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Sovereignty and My Murdered Friend · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We have a very heavy episode today, but before we
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  Speaker 1: get into it, I want to let you know that
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: There's a kind of news that will stop you cold,
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  Speaker 1: like what we read together in this email from a
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  Speaker 1: seventeen year old high school student, her close friend, a teammate,
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  Speaker 1: and her friend's mother. We're both brutally murdered. Here's the question,
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  Speaker 1: Mastor John'm high school student, a girl who was my
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  Speaker 1: close teammate and her mother were recently brutally murdered. People
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  Speaker 1: say this was her time or God's will, But I
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  Speaker 1: don't understand how this can be true. The murderer's actions
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  Speaker 1: were obviously sinful, violating God's commands like you shall not
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  Speaker 1: murder Nexus twenty thirteen. If their choices were evil, how
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  Speaker 1: could this tragedy be God's plan? How does God's sovereign
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  Speaker 1: will operate alongside human sin, especially when it leads to
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  Speaker 1: such profound suffering? How can I reconcile this and turn
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord for comfort and understanding in my grief?
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  Speaker 2: What I want to focus on here is this young
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  Speaker 2: woman's last question, the very personal one, namely, how can
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  Speaker 2: I turn to the Lord for comfort and understanding in
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  Speaker 2: my grief? And the reason I want to focus there
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  Speaker 2: is because we've already Deale in several asked Pastor John's
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  Speaker 2: with the larger theological question about whether God can do
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  Speaker 2: what he commands not to be done, Whether God can
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  Speaker 2: and does will that things happen which are sinful. We've
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  Speaker 2: dealt with that question several times, whether it is sinful
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  Speaker 2: of God to plan to will that sin come to pass?
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  Speaker 2: For example, Oney one hundred and twenty two, does God
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  Speaker 2: decree events he does not want to happen? And the
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  Speaker 2: answer from the Bible is yes, he does. The most
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  Speaker 2: significant example and is relevant for her own personal situation. Eventually,
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  Speaker 2: I'll try to show. The most significant example is from
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  Speaker 2: Acts for twenty seven and twenty eight, where Luke tells
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  Speaker 2: us that Herod and Pontious Pilot, and the Gentiles and
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  Speaker 2: the mobs in Israel were gathered to get the other
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  Speaker 2: to do what God had predestined to take place, and
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  Speaker 2: virtually everything they did was sin It was evil to
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  Speaker 2: murder Jesus. Everything about it was sinful, and God willed
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  Speaker 2: that his son be murdered so that we might be saved,
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  Speaker 2: even if we are murderers. It's an amazing conjunction right there,
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  Speaker 2: of the sovereignty of God and the saving love of God.
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  Speaker 2: Another example is Job one seventeen, where the Chaldeans attack
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  Speaker 2: and murder Job's servants, to which Job responds in verse
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  Speaker 2: twenty one, the Lord has taken away. The Lord has
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  Speaker 2: taken away, and the inspired writer of the look of
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  Speaker 2: Job at the end of the book in chapter eleven.
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  Speaker 2: In chapter forty two, verse eleven, he refers to Job's losses,
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  Speaker 2: including the murder of his servants, as quote the evil
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  Speaker 2: that the Lord had brought upon him. So the Bible
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  Speaker 2: teaches that God is sovereign over every detail of the universe.
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  Speaker 2: Not a bird falls without his will Matthew ten twenty nine.
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  Speaker 2: The king's heart is like a river in the hand
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  Speaker 2: of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wills Proverbs
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  Speaker 2: twenty one to one. The dice are thrown on the table,
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  Speaker 2: and every decision is from the Lord Proverbs sixteen thirty three.
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  Speaker 2: We're supposed to say, according to James for fifteen, if
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  Speaker 2: the Lord wills, we will live and do this, or
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  Speaker 2: that everything that happens is planned and governed by the
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  Speaker 2: sovereign will of God, if he's ins one eleven Isaiah
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  Speaker 2: forty six', ten which means that we will not be
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  Speaker 2: able to understand The bible if we reject the reality
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  Speaker 2: That god can will that sin come to pass without
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  Speaker 2: himself being. Sinful we may not under understand all the
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  Speaker 2: psychological dynamics of how he can do, that but that
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  Speaker 2: he does it is taught throughout The. Bible so it's
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  Speaker 2: plain that the biblical phrase will Of god does have
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  Speaker 2: at least two distinct. Meanings in The, bible one is
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  Speaker 2: his sovereign, will by which everything comes to pass Ef
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  Speaker 2: hesians one to. Eleven the other is his revealed, will
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  Speaker 2: or his will of, command by which he tells us
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  Speaker 2: what we ought to, do for, example thou shalt not.
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  Speaker 2: Murder and the biblical teaching is That god is not
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  Speaker 2: sinful when his sovereign will decrees that a person act
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  Speaker 2: contrary to his revealed. Will so our young friend is,
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  Speaker 2: asking in view of her friend's tragic, murder how CAN
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  Speaker 2: i turn to The lord for comfort and understanding in my?
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  Speaker 2: Grief and here's my counsel to this young. Woman, first
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  Speaker 2: realized that this murder was evil and should be called
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  Speaker 2: evil and. Unjust don't whitewash. It, no theology Of god's
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  Speaker 2: sovereignty requires that you minimize the. Evil, second believe that
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  Speaker 2: it was indeed contrary To god's commendment not to. Murder
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  Speaker 2: god's law was. Broken, third weep with those who Weep
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  Speaker 2: romans twelve. Fifteen, fourth grieve in your own, heart but
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  Speaker 2: not as those who have no Hope First thessalonians four. Thirteen,
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  Speaker 2: fifth Embrace god's promise for you and your friend's. Family
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  Speaker 2: The lord is near the broken hearted and saves the
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  Speaker 2: crushed in. Spirit embrace that promise he is near Psal
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  Speaker 2: i'm thirty four eighteen. Sixth embrace the promise that The
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  Speaker 2: lord will strengthen you and help you and hold you
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  Speaker 2: up in your Sorrow isaiah forty one ten. Seventh take
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  Speaker 2: hold Of romans eight twenty, eight and with all its,
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  Speaker 2: mysteries believe. It take your stand on it as a solid.
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  Speaker 2: Foundation while everything is, Shaking god works everything together for
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  Speaker 2: good for those who Love him and are called according
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  Speaker 2: To his. Purpose god, will in fact make this great
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  Speaker 2: evil serve some righteous and good, outcomes most of which
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  Speaker 2: you will not see until you no longer look through
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  Speaker 2: a glass.
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  Speaker 1: Darkly.
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  Speaker 2: Eight take hold of the promise that even evils that
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  Speaker 2: result in death are seized By, god made to serve
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  Speaker 2: his eternal purposes of Glory Tewod corinthians four. Seventeen this
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  Speaker 2: affliction is preparing for you an eternal weight of glory
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  Speaker 2: beyond all. Comparison as you look not to the things
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  Speaker 2: that are, seen but the things that are, Unseen for
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  Speaker 2: the things that are seen are, transient but the things
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  Speaker 2: that are unseen are. Eternal so open your heart to
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  Speaker 2: eternity and do not treat it as insignificant or far.
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  Speaker 2: Away if. Not god's eternal purposes are precious and more
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  Speaker 2: important than his temporal. Purposes and take to heart that
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  Speaker 2: this eternal glory will include the end of all sorrow.
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  Speaker 2: Totally he will wipe away every tear from your. Eyes
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  Speaker 2: deaths shall be no, more neither shall there be, mourning nor,
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  Speaker 2: crying nor pain any, more for the former things have
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  Speaker 2: passed Away revelation twenty one to. Four and finally return
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  Speaker 2: To acts four twenty, seven Where god planned the murder
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  Speaker 2: Of jesus from all. Eternity and, remember this was his,
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  Speaker 2: Son this was his, son and he did it to
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  Speaker 2: save his, enemies namely. Us so, amazingly the clearest place
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  Speaker 2: in The bible Where god's sovereign will decrees that his
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  Speaker 2: revealed will be broken is the place Where he saved
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  Speaker 2: sinners for breaking his revealed. Will and he does it
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  Speaker 2: by enduring our punishment for.
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  Speaker 1: Us, yeah, paradox almost impossible to wrap our minds. Around
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  Speaker 1: how Can god be in control of a world where
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  Speaker 1: such horrific things? Happen but as hard as that, Is
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  Speaker 1: scripture teaches us That god will that his son be
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  Speaker 1: murdered so that we might be saved even if we
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  Speaker 1: are murderers profound. Grace obviously we don't get all the
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  Speaker 1: answers in this, life but in times of, grief the
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  Speaker 1: comfort doesn't come from pretending that evil isn't there or
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  Speaker 1: acting Like god is helpless in the. Situation that's just false.
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  Speaker 1: Comforts and if you've not Heard Pastor john speak about
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  Speaker 1: sufferings screaming, witness the screaming witness of suffering to the
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  Speaker 1: cosmic rupture that's happened between us And god by our,
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  Speaker 1: sin oh, my that's one of those things THAT i
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  Speaker 1: just want to put as a footnote that will change
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  Speaker 1: your whole worldview on this topic as. Well for more
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  Speaker 1: on suffering screaming, witness see The Aspestor John book on
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  Speaker 1: everything that we. Do Pastor john AND i will see
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  Speaker 1: you back here On. Thursday thanks for, listening we'll see you.
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  Speaker 1: Then