Are You Evil?

So the title of today's sermon is...

Are you evil? Somebody says they don't know. Am I by the end of the sermon today? You will know. Are you evil?

Every year, springtime, we usually get into examining our lives and we look at things, but we look at sins, we look at our relationship with God, we realize what He's done for us, but during the rest of the year, do we really explore what we say, do, and how we live? Do we examine the cracks and crevices that we don't even think about sometimes? I want to look at that today because not very often do you hear a sermon on asking the question, are you evil? And get an honest answer because I think we all see what we could or might be. I know I have worked in the prison in Miami and met various people, and in case you didn't know it, there's evil out there. There's evil everywhere, and it's something that we need to look at to make sure we can truly understand what is meant. You remember growing up, there were three little monkeys that all had this saying, I don't know if you had it when you were growing up, but one says what? Does that describe you? Because I've spoken evil before. Well, we've got two or three honest people in here. I have heard evil way more than I needed to hear evil.

And I have seen evil. Sometimes I see evil and realize I've got to turn evil off because I don't need to be seen something. Especially if you're on the Internet, things just pop up. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Growing up in the 70s, 60s and 70s as I was, I was intrigued by a man by the name of Evil Knievel. Anybody remember Evil Knievel? He, Evil, changed his name so that he could be called Evil even though it's spelled E-V-E-L. Does anybody know his real name? What is it? Close. Did he give you a name? No. Roger Craig Knievel. Now how many of you like to change your name? I guess if you want fame because that's how he became known. Nobody knows who Robert Craig Knievel was, but everybody knows Evil Knievel. Imagine changing your name to Evil. Most of us would not like to do that. There was a movie series a while back, and one of the most popular characters on there was named Dr. Evil. Remember him? Well, I don't think any of us want to be evil, much less a doctor of evil, or get a master's degree or a doctorate degree in being evil. But I have, and you have seen examples of extreme evil by people. What do you think of? What comes to your mind when you hear the word evil? Is it a person? Is it a name? Is it something that you've seen done? All the above, Diane says. We've all experienced that. Some things that are evil take us right to the core. Had someone explained to me one time something that they did, that they repented of, but they were trying to repent of it. Let's put it that way. I think he's still in prison, but just cold-blooded. Just evil.

So it's easy to see evil in other people or other things, isn't it? But can we see the evil in us? Can we see when we're kind of crossing that line? Remember, oh, it's been probably a dozen, maybe 15 years ago. I saw a movie. It had Nick Nolte in it and Robert De Niro. It was a remake of a 1960s movie, and it was called Cape Fear. Anybody see that movie besides me? I see a few others like that. Nick Nolte here had a family, a wife, and he was an attorney representing somebody at one time many years before. He thought the guy was basically evil or wasn't worth much, so he didn't put up much of a defense. And the guy got sent to prison for a decade or two.

And this man that came out of prison who he supposedly represented was named Max Cady. Max Cady. As Robert De Niro played that character so well, it would... When I watched it, I know he was a great actor, he was almost too good of an actor in this movie as he was just pure evil. As he terrorized this entire family, terrorized an entire town, because evil has a way of spreading. Terror has a way of spreading. Now, I know there are other TV shows and movies and all that might bring that to your mind. There was a TV series a few years ago called Twenty-Four. I used to watch on Sunday nights as an ongoing, and it always showed some evil people doing evil things to the United States of America. And he was trying to stop. And Keith Vr. Sutherland was the star of the show, and he was the hero. But one of the amazing parts was that he had to, a lot of times, do evil things to stop evil people.

And we would find ourselves pulling for him, no matter what he had to do. That can happen.

But there are different kinds of evil in this world. I grew up not really going to church until about 14. We visited various churches. My dad usually go in for one Sunday, and that was about it. And we did that to about every major religion that was out there, except Catholicism. But there were things that my family did before they realized they were evil. And one of those was using a Ouija board.

Didn't think anything about it. Didn't recognize it as what I do now is evil. Trying to tap into the spirit world.

Black arts, magic, these various things that come from the past. Or maybe something like that doesn't strike your mind as much as an individual who lived in the past like Adolf Hitler. Most people could look at a picture of Adolf Hitler and say, That was evil. That was evil. Not long ago I read excerpts from a book that was being written here 70 years later. About Adolf Hitler. There's been many, many books written about him. This one I was reading maybe 25 or 30 pages. An excerpt. And the book was to show just what a great guy he was.

And this writer was trying to be serious of what he did. That was so good for the country. And you know he liked dogs.

He tried, yeah, he had his own pets. And he liked, he had a niece that he just spent all kinds of time with. And it's amazing how, because after I read that many pages I'm going, I've read too many other books.

So what they were trying to say that there was good and evil.

I'd like you to go with me, if you will, to Matthew 6. Starting a New Testament. See what Christ has to say about it, because it's mentioned fairly often. Matthew 6, I could turn to so many scriptures today, which I won't. Turn to all of them, because we wouldn't have time. I don't know about evil, but I want to touch on a few as we hopefully learn this. Matthew 6 and verse 13 from the New King James Version. You all know this. Lead us, and do not lead us into temptation, which is, a lot of people have always been confused with that. We have to tell God not to lead us into temptation. It's actually a translation, where the true translation means, help us not to be led into temptation, because we need his help. Which obviously shows that we can be led into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Interesting, because there's a couple of translations that just have evil.

But in the original Hebrew, there is a one. We know who it is, don't we?

Deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So Christ was telling us, beware of evil. Don't we know that? Wouldn't that be obvious? Not so much. Go with me over to Mark. Move me to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, I'll read a few verses here, starting in verse 20. Christ is saying, what comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

Where are the women at? It comes out of a man defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts. Evil thoughts. So he's saying that, not as much outside, because we sometimes want to look and say, Ooh, I wish I hadn't heard that, wish I hadn't seen that, wish I hadn't thought that, wish I hadn't watched that, because that may influence. Christ is saying here, for from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts.

Are you evil? How much part? How much part are you as evil?

Have you ever wanted to do a study and divide it in percentage? How would you do that?

Adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and that strange one.

An evil eye. Verse 23, all these evil things come from within and defile of men. So there you have them. Four verses, there's three evils. So Christ is saying, we better be aware. Now, does anybody here have a definition for an evil eye?

It's when somebody's anger just pierces. Okay. An evil eye. Looking to do evil. Yes. That's what I would think. Does the Bible describe it? Well, I think we can go there. When you're looking to do evil, someone who's looking to go and do evil. Haven't you seen that? Maybe you've driven by somewhere and started to pull in a gas station and you're kind of, no, I think I'll find another one. I remember we were at Feast of Tabernacles down in California somewhere. Mary and I were. We'd been married that long. And I didn't have GPS back then. So I was trying to get to the airport in L.A. and was needed directions. So I pulled off in East L.A. In case you've never been to East L.A., not somewhere you want to be. And I pull up to this store to just ask directions of which way was the airport. And I walked in and all these guys stood there looking at me.

And they were some standing outside. I think I understood what an evil I was that evening. The young girl behind the counter would say, Leave him alone. What do you need? And she'd tell me, I just need to get to the airport the quickest way. So she told me, I got in my car and I left there.

So all of us have probably seen an evil I before. Christ is just pointing out to us that they're out there.

They're out there. We must make sure we don't have one. Pretty simple. Simple thoughts.

In the Old Testament, it's interesting because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, translated in English, first then Latin and then English. But the Hebrew, the original Hebrew, they didn't have a word for evil. Don't you find that strange? There wasn't a word for evil. It just didn't really exist.

Now, before, and I hope to give this because I've been watching this video for, watching like five different videos for the last six or seven weeks, on origins of languages and the origin of Hebrew. And before there were really true letters, there were pictures, word pictures. That was the original language of everyone. They would have different designs. And it's interesting because since there were no evil, they had more of a word of wicked. They understood that. But the original word picture in Hebrew, if you go back far enough, was trees, a forest, and a path. And the word picture was that doing something bad, you were getting off the path. Which makes sense, Hebrew, because God gave the original path. Adam and Eve got off the path. King got off the path. Because originally God's path is to where?

The kingdom of God. Desires at all, being the kingdom of God. So I found that interesting because there is a word that they did use for evil. And it's what we use to translate now. It's a long story of how this came about. I won't go into that now. But the original, or the word they use now, if you look, is ra. Ra. R-A. Ra. Now I find it interesting that when the language came later for Moses who wrote the first five books of the Bible, the God who was over the sun in creation and the most powerful God in Egypt was named Ra. Ra. Is that the reason it's used? I don't know. I don't know. Nobody can tell you, but isn't that a coincidence? But ra means bad. Wickedness, adversity, and calamity. Which makes sense. But ra came from the root word ra-a. So it would actually be pronounced at the time. Ra!

It was a word that made such an impression on people. And really, shouldn't it? Was that the purpose? Still no. But ra meant to spoil, to break to pieces, to do harm, to afflict. So you put all those things together and you've got an evil individual. Is this what God wants us to know? I think maybe He does. He wants us to get the picture. Because it's interesting that in Hebrew you have ra and then you have another word for good. And it's actually pronounced, or transliteration, tob. Tob. How it's spelled, you can find it in Hebrew, is either T-O-V or T-O-W-B. Because it gives the true sound. So our transliteration, when we try to bring it all around, this was the thing we came up with. Tob. But you'll find it either T-O-V in some writings or T-O-W-B. Tob. And it means good. Amazing part was when you go back to the etymology of this word, the history, you don't really have to explain it. Isn't that amazing? Does God have to explain what good is? No. We generally know what good is. So there isn't a whole lot here for that Hebrew word because it's kind of that same road, but you don't get off the path. And when you put all that together, you see that it was important to God that we understood evil and good. And that people may argue there's a gray area in there, but with God, does He have gray areas? With Christ, there wasn't a lot of gray areas. There's good and evil. Right? In the Old Testament, there was ra and tob. Ra and tob. But as man began to evolve and become more human and less like God, the two can begin to be closer to each other and intertwine, couldn't they? That may be a strange analogy, but there's a pull. There's a pull. I bring this up because in the Greek, in the New Testament, when Christ walked this earth, the Greek word is poneos. Poneos. It's the word for evil. There's no trying to find it. It's there. The Greek is specific. So when Christ is talking about it, He's talking about doing somebody wrong, hurt, vicious. There's this evil that was just kind of danced around in the Old Testament. But by the time the Greek showed up, any reason why the New Testament was written in Greek, it's pretty clear. More clear so you couldn't dance around just because there's a little sign right here and here like there is in Hebrew. Vicious to inflict pain. That's what Christ is talking about. And I've hurt people. I've had a vicious tongue. I've inflicted pain on people. But that is evil. And that's why even in Romans 12 verse 9 it says, "... uphor what is evil and cling to what is good." That's Paul telling the church of Rome. Uphor what is evil. Why? Because in Rome, there is evil. In America today, there's evil. Do we abhor it? Enough. Do we abhor it? Enough. Do we cling to what is good? Today we have a phrase called criminal. That's a criminal. It's criminal. You hear it often. Is there another word for evil? Because how often do you hear people talk about evil out here? The criminal acts that are done? So many of them are evil. Just plain evil. So let's look at this history of evil in the time I have left, because I think we can all relate to it. So go with me, if you will. We'll do this very quickly. About seven or eight scriptures. I'd like you to go with me back to Genesis. Genesis is where it all started. Very first time evil was mentioned, and all of you should know where it's at. Genesis 3. Verse 1.

You will not die. That's in the original Hebrew. It's not you will not surely die. Matter of fact, it's an emphatic statement. You will not die. Very convincing statement, obviously. Verse 3. I mean verse 5.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Which means one thing. What? They didn't know Ra. All they know is Tob. They didn't know Ra. But now she was going to get to know Ra. What it was like. Don't have a slide for this, but Genesis 6 and verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thought of his heart was only Ra.

Continually. The world had gotten so bad that all the thoughts of anybody was evil. Chapter 8. Chapter 8 and verse 21. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma, then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. So we can see the Ra was from our youth. And so it's not always easy to get this Ra out, is it? And that it can take place. We should be careful. But we also should look to God's Word as Psalm 23. All of you know Psalm 23? And in verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear what?

No Ra. No Ra. If we walk, even when it's a tough time, do we dwell on that? Does that mean something to us, or is it just words we say? I will fear no evil because, why? Because you are with me. Your staff, your rod, they comfort me. If we are walking down the path of Tob. Tob. Because that's all God wants us to do. And He knows we are occasional and we get off the path.

But He's made a way that we can get right back on the path, didn't He? Every day, multiple times in a day. And He said, in case you get scared, my rod, my staff, they should comfort you. My power, He says, should comfort you because there's no Ra that is stronger than God. Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6 and verse, well, Proverbs 6, verse 16 through 19, verse 18. He talks about the things that God hates. And all the things that He hates is a heart that devises wicked plans and feet that are swift running to evil.

It's amazing that these stories come out time and time again where they will arrest someone. And one guy the other day, they arrested him for murder, this little child. And his records showed he had 53 previous arrests. He was out again, 53 previous arrests. He had these feet. And that's why we should stay away. That's why God hates these things. He hates someone whose heart is constantly looking for evil, or to do evil. And some people are that way. And it's just not on the street.

It's in corporate America. Back in the early 70s or whatever, there was a show, Dallas. And it had J.R. Ewing as a star, J.R. Yes, pure evil this guy was. Except he was the star of the show. Even though you didn't like him, they used to call him the man you love to hate. Because he would just do whatever he could to get over on somebody who would don't constantly evil.

Nobody even bothered him, but he would just, I can get advantage of this person. Brethren, it starts with the mindset. And that's what God wants us to hopefully be able to overcome. That's why in Proverbs, when Solomon is writing this, he writes in Proverbs 22 and verse 3.

Proverbs 22 and verse 3, a prudent man foresees evil and hides from it. Proverbs 22 and verse 3, a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. Will you? Do we? Are we prudent? Are we an intelligent person? He wants us to see evil and hide ourselves from it. He says it a lot, doesn't he? He needs to make us aware of it. Ecclesiastes. We'll take also Ecclesiastes. In other words, Solomon's great writings. And there is something here. Ecclesiastes 8, verse 11. I'll read from the New King James.

It said, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. I got away with it! How many times have we seen that? Somebody just said, oh, I didn't have to pay the price there. Oh, I got away with this. I got away with that. I got away with this. And Solomon, so what the preacher says here, says, they think just because it's not brought on them then, they won't pay the price.

But in verse 12, though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before him. So people may look and go, you know, that guy scammed all those people out of millions of dollars, and then he just got sent to jail for six months.

Now he's got millions of dollars, and he got in a federal prison. They got away with it, didn't they? No. No. Everybody will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. They may have it in this world, but he can't take it in his next one. Evil, and we see that so many times. Isaiah brings this up. When he first starts writing in the fifth chapter, he says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil!

Woe to those who call ra, tob, and tob, ra! Do you see that today? What do we call good evil? There are people who call abortion good. Good! It's a woman's right, and everything. And how many times? If you're against it, what's wrong? You're a woman! You hate women! Right? You hate women.

And then you will have someone who will say, Well, I get my teaching from the Bible. The good book, as it used to be called. Now it's called hate speech, isn't it? Now it's called... Oh, if you bring that out, that's just hate speech. Romans chapter 1? Oh, that's just... That's terrible. You see, even Amos knew. When Isaiah knew, Amos knew also, it will be something that is going on and on and on. There are many things we could have an entire sermon on what people call good.

They're evil. And evil, that is good today. The most important thing from this sermon is you know, you know when something is evil. And somebody's trying to call it good. And when something is good, somebody's calling it evil. Because they even say now in California, they have a textbook that's telling that it's not really that good for a family to have a mother and a father.

Now, it's not bad. It's just not good. Because they show how many people, how many husbands and wives got a divorce and all the kids pay for it. So there's nothing wrong with having two mommies and two daddies. You think it's going to get better in the next five years? Ten years? No. No. Because people are going to call, rah, toh. All the way back then.

Amos said in chapter 5, seek good and not evil. Seek good and not evil. He actually said another time, hate evil and love good. Is that us? Is that part of our nature that we actually hate evil? Or do we... I'll just keep my distance from it. Do we love good? That is something that we have to talk about.

Talk about if we can do it. When Paul was trying to work with the Romans, he had a big challenge ahead of him. Because they were a rich society, worldly society. Sounds like our society today. Well, a bit, doesn't it? And he said, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome what? Evil with good. What does that mean? Do you know? Don't let ourselves be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That means if our society is ever going to be good, we have to get rid of evil. Raw! It's got to be gone. The only way we can do it starts with us.

You can't go out and change Vero Beach. We can all go down to Vero Beach City Hall and say, okay, we want you to stop this, this, this, and this. It will work. But does it start in our house? Our street? Our city? Can we pick up and really look at our lives and say, I don't need to do that.

I really need to examine the percentage of evil in my life. What do you do? This book is full of what's good and what's evil. Are we willing to look at our lives that way and go, I can work on that. Are we going, well, that's just me. God knows how I am. Are we truly looking at ourselves and saying, I want to be good. I want to be like Christ because that's what He's called us to be, isn't it?

James even went as far as the half-brother of Christ and said, don't speak evil of one another, brethren. It kind of brings it to home because it's not out there. Turn to James 4, verse 11. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. Do we? Will this church be known as one that does not speak evil? Will we don't speak evil of one another? Who makes that decision? We do.

We all do. Are we there to do good? Are we here as a church to do good? Spiritual hospital for the sick? We have to decide that. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. Brethren, evil is in every one of us, but it varies by degree. What percentage of you is evil? Because we can hide. We can hide things really well. But you can't hide from God.

And spend enough time around somebody, you know. They can't hide things from you. You know the good and you know the evil. You know, you cannot fix an engine problem on your car and let you lift the hood. Is it time that we kind of lift the hood on our nature? Are we naturally good? The Bible says most people aren't. Are we naturally good?

Are we naturally evil? Which I don't think you would be here if you were naturally evil. But there is evil in each of us that we need to weed out. And the only reason we can do it is because of God's Holy Spirit. Not on our own, but just use it. Use this book. It said, My Words are Spirit. That's how we feed the Spirit. Read His words. So I am challenging you as I am challenging myself, as I was working on this sermon this week, to start trying to dig down a little deeper and making sure that I can read some evil thoughts.

Because I don't know about you, but they pop up during the week with me. Of course, driving on these roads in South Florida can't really exacerbate that. Being around people, attitudes, and so forth like that. But can we? Do we want to work and find out what percentage of me is still evil? Because Christ said, Become you perfect, like your Father in heaven, like Him.

So we have the potential to be perfect. But not if we can't understand the difference between Ra and Toba. So we can honestly look at each other. I hope Mary generally does tell me, because she does care whether I make it into the kingdom of God or not. But I want her to, when she sees a percent of me that is evil, to help me to remind me. You may have friends. You may have brethren that can help remind you.

So that you can get rid of that. Because guess what? There is enough Ra in the world without it being in us. We need to make the world a better place because we're good. Just look at Jesus Christ. Look at those three and a half years. How many people were healed? How many things were done? Look at all the good that was done by that man. And why? He didn't have any evil. I want to be more like that.

I want to be there to help people. Not just look and go. They deserve that. They deserve what they got. No. No. Because I don't want to be a judge. There's only one judge. So brethren, can we? As I wrap this up now. It's a story I tell many times, but I don't think there's a better story about evil.

Because it does a little story about a young little grandson and his grandpa going off to the zoo to go look at the animals. And the little boy is always fascinated by the wolves, how big they are and how vicious they look and how their eyes. So every time he wants to run over there and look at the wolves, and he sees them and he goes, tells his grandson, do you know there are two wolves inside you?

And he goes, grandpa, there is two wolves inside of you and they are fighting each other. He said one is good and one is bad. And he says, grandpa, which one will win? He says, the one you feed. The one you feed.

Brethren, get in the good book this week. Enjoy the good book. Have raw out of your life. Get tobe. And this week, examine the raw and replace it with tobe. And have an evil-less week. Evil-less week.