Romans 1:18-23 ESV
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. “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, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
People make their own gods to suit their own desires. If
they don’t want to submit to Almighty God, and to forsake their sins, and to obey
the Lord’s commandments, then they just create their own god. And their god,
created from the will of the flesh, thus puts a freeze on the conviction of the
Holy Spirit in their lives. And, it puts a halt on the movement of the Holy Spirit
in people’s hearts. And, this false god then becomes sovereign over their
lives.
This false god, of the will of man, not of the will of God,
thus softens faith in Jesus Christ to something much less than what God requires.
For, it puts an end to the necessity of the message of the cross, of death to
sin, and of living to Christ and to his righteousness (Rom. 6:1-23; Lu.
9:23-26).
And, it just puts a mask over the sin. But the sin isn’t
gone, for this false god allows for the sin to continue unchecked, and without
guilt or remorse. And, they call this “grace.” (See: Jer. 6:13-15; Jer.
8:10-12; 1 Thess. 5:3).
And, the American church, overall, has adopted this false
god as their sovereign in place of the one true God. For, the false god doesn’t
get in their face about their sin. He doesn’t care if they continue living in
sin. In fact, he smiles on them and he delights in them even while they are
vegging out on pornography. And, they call that “love.” But God Almighty
objects!!
God – Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit – does NOT
make allowances for continued, willful, blatant, and premeditated sin against
him. His grace does not cover-up sinful addiction. He says we are slaves to the
one we obey, and if we obey the flesh, it ends in death, not life (Rom. 6:16).
Romans 1:24-25 ESV
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
So, how is the church, at large, or people, in general,
changing the truth of God for a lie? For one, they are lessening God as to who
he is, and they are bringing him down to human level, as though he is
altogether like us. And, they are removing from him his divine attributes,
character and will.
They are making him soft on sin, as though he just ignores
our sin, and as though he looks the other way, or as though he doesn’t even see
when we sin anymore. They are making him happy with us even if we remain living
in our sins, committing all kinds of atrocities against our fellow humans. And,
they are mocking his death on a cross by making it just about forgiving our sin
while “God” permits us to keep on living in sin.
Thus, they have adopted a diluted and altered gospel message
which does not require repentance, obedience to Christ, or submission to the
Lordship of Christ for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God, as
part of God-given and ongoing faith in Jesus Christ. They may make these
optional, or they may discourage them altogether, calling them “works-based
salvation.”
And, thus they have rejected holiness, righteousness, godliness,
morality, uprightness, integrity, and honesty as their life course, and they
are living lives which are free (apart) from freedom from slavery to sin. Thus,
they have rejected Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sins so that we could
be delivered from our addiction to sin, and so that we could, in the power of
God, live holy and godly lives, pleasing to God (Rom. 6:1-23; Eph. 4:17-24).
And, they have embraced this idea that they can continue in
their sinful addictions and still be saved from their sins, and still have
eternal life with God, so there is no motivation for them to change or to be
free from their sins. So, instead of becoming members of the body of Christ,
his church, they have united themselves with the house of the dead which gives
much leeway regarding their sinful practices.
Instead of being delivered from their slavery to sin, they
hold on to their sins and they continue in their addictions. For, they believe
they don’t have to put sin to death in their lives, nor do they have to walk in
holiness. They have their sugar-coated gospel which masks their sins, which
then allows them to keep them hidden, and so they are satisfied. They feel they
don’t need anything else.
And, so they surround themselves with like-minded people who
will coddle them in their sins, who will make no demands from them for
repentance or obedience to Christ, and who will make them feel good about themselves
the way that they are. And, there are many “support” groups that do just that,
even ones that are purportedly “Christian.”
Thus, because they reject the truth for a lie, and they
suppress the truth by their unrighteous deeds, and they give their worship and
loyalty to the flesh, instead of to God, who they silenced, God, thus, has
given them over to the lusts of their flesh (of their hearts) to impurity, and
to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
Romans 1:26-27 ESV
“For this reason 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.”
The sad reality of all of this is that it isn’t just the people
out in the world who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ who are living
like this. What is so sad is that a large majority of “Christian” men have gone
down this path of degradation, as have many pastors, and now a rising number of
women and children, too, because the men are largely spiritually AWOL.
But this isn’t just about sexual sin, although a large
portion of this passage is given over to that sin, particularly. Yet, from what
I have observed, this is probably the most prevailing sin in today’s modern
church, and the most destructive, too, to the church, to marriages, to
families, and to communities, too. Many people’s lives are being damaged by
sexual deviancy, perverseness, and unbridled lust and sexual idolatry.
But no matter what sins you may be committing habitually,
and to which you are addicted (enslaved), if you are rejecting God’s message of
salvation from your bondage to sin, and if you are embracing this message that
says you can be saved and be bound for heaven, but that you don’t have to leave
your sin behind you and follow the Lord in obedience, then please know you are
believing a lie that is going to send you to hell, not to heaven.
[Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 2:3-6; Gal. 5:16-21; Gal.
6:7-8]
Broken
Cord
An
Original Work / August 29, 2018
Your bond is broken
With your Lord and Savior
And, your testimony is
Separate from Him.
Your words not matching
Your actions today.
Repent of your sin and
Bow down and pray.
Live what you testify
In truth always.
Purity’s lacking in
Your life and witness,
For you profess one thing,
But other you do.
Not moral, spiritual.
Still of the flesh.
Not living in truth to
What you confess.
Lying about it
Puts you in a mess.
Living a lie is your practice,
‘tis true of you.
Masquerade righteousness –
None of it true.
Your heart is not given
To your Lord God.
Because of how you live,
You are a fraud.
Turn from your sin and
Give your life to God.
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