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

Thanksgiving for God’s Providence and the Friday Q&A

What are some good translations of the Bible, and study Bibles to invest in? 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?

The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

This is 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. For more information about our church or our ministry, visit www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

You're welcome.

Psalm 717, I will give thanks to the Lord, the thanks due to His righteousness. I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. And Psalm 9 -1, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. God has done so many great things for us.

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. 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, 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. 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. We wanted to give tribute to the ministry of John MacArthur. And so we have a couple of emails regarding that. 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. I did pull up a couple of clips of R .C. Sproul and John MacArthur bantering with one another.

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 Jesus Christ, our Savior. Was very thankful for both the ministries of Sproul and MacArthur. And the ministry lives on. In fact, that's just the way timeless truth is.

And I believe that for the rest of my life, I'll be listening to Sproul and MacArthur. I still hear stuff from Sproul.

Lord willing.

Yeah, right. I still hear stuff from Sproul that I'm like, I've never heard this before. I learned something new this past week, as a matter of fact, or two weekends ago. He had mentioned in a sermon, of course, obviously, this wasn't a new sermon, but it was the Sunday morning St. Andrew's Chapel sermon that they were playing, an old sermon from Sproul.

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, 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.

Ah, well, that's interesting.

And R .C. Sproul was commented, or he was quoted in this vampire movie. 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, I was not the first person to say that. So that's very humbly acknowledged. 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.

Okay.

So we'll get to that. First, this one from Spencer, Pastor Gabe. Last week on your 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.

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. 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 Christmas myths and five solos. In thanks for your ministry, I want to give you this spreadsheet to help complete your archive playlist.

Oh, praise the Lord.

That is amazing.

I know, right?

What?

I mean, I'm not even as attentive to my own stuff and you even catalog the sermon. So in the episodes of the podcast, we're over 2 ,400 episodes. I think if you include the sermons, it's over 26 or 2 ,700.

Wow.

Hang on.

I might be able to find that number. How many things have I uploaded to that channel? It is, yeah, 2 ,000.

That number is okay with hearing.

Yeah, not how many people are listening, but how many episodes there's been, 2 ,753. This would be 54, this episode.

That's awesome.

That is crazy, 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. 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.

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.

Yes.

Yeah, that's just so wonderful.

That cuts out at least two-thirds of the work.

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. That was what was taking so long. Anyway, this, oh, wow. This is such a gift, Spencer. 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.

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. 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.

Yes.

Something to do with them.

Yeah.

I'll find some books for you, Spencer. 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. Pastor Gabe and Becky, soon after the Legacy Standard Bible came out, the pastors and elders of my church in Greeley, Colorado.

Oh, hey, I know where that's at.

I've been up there before.

Yeah.

All switched from the ESV to the LSB. After getting many questions and much feedback from the congregation, they contacted the.

Publisher.

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.

Wow.

Went for the whole gamut.

Yeah, that's right. You got to love that only in America could we

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.

I was going to say, I love that.

Yes.

Personally.

I have multiple different Bibles of different kinds and styles and study Bibles. I love study Bibles more than commentaries.

Yes.

So, if you get me a study Bible that I don't have, that's my favorite book. My favorite book is a study Bible I don't have.

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. Doing it this way brought the individual prices down. So we were talking, one of the things we mentioned last week regarding the LSB, the ESV still tends to be cheaper.

Right.

And that's because Crossway, frankly, is not as stingy with their translation as the Lachman Foundation is. That's not really supposed to be a knock on the Lachman Foundation. 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. And because they print way more Bibles, then the prices tend to be lower than the 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 Bibles cheaper.

Yeah.

So great idea. Ramona goes on to say, I opted to stick with the English standard version. I'm in my mid -60s and spatial memory is very helpful for me. I get that.

Yeah.

Yes, you do.

Like the Bible that I use to preach in, I do that. I use that same Bible every time because when I'm flipping pages, I know exactly where I'm going and I know exactly where the passage is on the page.

Yeah.

So that when my eyes go down, it's landing right on the verse. I know where it is on the page.

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.

Yeah.

Totally relatable.

Yes.

Did I mention I'm in my mid -60s?

Yeah.

That's not going to happen. 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 LSB uses a different word on a verse, I'll write the LSB word in my ESV Bible near the verse.

That's great. So I get the expanded slash fuller meaning. Thank you for your podcast. I especially liked the Friday Q &A. Well, we appreciate you listening, Ramona. And that's great to share that as well.

So remember the question that came in last week was, should I switch to the LSB? Should I keep the 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. 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.

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. I'm going to pick a different translation. That's never been my reasoning behind it.

The ESV is still good. Conrad in Bayway has, I think he was the editor of the Church History Study Bible.

Oh, yeah.

That the ESV put out.

Interesting.

And our elder at our church, Alan, that's the Bible he's carrying around.

Oh, I'll have to take a closer look at that.

He's friends with Conrad.

Yep.

So, of course, he's going to have Conrad's study Bible. That's the one he's going to be using.

Hey, if pastor recommends it.

That's right. Pastor recommended. But then the LSB, of course, now has their first study 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.

My wife's already giving me a look.

Yes.

Do you really?

Do you really need to get one in leather?

Need.

Need was that word.

You know, believe it or not, I never had a John MacArthur study Bible in the NASB. And that's the translation he preached from.

Oh, interesting.

But I never had a John MacArthur NASB study Bible. I had two ESVs.

I was going to say, if we put all of your Bibles together, nobody's going to feel sorry.

For you.

They really only maybe 10 to 12 of them I actually bought. So the rest of them were gifts. The very first Bible we were gifted as a married couple was the NIV study Bible. I still have that Bible. So that was the first Bible given to us as a married couple.

And I loved it. I think it was even my first study Bible. It was. Because all the study Bibles I had in the past were my parents, and I would just grab their study Bible and use it.

So this was.

I didn't know that was your first.

That was. It was my first ever study 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 I ever had been given a study Bible. Well, anyway, we're talking about John MacArthur's study Bible here.

Then I had to share what?

The Bible.

With you.

Yes.

So it still wasn't just yours.

So then beyond that, 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. So as a married couple, the first verse we opened to in the Bible and read together.

I don't remember.

You don't?

It was James 1 27. 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.

There you go.

And we were going through an adoption at the time.

Well, you were.

An adoption process.

We were. Kind of.

So I still have that written in that study Bible. I have the date on it that we read that verse together.

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.

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.

I don't remember that.

Like I remember what we were wearing.

Yes.

Decorations.

I do.

Everything else. But everything else went away.

No.

Visually, I don't remember.

No.

You don't. But I do.

But I remember the song.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I can remember the smell even. But I may not remember visually what was happening there in that circumstance.

Okay.

The Greatest Gospel Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Isaiah 53

As we launch into giving tribute to John MacArthur and his ministry, I'm going to play the most recent what video that I did with MacArthur in it. 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.

Aw.

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. We're going to go down memory lane a little bit here.

All right.

Regarding some things that MacArthur has preached and taught. So first of all, this is MacArthur. Now this was a conversation that he was having with Kirk Cameron.

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 Bible.

Oh, yes.

Here we go.

The greatest gospel verse in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5 .21, he made him who knew no sin, sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Let me unpack those 15 Greek words. Because he, God, made Jesus sin.

What do you mean he made 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. Hanging on the cross, he was wholly harmless, undefiled.

Hanging on the cross, he was a spotless lamb. He was never for a split second a sinner. He is holy God on the cross. But God is treating him, I'll put it more practically, as if he lived my life. God punished Jesus for my sin, turns right around and treats me as if I lived his life.

That's the great doctrine of substitution. And on that doctrine turned the whole reformation of the church. That is the heart of the gospel. And what you get is complete forgiveness, covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

When he looks at the cross, he sees you. When he looks at you, he sees Christ.

Isaiah 53, 5 -6. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one of us to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, when we understand the text. And then the tribute card comes up, John MacArthur, 1939 to 2025. And I put in there Matthew 25, 21, which says, well done, good and faithful slave.

I put slave in there because with the LSB, which of course, MacArthur and his team were behind the editing of the Legacy Standard Bible. And they wanted to make the Greek word doulos translated as slave instead of bond servant, which a lot of modern English translations have done.

So they brought back the term slave, 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 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.

Testimonies of Salvation and the Impact of Expository Preaching

This message comes from Milton in Leesburg, Virginia. He says, Gabe and Becky, thank you so much for your ministry and teaching. I first learned of you and what a few years ago when Justin Peters interviewed you for his podcast.

I think you were talking about movies and TV. And I believe you stated that you watch these so-called 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 Christian films.

And the first one I'm going to start with is Prince of Egypt.

Okay.

And so we're going to play clips of the movie and go through the whole thing to be like a 20-minute review, talking about what they got right and what the Bible says that they didn't get right.

Yes.

So I've got more of those kinds of things coming up, too. I'm glad you enjoyed that. He goes on to say, I have found your perspective on that front helpful for my discernment. 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 Bible. Reading the Bible helped lead me to stop watching that show.

Oh, amen.

Milton, you're not the only person who's emailed us and told us that. Yeah, we've heard that from others as well.

But I'm still astounded that it actually drives people to read the Bible. Like I'm sure it's the 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, I want to go break it open. Praise the Lord for that.

The creators of that show brag about the fact. Like Dallas Jenkins has a whole video talking about this. They brag about the fact that this show makes people read their Bibles more. So they see whatever content they're creating, the ends justify the means.

Because it leads people to read their Bibles more. But I love reading the testimonies that, yeah, it got me to read my Bible more. And I realized this show was trash.

Yeah.

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. We were able to see him live just once at the 2022 Truth Matters Conference at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky.

Wow.

I really wanted to be there for that.

We did.

And it was sold out fast.

Oh, sold out in like less than 12 hours. No, in a single morning.

Yes, it was a single morning.

It was like within an hour, I think it was.

About that, yeah. It was crazy fast.

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.

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. One of the pastors poked their head in the door and said, hey, did you get tickets for Truth Matters yet?

Yeah.

And I said, no, yeah, thanks for reminding me. I need to pull that up. And he went, nope, too late.

Yep.

They're gone.

And none of us got them.

No.

And we did not imagine that that was going to be gone in an hour. So people start calling Phil Johnson.

Yes.

And he had to put out a note saying, guys, I can't get them either. So, yeah, you can't ask me. Anyway, Milton says he preached multiple times at Truth Matters along with doing a 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.

And MacArthur was a great singer, too.

Was he?

And talking about Sproul before, Sproul wrote hymns, and they played one of the hymns that he wrote at his funeral, 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.

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. In our mid -50s. Praise God. After living our lives as nominal Christians, thinking we were saved by Lutheran confirmation in my case or Methodist teaching in my wife's case.

But we did not attend church much or read the Bible. It was a shallow, worldly faith all too common today. John MacArthur directly impacted our salvation before we had even heard of him. The short version is around April 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. My wife found a local church, Grace Bible Church, led by a graduate of the master's seminary.

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 Bible studies, small group adult Sunday school.

We started attending in May. We were saved in October, baptized in December and joined the church.

That's wonderful.

Wow.

That's awesome. Since then, we have a new pastor who is also a TMS grad and a wonderful teacher expositor in Shepherd. I love J Max teaching and have read several of his books, but his leadership of the 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.

Those men and that school and other affiliated schools will help spread the gospel far and wide until Christ returns. And thanks to God's mercy and grace, my wife and I now have hope that we will see John again in the presence of our Lord and rejoice together.

Praise the Lord. What a wonderful testimony. I thank you so much for for sending that to us and sharing that with us. 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.

Of course.

We might read it on a future episode. So Milton referenced Romans 10 verses 14 to 15. He talked about how John MacArthur fulfilled that in his ministry. This is where Paul says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?

And as we read in verse 17, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Let me share a couple of John MacArthur quotes here that I had pulled up. Okay, before you were born or had done anything good or bad, God decided whether or not to save you.

Yep.

So true.

That's right out of Romans 9. Yeah, regarding Jacob and Esau before they had even done anything good or bad. God had given his favor to Jacob. If the truth offends, MacArthur says, then let it offend.

People have been living their whole lives in offense to God. Let them be offended for a while.

Yeah.

This is another one from John MacArthur. Everything we receive other than eternal damnation is more than we deserve. So don't we all have more than enough reason to be thankful in light of that? 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. 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, you better get over it. Because you of all people on the planet have the most to be thankful for.

All of this is just temporary stuff, right? Temporary. You have been chosen. You have been elected. And you are being protected until the Lord will hear and answer that prayer. He will deliver you. He will bring you that final salvation.

And forever in his presence, you will give thanks to his holy name and you will glory in him.

And that's what 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. These are the books that shaped John MacArthur's life and ministry from a 1988 masterpiece interview.

And so going back to the 80s, these are the books. These are the books that MacArthur said were the most impacting to him. The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions. It's a real easy book to acquire.

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 I have in a two-volume set and have not finished it.

It's a bulky read.

Is it?

Yeah, but it is great. That was a work Charnock was really dedicated to. Dedicated to doing. J .I. Packer, Knowing God. I see that book on a lot of, even expository preacher's lists. Knowing God from J .I. Packer.

From D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching. I've read that one.

Okay.

Also from Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. I've read that one as well. From Arthur Pink, A .W. Pink, Spiritual Growth. I don't believe I've read that one. I think the only one I've read from Pink is The Sovereignty of God.