Accountable to God

7/17/1986

A man named Daniel Webster, whom most of you have heard of, lived around 1800. He was considered probably one of the most intelligent people on the face of the earth. Somebody came up to him one day and said, “Mr. Webster, I want to ask you something. With a colossal mind like yours, what is the greatest thought that you have ever thought?” And he said, “I don't know about colossal, but I know that the most intimidating and awesome thought that I have ever thought, and it consumes my life, is that one day I will have to stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God and give an account for every minute of my life. He said it “consumes my life.” “I have no rest. I can think about all the mysteries of science, all the mysteries of politics and statesmanship…but that's all rubbish because my life is accountable to the last millisecond before Almighty God who knows all things.” That thought consumed him, and it should consume us, too. Because of the wretchedness in our hearts, the sin in our hearts, there is nothing good we can offer God. It's just not there. We're just not going to be able to produce anything that's going to please God.

Romans 1:18 says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and the wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” What is godlessness? Well, waterlessness means without water, right? Pridelessness means without pride. Well, godlessness means without God. Godlessness means functioning without an active realization with God in every single thing that we do. They “suppress” the truth; they push it away. They don't want to hear it. They want to defend it. They 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 (there is NO excuse). For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him because 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 in birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity with the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen.”

In other words, their lives began to be consumed with created things rather than the Creator—the greatest blacksmith that ever walked the face of the earth; the handsomest, most beautiful person that ever was; the most religious person that ever was—and began to seek things that were not God but rather things of God, created things. And, that infuriated God. The wrath of God was being revealed because of those things. God gave them over to those things. He said, “I've had enough!” Because of the foolishness in your hearts and the darkening of your inner being, you've let go of the Creator in favor of the creation. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. He said, “I'm going to turn you over.” He goes on to say, Even your 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 (you have that same decision—to retain the knowledge of God, or to push it aside), because they didn't think it was worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. They 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. Pat them on the back, “It’s good, it’s all right, keep going, it’ll be fine,” approving of the things that are God-less and the things that are wicked and sinful.