wOPEN: Why do people do “evil things?”
About 7 years ago (8/31/98), Charles Colson wrote that “A generation of liberals in academia and government has accepted the view that if only the evils of society – such as poverty, unemployment and racism – were overcome, crime would disappear.”
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, for example, expressed this notion when he wrote: “Healthy, rational people will not injure others.” In other words, poverty was the cause of crime.
A decade later, President Jimmy Carter used the same rationale to explain the widespread looting during the 1977 New York blackout. “Obviously, the number one contributing factor
to crime of all kinds, is high unemployment among young people.”
Eventually someone had to do a study to find out if that was true. Someone finally asked: is it the poor the unemployed/ the down trodden of this world that do evil things. A New York study of the 1977 rioting in New York revealed that:
45% of the arrested looters had jobs.
Only 10% were on the welfare rolls.
Furthermore, the study revealed that the looters stole things for which they had no use or need.
So, why did these people steal? Why do people do evil things? Several studies have dealt with this question and many agree with a Professor Thomas Sowell of Stanford University who wrote, “People commit crimes… because they put their own interests or egos above the interests, feelings, or lives of others.”
APPLY: In other words… people sin because they have made a choice.
I. In the days of Isaiah… many leading Judeans had made a choice
The people Isaiah was talking to were not street people. They were not vagrants or unemployed. They were the leaders of government, priests and people of responsibility. And yet, they had made a choice: they had chosen to live evil lives.
One person asked what happens if you spell “LIVE” backwards? You get “evil”.
A society filled with people who live their lives backward is capable of unspeakable evil. And that is what God was condemning Judah of: Look again at Isaiah 59:3-4
“For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.”
No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.”
As Isaiah 59:7 puts it: “Their feet RUN to evil, And they MAKE HASTE to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.” (NKJV)
These people not only chose evil lifestyles, they ran toward them.
But… why would people CHOOSE to live like this?
Why would people CHOOSE to live their lives backward?
Did they just get up one morning and say:
“Hey, I think I’m going stain my hands with blood this morning!”
OR “I think I’m just going to just go out and tell lies and speak wicked things today”
(pause…) I don’t think so!
I think people ended up like this because they’ve made bad choices LONGGGG beforehand.
What kind of bad choices?
Well… the first bad choice people make is “listening to the wrong people”
In Proverbs 1 SOLOMON tells his son
“My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent… do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path; For THEIR FEET RUN TO EVIL, and they make haste to shed blood.” (Proverbs 1:16)
In other words… WHO we spend time with will influence HOW we think and live.
1 Cor. 15:33 tells us same thing Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
If I spend time around evil people…
I begin to act like them
I begin to accept their standards of right and wrong
EVEN if – initially - I don’t believe what they believe
ILLUS: Dr. James Dobson tells of a team of doctors who decided to conduct an experiment to study the ways in which group pressure influences young people.
To accomplish this, they invited 10 teenagers into a room and told them they were going to evaluate their “perception” in order to learn how well each student could “see” the front of the room where he sat.
The doctors said, “We’re going to hold up some cards at the front of the room. On each card are 3 lines – Line A, Line B and Line C – each of a different length…. When we point to the longest line, please raise your hand to show that you know it is longer than the others.” They repeated the directions to be sure everybody understood and then raised the first card and pointed to the top line.
What one student didn’t know was that the other 9 had been secretly informed earlier to vote for the second longest line. In other words, they were told to vote wrongly.
The doctors held up the first card and pointed to Line A, which was clearly shorter than line B. At this point, all 9 students raised their hands. The boy being studied looked around in disbelief. It was obvious that Line B was the longest line, but everybody seemed to think Line A was longer. He later admitted that he thought, “I must not have been listening during the directions. Somehow, I missed the point, and I’d better do what everybody else is doing or they’ll laugh at me.” So he carefully raised his hand with the rest of the group.
Then the researchers explained the directions again: “Vote for the longest line; raise your hand when we point to the longest line.”
It couldn’t have been more simple! Then they held up the 2nd card, and again, 9 people voted for the wrong line. The confused fellow became more tense over his predicament, but eventually he raised his hand with the group once again. Over and over he voted with the group, even though he knew they were wrong.
This young man was not unusual. In fact, more than 75 percent of the young people tested behaved that same way.
Don’t be deceived, bad company spoils good morals
Who you hang out with – WILL determine how you think and how you live. It will influence the choices you make in your life.
The 2nd bad choice Judah had made was – they’d chosen to spend their lives playing with spiders and snakes.
There was a cute little love song back in the 70’s that went like this:
“I don’t like spiders and snakes and that ain’t what it takes to love me… like a I want to be loved by you.”
Isaiah 59:5 tells us They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.”
They liked playing with Spiders and Snakes. But God told them “that ain’t what it takes to love me, like I want to be loved by you.”
(pause…)
Now, why would anybody want to play with spiders and snakes? Would any of you raise vipers and adders in your home? Of course not. What a silly thought. But God uses this imagery of hatching viper eggs and spinning spider’s webs because it is extremely graphic. He wants to make it clear that one of the habits of the Judeans had gotten Him angry… but what what sinful practice could God have been comparing to playing with snakes and spiders?
I believe the answer is found in the previous verse (LOOK WITH ME) Isaiah 59:4 “No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.”
How had these people gotten into playing with spiders and snakes???
They had begun to accept dishonesty as normal.
They relied on empty arguments and they spoke lies…
Now that’s not as bizarre a concept as you might think…
ILLUS: When he was still a powerful media spokesman, Dan Rather was trying to explain the fact that a politician he liked had been caught in several lies. Commenting on this, Rather said:
"I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."
In other words… he was willing to tolerate dishonesty.
He was willing to accept lying as if it were truth
Jesus said that when people get to believe that dishonesty is acceptable they have played with biggest snake in the pit.
Jesus told one crowd of people
“You belong to your father, THE DEVIL, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Why do people accept dishonesty?
Why would they embrace falsehood rather than truth???
Well, to paraphrase Professor Thomas Sowell of Stanford University, “People (lie)… because they put their own interests or egos above the interests, feelings, or lives of others.”
People lie to protect their interests
They lie to gain control over the people around them
They lie to cover their sins
Sometimes they’ll prefer lies to truth because the truth tells them something they don’t want to hear.
And, the Bible tells me that EVEN my own heart lies to me sometimes. “The heart is deceitful above all things.” (Jeremiah 17:9)
In other words, there are times I’ll be deceitful without even realizing it.
ILLUS: I’ve seen people do just that when seeking counseling from me. They’ll tell me their “story” which often portrays themselves as the victim. When I talk with the other person I find that they also have their “story” which often defends their actions or behavior.
QUOTE: One philosopher noted:
“The first and worst of all fraud is to lie to oneself. All sin is easy after that.”
That’s why it’s critical for us to pray as David did:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:23-24
II. As I got to thinking about this sermon… this image of snakes in Isaiah 59 stuck in my mind… and eventually I got to thinking about snakes. And I recalled an incident when the Israelites were wandering in the desert.
Living in the desert was hard and they began to long for the “comforts” they’d had in Egypt.
At one point we’re told that “The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost— also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" Numbers 11:4-6
They guys were lying.
To hear these folks talk, you’d have thought they’d been living at a resort in Egypt with food being served down at the pool and those little mints being placed on the pillows at night.
But life had never been easy for the Israelites down in Egypt
They had been slaves
Their food was NEVER free
And their existence was so miserable they literally cried out day and nite to God
Now… the Israelites in that day, made the same 2 bad choices that Isaiah condemned in his day:
1st – they listened to the wrong people. They listened to “the rabble” (KJV = “Mixed multitude”)
2nd – they began to embrace falsehood – the lie that life was better back in Egypt
As a result… they engaged in sinful behavior and attitudes. They had a rebellious and ungrateful heart. So, whenever they faced danger, hunger or thirst they complained… and they complained… and they complained.
Eventually, God had enough of it and in Numbers we’re told: “… the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.” Numbers 21:6-7
You know… you really don’t want to tick God off and sinful attitudes will do it every time
Back in Isaiah 59:2 the Jews were told “your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
But, you know, if that’s the only picture we saw of God in Scripture… we would be filled with despair and hopelessness. Each of us has sins and failings that have made us feel that God would be right in hiding His face from us and turning a deaf ear to our cries. That’s why, I believe, Isaiah tells us that God looked around to find someone who would heal His people. Who would undo the damage of their sinfulness…
“He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak….
"The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD. Isaiah 59:16-17; 20
God has never wanted to destroy His people. In fact, He has always had a plan to heal His people. In the desert, He had Moses "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." Numbers 21:8
And in spite of their sinful hearts… God bro’t healing when they looked upon the bronze serpent that had been placed upon a piece of wood. The serpent became the emblem of all the wickedness that had brought the sting of death into their camp. It was if their sin had been placed upon that wood to save them.
When Jesus came, He explained:
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16)
When Jesus was placed upon the wood of the cross, He took upon Himself the sin of each and every one of us. And when we look to the cross we see the one who took away the sting of death that our sins should have brought into our lives.
But when we look upon the cross we are healed.
When we look at Christ taking our place, we recognize our own sin
When we look upon the cross we see the need for Jesus to take charge of our lives
And when we look upon the cross, we see the need to die to our sins and be buried in the waters of baptism.
OTHER SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
Cool Runnings - Isaiah 40:1-40:31
The Race Toward Evil - Isaiah 59:1-59:21
A Prize Every Time - 1 Corinthians 9:19-9:27
Getting Your 2nd Wind - Mark 5:1-5:20
Running For Freedom - Acts 8:26-8:40
The Runaway Lad and The Waiting Dad - Luke 15:11-15:24
