Whenever I’m asked, be it on radio or through social media and email, what is America’s number one problem, I always have the same answer: moral relativism. Moral relativism says that what is right for you is not necessarily right for me. Your standards do not have to become my standards. There is no right and wrong, no black and white, no absolute truth.
This is absolute baloney and is the destruction of any society:
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“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.†(Judges 21:25)
In our day we have a King; His name is Jesus and yet everyone does what is right in his own eyes. And because of this we are seeing the social fabric of our nation unraveling before our very eyes. We blame Barack Obama for our national debt and yet we have a Republican-led House who has continually voted to increase that debt. We have mega-church and mega-organizations such as Joel Osteen, James Robison, and David Barton who say Glenn Beck believes in the same Jesus in Whom we believe. This is categorically untrue.
So how does this all come about? As I wrote yesterday it starts with idolatry, which is anything we put before God. It can be from the obvious money, to politics and power, to even your own family. Anytime we put anything before God we do so out of a heart of ingratitude. You cannot put something before God without somehow forgetting what He has done and Who He is. I know this all too well. And this will lead to immorality until we get to the point of a life of indulgence.
With indulgence comes every kind of excuse to do what is right in our own eyes. Eventually God is going to give us our way, which is nothing less than His wrath upon us:
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“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.†(Romans 1:22-32)
Do you see America in that passage? I not only see my beloved country but I see who I was before Christ saved me. The great danger I must defend against is I can easily slide to doing what is right in my own eyes by indulging myself. Wiersbe explains:
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“From idolatry to immorality is just one short step. If man is his own god, then he can do whatever he pleases and fulfill his desires without fear of judgment. We reach the climax of man’s battle with God’s truth when man exchanges the truth of God for ‘the lie’ and abandons truth completely. ‘The lie’ is that man is his own god, and he should worship and serve himself and not the Creator. It was ‘the lie’ Satan used in the Garden to lead Eve into sin: ‘Ye shall be as God!’ Satan has always wanted the worship that belongs only to God (Isa. 14:12-15; Matt. 4:8-10); and in idolatry, he receives that worship (1 Cor. 10:19-21). The result of this self-deification was self-indulgence; and here Paul mentions a vile sin that was rampant in that day and has become prevalent in our own day; homosexuality.â€
Beloved, the root of all this is of course pride but its fertilizer is ingratitude…a heart of unthankfulness. We do not understand how destructive our ungrateful hearts are to our relationship with God, but we are definitely going to take a closer look.
More on that tomorrow…
In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4
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Copyright © 2012 David Jeffers