If There’s No God, Why Does Evil Bother You?

Intro

No one had to teach you to get mad when something feels unfair.

If you have ever had to do a group project at school it can be one of the most frustrating things. Everyone comes together to talk about the project, you assign different jobs to everyone so you can all take part of the load. But naturally there is alway one person in the group who is a procrastinator. Everyone else in the group is getting their work done and you’re just a few days away from the project being due and they still haven’t gotten anyone their work.

Eventually the others end of doing the work of the person who has been procrastinating and when you get your grade back you either all suffer a bad grade because everything came together so late and you’re mad because it’s unfair you had to deal with the one partner. Or you all get an amazing grade and the person in the group who ended up doing nothing benefits from the rest of you doing all the work.

It’s similar when you hear someone lie and you not it’s not true. You witness or hear about someone getting bullied. You really feel it when you get blamed for something you didn’t do.

You didn’t learn that outrage, you felt it. So where does that sense of right and wrong come from?

Tonight isn’t about pointing out what’s wrong with the world. It’s about being honest about what’s wrong with us.

The Moral Argument for God’s existence shows us that

if objective morals exist, God must exist.

Objective morals do exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Romans 2 shows us that evil only makes sense if God exists. And if it doesn’t stop at proof it calls us to deal with the evil in our hearts.

Point 1: Scripture Reveals Objective Morals Through Conscience

Romans 2:14–15 “So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them”

Explain

Some of the worlds greatest questions are answered in the book of Romans. Specifically in the first couple chapters. In verse 12 we learn that everyone who has sinned, even if they don’t know what sin is or what the law is, is still condemned without the law because of their sin. Those who know the law, they too are then judged by the law. The standard is set that all who sin are guilty.

People who don’t have the Bible or have never heard of the Bible, the law, sin, they still know the difference between right and wrong to an extent. V. 15 says that it’s written on their hearts.

What the Bible is arguing that in God’s creation he made us with a story as well. Part of that story is that we as humans were made in God’s image. Being made in God’s image comes with reflecting him to the world in ways that our hearts are compelled to. That feeling of doing something good for someone is a common grace that God etched into our hearts. It’s when the stranger returns the missing wallet or stands up for a friend. It’s something he has hardwired into our DNA to show the world what goodness is and who it comes from.

At the same time, we also know things that are wrong. We can see injustice and evil and it causes us all in our hearts to grow with feelings of anger, frustration, hurt, or pain.

This is why when you see someone being picked on, it frustrates you. When someone cheats on a test there is a feeling of guilt deep down inside because that wasn’t right. When you ghost a friend on purpose and then you see them later you feel some sense that you should avoid them because you feel guilty. This feeling is a universal “accusation” that is deep down in our hearts.

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

There are things that society would sometimes call good that is actually evil. Someone who manipulates people by buttering them up with words only to get them on their side and receive their trust for when they wrong others. When people call lying “strategic.” These are things that twists and manipulate God’s standard of evil and good.

The part of our hearts that while something maybe makes us laugh, a moment later we feel guilty. That knot in your stomach when you scroll past injustice? That’s God’s built in GPS pointing to Him.

A world without God gives us morals that aren’t really morals. Everything is an opinion. Truth becomes relative rather than objective. My truth is my truth and yours is yours even if they completely disagree. History shows us that without a moral standard, even horrifying things can be rebranded as good.

But with God, we see him as the creator and the law giver. He’s the one who made all things and declares what is good and evil. Evil bothers us because we are made in his image.

Point 2: Scripture Confronts Personal Sin as Part of the Moral Reality.

Romans 2:15 “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them”

Explain

It’s interesting that Paul even points this out in verse 15. In our minds we have thoughts that conflict. Sometimes we do something, desires something, want something and at the same time we know it’s not good or right.

The evil that we see and experience in this world is not just evil that we see in other people. It’s internal and the evil we see in our own lives. It’s not just out there, we must recognize that it’s in us too.

The moral argument for God’s existence isn’t about judging the world for what we see in it. It’s personal. There are things we all ignore that our conscience calls out to us as wrong. When we gossip about someone in the group or class. The jealousy and envy we experience about someone else. The anger in our hearts that drives us to not being able to fall asleep at night.

In Psalm 51:5–6 “Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within.”

David is confessing his own sin. He knows what he has done now to be evil as it was pointed out to him. And in his confession of his sin, he cries out to God. What David prays and confesses is true of us as well.

He cries out that he’s been guilty from his birth. He’s been guilty of sin for his entire life because of his sin nature. The fall in the garden of Eden didn’t just impact the location of where God is compared to us. It broke the relationship between him and us and also the relationships with have with one another. But the one that we feel the most often is the brokenness we feel in ourselves. We were born broken, but God wants something more for us.

God desires for us to have a right relationship with him. In giving the law to his people he exposed something. The law is a mirror of our imperfect hearts. It displays our dirt and magnifies it for us to be able to actually see how bad it is.

If you have dirt all over your face but no one says anything and you walk into a bathroom to then notice your dirty face it reflects what’s wrong. You notice and can see it. That’s the law, it points out the sin that is all over our hearts and the sin we have committed. But the mirror doesn’t clean you, it just reveals the need to be cleaned. The law exposes our sin, our own wickedness and failure to live to the standard.

Think about the last time your conscience spoke. What did you do with that feeling? Did you listen to it or silence it?

Take a moment, have you ever done something that felt wrong, even if no one knew or saw it? Maybe it was earlier today, maybe it was years ago. But every once in a while, you still think about it. It feels like something that’s in a deep corner of your memories that you often wonder why it comes back to your memories.

The reason that continues to come up is that your heart knows that it was wrong. It sometimes feel like you have to stuff it back down and leave it because if anyone knew, your whole world would come crushing down on you. But what your heart is actually doing is inviting you to change and bring it to the light. What appears in the mirror needs to be not just exposed, it needs to be healed.

Point 3: Scripture Leads from Moral Awareness to Transformation

Romans 2:15 “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them”

Your conscience isn’t just proof that God exits. It doesn’t just make you aware that the creator has written the law on our hearts. It’s the starting point for us to actually give our lives to Jesus and become more like him. It’s the beginning of our sanctification.

Romans 7:24–25 “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.”

The power of the gospel is that our conviction is a starting point. But when we trust in Christ we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. And when we feel the prompting of God at work in our hearts, we feel the conviction of our sin. It gives us what feels like a giant lump in our throat as we hold back tears over the remorse of our sin.

But what Paul celebrates in Romans 7 is that while he still falls short, his sin is paid for and his body is rescued because he does not serve his sin, but he serves the Lord. His moral struggle finds deliverance in Jesus and his forgiveness, his grace, his mercy, his victory on the cross.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

We no longer look to the mirror of the law, but we look to the glory of the Lord because as we understand the sin that we commit, the confession and repentance of that sin continues to transform our lives. Step by step, day by day, as we behold God for who he is through the power of the Spirit of God that dwells in us we are changed.

The moral argument culminates here. God doesn’t leave us in guilt, he transforms us.

Application

Romans 2 doesn’t just prove God, it exposes our need for him. The moral law on your heart accuses you, but Jesus answers to stand as the judge and takes the place of the guilty one. Jesus himself takes upon your sin and grants to you his righteousness. Romans 8:1 says that you are no longer condemned. You are no longer a sinner, but have become a saint for the work that God has done in your heart bringing you to salvation through the repentance of your heart and the forgiveness of sin that Christ gave to you.

But make this personal tonight. Don’t just let those be words that are shared tonight, but let it become real in your heart. Lean into the gift of the dark spaces of your heart actually being brought to the light. I want to invite us tonight to not just nod our hearts, but to actually open our hearts. To confess sin, hand it over to God and ask him to transform us all the more.

Earlier I said that there might be something that is deep in us, something that continues to come back to feel like it haunts us. Maybe is something you continue to struggle with over and over and it feels like a battle constantly. I want to invite you tonight to stop hiding, stop stuffing that down, and ask God to bring it to the surface. God delights in inward truth and desires for you to bring forward the darkness into his marvelous light.

Shame may be what is keeping it down. But conviction by God doesn’t say hide, it welcomes us to come. Satan tries to accuse and isolate. The Spirit convicts us to restore us with God.

Confession isn’t punishment from God. The fear in our hearts sometimes drives us to think that confession means punishment, a world that crashes down on us if it comes out. But what true confession does is it brings us freedom with God.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I’ve had moments where the Spirit is screaming at me with conviction. I’ve even ignored it before. And every time I do ignore it, it doesn’t make me feel more free. It just stuffs the darkness further to only resurface later. But in confessing, every time God meets me with kindness and freedom. I’m met with forgiveness and accountability. It not longer haunts me, but its redeemed from one degree of glory to another, day by day.

Tonight is a moment to take it, bring it to the light and hand it over to God. To pray “Lord, take this from me. Make my heart clean. Transform me.”

The hard news is that transformation isn’t always instant. 2 Cor. says that its from one degree of glory to another. It takes time often. But God’s kind enough to help us along the way. When we dwell in his Word reading the scriptures we fill our hearts with the law and the Spirit brings us to continued conviction and transformation. Don’t be afraid to grab a few friends, a leader, or a trusted follower of Christ to help you with accountability.

Jesus lived the perfect moral life that we never could. He died for our failures and rose to empower us to change and be redeemed. Surrender to him tonight and let the lawgiver become the one who transforms you.

Your heart bears witness, let it lead you to the God who wrote the law there.