John MacArthur | The New Social Religion

before we actually look together to the Word of God I want to talk to you firstly our congregation of people as your pastor my concern for the current racial issues and social justice and all that has unfolded in that realm actually began two years ago it was back in 2018 that I made the statement that this particular issue of social justice and accusations of racism had the potential to do more harm to the evangelical church than anything I've ever seen in my life that has played out to be exactly true and over the last couple of years I have endeavored to address it in numerous ways an extended series from Ezekiel chapter 18 a series of blog articles on the grace to you blog some question-and-answer events some of them prolonged one of them is available from grace to you sermons on the unity of the church from Philippians sermons on the riots sermons on our responsibilities and other things I asked for a list of all of the resources that have been directed at this issue and the grace to you guys sent me a very long list of articles blogs short videos sermons we have finally reached a point where it's time for us to move on but there is one more very important thing to be said if I were a prophet and I'm not but if I were a prophet in Israel and the evangelical church was Israel I would declare that the church had gone after bale I would declare what the prophets of the old Testament declared about Israel that they had been seduced by false gods because that is exactly what has happened to the evangelical church it has been seduced by a false God and a false religion the evidence of that is the complete shattering of the unity of the evangelical church the church has gone after bail gone after the contemporary sociological temporal earthly religion that is concerned only with social issues the church has been so seduced by this that it has fallen victim to the point where it looks exactly like a political and social organization rather than the kingdom of God confronting the world the New Testament would say this I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is your act of spiritual worship and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God the evangelical church has been seduced by the world it has bought into that seduction in one translation you would say the world has pushed the church into its own mold Colossians 3 Paul says love not the world because you have been transcended beyond that set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth you belong to a heavenly kingdom John says essentially the same thing love not the world everything in the world is passing away the church has been seduced it has gone after a false god a bale of false religion constructed by ungodly Christ las' people the talk is always about justice well I want to talk about that justice for all certainly is a noble and magnificent ideal perhaps justice is the noblest of all human achievements when it can be achieved as noble as justice is however in this fallen world it is extremely difficult to see it it's even difficult to define it and more difficult to implement it it's even confusing to watch people demanding justice by violating laws perfect justice resides with God alone and humanity struggles to understand that kind of justice to respect it to honor it or they've executed and in the world where light is dark and dark is light and good as bad and bad is wrong and bitter as sweet and sweet is bitter justice is hard-pressed to emerge many attempts to define justice only lead to injustice because they reflect the perversion of the human heart we can have Justice Department's ad infinitum and never really achieve broad-based true justice there has been a measure of justice in our nation based upon biblical morality that stabilized us for two hundred years that is gone now to try to define justice without a transcendent revelation is virtually impossible the Bible anticipates this it was a couple of weeks ago that we looked at the book of Ecclesiastes and I just remind you of a couple of verses there chapter 4 verse 1 then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the Sun that means on the earth and behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them and on the side of the oppressors was power but they had no one to comfort them so he says I congratulated the dead there were the oppressed and the oppressors and there didn't seem to be any way to sort that out justly chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes verse 8 if you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province or the region do not be shocked at the sight why it's a fallen world for one official watches over another official and there are higher officials over them in other words we admit there is injustice in the world we're not surprised by it that's why we have to stack officials on top of officials on top of officials to try the best we can to have courts of Appeal that go higher and higher to find their way to justice then there's a comment in verse 9 that I find interesting after all a king who cultivates the field as an advantage to the land the best you can hope for in the struggle for justice is to have a leader who creates jobs so that you have something to give yourself to under the same that's a leader who doesn't give himself to war but gives himself to work in Habakkuk the Prophet begins in chapter one the Oracle that came to him from the Lord how long O Lord will I call for help and you will not hear I cry out to you violence yet you do not save why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness yes destruction and violence are before me strife exists in contention arises therefore the law is ignored and justice is never upheld for the wicked surround the righteous therefore justice comes out perverted there are too many wicked people surrounding the righteous to ever assume you're going to get everyone to justice and God has ordained as we have seen some restraints against this in the human conscience the family the government and the police with all of this this approach of justice and equity is very difficult

Channel: Heart of Worship Channel

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Keywords: christ, jesus, jesus christ, God, bible, scripture, worship, hymns, prayers, bible study, bible devotionals, christian, christian growth, heart of worship channel, heart of worship, heart of worship YT channel, john macarthur, john Macarthur, John MacArthursermons, john macarthur on social justice, social justice, religion, john macarthur blm, church, habakkuk, ezekiel, grace community church

Id: fAswFiVykSs

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020