A Word of Appreciation and Support to John MacArthur

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Justin Peters. I hope that you and your family are doing well today. I want to thank you for watching this video. I'm doing this video just as an expression of Support of an appreciation to dr. John MacArthur.

John MacArthur’s Faithfulness in Past Battles

John MacArthur has been a faithful pastor now for 51 years and counting and in those 51 years John MacArthur has fought an awful lot of battles. Before John MacArthur became a pastor Church discipline was almost unheard of in Evangelical circles and yet he realized that this is a command.

In fact, it is the first command that Jesus gave to his church and John MacArthur Practiced that in his church rightly so and now church discipline is found amongst your more Soteriologically reformed Circles so he fought that battle.

He fought the young earth creationist battle. He fought the lordship salvation Battle and the book that is a closely tied to that the gospel according to Jesus Which you have not if you have not read that I strongly commend that to you.

He has fought the the charismatic battle the word faith prosperity gospel Continues to fight those battles the seeker sensitive battle. He's planted his back flag strongly against the seeker sensitive movement and more recently the social justice Battle he has been engaged in and has been a courageous leader in that and all the many issues that go along with social justice not just the issues of ethnicity and all that but Homosexuality and the egalitarian complementarian issue he has been very very strong in that coming firmly on the side of the biblical position of complementarianism and so many of these battles he has fought and he has fought with grace and strength and it's been interesting to watch that.

A Relentless Battle and the Cost of Standing Alone

As he is engaged in more and more of these battles those who are willing to stand with him and support him and Engage in these battles with him have become fewer and fewer in number. In fact, I want to show you a short clip from a Chapel message that he presented to the master seminary this past October September October, I think it was posted in October of 2019 watch this brief clip.

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Don't think I really understood in seminary how relentless this battle would be and how much discernment it would take and How it would affect relationships? How many relationships eventually look like to go in the right direction better sacrifice to an unwillingness to do battle.

And you wind up sort of at the end of your life having been stripped of people who at some point gave in to the other side and The ranks get thinner and thinner. I'm sort of living in that Era, I'm living in an era on one hand as a shepherd and a pastor where I have 50 years of loving people who? have filled my life with so much love and so much kindness and so much affection that it's just beyond comprehension and That's Grace Church, and that's the people who hear the Word of God and believe it and follow it.

But on the other hand, I watch my life as it comes to an end being stripped of relationships with many many evangelical leaders. Because at some point they're unwilling to stand where I stand. They will call up and ask how do we re-engage with MacArthur?

What what what did we do? And it really comes down to Whether or not you're a faithful soldier. You know the old quote I suppose from Luther that if you fight the battle everywhere, but where it rages the hottest you're unfaithful you got to go to the point of the highest and Fiercest conflict and that's where you take your stand.

It's not enough to take a stand Where there's no battle. Where the battle is is where you demonstrate your faithfulness.

Churches, COVID-19, and Obeying God Rather Than Man

And John MacArthur has demonstrated his faithfulness in all of these battles and now of course The battle is different the battle today centers around the implications of the COVID -19 pandemic in the early stages of this when we really didn't know much about COVID -19 and we're unsure of how Dangerous it would be how lethal it would be.

Many governors most maybe not all but most governors if not outright demanded Strongly suggested that churches not meet and and initially this was it was okay in the sense that churches were not being singled out in other words the We were not hearing that.

Okay, it's you can go to a basketball game or football game. You can go to a rock concert, but you can't go to church if churches were being singled out. Then I think few true churches would have gone along with these Suggestions and or edicts that wasn't happening.

But as time goes on as time has gone on it has become very apparent that churches now are being Singled out in a more acute way. It's throughout this entire time of shutdown It's been perfectly okay for liquor stores to stay open.

It's been perfectly okay for abortion clinics to stay open apparently selling liquor and Murdering babies is essential to society, but churches you see are not and it's been perfectly okay for thousands if not tens of thousands of protesters and or rioters to gather in the streets and protest and Burn down businesses and attack police.

That's okay that has been Not only tolerated from many liberal politicians it's even been applauded and we're seeing that in California governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Garcetti mayor of Los Angeles Garcetti they have they have said that churches cannot meet if they're over a certain number of people or a certain percentage of capacity cannot meet and cannot sing and all these kinds of things and John MacArthur and the elders of Grace Community Church have Rightly said that enough is enough.

It has come to the point where we must obey God rather than man and they put together a very well-written Cogent statement explaining theologically from Scripture why that time has now come and Because of the courageous stand that they have taken and and because of the the size of the platform that John MacArthur has this statement has garnered a lot of public attention and he's been on a number of very prominent TV shows and radio shows Tucker Carlson and Shannon Bream on Fox News and Eric Metaxas and Larry Elder and a number of very very prominent Platforms and they've asked him about this and so it's really become out in the forefront and in the public eye and It has been sad to see How many people that have been For so many years faithful friends of John MacArthur and faithful supporters of him Now are no longer standing with him and I think of what he said in that previous clip Watch what he says here on the Eric Metaxas show.

The Isolation of Faithfulness and the Call to Courage

People don't want to take a stand. Look, I'll be very specific the last couple of days We've been dealing with this issue. A lot of you know evangelical leaders across the country that I know and not one of them that is a prominent person has Contacted me to say thank you.

Because if you're if you're not everything that that the pragmatic evangelical movement thinks you need to be you're like a pariah. We can't associate with you because that's not going to work out there because if the world doesn't like you They aren't gonna like Jesus.

They aren't going to get into the kingdom. Nothing could be further. Jesus said they hated me. They'll hate you. That's the way it's going to be but you preach the truth and the Spirit of God will give life.

That's that's what the Bible tells us.

It was really sad for me to hear John MacArthur say that that After they made this Courageous stand and said we must obey God rather than man and we are going to meet regardless of what the governor of California The mayor of Los Angeles says we are going to meet That there have been no prominent evangelical leaders to contact John MacArthur and say thank you.

They have wilted Under the pressure in fact some of the men that have stood with John MacArthur in some of these battles they They wilted away when the social justice winds Started blowing and now that this is going on They they've really not only have they not stood with him.

Some are even criticizing John MacArthur and none have called to say thank you. Well, John I don't know if you're gonna watch this video or not, but let me take this opportunity to say Thank you. Thank you for what you are doing.

Thank you for modeling for us Courage. Thank you for taking this stand and thank you for Speaking the truth and love as you always do and have done so for so for so many years now I want to say thank you.

Gratitude for John MacArthur’s Ministry and a Final Blessing

I want you to know that I appreciate you. I Appreciate your stand. I appreciate your fidelity to the Word of God and and I speak for thousands of other pastors as well and Even as I'm saying this, I know the naysayers are gonna say.

Oh, you know, Justin just he's you know, he's worshiping man. He worships John MacArthur. No, nothing could be further from the truth. I'm not saying that John MacArthur is the only Faithful shepherd out there.

In fact by God's grace I have had the opportunity to preach the gospel in 27 different countries and I have met hundreds thousands of faithful pastors out there who are just as faithful as is John MacArthur just as Committed to the Word of God and they lead their flocks Just as ably and just as faithfully as does he but here is what makes me so very grateful for John MacArthur because there seems to be an inverse relationship between the size of a church in the size of one's platform and the courage that one has to take these kinds of stands and I think the argument could rightly be made that through the sheer scope of John MacArthur's ministry that John MacArthur has done more and God has used him to do more to champion sound doctrine champion expository preaching recover church discipline Fight all of these battles.

He has done more to equip Men for the ministry pastors and have sent them all around the world not only through the Ministry of Grace Community Church But that of grace to you and the Master Seminary that God has used John MacArthur Through the sheer scope of his ministry to do more to champion all of these things than any other single man in The history of the Christian Church again, just because of the scope of it I'll never forget being in Uganda and meeting a pastor a very poor older elderly man pastor walking down a trail out in the middle of nowhere, Uganda and I met him and his clothes were ratty and But I looked at what he was holding under his arm and it was a John MacArthur study Bible way out in the middle of Nowhere, Uganda.

I think I think the argument could be made that God has used MacArthur Just the sheer breadth of his ministry More to champion all these things in any other person single person in in the history of the Christian Church, and so I am grateful for that and I Say that to say this again, there's an inverse relationship between the size of one's platform and the courage that one seems to have and God has seen fit to Give John MacArthur a tremendous platform and despite the size of it He has remained faithful and he has been willing To fight these battles that very very few others have and and Mike could say that that no one else Has had the courage to fight if they also have a very large public platform.

It really grieved me to hear him say that no one has contacted him to say. Thank you. Well, well John I say thank you, and I know I speak for thousands of other faithful pastors and millions of other faithful Christians men and women alike like-minded believers Who are profoundly grateful?

For your courage who are profoundly grateful for the precision and care that you take with God's Word and Profoundly grateful for the grace with which you model all of these things. So John I Stand with you thousands of other faithful pastors all around the world stand with you millions of Like-minded believers stand with you, you know Everyone in our theological circles would say that we have an audience of one.

We have one person to please It's just that John MacArthur actually seems to live that out so John if you are watching this, please know that I and millions of others are Profoundly grateful for you. We appreciate you so very much.

We love you. And we pray for you and we pray for your ministry and all the others there at Grace Community Church grace to you Master Seminary, we're profoundly grateful. Thank you. May God bless you and dear ones until our next time together May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit be with you all.