That Which Works Good Part 1

That Which Works Good I. This study considers things that work good (particularly for the saint’s soul). ECC 6:3. A. This touches on the sovereignty of God: His never-thwarted government over all things, good and evil. PSA 76:10; PRO 16:4. B. God is in no way the author of sin, nor is He the positive promoter of sin. JAM 1:13-14; JER 19:5. 1. God never makes a person sin. The responsibility of sin is always attributed to the sinner. PRO 5:22; GAL 2:17-18. 2. God never makes a man to lie since, if He did so, it would actually be God Who is doing the lying. But God cannot lie. TIT 1:2. C. Yet God uses sinners to fulfil His purposes. ISA 10:5-7; ACT 4:26-28 c/w GAL 3:13; HEB 2:14. 1. God obviously brought about good by His use of sinners and their sin. 2. One might conclude that “the ends justified the means” and therefore the negative concepts of sin and death are themselves “good.” 3. One might conclude that we should all be praising Judas, the wicked Jews, Pilate, and the wicked Gentiles for fulfilling God’s purpose of saving sinners. Mind that it is they who forsake God’s law that praise the wicked. PRO 28:4. 4. One might conclude that since wicked men fulfilled God’s will to bring about good by their wicked acts, they should not be held accountable. ROM 3:5-7; 9:19. D. Problems arise when men deem evil “good” and good “evil.” ISA 5:20. 1. Fuzzy thinking in this area is what lead Dr. Scofield to state concerning the Law: “The Dispensation of Promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the law (Ex. 19. 8).” (SRB, p. 20) a. Because of a faulty soteriology and faulty eschatology, Dr. Scofield deemed the law a negative thing to have been avoided. b. The Law is good, and spiritual (ROM 7:12-14); the problem is the creature. HEB 8:7-8. c. Dr. Scofield’s logic would imply that the greatest good would have been facilitated by God making NO law which man could break and so be charged with sin. 1JO 3:4. 2. The perversion of good and evil (as God defines them) is the basis for the validation of all lifestyles which God abominates. We are now at a point where the maximum “good” of a society is assumed to depend on sodomy, gender-fluidity and (wait for it) pedophilia and bestiality. 3. Mark it well: Satan’s lies are designed to eliminate moral absolutes that restrict men’s actions and relations. E. Problems arise when men adopt the principle, “...Let us do evil, that good may come...” (ROM 3:8). F. Problems arise when men perversely play God Who alone has power to kill and make alive. DEU 32:39. G. Problems arise when men assume that negative forces like destruction are desirable in order to achieve a greater good. 1. “You have to break some eggs in order to make an omelette.” (attributed variously to Robespierre of the French Reign of Terror, and to Communist leaders Lenin and Kruschev on how to perfect society through cruelty) 2. “(The disaster) may lead to some temporary increments ironically to GDP as a process of rebuilding takes place.” (Dr. Larry Summers, economic adviser to That Which Works Good 3-1-20 Page 1 President Obama, concerning the Kobe, Japan earthquake and tsunami) 3. “Ghastly as it may seem to say this, the terror attack – like the original day of infamy, which brought an end to the Great Depression – could do some economic good.” (Dr. Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate economist, concerning the 9/11 attack) 4. The logical conclusion of this reasoning is that the most positive forces for good are destruction and death. We should be praying for natural disasters, sinister attacks and totalitarian leaders with their own unique vision for society. a. This is the essence of the philosophical/political mantra, “order ab chao” (order from chaos) in which struggle between forces is deemed necessary to produce superior rule and order. b. The “superior order” which results from the chaotic struggle must then enforce its will absolutely to maintain its status. This is tyranny and a claim to be God. H. Problems arise when we think that our personal sin actually works to our benefit or to God’s glory (a half-truth). 1. “I am so thankful that I became a promiscuous fornicator: I would never have learned the humility that comes from a lifelong STD and child-support payments without that.” a. That God’s judgments for sin humble one and bring him to repentance is one thing. That someone had to learn humility the hard way is another. b. One could humble himself before God’s law to avoid sin and its judgments. JAM 4:6-7. 2. “God is glorified in showing mercy to sinners so I am going to sin and give Him an opportunity to glorify Himself when I seek forgiveness.” a. This is premeditated, presumptuous sin which is very unpopular with God. NUM 15:27-31; LUK 12:47-48. b. God also gets glory by judging sinners and withholding repentance from them. 2CO 2:15-16; ROM 1:25-28; 2TH 2:10-12. 3. Sin NEVER works good for you. I. Problems arise when we confuse a godly way of processing a negative event in our lives with the folly of self-inflicted injury. 1. The former is commendable in that it accepts such as from God (JOB 1:21), seeks to magnify God in spite of loss or weakness (JOB 13:15; 2CO 12:7-10) and weans one’s affections from this world to the world to come. ROM 8:18. 2. The latter is the basis of extreme asceticism which denies the body its natural needs and desires. EPH 5:29 c/w COL 2:20-23. 3. The latter is the basis of ritual self-immolation which pretends to show God how loving and pious one is, or attempts to entice God to do one’s will. 1KI 18:28. 4. The latter is the basis of self-mutilation associated with emotional distress, transgenderism or Body Integrity Identity Disorder which falsely assumes it necessary to alter one’s form against nature to achieve an improved self-image, sense of fullness or to alleviate false guilt. That Which Works Good 3-1-20 Page 2