Bible Questions and Answers, Part 69 (Selected Scriptures)

good evening Pastor John my name is Nate my question is there are many Christians in their life who experience friends or family members who once walked with the Lord but later turned away from the Lord and walked away from Christianity what is a biblical response to that and how do we as their friends or family respond to them and work with them well there are two passages that immediately come to mind Nate one of course and this is the watershed passage on that subject is in Matthew 13 the parable of the soils you have the Lord telling the story about the sower who went out to sow some fell on hard ground some fell on sort of rocky ground some fell on ground that had thorns and weeds and some fell on good ground you have six responses three of them are three different kinds of good ground thirty sixty and a hundredfold the other three are the times when the Word of God or the gospel falls on soil and produces no fruit the first the the hard ground our Lord says that the birds come and snatch it away it's as if Satan that just snatches away the truth before it can penetrate it all then you have two kinds of soils where the word goes into the ground and something comes up but it never bears fruit so the Lord acknowledges that there will be people who are completely impervious to the gospel and will have no response at all the Lord also acknowledges and it's to be expected as he's instructing his disciples that there will be people who have an immediate response to the gospel but he goes on to say tribulation or trouble the price is too high or the riches of this world the cares of this world cause the plant to die so we know from the lips of our Lord that there are going to be people whose initial response is superficial and not genuine and not last we also know that there are people who can make a superficial response to Christ and it can go on for a very long time because our Lord says in that same chapter that there will be in the kingdom wheat and tares wheat would be the true believers tears would be the false believers and he says don't try to separate them because you don't have the criteria to separate them wait until the angels in the harvest of judgment make that distinction so it has to be said then that we should expect that not everybody who responds to the gospel is going to have a lasting response there may be emotion at the front end there may be excitement at the front end some cases they will wither and die rapidly in some other cases they will grow but be fruitless and we may not even know the difference and that would be kind of like a Judas who is among the disciples and they don't even know that he's the betrayer so when Jesus says one of you is a betrayer they all said is it I is that eyes that eye now along the way there are people who believe for a little while as I said and and go away first John 2:19 is the most important verse on that it says they went out from us because they were not of us if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out from us that it might be made manifest they never were of us so when someone walks away from the confession of Jesus Christ as Lord there there is in that turning away evidence that that was never genuine to start with that means that that basically is a person who is an apostate having known the truth turns from the truth walks away from the truth and the warnings of Scripture to the apostate are that if you walk away from that with full knowledge it's impossible to be renewed again to repentance because you've heard the truth known the truth confessed the truth turned your back and walk away from the truth that's the most horrific of all things because Hebrews 10 says how much greater will the punishment be to the one who trampled underfoot the blood of the Covenant and accounted an unholy thing that's the person who knew the truth confessed the truth turned from the truth and walked away the hottest hell is reserved for that kind of apostasy so that's just kind of a big picture of the reality there there will be temporary believers who may have an emotional response there will be some long-term hypocrites who aren't real but we won't know that until the judgement there will be people who are apostate now a number of years ago I wrote a book called the Gospel according to Jesus because there was being propagated all across evangelicalism the idea that you could be a true believer in Christ make a true confession of Jesus as Lord and have no evidence of it in your life and even turn against that and deny the Lord and it was believed that if you ever confessed the Lord once you had a salvation that was secure even if you became and this was the phrase they used an unbelieving believer that's why I wrote the book the Gospel according to Jesus the Gospel according to the Apostles and dealt with all of that a true believer a true believer will manifest that transformation in life over a long period of time time and truth go hand in hand given enough time the truth is known again that that doesn't mean there won't be hypocrites who are good at faking it because that's possible as well but true believers will from the heart manifest the evidence of that transformation they will love the Lord and they will seek to honor the Lord when someone turns away having had a full understanding of the gospel and made a profession of Christ the the warning of Scripture is that that is the kind of defection from which there is no remedy so in the event that you know someone in that situation they need to be severely warned and there are a number of those warnings in the book of Hebrews that you might want to look at how should we escape if we neglect so great salvation if you know it and you walk away from it that is the severus then go to chapter 10 read that section in chapter 10 about the most your judgement and again we we do understand that eventually the truth is known even a fake Christian is known to be faked by the people closest to them general generally speaking we might not all know in the church but there are people close to those false Christians who no doubt are having questions and I would then at that point say look if you know somebody who is claiming to be a Christian but you have very serious doubts about the genuineness of that claim you need to confront that person about the salvation that they claim and make sure it's real okay thanks Nate yes sir i pastor John my name is Robert hi Robert there I know that inerrancy is one of the foundations that we rest upon as far as the Word of God is concerned recently there became known to me an article that questions that where an article where I you know I can't remember it was okay yeah I think it's out of Deuteronomy because it actually appeared as an answer on Jeopardy but yeah it's true where a group of people was supposedly annihilated and now genetic evidence of their existence has has become manifest has become known so therefore the Aaron err the inerrancy is thrown into question because of a certain group of people was testified to have been annihilated and now they do exist I was just wondering if you had heard of this no I haven't heard of that but I wouldn't trust any theology on Jeopardy no I have absolutely no idea what somebody is talking about but I will tell you this the Bible will the Bible will stand the test of the most rigorous scrutiny by the most rigorous scholars on the planet who are most enlightened by the Spirit of God to dig into the scripture validate the evidence of its inerrancy what happens in the world is they they throw the Bible around like a plaything and and they all they do is reflect their ignorance in the conversation I had with Ben Shapiro following that conversation some months ago he said to me afterwards he said you can't know how refreshing it is to have a conversation with someone about the Bible who actually knows what it says because I'm so used to being confirmed by people who deny the Bible and don't even know what's in it so you don't want to play fast and loose with the Word of God you don't want to make those kind of ridiculous statements about the inerrancy of Scripture that could never be supported but they'll always be an audience willing to hear that and that's those people who want to reject it and they want more justification for their rejection but we're going to put the Bible in the hands of the people two people who are the most capable and most diligent to discern its inerrancy not in the hands of foolish people okay thanks Robert thank you hello pastor my name is Billy hi Billy so me and some other guys are in studying Revelation and we need help okay so at after the after the rapture and after the seven years after the Great Tribulation when the new heaven and earth is made and the new drew Jerusalem comes down and we go to live there with the our Creator so that's not made yet and now my mom and dad and all the believers are in a place with God so are they gonna move from where they're at through the New Jerusalem and what's gonna happen to the place that they're at now and well yeah let's not get too carried away here jesus said in John 14 I'm gonna go and I'm gonna prepare a place for you in my father's house and he said that then to them then the Word of God says absent from the body present with the Lord Paul says far better to depart be with christ jesus says to the thief on the cross today you'll be with me in paradise so heaven is wherever the Lord is it's wherever the Lord is that's why in the book of Revelation it says there there's no need of light there because the lamb is the light of it so when a believer dies he goes into the presence of the Lord that that that is perfect holiness perfect joy perfect satisfaction eternal life the absence of all the sinful and evil and decaying and dying it is the the realm of things that are eternal now through the plan of God we know that there are ways in which God will design that dwelling place that are suited to his purposes for example there will be a new heaven and a new earth okay that means that the final state of our eternal dwelling is at this point and not yet created it's not yet created it will not be created until the complete abolishing of that which exists that's why Peter says in second Peter 3 that the elements will melt with fervent heat now this is basically an atomic implosion the Lord created the entire universe out of atoms that that will be an uncreation in which the entire universe as we know it that is everything material in it will be out of existence as fast as it came or even faster than it came into existence and in its place will be a new heaven and a new earth all that that is saying for us is this currently the the realm of God the dwelling place of God where God is with holy angels and is with is redeemed people it's still in a universe though in another dimension it's still in a universe that is corrupt so the final eternal state will be a universe with no corruption because the current universe will go out of existence so I from the standpoint of the believer that there won't be some kind of angelic van showing up in front of their current house to move them to a new neighborhood or a new city and all that all that the the New Jerusalem is this sort of the capital city of eternity the throne of God that is to say that there there actually will be a throne of God it is described for us as a cube I think if teen hundred miles cubed the capital city of the new heaven and the new earth it it it is m''d say right now that it already is designed it may already be fabricated in whatever way God has done that but it will eventually become the capital city of the new heaven and the new earth that's all we need to know again we can't get any further into understanding all that then what is in revelation and then just real quick in chapter 4 when he talks about the 24 elders day and night worshipping the Lord now is that in the translation that means all the time or is there really day and night no there's not day and night it's just a euphemism for saying all the time there's no night in heaven so there's no day it doesn't it doesn't operate and as we do in our solar system but night and day is just a way of expressing all the time okay yeah you know this is a good question you asked because some people get caught up in over-over spiritualizing obvious things if if there's a number there it's probably an actual number if it's saying day and night and we know there's no day and night in heaven it's just a way of expressing a period of time that that covers all the time so yeah I'd just take it at its face value and what is the simplest explanation is usually the right one okay thank you good hi Pastor John hi hi I'm Juliette from grace left London Oh hi Julia hi um thank you so much for your ministry here and serving the Lord so faithfully so I have a question since I'm a believer can the devil influence my thinking on any part of my life including my dreams did you get that yeah there's nothing in Scripture to indicate that the devil can access your mind in some super natural way okay the greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world the Holy Spirit lives in you hmm if the devil is going to access your mind he's going to access your mind through what he does in the world around you right and you're gonna be picking up and observing things that are happening in the world around you you are the Temple of the Spirit of God which you have of God and you are not your own for you are bought with a price the Lord bought you purchase you to become his temple you are one with Christ Christ is one with you you are in Christ Christ is in you by virtue of the Spirit of Christ that dwells in you it's as if what Jesus said what the Bible says concerning Jesus that Satan had nothing in him there's there's no reason to think that Satan has anything in you but he has a whole lot going on around you because he's the Prince of the power of the air he's the god of this age the god of this world and as such he controls the environment that you're living in and that environment obviously creates the realities that capture your thoughts so it isn't that you'd it isn't that you need to chase the devil away all you have to do is resist him he's on the outside you you resist him and he will flee from you but no if you have a bizarre dream that bizarre dream is probably likely related to some idea some notion some thought that settled in your mind at some point and and involuntarily popped up don't don't over think your dreams thank you thank you you're welcome thank you hello Pastor John my name is Aaron and I'm a junior at UCLA throughout the centuries Orthodox Christians have upheld God's immutability meaning that he doesn't undergo any change and also his simplicity meaning that he is not composed of any parts whereas of one pure self existent being at the same time though we also know that the word Jesus became flesh so my question is how do we understand the incarnation of Christ without compromising on God's immutability or simplicity well it's pretty simple when we talk about God's self existence theologians call that the Asiya T of God God cannot change because God is eternally who he is God is not becoming everyone that God creates is becoming that that means we're in some life process moving from one thing to another there is a kind of theology that has floated around particularly over the last 20 years that wants to say that God is in the process of becoming and it wants to say that God doesn't know everything until it happens he doesn't know anything and unless you can see it happen God is subject to added information and subject to experiences of gaining knowledge and the reason they come up with that idea is they think that disassociates God from all that's bad in the universe if God doesn't even know about it then he can't be blamed for it the truth of matter is God is not becoming God is and God is who he is I am that I am that's why the the first person singular verb to be is the name of God I am he is not becoming anything that he is not already he is eternally the I am so we don't know we don't experience life like that life for us is all a process you saw a little babies up here you see people at all ages here well in the process of becoming that is not true of God now does that mean that God cannot appear in some form God could appear in a flame of fire in the Old Testament God could appear in a whirlwind in the Old Testament God could appear as an angel as the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament and God who is God the I am can appear in human flesh and did that in the person of Jesus Christ that did not advance or alter or change his nature in any way that's why hebrews 1 says that god spoke in his son who is the exact representation of his nature in human form that was very important for us for two reasons reason one so that he as man could die for man and two so that he as man could live a righteous life that we could see it's one thing to try to understand the attributes of God in the invisible reality of God it's it's quite more clear to understand the attributes of God in the visible life of Jesus Christ there we see what love and kindness and mercy and tenderness and righteousness and all look like so nothing in the nature of God is altered nothing has changed nothing is subtracted nothing is amended nothing is moved to another place God is eternally I am he is not becoming but he can and did manifest himself in certain ways and in the ultimate way in order to be the substitute for us and to demonstrate what God looks like in a in a form that we can comprehend he came in the flesh in the form of Jesus Christ now that had nothing to do with any altering of his nature that's why even as Jesus he said you don't need to tell me what's in a man I know what's in a man I can read their minds that's why he said I can I can call legions of angels if I I want all that all the deity of God in him the fullness of deity dwells says the Apostle Paul so there's no altering of his nature okay thank you good question hi Pastor Dan my name is Christian hi Christian my question is on children actually on what on children sure suppose a child five years old as young as five years old believes in Christ as Lord and Savior you know believes in his death and resurrection for salvation loves to serve in the Lord correctable by His Word should we as parents recognize that to be true faith or should we actually dismissed it well further no you should not dismiss it there is no reason in the world to dismiss it because you don't know I have said this through the years anytime a child ever affirms faith in Christ you affirm that you you praise the Lord for that you thank the Lord for that and you encourage the child with that the worst thing you can possibly do is deny what a child affirms as something they believe the fact of the matter is a five year old in a Christian family is very likely to actually believe that because it's never been tested and because the people they love the most believe that and it's it's just very natural for them to affirm that so at all points in in the life of a child when the child says that I believe you affirm that you affirm that and you say I'm so thankful for that that the Lord is at work in your life we had a little incident with our youngest granddaughter she called us I think how old was she seven maybe six or seven and she said Papa grandma you have to come over because I tried to be a Christian and it didn't work but if you come over it'll work so Patricia and I went over to the house and she was ready she had had a another little friend in school say that he had become a Christian and she wanted to be a Christian too and it didn't seem to work for her and I don't know why she thought it didn't work other than that she probably felt the same about her brother that she had felt before she prayed the prayer because she didn't have a whole big category of transformation to look at but anyways we just sat down with her went through the gospel very carefully and if she was affirming and affirming and affirming and affirming that she believed all that we rejoiced in that we shared the joy with her we prayed with her any time since then if you say to her are you a Christian yes I am a Christian it also provided some interesting new leverage for her mother because not long after that she had misbehaved and her mother said to her Christians don't act like that and she melted into tears so for that reason alone you hold up the standard you need all the leverage you can get but it is very possible that at five or six years of age the Lord can grant true faith I don't know time time will tell but you always always affirm that every time they they want to acknowledge Christ you affirm that you don't put doubt in their minds about that okay hello Pastor John my name is Noah I know I wanted to ask how or where would you direct a student of the word to learn in a practical way their role as a husband wife or even a counselor two family members whose marriages do not reflect the character of Christ now you're asking how can you where would I send you to develop those skills or I know that Fijians 5:22 yes through six four is all on that but what would be a practical way if you've read that many times and you apply it to your life and you try to your best to do that what are some practical ways to incorporate that yeah I there's a lot of good resources I've written a number of books there's a lot of books in the bookstore that'll help you interact with that truth but I want to I want to go back and make it as simple as I possibly can look you're to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength right that's the fulfillment of the law and your neighbor as yourself so the whole of Christian living is loving God and loving the people around me that's not complicated and that kind of love is sacrificial unselfish selfless love so the the simplest illustration of that is in John 21 where Peter has again disappointed the Lord he was told to obey he goes to Galilee he's supposed to wait till the Lord comes and he's going to Commission him into ministry and instead he gets his boat in his fishing and he gets all his buddies and all seven of those disciples go back to fishing and look this is a this is a serious disobedience on his part and he led the others in it so the Lord confronts him and he asks him three questions and they're the same question three times do you love me do you love me do you love me and it almost seems simplistic what's at stake is the future of the church because Peter is going to be the great preacher on the day of Pentecost in the first twelve chapters of until you get to chapter 12 of the book of Acts it's all about Peter preaching so a lot is at stake and the Lord wants Peter to preach you he wants Peter to to do the ministry so here is a guy has failed so many times he's lost his own self-confidence he doesn't trust himself and the Lord system do you love me and then he says do you love me and then he says do you love me and I won't go into the details of the conversation but this is the simple understanding of what it means to follow Christ do you love me if you love me you keep my Commandments if you love me you do my will if you love me you honor my name if you love me you do that which pleases me and glorifies me and I think in a marriage it's the same thing it's it's not psychological technique it's maybe retraining some of your habits but what has to drive your relationship is love and we're not talking even in marriage we're talking about something beyond romantic love we're talking about sacrificial selfless love so consciously in my mind I think when I think about Patricia what can I do that will bring her joy and spiritual benefit whatever that is I want to do that I want to do that and I want to do that all the time and never anything but that so it's it's a constant work of selfless giving for the spiritual benefit of your partner I don't think I think if you start navigating this thing with a lot of confusing gimmicks or little tricks and things like that you know go on a date do this do whatever pick out date night every week that that doesn't do anything I mean you ought to do it once in a while but it's not what you do on the date night that's gonna make the relationship it's what you do when it's not date night that makes the relationship so I think you just need to continually ask the Lord to give you more and more and more love for your spouse and to love him supremely and to love your neighbor as yourself in the nearest neighbor is the one in your house as a family friend or something along those lines someone else in their marriage it would also be just encouraging them in those same things again to give you an illustration I remember reading an illustration about a a guy who had four hundred pianos that he was supposed to tune to to the to an accurate tune tuning and at first he tried to tune four hundred pianos to each other and then somebody brought him a tuning fork and once they were all tuned to the tuning fork they were all tune to each other I think it's just it's just focusing on loving Christ and in loving Christ the call to the husband is love your wife as Christ loved the church you you're to love him supremely and everything else falls into place they encourage people that way and listen what stimulates that love is not absence from the church or absence from the Word of God but communion with the Lord in his word and with the people of God and listening to the Word of God being taught okay thank you Pastor John here well family in us we're all praying for you so thank you so much thank you hi hi what's your name again Alina Alina hi and I was wondering so in Revelation and talk Revelation 19 it talks about how Jesus comes from heaven riding a white horse and my question is are there animals in heaven what a good question and I know you're hoping there are [Music] No [Music] with if somebody said means there's also no shovels in heaven so we don't have any indication that any being is eternal except human beings but that is a way to illustrate or demonstrate that the Lord is coming back as a conquering hero he's riding on a horse he has crowns on his head he has a sword and with that sword he brings judgment now that's not an actual sword and the actual sword actually brings the judgment to every individual those are images and the great image of a conquering general in ancient world was riding on a great white horse in triumph so that's a picture of the triumph of Christ but heaven is is for holy angels and for redeemed people now animals are a common grace we all enjoy animals some some of you are so attached to your animals the thought that they're not going to be in heaven is disturbing to you but they are creatures for earthly comfort that will play no role in the perfect comfort of heaven okay you're welcome honey good question dr. MacArthur thank you for taking our questions this evening sure my name is Dave my question has to do with eligibility for church leadership does divorce disqualify a man for leadership and if so is it always the case or are there mitigating circumstances such as being the so-called innocent party or as long as he remains unmarried well it depends on what kind of church leadership you're talking about a pastor or an elder explicitly is to be a one-woman man that that's not only commentary on him having one wife that's obvious but it's a it's a it's a demand that he be completely faithful and loyal to that one wife and that he have demonstrated that he has managed his own household well this is because pastoral ministry in the church is not only a teaching position it is a modeling position it is an exemplary position that's why Paul says to Timothy be an example to the believers in word or deed that's why Paul says follow me as I follow Christ so when you're talking about elders in the church this is for someone who is demonstrably known for his utter faithfulness to his wife and who has demonstrated the spiritual leadership that is needed in the church in his own family having raised a godly family with believing children now is it conceivable that there could be someone who was divorced say before he came to Christ maybe in his early 20s and 30 years later he's he's serving in a church and they need spiritual leadership and he's been married to somebody else for 25 years and has godly children would he be disqualified that's not the intent of that text the intent of that text is to look at the man's life and see if he demonstrates fidelity to those standards so I I wouldn't want to say that that if that happens in someone's life before Christ that it is a permanent disqualification basically all the qualifications for leadership in the church are now that I'm in Christ I mean Paul says I was a blasphemer I was a persecutor I killed Christians all of that would disqualify him from being a pastor except for the fact that that was before he was saved so everything kind of starts afresh and anew but if there is a divorce in someone's background I think there has to be time to see the life of that person over a period of time to validate that that person can be an exemplary husband father and and raise a godly family so I don't think the point is to stretch the qualifications back all the way to somebody's birth but rather that this is the reputation that is widely known and and affirmed about this individual the other thing to say about that is this is talking specifically about pastoral or eldership leadership there are so many other ways to serve and lead in the church and the Lord has distributed among the spiritual gifts gifts of leadership and there are lots of ways that one can lead effectively in the church that don't necessarily carry the responsibility that that particular role does that's just a unique role doesn't mean even that an elder or a pastor is more effective more influential has a stronger witness or testimony or more useful to the Lord it's it's like in the Old Testament a priest couldn't have certain wounds he couldn't have a bad eye or he couldn't be in the priesthood he couldn't have certain scars on his body because there was the Lord was was sort of putting a model in front of one who who comes between man and God there was almost a picture of what Christ's perfection would be like so it's a unique role it doesn't mean that someone with a divorce in their background even even a divorce as a Christian can't serve the Lord in some other way because I think they can thank you mm-hmm hi John that's Richard hi Richard first thank you for 50 years of God honoring expository preaching thank you Richard Titus 3 - thanks for turning on the mic for me so I could be heard he does that all the time Thank You Titus 3 to tells us - my line no one how do we confront unbiblical thinking and behavior without maligning those people and still being faithful to Scripture thank you yeah when the Bible talks about maligning no one it simply means that your not to be malicious in the way you talk about people it doesn't mean that you don't identify dangerous people you must identify dangerous people you mean the Apostle Paul does that he talks about the atrophies who loves to have the preeminence beware of him talks about hymenaeus and Alexander who have led people into shipwreck in their faith the Bible is full of very specific warnings the Apostle Paul even talks about Dimas who has forsaken me having loved the present world Paul talked about Mark who was a huge disappointment to him so it is very important for us to point out those people who are dangerous to our children I mean I look as a parent if people ask me a lot how do you how do you bring your children up so that they come to know Christ and one of the ways you you help your children in that process is to be very very firm as to who their friends are now you could say well it's maligning someone not to allow them to be around your child I'm not maliciously maligning anyone but there are people that I don't want influencing my family there are people I don't want influencing you so sadly we live in a culture today where being malicious is a sport maligning people is a sport the Internet has led to you know very very brutal brutal statements about other people and it's so common that even the president does it all the time and it is it is malicious it is hurtful it is cutting it is unnecessary it's one thing to warn someone about a person who is a danger and identify that person as a spiritual danger or any other danger it's something else to garner laughs at the expense of some malicious talk about another person even those who are enemies according to what the Word of God says we are to love right love our enemies I remember when I was called up during the Bush administration they asked me to come back to Washington for a meeting with the bush people in the cabinet and the issue was that there were some Christians that were in the in the White House who were becoming very concerned about their attitude toward the opposition party and I had given a message called the dangers of moralism and it circulated in the White House and as a result led to a number of conversations and eventually going back there and talking to some of the people and they said that message caused us to realize that when we get caught up in this political fight we wind up maliciously assaulting our political enemies but as Christians what we're doing is attacking the very mission field the Lord has called us to reach don't turn your mission field into your enemy and that was a kind of a revelation for them and they were having a Bible study about it and and they engage me to talk more about that this is a bad thing that Christian people getting into politics end up with tainted or tainted with the same maliciousness that's thrown around in Washington if there's not a hundred other reasons not to get involved at that level I would never get involved at that level because I don't want to be painted with the dirt that flies in Washington all over the place I don't want anyone including left-wing Pro and pro LGBTQ pro same-sex marriage Pro transgendered Democrats I don't want them to think for a moment that I hate them while I certainly don't affirm what they believe and I could never bring myself to vote for a platform that put all that in as the direction the country is going to go I don't need to turn them into an enemy by being malicious so I think that's what what the word of god is reminding us of we don't want to turn the mission field into the enemy we need to reach these people they need the Lord I mean you see these people and I know you get irritated at them the politicians politicians and generally just generally can be very irritating people because you wonder what they ever do it's like a job where you don't do anything it's easy to think the lowly of them and then when they take on some issue that is so against the Word of God against the plan of God against the will of God and they start to make laws about that like in the state of California it's it's easy to to become a hater of the very people that we need to reach and that's why the New Testament says that we are to pray for those who are in authority right to pray for kings and rulers and leaders God our Savior who will have all men to come to the knowledge of the truth of all men meaning all those in all walks of life and all kinds of professions so yes we have to warn about dangerous people but we don't have to become known for being pejorative and angry and hostile toward people to disagree with us okay thank you hey Pastor John my name is Nick hi Nick it's good to meet you again I'm for a second time so in light of celebrating 50 years of pastoral ministry have you seen your leadership change from when you first started until now and what advice would you give to a young leader in a church in light of that have I seen my leadership change I hope I think I've become a little more patient early on I was basically a type-a personality you know okay I know what we need to do I know how to get it done let's go do this and there was a certain hurriedness in in my approach to everything and it basically mellows as the years go by and you begin to realize that the goals and objectives of spiritual ministry are not achieved in a year or five years or ten years or twenty years I have the most amazing experience of being in a church where the work of the word has been going on for 50 years it's hard for me to convey to a young pastor the most important thing that you can possibly do is be enduringly faithful to the Word of God enduringly patient with your people love them and just stay where you are long enough to see the word do its work don't be in a big hurry that's hard for young guys because we're full of energy and you know you know the truth and you want to go fix the church and straighten the church out and we often have guys that come out of the master seminary very well-equipped for ministry but too impatient to last and so when they go in and ride roughshod over people in the way they've done things they find themselves looking for another church in a year or two so realize this that the most important thing you can do as a young minister is to love your people and it's teaching them the word of God while loving them at the same time that allows you to have the time to see the change take place okay thank you so yeah what I do things differently sure yeah I mean of course I you know I remember one night I preached on why the Antichrist will be a Jew and then the next Sunday night I preached on why the Antichrist will be a Gentile because I thought I got it wrong sure I don't know which tape I finally landed on but you can find that there are things that you would always change about ministry but I'll tell you one other thing and this is so very important in the end it is your character that attracts people close to you so if you want to be surrounded by people of character then they have to see it in you and what strengthens any man's life and ministry is the people around him I am not the explanation for what happens here or anywhere else it is all these people that the Lord has collected around me I I basically have a simple life I I get oatmeal Sunday morning Patricia makes with brown sugar and fruit I come down here I preach a few times and then all this other stuff happens and it happens because the the truth and the integrity that backs up that truth gives validity to the ministry and attracts people who are attracted to the through that integrity it's the integrity of your life and the faithfulness of your teaching and it's a slow process from the beginning I used to say I want to do two things preach the Word of God hopefully through the New Testament and train men and through the years I have I have not attracted men who don't want to do what I do but I have attracted men who want to do what I do and that's what makes ministry so powerful is you're just multiplying yourself again and again and again and again I mean if you take a kind of a pastor that has a rock and roll Church and does some kind of stick you know on a platform and he's the kind of a cool dude communicator he's not going to attract expositors he's going to attract those kinds of people those kinds of people who are interested in theatrical display that's not a formula for building a great church maybe a formula for getting an audience but if you're faithful in teaching the Word of God over the long haul it's amazing how cumulatively this and exponentially this begins to explode my whole life has just been this continual flow of men coming here who want to do what what I've done and and not necessarily a style but with integrity teaching the Word of God and building a church according to what the Word of God says so just be patient and I've said this many times you worry about the depth of your life and ministry let God take care of the breath of it you be who you need to be and watch the Lord collect around you the people who want what you are doing to be the mark in their life and as the Lord grows that it'll multiply it one day you'll wake up 50 years later and say how did it how did this ever happen so I'm not the explanation for it but the the nature and character of biblical ministry is what attracts men with that same conviction and that's why you know if you if you had a non biblical ministry and just keep attracting non biblical people the things spiral is completely out of control but if you have a biblical ministry and you keep attracting people committed to biblical ministry just gets richer and deeper and broader and higher and wider and that's what we've experienced here that helped yes thank you very much hi I'm Judah I do how old are you going to ask what's the youngest um that you can go to seminary what is the youngest that you can go to seminary juda you're old enough to go to seminary you just can't stay there so whoever your mom and dad are they need to get you over to that seminary and give you a full tour and plant in your little heart what might be in the future okay you've got to get your mom and dad to give you get somebody in the seminary give you a personal tour so that you can experience now in a way that'll indelibly plant itself in your mind what may be the Lord's plan for you in the future but having said that you really have to be like 21 okay thank you hi my name is Adriana and I'm from Romania I am really grateful that you had a flu couple of weeks ago because I I cannot attend another week sigh I'm here only today thanking the Lord for the flu right so you mentioned politics and I wanted to tell you about my country is very corrupt the government is corrupt and a lot of people are getting involved now in politics and they are protesting on the streets against corruption what should a Christian do it's a Christian protest against the government and how and when should a Christian be involved in politics being involved in politics in the sense that you vote no yeah so but I mean if you did if you voted that's that's how to be in politics in a way that's not disruptive no no Christian should be a part of a protest or a march or any insurrection or any anti-government activity we are to live quiet and peaceful lives we are to honor those who are over us and I'll remember all that was written when Caesar was on the throne and Christians were being massacred so we are not of this world right this is not our kingdom our battle is not this kingdom it's not for the government of Romania I I've been in your country some would say it was worse when Ceausescu was there but whenever a dictator is overthrown that doesn't get the corruption out it just spreads the corruption over more people and I understand that but as a Christian we don't protest we don't take up arms we don't throw bombs we don't do graffiti we submit to the powers that be because they are ordained of God and by that it doesn't mean that the leaders of Romania are necessarily doing the work of God but government as an entity brings a measure of order to an otherwise chaotic environment so breaking down the authority of the government leading to anarchy is not good for anyone and Christians are basically forbidden to be a part of the tearing down of any governmental authority whether it's communist Chinese Authority or corrupt Romanian Authority or disturbing American government which is legalizing immorality as fast as possible we pray for our leaders we submit we lead quiet and peaceable lives as good citizens of this world knowing that our citizenship is in heaven and we fight for the eternal Kingdom not for political change on the surface this is what I was saying in that message on the dangers of moralism when you're just getting in a battle to change the external morality of a government you're dealing with things that are temporal and superficial and one other thing to say about it I pointed out this week at the truth matters conference that we're living in Romans 1 when God judges the nation he it says in Romans 1 he gave them over to immorality we had sexual revolution that was a judgment of God then it says in Romans 1:26 he gave them over to homosexuality we've had a homosexual revolution then it says in Romans 1:28 he gave them over to a reprobate mind of mine that doesn't function and I used to wonder what is that a mind that doesn't function that's when you're a man you think you're a woman that is insanity but that's where we are now you could say well I don't like this I'm going to fight against it remember this a sexual revolution followed by a homosexual revolution followed by insanity that leads to all kinds of iniquity is the judgment of God according to Romans 1 it is the judgment of God this is divine judgment so what while you're fighting against that on the one hand because you're trying to uphold righteousness understand this that God Himself is exercising judgment in that very thing so we don't want to get caught up in what God is doing in a society other than with the work of the gospel okay so glad you came thank you so glad I came thank you hi Pastor John my name is Ashley hi Ashley the first thing I wanted to say is I like oatmeal too so yeah so I wanted to ask the question just about growing up so I'm a college student I'm a second year student so sophomore at UCLA and I feel like I've been starting to be more knowledgeable and morissette in my faith I've been reading the Bible more I've been praying more and so just praise the Lord for that but I've also noticed that I'm growing up how do you increase in childlike love for the Lord as you start to get older how do you rely on the Lord more and more and depend on him more and more even if you feel a little bit jaded at the world that the Lord has created and sustained what verses can he point to me regarding childhood in adulthood you know we're all in spiritual growth Peter says growing grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the spiritual growth is directly connected to your knowledge of Christ 2nd Corinthians 3:18 as we gaze at his glory as we gaze at the glory of the Lord we are changed into his image from one level of glory to the next that's progress by the Holy Spirit so spiritual growth growing from being a spiritual child to a spiritual young man to a spiritual adult in the language of first John 2 is the process of taking in the glory of Christ so whether you're reading the Old Testament you're looking for Christ if you're reading the Gospels the book of Acts the epistles the book of Revelation you're always looking for the revelation of the glory of Christ the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ and as you look at that glory and gaze on his face you beat you'll be changed in his image now I want to just follow this up recently there was a book written by Andina celli and asked me to write an afterword for the book and I wrote an afterword for it let's recently come out I can't think of the name of it but and tried to explain sort of my own spiritual journey which was somewhat frustrating when I was your age because in my youth the the big thing with spiritual growth was the Holy Spirit and Campus Crusade was everywhere and they had a booklet the spirit filled life and how to be filled with the Holy Spirit and sanctification was all connected with the Holy Spirit continually with the Holy Spirit I was very frustrated to be honest because the Holy Spirit is the spirit and there was nothing tangible if to say be being kept filled with the Holy Spirit okay I get that but I I on that's not tangible to me and so there was a lot of frustration in my own spiritual growth and a lot of other young people trying to grow in that kind of environment we're struggling equally because the Bible never tells us to focus on the Holy Spirit and even in our Lord's statements in the upper room he says the Spirit will come and show you things concerning me but somewhere along the line it finally dawned on me after trying trying to follow an invisible spirit that I needed a visible model and when I began to focus on Christ when I for example spent the first couple of years here at Grace back in 1969-70 going through the Gospel of John and Christ became more glorious to me week after week after week I'm studying the Gospel of John and then I went into the book of Revelation and saw his glory then it was eight years in Matthew and then it was nine years in Luke and then it was years in mark and then some few years back we went through John again and the 25 years of my preaching here has been in the Gospels where I've just seen Christ to leave before my eyes and then I wrote commentaries on all those Gospels and then I see Christ in the book of Acts being preached and then the epistles his life and ministry being explained as to its theological implications and I went through the book of Revelation again and I kept writing more and more commentaries and then I I couldn't leave it alone so I went back and we did something called one perfect life which blended the life of Christ and I I just think if you keep your eyes on him imperceptibly just like you grow physically you don't see the change every day but if you keep your eyes on him the Holy Spirit uses the reality of the revelation of Christ in your mind as the tool by which he grows you up to Christ's likeness okay good evening John MacArthur my name is Romans and I'm very grateful for your faithful ministry for 50 years that is great encouragement to me and I have a question that's not my question I'm basically footnoting my friends question and his statement is as follows when John HUS was about to be executed by burning in 1415 he said to his executioner there will come a sworn in a hundred years that you will not be able to silent in regards of defending the truth and inerrancy of the scripture Martin Luther seemed to fulfill this prophecy so then the question is did John HUS have the gift of prophecy does the gift of prophecy existed during that time and does the gift of prophecy exist right now well depends on what you mean the gift of preaching exists the gift of predicting the future does not but John HUS I don't think he said in a hundred years I can't remember exactly that would be John the Martin Luther came to into existence sixty-eight years later no I know that but I don't know that John Huss identified that it would be a hundred years or exact time John Hoss did say because HUS means goose so Hoss said you may kill this goose that's where the phrase cooking the goose your goose is cooked comes from the martyrdom of John Huss he said there will come a swan you will not be able to silence and if you look at medieval art you often see a picture of Hoss painted and it's a picture of hustling part of the painting and picture of Luther and behind us is a goose and behind Luther is a swan all Huss was saying was that you're not going to be able to stop this Reformation there will come a swan I don't think that that was prophetic I think that was hopeful I think he was trusting in the purposes of the Lord now it was the Bishop of Constance who sentence us to death and it was to the Bishop of Constance that hast said you may silence this goose but there will come a swan you will not be able to silence and he was he was speaking in humility because the Swan is more beautiful than a goose and he knew the Lord would provide someone else there is a fabulous reality there's a church in Erfurt Patricia and I were there and in that church is buried the Bishop of Constance in a crypt on the floor when Martin Luther was ordained in that church he was ordained lying on the grave of the Bishop of Constance so in a marvelous sort of historical divine serendipity Luther was ordained on the very crypt of the bishop who had executed HUS I don't know that John HUS knew anything more than just the hope of his own heart that God would bring another who would have an even greater ministry than he did and that was Luther okay good good evening pastor my name is Charles people's first time visitor and I must state you've given me a lot of yourself and I've given a lot of sleepless nights so it's a pleasure to be here today sorry about that no I have enjoyed your sermons a lot my question is a lot of churches teach that love is a choice I believe it is incorrect and a specific example when my child was born I did not sit and choose that I will love my child and conditionally God is love and I feel love flows specific unconditional sacrificial love flows from the from God so in respect of what my child does I will continue to love him till I'm alive so is it correct to teach that love is a choice well it's just too simplistic love is a command love is a command to start with it's a command we are commanded to love love the Lord our God with all our heart soul mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves in the New Testament we are commanded to love love one another is the fulfilling of the whole law we are to be known by our love by this salam and know that you're my disciples that you have love one for another so it is a command so that anybody who doesn't love God and love others is in violation of that command culpability enough to send people to hell forever comes for just not loving you don't need to be a criminal the the the sin of omitting love to God and love to others is enough to condemn to hell so first of all it is a command for believers we go one step further for believers it is an expression of their regeneration John says in first John how do you know someone's a believer by their love by their love and John even says if you see a man in need and you don't meet his need how does the love of God dwell in you so for everyone it is a command to love God and love others for believers it is an expression of their new life we love because we have been begotten of God Paul twist was talking about this a few Sunday nights ago in first John we love because we are in God and God is love that's why our Lord says they'll know you by your love so for us it isn't just a command that if like for for everybody else is impossible to fulfill for us it is a command which we eagerly and joyfully desire to fulfill we love because He first loved us we love because he dwells in us we love because the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace gentleness goodness faith meekness self-control so as a general reality we are more loving husbands and loving wives and loving parents than non-believers because we love with a supernatural love we love with a supernatural love which by definition is sacrificial having said that it is still it is still necessary as a matter of course in life that you choose to express that love you know what I'm saying you can withhold that love you can be angry you can be unforgiving you can be resentful and you can withhold that you know other words you can go against the grain of your own identity as a Christian the if you love the Apostle Paul says may your love excel more and more which is to say that that means as believers we could love a lot more than we love so we do love by nature but we need to love more we need to be more devoted to the the work of the holy spirit so on the fruit of the Spirit is love and that would come down then to cultivating that love as a conscious reality what I was saying earlier I just want to express my love that's the goal in every single relationship I have that that goes beyond my own family even I and I'm always in a very difficult situation because I'm the guy who has to say this is true and that's not right so I I mean I basically live as an offence to most people that I don't I don't like that necessarily but I accept that responsibility but the best I can I try to speak the truth in love and I would I would I would hope that in even though there's strength and dogmatism in preaching the truth that I would be known as someone who expresses that in love that that's a choice and so I while I it's too simple to say love is a choice love is not love is an expression of our redeemed nature and we should love more and more and more and as we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and grow in the spirit and walk in the spirit that love will flourish and increase and increase and increase so that I should now in my life be far more loving than I was 20 years ago I hope that is true still at each interval in a relationship in life I have to choose to express that love and overpower anything that would end in the way of that okay thank you good good evening John my name's Andrew I just had a basic question about best practices when it comes to Scripture outside of church non-academic related and I just wanted to know you know what's been tried and true for you with your family your grandchildren that's just something that you've been consistent with that just helps you grow in intimacy with the Lord just for those purposes only that makes it well I mean I'm reading the scripture constantly unendingly that's where I live and move and have my being it's swirling in my mind all the time because every day I have to interact with the Word of God because I'm preparing to preach I'm reading books I'm reading through a book right now called the Great Awakening it's a banner of truth book that gives the historical background of the Great Awakening that happened in the 1700s with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield and it's just loaded with how that generation was interacting with the Word of God for me I know this is different than most people I've always suggested that the most effective way that I found when I was young was to read the New Testament books 30 times in a row if it's a short book like I started with first John thirty days in a row read the whole thing I started to make so much more sense to me because it is a book it's going from beginning to end then I read it another 30 days and I read it another 30 day so I'd read first John 90 times so I basically knew what was in it I knew where were verses on what side of the page halfway down the page and what column I mean I I knew what was there then I went to the Gospel of John and I took seven chapters for thirty days the second seven for thirty the third seven for 30 and 90 more days I had read and by just reading it reading it over over and over and over I became familiar with it now now it's part of my memory bank now I don't need this to have the Word of God ruminating in my soul and I'm comparing what I read in John's Gospel with what he wrote in his epistles and I went back and I think Philippians was next and it did the same thing in two and a half years you can basically do the whole New Testament while you're doing that you can read kind of gradually through the Old Testament as the backgrounds and the examples as Paul calls them so I think the way you really apprehend the scripture and it begins to interpret itself is by repeatedly reading it and then in the process I read good theology which enriches all of that okay that help good evening Pastor John my name is Jerry hi Jerry thank you for being an incredible beacon of truth and elevating God's word to my family 3,000 miles from here can you speak on the right godly bow of honoring parents and honoring God we have a brother who is bringing his homosexual lover to family Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners we have stated if they as a couple are invited we do not recognize their union we do not feel God recognizes it and we do not want to gather with them and so as if everything were normal we are being ostracized by our parents or siblings as being unloving and a poor example of Christ's love for sinners because Christ mainly hung out with sinners while he was here on earth well here's here's the answer to that you need to say okay we want to do what Christ did so we will come and confront them with their sin and we'll do that because that's the most loving thing to do we will be happy to be there if you will allow for us to have a time in front of the whole family to address the sin and to warn them of the direction of this sin and its ultimate eternal consequences and call them to repentance that's a loving thing to do it's not loving to come and act as if nothing's wrong so under those circumstances you would be doing what Christ did you would be confronting their sin because Jesus said he did not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners so what did he do when he was with those sinners he called them to repentance that's the loving thing to do that might change the dynamics a little bit if if they refuse to allow that to happen then I perfectly understand your desire not to be there in some tacit approving way okay hi Pastor John all right but this this question this question comes in light of the last Q&A that you did at the truth matters conference oh yeah okay I have a concern about someone who is having a lot of influence on young men in our society who provides common sense direction for living in this world the problem is that it is giving them a false sense of understanding of true righteousness when they follow this when they follow the directions of this person George Peterson right it gives them the sense that they are doing well as men but it obscures the real state of their being and need for Christ I was wondering if you have any plans of meeting with Jordan Peterson in the future well I'd be happy to meet with him Jordan Peterson is a phenomenon in the world today he's a psychologist who is basically saying that you are completely responsible for your situation you can't blame anybody else you're not a victim you are responsible and particularly with men he he says basically to be a man is to take full responsibility that that in itself as alienated him from the entire world of psychology because he doesn't want to blame anybody that the good thing about Jordan Peterson the the simple way to understand it is this it's really helpful to tell people to take responsibility for what they are that is a helpful reality but by his own confession he does not acknowledge that he believes in God or Christ or the gospel or the Bible again a doctor can can do good an exercise therapist can do good on a human level and I think this kind of psychology is so different and men are being so crushed by the sheer force of the femme movement that it is helpful to have at least somebody telling men to stand up and take responsibility on a human level it'd be nice if we ever got into a situation in this country where we had to go to battle so we had enough men to form an army enough men with courage and manliness so I think Jordan Peterson is saying something that's so infuriating to the feminist agenda and he also goes so far as to say if you're a man you're a man if you're a woman you're a woman and that is simple reality that anybody with half a brain would say is true I just like the idea that he is forcing people to take responsibility for their conduct and I think this helps us with the gospel because if you are responsible for your conduct and you're not a victim then you're the one that's going to have to deal with it when I did some months ago I did a series on Ezekiel on the social justice issue my whole point in that series was if we turn sinners into victims we remove them from the gospel because if they're all victims if they're all categorical victims in some victim category who are not responsible for the things in their life we're pushing them away from the primary necessity that drives people to the gospel and that is I'm responsible and look at the mess I'm in where do I go for hope so I like the idea that he's holding men responsible and also women responsible for their own behavior and the character of their own lives it's it's better than removing responsibility which makes it harder to bring the gospel because people see themselves as victims of somebody else's behavior not their own okay thank you

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 492,047

Rating: 4.7057376 out of 5

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You

Id: pdwlwf6MqcA

Length: 82min 6sec (4926 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020