“Don’t Tolerate Sexual Immorality”
I Cor. Chapter 5 - pt 5
Opening Illustration: “Deception” from Sermon Spice- this clips reveals how deception works and how it redefines what is right and wrong in society.
Thesis: Sexual immorality is not to be tolerated in the church instead it should be asked to leave before the Spirit of Christ does! The question is: “Who do you want to stay?”
Scripture Text: 1 Cor. 5
1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
Introduction:
Summary of 1 Corinthians 1-4.
Chapter one: We need to united in Christ not divided in Christ! The church was formed by Christ to serve one another and not to focus on ourselves. The church is not about me but about the message of Jesus and about service to the Kingdom of God!
Chapter two: The Spirit’s wisdom is the too lead our lives each day not our human intellect or another person’s human intellect. Why? So that we can witness the power of the Spirit and see lives transformed.
Chapter three: We are the Temple of God because His Spirit dwells within each of us who are “Born Again” and sanctified. We need to make sure that we build up our temple by the ways of God and not destroy this precious residence of the Spirit.
Chapter four: Scripture makes it clear that we as followers of Jesus need to be servants and not self-centered – we are to serve each other in the Body and root out any self-seeking behavior so as to please God. We are all called to be servant-leaders!
Chapter five: Sexual immorality is not to be tolerated in the church instead it should be asked to leave before the Spirit of Christ does!
Remember Bono’s quote: “Religion is what you have left when the Spirit leaves the building!”
So we want to make sure the Spirit never leaves our temple or this building!
I read this article this last week that I would like to pass on to you this morning – Listen to the thoughts: “Flee Sexual Immorality (Sex in the City, that includes you) Suzanne Hadley on Jun 6, 2008 at 9:35 AM:
Recently I wrote an article about world-friendliness. In it, I talked about how my media choices don’t always line up with my beliefs. Honestly, sometimes shows that promote values vastly different from mine seem pretty attractive. In discussing this disconnect, I gave the example of a professing Christian who openly raved about "Sex and the City" being her favorite show. Something seemed amiss.
Then yesterday I read an overall positive review of the movie Sex and the City ... on Christianity Today. Author Camerin Courtney is up front that "hedonism abounds" and calls the show "randy," but she seems to be looking for redemption in the wrong place. She writes:
Most of the few Christian voices speaking to the growing single segment of the population offer ten easy steps to find our soul mate. As if it’s that wondrously simple. Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda, however, show how challenging it really can be for intelligent, accomplished, and admittedly neurotic women to find lasting love. They, unlike many Christians, don’t insult my intelligence. Instead they speak to the complexities of relationships in a postmodern age—addressing baby lust, the mommy wars, sexual temptation, dating outside your "class," commitment-phobia, the reluctant desire to be rescued by a man, and the simultaneous fear that you’ll lose your own hard-won identity in the process.
While we may have a few things in common — we’re single and we like shoes — these women are hardly role models to help me to navigate my singleness. In fact, they are living their TV lives in a way that opposes God. If anything, they are a cautionary tale…”
This article addresses the same issues that Paul faced in Corinth a city filled with sexual immorality and a call to drive it out of the church. Paul is addressing a very serious issue in the church of Corinth – an unwillingness to call sin – sin! Instead they had an arrogant attitude about their sinful lifestyle. Paul is warning the church by telling them that the sin filled culture around them had already infected their church. Paul then orders them to, “Cut it out before the cancer spreads!”
The truth is a church which refuses to deal with sin and a church which allows an attitude of pride toward sinful lifestyles in the church will cause its own self-destruction. A church which refuses to maintain a standard of God’s holiness will come apart at the seams and die. The truth according to Paul, “Your church will die if you allow sin to spread and the Spirit will leave the building! Yes, just like the Spirit left the Temple in the OT as a result of sin, it will happen to your church too and your life too!”
The Body of Christ is called to die to self – we learned this from the last chapter of 1 Corinthians. When we looked at this subject we discovered that it means that we have a willingness to let go of our death grip on sin and self. The church of Jesus Christ is called to be transformed by the power of the Gospel and this means that a Christian church look’s, acts and is different from the surrounding culture of its day. Its value system is different, its belief system is different, and its core principles of life are different.
The church is called to lead people out of sin and into a transformational relationship with Jesus Christ and this means that transformation can only come to church which changes their perspective and mindset toward sin. This perspective needs to be Christ like and it needs to be shaped by the Word of God not by our culture. We need to be determined to be New Creations as Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:17. Daman states, “This is not merely a restoration of people by the Holy Spirit to a pre-fall condition, but a complete transformation that penetrates the very nature of the individual. The result is believers who think differently, having a completely different mind-set (Romans 8:5-7)” (Leading the Small Church, page 109).
T.S. – Paul is telling this church that as believers they need to have a different mindset toward sin – don’t embrace it and never be proud of it! Instead throw it out before it destroys their lives and the church. So today I am going to ask you a few questions this morning so you see were your own mindset is today. “Do you have a Biblical or worldly mindset? Do you call sin – sin? Do you make excuses for your sin?” Let’s look at few questions in more detail.
I. Are you proud of your sexual immorality? (1 Cor. 5:1-5)
a. Do you think the world today is proud of their sins?
i. Sex is everywhere, it’s used to sell products, it’s used for self-gratification, and it’s used for evil purposes all around us. But what amazes me is how proud people are of their sexual immorality, their sinful lifestyles.
ii. It is promoted on TV, in sitcoms, mini-series and in movies as a lifestyle to be proud of. Reference the show, “Degrassi, The Next Generation.”
iii. Today in America people are walking around like proud Peacocks flaunting their sexual immorality as right and those who practice abstinence are seen as stuffy, evil and stupid.
b. Have you heard the Motto -- “Be proud!”
i. Reference the websites and pictures:
1. “Proud to be Gay!”
2. Gay pride parades!
c. Media pushes us to be proud of sexual immorality – living together is a good thing they tell us. Fornication - sex before marriage is to be enjoyed and experienced because it is necessary and right so we can find the right mate!
i. We have a media generation today calling evil good and good evil!
1. Remember we just watched a clip about truth and deception – deception – never tells the truth! Don’t believe the worldly media – they lie, they deceive and they are out to push wickedness as right.
2. Marriage and living together is portrayed by the media as good and normal – The Bible communicates this message, “Its sin and never look at it as normal and never accept in the church.”
ii. There was a Study done of those who cohabitate together which revealed that the divorce rate is higher at around 80% for those who cohabitate together before marriage whereas those who waited is around 50%.
1. But the media tells you through magazines, books, Tv, and movies that this is the way to prevent divorce! It’s a lie – it’s deception in action again.
iii. The Bible says- this is truth talking:
1. Romans 12:9: “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
2. 1 Thess. 5:22: “Avoid every kind of evil.”
3. 2 Timothy 3:1-9: “1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”
4. Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good.”
d. We are told that in the last days proud sinners will flaunt their sin in the face of God. Do you think this is happening today?
i. Paul does not say to appease the sinner in his teaching here! He does not say don’t offend the sinner! No! He says, “Expel him from God’s holy place.”
1. The reality check we have a choice, “Allow sin to stay and God’s Spirit to leave or allow God’s Spirit to stay and sin to leave!”
2. Steve Hill stated, about 2 Chronicles 7:14-15: “14If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”
a. Hill says that too many pastors emphasize the dimension of prayer from this passage but not the dimension of “Turning from wicked ways!”
b. The condition for revival to come is that the people of God must turn from their wicked ways!
c. He noted, “Too many pastors are not calling sin – sin today because they do not want to offend people.”
T.S. – We are to turn from sin – run away from it – cast it out because if we do not it will contaminate us and the whole Body of Christ. This highlights our next question today:
II. Should we allow sexual immorality to spread in the church?
a. Allowing sexual immorality to go unchecked will contaminate the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 5:6-11).
i. Paul knew the danger of sin this is why he said, “Deal with it! Don’t ignore it, don’t agree with it, and don’t be silent about it! Be aggressive toward sin. Tell people what it will do to your holiness and your walk with God.
1. Paul warns us, “It will defile the Temple – it will cause God’s presence to depart like it did in the day of Israel when sin invaded the Temple and the people.”
b. Sin is contagious and if it is not addressed by the Word of God it will spread. Sin will chip away at the foundation of the church if it is allowed to spread. We must take action against sin.
i. We need truth - not wickedness in the church.
ii. We need freedom – not bondage in the church.
c. Sexual immorality in the church is to be addressed and ostracized. We do however need to understand that sin from the world needs to be tolerated! Why? Because they do not know any better but the Christina does know better and they have no excuse!
d. Paul says, “Do not associate with those who call themselves Christians and live immoral lifestyles as if God is okay with their sinful lifestyles.” God hates sin and He will never bless sin!
i. Paul even adds the following other sinful lifestyles to be avoided to the list. Remember these people are “Christians” claiming Christ as their Savior but living like sinners:
1. Greed - Greed denotes desire to acquire wealth or possessions beyond the needs of the individual, especially when this accumulation of possession denies others legitimate needs or access to those or other resources. For example, amassing a large collection of seashells would not be considered greed, unless in doing so, the needs of others were jeopardized. Essential to the concept of greed is the awareness that the needs of others are denied, thus rivalrous goods exemplify greed while non-rivalrous goods may not. Greed also often involves using wealth to gain power over others, sometimes by denying wealth or power (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
a. Greedy Christians are ones who refuse to give to God what belongs to God and this means tithes and offerings. They refuse to give so as to fuel their greedy lifestyles therefore hindering the outreach of the Church.
2. Idolater - Idolatry, in Christianity, is "the worship of a created object either made by human hands or created by God"[who?] instead of, or in addition to, the worship due only to the true God. The term "idol" may also refer to conceptual constructs such as fame, money, nationality, ethnicity, and attachment to these considered idolatry (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
a. Daman in his book “Leading the Small Church” states this about the idol worship of today in our culture:
i. “The world is in a crisis of confusion concerning the character and the nature of God. Just as paganism and polytheism tainted the ancient Near Eastern world, our society is influenced by corrupted views of God. The names have changed, but the false gods they represented have not. Instead of Baal, we have new age philosophy; instead of the Sun god Ra, we have Eastern Mysticism, with its worship of Creation; instead of Asherah, we have the worship of supermodels and the sexuality they represent. Instead of idols made of silver, gold and wood, we have consumerism, materialism, humanism, yoga, meditation, and a host of other philosophies that draw from the same cesspool of idolatry represented by the gods of the Canaanites” (page 106).
ii. He adds, “Like the prophets of Scripture, our task as spiritual leaders is to call the people away from the confusion polytheism to the clarity of monotheistic God of Scripture. Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, we are called to challenge people to choose between the God of the Bible and the gods of the culture” (page 107).
3. Slanderer - To defame or malign another person. Law Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person’s reputation. A false and malicious statement or report about someone (Free online dictionary).
a. A Christian who lies and slanders others in the church and is proud of it and refuses to repent is to be driven from the Body so as to stop the Cancerous tumor from spreading.
4. Drunkard - one who is habitually drunk (Webster).
a. This person is a confessing Christian who still is habitually drunk and even proud of it! They portray and attitude that God is okay with their idol of bondage.
5. Swindler – a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud (Wordreference.com).
a. This person is a confessing Christian who rips others off in the body of Christ and is not repentant and they think God is okay with it.
b. These sins all focus on character traits – Paul says the church is not to look like this nor tolerate this type of behavior from its people. They do not go together!
i. Character defines the heart of individual – How they live and act defines their spiritual condition according to Paul and the Word of God.
1. Listen to this statement, “Character counts to God!”
ii. Daman states, “…we must first have and maintain a right relationship with God, which is based on a mature understanding of doctrine. Paul, in his writings to Timothy and Titus, remind them –and us- that personal commitment to Christ and obedience to his Word are at the heart of Christian experience” (page 91).
T.S. – Sin needs to be cast out of the church and out of the lives of the confessing Christian. But according to Paul we have the right to judge others within the Body of Christ. We are to hold each other accountable for our confession of faith. We are to help each other to stay pure before the Lord Jesus Christ and in doing this we protect the church from the ravages of sin.
III. Who can we judge according to the Bible?
a. People outside the church? No! But those inside the church? Yes!
i. 1 Cor. 5:12-13 – read the text for yourself - what does it say?
1. We have the responsibility to judge those within the Body of Christ and we have the responsibility to call sin – sin!
2. Sin is not to be accepted in the Body of Christ – it is to be driven out!
3. The world is to be shown love and truth to help lead them out of their sin but sin in the believers life is to be pointed out and judged by the standard of God’s Word.
b. You may be thinking , “How do you judge?”
i. You first start with the Word – not your own personal biast or prejudice.
1. God’s Word is clear on defining what is sin and what is not sin.
ii. You approach the situation with humility and love.
1. You point out the sinful lifestyle to the person because you love them and you don’t want them to destroy themselves and those they are attached too.
iii. You stand firm on the teachings of the Word!
1. We all need to repent of our sin and turn away from it – then we are forgiven but if we are proud of our sin and refuse to repent and turn from it then discipline must be put into motion for the sake of the Body.
c. Why should we judge?
i. To protect the rest of the Body of Christ so that others are not infected with the disease.
1. 1 Cor. 15:33: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
ii. We judge to protect others in the Body of Christ from the sinful choices of others.
1. Your sin will impact others – who have not sinned!
2. When people are allowed to keep sinning in the church it then impacts the others who are not in sin – but sin always sends tidal waves of hurt –pain and destruction into others.
d. Here are some other verses on judging from the Bible! I will quote the most famous misquoted verse in the Bible. People love to take this verse out of its context to justify their sins!
i. Matthew 7:1-6 – Jesus instruction on judging others – His remarks are focused toward the Pharisee’s :
1. 1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
a. He says “Don’t judge others like the hypocrites do!”
b. The Pharisee’s were great at judging the sinners and the worldly and they were never willing to show love and forgiveness. Yet they themselves were filled with pride-arrogance and self-righteousness - sin.
2. Let’s also read on in this chapter into Verses 15-23 to keep focus on the context of this subject in Jesus’ teaching:
a. Point by Jesus - We are called to judge people by their fruit: 15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
i. Jesus told us to judge to see whether a person was of truth or of deception and the way you tell is by the fruit that is produced in their life.
e. Jesus hated the attitude of the Pharisees because of the way they judged and condemned the world. So he rebuked them for their judgmental attitudes but Paul tells us that judgment is appropriate for those who claim to be of the household of faith!
i. We need to hold each other accountable so that we stay pure in the sight of God – we do this because we love each other and want to protect each other from the deception of sin and the enemy who is trying to destroy our lives.
ii. Jesus makes it clear in this chapter that we are to judge whether a person is true or false by the fruit that they produce from their lifestyles.
Conclusion:
Video Illustration from Super Chick the group from Blue Fish TV – a call to sexual purity!
I want to conclude this morning highlighting another article I discovered on the internet this week. I was going to edit it but I think I want to leave it intact so you can go onto sermon central.com this week and read it for yourselves. I think this article paints a picture of the church today and the necessity to drive sin out from its walls:
Society’s Slide Into Sexual Immorality (from http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn10/sexualimmorality.htm).
We are now some 30 years into the sexual revolution that began in the 1960s. What has been the impact on society? What are the implications for the future? by Noel Hornor
Sex is everywhere. It permeates the movies and the television programs we watch, the music we hear, the magazines and books we read, the talk shows we listen to. Society, it seems, is obsessed with sex.
Perhaps never has society had access to so much knowledge about sex but understood so little about it. Seldom have people suffered so much through sexual ignorance. Recently in the U.S. it was reported that the sexually transmissible diseases, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and AIDS, were the three most commonly reported infectious disorders in 1995.
And now even herpes is back with a vengeance. The British newspaper, The Independent, recently reported that "genital herpes, the incurable sexually transmitted disease that was lost from sight in the shadow of AIDS, is infecting record numbers of people in Britain" (Feb. 2). Experts estimate that "about one in ten women in London carry the virus," and in America "it is estimated that 500,000 people contract genital herpes each year." Nancy Herndon of the American Health Association commented that herpes is much more contagious than the HIV.
Of course, sexual behavior is only one measure of a nation’s moral standard, but it is a crucial one.
After the revolution
The sexual revolution has been with us for three decades. Newsweek magazine documented the sweeping change that began as far back as 1967: "The old taboos are dying. A new, more permissive society is taking shape . . . And, behind this expanding permissiveness is . . . a society that has lost its consensus on such crucial issues as premarital sex, . . . marriage, birth control and sex education . . ." (November 13, 1967, p. 74).
After three decades of the sexual revolution society has lost sight of right and wrong when it comes to sex.
We need to understand what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the eyes of God. The Bible instructs that men and women should abstain from premarital sexual involvement and practice monogamy in marriage. Any sexual conduct apart from the marital union is biblically defined as immoral and sinful (1 John 3:4).
Clearly, many modern nations have fallen far short of this godly ideal.
Statistics show that adulterous behavior is out of control. The Kinsey Institute estimates that, during their married lives, 37 percent of American males will prove sexually unfaithful to their wives and 29 percent of American wives will commit adultery (June M. Reinisch, St. Martins Press, New York, 1990, p. 7, 73).
Adultery is family-obliterating behavior that destroys the very heart of society, with devastating consequences for children. According to social critic William Kirkpatrick, divorce is "up 700 percent in this century, with most of the rise occurring in recent decades" (Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong, Touchstone, New York, 1993, p. 249).
He also notes that "the pain of parental divorce is more difficult for a child to overcome than the death of a parent" (ibid., p. 250). An astonishing three in five American children born in 1986 will live with a single parent by age 18.
Teen sexual behavior
Equally disturbing developments are the levels of premarital sexual activity and pregnancy in Western nations.
How many American teens are engaging in sex? "Data on teenage sexual activity are inexact . . . But most experts in the field agree that somewhere over 60 percent of American teenagers have had sexual intercourse by the time they finish high school" (Lillian B. Rubin, Erotic Wars, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 1990, p. 61, emphasis added).
In Britain, "one in five [teenagers] report having intercourse before their 16th birthday." Also, in a 1996 poll, "31 percent of female respondents said they had been [pressured] to have sex before they were ready" (The Independent, September 16, 1996).
What does this mean in terms of premarital pregnancy? In the United States estimates are that "nationally 11 percent of unmarried teenage girls become pregnant each year" (Rubin, p. 75). To put it another way, "every 64 seconds . . . a baby is born to a teenage mother . . ." (Children’s Defense Fund, The Adolescent & Young Adult Fact Book, Washington, 1991).
According to William J. Bennett, former U.S. secretary of education, illegitimate births increased in the U.S. 400 percent from 1960 to 1990 (The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, March 1993). Based on current trends, U.S. News & World Report reports that "early in the next century, unless we change, 1 out of every 2 American children will be born out of wedlock" (October 2, 1995, p. 88, emphasis added).
Troubling trends, frightening future
The costs and implications of these trends are truly alarming: "In 1997 almost 1 m[illion] American teenagers will become pregnant, nearly 75% of them out of wedlock. About 80% of these new mothers will end up in poverty, dependent on welfare payments. The problem costs the American taxpayer $7 billion a year . . . Every day in America there are 1,300 teenage births and 1,100 teenage abortions. Last year 3 m[illion] teenagers had sexually transmitted diseases" (The Sunday Times, January 12, 1997).
This epidemic of illegitimacy has spread to other Western nations. Reports the January 20, 1997, European edition of Newsweek: "In Sweden, more than half of all babies are born to unmarried parents; in France and England, it’s about one in three." As a result, "Something frighteningly like the American underclass is beginning to develop in Britain’s inner cities: stubborn pockets of drugs, poverty and hopelessness, with teenage moms who drop out of high school and never get a job."
In a recent British poll, findings showed that "first intercourse is often unplanned and therefore unprotected. Among the 16-24 group, only 37 percent had used contraception if they had sex on the spur of the moment" (The Independent, September 16, 1996). This behavior no doubt contributed to the teenage statistics for pregnancy and abortion.
What do these trends portend? Not only have moral standards for many of the current youthful generation been deconstructed, seeds have been planted that threaten to sprout into a harvest of much greater evil and suffering.
One of the greatest concerns of law-enforcement officials in America is the rise of a new breed of criminals. They are generally males in their teens or early 20s, and are violent far beyond the criminal classes of past decades. They are often driven by explosive anger and marked by callous indifference to human life. Such people, sociologists note, are almost always from single-parent homes.
Can any objective person doubt that permissiveness is engendering a problem of major proportions? The words of the ancient Hebrew prophet Hosea aptly describe such cause and effect: "They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7, emphasis added throughout). The hurricane-force winds of violence, cruelty and crime batter modern society. When large portions of a nation behave irresponsibly, its social structure must deal with the inevitable serious—and sometimes catastrophic—consequences.
Many Americans are concerned about the future of their nation. In a Newsweek poll, 76 percent of Americans said that they believe the United States is in a moral and spiritual decline (Newsweek, June 13, 1994, p. 31).
Will the United States do anything nationally to stop the slide? God’s counsel to all people is clear. He "commands all men everywhere to repent"(Acts 17:30). God’s Word shows that unchecked moral decline leads to eventual national destruction. Those familiar with the Bible realize that it predicts dire consequences for any person or country that persists in immoral behavior (Proverbs 29:1).
An overlooked sex survey
Other sources also warn of the devastating effects of moral turpitude. The record of history is clear. English anthropologist J.D. Unwin extensively studied 86 societies through 5,000 years of history. After his death in 1936 the results of his research were published under the title "Hopousia: The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society."
Unwin studied cultures and empires from the standpoint of their sexual behavior. In particular he was interested in their prenuptial and post-nuptial behavior. He noticed a correlation between such behavior and what he termed a nation’s "expansive energy." We might refer to this as the capability to remain productive and maintain a position of influence and leadership among other nations.
He stated that "expansive energy has never been displayed by a society that inherited a modified monogamy or a form of polygamy . . ." (J.D. Unwin, Hopousia, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1940, p. 82, emphasis added throughout).
Self-control or chaos
Unwin discovered that "in human records there is no instance of a society retaining its energy after a complete new generation has inherited a tradition which does not insist on pre-nuptial and post-nuptial continence" (ibid., p. 84-85).
He concluded that "the evidence is that in the past a class has risen to a position of political dominance because of its great energy and that at the period of its rising, its sexual regulations have always been strict. It has retained its energy and dominated the society so long as its sexual regulations have demanded both pre-nuptial and post-nuptial continence . . . I know of no exception to these rules" (ibid., p. 89).
Bluntly speaking, Unwin’s point was that nations gain prominence when they keep their sexual drives in check both before and after marriage. They remain strong as long as societal and marital bonds are strong. When those barriers fall, a society’s days are numbered. As Unwin put it, he knew of "no exception to these rules."
Awareness of God’s sovereignty
Can any permissive society successfully defy the record of history? Are any nations exempt from the same sins—and their consequences?
American culture has dominated the last 50 years. Many nations have wanted to follow America’s example of prosperity and progress. Tragically, too many of them follow the U.S. example of immorality as well.
The United States leads the world in many categories of sexual excess. In premarital pregnancies its pace is at "a figure that’s almost twice that of other Western countries" (Rubin, p. 75). But that difference does not necessarily reflect a higher standard of morality in the other countries. It reflects America’s ambivalence about contraception and abortion. In other Western countries, "their rates of sexual activity and the age at which it begins match our [America’s] own" (ibid.).
Does any nation truly live by a moral standard that pleases God? Consider the observation of Psalm 14:2-3: "The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one."
History shows that wayward nations have suffered punishment for their conduct. God often allows the natural consequences of sin to overtake a people. "Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will reprove you," He warns (Jeremiah 2:19).
Most people believe it anachronistic to think of God as intervening in world affairs and correcting nations. Yet the living God does at times intervene according to His purpose. Ultimately He alone determines the fate of nations. God has the power to deal with empires and emperors. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate spoke to Jesus of his power to crucify or release Him. But Christ informed Pilate: "You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above" (John 19:11).
In times past nations and their leaders were generally more aware of God’s sovereignty over their affairs and freely acknowledged that truth. Often they viewed God as their benefactor. For instance, America’s founding fathers recognized God, mentioning Him four times in the Declaration of Independence.
Those same men were convicted that a nation’s laws and standards should be generally based upon the Bible. James Madison, the chief architect of the U.S. Constitution, said: "We have staked the whole future of the American civilization . . . upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves . . . according to the Ten Commandments of God" (Benjamin Hart, Faith & Freedom—The Christian Roots Of American Liberty, Lewis and Stanley, Dallas, TX, 1988, p. 18).
Abraham Lincoln, while calling for a national day of fasting and prayer during the American Civil War, said: "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God . . . And we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own . . . It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness" (William J. Federer, America’s God And Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, Fame Publishing, Coppell, Tex., pp. 383-384).
That same American president mentioned in a personal letter to an elderly lady in September of 1862. "Yet we cannot but believe that he who made the world still governs it" (The Life and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Random House, New York, 1940, pp. 727-728).
Lincoln’s words ring true today. God is the great giver of national blessings (James 1:17). Lincoln also said in 1838 that "if destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author . . ." (David Barton, The Myth of Separation, WallBuilder Press, Aledo, TX, 1989, p. 70). He knew that nations can self-destruct.
God and morality
The paths of history are strewn with the ruins of empires and nations that ignored God’s principles, especially in the areas of sex, marriage and family.
Historians Will and Ariel Durant quoted Joseph de Maistre in their book The Lessons of History: "There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion" (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1968, p. 51, emphasis added).
Syndicated columnist and author Georgie Ann Geyer wrote: "I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to have a moral community or nations without faith in God, because without it everything comes down to ’me,’ and ’me’ alone is meaningless."
She further warned: "Today Americans have stopped acting in terms of their own moral, ethical religious beliefs and principles. They stopped acting on what they knew was right—and the ’me’ has become the measure of everything. However, moral societies are the only ones that work. If anyone thinks there is not a direct and inviolable relationship between personal integrity in a society and that society’s prosperity, that person has simply not studied history . . . Great moral societies, built upon faith in God, honor, trust and the law blossom . . ." (ibid.)
Some 160 years ago the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great" (Federer, p. 205).
De Tocqueville saw strengths in the United States of the early 19th century. But what would he say about the America of today? Could he single out any nation on earth today for its goodness?
Is there any country on the globe that God could commend? "Those who honor Me I will honor," God said, "and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Samuel 2:30). Which modern nation has a way of living that honors God? Do not our mounting troubles testify to our dishonor of the God who made us?
The message of the prophets
The message of the biblical prophets was similar to the warnings of more recent social critics: Societies that cast aside their moral underpinnings will ultimately end up on the scrap heap of history. This is true of any and every nation, even of a powerful country with enormous national resilience like the United States.
We need only look at the collapse of such great powers as Assyria, and Babylon to see that a nation’s pre-eminence can vanish into history.
The prophets of old warned the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, along with many other nations of their period, that oblivion would befall those countries that sought their own agenda rather than God’s, and that refused to allow their Creator to fashion and shape their national life. A national obsession with sex, leading to a searing of moral consciousness, would lead to decline and fall.
God told Jeremiah the prophet to "go down to the potter’s house" (Jeremiah 18:2). He wanted him to learn a lesson that he was to pass on. "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the Lord. Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel" (verse 6).
Nations are like clay in the hands of God. He calls on people everywhere in all countries to repent (Acts 17:30-31), to radically alter their conduct.
God’s message to the young, still virtuous King Solomon of Israel, before his appetites led him away from God, remains the greatest hope of nations in need of mending their ways of life.
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). GN
Altar Call: I applaud this article for its honest and divine warning to the Christian, to the Body of Christian America and to the United States- We are called in the above Scripture to turn – runaway from our wicked ways and return to God! This is the only way we can experience revival in this Country, the Church and personal revival in your own life.
Today once again the altars are open for you to come and get you life right with God!
