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Slaves For Christ, John MacArthur
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We're looking this morning at 1 Corinthians Chapter 4, 1 Corinthians Chapter 4 and verses 1 through 5 in our continuing study of 1 Corinthians. We've been encouraged by the response of our folks to the series which we gave in the last three weeks on God and Satan, but now we're returning to our study of 1 Corinthians and find ourselves in Chapter 4 looking at the first five verses. I confess to you that the passage is written as much to me as it is to you. It is addressed to the Corinthian congregation, but it is the definition of the true place of the minister. It's the guideline or the standard by which the minister is to minister.
And it is the attitude in which the people are to hold him. And so it's a very important portion of Scripture. It's been a very heart searching time for me, a time of self examination, a time of measuring myself against the word of God in order to see that I fulfilled that which God has laid out as His pattern for His minister. One of the very popular games that people play in the church among many games is the game of evaluating the pastor.
All kinds of criteria have been offered as the standard for who is to be the most honored pastor and who is to be the tops and who's the bottom and why so and so is better than the other and so forth, there are even institutions that give special honors to the people who fit their criteria. And I suppose that because ministers are in the public eye and because we're always up in front, it is tempting to rate and rank them and the game then is very common. Ministers are generally ranked by the following criteria. The size of their church, the ability of their staff, the size of their staff, the style of their preaching, the degrees they've received academically, the books they have written, the particular scriptural emphasis that is associated with them, their popularity with people, their social status, etc., etc. And on this basis we all, I think, are tempted to rate and rank ministers.
Every parent who has lost a child has dealt with disturbing, haunting questions. Why my child? Where is my baby now? Will I ever see my child again? Renowned Bible expositor John MacArthur tackles the question of infant death (in the womb or following birth) in his trademark style--with detailed attention to Scriptures that hold the answers. No death occurs apart from the purposes of God, MacArthur assures readers, just as no life occurs apart from the purposes of God.
With a pastor's heart, he leads readers to an understanding of the eternal destination of these precious little ones. His conclusion: Babies--and anyone else who has not reached the condition of accountability--go to heaven when they die, and there will, indeed, be a time of blessed reunion with these souls. This comforting book is certain to bring consolation to those experiencing this most painful loss.
About the Author John MacArthur is Pastor/Teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California and President of The Master’s College and Seminary. He is also President of Grace to You, the ministry that produces the internationally syndicated radio program "Grace to You," and a host of print, audio, and Internet resources—all featuring John’s popular, verse-by-verse teaching. He also authored the notes in The MacArthur Study Bible, which has been awarded the Gold Medallion and has sold more than 500,000 copies. John and his wife, Patricia, have four grown children and twelve grandchildren.
Click here for more sermons by John MacArthur
Comment
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Comment by Teresa Cagmat Mertens Montejo on October 11, 2011 at 5:10pm -
God Blessed!
I am Blessed when I read this message. I experienced four or five times miscarriage in life. First I was so sad but when the last miscarriage that I experience, I gave up all my sadness to God,who is my Father and my future,and all sadness was gone because God was with me at that time and showed me his purpose,and his blessings that God's prepared for me in my whole life. Praise God! the God of Love,the God of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob,the god who created me for His purpose. Amen.
Thanks for sharing!
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Comment by robert surya prakash on April 15, 2011 at 12:23pm -
I am a great admirer of John Macathur. Indeed we are the slaves saved by our Lord Great I would like to learn more
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Comment by Geoffrey Ndiwa on March 14, 2011 at 7:56am -
That's great, and i would like to learn and know what the lord has for me, concerning this topic.
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Comment by Bible Study Space on February 7, 2010 at 7:06am -
Slaves for Christ
We’re going to turn to a subject in the New Testament that as I think about it is largely ignored and overlooked. And I’ve been made aware of that in
recent months. It was not too many months ago that I was flying on one
of those jumbo jets from Los Angeles to London, in the process reading
a book that dealt with the issue of slavery in the New Testament time
and in the New Testament text. It set me thinking in all kinds of
directions. I actually finished the book on the flight I was so rapt in
my attention to this particular theme.Being a slave of Christ may be the best way to define a Christian. We are, as believers, slaves of Christ. You would never suspect that, however, from the language of
Christianity. In contemporary Christianity the language is anything but
slave language. It is about freedom. It is about liberation. It is
about health, wealth, prosperity, finding your own fulfillment,
fulfilling your own dream, finding your own purpose. We often hear that
God loves you unconditionally and wants you to be all you want to be.
He wants to fulfill every ambition, every desire, every hope, every
dream. In fact, there are books being written about dreams as if they
are gifts from God which God then having given them is bound to
fulfill. Personal fulfillment, personal liberation, personal
satisfaction, all bound up in an old term in evangelical Christianity,
a personal relationship. How many times have we heard that the gospel
offers people a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?What exactly does that mean? Satan has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and it’s not a very good one. Every living being has a personal relationship
with the living God of one kind or another, leading to one end or
another.But what exactly is our relationship to God? What is our relationship to Christ? How are we best to understand it?
Well if you read the New Testament in its original text, you would come
away stunned really by how different the original text is from any
English version that you’ve ever read...whether King James,
New King James, New American Standard, ESV, NIV and you can name all
the rest. All of them virtually have found a way to mask something that
is an absolutely critical element of truth. In fact, the word
“slave” appears in the New Testament 130 times in
the original text. You will find it once in the King James, once the
Greek word “slave” is translated slave. You will
find it translated “slave” a few other times in
other texts, like the New King James text and even the New American
Standard text, and it will be translated “slave”
when, one, it refers to actual slavery, or two, it refers to some kind
of bondage to an inanimate reality. But whenever it is personalized,
the translators seem unwilling to translate it
“slave.”For example, in href="http://bible.logos.com/passage/esv/Matthew%206.24"
target="_... Jesus said this,
“No man can be a slave to two masters.” What does
your Bible say? “No man can serve two masters.” The
favorite word for slave is servant, favorite English word. Very often
bondservant is used which tends to move in the right direction but is
not exactly slave. You have a word used 130 tim
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