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For over 50 years, Pastor John MacArthur has heralded the gospel of salvation for sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone!  And he has done so because, like the Reformers who pre-dated him by 500 years, he believes in the absolute authority of Scripture alone.  

And now, under the tyranny of Governor Gavin Newsom, our brother in Christ and the elders with whom he serves at Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, CA, find themselves forced to make an Acts 5:29 stand.  “We ought to obey God rather than men.”  And in the “Land of the Free” this pastor is now being threatened with arrest by the very government sworn to uphold his freedom to religious assemblies and his free speech rights.  O, dear Christians of America, can you hear our brothers in Chinese “reeducation camps” crying out for us to stand firm?!  Can you hear the desperate pleas of our sisters in North Korean labor camps begging for God to give us grace to resist this tyranny?!  Do you hear the cries of the believers in Pakistan whose churches are routinely burned and whose daughters are often captured and forced to marry Muslim men three times their age?  Are we listening, Church?  Is my own Southern Baptist Convention listening?  As Black Lives Matter now burns Bibles in the streets, whose voice or voices are we going to heed?  

O God, give us grace to realize that right now, if we are born-again followers of Jesus Christ, we are all John MacArthur!  Regardless of whether we agree with every point of doctrine he has taught over the years, we cry out to You, Maker of heaven and earth, to fight for him as your chosen man.  We ask, O Lord, that You would prevent His arrest.  Yet, as our Savior taught us to pray, not our will, but Yours be done.  If You have ordained suffering and even imprisonment for the cause of Christ, give our brother strength.  Use him wherever You send him, to proclaim salvation in no other name other than Jesus!  Bring men and women to submit to the Lordship of Christ Jesus the Lord by the courageous ministry of Pastor MacArthur.  Grant the church he shepherds an extra measure of grace, increased courage, and everlasting hope in the Rock and Redeemer whom they love and serve.  May they stand with their pastor and his family in this trial.  May the fame and name of Jesus be lifted even higher. May You turn the enemy’s schemes back upon his own head. O Almighty God, turn the heart of Governor Newsom.  Bring this earthly ruler to his knees. Humble him and grant him repentance of sin and faith in the one and only Ruler whose kingdom shall not end.  May thousands of sinners in California be born again by a massive move of Your Spirit, as they see Your power and love on display in and through Grace Community Church.  Awaken them to their dire need of the salvation only Jesus gives.  Deliver them from Your righteous wrath by the bloody cross of Christ.  Be merciful to them, O Lord, for Your own sake.  

“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, Your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His Anointed,’ for truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:24-30).  

Amen.              

by Keith McWhorter