July 23, 2015
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We Will Not Bow by John MacArthur
The two greatest attacks of terror on America were perpetrated by the Supreme Court. The first one was the legalizing of abortion. The second was the legalization of same-sex marriage. The destruction of human life in the womb—in a sense, the destruction of motherhood—and now the destruction of the family.
The human court has usurped the authority that belongs only to God, the creator of life, marriage, and family. Attempts to define morality differently than God is a form of rebellion and blasphemy against God, His holy nature, His holy law, and His holy people.
This nation, at its highest level, has taken a position against God. Such blasphemous rebellion is energized by the corruption of sinful hearts. But behind this is the realm of Satan, who holds the whole world in his hands. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the church, and truth are the enemies of Satan, who rules the world of sinners. He has his power in high places, and hates and seeks to destroy all that is light, truth, pure, holy, virtuous and good.
Homosexuality, homosexual marriage, gender transition—these are not the real battlegrounds. The real battle ground is against God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the church, and the gospel. Any blasphemy against God comes from God haters, Christ haters, Bible haters, gospel haters. And they are fueled by the arch-hater, Satan himself.
Since marriage is vital to God’s design for an ordered society, to pass on order, peace, temporal blessing, and righteousness from one generation to the next, family has always been under assault. In Genesis, God makes it very clear: He made them male and female, nothing in the middle. He said marriage is when a male and female come together and create a union for life and have children. The objective of Satan is to destroy everything that God has made. The objective is not simply to redefine gender. The objective is not simply to redefine marriage. The objective is to destroy what God has designed.
Families provide a small, sovereign unit that acts as a barrier against the corruption that seeks to dominate. Shatter the family and the barrier is disintegrated. The goal in all of this is not same-sex marriage. The goal is the total elimination of all marriage and privacy. Your children are not yours, but rather public children who belong to the education system, the country and the village—but not to you.
This is about the total obliteration of the family. So that there will be no more family, no more covenants. No more private, sovereign units that stand up against the corruption. When contraception comes in, the greatest restraint against having sex is eliminated, the possible production of children. But that’s not enough, so you add abortion. You can have sex without children and if it misses and you do have a child conceived, just kill it.
We’ve come all the way from sex without children to children without sex. A lesbian can have planted in her womb a living being from somebody else. The normal reason for marriage, a man and a woman coming together to produce children, has been completely convoluted. You can have sex without children, and children without sex. Why do you need a family?
Fifty percent of children in America now are born without married parents. It’s going to get worse as marriage disappears. People will be able to make any kind of contract they want. Same sex. Opposite sex. Polygamy. People will marry their dogs, their horses. Satan just wants to completely obliterate marriage.
God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah over this sin. The homosexuals in Sodom were blinded by God and in their blindness they still tried to rape the angels. The Old Testament is not unclear on this issue. Deuteronomy 22:5: “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.” Transvestism is not new. It is an abomination, the exact same word used in Leviticus 18 to refer to homosexuality.
Sins that blur the clear distinction between male and female are satanic. No feature of pagan society in ancient times—filled the Jews with greater loathing than the toleration or admiration of homosexuality. The Old Testament specifically prohibits it. Do not lie with a man as a man lies with a woman. That is detestable. Leviticus 18:22. I Corinthians 6:9–10, the New Testament says the same thing: Homosexuals and effeminate shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It is not an alternate lifestyle; it is a deviation, perversion and corruption. Corruption is accumulative. There are more feeling less guilty because we’re making it possible to feel less guilty.
In Hellenistic literature of the Roman period, around the New Testament, they knew what it meant—the word “effeminate” in 1 Corinthians 6 in Greek is the work malakos. It is the word for “soft.” Soft. Paul uses two words, arsenokoitēs, which is “homosexual,” and “effeminate,” which is “soft.” Homosexual is the sodomizer. The effeminate is the one sodomized. From the classical period to Phyllo the Jewish scholar, extreme distaste is expressed in all Greek and Hellenistic literature—as well as Jewish literature—Phyllo says, “For the effeminate male who uses cosmetics and the coiffuring of the hair.” And Phyllo sometimes takes a word, and he uses that word of them, and it is this word: undragunos. “Androgynous”—male, female.
1 Corinthians 6:9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate”—the malakos, the soft side—“nor homosexuals”—the aggressive male side—“nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Then this in verse 11, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
We’re seeing an aggressive expansion of this sin. Transvestism, gender confusion or homosexuality was spoken of in whispers. Not anymore; it’s everywhere. The leaders of the nation, the Supreme Court, all affirm the nobility and morality of it.
We’re now living in Romans 1. How do you know when the wrath of God is unleashed against a society? First, there is a sexual revolution. Then there will be a homosexual revolution led by lesbians. Then there will be a reprobate mind, really the product of the sexual and homosexual revolutions, so corrupt we can’t find our way back. That’s where we are. The reprobate mind has ascended the bench.
I received a letter from a judge this week. “One of the duties of a judge is to marry people. I am now under government mandate to marry people of the same sex. I cannot do that.” He will lose his position. Christian clerks are losing their jobs. The takeover is going to be massive. Christian people in high places are going to be replaced by people who will do what this court says you must do.
I wrote him a letter back and I said, “I honor you, Sir. I honor you because you have ascended to that level of responsibility. You’ve shown common sense and wisdom and astuteness and brilliance in your field of law. And you have been given the trust of the people because of what you have demonstrated, and now because of the quality and character of your virtue, you will be replaced, essentially, by someone with no virtue.”
The reprobate mind has now reached the highest levels, which will demand the reprobate mind everywhere else. Where that mind dominates then everything that’s improper begins to happen. “All unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossips, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and though they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but they give hearty approval to those who practice them.” There isn’t a judge on the Supreme Court who doesn’t know what the Bible says about homosexuality. But they affirm it anyway.
Christians are the minority. We are defined in the wonderful, inspired words of Peter, as a “separate people,” as a “holy nation.” Christ is our king. Scripture is our law, but Scripture and the laws of our country now collide head on.
Practical atheism, rejection of the truth and moral relativism have always prevailed in Satan’s kingdom. In America we’ve been protected from that in its full fierceness. No more. Religious liberty and freedom aren't promised to Christians. Persecution is.
Barry Lynn, who heads up a hostile, satanic organization against the gospel and against the Word of God—is making all the moves he can to make sure churches lose their tax-exempt status. They’ll begin to sue churches on that issue. The government provides student loans for students at Christian colleges. But if that school or that college doesn’t affirm same-sex marriage, and have open enrollment to homosexuals, they can cut off funding which enable students to go to college. This is going to come. We enjoy, as a church, a beautiful campus, large piece of property. We don’t pay property tax, because we’re granted freedom from that tax. How long will that remain if we don’t comply?
We are the target now. We don’t bow down to Caesar. We bow to our king. We do not…[applause]
I ran through my Bible the other day, looking for the term “bow down.” People bowed down before a superior. Joseph's brothers bowed down to him. The faithful people didn’t bow down. The unfaithful people bowed down to idols, to monarchs and to godless kings. Faithful people didn’t bow down. Mordecai, Daniel and his friends didn’t bow down. Jesus and Paul didn’t bow down. There will persecution, but we will not bow. We will be gracious and we will be loving, but we will render to God what is God’s.
God pronounces judgment on all who blaspheme Him, pervert His law and His Word. Not only in a temporal sense, such as in Romans 1, where you have an outworking of wrath in the very society itself, but in an eternal sense. In Isaiah 5 we have a series of woes, a series of severe condemnations. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Woe—damnation, cursing—on those who reverse morality, who reverse righteousness, who swap good for evil.
I’m hearing a lot from evangelical Christians these days that we need to be compassionate toward people caught up in homosexuality. I agree. The most compassionate thing you can do for those people is to warn them of eternal judgment. Preach the gospel; proclaim the gospel; proclaim grace and forgiveness such as we read in Isaiah and 1 Corinthians. But preach judgment.
In II Thessalonians, this is a group of model believers going through some very difficult times. Paul, Silvanus and Timothy speak proudly about the Thessalonians, everywhere they go, about their “perseverance and faithfulness in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.” “We ought always to give thanks to God for you.” We thank God that He is at work in you, in all that is happening in the midst of persecutions and afflictions. And you continue in the midst of that, to persevere in faithfulness. In the midst of persecution, affliction, and suffering, the church is flourishing, increasingly strong in faith and love and persevering faithfully in spite is being unleashed against them.
How could they hold on? Verse 5: “This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you. And to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well.”
When is that going to come? “When the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. When He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at by all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed. To this end we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
He has great hope for this church because Christ is coming. The key here is at the beginning of verse 7, the middle of verse 7, “when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven.” No matter how bad it gets, Jesus, now at the right hand of the Father, exalted as the sovereign Lord of the church and faithful High Priest, interceding for His people, shall be revealed.
Sometimes, the apostle Paul uses parousia, which means “presence.” Here he uses apokalupsis, which means the unveiling of something that is hidden. Jesus, who is, as far as the world is concerned, hidden, will be unveiled. At His coming, the book of Revelation says, that people are going to cry for the rocks and mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the face of His blazing glory. When He comes the next time, He will come as the sovereign of the universe. This is the apocalypse. The whole world will see that event. He will come in flaming fire in an explosion of glory.
It’s the fire of judgment. Psalm 50. Psalm 97. The Lord comes and fire goes before Him. That scene in Revelation 6:12, “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it’s rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” For the believer, this is relief. For the unbeliever, this is retribution.
Look at verse 8 for just a moment. When He comes from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire—verse 8—“dealing out retribution.” What does that mean? Punishment. Full vengeance. Isaiah 59:17, “He puts on clothing of vengeance.” Ezekiel 25, “I will lay My vengeance down according to My wrath and My anger.” Deuteronomy 32, “To Me belongs vengeance.” Romans 12:19, “‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Vengeance those who do not know God, and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
We have to warn this generation. It’s enough to know you’re going to die, and seal forever your eternity in hell if you don’t believe. But one day, Christ Himself will come to bring retribution across this entire globe. And they will suffer punishment. They “will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” It is not unloving of God to do that but rather just and righteous.
They will pay the penalty. From the Psalms we read things like this, “The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance. He will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.” “God will shatter the heads of His enemies.” “Add to them punishment upon punishment.” “Return seven-fold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they taunted you, O God.” “Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any pity to his children.” “Do not I hate them that hate You, O Lord?” “Do not I loathe them that rise up against you? I hate them with a perfect hatred,” says the psalmist.
The godly in the Old Testament understood the justice of God’s wrath. When God reveals to Jeremiah that some are plotting his death. Jeremiah prays, “O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I’ve committed my cause.” And God replied to Jeremiah. “I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword, the sons and daughters will die by famine, and none of them will be left.”
Later, we find an even more terrible prayer, “Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to my plea. Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before You to speak good for them, to turn away Your wrath from them. Therefore, deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, and their youth be slain by the sword in battle. . . . Blot out their sin from Your sight.” God responded to Jeremiah. “I’m bringing such evil on this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. . . . because they have filled this place with the blood of innocence and built the high places of Baal.
The Bible is very clear on judgment. You say, “Well that’s the Old Testament. What about Jesus?” I wrote a book called, The Jesus You Can’t Ignore. Some of you remember it. It is the Jesus that seems to be the one who is ignored. Jesus was a judgment preacher. He said far more about hell that he did about heaven. Started with John the Baptist. John the Baptist announced to the leaders of Israel that judgement was going to come with an unquenchable fire and consume them all.
Jesus told a story in Luke, chapter 20, about divine judgement that would take the unfaithful and shatter them into pieces. Jesus announced in John, chapter 5, that He would come in the end, and that there would be a resurrection unto damnation. The apostle Paul said, if you don’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, you’ll be damned, 1 Corinthians 16:22.
When Jesus described His own part in the judgement day, He said, “Depart from Me into eternal fire.” He said, “Woe to you, Chorazin.” “Woe to you, Bethsaida.” “Woe to you, Pharisees.” “Woe to you, lawyers.” “Woe to the one who has betrayed Me.” He preached judgment all through His ministry. That’s loving, compassionate and necessary. We will preach the gospel with loving hearts to a world of sinners. But at the same time, we will preach judgment. Jesus is coming, and He is coming to repay, with affliction that is everlasting, those who have afflicted His people. It’s not vindictive. It’s right; it’s just.
When our Lord comes, it’s not just retribution, it’s also relief. And this is so hopeful for us. Verse 7, “To give relief to you who are afflicted, to us as well”—meaning the apostles. Paul was afflicted, wasn’t he? And those who traveled with him—and all those early believers were afflicted. And they were looking for relief. Verse 6, “It is only just for God to repay with affliction.” And implied, it is only just for God to give relief. He will give relief to His own. Affliction, persecution and suffering will end for those those who have been afflicted by a God-rejecting, Christ-rejecting world.
And what does that relief look like? Verse 10, we’ll be glorified with Him on that day, “to be marveled at among all who have believed.” Christ is going to be glorified in His saints; His saints glorified in Him. We’re in the world but not of the world. We love the world with a gospel love,not only to preach grace and the gospel, we love them enough to tell them about eternal judgment—hell, fire.
Let’s pray. Lord, and to know, love, hear and embrace the truth. Make us not only people who know it, love it, believe it, but proclaim it. Give us courage. Give us boldness. Protect us. Protect Your gospel, Your truth. We don’t want to say we’ve given up. You can do anything. You will build Your church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You will call out Your people. You will preach Your gospel. You will draw Your own to yourself. Use us for that. Make us a light in the darkness. May we be known for our love and our truthfulness. May we be faithful to preach the gospel of loving grace and the threat of eternal judgment. And Lord Jesus, be glorified in your church, and Lord, be glorified in the world. Come quickly. Come quickly. Amen.
