John MacArthur Comments On Steve Lawson / Gives Health Update

Hello in this video. We're gonna play John MacArthur's response to Steve Lawson A lot of people have been waiting for John MacArthur to come out and publicly say something about the

Steve Lawson Situation so MacArthur did a Q &A. He hasn't preached in a long time.

So he also gave a health update We'll talk about the health update at the end, but he hasn't been in the pulpit

So he did a Q &A and he responded to the Steve Lawson Scandal and basically

MacArthur said God is purifying the church The Lord is purifying his church and we could think of verses like Romans 8 28

That says that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him To those who are the called according to his purpose.

So MacArthur is taking an optimistic view. Obviously, it's a very Bad thing that happened.

It's detrimental to the church, but all things really do Work together for good

So let's listen to what John MacArthur says about Steve Lawson and then we'll cover the health update at the end watch but sometimes

Unexpectedly, there are Threats and challenges there's adversity that comes from inside the church when people that we respect and trust

Turn out to be different than we thought they were Or at least than they profess to be

When that happens, we're all stunned How do we? Process that how do we move?

Past that well, I know you're talking about Steve Lawson And I say that with the deepest agony in my soul

But the first thing you have to understand is God is blessing this church in many many ways and that is one of the ways he is blessing us to expose someone

Who is in a position? They have no right to be in To purify the church to purify the church

I mean This is the whole point of Revelation 2 and 3 right where the Lord sends all those letters to the churches and says look

Something isn't right in your church. You either deal with it or I'm coming I'm gonna blow the candle out and you're gonna be out of existence

I mean the church has two options one get right to you're done

I mean the church of Laodicea was done Smyrna was done

You either you either deal with the sin one of those letters basically says you have someone there who tolerates adultery

I'll remove the candlestick It is fatal to a church to have that kind of behavior in leadership and while None of us knew it or expected it because of the soundness of the theology the

Lord knew and The Lord said for Grace Church, that's enough for the master seminary.

That's enough I think there's there has to be a weariness with the Lord. I think he has to be sick of superficial church worship one of the downsides of not being here every

Sunday morning is the agony of watching church on TV and The frivolity and silliness and superficiality

The the the pragmatic movement we all talk about pragmatism over the last 30 40 years Church is becoming pragmatic trying to entertain unbelievers.

I Think there's a weariness with God with that and some of those pragmatic Churches the ones that maybe had the greatest amount of influence like Hillsong or the one in Dallas Robert Morris's church, which is right across the road from Tom Pennington's faithful Church countryside

Bible The Lord is turning the spotlight on and Saying that's enough.

That's enough and unfaithful leaders are being exposed as they should be and While we would wish that it never happened to us.

We would be foolish to think That there wouldn't be an effort made by the enemy to plant in this church

Someone who could have a corrupting influence while apparently having a positive influence

That's the subtlety of Satan and it almost seems to me that you'd have to have somebody like that here because we wouldn't take

What the kind of leadership that other churches take to rise to this pulpit?

your theology has to be sound and Everything about you as far as we know it to be

Supporting that theology So if we were going to have that that's the kind of person it would be but I but again,

I You know as we get closer to the end. I think the Lord is Purifying his church and I I'm so thankful for that my heart and soul aches for Steve obviously a

Friend I don't love him any less than I've loved him for 25 years I I Don't know how you preach past Your conscience unless it's completely scarred over But I pray

Constantly in fact find myself almost every night praying for him in some point in the middle of the night so But the

Lord has favored us He wants a pure church.

I mean the the first instruction in the Bible for the church is if somebody sins

Go to him, right? Matthew 18 and Ultimately if they don't repent tell the church

Tell the church Paul said I want to present to the Lord a pure and chaste bride

Sometimes we know the sin and we can deal with it Sometimes we don't know the sin and the

Lord has to bring it out But while my heart is crushed for the sinner

It is grateful for the Savior who is purifying his church Along with that emphasis on purity.

I know with our pastoral Leadership team over the last several weeks. You've really been emphasizing the priority of unity

So I wanted to ask you when you think about Grace Community Church and what it means to be unified in Christ Why is that such an important priority?

And how can we as members of this church pursue that? biblical calling

Well, of course we all heard this morning in John 17 that there is a There is a spiritually organic unity

We're all one in Christ, right and that'll play out and how we live our lives Just coming off that incident we were just talking about when the church is so severely wounded

It's like an animal when that animal is severely wounded. All the predators will move in for the kill and What I noticed online was this as soon as this thing was exposed

Those people who resent and hate and attack Grace Church all the time ramped up their attacks and they started coming after us and You can't let that happen

So you were there right in my house We got together for two or three hours and we said this is where we take our stand

This is where we love each other. We support each other. We uphold each other We Deal honestly with each other as leaders

We've got a circle the wagons. We've got a link our arms. We've got to make sure the chain is unbroken because When we're exposed like that all the enemies are going to come at us with a vengeance

And if they can pit us against each other They can do some real damage

And I said This the damage is done no more

We're going to be faithful to each other and faithful to Christ in our loving of each other

None of us is perfect We all have to concede right something sometimes a lot of things

I guess particularly to me but The Lord wants us to be unified

I love this in the perfect bond of peace Peace with each other the perfect bond of love.

So we've got to find a way to close ranks and not let the wound

Be an opening for enemies to attack our integrity or to pump lies about us out

The internet We've got to be faithful to each other Okay, so I thought that was helpful that he commented and obviously we need to continue to pray for the situation

Steve Lawson in particular his family his church, but good to hear from MacArthur and it's good to see that he's able to Sit there and answer questions, and he's obviously

In his right mind and you know at that age age 84 with all of those health problems

Yeah, he could be starting to slip, but it doesn't look like a John MacArthur Seems to be very doing very well a lot of people have speculated

I think one person online was even sending around rumors that John MacArthur had died

He's preached his last sermon. He's all sorts of things were going around and obviously those

Rumors are not true. John MacArthur all things considered is doing very well

So he made some remarks about his health he said I was preaching here in January of 2023 in the morning service and all of a sudden

I couldn't breathe he goes into the fact that They said he had a fib attack on his heart

And he was benched for the second service because Grace Community Church has two services on Sunday morning

So they took John to the hospital gave him four stints and then after that after about a year

They said he needed a new aorta so John MacArthur has been through several surgeries and procedures and It looks like he's doing okay, so will we see him again in the pulpit at Grace Community Church?

I hope so But continue to pray for him and just everyone involved and if you found this video helpful consider giving it a thumbs up But until next time may the