May John rest in peace.
Three preachers have earned the respect of pastors in the Protestant world over the past forty years: Tim Keller, John MacArthur, and John Piper. Only John Piper remains among us.
Today, Pastor John MacArthur died. It is a sad day.
When I was newly ordained caring for a yoked parish in Wisconsin’s dairyland, the godly wife of a baker over in Portage, Wisconsin, loaned me her full set of tapes of John’s sermons on First and Second Timothy. I devoured them. Truthfully, they were a spiritual lifeline I held to tightly as I did my work.
Serving in the large mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), it was John who anchored me to the authority of Scripture and accountability to our Lord and Master in my pastoral responsibilities. To this day, heavy on my conscience is his sermon on 1Timothy 5:19-21:
Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.
With respect to the accountability of pastors and elders, their discipline is to be done “without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.” John’s emphasis on the danger of partiality was intense, and I never forgot it. With regard to the elders I served alongside and with regard to the pastors and myself who led our congregations, it was etched on my heart and soul.
We had occasion to discipline ourselves and one another, and John’s preaching of God’s Word produced the fruit of our conscientiousness. It rang in my ears.
Like the Apostles Paul, Peter, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and Lloyd-Jones, John had his failures. Notable among them was his promotion of his family members’ financial wellbeing, as well as his denial that it was the preachers’ duty to preach in a way that brought conviction of sin to those sitting under their preaching. He claimed this was the Holy Spirit’s work, not his. This is terribly wrong.
The preacher must humble himself to do the work of preaching for the conviction of sin of the souls under their care. This is what the Holy Spirit is pleased to use in each of our lives. All of Scripture testifies to this.
But who among us pastors stands before the holy God spotless and blameless of failures peculiar to each of us?
Does naming this failure demean Pastor MacArthur?
Not at all. As my Dad used to say, “Criticism is the manure in which God’s people grow best.”
Thank God for Pastor John MacArthur. He was a better man—a better pastor—than I.
May God comfort his family and his flock.
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. (Proverbs 4:18)
