The Lost World | Part 2

How has the devil infiltrated our homes?

Listen closely to Adrian Rogers. How do we entertain ourselves by sitcoms about drunkenness and perversion, immorality and adultery? And the devil has a pipeline right into our homes because not only do we do these things, we have pleasure in them that do them. We make them the most admired people in America.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the dynamic teaching of Adrian Rogers. God is a God of love, but He is also righteous. He is the chief judge, holy in His wrath. In Romans chapter 1, the Apostle Paul reveals three reasons why this lost world is to be judged. And ultimately this passage acts as an urgent warning to us living in wicked days to repent of our ways and follow God. If you have your Bible, turn to Romans 1. We'll begin in verse 18.

Here's Adrian Rogers with part two of The Lost World. May I tell you that these are perilous days in which we're living and there's no ifs, ands and buts about it. We are on a collision course with disaster and judgment, and you can see it in many ways. Do you know what the only sin is today? The only sin today is to call sin, sin. If you call sin, sin, then they say you are intolerant.

Well, we're going to learn something today about the wrath of God, the judgment of God. There's one thing that God will not accept for sin, and that is an alibi or an excuse. He will accept a confession and He will forgive, but there is no excuse. Man is inexcusable in his sin. Man does not want God to rule over him. Now, he somehow moves God out of his heart even though God's existence and God's power and God's authority is clearly revealed. Man willfully determines to go his own way. The problem is not really intellectual.

The problem is moral. The Bible says the fool has said in his heart there is no God. He doesn't say it in his head. He says it in his heart. Now, what is the second step that shows there without excuse? First of all, there is that willful self-determination. They repress.

They hold back. They smother the truth. The second step, not only man's willful self-determination, but man's wicked, wicked self-deception. You see, when a man decides he's going to go his own way, he also deceives himself. Nature abhors a vacuum, and if man resists the truth, he's going to believe something, so he will believe a lie. When a man says, I don't believe in God, that doesn't mean that he believes nothing.

It means he will believe anything because believe he must, and so he's going to put his faith somewhere else, and he deceives himself. Selfish indifference, sophisticated ignorance, and now watch the next step, shameful idolatry. Do you know what an idol is? An idol is anything you love more, fear more, value more, or serve more than Almighty God. That's an idol. That's an idol. Your idol may be your home. It may be your automobile.

It may be your business. It may be a sex. It could be anything, anything that takes the place that Almighty God ought to have. Anything that is first place in your life is an idol before Almighty God, and we may think we're a little bit too sophisticated to worship creeping things, but we still, we still have idolatry in our hearts, shameful idolatry.

Do you know what man does? Do you know what an idol is? An idol is only a magnified sinner. That's all an idol is. Man takes his worst vices, greed and lust, violence, and pride, and he deifies them.

That's a pretty slick thing, because then he legitimizes them when he deifies them. For example, I've been to Baalbek in Lebanon and seen the mighty temple there to the god Bacchus, the god of drunkenness, and how did they worship him? By getting drunk. You can go to Corinth and see the Acro-Corinthus up there on Mount Corinth where the prostitutes were up there. How did they worship their god? By going in and having sexual intercourse with a prostitute. What he does is legitimatize his vices, and nothing is too good for a man's god.

Pretty slick, right? First of all, there comes this selfish indifference. He doesn't care about God.

Then there comes this sophisticated ignorance, professing himself to be wise. He becomes a fool. And then there comes this shameful idolatry. He exchanges the truth of God for a lie, and he begins to worship anything but the Almighty, the creature, rather than the Creator. Now, what is the result in society when we have idolatry in America? And by the way, in 1962, we kicked God out of our schools in a vacuum.

We had all kinds of strange idols to come into America, and a part of that is the grisly abortion business. Let me give you some verses. Psalm 106, verses 35, let's go through verse 38. He speaks of his people who were mingled among the heathen and learned their works, and they served their idols which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood. Did you know that the chief god of the abortion industry is demonic? They sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, and the land was polluted with blood. The Bible links all of this with idolatry.

We've made such a god of pleasure. Most abortions today are convenience abortions. People don't want to have to raise a child. They don't want to be inconvenienced. They don't want to have to give up a job.

They don't want to do this or that. Let's just snuff out that life. You say, well, a woman has a right to determine whether or not she's going to have a baby. Not after the baby's conceived.

Not after the baby's conceived. She talks about being pro-choice. She has a choice whether to have a live baby or a dead one. That's her choice.

To have a live baby or to have a dead baby, but she's going to have a baby because there is a baby living in her. But we've learned the way of the heathen. Well, the land is flooded with innocent blood, and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men who suppress the truth, resist the truth, who hold back the truth in unrighteousness. Now here's the third step. Step number one, man's willful self-determination. Step number two, man's wicked self-deception. He blinds himself. He deceives himself. And now finally, man's woeful self-destruction. Self-determination leads to self-deception leads to self-destruction. And the rest of this chapter tells about that destruction. What is that destruction?

Well, it comes in several stages. First of all, people who turn from God always become sexually perverted. Look, if you will, in verse 25, they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. And for this cause, God gave them up to vile affections.

Now what is he talking about when he says vile affections? For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet or fitting.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Now what God is talking about here is the sin of sodomy and the sin of moral perversion. Notice how God calls this sin. Actually, he begins up in verse 24. He calls it uncleanness.

He calls it lust. He calls it dishonor in verse 24. In verse 26, he calls it vile affections. In verse 26, he says it is against nature. In verse 27, he says it is unseemly. Over in the Old Testament, in Leviticus chapter 18 verse 22, the Bible says, Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind.

It is an abomination. I've been amazed as I've read those who want to practice this perversion, some of the fancy footwork they've done to try to explain away the plain meaning of God's Word. As a matter of fact, the explosion of sexual perversion that we're seeing today is one of the great signs that we're living in the last days and that we're ripe for judgment. Our Lord said in Luke chapter 17 that the last days were going to be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. I want to share that scripture with you, verses 26 through 30. Our Lord Jesus is speaking and Jesus says, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Then again, likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they brought, they sold, they planted, they built it, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. As it was in the days of Lot, Lot, you will remember, lived in a society that had glorified sodomy and sexual perversion and God destroyed ancient Sodom with fire and brimstone. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 6 says, He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them an example to those that should after live ungodly. God left Sodom with its smoking ruins as an example.

The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history. Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 48, Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me, therefore I took them away as I saw good. God said they were full of bread, they were full of idleness, there was prosperity in the land, but they were proud and haughty, they strutted, they were proud of their sin. As we've said, sin that used to slink down back alleys now struts down main streets. What used to be called a sin began to be called sickness, and now it's being called a socially accepted practice. And as I say, the only sin today is to call that sin, sin.

And there will be people who will write to me and tell me that I'm ignorant, bigoted, and whatever. Please, if I say something that's not in the Scripture, write me and let me know. But if it's in the Bible, take your argument up with God.

And if you think that I'm hard-hearted, I'm not. But I am honor bound to preach God's Word. You see, a nation, a nation that cannot distinguish about moral perversion is a nation on its last legs. Isaiah chapter 3, listen to it, verses 8 and 9, for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance doth witness against them. They declare their sin as solemn.

They hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. God said, this is what has ruined Judah. This is what has ruined Jerusalem. And I submit to you, it will be the ruin of America as surely as there is a God in the glory. I'm only telling you folks what the Word of God says.

If you want to reference the Scripture again, it's Isaiah chapter 3, verses 8 and 9. But this is not the only kind of sin. Pornography is flooding America. What happens to that pornography? It eventually finds itself in the hands of children, in the hands of children.

Vile, wicked, lascivious stuff. Some time ago, I was driving down Poplar Avenue. I saw two little guys out there. It looked like they may have been in grade school. They had a briefcase with them, a nice looking briefcase. And they were going out into the woods with that briefcase. I knew something had to be wrong when you see two little guys with a briefcase going in the woods. So I stopped my car.

They were going in the woods. I got out and I said, alright boys, come out. I didn't hear anything. I said, you heard me.

Come out right now. After a while, two little guys with eyes like squirrels came out of the woods, no briefcase. I said, boys, what were you doing in the woods?

Nothing. I said, where's the briefcase? They said, what briefcase? I said, go get the briefcase. They said, what briefcase? I said, go get the briefcase. They said, yes, sir.

I didn't know whether they'd come back or not, but they came back with that briefcase. I said, open it. They said, do we have to?

I said, open it. And it was full of vile, lascivious pornography. Little guys. It made me so angry.

Not angry at the pornography per se, but angry that little guys like that, little guys like that, would have their minds twisted and warped at that age with the vileness that was in that stuff. I said, boys, where did you get this? Oh, they said, we got it from some other boys.

They left it out in the woods and we knew where they left it and we got it from them. I said, what would your mother think? You're not going to tell my mother, are you? I said, well, I don't know. And I talked with them. And I said, boys, you wouldn't put garbage in your mouths.

Don't put garbage in your minds. And I talked with them, had a little prayer. They said, what do you want us to do with this? I said, give it to me. So I took that briefcase and put it in my car. And I said, God, if I have a wreck. I drove down to a high school and went behind that high school and there's an incinerator.

And I dumped it in that incinerator. Can you imagine, folks, $6 billion worth, $6 billion worth of pornography finds its way. I think of my little grandsons. I don't want them reading that filth. I don't want my granddaughters reading that stuff. I don't want their minds to be twisted and perverted.

But what happens? A man's self-destruction, he becomes, first of all, sexually perverted. Do you think God is against sex? God is in favor of sex. God made man a sexual creature.

God made Adam and Eve. And when He gave Eve to Adam, He said, that is very good. And when God says, flee fornication. When God says, thou shalt not commit adultery. When God says, thou shalt not lie with man as with woman. He's not trying to keep us from sex.

He's trying to keep sex for us. It is God's wonderful gift. And sex is so bad perverted because it is so wonderful as God intended for one man and one woman to love one another in a monogamous marriage to have that fulfillment and joy. And frankly, friend, I want that for my children.

I want my children and my grandchildren to know what I have known and what Joyce and I have known in a happy Christian monogamous marriage. The devil is a pervert. The devil is a pervert.

He has no raw materials. He can only take that which is from God and pervert it. So they became sexually perverted. And then when they became sexually perverted, they became socially perverted. Now look, if you will, in verse 28, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate, that means a decadent mind. And old friend, we don't have a reprobate minded society today. God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant breakers without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Man, when he turns his back from God, becomes not only sexually perverted but socially perverted. The world becomes a mad house. And we live in our self-made cells and lock ourselves in at night while the hoodlums roam up and down the streets.

And our wives and our daughters are afraid to go out at night and walk up and down the streets. What happens? When man turns his back on God, he becomes sexually perverted. Then he becomes socially perverted. And then he becomes spiritually perverted.

Look in verse 32, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which do such things, which commit such things, are worthy of death, not only do the same, but they have pleasure in them that do them. We have begun to entertain ourselves. How do we entertain ourselves? By sitcoms about drunkenness and perversion, immorality and adultery. And the devil has a pipeline right into our homes because not only do we do these things, we have pleasure in them that do them. We make them the most admired people in America. Now folks, I am broken-hearted for America. Listen to me. God's people need to get on their face before Almighty God in prayer.

Three times in this chapter, it says God gave them up, God gave them up, and God gave them over. Do you know the very worst thing that God could do to America? The very worst thing is just leave us alone. Just leave us alone. Just say, all right, you've got it. Take your vices, take your lust, take your evolution, take your abortion, take it all.

You've got it. So long. I hope that doesn't happen to America. God gave them up. God gave them up. God gave them over. It's revival time in America. It's time for us to seek the Lord because Romans 1 is being replayed for us.

Willful self-determination, wicked self-deception, woeful self-destruction. That's the bad news that makes the good news good. The good news is the Gospel. That's what Romans is about, the Gospel. And the word Gospel means good news.

Paul says in verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Every sin will be forgiven. He will come into your heart radically, dramatically, and eternally change your heart, put His Spirit in you, and He will not only change you, but He will empower you, and then when time to go to heaven comes, when you die or when Jesus comes, He'll take you to be with Him for eternity. Friend, that's the Gospel truth. And if you're not certain of your salvation, I'm gonna lead you in a prayer.

And in this prayer, you can invite Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. You say, Pastor Rogers, I'm not in the condition that those people were in that you talked about. I sincerely believe that. But you're on the same side of the fence with them if you're not saved. And you see, friend, it's not the amount of sin that condemns us. It's the fact of sin.

The Bible says for all of sin, we're going to see that in the third chapter. You need to be saved, and you can be saved today. Would you pray a prayer like this out of your heart?

Dear God, just speak to Him. Dear God, I know that you love me, and I know that you want to save me. I'm a sinner. My sin deserves judgment, but I want mercy.

Oh, Jesus, I need to be saved. You died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust you.

I do trust you. I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you paid for my sin with your blood on the cross.

I believe God raised you from the dead. And now by faith, like a child, I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior. Take control of my life. Be my Master, my Savior. I will live for you the rest of my life. I will follow you all of my life because you have given to me the gift of salvation. Thank you.

Thank you for saving me. I don't look for a sign. I don't ask for a feeling.

I don't think that I'm going to get this because I'm a good person. I just received the gift, and all I can say is thank you, Lord. Thank you. Begin now to make me the person you want me to be, and help me never to be ashamed of you. In your name.

Amen. And if you prayed to receive Jesus Christ just now, we want to celebrate with you and invite you to our Discover Jesus page. Go to our website. You'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith. There's a response section where you can share your testimony, or you can let us know how this message has impacted your life. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus. Welcome to God's forever family. We can't wait to hear from you. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD. Mention the title, The Lost World. Now, this message is also part of the Insightful Foundations for Our Faith series for that complete collection, all 27 powerful messages.

Call 1-877-LOVEGOD, or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio, or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Romans 1 18 to 31 warns us three times God gave them up. Adrian Rogers reiterates the worst thing God could do for you would be to leave you alone in your sin.

If you have any sin in your life, any self-determination, deception or destruction, repent, which means to turn from that sin and turn to God. We hope you'll join us next time for more profound truth, Simply Stated right here on Love Worth Finding. Here's a message we received from a listener recently.

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