When God Abandons a Nation

He gave us revelation, we rejected it.

We rationalize it and call ourselves an elite, educated, advanced culture and we invent religion as if it's an indicator of how high we have ascended when the fact of the matter is we're going down at warp speed. We have abandoned God and God has returned to favor. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It was the evening of September 11, 2001, hours after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. On the steps of the Capitol, congressional leaders broke into a spontaneous rendition of God Bless America.

And for years after, the song became a staple at sporting events and public gatherings across the country. The song has a nice sentiment, who wouldn't want God's blessing? But the question is, how can our nation or how can any country secure divine blessing? And at what point does God abandon a nation, leave it to its own destruction? John MacArthur has answers today, continuing his study called Foundations Volume 2 with one of the most talked about messages from John's nearly 55 years of pulpit ministry, the title, When God Abandons a Nation.

And with a lesson now, here's John. Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18 and running through the end of this chapter. I'm going to read just the first verse to set the stage for the unfolding of this profound truth. Romans 1.18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. This section is about the wrath of God. Now there are a number of different aspects to the wrath of God. But the wrath that is presented in this passage is the wrath of abandonment. It is that wrath exhibited by God when He turns His back on a society. It's a frightening thing to think about that, frightening thing to think that you might be abandoned by God, that the opportunity for salvation is past, that the day of grace is over. And just what is this abandoning act on God's part?

It is the removal of restraining grace. It is when God lets go and turns a society over to its own sinful freedoms and the results of those freedoms. No Scripture more directly confronts this abandonment and its consequences than Romans 1 does. Here is the most graphic and the most comprehensive discussion of what it means to be abandoned by God and it is the best passage that I know of to explain the moral chaos and the confusion that we experience in our own nation at this very time. God's wrath is already at work in our culture. We're not waiting for it. We are currently experiencing it. Now I want you to notice the wrath of abandonment in its progression.

This will help you to understand why I say we're experiencing it, not only in America but in the world and particularly in the western world today. Look at verse 24, when the wrath of abandonment goes into action, this wrath which is defined for us as God giving them over, follows three steps. It follows three sequential steps. You notice therefore, and that, of course, connects it to the prior passage. The prior passage has as its leading statement, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And then there are a number of statements about why the wrath of God is revealed because the truth is suppressed because that which is known of God is rejected, etc., etc. And then in verse 24 you come back to what that wrath is, therefore God gave them over. And first of all, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them. The first indication in a society of the wrath of abandonment is sexual immorality...sexual immorality. When a society becomes pornographic, when the general character of a society can be seen to be immoral, this wrath is in effect.

When man is abandoned by God, when a society is abandoned by God, it operates only out of the passions of its own impure heart. It operates in the lusts of the heart leading to impurity. The heart is wretched, the heart is immoral and the body follows.

So you see that in verse 24. First, the lusts dominate the heart leading to impurity and the bodies follow in most dishonorable ways. The heart is wicked and unrestrained and the body follows and you have a pornographic culture.

That's just step one. So you look at a society and ask, is it driven by sexual immorality? Is it filled with lust in the heart leading to impurity and the body follows in dishonorable behavior?

The answer for our own world and our own society is yes. Step two is in verse 26. For this reason, God gave them over...here's the second step...to degrading passions. Now we're not just talking about passions, we've added degrading.

We're going down. There is a greater debauchery here. The degrading passions can be defined as gross affections, vile desires, perversion or even inversion.

And here it is defined. Their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, plain and simple, lesbianism, homosexuality. And the Holy Spirit first in this passage refers to the degradation of women because they are usually the last to be affected in the decay of morals because they have a mothering instinct and a protective instinct over their own children. But when the wrath of abandonment is in force, even the women fall to the degrading passions. And in our culture, the lesbian movement has been vocal and relentless and passionate and fierce and even violent, proof that absolutely all virtue is gone. And verse 27 adds, in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And there's a little slip in of the consequential wrath.

What is the due penalty of their error? That they receive venereal disease, AIDS. When you see a society that is pornographic, that is into sexual immorality, fornication, adultery as a way of life, as a dominant way of life which is not only in existence but approved and exalted in every way in the media, you know the wrath of abandonment is in operation. And then when a society also exalts homosexuality, lesbianism and male homosexuality, or sodomy, you know that it is even sinking deeper.

But there's a third step and the third step is in verse 28. Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, here's the third step. God gave them over to a depraved mind. First the heart is rotten and the body follows and then the mind goes. What is a depraved mind? Well the word literally means tested and found useless, disqualified for its intended purpose, a non-functioning mind. Reasoning is so corrupted that it is crippled.

The faculty, the intellectual faculty can no longer function. The moral law of God written in the heart has been literally stomped and replaced with cultural immorality. The conscience cannot function. And so, it says in verse 28, they do the things which are not proper. And what flows out of this pornographic, homosexual, depraved culture? All evil, verse 29, all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil. They even come up with new forms of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.

And that's just a partial list. It's like somebody opened the sewer of sin and let it run through society. And although they know the ordinance of God, it's written on the heart, Romans 2.

It's written on the pages of Scripture. And they also know that those who practice such things are worthy of death. They not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. They know it's wrong.

They know the consequences. They do it anyway and they give hearty approval to others who do it. You look at the society in this country and you ask yourself, is this a pornographic, homosexual, depraved society manifesting all these characteristics or not?

The answer is unmistakably clear. The media, television, the music industry, radio, magazines features the people who are the purveyors of this filth as the cultural heroes and icons, movie people, television people, music people, etc. This stuff is even advocated across this country in educational institutions, particularly universities are literal hotbeds for the advocacy of all of this kind of iniquity. This is what happens when God abandons a society.

I look at our society and I say, this is it. And that then brings us to the question of the text, why does God do it? Why does God abandon a society? Let's go back to verse 18. I'm going to show you a sequence starting in verse 18 that has led us to this. Now let me just kind of unpack these verses, verse 18 down through verse 23, by giving you four specific sequential reasons for the wrath of God. Number one, revelation...number one revelation, men have been given the truth.

Verse 18 says, we suppress the truth. Verse 19 then describes the source of that, that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them through reason and the moral law written in the heart. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they're without excuse.

They are without excuse because it is so obvious that a creation has to have a Creator, a design has to have a designer. God has inlaid the evidence of spiritual and moral truth and of His own existence and His greatness and His power in the very fabric of man's being. We talk about our five senses, but we have more working in us than just five physical senses. We have two spiritual senses, reason is one and morality is another. These are so strong within us that they would lead us to God as a Creator, a powerful Creator. They would lead us to God as a law giver and therefore a judge if we just followed what is implanted in our hearts. In fact, it is so embedded in us, the end of verse 20, that all of us are without excuse.

The truth is there. It's in the conscience, it's in the reason that takes you to God and it's in the revelation of Scripture. Sinners are without excuse, because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them in creating them the way He did. And so, looking at the creation, you see His invisible attributes, eternal power, divine nature clearly and you have no excuse.

Revelation, that's the first thing. Second word in this progression, rejection. Men have turned from the truth. Verse 21, even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. And though man finds God in reason, he rejects Him. Finds God in the moral law and conscience, he rejects Him. As exposed to the truth of God in Scripture, he rejects. He suppresses the truth under his iniquities because he loves darkness rather than light. And he plunges downward, believing that he can live his life any way he wants without any consequence at all. And leaving himself therefore under divine judgment of the severest kind.

And so, we look at a society today, particularly here in America and in the western world, so amazingly influenced by the gospel. And we see a people who do not honor God. Go back to verse 21. They do not honor Him as God. They do not give thanks. That is to say, they do not thank Him for being the source of everything they have. Man's problem is not that he can't find God. Man's problem is not that he can't recognize God.

Man's problem is not that he can't find the truth or recognize the truth, it is that he will not. And it's back to John 3 again, they love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They don't want to honor God. To honor God would then cause them to be accountable to Him and to His Law and therefore under His judgment. Man would rather live without God in view at all. Go back to verse 21. Because though they knew God, they didn't honor Him as God or give thanks.

And we're talking collectively about a society here. But they became empty in their speculations, futile, empty human ideas, useless. And as I said, into that vacuum is sucked, darkness in the end of verse 21 says, their foolish heart was darkened.

They wouldn't know and now they couldn't know. The darkness dominated. Wrath came because of revelation and it comes again and again and again and again to societies throughout all of human history because they will not acknowledge God who has revealed Himself. And so you have revelation followed by rejection. And when there comes rejection, the light goes out, the darkness comes. And a third step follows, rationalization...rationalization.

This, if it weren't so sad, would be funny. Verse 22, professing to be wise, they became fools. The idiocy of verse 21 is exacerbated in verse 22. Their darkness is so profound that they can't assess their true condition. So they profess to be wise. This is no more ridiculous, no more absurd, no more bizarre than giving yourself a Ph.D. when you are a fool, congratulating yourself for your wisdom and knowledge and insight and achievement when your heart is black and shut out completely of true knowledge. And that leads to a fourth element, religion...religion. This is so interesting. Verse 23, they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

How ridiculous. Religion...men create their own gods to accommodate their own useless ideas. You might think that religion is man at his highest. Let me tell you, religion is man at his lowest. False religion is man at the bottom...at the bottom. It's man who has gone away from the truth of God and the further he goes, the more he descends into satanic false religion. Religion is not man at his highest, it is man at his absolute lowest.

This is the final straw. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. They kept worshiping. They developed a religion but they worshiped something of their own creation or a creation of God, an animal, a fish, a star, a constellation, or an idol rather than the Creator. Verse 28 says it again, they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. We've rejected God. He gave us revelation, we rejected it.

We rationalize it and call ourselves an elite educated advanced culture and we invent religion as if it's an indicator of how high we have ascended when the fact of the matter is we're going down at warp speed. We have abandoned God and God has returned the favor. And so we are under His wrath. That brings the question, is there any hope?

Is there any hope for this country, for any society in this condition? All I can say is that there is a word of hope in Psalm 81. Let's look at verse 11, but My people did not listen to My voice and Israel did not obey Me. So, there's the same language, I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices. That's Romans 1.

This happened to Israel. But verse 13, here is a plaintive cry from the heart of God, O that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways. And I love verse 16, and I would feed you with the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. This is a plaintive cry from God who says, O that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways. I would turn from abandoning them, from giving them over to their own sinful choices, to defending them and protecting them and punishing their enemies. And I would feed them with the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock I would satisfy them.

The key? Listen to Me, walk in My ways. The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it. When God abandons a nation, that was John's lesson today.

It's part of his Best of series titled Foundations Volume 2. Along with being the speaker here on Grace to You, John is also chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, both in Southern California. And John, a question that some people may have after hearing today's lesson from Romans 1 is this. The wholesale rejection of God and then God's abandonment of those who lived. Is that where the whole world is headed? Yeah, that's a very good question.

And I think the answer to that is in Acts 14. God has allowed all the nations to go their own way. That's the cycle of nations. That's the cycle of human history. While there's a sense in which human history is linear, chronologically moving forward, there's also a sense in which it's cyclical.

It's the same thing over and over and over and over and over. And Romans 1 points that out. You have the knowledge of God. You reject the knowledge of God.

It leads to a sexual revolution, a homosexual revolution, a reprobate mind, and that's the beginning of the judgment of God. So, yes, to speak of nations would be to say, yeah, all the nations go that way. But from all those nations, and I think this is important to say, God is redeeming his church so that his church, when seen in glory, is from every nation and tongue and tribe and people.

The elect are chosen out of these nations that follow that same cycle. There's so much good theology in the book of Romans that I would suggest to you that you would do well to master the book of Romans. It would be a tremendous foundation for understanding everything that has been revealed in Scripture. So I want to let you know, if you don't already know, that I've written a MacArthur commentary series on every book of the New Testament. I don't know if you've read commentaries or not, but a good place to start would be two volumes on Romans. It just explains detail by detail, word by word, phrase by phrase exactly what each verse means. If you're familiar with the study notes found in a MacArthur study Bible, well, this is that on steroids multiplied ten times, just more thorough. This would be a great place for you to start looking into commentaries. And in Romans, you're going to find out how to be right with God, what is freedom from sin, how Christ died for God, what life in the Spirit is, eternal security, God's sovereignty and salvation, God's promise to Israel, the Christian and government, so many things.

This would be a great thing to change your life and set you in a new direction. Get two commentary volumes on Romans, or if you want, you can just get all 33 in the MacArthur New Testament commentary series. They're reasonably priced. That's right. Thank you, John. And friend, something that John Calvin said, understanding the book of Romans opens up a sure road for understanding the entire Bible. John MacArthur's commentaries on Romans will help you walk that sure road, unlocking the richness of that amazing book. To order, contact us today. You can call us at 855-GRACE. You can also order the commentaries at our website, gty.org.

The two Romans commentaries cost $19 each. There are 31 other volumes to choose from in the MacArthur New Testament commentary series, and each volume is also $19. Again, to place your order, call 855-GRACE or go to gty.org. And while you're online, remember, you can download all of John's messages, including those from this current study, Foundations Volume 2, in MP3 format, free of charge, and also transcripts of those messages and a lot more are available for free at our website.

Just log on to gty.org. And thanks for remembering that Grace to You is supported by listeners just like you. When we pray for grace to you and for the people around the world who receive our Bible teaching, you take an active role in reaching families and communities like yours with biblical truth. So thank you for bringing us before the Lord. And now for John MacArthur and our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be here tomorrow when John shows you practical ways to fight sinful thoughts, and why that's a vital thing to do. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.