Key Life Network

Steve Brown: Why does God keep blessing bad people? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Guest (Male): This is Key Life, dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don't get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions. So here's author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from Forge Truth, with answers from the Bible that will make you free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Pete.

Pete: Hey man, how are you doing? Happy Friday.

Steve Brown: I'm doing good, as a matter of fact, and better now that you're here.

Pete: Well, share the blame, but also you're you're getting once we get this done, you're going to go swim at your pool, aren't you?

Steve Brown: I am.

Pete: Yeah.

Steve Brown: I am. I haven't been back. I'm 50 and I didn't you know, I went through some cataract surgery, so I haven't been in the pool for about four weeks. And then all of a sudden this past week, I'm swimming again.

Pete: Nice.

Steve Brown: And I'm quite proud of it.

Pete: I'm proud of you.

Steve Brown: In fact, I'm kind of self-righteous about it.

Pete: Let's talk about that.

Steve Brown: Yeah. Well, that's Pete Alwinson. And for many years he's been coming in on Fridays. We've been sitting down and answering questions. And we love your questions. By the way, be sure and check out Forgetruth.com. And you'll be glad I told you about it.

Back to what I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself, we really like your questions. You can ask a question whenever you want to by simply dialing 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-5433.

Follow the instructions and sometimes we put you on the air. Or you can send your question to Key Life Network, box 5000, Maitland, Florida 32794. In Canada, it's post office box 28060, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. Or you can email us at steve@keylife.org. And if you can help us financially, please do.

I promise we'll be as faithful as you were in giving your gift and squeeze every dime for the glory of God. Pete, why don't you pray for us and then we'll get to some of these questions.

Pete: You got it. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. At the end of this week, we know that you are always righteous and good and kind and merciful to us and you have been so merciful to us this past week.

We honor you, we praise you. We ask that you would be glorified in everything that we do. And, Lord, as we move into the weekend, we pray that you give us a chance to rest, to Sabbath, to enjoy being your children and to worship with your children.

And so we do pray for our leaders. We ask that our pastors and priests and and and teachers would would lead us into your word and into your presence. And, Lord, we pray that we would not miss the fellowship of the saints this weekend. Thanks for Key Life. Thanks for Steve and all that goes on behind the scenes.

And, Lord, we do pray that you would speak to us now, answer our questions. We commit this time to you. In Jesus' strong name we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown: Amen. Pete, this is an email, and it's not a question that has not been asked 10 million times and hasn't been asked in scripture. This is what this person says, why do people who live sinful lives? Okay, we're all sinners, but I'm talking about people who don't care at all about God and don't even try. Why do they always seem to receive blessing while people who earnestly try to follow God's way have it hard?

I know we obey God out of love and not to receive blessings, but sometimes it seems like you're punished for being good.

Pete: Good question. It's a good question. It's it's sort of the problem of evil, in a nutshell. But it almost goes a little bit too far. I I I see a lot of people who are not following Christ, who are really suffering a lot.

Steve Brown: I know.

Pete: And I see people who are following Christ and being obedient and their lives are really good.

Steve Brown: You know, I read not too long ago about a church that had an all-night prayer meeting because one of their members had inherited millions of dollars. So maybe, and that was a wise church. I'd like to meet that pastor because maybe being blessed in those ways that we think of as blessings are really curses.

Pete: That's right.

Steve Brown: And maybe when we don't do so well, that is a gift.

Pete: Oh, man. Yeah. I I do think that, you know, I I I think that God is incredibly gracious and he gives common grace.

Steve Brown: I agree.

Pete: And so that's why when we look around in a broken world that we do see people who work hard and they're brilliant, maybe brilliant pagans. And they make money, and they do well. And maybe they're it's but I don't think it's across the board. I don't think that just because you follow Jesus everything falls into the pit, you know?

Steve Brown: Or any or also flip side of that because you follow Jesus that everything's going to be fine.

Pete: That's right. I mean, you know, there's that old hymn that says I, you know, I followed Jesus and now I'm happy all the day. And you lie about other things, right? I mean, you know, right?

Steve Brown: That's true.

Pete: You're not. And and and and there the undulation, C.S. Lewis talks about, of our life. Our emotions are up and down because life is up and down.

Steve Brown: That's true.

Pete: But in the long run and the greater part of the trajectory, I'd say for believers, except for some. There are some believers that really do have it bad.

Steve Brown: Yeah, that's true.

Pete: And uh, we we have a case of a young man who just went to be with the Lord. He had incredible physical ailments. Some guy brought him to Forge, he came and we were able to bring him to Christ, by God by the grace of God, we baptized him and two years of just continual struggle physically, but he was a mess.

Steve Brown: Hard.

Pete: But, you know, there it is. He's home now.

Steve Brown: And you have those questions.

Pete: Yeah.

Steve Brown: And if you don't answer them, you're probably dead or don't ask them, you're probably dead. So it's a good question. And the psalmist asks exactly the same thing.

Pete: Oh, my goodness. You're right. David and a lot of the psalmist said, how come? How come they're fat and happy and and and I'm skinny and weak and in in in in trial and difficulty? But they processed it with God.

Steve Brown: I know by the time you get to each of those Psalms, that's exactly what happened.

Pete: That's so good. Good question.

Steve Brown: Yeah. Uh, this is an email, too. I uh read the prologue to John where it says the Word was full of grace and truth. It seems like you don't pay much attention to the truth part. How does that fit?

Pete: Whoa!

Steve Brown: That hurts.

Pete: That hurts. What what could they possibly mean? How do you interpret that, Steve?

Steve Brown: Well, I I I think they would prefer that I spend a lot more time uh throwing rocks at people that aren't doing good things and aren't nice and aren't faithful and all of that. But that's the whole point. Jesus said, not only did he speak truth, he said, I'm the truth.

Pete: Mhm.

Steve Brown: And I think we need to remember that. I think I think John was making a very, very good point. The law came through Moses. How's that working for you? That doesn't mean we change the law, it's still the law.

Pete: That's right.

Steve Brown: Still the mind of God. It's still clear that it tells us what's right and wrong, what's good and bad. But grace and truth came through Christ and John is making that point. Do you know that Christmas, and I'm not putting down, we've come through it and, you know, I'm not a big person on Christmas, but Christmas, even aside from all of the other good parts, which are good, is about forgiveness.

Pete: Mhm.

Steve Brown: And you shall call His name Jesus.

Pete: Mhm.

Steve Brown: I mean, Joseph was in trouble, man. He knew two things. He knew that he wasn't the father, and he knew that virgins didn't have babies.

Pete: That's right.

Steve Brown: So, so God had to send an angel to say, let me explain something to you.

Pete: That's right.

Steve Brown: And uh, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

Pete: That's right. That's so good. And and that's, you know, I I would I would maybe say something if you have listened to Steve Brown's teaching for years and years and years, you you're getting a lot a lot of truth. And you're getting a lot of grace. It's it goes together.

Steve Brown: Same with you. That's why you do.

Pete: Well, Yeah, but but, you know, some people may not have really been following you that long. And, you know, I've been following you since the cassette tapes day, man.

Steve Brown: And there are people listening who don't even know what a cassette tape is.

Pete: That's exactly right. So that's a long time.

Steve Brown: But we, you know, we're about truth.

Pete: Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Brown: And I believe in verbal, plenary inspiration. I really do. And I and have spent my entire life teaching verse by verse, line upon line, precept upon precept.

Pete: That's right.

Steve Brown: But the bottom line is, He's come.

Pete: That's right.

Steve Brown: And we can be forgiven and different because of that.

Pete: That's right. And that's where your prophetic, in in a sense, that's a prophetic part of your ministry. Bringing everybody back to the forgiveness of God. In Christ.

Steve Brown: All right. This is an email, too. What happens to the Christian at judgment? You're in trouble. They're going to go down the list of all your secrets, man, and you're going to be exposed for who you are. And you may get into heaven, but just barely.

Pete: It'll be just barely for you. I I hope I hope I'm there. I want to see I want to see your your your list laid out. I want to see the angels just say, Steve, you could have done this better and that better. That's not going to happen.

Steve Brown: No, it's really not. You know, we we um that still haunts, doesn't it?

Pete: Oh, man. It does.

Steve Brown: It it haunts all of us because we know God is big, uh, huge and in charge, as you put it, uh, and can be scary. But that's been taken care of. We're forgiven.

Pete: That really has. Yeah.

Steve Brown: You really are.

Pete: It's been nailed to the cross. The the curses that were against us have been nailed to the cross. So why in the world would those ever be brought up again? That's not the way of a loving father and there's no need for it. It's it's been done.

Steve Brown: That's true. And so when we get home and face the judgment, we'll have a hymn singing and the first hymn will be Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me.

Pete: Oh, man.

Steve Brown: God is incomprehensibly merciful and gracious. And then we'll see the places where he used us with the truth he gave us to speak to the world.

Pete: Absolutely. That's really important, too. And get to see what he did through us.

Steve Brown: That's right. Guys, we appreciate you spending time with us. I hate it when I have a little bit of time, but not enough. So I think we should have silent prayer for seven seconds. And then at the end of the seven seconds, I will say as I always say, Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.