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You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast.
Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the
latter part of the 20th century.
He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa.
For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com.
It's been bothering me ever since I came in this morning.
Have you shifted the pulpit?
Isn't it supposed to be over here?
I don't know, just sitting down there.
I've done something different.
Well, yes, I noticed that.
It's hard enough to notice that.
Well, anyway, don't let it bother me.
But you know, little things like that bother me.
You know, you've got to feel right about it,
but I guess you don't have to be right about everything.
I got a new car phone, or not a car phone, but what do you call those?
Mobile phones, cellular phones the other day.
I was telling Kay how to remember the number.
I'm not going to tell you the first three numbers because I'm going to tell you the last four.
If I told you the first three, you'd be using them.
But I said, the way you remember this is blah, blah, blah, and then it's 7, 6, 1, 1.
Just remember that 7 and 6 equals 11.
The strange thing was she believed it.
But it reminds me of that third string quarterback that was sent in the last ten minutes.
They were behind nine to seven.
And so he went in and he called a pass play and he passed it to number 13.
Number 13 ran in for a touchdown.
And the coach said, whatever possessed you to throw to number 13?
He said, well, I just added the total score.
Nine plus seven equals 13.
Or nine plus eight equals 13.
He said, you idiot, nine plus seven equals 16.
He said, yeah, and if I'd been as smart as you are, we'd have lost the game.
Sometimes it doesn't pay to be too smart.
Well, anyway, it's good to see you tonight.
I want you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 9.
The Gospel of John, chapter 9.
And I want to read the first four verses John chapter 9 verses 1 through 4
and as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
The word translated saw there is an interesting word.
It means to look upon something with rapt attention.
There were many blind people in the days of Jesus.
Many blind beggars dotted the roads along the way.
Remember blind Bartimaeus.
And so you didn't naturally pay that much attention to a blind man.
But when Jesus saw this man,
he looked upon him with rapt attention, so much so
that it caught the attention of the disciples.
And they asked a question.
And it is a question that all of us have asked one form or another many times in our life.
They said, Lord, who did sin that this man should be born blind, he or his parents?
They were asking that old question, why was this man born blind?
In 1972, I gave my wife a gold watch for Christmas.
On the back of that watch, I had my wife a gold watch for Christmas.
On the back of that watch, I had inscribed these words,
To Kay with Ron, from Ron, with love,
Christmas 1972, a very good year.
I didn't realize that it was going to be the last good year we would have in a long time.
As a matter of fact, it was the last Christus-free year we've ever had.
It was a good year because it was a year when I guess God was blessing our church in a way that he had never blessed it before or since.
We were at the zenith of God's blessings.
God was moving in revival power in our churches,
and we were seeing people saved and revived and lives changed.
It was when all of my little formulas, by the way, that I talked about this morning was working.
It was just amazing.
I could just pray for something and look up and behold, it was right there waiting for me.
It was at a time like this that had been that kind of year.
As a family, I don't think we'd ever been closer. But in early of 1973, our oldest son, Ronnie, began to manifest some,
well, the only way I know to describe it is, seemed to be a personality change.
He began to become very hostile and belligerent towards us and especially towards the church and towards
God.
I, of course, put it down as spiritual rebellion or just ordinary teenage rebellion.
He was 14.
But as time went on, it took on much deeper and wider implications.
And that year, right Sunday afternoon before church, we had an encounter in which he refused to go to church.
And the upstart was that he left home and was gone for two weeks.
We had no idea where he was.
Found out later he had hitchhiked to Fort Lauderdale, Florida from Dallas, 15-year-old boy.
Well, he came back and was so sorry and was all right for a while, and then it happened again.
And the pattern kept repeating itself.
He'd run off, be gone for a week or two, and then call up one night crying,
wanting to come back home, and then he would come back and we'd sit down and talk,
and he would weep and say, I don't know why I'm doing these things.
In August of 1975, while we were on vacation, he attempted suicide,
and we took him to the hospital in Portsmouth, Arkansas, but they said they would keep him only if we would put him in the psychiatric unit for two weeks for observation.
Well, this is in 1975, not nearly as in a progressive day as you and I live in now. And the thought of putting your child in a psychiatric unit was very, very disturbing.
But we really had no choice, and so we did.
At the end of those two weeks, we showed back up and were to meet with the psychiatrist.
And I was nervous as I could be because I knew what was going to happen.
I was all ready to hear that old story,
well, it's the church or he's a PK and that's why he's doing these things.
But he said that our son had a mood disorder
caused by a chemical imbalance in the blood.
And he diagnosed him as bipolar manic depressive.
I'd never heard of the phrase at that time.
He put him on lithium, Elavil, and Stelazine.
And immediately he changed back into the normal son that he had been,
just like he had been born again overnight.
And that was in August, and we knew that God had answered our prayers
and delivered us from
that situation.
But on Thanksgiving Day of 1975, he took his life.
The doctor had warned us that patients like that will get to feeling so good that they'll
miss a dosage or two, and that the balance is so precarious in their blood chemistry
that it will plunge them into deep, deep despair.
And Kay had found two or three dosages in his pockets
when she would wash his clothes.
You couldn't take a whole bottle of medicine to school.
You had to take it in dosages.
And so he was missing it.
And so on one of those episodes why he took his life. And that was the first time
I remember ever asking God seriously, Lord, why? It made it extra difficult because there were
about four or five families, friends of ours in the ministry, who were having similar problems with their
children. They weren't manic depressive, but they were in trouble with the law, strung out on drugs
and everything like that. And we had formed a very close community and fraternity praying for each
other. And our son was the only one that did not come through. And I have to admit that made me somewhat bitter.
I remember one night receiving a phone call, a long-distance phone call, from a friend telling
my wife that their son had just come home and been saved, and he wanted to talk to me,
and I refused to talk to him. I didn't want to hear good news about somebody else's son. Well, that was in 1975, and I'll make this as brief as I can. In 1976,
I plunged into a very, very deep depression that I'd never experienced before. And from 1976 to
1986, I lived in the pits of dark and deep depression until one day I called my wife from out of town and said,
I can't take it anymore.
I've got to have some kind of help.
And so she made me an appointment with a Christian psychiatrist there in Irving,
and I went to him and began to work with him,
and it began to level out.
I will just tell you that I am still seeing a psychiatrist,
and I still am on medication.
I know that's not a very spiritual affliction.
A lot of people think it's demons and everything else,
but it is a biological disease just as much as cancer or diabetes is.
Well, I was coming through that all right. And then our second son, Stephen, a year or so
ago began to have some serious problems, and he began to act in some ways that were not normal
for him. And after his divorce of 10 years, then he really plunged into a deep, dark hole. He spent four months in the hospital earlier this year,
diagnosed as bipolar manic depressive or rapid cycler,
which means that's about the worst kind.
Last year, our son committed suicide on Thanksgiving Day in 1975,
and last year, the day after Thanksgiving, Stephen attempted suicide. We knew nothing about
it at the time. And so that's the story. The reason that my wife is not with me this week
is because yesterday we spent the day
admitting him to the psychiatric intensive care unit where he'll be there for four or five days under suicide watch.
And I find myself asking again, why?
And I have said to myself and I've said to the Lord,
Lord, who did sin?
Must have been my wife.
I couldn't think of any sin that I had done that merited this kind of chastisement or punishment.
But I keep finding myself again and again asking,
Lord, why?
Why has this happened to me?
And why has this happened to our, and why has this happened to our family, and not somebody else's?
And why do all of our friends seem to have their children delivered and come through these things, and ours do not?
Well, I want to talk to you about that tonight. Not my problem, but I want to talk to you about the question, why? I don't tell these things to you to try to gain sympathy. Please, please understand that.
I'm just telling you that this is where I come from, and this is what I'm dealing with. And
I've discovered that a great many other Christians are wrestling with similar problems and similar questions in their own life. Jesus, as he passed by, saw this man born blind.
Now the disciples in their theology,
their theology stated in so many words
that where there is suffering, there must be guilt.
You don't see suffering, just suffering.
You see suffering because of some sin.
They believe this so steadfastly that they ask a very stupid question.
Do you know what the stupid question was they asked?
They said, Lord, who did sin that this man should be born blind, he or his parents.
Well, if a man was born blind,
how in the world could he have sinned
in order to bring on this blindness, you see?
Now, some of the pagans in those days
believed that you were punished ahead of time
for sins you would commit later on,
sort of like pay now and sin later.
But that wasn't a Jewish belief.
These disciples
didn't believe that, but they were so entrenched in their belief that there must always be a reason,
and usually a sinful reason, why they're suffering that they ask, happily oblivious,
ask this stupid question, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
I want to talk to you tonight about three questions.
First question is the question why.
We ask that question a lot.
Everybody asks that question, saved and unsaved both.
Back in 1984, it was around, well it was,
it was after Christmas, it was on December the 30th,
my family and I were in Little Rock
visiting my mother-in-law
and she already had a house full of guests
so we were staying at a nearby hotel.
And on midnight, December the 30th,
we went back to the motel.
Parking was in the back
and so I let the kids off at the front and my wife,
and then I drove around the back and parked my car.
It was a well-lighted parking lot.
I got out of the car, opened the trunk, took out two little grips.
One was just mine that had some odds and ends in it,
and the other was Kay's sort of overnight bag.
And when I shut that trunk and turned around,
there was a car that had been stopped at the corner of the building,
and it pulled around and stopped right in front of me.
And I remembered seeing that car circling the motel as I drove in.
There were two men in the front seat.
The man on the passenger side opened the door and got out,
and the moment he did, I could smell the alcohol all the way to where I was.
And he mumbled something about finding where was 13th Street or something like that,
and I knew that had to be phony because you don't ask a motel guest, you know, local directions.
So I just ignored him, thinking I was going to have an encounter with a drunk,
and I just ignored him.
And the door to the motel was about as far as here to the back wall.
And I headed towards that back wall.
And the man grabbed my arm and said, give me those bags.
Well, I just shrugged away and kept on walking.
And he grabbed me again and said, give me those bags. And, I just shrugged away and kept on walking, and he grabbed me again and said,
give me those bags, and he twisted me around, and this time I was staring into the nose of a gun,
and he was shaking, and he said, I'm going to kill you. Give me those bags. Now, his partner,
who was still in the car, kept yelling something. I couldn't make out what it was he was yelling,
but he kept yelling something, and this man pointing this gun at me very unstable his hand
Shaking and everything else and telling me to give me those bags. He's gonna shoot me. Well, I spent my time
Convincing myself this wasn't happening
Was that you know this things like this don't happen
This is you know and happens on TV but on TV it happens a lot slower
where you have time to defend yourself on all of this.
And so while I was thinking about how wrong this whole thing is
and how impossible it is,
I kept backing up and trying to get to that door,
and finally he reached out and pushed me,
and I fell down on the ground on my back,
and he straddled me and shot at me.
And I could feel the bullet hit the pavement about this far from my head.
And that's when I decided that I could more than likely survive
without anything I had in those bags.
And so I made an executive decision right there on the premises,
and I let go of those bags.
But he was still so angry, and he said, I'm go of those bags. But he was still so angry,
and he said, I'm going to kill you. But he didn't. He just scooped up the bags and started heading
back towards the car. Well, his partner all this time had been yelling something. Now he understood
what he was yelling. Kill the so-and-so. Kill him. Go back and kill him. Boy, I was developing a real negative attitude towards that guy.
I'll tell you the truth.
And so here he comes back, and he's going to do the job.
And I'm still too far away from the door to escape,
and there's a car parked there.
So I just, you know, hide behind the car.
That's all I can do.
And the man comes about halfway to where I am
and suddenly stops, turns around,
gets back in the car, and I hear the car as it speeds away. What had happened is a guest on the
second floor had heard the shot, and they'd come to the window, and they were banging on that window,
and they caught that man's attention, and I guess he didn't want to witness to that crime, and so he backed away.
Six months later at that trial, the prosecuting attorney said,
if the defendant had been a better shot, Mr. Dunn would not be here today.
Sounded pretty good to me.
And when I told that to a friend, they said,
oh, being a lousy shot had nothing to do with it.
He said, God was protecting you that night.
Well, that sounded good to me.
Yes, sir, God was protecting me.
Another one said, No, no, no.
It had nothing to do with him being a good shot.
Boy, your guardian angel was there to deflect that bullet.
It sounded good to me. Boy, I was happy. there to deflect that bullet.
Sounded good to me.
Boy, I was happy.
That's fine, you know.
The only problem was I kept having a question nudge itself into my mind.
It was about a pastor and his wife, dear friends of mine,
who just about three years before had been shot to death in their home in Oklahoma City.
Their daughter had been raped and shot and left for dead,
and their son had been shot and left for dead.
They both lived, but the mother and the dad were slain.
And the question kept coming back to me,
where was their guardian angel that night? Why didn't God protect them
from being shot while he protected me? Was it because I'm more worthy to live? Is it
that I'm greater in the kingdom? That I live a better life? I'm a better person? No, I can't say that.
Then why?
How do you explain that?
I was in New Orleans.
I was sitting on the front pew waiting for the service to start,
and there were two women sitting behind me,
and I was overhearing their conversation.
And they were evidently one of the woman's sons had been in a car accident that week and had survived,
but the other boy had been killed.
And this one woman said to the mother,
Oh, I'm so glad your boy is all right.
And the mother said, Yes, God is good.
Well, he is.
But I couldn't help wondering what that other mother was saying that night.
And I wanted to turn around and say, Listen, what if it had been your boy that was killed?
Would you still say God is good?
Why?
You see, the atheists have a pretty good argument.
C.S. Lewis, who was an atheist
before his conversion to Christ,
said that had at that time
anyone asked him why he was not a Christian,
he would simply have pointed out
all the injustices in the world
and said,
if you say that this was made
by some great spirit,
I would have to answer then
it is either a powerless spirit or an indifferent spirit or an evil spirit.
For how can a good God who is omnipotent and all-wise,
how can he allow these things to go on?
It's a question that is a theological question.
Why?
And theologians have spun their wheels in that mud
for centuries and centuries. I've read just about everything there is to read on it, and no one
seems to come up with an answer that'll satisfy. Or you think you've got the answer for just a
moment, but then if you think about it, then there's another fact that you factor into that
that makes that other not acceptable,
you see.
There's always something that doesn't fit.
And so we Christians wish that little question would go away.
It's like a mischievous child we'd like to lock in the closet when company comes.
And the worst question we dread from an unbeliever is that question, why, if there is a God,
then why does he allow this?
That's a theological question. Why is it that God sometimes intervenes and sometimes doesn't?
Why did he intervene in my case and did not intervene in the case of my friends?
Why did he not intervene in my son's condition and did intervene in my
friend's children? Why? We all ask it. Don't feel guilty because you do ask it. It's a very normal
question, but it's a pitiful question because there is no answer.
The second question that I want us to look at is a personal question.
First one, why, is a theological question.
This is a personal question, and it is the question, why me?
Why me?
Now, that's a totally different thing. I like, when I come into the pastor's office,
he has a Hagar comic strip thing.
He has a lot of weird stuff, by the way, on his walls.
You may want to check that out from time to time and see where his mind is going.
But you know Hagar, the horrible,
and he's out in his boat
and there's storm and lightning and everything
and he's shaking his fist in heaven and he's storm and lightning and everything, and he's shaking his fist in heaven, and he's saying, why me?
And the answer from heaven says, why not?
But we always ask that question, why me, eventually.
Now, that's a lot different than why.
Why is a cold theological question.
Why me is a very personal question.
You see, I can sit down and watch on television
all of the atrocities that are going on in Rwanda and Somalia and other places, and it never causes
me to doubt the sovereignty of God. It never causes me to doubt the omnipotence of God, as long as it is distant, you see. It is only when that tragedy touches my life
that I begin to have questions about my faith, you see. Why me? You know, we never ask,
why not me? Oh, we may ask later on, but we never do say, well, why not me?
We always say, why me? As though, my goodness, this shouldn't have happened to me. You see,
we ask that question for a reason. We ask that question because we are seeking moral equalization in this universe. You see, we believe,
we believe that we live
in a moral, ordered universe,
that God created this universe
and that the God who created it
is a God of justice,
therefore he's going to rule over it as a God of justice, therefore he's going to rule over it
as a God of justice.
And so we believe that our universe
is a well-ordered universe
that is controlled by an all-caring,
all-loving, omnipotent, just, and fair God.
And, you know, for long stretches of time,
our life may seem to go along that way.
And we never have the problem. We never ask the question. But suddenly a monkey wrench is thrown
into the machinery of our life, and all of me? Because God is just, and I'm just in His sight,
so it shouldn't have happened to me. Now, back in the 17th and 18th century, there was a new
theology that came along called deism, and deism is still with us in certain portions of it, but it is not generally held in all of its compartments today.
But deism compared God to a watchmaker
and said that God created, made the watch and wound it up
and then just set it aside and is letting it run down.
In other words, they say that when God created the world,
he did create the world,
but then he removed himself from that world and is just letting it run its natural course.
In other words, God no longer takes a personal involvement and interest in this world.
But you and I, as Bible believers, can't accept that, can we?
I mean, then why pray?
Why have faith?
No, every page of the Word of God breathes out that God is active in His world,
and He is moving in this world,
and He intends for this world to fulfill His purpose.
And we cannot seem to find anywhere that purpose fits into what has happened.
So one reason we ask, why me, you see,
is because we've always believed that the God who created this world
is a God of justice, therefore He's going to rule it in justice.
So I find a lot of people then are still willing to believe in God as creator
but not God as ruler
because how can
he be ruler if these things are happening? A second reason we ask why me is I think sometimes
we ask that to try to absolve ourselves from guilt. You know, any time there's suffering or
misfortune and death,
there's always guilt attached to it.
I think God was good to us.
I think God was very good to us in letting us know that Ronnie was physically
and biologically sick before he died,
or else we'd have gone the rest of our lives
thinking it was poor parenting.
You know, we did something wrong.
I'm not denying that we made mistakes,
but hey, whoever said a parent had to be perfect,
we all make mistakes, you see.
But even at that, there's still some guilt there, see.
Boy, if we had done this, maybe this wouldn't have happened,
or if we'd done this, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Maybe your son's killed in a car accident.
Wives break up and divorce over something like that.
You shouldn't have let him go.
You bought him the car.
It was you that wanted him to have the car.
There's guilt there, you see.
Why didn't I see that my wife was sick earlier?
Why didn't I get her help earlier?
There's all kinds of guilt. Even when we're get her help earlier? There's all kinds of guilt.
Even when we're not guilty, see, there's all kinds of guilt.
And we can't live with that guilt,
and so we're constantly trying to get away from that guilt,
so much so that sometimes we'll even express our guilt
in the presence of others,
hoping that they will absolve us from guilt.
Say, oh, no, it wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault.
We want to hear that, you see.
So we keep asking, why?
Why me? Why me?
The third reason we ask why me,
and it is because, and I mentioned this a minute ago,
but I was ahead of myself,
we seek moral equalization in other words we won't we won't justice see the question
why me in first that an injustice has been done why me I didn't deserve this god's not been right god's not been fair to me so he asked lord why me
and what we're really doing in a sense is calling god on the carpet and say lord you'd better have
a good explanation for doing what you did or you and i are through cornelius muskowski the german
theologian said in his book, When the Gods are Silent
he was discussing the Holocaust
and he said, One may still believe in a God
who allowed it to happen
but can one still speak to him?
And I had one person recently say to me
I still believe in God
but I don't trust him.
Because we feel that we have been treated unfairly. We feel that we've been treated unjustly. And so we're seeking for some moral equalization, you know.
Why me? There's another reason. What is this, four? Anybody keeping count? There's another reason. What is this, four? Anybody keeping count?
There's another reason we ask this question, why?
And that is because, well,
we hope if we can find the answer to this,
we can prevent the repetition of the same tragedy.
See, I believe the reason the disciples ask who did sin,
this man or his parents, that he should be born blind,
is that there was no compassion.
No, uh-uh.
They looked upon him as a theological curiosity.
And what they were wanting to know was this, if we can find out what this guy did that caused him to go blind,
well, we can avoid that,
and at least whatever else may happen to us,
we won't go blind.
You see what I'm saying?
That's why we want explanations.
Well, why did this happen?
Why did this happen?
And when one of your kids goes bad or something,
people want to know,
what did you do or what you didn't do?
Because if I can know what you did or know what you didn't do,
then, you see, I can prevent the repetition of that same tragedy in my life.
You understand what I'm saying?
We want to know why,
because we believe that we can avoid this
if we just can know why this happened to you
so it won't happen to me.
This is number five.
There's a fifth reason.
I think we keep asking why and why me
because we're trying to vindicate God.
The theologians call it theodicy, T-H-E-O-D-I-C-Y.
Theodicy is man's attempt to find God not guilty in the presence of evil and suffering and death.
Over here you have evil, suffering, and death.
And over here you have an omnipotent, loving God.
And He's on trial for all of these crimes.
And so you're trying to get Him a not guilty verdict.
You're trying to vindicate God, justify God.
You know, it's amazing to me.
I just have come to realize lately
how God is not nearly as concerned about His reputation as we are.
But we feel like we've got to salvage God's reputation,
so we feel like we have to come up with an answer.
Well, there's a final question.
I mean, there's a final reason,
and I believe it is we keep asking why, why me,
because, well, frankly, folks,
you and I just can't live with mystery, can we?
We just can't live with mystery.
It just kills us not to know something.
See, we live in a generation,
the public's right to know generation.
You hear that all the time.
Public has a right to know.
Public has a right to know.
And in every vigilant media
keeps us alerted of everything
from Jimmy Carter's hemorrhoids
to Ronald Reagan's colon
to George Bush's hatred of broccoli
to Bill Clinton's haircut.
And we believe the public has a right to know.
But you see, God operates on a need-to-know-only basis.
And He doesn't tell you anything that you don't need to know.
Now there's a danger here, of course.
That's why we get swept up in the seances
and crystal ball gazing and the occult
and everything like that and dreams and visions
because we're looking for an answer.
We just cannot live with mystery.
But I believe that those questions, why and why me,
are not the right questions to ask.
I said there are three questions.
Why is a theological question.
Why me is a personal question.
This third question is the liberating question.
I don't believe there is an answer to why or why me.
I believe the question is, what now?
What now?
Now let's go back to our text.
Now, as you read this casually,
it gives the appearance that this man was born blind simply so God
would have an opportunity to perform and manifest his greatness. That's the way it reads in
the King James Version. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered,
Neither has this man sinned nor his parents,
but that the works of God should be made manifest in him, period.
All right, now, we're going to do a little translating here,
recent translation.
I know because I just recently translated it.
Remember this.
Number one, that in the Greek text, in the original text,
there are no grammatical marks.
There are no periods.
There are no dashes or colons or commas.
They're not there.
They're put there by the translators to make it read better.
And sometimes a comma instead of a period
can foul up the whole thing.
The other thing is, notice that word that in verse 3,
but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
That is a little Greek word that is hina.
I say that because that's the only Greek word
I can pronounce with
confidence, and I want you to be impressed. But that is the way to pronounce it, isn't it? Hena.
And it usually is translated in order that, and it usually refers to purpose, to purpose.
And that's the way the translators have interpreted here. Neither this man sinned nor his parents sinned
that he should be born blind,
but it was so that God, in purpose,
the purpose of it was that God would have a chance
in order to display his power.
But most Greek scholars,
Leon Morris for one and Dana and Manny for another,
all agree that the word here, according to the Greek construction,
does not refer to purpose, but it refers to result.
It refers to result.
Now, here's the way to read this.
And by the way, verse 4, King James says,
I must work the works of him that sent me.
No, it's we in the text. It's we must work the works of him that sent me. No, it's we in the text. It's we
must work the works of him that sent me. All right, you got all of that? Now let's read it.
Jesus answered, neither has this man sinned nor his parents, period. End of discussion.
But so that now the works of God as a result can be made manifest in him,
we must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. In other words, Jesus is
not giving an answer here as to why this man was born blind. He is saying it is a fact. The man was born blind, and it wasn't caused by sin.
Now, so that you and I can do the works of God,
let's get with it and manifest God's power here.
Now, you go back to Luke 13, and you'll find a similar instance.
In Luke 13, the first five verses, Luke chapter 13, verses 1 through 5,
there were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them,
Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans
because they
suffered such things? I tell you, Nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.
Are those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were
sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay, but except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. Now notice what's happening here. These people come and they say tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Now notice
what's happening here. These people come and they say, hey, Lord, what about those people that
Pilate killed while they were sacrificing? And Jesus said, do you suppose that they were greater
sinners than all the other Galileans? And of course they did. And he said, nay, that's not why it happened.
But he didn't give a reason why it happened.
He said, But I say unto you,
instead of you nosing around in other people's business,
if you don't repent, you're going to perish just like they did.
And do you suppose that that tower in Siloam
that fell on those 18 people, do you suppose that that tower in Siloam that fell on those 18 people,
do you suppose that that tower fell upon those 18 people
because they were greater sinners than all those in Jerusalem?
Well, naturally they did.
Why else would such a tragedy happen?
Jesus said, No, but unless you repent,
you shall all likewise perish.
You see what I'm getting at?
Jesus didn't answer the question.
And he never does, and he never did.
Now the disciples offered him two alternatives,
either he sinned or his parents sinned.
Jesus rejected both and did not offer a third.
He said, what is called for here is not answer but action you know I
got to thinking about it you realize how much Jesus did not tell us you realize
that he could have solved all the mysteries of life you realize that he could have solved all the mysteries of life?
Do you realize that?
That's why we run after all of these gurus and people like that,
because they're telling us all this stuff.
But Jesus, who knew it all, never did answer those questions.
Isn't that amazing?
Do you realize that Lazarus was never interviewed?
I mean, if that had happened today,
poor old Lazarus would have been on nightline with Ted Koppel before he could get the grave clothes off.
But do you realize that not a word was said about Lazarus' experience
of what it means to be dead and come back to life again?
Do you realize that the Lord could have given us
the cure for cancer and the cure of all things?
He could have solved every mystery of life.
He didn't. Why?
Because Jesus is involved and concerned about one thing, and that is the redemption of life. He didn't. Why? Because Jesus is involved and concerned about one thing,
and that is the redemption of mankind. And he's saying to these disciples, instead of nosing about
in the inscrutables of life, you'd do better to see to your own salvation.
Now, so that we can display the works of God, let's work while it is day.
That's why I say the real question that we ought to ask is,
what now?
Not why or why me.
And we'll ask it.
But that's not the question,
because you're not going to get an answer.
The real question is, what now?
And when you start asking what now, it does three things.
I said this is a liberating question.
It does three things.
Number one, it saves you from self-pity.
Saves you from self-pity.
See, why me is a self-pity question.
Why me, Lord?
An injustice has been done to me.
Life isn't fair.
And you can live the rest of your life
feeling sorry for yourself,
locked up in a cage of self-pity.
A second thing asking this question does is
it saves me from that moment of grief and
points me to the future.
It means that there is life after tragedy, that there is something to look forward to.
I think I went through a long period of time after our first son died
thinking that no matter what happened my life would never be as good as it had
been in the past well how could it ever be I mean no matter what happened I mean
my best is past you see but the truth of the matter is that was not true and is not true.
When we ask what now, what we're saying is we're affirming there is a future,
that there is something beyond this, that there is life after this,
something to look forward to.
It gives us future and hope.
Thirdly, it makes us a part of God's work.
He said,
but that the works of God may be made manifest,
let us work the work of him that sent me while it is day.
Let us.
It means that I'm involved in something that God is up to.
I may not know what God is up to, but I'm a part of it.
I'm a part of God's work.
I'm a part of God's purpose, you see.
There is something going on. And it occurred to me that that day, on that particular day, a whole man would have been of no use to Jesus in manifesting the power of God.
He needed somebody with an unanswered why in his life
which makes me keep asking the question
am I willing to be less than whole
so that God can manifest his power in me
what now
now in summary and in closing
let me just say four or five things
number one and this is summary statements Now, in summary and in closing, let me just say four or five things.
Number one, and this is summary statements.
Number one, there is evil in the world.
That's a fact.
There is evil in the world.
No use trying to deny it.
There is evil in the world.
But it's not because God made the world evil.
Everything that is wrong in this world is man's fault.
This world is not as God created it.
It's a result of the fall.
The sickness and the pain and the suffering and the death,
all of that is a result of man's disobedience to God.
There is evil in the world.
That's the first thing we need to recognize.
Secondly, God is omnipotent, but he honors man's freedom.
God is omnipotent. He is. He can do anything he wants to, but he honors man's freedom. You see, the greatest gift that God has given to us is our freedom, our ability
to choose. That's what makes us different from animals. A dog can't be anything but a dog. A man can be a dog.
Animals live by their instinct
and they must stay within the boundaries
of that inborn instinct,
but human beings don't have to.
Why?
Because they can think and imagine and evaluate
and they can make decisions and choose.
It's our greatest gift, and it's also our greatest curse,
because we have to live with the consequences of our freedom of choice.
Adam had freedom, Eve had freedom,
and it plunged the world into darkness.
See, God honors man's freedom.
Now, you know, I'm not real old,
but I do remember the Second World War.
I remember where I was when V-J Day occurred.
I was in the restroom of the Fort Theater in Fort Smith, Arkansas,
and I heard trumpets blowing, and I went out and looked out the window,
and there was a boy riding a bicycle up and down Garrison Avenue
blowing a horn, blowing a trumpet.
And we found out that Japan had surrendered.
I remember that.
I remember seeing my mom cries he listened by the radio about Roosevelt's
death I remember that much but here's what I remember too I remember people
saying why doesn't God stop Hitler I didn't God stop him? Why did God allow him to kill millions
plus those six million Jews that he exterminated?
Why didn't God stop him?
He could have, yes, violating man's freedom.
You see, I'm perfectly willing for God to violate man's freedom,
but I don't want him violating mine.
Why did God not stop that mother in Union, South Carolina,
from drowning her two boys?
Well, he would have had to take away her freedom of choice.
Well, I'm perfectly willing for him to take away her freedom of choice, but I'm not willing for him to take away my freedom of choice. Well, I'm perfectly willing for him to take away her freedom of choice,
but I'm not willing for him to take away my freedom of choice.
If I don't want to come to church tomorrow night,
I'm not going to come.
And I wouldn't want God saying to me,
I have no choice in the matter.
You see, that'd make me nothing more than a robot.
And you must have choice in order to love.
That's why God gave us with choice,
so we could choose to love him,
so we could choose to obey him.
And so we're all the time asking,
well, why doesn't God stop them?
Why doesn't God stop them?
Why don't you just ask yourself this question,
why doesn't God stop me?
Well, you don't want him to stop you.
You want to retain your freedom of choice
what is that two or three
two number three
freedom which God has given us does not mean control
just because God has given you the freedom
to think and to act and to choose
does not mean that that gives you control over your life.
Because you must live with the consequences of that choice.
Number four, God does intervene
when it furthers his redemptive purpose in the earth
the old theologians used to have a phrase
tied to redemption
God works a miracle
when God intervenes in the course of human affairs
it is tied to redemption
God intervenes to further his redemptive purpose in the earth
and number five
and I think this is the most important
God was a redeemer
before he was ever a Creator.
You know, if I were to ask you tonight to list the things that God did,
the things that he is, his attributes,
most of us would start off with Creator, wouldn't we?
God's Creator.
And then down the list, there'd be God is Savior, God is Redeemer.
But you see, folks, that's not the way it is.
God is Redeemer first, then is Creator.
Before he ever created this mess,
and before it ever fell, and before man ever sinned,
God had already provided for the redemption of this world.
For Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth.
Let me illustrate it like this.
It may not be a great illustration,
but anyway, we put our son, Stephen, he's 33 years old,
into a hospital in Colorado Springs earlier this year.
Because of his manic depression,
he had become a highly addictive personality
and was addicted to drugs and alcohol
because he would take those things to kill the pain.
He was an alcoholic not because he drank so much,
but because of the reason he drank.
He drank to elevate
his mood that's something I had not realized before and so he was addicted
so one of the first things they had to do was dry him out now he didn't want to
go when he went when he to begin with and when he got there he didn't want to
stay matter of fact we had to make a trip up there I had to cancel a meeting
we made a trip up there just to be with him for a few days, so try to encourage him to stay through. I've never
gone through any kind of detox program, but I've heard about it, and I've heard him talk about it.
It is hell on earth from what I hear. I said to him one day, and Stephen has a lot of trouble with God.
He blames God for most of what's happened.
Thinks God's a cruel God, a bully God, not a God of love.
I said to him one day, we insisted that you go we didn't force you
because you know we couldn't at that time but I said you went but you went
just for us you didn't want to go and I said when you got there you didn't want
to stay and then when you went through all that pain and torment of detox and all of that,
let me ask you a question.
You may have hated us,
but did you ever once doubt our love for you,
that what we were doing was because we loved you?
And he said, no, I knew you loved me.
I said, well, then how can you doubt God's love
when he redeemed you before he ever created you?
He is a redeemer first.
And all of these things that happen in this creation
that we cannot understand
and that sometimes cause us to get bitter and angry and rebel, the thing we've got to
remember is, well, we don't understand all this, but I do understand this, that above and a redeemer. Well,
I must confess to you that I keep asking why, though,
and I keep getting the silent treatment.
So right now, I'm just settling for a what now?
Maybe someday I'll have a why.
I don't know whether I you know I
sometimes I've said boy can't wait to get to heaven to have all my questions
answered but I just have a sneaking suspicion that when I get there and I
see him face to face I'll say what questions don't have a one well I hope this has been of help
to you tonight
it seemed more like a lecture
than it does a sermon
and you may not have any
wives in your life right now
but hang on to it you will
sooner or later
well let's pray together.
While our heads are bowed,
I want the instruments just to play through a couple of verses of the hymn.
We're not going to stand and sing
and give a big invitation tonight,
but I just feel like I want to give you opportunity.
If there is something that God has spoken to you about tonight,
maybe you want to come and trust in a Savior,
join the church,
but maybe you just need to come and kneel here
and settle some things with the Lord.
Maybe you're facing some tough questions
in your life right now.
Maybe you've been on the border of anger at God
because He hasn't answered.
Maybe tonight you need to come
and just settle some issues with the Lord.
So we're not going to stand.
We're not going to sing.
We're just going to remain seated for a moment.
And if you need to come
there will be some ministers here at the front
and if you need to come for any reason
you just come right now while we wait
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