ROMANS 1:21 GLORIFIED HIM NOT There is something wired up in us as human beings that makes us aware of God. The knowledge of the existence of God does not mean that we are accepted by Him. We ought to worship and give glory to Him but men refuse to express gratitude and thanksgiving to Him. Instead of being thankful for life itself and all the blessings that accompany it, people have become thankless and godless. The conscience and its condemnation would not go away so men became idolaters to escape their thoughts of responsibility to God.
In the desire to avoid accountability to God, people begin to follow futile and vain speculations about God. They dream up their own ideas, and what they would consider "reasoning" is simply a product of their own imagination. These Gentiles could see and know about God through creation but instead of giving Him thanks, their imagination led them to form idols based on the sun, moon, stars or strong animals God created. This leads to worshipping the creature instead of the Creator.
The result is the heart, the seat of knowledge and emotion, lost the little light it had when they could see evidence of God. Instead of becoming wiser, they wandered foolishly through the darkness of their own thoughts. Created beings refused to recognize the One who created them. Daily they experienced God's provision but never stopped to consider where it came from and to give God thanks for it. This was the way it was with people in the past and it is getting worse now than ever before. Now, instead of accepting the truth of God, and Christ as their Savior, they have made men themselves to be their gods. In their effort to exalt man to the place of human-made deity, they also seek to bring the True God down to being simply a form of humanity.
How strange it is when mankind seeks to make himself to be a god. How offensive it must be to the Almighty God who only is the Lord. How gracious and loving is God toward us to allow us to even exist. He has not come down yet in final judgment nor said, "Cease and desist."
Farther and farther men seem to be going in order to avoid the truth. And yet God in grace, still extends His welcome and offers to man new birth. But instead men make their own definitions of words that have their source in God. Not only do they go astray themselves but seek to alter God's very word.
Through all around us there is unmistakable evidence of God's reality. From the atoms so small or the universe so large, thinking people can easily see There is a God who is the Creator but men seek to deny the fact That we are accountable to God as a Person who knows how we think and act.
An uncontrolled imagination has the power to make a wise man a fool. Our intelligence isn't the controlling factor of life, it is only a tool Implanted by God to be used by men that we might have fellowship with Him. When imagination takes over the mind, it leads people into all kinds of new sin.
It begins with a thought, perhaps a passing fancy that appeals to sinful flesh. Then it develops almost a mind of it own until one is caught in its mesh. From there it takes over until it controls the body, the spirit and the soul. And what was only a foolish and childish imagination now has taken over control.
God is not glorified nor are people thankful, they think they are on their own. The imagination leads to deeper and darker sins as men start to reap what they've sown. There are no thanks; only increasing greed as men seek to raise themselves high. They think they are the center of their own universe until it comes time to die.
They don't like to think of that at all because there is an inborn fear That when they die there might be more than all they have experienced here. Some say they believe in incarnation, others - "When you're dead, you're dead." But ingrained in the human psychic is a fear of what lies ahead.
"O Righteous God, there are so many people who have been led astray by their vain imaginations and those evil suggestions of others. May there be a way I can reach some with the truth of Thy great salvation, even though I am getting older. If there are those You will use me to connect with, I pray Thee to give me the right words and wisdom to present the message of salvation to them. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."
BAD CHOICE. The downward spiral begins with rejecting God. Then comes the exaltation of our own ideas. Then the rejection of a values system which leads into sexual sin, greed, malice and all other forms of perversion of that which is right. Once choices like these are made, it is Christ only who can give them a way of escape. It is beyond man’s ability to reverse the result of bad choices. Sins that are in the vortex of that awful whirlpool of degradation are:
No knowledge - sin against light: The light of morality has been wired to each person. There is in every rational person a sense of right and wrong. Because of that inherent part of our personality, all of us has an awareness of One who is larger, higher, far exceeding us in intelligence and character. There is a general knowledge of God so that we are acquainted with His existence and character. But those philosophies of men arose that shut up the glories of God seen in creation, conscience, and goodness. The lives of true believers, pain on the bed and the chosen symbols of Christ’s person and death, also speak to us without words. In exchange for the knowledge of God, they gave people an image.
No respect - did not glorify God: Some of the more famous philosophers looked within themselves to find God. Plato, Socrates, Lucretius and others like them were in the vanguard of existentialism that afflicts many people in our day. In the vanity of their reasoning, and stupidity and nonsense when speaking about God, they reject the God revealed to us in the scriptures of truth. They sought for Him in the darkness of their own hearts and because they did not find Him there, they didn’t bother to look elsewhere.
No honor - unthankful: God was not in their thoughts. The lack of respect and reverence for God was the source of their abominations. To glorify God is to reverence Him, and every thing about Him. To glorify God is to venerate His name. To take things for granted as our right, is to dishonor God.
No gratitude - self-conceited: There is a hardness and an insensitivity to God and even to others when the darkness of rejected light, an unthankful heart, a high-minded arrogance, claim the mind of a person. Vain imaginations arise as a result of man at the center of his life and world.
No understanding - foolish heart darkened: These people are condemned because they choose darkness over light; ideas over evidence; imagination over evidence; idols over God; religion over salvation. When people see themselves as the center of their own little universe, they soon invent gods of their own. Then these gods become something they can’t do without, and they form idols to look to.
“O God of righteousness: how it must grieve Thee to see such potential lost because of a series of bad choices. What could have been so honorable and glorifying to Thee, is gone to worse than worthlessness. A thing that is worthless goes on to a scrap-heap, but these influence others. I have run into this often lately in Gospel work. I am finding it more difficult to know how to deal with people who make such awful choices. I am asking Thee for understanding to know when to press on, and when to walk away. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”