Text: Romans 1:18-32
Title: What Is Going on Here: Why America is in the shape it is in.
Subject: Salvation
Proposition: Rejecting God brings dire consequences.
Interrogative: What are the consequences of rejecting God?
Objective: Therefore, be convinced that God is real.
Transition: Lets look at the consequences of rejecting God.
Introduction
As Paul begins writing to the Romans he deals with the problem of God being rejected by their society.
Ro 1:18 The wrath of God o is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
Ro 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. s Ro 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools t
Ro 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images u made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Those to whom Paul was writing were dealing with men suppressing the truth by their wickedness.
The society also abandoned worshipping God.
They did not recognize the sovereignty of God and failed to give Him thanks – which means they credited all their blessings to themselves.
They replaced God with idols.
America is in a similar situation.
America has been slowing removing God from society.
Court decisions already rendered have resulted in:
• Removal of student prayer: "Prayer in its public school system breaches the constitutional wall of separation between Church and State." Engel v. Vitale, 1962
• Removal of Bible readings: "[N]o state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord’s Prayer be recited in public schools or a State at the beginning of each school day." The court went on to say, "[I]f portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and ...had been psychologically harmful to the [student]. Abington v. Schempp, 1963
• Removal of the Ten Commandments from view: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effects at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments...this...is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause." Stone v. Graham, 1980
• Removal of benedictions and invocations from school activities: "Religious invocation...in high school commencement exercise conveyed message that district had given its endorsement to prayer and religion, so that school district was properly [prohibited] from including invocation in commencement exercise." Graham v. Central, 1985; Kay v. Douglas, 1986; Jager v. Douglas, 1989; Lee v. Weisman, 1992
Lower court rulings and state and local officials have gone even further:
• Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. Chandler Unified School District, 1981
• If a student prays over his lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud. Reed v. Van Hoven, 1965
• It is unconstitutional for a Board of Education to use or refer to the word "God" in any of its official writings. Ohio v. Whisner, 1976
• In Alaska public schools, students were told they could not use the word "Christmas" in school because it had the word "Christ" in it, nor could they have the word in their notebooks, nor exchange Christmas cards or presents, nor display anything with the word "Christmas" on it." William J. Murray, "America Without God," The New American, June 20, 1988, p.19
• Public schools were barred from showing a film about the settlement of Jamestown because the film depicted the erection of a cross at the settlement, despite the historical fact that a cross was erected at the Jamestown settlement. John Eidsmoe, "Christianity and the Constitution" (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 406
Our rejection of God brings dire consequences.
Lets look at what Paul show us as the consequences of rejecting God.
God gives us over to sexual impurity.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. (Ro 1:24)
Sexual impurity has been around for some time.
In the 1940’s and 50’s Alfred Kinsey began talking openly about sexuality and a revolution began.
In the 1960’s that revolution revved up and promiscuity, premarital sex, group parties became popular and even accepted.
Today, we have taken what should be in the bedroom and put it on Main Street.
We have accepted people living together as just a sign of the times.
I found an unscientific study in USA Today that asked: Which best describes your views? Cohabitation is ...
Living in sin – 26%
OK if there are plans to marry – 14%
OK if there are no kids involved – 17%
Perfectly acceptable – 43%
God has given us over to sexual impurity.
God gives us over to shameful lusts.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. (Ro 1:26)
Because of our idolatry God has given us over to shameful lusts.
Paul defined those shameful lusts by saying: “Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. Ro 1:27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”
The push in our country for acceptance of homosexuality and the legalization of homosexual marriage is a result of our rejection of God.
We have begun to teach our kindergartners that it is normal to have two daddies or two mommies.
School holds surprise ’Gay’ Day for kindergartners
Parents outraged at public elementary’s secretive ’coming out’ event
________________________________________
Posted: October 22, 2008
9:34 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Some parents are shocked to find their children are learning to be homosexual allies and will participate in "Coming Out Day" at a public elementary school tomorrow – and they claim the school failed to notify parents.
One mother of a kindergartner who attends Faith Ringgold School of Art and Science, a K-8 charter school in Hayward, Calif., said she asked her 5-year-old daughter what she was learning at school.
The little girl replied, "We’re learning to be allies."
The mother also said a Gay Straight Alliance club regularly meets in the kindergarten classroom during lunch.
According to a Pacific Justice Institute report, Faith Ringgold opted not to inform the parents of its pro-homosexual activities beforehand. The school is celebrating "Gay and Lesbian History Month" and is in the process of observing "Ally Week," a pro-"gay" occasion usually geared toward high school students.
The school is scheduled to host discussions about families and has posted fliers on school grounds portraying only homosexuals. According to the report, a "TransAction Gender-Bender Read-Aloud" will take place Nov. 20. Students will listen to traditional stories with "gay" or transgender twists, to include "Jane and the Beanstalk."
Some parents only recently noticed posters promoting the school’s "Coming Out Day" tomorrow – celebrated 12 days after the national "Coming Out Day" usually observed on Oct. 11. When WND contacted the school to confirm the event, a female representative replied, "Yes, it is scheduled on our calendar."
When asked if the school made any efforts to inform parents, she refused to answer and said Hayward Unified School District would have to respond to additional questions. However, the district did not answer its phones or e-mails, and a voicemail recording would not take messages. "Coming Out Day" is not listed on the district’s online school
calendar. Some of the parents contacted Pacific Justice Institute for representation when they learned the school was pushing pro-"gay" events for young children without warning.
Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, said opponents of California’s proposed ban on same-sex marriage , or Proposition 8, often say the measure would not have an effect on public schools – but this is one of many recent developments that prove otherwise.
We say in our society that people are born with these unnatural lusts.
Some people say that God made them that way.
Those that want to say this need to realize that the Bible calls lust sin.
Lusting after a woman causes one to commit adultery. Adultery is sin.
In James we find lust in the progression of temptation: drawn away by our lust, leading to sin, and then death.
God does not tempt nor does He cause anyone to sin.
God gives us over to depraved minds.
He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. (Ro 1:28)
Paul defined what ought mot to be done: They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, Ro 1:30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;Ro 1:31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, i ruthless.
This depraved mind is marked by wickedness, evil, greed (which is idolatry), depravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, God-hating, insolence, arrogance, pride, disobedience to parents, senselessness, faithlessness, heartlessness, ruthlessness, and new ways of doing evil are invented.
Some recent headlines:
4 Marines Arrested in Execution-Style Death of Fellow Marine, Wife
Spitzer won’t be charged in prostitution scandal
Gay Marriage Riots in California Streets
HAYDEN, Idaho - An 18-year-old Hayden, Idaho, man was accused of stabbing his mother after she forbade him to use the Internet social networking site MySpace. The man was arrested last week for investigation of aggravated assault after his mother said he cut her wrist.
Gay-Rights Protests Target Church
Conclusion
Our society’s rejection of God has caused us to be turned over to sexual impurity, shameful lusts, and depraved minds.
Furthermore, we know that those who do such things deserve death, yet we continue to do them and also approve of those who practice them.
We justify our attitudes and behaviors with excuses.
But Paul tells us that men are without excuse.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM:Ro 1:19.
What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. p
Ro 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, q so that men are without excuse.
God has made Himself known to all of mankind through what has been created.
There are no excuses for rejecting God.
God’s wrath is already being revealed.
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM:Ro 1:18.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
The only way to recover is for mankind to allow God back into his life.
We must repent.
We must allow God to change us from the inside.
Will you allow Him to begin in your life?
