Can God Be Sovereign over All Sin and Still Be Good?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Here is today's email question.

00:00:07.200 | Hello Pastor John, my name is Eli, I'm 21,

00:00:09.440 | and I'm from Philly.

00:00:11.000 | I have a question concerning God's sovereignty.

00:00:13.120 | In the Bible, it seems like a couple of times

00:00:14.720 | we read where God makes someone sin

00:00:17.000 | for the benefit of his chosen people.

00:00:19.120 | For example, in Exodus 7, verses one to five,

00:00:21.720 | where we see God telling Moses and Aaron,

00:00:24.520 | I will harden Pharaoh's heart,

00:00:26.180 | and though I multiply my signs and wonders

00:00:28.500 | in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.

00:00:31.760 | And Romans 9, 18, it is affirmed by saying,

00:00:34.520 | so then he has mercy on whomever he wills,

00:00:37.280 | and he hardens whomever he wills.

00:00:40.040 | I've spoken to many Christian brothers,

00:00:41.520 | even ones who are far older than I am,

00:00:43.880 | who seem to disagree with me time and time again

00:00:46.460 | that God can in fact make someone sin,

00:00:49.420 | judge them for it, and still be a righteous, good God.

00:00:53.800 | What I get from those conversations

00:00:55.280 | is that they are ultimately questioning God

00:00:57.220 | just as Job did, that it's not about

00:00:59.560 | whether God can do it or not,

00:01:01.120 | it's whether they, created humans,

00:01:03.320 | feel like it's right or not right for God,

00:01:05.680 | our Creator, to do such things with us.

00:01:08.120 | So can God in fact make someone sin,

00:01:10.400 | judge them for it, and still be righteous,

00:01:13.100 | just, and a good God?

00:01:14.900 | - The words that we use to describe God's causality,

00:01:21.280 | his causing in relation to evil

00:01:26.760 | make a really big difference in how people hear

00:01:29.600 | and respond to what the Bible teaches.

00:01:32.040 | Words don't make the final difference, but they do matter.

00:01:36.540 | Other things can hinder people from agreeing

00:01:38.620 | with what the Bible teaches besides just words,

00:01:41.600 | but words matter.

00:01:43.360 | And the reason they matter is that they carry associations

00:01:48.360 | and connotations which may be different

00:01:53.760 | from person to person, so we need to try

00:01:57.320 | to use words that carry as much truth

00:02:00.640 | of the Bible as possible and minimize

00:02:04.920 | the false connotations and associations

00:02:07.420 | that may rise in people's minds when they hear the word.

00:02:12.420 | Now that's an impossible task, ultimately.

00:02:16.640 | You can't make people hear what you intend

00:02:20.880 | if they have all kinds of associations

00:02:23.440 | with the necessary words that you don't intend.

00:02:26.720 | You can't make it happen, but we should at least try,

00:02:30.200 | which is why we're so dependent on the Holy Spirit

00:02:32.440 | and the communication of biblical truth,

00:02:35.960 | one of the reasons why.

00:02:37.280 | Now, when I say all that, I'm thinking about the phrase,

00:02:41.400 | can God in fact make someone sin?

00:02:45.760 | The word make probably, for many people,

00:02:49.700 | carries the connotation, force someone

00:02:53.980 | to act against His will, or turn someone into a robot

00:02:58.980 | so that it is not really they who are sinning, but God.

00:03:05.220 | Now, both of those associations or connotations

00:03:08.660 | to the word make sin are false.

00:03:12.380 | So if I say God makes someone sin

00:03:16.460 | and that, those connotations is what they hear,

00:03:19.620 | they have to reject what I say.

00:03:21.500 | They have to.

00:03:22.660 | They'd be right to, if that's what they think I mean.

00:03:26.420 | Their rejection would mean God does not force anyone

00:03:31.300 | to sin against His will, and they'd be right.

00:03:33.820 | Or it would mean God does not turn anyone into a robot

00:03:37.300 | so that their sinning is not theirs, but God's,

00:03:39.540 | and they'd be right.

00:03:40.640 | So we need to find words that express the truth

00:03:45.640 | that Eli is seeing.

00:03:47.740 | He's really seeing in the Bible,

00:03:51.140 | and avoid, if we can, words that carry

00:03:54.380 | those false connotations.

00:03:57.660 | Maybe we can't, maybe we can.

00:03:59.860 | We should at least try.

00:04:01.340 | If people wanna put meaning on our words

00:04:04.260 | or in our mouths that we don't intend, we can't stop them,

00:04:07.580 | but we can at least try to be as clear as possible.

00:04:11.020 | So what if I said, instead of make people sin,

00:04:14.860 | what if I said, God governs all things in this world,

00:04:19.220 | and even sin is not outside His control?

00:04:23.180 | Would it get the same response?

00:04:24.740 | Maybe, maybe not.

00:04:26.340 | Or what if I said, God rules the world

00:04:30.820 | and everything that happens in it?

00:04:34.220 | Or what if I said, God foresees all that will come,

00:04:39.940 | and He can stop anything He pleases from happening,

00:04:44.940 | or He can permit it to happen,

00:04:48.220 | and if He stops it or permits it,

00:04:50.340 | He thus controls whether it happens?

00:04:52.620 | What if I talked like that?

00:04:55.220 | I think I am saying what Eli wants to say,

00:05:00.140 | and I think if that's what he wants to say, he's right.

00:05:04.980 | And clearly, in all of this,

00:05:07.740 | human accountability in the Bible is affirmed and sustained,

00:05:12.620 | and therefore God is righteous to judge all sin,

00:05:17.620 | either in Christ or in hell.

00:05:20.380 | Now, what do I base that on?

00:05:22.380 | So let me just give a few texts here.

00:05:24.700 | Number one, Ephesians 1:11.

00:05:27.540 | The Bible teaches that, well, I'll just read it.

00:05:30.660 | In Him, we have obtained an inheritance,

00:05:34.540 | having been predestined according to the purpose

00:05:37.380 | of Him who works all things

00:05:40.100 | according to the counsel of His will.

00:05:42.220 | So God works all things

00:05:45.900 | according to the counsel of His will.

00:05:47.580 | Number two, the Bible teaches that Satan

00:05:50.980 | is the cause of many sins,

00:05:53.300 | but Satan is not ultimately out of God's control.

00:05:56.620 | He operates only by permission from God.

00:06:00.340 | Therefore, God can always restrain Satan,

00:06:03.100 | put limits on Satan to any degree He pleases,

00:06:06.060 | and therefore God governs what Satan does.

00:06:09.060 | See Job, see Peter's denials.

00:06:12.180 | Third, when Joseph's brothers in the Old Testament

00:06:17.540 | sold him into slavery, they sinned.

00:06:19.860 | Both Genesis and Psalms teach that this was planned

00:06:24.860 | and ordained and brought about by God.

00:06:28.420 | Psalm 105, God had sent a man ahead of them,

00:06:31.980 | Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

00:06:34.740 | God sent him.

00:06:36.500 | That was what happened when he was sold as a slave.

00:06:40.700 | And Joseph himself describes the event

00:06:43.980 | in Genesis 50, verse 20,

00:06:45.940 | when he says, "As for you, you brothers,

00:06:50.220 | you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."

00:06:53.860 | It doesn't say God used it for good.

00:06:56.660 | They had a meaning, it was an evil meaning.

00:06:59.260 | God had a meaning, it was a good meaning.

00:07:02.100 | And He brought about salvation

00:07:03.620 | for the people of God and the redemption

00:07:06.340 | that would one day come through the seed.

00:07:08.580 | So yes, God was in, on, controlling, governing,

00:07:13.300 | bringing about what happened there.

00:07:15.780 | And number four, when they were in Egypt,

00:07:19.020 | the psalmist says, this is perhaps the most blatant

00:07:22.420 | statement of all of what Eli's saying,

00:07:25.100 | Psalm 105, verse 25,

00:07:27.140 | God turned their hearts to hate the people,

00:07:31.020 | to deal craftily with his servants.

00:07:33.620 | This is a strong statement of God's sovereignty,

00:07:36.900 | and we should receive it and assume that God can do that

00:07:41.900 | without removing the real willing and real responsibility

00:07:47.180 | of the Egyptians in sinning against Israel.

00:07:52.060 | And one more, and this is the most important

00:07:54.700 | because it relates to the gospel.

00:07:56.940 | I don't think it's possible consistently

00:08:00.180 | to believe in the gospel if you reject

00:08:03.380 | that God can bring about His will

00:08:07.140 | by the sins of people that He governs.

00:08:11.620 | Because it says in Acts 4, 27,

00:08:15.540 | truly in this city, they were gathered together

00:08:18.500 | against your holy servant, Jesus,

00:08:20.340 | whom you anointed, both Herod, Pontius Pilate,

00:08:23.220 | along with Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

00:08:25.860 | to do whatever your hand and your plan

00:08:30.300 | had predestined to take place.

00:08:32.500 | So Herod's mockery and purple cloak,

00:08:35.500 | Pilate's expedient accession to the will of the mob,

00:08:40.500 | Israel's plotting and envy and cry to crucify Him,

00:08:45.660 | crucify Him, and the soldiers' crown of thorns,

00:08:49.540 | their scoffing and their gambling,

00:08:52.180 | all of that was sin, and all of it was planned

00:08:56.420 | and ruled, ordained, scripted ahead of time by God.

00:09:01.420 | Whatever your hand and your plan had predestined

00:09:06.100 | to take place took place at Calvary.

00:09:09.180 | So I agree with what Eli means.

00:09:14.100 | God governs all sins, and people are responsible

00:09:19.100 | for those sins that they commit.

00:09:21.740 | It is they who will them and commit them,

00:09:24.260 | and God is righteous to judge them.

00:09:28.100 | And at the heart of this truth is the gospel of Jesus,

00:09:33.100 | bearing the sins of all who trust Him,

00:09:36.300 | and there would be no glorious gospel of God

00:09:41.180 | without this glorious sovereignty of God.

00:09:45.380 | - Pastor John, thank you.

00:09:46.460 | These are hard truths to grasp,

00:09:48.220 | and if you need more time and more details,

00:09:50.380 | be sure to see the book that John Pepper wrote

00:09:53.060 | on this very theme.

00:09:54.140 | The book is titled Spectacular Sins,

00:09:56.980 | and it's a book you can download for free online

00:09:58.980 | at desiringgod.org/books.

00:10:02.500 | Pastor John and I return tomorrow to close out the week.

00:10:04.780 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:10:05.700 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John Podcast.

00:10:08.300 | (upbeat music)

00:10:10.880 | (upbeat music)

00:10:13.460 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Can God Be Sovereign over All Sin and Still Be Good?

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