OPENING PRAYER…
Father God, we invite you to preside over our study today as we seek your wisdom for our lives. We pray that you will touch each heart with this message and that lives are changed as a result. Open our hearts and minds with your truth today and guide us as we study Your Word. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray…Amen

Before I begin my brief monolog, I would like you to carefully read the following scripture and tell me; what Country or people do you think this scripture is describing?

Romans 1: 18 - 32...The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Now I don’t believe that Paul was prophetically looking into the future and singling out the United States. In fact everything in this scripture is being referred to in the past tense as if to point out examples of what other gentiles had done and for the Church at Rome to not follow their example. Paul was telling the Church at Rome that all of the gentiles were guilty before God. Now, that being said, I don’t think there is another verse of scripture in the Bible that more clearly indicts the United States of America as being the world leader of such sin as described here in Romans Chapter 1.

God has given me a passion for studying eschatology or end times prophecy. Here is a simple definition of eschatology…

Eschatology; the branch of theology or biblical exegesis concerned with the end of the world

Why God has given me a passion for prophecy and end time events I still am not totally certain of, I only know that he has. Let me break down the definition of Bible Prophecy in (Tim) terms. It is where God throughout Biblical history has predicted or told the future, from the past. What separates God from the rest of mankind who have attempted to do this, like Nostradamus, is that God has never been wrong whereas others have failed in their predictions. This perfect record of God’s is what separates Him from all God wanna -bees. From the very first prophetic verse in Genesis to the very last prophetic verse that has been fulfilled, God has not only been spot on but every detail of those prophecies were fulfilled precisely as predicted. Grant R Jeffrey has done a great study on what the mathematical chances are that all of God’s prophecies could be fulfilled exactly as predicted and the numbers are astronomical. Again, this is what separates God from the phonies out there. The reason I bring all of this up about prophecy is to point out that in every prophetic verse that there is in the Bible, whether old or new testament, the United States is not mentioned one time when speaking about end time events. Some try to associate certain verses with the United States but the truth is, we are not even given a honorable mention, let alone a prominent roll. Other Nations existing today such as China, Russia, the European Union, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Jordon, Syria, Turkey and many more are mentioned. So what does that tell us and what does that have to do with Romans Chapter 1? Well, as I have drifted, please drift with me a bit further and I will tie it all together.

If we, the United States, having been such a great power in the world for the past 70 to 80 years and yet are not mentioned in end times events, we can only gather two possible scenario’s from that.

1.) We will become so irrelevant and weak by that time, that whatever power or voice we have will be so small that God didn’t think it necessary to include us. Our Country has been on such a steady decline over the past twenty years militarily, financially and morally that any clear thinking individual would have to agree we can’t last much longer. Our politician’s corrupted, our moral compass broken, our faith in God as a Country almost non existent and the cancer of political correctness ripping away feverishly at our freedoms, are only a few examples of why we are doomed as a Country. The powerful world government of the Roman Empire fell in much the same way. No one could defeat them militarily. They imploded from within much the way our Country is today. The Roman citizens started voting in politicians who promised them many entitlements until there was nothing left. Does that sound familiar?

2.) We will be taken over or destroyed by our enemies thus making us irrelevant and not worth mentioning. This scenario may go hand in hand with option 1. We like to think that the world loves us but in reality, the world as a whole hates us and we have many enemies that would love nothing more than to see our demise. We have an administration and congress now who would rather apologize for our strengths rather than embrace our strengths. The God of the Bible has been protecting this Country since our inception for our Godly principles and for embracing and protecting his chosen people, the state of Israel. We are now turning our back on Israel and embracing their enemies and God’s hand of protection has been removed from our Country. We have told God that we want him out of our courts, our schools and any where else that his name or commandments might offend someone. These reasons, as well as us being a morally bankrupt Country, leads us back to Romans Chapter 1 and the Judgments that I believe will soon be placed at our doorstep. Lets take another look at Romans Chapter 1 and break it down so we can see the Country hiding behind the mask.

Roman 1: 18 - 20...The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

You see, God has made things plain to us as a Country about what his statues are and how we are to live. Like I said before, this Country was founded on Christian beliefs and the God of the Bible and our laws were formed with his commandments as its foundation. Over the past 50 years starting with taking prayer out of our schools, we have slowly chipped away God from our conscience so that now he is a fading memory and hard to find. God has always been a source of our strength but now we just tell God to go to Hell and get out of our lives, so he is accepting that invitation to leave. The light of God that once had shown so bright in this Country is being removed and replaced with the judgments of God. Vs 18 says…The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the Godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. And vs. 20 ends with…that we are without excuse….

Romans 1: 21 - 25...For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

You see, this Country once knew God and now we neither glorify him or give him thanks for anything. How can you give thanks and glorify a God you don’t even want in your lives. Since we no longer want God around, our thinking has become futile and our hearts have been darkened, we think we are wise but God says we have become fools and we have turned away from the immortal God. Why is sexual immorality so prevalent today? Because God has had enough and has turned us over to sinful lusts to degrade ourselves with one another. We have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, a Satanic lie. We have become so high minded that we don’t think we need God anymore and God is about to show us what life without him is all about.

Romans 1: 26 - 28...Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

If you have ever run into anyone who told you that God’s teaching against Homosexuality and Lesbianism was only found in the old testament…Here are your verses to counter that argument. God says here that he will give them over to shameful lusts and that even the women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. (Lesbianism) Vs 27...In the same way, men abandoned their relationships with women and were inflamed with lust towards other men. Men committing indecent acts with other men (homosexuality) and received the due penalty for their perversion. Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain God in their knowledge, God turned them over to a depraved mind to do what should not be done.. Now, do you associate the words, depraved, perversion and shameful lusts with something God approves of and endorses…I don’t…But our “God Fearing Country”, tells us that we have to accept the things that our God says no to. If you want to see what happened to Countries in the old Testament who practiced this same perversion, please read the whole scriptures below to see what happened to Sodom & Gomorrah…

Genesis 18: 16 thru Genesis 19: 38

This was the final result of Gods punishment…For some strange reason we Americans believe we are beyond the judgments of God even though other people were not.

Genesis 19: 24 - 25...Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

Romans 1: 29 - 32...They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

To end it all, Vs 26 - 28...God gives us a whole slew of other sins that I think we all can agree defines where this Country has ended up. Paul finishes up chapter 1 by saying…Although they know God’s righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death…they not only continue to do these very things but they also approve and endorse those who practice these things. If that statement doesn’t describe our politically correct Country, I don’t know what does. One of this country’s greatest sins in my opinion is abortion. We have slaughtered over forty million unborn babies and justify it by calling it “A Woman’s Right To Choose”. Now we are saying that those of alternative lifestyles have a right to be married and the depravity goes on and on. Please do not get me wrong, we are to love those who entangle themselves in the sin that Romans 1 talks about but we are to be like God in that we love the sinner and hate the sin. God loves everyone but he does not change his commandments to accommodate sin, he never has and he never will. This sinner must change, God will not. Our Country must change because God never will.

Hebrews 13: 8...Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Malachi 3: 6..."I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

God does not and will not change to suit us and our sinful lives!

I’ve heard many Christians say to me about our Country’s sin that they don’t agree with those things but, what can they do about it? Let me just give everybody a good thrashing regardless of your political affiliation. First of all, God’s statues come first before your political affiliation and allegiance. If you are going out every time you vote and continue to vote for crooked politicians…You Are Guilty By Association! If you go out and vote for people blindly because of your political affiliation…You Are Guilty By Association! If you go out and vote for people who think it’s right to slaughter unborn babies…You Are Guilty By Association! If you go out and vote for politicians who endorse alternative lifestyles…You Are Guilty By Association! If you vote for politicians who want to strip away our freedoms and our God given constitution…You Are Guilty By Association and just as guilty in God’s eyes for helping to promote it through your vote. If God fearing people took a stand against such politicians and the depravity that they promote, they would never be able to advance their agendas. The Christian world has been told to shut up and we have obeyed. They removed our God and we let them without the slightest argument. We have become so limp wristed in our stand for Christ that even God can’t tell the difference between us and a depraved world. God tells believers in Romans 12 to not be conformed to this world but we have…

Romans 12: 2...Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Paul also prophetically gives us a glimpse in 1st & 2nd Timothy as to the state of the Church in the last days…

2 Timothy 4: 3 & 4...For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

1 Timothy 4: 1 - 3...The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

This next verse of prophecy describes the sinful attitudes and behaviors that will be manifested in the last days…

2 Timothy 3: 1 - 9...But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Colossians 3: 5 & 6...Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

In the previous study on the rapture, I pointed to 1 Thessalonians 1: 10, where God has promised to deliver believers from the wrath to come. That wrath being the judgments of the tribulation. What God never promised us is that we would never have to endure hardships or suffer. In fact, we are told we probably would have to endure hardships. Living and growing up in this great Country of wealth and power has given all of us a false sense of security. We have this idea that our Country is too big and powerful to fall and those riches will always be there. We as Christians have this crazy notion that God will not judge this nation, if for no other reason than it is occupied by all of us wonderful Christians. Throughout the Jewish history God has not only judged the nation of Israel but also the Jewish people. The children of Israel kept sinning against God, so God kept judging and issuing his sentences upon them. The really big judgments that came upon Israel for their disobedience was war that ended up with Israel being defeated and taken into slavery. Other judgments came like the one in 70 A.D. where the Roman General Titus conquered Jerusalem and slaughtered millions of Jews and scattered the rest of them throughout the world. Now, if God does not hesitate to issue judgments upon his own chosen people, what makes us think that we are beyond his reach of judgment? It is a high minded attitude that somehow we are better or immune to God’s wrath. Even though the nation of Israel was judged for the sins of the many, the righteous few still had to endure the same punishment…We can look to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as examples of this. So we need to understand that even though God’s hand of protection is upon us as believers (as it was with Daniel, etc.), we will still have to participate in any judgments that God unleashes on this Country because of its sin against him. The Country we live in and love has disintegrated so much from its original founding that if God does not judge us, he will have to turn around and apologize to Sodom & Gomorrah for his mistake. But God does not make mistakes and neither does he judge different people on different scales. Sodom & Gomorrah was judge because of their immorality and so will we. Israel was judged because they turned their back on God and his statutes and so will he judge us. This is not a scare tactic on my part but a warning to prepare yourself for the storm that is coming. The warning that Jesus Christ gave to the seven Churches in Revelation chapters 2 & 3 ended with these words and so will I…He who has an ear, let him hear……

What will it take for believers to wake up? The wrath of God is coming on this Country for it’s many sins it has committed against God. If you want to hide your head in the sand, then be my guest. If you want to make a difference, seek God and be aware of all that you are endorsing with your freedoms. Is it too late for our Country to change? I don’t think so but it never will as long as the light of this Country (believers) continues to stay hidden. Here is a verse that we all can believe in and hope for in our Country…

2 Chronicles 7: 14...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

I think that verse says it all…I only pray that we do….

Let’s go to God In Prayer Group…

Father God, we come to you in the Holy name of your Son Jesus Christ. We ask you today Lord to forgive us of our sins and our short comings. Thank you for showing us today the negative impact we are having on our Country with the votes we cast and the Ungodly people we place in office with our votes. We thank you for sending your Son Jesus Christ to die in our place, that we might have eternal life with You in Heaven. We pray Lord, that you remove the blinders from our eyes that we might see the world around us as you see it. Help us to see our Country as it really is and the sin that has brought it under your judgment. We pray right now for our Country, it’s leaders and it’s citizens that we might wake up and turn back to you before it is too late. Your word in 2 Chronicles says that if we, your people, will pray and seek you, and turn from our evil ways, that you will hear our prayer, forgive our sin and heal our land. We, as a group today join together and pray believing that you can and will change the hearts of our Nation. We pray for a revival of the heart throughout our entire land and that millions will turn to you as a result. As believers, we pray for your protection over us, our Families and our Nation. We believe these things and pray them in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord…Amen

If you came to this study today and don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior please read the following scripture and they will show you the simplicity of God’s plan of Salvation.

Romans 3: 23...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

John 3: 16 - 18...16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Romans 10: 9 & 10...9. That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

If you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, pray with me wherever you are. Pray with a sincere heart and God will reach down from heaven, forgive your sins and give you new life….Lets pray…

Father God, I come to you in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place on the cross. I know I am not worthy, but I ask you today to forgive me of my sins (confess your sins to him now) and give me a new heart. I make Jesus the Lord of my life from this day and forward. Teach me how to love the God way, so I can love others. Teach me your Word and show me the purpose you have for my life. Thank you for forgiving me, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray…Amen

If you prayed that simple prayer with a sincere heart, your eternal destiny has been decided. God tells us that he takes that sin and casts it as far as the east is to the west. So forget the past and press on in your new walk with Christ. Remember that this is only the first step to Eternal Salvation. You now need to study God’s word, live your life for him and let your good works in Christ testify to the world of the new creature you have become. Now go shout your new found faith to the world as confession of Jesus Christ is part of your salvation. If you need help, or need a Bible, please contact me through the group. Here are a few Bible verses to show you the pure simplicity of God’s plan of salvation…Tim

Please go to our group page and leave your comments and thoughts. Click the discussion tab, find this lesson or any topic for that matter, then post your thoughts. I’d like to encourage each of you to get more involved in the group discussions…
Thank You
Tim Barrett