One Nation Under Sin (Pharmakea and Sexual Immorality)
Robert Wurtz II
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:31-36)
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:16–18 NKJV)
It’s amazing the kind of things that people will say when they are in an argument. The sons of Abraham according to the flesh had passed under the Roman yoke after spending centuries in bondage to Egypt, and Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies, and the Syrian (Seleucid) kings. Yet these “believers” had the nerve to argue, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” This was denial at its finest.
Those Jews “who believed Jesus” soon revealed why He frequently does not believe “believers.” As the late G.W. North once said, “God doesn’t believe you! He is the great unbeliever. God’s got to be able to believe us!” Their faith was exposed in all its fickleness. Many people believe well so long as they think God agrees with them; but when challenged to agree with God “these poor believers soon came to the end of their faith” (Stier quoted in Vincent).
Anytime you read the phrase “do you not know” in scripture it is generally because the people do not know what is being said. They either once knew and forgot or they never knew at all. Nevertheless, Paul faces the same ignorance that Jesus dealt with. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? Adam plunged the human race into slavery to Sin when he disobeyed God. Rebellion came in and handcuffed itself to man (if you will). We are slaves to what we yield ourselves to no matter how free we pretend to be.
One Nation Under Sin
In 1831 Samuel Francis Smith penned the words, “My country, ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, […] From ev’ry mountainside Let freedom ring!” In those days America prided itself as the arsenal of freedom. Seven years later twenty-eight year old Abraham Lincoln asked a question in Springfield, Ill. that today reads more like a prophecy, “At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? — Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! — All the the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Nearly two hundred years later multitudes in America are laboring under the tyranny of Sin. The days when she boarded the ship are now a distant memory. It’s seems like yesterday that she stood upon the auction block and sold her soul to the Devil. Behold the pitiful sight of haggard sinners wearing their shakles as a badge of honor! Having been promised liberty by those who were themselves servants of corruption — the nation of once freemen smile as they fall upon their own sword.
My fellow countrymen, do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? You say that all the the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. But do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
True Freedom
The first step to true freedom is to acknowledge you are in bondage to Sin to begin with. Not as the Jews in John 8 who would rather argue knowing good and well they were wrong rather than acknowledge the truth. And political correctness is not going to save you — nor is the Supreme Court. No matter how many laws this nation passes in order to legitimize sin- sin is still sin. What makes the difference whether it’s legal sin or illegal sin?
America has legalized most every kind of sin and are working on the rest. A cursory look at the Ten Commandments reveals that only theft is purely illegal. Murder is illegal, but a child can be terminated in the third-trimester and the killer not be charged. False witness is illegal in court or in regards to official business — but it is “legal” to lie to most anyone else. Drugs (sorcery) is becoming more lawful every year as is all kinds of sexual immorality. This helps us make sense of Revelation 9:20-21 “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (NKJV) Sorceries is from pharmakeuoœ, from which we get our English word pharmacy meaning “to prepare drugs” (A. T. Robertson). These are not aspirins, but spell-binding drugs.
The only hope for people who are under bondage to sin is to repent and turn to Christ in faith. Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
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