When God Abandons a Nation
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Introduction:
Introduction:
I want to open today by just reading one verse of our text; verse 18:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
This section is on the wrath of God; admittedly not a poplar subject in the world and not even a popular subject in the Church.
And there is some confusion among those who calls themselves Christians on the subject of the wrath of God and purity and want to take you through this morning and perhaps answer or correct any holes in your thinking by what the Word says.
There are a number of different aspects of the wrath of God.
There is what we would call eternal wrath.
And that is the wrath that God brings upon unbelieving sinner forever in Hell.
Then there is what we would call eschatological wrath, that is the wrath that is released at the end of the world that is clearly laid our for in the pages of Scripture.
Then there is what we would call cataclysmic wrath, like a tsunami, a volcano, a hurricane, an earthquake, a plane flying into the Twin Towers resulting in thousands of deaths..cataclysms happen in the world.
Then there is what we would call consequential wrath.
Consequential wrath is the sowing and reaping, you live a certain kind of life in motion certain forces that will produce judgment.
But there is one other kind of wrath that is presented in this passage and that is the wrath of Abandonment.
When God turns His back on a society.
One of the most tragic scenes on the pages of Scripture will provide a good illustration of this.
It is a scene that involves the strongest man who ever lived, the might Samson.
He is the original Superman, and a real one.
When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.
She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.
She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison.
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
Ephraim is joined to idols; Let him alone.
“Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
And I think that it is very relevant to talk about this because I am going to show you from this passage this morning that it is pretty convincing that God has abandoned our nation.
God has abandoned America to the effects of its sinful choices.
And here in is the most graphic and the most comprehensive discussion of what it means to be abandoned by God and it is the best passage that I know of to explain the moral chaos and the confusion that we experience in our own nation at this very time.
God’s wrath is already at work in our culture, we are not waiting for it we are currently experiencing it.
I. The Purpose of the Abandoning (vs. 18-23)
I. The Purpose of the Abandoning (vs. 18-23)
In this portion of the text, Paul describes the reason for God Abandoning a nation.
A. The Declaration of the Wrath (vs. 18)
A. The Declaration of the Wrath (vs. 18)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Roman
The apostle Paul is unquestioning in his assessment about wrath.
“Wrath” is the Greek word “ὀργή” and speaks about strong indignation directed at wrong doing.
Now, I want you understand some things about this strong indignation at wrong doing.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
1. The Person of the Wrath (vs. 18a)
1. The Person of the Wrath (vs. 18a)
It is the wrath OF GOD.
It is therefore unlike anything that we can imagine in this present world.
God’s wrath is not like human wrath, which is always tainted by sin.
God’s wrath is always and completely righteous; He never loses His tempter.
God’s anger and wrath are not capricious, irrational rage but is the only response that a holy God could have towards evil.
God could never be holy and yet not be angry with sin, because holiness cannot tolerate unholiness.
Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Quality of God’s Wrath
The noted Greek exegete Richard Trench said, “There [can be no] surer and sadder token of an utterly prostrate moral condition than … not being able to be angry with sin-and sinners”
God is perfectly so all the time with a holy fury.
Jesus twice cleansed the temple because He was incensed at the money changers and sacrifice sellers who made His “Father’s house a house of merchandise” and “a den of robbers” (; ).
This is God’s wrath.
We are speaking about perfect, calculated wrath and judgment for crimes performed against absolute holiness and perfection.
Psalm
At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep.
You, even You, are to be feared; And who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?
Another psalmist reminded unfaithful Israel of what God had done to the defiant Egyptians who refuses to let hHis people leave.
Psalm
He sent upon them His burning anger, Fury and indignation and trouble, A band of destroying angels.
He leveled a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, But gave over their life to the plague,
And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, The first issue of their virility in the tents of Ham.
The Prophets speaks much about the wrath of God.
Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”
‘They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 6: The Wrath of God
In many well-known ways God expressed His wrath against sinful mankind in past ages. In the days of Noah, He destroyed all mankind in the Flood, except for eight people (Gen. 6–7). Several generations after Noah, He confounded men’s language and scattered them around the earth for trying to build an idolatrous tower to heaven (Gen. 11:1–9). In the days of Abraham, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, with only Lot and his family escaping (Gen. 18–19). He destroyed Pharaoh and his army in the sea as they vainly pursued the Israelites to bring them back to Egypt (Ex. 14). He poured out His wrath against pagan kings such as Sennacherib (2 Kings 18–19), Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4), and Belshazzar (Dan. 5). He even poured out His wrath against some of His own people—against King Nadab for doing “evil in the sight of the Lord, and [walking] in the way of his father and in his sin which he made Israel sin” (1 Kings 15:25–26) and against Aaron and Miriam, Moses’ brother and sister, for questioning Moses’ revelations from Him (Num. 12:1–10).
The wrath of God is just as much a part of the NT as well.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,
dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
This is the wrath that is from Almighty God.
2. The Pledge of the Wrath (vs. 18b)
2. The Pledge of the Wrath (vs. 18b)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
“Revealed” is the Greek word “ἀποκαλύπτω” and speaks about causing something to fully known, to bring something to light.
Ands being that the Greek word is in the Present Tense, the Greek would translate this word to say, “The wrath of God is constantly being made known....”
The wrath of God is always being reveled to fallen mankind and it repeatedly illustrated in the Scriptures.
It was first revealed in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve trusted the serpent’s word above God’s.
God’s wrath was revealed at the flood.
God’s wrath was revealed to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Timing of God’s Wrath
By far the surpassing revelation of God’s wrath was that placed upon His own Son on the cross, when Jesus took to Himself the sin of the world and bore the full divine force of God’s fury as its penalty God hates sin so deeply and requires its penalty so that He allowed His perfect, beloved Son to be put to death as the only means by which fallen mankind might be redeemed from its curse.
So we have seen the Person of the Wrath and the Pledge of the Wrath:
3. The Point of the Wrath (vs. 18c)
3. The Point of the Wrath (vs. 18c)
Romans
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
This is really the whole purpose to the abandoning by God, is that man by their very nature suppress the truth by their unrighteous acts.
“Suppress” is the word “κατέχω” and literally means “to prevent from doing something pr cause to be ineffective, to prevent to hinder”.
Paul makes it clear that the real purpose for the wrath of God is because sinful man has held back or prevented others from believing the truth because of the unrighteousness of their actions.
God guarantees that any person who sincerely seeks Him will find Him.
‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
But men are not naturally inclined to seek God.
This was proved beyond any shadow of a doubt when truth walked face to face with humanity:
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
Sinful men naturally oppose the idea of a holy God because they innately realize that such a God would hold them accountable for the sins they love and do not want to relinquish.
So Paul Declares the Wrath in The Person of the Wrath, the Pledge of the Wrath and the Point of the Wrath.
Not only do I want you to notice the Declaration of the Wrath:
B. The Description of the Wrath (vs. 19-23)
B. The Description of the Wrath (vs. 19-23)
In these next few verses, Paul gives a description of why God is bringing His wrath.
Why is the wrath of God so severe?
Notice:
1. Revelation (vs. 19-20)
1. Revelation (vs. 19-20)
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Paul’s point here is that even apart from the written revelation, those things that may be known of God is evident within them.
The word “evident” is “φανερός” and speaks of those things that are visible, things that are plainly seen, open.
God testifies through the Apostle that His outward, visible manifestation of Himself is universally known by man.
All men have evidence of God, and what their physical senses can perceive of Him their inner senses can understand to some extent.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Gift of Revelation
Theologian Augustus Strong wrote, “The Scriptures … both assume and declare that the knowledge that God is, is universal (Rom. 1:19–21, 28, 32; 2:15). God has inlaid the evidence of [that] fundamental truth in the very nature of man, so that nowhere is He without a witness”
When unregenerate man wonders in their lost unredeemed condition, it is not that they do not have natural knowledge about God, but it is that they rebel against that knowledge.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Gift of Revelation
Tertullian, the prominent early church Father, said that it was not the pen of Moses that initiated the knowledge of the Creator. The vast majority of mankind, though they had never heard the name of Moses—to say nothing of his book—know the God of Moses nonetheless (cf. An Answer to the Jews, chap. 2).
And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:
Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
And so because of revelation, because God has not left man without a witness, mankind is without excuse.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
God’s wrath is revealed because of Revelation.
2. Rejection (vs. 21-22)
2. Rejection (vs. 21-22)
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Romans 1:21-2
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
God will pour out his wrath because of man’s willful rejection of Him.
Through the natural, general revelation that they have have of God, unbelieving man still rejects Him.
Although man is innately conscious of God’s existence and power, he is just as innately and wickedly inclined to reject that knowledge.
That is the natural tendency of mankind.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Ignorance is not the sin, the refusal to give God honor and glory that is appropriate to the Creator.
God’s wrath is being poured out because man has the revelation and has rejected that revelation about God.
They have dishonored God, they become unthankful and became vain in their own thoughts.
“Vain” is “ματαιόω” and is only used here in the Greek and means “futile or worthless”.
Because of their rejection of revelation, unregenerate man becomes worthless is their thoughts, just empty.
They have been given over to worthlessness, they think about things that are idle, foolish.
It is used 7 times in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT…the Bible of the early Church) and is translated in as “stupid” or “brutish”.
Not only does unregenerate man in their rejection of revelation think about things that are stupid, but part of that is they way they think about sin and about God.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
This is the grand paradox, the awful tragedy of human intellectual thought that man, at the very moment when he acting in foolishness, brags about his wisdom.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
True wisdom begins when the heart is disposed to adore and to revere God.
So, what happens to the person who refuses to give honor to God?
He professes wisdom, but he possesses foolishness.
God’ wrath is being poured out because of the fact that there is revelation and that there is a rejection of the revelation, and third.
3. Religion (vs. 23)
3. Religion (vs. 23)
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Every person is born under God’s wrath and condemnation because of man-made religion that is reflected in the countless systems he has devised to replace the truth and the worship of God.
Fallen man is not naturally godly, he is very much naturally religious.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Man’s Religion
According to the 1986 World Almanac, approximately 2.6 billion people in the world have an identifiable religious affiliation of some sort. Many more are said to have some form of unidentified religion.
Hindus have some 330 million gods, which amounts to about 8 gods per family.
A two-inch long discolored tooth, claimed to have belonged to have belonged to Buddha and to have been retrieved from his funeral pyre in 543 B.C., is venerated by millions of Buddhists.
The tooth is set in a gold lotus blossom surrounded with rubies and enshrined in the Temple of of the Tooth in Sri Lanka.
In their spiritual blindness, intellectual darkness, and moral depravity, men are by nature inclined to reject the Holy Creator for the unholy creature.
Because something even in their fallenness demands a god, but one they like better than the true God, they devise deities of their own making.
It is not incidental that the Ten Commandments begin with the command:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Romans 1:
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Notice from this passage that the first creature that man substitutes for God is himself.
Instead of glorifying and worshipping God, he attempts to deify himself.
Although he doubtless made this alleged statement in derisive sarcasm, Voltaire was correct in saying, “God made man in His own image and man returned the favor”.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Man’s Religion
A. W. Tozer wisely observed that idolatry begins in the mind when we pervert or exchange the idea of God for something other than what He really is (The Knowledge of the Holy [N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1961], pp. 9–10).
But the equally as ludicrous is the worship of birds and four-footed beasts and crawling creatures.
The Romans worshipped Eagles and the Egyptians worshipped the stork and the hawk.
The Egyptians worshipped the bull-god, he cat-goddess, the cow goddess Hathor, the hippopotamus-goddess Opet and the list goes on and on.
The ancient Egyptians worshipped the scarab beetle, which lives in manure piles and commonly referred to as the dung beetle.
But before we get to hasty against “uncivilized” society, we are no better when we put our thoughts and our plans above the thoughts and plans of God.
Man is not against religion, he is against the God of the Bible.
Man is no stranger to religion; he is full of it and will be the victim of the wrath of God because of it.
So, what is the purpose of being abandoned by God, why is the wrath of God being poured out?
Because man has the revelation about God and is; therefore, without excuse.
He rejects that revelation, lifts himself up as the supreme sovereign.
Creates his own religion and all the while proves how utterly worthless and stupid he is in the way that he thinks.
Which is proven by what he worships.
So, God is pouring out His wrath and these are the reasons why.
But what does the abandoning look like?
We are seen The Purpose of the Abandoning, now notice.
II. The Process of the Abandoning (vs. 24-32)
II. The Process of the Abandoning (vs. 24-32)
When we look at the process of the Abandoning, notice what Paul repeatedly says.
Verse 24, “God gave them over”.
Verse 26, “God gave them over”.
Verse 28, “God gave them over”.
“Gave them over” is “παραδίδωμι” in the Greek and it literally means “to hand over, to deliver, to give up a person”.
It is the same Greek word that is used in where it speaks about Judas handing over Christ.
It literally has the idea of God letting a people have what they what and delivering them or handing them over to it.
How does give a person over?
By just removing His restraining and protective hand.
To allow the consequences of sin to take their inevitable, destructive course.
Romans: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Essence of Man’s Sinfulness
Thomas Watson said, “Sin … puts gravel in our bread [and] wormwood in our cup” (A Body of Divinity [Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1983 reprint], p. 136).
Paul uses that to describe the progression of what it looks like when a nation is abandoned by God.
Notice the Progression of a Nation Abandoned by God.
A. Heterosexual Impurity (vs. 24-25)
A. Heterosexual Impurity (vs. 24-25)
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
When a nation becomes pornographic, when the general character of a society can be seen to be immoral, this wrath is in effect.
When man is abandoned by God, when a society is abandoned by God, it operates only out of the passions of its own impure heart.
It operates in the lusts of the heart, leading to impurity.
When a nation is abandoned by God, lust dominates the heart, leading to impurity and the bodies follow in most dishonorable ways.
The heart is wicked and unrestrained and the body follows and you have a pornographic culture.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive When God Abandons a Nation
We can go back pretty readily in our own country to the sexual revolution connected to the hippie movement, connected to the Playboy empire beginning and since then this society has become increasingly pornographic until even the Internet is dominated by millions and millions of immoral pornographic websites to feed the insatiable lusts that dominate our culture. This leads to the smashing and crushing of marriage. This leads to horrific and horrendous abuse of children, pedophilia, all kinds of child abuse, all kinds of pornography involving children that continues to run rampant a wild pace because restraining grace has been removed. And sex runs rampant, marriage becomes a minor option as people engage in immoral behavior readily and constantly without commitment.
That is what step one looks like.
So look at out society and ask, is it driven by sexual immorality?
Is it filled with lust in the heart leading to impurity and the body follows in dishonorable behavior?
The answer for our own world and society would be, yes.
So, step one of the progression of a nation being abandoned by God is Heterosexual impurity.
B. Homosexual Impurity (vs. 26-27)
B. Homosexual Impurity (vs. 26-27)
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Notice the word “vile”.
It is the word “ἀτιμία” and means “degrading”.
It is translated, literally, in our verse as “degrading”.
So, we are not just talking about passions, Paul adds degrading; we are going down.
There is greater debauchery here.
The degrading passions can be defined as gross affections, vile desires, perversions or even inversion.
And here it is.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Plain ans simple, Lesbianism, homosexuality.
And the Holy Spirit here, I believe, refers to the degradation of women because they are usually the last to be affected in the decay of morals because they have a mothering instinct and a protective instinct over their own children but when the wrath of abandonment is in force, even the women fall to the degrading passions.
John MacArthur Sermon Archive When God Abandons a Nation
And in our culture the Lesbian movement has been vocal and relentless and passionate and fierce and even violent. Proof that absolutely all virtue is gone when motherhood, the highest, normal human virtuous relationship is abandoned and the people who do it are elevated as cultural icons. All virtue is gone when homosexuality invades the female gender.
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And there is a little slip in of the consequential wrath.
What is the due penalty of their error.
They have received venereal disease, AIDS and that will continue to escalate in the wrath of abandonment.
Homosexuality is the second step.
So, look at society.
When you see a society that is pornographic, that is into sexual immorality, fornication, adultery as a way of life, as a dominant way of life, which is not only in existence but approved and exalted in every way in the media, you know that you have the wrath of abandonment in operation.
And when a society also exalts homosexuality, lesbianism, or sodomy, you know that it is sinking deeper.
At this point, in particular, I want to be very truthful, but I want to be very kind and loving at the same time.
And I need to address this very important question, “Does the Bible condemn of condone the practice of Homosexuality”?
Are homosexuals guilty of practicing a sinful lifestyle or are they simply living out their God-ordained functions?
Are Homosexuals to be excluded from the Church, or should they be included in the assembly of God’s people?
It is unfortunate indeed that these are questions are facing evangelicals today, but they are.
The pro-homosexual agenda when thinking regarding their relationship to the Church approach the subject to differing conclusions.
1. Subjectivism
1. Subjectivism
According to homosexual advocates, the reader imparts into the biblical text, making subjective, personal experience the ultimate test of truth.
Master’s Seminary Journal Volume 11 Subjectivism
One gay proponent writes, “Our discussion on whether queers have the Holy Spirit can only be answered by meeting queer Christians, then bringing that information back to the Bible and informing the Bible of truths it may or may not have already known.”3
So basically, you develop a lifestyle that you want and then interpret that into the Scriptures.
2. Historic-Scientific
2. Historic-Scientific
Others liken the church’s position on homosexuality as evolving in the same way as it position on slavery changed.
As more information surfaced, the churches attitude changed.
Similarly, the anti-homosexual bias is obliterated by the progress of society.
Donald Eastman, in his book: “Homosexuality: Not a sin, not a sickness; What the Bible does and does not say”, said this:
Master’s Seminary Journal Volume 11 Historic-Scientific
“What influences
MSJ 11:2 (Fall 2000) p. 157
lead us to new ways of understanding Scripture? New scientific, social changes, and personal experiences are perhaps the greatest forces of change in the way we interpret the Bible and develop our beliefs.”
But our authority is the Scripture; so let’s go there.
Does the Scripture; clearly and authoritatively, condemn or condone the practice of Homosexuality?
‘You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
‘If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.
And I want you to notice our text.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
The text here indicates for us that the practice Lesbianism and Homosexuality; while sinful, is also “unnatural”.
It is a natural practice for a married man and woman (to each other) to engage in this kind of practice, it is unnatural (against nature) for two men or two woman to practice these things.
The Apostle Paul gets a little bit more detailed.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Paul uses two different words here that have differing translations; the word effeminate and the phrase “abusers of themselves with mankind”.
“Effeminate” is the word “μαλακός” and this literally speaks about the passive male partner in a homosexual relationship.
“Abusers of themselves with mankind” is “ἀρσενοκοίτης” and this is the sodomite, the dominant male partner.
So Paul is clear that neither partner will inherit the Kingdom of God.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
The Church cannot behave as though it did not possess a blueprint for life, as though it too was subject to the changing wind and waved of ideas.
The Church has a sure word of truth which is not only able to save, but also able to equip for every facet of life.
The Church must take a stand on the divine order stated in the opening chapters of Genesis and affirmed throughout the rest of the Scriptures whenever the Holy Spirit endeavors to teach on marriage and the family.
And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
The Lord referred back to the divine order not only for its permanence, but also for its sexual nature: a man for a woman.
“Have you not read” is not a mandate for the Church to adjust its theology on sex and marriage to opinion polls of the godless masses or the conflicting and prejudicial scientific conclusions of depraved minds.
Homosexuality is a perversion of the divine order. Period.
However, the Church is not an agent of condemnation alone, but it is primarily an agent of change.
We must share the love and grace of God to this souls that are redeemable by the grace of Almighty God.
The can and must repent of these sins and embrace Christ and that is the mission of the Church; not to accept their sin, but to receive them and preach against it and preach repentance so they too can be forgiven.
So, a nation that is abandoned by God is seen in the glorification of heterosexual impurity.
The next step in the process is seen in the glorification of homosexual impurity.
But it does not stop there.
C. Psychological Impurity (vs. 28-32)
C. Psychological Impurity (vs. 28-32)
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Again, we see “God gave them over”.
God will remove all restraining grace and give to sinful men, their sinful pleasures.
But notice the next step in the process, “a reprobate mind”.
It is the Greek word “ἀδόκιμος” and speaks about a base mind, a worthless mind, a depraved mind.
This is the mind that is not able to function properly.
This is the mind that is so base, so depraved and so worthless in its process that it believes things that cannot possibly be true.
What is the next step in abandoning of our society?
It is when people cannot think right; it is when boys think they are girls and girls think they are boys; this is the next step in the process.
Our society, in the development of this abandonment, has bought into the fact that people are not necessarily who they were created to be.
They have tagged it Gender Dysphoria in children, where the child experiences a marked incongruence between their “experienced” gender and gender associated with their biological self.
And sadly, this kind of thinking has crept into the Church at large.
Where people within the realms of Christianity began to say that there is some truth to the fact that young people that are born one way have traits of the opposite sex and struggle with their identity.
And once you begin to accept that line of thinking, the natural conclusion of the matter is that we (the Church) must accept that sinful lifestyle that goes along with this identity crisis because “they cannot help the way they were made”.
Even if that were true, this identity crisis, even secular medicine says that it is not that often of an occurence.
The American College of Pediatricians, in an article written in November 2018 says that this “Gender Dysphoria” occurs in less than 1% of children.
Dr. Kenneth Zucker, long acknowledged as a foremost authority on gender identity issues in children, has also been a lifelong advocate for gay and transgender rights believes that gender-dysphoric pre-pubertal children are best served by helping them align their gender identity with the anatomic self.
In other words, be who you are created to be.
Now, that is from a gay activist.
The same article goes on to say that many of these doctors “find it self evident that there is a purposeful design to human nature, and that cooperation with that design leads to human flourishing”.
Joe Francis, the Chairperson of the Department of Biological and Physical Sciences and the Department of Mathematics at the Masters University in Southern California, in a personal interview I had with him preparing for the sermon, says:
“You are either XX or XY”.
You are either born male or female, there are no such thing as transgender.
Do I need to tell you that there is a differences between male and female.
Anne and Bill Moir, non- Christians scientists and authors of several books including “Why Men Don’t Iron: The New Reality of Gender Differences” says that men have an average of ten times more testosterone than women.
Dr. Ken Hamm, with answers in Genesis says: “Studies show that women use a vocabulary that is different enough from men to ‘statistically significant’” .
This gets to the point of just being common sense; Adam names his wife “woman” because she was distinct from him.
Only a man can provide the raw materials that are needed to procreate; only women can bear children and nurse them.
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
No matter what people try to do, they cannot wish or think about away the basics of life: men are men and women are women.
Man cannot be a woman and a woman cannot be a man.
And once you start down that path and accepting the “gender identity crisis” you are close to believing that God made a mistake in how he created them.
The Word of God is clear, our original parents were male and female and that is the only sexes that God makes; that is the reality of the sexes.
All of these things that we have talked about today are engineered by the enemy of our souls in order to disrupt and disunite the family and society.
What is the purpose or the reasons of God Abandoning a Nation?
Because they have the Revelation about God, reject that revelation and create their own religion.
What is the Process of that Abandoning; what does an abandoned society look like?
Heterosexual Impurity, Homosexual Impurity and Psychological Impurity.
The key for the Church?
Walk in the ways of the Lord.
The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the God and obey it.
And this is not a time for weak men preaching weak sermons in weak churches.
This is a time for bold and powerful, strong Biblical ministry that calls people to heat the Word of the Lord and respond.
This is the only hope for any people for any individual.