The sermon, based on Hebrews 13, emphasizes the importance of remembering and imitating the faith and conduct of past spiritual leaders, specifically highlighting John MacArthur as an example. It underscores that this remembrance is not about exalting individuals but about being inspired to emulate their faith in Jesus Christ. The speaker stresses the transformative power of remembering godly leaders, which ultimately points believers to Christ. The sermon further delves into the significance of the Holy Scriptures, emphasizing their inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency, as highlighted in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The speaker argues that all scripture is God-breathed and essential for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. By recounting John MacArthur's steadfastness in upholding biblical truths, even under societal pressures, the sermon illustrates the qualities of a true biblical man and pastor. It calls for godly leadership within the church, urging pastors and believers alike to stand firm on the teachings of the Bible. The sermon also touches on the doctrine of eldership, emphasizing the need for pastors to exemplify godly characteristics and lead with integrity and courage.

May God bless the reading and now the proclamation of His holy word. Amen. You may be seated. Brothers and sisters, here in Hebrews 13 we have a very clear and concise, not very difficult to understand, command from God. Remember those who led you.

Remember those who spoke the Word of God to you, remember those leaders, remember those teachers who were faithful, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Seeing their faithfulness, seeing how they finished strong, seeing the fruit of their lives, imitate that faithfulness. Of this passage, John Calvin writes, it was a matter of no small importance that the author of Hebrews set before them as their teachers for imitation. For they who have begotten us in Christ ought to be to us in the place, as it were, of fathers." The kind of remembering here that the author of Hebrews is exhorting us unto, the kind of recollection here is for the saint to consider those who are leaders of the church, bold, courageous, and faithful leaders, proclaimers of God's word, fathers in the faith, and in remembering their conduct, imitate their faith. To remember, and then in remembering, to be changed as we consider the conduct and faith of godly men.

This kind of remembering isn't a remembering that exalts a man, that exalts a leader. This is the kind of remembering that you see an example and it spurs you on to love and good deeds it changes you this kind of remembering is transformative because as you look at this example you look to Christ So we are to consider the conduct and faith of godly men and we are to then imitate their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well this week, as many of you know, a faithful man of God, John MacArthur, he went to glory. He entered into the joy of his Master, and he heard those words from his Savior in Matthew 25, verses 21 and 23. Well done.

Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master. Here is a man worthy of imitation. Here is a man who fought the good fight, who finished the course, who kept the faith. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. And so we will do this morning.

I want to be very, very clear. This morning is not a sermon about a man named John MacArthur. No, it's a sermon about the Bible that that man loved. This morning isn't about praising John MacArthur in his ministry. No, this sermon is about praising the Savior who made that ministry possible.

This sermon isn't about the greatness of Johnny Mack. No, this is a sermon about the greatness of God. This morning isn't about a preacher of God's Word named John MacArthur. No, rather this sermon is about the word that he preached, the word that I preach, and that any pastor preaches, the perfect, the narrate, infallible, and sufficient Holy Scriptures, the Bible. This is a sermon from the Bible, in the Bible, about the Bible, with the exhortation for each of you and to me to love and to trust and to cling and to obey this Bible, the word of God as our brother John MacArthur did.

And so I'm going to preach briefly two different doctrines, Two different doctrines directly from the Bible. I'm going to preach two different sermonettes. Sermonettes. Have you heard that phrase before? Two little sermons.

They're going to be directly from the scriptures. And During those sermonettes, I'm going to be obeying Hebrews 13-7 by in the midst of the sermon showing you the example, the illustration of John MacArthur and the result of his conduct so that you and I might imitate his faith, that you and I might imitate his love and devotion to these scriptures, so that Christ would be preeminent in your life, in the life of this church as he was and even more so is now in the life of John MacArthur. And so to that end I will begin with the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine of Holy Scripture. Terminating your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17.

Commaginate your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. Beginning in verse 16 second Timothy chapter 3 all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." All scripture is inspired by God. Do you know what all means? Means what you think it means. All.

All 66 books of the Bible, all of the Old and all of the New Testament is God breathed. God speaks to you every single time you read this book. Do you wish to hear from God? Well, He speaks within. Do you wish that God would give you a word?

He has given you lots of them. Right here every time you read your Bible God is speaking to you. Children please listen to me. God the one who made you, the one who takes care of you, the one who made the skies and the flowers and the stars and the planets, the one who made the little bugs that you saw yesterday crawling on the ground, The one who made the clouds in the sky? He isn't far off from you.

He hasn't left you alone. Children, he speaks to you everywhere, generally in creation, but specifically and especially in your Bibles. You can pray to God, you can speak to God this morning, and he will speak back to you when you open up your Bibles. God has not left you to yourself, children. In brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, He has not left you alone either.

He talks to you right here in his God Breathe scriptures. So I would urge you to hear the words of John MacArthur and I quote, I'll promise you one thing, You'll never know what the Bible says unless you read it. And when you read it repeatedly, you'll begin to plant the word in your heart. Once you've read the word of God and you've put it in your heart and you're reading it and memorizing it and making it your own, it's going to come alive." You bet it's going to come alive. These are the very words of life.

God breathed. God spoke and the world was made. Do you ever just go outside and be amazed at the world you live in? Well, God spoke, and this is in your lap too. Be amazed that you have your Bibles.

These are the words of life. So here are three implications about the holy scriptures being breathed out by God. Implication number one, all scripture is inerrant. All scripture is inerrant. That word inerrant means without error.

God is without error. If he's the one who's breathed out scripture, which he has, he's the one that's breathed out the Old and New Testaments, then his scriptures are necessarily without error. You get the logic, right? God's without error, so his scriptures that he's breathed out are too without error. And so friends, let me just tell you something.

If you read something in the Bible and it doesn't seem to comport with reality, or if it seems to you that the Bible might be an error. It seems to you that something is just not right in the Bible that you're reading. It's not the Bible that is ever in error. It is your misunderstanding, It is your wrong interpretation that needs to be corrected not the Bible You got that? So some 12 verses 6 and 7 the words of the Lord are pure words as Silver tried in a furnace on the earth refined seven times you O Lord will keep them the Lord has kept and he will keep his word and that brings us to the second implication of the Holy Scriptures being breathed out by God.

All Holy Scripture is infallible. All Scripture is infallible. That term infallibility means that the Scriptures will not fail. The Scriptures will not fail. They are trustworthy.

They cannot be broken. And again, the same logic. Since God has never failed, the scriptures that he's breathed out can never fail as well. His word cannot fail. I recently watched a video clip from a number of years ago of John MacArthur on the Larry King live show.

Any of you ever seen that? All right, well he's not alive anymore. I don't think he's in heaven, Larry King. But I think John MacArthur was on that show a number of times and a Number of years ago John MacArthur. I was on that show.

He was sitting next to a number of pagans a number of panelists representing the other world religions, other dominant major world religions. So next to him was a Muslim imam, a Jewish rabbi, a spiritualist, whatever that means. There was a Roman Catholic priest. And then on that panel, there's even an atheist. And so you got the whole gambit.

He's got all these worldviews surrounding him, all these other false teachers around him proclaiming a false gospel or no gospel at all. And Larry King asks John MacArthur this question. John, what happens when you die? John says to Larry, two things. You either go into the presence of God in heaven forever or you go out of his presence into hell forever.

And Jesus Christ is the only way to enter into the presence of God in heaven pretty good answer straight up and so Larry King he looks over at the rest of the panelists you go remember is there's a Muslim that there's a Muslim there's an atheist there's a rabbi So these guys aren't going to make it. That's a direct question. So these guys, they're going to help? What would you say in that moment if you were him? Would you cater to the audience?

Would you try to kind of soften the blow? Maybe you think I could just appear more winsome. I could appear more loving. I'll just soften it a little bit. What do you think John McCarter did?

John McCarter did the most loving thing he possibly could have done in that moment. He told the straight up truth. Straight up the middle, no apologies. He simply told the loving truth. So these guys aren't going to make it John?

No. Apart from faith in Christ there is no salvation. The scriptures say that it is only through faith in Jesus Christ and apart from Christ eternal torment and hell. What a man. What a Savior who is at work in that kind of man.

What a Holy Spirit at work in a man that simply says that is what the Bible says. After a little bit more back and forth in this same clip, Larry King, he finally gets to a point, I don't know about a breaking point, but he finally gets to a point and says, well listen John, listen. John, all that you're saying, Yeah, it's from the Bible, but I mean you can't really know can you? You can't really know that it's all true. I mean isn't this all, even if it's from your book, isn't it just all a guess?

I mean life after death, heaven or hell, You just don't really know John MacArthur, do you? You just can't know, can you? How can you know? And what does John MacArthur do in that clip? He gives a big old smile on his face.

Like the most softball question a brother could ask. He tells Larry King, Larry, I know it's true because the Bible says so. Beloved John MacArthur believed that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. And look at the result of his conduct. From those beliefs came this loving conduct in this interview to say and to tell the truth.

From his belief here came the loving conduct to say and to tell the truth. But how can you know, John? How can you really know? Because the Bible, the inerrant, infallible and sufficient Bible tells me so. Crossroad Church, are you trusting the Holy Scriptures?

Are you standing on the perfect, never failing, promises of God found here? They are unfailing. They're unfailing. Children, I want to talk to you again. Are you singing glorious songs like Jesus Loves Me, This I Know?

Are you singing that song? Parents, if they're not singing that song, teach them that song. Teach them that song for their joy and yours. How do you know, children, that Jesus loves you? What's the answer?

Because the Bible tells me so. The Bible tells me so. Children, I really need you to please listen to me. Please listen to me. The only way to heaven is to be righteous.

And yet the Bible tells you plainly, God tells you plainly in His perfect word that you are not righteous. You're not righteous. You've fallen short of the glory of God. You sinned and no manner of good deeds or Good works will make that which is corrupt within clean. No matter of good things you try to do, will make you righteous enough in God's sight.

And so do you know what that means? Children, do you know what that means? If nothing that you can do can make you clean within, if nothing that you can do is good enough, children, it means that you need someone else to be righteous for you. You need someone else's obedience to be credited to your account. You need God to be able to look upon another and say, because of His obedience, I declare you Obedient.

That's what you need. You need someone else to obey in all the areas that you have disobeyed, which is all the areas. You need that someone to give you his perfect righteousness, to clothe you in his garments, that you could stand before God Almighty, righteous in his sight. You need someone to do that for you. That's the only way into heaven.

Children, children, hear me. That, the wonderful news, is that someone that you need came. That someone was God. And His name was Jesus. And the Bible tells you this Jesus, God in the flesh, He loved you children.

He gave Himself for you children. He died so that you might die with him and he was raised up so you might be raised up with him. Children, friends, young, old, everyone in this room I exhort you come to Jesus with your sin. Repent, turn from your sin, trust Him, cling to Him, need Him, and He will not fail you in forgiveness. He will not fail you in making you born again.

He will not fail you. How do you know that to be true? How do you know that even you, the sinner, sinner that you know that you are, how do you know that even you may come and be welcome to Jesus Christ. How do you know that? Because the Bible has told you so.

And the promises herein are never, ever failing. The Scriptures are number one, inerrant. Number two, infallible. Number three, they are totally and completely sufficient. All Scripture is sufficient.

I want you to read that passage again from 2 Timothy. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable. For teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped, for every good work. All scripture is profitable. It could be translated, all scripture is useful, all scripture is to your advantage, including the Old Testament Very much.

All scripture benefits you. It is sufficient for all that you need. And Peter says it just in a different way. Peter says the same thing in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3. That God has given to you everything that you need for life and godliness in Christ and in the word of Christ, the Bible.

God has given to you everything that you need to know Him and to live in His world right here in the Bible. The Bible is sufficient And that's why Paul says the scriptures are profitable. The scriptures, all of them, are sufficient for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. It covers the whole game, but everything so that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. Let me say that again, every good work.

If you ever hear a teaching that says we need to go outside the Bible to better equip ourselves, it's not from God. Every good work, you are equipped for those works through the sufficient word of God. So for teaching, Paul says, for teaching. So the Bible tells you who God is, Truth about your sin, triumph of the Savior, and how to live in His world. For reproof, you're showing your fault, you're showing your error, you're showing that you are wrong.

God reproves and disciplines those He loves. For correction, training in righteousness, God gave you these 66 books for correction, to turn away from your sin, to believe the truth here in these passages. You know, that's the job of a pastor. Do you know that? That's the job of a pastor.

The job of a preacher. That is the conduct of a faithful preacher and pastor to take these scriptures and as a shepherd does, to comfort and to encourage and to equip and to exhort and to rebuke and to correct and to reprove his sheep. And before he does any of those things, he comforts and encourages and corrects and reprves and rebukes himself in his study about 14, 000 times before then. The brother like myself ever feel ever looks beat up before he comes to preach to you it's because he's already heard the sermon several times. And so a faithful shepherd he comforts, rebukes, corrects his sheep through verse by verse, book by book, week in, week out, faithful, no excuse, no embarrassment for what God says, expository preaching.

So that you would be equipped for every good work that God has prepared for you to do. That's what you need. That's the kind of pastor and preacher that you will always need. It's the kind of pastors that this church and every church needs if they are to be about the will of God. Remember that's what Titus is about, the will of God for His church.

See how this sermon fits into that now. You need, this church needs, until the Lord comes back, faithful under shepherds, to faithfully week in, week out, Preach expository. You need a man who can, who's going to shout with Luther. You need men who shout with Luther with the Bible in their hands and the Bible in their hearts, the Bible underneath their feet. Here I stand, I can do no other.

That's what you need. That's what we want. That is the conduct of a faithful preacher and pastor. And really, that is the conduct that John MacArthur exemplified in his public ministry of expository preaching for almost six decades. Fifty-six years in the same church.

With the same sheep, laboring in prayer, laboring and preaching for that flock. Oh, the Lord knows how I have asked Him to produce such conduct in me. Pastor Matthew, pastor Dave, Lord, help us, make us finish well like he did. That the three pastors here would be approved workmen, unashamed. I have prayed and I will pray right now that the Lord would give me 52 more years like he did John MacArthur, get to 56 years in the same church.

I'd like that. I'd be 89. That'd be a good time to go. More importantly than me, is that the Lord would give this church godly men, unashamed men, unwavering shepherds that would herald this inerrant, infallible, and sufficient word without apology. Faithful elders.

And that is the second doctrine that I wish to examine this morning with you, the doctrine of eldership. And it flows directly from our understanding of the doctrine of Holy Scripture. The one that is to faithfully proclaim and administer the word in sacraments must first believe the doctrine of the inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. And so we turn there next, the doctrine of eldership. And really now we come directly back to our study in Titus, don't we?

We've spent the last two Lord's Days working through pastoral qualifications that Titus chapter 1 verses 6 through 9 detail And we also used a little bit of 1 Timothy 3 verses 1 through 7 as lists for us, qualifications for pastors, but not really just for pastors, right? I mean, these are qualifications, these are characteristics that all of us as new creations in Christ Jesus long to possess. And so all the more, an elder, an overseer, a pastor must possess these character traits. And I want to revisit those qualifications once more before we move on to Deacons next week, Lord willing. So turn with me in your Bibles not to Titus but to Paul's letter to Timothy.

Same list just written a little bit different. 1st Timothy chapter 3. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3. I want you to look at verses 1 through 7. We're not going to read those out loud.

We've read them a number of times already. But I want you to notice as you look through those, it's the same fundamental list that Paul gives Titus. But again, it's just written a different way. So look at Titus, oh, look at 1 Timothy chapter 3, 1 through 7. And as you read through those elder qualifications what are they?

How could you summarize them? Could you think of a way to summarize in one sentence versus one through seven? I've spent some considerable time thinking about this. You've only spent about seven or eight seconds. So if you don't have a good sentence, that's okay.

I think in a sentence that it would be appropriate to summarize those seven verses and those four verses in Titus chapter one, I think it would be appropriate to summarize it this way. Elders must act like men. Elders should act like godly men. And that sentence is not found in 1st Timothy. It's not found in Titus chapter 1, but it is found from Paul in 1st Corinthians 16, verse 13.

You can write that down. You can look at that later. First Corinthians 16, 13, where Paul says, be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. What an exhortation. Stand firm in the faith, be on the alert, be strong, act like men.

When you read Titus 1 and you read 1 Timothy 3, That's exactly right. A man who is to be a pastor, any man of God for that matter, he must stand firm in the faith and act like a man. A pastor must be a man. A man, that's Titus 1.6, that's 1 Timothy 3.1, a pastor must be a man, but not just any man. A real man, not a pushover.

A real man, a man like it was said of Nehemiah, A man whose joy in the Lord is his strength. Do you want to know why churches are suffering in this town? Do you want to know why churches are suffering in Iowa? Why churches are suffering in America and in the world? Two words, weak men.

Weak men. And on the other side of the coin women who hate the femininity. Got both issues. But above that, I think preeminent in all that, men not acting like men, especially in the pulpit. Especially in the pulpit.

So listen to John MacArthur as he unpacks 1 Corinthians 16, 13 where Paul says to act like men. It's a little bit long quote, it's a little bit lengthy quote. Excellent. Listen to what he says. Paul says, act like men.

John McArthur comments, no culture will ever rise above the character of its men. The feminist lie has been that patriarchy is bad, it's tyrannical, it's toxic, it needs to be destroyed. And they've been doing it for decades. To destroy masculinity, to destroy Strong male leadership and character leads to the current disaster. Irresponsible men running loose in the streets, terrorizing a society.

Weak men have given us this legacy. Weak men produce the death of society. Weak men, weak immoral men, abuse women, and they produce more weak immoral sons." End quote. Brothers and sisters, it starts within the church. That was the exhortation a few Lord's days ago that the way that weak men, especially weak men in the pulpit, especially weak elders and pastors, weak men will abuse women by putting them in positions that they ought not to be.

They will disregard what God has said in His inerrant, infallible, and sufficient word, and they'll say to women with their actions, maybe not with their words, but with their actions, Nah, you aren't the glory of the glory. Nah, you aren't the crown jewel of creation in your femininity. Nah, godly femininity isn't beautiful. What will really give you meaning, women, what will really give you worth, women, is if you can become a man. You do what men do.

That'll make you somebody. That's disgusting. That is abusive. And weak men do that kind of stuff. But real men, masculine, godly men, real men love real women.

And so real men appoint real men to the office of the pastor. And those same real men free the women that they really love to be about the glory of Christ that he's called them to in their femininity. So I don't know if you remember, but a number of years ago, John MacArthur was asked during a Q&A session about Beth Moore. Anybody ever seen this clip? I see a hand.

I see that hand. Beth Moore had been regularly preaching on Sunday mornings in a number of congregations at that point. And so the moderator of the Q&A panel just asked John MacArthur, what would you tell Beth Moore in like five words or less or something like that if she was here right now John McCarthy what would you say to Beth Moore and here was John McCarty response Beth Moore go home Beth Moore go home And that brother got lit up for that. But brothers and sisters, in that moment, in that pulpit, in that Q&A session, there was a man who stood upon the Word of God and he said, here I stand, I can do no other. I will not bow the knee to the culture.

I will not bend the knee for the applause of men and the smile of the world. No, I will stand firmly upon this word of the truth and say, God is very clear who is and who is not a pastor and a preacher. A man is to be an elder. A man is to be a preacher. And women are so valuable.

I love women so much that I will not subject them to spiritual abuse by robbing them of their God-given womenhood." And so for loving Beth more, for loving Beth more, by telling the truth according to scripture, and loving Beth more, by calling her to repentance, MacArthur got the world's scorn. And you know what else he got? God's smile. And boy, does he know that smile all the more today. That's a man.

That's a real man. That's not a pushover. Pastor must be a man. And if you look at 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 8, would you look there with me? 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 8, which is what we were actually going to be looking at this morning until we pivoted.

You'll notice in verse 8 that Paul begins to describe a deacon. The other office in the church, and he uses the phrase, listen to this, deacons likewise. Deacons likewise should be men of what? See that there? What's the word?

Dignity. Deacons likewise should be men of dignity. So what does that tell you about an elder? If deacons are to likewise be men of dignity, that means elders are to be men of dignity. Pastors as well as deacons are to be men of dignity.

Well that word dignity, you know what it could be translated as? Worthy of respect, noble, grave, could also be translated gravitas. Gravitas. He's steadfast in the movable. The pastor is.

The pastor is steadfast in the movable. When he steps into the pulpit, when he comes alongside you for counsel, when he shepherds you publicly, when he shepherds you privately. From the word of God, when he does these things, he isn't tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine. He isn't tossed around by opinions or cultural whims that come and go. He's not concerned with the labels the culture will inevitably throw at him.

He's not thrown off balance by emotional sabotage and manipulation. No, he's got gravity. He's got gravitas, sobriety about him. He's sober-minded. He doesn't get pulled out of orbit by some new thought or some cultural sensitivity.

No, when he preaches, when he counsels, when he comes to you with this word, the word of God, his life is bound up in these things. And the planets of his life are orbiting, the center of his soul is orbiting around Christ and the Word of Christ. And he wants your life to orbit the same center. So that when cultural sensitivities come upon you, you say, it's not me, It's not the Bible that needs to change. It's the sensitivities that must change When the culture comes at you and says I don't like that it is not me It is not the Word of God that must change when your life is orbiting around Christ and His Word.

It is the culture that we as the church must change. And the church must have men therefore of gravitas. Men like John MacArthur. Men with gravitas and humility. By the way, those aren't exclusive.

Real men are really bold and courageous, and real men are really humble. Godly courage, godly boldness has a really good friend, a best friend called humility. Five years ago, just five years ago, we were in COVID mania. You Remember that? I wouldn't even hear you.

During COVID, five years ago, MacArthur was faced with the California state government telling his church and all the churches in California to shut down and do not meet. I'm going to keep the casinos open. No churches. And so originally the elders at Grace Community, John McArthur, that's what they did. John McArthur actually wrote a piece on how Romans 13 commands us to submit to the civil magistrate.

And so that's what they were going to do. They were going to comply. And that was that. And then just weeks later, MacArthur came out with another statement. He said, we studied it.

We, our elders, we got together, we studied it, we prayed over it, and we were wrong. We were wrong. The government isn't Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord.

And the government is asking us to do something that Jesus, who is Lord over the government, says that they don't have the authority to do. They are out of their lane. They are out of their God-ordained sphere of sovereignty. And so we must obey God rather than man. That's humility.

That's gravitas. It would have been so easy for John MacArthur to say, man, I'm about to retire. Another fight to get into? Another battle to fight? You know, let's just hide behind Romans 13, let's just coast into a well-deserved retirement.

You don't really need to study this anymore. Not make any more ripples, made enough ripples in my 80 plus years of life. Who could have said that? Let's just coast. Come on, Johnny Mac.

Not a chance. Not only did he study, but then he admitted to being wrong, and then he took a stand and said, we're fighting this battle. And he went to battle, and that fight, that humble repentance and obedience, It rippled across churches in America. It made its mark very much in my life. In the life of this church.

That's a man with gravitas. Humility. I was wrong. Repentance. We're doing an about face and we're going all in on Christ.

We are going to obey Christ and reopen our church and resolve. Here I stand on the word of God. I can do no other. Humility, courageous repentance, and resolve. He was under immense pressure five years ago to back off and back down, but he didn't.

Paul says we must act like men. Paul says that this church needs pastors who act like men. Paul says that fathers in this church must act like men. That husbands in this church must act like men. Men of fortitude, men of conviction, courageous, and enduring.

And that's exactly how John MacArthur defines true biblical masculinity for the pastor first and for his people next as they imitate the example of the pastor. And I quote, when you say a man has fortitude or gravitas, you're talking about someone who doesn't compromise. Even when there's danger, even when that danger escalates to fear and pain. Fortitude is a combination of conviction, courage, and endurance. It's the desire to risk, to literally create challenges if they're not already there, to attack difficulty, to challenge difficulty head on, to bear suffering with courage.

This is what makes a man a man. This is the kind of man in whom a woman finds her security, finds her protection, and in that kind of relationship, the woman's femininity flourishes. Men are those who should be protectors, the purifiers, those who secure their wives, who secure their children, and who can accomplish all that needs to be done to reduce evil in a society and produce good. And yet, this society for years and decades has had men busy producing evil and diminishing good. True manliness is bound up in the word courage.

That is the virtue that marks a real man. Truth, conviction, courage. Men who don't give into fear. Men who don't give into pressure. Men who don't give into intimidation and they don't give into temptation.

They don't seek the easy way out. They will take the pain. They will invite the risk. They will confront the challenge. And they will not bow to the pressure to compromise the commandments of God.

The strength of a man is that he lives on principle, that He lives on conviction, that he has the courage of those convictions, stands strong against everything that comes at those convictions, bravely faces the challenges in a fortified way. Manly fortitude means contending with difficulty, facing every enemy, meeting the enemy head-on, and bearing the pain, maintaining self-discipline, upholding the truth, pressing onto the goal. That's what defines a man. We spent two Sundays working through pastoral qualifications. And we will, Lord willing, spend another Sunday on the office of deacon next week.

What an illustration we have. And our brother, John MacArthur, a man of gravitas, a man of godly piety, a man of true dignity. Church, the point of all of this is not to wonder at the greatness of a man, but to wonder at the greatness of the God man. The point in all of this is to show you what God says about His Word, and what God says about the kind of man that we need to be, that we need as a church to handle God's Word. The point of this is what I must be, what your pastors must be, what we all must be, what we all must aspire to be as new creations in Jesus Christ.

That's the point of this. The point of all this has not been to worship John MacArthur. It's not to say that MacArthur was right about everything. I don't think he was right about everything. Neither am I.

The point has been, look at what God has given to us in His scriptures. Look then at what God requires of men who handle these scriptures, and look at what God produced in this man's life, this faithful man's life who I aspire to be like, look at the result of this man's faithful conduct by the grace of God and imitate that faith for the glory of Jesus Christ. You know, I was introduced to the Reformed faith. I was introduced to the Puritans, some of my favorite friends downstairs, by my beloved father, whose name really is Charlie Brown. He didn't know that.

Charlie Brown, my dad, my beloved father, he introduced me to reform theology. And my father was introduced to reform theology. And my father was introduced to the Puritans through the ministries of three men, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, and John MacArthur. And my father through these men passed these things down to me.

I stand upon my father's shoulders, He stands upon his spiritual father's shoulders. For the entirety of my years in undergraduate college, I walked around with a Johnny Mack study Bible in my backpack. He helped me learn how to study my Bible. God has used him in remarkable ways in my life and the life of so many in this church. I know.

We thank God for him. And yet what was most remarkable in his last years for all the ways that he's taught us so much. What was most remarkable in these last few years of his life was to see the way in which MacArthur finished well. Seeing the way that he finished strong throughout COVID. He could have packed it in five years ago.

He didn't. Fighting tyranny. Holding up the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Week in, week out, faithfully proclaiming God's perfect Word. Beloved, I want to finish that way.

I want to finish that way. I want to finish like my dear brother finished. I want to finish like this and get to the end of my life. And say I've kept the faith. I finished well.

I want fathers and mothers and children in this congregation. I want you, fathers, mothers, children in this congregation. I want you to fight the good fight and to keep the faith and to finish the course that God has given you all by the grace of God, for the glory of God. And so I pray now, to that end, if you pray with me. Oh Lord, that in this church, beginning with her pastors, and extending into her members, and into every household, and to every father, and every mother, and every child, that, oh God, you would make 2 Timothy 4.7 a reality, that we would all say, I fought the faith, I fought the good fight I finished the course and I have kept the faith thank you Lord for the life and legacy of faithful men who've gone before us Make us love you as they loved you.

Make us trust you as they trusted you. Let us imitate their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the glory of His name, Amen.