[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ]

"Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;..." (vs. 5-7). Now to destroy a nation, for those on the receiving end of it, that is evil. It is. There was a time when God said to the children of Israel, "When you go in the land you are to destroy everyone - man, woman, and child." And after seeing that report on Satanism - and Baalism is Satanism - you know why God said to kill the children. Now we also have to keep in mind that God is eventually going to resurrect all of them. But God has to deal with the here and now. And if you don’t get rid of evil here and now when God says to get rid of it, it’s going to what? Come back and plague you later. And we saw in this Satanism report, little kids of ten and twelve can be so infected with it that it ruins their entire lives. So that’s why God said do it.

But notice, concerning a nation, notice verse 8. "...If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil,..." Now it’s says He’s going to destroy it. Now just keep in mind the nation of Nineveh, the Assyrians, and Jonah. The city of Nineveh, rather, the nation of Assyria, and Jonah. They repented. Even the king made all the animals go without eating and drinking for three days. I imagine at the end of the third day there was a lot of bellowing and crying and bleating and everything going on, not only from the animals, but from the people. And God said, "I will spare them." Now just like with people who like to have God do it the way they want it done, Jonah was all upset. It shows that Jonah complained against God, "Oh God, I knew that You would do this. You sent me all the way up here..." But God told him, He said, "Jonah, I wanted you to go. And I have sent you. I made you go and to do that." Because there is something called, "the wicked have to be warned before it comes." God will send someone to do the warning.

"If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them" (vs. 8). Now that’s the exact verse that ties in with Isaiah 45:7, that, "I create evil." God uses the force of evil to destroy itself, or bring repentance. And if they repent, God is what? Merciful, and gracious, and ready to forgive if they repent. If it’s from the heart, God does not turn down repentance. Now there’s a superficial repentance where God says, "I am weary of repenting." People come along and then they do what appears to be a good work with an evil motive: "I’ll repent because God will forgive." God doesn’t want that kind of repentance. And then, "Oh well, once I’m forgiven, well, I can go out and do it again, and then I’ll repent, and then God will forgive me." God doesn’t want that kind of repentance. That is an evil repentance. God wants repentance from the heart, that you fully turn to God with all your heart.

Now continuing on here in verse 9, "And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them" (vs. 9-10). So that’s how God works. It can work with nations; and you can go back and read Ezekiel 13, where God said that He gave everything into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Now Nebuchadnezzar was not a godly man. God still dealt with him. He said, "Every nation that doesn’t submit themselves to Nebuchadnezzar, I will destroy." And then He says, "When his time has come to the full, I’ll send the hand to correct him."

Now let’s go back. Ezekiel 14:13, "…Son of man, when the land sinneth against Me by trespassing grievously,..." Now you might put in there Genesis 19 with a little note of Sodom and Gomorrah. All the verses there where then Abraham came up and said, "Well, Lord, if there are 50...? 45...? 40...? 30...? 10...?" So it’s grievously. "...Then will I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof,..." Now granted, that’s probably what’s happening in Ethiopia. But isn’t it interesting, all the Americans and the Britons are the ones - I mean, even the worst people in this society, the rock stars - you could say the worst people in this society are at least doing something good. And it’s in Britain and America. Interesting, if you know biblically what that means.

"...And will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:..." Notice what it says. God says, "I stretched out My hand." God is doing it. "…Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD" (vs. 13-14). Which God is saying that it’s an individual judgment upon everyone. God looks to the heart of everyone. And we can’t collectively go to God and maintain an evil heart and say how good we are. No way.

Now verse 15. So here are the four things that God does. "[And] if I [God speaking, first person] cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts: though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land;..." Now we’ll see how God says for the sword to go through the land. God will raise up armies, and He will have power behind those armies. "...So that I cut off man and beast from it: though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves" (vs. 15-18). So here again, it’s still a call to repentance. Even in the worst thing that God is saying, there is still a hand being held out for what? Repentance. You as an individual get right with God, "…and I will deliver you from it." Even in the midst of the worst thing. I mean, we’re talking about the worst thing here.

"Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast: Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their [own] righteousness." And of course, we know that’s the righteousness of God. "For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send My four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?" (vs. 19-21). But what did God say before He’d bring it? He said repent. Repent. God is interested in repentance. And so at any time God will turn His hand from evil when there is repentance, because God only brings the evil in hopes that there will be repentance. If not, "Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, and judgment belongs to Me" (Heb. 10:30, paraphrased). And He is the one Who does it.

Ok, again, I will draw your attention to Deuteronomy 28. Let’s go back there for just a couple of verses. I don’t want to laboriously go all the way through it. But please, if you go back and study it, study Deuteronomy 28, 29, 30, and 31, and just read through it, and see the whole thing there, that God is interested in every case that people repent. Now we notice here in the first part of chapter one - I mean, verse one of Deuteronomy 28, "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God" (Deut. 28:1-2). So God said He would bring these blessings for obedience.

So then we see, beginning in verse 15, that if you do not do the things that God says, He will bring the curses. He says so directly. He says, verse 15, the last part, "...all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:..." Now notice verse 20, "The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation,..." Verse 21, "The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee,..." Verse 22, "The LORD shall smite thee, with a consumption, with a fever, and with an inflammation,..." Verse 24, "The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust:..." Verse 25, "The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies:..." Verse 27, "The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt,..." Verse 28, "The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:..." Verse 35, "The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch..." Verse 36, "The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto the nation which neither thou…have known;..." All the way through.

The point I want to make is, the Lord is bringing it. The next question is, how does the Lord bring it? He’s responsible for it. God says, "I create peace and evil." How does the Lord bring it? Number one…let’s just mark this number one. I’ll mark this as I go along, because I don’t have it marked. Number one, God brings it through the execution of law; blessing for law-keeping, cursing for law-breaking. That is automatically built in, just like the law of gravity. Or if you don’t drink poison you won’t die of poison. Same thing. Garbage in, garbage out. Even the world knows that.

Now the book of Proverbs is filled with the simple day-to-day operation of the law, good and evil. Because where there is a positive part of the law - "Blessed will you be for doing this"; there is the penalty for those who don’t. Otherwise, why would you have any incentive to do anything? You would have no incentive to do...you have no incentive to do anything right. Oh, I heard a report, that because of all of the venereal diseases, people are getting back to the old-fashioned thing of one husband and one wife. And there is even a book out, which I heard about on one of the talk shows, which is, How To Love A Person Forever. Love one mate forever. Put out by one of the experts at the sex therapist clinic of Johnson and Masters. Or, Masters and Johnson. Now that’s a switch. So there, the correction of the evil, the automatic wages of sin being the evil of the sickness has brought what? A better standing for the whole society. Beginning to get the point? Yes. One husband, one wife? That’s not such a bad idea. It was God’s in the first place. And the truth of the matter is, you can never get along with one person tremendously all the time. And that’s what God wants us to learn in the marriage estate. And that there are going to be ups, there are going to be downs. And if you can’t make that work, which you can, by following the principles and laws of God, being as God what? Merciful, kind, understanding, not self-seeking, and all that sort of thing. Isn’t that how marriage counselors say how people ought to get along? Now they’ve come to the great conclusion that it is good for one man to have one woman, remain married all their life. They even have a book to tell you how to love one person forever. God had that all along.

Number one, the operation of law. That’s how God does it. He doesn’t have to come down and personally do it. For example, if you eat raw pork or raw bear...I know group of hunters, they went up into Idaho and they shot a bear and all nine of them died of trichinosis. The law is there. That’s why God says, "You shall not eat these things." You can’t tell by look…well, some of them you can, but by taste you can’t. God is straightforward in what He says. He gives His laws clear and easy to understand. And He lets you know about everything if you want to know. Satan then, on the other hand, will take part of the good…for example, God can change anything He wants to - which is a true statement - and then say, "Therefore, the laws of clean and unclean meets no longer apply," which is not a true statement. And that’s where you have evil-evil that appears good. The source is evil, which takes part of a good statement and makes it sound good, and then comes to an evil conclusion. And that’s part of the unconscionable evil of Satan the devil, that he will have the counterfeit that looks good, which he knows is going to cause God to bring the penalty of sin upon them.

What else does God use to enforce the correction, or to bring about evil that He creates? Obviously, the number one candidate is Satan the devil. Book of Job - let’s turn there. Classic example of it. But again, even with using Satan the devil, what was the end result of the book of Job? What was it? Repentance. Yes. Repentance. Right. So you see, this helps us answer the question, what about those people who have turned their backs on God and are no longer with us, or are no longer with somebody, and are out here doing this and doing that? God is not done with them yet. When God brings the evil in their life, will they repent? Chances are, yes. Will God forgive them? Yes. Because God says He is ready to forgive. That’s provided it’s true repentance.

Job 1. And he was perfect. I won’t go through the whole account here, but just verse 6, "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence cometh thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and [shuns] escheweth evil?" (Prov. 1:6-8). I think sometimes in our life Satan does this to God to us and we go through certain trials. I’m sure that is true. And we know that God tempts no man with evil. So when you get temptation with evil, guess who it’s coming from? Satan. That is correct.

"Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for [nothing] naught?" (vs. 9). He said, "You’ve given Him everything. Look at all... Take it from him." So God said, verse 11, "But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath,…" no, Satan said that. Notice, he’s telling God, "But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand." (vs. 11-12). So Satan can only do what God explicitly allows, provides for. You know, then it went down to where he took everything, his sons and his daughters. Now that is evil, right? Isn’t that an evil thing? But in the end he repented; and blessed him with far greater. Far better. Plus, all of his sons and daughters can be resurrected in the second resurrection. They’ll have a chance for salvation. Maybe we can get a greater view of God, a greater appreciation of God, of how that God works. That ended in repentance.

Now let’s look at another example here. Let’s go to Revelation 12. Now again, I just want to cover one scripture where it says, verse 7, and we know it’s talking about Satan, and God, and Israel, and Christ. "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,..." So there are the agencies that God uses, His own angels. How about the times where it shows the vision of the throne of God, where there are angels, ten thousand times ten thousand? There are what? The twenty-four elders. You wonder what the twenty-four elders do? They talk with God on how to carry out the things on the earth, very obviously. "How should we do it? What should be done?" Let’s see this back in 2 Chronicles 16. Beg your pardon, that’s 2 Chronicles 18. And this is when Ahab, who was noted for his wickedness, got together in a league with Jehoshaphat. And they were to go fight the king of Syria. Now I will just make a long story short and won’t read through all the scriptures; except to say that Ahab said, "Well let’s talk to the prophets and see whether we will be successful in this battle." So all the false prophets came and said, "Yea, the Lord says go on up against the battle in Syria and you will prevail." And then Jehoshaphat said, "Well, is there not a prophet of the Lord around here? I want to check with the prophet of the Lord." So the prophet of the Lord, Michaiah, came and he told them what they didn’t want to hear. Because Ahab considered Michaiah, who was also contemporary then with Elijah out of the school of the prophets, as an enemy, and that he said, "This person hates me."

So here’s what he told both of them. 2 Chronicles 18:18, "Again he said, Therefore hear the word of the LORD; I saw the LORD sitting upon His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and on His left." So I would refer you to Revelation 4 and 5 so you can get a good view of what that looks like. "And the LORD said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, [How will you do this?] Wherewith? And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee" (2 Chron. 18:18-22). So God uses law, Satan, and angels. Now here it says "spirit." We know that in the book of Revelation it talks about what? The seven spirits of God which go to and fro in all the earth. We have that in Zechariah 4, Revelation 1, Revelation 4 and 5.

So God is able to carry this out through the agencies of His creation, where God will directly do it, He will use Satan the devil, He will use the demons, He will use His angels. Let’s go to the book of Daniel. It’s Daniel 10; and Gabriel was explaining why he delayed coming. Poor old Daniel, he set his face to seek God, he fasted and prayed ten days. No answer. And then all the sudden Gabriel shows up and he says, verse 12, "Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand,..." Notice again the heart. All the way through we’re dealing with this. "...And to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the king of Persia" (Dan. 10:12-13). That is showing the struggle that goes on. This then is between the angels of God and the angels of Satan. Obviously a struggle right there. So God uses the angels.

Now the whole book of Revelation shows the use of angels in carrying out the will of God, doesn’t it? All the way through. Let’s just go and take a quick survey of Revelation, chapter by chapter, so you can see how the angels of God are so involved in carrying out the will of God. Revelation 1, and it talks first of all the vision of Jesus Christ, and then what does he see? He sees the seven candles, which are the seven angels of the churches. So there are angels that God uses to carry out that portion of His plan. Then we have chapter 2 and 3, the seven angels, one to each of the churches. We have chapter 4 and 5, the vision of all the angels of God, the seraphim, the cherubim, all of the ten thousand times ten thousand. Then we have Christ, Who opens the seals. And then we have these prophetic things coming out of the seals. God is making it happen, everyone of them, right? We have Chapter 8. We have the angels with the seven trumpet plagues. Chapter 8 and 9, chapter 10, chapter 11; then we have the seventh angel that sounds. Then we go clear over to Revelation 16, and what do we have when the seven last plagues come? We have angels that do it. So that’s how God is able to enforce it.

Now the wrath of God, from a human point of view, is going to be very evil. But it’s going to accomplish what? And the same message is: repent. So if they repent they will be spared. If any man worship the beast or his image he will die. I imagine there will be people getting rid of that as quick as they can. Now also, God, in using these agents, will send a strong delusion, just like He sent a lying spirit. Let’s go to 2 Thessalonians 2. Now 2 Thessalonians 2 we know talks about the man of sin, the one who will be personally possessed of Satan the devil. This ties right in with Revelation 13, about the beast, who is able to make war against the beast, etc. etc.. Now says verse 9, "…Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,..." And people are going to think this is great. And they will believe what they want to believe rather than believe the truth. "…And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thes. 2:9-10).

And here is an automatic thing that takes place then. "And for this cause..." In other words, there comes a time, and the time when it looks like the world is going to solve all of its problems, the time when it looks like the world is coming together and great love and understanding, as they did not receive the love of the truth, "...for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:..." (vs. 11). And that’s going to be awesome, isn’t it? Just awesome. So that’s how God works in bringing the good and bringing the evil and working these things out. That’s why God says, "Vengeance is Mine. Don’t go execute your own judgment. I will take care of it." God will have a better plan. He’ll entrap them in their own evil. Let them alone. And I think in our circumstances that we’ve seen that’s exactly true.

Let’s look at an example here in Genesis 50 about a very evil circumstance, which then God turned around and used for good. Now this is the story of Joseph. And remember what happened to Joseph? Now, just put this in the context of a family. Here’s the youngest one coming around bragging to the older brothers; said, "I had a dream. All you bowed down to worship me." That was the sum of the dream. And he wore this favorite jacket. And his dad thought he was the greatest thing that walked the face of the earth. So you know what they did. They were going to kill him, then they decided not to kill him; they decided to sell him off to the Arabs and bring back the jacket. Now for how many years this thing went on, where Jacob thought his son was dead, you talk about an evil thing. You talk about a difficult thing. And you know what happened to Joseph. He went in, and he was sold as a slave, and then he went into jail. And on one day God raised him up out of the dungeon and seated him as number two next to the throne of the pharaoh.

Now notice, after this was all done, after all the blessings that had been given, the bringing of Jacob down to Egypt, and Ephraim and Manasseh and the whole thing, right here, just before as he concluded here in verse 20, after Jacob his father died and they took them over and buried him, and so forth; and let’s pick it up here in verse 15. "And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." Now they were beginning to think a little rationally here. But also very carnally in revealing their own heart, that they figured that Joseph would do evil to them for the evil that they had done.

"And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?" So here, Joseph could have said, "Aha! Now I’m going to get you dirty rats. My father is dead, and now I’m going to swing the sword, boys!" But he didn’t. Joseph said, "...Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (vs. 16-20).

So that’s why Jesus said, "When they speak evil of you, or do evil to you, rejoice." God will turn it to good. And this is the thing that got me started on this whole thing. It was evil. Was God behind it? Yes. Was it miserable for everybody? Yes. Did it turn out good in the long run? Fantastic. Yes. It saved all of Israel. That’s great. So that’s how God can take something that is evil and make it good, because God is in it. But quite a statement, brethren: "You thought evil against Me, but God meant it unto good." Quite a tremendous thing. So this helps us have a whole lot more peace of mind when we can put it in God’s hands and just know that that is the way it is. And it saves a whole lot. I don’t know about you, but it sure has just opened my eyes a lot, just to really have more faith and trust in God, and let Him do it when the circumstances get difficult, to trust in God even more. It’s the other way around sometimes - when circumstances get difficult we begin to doubt and not trust in God. It ought to be the other way around - when it’s difficult, say, "God, You know it’s difficult. It’s hard," and have more trust in Him. Then He’ll work out.

Let’s summarize by going to Romans 2. Romans 2 gives us a good summary of the whole thing. Let’s just begin in verse 1. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest:..." Now you understand why judging your brother becomes so bad? Because when you think evil against your brother and you do things against them which are evil then you are taking into your hands something that God alone should do. Let them alone and let God take care of it. If they are interfering in your life, then just not have them associate in your life so much that it’s going to hurt you. But don’t come back with a vengeance upon them. "...For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things" (Rom. 2:1-2). Now that’s where we have to be. God will take care of it according to truth. And though our circumstances look evil in the moment, if we turn to God it will be good in the long run. Now I can say I have personally experienced that. Leave it in God’s hands. Let him judge.

"And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; [we’re right back where we were, right?] not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" And that’s what God is concerned about, repentance. "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his [works] deeds: [God is going to do it] to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, [to those then He’s going to give] eternal life:..." (vs. 3-7). Whether it’s good times, whether it’s bad times, we’re seeking that.

"But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,..." There’s the operation of law, automatic. God does it automatic. "…Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God" (vs. 8-11).

Now just one other thing that I want to cover, which I will probably do more of a full-fledged sermon on, which has to do with righteousness. Now I have listed four kinds of righteousness that we will need to get into and examine, which will be a follow-up to what we have covered here. There is godly righteousness which comes from God; there is human righteousness, which is our own self-righteousness, which may or may not be based on God’s law. There is a vain righteousness, which in most cases is righteousness based upon God’s law. But as Ed said, making the Law an idol, or god, and worshiping the Law instead of God, then you come to the stature of the Pharisees; that they take good that was intended by God to be good and they make it evil, as they’ve left God out of the picture by worshiping the Law instead of worshiping the Lawgiver. Vast difference. If you worship the Law then you are going to take the Law and use it in an evil way. So there is good being put to an evil use.

So there is vain righteousness. Then there is also Satanic - I’ll use the term "righteousness", only in the sense that it appears righteous because of Satan appearing as an angel of light. So that’s another whole area of this good and evil that I’m going to save for a later date for a full sermon. But I wanted to get it here so we could at least have it on at this time.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ]