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The Master's Man: A Tribute to John MacArthur · CCC West Covina

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  This morning I want to do something that I've never done
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  before in the 31 years that we've been together and we'll
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  probably more than likely never, ever do again.
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  This morning I want to. I want to give glory to the Lord
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  for how God has used one man in my life to shape and mold my
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  ministry, our church, my marriage, my life.
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  He's more than just a a magnificent man.
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  He's more than just a magnanimous man.
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  He's more than just a magnetic man.
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  He's more than just a marvelous man.
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  He's even more than just a monumental man.
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  He is and was the masters man and that man is is John
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  MacArthur. He went home to be with the Lord
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  this past Monday evening. It was my wife's birthday.
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  We were out together and we received the the news on our way
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  back home. And we thank the Lord for his
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  ministry, for his life, for his testimony.
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  And a lot has been said already in the last six days about John
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  and his ministry and whether whether you love him or you
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  loathe him, there is no one like him, and everybody would attest
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  to that. Even the New York Times called
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  him a fiery preacher and a culture warrior, which he was.
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  And many people will say things about John and they'll give
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  credit to him. And well, so with the, the the
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  ministry that he had, all the books that he wrote, he wrote
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  hundreds of them. The sermons that he preached, he
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  preached thousands of them. They went around the world
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  literally. And the seminary that was
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  started under his leadership as well as the college under his
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  leadership, as well as the Masters Institute or the the
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  missions outreach of Masters University, as well as grace to
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  you. And people would be right in
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  giving honor to him for the things that he has done, all of
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  his accomplishments. But that's not what made him the
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  Masters man. Those are great things, but it
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  goes way beyond that. And I'm afraid that most people
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  will miss this. And that is for for 56 years,
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  there was never one hint of a scandal or stain upon the man's
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  ministry or life. That is the master's man.
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  That's what makes his ministry so unique.
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  And think about this. Grace Community Church has
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  gathered together for the first time in 56 years without their
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  shepherd. Think about that.
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  He's been there a long time. He died on Monday, so they
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  gathered together on Sunday for the first time and John is in
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  glory. Things are different for for
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  Grace Community. They will be different into the
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  future and we will pray for them in a moment.
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  But John had a unique and powerful impact on my life.
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  The things I've said to you, you probably already know.
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  But what you don't know is that that in 1979 was the first time
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  I ever met John. He was speaking at Sandy Cove
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  Bible Conference on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and my father
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  invited me to come. I was a junior in in college.
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  It was summertime. He invited me to come and and be
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  a part of a meeting that my father was going to have along
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  with the elders from our church in Delaware to meet with John to
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  discuss issues concerning the church.
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  And my dad invited me to come and be a part of that meeting.
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  So I thought that that would be a good thing to do.
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  Because you see, I grew up through junior high and high
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  school listening to John on the radio every day in my house.
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  My, my, my parents would, would turn it up very loud.
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  We had a two-story house and they wanted to make sure they
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  they would hear John whether they were in the basement, the
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  bathroom, the bedroom, no matter where they were, they wanted to
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  hear his voice. And so by virtue of that, I
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  couldn't help but hear John's voice.
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  In fact, I was reminded by one of my college roommates this
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  past week that we used to listen to to John all the time in
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  college. We would get cassette tapes and
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  we would listen to John and plug them in.
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  And a lot of it dealt with this question and answers.
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  I, I still have this in my possession.
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  This is how they used to come out in cassette tapes and they,
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  they listed all the questions in there for you and which tape
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  they were on so that you would know where they were.
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  And so we would sit as college students listening to John and
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  then pause it to see if we could answer the question before John
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  answered the question. That was one of the ways we
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  learned in college. I have a numerous amount of
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  tapes in my office. I, I don't even have a cassette
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  player anymore. But anyway, that's, that's what
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  we used to do. And John came to, to preach on
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  the fulfilled family in 1979. And I still have the, the study
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  guide from what he, what he preached on, He used to send
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  these out in the mail for free to all those radio listeners who
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  requested them. And they were called study
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  guides. And this was the one on the
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  fulfilled family. I have hundreds of these in my
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  office as well that I've kept over the years simply because
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  this is the way it used to be. Now he's written his commentary,
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  so it's a lot different. But I kept those simply because
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  of of the impact they made in my life.
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  And so my father invited me to meet with John and his elders.
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  And so we sat down and I listened.
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  And what struck me most about the conversation, I didn't say a
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  word, was that whenever John was asked a question by my father or
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  by the elders of our church, John always responded by saying
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  what the Bible says, or God commands us to do this, or the
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  Scriptures are very clear about this.
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  Everything was about the Word of God.
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  That was the authority, and so when I listened to him, I
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  realized he spoke with not only great authority but great
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  clarity concerning the Scriptures because he backed up
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  everything he said with the word of the living God.
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  That made a great impact on me as a junior in college.
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  I would continue to listen to his tapes.
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  In fact, Laurie and I, we lived in in Tarrytown, NY when we were
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  married, and I used to jump rope for an hour consecutively
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  listening to the tapes of John MacArthur because each tape was
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  just about an hour long. And so I would time my jump
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  roping according to his sermon on that day.
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  I don't do that anymore because I don't jump rope anymore.
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  That's something in the past. But anyway, that's what I used
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  to do. We used to mark up the floor
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  with the jump rope that used to go around and around and around
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  and around. And that's what I used to do.
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  Listen to John move forward 15 years later to 1994.
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  I just begun the pastor of church the Open Door.
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  And having been there, I encountered much conflict
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  theologically as well as morally, simply because theology
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  always determines your morality, right?
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  And so while I was there, I was engaged in, in much conflict.
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  And so I thought that it would be good for me to, to call John.
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  So I did. And it was different than it is
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  today. In those days, you could call
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  the church and someone would actually answer the phone and
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  they would direct you to the, to the that person you were
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  calling. Today, you don't do that
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  anymore. You call and you get some kind
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  of machine that tells you this or or that we've we've gotten so
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  technical. But back then everything was was
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  personal lot different back in the early 90s.
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  And so I called and, and, and spoke with the secretary and she
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  said something really unique. She said, hold on Lance and let
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  me get him for you. I was perplexed that she would
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  call me Lance. Not that I don't want to be
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  called Lance. It's just that she didn't call
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  me Pastor or Mr. Sparks. She said Lance.
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  And so I was kind of taken back by that, but I soon realized why
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  she did. And she connected me with John
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  and and John got on and said, hello, Lance, how are you today?
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  I understand you're going through a rough time at church.
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  The open door. I said, yes, I am.
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  But how did you know? He said, well, we've been
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  following your ministry very closely.
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  Well, we knew you came from Calvary Church of Santa Ana and
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  we knew that theologically there was a difference in terms of
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  what you believed and what church the Open Door believed
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  concerning repentance in the Lordship of Christ.
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  And so we knew that there would be some discrepancy there.
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  We just didn't know how long it would take for the conflict to
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  erupt. So we've been praying for you
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  over this time. So explain to me, he says, what
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  is happening. So I did, I went through the
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  details of what had taken place since I arrived at the church
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  and I'll never forget what he said as we as we hung up the
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  phone. He says always stand strong on
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  the scriptures and God will bless your ministry.
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  Just stand strong, don't compromise, stand strong.
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  And 31 years later, God has blessed immensely the ministry
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  of Christ Community Church and the opportunity that's been
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  before us. And I praise the Lord.
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  So over the next several months, I was only at church open door
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  for 14 months. And over the next once I called
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  him and talked with him and brought up the speed as to what
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  was happening. He would give me counsel.
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  He would give me encouragement. He would talk to me about what
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  the Bible says. And so that was a unique
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  opportunity. Well, jump ahead to 2010.
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  We invited John to come and speak at the church.
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  He come, he came on a Wednesday evening and he had just written
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  the book slave. And so he was going to speak on
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  on that. When he arrived at the church,
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  I, I took him up to my office and the first thing he said to
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  me was why are the Christmas trees?
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  And I said, well, John, it's simply this because I believe a
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  lot about Christmas. I'm a big Christmas guy.
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  And my whole belief is that if there's no birth, there's no
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  death, there's no death, there's no life.
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  He said well put, so that's why the Christmas trees are here to
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  all remind me of that. I asked him.
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  I said, John, I I want you to do me a favor.
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  I I would be so honored if you would write the the forward to
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  my book God sold for your home. He responded by saying I'm
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  honored that you even asked for me to do so.
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  To the transcript home wrote the forward to the book and I was
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  grateful. Few years after that I decided
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  to take John out to lunch. So I called them up and we we
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  set up a time to meet together And where does the world's
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  greatest preacher go to lunch? Carl's junior, where else?
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  And there we sat eating burgers and fries and sipping our Cokes,
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  talking about theology and philosophy as a ministry.
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  And I told him, I said, John, I just want to thank you for the
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  impact that you made in my life. I said, I don't know how much
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  longer you have to live or I to live, but I thought, you know
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  what? It's best for me to personally
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  thank you for the impact that you've made in my life.
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  And I went back and rehearsed from the time we met in 1979 to
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  where we were on that day, so he would know the impact he made in
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  me and the church in which I was pastoring.
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  When you think about that, when you think about his life and you
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  think about his his ministry, he was simply the master's man.
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  He shared the same birth date as Charles Spurgeon.
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  They were both born on June 19th, 105 years apart, but they
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  were both born on June the 19th, and Spurgeon was his favorite
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  preacher. 100 years after Spurgeon's death, he went to
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  London and visited the grave of Charles Spurgeon because he was
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  writing the book called Ashamed of the Gospel, And that book is
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  probably my favorite of all the books that he's written.
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  Talks about the downgrade of the gospel in Spurgeon's day.
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  And he was addressing that in our day, how the church has
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  become like the world and the church has begun to dilute the
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  gospel. And so in that book, he quotes
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  Spurgeon voluminously throughout it because Spurgeon 100 years
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  earlier had faced the same issues that the church was
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  facing even today when Spurgeon died.
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  The one who preached his memorial service had a text.
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  The text was Revelation 7, Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10.
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  And what was said about Spurgeon in that day could be said about
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  John in our day. My wife found this quote.
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  She gave it to me this past week.
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  It says this now he, Spurgeon, has left the pulpit forever.
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  He stands amongst the great multitude who are before the
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  throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and
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  palms in their hands. He is not in strange company
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  there, for the song of those who waved the palm branch was ever
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  his theme as he stood at the pulpit.
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  Salvation to our God, who sitteth up on the throne and and
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  into the Lamb from the pulpit to the palm branch, has been for
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  him a very natural transition. He preached Christ here, He
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  praises him Yonder. Think about that.
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  To stand behind the pulpit speaking about the Lord, to
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  standing with a palm branch singing to the land.
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  It doesn't get any greater than that.
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  Solomon was right when he said a good name is better than a good
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  ointment. In the day of 1's death is
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  better than the day of 1's birth.
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  He would go on to say in verse 8 of Chapter 7, the end of a
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  matter is better than its beginning.
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  In 1969 when John became the pastor Grace Community Church,
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  that was the beginning. On July 14th, 2025, that was the
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  end and the end was better than the beginning because in the end
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  he entered the presence of the living God.
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  Think about this, in the 1700s the Masters man was Jonathan
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  Edwards. He led the Great Awakening, the
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  great revival in American history.
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  In the 1800's the Masters man was Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
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  In the 1900's the Masters man was John MacArthur.
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  Every 100 years God raises up a man, a particular man, the
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  Masters man. I wonder over the next 100 years
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  who the next Master's man will be.
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  I want to pray with you for Grace Community Church from
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  Patricia, John's wife, his family, that God would do a a
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  great and mighty work now that he's taking John home.
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  So let's bow together for a word of prayer.
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  Father, we thank you, Lord, for today, and we thank you that
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  you've taken John into your presence.
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  All of us to some degree will miss him, some more so than
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  others. Family, especially his wife
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  Patricia, the elders and staff at Grace Community, the church
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  that you allowed him to pastor for 56 years, they will miss
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  him. They will miss him terribly, and
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  rightly so. That's because of the impact
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  that he has made in so many people's lives.
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  And yet, Lord, we realize that that nobody lives forever.
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  And then your time in your way, you take them home to be with
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  you. And we know that Lord, Lord,
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  that John is in your presence. And we know, Lord, that he
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  stands before the Lamb, waving a palm branch and singing praises
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  to the Lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and
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  praise. We pray for Grace Community
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  Church, we pray for their future, pray for their pastors,
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  their elders, their leaders. Do you give them supreme wisdom
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  as they begin to search for your will and finding the next
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  shepherd for Grace Community? It won't be easy, but you're in
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  charge of all that. So we leave that in your hands
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  Lord, and trust that whole church to your hands.
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  They have been LED well for 50-6 years.
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  They know. They know what you want them to
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  do. Help them to enact it in a way
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  that honors your name. So Lord, we stand before you
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  today thanking you for the impact that John has made, not
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  just on my life, our church, but many of the people's lives that
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  are here. Many were saved through his
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  ministry and we are grateful. And so, Lord, our our prayer is
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  that we would continue to be faithful to you until you come
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  again, as you most surely will, in Jesus name, Amen.