Welcome to today's broadcast
of God's Word to Our Nation. In recent weeks, I have been
challenging our listeners to consider with me some of life's
most serious questions, questions which take us to the heart of
the issues which really count. We have considered such questions
as, what if we really do have souls that will never die? Who
am I? Why am I here? Can I truly know
God? May I urge you to think seriously
with me today as we address another such question. It is a question
raised by some with biting sarcasm. Others raise it with a bitter
cynicism, while others raise it with stunned perplexity. And the question is this. If
there is a God, a God of love, wisdom, and power, why is the
world in the mess it is in? Bound up in this question are
all the lesser questions such as, why do innocent babies die? Why do multitudes starve in various
countries of the world? Why does the problem of drug
abuse go on unchecked? Why do wicked men seem to triumph
and the righteous seem to be abused and their influence kept
in check? Well, please give me your careful
attention as I attempt to address this question. If there is a
God, a God of infinite love, wisdom, and power, why are these
things so? I would not insult you by attempting
to answer such a question from the shallow little pool of my
own mind, nor from the combined shallow pools of the minds of
the greatest of men, living or dead. Rather, we shall turn to
the only source of divinely inspired and infallibly revealed answers
to such questions, namely the scriptures of the Old and the
New Testaments. Now when we pick up our Bibles
and begin to read them with these questions in mind, what answer
do we find? At the risk of seeming to appear
simplistic, let me suggest that the Bible's answer to these perplexing
questions can be reduced to three major propositions. The first
is this. This present world and all that
happens in it is not what it once was. Catch the significance
of that turn phrase. This present world and all that
happens in it is not what it once was. In the first two chapters
of the book of Genesis, we read the account of God's creation
of the world and of mankind. And after each thing that God
created, the scripture tells us, And God saw that which he
made, and it was good. And it was good. And it was good. After each individual creative
act, The Scripture tells us the result was that which was good. There was no sickness, no pain,
no death, no famine, no war, no pillage, no rape, no injustice,
man to man, concerning everything that God had made. The Scripture
says, behold, it was very good. And so if you and I would even
begin to answer this pressing question, if there is a God,
a God of love, a God of wisdom, and a God of power, why is the
world in the mess it is? We must start with this fundamental
element of biblical revelation that this present world and all
that happens in it is not what it once was. This then brings
us to the second proposition which is forced upon us by the
teaching of the scriptures. This present world and all that
happens in it of a negative nature is the direct result of human
sin. May I repeat that? This present
world and all that happens in it of a negative nature is the
result of human sin. It is not the result of being
human, but it is the result of human sin. For as surely as Genesis
1 and 2 teach us the wonderful account of God's creative activity,
over which these words were written, Behold, all was very good, So,
in the third chapter of Genesis, we are confronted with the intrusion
of this horrible moral reality of man's fall into a state of
sin. And that fall brought with it
death and sorrow and grief and bloodshed, so much so that the
first child born of Adam and Eve became a murderer of the
second child born of Adam and Eve, for the scripture gives
us the detailed account of how Cain rose up and slew his brother
Abel. We read on in the scriptures
until we come to Genesis chapter 6, and there we have the account
that violence, man's inhumanity to man, had so filled the entire
earth that it grieved God that he had made man, and God was
determined to blot out the entirety of the then existing race, with
the exception of one man and his family. All of the sins that
now plague humanity, all of the injustice, all of the indifference
and the lack of concern, as well as the aggressive acts of man's
inhumanity to his fellow man, The scripture tells us these
things are not the inevitable result of creation as that creation
develops into society and into the various structures within
which men find themselves. No, these things are every one
of them. the result of the intrusion of
sin into the human experience. They are the result of the intrusion
of sin into the human race. And with that intrusion of sin,
we find God Himself declaring that a curse would be placed
even upon the earth itself. It would not yield fruit as readily
as it did before the intrusion of sin, but it would bring forth
thorns and thistles, and man would not now merely work, work
being a dimension of delightful worship, but that in the sweat
of his brow he would bring forth from a relatively unyielding
world. And there really is no answer
for the present situation that we find ourselves in this present
age. With all of the complexity of
the technological age in which we live, we find that man is
essentially the same as he was way back in Genesis chapter 6. Violence filled the earth, man's
inhumanity to his fellow man, man's irreligion, his placing
of his own personal desires above his religious pursuits. There
is indeed, as the wise man Solomon declared, no new thing under
the sun. And it is absolutely impossible
to understand this present world and what is going on in this
world unless we are prepared to take at face value the witness
of the Word of God to this second proposition that this present
world and all that happens in it of a negative nature is the
result of human sin. But when we ask the question,
why is the world like it is, we need to come to grips not
only with the truth that this present world is not what it
once was, and that this present world is what it is because of
sin, but there is a third proposition which the Word of God forces
upon us, and it is this. This present world will not always
be what it presently is. This present world will not always
be what it presently is. Both in the teaching of the prophets
and apostles and our Lord Jesus Christ, again and again we are
told that human history will not go on forever and forever
and forever, but that all of human history is heading to a
culminating point. And that culminating point will
not be found when man, through his own inhumanity, his own abuse
of God's gifts of technology, and his own indifference to his
fellow man, destroys himself. The Scripture teaches that the
culminating point will be the return of Jesus Christ the Lord
in power and in glory at the end of the age. I read now from
2 Peter, chapter 3, concerning this very event. The Apostle
Peter tells us that we, as the people of God, must look for
and hasten the coming of the day of God, on the count of which
the heavens will be destroyed by burning heat and the elements
will melt with intense heat, but according to his promise,
we are looking for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells. You see, this passage brings
into sharp focus this overarching teaching found in both the Old
and the New Testaments that this present world will not always
be what it presently is. At the return of our Lord Jesus
Christ in power and in glory, this present world as we know
it will undergo a purging by fire. Peter uses this language,
the elements shall melt with fervent heat. It is this present
earth on which man was created. It is this present earth in which
man sinned and fell and was alienated from God. It was on this present
earth that the curse was pronounced. And blessed be God, it will be
on this present earth that God will effect His mighty work of
renovation at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. so that in
the language of the Apostle Paul, while the whole creation now
groans, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the
bodies of believers at the second coming, that passage in Romans
8 tells us that the creation itself shall be delivered from
its present bondage. And in a way that we cannot fully
comprehend, Faith is content to rest in God's declaration
that this present world shall be renovated by the mighty power
of God. purged of every last vestige
of the influence of the curse that God placed upon it, purged
of every last influence of sinful man, no longer to abuse with
impunity God's creation, no longer to treat with indifference the
good gifts of God that the earth yields, but there will be a new
earth And yet Peter says there will also be a new heavens along
with the new earth. And again, though we cannot be
precise in seeking to identify exactly what the new heavens
will be, this much is clear, that everything that will pertain
to the eternal abode of all of the redeemed of God, will be
such as to be utterly, forever, and finally purged of every influence
of sin, for it will be a new heavens and a new earth. in which
righteousness literally have their home. When Peter said,
a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness,
the emphasis of that word dwell means to dwell permanently, to
be at home. And in the new heavens and the
new earth there will be nothing but righteousness. The earth
itself purged of all of the remnants of the curse, And every square
inch upon which any redeemed saint will walk, he or she will
be walking in perfect righteousness. There will be nothing but perfect
love, one saint to another, nothing but perfect interpersonal relationships
between all of the people of God who will inhabit the new
heavens and the new earth. And though the scripture again
is very limited in telling us what our occupation will be,
it will certainly not be one of sitting on a cloud and plunking
upon a harp ages without end. For the scripture tells us that
in the new heavens and the new earth, we shall follow the Lamb
withersoever He goeth, and we will be given noble tasks to
accomplish in which there will not only be the full realization
of all of our redeemed potential as men and women, that there
will be the cooperation with our fellow redeemed sinners,
and the glory of our eternal inheritance will be that in the
undimmed vision of God and of the Lamb, and unclouded and unfractured
relationships with our fellow redeemed men and women, we shall
through the endless ages of eternity carry out the will and the purpose
of God. and of the Lamb. So when we ask
the question, perhaps some of you, having asked it with a bitter
cynicism, if there is a God who is good, if there is a God who
is wise and all-powerful, why is the world in the mess it is
in? My friend, do you see that the
Bible answers that question head on? This present world is not
in the condition in which God originally made it. When He made
it, behold, all was very good. And that which is brought about,
the present injustice, the bloodshed, the death, the tears, the crying,
the sadness, the pain, it is not that God has brought these
things upon us. Man has brought these things
upon himself by his rebellion against God. But into this present
veil of tears, into this present crucible and cauldron of bitterness
and war and hatred and death and rape and pillage, God sends
the message of the everlasting gospel. And He calls upon men
and women to own the reality of their sinfulness, to own the
reality of their alienation from Him, and then to embrace His
Son, whom He sets before us in all the beauty of His person
and in the perfection of His work as the crucified and risen
Savior. And He says, Here in my Son is
the answer to your problem of human sin, your problem of bondage
to your hatred. to your ill will to your neighbor. Here in my Son is the answer
to your guilt that causes you to have sleepless nights, your
guilt that drives you to your pills and to the bottle and to
your drugs, your guilt that causes you to feel in your own breast
a preview of the day of judgment, God in grace sets before you
His own beloved Son. And He says, My Son is yours
if you will have Him. And in Him there is liberation
from bondage to your sin. There is forgiveness for your
guilt. There is life for your death.
There is light for your darkness. Here is My Son. Listen to Him. Embrace Him. Believe upon Him. And then, while we yet must live
out the rest of our days, and while there yet may be generations
who will be born and die after us, we may live out our days
and go to our graves in the confidence that human history will have
a culminating point. A day will come, an hour will
come, a minute will arrive, a second will tick. when Almighty God
says, human history as we now know it is done. And there will
be the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the parting
heavens, and the returning Lord in clouds of glory and power. And He will come and renovate
the existing order of things in that purifying fire. raise
the dead from their graves, give to His saints a glorified body,
and we with Him shall forever dwell in the new heavens and
in the new earth." I said, at the expense of seeming simplistic,
that the Bible did indeed address this very vexing question head
on. The question, if there is a God,
if He is all-loving and all-wise and all-powerful, why is the
world in the mess it is in? And we have seen that the answer
of the Scripture is to be found in these three simple propositions. This present world is not what
it once was. This present world is what it
is because of sin. This present world will not always
be what it presently is. And in the few moments that remain
to us today, may I now seek to turn some questions to you. Perhaps you have raised the question,
why is the world in the mess it is in if God is what he claims
to be? I've sought to answer that question
from the only source whose answers are worth anything, even the
Word of God. But I would ask you some questions. My question to you is, have you
seen that your sin is your greatest problem? You may be one of these
who considers himself quite benevolent and quite concerned and compassionate
because you're involved in some local projects to clean up the
drug problem or to relieve some of the physical sufferings of
your fellow men, and those things are good and right in their place.
But my friend, listen, your greatest problem is not the pothead down
the street. the junkie who's shooting heroin
into his arm there in the streets of New York, your greatest problem
is the sin of your own heart. And you must come to grips with
that problem. You must be honest with your
own sin and your own guilt and your own accountability to God. I would ask you the question,
have you ever seen your sin as that which deserves the wrath
and condemnation of Almighty God? Have you ever seen that
were you to stand before God today, you would have no excuse
and no grounds to claim acceptance with Him? Let me ask you another
question. Have you come to see that God's
only answer to the problem of human sin is in the person and
work of His Son, Jesus Christ. Are you content to have religion
as a little department in your life? A little bit of the church,
a little bit of Christ, a little bit of prayer, a little bit of
the Bible, but you would not want to be thought a fanatic.
You don't want to be one of these Bible-toting fanatics who believes
that all of life is to be centered in Christ. My friend, Whatever
good such religion may do you now, it will do you no good in
death and in judgment. Unless Jesus Christ is to you
the object of your supreme trust and religious affection, you
do not have a relationship with Him. that will stand you in good
stead in the day of death and in the day of judgment. You must
repent of your self-centeredness, of your self-righteousness, of
trusting in your own merits and virtue, and you must come as
a naked, helpless, guilty sinner and cry like that poor, blind
beggar recorded in the Gospels, Son of David, have mercy upon
me. And then, seeing your sin as
your greatest need and Christ as the only answer, you must,
according to the Scriptures, repent and believe the gospel. Then and only then will you know
what it is to come into personal, intimate fellowship with the
living God and deal with the cosmos of your own individual
world of sin. And then you will have that hope
implanted in the heart of every true child of God while he makes
his way through his allotted time in this present veil of
tears, that the hour is coming in which the Lord Jesus will
return again and usher in the new heavens and the new earth. May God grant that you shall
be found among His own in that great day.