This sermon by Derek Prince delves into the question of why God has tolerated evil and suffering for so long, emphasizing God's desire for a special people zealous for good works. It explores the concept of believers being God's temple and the importance of realizing the incredible value God has placed on humanity. The message highlights the need for Christians to have an eternal perspective, focusing on eternity rather than temporal desires, to avoid living in carnality and missing God's ultimate purpose for His redeemed people.

Derek Prince Ministries, proclaiming the inspired Word of God around the world. Derek Prince is an internationally recognized Bible teacher and author. Through books, audios, videos, and radio broadcasts, Derek seeks to reach the unreached and teach the untaught. In over 50 years of ministry, Derek has reached over 100 nations in more than 50 languages. And now, Derek Prince. Now in this message, I'm going to seek to answer a question. Which has been in my mind over a good many years. And I'll give you the answer which I feel has come to me. I'm not sure that it's a complete answer. I believe the question is one that in some form or another has come to many of you. The question is this. Why has God tolerated for so many, many centuries. All the evil, the wickedness, the suffering, the blasphemy, the immorality. All the inexpressibly evil things that have taken place in human history. And which are increasing and multiplying today. Why has God not intervened? He could speak a word and the whole thing would fall apart. Why has He not done so? What is He waiting for? And the answer which has come to me, is found in that passage which Ruth and I quoted. He's waiting for a special people for Himself. And everything that He does in history, is directed toward producing His own special people. Zealous for good works. A people that will belong to Him unreservedly, holy, separated, sanctified to Him. Serving Him and glorifying Him. Now in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, we hear a little bit more about that people. Not only is God looking for a people, but He's looking for a dwelling place, a temple. The word for temple in the Greek New Testament means a dwelling place. A place where God can dwell. And in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, verse 16, Paul says to the believers. For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Not only are we to be God's people, but we are to be God's temple. Now God has in the scripture, revealed three main successive dwelling places for Himself. The first was the tabernacle of Moses. Which was outwardly not a very impressive building. It was covered with goat's hair, it was a small tent. Inside it had wonderfully precious workmanship, jewels and so on. But looking at it from the outside, it didn't make much impression. And that continued until Israel entered the land of Canaan. And for quite a long while afterwards. Then under King Solomon, God ordained a temple. The temple of Solomon. Which is probably the most expensive and glorious building that man has ever constructed. I don't believe there exists in the world today, the resources or the craftsmanship that could reproduce that building. It must have cost the equivalent of billions of dollars. It was lined inside from the ceiling to the roof with gold. And the workmanship demanded incredible skill. I don't believe there are workmen in the world today that could produce that. It was a glorious building, a magnificent building. And yet it only stood for a few hundred years. And eventually it was totally destroyed and left in ruins by Nebuchadnezzar. And then there was another temple built through Ezra, after the return of the Jews from exile. But it never attained to the glory of the temple of Solomon. And in the time preceding Jesus, a very wicked king, Herod, did a lot to ornament it and extend it. But it was the work of a wicked man. And within less than a generation from the time the extensions were completed, that whole building was totally destroyed by the Roman armies. Not one stone was left upon another, as Jesus had predicted. So what is there left to be a building for God? What is the most precious thing out of which God can make a building? My answer is, people. I believe that human beings are the most precious thing on earth. Jesus said in Mark 8 verse 36, What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lost his own soul? I understand that to mean that one human soul is worth more than the whole world. And the building that Paul speaks about, and Peter speaks about also, it was quoted in the prophecy given, was to be a building of living stones. Human beings. And that, I believe, is the most expensive building that history will ever record. First of all, expensive because of the price that was paid. The price was the precious blood of Jesus. He redeemed us with his own precious blood. Secondly, the material. It's built of human beings. And I find that humanity in general, most of us, have failed to appreciate the real value of a human being. We act towards ourselves and toward one another as if we really weren't of much value. I believe this is partly due to erroneous teaching, which has come in through science, falsely so called, and through other sources. In fact, I believe it's the devil's object to belittle the value of a human life. To make it seem cheap and worthless. And unfortunately, many of us, and many of you, have to some extent been deceived by the devil. You have not come to realize your own incredible value. As I understand it, the most valuable thing on earth today is a human being. And I want to take a little while to return back to the creation of man. I believe man is a unique creation. He was created in a way that no other creature was created. The others were created by the word of God. God spoke the word and they came into being. We're told that about the heavenly hosts, the heavenly bodies and much else. But when it comes to the creation of man, and his name was Adam. And you need to bear in mind that when the Bible speaks about the sons of man, it's saying the sons of Adam. And his name had a double meaning. The Hebrew word for earth is Adamah, so he was built out of earth. And then the word dam means blood. So he was made out of earth, but blood flowed in his veins. And one of the things that impresses me about the Bible, is it says so much in such a short space. And the whole creation of man is described in one verse. Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 says, and the Lord God, Jehovah God, formed man, Adam, of the dust of the ground. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. I don't know whether you've ever pictured this, but it's become very vivid to me. The great creator, and we are told that God the Father created everything through Jesus Christ the Son. So the Son of God, the eternal Son, the second person of the Godhead, must have kneeled down and taken the clay and molded it and formed it into a human body, the body of a man. And I suppose that was the most perfect piece of artwork that earth has ever seen. More beautiful than anything that Michelangelo or the other great sculptors or painters have ever produced. It was a perfect work, formed by the hands of God. But all it was, was clay. And then, you see every time God deals with man, he stoops. So the creator stooped and put his lips against the lips of clay. And his nostrils against the nostrils of clay. And it says, he breathed into him the breath of life. The Hebrew language is one of those languages in which the words, by their sound, indicate in a way, the meaning. And the Hebrew word for he breathed, is vay-yeh-pah. It's a very forceful word. If you've studied phonetics, the word, the letter P is a plosive. It's a letter that indicates an explosion. When you say a P, you make an explosion. I don't know whether I can demonstrate this, but I'll say the word pip, and you watch the paper. Pip. And you see, the explosion moves the paper. And then, the next main letter is the letter het. Which English speaking people can't make. Scots can make it, Irish can make it, but English can't. It's a guttural prolonged sound. So it's vay-yeh-pah. And that word indicates a tremendous in-breathing of the spirit of life from God. And think of what it did. It produced a living human being. With all the wonderful organs and functions of humanity, eyes, lips, the heart, the blood system, the nervous system, all sorts of things that I don't even understand. Just think how it came to be. By the in-breathed breath of God, that form of play was changed into, I think, the apex of God's creation. The thing that he'd given the most attention to. More attention than to the angels, or the stars, or the mountains. Man became a living soul. God breathed a little bit of himself into humanity. And God has been seeking that which he breathed into man ever since. Because through Satan's cunning and man's rebellion, that in-breathed soul was cut off from God. But Jesus said, in Luke 16, verse 19, verse 10, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. God sent Jesus to recover what he had breathed into humanity. And the devil had stolen. And there's a verse in James chapter 4, verse 5, which is translated in various ways, in various translations. I happen to have learned Greek since I was ten years old. And that doesn't make me an expert, but it entitles me to my opinion. And one translation, the New American Standard, I believe correctly translates this verse. And it makes sense. It says, he, that's God, jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. So God has a jealous longing for that spirit, that he breathed into man at creation. And he sent Jesus to seek and to save that which was lost. Now I think that the number one problem of humanity, and if I were to leave you opportunity to guess, you'd probably give me a lot of different answers. But I think the number one problem of humanity, the root of all our problems, is we do not appreciate our own value. We don't realize that we are the most valuable thing that God produced. It's tragic. And you see, God's enemy the devil, takes a special delight in disfiguring the likeness of God, which was in man. He takes a special delight in dragging man down to the gutter. And making him behave in a way that is lower than that of the animals. Because Satan has an inexhaustible hatred for God. He cannot touch God, but he can touch God's image in man. I remember many years back, one of my daughters, who is not here let me say, was engaged to a certain man. And she carried his photograph around with her. And then she got a letter from him, breaking off the engagement. And I'm not saying this was the spiritual reaction, but she tore his photo up. And I think in a way that's what the devil wants to do, is tear the photo up. Destroy the likeness of God in man. I think many of us, perhaps all of us in a way, could be compared to a person who holds in his hand an inexpressibly beautiful diamond. And he trades it in for a packet of cigarettes, or for a ticket to a movie. See, that's what we've all done. We've sold ourselves for things infinitely less valuable than what God has put in us. But Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. To get back God's stolen property. See, that's what you and I are. We're God's property, but the devil stole us. The devil tricked us. He made us despise the diamond, and just trade it for something so cheap and valueless, that we can be ashamed and astonished at what we've done, each of us. I'm not talking just about alcoholics, or drug addicts. I'm talking about humanity as a whole. All of us at one time or another, have made ourselves very cheap. We've let go of the most precious thing, for something relatively no value at all. And so, Jesus came to get a people for himself. To seek and to save that which was lost. To bring it back to himself. And to make a people who would be totally his own. I love that phrase that Ruth and I repeated. He redeemed us from every lawless deed, that he might purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Pause for a moment and consider what it means that God wants you to be part of his own special people. Those whom God has redeemed are the most special people on earth. And it's for our sakes that God continues to tolerate all the evil, the agony, the suffering. Because he's going to get a people for himself out of it all. But we have to respond. Jesus has done his part. We have to do our part. To be part of that special people. And I want to speak just about two things that God requires of us. The first is purity. And purity that has an eternal perspective. That can look beyond time and into eternity. You see, Christians were not designed to live for time. We were designed to live for eternity. We were designed to have eternity always in view. But I would say in this nation and many other western nations, the majority of professing Christians have lost the view of eternity. They think only in terms of time. Paul had something to say which I think applies to our contemporary generation. I was talking to one of the young ladies that is with us. And she was saying, she's age 26, this is the X generation. There's nothing more left for us to rebel against. We are a kind of hopeless people. What is there left for us in life? And as I meditated on that, I saw that Paul had diagnosed the problem. And he says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 19. If you have your Bibles, it would be good to turn to that, because it's such a powerful verse. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable, the most miserable. In other words, if we claim to be Christians, that all we are looking for is things in this life. We are the most miserable, the most pitiable of all people. And that's why you meet so many miserable Christians. Because they have no expectation beyond what they can get in this life. Food, clothing, money, success, a home, maybe even a family. But their eyes never go beyond the limits of time. And we are not designed for that. We're designed to be a people with eternity in our hearts. Some years ago, I became very sick when I was in Hawaii. And I wasn't afraid of dying, although it could have led to death, but I wanted to have an answer. God, I've always believed in divine healing, I've always preached divine healing, I've seen countless people healed. What's wrong? Why am I not being healed? And it was as if I had an interview with the Lord. I don't know if this is what it will be like to be before the judgment seat of Christ, but it says we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And I want to say, He never condemned me. He was very impersonal in a way, but He just took my mind back over scene after scene in my career as a minister, a full gospel minister, a charismatic minister. And He showed me how carnal I had been. Now I want to say, just to avoid misunderstanding, by the grace of God I've never been guilty of drunkenness, or immorality, or misappropriating funds, which is the things that people always expect when preachers confess sin. And quite often they're right to. But God showed me, the Lord Jesus showed me, how carnal I had been. And He took me to various scenes, quite a number of them were in restaurants. And He showed me the essence of carnality is to live at any time as if there's nothing beyond this life. And the moment you live like that, you may not be committing obvious sins, but you're carnal. You're living in the flesh. You're missing the whole ultimate purpose of God for His redeemed people. Because you remember that scripture that said, that we've quoted, it said, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. Every one of us should be continually, every day, looking for the blessed hope. When you lose sight of that, you're carnal. You've lost sight of eternity. And you can still use religious language and attend church and say prayers, but you've lost the joy of the Lord. I've observed something that surprised me in my travels and leading men into it. Very often the Christians who had the least in this world, who were poor and persecuted, had the greatest joy. Much greater joy than others who had much more in this life. And I came to realize it was because they were focused on eternity. They were looking for what lay ahead. And so, dear brother or sister, if you're not happy, you're a Christian, but you're unfulfilled, you're frustrated, you may even be angry with God because He hasn't done the things He wanted Him to do for you, let me suggest to you, your basic problem is you've lost the vision of eternity. You're only expecting things in this life. Of course you believe you'll go to heaven when you die, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about having a vision for eternity. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men, Paul says, the most to be pitied. There's nobody else quite so miserable as the Christian who's lost the vision of eternity.