The Master's Man: A Tribute to John MacArthur

This morning I want to do something that I've never done

before in the 31 years that we've been together and we'll

probably more than likely never, ever do again.

This morning I want to. I want to give glory to the Lord

for how God has used one man in my life to shape and mold my

ministry, our church, my marriage, my life.

He's more than just a a magnificent man.

He's more than just a magnanimous man.

He's more than just a magnetic man.

He's more than just a marvelous man.

He's even more than just a monumental man.

He is and was the masters man and that man is is John

MacArthur. He went home to be with the Lord

this past Monday evening. It was my wife's birthday.

We were out together and we received the the news on our way

back home. And we thank the Lord for his

ministry, for his life, for his testimony.

And a lot has been said already in the last six days about John

and his ministry and whether whether you love him or you

loathe him, there is no one like him, and everybody would attest

to that. Even the New York Times called

him a fiery preacher and a culture warrior, which he was.

And many people will say things about John and they'll give

credit to him. And well, so with the, the the

ministry that he had, all the books that he wrote, he wrote

hundreds of them. The sermons that he preached, he

preached thousands of them. They went around the world

literally. And the seminary that was

started under his leadership as well as the college under his

leadership, as well as the Masters Institute or the the

missions outreach of Masters University, as well as grace to

you. And people would be right in

giving honor to him for the things that he has done, all of

his accomplishments. But that's not what made him the

Masters man. Those are great things, but it

goes way beyond that. And I'm afraid that most people

will miss this. And that is for for 56 years,

there was never one hint of a scandal or stain upon the man's

ministry or life. That is the master's man.

That's what makes his ministry so unique.

And think about this. Grace Community Church has

gathered together for the first time in 56 years without their

shepherd. Think about that.

He's been there a long time. He died on Monday, so they

gathered together on Sunday for the first time and John is in

glory. Things are different for for

Grace Community. They will be different into the

future and we will pray for them in a moment.

But John had a unique and powerful impact on my life.

The things I've said to you, you probably already know.

But what you don't know is that that in 1979 was the first time

I ever met John. He was speaking at Sandy Cove

Bible Conference on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and my father

invited me to come. I was a junior in in college.

It was summertime. He invited me to come and and be

a part of a meeting that my father was going to have along

with the elders from our church in Delaware to meet with John to

discuss issues concerning the church.

And my dad invited me to come and be a part of that meeting.

So I thought that that would be a good thing to do.

Because you see, I grew up through junior high and high

school listening to John on the radio every day in my house.

My, my, my parents would, would turn it up very loud.

We had a two-story house and they wanted to make sure they

they would hear John whether they were in the basement, the

bathroom, the bedroom, no matter where they were, they wanted to

hear his voice. And so by virtue of that, I

couldn't help but hear John's voice.

In fact, I was reminded by one of my college roommates this

past week that we used to listen to to John all the time in

college. We would get cassette tapes and

we would listen to John and plug them in.

And a lot of it dealt with this question and answers.

I, I still have this in my possession.

This is how they used to come out in cassette tapes and they,

they listed all the questions in there for you and which tape

they were on so that you would know where they were.

And so we would sit as college students listening to John and

then pause it to see if we could answer the question before John

answered the question. That was one of the ways we

learned in college. I have a numerous amount of

tapes in my office. I, I don't even have a cassette

player anymore. But anyway, that's, that's what

we used to do. And John came to, to preach on

the fulfilled family in 1979. And I still have the, the study

guide from what he, what he preached on, He used to send

these out in the mail for free to all those radio listeners who

requested them. And they were called study

guides. And this was the one on the

fulfilled family. I have hundreds of these in my

office as well that I've kept over the years simply because

this is the way it used to be. Now he's written his commentary,

so it's a lot different. But I kept those simply because

of of the impact they made in my life.

And so my father invited me to meet with John and his elders.

And so we sat down and I listened.

And what struck me most about the conversation, I didn't say a

word, was that whenever John was asked a question by my father or

by the elders of our church, John always responded by saying

what the Bible says, or God commands us to do this, or the

Scriptures are very clear about this.

Everything was about the Word of God.

That was the authority, and so when I listened to him, I

realized he spoke with not only great authority but great

clarity concerning the Scriptures because he backed up

everything he said with the word of the living God.

That made a great impact on me as a junior in college.

I would continue to listen to his tapes.

In fact, Laurie and I, we lived in in Tarrytown, NY when we were

married, and I used to jump rope for an hour consecutively

listening to the tapes of John MacArthur because each tape was

just about an hour long. And so I would time my jump

roping according to his sermon on that day.

I don't do that anymore because I don't jump rope anymore.

That's something in the past. But anyway, that's what I used

to do. We used to mark up the floor

with the jump rope that used to go around and around and around

and around. And that's what I used to do.

Listen to John move forward 15 years later to 1994.

I just begun the pastor of church the Open Door.

And having been there, I encountered much conflict

theologically as well as morally, simply because theology

always determines your morality, right?

And so while I was there, I was engaged in, in much conflict.

And so I thought that it would be good for me to, to call John.

So I did. And it was different than it is

today. In those days, you could call

the church and someone would actually answer the phone and

they would direct you to the, to the that person you were

calling. Today, you don't do that

anymore. You call and you get some kind

of machine that tells you this or or that we've we've gotten so

technical. But back then everything was was

personal lot different back in the early 90s.

And so I called and, and, and spoke with the secretary and she

said something really unique. She said, hold on Lance and let

me get him for you. I was perplexed that she would

call me Lance. Not that I don't want to be

called Lance. It's just that she didn't call

me Pastor or Mr. Sparks. She said Lance.

And so I was kind of taken back by that, but I soon realized why

she did. And she connected me with John

and and John got on and said, hello, Lance, how are you today?

I understand you're going through a rough time at church.

The open door. I said, yes, I am.

But how did you know? He said, well, we've been

following your ministry very closely.

Well, we knew you came from Calvary Church of Santa Ana and

we knew that theologically there was a difference in terms of

what you believed and what church the Open Door believed

concerning repentance in the Lordship of Christ.

And so we knew that there would be some discrepancy there.

We just didn't know how long it would take for the conflict to

erupt. So we've been praying for you

over this time. So explain to me, he says, what

is happening. So I did, I went through the

details of what had taken place since I arrived at the church

and I'll never forget what he said as we as we hung up the

phone. He says always stand strong on

the scriptures and God will bless your ministry.

Just stand strong, don't compromise, stand strong.

And 31 years later, God has blessed immensely the ministry

of Christ Community Church and the opportunity that's been

before us. And I praise the Lord.

So over the next several months, I was only at church open door

for 14 months. And over the next once I called

him and talked with him and brought up the speed as to what

was happening. He would give me counsel.

He would give me encouragement. He would talk to me about what

the Bible says. And so that was a unique

opportunity. Well, jump ahead to 2010.

We invited John to come and speak at the church.

He come, he came on a Wednesday evening and he had just written

the book slave. And so he was going to speak on

on that. When he arrived at the church,

I, I took him up to my office and the first thing he said to

me was why are the Christmas trees?

And I said, well, John, it's simply this because I believe a

lot about Christmas. I'm a big Christmas guy.

And my whole belief is that if there's no birth, there's no

death, there's no death, there's no life.

He said well put, so that's why the Christmas trees are here to

all remind me of that. I asked him.

I said, John, I I want you to do me a favor.

I I would be so honored if you would write the the forward to

my book God sold for your home. He responded by saying I'm

honored that you even asked for me to do so.

To the transcript home wrote the forward to the book and I was

grateful. Few years after that I decided

to take John out to lunch. So I called them up and we we

set up a time to meet together And where does the world's

greatest preacher go to lunch? Carl's junior, where else?

And there we sat eating burgers and fries and sipping our Cokes,

talking about theology and philosophy as a ministry.

And I told him, I said, John, I just want to thank you for the

impact that you made in my life. I said, I don't know how much

longer you have to live or I to live, but I thought, you know

what? It's best for me to personally

thank you for the impact that you've made in my life.

And I went back and rehearsed from the time we met in 1979 to

where we were on that day, so he would know the impact he made in

me and the church in which I was pastoring.

When you think about that, when you think about his life and you

think about his his ministry, he was simply the master's man.

He shared the same birth date as Charles Spurgeon.

They were both born on June 19th, 105 years apart, but they

were both born on June the 19th, and Spurgeon was his favorite

preacher. 100 years after Spurgeon's death, he went to

London and visited the grave of Charles Spurgeon because he was

writing the book called Ashamed of the Gospel, And that book is

probably my favorite of all the books that he's written.

Talks about the downgrade of the gospel in Spurgeon's day.

And he was addressing that in our day, how the church has

become like the world and the church has begun to dilute the

gospel. And so in that book, he quotes

Spurgeon voluminously throughout it because Spurgeon 100 years

earlier had faced the same issues that the church was

facing even today when Spurgeon died.

The one who preached his memorial service had a text.

The text was Revelation 7, Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10.

Revelation 7:9

And what was said about Spurgeon in that day could be said about

John in our day. My wife found this quote.

She gave it to me this past week.

It says this now he, Spurgeon, has left the pulpit forever.

He stands amongst the great multitude who are before the

throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and

palms in their hands. He is not in strange company

there, for the song of those who waved the palm branch was ever

his theme as he stood at the pulpit.

Salvation to our God, who sitteth up on the throne and and

into the Lamb from the pulpit to the palm branch, has been for

him a very natural transition. He preached Christ here, He

praises him Yonder. Think about that.

To stand behind the pulpit speaking about the Lord, to

standing with a palm branch singing to the land.

It doesn't get any greater than that.

Solomon was right when he said a good name is better than a good

ointment. In the day of 1's death is

better than the day of 1's birth.

He would go on to say in verse 8 of Chapter 7, the end of a

matter is better than its beginning.

In 1969 when John became the pastor Grace Community Church,

that was the beginning. On July 14th, 2025, that was the

end and the end was better than the beginning because in the end

he entered the presence of the living God.

Think about this, in the 1700s the Masters man was Jonathan

Edwards. He led the Great Awakening, the

great revival in American history.

In the 1800's the Masters man was Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

In the 1900's the Masters man was John MacArthur.

Every 100 years God raises up a man, a particular man, the

Masters man. I wonder over the next 100 years

who the next Master's man will be.

I want to pray with you for Grace Community Church from

Patricia, John's wife, his family, that God would do a a

great and mighty work now that he's taking John home.

So let's bow together for a word of prayer.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today, and we thank you that

you've taken John into your presence.

All of us to some degree will miss him, some more so than

others. Family, especially his wife

Patricia, the elders and staff at Grace Community, the church

that you allowed him to pastor for 56 years, they will miss

him. They will miss him terribly, and

rightly so. That's because of the impact

that he has made in so many people's lives.

And yet, Lord, we realize that that nobody lives forever.

And then your time in your way, you take them home to be with

you. And we know that Lord, Lord,

that John is in your presence. And we know, Lord, that he

stands before the Lamb, waving a palm branch and singing praises

to the Lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and

praise. We pray for Grace Community

Church, we pray for their future, pray for their pastors,

their elders, their leaders. Do you give them supreme wisdom

as they begin to search for your will and finding the next

shepherd for Grace Community? It won't be easy, but you're in

charge of all that. So we leave that in your hands

Lord, and trust that whole church to your hands.

They have been LED well for 50-6 years.

They know. They know what you want them to

do. Help them to enact it in a way

that honors your name. So Lord, we stand before you

today thanking you for the impact that John has made, not

just on my life, our church, but many of the people's lives that

are here. Many were saved through his

ministry and we are grateful. And so, Lord, our our prayer is

that we would continue to be faithful to you until you come

again, as you most surely will, in Jesus name, Amen.