The following is more than sermon highlight points, about 85% of his words from the video. You will find that it is an apt description of what you have experienced in America since 2020; furthermore, it explains why things are the way they are, which is very worth you while to understand.
I found the video at Walking in Truth Ministry, it was titled, The Coming Judgment.
From the points below, I thought some of his words better described the content of the video; I used those to title this post:
What is wrong [in our country]? How did we get here, with everything upside down?
[I explained my rationale below the video.]
Sermon HIGHLIGHTS:
The following is a statement that substantially described Israel’s true condition after they had turned from God:
Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
That is essentially the sin that signaled the coming of judgment: turning truth, righteousness and virtue upside down.
Isaiah 28:17 And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
In every generation, humanity tends to lean in this direction, towards the reality of the very things that were true of ancient Israel.
In other words: to believe lies; to follow the father of lies; and to overturn right and wrong. The current situation in which we live is just another manifestation of the perversion of humanity.
Manifestations of this confusion:
- It’s essential to keep harmless working people locked down at home, away from their jobs and businesses so they don’t get the flu
- It’s more essential to let people bent on doing harm run free in the cities, destroying the very places where people make their living
- Locking up the weak and the fearful and letting the strong and violent run loose to create havoc…
- Demand justice when a man’s life is taken; then applaud lawless mobs of criminals attacking the police
- Put the police in a position wherein the cannot act to protect property, but rebel mobs are allowed to destroy it
- You can’t shop in a store, but you can lute it; you can’t work, but you’re free to steal; you can’t go to church, but you can burn it down; you can’t eat in a restaurant, but you can demolish it…
- Now we’re seeing charges being brought, not against the rioters, but against the police
- We see leaders totally control the weak; but who cannot control the strong because they are afraid
- And those who worship the god of anger, hate, vengeance… can have church anywhere, anytime, indoors or outdoors without any rules; you are completely free to worship the god of mayhem
- And the perverted solution to this is to abolish the police; the very people who are supposed to protect the good and punish evil doers
- What is wrong?
- Exactly what is stated in Isaiah 5:20 Woe [a divine curse] to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
- What is wrong? Is it something environmental? Is it something educational? Is it something economic? Is it some kind of social inequity?
- What is wrong? How did we get here, with everything upside down?
- How did we get so twisted: that college scholarships are being developed to honor a man with a violent criminal past: who held a gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman?
- That, while we ignore two Black officers who died in the line of duty, one of which served 38 years to protect people?
- Criminals become heroes and the real heroes become vilified because everything is upside down
- WE NEED THE TRUTH; THE TRUTH IS IN THE WORD OF GOD
- It is not in my interest to give you any human opinion, but you do need to hear from God
- I want to help you understand who is to blame
- The following, from scripture is a summation of human nature
- Consider, that God did not change His definition of humanity between the times of Isaiah and the apostle Paul – Paul got his words from the Old Testament
- The following verses from Romans provide foundational understanding regarding what is wrong in the world:
- [Bracketed statements are not scripture]
- Romans 3:10 as it is written: [what the Old Testament says about humanity, a pathology]“None is righteous, no, not one;
- 3:11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
- 3:13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
- 3:16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
- There are three aspects to this: character, conversation and conduct
- Character: none righteous, not one
- Although relative human goodness can be found, not everyone is as bad as they could possibly be; but none are righteous according to the standards of God
- That is why no one can be saved by his/her works, because God calls people to be holy as He is holy
- That is why one has to have an imputed righteousness that comes from God through Christ
- There is none that understands:
- Ephesians 4:17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
- That is, none is righteous; none understands the realities of righteousness; and none seeks for God
- You might be thinking, What about religion?
- All the false religions of the world are attempts to run from the true God; Satanic counterfeits, sending men in the opposite direction from God
- Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Sheep go astray by nature
- We flee from God, but in some noble effort to feel good about ourselves we invent religion to accommodate our rebellion
My rationale for the title change:
I chose that title because I have heard many of Dr. MacArthur’s sermons on judgment in America; wherein he stated that God’s judgment began in the 1960’s with the sexual and drug revolutions; and that the subsequent decades since then have revealed increased judgment, as the various forms of the sexual revolution progressed. He recently stated that we are in the stage of the ‘reprobate mind’ from Romans 1, the final stage of judgment.
So, the following seems to be more of an explanation of how judgment is currently playing out, describing the advanced state of God’s judgment upon our nation.
Furthermore, I think it is a testimony about the nature of God’s truth about Himself and mankind: His truth is eternal; it is never irrelevant – as you hear the trendy “Christians” claim when they introduce some kind of new truth their own gods revealed to them; or as they incorporate CRT, pragmatism, their own god’s acceptance of homosexuality, and on and on.
Any “Christian” or “pastor” who does not base his/her teaching on the Bible, is a counterfeit. If you read through the Bible once, then you’d see how often false prophets have done what they are doing presently.
The following narrative and links accompanied the above video at YouTube:
Walking In Truth Ministry YouTube 65,963 views Apr 28, 2023
John MacArthur explains with the use of Isaiah 5 what triggers the coming judgment of God. We are living in some crazy times but we need to see what this is coming to.
Gal. 4:19 “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you ”
Books and Reference:
LEGACY STANDARD BIBLE: https://amzn.to/3RjPNxT
Biblical Doctrine: https://amzn.to/3jPdDyV
The Bible Exposition Commentary: https://amzn.to/3rSPr55
The Essential Scriptures: A Handbook of the Biblical Texts for Key Doctrines
NASB, MacArthur Study Bible, 2nd Edition, Leathersoft, Brown, https://amzn.to/3u8HqJm
ESV Reformation Study Bible, Black, Seville Cowhide Leather Bound
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine https://amzn.to/3pw0U7g
Expositor’s Bible Commentary: https://amzn.to/3etzPSz
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