I've known this to be true for quite a while, but I often wondered if there were any bible verses that taught this. For a long time I could see the principle in the verse "What do you have that you have not received?" (1 Cor. 4:7). However, recently some other verses seemed to break open to me with even more explicit statements.
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Acts 7:42
But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?
Ps. 81:12
So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart,
To walk in their own devices.
Rom. 1:24 (see also v26 and v28)
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
Isa. 64:7
There is no one who calls on Your name,--- --- ---
Who arouses himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
What these verses teach is that there comes a point when God in judgment just sort of "lets a person go." They get freed to do a greater amount of sin that up until this point has been lying dormant in their heart. And the big thing to remember is these new sinful desires that they are delivered to are their own. When God hardens someone, or gives them over to sin, it's not as if he has to create evil in their heart to do it. It's like my pastor says, you don't have to work it in a thief to steal, you just have to leave him alone in front of some merchandise.
For the Christian:
Know that every unconverted person (including your old self), and this present world really is as evil as God says it is.
For the lost:
Fear for your life that God doesn't starting letting what's truly deep down in your heart come out. Repent while your heart is still soft enough to do so.
