A Loving God
Author: Pastor Mark Evans
Text: John 3:16
Year 2001
STATISTICS:
· 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.
Why?
A Question that has plagued man for centuries - Both Believers and Unbelievers alike. They have both asked this question.
If God is really a Loving God…Why Does He Permit All The Evil Done In This World?
Believer…What would you say if someone were to ask you that very same question?
What would your answer be? Do you fear the answer you’d give would sound vague and unsatisfactory to your opposing skeptic?
Unbelieving? Is this why you don’t choose trust in God?
Friends…there are an answer to this "seemingly unanswerable" question.
READ TEXT: John 3:16
2 Things Will Help Us To Understand.
In the Book of Gen. we learn that God gave mankind a "freewill". That is, this God who created man in His own Image to bring Him Glory and Pleasure, gave to every man, woman and child the power to choose for him\herself independent of God.
The Book of Gen. also tells us that Adam and Eve fell in the Garden and that ever since man has been born with a sin nature to "rebel" against the Living God.
Just as you may have been the happy recipient of a Big Nose or a Long Nose or a certain Hair or
Eye Color, or maybe you are Short or you are Tall. Just as we have received these things through birth so it is with a "Sin Nature".
Once Adam and Eve Sinned every person born into the world inherited a "Sin Nature", that is to "Rebel against God; and so it has been ever since.
Romans 5:19 tells us that "by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.
This is the Case of "ORIGINAL SIN".
Then there is "WILLFUL SIN"- where we deliberately choose to sin against God.
I am not going to get any further into the Doctrine of Sin then that.
I only wish to remind us that man by "Nature" is Rebellious against God and that Man is "Willful"; that is man has the power to choose. To freely make a cognitive choice of his own volition and according to his own desires.
After explaining this to one co-worker that I once had a discussion with over this same topic I challenged him with these words:
Illus. For just a moment, pretend that you are God and in your imagination you are going to recreate a perfect world.
Keep in mind, however, that for every thing that you do there is a ramification, a certain consequence.
Now to help my friend get started I begin to assume what any person in his/her right mind would think of. I said OK let’s start by wiping out "all murder". POOF! NO More Murder! Whoops…now all the Pro-Choice people are mad at you because you forgot to exclude abortion.
Now let’s get rid of "all rape". POOF! No More Rape!
Oh, I said, you can’t stop there, why don’t you stop all robberies. POOF! NO More Robberies!
I said, again, while your at it why don’t you eliminate World Hunger. POOF! No More Hunger! People are helping to plant crops again and are giving food in abundance! People are being fed again. Great! Fantastic! I tell my friend you continue to wipe out every known evil till you are finished.
Oh wait a minute! Something is wrong. Oh yes, very, very different. No one is following you anymore. No one believes in you anymore and No one loves you anymore. What do you mean my friend says! Why I just finished wiping out and eliminating all the evil in the world and you mean to tell me that no one loves me anymore!
Well, remember in the beginning, I said, "keep in mind" that for everything you do there are ramifications, certain consequences?
1. When you wiped out all murder, you wiped out the "choice" of certain people to "commit" murder.
2. When you ridded the earth of rape, you ridded the "choice" of certain people to "choose" to rape.
3. When you stopped all robberies, you stopped the "choice" of certain people to "choose" to rob.
4. When you stopped World Hunger you took away certain people’s "choice" to NOT help those in need. OR man’s choice not to work in the fields in such a way to preserve its crop.
So you see. When man’s "choice" was taken from him; Man could no longer choose to do "evil", however, he could also no longer choose to do "good".
If man cannot "choose" to hate man cannot "choose" to love either.
Thus, mankind cannot "choose" to love a "loving" God who loved them first.
But God is a loving God, isn’t He?
God "chose" to create the earth we live "on."
Man "chose" to create the world we live "in!"
The Earth is by "Design", the World is by "Choice".
Illus.: 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.
Rom. 5:8 says, "God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
1 John Chapter 4 Verses 8&16 both say, "God is Love".
Yes…God is Love, but His Love does not dwell in the heart of every person in this world.
Now that we have established God is a "Loving God", the next question a person might ask is:
How Could a Loving God Send Someone to Hell Just For Not Believing In a Jesus Christ?
How Could God Condemn Someone to an Eternal Punishment Who Never Even Knew?
The Answer Next Sunday…when you come…
First, we must remember that God has called "sinners" to repentance. "For all have sinned and come short of God’s glory. -Rom. 3:23
And when man did, God demonstrated His love toward us on a cross 2000 years ago, dying in our place; that’s "Love"!
The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord…is patient…not wishing any would perish but for all to come to repentance."
So you see, God does not send someone to hell; they send themselves to hell, by their choice.
The question, "How could a loving God send someone to hell" is not even a "valid" question. No! Rather, the question should be, "How could a loving God allow people to send themselves to hell? He allows people to "condemn" themselves to eternal punishment.
Now that the question is much clearer, then so is the answer.
The answer…is unveiled for us beginning in Rom. Chapter 1.
Vs. 19-20 says this: "…that whcich is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20) For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
So God has given us the "Light" of "Creation". Vs. 20
There is not a person on earth I don’t believe who has not looked out their window, who has not left their house. There is not a person on earth who has lived in utter darkness separated from God’s creation. God’s creation extends even to the deaf, dumb and the mute. We have all experienced God with at least one or more of the five senses God created us with. Every living person has experienced God’s creation in some way. They have saw, heard, felt or sensed it in some way. You can’t go from point A to point B without experiencing God’s creation around you. It is impossible that you got here tonight without experiencing God’s creation all around you.
If a co-worker asks me this question I would say how did you get to work today?
Whether you walked, took a bus, or drove a car; it is impossible that you got here today without experiencing God’s handiwork all around you. Trees, grass, plants, flowers, insects, and people.
If you have ever watched a nature discovery show you will have seen wonders! One insect leaves something behind that helps feed another which will than eat another so that there won’t be so much of that one kind, so that another may survive, feed on certain flowers and plants in the rainforest in order to produce a something that a certain animal needs to eat in order to…and so on. You get the picture.
It’s all done with such great precision that intelligent scientists have begun to place their faith in God because of Creation alone.
What about the human body?
Consider for a moment the incredible complexity of the human eye. It consists of a ball with a lens on one side and a light sensitive retina made up of rods and cones inside the other. The lens itself has a sturdy protective covering called a cornea and sits over an iris designed to protect the eye from excessive light. The eye contains a fantastic watery substance that is replaced every four hours, while tear glands continuously flush the outside clean. In addition, an eyelid sweeps secretions over the cornea to keep it moist, and eyelashes protect it from dust.
Further, Extraordinarily tuned muscles surround the eye for precision motility and shape the lens for the function of focus.
Additionally, consider the fact that as you read tonight’s text, a vast number of impulses were traveling from your eyes through millions of nerve fibers that transmit information to a complex “computer center” in the brain called the visual cortex. Linking the visual information from the eyes to motor centers in the brain is crucial in coordinating a vast number of bodily and mental functions that are part and parcel to the very process of daily living.
Even the most "prominent" Darwinian of our age said this in one of his books. The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design.
Let me read this excerpt from an article I read.
Darwin himself found it hard to accept the notion that the eye could be the product of blind evolutionary chance, conceding that the intricacies of the human eye gave him (quote)“cold shudders.”(end quote)
Yet evolutionists try to explain it away. Why?
The "evolution theory?" Is just that. A theory, and nothing more! It’s always been a theory it’s a theory now, and it’ll always be a theory…in the minds of unbelievers who wish to explain away an Objective Almighty God who holds mankind and His creation accountable for their actions. It’s just an adult fairy tale.
There are "two" kinds of evolutionists: One who is "unwilling" to admit it won’t work!
The second: Would like it to work, but is "intelligent enough" to admit it won’t!
A certain man considered the greatest evolutionist of his time said in an interview quote, "I suppose that we try to explain the earth some other way so that we can continue to enjoy our sexual mores"; that simply means their sexual habits an manners. That’s what the greatest evolutionist said!
It is nothing more than man’s attempt to explain away a Holy, Objectionable God who holds man accountable for his sin!
I would say this to any evolutionist: If little eddies or objects in space collided to form the earth, then before there was anything to collide what collided to create the universe? What collided to create the space before there was any space? Where was it’s beginning?
In Isaiah 45:18 we read that the Lord "formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited." (NAS) What does this verse tell us? This verse tells that there are specific designs built into the earth that help support life. Why? Because life was intended by God!
The Psalmist says, "the heavens declare his glory!" The Sun, the Moon, the Stars.
If the sun was just a "little" farther away we would all freeze to death. If the Sun was just a "little" bit closer we would all burn up!" If the moon would get any closer than can this earth would experience tidal waves and disasters in such magnitude of proportions that we would experience the Great Flood all over again, Yet, God promised to never flood it again! Yes, the Creator of the Universe has sustained the earth along its axle in orbit at the proper distance from the Sun and the Moon with "mathematical pinpoint accuracy!" Why? Because He created "them" and "us" for His Glory; because He saw that it was "good" and because…He loves us.
All of us have experienced God’s creation in some fashion. And the Bible says it leaves us "without excuse".
So God has given us the "light of creation".
The evolutionist attempts to explain an alternative way of creation in order to escape his "conscious".
Secondly, He has given us the "light of conscious".
Rom. 2:12:16(Read from the Bible)
They who do not have the Law of God will be a law unto themselves. Why? Because God has put into each one of us a "Moral Barometer", which tells us "Basic" Right and Wrong.
Let me give you this illus:
Illus. (A man named John came home from work one day and rushing through the door tells his wife of a man who lied to him at work. He said, there was a guy at work who stole my tools and I saw him from a distance. When I confronted him he down and out lied to me. He lied straight through his teeth even after I told him I saw him. I can’t believe it, he lied to me he did.
Later in life John dies and standing before God he gives excuses saying, I never knew anything. I never knew right and wrong, I never even knew the Ten Commandments. God tells an angel play the tape, as if it were, and there replayed on the screen before him he sees himself running through the door shouting and telling his wife about the man who “lied” to him at work.
You see, every person knows "Basic" Right and Wrong.
Just as a child here in America, for the very first time, can experience his conscious telling him it is wrong to steal, so can another child experience the very same thing who lives on the other side of the earth.
It’s not culture. It’s not religious background. It’s not how you were raised. It’s in your conscience.
So God has given us the "Light of Creation" and the "Light of Conscience".
God says, "If you seek me you will find me, when you search for me with all your heart".
It’s not that God has not given men enough light…in this world. Whether in a "Jungle" or in "America".
No. For in the Gospel John we read, "…men loved darkness rather than the light".
Repeat above verse.
God promises us that if we respond to the light He has given us, then he will give us "more" light.
And that light my friends is Jesus Christ.
Yes. God is a "Loving", "Caring" God who is "long-suffering" with us and whose mercy endures forever.
Finally, a person might ask then why a "Hell"?
There Are Three Reasons I Believe In a Hell.
I believe in a hell…because God says there is one. Before I tell you the next "two" reasons I believe in a hell you must, first of all, except the first one. Because the next two have their basis in the first.
You know the old "cliché" ’God said it, I believe it, that settles it.’
Secondly,
I believe in a hell…because I believe that if there is a "heaven" for believers there must be a "hell" for unbelievers, who reject: 1) Christ’s sacrifice on the cross in our place. 2) The "Light of Creation" which leaves us without excuse and 3) The "Light of Conscious" which tells us right from wrong.
That is, if there is a "reward" for believers…then it must logically follow that there is a reward for unbelievers. Why? Because otherwise…people like "Adolph Hitler", after killing 6 million Jews, who most of them died a horrific death, would just die in his mistresses arms. And that would be it!
No there is a reward. There is a hell.
Thirdly,
I believe in a hell…because I believe that if a person does not want to "worship" God now, then he certainly wouldn’t want to worship God in heaven. No. God does is not some sort of cosmic rapist who involuntarily drags people into the heaven He has gone to prepare for believers. For then heaven would not be heaven at all, but hell.
Because believers, on the other hand, want to worship the Lord, and we seek time when we are able to worship Him more "Perfectly" in Spirit and in Truth; and best of all in His presence! That…is heaven.
That is what our brother Richard is doing right now! And though I miss him. I also envy him. Because he is in the presence of my Lord and Savior!
You see friends…Heaven does not have the power to transform people into God’s children. Only JESUS CHRIST can transform people into worshipers of God!
Jesus Christ is the only way to have a relationship with God.
Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ?
