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Does God Use The Wicked And Sin?

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• Does God use the wicked and sin? Does God use the wicked and sin? I want you to turn to the book of Ezekiel chapter 29. We'll read verses 18 through 20. Look, if you would, please. Ezekiel chapter 29, beginning with verse 18. The Word of God says, "Son of man"—talking to Ezekiel—"Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus. Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled. Yet he had no wages for his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey, and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord."

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• We will come back to that passage, but may I point out that the title of this message poses a very interesting concept, and that concept is indeed the absolute sovereignty of God. It is true that the wicked hate God, they disrespect God, they dishonor God, they despise God, they refuse to worship Him, and they rebel against His Word. So the question would be, can they escape His service?

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• And the answer, of course, is no. They will serve His purpose regardless of their hatred and their unwillingness toward Him. The truth of the matter is even the wicked are His creatures, and He may use them as He sees fit, even though they hate Him and do not wish to serve Him. Now I want to show you two passages, and then I'm going to quote some, but I want you to turn if

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• you would to Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11. And go ahead and find Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 4. Look in Revelation chapter 4, verse 11, and notice if you would what is said. Then we'll look in Proverbs 16 and verse 4. So in Revelation 4 and verse 11, the Bible says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." So God has created everything. He has created all things. They were created for His pleasure, that is also for His purpose. So if you would turn now in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs chapter 16 and look at verse 4. Here's another very interesting verse, to say the least, because in this passage the Word of God says this: "The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Note that, God has made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Now, you must remember that the Bible tells us that God has an eternal purpose which He purposed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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• You will find that in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 11, where the Bible says, "according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." So there is indeed an eternal purpose that God has purposed in Jesus Christ. Then when you tie that together with Isaiah 46 and verse 10, where the Bible says, "declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. So all things were created for Him and for His pleasure. So the truth is this: that even in the resistance and in the rebellion of the wicked to God, and although they are working against Him and contrary to His Word, they are just simply working for Him to accomplish His eternal purpose which He's purposed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is impossible for the wicked to out-think God, to out-smart God, to out-plan God, to out-maneuver God.

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• God even uses their sin and their rebellion to accomplish His will. Now let me give you some illustrations. Let me ask some questions to begin with. You know the answer to each one of these, but here's the first one. Is it a sin to hate your brother? Is it a sin to lie and deceive? Is it a sin to kidnap? Is it a sin to sell an innocent human being into slavery? Is it a sin to lie to and to dishonor your father? Of course the answer to all those questions is yes. Each one of those is sin. It's wicked. It's vile. It's wrong.

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• And yet do you understand? All of those sins were exactly the sins that Joseph's brothers did to him and to his father. If you look in your Bibles and to the book of Genesis—hold Ezekiel, we are certainly coming back there—but look in Genesis chapter 45 to begin with. In Genesis 45 verses 4 and 5, this is when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. And look what he said. Genesis 45 verse 4: "And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

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• Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life." In other words, he said, "Look, you sinned against me and you sinned against God. But God used your sin and God used your wickedness to work out His will, because He sent me here to preserve much people alive." Now if you look in Genesis chapter 50, because after their father was dead, they thought, "Now old Joseph is going to really take revenge upon us." And so in Genesis chapter 50 there, beginning with verse 18, the Bible says, "And his brethren also went and fell down before his face.

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• And they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

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• Now look, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me." That is, you despised me. You hated me. You sinned against me. "As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones." And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them. He said, "You were the ones that were wicked. You were the ones that were wrong. And all God did was use your rebellion and use your sin to accomplish His purpose." God does have an eternal purpose which He brings to pass in His divine providence when He uses the wicked actually to accomplish

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• His will. Now let me give you another clear illustration of this in the New Testament, and you cannot find a clearer illustration than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about the Lord Jesus Christ was predetermined, predestinated, and ordained by God. There was absolutely nothing that happened by accident to Jesus Christ. There's nothing that happened that God did not foreordain. So here it is. Look in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 2, and then we're going to go to Acts chapter 4. So look at Acts chapter 2 if you would please, and let's begin reading there with verse 23. Acts chapter 2 and verse 23—in fact, go back to verse 22 just so that you can see Jesus Christ is in the context. "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him, Jesus Christ, being delivered by the

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• determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Now I'm going to come back to this phrase, but note if you would, first of all in verse 23, "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." Everything about the life and the death of Jesus Christ was preordained, predetermined, predestinated. He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Now if you will look in your Bibles to Acts chapter 4, beginning there with verse 26. Acts chapter 4 verse 26: "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." Now nothing was done to Jesus Christ except that which was determined beforehand. And yet, and yet, it was Peter who looked at those people and he said, "Ye have taken by wicked hands and have crucified and slain."

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• So these people, when they were crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ, they were not doing it out of obedience to God. They were not thinking about this is the will of God. No, no, no. They were doing what they did out of hatred and despisement and wickedness and vileness. And all God did was control their wickedness and their sins and their rebellion and work out His perfect eternal will. So Peter said, "Ye have taken by wicked hands and have crucified." So they were working against God's revealed will, but in doing so they only worked out God's secretive will. They did what they did because they hated the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not do what they did out of obedience. Now you and I can look around and we see a world of sin and we see a world of rebellion.

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• Here's a question that I've been asked innumerable times. How much sin and how much wickedness is God going to allow? It's almost funny. When you hear people say something like this, "Well, if I was God, I would not allow abortion. If I was God, I would not allow sodomy to take place. If I was God, I would not allow these wars to happen, these people to die. If I was..." But you're not God.

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• And you don't have God's wisdom. And you're not omniscient. And you don't understand the eternal purpose of God. I can tell you exactly how much sin, how much wickedness is going to happen in this world. The answer is found in Psalm 76 and verse 10. The Bible says in that passage, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." In other words, God is going to allow just enough sin, just enough wickedness that's going to ultimately redound to His honor and His glory. And what is not going to please Him, what is not going to praise Him, what is not going to honor Him, He is going to restrain. Someone says, "Well, if I was God, I just wouldn't even allow sin in the world to begin with." Well, let me ask you a question. Do you realize that without sin you would know nothing at all about the justice of God? Without sin, you would know nothing at all about the love of God. Without sin, you would know nothing about the forgiveness and the mercy of God.

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• Without sin, you would not know anything about the wonderful reconciliation and atonement that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without sin, you would know nothing about God's holiness and God's righteousness. So he said, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."

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• Now before I get started in the message, I want to give you actually three truths that you need to grasp and you need to really lay hold upon. The first one is this: God is not the author of sin or the instigator of sin. God is not the author of sin nor the instigator of sin. I'm going to show you scripture just momentarily. Here's the second truth you need to lay hold of, and that is this: God is not the infuser of sin. God does not make men wicked. God does not infuse evil and wickedness into men. Men sin because they are sinners. They are depraved. They are fallen. They have a sinful nature. You never have to teach your child how to sin. Obviously, clearly, men sin because they are sinners. Now before I give you the third one, I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of James. The book of James chapter 1, and you're going to see exactly where sin comes from. Hebrews, James, James 1. Look if you would please

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• at verse 13. James 1 verse 13: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Now he says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." I'm going to explain that in just a moment, but look back if you would in verse 12. Interestingly, he said, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Then he says, "Let no man say when he is tempted..." He goes on to explain in verses 14 and 15: "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished,

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• bringeth forth death." Now the interesting thing is the word temptation. The noun is peirasmos, the Greek is peirazō. Peirasmos and peirazō have a double meaning. They're used in two different ways in the Bible. One is used in a good sense and the other in a bad sense. Okay. So in the good sense, the word temptation that you have in verse 12, it is peirasmos. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life." The word temptation here in the good sense means to test, to try, to prove for the purpose of ascertaining quality. Okay. Now, the second way it is used is in a bad sense, which you have it in verse 13. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." And here in the evil sense or the bad sense, it means to seduce, to trick, to deceive, and to lead into sin and to solicit to sin. So he says in verse 12,

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• "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." Here's the man that is tested. Here's the man that is tried and he's approved. He's going to receive the crown of life. But he says, "Don't say at all that God can be tempted of evil. He cannot be, neither tempteth he any man." He does not try to draw men into sin. God is infinitely holy and therefore He cannot be tempted with sin, and God therefore does not seduce men or lead men into sin and wickedness. So the first thing you need to understand is God is not the author or the instigator of sin. The second thing is God is not the infuser of sin. God does not put sin into anyone. And the third thing that you need to know is this: Although God is not the author or the instigator of sin, and although God is not the infuser of sin, God is most definitely the controller of sin. Stop and think about this. If anything can happen beyond the pale of God's sovereign authority and control, then God would not be God. That thing would be God because God Himself could not control it.

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• So God then is the controller of everything, including the wicked, including sin. That is why we rejoice when we read Romans 8 and verse 28: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." How do we know that all things work together for good? Because God is absolutely sovereign. He has control over everything. And that simply means then that all things—all of our tests, all of our trials, all of our adversities, all of our persecutions, all of our incidents, all of our accidents, all of our sickness, all of our adversaries, everything imaginable—God works it for our good and for His glory, because He is in absolute control over everything. Absolutely. So the truth of the matter is that He is able to bring good out of that which we perceive as evil. God did not say that everything that happened to us we would consider good, but He said everything that happened to us is going to be for our good because He's going to

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• work it for our good. So here's the question: Does God use the wicked? And the answer is most definitely yes. Does God use sin? And the answer is most definitely yes. I want to show you a truth. And when I show you this, I do hope that you are thinking about the state of our nation. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 17, because in this Psalm, David is praying and he makes a tremendous statement, a clearly obvious truth. David in this passage is praying against his enemies. So in Psalm 17 beginning with verse 8, here is his prayer: "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings." That's a good prayer request right there. But here's why he wants to be hidden. Here's why he wants to be kept: "From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about." My life's in danger.

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• People are trying to destroy me. He says, "They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly. They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places," just waiting to pounce and kill. Now look at verse 13: "Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down.

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• Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." Look what he said: "Deliver my soul from the wicked." And then he describes them further: "They're men of thy hand."

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• That is, God uses them. But they're men of the world who have their portion in this life. They know nothing about God. They know nothing about truth. They just know about this life.

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• Now, the wicked are God's sword. That's what he said. Does God use them? And the answer is yes. So how does God use the wicked? First of all, God uses the wicked to chastise and to correct the righteous. God uses the wicked to chastise and to correct the righteous. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the little book of Habakkuk. That is a minor prophet. I think it's right before the book of Zephaniah. Yes, it is right before Zephaniah, and it happens to be right after the book of Nahum. Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. Look if you would please at Habakkuk beginning there with verse 1, because I want you to see the problem that Habakkuk faced. Here is something that blew his understanding. Now watch what he said. Verse 1: "The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!" He said, "Lord, look around. I'm crying, Lord.

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• We're in a desperate situation in this country. Violence is everywhere." Watch verse 3: "Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention." Huh? We've got plenty of that. He says, "Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth." Well, that's us too. There's no judgment. There's no justice. He said, "For the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth." How many are holding your breath until you see justice done in Washington? Yeah, you see what I'm saying? This is exactly the situation that he's in. He says in verse 5, "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days"—this is God speaking now—"which ye will not believe, though it be told you." Now look what God says: "For, lo, I

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• raise up the Chaldeans"—that is the Babylonians—"that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs." So God's going to use the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, to conquer Judah and Jerusalem, the southern kingdom. He says, "They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand." That is, they're going to conquer. "And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them.

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• Nothing's going to stop them. They shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it." They'll make mounts. "Then shall his mind change"—now we're talking about the wicked now—"and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god." He'll give his praise to his false god for the victory that he's been given. Now look what Habakkuk says in verse 12: "Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction." Then he says in verse 13: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look

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• on iniquity: wherefore"—here's this problem—"wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" Now here was Habakkuk's problem. Habakkuk knew that the southern kingdom was wicked. He knew that they had violated God's law. He knew that God was going to use the Babylonians to chastise and correct the southern kingdom. But then he asked this in verse 13. Look at it. He said, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" Here's what he's saying: "I know that we're sinners. I know that we're wicked. I know we deserve judgment. I know we deserve correction and chastisement. But God, the Babylonians are more wicked than we are. How can you use someone that's more vile and more wicked to chastise and correct ones that are more righteous than they are?"

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• Wow. God did use Nebuchadnezzar. God did use the Babylonians to chasten the southern kingdom. God sent Nebuchadnezzar. God not only sent Nebuchadnezzar, God used Nebuchadnezzar. God not only used Nebuchadnezzar, God fought with Nebuchadnezzar against His own people. At least, professing people. Let me show you. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 25. Back a few verses, and back a few books. Jeremiah 25 is where we're going to start. And I want you to look if you would please at verse 9 and what God says about Nebuchadnezzar. Watch this. Jeremiah 25 and verse 9: "Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring

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• them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations." Note, if you would, God said, "I'm going to take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant." My servant. Look in your Bibles to Jeremiah 27 and verse 6. Jeremiah 27 verse 6, you're going to see this even clearer in the book of Ezekiel momentarily. But in Jeremiah chapter 27 look at verse 6: "And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him." Now if you will turn back in your Bible to Jeremiah 21, you're going to see where God says He's actually going to fight with Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was a wicked king. Zedekiah sent word to Jeremiah and asked Jeremiah to pray that if perhaps Nebuchadnezzar might withdraw and leave Judah and Jerusalem alone.

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• Well look at it if you would please. Verse 2: "Zedekiah says, Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us." Then said Jeremiah unto them, "Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence." What did God say? God said,

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• "You won't never get an answer to go up from you. No, no, no. No, I'm going to help him. I'm going to fight with him. He's my servant. He's accomplishing what I've sent him to do. I have sent him to chastise and correct a people that are more righteous than he is." Wow. Now, I'm going to get ahead of myself, but I'm going to show you this. I want you to turn back in your Bibles to Isaiah 45. Because in answering this question, "Does God use the wicked?" the answer is yes. In Isaiah 45—and you may not have put two and two together yet, but in Isaiah 45 God is talking about Cyrus. Cyrus was a Medo-Persian. It was the Medes and the Persians that destroyed the Babylonian Empire. And it was Cyrus who let the Jews go after the 70 years of captivity. Okay?

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• So, look at it in verse 1. Look at what God says. "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus." Isn't that amazing? God's calling this heathen king His anointed. "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him." God allowed him to conquer all of these nations. He said, "I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates"—that would be in Babylon—"and the gates shall not be shut.

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• I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." God said, "I'm going to make sure that you're victorious." Watch verse 3: "And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel." Now watch: "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me." You don't know who I am. You're not saved, but I know you. Watch verse 5: "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Did God use Cyrus? Of course He used Cyrus, and Cyrus was not a believer, had no idea. Now I want you to turn to Isaiah 10. So just like God used the Babylonians to defeat the Southern Kingdom,

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• He also used the Assyrians to defeat the Northern Kingdom. Of course, they also fought against the Southern Kingdom as well. But He used the Assyrians to destroy the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C., and the Babylonians took care of Judah and Jerusalem 586-587 B.C. So look, if you would please, Isaiah chapter 10 and let's begin reading there with verse 5. You might as well mark this passage because we're going to come back here just a little bit. Now watch this. Isaiah chapter 10 verse 5: "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. And I"—that is God—"will send him against an hypocritical nation.

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• And against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few."

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• Now God says the Assyrian is a rod of mine anger. The staff in his hand is mine indignation. God said very plainly in verse 6, "I will send him against an hypocritical nation. I will give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down in the streets." Now when you look at verse 7, "Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." Wow. What does that mean?

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• That means this: when God sent the Assyrians against the Northern Kingdom, and later on even against some of the Southern Kingdom, they didn't come over to the northern kingdom and say, "Ah, we're coming against you because God is angry with you because of your sins. We're His servants. We're here to obey Him. We're here to do His will. We're here to worship Him. We're here to honor." No, no, no. No, they could care less about God.

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• They did not know God. The only thing they wanted to do was to rape, rob, kill, murder, conquer, exercise dominion. That's it. But God called them His rod, and the staff in their hand was His indignation. The Assyrians did not mean to obey God. The Babylonians did not mean to obey God. They did not even know Him. But God used them as His sword to chastise and correct His people.

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• Hmm. I hope you're beginning to put two and two together as to why we have so many wicked rulers. Hmm. Here's the second truth. Let me tie it together for you. Not only does God use the wicked to chastise and correct the righteous, secondly, God uses the wicked to judge the wicked. And I want you to go back to the passage we read in Ezekiel chapter 29. I had to cover all this other just to get to this passage so that you could see it in a context. Look again at verse 18. God says, "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus"—that is against Tyre. "Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

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• I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God." Hmm. "They wrought for me." God was using the wicked to fight against the wicked, to destroy the wicked. God said very plainly in verse 20, "because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God." Now if you were to take the time to go back and read Ezekiel chapter 27, Ezekiel chapter 28, you would find that Tyre was a wicked, wicked place. Their pride, their wealth, they dealt with all kind of merchandise, the souls of men. They were exceedingly wicked and vile, and God sent Nebuchadnezzar, a wicked ruler, against Tyre, which happened to be a wicked, wicked city. Now Tyre was a seacoast city. It was also a great city. Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre. If you look in verse 18, he says this: "Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus." Now note if you would, it's called a great service. Then he said, "Every head was made

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• bald, and every shoulder was peeled." What does he mean, "every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled"? Well, every head was made bald because the soldiers had to wear these helmets all the time and the helmets caused them to lose their hair. Every shoulder was peeled because the soldiers were carrying huge rocks and baskets of earth because Tyre was out in the sea and Nebuchadnezzar had to build a causeway to get out to attack the city. And the siege lasted 13 years. Every head was bald. All the soldiers' shoulders were peeled because of all the work that was being done and had to be accomplished. So obviously during this 13-year siege, Nebuchadnezzar's army was greatly fatigued, suffered much hardship, and were wearied by all the various military work they had to do in order to try to get to that city. So Nebuchadnezzar then was going to great expense. Can you imagine feeding and paying an army for 13 years without actually gaining anything? So the capture of Tyre was a very tedious piece of work, that is for sure.

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• It cost Nebuchadnezzar a great deal in blood as well as in treasure. It took them 13 years to get to that city in order that they might destroy that city. And guess what? When the people of Tyre realized that the city was going to be defeated, that it was going to fall after 13 years—remember he's building this causeway out because Tyre was sitting on a huge rock out in the sea—they just loaded up most of their treasure and their imported men and sent them to Carthage.

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• So, when Nebuchadnezzar got into the city, there's very little spoil left, very little prey left. And so God says, "Now what I'm going to do, since Nebuchadnezzar wrought for me, I'm going to give him Egypt. I'm going to give him an easy prey. I'm going to give him a place where he can get much spoil. And this is going to be his pay for his service, which he wrought for me against Tyre." Wow. Does God use the wicked? Yeah. Yeah.

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• Let me tell you something else. This is not all funny, but it's funny. You remember in Jeremiah 42 through 44, these people had come to Jeremiah and wanted Jeremiah to pray for them and seek God's will whether or not they should stay in the land of Judah or go to Egypt. You have to remember that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away some people into captivity. He'd killed a lot of the others. Then he made Gedaliah governor of those few individuals that were left. And so along comes Ishmael and some men, and they murder Gedaliah, the governor, and they murder the Babylonian soldiers that are there. And so the people are in great fear because they know they're going to be upset because his men are murdered, his governor's murdered. And so they say, "Jeremiah, pray for us."

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• And he said, "Okay, I will." And Jeremiah said, after he prayed, "Here's what God said: Stay in the land. Don't go into Egypt. Stay in the land. I'll protect you from Nebuchadnezzar. Just stay in the land and do what you're supposed to do." And what do the people say? "God didn't say that. Baruch has just set thee on against us. God didn't say that. We're going into Egypt where we'll not see the sword and we'll not see famine and we'll not see war." Guess what? God said, "I've given Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar." The people who did not want the will of God and would not listen to the word of God ran right into the fiery furnace they were running from and ran into Nebuchadnezzar.

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• Okay, now let me make some applications. I want you to listen to what Matthew Henry said. Here's his comment, talking about how God is giving Egypt into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. He says, "The service done for him by worldly men with worldly designs shall be recompensed with a mere worldly reward, which his faithful servants that have a sincere regard for his will and glory would not be put off with." In other words, he's saying a real Christian would not be satisfied with just a mere worldly reward. You know, and I thought about that song, "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather have Jesus than wealth untold. I'd rather have Jesus than more than anything." Yeah, and this is what he's saying: a worldly man with worldly designs, if God uses him, God will give him a worldly profit, but that's it. He goes on, listen to this: "This accounts for the prosperity of the wicked men in the world." And you just stop and think about the wicked men in our world with all the money. Think about their wickedness. He says, "This accounts for the prosperity of the wicked men in the world.

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• God is in it, paying them for some service or the other, in which He has made use of them. Verily, they have their reward. Let none envy it then. The conquest of Egypt is spoken of as Nebuchadnezzar's full reward, for that completed his dominion over the then known world in a manner; that was the last of the kingdoms he subdued. When he was master of that, he became the head of gold"—that is in the book of Daniel—"that fell over, and he's no more, and he's gone." Wow. I want you to understand something: even great men and bad men and wicked and evil men are tools that God uses and makes use of. They are His sword, and God makes use of them even when they're pursuing their own goals, their own desires, their

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• own ends, and they have no thought of God, no desire to serve Him—in fact, they hate Him and rebel against Him—but it is God's sovereignty that turns all of their sin and all of their rebellion out for our good and for His glory. Now I want to make another point here: God's sovereignty does not do away with human responsibility. I want to make a point here. It is a simple truth from Scripture: If you sin, you will suffer. It does not matter if God uses your sin for His greater glory and for the good of His people. If you sin, you will suffer. It doesn't matter if you're a man, doesn't matter if you're a nation, doesn't matter if you're a corporation. If you sin against God, you cannot escape His judgment.

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• I smiled when I saw that Anheuser-Busch had already lost five million—ha! I was corrected this morning when I said they were not million, billion. They'd lost five billion dollars. I was corrected this morning when I said that. Someone came up, he said, "I talked to one of their reps because he was a friend, and he said they've now lost seven point five billion dollars for using the transvestite." And I don't know if you have seen one of the advertisements I have. It's absolutely sickening. I mean, sickening.

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• This little skinny boy that looks like a girl, dresses like a girl, acts like a girl, blowing bubbles, holding up a can of beer. Absolutely sick. And they're using—I saw another ad—they're using the same, what's his name, Dylan Mulvaney or something like that? They're using him to try to promote bras for women, Nike bras. And now many women are burning their Nike bras. Maybe Nike will go under as well. You just can't sin against God and get by with it.

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• That's all there is to it. If you sin, you're going to suffer. Now, here's my question. Did God use Babylon? Did God use the Chaldeans? Did God use Nebuchadnezzar? The answer is yes. Did Nebuchadnezzar, did Babylon get away with their destruction of Judah and Jerusalem? No, because God sent the Medes and the Persians to take care of the Babylonians.

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• Now, I want you to turn back in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 10. I told you we were going to come back there. You remember we just read in Isaiah chapter 10 where God said about the Assyrians, "They were the rod of his anger, and the staff in their hand was his indignation." That is verse 5, look at it. Again he said, "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

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• And I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." So, the Assyrians not only destroyed the northern kingdom, they also came against the southern kingdom later on. But note if you would now beginning in verse 12. Look what God says about the Assyrians now: "Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." Why? Why is God going to punish them? Here's why. He said, "For he saith"—that is the king said—"By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant

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• man: and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped." God asked, "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day." God said, "Yes, I sent them. Yes, I used them. But they did what they did out of wickedness and vileness. They had no regard for my honor and my glory. They did not do

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• it in obedience to me. They did not do it in faith. They did it just simply because they wanted to sin and wanted to rebel and conquer." And God says, "Therefore I will judge them." And that's exactly what God did. Now let me give you three truths trying to tie this together for you. Number one: God permits or allows evil, but He does not cause it. God permits or allows evil, but He does not cause it. And we found that in James 1 verses 13 through 15. Number two: God controls evil, but He does not condone it. That's why He said in Habakkuk 1 in verse 13, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." That is, He cannot look upon it condoningly. He cannot look upon it approvingly. Certainly God controls evil, but He does not condone it. And the third one is this: God judges evil and does not excuse it. He judged Israel. He judged Babylon. He judged Israel. He judged Judah. He is judging America.

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• God is not going to excuse wickedness. Our responsibility is to obey the revealed will of God. Deuteronomy 29:29: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." We have to live by the revealed will of God. We don't know God's secretive will. We can only know that when it comes to pass in His providence in time and history. So here's what I'm going to tell you: Whenever you begin to think that the wicked are in control, and the wicked are in charge, and somehow that the wicked are going to succeed—

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• whether it's the Great Reset or the New World Order—whenever you begin to think that they are in control, they're running things and they're going to succeed, you have forgotten God's absolute sovereignty. Because all God is going to do is use what they're doing for our good and His glory, and then He's going to judge them. He will destroy them. The truth of the matter is this: We look around today and we get discouraged because we say everything is going wrong. "If I could correct this, I'd correct it. If I could do this, I would do that. Everything's going wrong." And we need to add something. Yes, everything is going wrong. Just right. Because it is working out God's eternal purpose, which He purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord. He's going to work it out for His glory and for our good. And yes, God does use the wicked. And yes, God does use sin. But it's going to be just enough that's going to redound for our good and His glory.

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• Because He said, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Our hope, our comfort, our consolation is in the absolute sovereignty of God. He is God. And in absolute control, nothing can come to pass without Him. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. May we rest in Thee. May we be obedient. May we honor Thee. May we glorify Thee. May we worship Thee. May we praise Thee. And Lord, acknowledge that Thou dost rule over everything. Not a sparrow can fall apart from Thee. Not a hair can fall apart from Thee. Thou art God, and we bow before Thee and worship Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T21:01:17Z