Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk the truth now. I can't hide it. I can hold it in the morning. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.
This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you what. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak. Your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host.
Today's special edition of True Talk Live, we pause. We reflect and we give honor where certainly honor is due. Dr. John MacArthur, pastor, teacher, theologian, and faithful expositor of God's word, has gone home to be with the Lord. He's Changed his address.
Certainly, he's had a better day than anybody we could imagine. Uh but whether you agreed with Every stance or wrestled through his bold convictions, one thing's undeniable: John MacArthur lived for the glory of God and the authority of Scripture.
So today we ask this question that matters, right? How has John MacArthur's life impacted you? How has John MacArthur's life impacted you. And we would just I mean, it would make our day, believe me, to hear from you. 866-348-788.
Four is the number to call in and share. 866-348 7884. His voice shaped generations from pulpits to podcasts, from books to broadcasts, right? Even the study Bible.
So let's talk about truth. Let's talk about legacy. Let's talk about the kind of life that finishes the race well. This is Truth Talk Live. Today, we remember a man who stood unflinching.
He did for the word of God. And who better to share this? show with me than my dear dear friend and Dr. Date, the word John MacArthur lover. I know Dwayne Carson.
So welcome, my friend. Thank you, Robbie. And today is, it's a special day to remember, reflect on a man of God who did impact previous generation. Uh, as he pastored for 60 years, I mean, the man died at 86 and he was still preaching, and um, his legacy is going to go on and on. I over and over today, I've Made mention Hebrews 11:4, he being dead still speaks.
And what he has put out there for the Christian world is going to be available for decades, for centuries. Absolutely, absolutely. But have fun. We already got a caller and we need you. 866-348-7884-866-34 Truth.
We got Brian is in Dayton, Ohio. Brian, good morning or good evening. Depending on where you are, if you're in Israel or something, you might be. But anyway, I'm sorry, Brian. Go ahead.
Um Or then um Kristen, for a long time, and well, I thought it was, but. I um just heard a message just a couple of days ago really. which was really surprising when I heard he'd passed. But it was the message on why why Christians why most Christians will miss the rapture. Yeah it was such a um Uh convicting Message that I feel my life has changed ever since I I Really?
Yes. Um He pointed out a lot of things that I thought were right in my heart, in my Life. that I thought were okay. And just listening to him in The way he'd presents the message and He's like no other I've heard. He's just amazing.
Yeah, he convictions are amazing. What, I mean, if you could share with us, you know. What was it? that you felt like, Oh man I need to do some work here because I'm guessing, Brian, there's lots of us out there that have the same thing that we could be convicted about. Uh I I can't really pinpoint it.
It's just um Let me think. Uh Basically, talking about lip service and going through the motions and thinking that you're right. Just because you you go to church week after week And you sing the songs, and you listen to the messages, and you might even know scripture, and you might even be able to look up the pages real quick. And and and it was just really convincing like What the way he put it. And I just owe him a a great deal of gratitude.
For that. Yeah. Yeah, uh it's It's really, you know, those heart checks that, you know, God gave him the anointing. Yeah. And God had that message for me, had it for you.
It was those times when you just heard it and you went, oh man, I've never seen that that way. And boy, you know, that's. That's impactful, right, Doc? Absolutely. He Took on the easy believism that came out in the 80s: let's just get people to raise their hands, say they got saved.
And the gospel according to Jesus was a wake-up book of what is genuine salvation, what does it mean to be born again and to live for the Lord. And uh I did. I found myself so many times listening to his messages with that examination taking place. And that's what Scripture says. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to examine ourselves.
And it really put, he had a way of teaching God's word that would cause you to think: okay, is this really who I am? Am I living the way Scripture teaches me to live? Yeah, absolutely beautiful. Brian, thank you. Thank you so much for your call.
It means the world to us. And we appreciate you listening to the Truth Network. And you know, while we still got you, Brian, do you know what John MacArthur's message was today on his website? I do not. Mm.
So This kind of blows me away, but what it what I want to get the wording exactly right, Doc. What is it? What Heaven is that's today's message. Today's radio broadcast for July the fifteenth, twenty twenty-five. What Heaven Yes.
Now, did they preempt, or was that just the way it happened? But here's John MacArthur on his website. You can hear what heaven is from a man now who is in heaven experiencing that. Faith has become sight. Isn't that awesome?
And as just a side note that I would make over the weekend, I was listening, I was at Nikita's. Man can't Reunion, and he had a pastor there speaking, and he talked about heaven, how we often miss. the glory of it. Do you realize Okay. That it is 1500, get this, or actually 1380 if you get right down to the miles, 1380 miles high.
So just to give you high, just to give you a little perspective on 1380 miles high, the space stations like at 230. Right? The moon is at like 700.
So we're talking high-rise condominiums, like even yourself.
So you think about, right?
So the bottom line of what you just said, Robbie, is for every listener, know this. There's always room for you to go to heaven. There's never going to be a sign that says no vacancy. He's got, this is the most incredible place with room after room after room.
So I heard a preacher and I preached it myself in revivals. Listen, there's room for you. Oh, man. I'll tell you what. As I started to get that around, my mind wrapped around the fact that the space station is only 200 and some odd miles, 15 Fifth.
15,000 miles. I mean, that's crazy. Yes. Or excuse me, 1,500. 1380 degrees.
Dallas. Right, but high is just a different. But when you think about what that is, I just never, never, never dreamed it.
Well, thank you, Brian. God bless you, my friend. Have a great week. All right, so how about you? What how is John MacArthur, one of his messages, or maybe you went to his college.
Maybe you've got his study Bible, whatever it is, we would love to hear how he impacted your life. 866-348-7884. 866-348-7884. Handbacked to Dr. Carson's wife's light on a life on a street in New York.
We're going to hear that story when we come back. We need yours. Give us a call. We'll be right back. Truth top line.
You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. Today's special Truth Talk Live, actually, as we pause, we reflect in honor, where honor is due. Dr. John MacArthur, pastor, teacher, theologian, and Just really an amazing servant of God went to be with the Lord actually last night, as I understand it.
And certainly he's impacted many, many, many lives for those of us who work for the Truth Network. He's impacted us greatly because Stu himself went and played basketball at the Masters College, and of course, good, good, good friends with the Mark Arthur family. as well as his daughter Hope, and I went there, met His son-in-law there. They both went to college there. If you listen to Hope in the Morning here on the station, you'll know that.
that she uh attended um Emily attended Grace Church for many, many years, as well as her whole family. And again, we have all sorts of Carrie Hardy and his church here in town, very, very connected to John MacArthur's church.
So a lot of roots. But we got to hear about.
Well, I got to give the number out one more time because I'm shocked that actually more people haven't called about some message or something. John MacArthur spoke into their life. 866-348-7884. 866-348-7884. So.
For those who don't know, um Dr. Date the Word Carson has an amazing wife by the name of Danita, who is just a joy to be around, I can assure you.
So I'm definitely excited to know what how she was impacted by John MacArthur. Me. No you. Yeah, I apologize. No, not Danita, but you yourself.
Yes. Okay, here we go. 1985, I'm a Liberty University student, and I'm part of an inner city ministry team in New York City. We're at Manhattan Bible Church. And of all the things, while we're there, there's a New York City Bible conference held by John MacArthur.
And so I'm thrilled as a pastoral major, and here's Dr. MacArthur teaching.
Well, At the end of the day, I'm coming down the sidewalk there to go to where my living quarters are. And there's Dr. MacArthur standing on the side of the sidewalk, just waiting for a ride to go eat. I could not let him stand there by himself, so I went up to him, introduced myself, and I've always had somewhere, I don't know when they started, but always have questions ready to ask. And so I said, if you don't mind, since you're waiting, can I just ask you a few questions?
And so I asked him about life, I asked him about ministry, and I wanted to know about. What are the keys to studying God's Word? And one of the big questions to ask Robbie was, if your library was catching on fire, what five books would you grab?
Well, the book that he said to me that blew me away that I didn't know anything about was The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge by R.A. Torrey. And that book, even yesterday, I was using the digital copy because it's a cross-reference. And it helped me out so much to understand what a passage of scripture is saying because scripture does complement each other. But then I ask him, what's the key?
What would you say is the real key to preaching? And he said. Keep You're a butt. In the seat. Until God releases you.
And that's a direct quote. He said, in preparation to preach, you keep your butt in the seat until God releases you. And I can't, there's in one of my Bibles, I have that written down. And again, I've kind of caught me off guard that he would say, keep your butt in the seat. But he said, you've got to stay there.
Until God says It's okay to leave. And I got to tell you, Robbie, over and over, as I've done sermon preparations through the years, there comes that moment, I'm tired, okay. I'm not done with you. And I can tell story after story because they became memorable moments. Because when you do stay there, let God continue to massage the message.
He brings those jewels, those nuggets of truth that you can bring to God's people. But it goes back to what he said. You've got to stay there. And I put this on Facebook today, and one person's already commented that that statement is going to become one of their. main statements because like when you're having your quiet stay there.
Let God speak to you. And so I only had 20 minutes. that afternoon, but they were twenty minutes that changed my life. Wow. Wow.
All right, how about you? 866-348-7884. How has John MacArthur impacted your life? 866-348-7884. We got Bruce is in Louisville.
So Bruce, I love your name just to begin with because that's my middle name. Are you with us, Bruce? Yes, can you hear me okay? In the car. Yeah, I hear you great now.
So that sounds great. Yes, I've. I've listened to John MacArthur probably for 40 years. Uh O on the radio, he'd been coming for us a just idea Dear teacher to me. In fact, today I had to go out to get some work done on my car.
I hadn't finished some reading I wanted to do and actually I have my MacArthur study Bible with me.
So I have loved reading that over the years. I relish these footnotes. In fact, some years ago when I uh a former pastor in my church in Winston-Salem uh preached on something and I forget What it was, but at the end of it, I went down and talked to him briefly. Very amicable conversation. I think that's the I said, by the way, John McCraws's notes said this or that.
And the pastor said back to me, Did I get it right?
So he's uh anyway, obviously uh such a well known and a classic guy. And over the years, I can't think of anyone I've really enjoyed listening to or reading or. of uh just being around nothing that they've been doing personally like you guys have. But I always enjoyed that. And in fact, this morning my wife kind of woke me up and said she'd look at her phone and said, John MacArthur had passed away and My first reaction was I raised my hand in praise.
I thought, well, praise the Lord, here he is, you know. I'm so saddened by it, but you know As time goes by, we lose more and more of these spiritual giants. And so I just want to thank you all for doing this program today on. Uh in honor of him.
So I think that's tremendous. But thank you for the good work you're doing. And of course, I love Truth Network and all that's going on there and both you guys. Yeah, Bruce. I I Bruce.
I'm so grateful for you and your call and your commitment to God's word to John MacArthur Study Bible. I can see you doing that. I actually can. And I can see you walking up. Bruce, it's been a joy to know you all these years and.
I didn't realize who you were at first, but now I know.
So, God bless you and tell your wife I said hi. You guys are a joy. I will do it. Same back to you guys and all the folks there. Thanks so much for what you're doing.
Take care. Thank you. Thanks, Bruce. We got Rebecca is in Salt Lake City. Rebecca, you're on Truth Talk Live.
Yes, how are you today? As for me, this is the first I heard about John MacArthur's death. I'm so sad. My heart is almost broken. I got tears in my eyes so much.
I loved him. Yeah. But um anyway, when I listen to John MacArthur every day, every day, and everybody knows they cannot talk to me, call me, or open my door or anything when he's on the air. That's how much I treasured him. And um he just soothed me.
Every time I listened to him, he soothed me my soul. And it it's almost like he I don't know, he was he was just so gifted. And he gave me so much. And I'm so sad and of course I have it as a cars of study Bible and I think everybody that's a Christian should have it. I totally agree with that.
Yeah, that was the One of your Bibles that you studied to learn how to preach, right? Yes. Preached many a times. Oh, what a testimony. Thank you for sharing this.
Yeah, Rebecca, I'm so grateful. I'm more than welcome. Grateful for your call, and I'm grateful for your heart. For your love. But I also wanted to say, I'll bet you his mansion is gigantic.
I'm sure it is. It's all that.
So, Rebecca, God bless you. Thank you so much for your call. And God bless you as well, honey. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
What say you? 866-348-7884 866-348-7884. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Today, a special edition of Truth Talk Live, as we pause, re-reflect, and give honor. Uh to Dr.
John MacArthur, teacher, theologian, faithful expositor. I mean, when you think of expository preaching, how could you not think of John MacArthur? He has gone home to be with the Lord. you know, it's amazing when you start to hear these stories, but we would love to hear yours. We know he impacted your life.
He's been on this network since the inception. Because again, Stu's relationship with doctor MacArthur Oh uh was really amazing in so many different ways. I never went to the NRB that that wasn't some part of what Stu was going to be doing. I remember the year that he spoke. You know, it was it was cool.
But one of the um But let me say again, That your calls were what make all the world to all of us. 866-348-7884. 866-348-7884. But you're just. Talking about a special Father's Day, Doctor.
That you had in Los Angeles. Or actually in California, not in Los Angeles.
Well, it was in Los Angeles. I'm a Dodger fan. And so one year, my oldest son, Kirk, said, Dad, I'm giving you a gift. We're going to go and see the Dodgers play in Dodger Stadium. And he worked it out with...
points and stuff to fly there. He did all the detail, worked out all the details. And we were going to go see the LA Dodgers play a weekend series. And then he said, but Dad, on Father's Day. We're not going to be able to go see the Dodgers play.
I've got two things that we've got to do because I know you love both of them. And I'm like, okay, what? He said, Dad, number one, Ronald Reagan's library. It's not too far away. They're doing a luncheon, and we're going to go there for Father's Day's luncheon.
But before we do that. We're going to go to John MacArthur's Church, Grace Community, so that we can enjoy a service together, father-son. And, Robbie, I'm telling you. It brings tears to my eyes to think about that Sunday. And so we went.
and and got to see This man that I have so much respect for, but as a pastor. And to be a part of his church service, that he's just the pastor. He's not some. Um celebrity. Uh he he he led, he came up, he prayed for his church, his people.
Uh they now you had said that when Rebecca said how he Comforted her that you talked about how his prayer that day had. Just it touched your soul. It was so meaningful. It wasn't through the motions. It was just genuine praying for different needs of people in the church.
And then he preached, but we also observed the Lord's Supper. And I've always found that. Uh As I grew up, the Lord's Supper was something you just kind of added on. And for me, it was Dr. W.A.
Criswell at First Baptist Dallas. The first time I saw communion wasn't something you just added on, it was a worshipful time.
So, as I was there that Sunday, I was wondering, how will he handle the communion service? It was incredible. As I'm sitting beside my son, and we're. thinking about what the Lord had done for us. and how God had become my Father on Father's Day.
And it was just very, very meaningful.
So there there's so many different ways to think about doctor MacArthur from the standpoint of the radio, but also his books, also the conferences, the college he started to train pastors. But He's also, yes, a pastor. And I got to believe there are a lot of people today like Rebecca who they're not grieving as the world does, but they're hurt. They hurt because a man that pastored them is no longer there to shepherd them. Yeah, that's beautiful.
I mean, absolutely amazing. And you had shared earlier. With me, that not only was John MacArthur's father a pastor. But his grandfather was a pastor. And isn't it amazing how God honors those generations, right?
And he said. um what you told me was that he got more sermons, material from his grandfather gave him a great big head start on his ministry, that those things were handed down to him, those sermons. And the fact that, again, when you take the time to write your sermons out. You're able to pass them on.
Now, we think about typing them. There's a lot easier ways to store things, but a lot of people, pastors, never wrote out their sermons.
Well, then you don't have them to pass on. His grandfather wrote out his sermons so he could pass them on. And as MacArthur started his ministry, some of his early books, he had his outlines. That's what it was. Based on the outline, that would then lead to the commentaries that are so rich with the nuggets of truth that we can glean.
And it's on his website as well, which I always appreciated about John MacArthur: I could go to his website, Grace2You, type in any subject or any scripture, and get information, and I didn't have to pay for it. He had a mindset of what God had given him was free to everyone else to use. And I've been greatly blessed to be able to go to a website. and get Truth that I can share with other people and I don't have to pay for it. And when you're in the ministry, especially like I was years ago, you just don't have the money to be buying all these different things.
Right. Every sermon, right? Yeah. And the broadcast and all that grace to you. And it's a phenomenal resource, right?
Just a phenomenal resource.
Well, I remember Rebecca talking about hearing him preach on the radio. Going all the way back to the 80s. He was on a radio station in Lynchburg at 5:30 in the morning. And there were a number of Students, seminary students, who set their alarm for 5:15 so that every morning at 5:30 they could listen to John MacArthur preach.
Well were you one of those? No.
Okay. Yeah. 866, the number to call in and share. I love honesty. You know, it's good.
Well, I delivered newspapers, so I didn't have the I was still working at that time, but that's how I knew there were guys listening to John MacArthur at 5:30. They did not want to miss what he was teaching. Yeah. I know you're impacted. I know you've got a story for us.
We would love to hear it. 866-348-7884. 866-348-7884. And I did miss speak about the moon. I started to say that it's way further, you know, way further than 15,000 miles.
It's like 280,000. Oh, excuse me. But the space station, that was true. It's only like 70 miles up there and away you go.
So it's still plenty of room. Plenty of room. plenty of room and uh you know it's going to be amazing um And it's interesting you say that, because I remember the first time I saw David Jeremiah. Give a sermon. You know, and you know, based on our seating that we had, we were sitting in the front row with Stu.
And because if you don't know, Stu and David Jeremiah, Dr. Jeremiah are very, very good friends as well. And Uh I'm looking and he is reading every word he is saying. And word for word, you can see his notes right there, and he's turning the pages. And I'm like, man, that's impressive.
I mean, it just kind of blew me away. But you talk about write out your sermons. I don't know how many pages it was, but every single word. And so I asked him about it. I don't remember.
Somebody else with me asking, it might have been me because I was very curious. And he said, I don't I don't want to I w I want to be sure to deliver every word that God gave me. And that's good. Right. You know, 'cause I just it it just blew me away.
Uh and somebody called in while we were talking about that, I would love to hear it. 866-348-7884. You can call back. We'll be we'll be right here. 866-348-7884.
But that's fascinating that that um His grandfather had those written out for him, and he was able to get. Um You know, how cool would that be? When you really think about it, if your grandfather. Mm-hmm. had had been a pastor all these years, and you had his sermons written out.
No.
and the things that he had studied and uh You know, it's the same way, wouldn't you like to have John MacArthur's Bible? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. You know, that's that's you know, there was one thing I've certainly a study Bible, very cool, but to actually have, you know, to see where he underlined it, and I'm hopefully somebody in his family is going to have that keepsake. That had to be something, wouldn't it? Yeah, and to be thinking for ourselves, to be doing that.
Not long ago, I did my aunt's funeral, and as they were going through her stuff, she'd come down with dementia, and so they were there at the nursing home picking things up, and they see her Bible. And, um All of a sudden I'm getting a phone call, Dwayne. You're not going to believe what we found in Mom's Bible. And I said, I got bring it to me And she had written out all these different things in that Bible as she came across certain verses of scripture and some of them were directed right to different children or grandchildren I said, This is incredibly rich because here's a legacy. That's going to live on.
And so it's, I'm now with my Bibles for my children, my grandson, right now, hopefully more down the road, but that, that. they could have Those Grandad's Thinking. thoughts on different scriptures. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
Same thing with journals. Yep. And, you know, I. And the neat thing is that I there's so many different ways you can do that. Digitally, these days, that it can be shared a lot of different ways.
And it can be shared if you're not a writer, you can speak it out. That's it. Yeah. Oh, the technology we have, um We look at what Job MacArthur did with radio. And we think, what will happen in the next 25 years of how we can get the gospel to the world?
Because that was his mindset. He was doing radio. How do I get God's word taught to as many people so that their lives will be transformed, so that they can live as much like the Lord as possible and for the Lord as possible? As much as possible. Right.
And so. you know, like Stu's dad, who obviously you know, and and and Stu's uncle, Ed, um that that founded Salem, you know, they were one of the first people to Put John MacArthur on the air. And they were all these pioneers. That before we had all the stuff that we're so used to hearing on Christian radio across the country these days, all happened because of. you know, these pioneers, one of which was John MacArthur.
So amazing, you know, to be able to share this with you guys today, but I'd like to share more, so you got to call us. 866-348-7884. 866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Hopefully with your calls.
Truth talks. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to this special edition of Truth Talk Live today. You know, we pause and we reflect on an amazing man of God, John MacArthur, pastor, teacher. expositor or extraordinaire, like n you know, one for the generations, uh uh clearly.
Uh and I bet you have stories along this you know he he taught something maybe that you just taught. You know, three weeks before you heard his message, and you went, Oh my word, I didn't have any idea it had all that in it. Whatever it may have been in your world, however, that worked, maybe you went to his college, maybe you were touched in some way. I can assure you, all of us that are listening right now have been touched by John MacArthur because Stu Epperson, our fearless leader and the founder of Truth Broadcasting, that was his alma mater. He went to the master's college to play basketball.
But he really went to study God's Word and obviously he could have played basketball a lot of different places. Stu could have played any almost anywhere he wanted to. But he went there because um. of the education that he would get. And and and clearly um it You have lots of stories along these lines since, you know, we're waiting for that next call at 86634-87884.
So, your campus pastor, since you ended up being the campus pastor, but when you were at Liberty, your campus pastor ended up going to work for him, right? Yeah, Daniel Henderson was at Liberty, and in 1987, John MacArthur reached out to him for him to come. and be there on staff at Grace Community. And Daniel shared on Facebook. Today, about some things that were very memorable for him, being a part of his team.
And it jogged a memory for me because when Daniel came back to Liberty to visit, we wanted to know: hey, what's it like to work for John MacArthur? And Daniel said, Well, it's humbling. He shared how he had been. In his last semester at Liberty, he had preached through the book of James on Sunday nights. And I remember that.
Rich stuff. Daniel's a great Bible teacher. And so Daniel gets to Grace community. And on the first Sunday he's there, John MacArthur says, take your Bible and turn to James. As the next few weeks, we're going to be going through the book of James.
Well, a few weeks really is a few months, almost a year, as he breaks down all these different verses. And Daniel told us how he was so excited about getting to hear MacArthur teach on James after he had just taught on it. And so, okay, affirmation's coming. And as soon as the sermon starts, Daniel said, I realized he's teaching things I didn't teach. And then he said.
He's teaching things I didn't even know. And I'm pulling out my notepad now, going, Oh, I've got to, ooh, wow. And I'm writing all this stuff down that here I had studied and preached on the book of James and I didn't even come close to what really needed to be getting taught. And he said, that's what it was like. The man really opened up the word of God.
And if you would pray, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things from your word, Psalms 119, 18, John MacArthur would do that for you. He knew how to open up the scriptures to bring it to life. Isn't that amazing? Oh, that's a beautiful story. How about you?
It touched something. I know. 866-348-7884. 866-348-7884. You know, um.
About two months ago, Emily Curtis, who does Hope in the Morning. We interviewed this pastor in Canada that had been incarcerated for opening his church during COVID. And that's an amazing, you can go on the podcast on Hope in the Morning and watch that interview. But during the interview, he talked time and time again on how the one church in America that stood behind him and was willing to take the stance he did in America if it came to that was John MacArthur himself. Because the man had conviction, you can say what you want to.
He had convictions. When he believed something, man, he believed it, and he certainly believed that churches should be open during COVID. You know, it it it's a neat thing to, from my standpoint, to to see a man stand uh in the face of of you know, great turmoil really that was going on at the time. Yeah. MacArthur believed that the way this thing was being carried out.
where other organizations were being able to be open the churches were being closed. He saw that as persecution. He saw someone trying to take advantage of we can keep Christians from going to church. And I'm not backing down here.
Now, if everything was closed, that's totally different. If it's a danger point, that's totally different. But that's what he saw the hypocrisy of it. And he took the stand. We are not going to close this church.
We're open on Sunday. And his people, they didn't have to come.
Okay. One of the things, he's not, you know, he wasn't just on radio there, he was on TV. And so they don't have to come. But they did. Because being together That Hebrews chapter 10, that sharpening, that being able to consider one another, to love on one another was crucial.
And the body of Christ, this very day, I think we're still hurting some from our churches being shut down during COVID. We've got to get back to that fellowship because it's fellowship that builds the body up, that encouragement that we give to one another. Yeah, as I recall the numbers of that pastor that remained open in Canada, like when it started his church was like two fifty and and today it's like six hundred. And the Prime Minister that Was responsible for a lot of the shenanigans, essentially, that happened, that he ended up incarcerated, which is a really interesting story if you hear it all. You know, it ended up costing him the next election.
And, you know, God had other plans for it. You know, sure did. What would go on to happen there? And, you know, it was really encouraging to me to hear his um voice for John MacArthur and and what he stood for. And and again, uh those people who attend Carrie Hardy's uh church know as well that that that then and Emily that does that show uh You know, that that ministry has fed so many for so long uh and I just Praise God.
Because I know, I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that, you know, I've known Stu since he got back and that my life has been so impacted, so greatly impacted by the ministry of John MacArthur and Stuve t does for us on Wednesdays a thing called Wednesday and the Word and uh it just drips with uh Bible study techniques from John MacArthur: how to take each word and find out what the richness of that word is. And you shared something during the break that, again, I almost wish that we could just run through the break so everybody could hear some of the stuff that you said. But there was another Bible study secret that he told you that day when you had that 20 minutes with him that I thought was profound and something that people should know.
Well, when you do Bible study, You are you're looking at grammar. Yeah, stuff that I never thought I would need to ever know when I was in grade school turns out to be extremely critical.
Well, when it comes to Christianity, John MacArthur said. Find the verb. Find the verb. And because Christianity is action-oriented. And as I've heard him teach in other things, Settings.
This was just a quick statement to me about find the verb. But he talked about, again, we have an Old Testament. We have the different books from the Torah and the history and the books of wisdom, the books of prophecy. They're all pointing to Jesus coming. And then you've got the Gospels and then you've got Acts.
But when it comes down to Christianity, living out your Christian faith, you want to do a deep search. In the epistles, Paul and Peter and John, Jude, James, they're all laying out for us. How the Christian life is to be lived. And so he brought out: do in those epistles, just keep looking for the verb. What's he telling you to do?
And James is big on that because he has like 52 imperatives. We as Christians are not to be passive. We have things to do. I mean, I have a thing with Nathan Word where we have 56 one-anothers. There are things we're supposed to be doing for each other, and that's what builds up the body of Christ.
Find the verb, Robbie. Find the verb. And for those of us who are not as literate as you, that. Yeah. What's when you say an imperative, what's when you said it had 52 imperatives, I was sure.
Yes, imperative from the Greek is the action-oriented. It's whatever the it's do this. It's a command to do. It's not just knowledge that you would have. James one, two The most ridiculous statement maybe in all the Bible.
an imperative, count it all joy. Count. it all joy the verb count i gotta put it in the Uh ledger. As this is going to be good for me. It's like, count it all, joy, what?
When you encounter various trials.
So that that's what an imperative is. I love it. I love it. And that you know, that very line, by the way, is in if you've ever seen the movie in Lawfully Yours, which is just a brilliant movie about this girl who goes to church, never really been to church, and the pastor stands up and starts to preach from James 1, and she stops him and she says, Did you just say that I'm supposed to count this all joy. That's the most ridiculous thing.
She says that. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. And he says, well, it's in the Bible. James won. And she goes, What did James win?
Well, thank you for sharing this time with us, with John MacArthur and his memory. And certainly he is in an amazing place right now. And we look forward to where that all takes us. But thanks, Doc, so much for all your precious memories. Thank you, Russia.
