GYC 2025: Seeing the Invisible

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Answering the Angels

Kameron DeVasher

01 Why Is There Evil in the Universe?

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this absolutely beautiful day.

Thank you for the opportunity to have life at all, and particularly, Lord, for the privilege of knowing you and the hope of eternal life that you provide.

Help it not only to be clear, but to be convincing, convicting, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, converting to the soul.

Lord, help us to know you and become like you, for we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, you're going to need your Bibles.

Now I've got presentation slides on the screen and I'll let you know ahead of time the very last slide and our presentation today will be a QR code where you can download all the slides for this presentation series, okay?

So if you stick by, you're welcome to take pictures and please take notes and all those kind of things, but if you need that, that will be provided at the end, okay?

So a whole seminar, as you might have heard last night, is entitled Answering the Angels, and it's about these questions.

We often talk about skeptics having questions about God, criticisms about how could a good God make such a bad world, and why is it, all these different things, which are legitimate concerns.

1 thing I have discovered through this study is that not only do skeptics have those questions, loyal believers have those questions, faithful angels of God who've never fallen have the exact same questions and even more.

I think we're going to run into some questions you didn't even know were questions and be like, oh man, I'm glad we talked about this before I ran out into this in the wild, okay?

But let's talk about some of these things.

First of all, why is there evil in the universe?

This is the framework foundational 1 that many skeptics have their exit ramp from belief because of wrestling with this question So let's dive right into it.

If you have your Bible, I'm sorry since you have your Bibles Let's take them out to Matthew chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13.

This is a day full of parables in Jesus' ministry and honestly it doesn't particularly stand out as a notable parable.

I mean it's, and then another parable, and then another parable.

And it starts in verse 24, it's the parable of the wheat and the tares, but it starts saying, another parable he put forth to them.

And then in verse 31, another parable he put forth.

So it's just, and verse 33, another parable.

So he's just a day full of telling important stories, parables, but for some reason this 1 stands out, and we know it does as we keep reading.

But let's look at it, starting with verse 24.

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Now we're gonna break this 1 as Randy Skeet would say, microscopically, okay?

First of all, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed.

So he's the owner of the field and he's the sower of the seed, yes?

It just kind of introduces these other men sleeping.

But while men slept, his enemy, now we've got a third character, his enemy, I don't know if you catch this, but it doesn't just say an enemy.

His enemy, like these dudes know each other.

His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and did what else?

He sowed good seed and while men slept in the cover of darkness, his enemy comes in and goes out another way.

So the story continues, but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

I don't know how many of you have had that experience when you went to vacation Bible school, or elementary school, or Sabbath school, and they wanted to teach you about agriculture, and they'll give you a seed in a Styrofoam cup with some dirt, or maybe the toothpicks on the avocado, you know, and I was just enthralled by these agriculture metaphors when I was a kid, and I had these like jack in the beanstalk expectations that as soon as the seed touches the soil and the water activates it, boom, overnight, I'm gonna come back and you're gonna have a fruity.

But you know what happens, you put that seed in the dirt, low water, you come back the next day, nothing.

And It doesn't take too much of that for a young child's hyperactivity to be like, this just doesn't work, I hate it.

The point is that when you sow seed, good or bad, it doesn't instantly spring up and appear.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So it's not like it's only tares, but they also appeared.

So now you have a garden, you have a field with 2 crops growing intertwined.

Now we're introduced to the servants of the owner.

I'm just gonna go ahead and throw it out.

I believe that these are the men who are sleeping.

Now let's talk about, are they loyal to the owner?

They are, and notice, they treat him kindly.

Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?

The owner did not outsource the sowing of the seed, but the cultivation of the crop and the harvesting, he does employ servants to do.

So apparently he sowed the seed, he hires these servants, and now apparently he told them, I have planted a field full of wheat, I'd like you to go work it.

But when they look down, what do they see?

Sir, respectfully, did you not sow good seed in your field?

And notice there is a discrepancy between what he said and what he said and what they see.

This creates a problem to solve and they respectfully Ask him about it, sir Did you not sow good seed in your field?

So I want to emphasize this by asking the question are they demonstrating disloyalty Is it possible to be loyal to God and have questions for God?

Not only am I going to pause it this week, that not only is it possible, I believe he invites it.

He says, come let us raise, he expects us to have questions because we're dealing with some big, difficult things.

Don't blithely like, okay, No, no, let's think through it.

02 How Can an Honest God Defeat a Lying Devil?

This is Answering the Angels, now session 2.

How can an honest God defeat a lying devil?

He was cast the earth that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.

But before we do anything, let's start with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, again, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be here in Orlando.

Thank you for this great controversy theme that we can dive into and for your word giving us the answers we need.

Bless us now as we seek to understand it and apply it in our lives.

Very brief summary from our last presentation.

How can there be bad in God's good universe, essentially?

And we noticed that God did not create the devil.

And from that then God had to respond somehow.

I mean, he could have just not responded and let the whole thing go crazy, but no, he did respond by casting him out.

The central passage we looked at, by the way, if you ever want to do this Bible study with anyone, it's actually a very simple study.

You start with Matthew 13 and go through the parable.

You got Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, look behind the scenes.

You can see Revelation chapter 12 verses 7 through 9 where he casts him out of heaven.

And then you go to the, you add some great controversy in there, a little, I mean not great controversy, but just a little bit of spirit prophecy, but really not much.

It's just, I really want people to see that this concept of the great controversy and God's response to it is not like a few words from the Bible and then books and books from Ellen White where she made it.

This is a Biblical concept that simply Ellen White comments on helps clarify, but it's deeply rooted squarely on scripture.

So let's be clear about that Anyway, so our topic now is how can an honest God defeat a lying devil?

Well, let's go back to Ezekiel 28 verse 16 Let me ask this question.

What was the thing that got Satan thrown out?

Did he, I mean, and I've heard people spiritualize, well, in a sense, he broke all the commitments.

Like, okay, okay, but I mean, just logistically, what did he actually do?

We can all have guesses, and they might have some level of veracity to them, but let's see what the text says.

By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within, and you sinned.'" By the abundance of your trading, what did he say?

It's like a commercial term, it's traffic.

In fact, in the King James, you'll see that word, T-R-A-F-F-I-C-K.

It's the only time it's used in the Bible, traffic.

By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within, and you sinned.

Therefore, because of that, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God.

I destroyed you a covering cherub from the midst of this fiery stone." So the question is, was Lucifer cast out of heaven for selling something?

In Job chapter 1, Job chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, is a great thing for Job.

He's a righteous man, he's got children and a household, he's got wealth and influence, yet it hasn't ruined his character.

I mean, he's just a really good guy, Job.

And it says in verse 5, I'm sorry, verse 3, so this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

And if Job only was 5 verses long, good for Job.

And if you notice, it's a sharp juxtaposition from down here on earth where Job is living this life, all of a sudden verse 6 comes along, "'Now there was a day when the sons of God "'came to present themselves before the Lord, "'and Satan also came among them.' There was a day.

Now notice it's not, it starts with Job here on earth and where he lives there in the east with his household and his family, but this is completely disconnected from that.

This meeting takes place in the presence of God in heaven, right?

Because notice, they came to present themselves before the Lord.

The Lord is calling people in and He hosts a meeting there.

There was a day when the sons of God, which should put a question in our minds, who are these sons of God?

And we'll come back to that in just a second.

But There was a day when the sons of God, which should put a question in our minds, who are these sons of God?

But there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.

So apparently a meeting was called and they come from other places to assemble before the Lord.

And it adds, and Satan also came among them.

Now this seems to have a problem with what we had just studied in our first 1.

Didn't Satan used to live in heavenly places right there at the right hand of God?

Yes, but as we saw last time, what has happened?

He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.

But now, There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them.

There are several questions in this simple sentence, right?

Well, it goes on to say, and the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come?

Which strongly implies, as we just saw in the previous text, everybody at this meeting comes from somewhere else.

The Lord's the 1 who stays still, and everybody comes to Him.

So He calls a meeting, and Everybody shows up who's supposed to be at the meeting, and he's taking roll call and attendance, and all of a sudden, Satan's there, which I'm guessing changes the dynamic of the room.

Right, All the things got tense, things got weird.

Anselm Lorden said, "'From going to and fro on the earth "'and from walking back and forth on it.'" Where does he claim to be from?

In what condition was he in on the earth?

Apparently free to walk around up and down.

He's basically saying, I run that place and I'm here representing it today.

Well, don't we know he was stuck in a tree?

Back to Menu

Series

Answering the Angels

01 Why Is There Evil in the Universe?

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Why Is There Evil in the Universe?

56m

02 How Can an Honest God Defeat a Lying Devil?

53m

Sound Doctrine