The Inescapable Corruption of Sin, Dr. John MacArthur
Sermon highlights [bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:
- Galatians 6:7 [ESV2011] Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
- As this is a self-evident truth in agriculture, it is also so in the spiritual realm
- Sow to the flesh; reap corruption; to the spirit, reap righteousness
- The consequences of this reaping occur on the following levels: personal, physical, relational, national, global; regarding the personal, eternal consequences
- Every sin committed by every person will be judged
- People keep asking Dr. MacArthur if he has any confidence that things will get better; or is this how the world will be from now on
- The only answer he has is that the law of sowing and reaping is an absolute law
- The huge amount of sin that is being sown has created a huge crop for us: a harvest of corruption, destruction, decay, ruin, and death
- As people face the realities of life in our day, most would like to change it. The following groups aim at rectifying these problems in a variety of (vain and foolish) ways: elite globalists via green world order; social anarchists, via protests, riots, destroying, killing seek to reset society via Godless, immoral socialism; the race hustlers, who are busy assaulting White people, dividing our nation into identity groups, believing people are guilty of sin because of who they are [not what they have done]; are attacking unity, good will, love, compassion, forgiveness, marriage, family, mothers, fathers, sexual normalcy, identity…
- All the above groups seek to use Covid lockdowns / restrictions as a tool to get the reset they seek
- The only thing that stands in the way is the Church of Jesus Christ
- Therefore, it must be marginalized
- Some people, unaffiliated with the above groups, are still singing God Bless America, and hoping for divine intervention to save capitalism, democracy, kindness, good will…
- Is that possible?
- Even if we actually identified the necessary conditions for God to bless America, then the politicians, policy makers, media moguls, social leaders, educators, and the general population would be offended by it
- They want God’s blessing, but not on His terms; therefore, it is an empty, vain, sentimental wish
- There is a path to blessing, but are things going to get better?
- NO
- The one chief reason, what people sow, they reap.
- So many are sowing sin that the harvest of corruption is massive
- Those who are attempting to fix the world (environmentally, socially, economically, morally, sexually, politically) have an impossible task: it is as though they think they can harvest wheat when they have planted tares
- There are 1189 chapters in the Bible, of those, the first 2 in Genesis and the last 2 in Revelation do not involve God dealing with sin
- Before sin, God dwelt with mankind; after He deals with sin, He will dwell with them again in the new heaven and earth
- 1185 chapters in between are about sowing and reaping, and God’s absolute law of the harvest
- Some Old Testament examples: Adam and Eve, the fall; the flood which impacted the universe; Cain and Abel; Patriarchs – Moses; Israel – kings, priests, prophets, nations, [exile]; a story of sin and corruption
- Sin has built-in consequences [below are three of numerous examples from the sermon]
- From Proverbs: 1:25 because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when terror strikes you; 6: 12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech… 14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; 15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. 16 There are six things that the LORD hates…
- Romans 1: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth…
- The consequences of sin are not from some neutral cosmic law, but are the wrath of a holy God against sin
- That is, sin does not generate consequences, these come from our God [He is holy, omniscient, omnipresent, almighty, sovereign…]
- Aids, for example, was not just a viral agent [think about our present crises like that too]
- There are about 8 billion people on the globe, the vast majority are busy sowing iniquity; the following is what God said before the flood:
- Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
- The sequence of divine justice: initially people are given over to their own depravity; perversions and iniquities multiply; corruption accumulates until it becomes too offensive to our holy God, He pours out His wrath
- Don’t think this process can be reversed [I recently posted a sermon by MacArthur wherein he talked about examples from history of this process occurring again and again, even to Israel]
- No amount of psychology, social science, education, green energy, racial reparations…can change the harvest we have coming
- [This scripture clearly proves what MacArthur is stating: Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”]
- The world is reaping that harvest; the actions of those who are trying to fix our global problems could be compared to arranging deck chairs on the Titanic while it was going down
- Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. [The guilty are those who have not repented.]
- Romans 2: 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- The above is tiny sampling of this law of sowing and reaping; Dr. MacArthur stated that no reset is possible because most of those who want God’s blessings have no desire to meet God’s conditions for that blessing
- Morality is not a solution either; the Pharisees were moral, Jesus ripped of their facades and exposed their hypocrisy; therefore, superficial, moral ‘spirituality’ is only sowing of iniquity
- Isaiah 34: 1-10 read and related to this matter
- So, is there hope for the future?
- 1 Corinthians 16:22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
- The divine curse on sinners is inescapable
- Revelation 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them…
- MacArthur read several verses from Rev. 20 and discussed sowing and reaping and the 2nd death
- Revelation 5:1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
- MacArthur went through numerous chapters of Revelation commenting on sowing and reaping at the unsealing of the scroll, trumpet and bowl judgments [If you are not very familiar with the Bible, or with Revelation and end times judgments, this section is very informative, you will have to listen to his sermon to get it]
- Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, and Jesus spoke on these topics from Revelation; the signs Christ spoke of in Luke 21
- MacArthur concluded by talking about paradise regained
- He clarified that Christians need to be ready to preach the gospel because only Jesus can rescue someone from the coming wrath of God – he was speaking from 1 Thessalonians 1
- The church errs when it gets involved in every kind of worldly enterprise to negate the inescapable law of sowing and reaping
- His closing prayer gave closure to the sermon in that he succinctly summarized the above and called Christians to go and preach the gospel despite the opposition
Click the following link to hear Dr. MacArthur’s sermon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YYVAdVpWvc&list=LL&index=2