity” she sings “I am nothing/Jesus, reduce me to love”, in “Til I desire only you” she sings “Strip away all the substitutes.” The album is a true testement of God’s help in the midst of her Suffering. (Charisma p 101, November 2007, and Out of the Darkness interview with Christian Music Today.com.)
IV God Began Redemption
A. Immediately - Seeking the sinner and providing skins for Adam and Eve from animals who were killed to
satisfy the death requirement for sin.
B. Intermediately - The OT Sacrificial System -The Jewish People
C. Intervention - Jesus coming to earth
1. To begin the Kingdom of God in Hearts -So we would love and not hurt others
2. To begin reversing the curse -healing, deliverance, raising the dead,
3. We live in the “Already and not yet” The Kingdom of God has come, but not fully.
Church you are the reason there is not more pain and suffering in the world. You think it is bad now, if God took out the church and its influence this world would disinegrate into total pain and suffering.
John Stott, a great British pastor said this: “In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world.
But each time, after a while I have had to look away. And in imagination I have turned instead to the lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain.
He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering."
D. Completion - Jesus Return to earth - New Heaven -New Earth -Forever
1. Bodily resurrection - Resurrection Body
2. New Home - New heaven and earth
Sin is the Earth’s problem not global warming. It is not man polluting the atmosphere with green house gases, but polluting the world with sinful rebellion against their creator. And yes there will be global warming for those who continue- the bible calls it the fires of hell that will be their home forever.
The Big Picture - The Seven C’s of Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation. (Answers in Genesis slide)
V God’s Powerful Answers for Life’s Pain
In spite of having a Biblical framework to understand how a loving God can allow pain and suffering, their will be times when it still doesn’t make since. At those times we must lift the shield of faith against the doubts of God’s love and goodness in the midst of our pain. It is based on four unchangeable Bible Truths.
1. God is good (Mark 10:18)
2. Every good and perfect Gift comes from God. (Every bad gift from devil)James 1:17
3. No good thing will he withhold from those who love him. Psalms 84:11
When we say no to our children or correct them for their benefit they accuse us of not loving them. The reality is just the opposite. I really pouting in my room many times when Dad said no, or I was being punished and thinking I am not going to be this strict on my kids. Later, in my 20’s I reflected and felt they were too lenient.
4. Every bad thing the devil sends into your Life God will turn it into good. Romans 8:28
Denise Jackson
I watched Denise Jackson, the wife of country star Alan Jackson share her testimony on CBN, and it is also in her new book “It’s all about HIM”. She is not talking about Alan, but the Lord Jesus. She said she was raised in church, and went every Sunday, and had the head knowledge. But after marrying Alan she got caught up in the celebrity lifestyle and quit going to church. After 18 years of marriage Alan walked out, and this was almost 10 years ago. She said she had a new baby and her world shattered. Looking back she said the shattering was the greatest blessing. They were separated over 3 months. “Losing Alan helped me find the love that would never let me go.” Driving in the car she prayed, Lord, I am so tired of trying to get him back, and I don’t believe you want our family to be broken, but if you do, and it’s your will, I know you will take care of me. A peace filled her heart.
God uses Suffering
God uses suffering to bring us to eternal life
God uses suffering to wean us away from this world.
God uses suffering to discipline us to turn us back to him.
God uses suffering to let us know him better . JOB
God uses suffering to mature us in our character
God uses suffering to give us compassion toward others.
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. (Mark 10:18)
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. Psalms 84:11
Romans 8:28 (NLT)
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Conclusion: God so Loved that he gave...
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
(1 John 4)
Knowing that sin was our problem and pain and suffering was our lot on earth, the bible says “God so loved his creation that he gave his Son so that his creation could know a better life. There is no other place where the fact of his being a loving God is so clearly seen then at the cross. He allowed his sinless son to suffer and die for sins he didn’t commit, we did, so that we could be forgiven and live in a perfect world with him forever. God did his part now he asks us to do ours. We will never fully understand all the pain and suffering in our lives at the present. But by faith in God’s love and provision we can bow our knees to his rule in our lives. We must confess our sinful rebellion and ask for his forgiveness and because of the cross he will. We must welcome him into our lives, and begin to live to please him, and not ourselves.
We will understand it better by and by
We are often tossed and driven
On the restless sea of time.
Somber skies and howling tempests
Oft succeed a bright sunshine.
In that land of perfect day,
When the mists have rolled away,
We will understand it better by and by.
Chorus
By and by when the morning comes.
When the saints of God are gathered home.
We’ll tell the story how we’ve overcome,
For we’ll understand it better by and by.
We are often destitute
Of the things that life demands;
Want of food and want of shelter,
Thirsty hills and barren lands.
We are trusting in the Lord
And according to God’s Word
We will understand it better by and by.
Trials dark on ev’ry hand
And we cannot understand
All the ways that God would lead usTo that blessed promised land.
But He guides us with His eye.
And we’ll follow till we die
For we’ll understand it better by and by.
Temptations, hidden snares
Often take us unawares
And our hearts are made to bleed
For some tho’tless word or deed.
And we wonder why the test
When we try to do our best
But we’ll understand it better by and by.
