If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil and Suffering?

So like the balloon is the icon of celebration. It's like they're at parties, they're at weddings, they're outside in the commons right now. Celebration. Like that's, you see the balloon and nobody has like their balloon from the third grade. Like well this one was from that, this one was from this because like that's, that's what happens in life. It's like balloon one moment and burst the next. It's, it's celebration and then sadness. That's the reality of life is that you're like celebrating one moment, you're at the birthday, you're at the wedding reception, you're at the baby shower, and then you get the text message. You get the phone call, hey I want you to know everybody's okay but, or the diagnosis. Or the, the doctor comes in and says it's worse than we thought. Like that's life. You have these moments, these highs of celebration and then like unexpectedly hits you like a truck. These waves of suffering and grief and it's like man that, that's a hard turn to come out of like celebrating the building and it's gonna happen and people are gonna come near the gospel to popping a balloon. But it's how life happens and you don't see it coming. I want to show you a picture. You tell me if it's a good picture or a bad picture. That's Laura with our five-year-old daughter Penny. It's like man that's a, that's a framer. Like I could see why you would take that. What a sweet moment. She's talking Penny in. The reason why I stepped back and took that picture is because I didn't know how many more we were gonna have. Laura was weeping over her sleeping daughter and then she went to Judd's room and Hill's room and did the same thing and prayed God all I wanted to do was be a mom because she'd just been diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, breast cancer that had already left the tumor and was spreading. And I stepped back and took it because it was like surreal as I'm looking I'm like I can't believe this. My, my wife has cancer. She's pleading with God and like took the picture like I think this is one of those moments I'm supposed to remember because it feels out of body. The balloon just burst. The bomb went off. I'm in shock. I'm like I don't know if I'm gonna show this picture at like her funeral in the slideshow as she prayed over her children while having cancer. That like that was the reality in the moment. And I say this to you because we have to have a death grip on our theology. Who God is as we navigate this life because there will be evil and suffering and trial and persecution and problems like life is fraught with that. And so we've got to know who God is, why that's happening, and what is the end? Where are we headed? Because that will give us the way that we can walk through the burst balloons in life. Today we are beginning if you haven't already noticed

big questions. This new sermon series as we look at the big questions of the faith. And the first one is we like sat down. You guys get to vote up the rest. You get to choose what big question we address on Monday. But the first one that we're addressing today is because we came together on Monday and we put them all on the board like thought starters and everyone voted on this one. If God is good, and he is, then why is there evil and suffering in the world? Said otherwise you could say if God is good, he's all good, he's ever-present, he's all-powerful, he's all-knowing, then why is he not restraining the evil that befalls me or you or throughout the world with murder and trafficking? Like all the horrific things, where is he? It's the age-old question that's been asked. If God is good, why is there evil and suffering? Job asked it, the psalmist asks it on repeat. It's asking lamentations. It's this question the atheist and agnostic ask it. They're like, oh, you say that you believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, all-good God and this is happening? Have you read the news? Where is he? This is what the atheist and agnostic will shake in your face on repeat. Well, God has not left us without answer. He answers the big question and while today I feel like deserves a series on suffering rather than a sermon, we're going to do our best to work through this and address if God is good, why is there evil and suffering in the world? The three points that we're going to walk through first and you'll see it on the screen is the root of suffering, where it comes from, the role of suffering. God allows it and what does he do with it? There is a role in our life. And then third and finally, the redemption of suffering, how God… that flips the script and uses it for our good. I wanna turn your eyes to the middle screen right now and show you a diagram. This, if you think about like, where did it come from? Like, did God create evil? That's what people will ask you. He didn't create evil, he's all good. He only created that which is good. And one of God's good creations was to create beings with free will. If we didn't have free will,

we wouldn't have the capacity for good or bad. We wouldn't have the capacity to love because it wouldn't be voluntary. So he created free will beings. Now, as you move down, free will beings, if you're familiar with the scripture or just life, you know that sometimes people choose good and sometimes people choose evil. They help you and they hurt you and you are not exempt from that reality. You help and you hurt. We are free will beings and sometimes we choose evil. When Adam and Eve and the angelic realm chose evil, then we entered into number three, the fallen reality. That introduced human depravity, the sin nature of man. We live in a fallen creation where there's earthquake and tsunami and death and disease and we have a fallen foe. The angelic realm also had free will. And Satan and a third of the angels fell and now war against us in this unseen war. But as you will see throughout the scripture, number four, God pursues us. From the very first sin, God has set his face to pursue mankind, to love and restore and redeem them despite their sin and rebellion against God. And not just that, in his pursuit of us, leads us to Christ. God doesn't just see us in our suffering

but enters into our suffering in God the Son, taking on flesh, dying for our sins that we could be made new and have eternal life until one day all of evil and suffering is removed and there's a new heaven, new earth where there is no more sin, suffering, pain, nor tear. With all of that in mind, and that's what theologians call a theodicy. Theodicy, that is an explanation of the goodness of God in the reality of evil and suffering. How can those two coexist? That's what theologians call a theodicy. It seems contradictory, it's a paradox. They seem incompatible but they can be because of what you see behind me. So, all of that in mind, the first point to the question, if God is good, why is there evil and suffering? Point one, the root of evil and suffering, as we've already established, is free will. Free will resulted in a fallen man, the fallen angelic realm in part, the demonic, in a fallen world. So, fallen people with a fallen foe are enemy Satan and his demons in a fallen world. Kind of a mess. Like we're sick, a third of the angels are now warring against us and we live in this broken, fallen world. That's tough.

Let's see it though from the scriptures. Genesis 127, it says, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. This is to say, as God made man in his image, both with morality but also with volition, which means the ability to decide. We are moral agents. He didn't make us in like automatic robots that would just do everything that we're told. We're not inanimate. But rather, we can decide. We can decide good or evil. And so this is him creating morality. C.S. Lewis says this in Mere Christianity. If a thing is free to be good, it is also free to be bad. Here we have free will established. If it's free to be good, it's also free to be bad. There's a choice. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why then did God give them free will? You'd be like, well, if he knew that was gonna happen, shouldn't he have like stopped and been like, oh no, they're gonna like hate each other and murder and abduct and this is gonna be a mess. Then we should stop. We shouldn't do this. I won't do this because free will,

though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy you could continue or sacrifice or redemption or worship worth having. And so to firmly establish, God did not create evil. Evil is not a created thing. It's the absence of good. In fact, when you look at the scriptures in the beginning in the Genesis account, you see God creates and it's good, creates and it's good, creates and it's good, creates and it's good, creates and it's good, creates man and says. Very good. God created nothing but good, and the very good that he created in humanity. Humanity introduced that which is evil by choosing sin. So let's pick that up in Genesis 3, 1 through 6. You'll see it on the screen. Now the serpent, which is Satan, we know this from Revelation 12, and throughout the scriptures, the serpent was more crafty than any of the other beast of the field the Lord God has made. Pause. You're like, wait, so God created the serpent, Satan? That doesn't sound right.

You just told me that God created nothing but good. Well, in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14, we get this glimpse into prior to the garden, and what you see is that Satan was created as a guardian cherub, one of a kind, and he reflected the glory of God. People couldn't stare directly at God, so they looked at the reflection. He was covered with every precious stone, and he said in Isaiah 14, five I will statements. I will ascend to the most high. I will make my throne in the heavens. I will be like God. It was just like, he didn't wanna worship God, he wanted to be God. So these five I will statements. Then you go to Ezekiel 28, and it says that pride was found within his heart on account of his beauty, so he was cast down. This is where we get our fallen foe. This is why Satan, the serpent, which means the adversary, is there in the garden talking to God's people. So he said to the woman, Satan says to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

God was trying to protect us, not to prevent us from joy. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Satan always twists God's truth. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, listen, and you will be like God. That was the temptation. The same that Satan had, like I don't wanna worship you, I wanna be you. He then says to Eve, hey, if you take of that tree, you'll be like God. Theologians call this the fall. I would say it was a rebellion. It wasn't like, oops, I stumbled. It was like, wait, I can be like you and not under you? Then I'll take of it. But the serpent said, you'll not surely die. You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, here is free will. She took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. There it is. There's the free will. She was a moral agent, a volitional being, stood before her an option, and she chose sin. We don't know how long, how many years, decades were there before this decision,

but yet there was the decision. Free will introduced the fall of man or the rebellion. In that, sin entered into Eve, centered into Adam, and then their progeny, their offspring would have also a sin nature. Sin, beget, sin. And so every human for all of time has had a sin nature. This is called the depravity of man. When we had kids, we didn't have to teach them like, hey, you should, when you don't get your way, you should like be selfish or hit or fuss or like, that just comes out of kids. No one taught them. It's because of our sin nature. And you did it too. So this is the fall of man, living among a fallen foe, Satan, in we will see a fallen world. Genesis 3, 17, cursed is the ground because of you. Romans 8, 20 and 21, it says all of creation groans and is subject to decay. We know this, like you don't have to be reading the news much in order to see the typhoons, the hurricane, the tsunami, the disease, the epidemic, the death, everything in this fallen world that we live among. So fallen people, fallen foe, fallen world. It's like there's a lot of evil and suffering there because of that. And God could have stopped it, but he didn't. He could have stopped like,

well, I'm not gonna give them free will. I'll just like make them. But instead he did out of love. God is love. Why? Because he wanted to love you. You. Think about it this way. Laura and I, we have kids. We have three kids, Hill, Penny, and Judd. We didn't prior, when we were newlyweds, think like, man, you know what? Someday, they're probably gonna fall and skin their knee. They might get stitches. They'll probably have a broken bone. At some point, they'll probably have a really terrible breakup that breaks their heart. One of them may get really sick one day. They might not have great health. One could be, it's like, we didn't think about all those things and be like, oh, you know what then? Let's not have kids. Because they're gonna be born into difficulty and tragedy and hardship, so we should probably just pass on that and not procreate. Instead, we're like, because of a desire to love, we're like, no, we're going to. Despite the brokenness they will be born into, we are going to because of love.

And when those things happen, we will be raising them up in the faith because this is not the end. And so did God in bringing you into the world because of love, he loves you. And despite the brokenness, you will see that there is a role and there's a redemption for it. Now, here's your application for point one, that we're a fallen people living in a fallen world with a fallen foe. It's like, what do I do with that? Here's what you do with that. You don't blame God for the evil and suffering that befalls you. Like my kids, when they have a bad day at school, they don't like burst into the door like, dad, how dare you brought me into this world? What were you thinking? Didn't you know that I was going to have a bad day, hurt my knee, you know, have the breakup, whatever. Like, why would you have even birthed me? Or why did Laura? They never say that. They're just like, they're like, I had a hard day. They run to me. You know, we get to talk through it, pray about it. I'm there for them, they come to me. So, but oftentimes when evil befalls us, when we face suffering, we're like, why?

And we're looking at God, blaming him when he is the only one that actually can comfort us and provide us help. And that is your fallen foe. He's whispering to you, does God really love you? If he did, then this wouldn't have happened. Where was he during the abuse? Where was he in the broken home? Where was he? Those are the whispers, just like in the garden to Eve. So don't blame him, but run to him, because he's the only one. Satan's going to try to pit you against the very one who can help. So the root of evil and suffering is free will, and God allows it. He doesn't cause it, but he does allow it this side of eternity. But he always uses it. While he allows it, because there is this fallen reality, he uses it, and he uses it for your good. So let's pick up in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. So to keep me from becoming conceited, this is Paul writing, conceited, to be proud. To keep me from becoming conceited or proud because of the surpassingly greatness of the revelations, he had glimpsed heaven. God had shown him heaven, and that could cause some spiritual pride. Hey man, God gave me a ticket to see heaven.

I've seen it all. That could cause some spiritual pride. So to keep me from becoming conceited, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. There's the fallen foe again. To harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, Jesus, my grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ, not my power but his, may rest upon me. For the name of Christ's sake then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul's saying like, hey, this fallen foe is tormenting me. I asked God, would you take it away? And God's like, no, I'm not gonna take it away because I'm using it to keep you dependent on me, humble before me, and I will give you strength in your weakness. I will give you sufficient grace to get through this present evil, this tormenting of Satan. So if God allows an affliction to remain in your life, a trial to remain in your life, right here in his word, he says, I will give you the grace and the strength to go through it.

Maybe not around it, but to go through it, and I will be with you. And so Paul, learning this, is like. and I'll boast all the more of my weakness so that Christ's strength might rest on me. This is the role of suffering, our sanctification. He's making us more Christ-like. Like all the like things that we get tangled up in, when you suffer, they fall away. You're like, okay, I used to get like tripped up and this and that, and I was like pleasure seeking. When you're suffering, life really narrows and you're like, oh man, all of life is to know Him and make Him known. You become dependent upon Him, He sanctifies you. This is 1 Peter 1, it's a refining fire. These afflictions, it's a refining fire. James 1, he says, then consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that He's using them to perfect you, to make you more into the image of Christ, that the sin would fall off. And 1 Peter 4 says, you know then that those who suffer in the body have ceased to sin. It's like, you're just like, oh, why would I even tangle with that? It gives you this more singular focus. So the role of suffering is our sanctification. Spurgeon said, I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.

It was Spurgeon thinking of himself like in an ocean being tossed back and forth into breakers, just slamming into him of affliction and trial and suffering. And he's saying, I've learned to kiss the waves, like to greet the wave that throws me up against the rock of ages, which is Jesus. He's saying like, I'm thankful for those things because they push me into my God. In a strange way, I've talked about my wife, Laura, not only the breast cancer that she's now almost five years free from, I should always say that. Yeah, praise God. In case you're like new and you're like, what happened? God has seen fit that it has not yet come back, but she has this like ongoing affliction of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, unwanted ruminating thoughts that just like spiral down and create anxiety. Well, here's the strange thing. I fell in love with Laura and love her greatly in part because of what OCD did to her. That's weird, right? Like I have fallen in love with my wife because of what a mental illness has done to her. Seems like really counterintuitive. But let me share with you, like that affliction that she's had since she was a little girl through decades

has caused her not to be compromised, but to be sold out to the Lord in dependency and desperation. Now look, she'd be the first one to tell you, I'm not perfect, like I still sin, but it has sanctified her. That suffering has been an agent of sanctification in her life. She is who she is in part because of the suffering that has propelled her to the feet of Christ on a daily basis. Or my dad that for 20 years has suffered with Lyme's disease bit by a copperhead, which caused neurological damage, now Parkinson's, and I've never heard him complain once. I get a migraine and I'm complaining. My dad for 20 years has suffered. And even last night I was like texting with my mom and dad and my mom was like, have you ever questioned God? And my dad humbly said, I haven't. He knows like God's sovereign. If he's allowed it, he's allowed it to remain. But I'm not gonna question him. I'm not gonna shake my fist at him. And he doesn't complain. It's the fruit of suffering that shows sanctification. You see, suffering can do two things to you. It can make you horrible or it can make you holy. It can make you bitter or it can make you blessed. And you know this, you know the people where you're like, oh, they're just like an angry, toxic person. Like suffering entered in,

they're shaking their fist at God. They hate others, they hate you, they hate themselves. Or in like desperation or like, all right, Lord, you've sovereignly allowed this. This is a lion on a chain, as Augustine would say. Like you've allowed it, but you've got it on a chain. And so I like in reverence and humility before you, I'm gonna trust you. And they become more sanctified instead of stagnant. And so the application here is when the sufferings come to receive them, to entrust yourself to God and not be like Job's wife. Job's wife and all of his suffering, she said to him, she looked upon, you've lost your children. you've lost your livelihood, you've lost the housing. All you have is your health. And that was about to be taken. She said to him, curse God and die. Like you're still holding on to your faith in him and he allowed this? Curse God and die. Or you could be like Job when suffering comes. You'll see it on the screen. Then Job arose and tore his robe, shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped. So there was a mourning. We're not like laughing through calamity. God knows, he says, mourn with those who mourn. Jesus wept, he swept blood.

He's not asking us to be emotionally out of tune. He's like, no, no, like in the anguish, tear your clothes, shave your head, fall to the ground and worshiped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The two can coexist, suffering and praise. So we see that the root of suffering is free will. The role of suffering are sanctification, dependency on the Lord, fellowship with Christ in the suffering. That's just a glimpse of what suffering does in your life, let alone in the lives of others. Let's look in 2 Corinthians chapter one. God of all comfort who comforts us in all our afflictions so that, like, why does he comfort us in our afflictions? If you've got an affliction, he's gonna comfort you so that we, the church, may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. You don't have to have gone through something to speak into something. So you meet a heroin addict, you can speak comfort to him, the comfort of Christ, even though maybe you've not shot heroin. The one who has been sexually abused, if you haven't been sexually abused, you can still speak a word of comfort to them. You don't have to have gone through something

to speak into something because you're not pointing to yourself, you're pointing them to God who comforts everyone in every affliction. With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, right there, it's like, man, just the rejection of the prosperity gospel. It says we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. They will overflow to you expectantly. Like you can be sure you will suffer in this life. Paul wrote in Acts, he said it's through many trials and tribulations that we must, not might, must enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus said, if you wanna follow me, take up your cross, which was an instrument of death, to follow Jesus. Paul said, everyone who desires to live a holy life will be persecuted. It's no accident. So expect it and be ready. I want us to be ready. So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. Listen, if we're afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation. That's a curious verse. If we're afflicted, it's for the world's comfort and salvation. Why is that? Because when we're afflicted,

the world's like, now where's your God? God's good. God's holy. God's ever present. What are you gonna do now? And we worship him. Y'all don't get to stand here and hear Tanner Underwood sing praise. I have the benefit of being backstage and I hear his voice as he sits in his chair, singing praise. And the world looks at that and is like, okay, that's maybe a God I could believe in. Tanner, thank you for your example. We love you. The world looks at us in the diagnosis, in the tragedy, in the suffering, in the divorce, in the abuse, and we still worship? They're like, okay, then I'm listening. I'm listening. And we get to comfort them and then tell them about, this is not the end. Jesus entered into our suffering to rescue me from it. This world's passing away. I'm going to a new heaven and new earth where there is no pain, tear, or sorrow. And that they might have hope, which is why we're building a new building. As JP said, not because we care about buildings,

but because this building can't contain all those that would come to here. There's overflow to overflow. The parking lot doesn't fill it. So we're going to build a place 3X what this room is so that everybody out there that you're going to reach, we're going to reach, can hear about the comfort and salvation of Jesus. All of the 254 here's Jesus as Lord. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just to hear Tanner say, yeah, amen. That's the redemption of suffering. Your mess becomes your message. You're like, yeah, this is what happened in my life. And I've got a God who saves. I've got a God who delivers. I've got a God who says, this is not the end. The redemption of suffering is the message of salvation. Paul says, if we're afflicted, trials, persecutions, sufferings, it's for your comfort and your salvation. Because I'm gonna tell you a God who comforts and I'm gonna tell you a God who saves in Jesus Christ, our Lord. You know, the book, The Pilgrim's Progress, it's second most sold book only to the Bible.

Almost 500 years old. It never would have been written, spare the fact that John Bunyan was put in prison for 12 years. That's why it was written. That's the redemption of suffering. He was put in prison unjustly and there in prison while his blind daughter brought him one meal a day, a little bowl of soup. He penned The Pilgrim's Progress. Apart from that prison cell, he would have preached to a few in Bedford, England. In the prison cell, he's now preached for 500 years through Pilgrim's Progress because of suffering. That's the redemption of suffering, the message of salvation. You think like, you don't know my story. You don't know what I've been through, the abuse, the divorce, the horrific things, the diagnosis, the loss. I wanna show you a picture of trash. Turn your eyes to the screen. Like you look at that and you're like, yeah, that's how it feels. The hand that I've been dealt, the phone call I got, the breakup that I've been in, it just feels like throwaway trash. It's like an old toothbrush, old comb. It's just chaotic. I want you to zoom out a little bit.

You start to see a little order. This side of eternity, we're like, well, maybe God, maybe there is some order to this. Maybe it's not just random and maybe this could be abuse. You zoom out further and you see that every broken piece was creating a beautiful picture. That's what God does. If you give him your suffering, you keep your suffering, you will become toxic and embittered in a shell of a person. You give God, you can take my abuse, you can take the divorce, you can take the diagnosis, you can take it all, take all of my pain, this discarded toothbrush, the broken comb, all the broken pieces, and he will take them and make a beautiful mosaic that the world will behold your God and it will be for their comfort and salvation. So give God your pain. Give him your pain. The root of suffering, free will. The role of suffering, sanctification. The redemption of suffering, message of salvation to this world because they're experiencing sin but they may not have a savior. In Genesis chapter three, which is where we began with the fall of man and a fallen foe and a fallen world, there's a passage and it seems almost cruel of God. I wanna read it to you. So this is after Adam and Eve took up the fruit.

Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim with a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the tree of life. Doesn't that seem mean and cruel? Like, all right, Adam and Eve, you took of the fruit, get out, leave the garden and the fellowship with God. You should get out and I'm gonna put a flaming sword. You'll never come back to Eden ever again. That's what it looks like as you read it. At first glance, you're like, man, God, why? It's that little phrase. He said, lest they take out, reach it and live forever. This was a severe mercy. God was ushering his children out, like we have to get them out of here. They've fallen. There's depravity in their heart. They're steeped in sin. They've been separated from me. If they take hold of the tree of life, they will live in that fallen state forever. We have to get them out.

And so he ushers them out. come out of the garden, but he doesn't just usher them out. Page after page, chapter after chapter, God is pursuing his people in love until they come to the next tree of life, which was Jesus Christ raised up on the cross. He was ushering them from one tree of life to the tree of life, Jesus, that they might be washed of their sin. Trust in Jesus, receive eternal life, and then ushered into eternity forever with him. This was God's grace to get them and usher them and us to Jesus. What a God we serve. Take your pain to him. In the name of Jesus Christ, let's pray. God, you're amazing. And the answers are all found right here. You haven't left us to wander or wonder, but you've shown us, I know you live in a broken world. I know the pains of sin and evil. And I didn't stay aloof, I entered into it through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who stepped into the pain and suffering. And though he had no sin, endured suffering on our behalf, even death, so that we could have eternal life and cross over from death to life

and live forever in a new heaven and new earth. Come Lord Jesus, amen.