“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1)
Most of the people that you attempt to reach for the glory of God may be polite, may listen for a short time, but most of them will not hear you. In their mind they do not need to, they believe themselves to be good enough, they have never done a deed worthy of hell, that set of scales in their mind has always balanced more towards the good and not the bad.
Evil, my friends, in the thoughts of the unrepentant, holds an entirely different concept than it does in the thoughts of those who are hid in Christ.
And so, I ask this question of you, the wicked that the Almighty has given over to a reprobate mind, are they evil?
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1st John 5:19)
I fear that in many people’s minds, those who profess to serve the Living God, that evil is what could be considered a construct, an idea. Satan is evil, the monster in the horror movie, perhaps the serial killer or mass murderer, but not the average person, not that one that said to you, “Thanks, but there is no God,” or that person who mocked you and your faith.
What about that analogy I use occasionally, that nice little old lady down the street that bakes cookies for the neighborhood kids but denies the Lord Jesus Christ. Is she evil? The priests, bishops, cardinals, all the hierarchy of the cult of the Romans Catholic church, the Pope himself, are they evil?
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8)
What does it say? Let him be accursed. Are those that are accursed by the Lord of Glory wicked or evil? What of this verse?
“And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)
Is sin against the sovereignty of the Almighty considered a wicked deed that can only be done by an evil person? The answer to that question is a resounding “No,” for 1st John 1:8 is a truth.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
So then, if that conclusion is correct, there are wicked deeds, thoughts and actions done by righteous people, intentionally by our own free will that could not be considered evil, they recognized as sin against our Father in heaven, repented of with a broken and contrite heart, then forgiven by His mercies. Fellowship restored.
One must contend then that evil deeds and actions can only be done by the wicked, those that will indeed die in their sins.
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1:6)
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)
Wicked people perform evil deeds, and the wicked my friends are those that the Almighty has given over to a reprobate mind, those that His wrath abides on today.
The lost are the only ones on the fence, so to speak, and it is those that we seek for. I personally believe, and I am sure the Scriptures will verify this as truth, that all the lost will be found. Not one will be forsaken.
We who have been born again have in the past and will again in the future sin against our Lord, but not one of those sins will be counted as an evil act, we are of the light, not the darkness, we are hid in Christ, and in Him is no evil. All sin in this regard is treated as a family matter, there is no more condemnation upon us.
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37)
Never look at yourself as an evil person, look at who you are, a sinner saved by grace through faith, an eternal member of the family of God.
