One of the best messages I heard this last year was an explanation of how God has given humanity four restraints against evil. The reason I thought it was so memorable was because of its biblical clarity and timeliness. It was a timely message because this last year has been filled with the most disruption to our society that I have ever experienced. The message brought clarity because it showed how the Bible explains what happens to a society when God’s societal restraints have been removed.
Pastor John MacArthur has preached on these four restraints on several occasions. I was able to find a manuscript of his sermon from February 22, 2015. This article is a summary of that message.
The first point of the message is that the greatest evil in the world is sin, which resides in the heart of every human being. God’s work makes it clear that all humans are born into sin (Rom. 3:23). Jesus said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, wickedness, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, and wickedness, as well as deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evils proceed from within and defile the man.” (Matthew 15:18-19 ESV)
In order to protect against the wickedness of the human heart God has given each human a personal restraint called the conscience. The conscience allows every person to know right from wrong because God has written the law on the hearts of all people (Romans 2:15). Romans 1:18-23 explains how God is just for judging people for their thoughts and actions because each of them has a conscience that tells them there is a God and that there is right and wrong.
Humans are able to twist their God-given conscience in two ways. They can create a new morality and convince themselves it is right. We can clearly see this with the issue of abortion. People are trying to convince themselves that the mother can choose one life over another. The other way to twist the conscience is by rejecting God’s law that defines right and wrong. This can be done by teaching people to ignore their conscience. This is why we hear our society proclaim that “Guilt is bad” when guilt for sin is actually the result of a keen conscience.
If someone has a twisted conscience, then they have removed the restraint of their God-given conscience, and they feel free to commit all kinds of evil against themselves and others.
The second restraint against the human propensity towards evil is the family. One of the reasons God gave marriage to humanity was so people would be born into families where the father and mother would invest countless hours into training up the children so they would have a keen conscience that would guide them the rest of their lives (Deuteronomy 6). MacArthur put it like this, “The family is the divinely-given institution for formation of restrained sinners, who by multigenerational morality and wisdom with instruction and discipline in love develop into good citizens who benefit others, enjoy God’s creation, and are thankful to Him.”
If a society begins to see the degeneration and failure of families, then that society will see the rise of wickedness in society because the restraint against evil has been weakened.
The third restraint is civil authority or government authority. God has ordained governments to have authority on the earth so that they will punish bad behavior and encourage good behavior (1 Peter 2:14). The main purpose of human institutions is to enforce moral behavior. The government as an entity is used by God to protect citizens from uncontrolled chaos and anarchy.
There are many examples of countries descending into chaos when the government is removed. I worked in Albania several years after the country descended into anarchy in 1997. Many of the police and military in the country left their posts, and for a short time the country was governed by “self-rule.” The Bible records a similar time in the book of Judges when it says, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
The fourth restraint is a spiritual restraint. It is the restraint that true, biblical churches bring to the evil in society. These churches are a restraint against evil in society because they are filled with people who teach the truth. Pastors of these churches proclaim how people can be saved from their sin. These are the churches that the gates of hell can not overcome because through the gathering of believers and the preaching of God’s word, people are changed from sinners into saints (Romans 10:9-10).
Pastor MacArthur’s message was a sobering one. Over the last century our country has been on a trajectory to remove these four restraints from society. If families are broken, then people will not be taught the natural restraints found in a nurturing home. If the government becomes corrupt, then morality will not be enforced. If the country is filled with false churches, then people will not be restrained spiritually from their sin, and the country will descend into chaos.
Thankfully, God has made his promise to believers in Matthew 16:18 when Jesus said, “I will build my church.” We can have hope knowing that he is in control. As Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
