The NXR Podcast - November 30, 2022


DAILY TRUTH - The Freedom of the Conscience


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

150.86

Word count

1,240

Sentence count

74

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Pastor John MacArthur has preached that a Christian should not drink alcohol. Does this mean that a pastor should be domineering over his flock? Is this spiritual abuse? Or is it just good preaching? Join Pastor Gary and the Right Response Ministries team as they discuss this question.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.
00:00:03.360 If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
00:00:06.420 would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five-star review?
00:00:09.760 This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do
00:00:12.860 to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible.
00:00:17.520 Thanks.
00:00:19.620 Jesus said,
00:00:20.740 Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
00:00:25.380 You're listening to Daily Truth.
00:00:30.000 In all these ways, an elder must be able to say to those in his church,
00:00:34.760 follow me as I follow Christ.
00:00:38.560 He must be able to set an example for the flock.
00:00:43.040 That's 1 Peter 5.
00:00:44.900 Not domineering over those in your charge.
00:00:48.420 Domineering meaning not pushing and prodding the sheep by coercion.
00:00:54.480 But as we said last week, but rather persuasion.
00:00:57.160 now there are many in the church today in america not saying this church necessarily but in the
00:01:03.940 church today in america who would interpret persuasion as coercion i don't like the way
00:01:10.920 you're talking to me you made it feel as though if if i was to take any other position than the
00:01:17.100 one you espoused i would be wrong now we have to ask is that domineering is that coercion is that
00:01:25.300 spiritual abuse? Or is that just good preaching? John MacArthur holds as a position that a Christian
00:01:34.480 should not drink alcohol. And he has preached on more than one occasion, an entire sermon
00:01:40.300 in his church devoted to binding every conscience in the room to not drinking a drop of alcohol.
00:01:48.780 I disagree.
00:01:52.900 R.C. Sproul, Lord knows that man disagreed.
00:01:56.180 I'm not saying that he abused alcohol, but it's a Presbyterian, Ligonier Cruises.
00:02:01.200 There was some whiskey on those cruises.
00:02:02.740 I'll just leave it at that.
00:02:04.180 So there's disagreement.
00:02:06.920 The question is, is MacArthur, as a pastor of his congregation,
00:02:11.740 permitted by the word of God to see something and have a conviction
00:02:18.220 and seek through persuasive preaching
00:02:22.100 to bind the conscience of every person in the room?
00:02:28.120 Yes.
00:02:29.220 Yes.
00:02:30.640 Is that spiritual abuse?
00:02:32.740 Well, we like to say it is,
00:02:34.420 especially if you like alcohol, right?
00:02:36.320 You're going to have,
00:02:36.980 if you're in that church and you like to drink,
00:02:39.460 you're going to have a massive temptation to say,
00:02:42.280 where's Christian liberty?
00:02:45.720 What's going on? 0.94
00:02:48.220 but he's allowed to do that.
00:02:49.780 And the congregation is allowed to disagree
00:02:51.900 because it's secondary.
00:02:55.300 And MacArthur's church is not commanding
00:02:57.940 in the sense that they're exercising church discipline
00:03:00.600 over those who drink alcohol
00:03:02.660 so long as they're not getting drunk.
00:03:04.340 Do you understand?
00:03:05.600 So you're allowed to have a powerful preaching,
00:03:08.600 persuasion, hold a secondary or tertiary,
00:03:12.020 I would argue that one's tertiary,
00:03:13.380 doctrinal position that may in the larger body of Christ
00:03:16.960 be somewhat even obscure seek to bind the consciences of every person in the room making
00:03:22.320 the most persuasive arguments that you can and the congregation at the very same time ultimately
00:03:28.060 disagree and you as the pastor say i think you're wrong i actually think this is wrong and at the
00:03:37.880 very same time not exercise church discipline because it is an example where there is liberty
00:03:43.960 so all that being said the point is that an elder must through persuasion not coercion that's what
00:03:53.900 the scripture means first peter chapter five not domineering that's what it means not to domineer
00:03:58.920 i think we often interpret domineering through the lens of strong preaching if the voice is
00:04:07.080 elevated as mine is now, we are sometimes too quick to throw that into the domineering category.
00:04:14.920 Do you understand? So not domineering simply means not coercion, right? Not commanding something that
00:04:23.100 really should be counsel. But through these two authorities, the authority of command, that which
00:04:28.740 is explicit in scripture, and the authority of counsel, that which is more implicit and peripheral,
00:04:34.900 even in the realm of the authority of counsel,
00:04:37.920 you can still make powerfully persuasive arguments
00:04:40.860 and hold a deep conviction.
00:04:44.020 A congregant is allowed to do that.
00:04:47.300 And certainly, so is an elder.
00:04:49.500 All right, all right, all right.
00:04:50.680 Stop twisting my arm.
00:04:51.900 I know you want to hear the inside scoop.
00:04:54.580 Here it is, the glorious vision
00:04:56.340 of Right Response Ministries
00:04:57.740 for the first half of next year, 2023.
00:05:01.020 We have not one, not two,
00:05:02.800 but three massive endeavors that we will accomplish by the grace of God. The first you
00:05:09.100 already know about. It's our Theonomy and Post-Millennialism Conference, May 5th, 6th,
00:05:13.880 and 7th with James White, Joe Boot, Gary DeMar, Dale Partridge, and yours truly, Pastor Joel
00:05:19.540 Webin. This is selling out incredibly fast. By the time this commercial airs, you may not even
00:05:24.960 be able to get a ticket. I really don't know. So don't waste another moment. Go to
00:05:29.560 rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com to join us for the Theonomy and Post-Millennialism
00:05:37.040 Conference next year. Now, this is where you come in. We need your help. Our next two endeavors
00:05:42.960 are number one, a documentary-style film, and number two, a brand new studio. Both of these
00:05:50.180 things are seeking to accomplish one primary goal, which is excellent, high-quality, glorious
00:05:57.460 Christian media. We are tired of, as Christians, doing things poorly. We've done our best with
00:06:05.480 what we have, but by God's grace, we want to do even better. This is not going to be just another
00:06:11.300 video. This is not going to be a sermon or an interview or a podcast, but we're going to make
00:06:16.660 a documentary-style film, and we're going to be hiring Nathan Anderson, the director of On Earth
00:06:22.380 as it is in heaven, a very, very successful post-millennialism documentary that's on Amazon
00:06:28.400 and YouTube, came out a couple years ago. He's going to be flying in from Chile to help us direct
00:06:34.160 this film. And our documentary is going to be on post-millennialism and theonomy, why it's
00:06:40.980 biblically valid, why it's absolutely necessary, and why, by the grace of God, theonomy and
00:06:46.740 post-millennialism are currently on the rise. So we're going to make this film and we need
00:06:52.360 your support. And not just this film, but we're going to make all of our videos and podcasting
00:06:58.420 and everything we do here at Right Response Ministries better. We want to achieve the
00:07:04.220 highest level of quality and Christian excellence that we possibly can. That's where the new studio
00:07:10.220 comes in. This new film, our date that we're shooting for is that it would be complete
00:07:15.260 and publicly available in May or June of 2023 next year.
00:07:20.860 The studio, our goal is that it would be completely done
00:07:24.140 in its construction and the equipment and the setup
00:07:26.580 and the stage and everything by January, February of 2023 next year.
00:07:33.620 We need your prayers.
00:07:35.100 We need your encouragement.
00:07:36.560 And for those of you who are willing to do so,
00:07:38.880 we need your generous support.
00:07:40.960 You can give towards these endeavors
00:07:42.680 by going to rightresponseministries.com forward slash donate.
00:07:48.180 Again, that's rightresponseministries.com forward slash donate.
00:07:53.860 Thank you so much for all your help.
00:07:55.960 God bless.
00:07:56.640 Thanks so much for listening.
00:07:57.640 But real quick, before you go, do us a small favor,
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00:08:05.120 This is undoubtedly the best way that you can help us
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00:08:12.180 Thanks so much.