WWUTT 2445 Q&A Bible Translations, Assurance of Salvation, John MacArthur Tribute

1 view

August 8, 2025

Responding to questions and comments from listeners about favorite Bible translations, how we can have assurance of salvation, and playing various clips from the life and ministry of John MacArthur. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:00: What are some good translations of the Bible, and study Bibles to invest in?
00:05: How can we have assurance of salvation? And how will the ministry of someone like John MacArthur continue to make an impact in the lives of so many people for years to come?
00:14: The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text. This is
00:28: When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word, brought to you by Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.
00:37: For more information about our church or our ministry, visit www .wutt .com.
00:44: Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Psalm 717,
00:50: I will give thanks to the Lord, the thanks due to His righteousness. I will sing praise to the name of the
00:57: Lord Most High. And Psalm 9 -1, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.
01:02: I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. God has done so many great things for us.
01:09: Oh, amen. We have any and all reason to be thankful to the Lord. And we are thankful for you, listening to this program, telling others about it, sending us your emails and encouraging us the way that you do.
01:22: This is the Friday edition of the broadcast when we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com
01:30: or send us a voicemail by going to www .wutt .com on that menu bar right there at the top, you can click on voicemail, record it from your phone or your computer, and we would love to hear from you.
01:43: I don't have any voicemails to play today. I do have several emails I'm going to get to. This is the episode that we talked about last week.
01:51: We wanted to give tribute to the ministry of John MacArthur. And so we have a couple of emails regarding that.
01:57: I have a bunch of windows open here on my computer. This is all very random. I don't know in what order all of this is going to come up, but we're going to play some clips from MacArthur, read some other comments about him.
02:10: I did pull up a couple of clips of R .C. Sproul and John MacArthur bantering with one another.
02:16: Oh, I love it. So we'll have some of those classic memories in there as well. They are together again. Amen. Around the throne of God, celebrating
02:25: Jesus Christ, our Savior. Was very thankful for both the ministries of Sproul and MacArthur.
02:32: And the ministry lives on, in fact. That's just the way timeless truth is.
02:38: And I believe that for the rest of my life, I'll be listening to Sproul and MacArthur.
02:45: I still hear stuff from Sproul. Lord willing. Yeah, right. I still hear stuff from Sproul that I'm like,
02:50: I've never heard this before. I learned something new this past week, as a matter of fact, or two weekends ago.
02:56: He had mentioned in a sermon, of course, obviously, this wasn't a new sermon, but it was the
03:01: Sunday morning St. Andrew's Chapel sermon that they were playing. An old sermon from Sproul.
03:07: And he said in that sermon that he had been quoted in a movie. What? And so he talked about the quote in the film, and I was like, wow,
03:15: I didn't even know anything about that. So I looked it up. I didn't know that either. I found the movie actually had Christopher Walken in it.
03:21: Ah, well, that's interesting. And R .C. Sproul was commented, or he was quoted in this vampire movie.
03:31: That's not an endorsement of the film. That's interesting. What Sproul said about the comment was the quote was attributed to him, but he said,
03:39: I was not the first person to say that. So that's very humbly acknowledged.
03:45: They credit it to me, but it didn't come from me. Anyway, before we get to those comments about MacArthur, I have an email that had to do with something else we talked about last week.
03:59: So we'll get to that first. This one from Spencer, Pastor Gabe. Last week on your
04:05: Friday Q &A, you mentioned your website has an archive section for all your episodes by book series and that it is still in the works.
04:13: By God's providence, I have already been tracking this for my own purposes, so I don't have to scroll on Podbean to find episodes or have search not return any results.
04:27: I have gone through your entire Podbean library. From your first episode to now and cataloged them by book series, both for devotional and sermons, as well as miscellaneous episodes, such as your 25
04:44: Christmas Myths and Five Solas. In thanks for your ministry, I want to give you this spreadsheet to help complete your archive playlist.
04:54: Oh, praise the Lord. That is amazing. I know, right?
05:00: What? I mean, I'm not even as attentive to my own stuff. And you even catalog the sermon.
05:08: So, in the episodes of the podcast, we're over 2 ,400 episodes. I think if you include the sermons, it's over 2 ,600 or 2 ,700.
05:16: Wow. Hang on, I might be able to find that number. How many things have I uploaded to that channel?
05:22: It is, yeah, 2 ,000. That number I'm okay with hearing. Yeah, not how many people are listening, but how many episodes there's been, 2 ,753.
05:33: This would be 54, this episode. That's awesome. That is crazy,
05:39: Spencer. That is amazing. What a blessing. I'm so thankful for this. This is great. Your ministry has benefited me greatly, even being used in God's plan for my salvation.
05:49: So, for that, I praise God for your ministry, and may it continue to be a blessing to others, your family, and the edification of Christ's church.
05:56: Wow. That is so kind. That is incredible. I mean, that's amazing that he was doing it for himself, but then to share it.
06:04: Yeah. That's just so wonderful. That cuts out at least two -thirds of the work.
06:09: I was going to ask you. Right there. I mean, I still have to hyperlink everything, but I don't have to search for all of that.
06:16: That was what was taking so long. Anyway, this, wow, this is such a gift, Spencer.
06:21: I appreciate it. I would have to pay somebody thousands of man hours to do something like that, to come up with all of that.
06:30: But that you've done this, that's such a blessing to us. We thank you so much for that. Appreciate it. I should find some books for him or something.
06:37: I need to send him some books. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I got tons of stuff on my shelf that I have like duplicate copies of.
06:43: Yes. Something to do with them. Yeah. I'll find some books for you, Spencer.
06:48: I want to send you a thank you gift for that. This one's from Ramona, and she's commenting on something we talked about last week.
06:54: Pastor Gabe and Becky, soon after the Legacy Standard Bible came out, the pastors and elders of my church in Greeley, Colorado.
07:03: Oh, hey, I know where that's at. I've been up there before. Yeah. All switched from the ESV to the
07:08: LSB. After getting many questions and much feedback from the congregation, they contacted the publisher.
07:15: The church purchased a bunch, not sure how many, of different configurations of the LSB, such as large print, compact, hardcover, softcover, wide margin, narrow margin, et cetera.
07:25: Wow, went for the whole gamut. Yeah, that's right. You've got to love that only in America could we -
07:31: I know, right? Come up with so many varieties of the same translation of Bible like that, but that's by the blessing of God.
07:37: I was going to say, I love that. Yes. Personally. I have multiple different Bibles of different kinds and styles and study
07:44: Bibles. I love study Bibles more than commentaries. Yes. So, if you get me a study
07:49: Bible that I don't have, that's my favorite book. My favorite book is a study Bible I don't have.
07:56: I'd believe that. So going on, she says, members were able to look at the different styles, determine their preference and place an order through the church.
08:05: Doing it this way brought the individual prices down. So we were talking, one of the things we mentioned last week regarding the
08:12: LSB, the ESV still tends to be cheaper. Right. And that's because Crossway, frankly, is not as stingy with their translation as the
08:23: Lockman Foundation is. That's not really supposed to be a knock on the Lockman Foundation.
08:29: I understand why somebody would want to be protective of their translation. For sure. Yeah. But the ESV is a lot more open with it.
08:36: And because they print way more Bibles, then the prices tend to be lower than the
08:41: NASB or the LSB. They've got to sell more. Yeah. But doing it this way, the church having this deal with the publisher, that's one way to get the
08:49: Bibles cheaper. Yeah. So great idea. Ramona goes on to say, I opted to stick with the
08:55: English standard version. I'm in my mid -60s and spatial memory is very helpful for me.
09:00: I get that. Yeah. Yes, you do. Like the Bible that I use to preach in, I do that.
09:06: I use that same Bible every time because when I'm flipping pages, I know exactly where I'm going. Yeah. And I know exactly where the passage is on the page.
09:14: Yeah. So that when my eyes go down, it's landing right on the verse. I know where it is on the page.
09:20: Yeah. Yeah. So I get that. If I were to get a new Bible, she says, I would have to start that process all over again.
09:27: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally relatable. Yes. Did I mention I'm in my mid -60s? Yeah. That's not going to happen.
09:35: So, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, you know, that's the old adage. So often when there is a place where the
09:42: LSB uses a different word on a verse, I'll write the LSB word in my ESV Bible near the verse.
09:48: That's great. So I get the expanded slash fuller meaning. Thank you for your podcast.
09:53: I especially liked the Friday Q and A. Well, we appreciate you listening, Ramona. And that's great to share that as well.
10:01: So remember the question that came in last week was, should I switch to the LSB? Should I keep the
10:06: ESV? Right. The English standard is still a good translation. Of course. There are people that knock on it because of, you know, some of the people in the past that were promoting it.
10:16: And now they are not as solid in their ministries as they were back then. And even some of Crossway's associations with different people, they'll draw in to write articles for them.
10:25: And so there's people that look at that and they're going, you know, maybe I just don't want to be associated with Crossway anymore.
10:31: I'm going to pick a different translation. That's never been my reasoning behind it. The ESV is still good.
10:37: Conrad in Bayway has, I think he was the editor of the Church History Study Bible.
10:43: Oh, yeah. That the ESV put out. Interesting. And our elder at our church, Alan, that's the
10:50: Bible he's carrying around. Oh, I'll have to take a closer look at that. He's friends with Conrad. Yep.
10:55: So, of course, he's going to have Conrad's study Bible. That's the one he's going to be using.
11:00: Hey, if pastor recommends it. That's right. Pastor recommended. But then the LSB, of course, now has their first study
11:07: Bible, and that's the John MacArthur study Bible. I have one copy of it in hardbound, so I need to get one in leather.
11:17: My wife's already giving me a look. Yes. Do you really? Do you really need to get one in leather?
11:25: Need. Need was that word. You know, believe it or not,
11:31: I never had a John MacArthur study Bible in the
11:36: NASB. And that's the translation he preached from. Oh, interesting. But I never had a
11:42: John MacArthur NASB study Bible. I had two ESVs. I was going to say, if we put all of your
11:48: Bibles together, nobody's going to feel sorry for you. They really only maybe 10 to 12 of them
11:55: I actually bought. So the rest of them were gifts. The very first Bible we were gifted as a married couple was the
12:05: NIV study Bible. I still have that Bible. So that was the first Bible given to us as a married couple.
12:12: And I loved it. I think it was even my first study
12:18: Bible. It was. Because all the study Bibles I had in the past were my parents, and I would just grab their study
12:25: Bible and use it. So this was. I didn't know that was your first. That was. It was my first ever study
12:30: Bible at the age of 29, believe it or not. As much of a student as I was of scripture, that was the first time
12:38: I ever had been given a study Bible. Well, anyway, we're talking about John MacArthur's study
12:44: Bible here. Then I had to share what? The Bible. With you. Yes.
12:50: So it still wasn't just yours. So then beyond that,
12:55: I don't know what my first one would have been. Oh, my goodness. I don't know. I can still remember, though, what verse we read together for the first time.
13:04: So as a married couple, the first verse we opened to in the Bible and read together.
13:10: I don't remember. You don't? It was James 127. Religion that God our father finds pure and faultless is this to love orphans and widows in their time of need and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
13:24: There you go. And we were going through an adoption at the time. Well, you were. An adoption process. We were.
13:30: Kind of. So I still have that written in that study Bible. I have the date on it that we read that verse together.
13:36: Oh, that's awesome. Our first verse as a married couple in that Bible. Aw. I'm sentimental like that when it comes to Bibles.
13:47: And songs. And songs. Yes. Because I remember certain songs. You don't remember. Right. That's true. This is the first song we danced to.
13:55: I don't remember that. Like, I remember what we were wearing. Yes. Decorations. I do. Everything else.
14:02: But everything else went. No, visually, I don't remember. No, you don't.
14:07: But I do. But I remember the song. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I can remember the smell even.
14:14: But I may not remember visually what was happening there in that circumstance.
14:21: Okay. As we launch into giving tribute to John MacArthur and his ministry,
14:27: I'm going to play the most recent what video that I did with MacArthur in it.
14:33: This actually wasn't a very new what video. I had done one like this some time ago, and I kind of updated it following his passing and then it's got the tribute card on there of when he was born, when he died.
14:48: Oh, that's nice. So here was that video. And then we're going to get to some emails and I'm going to play some other clips.
14:55: We're going to go down memory lane a little bit here. All right. Regarding some things that MacArthur has preached and taught.
15:02: So first of all, this is MacArthur. Now this was a conversation that he was having with Kirk Cameron.
15:08: Okay. You don't hear Kirk Cameron in this video, but that's who he's talking to. And he's answering the question regarding the greatest gospel verse in the
15:18: Bible. Oh, yes. Here we go. The greatest gospel verse in the
15:25: Bible, Second Corinthians 521, he made him who knew no sin, sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
15:34: Let me unpack those 15 Greek words. He, God, made Jesus sin. What do you mean he made
15:40: Jesus sin? Only in one sense. He treated him as if he had committed every sin ever committed by every person who would ever believe, though in fact he committed none of them.
15:49: Hanging on the cross, he was holy, harmless, undefiled. Hanging on the cross, he was a spotless lamb. He was never for a split second a sinner.
15:56: He is holy God on the cross. But God is treating him, I'll put it more practically, as if he lived my life.
16:03: God punished Jesus for my sin, turns right around and treats me as if I lived his life.
16:10: That's the great doctrine of substitution. And on that doctrine turned the whole reformation of the church.
16:15: That is the heart of the gospel. And what you get is complete forgiveness, covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
16:22: When he looks at the cross, he sees you. When he looks at you, he sees Christ. Isaiah 53, 5 -6.
16:28: He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
16:34: Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
16:40: All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one of us, to his own way.
16:45: And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, when we understand the text.
16:53: And then the tribute card comes up, John MacArthur, 1939 -2025.
17:00: And I put in there Matthew 25 -21, which says, well done, good and faithful slave.
17:08: I put slave in there because with the LSB, which of course, MacArthur and his team were behind the editing of the
17:17: Legacy Standard Bible. And they wanted to make the Greek word doulos translated as slave instead of bond servant, which a lot of modern
17:25: English translations have done. So they brought back the term slave.
17:30: It's kind of a taboo word in our culture. So I thought it was meaningful to put that verse in that way from the
17:39: LSB in tribute to MacArthur. And I'm sure that he, walking through heaven's gates and seeing his savior face to face, heard those words, well done, good and faithful slave.
17:52: This message comes from Milton in Leesburg, Virginia. He says, Gabe and Becky, thank you so much for your ministry and teaching.
18:01: I first learned of you and what a few years ago when Justin Peters interviewed you for his podcast.
18:07: I think you were talking about movies and TV, and I believe you stated that you watch these so -called
18:13: Christian movies. So we did not have to. Yes, as a matter of fact, those tend to be so popular that I'm going to start doing extended reviews of popular
18:25: Christian films. And the first one I'm going to start with is Prince of Egypt. Okay.
18:31: And so we're going to play clips of the movie and go through the whole thing. It'll be like a 20 -minute review talking about what they got right and what the
18:39: Bible says that they didn't get right. Yes. So I've got more of those kinds of things coming up too.
18:45: I'm glad you enjoyed that. He goes on to say, I have found your perspective on that front helpful for my discernment.
18:52: As an aside, I will note that before I was saved, I watched season one and two of The Chosen. The show helped lead me to read the
18:59: Bible. Reading the Bible helped lead me to stop watching that show. Oh, amen.
19:06: Milton, you're not the only person who's emailed us and told us that. Nope. Yeah, we've heard that from others as well.
19:12: But I'm still astounded that it actually drives people to read the Bible. Like, I'm sure it's the
19:17: Holy Spirit. Don't get me wrong. Yes. But at the same time, just watching that show makes it entertaining enough that you're like, oh,
19:26: I want to go break it open. Now the creators - Praise the Lord for that. The creators of that show brag about the fact.
19:33: Like Dallas Jenkins has a whole video talking about this. They brag about the fact that this show makes people read their
19:40: Bibles more. So they see whatever content they're creating, the ends justify the means because it leads people to read their
19:48: Bibles more. But I love reading the testimonies that, yeah, it got me to read my Bible more. And I realized the show was trash.
19:55: Yeah. Watching. So going on here, Milton says, my wife and I are sad to lose John MacArthur while also joyful that he is now with Christ.
20:04: We were able to see him live just once at the 2022 Truth Matters Conference at the
20:09: ARC Encounter in Kentucky. Wow. I really wanted to be there for that. We did. And it was sold out fast.
20:16: Sold out in like less than 12 hours. No, in a single morning. Yes, it was a single morning.
20:21: It was like within an hour, I think it was. About that. Yeah. It was crazy fast.
20:27: I was - Because I was like, oh, hey, are you going to get that? And you were like, yeah, okay, I'll get to that. And then at noon, you're like, um, we can't.
20:35: Yeah. So I got to work. I got to work that morning at 8 .30, like usual. I think it was somewhere around 9 or 9 .30.
20:42: One of the pastors poked their head in the door and said, hey, did you get tickets for Truth Matters yet?
20:48: Yeah. And I said, no. Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. I need to pull that up. And he went, nope, too late.
20:54: Yep. Never mind. It's, they're gone. And none of us got them.
20:59: Nope. And we did not imagine that that was going to be gone in an hour. So people start calling Phil Johnson.
21:05: Yes. And he had to put out a note saying, guys, I can't get them either. Yeah. No, Joe, poor guy.
21:13: Yeah. You can't ask me. Anyway, Milton says he preached multiple times at Truth Matters, along with doing a
21:21: Q &A. It was wonderful to have him lead us singing hymns on the last night as we were able to sit about 10 rows back and hear his voice clearly.
21:32: And MacArthur was a great singer, too. Was he? And talking about Sproul before,
21:38: Sproul wrote hymns, and they played one of the hymns that he wrote at his funeral.
21:44: Oh, yeah. That's right. Which John MacArthur also spoke at. One of these windows that I have open, I think, is the message or part of the message that MacArthur shared at Sproul's funeral.
21:55: Anyway, we'll see if we get to that. Okay. But going on, Milton says, my wife and I were just saved in late 2021.
22:03: Aw. In our mid 50s. Praise God. Oh, amen. After living our lives as nominal
22:09: Christians, thinking we were saved by Lutheran confirmation in my case or Methodist teaching in my wife's case.
22:16: But we did not attend church much or read the Bible. It was a shallow, worldly faith all too common today.
22:23: John MacArthur directly impacted our salvation before we had even heard of him. The short version is around April slash
22:31: May of 2021. We were led to find a church, and my wife had heard something about expository preaching, but we didn't really know what that was.
22:41: My wife found a local church, Grace Bible Church, led by a graduate of the Master's Seminary.
22:46: It only took about a month of actually being taught what the Bible means before we jumped in and attended everything this small church, about 45 people at the time, about 125 today, offered.
22:59: Bible studies, small group, adult Sunday school. We started attending in May.
23:05: We were saved in October, baptized in December and joined the church.
23:10: That's wonderful. Wow. That's awesome. Since then, we have a new pastor who is also a
23:16: TMS grad and a wonderful teacher, expository and shepherd. I love J. Max teaching and have read several of his books, but his leadership of the
23:25: Master's Seminary and his work to help fulfill Romans 10, 14 to 15 directly impacted me and my wife in a manner that is difficult to calculate, but should not be overlooked.
23:36: Those men and that school and other affiliated schools will help spread the gospel far and wide until Christ returns.
23:46: And thanks to God's mercy and grace, my wife and I now have hope that we will see
23:52: John again in the presence of our Lord and rejoice together. Praise the
23:58: Lord. What a wonderful testimony. That is. I thank you so much for sending that to us and sharing that with us.
24:04: And by the way, if you have a testimony you didn't get to this program in time, you could still send it to us.
24:09: Of course. And we might read it on a future episode. So Milton referenced Romans 10, verses 14 to 15.
24:15: He talked about how John MacArthur fulfilled that in his ministry. This is where Paul says,
24:35: And as we read in verse 17,
24:50: Let me share a couple of John MacArthur quotes here that I had pulled up. Before you were born or had done anything good or bad,
24:59: God decided whether or not to save you. Yep. So true. That's right out of Romans 9.
25:06: Yeah. Regarding Jacob and Esau before they had even done anything good or bad. God had given his favor to Jacob.
25:26: This is another one from John MacArthur. So don't we all have more than enough reason to be thankful in light of that.
25:39: Thankful in all circumstances. Yes. Regarding this comment about being thankful in all circumstances, being thankful, knowing that we already have more than we deserve.
25:48: Here is this sermon clip from John MacArthur. Whatever you might think about your circumstances relative to somebody else's circumstances, whatever you might think are the issues in your life that steal your joy.
26:03: You better get over it. Because you of all people on the planet have the most to be thankful for.
26:13: All of this is just temporary stuff, right? Temporary. You have been chosen.
26:20: You have been elected and you are being protected until the Lord will hear and answer that prayer.
26:27: He will deliver you. He will bring you that final salvation and forever in his presence.
26:32: You will give thanks to his holy name and you will glory in him. And that's what
26:37: MacArthur is doing now. Yes. Giving thanks to him forever and glorifying God. Dean DeFuria, who is a pastor in California, he had shared this on X.
26:48: These are the books that shaped John MacArthur's life and ministry from a 1988
26:53: Masterpiece interview. And so going back to the 80s, these are the books that MacArthur said were the most impacting to him.
27:02: The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions. It's a real easy book to acquire.
27:08: You can get it through Banner of Truth, as a matter of fact. I think they even publish it. Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, which
27:17: I have in a two -volume set and have not finished it. It's a bulky read.
27:23: Is it? Yeah. But it is great. That was a work Charnock was really dedicated to.
27:31: Dedicated to doing. J .I. Packer, Knowing God. I see that book on a lot of even expository preachers lists.
27:40: Knowing God from J .I. Packer. From D. Martin Lloyd -Jones, Preachers and Preaching.
27:46: I've read that one. Okay. Also from Lloyd -Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. I've read that one as well.
27:53: From Arthur Pink, A .W. Pink, Spiritual Growth. I don't believe I've read that one. I think the only one
27:58: I've read from Pink is The Sovereignty of God. Oh, yeah. That's what it is.
28:04: Yeah. Are you looking over on the shelf for it? I am. I'm like, I swear we have that somewhere.
28:10: Yeah. I think it's over there. This other one from Thomas Watson, The Puritan, The Beatitudes.
28:16: I have not read The Beatitudes from Watson. You haven't? No, I haven't read that one. Interesting. But I have read from Thomas Watson, this other book,
28:24: A Body of Divinity. Ah, yes. You hear me quote Watson in sermons. Is that why you're assuming that I have read
28:30: The Beatitudes? Well, I just thought that was one on our shelf. No. Okay. No, of all the books.
28:36: I've seen it somewhere though. Of all the books that I was studying for The Sermon on the Mount when I was preaching through it, that actually wasn't one of them.
28:41: So I ought to look that one up. Incidentally, some of these Puritan books. You have a birthday coming up. Quit saying that.
28:47: Well, yeah. Make a list. But books like this, you can download for free through the
28:54: Monergism e -book library. Okay, fair. Sharing that with everybody.
29:00: If you download that app, the Monergism e -book library, it's like over 1 ,500 books or something.
29:07: I can't remember how many books are on that thing. There's a lot. And they add new ones all the time. Yes. Like you'll get an update of five new books that they've added on there.
29:15: So anything from Watson. I think there's even some Lloyd -Jones in there. Sharnock is in there. If you can name the
29:22: Puritan, John Bunyan. Every John Bunyan book is in there. Oh, wow. So you can download that app.
29:29: It's all free. Everything is free on the app, which is spectacular. They might ask you to give a donation or something, and that's always good to do.
29:37: But otherwise, yeah, all of that library you can access right there on your phone.
29:42: It's like having a Puritan Kindle library. That's awesome.
29:49: Here's another one with John McArthur. This one is humor. So John McArthur talking about a play that he acted in as a kid.
30:00: I remember that church very well because they had a Christmas play. Okay. And the Christmas play was really a kind of an odd play.
30:09: The innkeeper had a little boy who grew up to be Barabbas. That was the storyline.
30:15: And guess who played the little boy? Me. Really? Yeah. And I remember it was the only time in my life somebody put makeup on my legs.
30:28: Why? Because I had a short tunic. You know, I mean, it's a stage thing. Sure. You understand.
30:33: To tan them up? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because you're Middle Eastern. You're Barabbas. Yeah. I didn't look like a
30:39: Middle Eastern Jewish boy. I look like a pale Scottish boy. Yes, I got it.
30:47: McArthur. So, yeah. I've got the same issue. Yeah, that's true.
30:53: Babe, pull your socks down. Oh, no, wait. Okay. Those are your legs. That was my grandma. She got after me for having my socks up on a hot day.
31:02: And I was like, what are you talking about? She's like, you're wearing tube socks, aren't you? I was like, no, grandma, I'm wearing ankle socks.
31:10: Well, not only have we heard a lot of Q &As with John McArthur at either a
31:15: Ligonier conference or ShepCon or Truth Matters. They regularly did this at Grace Community Church.
31:22: And so, often you would see videos of a Q &A and McArthur would be responding to somebody who comes up to a microphone and asks a question.
31:32: So, here's a couple of examples of that. That's interesting. This one is a Catholic man, a former
31:38: Catholic. Oh, okay. Who had come and asked McArthur about Roman Catholicism.
31:44: And you're going to hear from that man at the end of this clip. This is about a minute long answer. Okay. But here's
31:50: McArthur. Where's the key? You must trust Christ for your salvation alone and reject any works of your own as having any contribution to your salvation.
32:03: Doesn't matter how many times you went to church. Doesn't matter how many humanly good deeds you did. Doesn't matter how many times you took the
32:11: Mass, for example, in a Catholic situation. Doesn't matter how many times you went to confession. It doesn't matter how bad you felt about the sins that you did.
32:19: It doesn't matter how many rosaries you said. It doesn't matter any of those things...none
32:25: of those things individually and all of those things collectively cannot save a person.
32:31: A person will be saved by faith in Christ alone, recognizing that in my flesh dwells no good thing.
32:39: By the deeds of the Law will no flesh be justified. You can't earn your way in by being good.
32:45: You can only receive salvation when you know you're not good enough and you cry out to be forgiven of your sin by the sheer grace of God based upon the death and the provision of Christ on the cross.
32:58: Okay? Oh, one last thing. I meant to add this. I am leaving the
33:03: Catholic Church and hope to join this church. We welcome you. That was a great clip.
33:11: Yeah. This one is from a 10 -year -old girl. Okay. Who asks John MacArthur if she's a
33:17: Christian. My name is Isabella. How does a kid know if he or she is a
33:22: Christian or not? And if they are a believer, when should they get baptized? Okay, Isabella.
33:27: How old are you? 10. Tell me something. Do you believe that Jesus is the
33:33: Son of God? Yes. Do you believe that he came into the world and lived a sinless life and died on the cross?
33:40: Yes. Do you believe he died there for your sins and mine? Yes. Do you believe he rose from the dead?
33:47: Yes. Is Jesus your Lord? Yes. You're a Christian. From there, the edit gets kind of wonky, but I wanted to play at least that much.
33:59: Yeah. You hear that exchange. I know there's a longer version of that video, but I haven't been able to find it. Oh. Fred, if you're listening, maybe you know where it is.
34:06: Yeah. You can send it. Point us in the right direction. That's right. Incidentally, whenever John would do these
34:12: Q &As at Grace Community Church, Fred being a member there, he would post the live feed on X.
34:19: Oh, that's awesome. Slash Twitter when it was Twitter, and you could watch the live Q &As as people were asking
34:25: Pastor John questions. Oh, that's so cool. Let me get to another email here. This one's from Paula. Greetings, Pastor Gabe and Becky.
34:32: I am so glad you're back on the air. Oh, us too. It's a blend of relaxing and also like,
34:42: I'm bored. I need to get back on the air. Yeah, like, where's that schedule again? Yeah, that's right.
34:47: Something to rely on. Remembering I have to record all the time, and suddenly I'm not doing it.
34:53: That's kind of a strange feeling. Yes. But anyway, she says, I hope you had a great vacation and some well -deserved rest.
35:00: My John MacArthur story has to do with his study Bible. I became a born again believer at age 50.
35:07: A year later, I was newly married and still a fairly new believer when my hubby and I were in a
35:13: Christian bookstore. I was wanting an NASB Bible, as that was the one my husband used, as well as the pastor of our church.
35:22: I was using a KJV at the time. I saw the MacArthur NASB study
35:27: Bible, and I really liked the commentary, the intro to each book, and all the different notes.
35:33: In my limited knowledge, it seemed solid, but to be sure, I showed it to my husband.
35:39: He actually had not heard of MacArthur, having come out of a more charismatic background, but he was impressed by this
35:47: Bible. He bought it for me right then and there. That Bible has been a godsend to me.
35:53: It has been well used to the point of falling apart now, highlighted, underlined, sections coming out.
36:01: For someone who grew up in the Catholic church and then left church at age 18, I had such limited knowledge of the
36:07: Bible. The commentary in that Bible has been such a huge help to understand so many things.
36:13: By discovering John MacArthur through that Bible, it led me to seek out him and through him other solid
36:20: Bible teachers, such as you. I don't deserve to be in the same sentence, but I appreciate that.
36:26: Justin Peters, Kosti Hinn, Amy Spreeman, and Michelle Leslie, who have a podcast together.
36:33: That's an amazing list. I honestly feel that having that Bible by John MacArthur, his teachings and the teachings of so many others have helped to keep me from wandering off into some of the horrible heretical theology that is out there.
36:47: I do know that all of this, the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, and to God alone belongs all the glory.
36:53: God gave me a love for his holy word and a desire to live according to that word.
36:59: He just used John MacArthur as the conduit. Soli Deo Gloria. Well, I appreciate that.
37:06: Thank you so much, Paula. You know, I remember listening to a sermon from Phil Johnson a number of years ago, and I believe this sermon was actually about Charles Spurgeon.
37:18: I think it had something to do with Spurgeon. He was doing something historical regarding Spurgeon because Johnson helped to curate the
37:26: Spurgeon Library or something like that, the online library. He was teaching out of Ephesians chapter four, and he talked about how in verse 11, it says that God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ.
37:46: He said, this is something that we don't think about all that often. He's talking to the audience that he has in front of him, but he says, you don't think about the fact that your pastor is actually given to you by God.
37:58: Right. Totally. So we tend to kind of stand off from that idea because it's like, oh,
38:04: I don't want to put my pastor in the same place of a prophet or an apostle. Well, you're not. It's still being said in Ephesians 4, 11 that God gave these, the shepherds and teachers to equip you for the work of ministry.
38:18: Right. So God absolutely appointed MacArthur to the position that he had and gave him the platform that he had to be able to impact so many people's lives, which he will continue to do, even though he is in glory now with his savior, that MacArthur study
38:34: Bible is going to continue to be a treasure even long after I'm gone. Right. It will still be ministering and teaching people to understand the word of God.
38:43: Now, I've shared this before, that there are things that MacArthur taught that I don't subscribe to.
38:50: I don't believe. Right. So he was a dispensationalist and I'm not. The dispensational notes in the
38:55: MacArthur study Bible, I use those to understand what a dispensationalist understands regarding end times.
39:03: But for me, I'm not in agreement. Same thing goes with Sproul. He was a pedo -baptist.
39:08: Right. Baptize your babies, you know, that's what Sproul would say. And I was not on board with that either.
39:15: But nonetheless, despite those differences of opinion, we can still be greatly blessed by his dedication to the word.
39:24: And in fact, regarding that, this is a clip from Sproul and MacArthur together.
39:31: And MacArthur talks about or sorry, Sproul talks about MacArthur's dedication to the word in this particular clip.
39:38: Now, this clip is spliced with the eulogy that MacArthur delivered at Sproul's funeral.
39:47: Okay. So it's going to be a little bit jumpy as it jumps to clips of MacArthur speaking at Sproul's funeral.
39:55: But you hear the admiration that they had for each other. Yeah. And then I want to draw something out of that too when we get to the end of this.
40:03: So here's the clip. R .C. said, I know there are errors in my theology. I'm not under any illusions. I know that.
40:09: And I said that one time and somebody said, well, why don't you change them? And my response was, I just don't know where they are.
40:14: I know they're there, but I don't know where they are. You show me where they are. I'll change them. I mean, that's not a problem.
40:21: But. Stop the music. I think
40:32: I've told you this in front of yourself, but I've said it behind your back probably a hundred times.
40:40: I said, you know, I love to listen to John MacArthur preach. And I said, I'll tell you about John MacArthur. When I hear him preach,
40:46: I know he's been in the text. I mean, it's obvious that he has worked on the text and he's just not just having a pretext to take off on.
40:55: I think allowing R .C. to love me as well, a great treasure in my life.
41:03: And I said, I can tell you something else about John MacArthur. If John and I ever disagree on even a minor point or minuscule point of scripture where I think he's wrong and he thinks
41:15: I'm wrong. Here's what I know about John MacArthur. I never expected to have the honor of knowing him personally.
41:24: Is that if I can go to the text and show John MacArthur that his understanding of the text is incorrect, that he'll change his view in a heartbeat.
41:36: I always felt like whenever I got into a battle, whether it was way back in the inerrancy conference, there was
41:43: R .C. Because he would rather be accurate, you know, to the word of God than to have his ego massaged.
41:52: When it was the gospel, there was R .C. When it was the charismatic movement, there was
41:58: R .C. I mean, I've never met anybody more open to correction in righteousness with respect to the text of scripture than this man.
42:08: Because he was my friend, because he was my fellow soldier and defender, and because I follow him as the leader of this explosion of truth,
42:20: I honor him today by expressing my profound love for him.
42:26: And as Bob said, the deep hole in my heart is not here anymore.
42:37: My appreciation to Kuiper Belt Productions for editing that particular video.
42:42: Trying to go for a tear jerk here. Oh, my goodness. I'm going to be sniffling soon.
42:48: I know my eyes, my eyes watered up, too, when I was listening to that. But, you know, they had such a great friendship.
42:53: And I used MacArthur and Sproul's friendship all the time to say, look at the differences between these two men.
43:00: They're even on opposite coasts. Yeah, no joke. You have MacArthur in California. You've got
43:05: Sproul in Florida. And for those of you who are not from America, apparently you don't understand how far away those two are.
43:13: Not just in distance. It's like days to get to the other side if you're driving.
43:21: That is the truth. It takes us more than a day just to get across the state of Texas. It does, just about half a day at least.
43:29: Yeah, and you're talking about MacArthur being credo Baptist and Sproul being pedo
43:34: Baptist. Yeah. And even though they had that difference of opinion, which, by the way, Sproul's in heaven now a
43:39: Baptist, just so everybody knows. Even though they had those differences of opinion, they still were friendly in the way that they disagreed with one another.
43:51: They bantered about it. Yeah. You could see the grace that they shared with each other. And the respect.
43:57: Yeah. Respect. Yeah. Great word. They respected each other greatly. They debated each other on the topic of baptism, whether credo or pedo baptism.
44:08: And MacArthur talked about these. He talked about it after Sproul died. And when Sproul had challenged him to this debate,
44:16: MacArthur said, I had never studied harder in my life than when
44:22: I was about to go up against the R .C. Sproul. That's funny. And he said that he got to pick which position he got to speak first in the debate or to speak in the debate.
44:36: And he decided this was very profound of MacArthur to say this. He decided to go first.
44:41: And the reason being was because as the credo Baptist, he was going to exposit and read directly from the text.
44:49: Whereas the pedo Baptist was going to read things into the text that weren't there.
44:56: So that was a very shrewd move on MacArthur's part to do that. And I've heard over the years, people talk about that debate.
45:04: Even Presbyterians say about that debate that MacArthur handily won it.
45:10: And because he committed himself to the text, whereas Sproul was a lot more philosophical in some of the things that he said.
45:18: Very theologically deep, of course, as he was. Yes. But it was beyond what the text of Scripture said.
45:24: So anyway, they had a great camaraderie with one another, even though there were so many differences.
45:31: And that is such a great example for us. Yes. We are going to have these differences of opinion.
45:37: There's still going to be Presbyterian churches. There's still going to be Baptist churches. There's still going to be Lutheran, Wesleyan and otherwise.
45:44: Oh, yeah. There's going to be expository churches. We're preaching verse by verse through the Scriptures. There's going to be churches where pastors are a lot more topical.
45:52: But we love the Lord Jesus Christ. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen. There are people who are wrong and people who are right.
46:00: But on the majors, we are united and we need to have more grace with one another.
46:06: Yes. Especially when it comes to disagreements over Scripture that we may be iron sharpening Yes. Encouraging one another, coming back to the text, defend your position with the
46:17: Bible. Definitely. As both of these men taught us to do. So great clip.
46:23: I enjoyed that a lot. I have another one here from... Sorry, were you going to say something? I was going to say something. So I love the fact that I seem to remember hearing this from Sproul that MacArthur actually called him up and started the friendship and then kept calling him.
46:42: And then they became friends. Sproul reached out to MacArthur. Was it the other way around? Yeah, it was. And MacArthur is a
46:49: Calvinist because of R .C. Sproul. So maybe I heard it from MacArthur then at one of the
46:55: Truth Matters. Yeah, Truth Matters. It could have been that. Yeah. No, it was... Okay, so I'm remembering it backwards.
47:02: It was Sproul that reached out to MacArthur. And MacArthur talked about how it was as if Sproul saw something in him, because MacArthur wouldn't have thought, why does
47:10: R .C. Sproul want to talk to me? So anyway, I think the first...
47:17: If I remember right, the first sermon that MacArthur preached at Sproul's church,
47:23: I think it was at a Ligonier conference, was on Isaiah chapter six. And MacArthur said, nothing had ever been more intimidating that I have to preach on the chapter that Sproul is most known for preaching through.
47:37: And that's what I'm supposed to preach in front of R .C. Sproul, sitting in the front row with a
47:42: Diet Coke in his hand. Oh, that's so funny. I can picture that. And then they always had just kind of a great back and forth with one another, sometimes producing some of the best clips.
47:54: Even when they were theologically deep, there's still some sort of banter that's going to come out of that. Well, I just love the fact that they started the friendship by one actually just calling the other one up out of nowhere.
48:07: It was just so random thought that it was... I don't know.
48:13: You never know. I wish I knew more about the story, but it's just... It's so neat that people did that.
48:20: I wish that people would do that more. And now it's just kind of empty words on a screen anymore.
48:26: Yeah, it really is. You never know what kind of friendship you could spark with somebody just by picking up the phone.
48:32: Oh, amen. And giving them a call. So here's another one of those. This is a pretty well -known clip, but this one between Sproul and MacArthur.
48:41: And I thank Wretched Radio for editing this particular clip. So the theological matter that they're responding to here is regarding the incarnation.
48:53: Oh, okay. So Jesus being very God and very man. So here we go. Don't you think also it's also trying to say that he was not a human shell with only a divine mind?
49:05: He had a human mind. He had a human mind. Right, with all the limitations of human thinking. Right.
49:11: Touching his human nature, he was not omniscient. Touching his divine nature, he was absolutely omniscient.
49:16: But we can't separate those, but we must distinguish them or all kinds of mischief takes place.
49:22: Fully God, fully man with all the reasonableness of man. Well, I prefer truly
49:28: God and truly man because it can be confused. And when you say that Jesus was fully
49:33: God and fully man, if you mean by that that that one person was absolutely, totally
49:39: God and that's all, then you'd be denying his humanity. Or if you say he was fully man, then there's no room for his deity.
49:48: That's why we like to say vera homo, vera Deus. Truly God, truly man. You're with me on that.
49:54: That's what I meant. That's what I meant. I knew that's what you meant. Why, John, Johnny Mac, do you always make me have to define what you meant?
50:14: Always like that one. That's fun. I think I got another one here from another
50:19: Q &A. Yeah, here's this one. Hang on a second. Most of these questions are directed at John. They want to know how he really feels about Joe Austin.
50:28: He did referricate a lot. You know, I love it when I hear questions that I've never heard before in my whole life, which is, you know, we've been listening to the same questions for 50 years.
50:38: And well, at least I have. You haven't. And when you get a new one, it's really exciting.
50:47: So, John, you'll like this because you have never heard this one before. If Samson was to never touch a dead body, how's come he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey?
51:01: But you never heard that one before. No, I never heard that one before. I'm not sure I needed to hear it now.
51:12: Oh, man. All right. This oh, this one's about John MacArthur's wife.
51:17: So, Patricia. OK. I don't know how many years they were married. A lot. 61 years.
51:25: Wow. 61 years. I knew it was a few. That is amazing.
51:31: But here's a fun little quip that MacArthur made about Patricia. The Lord brought
51:36: Patricia into my life for many reasons, but one of them was because she's not impressed with me.
51:50: She expects me to live everything I preach. The woman is unreasonable. I have a wife like that.
52:03: Yes, you do. Becky will remind me of things I've said in a sermon.
52:08: Didn't you say this? Yeah. But what I meant was, yeah, yeah. Go define yourself.
52:14: We've had we've had that exchange a few times. Then I walk away and I go, yeah, she's right.
52:20: She got me on that one. OK, last one. This was another one with Sproul and MacArthur bantering a little bit, but talking about MacArthur's dedication to the word.
52:31: Oh, OK. I mean, look at that face. My favorite nickname for John when
52:41: I first met him was Boris. It was back at the time when Boris Yeltsin got up on a tank.
52:49: Remember that, John? Oh, yeah, yeah. Because that's the way I looked at John. Every time there was a battle that needed to be fought,
52:58: John was out front. He was the one you wanted in your foxhole with you, because he was so valiant for the truth and for the kingdom of God.
53:08: And that's been his signature as long as I've known him. And yeah,
53:13: I remember meeting him at the Congress on the Bible in San Diego. Yes, you introduced me,
53:20: I think, the first time I came to a Ligonier conference as Boris. OK, I do have one more after that.
53:32: One of the things that MacArthur was so great about doing in his preaching, this was where I benefited a lot from the things that he taught.
53:40: I believe the very first book that I ever heard MacArthur preach through was 1
53:46: John. And so a lot of the things that he talked about teaching through 1 John had to do with assurance of salvation and was very encouraging to me.
53:55: I wasn't struggling with assurance at the time that I listened to this, but it was greatly beneficial to me later, especially as a pastor, when one of the most common questions
54:07: I get is, how do I know I'm saved or I'm struggling or I'm doubting or otherwise?
54:13: So this is actually a clip at one of the Q &As at Grace Community Church, where a woman is doubting her salvation and asks
54:22: MacArthur, how can I know that I'm saved? And so this is where he has benefited me and in my teaching and the way that I can minister and shepherd another that may be struggling with the same thing and having those doubts of assurance.
54:38: And this was just an area where I believe MacArthur excelled. In knowing that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.
54:46: This is the longest clip that I have to play. I'll play this one and then we'll wrap up. Okay. Thank you for answering my questions.
54:55: My name is Joy. Hi, Joy. And it's an answer to prayer to be here. So here they are.
55:00: Three real quick questions, a little complicated. How do I know if I am saved if I have blasphemous thoughts?
55:07: Should I be taking communion if I am not sure if I'm saved? If I am not chosen, would
55:13: I even care about being saved? Really good questions, Joy. You have a wonderful name, but sometimes it's hard to live up to, isn't it?
55:23: I mean, how would you like to be named Joy and have to always be assumed to be possessing all of that?
55:31: I can hear the cry of your heart, Joy. I want to make it as simple as I can.
55:37: I think the fact that you are asking these questions is evidence of the work of God in your heart.
55:44: It is evidence of your desire for Him and for salvation and to know Him. That is evident there.
55:51: The fact that you would stand up in front of all of us and unbury your heart in such a sweet and honest way is evidence of the hunger of your heart to know
56:02: Him, and I think that's what you're essentially saying. The way you know that you are saved is by your desire.
56:13: Do you desire to know God? Yes. Do you desire that He would know you and love you?
56:24: Yes. Do you desire to love Him? Yes. Do you desire to honor Him? Yes.
56:30: Do you desire to obey His Word? I do, but I can't do it on my own strength.
56:36: Well, of course not. Join the club. That's why we're all here. This is the same with all of us.
56:46: It's all of grace, isn't it? It's all of grace. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 helps us because this is the
56:54: Apostle Paul. This is the one that we would elevate as the supreme example of a
57:01: Christian, and he says – well, he calls himself a wretched man because he says,
57:06: I do what I don't want to do, and I don't do what I want to do. He said, there is a principle in me that loves the law of God, but I see another principle in me warring against the principle of my mind, and it's the principle of my flesh, and it causes me to do the very opposite of the things
57:23: I want to do. And he says, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?
57:29: And that's a very interesting illustration. One of the ways that murderers were punished in the ancient world was that the victim that they had murdered was strapped to their body, and eventually the decay from the corpse would destroy them.
57:43: Paul feels, even though he's a believer, that he's got the dead body of his sinful nature still tied to him.
57:52: So what you're saying to me is essentially the same cry that came out of the noblest of all
57:57: Christians. And that very cry is evidence of the work of God in your heart, that you desire to know
58:05: God, to be loved by God, to love God, to honor God, to obey God, and that you know you can't is a statement of a genuine believer, because you recognize that you aren't everything you should be, and you are utterly dependent upon God Himself and upon the
58:22: Holy Spirit. That's true of your salvation. You can't save yourself, and you can't sanctify yourself.
58:27: So you're where all honest Christians live. You're saying,
58:33: I'm not what I want to be, but I know what I want to be. I'm not what I ought to be, but I know what I ought to be.
58:40: It's about direction. It's about affection. It's about love. And we've talked about that recently when
58:48: Jesus was restoring Peter in John 21.
58:54: He said three times, "'Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you love Me?' And Peter had been caught in disobedience again, and yet he said, "'Lord,
59:03: You know, You know me, You know I love You. Then feed my sheep.'" He accepted the failing life of Peter, the tendency to be disobedient, and even maybe to have ungodly thoughts, which is just part of that remaining sin nature.
59:30: But He accepted that man, and He accepts all of us if we love
59:36: Him and calls on us to love Him more. So you don't want to evaluate the character of your salvation by your failures.
59:49: You want to assess the genuineness of your salvation by your desires, by what you love, what you long for, what you want.
01:00:00: And you're here, and that says everything. This is not a place for people running from God.
01:00:08: This is a place for people running to Him. But asking the question is important.
01:00:16: The purest joy, to kind of play on your name a little bit, the purest joy in the
01:00:23: Christian life comes when we are obeying
01:00:29: Him, loving Him, serving Him, worshiping Him. That's when we enjoy the most assurance.
01:00:40: Security is one thing. Security means that I am saved, and He will keep me until I see
01:00:48: Him face to face. I'm secure in Him. That's not assurance. Assurance is the confidence
01:00:53: I have in my mind of my salvation. Many people are saved, they're secure, secured by God in that salvation, but they don't always have the assurance.
01:01:07: Why do we struggle with assurance? Because we know our weakness, because we know our temptations, because we know we're not what we ought to be, sometimes because we fall into a pattern of sin and we lose our assurance, sometimes because perhaps we have been taught wrongly that you might do something and cause you to lose your salvation, and that generates a certain amount of fear.
01:01:32: But to go back to the main point, the very desire of your heart is the evidence of the work of God in your life, because unregenerate enemies of God don't have those desires.
01:01:45: Okay? Does that help? Thank you. Thank you, Joy. Yeah, living up to that name,
01:01:52: Joy. We named one of our daughters with that name. That's her middle name, but yes.
01:01:57: But she does live up to it. She does. She is a very happy girl. I love the fact that he said, honest
01:02:05: Christians would admit. Yes. I'm like, oh, that's like a great way to word that.
01:02:12: And then, yeah, that was one of the things that really stuck.
01:02:18: Yeah. Assurance of our salvation is in Christ. You look to Christ and desire
01:02:24: Christ. You want more of him. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
01:02:30: Resist the devil and he will flee from you, as said in James chapter four. So I am greatly benefited by and blessed by the ministry of John MacArthur, just to share briefly a little bit of something that he did for me.
01:02:44: So back when the Strangefire conference was going on, this was over 10 years ago now, if you remember
01:02:50: Strangefire, I was still a charismatic at the time. I was not a cessationist.
01:02:57: I've been in the cessationist documentary, but I was not a cessationist back then.
01:03:03: And it wasn't that I wasn't a crazy charismatic. I wasn't practicing speaking in tongues or any of those things.
01:03:10: But at the same time, I didn't think that you could discount them. And it frustrated me to hear some of the comments that MacArthur would make about charismaticism.
01:03:20: I wasn't deeply offended by them or anything like that because I still listen to MacArthur on a pretty regular basis.
01:03:25: But regarding charismaticism, I just didn't agree with him. And now he was doing this whole conference that was dedicated to calling this stuff out and just being a cessationist.
01:03:37: I was like, I just I don't agree with this conference. I was with two friends of mine in Wichita, Kansas, while the
01:03:44: Strangefire conference was going on. And we were talking about some of the things that were coming out of the Strangefire conference.
01:03:50: I was watching it, even though I wasn't there. One of my friends sitting at that table was a staunch
01:03:58: MacArthur guy. And he felt very out of place because me and my other friend were like ripping on the
01:04:05: Strangefire conference. And my friend Jordan, who loved MacArthur, was just like, man, he was really young, too.
01:04:11: And he didn't feel like he could stand up to me and the other guy. So he was just kind of like, you know,
01:04:17: I just think MacArthur's right. You know, that's kind of the extent of his defense.
01:04:23: But anyway, so I kept tabs on everything that was happening at the conference. That was when the whole
01:04:29: Mark Driscoll fiasco happened, where he he showed up on campus and was attempting to give out his book.
01:04:35: And then security showed up and was going to confiscate his books or they weren't even going to take them from him.
01:04:41: They were just going to say, you can't do this here. You can still watch this. You can watch the whole exchange online. It's on YouTube.
01:04:48: And Mark Driscoll said, I'm going to give the books to you. They're my gift to you. They tried to refuse him because what are they going to do with the books?
01:04:55: Right. But nonetheless, they said, OK, and they took the books. Well, then Driscoll gets on Twitter and says they just took my books from me, like confiscated my book.
01:05:05: He made it sound like they stole his book, essentially stole his books from him. It was just an outright lie.
01:05:12: It was not the truth at all. You gifted and we all saw it. It was the video was online.
01:05:18: We saw it in real time that you had just given the books to security.
01:05:24: They weren't confiscating them from you. And so anyway, all of that was going on with Strange Fire as well.
01:05:30: And Driscoll was there with James McDonald as a protest against Strange Fire.
01:05:36: They were charismatic, heavily charismatic. Driscoll still is. And so anyway,
01:05:41: I watched a bunch of other things that came out of that conference. I remember there were certain things that John Piper said and David Platt said that I used as a defense for being charismatic, that they confronted exactly those statements at Strange Fire.
01:05:58: Piper has said this. Platt has said this. And it tanked my understanding of that.
01:06:04: It was like, OK, well, I guess I never really did enough to challenge whether those things were true.
01:06:09: But then also at this same conference was a guy in a wheelchair I had never heard before whose name was
01:06:17: Justin Peters. And he did this whole presentation calling out these charismatic false prophets.
01:06:25: And then I go online and find that his entire series, his entire seminar called
01:06:30: A Call for Discernment, which today is now Clouds Without Water. But at the time, it was A Call for Discernment.
01:06:36: And I watched that whole thing, three parts to it or something like that. And so the
01:06:42: Lord is already starting to work on my heart and pulling me out of the charismaticism that I had been in for well over a decade.
01:06:50: I'm a pastor at this time, by the way. So I'm a charismatic pastor at a Southern Baptist church.
01:06:56: Bapti -costal is, I guess, the term that even members of my own congregation ascribe to me.
01:07:01: And then it was after that, I think this was 2014, if memory serves, we were with friends in Indiana and 2014 or 15, somewhere in there.
01:07:12: Anyway, it was after Strange Fire. We were with friends in Indiana. Joe and I started talking about this.
01:07:18: You and Beth, Joe's wife, already saw where this was going. And I remember y 'all like, okay, we're excusing ourselves.
01:07:25: And you left the room. You guys have a chat. Joe walked me through scripture.
01:07:30: And by the end of that conversation, I was a cessationist. And I came back and shared it with my elders and told them that this is where I'm at.
01:07:39: And there was one elder that was kind of on the fence about it. And he still wasn't really sure.
01:07:45: And the other one was like, yeah, well, we were waiting for you to figure that out. So anyway, and that's
01:07:51: MacArthur's ministry. That was probably the biggest doctrinal change that I've made in 15 years as a pastor, which my 15th year, 15th anniversary is next week.
01:08:03: So 15 years since I was ordained, that was the biggest shift I made.
01:08:08: And MacArthur had a lot to do with that. But even the witness, the example that he's been as an expository preacher has been huge.
01:08:19: I was already expositional even before MacArthur, but he's helped so much in fine tuning that.
01:08:25: And my desire for the word and teaching verse by verse, his ministry's just encouraged that all the more.
01:08:30: And I love the listeners that we have, that they want to listen to when we understand the text. When we decided to do the podcast,
01:08:38: I didn't really know for sure what I wanted to do. I was like, I know how to teach the
01:08:43: Bible. So why don't I just do what I do in sermons and I'll do it in a podcast. But at the same time,
01:08:50: I was thinking, but MacArthur's already doing that. So who's going to listen to me when they can listen to MacArthur?
01:08:57: But I decided to do it anyway. Because we were doing it for our church. We were, we were doing it for our congregation.
01:09:04: It was because we had families where soldiers were deployed. And I am trying to come up with something that wives at home and husbands deployed can study together.
01:09:14: And can talk about on the phone. And talk about it together whenever they talk with one another. So what did you get out of the devotional today that Gabe did?
01:09:22: So I started in Philippians. That was the very first book I did on the podcast and taught all the way through that and then just kept going.
01:09:30: And here I'm going to be finishing up Luke and not too long. I'm going to do Acts again, because you want to Luke and Acts side -by -side.
01:09:38: Then the only book I will not have taught through on this podcast out of the
01:09:44: New Testament is Revelation. I knew that was coming. That's it. That's the only one that I have left after that.
01:09:50: So anyway, the impact that MacArthur has made on me and just the witness that he's been so that I would continue to be dedicated to this verse -by -verse teaching.
01:10:02: And then that y 'all want to listen to this. Yes. That's a blessing to me in and of itself.
01:10:07: You've been with us. If you've been with us from the beginning, you've been with us through three states now. Yep. Did this for five years in Kansas, three in Texas, and we're coming up on two here in Arizona.
01:10:20: And two more children. Yeah. So Aria was born right when
01:10:25: I was starting when we understand the text. You were pregnant with her when I started, because remember, you're pregnant in one of the videos with Aria.
01:10:33: Yeah. That's right. Yep. There's a picture of you pregnant with Aria.
01:10:39: Yeah, that's right. That's right. And then we had
01:10:45: Mariah and Ezekiel. Yep. But Aria was born, it was after we started the podcast.
01:10:54: It was. So we started it in August. But not the online, the 90 seconds.
01:11:01: Oh, yes. Yeah. You're right. The videos. We had not started the podcast yet when she was born, because that was
01:11:06: August of 2015. She was born in October of 2014. Correct. So you're right. You're right. So yeah, at least through when we understand the text, we've had three more children.
01:11:16: Yes. But through the podcast, there's been two. And you could go back to old episodes and listen to those infants on the air.
01:11:25: Yep. Sometimes we had them in studio with us, because we had to have a baby here while we were recording.
01:11:32: Especially Aria. She just would not stop crying. She was colic.
01:11:38: Yeah. She just would not stop. But you weren't even, you weren't on the air at that time. No.
01:11:43: You didn't jump on until somewhere around episode 450, if I remember right. Right. But she was still crying forever.
01:11:51: So you have not yet celebrated 2000 episodes. Nope. Not on the
01:11:58: Q &A, but you've been on every one of them ever since the beginning. True. Always intended,
01:12:03: Becky's going to be my liner gal. I'm going to have her open and close the program. I was suggesting a lot of other people for him.
01:12:11: He's like, no, I think you'll work. No, you're going to do it. Yeah. Like, oh, I am? And then it was our friend,
01:12:18: Sonia, that talked to you. And it took 450 episodes before she was finally willing to join me on the
01:12:24: Q &A. I don't even want to listen to it. I thought I was so nervous. You want to go back and dig some of those episodes?
01:12:32: No. Everybody else knows where to find them. Yeah. You know where to go. Well, we are grateful to God for the ministry of John MacArthur.
01:12:42: Amen. And we know that God's timeless truth will continue to be spoken through just the catalog of sermons this man has preached over 50 plus years of ministry.
01:12:54: And so thank you very much for listening to this. And if it is ministered to you, we'd love to hear from you.
01:13:00: When we understand the text at gmail .com is our address, or you can go to www .utt
01:13:06: .com, click on the voicemail tab and send us a voicemail. An update on some surgery things, because we had talked about this last week.
01:13:14: Our daughter, our oldest daughter, Annie, had her wisdom teeth removed last month.
01:13:20: Yes. That was expensive. I made a very foolish decision in not writing down her surgery and our budget.
01:13:29: And when we got to the end of July, I was like, why are we almost at empty?
01:13:36: Yeah. And I realized I never logged in her surgery.
01:13:43: And so all that money was just missing from the budget. And I was like, oh, no.
01:13:49: So I wasn't watching the budget closely. And we ended July really tight.
01:13:55: Yeah. The tightest we've been since the house sold. Yes. Because, yeah, last year, that was tightest year we've ever had it in our marriage,
01:14:03: I think. Oh, my goodness. Other than maybe the first year we were together. I'm not sure. I was going to say. That was a pretty tight year.
01:14:10: It was comparable. Yeah. Went ahead and splurged on a honeymoon. And then it was like, we were catching up.
01:14:16: That was it for a long time after that. But anyway, so we had another surgery that we were supposed to have yesterday for our three year old.
01:14:27: And it's kind of a sensitive surgery. So don't want to mention what it was exactly, but he would have to be put under for it.
01:14:34: And he was feeling ill. They were real sticklers about he can't have run fever.
01:14:41: Within 10 days. Within 10 days of the surgery. Anybody in the household. Yeah. Even anybody in the house.
01:14:46: And that's like stomachache or coughing or I don't even know. Yeah. Stuffy nose,
01:14:52: I think, was on there or something. So we've had to postpone that surgery. The insurance is going to cover most of it, but we don't know how much.
01:15:00: So if there's something you can do to help us out, we would greatly appreciate it. We have received gifts this past week.
01:15:07: And then other people. Praise the Lord for you. Yes. Oh, thank you so much. And then other people have said, I want to give you something. I just can't do it yet.
01:15:13: And yeah, God bless you. So if you can give something, we would appreciate it. This would be a personal gift.
01:15:19: So just to let you know, this isn't for the ministry. You're giving this to the
01:15:25: Hughes family, just to be transparent about that. You can still give it to the church and it will get to us.
01:15:31: So if it's more comfortable for you to donate to the church and just add in the memo section there that you want it to go to us, do not write a check to when we understand the text.
01:15:42: Correct. Don't send it to WWUTT. We don't have any way of cashing those checks. But if you send it to us or you send it to the church and give it a memo in there that I want this to go to the
01:15:53: Hughes family, it will get to us. You can donate online, going to ProvidenceCasagrand .com
01:15:58: and then the giving is there. In fact, if you just go to WWUTT .com and click on give, the information for the church is on there too.
01:16:07: And it's just probably the easiest way to do it. But we thank you as always for your prayers and for letting somebody else know about this ministry.
01:16:15: Just the fact that I know people are listening is enough to encourage me to keep doing it.
01:16:21: And thank you for letting us take a bit of a break in July and we're back and swinging here.
01:16:26: Yeah. Babe, always wonderful to see your smiling face. Love watching you too.
01:16:34: Let's say a quick prayer here and then we'll wrap up. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time that we've spent here remembering your grace to us through Jesus Christ, our
01:16:45: Savior. By faith in him, we are forgiven our sins. We have everlasting life.
01:16:51: And Lord, I know that Dr. John MacArthur was so committed to the teaching of the word, to preaching about the grace of God.
01:17:01: And by his faith, he has been saved and has been brought into the kingdom of God, where he is living now forevermore in the presence of his
01:17:11: Savior. And I pray that we look at his life as an example to follow, and that we too will be diligent to the scriptures and trusting in the grace of God that has been given to us in Christ, so that we too will enter in heaven's gates that day to hear our
01:17:25: Savior say, well done, good and faithful slave. Now, great is your reward. May you continue to be glorified in our lives.
01:17:33: Now, may we have boldness to share the gospel with others, for it is only through the hearing of the gospel that a person can be saved from death and have everlasting life.
01:17:42: It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. This is actually just a great picture of the way that men's and women's minds are different.
01:18:01: You could have umpteen number of windows open on your computer.
01:18:07: And that would drive me crazy. I'm on this window, I'm having that one open. When I'm done with that window,
01:18:13: I'll close it and I'll go to the other window. I'm not done with that. And so I don't want to exit out of it and have to relook it up later.
01:18:21: You have windows open for years. I do. And I forget about them until I'm going back through it.
01:18:28: I'm like, oh man, I have so many. And I'm like, X, X, X. Oh, hey, I forgot about that.
01:18:34: And then it's a rabbit trail forever. I will say, to your credit on that anyway, it's on my smartphone, it's my browser.
01:18:47: And when you click on that little, the multi -square at the bottom, and then it shows you all the internet pages you still have up.
01:18:54: I do have like movie reviews that I've been meaning to read. And there's an article that was on like the
01:19:01: Heidel blog or something. Like I still want to read that at some point. So I do have a few of those that are up.
01:19:08: I don't even want to bother bookmarking them because if I bookmark them, I won't remember that they're there.
01:19:13: Exactly. Yep. I mean, that's the way it goes. If I organize too much, then
01:19:19: I forget it. Yeah. Oh, one of them is a page full of Puritan quotes that I reference every week.
01:19:27: And if I shut that down. You're going to forget. Or bookmark it. Yeah, I'm going to be like, where is that?
01:19:32: Where's that page? Yes. But if I just have it sitting in my browser, all I have to do is scroll up, click on it.
01:19:39: And there it is. Yeah. See, I'm telling you. There is a benefit to it. I get it.
01:19:44: But I just don't have 18 ,000 windows open. I mean, there's benefits for both.
01:19:53: I feel like even on that little browser idea, if I go over 20, I'm losing my mind. This is too many.
01:20:00: And I start shutting them down. Okay. Over 20 is a little excessive. However, there are things that my family has sent me that I'm like,
01:20:08: I want to remember that they sent me this. And there was one page with bird calls.
01:20:14: I'm like, I'm never going to find this again. I've never found this before. Bird calls. I know. It sounds so weird.
01:20:20: But it's one of those things that I'm like, I love this. Because I like to know what bird
01:20:27: I'm hearing. Okay. I know it sounds bizarre. But, you know, anyway.
01:20:34: Not that many different kinds out here in Arizona. No, there's not. But this was back in Kansas.
01:20:40: Yeah. In Kansas. So you've had that window open for over five years.
01:20:46: It's been a minute. Not going to lie. Oh, boy.