Love in the time of evil and in a doomed nation

By Elizabeth Prata

Six years ago almost to this day, John MacArthur preached the sermon, “Hope for a Doomed Nation“. The doomed nation is America. It was a sermon from the pastor side of him, not the teacher side of him. He did not explain the Bible verse-by-verse. Instead, he was speaking from the heart to his flock about today’s world.

MacArthur has been a Christian all his life and a pastor for 52. He has perspective. His thorough knowledge of the Bible and his pastoral heart give him a unique ability on this world’s stage to see both the past and the future insightfully. The progression of God’s work in giving over a rebellious nation is in full flower for America, and he spoke to his congregation as to why.

He quickly reviewed the tenets of the God-ordained, Holy Spirit enacted restraints put upon the world so it does not self-destruct from sin. Conscience, family, civil law/government and the church are four ways the Spirit restrains sin in the world. In addition, Romans 1 shows what God does to societies when societies leap over those bounds; what happens is sexual revolution, homosexual revolution, then reprobate mind. He said we are in the midst of a judgment he called ‘the wrath of abandonment’, since it can be clearly seen that America has leaped beyond those restraints and God has given us over to those different kinds of perversity. There is an eschatological wrath, and there is an eternal wrath, both of which people are familiar with in the Bible, but the current judgment is neither of those. The eschatological wrath is coming, and we can all agree, that is promised. But the current wrath is the judgment of abandonment. “That one is not coming. We’re in the midst of it,” MacArthur said.

This link was his 30 minute introduction in the sermon “Hope for a Doomed Nation.“

He then listed 12 points that are driving this nation to its terrible demise, a spiritual pathology that is causing us as a nation to run so fast to the cliff. Keep in mind that this powerful sermon was delivered 6 years ago. If you think back to 2015 and all that has happened since then, I think we can see that the Wrath of Abandonment as outlined in Romans 1 is certainly active here in the US. If we couldn’t ‘see’ it before, we can now.

I think any one with discerning, biblical sense can see how far along the prophetic timeline we are. Many people I work with who are of biblical maturity and discernment believe this as well. I know I do.

Acts 17:26 says,

and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

It might indeed be time for our 245 year old country of America to fall. It seems to me that God has been a moth, working silently and unobserved to fray the garment of our country (Hosea 5:12). The garment dissolves when we open the closet and put it on, full of holes and ragged to the point of disintegration. We are not anything special, certainly if God was a moth to Ephraim – His beloved, set-apart country – he would be the same to any nation that rebels so egregiously.

The sermon ended with Matthew 5:43. Love our enemy. No matter what happens, while we were still enemies, Jesus came down to rescue us, His enemies. So we are to love our enemies because we were them before grace came. The enemy is our mission field.

You’re never more like God than when you love your enemies, because you were one of the enemies God loved. Romans 5:10, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. Your enemy is your mission field. The world of enemies was God’s mission field. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. …

To convert a sinner from his eternal doom is of far greater significance than the deliverance of an entire nation from temporal evil

His speaking of Godly love after 47 minutes of darkness was a Light that was powerful and incisive. Imagine demonstrating that kind of love in this very dark world. It will stand out brightly. Here is the sermon’s ending prayer:

Help us, Lord, to be a force for the gospel in this very, very doomed world. Lord, open up doors for us to preach Christ to perishing souls. Use us, Lord, to call Your own to Yourself. Help us to be faithful in proclaiming the truth and living it out. We’ll thank You, in Christ’s name.  Amen.