Hi, I'm Phil Johnson, and it is my great privilege to be your host each day on Grace to you.

And with me in the studio today, as always, is John MacArthur.

But today we're going to keep him in the studio a bit longer than usual to discuss the COVID-19

pandemic.

And we want to talk about some of the challenges and the opportunities that are facing believers in this time of distress and inconvenience.

John, we're now several weeks into a long period of international quarantine,

and I have to say that for me as well as for

lots of our listeners I know that your sermons each Sunday have been a lifeline of

encouragement and strength and while it seems we're swimming in this ocean of

dismay and inconvenience and concern about the future, lots of bad news. You've sort of given us God's word to keep us anchored and

thank you for that. Thanks for keeping us anchored. Well it's my joy to do that. I

think one of our politicians or one of our philosophers made the comment don't ever waste a crisis.

Well that from a spiritual standpoint that's true as well.

This is a global crisis and you've got to speak to it. We've always done that. This goes back to

member 9-11. And 9-11 happened on a Tuesday and by Sunday I had to be prepared to speak and it wound up

being an hour and a half message on Islam, jihad, and the Bible to explain what

was going on. I remember before that there was a national incident

over the fall of Jimmy Swaggart and I gave a message trying to help people understand

what can happen to a minister who's unfaithful and then the Supreme Court decision

to legitimize homosexual marriage, same-sex marriage was another crisis moment to which

I spoke.

Through the years of my ministry, there have been times when you had to stop whatever you're doing

...