Sing Talk—Keith Sacksteder
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I'm going to start by reading 2 verses in the New Testament.
The first one in first John. Two well known verses.
First John in the first chapter.
First strong chapter one, verse 7.
Really thinking about the last.
I'm sorry, wrote down the wrong verse.
Verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light and in him.
There's no darkness at all. And then in James the 1St chapter.
In the 13th verse.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father.
The one true God. We are so thankful for who you are.
For what you were doing in our lives, what you were doing in this world, today, yesterday and tomorrow.
We consider the fragile web of life, the myriad elements of life that all have to be perfectly imbalanced for life to even be possible.
Yeah.
How wondrous are your ways?
And yet we consider.
What selfish desire and rebellion has done, sin has entered, and the inevitable result of sin, death.
We give thanks that in a world where the chief characteristic.
Is death that you are working your sovereign will and that we have opportunity to be part of that?
Part of that plan for the ages, through Jesus Christ. In his name we do give thanks, Amen.
So what I have on my mind?
Talk about this evening.
Admit I'm a little bit hesitant to take up with it. There are probably others that are.
Much better equipped, but I take it from the Lord. There was a question that was brought up a few months ago at it and actually not an all day meetings a young man.
About 20 years of age probably, give or take. I don't know how old he is.
It was after the meetings were done for the day and we were sitting in the dining area.
And he asked a question, and he read a verse.
I'm sure I'll hardly scratch scratch the surface tonight of what this is that's on my mind, but it's important.
To at least.
As honest, as honestly as we can to take up with what's on my mind this evening. It's a topic that so this was mentioned as a young people's meeting. It's a topic that is relevant from the youngest child that can understand right up to the oldest individual in this room.
Relevant to everyone of us, I may not be able to.
Make it as plain as my life. But with the Lord's help, I will.
So without going any further, I suppose I should put the question out there.
Consider those first 2 verses that I read.
As you consider this question, so we're going to read from the passage that this young man read from. It's in Isaiah chapter 45.
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Well known verses.
But we'll read just two verses here, Isaiah chapter 45, verses 6:00 and 7:00.
I'm going to start halfway through that sixth verse.
I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
The question that he asked was.
Does God really create evil?
Does God create evil? You know, as we sat there in that group, there were young men, there were older men, there were some ladies there too.
And the answers were given.
And quite often when that question comes up, I don't know if it comes up too often.
But I've heard that question asked a few times, and the answer tends to go along the lines of God does not create evil. We read those verses in the New Testament. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. And God does not tempt men, and he cannot be tempted with evil himself.
But here it states quite explicitly, I make peace and I create evil.
And often the answer is along the lines of it sounds kind of like a defense of God.
And I don't say that it's a wrong answer, because it is probably spot on to say this, but he does create evil circumstances.
In there to bring about his ends.
I want to go into that just a little bit because.
I don't need to defend God, He stands on his own merits. But.
I think it's very relevant to us today. It was relevant in the day that the Prophet wrote this down.
And it's relevant today.
I want to amplify on these just a little bit because it's a positive concept and I think it's vital to understanding the God of the Scriptures.
God's Word stands firm, stands on its own foundation, and I want to talk about these things. I'm going to pull out just a few examples from the Old Testament, and I might be a bit constrained on time.
But we'll try to go briefly over just a couple of examples. And I would say by the way, you can see this.
Concept in probably just about every page of the scriptures and just about every story that is in the scriptures that God creates evil in the sense that he creates circumstances that are meant to draw out a response and to bring the individuals or maybe nations.
Entities, but very often individuals back into.
Communion with himself, as it were. So I'm going to.
I'm going to pick from 2 examples this evening. We're just going to read a few verses again for the sake of time and talk about this, and then we'll go back to this 45th chapter to talk a little bit about context, because context is very important, and then maybe an application to our own life. Let's look at 2 examples.
Where we might see God creating evil.
This first one I admit I'm hesitant to take up with this one, but it's a well known story. It's the story of David.
Bathsheba and we're just going to read a few verses and then comment because I want to draw some.
Principles out.
So in second Samuel, in the 12Th chapter, we're going to read a number of verses and then we'll.
Just pick a few thoughts out of there. So Second Samuel, chapter 12.
And we'll read starting at verse seven. And Nathan said to David, he'd just given him a little parable. He said to David.
Thou art the man thus set the Lord God of Israel. I anointed the king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. I gave thee thy masters house, thy masters wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the House of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and has taken his wife to be thy wife, and has to slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
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Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus set the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house. I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son. Thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel before the sun. David said unto Nathan.
I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die, Howbeit, because by this deed thou has given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord, to blasphemy. The child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. Nathan departed into his own house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bear unto David, and it was very sick. David therefore besought God for the child. David fasted and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
The elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass on the 7th day that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that, his servants whispered.
David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the House of the Lord, and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
And the servant said unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child while it was alive, but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead, Wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
Stop there.
And this story is a very sad story.
Very difficult story. It's difficult to read, it's difficult to talk about.
But I wanted to touch on this one just for a few principles, one of them.
Is found in verse nine. He despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight.
You know what the Lord did was not what would be characteristic of God.
He does not desire.
That any should die.
We'll touch on that a little bit later maybe.
But.
Here was one David who had despised what God had.
Very clearly laid out in his law.
He despised it. God is very clear to us. It's written into our very conscience. What things are right and wrong. We can harden our conscience, but it is written into our conscience. David sinned against God first and foremost. You know when we see his repentance in that 51St chapter of Psalms, what does he say? He says against thee, and the only have I sinned. He acknowledged the very root.
In verses 11 and 12 Says that David did it secretly.
The judgment of God, He said. This I will do before all Israel and before the Son. God requires that which is past.
And we had that in the meeting a little bit earlier.
About the just judgments of God, you know, it ought to make us shake instead of those men that were gathered in the street there that her brother Steve read about, that they shook because of the words it says, because of the words and because of the rain. But what they were listening to caused them to fear.
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We ought to fear too. We know a little bit about our own hearts.
And so.
God does require that which is passed. We have it throughout the scriptures. That reminds us of those verses in Galatians the 6th chapter.
You better read them so I don't misquote them.
Just as an aside, this inflexible justice of God.
When you've come to the end of yourself is also the great cause for hope and joy, because as God is inflexibly righteous and holy, so he is full of love. And to the repentant Sinner you are secure because the same God that judges sin.
Has spread out His grace.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
And here we have it in this eighth verse. He that soweth to his flesh shall reap.
Shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So there is hope in it too. It's not just all bad. God's government, His justice.
Is equally righteous, whether it is to the man that sows to the flesh or the man that sows to the Spirit.
You know, David prayed and he fasted, seeking for God's mercy.
In this instance.
God would not alter what he had said.
That child died, and if you read the history of David going down, you'll find that everything that God had said would happen, happened.
At David's life, there was much grief that came from this incident. There was much joy too.
Find that the promised seed came through David and his wife Bathsheba. That's for another time. Let's touch on one more passage in the Old Testament. One more example. Another well known example. Let's read in Jonah. We're going to read in two different passages.
Jonah was sent to the Ninevites.
And we know the story, but I do want to read just a few of the verses in that first chapter.
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amity. I saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before me. We know the story. Jonah turned and went the other way.
But God was going to have those Ninevites spoken to because of their wickedness. And so let's go to the third chapter then the word of the Lord and the word of the Lord.
Came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise going to Nineveh that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey. Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey. And he cried and said, Yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Nineveh was an exceedingly wicked city.
If any of you know the history, and I know just a little bit, but enough to say that it was the capital city of I believe it was the Assyrian Empire.
And that city.
Was a extremely the governing powers were extremely violent.
And they subjugated the peoples that were under their control by extreme violence. And we're going to read just a few verses in Nahum. Nahum. He's not dated, but I think we learned from profane history that he was probably, I don't know, a hundred, 120 years after Jonah when he prophesied and.
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We'll touch on just a few of those verses, but he prophesied too that Nineveh was to be overthrown for their wickedness, and he gives some very graphic.
Illustrations of what characterized that people and that governing authority. They were extremely wicked and violent, but that city was to be destroyed while Jonah was given a message of eight words. Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Nothing about mercy in that message at all. God was going to, as it were, create evil and He had a purpose in it. But first and foremost they were to be judged for their wickedness. But there would be a testimony first.
Jonah went and he preached that message and what happened? We read it in that third chapter from the king down to the simplest man, and even the beasts were caused to clothe themselves in sackcloth and ashes.
And to cry mightily into God. They repented. And you know what says of God that he turned him.
And he did not judge the people that city, as he said.
Says in the last verse of that third chapter, God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them. He did it not.
It's amazing, but it is the ways of God and sovereignty to righteously judge.
Or to repent of that judgment. Now that city was to be judged and it was I think Jonah, so my margin here reads that he was in the mid 8 hundreds BC.
Not much more than 200 years later, that city was judged, but it was not judged in this time because of that repentance.
However.
God is not mocked, and in roughly 612 BC that city was destroyed.
Those that were governing were destroyed. It's kind of interesting they were destroyed by.
A king by the name of naval. Sorry if I can't pronounce it exactly right. Naboo Palazzo. He was the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and it was the beginning of the Chaldean Empire that Steve mentioned in his talk this evening. That would cause for the children of Judah to be taken into captivity for 70 years. But here we see that.
God and His sovereignty.
And in his own righteous acts would spare that city because they repented. And so let's go back to Isaiah, that 45th chapter. We're going to read just a few more verses there. I did not read the verses in Nahum. That's OK Save them for another time, maybe.
But in that 45th chapter of Isaiah.
We'll read just a few more verses.
So context is important.
We see here in those two stories that have been mentioned in the one that He created evil and brought a great judgment upon David for what he had done, and the effects of that sin reached out much further than just David, just David and Bathsheba. It reached out to a great extent, but God in righteousness enacted that judgment. And then we see that in the case of the city of Nineveh that it was spared.
A promised judgment because they repented. God made peace in the one case and created evil in the other case. And He was righteous in both cases to act as He acted. Let's read just a few more verses there in that 45th chapter.
Verse eight. Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord have created, created it. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him, that fashioneth it? What maketh thou or thy work? He hath no hands. Woe unto him that saith unto his Father, What begettest thou?
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Or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker. Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands. Command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it. I even my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. And it goes on. You know Isaiah was writing.
Well before Jerusalem was destroyed.
We went back a few chapters to get the full context of what he's taking up with. Here. We find that he tells the people of Judah that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, that their children were going to be taken into captivity, and so on and so forth. And as was mentioned by Steve, he mentioned a man, a king by name. It's actually in this chapter that we're reading here in the 45th chapter. I'll just read the verse just to.
Bring the point out Thus saith Jehovah verse one to his anointed to Cyrus.
Whose right hand I have Holden to subdue nations before him, and so on. This man Cyrus was a king of the Persians.
We know that as Iran today, but he was a king of the Persians and he was going to be used of God to bring a remnant back to that.
To that land of Judah, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, to re establish the temple that was going to be destroyed righteously. But we find here that hundreds of years before these events came that God by the prophet.
Brings out who will do it, but if we were to go back.
We'll just go back to I'm not going to read it here tonight, but from the 39th chapter on, we'll find that God had promised this destruction was coming and the reason for it was because of idolatry and rebellion against God.
Now these two examples are, you might say, extreme examples.
How does that fit with my life? You know, there's some in this room that have suffered very much and maybe some in this room that have not suffered much.
Maybe golden days, but don't worry if we're left here for any length of time, you can be assured that the Lord will bring you into circumstances that will test. But they're meant for a purpose. You know, again, these examples that we read were examples really of rebellion and sin against God and then.
He responds to how the people responded, but righteously so.
But in our lives, you know, there's going to be trials, there's going to be those things that come up. And when they come up, what is going to be your foundation?
What are you going to fall back on? You can't fall back on friends. You can't fall back it because I always misquote when I don't read name in the first chapter.
There's a phrase that stuck in my mind.
Let's read the 1St 3 verses. The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Alka *****. God is jealous and the Lord revenge. The Lord revenge and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. It's this verse that I was thinking about. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. You will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.
And this phrase here in the clouds or the dust of his feet, very often the judgments of God are clouded.
We don't know the reasons that God allows all the things that He allows some of you have undoubtedly experienced.
Circumstances.
That you question why God are you allowing this? If you're a God of love, why are you allowing these things to happen? You know, quite often they're clouded. I think that phrase in itself.
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Take up a very easily a whole address. I would suggest reading a chapter like Job chapter 26 and considering that he talks about the clouds of God's judgment in that chapter.
Maybe someday we'll take that up, but you know, we often are not given the reasons that God allows the things that He allows.
The question is, is how do we take them? You know, there are things that some of us are dealing with.
Again, you don't have to be very old to experience adverse circumstances. Very young children that understand might be experiencing very tough circumstances that they do not understand. It doesn't matter how old you are. God in His way deals with each one of us. And there's no guarantee as to how long our life is or what the pathway is. But what there is a guarantee of is that the God of the Scriptures is there as a comfort.
I want to share a little bit of a story from a brother that I was talking to this evening. Seems like every time I talk to him, he shares something with me that I just have to incorporate in and I trust he'll bear with me if I don't get it exactly right but he was talking about.
This camp.
Two different things that I want to touch on. He had talked to a brother that is going through a great trial right now.
Maybe that his time on this earth is very short. The man that we love, many of us in this room love full of vitality and energy.
But the Lord may be taking him home soon. We don't know. And he this brother talking to me, he brought up a verse. It's in Psalms 116. This is the first precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. And he mentioned that the hard verse for him to understand, but he I won't phrase this exactly right, but he said it came clear to him this today. He said as he was.
Setting up for this camp.
And different brothers were coming in and he was able to greet these different individuals. And what a joy it was to his heart. And you know, brother Steve, you know, brother Keith going down the list of all the different ones that were coming in. And he was able to enjoy that greeting, that meeting these brothers that that he loves Precious in the light in the in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
You know, our perspective is that death is often a difficult thing, but here He brought it out this way. The Lord is bringing one home.
And what a joy it is, that first meeting. We know that there is phases to it, but still precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints. It's really a meeting. It's a matter of perspective. And so even as we come to this camp and we enjoy seeing faces and individuals that we love in the Lord and that maybe we don't see too often, it is just a little picture of foretaste of that glory.
It's a perspective and I so appreciated what that brother shared with me, the beautiful thought, let's close the God and our Father. We just give thanks that in a world that is tinged by sin.
We feel the effects of it all around us.
Very often in our own lives, it touches us in ways that we don't know how to deal with it, but we know that we can turn to the God of the Scriptures that we can find.
An inflexible force.
That for the Saint, a bulwark, a stronghold, a place of safety, we do give thanks. For that. We're thankful, Father, that.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, every contingency has been met that we have that strong place of refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ and in that cross. We do give thanks for that. We know that in itself.
Can fill volumes speaking about the righteousness of God.
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And His Holiness and his love. Father, we are so thankful for this. We're thankful that we can always turn to the Scriptures and to the God of the Scriptures in every circumstance. Pray that it might.
Have its imprint on our lives. Have its imprint on us. This week, as we enjoy more of what the Lord has for us, we do give thanks for all these things in Jesus worthy and precious name, Amen.