Why’s the world so messed up?

Genesis 3

Well this morning we taking a break from our series on the gospel of Luke and we doing a short series on frequently asked questions. And we’ll do things a bit differently. At th end of each week’s talk, there’ll be an opportunity for Q&A. And so as you listening, feel free to jot down any questions. And you welcome to ask them at the end.

Lets pray before we come to our first topic.

Well you might have heard the song by black-eyed peas titled “where’s the love?” Basically, it’s a song that laments the fact that there’s something wrong with this world.

And the third verse goes like this:1

Yo’ whatever happened to the values of humanity

Whatever happened to the fairness and equality

Instead of spreading love we spreading animosity

Lack of understanding leading us away from unity.

And then the chorus goes:

People killing, people dying

Children hurt and you hear them crying

Can you practice what you preach

1 The third verse goes like this: “I feel the weight of the world on my shoulderAs I’m getting older, y’all, people getting colderMost of us only care about money makin’Selfishness got us following the wrong directionWrong information always shown by the mediaNegative images is the main criteriaInfecting the young minds faster than bacteriaKids wanna act like what they see in the cinema

Or would you turn the other cheek?

Father Father Father help us

Send some guidance from above

Cause people got me got me questioning

Where is the love?

And then it ends with these words:

Sing with me all:

One world, one world (That’s all we got)

One world, one world

And somethings wrong with it (yeah)

Somethings wrong with it (yeah)

Something’s wrong with the wo-wo-world.

Well that’s a catchy tune and it really captures the question we asking this morning: Whats gone wrong with our world? Or in other words: why is the world so messed up?

And of all the most frequently asked questions that we could look at: this is surely the most common one. When it comes to God and religion, this is the stumbling block for many people:

Why is the world the way that it is and if there is a God, then how could He allow such suffering in our world?

Now before we dive into the Biblical explanation to this question, let me start with a few introductory comments.

Firstly, let me also just say that I’m aware if you someone who’s going through personal grief, I don’t expect some logical argument I make this morning to take away your pain.

And even if there is some explanations for the evil and suffering you experiencing, that doesn’t make light of your pain. And I’m not assuming to be able to remove it.

Secondly, let me confess that there is mystery and when it comes to this question of evil in this world and why God allows it? I don’t think there’s anyone who can claim a conclusive answer to that question. And we all forced to confess that ultimately we don’t know. And I wanna be clear as we start this morning that I’m not assuming to have all the answers and I don’t think the Bible actually gives us all the answers.

But let me also say this: not fully knowing all the answers, doesn’t disprove their existence.

And if God really is GOD (in other words He’s bigger and He’s higher than us), well then its perfectly acceptable that there might be higher reasons of which we not aware. And to think that just because we don’t understand the reasons, therefore they don’t exist, that’s actually an incredibly arrogant. That’s claiming ominiscience; to think that you’ve got access to every piece of knowledge that exists.

The Bible itself acknowledges in Deuteronomy 29:29 that there secret things that belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children.”

So there is mystery.

But then Thirdly, let me say: its not only Christians and religious people who face this problem. In fact I wanna suggest to you that atheists who discount the existence of God, they face an even bigger problem when it comes to explaining evil.

You see if you consistent in your atheism and you view the universe simply as the product of time and chance and the evolution of physical matter over billions and billions of years, if that’s the sum total of your understanding of

the world, then what basis do you have for an objective moral standard? What right do you have to call evil a problem?

If the world simply is the way that it is. And we simply the product of matter that’s evolved, then there’s so no basis for it

And if you an atheist here this morning, then you need to ask yourself: why is it that throughout the world, all people everywhere are filled with rage when someone is murdered? Why is it that no matter what country people come from, they are enraged when a child is raped? Whats the basis for that universal sense of whats right and wrong. There’s no basis for it in the atheistic worldview.

And if the great goal of evolution is adaptation and the survival of the fittest. Then why should we have a problem with death. I mean that’s just part of the process. And we could actually celebrate the elimination of the weaker and more handicapped and less impressive members of society.

I remember my uncle arguing that handicapped babies should be aborted. And this was his argument to support it: the survival of the fittest. But what stops us from applying that to all the weaker members of society.2

And so its not hard to see how consistent atheism can lead to the justification of something like the holocaust if you really believe that the Arian race is the superior race. What basis do you have in your worldview to oppose that?3

And soi this is my point: the very standards that atheists use to rage against God, those standards are actually borrowed from the very same God that they raging against.

You get that? Repeat

2 Christopher Hitchens – “I’m here as a result of the process of evolution which rates life very cheaply. To have lived to 62 is to have been dealt a pretty good hand by the cosmos which does not know why I am here and which won’t notice when I am gone.”

Jean Paul Sartre – atheism is a cruel long term business and I am gone through it to the end.

3 And I remember a conversation with my uncle. And he was arguing that its completely fine to abort a handicapped child. And in support of his argument he referred to Richard Dawkins and how Richard Dawkins is his hero and the whole principle of survival of the fittest; that’s the right way to live. But I asked him, if that’s your principle for life, then what basis would you have to be angry if your daughters were murdered by someone fitter and stronger than them.

And that just goes to prove the truth of the saying that people some times make: that atheists really believe two things:

Number 1 that God doesn’t exist.

Number 2 that they really angry with Him.

PAUSE

I mean, there’s no basis to be angry unless He exists

But now fourthly, there some people who argue that the existence of evil disproves the existence of God. And so let just give a defence against that argument. Basically it goes like this:

If God is all good, then He should have the desire to eliminate evil

Good I think we’d agree

Secondly, If God’s all powerful, then He should be able to eliminate evil

Thidrly, If God is all-knowing, then He should’ve known that evil would come and He should know how to eliminate it.

Therefore, if we believe in an all-powerful, all knowing, all-good God, then surely that should eliminate the possibility of evil.

And yet, clearly when we look at the world, evil does exist. And so what does that imply about God? Well surely He cannot exist.

It might sounds like a pretty good argument.

But let me try give one defence and see if you can follow.

When we describe God as all-powerful, we simply mean that He’s got all power. We don’t mean He can do absolutely anything. For example, He can’t contradict Himself.

You might have heard the silly argument: if God was really all-powerful then He’d be able to create a rock that would be too heavy for Him to carry. And if He could create that rock, then there’s something He cannot do. And Im sure we’d all agree, that’s just playing philosophical games.

We not saying God can do things that are contradictory. In fact the bible itself says: there some things it’s impossible for God to do. For example, it’s impossible for God to sin. Its impossible for God to lie, not because He’s lacking the power, but rather because it contradicts His own standard of goodness.

And so that’s what I wanna suggest here: that the reason God allows evil isn’t because He’s lacking in power, but rather because there be a higher standard of goodness that would otherwise be contradicted.

And just like a young child might not understand the higher purpose of the pain of being disciplined. In the same way there might be millions of higher purposes that we simply cannot understand.

And here’s just one example, it’s a good thing, isn’t it, that God hasn’t made us like robots. He’s made us as human beings with the ability to choose. And I’m sure we’d all agree: you can’t choose to do something unless there’s a real option of doing something else.

So If you force your child to go to the beach and you drag him, kicking and screaming into the car. And he screams all the way, You can’t exactly arrive at the beach and say: “ah I’m so glad to see you chose to come to the beach.” No, he was forced to come to the beach. And in order for that to be a choice, he needed to the option of staying at home.

And this is the difference between a robot and a human being. A robot is simply programmed to behave in a certain way. It doesn’t have a real choice.

But this was the beauty of God’s plan. Not to create us like robots, but to give us real choice so that when we choose to do right its not simply what’s been programmed, but rather the result of our choice.

And so once again, we not a problem for us to admit that this is impossible for God: to give people the option of doing evil without allowing for evil to be real option. Thats a contradiction. And so the fact that God allows evil isn’t because He’s lacking in power, but rather because it contradicts a higher good.

And that’s just one possible higher good that there might be.

Okay so that’s quite a logical argument. Some of you probably followed it. Some of you probably got a bit lost. Don’t stress.

Everything we’ve said so far is trying to answer the question: why God allowed the world to get messed up. Now we gona change the emphasis slightly and focus on the Biblical explanation for how the world got messed up. So please turn to that passage that was read for us. Genesis chapter 3. And if someone’s drifted off to sleep, this is a good time to wake them up. This is how the world got messed up according to the Bible.

And as you turn this passage, let me just say I’m aware that in our modern world, there many people who just dismiss this as an ancient children’s fairytale.

Just Like the stories of

how the leopard got its spots.

or

how the elephant got its trunk.

This is the story of how the snake lost its legs.

And so its nothing more than a sweet made up children’s stories. And

according to some people its actually laughable that there still those who take

this seriously for our lives today.

But the reality is that for thousands of years there have been millions and

millions of clear thinking people who have viewed this passage as a deep and

profound and accurate explanation for whats gone wrong with the world. And

still today, there millions who hold that view. 4

4 And I doubt there’s any other explanation that’s been as commonly accepted and believed and that’s made as much sense to as many people.

And I agree that’s not enough reason for you to accept it. These multitudes

could be wrong. But surely it would be incredibly arrogant just to laugh it off

and dismiss it without giving it a fair hearing.

So that’s what I’m asking you to do and I want us to look at this passage briefly

under the following 4 headings. Firstly, doubt. Secondly, disobedience. Thirdly,

denial and finally death.

So firstly, in verses 1-5, It all starts with doubting God’s Word.

You know the story. The devil comes disguised as a serpent. He starts by

sowing doubt in Eve’s mind

Look at verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals

the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘you

mustnt eat from any tree in the garden?”

And if you look carefully here’ you’ll see he’s not only questioning God’s Word

– “did God really say?”

He’s also twisting it.

God didn’t say: you mustn’t eat from any tree. He said: you free to eat from

any tree. There’s only one tree from which you may not eat.

And this is what the devil loves to do. He loves to twist God’s Word and to

picture Him as being more restrictive than what He really is. As if He’s out to

spoil your fun and steal your happiness. And still today, that’s how many

people think of God. That He’s a restrictive kill joy: But its not a true picture of

Him. It’s a deception of the devil. God is good and His ways are good and to

follow Him is true joy and true freedom.

But not only does Satan question God’s Word. Not only does he twist it. In

verse 4, he goes even further and he blatantly contradicts it.

God says. If you eat this fruit, you’ll die. What does the devil say?

Verse 4. You will not surely die.

And that’s still the devil’s lie today: that you can rebel against God and ignore

His commands. And there won’t be any consequences. Surely you won’t die.

Surely you won’t be judged. Surely you won’t go to hell. I mean God’s a God

of love isn’t He? Isn’t He a God of mercy. Surely He’ll always forgive you. He’ll

always give you one more chance. It’s very popular in the world today, but its

nothing new. It’s the oldest lie in the book. Surely you wont die.

And so that’s where it all starts: doubting God’s Word.

But then secondly, doubt is followed by disobedience.

The woman looks at the fruit and in verse 6 she sees that its good for food and

pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. And so she takes

some and she eats.”

And its important to understand what’s wrong with eating this fruit. Its not

because God’s got something against apples. In fact we’ve got no evidence

that this was an apple. The important thing is what this fruit represents; the

knowledge of good and evil.

And so clearly doesn’t want them to know it.

But if you think about it, they already have some kind of knowledge of good

and evil. God’s told them whats right and whats wrong. And so at least in

theory, they have this knowledge.

But what God’s talking about here isn’t just theoretical knowledge. Its

knowledge in their experience.

And just like a doctor whose studied all the facts about cancer and

understands it all in theory. Its only if she herself gets cancer, that she can truly

know it, not just from the outside looking in, but from the inside in her own

experience.

In the same way Eve chooses to know evil in her experience. Instead of trusting

God’s Word that evil is bad and that its harmful and that it will mess up your

life, this is what she chooses. The experience of evil.

And by the way, its not just Eve!

You might have heard those guys who blame the woman. She bought evil into

the world. And if it wasn’t for the woman, then we wouldn’t have any trouble

But look at the end of verse 6. Notice whose with her.

“She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with

her and he ate it.”

And so this guy! Adam, he’s actually been standing there all along. Just going

with the flow. And he also eats. And he’s just as guilty

But its not just Adam and Eve. This is true of all of us. Instead of trusting God’s

Word, we’ve all chosen the experience of evil.

And so that’s the 2nd stage, doubt leads to disobedience. And then thirdly,

disobedience leads to denial. And that’s what we see in verses 7-13.

Where Adam and Eve are desperate to try and hide. And they sew fig leaves to

try and cover their nakedness. And then they try desperately to hide from God.

And all the beauty of chapter 2 where they walk with God in the garden and

they both naked and they feel no shame. Its all messed up by sin.

And it agrees with our human experience; that sin brings shame into our lives.

And none of us wants other to know the depths of our heart and the dark

secrets of our lives.

And this is what lies behind the human desire to hide:

I mean Why is it that the fear of public speaking is one of the greatest human

fears?

Why is it that some people spend hours in front of the mirror dressing

themselves to appear in public?

Why is it that we change our behaviour in front of certain people?

What’s the reason for all this covering up and hiding of who we really are?

Well Genesis 3 provides the answer: guilt and shame have entered our world.

But not only do we hide our shame. We also deny our guilt. Look at Adam in

verse 12. He blames the woman. She gave me some fruit and I ate.

But if you look carefully, you’ll notice, he’s not only blaming the woman. He’s

actually also blaming God. He says: the woman - you put here – she gave me

the fruit. In other words, its your fault God for putting this temptation in my

life.

And that reminds me of Proverbs 19 verse 3 which should be on the screen. It

says: “a man’s own foolishness ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the

Lord.”

And maybe that would’ve been a better key verse for our theme this morning.

Why’s the world so messed up?

Well - “a man’s own foolishness ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the

Lord.”

And its not just Adam. The the same is true of Eve. Verse 13

“What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”

And this is our human response; when we challenged about our sin, we deny

our guilt

And we were discussing this in our Bible studies this last week, that its so hard

for us to make an honest confession. And we so good at blaming our

circumstances and our upbringing and our parents and even God Himself. And

we find all these excuses and loopholes to deny our guilt.

And If you go to any bookshop – Exclusive books, Wordsworth or even CUM–one of their biggest sections is the SELF-HELP or

the inspirational section where you encouraged to believe in yourself and to be the best you can be.

And not too long ago there was a book in the self-help section titled, …`I’M OK - YOU’RE OK’.

- …Written by Thomas Harris,- …and it was a best seller. It sold over TEN MILLION COPIES.

`I’M OK – YOU’RE OK’.- It sums up what’s behind popular thinking.- That human nature is essentially GOOD- …and NATURALLY we’re OK. BASICALLY we’re GOOD.

Well that completely disagrees with the diagnosis of Genesis chapter 3.

And let me remind you, incase you didn’t notice,

The 20th century was the bloodiest century in the history of the world? 2

world wars killing approximately 70 million people. 6 million Jews wiped out in

the holocaust. Many millions killed under Stalin’s regime in Russia. Almost a

million people wiped out in the Rwandan Genocide. Not to mention the

millions killed in the civil wars of Sudan and China and Ethiopia.

The bloodiest century in the history of the world.

And so far the 21st Century doesn’t looks like much better. Boko Haram. ISIS.

Terrorist attacks. The threat of nuclear war. Its headed in the same direction.

But you know what the worst thing? We can come to the end of the bloodiest

century in the history of the world. And then someone can write a book titled “

I’m okay Ur okay” And it sells 10 million copies.

And I reckon if you go out and ask most people in the street, most people will

agree with this assessment that yes we might make mistakes, but basically we

good. Basically We’re okay.

And so you need to decide. Will you agree with that diagnosis or the diagnosis

of the Bible.

Romans chapter 3 verse 11. says

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no

one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become

worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

And even though there’s so much evidence of our wickedness, there still more

people who agree with a book titled I’m okay, ur okay, than with the diagnosis

of the Bible.

You see, if you wanna talk about denial, don’t just look at Adam and Eve. look

at the world today. We continue to live in denial.

And so finally, where does this all lead? The doubt and the disobedience and

the denial? Well in verses 14 – 19 it leads to death.

And I’m not just talking about physical death. I’m talking about all the suffering

that has entered our world.

And in verse 15 it includes spiritual conflict, that the devil and his offspring are

at war with humanity and this results in spiritual bongdage to sin and fear and

death.

And then in verse 15 it includes the breakdown of the family. And there’s pain

in childbirth. And there’s conflict in the marriage.

And then in verse 17 we see it includes the curse of creation. According to

Romans 8 the creation itself has been subjected to frustration and this explains

the natural disasters and the earthquakes and the tsunamis in our world. That

wasn’t the part of the original creation, but its entered in because of sin.

And then verses 18 describe the toilsome nature of work and the struggle to

survive. And then finally verse 19 we see the end of all mankind. that dust we

are and to dust we will return.

And so it’s a pretty comprehensive description of the suffering in this world.

Whether its spiritual conflict or family breakdown or natural disasters or death,

its all rooted in judgment of God because of the rebellion of man.

And so you might have heard of the article in The Times newspaper that asked

a question to all its readers, ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ And it gave an

opportunity for readers to write in with their responses. What’s wrong with

the world?

And there were many different answers that came in. But the best answer was

the shortest one. G.K Chesterton wrote:

In response to your question, ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ —

I am.

Yours faithfully,

G. K. Chesterton.

That’s the right answer. The real problem with the world is each one of us.

And so I wanna suggest to you as we close that in order for God to fix the

world and in order for Him to create a new world where there’s no suffering

and no pain and no death, then ultimately He needs to deal with us.

You see, obviously there are natural disasters and diseases. But surely the

most common cause of suffering is the way human beings treat each another.

And so in order for God to cleanse the world of suffering, it wont actually be

enough for Him to simply to remove natural disasters.

And it wont be enough to simply wipe out the Adolf Hitlers and the Osama Bin

Laden’s and the Pol Pots of the world.

It won’t be enough for Him just to wipe out the drug dealers and rapists and

murderers and child abusers.

It won’t be enough for Him just to cleanse the world of drunk drivers and

corrupt businessmen and shop lifters and thieves.

That won’t be enough to deal with all suffering, because the most common

cause of daily suffering is the rejection and the unkindness

its the prejudice and the gossip,

its the coldness and the bitterness with which each of us has treated one

another.

And so in order for God to really deal with suffering, then He needs to deal

with those who cause it.

And the Bible predicts that the day is coming when God will judge the world.

And on that day He will cleanse the world of all suffering and all evil. And so it

begs the question: how can we be spared on that day? How can we survive

when God cleanses the world not just of suffering, but also of those who cause

it?

Well of that’s the main theme of the Bible. How can evil-doers be saved?

And we just given a few hints in our passage.

God comes looking for Adam and Eve. That’s a hint

In verse 15 theres a child of the woman who will crush the serpent. That’s a

hint.

And then finally look at verse 21. After pronouncing all these judgments, notice

what God does. Verse 21

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed

them.”

And you remember before this Adam and Eve were wearing fig leaves. And I

dunno if you’ve ever tried dressing yourselves in fig leaves. Its not a very good

covering. And I doubt you’d go to the movies dressed in fig leaves.

Well that represents human efforts to cover ouselves. And whether its through

denial of guilt or self-improvement or religious efforts, these are all as hopeless

as fig leaves. They cannot cover our guotl amnd our shame

But here we see a covering that comes from God. And remember, before this

nothing has died in God’s world. It’s been a perfect world, free from any

suffering or death.

But here we find a garment of skin. And just like an animal must die in order

for a garment of skin to be made. In the same way, Jesus was sacrificed so that

we could be covered.

And so this is just a glimpse of the gospel, that Jesus has entered the suffering

of this world. He has experienced it in the worst possible way. And through

faith in His sacrifice we can be saved.

In the words of 2 Corinthians 5:21

“God made Him Who new no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the

righteousness of God.”

And so I’m gona pray now and there might be someone here this morning

who’s been convicted of their guilt and they’ve realized their shame. And

maybe for the first time this morning you want to trust in Christ and be

covered by His sacrifice. Then please pray this prayer with me in your own

heart.

Let’s pray.