The Ploughing of the Wicked — Ian Paisley

I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me to the uttermost. I take. Thank God He undertakes for me. And the people of God said, Amen. You may be seated. The twenty-first chapter of the book of Proverbs, at the verse four.

The Ploughing of the Wicked Prepares Good Ground for Evil

The plowing of the wicked. Sin. The plowing of the wicked. Why the plowing of the wicked? First of all, because the plowing of the wicked prepares good ground for evil purposes. Here we have good, profitable ground, but once the plow of the wicked enters that ground, that ground is prostituted to evil, not good purposes, and prostituted to purposes that are wicked and diabolical, and not godly purposes.

Here is that which was created for our benefit, for our health, for our peace, and for our comfort. Instead of being used for our joy and comfort, it is abused to bring misery to the soul, to bring darkness to the heart, and to bring damnation in eternity.

The prostitution of good to that which is evil, that's what the plowing of the wicked does. Here is that which was made for man's profit, freely given unto him with every inherent good, and it is now taken by the force of the grip of the devil upon man's heart, and it is prostituted to evil.

This is surely evil indeed. We need to get a vision of what evil is, what evil does, and what a blasphemy and abomination it is in the eyes of the Christ Holy God, preparing good ground for evil purposes.

The opportunity of good is chained by the plowing of the wicked to the chariot wheels of evil in order to prepare an abundant harvest of wickedness. First of all, let me underscore this, why is the plowing of the wicked sin?

The plowing of the wicked is sin because it prepares good ground for evil purposes. Oh, the good ground in this city tonight that is made over to evil purposes. Oh, the good ground in the homes of the people that is made over to evil purposes.

Oh, the good ground in the possibilities of doing good in all our lives, given over to the purposes of evil. No wonder the Holy Spirit dips his pen in the black ink of condemnation, and he says the plowing of the wicked is sin.

Sin Squanders God-Given Strength and Talent

Secondly, the plowing of the wicked squanders the strength and talent of the person on a sinful enterprise. God's strength and God's breath are sovereign gifts to each one. We live and move and have our being because of the sovereignty of God's breath and God's strength and God's talent.

You have a mind that is balanced and reasonable. You have faculties to accomplish what you want to do. You have strength and talents, which are the gifts of God. To take the strength that God gives you, to take the talents that God gives you, and squander them in the plowing of the wicked, is surely a most sinful enterprise of sin.

Every ounce of strength and every ounce of talent that we have should be used by us for the accomplishment of good, not for the accomplishment of evil. But the plowing of the wicked takes that talent that God has given, that gift that God has given, that strength that God has given, and so deranges the heart and the mind and the conscience of man that instead of working for God with God-given talent, they work for the devil, and they do the work that is evil.

The strength of our bodies, the strength of our mind, is not ours but God's. Your ability is a God-given talent. Your breath is from heaven. But today, every day, we have a repetition of the original sin that damned the whole human race.

Eden, Disobedience, and the Inheritance of Sin

We have a repetition of taking God's strength and using it to do the evil work of a mind that is blinded by hell and by deception. In the garden of paradise in Eden, there were trees in abundance, but the foolish woman and the foolish man, by receiving the bait on Satan's hook, turned their back on all that God had been pleased to donate to them.

Of every tree of the garden, thou can surely eat and enjoy its fruit. But there is one tree that I prohibit you to take or to handle or to partake of. And what happened when the woman looked at the tree?

She turned her eyes from all the other trees. They were all good for food. They were all pleasant to the eye. They would have all been her wife. She turned to take that which was prohibited by divine prohibition for her to handle or take.

And so good was prostituted to the production of iniquity. The purity of her heart was chained to impurity and the good to the cart of evil. And as that cart drove its way down the path of disobedience, what a treachery!

Have you ever sat down and thought of generation following generation in sin? Every man, every woman born into this world, born in iniquity and shaped in sin. All because of the folly of the woman and the man to squander their strength, to squander their talent on sinful enterprise.

Sin's False Pleasure and Its Harvest of Corruption

You know there is no gain to sinning. Sinning brings no gain to those that live within it. There may be some short, very short sinful pleasure. Very short satisfying of some lust of the flesh, some pride of life.

But it is so quickly past that the soul who puts God's and the energy that God has given to disobey Him will reap what he sows. So to the flesh and of the flesh you will reap corruption. So to the spirit and of the spirit you shall reap life everlasting.

Such a waste and waste is terrible to consider. The millions who occupy the caverns of the damned. The awful death that never dies. The awful hell of God's eternity. And the awful coming of the everlasting lake of fire for sinners who turn their back on good and use the talents God gave them to help themselves down the road to hell itself.

The plying of the wicked is sin. It prepares good ground for evil purposes. The plying of the wicked is sin. It squanders strength and talent on sinful enterprises. The plying of the wicked is an endeavor to extend wickedness more quickly in the world.

The Spread of Wickedness and Apostate Churches

They extend wickedness by seeking to increase it with anti-God, with anti-Christ sowing and with an anti-Holy Spirit harvest. This is evil indeed. What is the purpose of sin? The purpose of sin is to spread, to sow it and have great harvests of wickedness.

And across the world what great harvests of wickedness are being reaped tonight. He said to me yesterday, he said Mr. Paisley what do you think of the percentage of people believing certain things in the countries of the world?

I said you can blame the apostate churches for atheism because the apostate churches have been the sellers of atheism. They have taught man to deny the book. They have taught man to deny the blood. They have taught man to deny the Christ.

They have taught man to reject the gospel. I saw one prominent religious commentator saying that of this film that has caused such controversy, she said it is too like the gospels and the gospels are wrong.

What we need is anti-gospel filming. She is supposed to be supporting Christianity, some support. Treachery on every hand has brought about this almost agony of evil men to increase sin and their sinning.

This ploughing puts the divine rule of God's purpose between the shafts of a filthy plough of wickedness and it seeks to subvert and pervert God's laws. It's whole reaping will be perdition indeed. What sin is this?

The ploughing of the wicked desires to increase sin by the instruments that God intended to increase the giving and goodness of God. The ploughing of the wicked uses the seasons which God brought into existence to forward the well-being of man and to prostitute them in the employment of darkness and judgment.

Treasuring Up Wrath for the Day of Judgment

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So wrote the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans.

Harvesting a treasure which heaps up wrath until the day of wrath and produces such evidence that will be inescapable when you stand before the God of heaven. Developing your own destruction. Digging a deeper hell for your soul.

Digging more torment of the damned in your eternity. This is a terrible business, the ploughing of the wicked. And all of us in this meeting who are seeing it, remember the days when we were engaged in the ploughing of the wicked.

It is nothing other than hell in heaven's coat. It is perversion. It is an abomination. It is a blasphemy. I would say to you, sinner, walk no more in its furrows. Hold not its handles. Engage no longer in its objectives.

The Warning Against Looking Back

Listen to this scripture. And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of no man who looks back, but one of those who go back. The ploughing of the wicked puts that which is intended for good to do that which is intended for evil.

Ask yourself, sinner friend, in this meeting tonight, ask yourself a simple question. Why should I be such a fool to use those things that God planned for my benefit and blessing and turn them into instruments of my destruction and everlasting damnation?

To look back declares I am not fit for the kingdom of God. To go back calls out the fury of an angry God. And how shall you stand in the day of judgment in the presence of an angry God? Could I suggest to you, my dear sinner friend, that all your engagement in between the shafts of the plough of the wicked will bring no benefit whatsoever to you.

That furrow that you go down is the furrow of darkness. That path that you walk is the path to sudden destruction. That way that you go is a way not of prosperity to your soul, but of adversity and the blackness of darkness forever.

Loss in Time, Death, and Eternity

As I sat today at my desk, I thought of men and women, of boys and girls, how they have taken that which was meant for their good and how they have employed it for evil. And they think they have gained, but they have gained nothing.

The loss of the plough of evil is loss in time, loss at death, loss at the judgment day, and lost forever in the blackness of darkness. Oh, tonight, may the solemnity of this truth grip your heart. And may the awful words, the ploughing of the wicked is sin, haunt you from your apathy and your darkness of being a duke of Satan.

Deliverance Through the Cross and the Precious Blood

And may it drive you to consider that cross that we were singing about. I saw one hanging on a tree in agonies and blood. He fixed his languid eye on me as near the cross I stood. I stood. There is only one thing that can break the grip and the iron hold on your soul, sinner friend, and it is the power of the precious blood of Christ and the power of the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And you need this night, in this meeting, to cry out for divine deliverance. For only the Lord can deliver from the chains of sins making. Only the Lord can deliver from the poison that sin imparts to the human soul.

Only the Lord can save you from the punishment you rightfully deserve for your acts of disobedience and rebellion against His holy commandment. It is a time for heart searching. It is a time to see the awfulness of this ploughing.

This ploughing that, as I have already mentioned, is a ploughing that prepares the good ground for evil purposes. That squanders strength and talent on sinful enterprise. That is an endeavor to extend wickedness quickly and is a ploughing that puts that which is intended for good to that which has the intention of evil indeed.

Is it not time that you permitted God's light to shine into your conscience, into your heart, and into your inner soul? And having considered the end of the sinful harvest and the beginning of the darkness of the lost eternity, turn while the Spirit in mercy is pleading.

And steer for God's harbor bright. For how do you know that your soul may be drifting over the deadline this night? May God bless His truth to our hearts for Jesus' sake. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee for Thy word.

There is a power, there is an unction, there is divine strength in Thy holy word. Help us all to seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near. And may men and women that up to this day have lived prostituting the good and choosing the evil, may they turn and find mercy and peace and life everlasting in the cross of Christ through the blood of the Lamb.

Hear this, our prayer this night, for Jesus' sake. Amen and Amen. The hymn number 103 at the page 218. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Thank God the powerful blood, the precious blood can take away your sin and your plowing the furrow of sin and can turn you into the path of righteousness for His great name's sake.