Alright, we begin our second to last class on the Divine Decree. You know, we've been talking about this really important, really fundamental foundational teaching of the scriptures, namely God's plan for history. Sounds pretty all-encompassing, and it is. There's a reason why this comes up in one of the very first chapters of the Confession, chapter 3. After they've talked about Scripture, and after they've talked about God, the very next thing they talk about is the Decree. Because it's that foundational to who God is, what God is doing in history. And so, we've been talking about how God and His Decree wills everything that comes to pass. Nothing is outside of the decree of God, down to the very tiniest detail, all the way up to the biggest world-changing events. And so what we're trying to do now, having laid out this doctrine in previous classes, is in these last few classes, Pastor Brad and I are trying to kind of deal with some of the challenges of this teaching. That's one of the things I'm going to be doing today. And also just some of the wonderful and beautiful implications of this teaching for us as Christians. There's a reason why we should care about this. Lots of reasons, actually. But there's lots of ways in which this teaching brings great comfort that we wouldn't have if we didn't believe that the decree of God encountered everything. Well, for today, we're going to deal with one of perhaps the most challenging questions, the problem of evil. There's a joke from seminary days that, you know, when the professor has one minute left in class, he says, OK, we have time for one small question. The snarky student out there will put up his hand and say, Professor, where did evil come from? It's like, oh, yeah, we can cover that in one minute. It just so happens to be one of the most difficult questions in all of theology. One of the things that is most challenging to understand in all the scriptures, when you really get the decree, it leads you to this issue. And that's where we're going to try to go today. And I do have a handout for you. You can see it right up here. I have this handout. I'm going to give it to you. But because it has all the answers on it, I'm not going to give it to you until later. So if you're wondering, oh, what was those scriptures he just mentioned or something, you will get to see the handout eventually. But I want to start by just raising the question. You know, the basic question I've already just said is, where did evil come from? Here's why this is a question, okay? This is why we're asking this. You have God, who is good. He is the very definition of goodness, and everything that has been made has been made by Him. And so, we know that the angels, when they were made, were made good. The world, when it was made, Genesis 1 is explicit. God says, it's not just good, it's very good. And when we human beings were made, initially we were made good. And then you've got this strange thing that from the perspective of the Bible sort of out of nowhere in Genesis chapter 3 there appears this serpent who comes to tempt Adam and Eve and he's already corrupt at this point Satan is already a wicked angelic being and he is there feeding Adam and Eve this lie. You know, if you guys really want to be like God, here's the thing to do. Seize the fruit for yourself. But the question is, where did that evil come from? Where did Satan get that evil? How did he fall? How did he become evil? And really, you know, there's no There's not really much in terms of a narrative in the scripture as to how Satan fell. Milton in Paradise Lost famously tells the whole story from his perspective. But that's basically extra biblical stuff. We really don't have much in the scriptures that are explicit about why Satan fell. But what we're going to deal with here is more the question of how can there be evil in a world that is created by an upright and good God. How can an upright and good being that he created, like Satan, how can evil suddenly be introduced into that being that was created as good? And so here are the two big extreme possibilities, and I'll give you a hint, neither of these are good. One is to say, And again, this is heretical, okay? I'm not saying this is the answer. Sin comes from God. After all, we said, you know, the decree, it includes everything. If the decree includes everything, that means everything. And therefore, everything must have its origin from God. And so you can understand, perhaps, why somebody might be motivated to do this. But, look, what does this do? What's sort of the, what's the fallout of saying that sin comes from God? Why would that be a really bad idea to say that? Well, he's sinless, for one thing. So, it kind of implicates, it's an implicated, a complicated sentence because it almost looks like sin comes from God means God has sin. And that's how I'm processing it, and that is not true. Yeah, does this mean that God is sinful in some respects? Or, you know, we have mixtures of good and evil in us. Is there sort of a mix of good and evil in God? No. That would definitely be heresy. to say that evil is a part of God, that is completely against the Scriptures. Let me just share two of them with you. Psalm 92 verse 15 says this, The righteous declare that the Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. no unrighteousness in him. First John 1.5, perhaps a more familiar one, beautiful, beautiful verse says this, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Okay, so this is not an option. Okay, God is not and cannot be the originator or the author of sin. It cannot have its origins in Him. Well, then, let's try this option, number two. Again, these are extremes, okay? Not orthodox extremes either. Sin exists outside of God. Sin exists outside of God. Now, what would be the problem with this? Process this one for me. Yeah, there's this other thing outside of God that he's not in control over. And yeah, God is not 100% sovereign. What else is a problem with this? Saying that sin exists outside of God. Why would that be a theologically problematic thing to do? Well, I don't know if this answers your question directly, but it almost sounds like as if he did not or know what to do about it. That's why I'm processing. Yeah. I think this is what Jim was getting at too. There's this other force that's outside of him and outside of his control. And it's got its own mind of its own kind of thing and its own independent existence. And let's just process that language. If I were to say sin has its own independent existence outside of God. Why would that be a serious theological error? Now we have two co-ultimate realities. God and evil. Right? And this is actually not so far-fetched. This is actually taught by several major world religions, one of which is Jediism. You may be familiar with Jediism. It's actually formally recognized now in the UK as a religion. It's just the Star Wars mythology. But think about that for a second. You've got this picture in Star Wars You know, there's a good side of the force and the evil side of the force, and they're kind of in balance and they're co-ultimate. This is the idea, right? They're co-ultimate with each other. You've got good and you've got evil, sort of like that yin-yang picture from the East, you know. You've got these two co-ultimate things, good and evil, and they're on the same level, like what Lane was saying. They're co-ultimate. Okay? So, if you posit that sin has its own kind of independent, absolute existence outside of God, you have basically made this into a universe with two gods. Part of what it means for God to be God is that He is absolute. He is alone, unto Himself, God. You have nothing but God? That's fine. That was the way it was all the way into eternity past. God existing unto himself. He doesn't depend on anything to exist. Yeah. Okay. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I hadn't even thought of that, but that's a, that's a very good point. Everybody understand what Paul is saying? Like if you're on the evil side, What's your definition of evil? Well, it's the light, right? That's what's trying to squash you, right? And so there's no absolute good or evil at that point. There's sort of two definitions of that that are a constant competition with each other. So what would be the orthodox biblical response to this? How would we want to say it in a way that is not following this error. Yeah, he's above good and evil. Yeah, yeah. You know, we want to say, as our confession has stated, as we've taught in previous classes, that God alone is absolute over all things. He's the only one who has an independent existence of everything else. It's his aseity, is the special term for that. He is alone, absolute. What else? I think, you know, one thing that we want to say is that sin can't exist on its own. In contrast to saying sin exists outside of God, sin depends on God to exist. Sin, we could say, is a parasite. It feeds on something else. If you don't have good, if you don't have God, the absolute good, you can't have evil. Evil requires good to exist. And what is evil? Evil is a perversion and a distortion of what is good. So, Here's an example of this from Jude verse 4. For certain people, he says, pervert the grace of our God, pervert the grace of our God into sensuality. and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. So you have the straight and narrow way which is Jesus Christ and he says look there are these people who are basically seeking their own ends by teaching and getting paid for their false teaching and basically being all about their own pleasure and Jude says that's perversion. That's a distortion of what the grace of God is meant to be. Here's another example. John 19 verse 11 Jesus answered pilot. You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above and this is in the Contra context of Jesus being falsely tried by pilot. And so what can we say what we could say that pilot in his false governing in his condemning and innocent man his sin is a parasite that is living on his authority that was God-given. He was given authority by God to rule. And what is his sin doing? Well, it's distorting that. It's making that into what could have been a beautiful thing, a picture of God's justice and righteousness. It perverts it into a monstrous thing, where an innocent man is condemned. Yeah, James? Before we go talk about people's sins, can we back up to the original sin? Sure, yeah. Was it the angel Michael? Supposedly he was coming to God, wanted to be God, and he cast him out. Angel Michael is attested in scripture as a righteous angel. Yeah, yeah, Satan or the or the devil. Yeah, maybe maybe you missed the first part. I just said the scriptures really don't give us an answer to that. I mean, maybe God will give us that back story at some point, but yeah, It certainly was a sin that preceded human sin, right? Yes, somehow he became corrupt, right? Before Adam and Eve were on the scene. Right, again, like, I don't know that we have anything more than just little hints, you know, Jesus saying about Satan that, you know, your father was a liar from the beginning and a murderer from the beginning. Yeah, but you know, other than just, you know, little tidbit hints, I'm not sure we can really put together like a narrative about how Satan fell. Yeah. I think it's, it's largely speculation. And it's sort of a given that what we have on the scene when Adam and Eve are created are some angels that are righteous and good that we continue to see throughout scripture ministering to Jesus in the wilderness you know angel Michael waging war in heaven and revelation 12 and all that good stuff and then there are these wicked angels also known as demons that are another host in the heavenly realms that are wicked And it just doesn't plain, the Bible just doesn't tell us exactly how that got to be that way, as much as we'd like to know. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. A lot of people read Isaiah 14 as being about the fall of Satan. And I imagine there's some parallels to the fall of Satan in that Satan's fall probably had to do with his pride. But Isaiah 14 is almost certainly, well it is explicitly about the fall of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. and it talks about the King of Babylon there going down to Sheol, the realm of the dead, and all the kings that he had conquered beforehand are like, ah, you've become like one of us, you know, you who slayed us, oh, welcome to your grave. And it's all about, you know, the pride of Nebuchadnezzar's conquests being undercut by God, the righteous judge. You know, there are a couple other passages people point to for possibly being about the fall Satan. I'm just not convinced about that. But they could echo that. So that's why, you know, it may not be completely off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a difficult passage there in Luke 10 when Jesus says, I saw Satan falling like lightning. What's that referring to? Is that referring to the distant past when Satan originally fell? Or is it talking about what has just taken place where the ministry of the 72 that go out are, you know, they're doing all of these works of the kingdom, preaching the gospel, healing, and Jesus is rejoicing because he's seeing the overthrow of Satan in the work of the apostles, or the disciples rather, there. I honestly haven't made up my mind about that. I have to look at that passage more closely. But I think what you're pointing out there, Geoffrey, is almost certainly true. that satan when he fell it was a sin that he committed in heaven of some kind in the heavenly realms yeah again I'm not exactly sure about that I think that there are hints in the narrative that had Adam and Eve sustained their test of not eating from the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that when they refused to seize that privilege that God would have seen fit to give to them that privilege which is a privilege note anytime you see good and evil put together like that knowledge good and evil put there in scripture like at the end of Hebrews 5 it is about attaining to maturity and so Adam and Eve created as sort of in their infancy not physically speaking but like in terms of their you know the human race had not yet reached maturity and then what happens they seize the privilege that really had they trusted God it seems in all likelihood they would have received graciously and that we will one day in a sense receive and are becoming fully human we will become like him or we will see him as he is and we will become mature in the true knowledge of righteousness and unrighteousness. So I think there's hints anyway that the tree may have been meant for us as well. Yeah? I know of some ministers that use that fall in heaven as a foul use to say before creation order, or there's that gap between Genesis 1 and 2 in creation. Yeah, I don't quite understand the view. I mean, I haven't heard this one. What's the idea? Well, the view is that in the beginning God created the heavens. They were formless and void. Well, God doesn't create formless and void. Oh, okay. So there must have been something beyond before. Right. And that is where the realm of the spirit was. And there were other mankind-type Right. Oh, wow. OK, yeah. No, you can't say that. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Interesting. OK, yeah. Thank you. I had not put those pieces together. Yeah. So, I mean, part of what we're up against here is we want it. This is the this is the key idea, right? This is what we've been talking about. Can't say we say sin exists outside of God. No, it depends on God for its own existence. It exists as a parasite on what God has made good. What do we have? We have perversion of the good things God has made. Sin would not exist had not God created the world and then sin entered to pervert it. So, what are we going to do? Evil, we can't say evil comes from God, we can't say that evil has its own independent existence outside of God. Well, here's another possibility. Possibility number three. It says, God does not will sin. He does not, you know, as part of his decree, it's not that he wills that there would be sin, He permits, tolerates sin. So what about this one? This is trying to kind of cut a mediating road in between the two that we already put up there. What about this? Does this seem biblical? Why not? It sounds good, but it's not biblical in my perspective because it undermines God's sovereignty. So, something sounds wrong here when we say that He permits or tolerates sin because it seems to undercut God's sovereignty. How so, anybody? How would that undercut His sovereignty? I think Sherry is exactly right. Well, it's kind of like saying, OK, well, it exists. I can't do anything about it. I mean, that's not how God sees it. Right. That's not how he is. And it's like it's something that is here that he can't do anything about. It's sort of a given. Yeah. I think most people who hold this view wouldn't wouldn't want to say that. I think they'd want to say, oh, he he can do stuff about it. But just just to be clear, he doesn't actually will. that there would be sin. He said, okay, you guys have sinned. Okay, I'm going to cope with that. I'm going to deal with that. I'm going to destroy the power of sin. But they're trying to safeguard the fact that sin does not come from God. So, this is their attempt to do that. Yeah, Jim? Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. And yet, even as you're talking about that, if you guys heard what Jim said, you know, he's saying, look, sometimes people will talk about God allowing or tolerating or permitting sin in somebody's life because he's then going to turn that around and use that for good in their life. And think about how many times God has done that in your life, right? How many times God has taken things that people have, really, they're wrong things that God has done. Sorry, that people have done to you. Wrong things that have been done to you by other people and God has used them for your blessing and for your good. Even saying that, though, shows that God is willing something through those difficult circumstances. This whole class has been like a sustained argument against this view. I hope you realize that. This whole class has been a statement that God does not merely kind of permit sin. He wills that sin would be part of the plan for history. As we have talked about, God actively wills everything that comes to pass in history, including sin. Can anybody think of a passage that says that God actually wills that sin would be part of His plan? Great, let me just read that verse. This I think is one of the most powerful because it puts in one verse both things side by side. You just can't squirm out of it. Peter preaching as Paul said and says this man Jesus delivered over by the predetermined plan and for knowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death the worst sin of history the crucifixion of the innocent son of God. Sorry, Acts 2 23 the crucifixion of the innocent son of God is said explicitly to be the predetermined plan of God. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, I think I know the one you're talking about. You know, he's determined verse 26, 1726 of Acts. He made everyone from all of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation that they would seek God. And now is calling all people to repent. So yeah, there's a statement of his sovereignty extending to all of the movements of peoples. Here's another, just a couple more, just to remind you of how this is just about all over Scripture. This is one of those easy ones to remember. It just has a certain rhythm to it. Genesis 50, verse 2, where Joseph, after all he's been through at the hands of his brothers who betrayed him into slavery, he says, as for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good. God meant that act of sin that you guys did for good, for good, for my good, for the good of really the whole world. Joseph instrumental in saving the world through through their poverty. And here's another one that I think is just like in your face, like, no, he doesn't merely permit and tolerate sin. Isaiah 45 verse seven, I, God speaking here, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. And if you are reading this in the Hebrew, when it says, I make well-being, that's the word for good. And then I create, and then it says calamity in ESV, which is a good translation, but that word could also be translated, often is translated elsewhere as evil. In other words, it's not that God is saying that he creates evil in the sense that he is the author of sin. But look, he actively wills, Isaiah 45, verse seven. He actively wills everything that comes to pass, both those happy things and the very difficult things. So this is the conclusion. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I didn't get your question earlier, James. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Let's take a look at that. Ephesians 5, 8. Yeah, he says, do not be partakers with them, namely with the Gentiles. For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light of light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Yeah, he knows about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they've been, you know, at least ostensibly outwardly following God for all this time. And then some terrible calamity happens. And they're like, I'm done with you, God. I'm angry with you. And they turn their back on him. I think part of what they're wrestling with is, how can a good God have done this to me? How can this be from His hand? And I think what you're putting your finger on there, James, is really the hard aspect of what we're talking about right here. I had a professor back at Wheaton who, we were talking about these things in class, and I brought up the very passage Paul mentioned, Acts 2.23, and I said, well, you know, what about this? And the professor's response was, well, look, if it were that simple, everybody would be Calvinists. And I was kind of thinking to myself, yeah, I think it is that simple in the sense that it's that bald on the face of the scriptures. It's right there. God says, I really am sovereign over everything. And yet I think my, my prof had a good, uh, you know, kind of intuitive response about it, is that it's just plain not that simple. You can read that in the Bible. You can see it right there on the surface of the text. God willed everything, even the really bad stuff. It's all part of his plan. And a lot of people choke on that. A lot of people find it really hard to believe that God is the author of all of history in the sense that it's all his plan. And yet he remains a good God. I remember reading once interview. There's a particular Jewish scholar. I really love reading his stuff. He's got tremendous literary insight into the Bible and I was reading this interview by him and the interviewer interestingly asked him straight up like so do you actually believe the Bible you actually believe in God and And this Jewish scholar said, no, I could never do that. And the interviewer was like, well, why not? And this guy said, well, ever since the Holocaust, and Kuma is a Jewish scholar, right? Ever since the Holocaust, I feel like there is no possibility of believing that there is a God who is simultaneously good and simultaneously in charge of everything. And so therefore, I don't believe. And so part of what's so difficult about this is believing that God is good and yet he is he has this plan that is his plan and it is therefore a good plan in the big picture that involves these horrible sins this is where I was going to land in the great mystery of God's will he has willed a plan for history that includes the very sins his moral will prohibits now just chew on that for a second God has willed a plan for history. In other words, the great story of history that we are in, that involves in his perfect good pleasure, and this is where the mystery is, and I'm not going to try to go any deeper than this, okay? He has willed a plan for history, and it is his plan, and it is from him. The whole story is his plan. And this plan involves things, many things, that go directly against his perfect moral will. Is the Holocaust a good thing? It is a horrific sin. Is it part of God's good plan? Yes, it is part of God's good plan. And what we have to say, I think, is after all these bad options. Where did evil come from? I think all the scripture lets us do with this great mystery is, kind of like with the Trinity, it lets us draw boundaries. There's certain things you can't say, and we've already talked about a bunch of those. There's some things you can't say, like that evil comes from God, or that evil exists outside of God, or that God, well, he just permits things, these sins to happen. It draws these boundaries, but it doesn't fully give us a complete answer. And I think what we have to say is that God, in his good pleasure, wills everything. He wills all of history. including all of the horrific sins of history. It's part of his plan. And yet we are the author, or I should say authors, of sin. Sin has its origin in us, in our sinful, perverted will. As James 1, 13 and 14 And actually, Ecclesiastes 7 is a particularly poignant verse on this one, where it says this, Ecclesiastes 7, verse, yeah, James 1, 13 through 14 is really good. It's basically saying God doesn't tempt anybody. We are drawn away by our own sinful hearts. But this is also a good one in Ecclesiastes 7, 29. Behold, I found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices. They sought out many wicked things. So God made us good, but we are the authors of sin. We are the ones drawn away in our wickedness. Sin has its origin as a parasite in us. Our sins are part of his plan. They're part of his decree. And yet, it's part, and yeah, sin depends on God for its existence, and yet, here's Bob Inc., has a nice way of saying this, God forbids us to commit the sin that he himself can and does use as a means of glorifying God. the mystery of the human history that is our story. Yeah, James? On the story of Job, why did Satan have to give permission for God? Yeah, that's a great example. It's a great example. Everybody understand what he's asking. Like, Job, he has all these terrible things happen to him, right? You know, he loses his children, all his possessions, he's covered with plagues. Were those things outside of the will of God? No. Yeah, Satan could only do what God permitted. And there is an element right there of permission, God granting that Satan could do those things. But it's also very much part of God's plan for Job. Satan cannot escape being part of the decree. Even as he's, you know, coming up what he thinks of as his own, you know, devices to try to destroy us. Those all play into exactly what the plan of God is. No, I think he, I think he, I think Job, this is where Job's whole story is. Job knows God had a hand in it. And he knows that God ultimately is the one who did these things to him. And he's saying, God, why did you do this? And ultimately, God says to him, who are you to ask? I am God, and I can do as I please. And, you know, and that's where I think the riddle of Job is really the riddle of anyone who has suffered. Somehow, God is good. Everything is in his good pleasure. And yet we are going through these sufferings, some of them because of ourselves. A lot of times, not. We don't know the reason. says that, and we're talking about being able to just accept what God says, and he says, the one I honor is the one who trembles at my word. And I think that is the posture, whether, if you take that posture that God is the author of life and history, and he's good, and we read his word, and we humble ourselves and tremble at it, and say, we are not God, we don't know everything, and we will never know everything, but God does, and He is good. It really is a matter of humility before the Lord. And that is, I think, the wisdom of Job. I really appreciate James bringing that up, because, I mean, what is God's answer to Job? It's not just, I am God, although that is basically the answer. But it's also I am God who knows all things. I am the God of tremendous wisdom. Look at all these things that I have made. Were you there? Oh, Joe, when I made this and that and this and what he's saying is, okay, Joe, I don't have to explain myself to you and I'm not going to explain myself to you. But you can rest in this that like, just like you said, that I am good, that I know what I'm doing and you will never fully understand all my purposes, but you can rest in me. If you have that childlike attitude. Yeah, Paul? Good. Yes, it comes from the free will of man. I 100% agree with that statement. As long as free will is properly defined. I was going to add that. Right. Yeah. Ronald Reagan, when he decreed that we would not have detente with communism, we did not. Come on, man. This is good versus evil. This is white versus black. He ran to proclaim at a Catholic institution, besides, that the evil empire is wicked. That is profound. And the work that he did to halt evil Right. There was a leap that was made somewhere in there. I'm not sure exactly the connection between what you landed on and how you started, which was, I think, a very good point, that our sin has its origins in the human will deliberately choosing to sin, and in a sense, freely choosing to sin. And I think that is the crucial thing that we're saying here. And yet, even that free choice is within this completely sovereign God decreeing everything down to the little details, including our sinful choices. We can continue the conversation about the second part in a little bit, maybe after Sunday School, but I really want to make sure we land here on two crucial things, just to make sure that I really am getting through on this. This is sort of the test to see if you understand what I'm saying here. And pardon me, I know I've shared, at least with the young people, this story already once before. Some years ago, I was teaching at Wheaton College, and the biblical studies floor is on the fifth floor of this building, so there's this kind of long elevator ride on up. And I get in the elevator, and who happens to step in there with me, but it's my Arminian prof across the hall who knows I'm a Reformed guy. So this is a guy who doesn't believe that God decrees everything. He's in the elevator with me, the Reformed guy. And this happens to be like a senior scholar, so he kind of knows I'm the junior guy. And he says, so Matt, Sandy Hook, elementary school. It just happened. Sandy Hook, where this crazy guy goes and shoots all these innocent little kids and just butchers dozens of kids in this elementary school. He says, so Matt, Sandy Hook, is that part of God's plan? Is that part of God's plan? I knew you were going to ask me that question when we got in this elevator. I planned this out. Oh, man. Wow. You are way wittier than that. It would have taken me years to think of that. That's awesome, man. Okay, so honestly, what would you say? To God decree, Sandy Hook. Yeah, he did. I said to him, yes, he did for his own glory, for the foundation of the world. I told him, you know, and he said, okay, that makes God to be a monster. That was his response. It makes God to be a monster. Yeah. On a more serious note, you could ask him, was God powerless to stop it? Yeah. Yeah, that would be a good. Then the monster you claim that he is by his plan is still as much of a monster. Because he could have stopped it. Right, right. And that's really the Armenians' problem. If God was not powerful to stop it, then basically what you've reduced God to is one of those pagan gods from Greek mythology. They're kind of like supermen. They're powerful, but there's some stuff they just can't stop. You know, and that's really the God of open theism. Open theism is a kind of extreme form of Arminianism that really denies God's supremacy, His supreme power, His foreknowledge, and all these things. That's really where you end up if you deny God's absolute sovereignty over everything, including things like Sandy Hook. No. Yeah. If he thinks God is a monster for permitting or decreeing Sandy Hook, then what does he think of the cross? I mean, to kill his own son, in the murderous way that he was done, to a truly innocent person. That's the even greater horror of history, isn't it? That God would decree the cross as awful, absolutely awful. as Sandy Hook is. The cross is even worse for the reasons you just said. The truly innocent one being put to death. So, yeah, Paul? Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, I think that's right, and I think I think where you're going with that is exactly right you know one of my favorite pastors from the past Ichabod Spencer said this our main business with any doctrine is not so much to prove it or Understand it but to act on it and And I think that is exactly right. How do we act in light of God being sovereign over everything, including things that we don't understand and we don't like at all? How do we act in light of that? Yeah. Okay. That's right. Yeah, it is real choices. And I think this is the choice that we now need to make in light of this doctrine of the decree that God is truly sovereign over all things. And it's this, we need to trust him. We need to trust him even when we don't understand. Bobbing puts it this way, this will be our parting word. I wish we had more time for questions, but this will be our parting word. Calvinism, namely the teaching of the Bible, comforts us by saying that in everything that happens, everything that happens, it recognizes the will and hand of an almighty God who is also a merciful father. So that's true in everything. Somehow God's mighty hand and his mercy is at work even in the extremely difficult providences of history. And Pastor Pepe is going to expand on this next week. So Calvinism comforts us by recognizing the will and hand of an almighty God who is also a merciful father in everything that happens. While Calvinism does not offer a solution, I am not here today saying that I have the solution to the problem of evil. While Calvinism does not offer a solution, it invites us humans to rest in Him who lives in unapproachable light, whose judgments are unsearchable, and whose paths are beyond tracing out." That is how we act in light of the doctrine of the decree of God, which expands to all things, including the problem of evil. Let's close in prayer. Yeah. Oh, yes, you'll get it. I'll hand it out at the end. Let's pray. Lord, thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your sovereign majesty. We do recognize your hand in all that has come about. We know, Lord, that even in the most difficult things of our lives, the most hideous tragedies of history, that Lord, even as we see such horrific sin, even coming from our own hands, Lord, we know that in all of this sin that is emerging from us and has its origin in us, we are the authors of sin, that in all of this, Lord, there stands over it a sovereign God who is good and who does good always. Lord, we praise you for your plan of history. We know you are so much wiser than us, and we know this because your plan for history looks so different from what we would have done. And yet we know that in the end, we will see your glory. We will see the wisdom of your choice, your free choice for what history would look like, and we will praise you. And so God, expand our view of you. Help us, Lord, to see how big a God you are and mysterious as well. And help us, Lord, to live in light of this decree, the decree of a sovereign God outside of whom there is nothing and can be nothing. And we give you the thanks and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.