THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
By William Gray
Introduction:  Can America Be Rebuilt?
 
            Does Iran have the bomb?  Is Iran about to get the bomb?  Does Iran have a long-range missile?  Does North Korea have the bomb?  Is their long-range missile operational?  Are there suicide bomb squads already at work in America?  Is America becoming an atheist nation?  Who are these men who desire to be president?  Two Roman Catholics and a Mormon for the Republicans, and the man who is now president is the son of a man who is a Wahabi, a Muslim, but our president claims to be "in the Christian tradition," whatever that means.  Does it matter?  With an economy in ruin and gas prices soaring, does it matter who is president?   
Righteousness is Required
            God's Word unequivocally states that "righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."  (Proverbs 14:34)  The term "righteousness" means the righteousness of God that comes from God.  In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says, ". . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will, by no means, enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  In fact, in Matthew 5:48, Jesus says, "Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  Thus, the righteousness that is required of a person or of a nation is "perfection," i.e., that which "exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees." 
 Is America Righteous?
            What is going on in America today is not righteousness!  The present administration is spending tax dollars to prevent pregnancy rather than spending tax dollars to promote abstinence and chastity.  There is an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases.  There is an epidemic of fornication (sex outside of marriage) and adultery.  Marriage is not sacred, and in many cases, men and women are merely living together.  Nearly one half of all marriages end in divorce.  For the second and third marriages, the percentage of divorce increases.  Babies are being killed in their mother's womb at an estimated rate of more than one million (1,000,000) per year.  Romans 1:26 states that ". . . God gave them up to vile passions (a reprobate mind).  For even their women exchanged the natural use for that which is against nature.  Likewise, also, the men leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due."  (Romans 1: 26-27)  This is a specific reference to the Law given by God to Moses.  In Leviticus 18: 22, the Lord told Moses that the men ". . . shall not lie with a male as with a woman.  It is an abomination."
 No Fear of God
            The psalmist wrote 1,000 years before the birth of Christ that ". . . the transgression of the wicked [is] there is no fear of God before their eyes."  More than 1,000 years later, the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Church at Rome in the third chapter:
            "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:  there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:  whose moth is full of cursing and bitterness:  their feet are swift to shed blood:  destruction and misery are in their ways:  and the way of peace have they knot known:  there is no fear of God before their eyes."
This is what is going on in America.  Can you see it?
Why It is Material
            It matters because only "righteousness exalts a nation."  God's Holy Word states that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."  (Proverbs 1:7)  There is no fear of God before their eyes.  It will not matter who the president is.  It will not matter who controls the Congress.  There is no fear of God before their eyes of many of these leaders of our nation.  The Lord God rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will.  (Daniel 4:35)
 The Action Required
            The writer of God's Word to the Hebrew Christians called on them to repent and turn to God.  Quoting from the 95th Psalm, he beseeches them by saying:  "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness. . . ."  The reference is to Israel who rebelled against God after they had been rescued, redeemed from bondage in Egypt, and they hardened their hearts.  There are false teachers and leaders in America today who are leading the people astray, many of whom are professing Christians in the churches and include many who are holding themselves out as pastors and teachers but are, in realty, ravening wolves.  Jesus warned all of us not to be deceived!  He said false teachers would come.  We must repent from our own sin and the sin of this nation.  Purpose to be holy.  Ask the Lord God to make you holy and to give us leaders in our churches and in government who are holy.
 The Contrast of Eternal Life and Eternal Death
            The man who many have called the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, preached a sermon on Lord's Day morning, December 2, 1855, at the New Park Street Chapel, in Southwark, England, on John 5:40, stating, "And you will not come unto Me, that you might have life."  In the sermon, Mr. Spurgeon contrasted eternal death and eternal life.  Here in part is his chilling description of eternal death:
 
A.      Eternal Death
 
            ". . . The soul has come before its Maker; the book has been opened; the sentence has been uttered; 'Depart ye cursed' has shaken the universe, and made the very spheres dim with the frown of the Creator; the soul has departed to the depths where it is to dwell with others in eternal death.  Oh! how horrible is its position now.  Its bed is a bed of flame; the sights it sees are murdering ones that affright its spirit; the sounds it hears are shrieks, and wails, and moans, and groans; all that its body knows is the infliction of miserable pain! It has the possession of unutterable woe, of unmitigated misery. The soul looks up. Hope is extinct-it is gone. It looks downward in dread and fear; remorse hath possessed its soul. . . It looks about it-it has no friends to aid, no comforters, but tormentors in abundance.  It knows nought of hope of deliverance; it hath heard the everlasting key of destiny turning in its awful wards, and it has seen God take that key and hurl it down into the depth of eternity never to be found again.  It hopes not; it knows no escape; it guesses not of deliverance; it pants for death, but death is too much its foe to be there; it longs that non-existence would swallow it up, but this eternal death is worse than annihilation. . . When eternity shall have rolled round multitudes of its everlasting cycles it shall still be dead.  Forever knows no end; eternity cannot be spelled except in eternity.  Still the soul sees written over its head, 'Thou art damned forever. . .'  it hears a sentence that rolls not like the thunder of earth which soon is hushed-but onward, onward, onward, shaking the echoes of eternity-making thousands of years shake again with the horrid thunder of its dreadful sound-'Depart! depart! depart! ye cursed!'  This is the eternal death. . . ."
 
B.      Eternal Life
            Jesus gives eternal life to all who come to him for it.  Mr. Spurgeon said in part on that occasion in 1955 the following:
 
"There never was a man who came to Christ for eternal life, who had not already received it, in some sense, and it was manifested to him that he had received it soon after he came.  Let us take one or two texts-'He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto him.'  Every man who comes to Christ will find that Christ is able to save him-not able to save him a little, to deliver him from a little sin, to keep him from a little trial, to carry him a little way and then drop him-but able to save him to the uttermost extent of his sins, unto the uttermost length of his trials, the uttermost depths of his sorrows, unto the uttermost duration of his existence.  Christ says to everyone who comes to him, 'Come, poor sinner, thou needst not ask whether I have power to save.  I will not ask thee how far thou hast gone into sin; I am able to save thee to the uttermost.'  And there is no one on earth can go beyond God's 'uttermost.' 
 
            Spurgeon continues:
 
"Now another text:  'Him that cometh to me, . . . I will in no wise cast out.'  Every man that comes shall find the door of Christ's house opened-and the door of his heart too.  Every man that comes-I say it in the broadest sense-shall find that Christ has mercy for him.  The greatest absurdity in the world is to want to have a wider gospel than that recorded in Scripture.  I preach that every man that believes shall be saved-that every man who comes shall find mercy. . .  I say every man who comes to Christ shall be saved.  I can say that as a Calvinist, or as a hyper-Calvinist, as plainly as you can say it. I have no narrower gospel than you have; only my gospel is on a solid foundation, whereas yours is built upon nothing but sand and rottenness.  'Every man that cometh shall be saved, for no man cometh to me except the Father draw him.'
 
            Thus, you see the great contrast between eternal death and eternal life as described by Mr. Spurgeon.  For those who have no fear of God before their eyes, the result ultimately is eternal death.  Each person must repent from their known sin and surrender their will to the Lord's will.  Each person must receive the grace of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.  The really good news is that God gives us repentance unto life and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a sheer gift. 
 
The Lord Jesus Christ
            The Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth more than 2,000 years ago to "seek and to save those who were [are] lost."  He "gave His life a ransom for many."  Indeed, "He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."  This is the only way for our righteousness to "exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees.  Jesus is the way.  Jesus is the truth.  Indeed, Jesus is truth.  Jesus is the life.  "There is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved."  (Acts 4:12)  Therefore, surrender your will to God's will and turn from your sin.  Place your trust in Jesus alone for your salvation and for the salvation of this nation.  Roman Catholicism cannot bring salvation.  Mormonism cannot bring salvation.  Islam cannot bring salvation.  No political party or any other religion can bring salvation or rescue this nation or get it out of the mess we are in.  If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have been raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of the Father.  Set your affections on things above and not on the things of this world.  Pass this devotional on to someone who may not know the Lord Jesus.  Remember, if we live according to the flesh, we will die. But if by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the [flesh], we will live.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the [children] of God.  Please come and invite all you know to come.  Try to insure that none of your relatives, friends, or acquaintances do not hear of who Jesus is and what He has done for all who come to Him, and try to insure that everyone receive an invitation to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is our only hope, and He is the hope for this nation.  He is able to make all grace abound toward you so that you, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.  He alone is able to do these things.
 
Your friend and brother in Christ,William Gray