"THE WORLD ON TRIAL".....the evidence Romans 3 v 15 - 17
Having classified the evidence in terms of evil words, Paul now turns his attention to the evidence supplied by evil deeds. The details in these verses are to be found in Isaiah 59 v 7-8 this is the chapter which opens by explaining why men have been separated from God, because of their sins, it is not because of any deficiency on the part of God. There are four main areas of evidence and we will tabulate them as follows:
1. "Their feet are swift to shed blood"
As unpalatable as it may be, this fact is right up-to-date. In the last century there were more people killed through wars, genocide, murders, than any other century previously. As recently as 1939 - 1945, there were 55 million killed estimated in the second world war. Today, a person is more likely to be killed on the streets of the USA, than to be conscripted to the front line in world war two. In USA, and of course this is only one example, it is documented that there is a murder every 20 seconds. Since 1973, there have been over 100 million abortions, the killing of unborn babies, mostly on the altar of human convenience. It is accepted there will always be genuine reasons for abortions, but this world has decided that expediency is more important than the preciousness of human life. We have lived in a generation which has seen the wanton murder of children in schools, the politically motivated murder of people in shopping centres, the rise of idealistic killers like the Norwegian council massacre, the genocide of Muslims in Serbia, the rise of Islamic state justifying public executions; the killing of patients by doctors and nurses, who had taken the hypocratic oath to preserve life, not take it; the invasion of Iraq on, what are now proved to be false premises resulting in the unlawful deaths of over 1000,000 innocent Iraquis; the unlawful execution of 6 million Jews on the basis of racial prejudice; and so we could go on. We live in a blood thirsty world , where human life has become cheap, where killing another human being has been glorified, instead of being a matter of shame since those that are so killed were made in the image of God, and were entitled to their place on this earth until the Creator decided otherwise. This bloodthirsty trait within the human heart is tabulated as one of seven abominations to the Lord for which we will answer. Proverbs 6 v 17-18.
2. "Destruction and misery are in their ways"
If the first charge refers to violence the second one now refers to vandalism. We live in a world which is plagued with the desire of some to destroy rather than construct. The force of this word as used in the New Testament is quite telling. It is the same word as Paul uses Romans 16v 20 where Paul says "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet". This refers to the complete destruction of Satan by God. The meaning of this word is further illustrated in Revelation 2 v 27 where it says, referring to the future kingdom of Jesus Christ on this earth " He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken in shivers." It is that description that is behind this word destruction. The Spirit of God is saying here, that the ultimate intent of our human heart, devoid of God's grace is to totally destroy someone or something that is in their way. The result of this streak of vandalism will be misery for those on the receiving end. There may be some who are objecting to this assessment of human beings, saying that these are extreme examples, and only a few people are like that; its only the fanatics, the power brokers of this world who act like that, most of us are peace loving, law abiding citizens, and of course this objection is reasonable. What is being said here is that all of us without exception, given the right circumstances, and the right opportunities would be acting in the very same way. It is time to take off our rose-tinted spectacles so far as this world is concerned because Jesus predicted a time would come when, except for Divine intervention the world would annihilate itself. Matthew 24 v 22 When that time comes God will intervene, in the meantime this is His assessment of the human heart.
3. "The way of peace have they not known"
The constant cry of the world is "PEACE, PEACE!" There are organisations who exists today purely with that agenda, the creation of world peace. The only problem is no-one has any clue as to how to achieve it, because if it were possible it would have been found by now. The Bible clearly states "there is no peace saith my God to the wicked" Isaiah 57 v 21 Peace will not come to the world until the question of sin has been dealt with in God's way and by God's man Jesus Christ who is described as "THE PRINCE OF PEACE" Isaiah 9 v 6 Paul will later develop in Romans chapter 5 that it is possible to have individual peace with God now on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ, but world peace, universal peace, which will come to this earth, is for a future day. Try as we may, there has been no permanent peace in the world, there will be no permanent peace in the world until all the impediments to peace are removed from the universe. Meanwhile we need to seek reconciliation with God.
4. "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
No fear, no respect, no reverence for the God of heaven. We have no concept of accountability either personally or as a society. We speak of sin in a jocular fashion, we practice sin day and daily without fear, we have no concept that our Creator sees everything, hears everything, records everything and will demand that we give account for everything. The fear of God has gone out of our society and has gone out of our individual hearts. John Calvin said "the fear of God is a bridle to restrain our wickedness, so when this is lacking we feel at liberty to indulge in all kinds of evil."
It could be said we are all ATHEISTS in practise if not in principal. The Bible says to a world who professes to be wise, and getting wiser every day "THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM" Psalm 111 v 10
There is no fear of God, in the main, in our politicians, in our leaders, in our older generation, in our middle generation, in our younger generation, in our media communication, even dare we say it in our churches where the fear of God should be paramount.
The solemn challenge of Jesus to the world who have moved their perspective away from the stark realities of life cut across every strata of our society and of our thinking when he said "fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." Matthew 10 v 28
Jesus told us the truth, and the Holy Spirit confirms it here in His teachings. Tomorrow d.v. the verdict .
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