One of the Monday through Friday daily activities I engage in, during my morning commute to work, is listening to John MacArthur’s daily radio broadcast.
(If you’re not a regular listener, go to Grace To You Radio for more information.)
Somehow – I consider it providence – JMac’s message is almost precisely timed to match the traveling time from my carport to my parking spot at the office. On days when lunatics abound on the road and snarling traffic extends my commute time, then providence allows for me to perhaps replay the previous day’s broadcast. Thus, edification abounds even though my commute might slowly advance!
So this morning, as I parked my horseless buggy in its normal slot, JMac was closing the broadcast. Today’s message, btw, is “Dealing With Spiritual Blindness, Part 1B.” You can listen to it HERE.
It is in his closing dialogue from today’s broadcast in which MacArthur gives a defense of the Bible against an unnamed, but “very popular preacher.”
You may surmise the identity of this “popular preacher,” as I did.
(However, I could be wrong … if there’s another “popular preacher” degrading the Word of God like Stanley, to whom MacArthur could be referring, please let me know! Yeah, I know … there are lots of them out there! But then, that “wide path” is brimming with more Scripture-denying false teachers than my occasionally congested commute is crowded with accident-prone automotive creepers.)
Here’s what MacArthur said …
“Jesus said, ‘man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’ – not some of the words – but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
“I’ve been listening to a very popular preacher lately who is saying terribly disappointing things – ‘we need to remove the Bible’ … ‘we’ve got too much Bible’ … ‘people aren’t interested in the Bible’ …
“and yet,” continues MacArthur, “ man lives by every word out of the mouth of God. That IS the Bible.” (Emphasis mine, but implied in the audio)
“If you want to live – really live as a Christian – if you want to really begin to live as a non-Christian and go from death to life …it’s the Word of God.”
“This is our spiritual food and our nourishment … our source of growth, usefulness, power, ministry, and effectiveness.”
But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4
(For more on Andy Stanley, go HERE.)
[Contributed by Bud Ahlheim]
