Romans 1:18-20 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.”
God has made known to all of humankind his invisible
attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, having been clearly
perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been
made. So we all know about God. We are all aware of him. He is not invisible to
us. We are aware of his presence and of who he is and of what he has done to
show himself to us through his created works.
Nonetheless, much of humankind has rejected the Lord, and
they have chosen to go their own way, and so they are suppressing the truth
which God revealed to them, and by their own ungodliness and unrighteousness,
i.e. by their ungodly and unrighteous deeds. And so the wrath of God is against
them. And they are without excuse because they knew the truth but they turned
away from the truth to follow after their own flesh, instead.
Now this is not speaking of people who know the Scriptures. This
is speaking merely of God revealing himself to us through his created works. Then
you add on to that the many who know at least some Scripture and those who know
much Scripture, but who are still suppressing the truth by their unrighteous
deeds. How that must grieve the Holy Spirit. Even some (or many) pastors of
churches are suppressing the truth they know by their ungodly deeds, and they
are passing that on to their people.
Romans 1:21-23 ESV
“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.”
Now, they did not know the Lord intimately as in being in
relationship and fellowship with him. But they knew about him, for he revealed
himself to them. But even though God revealed himself to them, they did not
honor him as God or give thanks to him. And I can’t help but seeing the
parallels here to many of those who have made a profession of faith in Jesus
Christ, but they only honor God with their lips but their hearts are far from
him. For they are still following after their own fleshly appetites. And they
are not walking in obedience to the Lord.
So, since they chose not to honor God with their lives, they
became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And
this describes many people professing faith in Jesus Christ in America today.
All you have to do is pay attention to their conversations on social media and
on Christian discussion sites and it doesn’t take long to realize that those
who are earnestly following the Lord with their lives are in the minority, and
those who feel they still have the freedom to live in sin are in the majority.
And they became idolaters instead of worshipping the one and
only true God. And they began to worship created things instead of the creator,
and oh how true that is today even among those professing faith in Jesus
Christ. They are all excited and enthusiastic about sports, movies, music (a
lot not Christian), video games, TV shows, videos, their possessions, etc., but
you hear very few really passionate and excited about Jesus Christ and about
holy living and walks of obedience to the Lord.
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.”
If, in knowing about God and who he is and of what he did in
creating the world does not make us want to honor him, and so we choose to make
up our own gods, instead, and so we worship them instead of Almighty God, God
is not going to force himself upon us. He reveals himself to us, he makes
himself known to us, but then we can choose to follow him or not to follow him.
Look at the wording here. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie.” That
is a choice of our free will.
We choose who we worship. We can worship God, or we can
worship the things and people of this world instead. But if we choose to
worship and serve the created things rather than the Creator, then God will
give us up to the lusts of our hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of our
bodies among ourselves and to whatever else is mentioned in verses 26 to 32. He
will let us go if that is what we choose, but that will end in disaster and
destruction.
So, what is the lesson to be learned from this today? Well,
for one, when God reveals himself to us, we better pay close attention. We better
not look the other way and ignore him while we choose to go our own way
instead. And we better not suppress his truth by our unrighteous deeds, and we
better not worship the created things in place of the creator. But we should
listen up and pay attention to the Lord and what he wants to show us.
Then we should surrender our lives to him, die with him to
sin, and then live to him and to his righteousness in his power and strength.
It is dangerous territory to ignore God and to go our own way. It will not end
well for us. So, don’t take God and his grace for granted. Don’t assume that he
will always be there. And don’t play with sin. The path of sin is a path to
hell if that is what we walk in and if righteousness and obedience to our Lord
are not what we walk in. So, please take this seriously.
Seek
the Lord
An
Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based
off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
No comments:
Post a Comment