We have continued to look at the issue of depravity and how it is so different when one looks at it from a God-centered perspective rather than from a man-centered perspective. Another way to look at the depravity of man from a God-centered perspective is to realize that sin itself is a punishment from God. It is true that when we sin more punishment comes as a result of that sin, but our present sin is the result of past sin as well. We are now sinning as punishment for past sin which means we will have even more sin as a punishment for our present sin. While this sounds backwards to people, that is only because they are locked into a sight of sin and of God from a man-centered perspective. Let us look at three texts of Holy Scripture.
Isaiah 63:17 – “Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways And harden our heart from fearing You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage. 18 Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while, Our adversaries have trodden it down. 19 We have become like those over whom You have never ruled, Like those who were not called by Your name.”
Isaiah 64:7 – “There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.”
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…Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them…26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural… 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.”
With just these few texts there should be enough light to show us what is going on. Isaiah 63 tells us that the Lord hardens hearts so that people do not fear Him. As a result of that the nation of Israel had become just like those over whom God had not ruled. But notice the causal relation that the text gives. The reason that the people had become like everybody else is because God had hardened their hearts. As we look upon the SBC today and notice that for the most part the SBC is just like the world, what do we attribute that to? Usually we will go back and tell people to attend church more, tithe more, pray more and evangelize more. But we almost always forget to look behind why people are not doing those things and have become like the world. It is because God has withdrawn and has hardened their hearts. We must wake up before we slide into even greater sin and judgment.
Why does spiritual lethargy reign in the United States and the SBC today? Is it because we don’t have enough programs or because we are not committed enough? Why did the liberals take over for so long and now why does the truth still languish? Could it be that God has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities? Could it be that we have identified sin as homosexuality and abortion instead of looking at the whole of sin from the Bible? While those things are sin, we must stand against them in a biblical way and we must understand that sin is of the heart. We must understand that we can be against those things and still hate God while we fight those things. Why are those things sin? The answer is because those things are against the Word and character of God. Why do people commit those sins? Because God has turned them over to hardened hearts and has left them to their sin. But there are many other things that are against the Word and character of God. There are many other sins that God turns people over to as well. He turns people over to coldness in worship and the desire for peace at the cost of truth and love for His glory. He turns people over to gossip and dissension. He turns people over to a love for sports where they spend more money, time and affection on those things than Him. Could it be that the United States is under the judgment of God? Could it be that the SBC is under the judgment of God too? How are we to return to God? First we must see that God is at the center of everything and understand that the reason we are going down is because God is turning us over to our sin. Liberalism in theology and practice is a terrible blight on any denomination, but moralism and legalism are not corrections but are different blights.
If we do not wake up the United States and the SBC will fall under the irrevocable judgment of God. It is to be hoped that we are not there yet, but surely at the rate we are going down it is not far away. We have been turned over to sin by God and we don’t even know it. That is a severe judgment. We are under judgment because of our lack of love for God and the truth. This is seen in our unwillingness to stand up for the real truth and preach it in true love for God and others. If we continue to focus on the outward sins and give lip service to the issues of the heart, then God will punish our man-centered ways of morality and lukewarmness and continue to hand us over to more and more sin. If we continue to waffle on our theology God will not stand with the theology we have.
We must begin to wake up and see how much depends on God granting us repentance. We must cry out to God to wake us up and begin to teach people the true nature of depravity. Those who love the truth must begin to see that moralism and legalism are as bad as liberalism. Roman Catholicism and Mormons have moralism and legalism, but neither have the truth of the Gospel of the glory of God in Christ. Both moralism and legalism, regardless of who holds it (Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Arminian, Fundamentalist), deny the truth of the Word of God and God has abandoned both of those in history and will continue to do so. We must wake up and realize that there will never be peace between those who hold to the doctrine of depravity in all of its horror from a God-centered view and those (regardless of creed) who see things from a man-centered way. Until people are truly broken from the sin of their selfishness, self-love, self-centeredness and pride, there is no real difference other than a few semantics between Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, Arminianism and even Pelagianism. The real difference between truth and error is God-centeredness versus man-centeredness. Without God-centeredness all we do is not out of love for God. With man-centeredness, regardless of our theology or practice, what we do is idolatry.
God Loves... Himself 
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