I'm not trying to earn a better standing with God. I have a perfect standing with God in Christ, right? I'm not trying to gain absolute and ultimate perfection.
That will only happen in glory. But I am trying to get better and better and better and become more like Christ, more like Christ, more like Christ in this life. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
Well, you may be enjoying a break from your regular activities on this Labor Day in the United States. For our part, we are taking a break from our normal verse-by-verse teaching, and instead you'll hear John answer Bible questions from his congregation in Southern California, and he may just cover something that you've wondered about. Questions like, what does it mean for younger men to be subject to elders, and is it ever acceptable for Christians to get a divorce?
I think you'll find this Q&A both interesting and practical, so follow along as John MacArthur answers the first question. Hi, John. My name's Wayne, and my question is from John 13, verse 14 and 15, and it says, If I then the Lord and the teacher washed your feet, and also ought to wash one another's feet, for I gave you an example that you should also do as I did to you. So my question, John, is do you see this ceremony of foot washing as an observance that should be enjoyed along with the Lord's Supper? And also, what does this verse actually mean?
Thank you, Wayne. There are some good, wonderful evangelical brethren of mine who have believed for many years that the foot washing is an ordinance equal to the Lord's table and to baptism. They see it as an equal ordinance that the church is to carry out.
In fact, the Grace Brethren tradition has been, that's a group of churches, the Grace Brethren churches you're probably familiar with, good churches, God bless churches. It's been their tradition through the years not to have the Lord's table without the concomitant foot washing service. But I feel that that is not the intention of the passage to teach that foot washing is an ordinance along with communion and baptism. And I suppose the best indicator of that is its absolute absence in the Book of Acts. We have no occasion in the Book of Acts where the early church ever engaged in a foot washing service as such. We have no word in any of the Pauline epistles instructing us to do it.
There's no letter given to any of the churches telling them this is what they ought to do, although there are many things about baptism, many things about the Lord's table. So I don't think you can put foot washing on the level that you put the Lord's table and communion, or the Lord's table and baptism together. Now, the idea of foot washing here was meeting a need. These people had come into a banquet, and in a banquet situation they reclined at supper, and very often they would recline and so someone's feet would be near someone else's head, or at least they would be raised to some extent. It could be a very rude thing to come into such a feast with dirty feet, obviously.
Wearing sandals, the roads were either dusty or muddy, consequently the feet would be dirty. And so it was common to have a slave there to wash feet just to courtesy. And so our Lord simply did what was common courtesy. Our Lord is teaching us that we are to meet needs, and I think that some of it is given in John 13, 34. The new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And what he is saying here is you're to love as I've loved. How have I loved?
I have loved by meeting your simplest, most basic need. Maybe it means giving food to someone who's without food. Maybe it means giving a hand to someone who's struggling in the physical walk.
It could mean anything, but that's the essence of what he's saying. Learn to be a servant. Learn to be humble.
Learn to serve someone. And I don't think that's really the issue today. I mean, you can be sure that if people gathered for a foot washing ceremony, they would have washed their feet immaculately before they ever got there. And so it doesn't serve a need. It would only be a symbol. I wouldn't argue with folks who wanted to do it as a symbolic expression. I would not put it on the level of baptism and communion. And I think if all it is is a symbol, it misses the point that our Lord is saying, and that is learn to meet people's basic needs and put yourself in the role of a servant. I mean, let's face it. Washing someone's dirty feet wouldn't be the loftiest thing you could think of to do.
It would definitely be the lowliest. And it really suited the occasion here because the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. And in an argument about who was the greatest, none of them would wash feet. And Jesus rebukes them by taking off His own garment. And He, the very Son of God, does what they wouldn't do and says, now you see how you're to act.
So the very Son of God, God in human flesh, demonstrated a humility that sinful men wouldn't even demonstrate. Okay? Thank you, Wayne. Yes.
We're over on the left here. Go ahead. Speak right up. Good evening, John.
My name's Richard. In light of the sermon that you had taught to us this morning in a forewarned us of the dangers, I went home looking and thinking about some questions I might ask you this evening. And I was scanning through a book you had written called Body Dynamics, which is a very good book talking about the church and its ministries. I recommend it for those who wish to read it. Thank you for the commercial.
In reading, what was that? Thank you for the commercial. Oh, okay.
Well, anyway, you're welcome. Anyway, in one of the chapters, perfecting the body, you quoted as saying, is used three ways in scripture. One is positional perfection, ultimate perfection, and experiential perfection. Well, ultimately, positional perfection, as we say Colossians, like in Colossians chapter 2 verse 10, it says, ye are complete in Him at salvation. And the same as ultimate, John writes, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is at 1 John chapter 3 verse 2. In other words, through Christ's death and resurrection, those two positions are solified. I mean, you know, we are positionally saved through Christ.
Okay, get to your question now. But I want you to elaborate on the experiential perfection and the results of experiential perfections leading up to Ephesians 4 verses 15 and 16. What he is saying is reacting to something that I think the Bible teaches. When we talk about perfecting the saints in Ephesians 4, we read Ephesians 4 that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, teaching pastors, verse 11, are for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. Now, what does it mean to perfect the saints? In what sense are believers perfected?
And I suggest there are three different dimensions to that. First of all, there is ultimate perfection. In other words, there is the day when we will be like Jesus Christ, right?
1 John 3, 2, we'll see Him, be like Him, we shall see Him as He is. We will be ultimately perfect. We have that promise in Christ that He which hath begun a good work in us will what?
Perform it until when? The day of Jesus Christ when we become ultimately perfect. So bound up in our salvation is ultimate perfection.
We can't do anything about that now. We can't be ultimately immediately perfect, sinless, flawless now. God does that in the future. So whatever it is that I'm to do in perfecting the saints, it's not to make you ultimately perfect in the sense of eternity because God has to do that in the future. The second kind of perfection is what I call positional perfection. And that is to say that there's a sense in which when you became a believer, you became perfect in the eyes of God, positionally. In other words, because you have the righteousness of Christ, because the robe of Christ's righteousness is put over you, God sees you in Christ. And He sees Christ's perfection in you.
You understand what I'm saying? In other words, God can accept you into a relationship with Him, a relationship of intimacy, because you're in Christ and you're purified in that relationship. So positionally, that is in my position, or as the old theologians used to call it, in my state before God, in my standing before God. I stand before Him as one who is perfect. That's positional perfection. I will become one who is perfect.
That's ultimate perfection. The only remaining one is experiential perfection. And that is to say, I will someday be perfect. I am now, in the eyes of God, positionally perfect, but I need now, practically, to be perfected.
You understand those distinctions? So that in my life now, I'm not trying to earn a better standing with God. I have a perfect standing with God in Christ, right? I'm not trying to gain absolute and ultimate perfection.
That will only happen in glory. But I am trying to get better and better and better, and become more like Christ, more like Christ, more like Christ in this life. And the reason it's important to distinguish those things is, one, if you confuse them with ultimate perfection, you're going to come up with the kind of theology that says in this life you can become ultimately perfect.
And there are people that believe that. I don't know if you know that, but Wesleyan theology, or as is known Arminian theology, believes that a Christian in this life can attain sinless perfection. And they call it the eradication of sin.
They believe, I've met them. I had a man tell me he had not sinned in many, many, many years. He had eradicated his sin nature by attaining perfection in this life. Now, if you believe that, you've really got a problem, because the Bible does not teach that. So when we talk about perfection, we're not talking about ultimate perfection.
That is absolute sinlessness. We can't work to that point in this life. Nor are we talking about positional perfection, because you see, I can't do anything to make God like me better.
Do you understand that? Because He loves me perfectly in Christ, right? I can't become in better standing with God. I am already one of His children, right?
I'm already in His family. I'm already the possessor of His Holy Spirit. So in my standing before God, I can't get any better. I can't make Him love me more. I can't make Him save me more.
I can't increase my standing with Him, because that is set because I'm in Christ, and I stand in Christ perfect in terms of my standing. So the one area that I'm going to work on, I'm not going to make God like me better. He already loves me perfectly. I'm not going to make Him accept me more. He accepts me totally in Christ, so that what I do in this life doesn't make God like me better, doesn't make God accept me more. He accepts me perfectly, and it isn't going to make me perfect. But what it is going to do is move me step by step to be more like Jesus Christ.
And that's the idea of experiential perfection. You're simply moving along to become more and more and more like Jesus Christ. And what is it that does that in your life? Well, tribulation is one thing. Somebody said tribulation. First Peter says, after you have suffered a while, the Lord make you perfect.
First Peter 5, 10. So suffering is part of that. Trials, because trials are like spiritual muscle building, aren't they?
I mean, you have to carry the weight and the load of the trial, and that stretches your muscles. When you go through trials, James says, you therefore ought to count it all what? Joy, because the trying of your faith has a perfect work or a perfecting work. So trial suffering is one element. The other is in 2 Timothy 3, 16, where it says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And then it says a few things about what it'll do, that the man of God may be what?
Perfect. So trials and the Word. God brings the trials, and we try to bring you the Word. It's not my job to bring you the trials. I'm not supposed to make you suffer. God will do that. I'm supposed to give you the Word. So the Word and suffering brings you along the line of experiencing perfection, so that hopefully you can become more and more like your position and closer and closer to your ultimate perfection. Okay?
Yes? My name is Muriel, and I'd like to know how does our church stand on divorce? If a wife gets a divorce on Bible grounds, her husband having had adultery with another woman, is she free to marry someone else?
Yes, this is a very important question. What is the church's position on divorce? And the church's position basically has not changed through the years. It's the same position that the church has always held, and it is the position that has been most commonly held throughout the years of the church's history. And that is that there are revealed in Scripture very clear instructions as to the fact that God hates divorce.
There's no way around that. God hates divorce. Not some divorce.
What? All divorce. It's all the same in the sense that He hates it because it violates the one man, one woman, four life concept which God ordained in Genesis chapter 2 as normal for man. God hates divorce. Now, there are some circumstances in which divorce becomes a merciful granting for the sake of an innocent party, and I believe those are the only biblical exceptions. And they would be then on this basis where you have one partner in a marriage, according to Matthew 5, Matthew 19, the key passages on this, where you have one unfaithful partner in a marriage who is engaged in acts of sexual sin outside that marriage. There is an allowance for divorce. It is an allowance for unending unfaithfulness. If, for example, a person committed one act of adultery, violated a marriage once or twice, came back and wanted to repent, then I don't think it would be right to divorce the person.
I don't think we're looking for a person to do something wrong once, and then that's a loophole and we get rid of them. The spirit of Hosea must be brought into play. Remember Hosea married a wife. She turned out to be a harlot, and he pursued her and pursued her and pursued her and finally took her back and called her a virgin, forgave all of her harlotries, and they were myriad harlotries. So there should be forgiveness, but where there is hard-hearted, incessant, unrepentant kind of adultery that's unresolved, the innocent party at that point, I believe, is freed out of that relationship.
And you say, on what basis? Because that's basically what Jesus said. If you divorce for any reason other than fornication, you cause the person, when they remarry, to commit adultery. If fornication is the case, it is not adultery. And Moses said it is because of the hardness of your what? Your heart that God allowed this. In a case where the adultery cannot be resolved, you take a situation, for example, you have a person, their partner commits adultery, adultery, adultery, they can't reconcile, the person is not going to stop that lifestyle, I think mercifully God will free that innocent party and the freedom means to remarry. And I think that's the basic idea.
Let me tell you another point you need to keep in mind. In the Old Testament, what was God's law for an adulterer? Death. Now, very clearly, if you have a dead partner, you're free to remarry, right? Now, listen.
Listen. Just because God is merciful and does not kill the guilty party, if God lets that guilty party live, there's no reason to believe that he intends by being merciful to the guilty party to sentence the innocent party to an entire life of singleness. It would be as if the innocent person, because God was merciful and didn't kill the guilty one, the innocent person has to spend their entire life suffering. Whereas if God did what his law demanded and killed that person, they'd be free to remarry. So where God is merciful and doesn't take the life of an adulterer who will not repent, I believe there is freedom to remarry.
And I believe that's what our Lord is saying in Matthew 5 and Matthew 19. But keep in mind, that's the last resort where forgiveness doesn't have any effect, where there's no restoration and where that adultery cannot be resolved. And then there's one other situation and that's in 1 Corinthians 7 where you have an unbeliever who wants out of the marriage, they want out of the union, they leave the union. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says, if an unbeliever departs, let him depart a brother is not in bondage in such cases.
You're not bound to that person anymore. Those are the only two situations the Bible gives where divorce is tolerated. And keep in mind, it is a concession, it is a merciful concession to a person sinned against where it cannot be resolved. And that's what this church believes and that's what we've always believed.
There are people today who teach no divorce, no remarriage, no time, but I don't think they deal fairly with the Word of God in those regards. I mean, I wish we could come to that viewpoint. It would simplify everything.
We wouldn't have to counsel anybody. Just, that's it. But isn't that simple?
We have to take what the Word of God has to say. Okay. See over here. Um, John, my name is Brian and we wanted to know, were those incidents you told us, were those going to be on the tape also? You mean what I said tonight? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. Should we put those on the tape?
Sure, we'll put them on the tape. Yeah, I had a Bible question also. It's out of 1 Peter 5, it reads, you younger men likewise be subject to your elders.
And so what I wanted to know is, first of all, why does he pick out just younger men and also what does it mean as a young man to be subject to an elder? Well, the whole passage here is talking about leaders in the church. The whole passage in 1 Peter 5, the elders, actually the pres buddha rasa, the mature, godly men who lead the church, says Peter, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. And then he's instructing the elders and he says, feed the flock of God which is among you, take the oversight. We learn here that elders are also feeders and that's the idea of pastoring. They're also overseers, that's the word, episcopas, bishop. So we are to take oversight, feed the flock, lead the flock.
Not by constraint, in other words, not because somebody forced you to do it, but willingly. And not for money, don't ever go into any ministry for money, but because of an eager heart and eager mind. And don't lord it over the charge allotted to you, don't rule them with a rod of iron, don't be a dictator, but just be an example.
It's leadership by example. And then when the chief shepherd shall appear, the chief pastor, the pastor above all pastors, you'll receive a crown of glory that fades not away and like manner you younger submit yourselves unto the elder. All it's simply saying here is that there are in the church those godly men who are mature men, spiritual leaders in the church, and those who are younger than they are and under them should submit to them. It's just a very simple spiritual principle.
Ye younger submit to the elder. And then he adds this principle, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for god resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. As long as he's talking about elders, he just adds another word and says look, all of you that are younger should submit to those who are in leadership over you and everybody ought to have a heart of submission, everybody ought to have a heart of humility because god resists those that are proud and gives grace to those that are humble. So if you want to receive the grace of god, and what he means by that is not just the grace of salvation but the grace of blessing, the grace of pouring out favor and benediction on us, if we want to receive that we want to act in humility.
We need to learn to be submissive. It's kind of like Ephesians 5 which says submit yourselves one to another. But one of the basic principles in the church is submission to the elders. You see it in Hebrews chapter 13 where it says submit to those who are over you in the lord, bring your life into harmony underneath them, follow their example, follow their lead, follow their teaching for they have to give an account to god it says in Hebrews 13, 17. So it's just a call for folks who are under the leadership of mature godly men to follow that lead. And particularly it can be applied even that younger men should follow older men who are spiritual examples obviously. Titus has a lot to say, you might compare Titus chapter 2 with that.
Hi, my name is Melissa. I very much agree with what it says in the Bible about women are not allowed to preach in the church. Good. How do you condone or how does the Bible condone about the prophetesses in the Bible like Deborah and those? Well, the Bible definitely teaches that there were periods of time in the history of the church prophetesses. I mean obviously as you mentioned Huldah, Deborah, significant leader in the Old Testament. There were many women who were dynamic in God's kingdom in the advance of that kingdom. Certainly Esther was a unique personality although she wasn't a preacher as such. We don't know even that Huldah had some great platform from which she articulated. We know God spoke to her and in some way she passed that on.
The four daughters of Philip in the book of Acts are said to have prophesied. We don't know if they did that all the time or if they only did that once or twice. And we don't know whether they took a platform and preached every week.
We assume they did not. They are not pastors. But all that notwithstanding, you may have certain women that God uses in the Old Testament, certain women that God uses in the New Testament, and there will be certain women that God uses today in very unique roles of leadership not only in our own culture but all around the world in missions and many other places. But what we have to deal with is a very clear and very precise statement having had all those examples and having left it with God if He wishes at any given point to bring up someone who by his own anointing has a special place. We still have to follow the very clear teaching of Scripture and not violate it. And that clear teaching is found in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11. Let the women learn in silence with all subjection and I permit not a woman to teach nor to take authority over the man but to be in silence.
Now what does this refer to? Over to verse 15 of chapter 3. This is how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Now Paul writes to Timothy instruction about the church. When the church comes together in its duly defined meeting and assembly for worship and instruction a woman is not allowed to teach. That is the statement here. That's for this day and this age. There may be times when God will bring a woman into a very unique place to communicate His message in a very special way outside these kinds of limits. That might be the exception that God would choose to do in any time. But nonetheless we as a church cannot violate that clear instruction.
That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. During today's time of questions and answers here on Grace to You, I hope John answered some questions you've had. John, in that last question you touched on the subject of teaching in the church and the fact that scripture forbids women to serve as pastors. Now the issue there is simply about the different roles that God assigns to men and women.
That's it. But someone might argue that certain roles, like preaching, are inherently superior to other roles. And so women are being unfairly limited in what they can do for the church. How would you respond to that?
Well, I think, first of all, in the broadest possible sense you have to realize this. There are 66 books in the Bible. Not one of them was written by a woman. There is no Old Testament prophet with an ongoing prophetic ministry that was a woman. When Jesus chose the 12 apostles, none of them were women. When the Apostle Paul ordained elders in the churches of the New Testament, they were men.
They were one woman, men, who led and managed their families well. It's not strange, then, that the Bible says preaching, pastoring, leading the church is a responsibility that God has designed for men. It's that simple. And when people fight against that, they cannot possibly undo divine revelation. I don't know how a person can look at what I just said about the dominant role that men play in divine revelation and ministry throughout the entire scripture and think that God just sets that aside and flips things over and lets women preach if that's what they want to do. One very well-known preacher says, I don't care what anybody says.
I know my calling, and my calling is from the Lord. Well, that's not an argument for someone to violate the word of God. That's folly. That's hubris. That's pride.
That's a kind of blatant disobedience. And again, we're not saying anything negative about women. Women have the place that God has designed for them clearly laid out in scripture, lovers of their husband, lovers of their children's, keepers of the home, caring for all the people and all the needs. There are no limits on the ministry of women except those specifically stated in scripture. If women do what God called them to do, they will be fulfilled. The Lord will be honored, and the same is true for men. To help you with that, I want to mention a book called Divine Design.
And I know this is controversial, but it's not controversial in the Bible, and that's where you need to go to get the right perspective. Divine Design is the book. It looks at the special design for men and women within the context of marriage and the church, and we would love for you to get a copy. Divine Design, 270 pages available from Grace to you.
Thanks, Jon. And friend, this book is sure to answer questions that you have about God's expectations for men and women in the home and in the church. Order Divine Design when you contact us. Just call 800-55-GRACE during normal business hours. That's weekdays, 730 to 4 o'clock Pacific Time, or go to gty.org anytime. Divine Design costs $10.50 and shipping is free.
Again, to order, call our number here, 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. And remember, at the website, gty.org, you can download all of Jon's more than 3,600 messages free of charge. You can read our blog with articles by Jon and other staff members. You can download the Study Bible app, which is a great resource to help you study God's Word more consistently. The Study Bible app gives you the text of Scripture and free access to devotionals, study guides, sermons, all related to whatever passage you're studying. And for a small price, you can also add the notes from the MacArthur Study Bible.
All of those resources and more are available at gty.org. Now for Jon MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thank you for starting your week here with us and join us again tomorrow as Jon begins answering the crucial question, Is the Bible Reliable? It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
