Is God unfair in not choosing to save everyone? 'Fair' would send everyone to hell. You don't want fair, you want mercy.

John Macarthur

When believers aren’t growing, it’s almost always symptomatic of a failure to be in God’s Word. They may attend church regularly, but what they learn dissipates rapidly once they exit the building. They often complain that they’re not getting much out of church or the Christian life. They are weak and rundown when it comes to facing temptations, trials, problems, and challenges. They lack the vigor to do much of anything for the Lord. The root cause of their arrested development is spiritual malnourishment—their souls are starved for wholesome spiritual food. The Bible refers to itself as milk, bread, and meat, but spiritually a lot of Christians are trying to survive and thrive on candy, Cokes, and fries. They aren’t growing because their diet is tragically deficient. Ironically, the solution to their problems is in the very thing they refuse to feed upon—God’s Word.

John MacArthur

Bible study

Marriage itself is consummated with the literal bodily union of husband and wife. From that point on, the husband should regard the wife as his own flesh. If she hurts, he ought to feel the pain. If she has needs, he should embrace those needs as his own. He should seek to feel what she feels, desire what she desires, and in effect, give her the same care and consideration he gives his own body.

John MacArthur

A woman who is focused on worshiping God will consider carefully how she is dressed, because her heart will dictate her wardrobe and her appearance.

John MacArthur

I can see why so many people hate this book, and it only confirms to me that anxiety is the sacred cow of so many modern Christians

© Paolo Dala

Pyramidion with the Name of Huy, Deceased Shown in Adoration From Deir el-Medina, Egypt (1335 - 1295 BC) Louvre (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)

Maundy Thursday 2023: The Passover In Egypt & Communion

...at the height of Egypt’s power, in the amazing 18th dynasty of Egypt, God Jehovah devastated one entire nation in an incredible display of supernatural miracles like the world had never seen, all to let His people go.

Finally, there was the death of the firstborn... God came through that land, and He said, “I’m going to take the life of every firstborn child, and every firstborn of the animals. They’re going to die in one night when the angel of death passes. And He took Pharaoh’s own son, and then and only then did Pharaoh finally say, “Get out!” And then he changed his mind and tried to chase them, and God drowned the entire Egyptian army in the Red Sea.

Listen, when God says, “I’m going to let my people go,” He’s going to let His people go. If a Jew ever questioned the saving, redeeming, delivering power of God, all he had to do was go back to this tremendous event; that was the touchstone of God’s redemptive power. And God wanted them to never forget it, and so God gave them the Passover, and said, “Let it be a memorial, that I am a God mighty to save.”

And so they kept Passover year, after year, after year, after year, until one night there came a very special Passover, like no other Passover had ever been. This Passover was special. Jesus was gathered in an upper room, and He was gathered there with His disciples to eat the Passover; that’s why He was there. It was the night before He would go to the cross, and it was time to celebrate the Passover, to remember God’s saving power, and to remember it in terms of the deliverance from Egypt. But in the middle of that Passover Jesus did an amazing thing, an amazing thing. Just as they were ready to look backwards to Egypt as the great evidence of God’s saving power, Jesus transformed the Passover into something brand new.

You want to know how He did it? This is how the Passover went. The presiding person pronounced a blessing called the Kiddush. That blessing was over the first cup of wine which was red, and then the wine was drunk, and then passed to the others to drink. It was followed by a dipping of the unleavened bread into what was known as bitter herbs: the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs. Bitter herbs were kind of a fruit sauce. That is the sop that Jesus dipped with Judas.

Then came an explanation of the meaning of Passover. And then came the food for the meal, the sacrificial lamb; and it was to be eaten, because God passed over the lamb, where the lamb’s blood was sprinkled, and saved the firstborn. And then they sang the Hallel: Psalms 113 and 114, the first part of it.

And then the leader of the Passover picked up the second cup of wine. And then after that, he picked up the unleavened bread and he blessed God, and he ate the unleavened bread. And then he picked up a third cup of wine. And at that moment something amazing happened. Jesus, who was the leader of this Passover, when He got to the unleavened bread, said, “This is My” - what? - “body, which is given for you.” And when He came to the cup, He said, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do as oft as you do it in remembrance of” - Egypt? No. What? - “Of Me.” And Jesus literally transformed the Passover into the Lord’s Table.

Now, beloved, when we look to see God as a Savior, where do we look? To Egypt? To where? To Calvary; to the Cross. Listen, if you think it was a mighty display of God’s saving power in Egypt, look again at the cross. There He didn’t deliver people from a nation, He delivered people from sin - an infinitely greater miracle. And so Jesus turned the Passover into the Communion.

Beloved, when we come to the Lord’s Table now, we come to remember the power of our redeemer God as displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray together. While your heads are bowed, let me just speak for a moment to you.

The Table of the Lord is just that: the Lord’s Table. He turned the Passover into the Communion. He said, “From now on, the bread is representative of My body; the cup is representative of My blood. I am the living illustration of God’s redeeming power.”

John MacArthur God vs. the Gods of Egypt

Obedience motivated by love for God not only becomes believers’ supreme objective but also their supreme pleasure and satisfaction.

John MacArthur

"For the faithful, Spirit-filled Christian, every place becomes a place of prayer."

John F. MacArthur Jr.

Prayer is not an attempt to get God to agree with you or provide for your selfish desires, but that it is both an affirmation of His sovereignty, righteousness, and majesty and an exercise to conform your desires and purposes to His will and Glory

John MacArthur, Alone with God

Truth has no degrees or shades. A half truth is a whole lie, and a white lie is really black.

John MacArthur

In the most profound of human agony, for the Christian there is great hope.  There is triumph, no matter how deep the trouble.

-John MacArthur

Books of 2023 #29

Good News by John MacArthur

Pride and anxiety focuses on self. Whereas humility focuses on others.

John MacArthur