Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Costi Hinn, and we're continuing with our summer sermon series this particular week with none other than Pastor John MacArthur, who just recently went to be in the presence of Christ. I know, like many of you have expressed, we are so thankful for his ministry, thankful for his life and his example. If you haven't got a chance to check out the tribute video that I did, it's on the For the Gospel YouTube channel. And I just shared three particular aspects of his life and ministry and some personal stories that really impacted me and frame up just a snippet of how much Pastor John has meant to me and I know to so many of you. It's very fitting that he makes two appearances in our summer sermon series. This one in particular is going to be pretty special for you, and it is for me as a pastor. And the reason is the title is Sanctification and the Pastor's Passion. Pastor John unpacks from the book of Galatians the idea that the pastor's role is to conform the congregation to the image of Christ through the preaching of the word. And I mean, who else did that better than Pastor John? And who else does that better and should do it than our own local pastors? And as I listen to his message, I was so encouraged and reminded that my job is not to be everybody's BFF at my church or just to be a kind of hangout guy or some spiritual guru. But my job is to preach the word and to shepherd in such a way through the truth that the congregation becomes more and more like Jesus and grows in holiness. And I think the challenge for all of us is that type of preaching and that type of ministry results in two things. People either run to the truth and they want it and love it, and the conviction feels good, even though it's tough, or they run from it because holiness is just too high of a bar and it can become too much for people to deal with or want to give up when it comes to living according to the flesh. And so Pastor John MacArthur, doing what he has done and did for so many decades and continues to because of technology, we praise God for the opportunity to hear him exhort us in the word. Let's jump in with Pastor John MacArthur.
SPEAKER_01My dad always called the pulpit the sacred desk. And I grew up understanding the sacredness of taking the word of God and bringing it to the people of God. My joy in doing this and my sense of responsibility is greater now than it's ever been, even through all these years. I am currently at Grace Church going through the book of Galatians. I went through the book of Galatians once back in 1983. So I'm being reacquainted with it. And it's been an incredible blessing to my own heart and life. In the process of doing that, I got into chapter four and ended up at verse 19. If you will, open your Bible to Galatians chapter 4, verse 19. And the progress of my expositions came to a screeching halt. I read this, my children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. Now we all know about the book of Galatians. Paul is passionate in this book. He's zealous. I'd go beyond that. I think he exhibits a controlled rage. I think he is exercised as much as he ever is in any epistle over the things that threaten the purposes of God. One is a corrupted gospel. Devilish, satanic, counterfeit gospel. That is why, of all his epistles, this one has not one single word of commendation at the start. He cannot contain his rage. And so he launches at the beginning without even the normal amenities. Nothing beyond the familiar grace and peace. And in verse 6, he says, I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be damned, as we have said before. So this isn't the first time. So I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be damned. And oh, by the way, the false teachers to whom he's referring claimed to be believers in Jesus Christ. They claimed to be Christians. Really, all they claimed was that in order to be saved, it was necessary to believe in Christ, as they did, and even to believe in his death, and even to believe in his resurrection. But in addition, you had to maintain external ceremonial ritual works. Might seem like a rather small addition, like baptism, circumcision. But for this, they are damned. And all who propagate it are damned. In chapters one through four, he defends the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. And then he circles back to this damning reality of a corrupted gospel, and he narrows it down to one thing in chapter five, verse two. Behold, I Paul say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ, play on words, while you're being circumcised, you're also being cut off from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. You mean if I believe that I must be baptized to be saved? I've just rendered Christ of no benefit. I am now basically under the full weight of the law and its punishment for my inability to maintain it. You mean I am literally severed from Christ, I have fallen from grace, and I have no hope of righteousness? That's what he says. You're believing a damning lie. You tamper with faith alone, even in one small ritual. That is a corrupted, damning gospel. I don't think in this particular day in evangelical Christianity people have that very clearly. But there's another issue here in the book of Galatians that I want to address. And that is the one that's connected to chapter 4, verse 19. There is another concern of Paul that comes right behind this controlled rage about the corrupting of the gospel. And it is over the matter of sanctification. My children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. It's not even a complete sentence. He had gone through agony, labor pains. To get the true gospel to them and to bring them under its influence and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about regeneration. And now he was in labor again. And he was in labor again with regard not to their justification but to their sanctification. Here is a bizarre reality. They had been saved by believing the true gospel, and then, under the influence of the false teachers, they were beginning to believe a false gospel. This is not impossible. I think this is pretty typical of evangelical Christians today. They were saved by believing the true gospel, but in order to be more friendly to religious people, they tolerate a false gospel. Paul was concerned about their sanctification as well. Go back to chapter three for just a moment. You foolish Galatians, chapter one, who has bewitched you? Who has bewitched you? Who seduced you? Who deceived you? Used only here in the New Testament, that verb. And it always has the idea of a seduction with an evil outcome. Who seduced you? About what? Sanctification. Go down to verse 3 where he repeats the word foolish. Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Legalism had not only confounded their understanding of the gospel, but it had corrupted their understanding of sanctification. They were in danger of thinking their sanctification was by means of external ceremonies. Bad theology bewitches true believers. It can bewitch them about the very gospel they believed for salvation. And bad theology about sanctification bewitches many, if not most, churches. There are so many bad theologies of sanctification that can't restrain the flesh. J.B. Phillips translates chapter 3, verse 1. Oh, you dear idiots, how can you be so stupid? And finally he'll get him back to the Spirit because in chapter 5, verse 16, he says, Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And strikes out all the legalistic means of sanctification, it goes back to walking in the spirit. With that kind of background, just go back to verse 19 for a minute. I believe this verse sums up your responsibility as a pastor. My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. That is your pastoral mandate. Did you get that? That's your pastoral mandate. To see Christ formed in your congregation. Paul is confounded by their openness to the error that has corrupted the very gospel they believe to be saved and is now corrupting their sanctification with legalism. And so in verse twenty, he says this, but I wish to be present with you now and to change my tone. For I am perplexed about you. Now this is no sort of cold analytical revelation. He sees the bewitching reality of legalism as a threat not only to justification, of course, but even to sanctification. His passion is so inflamed here that he discloses his burning heart in this epistle to the Galatians with a wide range of feeling. Listen to what he says he feels in Galatians. I'll just give you a list. He says, I'm amazed, I'm angry, I'm threatened, I'm confused, I'm fearful, I'm agitated, I'm necessarily confrontive, I'm intolerant, I'm severe, I'm perplexed, I'm dogmatic, I'm demanding, I'm hurt, and I'm crushed. At the same time, he also says in this epistle, I'm loving, I'm devoted, I'm obedient, I'm confident, I'm encouraging, I'm sacrificial, I'm protective, I'm faithful, and I'm hopeful. Therein lies the agony of pastoral ministry. When I think about pastoral ministry in this contemporary culture, I've been cataloging the words that I hear. Descriptive of modern pastors, here are the words I hear: relevant, real, authentic, missional, exponential, cool, disruptive, innovative, multi-site, multi-ethnic, multi-anything, cultural, contemporary, millennial, no eschatology intended. Post-church, post-truth, intentional, formational, social, inclusive, heroic. Words I don't hear biblical, holiness, humility, purity, godliness, separation, self-denial, sacrifice, faithful, and sanctified. The vocabulary is reflective of the priorities, and they're horrendously misplaced. Paul is not having a temporary emotional low. This is not burnout. Because this is exactly the same passion he expresses in all of his letters. This passion for the sanctification, the Christ-likeness of his people. Six years later, he writes this in 2 Corinthians 11. I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. That you're you're being led away from the sanctifying influence of focusing only on Christ. It was heartbreaking. He lists in that same chapter, 2 Corinthians 11, all the things he suffered physically, starting in verse 23, all the way down, but he comes to verse 28. And he says, really, above, beyond all those physical things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Now come on, that's not administrative duty. What does he mean? The pressure on me of concern for all the churches? He tells you in the next verse, who is weak without my being weak, who is led into sin without my intense concern. What burdened him, what was worse than lashings, beatings with rods and whips, shipwrecks, floating in the ocean, being stoned. What was worse than that was the agonizing pain in his own heart over the sins of his people. This was, as I said, this was career-long for him. Ten years later, he writes to the Ephesians, and he says, This. At the same time, he writes to the Colossians these familiar words. We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to the power which mightily works in me. The agony of ministry, the agony of the minister, the heartbreaking reality of the minister, the most profound suffering of the pastor, is on behalf of the sanctification of his people. Fifteen years later. Peter wrote something very similar in chapter 5. And we're very familiar with this because it relates to us. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God among you. And when the chief shepherd appears, you'll receive a crown of glory. Pretty simple. Not complicated. When Jesus wanted to disciple a failing disciple, he asked him the same question three times. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And when Peter said yes, he passed the test. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. It's not complicated to understand our responsibility. It is to shepherd the flock of God which he has purchased with his own blood. Acts 20. Now, where did Paul get this pastoral training that made the focus so very clear? Well, we learned that from Galatians too, also. Back in the early part of Galatians, you remember this. Chapter 1, verse 12. He had a private seminary education in Nabataean, Arabia, with one faculty member. Christ. I didn't receive this from man, nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. God set me apart, called me through his grace, verse 15, to reveal his son in me. I didn't go to Jerusalem. I didn't go to the apostles before me. I went to Arabia. Only came to Jerusalem three years later. Three-year seminary program, privately, personally tutored by Christ. So whatever Paul's pastoral perspective was, he got it from the Great Shepherd. And the Great Shepherd is also concerned about the sanctification of his people. As he prays that great high priestly prayer, he prays this for his people. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves may be sanctified in truth. That is to say, he set himself apart to the will of God, so that his people could be set apart to the will of God. Paul is not confused about what pastoral ministry's purpose is. It's about the sanctification of the people of God. And when he writes, he writes things like this: 1 Corinthians, Paul to the church, sanctified in Christ Jesus called holy ones. Or later in chapter 1, Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification. Or 2 Corinthians 7:1, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Or 1 Thessalonians 4.3, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Or again in Thessalonians, may the Lord cause you to increase in love so that he may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before my God and Father. So always about the holiness of the people. Titus 2.14, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. We were, Romans 6 says, slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness, verse 19, we are now slaves to God, verse 22, resulting in sanctification. Sanctification, listen carefully. Sanctification is the single task of pastoral ministry. It's what's going on between the divine work of justification and the divine work of glorification, is the work of sanctification in which we have become the God-ordained instruments. The work of the Holy Spirit in separating believers from sin is a work done by the Word. Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. Sanctification, holiness, godliness, Christ likeness, purity, love to Christ, walking in the Spirit, obedience, pleasing the Lord. That's the pastor's passion. Frankly, contemporary pop Christianity doesn't have much interest in this. And what is so remarkable to me is that many, in many cases, there are churches that would confessionally like to say they're they're reformed, they believe in the doctrine of election, and they celebrate that, they believe in the doctrine of justification, they celebrate that. And once in a while they even think about glorification. Although they'd probably just as soon find a joyful expression in this life. Think so little about heaven. But for the sake of the argument, there are people who teach the doctrine of election, teach the doctrine of justification, teach the doctrine of glorification, and don't appear to have any doctrine of sanctification. It seems to be absent, and yet that is our calling. We had nothing to do with election. We had nothing to do with justification. We had nothing to do with glorification. The only thing we have to do with is sanctification. That's it. If you haven't figured that out, you don't know what you're doing. Where is the strong preaching on holiness? Who preaches on holiness? You think somebody was 92 years old and came back from the Christian Missionary Alliance mission field, like Rip Van Winkle, if somebody stood up and preached on holiness. And by the way, what Ligan was saying this morning is so important. The one view of Christian living that flourishes in a vacuum of sanctification is antinomianism. And antinomianism says this. Hey, we don't need to feel duty bound to obedience to the law. Christ obeyed the law for us. But Titus 2 says, let's listen to this. Verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared. And it's done two things, bringing salvation to all men, and then this instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. That's exactly what he was saying today. Grace brings salvation, and then grace instructs us to deny ungodliness. Grace reigns, and its instruction unto ungodliness reigns. Well, back to Galatians 4 19. My agony in ministry, says Paul, is that you would morph into Christ. That you would morph into Christ. I've told my people through the years that this is the goal, to make you like Christ. And uh some of you um some of you are moving along pretty well, some of you are are not. But this is the objective for absolutely everyone. Paul is anything but indifferent about this. In fact, he is heartbroken about this. If you think about Paul in particular, and of course the New Testament in general, the whole idea of salvation was ultimately to conform us to Christ, right? Romans 8? That's what we're gonna be. When we see him, we're gonna be what? We like him. Peter says we've already become partakers of the divine nature. Now it's just a question of the reality of that divine nature, that eternal nature, that indwelling God, to fill up our lives so that we become like Christ. Now, at this point, I just want to focus on one thing for the time I have left. There's a lot in the New Testament about Christ being in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 1.27. Colossians 3.11, Christ is all and in all. 1 Corinthians 3.16, you are the temple of God. 2 Corinthians 6.16, you're the temple of the living God. Ephesians 2.22, you're the dwelling place of the Spirit. Ephesians 3.17, Christ dwells in your heart. Guess what? The Trinity lives in you. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the basis of the pursuit of holiness. And I just don't think we have really looked at that carefully. Paul prays in Ephesians chapter one, and one of the most rich of all of his wonderful prayers, verse 15, for this reason, to uh having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you in your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead, seated him at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, and then this, this glorious Christ, is the fullness that fills all in all. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Later on in chapter three of Ephesians, he he prays again that we would comprehend this, and that we would, verse 19, be filled up to all the fullness of God. He is in us. He is in us. That's why Paul says, Am I going to join Christ to a prostitute? When you sin, you drag God into it. But as marvelous as that is, I I want to talk about the other side. Christ is in us. But more often than the New Testament says that, it says we are in Christ. And this is even more stunning. I think it's about 80 times in the New Testament you have in Christ or in the Lord Jesus. And understanding this is really at the heart of understanding how critical sanctification is. Let me see if I can help you to understand that. Turn to Ephesians 1 again. And I have to kind of edit myself as I go here. But maybe we'll think about this in a fresh way. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now we know this, we talk about this. We are in Christ. And being in Christ is why we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. But if you ever sort of pulled that apart and thought about it, listen to the next verse. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. He chose us in him. Think of it this way. In eternity past, when God determined who would be saved, he chose them in his son. In the mind of God, in the eternal mind of God, his elect were in his son from eternity past. He had designed to bring them to glory from the beginning of timelessness. He set his love on them and set in motion the plan to bring them to glory by placing them in his son, in his mind in eternity past. It is the doctrine of election that established our union with Christ. All the elect were present in the mind of God and the mind of the Son and the mind of the Spirit when the plan of redemption was laid and the work of redemption was only a plan. We could talk about the fact that at that point in time, God knew he would one day adopt us. And Roman adoption is different than the kind of adoption we have in our culture today. Roman adoption was for the sole purpose of making someone an heir. So we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. We were in Christ, in the mind of God from eternity past. When Christ came into the world, when he came in to live his life in this world, we were also in him. We were in him as he lived his life. He lived a perfectly sinless life. We are in him in his resurrection. We are in him in his burial. We are in him, as I said, in the resurrection. We ascended with him. We were seated with him. We reign with him. From eternity to eternity, the elect have been in Christ. He sent him to live and die and rise and ascend and take his throne for those who from eternity past were in him. Even when you die, you are the dead in Christ. Christ is our life. Christ is my life. He is in me. I have been connected to him in the mind and purpose of God from eternity into the past. When he went to the cross, he received undeserved suffering to give me undeserved salvation. The undeserved suffering of the one in God's eyes becomes the sufficient ground for the unmerited blessings for the other. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means that you have died with Christ and you will live with him. Romans 6. It means you have died with Christ, Colossians 3, 3, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 2 Timothy 2, it means that you live with him. It means that your old self was crucified with him. It means Romans 6, you were buried with him. Colossians 2, again, you were buried with him. It means Colossians 2, you were raised with him. You again, Colossians 3, you were raised with him. Ephesians 2, you were raised with him. Ephesians 2, 6, you're seated with him. You become an heir and a joint heir. And this is where the great reality of adoption comes in. Paul talks about in Ephesians 1. We adopt people out of sympathy because they're in need of parents. It's a loving act. That wasn't Roman adoption. Nine Caesars were adopted sons. Sons were adopted because families wanted a son that they didn't have, or they wanted a son who was better than the ones they got. And sons were adopted for one reason, and that was to become responsible heirs, to pass on the dignity of the family. And so when you think of adoption in the New Testament, you cannot think of it in the fashion of sympathetic adoption of babies. People didn't adopt babies in the Roman world. They adopted sons that weren't theirs, but demonstrated what they wanted in their future family leadership. The kinds of sons they wanted to carry on the inheritance. You could say it this way: we were adopted because we were inseparably linked with the greatest son of all sons, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we become with him joint heirs. And then we're back to Ephesians 1 3. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies without regard for time in Christ Jesus. When all the redemptive work was being done. Even though we hadn't lived yet, we were there in the mind of God. It was all for us. God considered us to be in union with his son every step he took in his earthly life. Every act of obedience was going to be credited to us. Every true word was going to be credited to us. Every sweet sympathy and all that compassion was going to be credited to us. All his love, all his divine incomprehensible love was going to be credited to us. We were in him in every word, in every deed, in every act of love. This is a plan that is unfolding. I look out at a congregation. This is pretty serious. God took care of the election and the justification. He'll take care of the glorification. He's given me this long, drawn-out process of forming Christ fully in this people. Making them like Christ. As much as I can contribute to that in my frailty. Are you weary of every other day a pastoral scandal where some guy obviously isn't going to be an instrument for sanctification of his people because he's not even living a sanctified life himself? Have you had enough crashing and burning pastors? You know, Christ comes to me and all my people. And he says, where your pain should come is not in the empty seat, but the occupied one. Some pastors only feel the pain of the empty seats. They need more people. I don't need more people. Please, Lord. I got enough. Could you please send some to Tibet's church? I don't need to give an account for this. But I will. And the only question is, was it my passion? Was it my heart? Was it my life that I devoted myself to see Christ formed in my children? I feel that for my own physical children. I feel that for my grandchildren. Just thought a few months ago, my little six-year-old granddaughter calls me up. She says, Papa, gotta come over. They live across town. I said, Why, Eloise, what's going on? She said, Oh, she said, I tried to be a Christian and it didn't work. So I said, Really? She said, Yes, Papa, but if you come, it'll work. And by the way, bring grandma just to be sure. So we get a little copy of the wordless book. You guys know the wordless book? And we go over, and little Eloise is sitting in her bed, sit down on the bed, and take her through the gospel again, and ask her if she believes in her little heart. She does. And she wants to pray. And she wants to ask Jesus to come into her life and forgive her for her sins, which basically are disobedience to parents and fighting with her siblings. So she marches that out and that little confession. And she prays, sweet moment. That was about a year and a half ago, I think. Just seeing her now. My heart desires to see whatever that was. I just encourage every child's move toward Christ. I don't know when the saving reality takes place, but to see her grow in grace. She's the youngest of the of our clan. So this is very intimate for me. This is how I view everybody in my world. Seeing them become like Christ. And you've heard a lot about this this week, a lot about the responsibilities of holiness and ministering to your people. But if I can just kind of pull it down to the fact that you are God's chosen instrument to agonize to whatever degree you need to see Christ formed in them. This is the perspective you have to have. The world is not your parish, the culture is not your job, but feed the flock of God. And they will, when they become like Christ, dramatically affect their world. Christ in us, and we are in Christ. Maybe I should just close by calling your attention to Second Peter. This gets practical. I can't improve on an application that's given us here. Grace and peace, verse 2, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Pretty stunning, right? We have everything pertaining to life and godliness because we have God in us. And this has come through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. The whole point here is we've escaped the world, we have God in us, we have become partakers of the divine nature, and now that divine nature is to fill us up. And so here's the practical application in verse five. Apply all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. By the way, there's no antinomianism here. Supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, this sums it up. We want to see the increasing of all spiritual virtues, which are, by definition, manifestations of the nature of God filling up the lives of believers so that they are not useless or unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody occasionally will say to me, Why did you stay in the same church so long? Because I promise you, there isn't one person in my church who is exactly like Christ, including me. It's not about delivering my bank of sermons and then going somewhere else. It's not about me wanting to increase my influence by going to a bigger place. I'm not called for the promotion of myself. I'm called for the Christ-likeness of my people. Paul says, this is like labor pain for me. Ask yourself, I mean, be really honest. What pains you in the ministry? What disappoints you? What depresses you? Is it the carnality, the lack of devotion to Christ, sin, weakness in your people? If it is, then you're a true shepherd. But if it's about you, somehow you've managed to get seriously off track. Somebody came to Moody one time and said, My congregation is too small, to which Moody replied, Maybe they're as large as you'd like to give account for in the day of judgment. You will not be judged on the size of your membership. You will not be judged on the size of your auditorium. You'll be judged. You'll give an account, Hebrews tells us, on the Christ-likeness of your people. Agonize over that. Father, thank you for an incredible week. We're just so full to overflowing. But as full as we are, we're still not like Christ. We long for that day when we see Him and are like Him. We long for that day when there is no more sin. But until that day, may our own hearts agonize over our own shortcomings and those of our people. That is a legitimate pastoral agony. Lord, give us enough blessing, encouragement. Give us enough clear manifestation of Christlieness in our people to make us know your power is at work. Keep our focus off ourselves. And give us enough challenges to make us work even harder to apply the Word of God, the biblical means of grace and spiritual growth. We just want to be faithful stewards. This calling is above and beyond us. It is outside our capability. We depend totally on the power of the Holy Spirit. May we know his fullness in order that we might see Christ's fullness in those to whom we minister. For this privilege, we thank you with complete dependence in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
SPEAKER_00I don't know about you, but when a John MacArthur sermon ends now, there's a nostalgia, and I miss him, and I just want him to keep talking, just keep preaching, just keep sharing the wisdom. And on one hand, the sermon has to come to an end, and our lives eventually end with us in the presence of Christ. And that is fitting. But on the other hand, what a treat that we can go back to that well of wisdom again and again. And I believe and can tell you this: that won't be the last time you hear the truth from Pastor John MacArthur, hear it for the gospel in some way, shape, or form, whether it be clips, sermons, or quotes. We're grateful for his ministry. I hope that this particular message from Pastor John is a blessing to you and strengthens you and helps you ask the big question: Is my life marked by holiness? Am I growing in holiness? And I'm certainly looking in the mirror as a preacher asking the question: Is my preaching challenging the congregation and challenging people and hopefully the resources here for the gospel? Challenging you to not live like the world, to not be on cruise control, but to live holy as God is holy, and to see Christ certainly as the worthy pursuit that He is, and the work of the Spirit as the key to growing in holiness, all of it, part and parcel, when we are genuinely saved. Grace will be at work within you, but yet we strive all the more because we love Jesus and we take obedience and holiness seriously. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching and sharing and supporting the production of these resources for the gospel. Our purpose is to provide sound doctrine for everyday people, and by God's grace we've been able to do that, and by God's grace we will continue to do that for the next generation. Thank you as always. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.