Consider the Kindness & Severity of God | Ecc. 3:1-8, Rom. 11:22

Lord's Day: September 14, 2025  Preacher: Carlos Montijo  Series: Current Issues  Topic: Law & Gospel Distinction  Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1–8; Romans 11:22; 1 John 5:19; Psalm 12:8; 1 John 4:17; Psalm 86:15; Romans 4:6–8; Numbers 14:18; Romans 12:17–21; Isaiah 5:20–23; Romans 1:28–32; 8:28; Matthew 27:46; Luke 23:46; Philippians 2:8–9; Ephesians 5:15–17

• Charlie Kirk was murdered while doing what he did best, reaching out to the youth in college campuses
  • He could have been our future president, yet many were celebrating and mocking his murder on social media
• Iryna Zarutska was viciously murdered on a train by a violent repeat offender
• A 16-year-old fired several rounds and almost killed two of his fellow students at Evergreen High School in Colorado, before fatally shooting himself
• All of these victims were very young—This is a time for weeping and mourning

Our prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims: 

May God give them comfort and solace, and draw nigh to them with the light of His salvation

May He bring healing, and restore justice, repentance, and revival to our land

May He bring the wicked to justice

And may He also convict them of their sin and grant them repentance

I.   This is a sample of the evil being done all over this world, this wicked world that lies under the power of the evil one

• Even as “the wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men” (Psalm 12:8 LSB)—God is still sovereign, God is still in control, and God’s will is still being done
• Part of the reason there is much evil in the world is because God is longsuffering, God suffers long, God is patient
• His divine patience is revealed in His enduring mercy and love for sinners, and in His delay in exacting judgment, in part to enable wretched sinners like us to repent and be saved.

II.  Behold both the kindness and severity of God: Our great God and merciful Savior is also a just Judge

• God alone has a monopoly on vengeance (Rom. 12:17-21)
• God gives many sobering, dire warnings to the wicked, not just to the ones who murder, but also to the ones who celebrate wickedness (Isa. 5:20-23)

III. Wickedness and violence is neither random nor senseless

• Know Your Enemy: The Devil | 1 John 2:14-17
• God ultimately designed and decreed a good purpose for us in everything that happens, no matter how bad (Rom. 8:28)
• We should seek justice, God’s justice, not our own; God’s way, not our own; and by God’s means rather than our own
  • Matt Trewhella's The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate
• The Theology of the Cross (lowliness, suffering, humility) teaches us that God is often most present where He seems most absent.
• Ephesians 5:15–17: “Therefore look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. On account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

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• ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church
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  El Paso, Texas 79903

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• web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church
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Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com