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Did God Create Evil? · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest revelations that that came to me, and it came to me almost immediately after I after I met him, was that he loved me.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and that was something I became very aware of, you know, very early on.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I went through a lot of things in my Christianity that sort of began to obscure that, and I had to come back to that first love, which is that he loves me.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first love.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: The second love is we love him back because of that love.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the first love is that he loves us.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that was the so much more.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was telling a church last night about how the, you know, the when you when you get the love, when you find the love of God, when you realize the love of God and you receive that, it's like a bird getting his wings back again.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you're you can finally fly and do the things that you're supposed to do.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want to look at Hebrews chapter 11 to start off here this morning, and I'm real excited because I I want to look at I want to start anyway by looking at one of the most amazing things that's in the Bible.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most amazing things.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: It has intrigued me for many, many, many years.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: But it was hard to do anything with it because there's not a lot said about it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's the place in Hebrews 11 where this man named Enoch is mentioned, right?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever been intrigued by Enoch?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: By faith, Enoch was translated so that he didn't see death?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a big thing.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when I saw that, I thought, I want to learn more about this guy.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to learn more about this.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: How did he do that?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 5, Hebrews 11, by faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he was not found because God had taken him.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm, you know, even as an early Christian, I remember seeing this, and I thought, okay, so Enoch was walking along with God, and he was living and walking and doing in a way that pleased God, and apparently God was so pleased that it says that God took him and he didn't die.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: He passed death.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another amazing thing, and and this is why I thought I wish they would have said more about it in the canon of scriptures this is in the Old Testament.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is after death entered the world through Adam.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And every man tasted death because of that, but then there's this anomaly here.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, after Jesus, I could have understood it more, obviously, because he brought eternal life.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul talked about a mystery that not everybody's gonna die.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a long, long time ago, after the death and before the coming of Christ.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Something special went on here.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Would you agree?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Am I the only one that's ever been intrigued by this and thought, what went on here?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I was and I was a little bit frustrated because I thought, God, this is big, this is a big deal.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you put more in here?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why didn't you say more?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: All we got is this one, this two verses right here.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a teaser.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: It says, For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, next verse tells a little more.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: It says, but without faith, it's impossible to please him.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: For he who comes, yeah, you gotta have faith, right?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, is how it says it there in the King James or similar versions.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's all it says.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he's mentioned in Genesis where it talks about the genealogy.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was the son of this and he begat that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's one other little blurb over there in the book of Jude where Jude mentions him.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh, not to get too distracted by a lot of that.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's those of you that like to study, there is a book of Enoch, and the early Christians did use it, but it didn't make it into the canon of Scripture, and there's very good reasons why, but it's very interesting reading.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's uh a lot written about Enoch, and Jude was quoting from the book of Enoch when he said, Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied, saying he saw the Lord coming with ten thousands of his saints.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: But looking at this, what is the secret here?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: What is this thing?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch pleased God, and the pleasing did the way that he walked, and it says, and he's talking about faith.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently he had faith.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: He had a kind of faith that pleased God.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, here's how it works: for he who comes to God or approaches God must believe that he is, that he exists, is what that is.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're well, there's two things here.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: We qualify.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're very much like Enoch in this way, is that we all probably believe that God exists.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the only other part here is that we must believe that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And and don't get too thrown off with the word diligently because people will try to make it hard.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Saying whatever, because it'll they'll make it look like however you're approaching God, it's not good enough.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to do it more diligently.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it because this thing is not referring to your performance toward God.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: God not saying, well, if you if you do it better, if you do it more diligently, if you get it right.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: He just says that Enoch pleased God by faith, believing that he was, and that he was a rewarder or a giver to those who approach him or come to him or seek him.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch approached him.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch wanted to know him.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch came to him, so to speak.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, all that come to him must believe that he is, and that he's a reward of those who diligently seek him, that he will give.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a very simple thing, but there is power in this.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know it seems too simple because most of us would say, yeah, we know we know God gives, God's a giver, God gives good things.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But let's look at this thing.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: There is what I what I see here is that there is a faith.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: There is a faith that pleases God, and the reason it pleases God is because God can give.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Faith, people people with faith are people that are receiving from God.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch received something.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: However good you think God is, Enoch really thought God was good.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You think God will pay your bills, um, Enoch thought God would give him everlasting life.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch thought God was good enough to let him pass the grave.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Enoch thought God was good.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: See, because faith, there's three things you gotta know here.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Three things that are very simple, but very few Christians really, really believe it ultimately.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, God is good.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: God is good all the time.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: God is nothing but good.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully we can show some basic biblical basis for this, because it's all over the scripture, so we can't just cover it completely.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: But number two, that He loves you without conditions.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is the one that most people stumble with.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is where I get the most negative feedback when I talk about God loving people with no conditions.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It scares Pharisees.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: It scares people because they think if you tell people that God will love you no matter what, it'll be anarchy and everybody will want to just go have orgies and stay drunk all the time and steal and kill and destroy, and and and and that is absolutely not true.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I brought with me to I I I preached God's goodness for a long, long time now, to a lot of different people.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Today I rounded up all the people that I preached God's unconditional love to, and when I preached that to them, they said, Well, goody, now I can go out and sin all that I want to and do all kinds of ugly, selfish things, since God loves me no matter what.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've gathered all those people, and now they're standing behind me right now.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see them all?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: These are all the people that when I told them about God's unconditional love and his amazing grace, it immediately made them want to go out and sin a whole bunch.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have not seen it happen.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big foot.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it can happen.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know there, I mean, Paul warned against it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: People do and can abuse grace.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: But God makes it that big where you can do it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he says, but don't do it, it's not smart, it's not good for you.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he did say, he says, but this grace is so big that everything is is is lawful to me, but but I'm smart enough to know that not everything's good for me.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's that's that's basic there, but but but but to understand, and the Bible is very clear on this, that God loves us, all of us, not only those in church this morning, but those that don't even want to go to church, loves the world without any conditions, and we know the most beautiful verse in the Bible is that God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son for us, right?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to know that he's good.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you gotta know, you gotta believe it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just believe when you wake up every day, God is good, God is good, God is good.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's no heavenly conspiracy against you.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's people, how do people struggle with the goodness of God?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: They take in traditions and they take in ideas that believe that maybe in God's working there's a heavenly conspiracy against them.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe God doesn't really want complete good for you.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe God has a better, has a, has his own agenda that's not for your good.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe God's, I mean, people believe this stuff, that God is sending bad things to you because he had his own agenda, has his own agenda, and he is so controlling that he'll do all these bad things to back you into a corner until you finally choose something good.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Until you finally bow your knee and do what he wants.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's not love, that's fear, that's a control.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so here's the secret that I want to look at the end because I want to say this is the secret.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: If this is the power, if this is the kind of faith that pleases God, and it pleases God because God is good and God is love, and it pleases God because those who believe that, those who believe in him and believe that he's a giver to those who approach him, it pleases God because that's his nature.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's a giver, he's a lover, he's good.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've said it so many times the very reason that you're here is because God wanted somebody to be good to.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: God wanted someone to give to.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is because God is good, God is love.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right off the bat, we see when God created everything, he created it all good, not bad.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So now, let's, in fact, let's look at that part right there.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because we want to annihilate any idea that there's anything in God, any part of him, any corner of God that might not be good.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Any corner of this mysterious, wonderful, benevolent God that might have a little darkness in it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: That might have a little something that's not completely good.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we can get rid of that, then you'll you'll you're on your way to a faith that doesn't struggle with the a good God.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And a faith that says God is good is a faith that can receive anything.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And a faith that knows that God is good, it's a faith that's expecting good because God is good.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a faith that doesn't have to control the minutia of details in life because God is just ultimately good.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I want to look at.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some hard scriptures here just to get us all real interested right off the bat.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Go to Isaiah 45.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are two passages that I know of in the Bible that look like that mention that God creates evil.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or God creates darkness.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I heard, I've heard teaching that God is part light and part dark.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a verse that says something about creating darkness.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm going to kill that today and and look at it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because, see, there again, here's where people mess up.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that we gotta we want to quit doing as as people that are learning the ways of God and the word.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: We want to quit knowing God by sound bites.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: You see, when you read this Bible, you read it with an understanding.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You look at the overview, first of all, there is a big context of this whole thing, a big basic context of this whole Bible uh panorama of this story here from beginning to end, that God created good, man chose evil, the whole world was destroyed by it, basically.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus came, redeemed us, brings us to the Father, makes us a new creation, born again, born of the Spirit, children of God, seated with him in heavenly places.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it culminates in victory.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because through all of that and through all the garbage that we see that man goes through, ultimately God is good and God still with no more conditions, no matter what their condition was, God loved the world and he saved us through Jesus.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's the overall story.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: So in overall, we see God's grace, his love, his goodness in this whole thing.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we when we when we look into it, we also know that within each book, within each letter that we read, and that there is a context within that.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: There is a reason for it being written.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then we can always know just from the few passages before and after the uh the context of that.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So in Isaiah 45, here's this verse that people have a problem with.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I form the light and I create darkness.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: I make peace and I create evil.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: You see that?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: I the Lord do all these things.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's a sound bite.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's one verse.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: One part of a statement.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can take that, one sound bite, and you can preach that to the high heavens and declare that God does both good and evil.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But if you've got any spirituality about it about you at all, when you read that, it hits you somewhere wrong in your Holy Spirit that's living in you because it's like nothing else about this the scripture sounds like that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's only, Isaiah is the only one that says anything like this that I know of.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says it in chapter 45 and again in 54, something similar.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll look at that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I want to look at this verse, and I want you to notice something.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you have, if you got uh a Bible with a concordance in front of you, like I do, you see this so clearly.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: But in verse 7, he says, I form the light and create darkness.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: He uses one word for form and another one for create.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that word create, when you look it up, uh, also can mean, I'm not saying it necessarily has to, but it can mean to cut down.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it almost it almost could say that I I formed the light and I cut down the darkness.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: But but that's a little bit iffy because that's just me assuming that that's the correct usage of that translation.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because it can mean, because it's often used in context in the Bible where he has created.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: He'll say, I created man, he uses this word.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we won't do that.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, but notice he uses different words.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: The word form, he says, I form man.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word yatsar, which means I create by molding, and you know, literally by forming like a potter does the clay.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I form the light, but I create darkness.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I make peace, and that's a different word, assa, and there again that word create is the word bara.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he uses these different words for the good and for the evil.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all you got to do is look at the context.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what he's saying here.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Look at Isaiah 45.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a positive prophecy coming from God or is it a negative?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you read the whole thing, of course, we don't have time to do it all this morning, but look at that.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is where he speaks to Cyrus, and that he anoints Cyrus to really be a deliverer for Israel.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: This whole chapter here is talking about the deliverance and the setting free and God being good to Israel.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where he says, I'm going to, I'm going to open the gates before you.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: I will go before you.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll make the crooked places straight.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to break in pieces.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Break in pieces the gates of brass.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I will cut asunder the bars of iron.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what he's talking about is a deliverance of Israel, a liberty that he's bringing to them, a goodness that he's doing to them.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I will give you the treasures of darkness, I will give you the hidden riches that's in secret places, that you may know that I'm the Lord.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: So on.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I have called you by name, though you have not known me.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on and he says, even in verse 7, where he says, I formed the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: I the Lord do all these things.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Next verse, next verse.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: So drop down, ye heavens from above.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let the skies pour down righteousness, let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let righteousness spring up together.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I the Lord have created it.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so this whole thing he's saying is not cursing them.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's speaking good things.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: He has promised and has and has willed to do these good things to Israel, right?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: There are some bad things that are going to happen to certain things.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: What are the bad things?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: The gates of brass are going to be broken.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Something bad is going to happen to those gates.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: The bars of iron will be cut.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Something bad is going to happen to those bars of iron.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, in the sense of if God does any evil at all, it's only by Him being so good that it annihilates or does something bad towards the evil.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing this?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's how God is good all the time, but it doesn't result in something good for that which has been holding you captive.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the only negative thing that you see being done to the only thing you see being hurt are the gates and the bars that have kept them prisoners.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show you right here in chapter 54 where it's mentioned again.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 54.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't God good?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Isaiah chapter 54, down there towards the the end of the chapter, he says in verse 16.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, that brings forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why did God create evil?
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why did God create the devil?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: There again, simple context.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Look, please, look at the verse in front of it.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't take the sound bite.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Take the whole thing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't it frustrating what the news does a lot of times with with politics?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: How they'll take a sound bite from someone and make them look like a horrible person, but then when you look at the whole video, you realize they weren't talking about that at all.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people do with God.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 15, behold, let's back up just a little bit.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, this is so good.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 11: You who are afflicted toss with tempest and not comforted.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will lay the stones with fair colors, I'll lay foundations with sapphires, I'll make your windows of eggates and your gates of carbuncles, your borders will be pleasant stones, all your children will be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: In righteousness you'll be established, you'll be far from oppression, for you'll not fear and from terror, because it will not come near you.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, they shall surely gather together against you, but not by me.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Bad is going to come, but it won't be by me.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Behold, they'll gather together, but not by me.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Whosoever will gather against you for against you shall fall for your sake.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, I've created the smith that blows the coals in the fire and brings forth an instrument for his work.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have created the waster to destroy.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: There again, same thing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing but good that God has for the people.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: But what's going to happen?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: For the oppression that gathers against them, they're going to fall.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Something bad was going to happen.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: But not for God's people, for that which is oppressing God's people.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the only sense that God has anything bad if you can call it bad.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Even that you can't call it bad because it's just a natural product of Him doing good.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: God was mean to my sin, my oppression, my depression, my condemnation, my lust, my fear.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: God was mean.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: God destroyed it.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: But in reality, we know that all that means is that God is absolutely good.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how that works.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of it, he says, I mean, you got that one sound bite in the midst of all this good that he's promising.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the next verse, verse 7.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what's he doing?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's being good, he's blessing.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: But something bad happens to the condemnation, it gets killed.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: It destroys.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's destroyed.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: So does God destroy?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is he good?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, all the time.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's not destroying us, he's destroying what destroys us.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's called being good.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the only context you could ever say that God does anything bad is when something bad happens to the bad.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This is the heritage of the servants, and their righteousness is of me, said the Lord.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's this glowing, wonderful promise of the new creation that you and I have now.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's why when you go to the new covenant, you see these superlative statements of the goodness of God.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at the book of James, chapter 1, here's another one that we hear.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is happening to me because God is testing me.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Either God's testing me to see if I'm going to be obedient, or God's testing me to see if I really love him, or God's testing me to see how much I can take.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: God is testing me, and he's putting me on the stretching rack to see how much pain and sorrow I can put up with, and if I'll still say that I love Jesus when it's all done.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1, verse 13.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let no one say when he's tempted that I'm being tempted by God or being tested by God.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is the correct rendering.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: For God cannot be tempted or tested by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone or test anyone.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So he's not putting you through something to tempt you to fall.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's not putting you through sorrow to tempt you to deny him.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: To tempt you to curse his name.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: To tempt you to fall out of love.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: To tempt you to lose faith.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let nobody say that because God doesn't have that to give to anybody.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, and he explains it so well.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, here's how it really works.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Don't say God's doing this to you.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't say God's putting you through this.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: He says everybody's tempted because he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and then when desire that is conceived, it gives birth or it manifests sin, and sin when it's full grown, it brings forth death.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be deceived, my beloved brethren.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: It comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So he does not have light and darkness to give.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, wherever we saw darkness, the light came in.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Was he mean to the darkness?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he destroyed it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just by being good.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, something, when you know God, see, these are the things, you don't have to just get this by knowing these scriptures and having head knowledge of it, because it's really got to go farther than even what we're looking at here.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing is when you know him, you know these things are true.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: With me, honestly, I've known these scriptures for a long time.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: But before I realized that he was absolutely nothing but good to me, I experienced it by knowing him, by dealing with him, by talking with him, by walking with him.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've just began to realize, Father, you are just so, so good to me all the time.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then I see these scriptures that I've read so much, and I thought, well, it's been right there the whole time.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: The scriptures confirm what I know about you.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: I found out that he's good.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I used to talk, because I didn't know this, I used to talk about him in ways that I just didn't know.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, you know, I just I knew about him, but I wasn't experiencing him as the person, really, not completely, not in a way that like I know him now.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just know him as nothing but good.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I used to say things like, Oh boy, God took me to the woodshed this week, and you know, he told me, and God just God just gave me a good, you know, just a good yelling, and he he told me, you know, and and and I when I look back, I think, why did I make that stuff up?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because I thought God was like a man.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, if I can be very honest with you, in all of my dealings with God, in all the ways that He's corrected me, He has never been sharp with me.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: He has never been impatient with me.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's been so patient, he's been so loving, he's been so kind, he's been so understanding, and so good in helping me understand me too, and me understand why he understands me.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's just good all the time, even when I'm a bad boy, and I am sometimes, I'm sorry, but he loves me, he's just good, and he's never put me through things to test me, tempt me.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've been tempted of my own wants.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And God wasn't the one putting me through it, but God was the one who brought me out of it.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: God is good.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: When you know that God's good, it's so easy to expect.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's times that we'll we'll deal with situations in our life, and it's like, you know, you pray, you ask the Father for something, then we look at each other, we say, You believe it'll happen?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we're like, it would be just like him to do something like that.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's just good.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's something else.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: When you know he's good, you don't have the fear, and you don't become a and you lose your your your your your need to be a controller of the details like you like you used to, because where it used to be that I would pray like, oh God, don't let that happen tomorrow.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: If that happens tomorrow, it'll be the end of the world.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just please don't, whatever you do, don't let that happen.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: As you grow and know the goodness of God, you get to where like the details aren't so much, and and you'll still expect good, and you'll you can pray things and ask God.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: But but ultimately, there's no stress in it because you know, you know what?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Even if that were to happen tomorrow, God is still good.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: It'll all things will work together for me.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I promise you, it just does somehow.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: God is just good.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: You you you you quit being afraid of making mistakes.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I make a mistake, God will be good.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: I used to be afraid of go of do I go left or do I go right?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out if I go left or right, God will be there with me.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I will fear no evil, as David said, because his rod and his staff, they comfort me.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know how that comforts me?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's I can enjoy life and just walk free and not be uh not be not with trepidation because if I make a wrong turn, I've still got comfort because he's got a staff.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that staff does?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: When a sheep starts to go off, that staff can just put him right back in.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got him with me and he loves me.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he does that.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how he corrects me.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No, son, uh-uh, this is the way.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Walk ye in it.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, son, remember, this is the way of life.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's been nothing, nothing, nothing but good.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in 1 John chapter 3, behold, what manner of love is this?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the kind of love.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, think about it.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a shocker here.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, think about it for a minute.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Behold, what kind of love is this that the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: One of the problems with people's faith is they're a little bit intimidated by the idea of being sons of God.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or if they do take it, they'll take it as something less than what it is.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus told us what a son of God looks like.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because he was the son of God.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: He was God's only begotten son, Jesus in the earth.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: God's only begotten Son.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what, honestly?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is no longer God's only begotten son.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: He gave his only begotten so that he wouldn't have just an only begotten.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was the will of the Father that many sons would come to glory.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would introduce that.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You shall be called the children of your father.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what does that mean?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: It means that that's why he says, Behold this love, because it's such an amazing thing, because we look at Jesus and say, Well, Jesus, the Son of the Father, Jesus the Son of God.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: But look at this love that He bestowed that same thing upon you and me.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's called good.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's called love.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: But people have a problem because they're still performance-minded, and they're like, but Jesus was perfect.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you and you don't act perfect.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's love.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's not merit.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's not earning.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's love that just gives it to you and say, you're my sons anyway.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: And what else does it mean to be a son?
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes out of the river after being baptized, and the testimony of the Father said, This is my son, in him I am well pleased.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's his testimony about you and I today?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is my son, in him I'm well pleased, whether you're male or female.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can be a son if I can be a bride, so don't get hung up on that.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: But but that means that he's well pleased.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's well pleased.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's that kind of love.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: If it's got any conditions, he can't be pleased with any of us.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 4 says, in this the love of God is manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this is love.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 4, verse 5 says, These things I write to you that your joy may be full.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is the message that we have heard from him and we declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to finish with Romans chapter 8.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because please don't let me bore you with such a basic message as God is good and God loves you all the time.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I see is people know it on a surface level.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: But when it becomes a part of what you breathe every day in your walk with God, that you're convinced that God loves this girl, God loves this guy, that God's got not one thing against you.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hear people make up such all kinds of things simply because they don't know what we're talking about.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: But they'll quote the scripture, they'll get up here and say, God is good.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says God's good, the Bible says God's love.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: But then they'll say, Well, God told me today.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard these sermons so many times.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: God says that He's come to bring charges against us today.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: We need to get some things right.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 says, Who will lay any charges against God's elect?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Fact is right there in front of us.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 31.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: So what shall we say?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get the right translation so everybody can follow me better.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 31.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: So what shall we say to these things?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: If God be for us, who can be against us?
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't even spare his own son, but he delivered him up for every one of us.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: So how shall he not with him also freely give us everything?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: What's that?
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's a faith that can receive.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: If God is that good, if God loves us that much, why wouldn't he just give us everything?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 38:25
  unknown: That's powerful.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: See, it is powerful.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is very simple.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not, people are trying all kinds of things.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for greater faith.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Help me.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lay hands on me so I can have great faith and all that stuff.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: You just do the Enoch faith.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Believe that He's good.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Believe that He gives.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Believe the good news.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Believe the gospel.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let any bad news come into the good news.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: In God's goodness, with the good news, he destroys the bad news.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that was against you, every handwritten ordinance that was against you, that was contrary to you, that was not good to you.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus took it away.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those poor ordinances that were against you, Jesus being mean to him.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: He took them away and nailed them to the cross because he was so good to you.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, How will he not with him also freely give us everything?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can't believe people with that sermon I heard that time, God's bringing charges against you.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to get some things right.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, my goodness.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: You found something in the Old Testament and don't even.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna bring any charge against you?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna blame you for anything?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that scary?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because people don't think that that God, absolute God is enough.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta mix some devil in here.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta mix some darkness.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta mix some some things that are contrary to God.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to mix some condemnation.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said over and over again, I did not come to condemn.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: The only ones that are condemned, he knows told Nicodemus, are the ones that don't believe.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why are people scared of a message of God's unconditional love?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because you think you've got to mix in something that's not of God to make people nicer.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you know, if you ever talk to God about this.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I did this one time, I wrote it in my book, Glory in the Glass.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was praying for someone who was in a had a horrible medical situation and they were looked like they could die.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to know.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just I was I was praying for them, but I just you know, and I said, God, just tell me.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I said, tell me if they're gonna live.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me if they're going to live, because I need that conviction when I pray.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: And God didn't answer either way on that, but He let me see.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was like immediately I was just I I I was like I was just in paradise.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was in heaven with the absolute presence of God.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what astounded me was that what I was aware of more than anything, this is what God wanted me to know.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's changed my idea about it forever.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was aware that where I was at in the spirit with him, which is where you and I are at all the time, but you're not always aware of it.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: When I was aware of being with him in the spirit, I was also aware that I could not find one speck of darkness anywhere around.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was aware that I could not find one speck of death anywhere around.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was totally absolute life.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was absolute light.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it was absolute love.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: There wasn't anything in this place with God in the Spirit that was this far below absolute love.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was the highest.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's what the word faith means.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word pistos or pistos.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: It simply means persuaded or convinced.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: Who is he that condemns, verse 34?
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: So when we get up here and we start trying to make you feel bad about things that aren't that you're not doing so good, who is he that condemns?
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: Is it God?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is it Christ who died for us and furthermore is risen and is at the right hand of the Father?
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is he the one that condemns when he came to take all that away?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's the one that also makes intercession for us.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's the mediator that stood in the gap.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Tribulation?
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when you get into trouble and the pressure's on you and you don't do so well, does that stop it?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Distress?
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: When you get so much stress on you that you fly off the handle and cuss like a sailor, does that do it?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Persecution, famine, hard times?
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Nakedness?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm glad nakedness is mentioned because we found out we were naked in the Garden of Eden, and that didn't stop God from loving us.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Even if we thought it did, it didn't.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Peril, sword.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: As it's written, For your sake we're killed all day long, we're counted like sheep for the slaughter yet.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, these bad things you might be dealing with here, but yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who what?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Who loved us.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: For I am persuaded, that's pistos, faith.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm convinced.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know that, I know, that I know that neither death nor life, nor angels, principalities, powers, things present, or things to come.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing high, nothing low, nor any other created thing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: You will always be loved absolutely and nothing this far less than that.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: God is love.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up with me?