PREDICA DE DUMINICA...August 28, 2011

         JUDGING GOD

ISAIAH 55: 1 – 13                                                                                                         

 DR. AUBREY MCGANN

1. GOD IS NOT KIND

              

A. WHY DOES HE ALLOW EVIL?

         

Ezekiel 28: 12ff “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty… I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God… You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you… You became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God…” 

Deuteronomy 30: 15, 19 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil… I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…”

                   

B. WHY DOES HE ALLOW SUFFERING?

Psalm 22: 1, 2 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent.”

Psalm 119: 71 “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.”

                             

C. WHY DOES HE ALLOW WARS?

James 4: 1, 2 “Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from? Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves. You lust for what you don't have and are willing to kill to get it. You want what isn't yours and will risk violence to get your hands on it.”(MSG)

2. GOD IS NOT FAIR

A. BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE

John 9; 1 – 3 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

John 9: 6, 7 He (Jesus) anointed the eyes of the blind man … and He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” … So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Hebrews 12: 11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” NIV

B. GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE

Psalm 73: 3ff “I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked… Their eyes bulge with abundance; they have more than heart could wish… Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches…  When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me — until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.”

Matthew 5: 45 “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

                             

2 Peter 3: 9 “The Lord … is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

3. GOD IS NOT WISE

A. GOD HAS MADE SOME TERRIBLE DECISIONS

Numbers 14: 3 “Why didn't we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us?”

John 13: 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Isaiah 55: 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

                               

B. I WOULD HAVE DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY

Romans 9: 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

              

Job 38: 1 – 3 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

Job 42: 1 – 5 Job answered God: "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?' I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head… I'm sorry—forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! (MSG)

Job 42: 6 “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

C. HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO GOD?

a.   IN HUMILITY

Psalm 8: 3, 4 “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”

b.   IN AWE

Exodus 15: 11 “Who is like You, O LORD? … Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”

                  

c.   IN PRAISE

      

Psalm 145: 1 – 3I “, I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.”