Are you still there in Psalm 76? If you are, wonderful. If you're not, you need to go back there because I want to look at one verse of scripture, and that is Psalm 76 and verse number 10, where we read Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. What does the word wrath mean? Well, it means man's fury, the poison of sin, And so my subject this evening, since wrath means the fury of man, the poison of man, evil, the evil of man, my subject is evil and God's purpose. Of all the actions of God in creation, He made all things, we know that. And of all his actions in what we call providence, that is the Lord directing everything to the end that he ordained before the world began. And all of the actions of God in grace, salvation, redemption, forgiveness of sins, imputed righteousness. Of all of God's actions, one of the most difficult questions to ask about the actions of God, where did sin come from? How did sin ever appear? Where did evil come from? That's a difficult question and it's a very mysterious question to answer. Surely when it comes to our God, we must echo the words of the apostle in 1 Corinthians 13 where he said, we see through a glass darkly. We just don't know too much about God. He's an infinite being, you see, and we're just finite creatures. No wonder Psalm 97 too says, clouds in darkness are round about him. There's a darkness that is all around God that prohibits us from grasping all of his works and all of his actions and all of his deeds. I know clouds and darkness, one writer said, are the seat of his residence. Therefore, we know very little about what he's doing. And though God's wisdom and God's grace and God's love, God's mercy, and God's justice were certainly seen at the cross of Calvary, I would say when it comes to the existence of evil, and I'm trying to be real careful of what I say here. When it comes to the existence of evil and the presence of sin, I do believe that there's much more involved than God merely giving permission for evil and sin to enter in. to his creation. As I understand and as I see things, evil had to have a purpose in God's eternal plan of redemption. It had to fit in there somewhere. I don't believe that the serpent just slithered into the garden without the purpose of God. I don't believe that. You see, way back in eternity where we can't even comprehend where that is and what that's all about, before God ever made anything, He was the God of grace. He's always been the God of grace. He chose us in Christ Jesus under salvation. Well, then that raises this question, salvation from what? What is this salvation from? What is it that we have to be saved from? Well, we have to be saved from evil. We have to be saved from the wrath of men. We have to be saved from sin in all of its ugliness. This salvation is of God. It's from everlasting. And I know the wrath of Satan, the wrath of Satan served the purpose of God. And I know the wrath of man. It has served, it is serving, and it shall serve the purpose of God. Our Lord Jesus came into this vile world to save His people from our sins. And He saved His people from our sins on purpose And He saved us from sin, which is our problem, which manifested the greatest glory of God that could ever be manifested. You see, God putting away our sin, God dealing with our evil through a substitute, gives God the greatest glory, greater than creation could give Him, greater than providence could give Him, that God through the Lord Jesus Christ could deal with our sins and put them away. that gave him the greatest glory. But if sin had not existed, if evil had not existed, that glory would never have been brought to our God. Let men and devils rage as they may, but they cannot do otherwise than to serve the purpose of God. And I will tell you, every demon, every devil, every person who has ever existed or who shall ever exist in this world will be used of God in some way. to glorify Him and that includes you and me too. And even the wrath of man, the fury of man's anger against God will glorify Him and nowhere was that seen more clearer than at Mount Calvary. As man poured out his venom, the poison of his own heart, against the Son of God, the Immaculate Lord Jesus Christ. And men treated him vilely and violently. But in all of that, the Son of God in bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and then in bearing them away, He brought unto Himself a glory that He could not have gotten in any other way, except in putting evil away. So I say, I just do not believe that sin came into existence by accident, but it came in on purpose to magnify the grace of God in putting it away. Now a few questions need to be asked and answered Is God the God of absolute holiness? Is He not the God of purity and therefore the God of justice and the God of vengeance? Well, how could His vengeance and His wrath and his holiness be displayed upon evil, and against evil and ungodliness, unless evil and ungodliness had come into existence. And if evil exists out of necessity to manifest the holy character and justice of God, did it come in without the purpose of God and without the will of God. And here's something else. Since sin, evil, the wrath of man, the wrath of Satan, the fall of Adam, since it actually came to pass, came into existence, could these things ever appear apart from The purpose of God Almighty. You see, here's the problem with religion today. Their God is real little. And he doesn't have charge really of much anything. You just ask him. He certainly doesn't have control of salvation. Not according to them. Because he can't do anything that would violate your sacred free will. He can't do anything unless you give him permission. What kind of God is that? It is surely not a God to be worshiped and adored and feared. You see, had evil not entered into the world, how could the wisdom of God be demonstrated in devising the means whereby the banished ones from God could ever be brought back to Him? Let me ask you this. Couldn't God have stopped Lucifer from his rebellion? Well, sure he could have. Well, you know he could have. And when he entered into the garden, didn't the Lord have the power to stop him? To put a barrier up? You're not coming into this garden of Eden. You're not going to affect this woman that I made from a man, and you're not going to affect this man that I created out of the dirt of the ground. When that one who is a very crowning jewel of God's creation, when he sinned, Could not God have put a stop to it before he ever sinned? Well, surely he could. Adam didn't have power over God. God had power over Adam. So therefore that which Adam did as the federal head or the representative of all of mankind must have fit into the purpose of God because God had decreed back in eternity that he'd get rid of evil through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, had sin never come into existence, well, how could the greatness of God ever be seen in overruling sin and in using sin to accomplish His own purpose? And I would take you once again to our Lord's crucifixion and the trial that preceded that. Behold the wisdom of God in arranging things in such a way that the wrath of man, the fury of man, the poison of man against the Lord Jesus Christ redounded to the glory of God. Isn't that something? His ways are mysterious, the ways of God. In fact, we read their past finding out. If you say I can't wrap my mind around such a God, hey, I'm right there with you. I can't begin to comprehend that eternal being who is incomprehensible. But I do know this from Romans 11, for of him and through him and to him are, what does it say next? All things, not just the good things, the pleasant things, All things. You see, the wrath of man resulted in the arrest, the judicial verdict of guilty against the Lord Jesus Christ and His death upon the cross. That's the man's wrath. And yet, Surely, my text says, surely, no doubt about it, the wrath of man, man's poison, man's fury, man's indignation against God shall praise him. And I'll tell you, never was God so praised and so honored as when our Lord Jesus bore our sins and carried our sorrows, and was punished by the justice of God, and he put our sins away. The word of God teaches that all things happen according to the divine purpose. And in a way, I'm just being honest with you. I've studied this, I've thought about it, I've prayed about it. The evil, the wrath that is in God's universe is here. According to God's purpose, according to God's design, and God's sovereign will. Either God rules over evil, or evil rules over God. Either evil entered into this world by accident or by divine purpose. There is no other alternative. And really, Either God rules or Satan rules. Huh? That's right, isn't it? Either God rules or Satan rules. It says, surely, there's no doubt about this, the wrath of man shall praise thee, the psalmist says. And then he says, the remainder of wrath, the wrath that man has in his heart toward God, and toward fellow men. The remainder of wrath, the remainder of poison, of venom, of fury and anger and wrath and malice, thou shalt," he says, restrain, he'll prevent. You see, evil is tethered by the purpose of God. Isn't that wonderful? Sin, as awful as sin is, God has a leash on sin and he will use even the sinful actions of men to bring about what he purposed to do all along. And according to this verse, if someone would do evil, and if that wrath, that poison, that evil will not work into God's eternal purpose, God will just stop it from ever happening. I'm telling you, God is in absolute sovereign control of this world, and nothing is left out of that. Malice and sin and evil and man's wrath is fastened to the purpose of God and cannot break its bounds. And if the very fire of man's sin and wrath cannot be utilized by God to accomplish His purpose, and his ultimate glory, the fire will be extinguished by God himself. How's that? That make sense? You see, God has purposed all things and he's bringing all things to pass. God's providence is truly mysterious But it's abundantly evident to anybody who has spiritual eyes to see and to perceive. I love all the Word of God. I love the book of Esther. The book of Esther. It's one of the greatest illustrations of divine providence at work. The writers are quick to mention the name of God is not mentioned in the book of Esther, but I'll tell you the hand of God and the wisdom of God is in every verse. You see, Haman was the mortal enemy of Mordecai and the Jews. In fact, he planned He had an evil scheme. He's gonna have Mordecai hanged on the gallows that Haman had built. He's gonna get him. But the night before, Haman was to come before the king and ask for the death of Mordecai. The king couldn't sleep. Now, why that night of all nights to have insomnia? Why that night to be restless, can't sleep? You know his bed would have been the finest bed that money could buy back in those days. Well, he couldn't sleep. So he sent for the record books. of things that had happened during his reign. He's a great king. So he sent for the record books. And the book that was brought him was a book with specific record, the specific record of how a man by the name of Mordecai had saved his life. And then it dawned on him. I never did anything to reward him. So the king decided he's gonna exalt Mordecai, let everybody know he saved his life. He's gonna really honor him. Well, the next day, this evil man, Haman, came to the king seeking to be exalted himself, and seeking the death of a Jewish man by the name of Mordecai. And the king just asked him, say, Haman, you're a wise man. What shall be done to the man that the king delighted to honor? Oh, Haman went, Well, I think you should ride through the city on the king's horse, wearing a robe that the king has given him to exalt him. You reckon that happened by accident? Or did the Lord bring it to pass? Little did Haman know that his wrath would wind up praising the Lord and serving the purpose of God to preserve, preserve the gospel, to preserve his people. God used the wrath of a man to accomplish his eternal purpose. And I'm saying the presence of the wrath of man, of evil, sin, and ungodliness, though it is a deep, deep subject, I grant you that. Too deep for us to ever plumb its depths, yet I know it fit into the purpose of God. But let me tell you something else that's even more important to me, and I hope it is to you. There's something more important than how did evil get its existence. The more important question is how can evil lose its existence? How can it be done away with? That's the question really that needs to be answered. And the answer is through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take you back to an Old Testament example here, an illustration, I should say, in Leviticus chapter 16, the day of atonement. The day of atonement. Here's a picture of how God deals with sin. I think I know how it came into existence, but I definitely know how God put it out of existence. In Leviticus, and I don't have time to go through all of this, but Leviticus 16, 21. You know, Aaron chose two goats. One of them was for the Lord to be killed. That's the sacrifice of Christ. That's what that picture, the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus in the stead of guilty sinners. That second goat would live. And that was called the scapegoat. And that picture's the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the result, the result of his substitutionary death. So I'm gonna drop down to verse 21. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat. That's the scapegoat. and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat. In other words, what is pictured here is an imputation, imputation of all the sins and iniquities and transgressions of the children of Israel to the goat. And the illustration bears out a glorious truth of the gospel. Our sins and iniquities and transgressions God imputed to His Son. He charged them to Him. And you may disagree with me on how evil and wrath and the fury of man's violence came into this world, but you better not disagree with me on this, how God got rid of it. Isaiah 53, 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. God transferred, a great transference happened. All of my sin, all of my guilt, transferred to the holy, sinless, blameless, without spot, Lamb of God. And justice charged him and found him guilty of my sins. And I'll tell you who Christ was and is, the last statement there of verse 21, It says, Aaron, after putting upon the head of the goat shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And there has never been a fitter man than our Lord Jesus Christ. And God put all of our sins, we didn't put them on him. Can't do that. I didn't put my sins on Christ, I wasn't there. But God did. He imputed all my iniquities to the Son of God, who's the fit man. And it says in verse 22, and the goats shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited. and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. And somebody says, well, what happened to our sins? Well, they're gone. The guilt of sin is gone. The punishment of sin is gone because the punishment of sin was typified in the death of the goat that was for the Lord. That goat died. The blood was shed at the mercy seat. And I'll tell you something else, as far as the memory of sin is concerned, that's gone too. That's gone. I think I know how sin came into this world, but I know how it left. It was washed away in the bloodied death of the Son of God. and I don't bear it anymore. That's why Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 50 verse 20, in those days and in that time saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none. Can you imagine that? You stand before a holy God And God says something to this effect, permit me to put it this way. I've checked the books. There's no sin registered against you. Well, what's on that page? It says you're perfectly righteous. Come into heaven. Come into glory. Come, come, sit upon the thrones that I've prepared for you, my children. Because your sins, which are many, are all gone. Lord, what happened to them? My son took care of them for you. And that huge debt that you owed, you don't owe it. He took it upon himself. He paid your debt. You see, John says, ye know, 1 John 3, 5, ye know that he was manifested, Christ was manifested to take away our sins. Took them out there into the land of forgetfulness. And in him is no sin. And you know where we are? In Him, in Him, we don't have any sin. Well, Jim, I look within my heart, I don't see anything but sin. Well, that's the way we are. But maybe we ought to look to the Savior more and we'd see what He did with all of our sins. He cast them into the depths of the deepest sea and sunk them to the bottom. And he put them behind God's back. And God said, your sins and iniquities, I will never, never remember them ever again. And that, my believing friend, is kind of shouting grounds right there. I think I know how evil got into this world. I fully believe it's by the purpose of God. I sure am thankful that I know even more about how it was taken care of. The Savior took care of it. And we can go on our way rejoicing tonight in full redemption, total forgiveness, and the imputation of our sins to Christ and the imputation of his righteousness to us. Imputation is the reckoning or the charging or the crediting to the account. Our sins charge to him, his righteousness comes to us. And that is the gospel truth. It surely is. Let's sing a closing song. 310. wider than snow.