The following sermon is by John MacArthur, pastor, author, and Bible teacher with Grace to You.

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Here is Grace to you Bible teacher John MacArthur.

There is a sermon announced in the bulletin, but you can disregard that because that's not the subject for today.

Come to the conviction that we need to receive some encouragement as the people of God.

This is a dire time, and I can speak on your behalf because I know you carry the same

burdens that I do as a church. This is a very hard time for the church. The church is at least in in name filled with false teachers, defecting pastors, immoral leaders,

proud, arrogant men, power being usurped by women, division, racial hatred and animus,

bad theology, worldliness.

It's a very dire time.

And it is compounded by the fact that we feel like we're being persecuted because we're

being told we can't meet.

There are some people who might wonder what the future of the church is.

Some churches have just shut down, but that's because they fear the powers or because they're basically trying to please the

culture and they can't find a way to do that in this setting.

It's a very difficult time for faithful pastors.

They can't shepherd their flocks.

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