John MacArthur Series on Isaiah 53 – brief Comments & Observations

I’ve been quite critical of John MacArthur and his hermeneutic as I perceive taught by the Masters Seminary but haven’t really listened to much of his preaching. To put that right I have listened to his series on Isaiah 53 in the car as I travel to and from work. There has been no note-taking so what follows is made up of what came across to be the main thrust of the ministry – how it came over.

MacArthur is a really good speaker and although I’ve not been that impressed by the overall content he nevertheless has a voice that is easy on the ear, his voice or tone, or pitch doesn’t assault my senses and is very clear and well articulated. The recording is good quality so all in all it’s really not a struggle to listen.

He hasn’t said anything much I hadn’t heard before but I was looking to hear of Christ and the Gospel. This is just a statement of fact as I have been a Christian since 1979. I’ve heard a lot of sermons! I was surprised, maybe I shouldn’t have been, how quickly he got into the nation of Israel. He ran out of time on one sermon, not finishing he decided to come back to it the next time. I know this because we were told on the following message. So with time enough to finish that section of Isaiah 53, what does he do but launch into an extended sermon on Israel and its repentance as a nation leaving the verse I thought he was coming back to for a few minutes at the end. I do not know John MacArthur, have never met him, never spoken to him, never had contact with him in any way other than through these messages – and I think one or two of his books. So, my comments are purely based on what I hear, where it seems to me his passion lies. His sermon is therefore, as it were, his shop window.

The next Sunday (next message that is) a lot of visitors were in for the graduation (so we were told) and so he quickly did a review of the previous weeks. This was fair enough so people could pick up the series as he was by now well into it. John made statement here that I fail to understand. He said the Old Testament is full of Jesus where he could be found. It was a qualified statement but couched in inclusive language because Jesus can actually be found everywhere. He doesn’t find Jesus for example in the Song of Solomon because he says so in his Study Bible. I though his qualification was a little disingenuous.

Sadly what I’ve found to be seriously lacking in this series is little if any mention of the Grace of God. I am driving so might have lost concentration on the sermon for a minute but cannot recall any mention of Grace. Doesn’t the Apostle Paul call it the Gospel of the Grace of God. And amazingly there has been no mention of the Love of God. Surely when considering such a passage of scripture such as Isaiah 53 it would have been more than appropriate to quote John 3:16 ‘God SO loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes ion Him should not perish but have eternal life’. Another verse that should have been mentioned was in Acts 8 where Philip beginning with that very scripture preached Christ. For Philip then, the primary meaning of the passage is Jesus Christ. I found MacArthur’s’ view that the primary meaning of Isaiah 53 was the final restoration and repentance of Israel something that even a premillennial friend of mine thought was a bit weird.

His preaching is very light on application. There is no application to struggling believers, doubting believers, sinning believers.

I found the ministry to be full of the sufferings of Christ but little or nothing on why those sufferings were necessary. This is astonishing. In one place he gives a string of words and phrases from the passage about Christ being bruised, beaten, crushed, afflicted and how it’s all about judgement and wrath but doesn’t even mention how this demonstrates the love of God for poor lost sinners, and I include Christians here. I am really surprised  shocked even. I couldn’t possibly condone a book about preaching the Gospel by John MacArthur – I only wish it were possible. MacArthur is greatly admired as a preacher but I just don’t get it – and I’m really sorry. I’ve listened to this series for about two weeks now each day as I travel in the car. I remember listening to Michael Horton on Law & Gospel and had to just sit in the car when I reached work in tears thankful for The Lord Jesus and what He has done for this poor undeserving sinner. Not so with this. It’s just so factual and rigid. Perhaps someone could explain to me based on this series what it is I’m missing. Am I the only person in the evangelical world that doesn’t get it – I would like to know.

I’m listening to this because I said I would. But just to remind you, I am only going on his preaching in this series – his shop window. It’s what I see and frankly I’m less than impressed.

I’ve listened to the series now and I have to admit the last one was the best of the series. He used the term God’s ‘Marvelous Grace’ and then used the word Grace again. It took to the end of the series to mention the Grace of God.

As a check I thought it might be a good idea to listen to someone else on this passage. Stuart Olyott seemed like a good idea so I downloaded the three messages on Isaiah 53 by Stuart. To be perfectly honest there was some crossover of things said but there just seemed to be a different emphasis, a wholly different feel to the ministry – if I can put it like that. On reflection it was maybe unfair of me to expect John MacArthur to be anything other than consistent with his own theology. But I reckon if he left out his references to Israel and didn’t constantly repeat himself (I know that can be a good thing) it would have taken him three, maybe four sermons, instead of ten to say the same thing. What Stuart did especially in his third sermon on Isaiah 53 was apply it. The application was very encouraging to poor struggling believers. Not every Christian is marching across the world like a colossus.  Some Christians are really struggling with their own sin, their backsliding of heart and a constant sense of failure. What this passage tells every Christian is that regardless of their own struggles and constant failures Jesus Christ has died for them! Even these poor examples, and I count myself as one of them, Jesus Christ died for and will bring them through for His own glory and praise. What an encouragement to once again seek this Saviour afresh and to serve Him for the rest of our days in whatever way He chooses. And then one day He will bring me, even me to be with Him in heaven. Now that’s the Gospel of the Grace of God to undeserving sinners.

If you see yourself to be one – a poor undeserving sinner. Then Jesus tells you, yes even you, to come to Him and receive from Him the gift of eternal life because He and only He has died and risen for sinners. Jesus says in Mat 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Go here and scroll down the page to find sermons by Stuart Olyott.

 

5 thoughts on “John MacArthur Series on Isaiah 53 – brief Comments & Observations

    1. Hi Jim,

      I appreciate your comment here. It’s a very very different kind of ministry than I’ve been used to. Funny thing is, it hasn’t completely put me off ever listening to him again. As I say MacArthur is an excellent speaker and is very engaging and easy to listen to. I struggle with his content though and with what he leaves out. I’ll listen to some more another time.

  1. Ok, I know that this post is over a year old, but I want to note something. I first have to admit, we all have our favorites when it comes to preaching. The Lord has given us a gift in the diversity of faithful teachers (I had to put, faithful so as to exclude the large mass of quasi-teachers.) I have a hard time being able to listen to R.C. Sproul, not because he isn’t an amazing teacher, but his style is not just for me, though his books are great to read. Also, I do not agree with much of what he believes (baby dunking being one), but…

    With that said, it seems like you missed the forest because of the tree. You say that he doesn’t say anything that you haven’t heard already… Isn’t that a good thing? In this age of innovation within the pulpit, do we not want to know that the pastor we are listening to is following in the long line of other teachers and not making up his own stuff?

    You speak of the ridgitity of it, but maybe due to your divided attention you had missed his statement at the beginning of his teaching in which stated the reason for the way the teaching would be the way they were.

    “The reality this morning is, folks, I give you sort of fair warning. The reality is you’re going to think you’re in an upper division class in the Master’s Seminary because it is essential to me to give you the ground work and the foundation and something of the structure of this section of Holy Scripture. You need to understand its character, its context so that you can be able to draw all the richness that is in this chapter. I have heard sermons on Isaiah 53 but you’re going to get more than that, you’re going to get a series that could last as long as a couple of months. And in order to make that all that it should be and for you to be able to see what is really in this incredible section of Scripture, I’m going to have to give you an introductory message this morning. And so you need to put on your scholastic cap and think carefully and thoughtfully about this, expect to be on overload a little bit. We’re going to test your gigabyte capacity this morning, how much you can handle. But we’re going to lay this one down on CD, if you will, or on MP3 file for the future, it will be the kind of thing you’ll probably want to go back to and listen and absorb in the future.”

    As far as saying that he spoke of much of the the suffering but little to do with the why I will point to the fact that in the sermon below he spoke of the sin of man roughly 69 times. If your complaint is that he did not specifically use the term “total depravity” than that really is not a point of honest critisicm

    http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-439/the-substituted-servant-part-1
    And that above number is not including statements like “He took our place, died in our stead, gave His life for us. Technically we would call this vicarious penal substitution.”

    It is understandable that you may have missed some stuff. I have had to relisten to his stuff before, because of the amount of information that he gives that I am unable to gather it all in at the first listen.

    Maybe your problem is more with just his approach to Scripture, which is different than many other reformed pastors. His approach to Scripture is to first discover what the author intended to write and what the intended audience would understand. That approach helps keep him from then in turn twisting the underrstanding simply to fit a certain tradition of thought. For example, since Isaiah was written by a Jew for Jews, why wouldn’t MacArthur be speaking of the nation of Israel in his teaching? Unless of course you have a hard time (like many of those who have a covenental hermenutics) with the belief that the Nation of Israel, as a nation, still haspart to play in the future in God’s economy.

    With all sincerity, this seemed like a half-baked post about a guy who you do not agree with, admit that you really didn’t listen all that intently to his teachings but feel ok to post against what you may or may not have heard. Is that honest blogging?
    I only bring this one up because of the endless posts that you have done a brilliant job on. Don’t let personal dislikes for a man or his theology be the reason for posting a poor critic against him, you are better than that.

    In Christ
    John

    1. Hi John,

      I appreciate your comment very much and the time you took out to post it. It did take me 2 weeks to listen to the series so it wasn’t a cursory glance even though it was in the car. Agreed, we have our favourites.

      Did you listen to the Stuart Olyott sermons to get the different emphasis?

      I do have a problem with his approach to Scripture and in that I must learn to be gracious in disagreement. What I do appreciate about JM and the Masters Seminary is the high view of Scripture as The Word of God and the background historical knowledge. But I’m also looking for a sermon to be more about Christ than about Israel – and on that we will have to agree to disagree. Maybe I need to listen to more of his sermons – so if you have a recommendation, I’m up for listening, and to be corrected.

      FYI, I’m slowly going through the Strange Fire conference audio at the moment with profit.

      It is honest blogging because like you said about JM I laid out the circumstance at the start of my post. From my perspective I did make a genuine effort to be fair and honest. And, as stated, had there been more of the Gospel and the Grace of God my emphasis would have been different.

      I wasn’t sure about responding, so on this topic, perhaps we could leave it there.

      Apologies for your Bold type – no idea why that happened. I didn’t take it the wrong way. I can change it if you like.

      Do visit again. Thanks for dropping by.

      In Christ,

      Mike

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