Error always goes to church because Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, infiltrates the systems of religion, particularly Christianity even true Christianity and plants his seeds of error there and a gullible, witless, uneducated, undiscerning church becomes a victim.
Christ Creates Conflict in the Synagogue. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-182/christ-creates-conflict-in-the-synagogue) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
[Jesus] healed people sometimes who had faith and sometimes who didn’t. He healed people who asked for it and some who didn’t. He healed people near and He healed people far. He healed people He was looking at and people He couldn’t see… He healed not psychosomatic disorders, but organic illness. He healed people from demon oppression and possession. And He always healed immediately. There’s no such thing as a lingering healing, a multiple phase healing. There’s no such thing as: I was healed and slowly, I’m getting better. He healed everything, everyone He wanted to heal, completely, instantaneously, and permanently.
Christ Creates Conflict in the Synagogue. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-182/christ-creates-conflict-in-the-synagogue) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Miracles strengthen faith, but only God’s Holy Spirit can produce faith.
Christ Creates Conflict in the Synagogue. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-182/christ-creates-conflict-in-the-synagogue) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
I believe that the most universal gift, the most universal blessing that comes from God’s common grace to humanity is time; time to repent, time to believe, time granted by God’s patience, God’s patience. He is patient because He is merciful.
Living on Borrowed Time. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-181/living-on-borrowed-time) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. It is not minor, it is not unimportant, it is not secondary or tertiary, it is critical. It is a substantial reality in our faith. In fact, in some ways the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the most important of events because it’s the end of the story, because the Second Coming consummates everything, everything. To minimize the Second Coming is to minimize everything else because this is the finale, the culmination. His return consummates the history of the world and the history of redemption and the fulfillment of all God’s pledges and promises and covenants and threats and warnings. All blessing and all judgment in its final disposition is connected with the coming of Jesus Christ. World history seems sometimes to be careening sort of helter-skelter, pell-mell into blackness, sort of uncontrolled. But that is not the case. While men’s behavior becomes less and less controlled, the very movement of history is under the sovereign control of God, who is moving it inexorably, exactly to the point which He has predetermined, and that is the return of Jesus Christ.
Reward and Punishment at Christ’s Return. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-177/reward-and-punishment-at-christs-return) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Are we to think that the last view the world will ever have of Jesus is Him hanging on a cross, naked in shame?
Reward and Punishment at Christ’s Return. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-177/reward-and-punishment-at-christs-return) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Why there must be a Second Coming: 1. Jesus must return because the promise of God demands it. 2. The claims of Christ Himself demand it. 3. The testimony of the Holy Spirit demands it. 4. The future of the church demands it. 5. The corruption of the world demands it. 6. Jesus must come because the covenant He made with Israel demands it. 7. The vindication of Christ Himself demands His return. 8. The judgment of Satan demands His coming. 9. The hope of believers demands it. 10 The groaning of the whole creation demands it.
Reward and Punishment at Christ’s Return. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-177/reward-and-punishment-at-christs-return) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Truth is dangerous. Better to have never known than to have known and rejected. Better to have never known than to have known, rejected, and rebelled.
Reward and Punishment at Christ’s Return. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-177/reward-and-punishment-at-christs-return) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
We are living in an anxiety-ridden culture. And the amazing thing about it is this is the most indulged, the most lavish society ever. This is the most comfortable society ever. This is the society that has the most, but it seems to be the most angst-ridden, anxious, stressed out and panicked culture ever. We have a massive medical world that exists to do nothing but help people with stress. No worry goes unnamed. No worry goes undefined. No worry goes uncataloged. No worry goes undiagnosed. And no worry goes unmedicated. They just go unrelieved. People live with anxiety. They live with worry. They live with stress. But it’s so common that we don’t even talk about eliminating it. The term is “to manage it.” You take a course, go to a seminar, listen to a lecture, buy a tape on stress management… Then Jesus comes along and says, “I’m not going to teach you how to manage your stress, I’ll eliminate it.”
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-172/anxietyfree-living-part-1) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
While first-century witnesses to Christ’s authentic miracles walked away from them and from Him (John 9:13—22), twenty-first-century Christians seem to be curiously drawn to experiences that are not even worthy to be compared with Christ’s miracles.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 218.
God’s concurrence in all events does not implicate Him in sin. Men sin according to God’s predetermination in His decree but by secondary causes, so God does not directly and effectively cause the acts of sin.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 220.
Miracles, according to the biblical definition, preclude the necessity of secondary means and are not limited by the laws of nature. They involve God’s supernatural intervention. Jesus’s miracles were never limited; they were never doubted; they were performed in public; they were abundant and instant. Anything that would claim the title miracle today should also possess those qualities. Unfortunately, the contemporary church tends to trivialize the idea of miracles by labeling anything out of the ordinary as miraculous.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 217-218.
A miracle can be described as God suspending natural laws and personally reaching into life to rearrange people and their circumstances according to His will
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 217.
A miracle from God may be defined as follows: an observable phenomenon delivered powerfully by God directly or through an authorized agent (dynamis), whose extraordinary character captures the immediate attention of the viewer (teras), points to something beyond the phenomenon (semeion), and is a distinctive work whose source can be attributed to no one else but God (ergon).
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 217.
Creation was complete and immediate by the fiat (decree) of the personal, omniscient, omnipotent designer in six literal days. a. The primary use of the Hebrew word yom (“day”) is of a literal twenty four hour day, used in this way over 1,900 times out of more than 2,200 Old Testament occurrences. b. The Hebrew word yom refers to a literal twenty-four-hour day when qualified by a cardinal or ordinal number, as in Genesis 1. There the ordinal numbers are also accompanied by the article, which means literal days are definitely in view. c. “Evening” and “morning” normally define a twenty-four- hour day. d. The order of creation’s six days followed by one day of rest is the basis for the Sabbath law (Ex. 31:15—17).
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 215-216.
It must be admitted that sin is a part of God’s eternal plan, for He works all things according the counsel of his will (Eph. 1:11)… While God ordains the evil choices of free moral agents, He does not thereby incur blame or wickedness, because He does not directly or efficiently cause any evil. He brings about the evil actions of man through secondary causation according to their own wicked desires. God is absolutely sovereign, and man is entirely responsible for his actions.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 213.
People are free to act within the confines of their nature. Since all men are fallen in Adam, their nature is corrupted by sin, and they are therefore not free to choose righteousness. Nevertheless, they still freely make their moral choices according to their thinking and desires. Those choices arise from a fallen human nature, which is fundamentally opposed to obeying God.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 211.
Since [the] perfections characterize God, they cannot be discovered and defined by man, especially in his depravity, for man by himself cannot know God completely. Rather, God must reveal Himself for man to assuredly know anything about God, including His perfections. God has revealed Himself in nature, but humanity corrupts that knowledge. Only the Bible gives accurate information about God and His perfections. Even this information is not exhaustive, but it is true because it is written in the inspired text.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 151.
God exists. He exists as He is revealed by the Bible. The reason one must believe that He exists is because He said that He exists. His existence must not be accepted on the basis of human reason, because that is limited to time and space and has been corrupted by indwelling sin. God has sufficiently revealed Himself in the Bible, but He has not revealed Himself exhaustively. Man can know only what God has revealed in Scripture about His nature and works. But that is sufficient for people to know Him in a personal, saving relationship.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 151.
Unbelievers do not need more evidence, whether logical or empirical [that God exists]; rather, they need new eyes to properly evaluate the sufficient evidence they already have. They need to experience the miracle of regeneration, in which God quickens the unbelieving heart by shining into it the light of the knowledge of His glory.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 151.
God is not comprehensively or exhaustively knowable to humans in any aspect of His being or actions. Humans are limited to time and space and in Adam are corrupted by indwelling sin… [God] has not revealed to us all that He is or all that He knows… God’s thinking transcends man’s intellectual capacity, process and output.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 145.
“In the beginning, God (Gen. 1:1). The Bible does not begin with a rationalistic argument for the existence of God but rather assumes that He exists, that He existed before the beginning of all things outside Himself, and that there is only one God… Proof for God existence must come, first and foremost, from God’s testimony about Himself.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 144.
God’s essence is identical to His perfections. There is no essential distinction between God’s essence and His perfections, and there is no essential difference between God’s perfections to one another. Each perfection characterizes God’s complete essence simply and eternally. That is to say, God is what He has. He does not merely possess love, justice, and goodness; He is love and justice, eternally, fully, and completely. God is eternally all-powerful, all-holy, and all-loving.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 164.
No illustration can fully communicate the Trinity, because the Trinity is God and always transcends the created order in essence, persons, and relationships. But as long as teachers make clear that every analogy will be to some extent inadequate, it may still be profitable to use these improper illustrations to explain why and how they fall short as adequate representations of the Trinity. By understanding that the Trinity is not like the three states of H20 (ice, water, vapor), the student learns to reject modalism. By learning that the Trinity is not like the three leaves of a single clover, he eschews partialism. By grasping that the Trinity is not like the light and heat emanating from the sun, he disclaims Arianism.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 193.
The Trinity is a mystery in two senses. It is a mystery in the biblical sense in that it is a truth that was hidden until revealed. But it is also a mystery in that, in its essence, it is suprarational, ultimately beyond human comprehension. It is only partly intelligible to man, because God has revealed it in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. But it has no analogy in human experience, and its core elements (three coequal persons, each possessing the complete, simple divine essence, and each eternally relating to the other two without ontological subordination) transcend man’ s reason.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 193.
The doctrine of the Trinity, simply put, is that God is absolutely and eternally one essence subsisting three distinct and ordered persons without division and without replication of the essence.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 189.
The sin is not in having more, the sin is being discontent. The sin is not in having wealth, the sin is in what you do with it. It’s not the amount, it’s the attitude… It’s not about what you have, it’s about how you feel about what you have.
The Rich Fool. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-171/the-rich-fool) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
A full, true confession of Jesus Christ as Lord is only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit through exposure to the written revelation, the external Scripture which He authored and accompanied by the internal heart work by which He regenerates, illuminates and sanctifies.
The Cure for Hypocrisy. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-170/a-certain-cure-for-hypocrisy-part-3) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Jesus did not accept religious people. In fact, He kept His fiercest threats for them. You see, Jesus was not about sentimentality; He was about truth. Jesus is truth personified. He is the living manifestation of the holy law of God, and as such, He perfectly understood that religion, spiritual teaching, contrary to the truth comes from hell and sends people there. Anything but the truth is a damning deception that has the greatest power to destroy souls forever because it gives the illusion that all is well. In fact, I would go so far as to say that of all the evils in the world, of all the sins in the world, of all the iniquities in the world, our Lord knew that religion was the worst — false religion — and especially false Judaism and false Christianity. And that’s why the severest eternal judgment will be rendered for the religious who perverted the Old Testament and the New Testament.
How to Evangelize Religious People. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-164/how-to-evangelize-religious-people) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
[False religion goes] way beyond what the New Testament teaches, adding almost endless rituals, routines, ceremonies, regulations, because there’s nothing on the inside but you can create a bigger illusion that way.
How to Evangelize Religious People. The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-164/how-to-evangelize-religious-people) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
God’s holiness is His inherent and absolute greatness, in which He is perfectly distinct above everything outside Himself and is absolutely morally separate from sin. This definition is centered on the concept of separation, which is signified by the Hebrew and Greek words for “holy.”
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 183.
God’s jealousy is His zealous protectiveness of all that belongs to Him (Himself, His name, His glory, His people, His sole right to receive worship and ultimate obedience, His land, and His city).
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 185.
In summary, God’s perfections constitute His essence, or character, which far transcends all created things in greatness. God’s essence is one indivisible whole, so that each and all of His perfections actively characterize God’s entire being. God’s perfections must be thought of as always actively present together and mutually influencing each other without any hierarchy, even when they are not all mentioned in a given passage of Scripture. God in His essential nature is truly beyond human understanding, and the only appropriate responses to studying even the fringes of His ways (cf. Job 26:14) are awe-filled reverence, worship, adoration, trust, and service.
Your view of God is really the benchmark of your spiritual maturity. Understanding the nature of God is critical to spiritual maturity because in the end you rest in the reality of your God. Superficial knowledge of God, a shallow knowledge of God, a limited knowledge of God contributes to limited understanding and limited faith and limited trust.
Prayer is the means by which God’s infinite wisdom, infinite power, and perfect purpose are brought together to accomplish His will. You can’t be saved without believing. You can’t be sanctified without obeying. And you can’t enjoy the goodness of God in this life without participating in His unfolding purpose through your prayers and through your service to Him.
“Pray Boldly.” The sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-157/pray-boldly) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Humility, one’s humble stance before the Lord is the virtue that produces faithfulness.
Shepherd’s Conference, 2019.
Every problem that our church has ever faced can be tracked back to a lack of love.
Shepherd’s Conference, 2019.
The more you know Him, the better you know Him, the more confident you become, the more secure your joy is… Joy is related to your knowledge of God: little knowledge, little joy; much knowledge, much joy. The more you know of God’s glorious truth, of God’s great covenants and promises, of God’s plans, of God’s faithfulness, of God’s power, the more joy you experience in life… Our joy is connected to the goodness of the Lord. And the more you understand His grace and mercy and goodness, the more stable your joy becomes, no matter what circumstances may come.
What Makes Jesus Rejoice – Part 3? The article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-140/what-makes-jesus-rejoice-part-3) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Don’t impose on God your sense of what is fair. Fair sends the whole human race to hell. You don’t want fair. God is God and He’s the sovereign of the universe and He doesn’t abandon His sovereignty at any point, particularly in the realm of redemption. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
What Makes Jesus Rejoice – Part 3? The article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-140/what-makes-jesus-rejoice-part-3) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Don’t let the doctrine of election get in the way. We don’t know who they are. Somebody said to Spurgeon, “You can’t preach that doctrine. You can’t preach that doctrine to everybody because they might not be elect.” And he said, “Well if you’ll go around and pull their shirt up so I can see if they have an ‘E’ stamped on their back, I’ll preach only to them.” I don’t know who they are and so we go to the ends of the earth because this is a secret decree known only after faith, not before. So I can with no hesitation cry out to all to come to Christ.
What Makes Jesus Rejoice – Part 3? The article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-140/what-makes-jesus-rejoice-part-3) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Now if you have a problem matching up that sovereignty of God with human responsibility, admit that you don’t know everything and the problem is solved. Because I also know that the gospel extends to the end of the earth and Jesus was the one who said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I’ll give you rest.” We understand the gospel invitation. We understand the call. We understand the tears of Jesus over those who wouldn’t come. We understand the responsibility of the sinner who rejects the gospel and perishes and he is being punished for his own choice. We understand that. How that harmonizes with this doctrine, I do not understand. I may never understand it even in eternity because I will never be God. But I will let God be God and I will not redefine God on my terms… I also understand at the same time that God holds every sinner responsible for their own rejection and gives them the opportunity to receive Him. And it makes perfect sense to Him though it’s apparently paradoxical to me. But I will not err on the severe side of diminishing the sovereignty of God by eliminating this glorious truth.
What Makes Jesus Rejoice – Part 3? The article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-140/what-makes-jesus-rejoice-part-3) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Discipling someone is walking them through life and teaching them to perceive all of its experiences with a divine insight. That’s what discipleship is. It’s not a class on Thursday night, or any other night. It’s not two hours of reading a book. It’s interpreting life with the mind of Christ.
A Mission of Mercy. The article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-132/a-mission-of-mercy) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
We continue to confront sin and call for repentance, but we leave the final determination of judgment to God and as long as we have time, we cease from pronouncing judgment and plead with sinners to receive the mercy that we offer in the gospel… Mercy is at the heart of redemptive ministry. Mercy is to extend to all without regard for race, or status, or gender, or age. And mercy is to be offered patiently toward those who are ignorant in unbelief.
A Mission of Mercy. The article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-132/a-mission-of-mercy) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
If you’re going to do evangelism, if you’re going to be a missionary, if you’re going to proclaim the kingdom of God, if you’re going to tell people about the King, the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s going to start with an attitude. It’s going to start in the heart. You could train people till you’re blue in the face, you can give them all kinds of information, you can load their theological gun, you can give them strategies and methodologies, but effective evangelism is done by highly motivated people. Understand that. It’s not about training, it’s about motivation.
Attitudes of Effective Evangelism. Sermon originally appeared (www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-134/attitudes-of-effective-evangelism) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
If you knew how to be saved, you know how to tell somebody else how.
Attitudes of Effective Evangelism. Sermon originally appeared (www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-134/attitudes-of-effective-evangelism) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Indifference is as damning as hostility. To reject the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ will render you as guilty as if you pounded the nails into His hands.
A Warning to the Indifferent. Sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-136/a-warning-to-the-indifferent) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Judgment is not limited to the degree of one’s sin; it’s much more associated to the degree of one’s rejection. That’s why I say, sitting under the gospel is very high-risk behavior.
A Warning to the Indifferent. Sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-136/a-warning-to-the-indifferent) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
What we’re asking people to do is to come into a kingdom and submit their lives entirely to a King, an absolute monarch who has the right to determine everything without our consultation and who has revealed His will to us in the pages of the Word of God and calls on us to live in absolute submission and obedience to that revelation.
Responses to the Kingdom: Peace or Punishment. Sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-135/responses-to-the-kingdompeace-or-punishment) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
If you’re not in the kingdom of God, that doesn’t mean you’re free, you’re just in the kingdom of darkness and you’re under another sovereign, and that sovereign is Satan and you’re a slave to sin. Everybody lives in a kingdom. You just live in the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Satan, or the kingdom of the Savior. You live in a kingdom. You are subject to the authority and the power of the enemy of your soul, or you are subject to the authority and power of the Savior of your soul. You are either in the kingdom that ends up in hell, or the kingdom that ends up in heaven. You’re either a slave to sin, or a servant of righteousness. Don’t be under any illusion that somehow coming into the kingdom of God takes away all your freedom. You really have no freedom except the freedom to sin. You can choose your poison, that’s all.
Responses to the Kingdom: Peace or Punishment. Sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-135/responses-to-the-kingdompeace-or-punishment) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
A kingdom is a domain ruled by a single monarch who has absolute sovereignty, who functions with unilateral authority, whose will is non-contradictable, authoritative, absolute. It is not representative, it is not democratic. The will of the people does not rule. The will of the people virtually has no impact. The duty of the people is to submit. The duty of the people is to obey. The duty of the people is to fall under the standards and commands that are determined by the king and do whatever it is he asks. This is true of the kingdom of God… The kingdom of God has come and those of us who know Christ are in it. We are in it and the Lord Jesus Christ is our King.
Responses to the Kingdom: Peace or Punishment. Sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-135/responses-to-the-kingdompeace-or-punishment) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.|Responses to the Kingdom: Peace or Punishment. Sermon originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-135/responses-to-the-kingdompeace-or-punishment) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Now nothing is more natural to fallen human beings than pride. Pride, frankly, is the defining sin of fallenness. If you want to get in touch with what it means to be fallen, it means to be self-centered. Self-love, self-satisfaction, self-promotion, self-exaltation, self-fulfillment, those are the passions of a fallen heart. Now in our world they are considered virtues because we live in an upside-down world. Society has come to terms with its fallenness and relabeled it as virtue.
The Mark of True Greatness, Part 1, Luke 9:46–48, This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-130/the-mark-of-true-greatness-part-1) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The reality is that all expressions of sin flow out of dominant pride in the human heart. Pride then is the core corruption. Self-worship is what real fallenness is all about. Every other sin rises out of the soil of pride. Everything grows in the ground of pride. Pride is the damning sin that produces rebellion against God. Every kind of rebellion and all sin is lawlessness. All sin is rebellion against God, all of it produced by pride. Pride seeks to dethrone God. It seeks to un-god God. It seeks to strike a fatal blow at His sovereignty and His majesty and to replace God with self. Pride grips the sinner’s heart.
The Mark of True Greatness, Part 1, Luke 9:46–48, This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-130/the-mark-of-true-greatness-part-1) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Sanctification is the triumph of humility over remaining pride.
The Mark of True Greatness, Part 1, Luke 9:46–48, This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-130/the-mark-of-true-greatness-part-1) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Shame…will serve [people] well in leading them to repentance.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-123/whos-ashamed-of-whom) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
And that’s really where it all eventually comes, this matter of who goes to heaven. It’s whether or not you’re ashamed of yourself or ashamed of Jesus and His gospel. That’s the issue.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-123/whos-ashamed-of-whom) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Even the good deeds unbelievers perform are not truly a fulfillment of God’s law, because they are produced by the flesh, for selfish reasons, and from a heart that is in rebellion.
Study Bible Notes, Romans 8:7. www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved.
Love compliments and balances everything else. It is the beautiful, softening principle. It keeps our firmness from becoming hardness and our strength from becoming domineering. It keeps our maturity gentle and considerate. It keeps our right doctrine from becoming obstinate dogmatism and our right living from becoming smug self-righteousness.
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 476.
It is a curiosity to me that if you go through the Old Testament you’re not going to find demon-possessed people with the exception of the very unique situation in the 6th chapter of Genesis… Interestingly enough that after the four gospels you only have two occasions, Acts 16 and Acts 19, where you have a demon-possessed situation. And it’s never even referred to in the epistles of the New Testament… It wasn’t an issue in the churches to which the apostle Paul wrote, or John wrote, or Jude wrote, or Peter wrote or James wrote. But in the life of Christ and in the three years of His ministry there is a manifestation of demon possessions that is unlike anything in all of human history, to be exceeded only by the manifestation of demonic power in the time yet to come called the Great Tribulation, just prior to Christ’s Second Coming. And God Himself will aide that manifestation by opening up the pit of hell and the place of bound demons called the pit, the bottomless pit, the abussos, the abyss and letting it belch out some demons who have been bound there so that there is a greater force of demons in the time of the tribulation than ever before and they are allowed to run rampant over the earth in ways prior to which they have been restrained.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-109/the-maniac-who-became-a-missionary-part-1) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
[Demons] prefer anonymity. They would rather that you would characterize that behavior as [a psychological disorder]. They really don’t want you to know they’re there. They don’t want to be exposed. But in the presence of Jesus they had no option. And what happened was Jesus just being there confronted them and they gave up their anonymity unwillingly by the sheer force of His personality.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-109/the-maniac-who-became-a-missionary-part-1) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
No sin a believer can commit – past, present or future – can be held against him, since the penalty was paid by Christ and righteousness was imputed to the believer. And no sin will ever reverse this divine legal decision.
Study Bible Notes, Romans 8:1. www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved.
God’s Holy Spirit confirms the validity of our adoption, not by some inner, mystical voice, but by the fruit He produces (Gal. 5:22-23) and the power He provides for spiritual service (Ac. 1:8).
Study Bible Notes, Romans 8:16.
Jesus healed many people who didn’t believe. He healed many without faith. He never saved any without faith, never will.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-114/a-profile-of-a-christian-messenger-part-2) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Ours is not a social message, it is not a political message. It is not a philanthropic message. It is not a moral message. It is a message of sin and salvation and forgiveness. Just think what would be happening across the world if Christian ministry was simplified to that.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-114/a-profile-of-a-christian-messenger-part-2) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
It is a myth to think that because I’m somebody famous or well-known or because I’m slick or clever, or because I package my little presentation in lingo and terminology that’s kind of at the core of contemporary vernacular that somehow this influences people. You know what gets people saved? Not that kind of influence. What gets people saved is a recognition of who Jesus Christ is and an honest evaluation of their condition and the need for the Savior. What we need is not more people trying to influence society. We need more people preaching the gospel. It’s confrontation, not influence.
This article originally appeared (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-118/lifes-most-important-question) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
God is independent of all things. He is perfectly self-sufficient, not depending on anything outside himself for anything, and is therefore the eternal, foundational being, the source of life and sustenance for all other beings.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org.
1. As Yahweh, God is self-existent, having life in and of Himself (Ex 3:14; John 5:26). 2. God existed before all things, and through Him alone all things exist (Ps. 90:2; 1 Cor. 8:6; Rev. 4:11). 3. God is Lord of all (Deut. 10:17; Josh. 3:13). 4. He depends on nothing; all things depend on Him (Rom. 11:36). 5. He is the source of everything (Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:5—7; 54:16; John 5:26; 1 Cor. 8:6). 6. He does as He wills (Ps. 115:3; Isa. 46:10-11; 64:8; Jer. 18:6; Dan. 4:35; Rom. 9:19-21; Eph. 1:5; Rev. 4:11). 7. His counsel is the basis of everything (Ps. 33:10—11; Prov. 19:21; Isa. 46:10; Matt. 11:25-26; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11). 8. He does everything for His own sake (Josh. 7:9; 1 Sam. 12:22; Psm. 25:11; 31:3; 79:9; 106:8; 109:21; 143:11; Prov. 16:4; Isa. 48:9; Jer. 14:7, 21; Ezek. 20:9, 14, 22, 44; Dan. 9:19). 9. He needs nothing, being all-sufficient (Job 22:2—3; Acts 17:25). 10. He is the first and the last (Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). 11. He is independent in His mind (Rom. 11:33—35), His will (Dan. 4:35; Rom. 9:19; Eph. 1:5; Rev. 4:11), His counsel (Ps. 33:11; Isa. 46:10), His love (Hos. 14:4), and His power (Ps. 115:3).
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 169.
God’s immutability is His perfect unchangeability in His essence, character, purpose and promises.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 169.
1. He is eternally the same (Ps. 102:25—27). 2. He is the first and the last (Isa. 41:4; 43:10; 44:6; 48:12) 3. He is what He is (Ex. 3:14). 4. He is incorruptible, alone having immortality, always remaining the same (Rom. 1:23; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:15-16; Heb. 1:11-12). 5. His thought, purpose, will, and decrees are unchangeable: a. He executes His threats and promises (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:29). b. He does not repent of His gifts and calling (Rom. 11:29). c. He does not cast off people with whom He has made a unilateral covenant (Rom. 11:1). d. He glorifies those whom He foreknows (Rom. 8:29—30). e. He perfects what He starts (Ps. 138:8; Phil. 1:6). f. His faithfulness never lessens (Lam. 3:22—23). 6. He does not change (Mal. 3:6; James 1:17).
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 169.
Immutability does not mean that God is static or inert, nor does it mean that He does not act distinctly in time or possess true affections. God is impassible—not in the sense that he is devoid of true feeling or has no affections but in the sense that His emotions are active and deliberate expressions of His holy dispositions, not (as is often the case with human emotions) involuntary passions by which He is driven.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org.
For example, the language of God “repenting” or “changing” in any way is anthropopathic language—figurative expressions that communicate to man on His level of understanding about changes of dispositions or actions. Thus, God’s perceived “changes” are always in the context of His eternal omniscience and will, so they are never because God is surprised and has to adjust. They are done in harmony with His truth and faithfulness (see 1 Sam. 15:29). All His acts that might be perceived as changes are eternally foreknown and predetermined.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 170.
God is in time, since He interacts with His creation and His creatures from moment to moment. But God must transcend time, or He is limited by another entity: time. In other words, God’s eternity means that He is distinct from time. Nevertheless, He is not completely separate from it; rather, He is present (immanent) in every moment, controlling every moment for His purposes and glory… God is fully present with every moment of time, and He knows its entirety and its succession of moments. But God is never subject to time. Rather, He uses it as His servant to reveal His perfections.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 171.
Transcendance means that God is greater than and independent of the creation. Immensity refers to the fact that God transcends and fills all space. And omnipresence indicates that God is present with every point of space in His entire being.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 173.
God’s omnipotence describes His ability to do anything consistent with His nature.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 177.
In this context, God’s foreknowing is divinely purposed, foreknowing only those who would be effectually called in time to saving faith in Christ. When the New Testament speaks of God foreknowing, the object is always people rather than facts, and these people are always objects of His redemption.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 177.
God’s wisdom is His perfect knowledge of how to act skillfully so that He will accomplish all His good pleasure – to glorify Himself.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 180.
God’s goodness is that He is the perfect sum, source, and standard (for Himself and His creatures) of that which is wholesome (conducive to well-being), virtuous, beneficial, and beautiful.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 181.
God is the absolute good (Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19). As such He cannot be pleased with anything short of absolute perfection. Hence, in an ultimate sense He can be pleased with only Himself. Consequently, when He loves His creatures, He loves them with a chief regard to Himself.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 181.
False repentance is grounded in selfishness, rather than the honor of God, because it has nothing to do with the honor of God, and only has to do with the regret that a person has because of the consequence of sin. It’s not built on the fear of hell, or the fear of dishonoring God. False repentance also leaves the feelings unchanged. The love of sin is not subdued and the passion for holiness is not initiated. False repentance leads men to hypocritical concealment. Once you’ve falsely repented, now you’ve got to keep it up. And so you just lay on one more level of hypocrisy after another to keep up the deception. That leads eventually to self-deception and to a deadly false security where you begin to believe the lie you’re living that you wanted originally others to believe and now you’ve come to believe it, and that is that you really are God’s when in fact you’re not. And that hardens your heart. Each time shallow sorrow washes over the emotions of the heart, and doesn’t truly break that heart, the fountains of feeling are more and more dried up. And then the conscience is seared and then you’re irretrievable.
Is There Ever a Just Reason for It? The sermon originally appeared (www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-44/true-repentance-gods-highway-to-the-heart-part-4) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
When a sinner is truly repentant and comes to God in a broken and contrite spirit and asks for forgiveness and God forgives and transforms, it is the working of the Holy Spirit.
Is There Ever a Just Reason for It? The sermon originally appeared (www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-44/true-repentance-gods-highway-to-the-heart-part-4) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Repentance is a theme that belongs in the gospel presentation to the degree that we could say one has not preached the biblical gospel if one has not preached repentance. In Acts 17 verse 30 the Bible says, “God commands all men everywhere to repent.” God commands all men everywhere to repent. If we are faithful preachers of the message of God, then we must in God’s name command all men everywhere to repent. Matthew 9:13 says that Jesus Christ came to call sinners to repentance. Second Peter 3:9, “God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Luke 15:7 and 10 indicates that there is joy in heaven over one sinner brought to repentance. And in Luke 24:47, the Great Commission Jesus gave is that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all people.Our message is repentance. It is a hard message. It is a harsh message. It confronts sin. It unmasks hypocrisy. It denies superficiality. You cannot preach the true gospel apart from repentance. John came preaching repentance, the Bible says. Jesus came preaching repentance. The apostles preached repentance. Christ commands repentance. He does it at least three times in just Revelation 2 and 3. God saves through repentance. In fact, in Acts 11:18 it calls repentance, “Repentance unto life.” There is no spiritual life; there is no eternal life without repentance. In Acts 5:31 it is said Christ is exalted as a Savior to give repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
Is There Ever a Just Reason for It? The sermon originally appeared (www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-43/true-repentance-gods-highway-to-the-heart-part-3) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
Divine providence is God’s preserving His creation, operating in every event in the world, and directing the things in the universe to His appointed end for them.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 218.
God is truly knowable but not exhaustively comprehensible.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 145.
A general definition of perfections is as follows: God’s perfections are the essential characteristics of His nature. Because these characteristics are necessary to His nature, all His attributes are absolutely perfect and thus rightly called perfections. Further, since these perfections are essential to God’s nature, if any one of them were denied, God would no longer be God.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 161.
God’s glory refers to the consummate beauty of the totality of His perfections.
God the Father by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 188.
Those who reject Christ do so because they are content with darkness. And because they choose darkness rather than light, they will forever have darkness rather than light. Eternity simply crystallizes the choice into permanence.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 208.
To be filled with the Spirit is to live in the consciousness of the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, as if we were standing next to Him, and to let His mind dominate our life. It is to fill ourselves with God’s Word, so that His thoughts will be our thoughts, His standards our standards, His work our work, and His will our will.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 253.
God’s way to a successful marriage focuses on what husbands and wives put into it, not on what they can get out of it.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 293.
Because modern man is inclined to view himself as merely a higher form of animal – with no divine origin, purpose, or accountability – he is even more disposed to see other people simply as things, to be used for his own pleasure and advantage.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 293.
Every individual believer is to stay close to Jesus Christ, faithfully using his spiritual gift in close contact with every believer he touches, and that through such commitment and ministry the Lord’s power will flow for the building up of the Body in love.
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 161.
What is the New Covenant then? It is the unilateral, irrevocable, unchangeable, eternal promise by God that He will save sinners by forgiving their transgressions and regenerating them from the inside to love Him and obey Him… The New Covenant embodies grace and peace and the Holy Spirit and regeneration and the knowledge of God and the forgiveness of sin and a new heart and pure fellowship with God and love for God. This covenant was personal and individual.
Connecting the Covenantal Dots, Part 2. The article originally appeared (www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-434/connecting-the-covenantal-dots-part-2) at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by Permission.
In Scripture, the person of God and the Word of God are everywhere interrelated, so much so that whatever is true about the character of God is true about the nature of God’s Word… What a person thinks about God’s Word in reality reflects what a person thinks about God.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 70.
The ultimate end of general revelation is that it leaves people without excuse for failing to recognize the nature of their Creator. But it conveys nothing regarding the way by which a fallen human being might gain access to or secure reconciliation with his Creator to escape judgment. That is why God deemed it necessary to also reveal Himself directly through special revelation. He did it so that fallen humans would know the fullness of God, how to be redeemed from God’s wrath toward sinners, and how to live and please God.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 73.
General Revelation in Scripture [verses] Special Revelation in Scripture: Only condemns/Condemns and redeems. Harmonizes with special revelation but provides no new material/Not only enhances and explains in detail the content of general revelation but also goes significantly beyond that explanation. In its perceived message needs to be confirmed by Scripture/Is self-authenticating and self-confirming in its claim to be God’s Word. Needs to be interpreted in light of special revelation/Needs no other revelation to be interpreted since it interprets itself. Is never equated with Scripture by Scripture/Has no peer.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 75.
In the end result, that which was written [in the Bible] was fully the words of the human authors in their language and style and from their personal perspectives, but it was under the direct superintendence of God by his Spirit producing on the page the very words of God.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 79.
The process of inspiration at no point in time violates the personality, language, or style of the human author. Indeed, it includes all these elements as well as the immediate historical context in which the text was written. God prepared the human authors to be used as his instruments for the composition of His own Word.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 83.
God did not inherit His authority—there was no one to bequeath it to Him. God did not receive His authority—there was no one to bestow it on Him. God’s authority did not come by way of an election—there was no one to vote for Him. God did not seize His authority—there was no one from whom to steal it. God did not earn His authority—it was already His.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 101.
The church can affirm the authority of Scripture, but it cannot be the ultimate witness to it… That proof must be the testimony of Scripture itself.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 103.
The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit illuminates the believer so that he knows that the Scriptures are the Word of God. The biblical basis for this clarity is derived from two sources. First, the words of Scripture are self-attesting because they claim to be from God (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20–21). Second, the Holy Spirit’s dynamic power applies the truth of Scripture, resulting in a confident assurance in the Word itself (1 Cor. 2:4–16)… That does not mean that all who hear or read believe (Rom. 10:14–21), but it does mean that those who believe do so because of the convicting and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 104.
What the illuminating work of the Spirit does provide is a receptivity to the authority of God’s Word, a conviction that it is the truthful Word of God, and a capacity aided by the Holy Spirit to discern the true meaning of the Word of God.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 105.
The outworking of God’s authority in Scripture: It is not derived authority bestowed by humans; rather, it is the original authority of God. It does not change with the times, the culture, the nation, or the ethnic background; rather, it is the unalterable authority of God. It is not one authority among many possible spiritual authorities; rather, it is the exclusive spiritual authority of God. It is not an authority that can be successfully challenged or rightfully overthrown; rather, it is the permanent authority of God. It is not a relativistic or subordinate authority; rather, it is the ultimate authority of God. It is not merely a suggestive authority; rather, it is the obligatory authority of God. It is not a benign authority in its outcome; rather, it is the consequential authority of God.
God’s Word by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue taken from Biblical Doctrine by John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, copyright 2017, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. Page 107.
