Gary SIDE-SERMONS Monica! John MacArthur’s Missing Courage

March 10, 2018 by Monica Dennington 0 Comments

Gary SIDE-SERMONS Monica by pulling up a tweet from the Swinging Shepherd’s Conference (#shepcon2018 ) quoting John MacArthur: “What I see missing is courage. Be a man! Act like Men!”

Monica takes you to Scripture to find out:

WHY manhood is an acting job for religious men who deny natural affection for women
WHY they are all trying to “recover” their Biblical manhood
HOW MUCH COURAGE it actually takes for men like MacArthur to preach the Gospel
WHO Scripture says JESUS followed in order to find His

The Shepherd’s Conference is an annual same-sex gathering of pastors who ban wives from attending, prevent women from speaking or leading in church, and persecute women who preach the Gospel.

From the Shepherd’s conference website:

TRANSCRIPT

(Scriptures added)

“What I see missing is courage…be a man…act like men!” ~Pastor John MacArthur #ShepCon2018

“You are totally distracting me, I’m talking about the signs of the times! Gary wants to talk about the Swinging Shepherds Conference— you know, that conference of men who don’t have natural affection for women so they ban their wives from their conference?—Hmm, I wonder what those guys are doing? They won’t even let their wives in.”

“Yeah, we’ll talk about John MacArthur in just a second, Gary, I’m talking about the signs of the times…Okay, I have to give it back, so I will address Mr. MacArthur.

I think this is a quote from Mr. MacArthur. According to @ChuckONeal, Mr. MacArthur said:

“What I see missing is courage…be a man…act like men!”

You know what…I know he’s quoting a translation of the Bible when he says “act like men,” but these guys really are acting.

They’re so worried about “recovering Biblical manhood,” and they wouldn’t have to worry about recovering Biblical manhood if they hadn’t lost it.

You know, John MacArthur can talk about courage.

I did a blog on John MacArthur taking a hard line on how Jesus said you have to sell your possessions and give to the poor, and how these prosperity preachers don’t believe that. Well, at that time John MacArthur was making well over $100,000 dollars a year. [CORRECTION: MacArthur made between $665,000-$905,000 p/year in 2011.]

He had not done that [renounced his possessions] himself. He was just grading himself on a curve, looking at these other guys.

But listen, when you are living rich…Jesus said to the Pharisees, you have your reward now. Because all men speak well of you. You have the seats of honor in the synagogue. That describes John MacArthur.

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” (Luke 6:24 NIV)

“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:5 NET)

“Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26 NET)

“Everything they do is done for people to see…they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.” (Matthew 23:5a, 6-7 NIV)

He’s got all this money, he’s got all this honor, all this glory, he writes all his books and people listen to his words. Jesus talks about people who come in their own name, by the authority of their own words. He said that person comes for their own glory. But a person who comes just reading the Bible to you or just speaking what God has said, that person doesn’t have any honor.

“The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” (John 7:18 NET)

“For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God…” (John 3:34a NIV)

“For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (John 12:49-50 NIV)

Jesus said, I come to you in my Father’s name— just speaking what I hear Him say, not coming in my own name— and you don’t respect me. But, He said, if someone comes in his own name and his own authority, you’ll respect him.

“I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” (John 5:43 NET)

Well that’s how it is with these guys, and that’s how it is with John MacArthur. So He can sit there and talk about courage all day long.

But let me ask you this question, John MacArthur:

When’s the last time you were banned from a big conference of preachers just for preaching the Gospel? Just because you’re a man?

That’s what you do to women.

When’s the last time you got put out of the synagogue because of your faith in Jesus and your refusal to stop speaking in that name?

That is what happened to Peter and Paul and all of the apostles. They were told by the Pharisees they had to stop speaking in that name. And they said, “How can we stop from speaking? How can we stop from telling the things that we have seen? We have seen the glory of the One and Only.” And they were flogged in the synagogues and they were put out of church.

“And they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Whether it is right before God to obey you rather than God, you decide, for it is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:18-20 NET)

Jesus said that they will put you out of church if you belong to Him. But the false apostles and the false prophets, this is how they treat them: they give them honor and glory, and they speak well of them.

But the people who are like me, he said, they’re going to say they’re demon-possessed and they’re going to put them out of the churches.

“They will put you out of the synagogue, yet a time is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them.” (John 16:2-4 NET)

“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” (Luke 6:22 NIV)

John MacArthur, you have put your women who preach the Gospel— women like me who say, “I don’t care what you say, I cannot stop preaching and speaking in the name of Jesus”— you would put us out of church fellowship.

As if you have the right.

Wolves in sheep’s clothing.

So what kind of courage do you have? Is anyone going to put you out of church? I don’t think so.

Anybody going to take your paycheck and say, “John, if you want to preach the Gospel, you’re going to lose all of your money. You’re going to have someone break into your house and take everything you own.” (That happened to me when I preached against the Calvinists. Yes, that actually happened.)

What kind of courage does it take for you to preach? What are you giving up?

“Act like men.” Well, I can tell you one thing. If you want to be like Jesus, you’re going to act like the woman Wisdom.

Because she told Jesus to go out into the desert. She told Jesus to deny Himself.

The spirit of Satan came to Him. Because [Jesus] did what the Spirit told Him to do— which was put His flesh an a cross, go out in the desert, and and give up all of the things that His flesh wanted— He was able to go the direction of the Spirit instead of the direction of the flesh when Satan said, “Here are all the kingdoms of the world. I’m going to lay them at your feet— all you have to do is bow down to me.”

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1 NIV)

“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding…” (Isaiah 11:2a NIV)

“[Jesus said]…But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” (Luke 7:35 NIV)

“Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?… ‘Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it.'” (Prov 8:1, 32-33 NIV)

He followed the advice, He followed the leadership of a woman. He acted like the woman Wisdom and as a result— it says because he followed the secret wisdom of God— He defeated all the powers of this world. It says, if they would have known that secret wisdom of God— which is a woman according to Scripture— they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, because that’s how they were defeated.

“But we give the news of the secret wisdom of God, which he had kept in store before the world came into existence, for our glory; Of which not one of the rulers of this world had knowledge: for if they had, they would not have put the Lord of glory on the cross…” (1 Corinthians 2:7-8 BBE)

“Act like men?” You guys have been acting like men. You guys have been following in the footsteps of men.

The problem is you picked the wrong one. You should have picked the second Adam. But you picked the first one.

And so you’re going to lay in his death until you figure it out— that you cannot have the things that the flesh wants AND the things that the Spirit wants.

“For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want.” (Galatians 5:17 NET)

I can tell you this right now: It does NOT take courage for you to preach the Gospel when by preaching the Gospel you get everything your flesh wants— money, power, and glory in this life. That’s not courage, guys.

If you want to learn how to “act like men” maybe you should follow the example of the women that you have persecuted and you have put out of the synagogues for simply preaching the name of Jesus. THEY have courage, because they actually have to give something up to preach in that name.

“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.” (Mark 8:35 NLT)

Well, I can tell you one thing. All of things that I’ve had to give up are nothing compared to the glory of the one that I’m serving. Nothing. In fact, it’s not even worth mentioning— it’s almost embarrassing to mention it because of the all-surpassing glory of who He is.

But you know, when you’re not even willing to give up those material things for God, I mean who are you?

Jesus said unless you renounce all your possessions you are not even a disciple. So let’s talk about courage when you start doing the simple things that Jesus said to do… all right, SIDE SERMON! Gary side-sermoned me!”