He Gave Them Up

I'd like to think God's blessings are still over America and that there is hope for this country, but the truth is I truly believe God has given America up. In speaking about the depravity of man in Romans 1, we get a very clear picture of what drives God to the decision to hand a people over to their sin and depravity, which is a form of judgment. God will sometimes hand a person over to their sin. He uses it as a means to discipline and bring the person back to restoration. (1 Corinthians 5:5)

Handing them over, like what's described in Romans, is entirely different. From Romans 1:21 to Romans 1:28, three times it's declared that He gave them up. Three times signifies the emphasis and finality of it. "He gave them up", the declaration. "He gave them up", the repetition. "He gave them up", the finality of it.

Nothing will cause a house to crumble like abandonment. Even if a house has fallen into disrepair. As long as it's occupied, the progression of rot is significantly slowed. Those living there will still attempt to make some repairs even though minor and use, itself, acts as a preservative. Abandon a place and over a short period of time, it will begin to crumble. Just being without electricity and heat will cause it to rot at a staggering rate.

In Romans, we can see depravity has reached all mankind and it's been getting steadily worse since the fall of man. The difference is in one verse that shows when a people have hit bottom and have forced God to abandon them....

"Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones." Romans 1:26

Women have always been the last line of defensive morality in a culture. Women are not driven like men are sexually. Even in cultures where men are sexually depraved, women, for the most part, have maintained dignity and morality that was missing around them. Thus, they acted as the salt that preserved a society. As long as the women maintained a certain level of morality, there was hope for the children who would be under the woman's influence. When women have sunk to the same level of depravity in a society there is nothing left to preserve them and it can never be brought back.

Sodom and Gomorrah are prime examples of God giving a society over to their depravity. Homosexual sin wasn't the only problem these cities had. Destruction didn't come on them for homosexual sin. It was, in fact, the end result of insisting on sinful standards and lifestyles, being handed over to their depravity and the last straw that brought divine judgment.

No other sin lays waste and shortens life like that of sexual sins. This is why we're warned in 1 Corinthians 6:18 to flee all sexual immorality. "Flee" is a forceful word used. It means to drop everything and run as hard and fast as one can from it.

"All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." 1 Corinthians 6:18

There are sins that do damage to the body such as alcohol and drug addiction, but in the bigger picture, no other sin has caused more damage to an individual and shortened life affecting entire societies like sexual immorality. No other sin directly and immediately impacts the individual and causes instant damage like sexual sin. When God hands people over, as Romans describes, it's finished. He has abandoned the people and left them to the destruction of their own sins. No longer is God restraining them with grace as an act of mercy. In fact, He is now allowing them to fill their cup of wrath every moment they take in another breath.

Just in the US alone, we have frightening statistics...

17% of all women struggle with porn addiction
* 1 of 3 visitors to all adult websites are women
* 9.4 million women access adult websites every month
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That's just the women who admitted to it. The number is much higher. This also doesn't include how we are bombarded constantly by TV, Movies, internet, books, music, schools etc., that promote sexual immorality and send the strong continuous message that "it's ok" and appeals to our sinful natures. All women may not participate in homosexual sins, but society has been forcing its acceptance for decades. Society has forced it in the church and many churches have allowed it in, made excuses for it and exchanged the truth for a lie to feed the sinful nature.

In America alone, homosexuality is celebrated especially between two women and it's forced on our children. The last line of defense has been demolished and God has abandoned America. A country that once had the light (1 Timothy 2:4), but turned against it. There's hope, of course, for the individuals who cling to God and God demonstrates His mercy to the few with the story of Lot, but for the country as a whole, all that's left now is the fearful expectation of judgment (Hebrews 10:26).