Robert Driskell - Oklahoma City Biblical Examiner - examiner.com
As one looks around and sees what is happening all over the world today, this verse takes on a new urgency. Much of humanity has decided that we can get along just fine without God in our lives. We are capable of constructing our own morals and ethics and we are also capable of living by them.
However, the Bible tells us different when we read, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV). The crime and immorality we see every night on the evening news is a direct result of people who reject God and His Word, and live by the lusts and desires of their own heart.
America was once a great, and godly, nation. No honest person can say they do not see the decline that our nation is experiencing today. No longer are we looked upon by other countries as leaders of the world. No longer can we be described as a moral nation. We are attacking, or redefining, everything that God says is good and replacing it with our perversions. No longer is marriage a sacred union between a man and a woman; we now seek to define it in ways it was never meant to be.
Romans 1:18-32 is like holding a mirror up to the face of our nation. It tells us that the truth of God is clear to every person on earth. Everyone knows that God exists and that we should be humbling ourselves in worship to Him. However, humanity thinks that we do not need God. With our worldly philosophies and exalted sciences, we have become too wise to believe in a God that demands our worship. The Bible describes our condition this way, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:21-22 ESV).
If we look at the histories of other countries and civilizations that have traveled the road America is traveling, we can see the future of our nation if we continue to reject God. The biblical book of Romans tells us that God will eventually turn a rebellious people over to their own wicked ways. If a people continue to reject Him, He will eventually allow them to reap the destruction that they have sowed by their disobedience. These should be some sobering words to anyone who thinks seriously about such things.
This passage of Romans could be describing present-day America:
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:18-32 ESV).
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:18-32 ESV).
How much longer will we continue to ignore God’s word and reject His lordship? How much longer will His patience put up with our rebellion? The Bible tells us that there will be a day when God will judge every person according to how they have lived their lives in relation to Him. There will come a day when God brings His wrath on those who have rejected Him.
Until then, we are reaping what we sow. Right now, we are just beginning to experience the results of our rejection of God, His word, and His will.
Will we continue this downward spiral by remaining a rebellious people; or will we turn to God, repent of our rebellion, and begin the healing?
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