May 19, 2021 Show with Bob Kauflin & Foto Sisters on “Music That Glorifies God”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister, George Norcross, in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions, and now here's your host,

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth.

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We're listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

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Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Wednesday on this 19th day of May, 2021, and I'm thrilled to have a day of music here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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We are going to be addressing music that glorifies God, and in order to do that, we have provided for your blessing,

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I'm sure, the musical gifts of both Bob Kauflin, director of Sovereign Grace Music, who was our guest during the first hour, and then also, in the second half of our program, the

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Photo Sisters, and we're also going to be announcing the G3 Conference 2021, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Bob Kauflin.

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It's a joy to be here, Chris. Thanks so much. That music was quite spectacular at the opening of the show.

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I appreciate that. In fact, a Canadian Christian rock band created that opening piece specifically for Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and also provided the

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Canadian announcer, which is why they pronounced I -run for Iron Sharpens Iron, and I've had a few people ask me about that from the

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United States who didn't know that that's how Canadians pronounce I -run. That is great.

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Well, got things off to a good start, I think. Yeah, amen. And tell us about Sovereign Grace Music, please.

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Well, we've been around since the mid-'80s, and our mission statement is we are seeking to produce songs and training,

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Christ -exalting songs and training for local churches from local churches, and we produce albums, we run conferences, and I've been in this position for about, oh, 20 -plus years.

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Well praise God, and as the name indicates,

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Sovereign Grace Music, I'm assuming you and those that are involved in the music are believers in the doctrines of Sovereign Grace.

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We are indeed. Yeah, we're part of a family of churches, the Sovereign Grace churches, and yeah, we love the doctrines of grace, and thank

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God for His greatness and His glory and His goodness, and our music reflects that. Yeah, I first became familiar with Sovereign Grace Music years ago when

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I was invited to a conference on the New Jersey shore that was being run by my dear friend

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Pastor Ed Moore of North Shore Baptist Church in Bayside, Queens. Oh, man! Oh, you know

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Ed? I know Ed, sure! Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Well, he, during the entire conference, they were exclusively using the music of Sovereign Grace Music as the praise music, and I can't remember right now who the speaker was, but it was somebody connected with Sovereign Grace Ministries.

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Wow, wow, yeah, Ed and I go back quite a bit. He came to one of our conferences, a number of our conferences, and I think the

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Lord used that interaction to focus in his heart the significance of the gospel.

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I think the Lord was doing a number of things in his life, but we had a number of interactions about the significance of what

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Jesus did for us through His cross and resurrection. Amen. Well, I'm going to play a song by Sovereign Grace Music, and to whet the appetites of those listening, perhaps giving them even more enthusiasm and interest in attending the

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G3 Conference coming up in Atlanta, Georgia, September 30th through October 2nd. As I said during the announcements, you will be providing some of that music, that worship music there, and so will the

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Photo Sisters, our second and third guests, I guess you could say, during the second hour.

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And before I play the song, what can you tell me about Lord My Rock and My Redeemer?

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Oh, it's written by a good friend of mine, Nate Stiff, and he actually sent it to me a number of years ago and said,

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Nate, this is a great song based on the last verse of Psalm 19. You know, may my meditation of my heart, words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be acceptable to you,

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O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. And he wanted to tease that out, kind of expand upon that.

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He sent it to me, and I said, you know, those are great words. I think maybe the melody could be different. So he worked on it and came up with a tune that really, it stays with you.

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This song has served, I think, a lot of people in that it's partially a lament psalm.

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It talks about some of the difficult things we go through, but how Jesus is meant to be our

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Rock and our Refuge, our Redeemer and our Savior through everything that we go through. It's a song that has ministered to me a number of times.

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Amen. Well, here it is, Lord My Rock and My Redeemer. Oh, Lord, my

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Redeemer, greatest treasure of my longing soul.

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My God, like you there is no other.

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True delight is found in you alone.

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Your grace, O world, too deep to fathom.

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Your love exceeds the heaven of truth.

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A fount of perfect wisdom. My highest good and my unending need.

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Oh, Lord, my rock and my home, defender of my way.

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My sword to fight the cruel deceiver.

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And my shield against his hateful thoughts.

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My soul, when enemies surround me.

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My way, when trials are abounding.

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Your faithfulness, my refuge in the night.

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My Rock and my Redeemer. Gracious Savior of my ruined life.

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My guilt and cross laid on your shoulders.

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In my place, you suffered, bled and died.

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You rose. The grave and death are conquered.

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You broke my bonds of sin and shame.

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You rose. Redeemer, may all my days bring glory to your name.

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May all my days bring glory to your name.

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Hallelujah, what a beautiful song. Amen. Tell us about the other individuals that are involved in creating this beautiful music.

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Well, a lot of them are from my church here in Louisville, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. And then the girl who sang is from a

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Sovereign Grace Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Lisa Clow. David Zimmer, the drummer, is now here at the time of that recording a few years ago, 2017

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I think. He was in California, but they've moved here. He and his family moved here and actually lived with us for a year.

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And then bought a house about a year ago. Yeah, so others that we've known either through Sovereign Grace Music or just are part of the church here.

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Yeah, it's a changing roster. But a lot of times it's the people in the church here and then people who have been on previous recordings.

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Well, praise God. Why don't you tell us, as we have a tradition here, I'm not sure I even told you this before the show.

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Uh -oh. We have a tradition here where whenever we have a first -time guest, we ask that guest to provide a summary of their salvation testimony, including the kind of religious atmosphere, if any, you were raised in, the providential experiences our

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Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and saved you, and how you discovered the doctrines of grace as well.

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I would be very happy to tell that story. I was raised Roman Catholic, and I was a good

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Roman Catholic. I loved it. I had planned to become a priest. Wow, you loved it more than I did.

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Yeah, yeah, more than a lot of my friends did. Although I was never an altar boy.

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I did want to become a priest. And when I was a freshman in high school, so 14, 15 years old,

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I went to a junior seminary in Chesterfield, Missouri. But then it shut down at the end of that year due to lack of enrollment.

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So I interpreted that as God saying, I'm not supposed to be a priest. So I went to public high school for the next three years, very much into my

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Catholic faith, and then went to Temple University to study piano, 1972.

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And there was a guy, I don't even know his name, who knocked on my door and said,

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Hey, I'd love to have a chat with you about Christianity. And he was from Campus Crusade for Christ, which is now

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Crewe. And I kind of put him off and said, Hey, I'm a Catholic Christian. I'm good. Good to go.

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And he was persistent. So I finally agreed to meet with him in the Student Union building.

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And I'll remember, Chris, these few details. He took me to Romans. Somehow he got me in Romans.

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I was reading my Bible. I had the Good News for Modern Man, a little New Testament. And I read that faithfully.

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But he took me to Romans and showed me the wages. I'm sorry.

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All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Romans 3 .23. And he said,

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Do you believe that you've sinned? I said, Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm not perfect. I mean, I know. So he said,

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Well, he took me over to Romans 6 .23. The wages of sin is death.

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Do you believe that God has to punish you for your sins and that punishment is death?

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I said, Well, yeah, but if I get to confession, I'll be okay. And he said, Well, it's not quite like that.

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And he went on to read the rest of the verse. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

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Lord. And he gave me a pencil. And he said, That pencil is my gift to you.

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I said, Okay. He said, Did you do anything to to earn that gift? I said,

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No. Did you do anything to deserve that gift? I said, No. Well, am

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I going to take that gift back? He said, No. So that is what eternal life is like.

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And in that moment, God opened my eyes to see that salvation was not something

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I could earn, not something I deserve, not something that God would ever take back, but a free gift purchased through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

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And I remember walking away from that encounter thinking, Wow, if I missed that in the

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Bible, what else have I missed? And that began, that was next year will be 50 years ago.

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And it began this wonderful journey of knowing my

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Lord and Savior, knowing the God who created and redeemed me. And so the doctrines of grace,

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I, oh my, I don't know. I think from early on,

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I believe God was sovereign in my salvation because I sure wasn't looking for him.

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I thought I knew him. And so I'd read verses like, You've been chosen him for the foundation of the earth to be holy and blameless in his sight.

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And I just thought, Oh, okay. I can't argue with that.

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Of course I was chosen. I didn't choose him. He must have chosen me, kind of like Spurgeon would say.

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So Sovereign Grace, I think, is a family of churches. We're about 40 years old. But during the 90s,

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CJ, who was leading the ministry at the time, started reading

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Puritans and just sharing about the doctrine of sin and the doctrine of grace.

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And I think it became more solidified in my thinking. Of course, reading John Piper in the early 90s,

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Desiring God, although I must say when I first read Desiring God, it didn't compute.

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It was hard for me to think that God was most glorified in us when we were most satisfied in him.

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Because I'd been raised on this mindset that if it was going to please God, it had to be hard and difficult and something

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I didn't want to do. And, of course, God tells us to do things we don't want to do.

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But that's not the end of sanctification, just doing things we don't want to do.

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We see the superior treasure of Jesus, and we find sacrifices of joy because we have a greater treasure in him, and certainly an eternal, far -surpassing glory awaiting us.

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So it's been a wonderful journey, and I just get more excited to see him face to face.

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Amen. And what is the philosophy that you have of Christian music?

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There is obviously different approaches and different philosophies to Christian music that are out there, and perhaps many involved in Christian music don't even have a pre -thought, pre -planned philosophy.

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Sometimes that shows. But one of the things

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I can tell you that I appreciate greatly about Sovereign Grace music is that it is extremely conducive to congregational worship as opposed to entertainment, as opposed to passive spectator worship where you're just observing, listening, enjoying.

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It is conducive to drawing you in to want to join in with the music and sing along with it.

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But if you could, in your own words, tell us a philosophy that you may have. Well, that is wonderful.

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That's very encouraging to hear. And I assume you're talking about music for the Church, music in the Church. We're not just talking about Christian music in general.

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Right. Yeah. I think the verse that has been most pervasive in my thinking has been

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Colossians 3 .16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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That contains so much. I've looked at that verse so many times. When we sing, it's the word of Christ that's meant to dwell in us richly.

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So not musical experiences, not visuals, not technology, not guitar riffs, not vocal skills.

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It's the word of Christ. So when we write songs or when we choose songs to sing, we want to be careful to choose songs that are going to enable that to happen in people.

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So there are various ways of it not happening. For instance, when the music is too loud and people can't hear themselves sing, it's harder to have the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

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In fact, that could even be with classical music. I have been in very traditional

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Reformed churches that have had brass bands and hymnody and psalmody, and I have not been able to hear my own voice.

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That might be a blessing to everybody, but totally drowned out by the musical instruments.

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Yes, and the points that I've sought to arrive at aren't related to a particular style of music.

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They're timeless and they're transcultural. I've spent time in different cultures and realized that if what

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I'm thinking about music in the church doesn't translate to another culture, maybe it's not that biblical.

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Maybe it's more of a preference. So that would be one of the things. Another way the word of Christ might not dwell in us richly is if we're not really singing about the word of Christ.

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The word of Christ is the gospel. It's about who Jesus is and what he's done. And it doesn't mean that every song has to contain substitutionary atonement in it, the whole gospel story.

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But that's what the music is supposed to point to. And if our songs don't point to that, if our songs are comprised mostly of ways we feel about God, things we want to say to God, about how we think about him and how we feel, well, that's appropriate at times.

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Certainly the Psalms contain those kinds of expressions. But that's not going to be the substance of what we sing.

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It's the word of Christ. It's who he is, what he actually did, what it actually accomplished.

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So if that's not in our songs, then the word of Christ is not going to be able to dwell in people richly. Now here's another dynamic that people may not think of.

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On the one hand, you can sing songs that are too simple, that don't say enough. But I think the case can be made for the fact that at times we can try to say too much.

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And it's kind of like putting a log on a fire that's just getting started. That fire will go out.

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So if you don't give people the opportunity to think about and engage with the words they're singing, it can land on deaf ears.

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People can sing words they're not really thinking about, and that's not the word of Christ dwelling in them richly either.

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So we try to write songs, and we don't always succeed, but we try to write songs that, in Sovereign Grace music, that first give you enough content to think about and then give you enough time to think about it.

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So that's my philosophy of music in the Church. And I just said one thing, and that is

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God says more about singing than He does about playing. So ideally, when you're in a

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Church context, what the instruments are going to be doing is supporting and encouraging and provoking faith -filled song from the hearts of God's redeemed people for the glory of Christ by the power of the

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Spirit. That's what's supposed to be happening. It's not a talent show. It's not a gig for frustrated musicians who can't find a job on Saturday nights.

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It is a time for instrumentalists to say, I want to use all my skills to serve the singing of these words so that the word of Christ might dwell in people richly.

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So we provide times of just the Church singing, just the people singing. Band cuts out for a verse or a chorus, and we just let them hear their voices because it's so beautiful, and it's so compelling to hear

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God's people lift their hearts and voices together. Amen. I'm going to play another song before we go to our first station break.

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I want to pray all praise to Him. Anything, I mean, it's a very self -explanatory, the title, but anything you'd like to set it up at all?

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Yeah, I wrote this with my friend Matt Merker. I think we had based it on a hymn. I can't remember which one.

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Matt Merker has written He Will Hold Me Fast, and some people might be familiar with that, and a number of other beautiful songs.

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He had started it. I said, hey, can I help you with that? And we wanted to have a song.

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It's from the same album that the previous song was from, Prayers of the Saints. We wanted to have a song, kind of a call to worship, that was triune.

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So it talks about Father, Son, and Spirit. And yeah, I think that sets it up.

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Okay, we're going to bless you all with all praise to Him, and we're going to immediately segue into a commercial break.

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If you have questions for our guests today, please send them to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

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ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence.

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If you live outside the USA, please only remain anonymous. If your question involves a personal and private matter, let's say you disagree with your own pastors about the music in your own church, or maybe you're even a pastor, you disagree with your fellow elders or your denomination, whatever the case is that would compel you to remain anonymous, we understand.

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But please, if it's just a general question for Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Music, please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence.

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We'll be right back after these messages. Thank you. Hear our every prayer

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With sovereign power and tender All praise to Him Whose love we see

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In Christ the Son The servant King Who left behind His glory stone

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To pay the ransom For His own

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All praise to Him Whose help we came To bear our sorrows

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Sin and shame Who lived to die The all -sufficient

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Sacrifice All praise to Him Whose love we see

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In Christ the Son The servant King Who left behind His glory stone

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To bear our sorrows Sin and shame Who lived to die All praise to Him In Christ the

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Son The servant King Who left behind His glory stone To bear our sorrows Sin and shame Who lived to die

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All praise to Him In Christ the

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Son The servant

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King Who left behind His glory stone To bear our sorrows

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Who lived to die Who lived to die All praise to Him The servant

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King Who left behind His glory stone To bear our sorrows Sin and shame Who lived to die All praise to Him All praise to Him All praise to Him All praise to Him All praise to Him All praise to Him All praise to Him All praise to Him Visit historicalbiblesociety .org

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the

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Register now by going online to wokenessandgospel .org featuring speakers such as Dr.

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Owen Strand If you just buy this ideology the world's gonna be made right No, it's not

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Only Jesus Christ makes the world right Daryl Harrison of the Just Thinking Podcast Sinners, like you and me can be reconciled first and foremost to God and consequently to one another

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Pastor Tom Buck of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas Like Satan in the garden woke hermeneutics undermines the very authority of the

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Word of God I don't say that lightly Also hear from Tommy Nelson Charles Stolfus and Rodney Brown Confronting the lies being impressed upon the culture today threatening even to divide the church and answering with the

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Gospel of Jesus Christ The Wokeness and the Gospel Conference coming to Denton Bible Church June 11th and 12th

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Register online at wokenessandgospel .org And I hope to see you there at the Wokeness and the

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Gospel Conference in Denton, Texas I will be manning an exhibitor's booth for Iron Sharpens Iron Radio there

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That is June 11th and 12th in Denton, Texas And the website again is wokenessandgospel .org

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wokenessandgospel .org I'll also be at the G3 Conference that you heard earlier where Bob Kauflin, our guest today will be providing music along with the

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Photo Sisters And we hope that you join us there at the G3 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia September 30th through October 2nd

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Go to g3conference .com g3conference .com You know, listening to that last song

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Bob, I was reminded how much I love Celtic music And I don't even know if that was a thought in your head when you arranged that song but it surely, to me, to my ear was very reminiscent of that Am I off -bass?

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On -bass? Well, if we added a penny whistle it would be a lot more Celtic But it could be, yeah that 3 -4 hymn feel is often used in Celtic music

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Yeah, there's almost a militaristic sound to it as well Yeah, and that's my son singing and he's going to be helping actually,

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I'm going to be helping him We're going to lead together at the G3 Conference Oh, cool And that would be

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Devin? Yes, that's Devin, right I have two sons, one's Devin one's Jordan Well, I'm going to play another song

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Great God Oh, Great God, I'm sorry Any background information we should know about that song?

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Yeah, this came from an album we did back in 2006 called The Valley of Vision based on Arthur Bennett's prayer book

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The Valley of Vision Yeah, we actually just did a two -hour tribute recently on The Valley of Vision published by Banner of Truth Outstanding My guest was

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Roger Salter who has been thoroughly blessed beyond description by that book and he spent two hours going through why it is such a great blessing to him and will be to most people if you are indeed regenerate there's no reason on earth it wouldn't be an enormous blessing to you

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And Roger's a very conservative thoroughly Calvinistic low church Anglican and he was just fascinating paying tribute but I digress,

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I'm sorry you can pick up where I left off No, that's alright My copy is sitting right here and it's taped it's a paperback and it's underlined and yeah,

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I used it for years in my devotions It's just, they do selections that Arthur Bennett put together from Puritans he really edited it you know, it's not you just can't go and find these most of these some places he put a lot of things different things together and they were so good at being able to express our sinfulness and the mercy of Christ and the glory of God and it does it takes you deep into your own heart and into the heart of God so this was

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I can't remember the song the prayer was based on but it came out of that I was playing it in my devotions one day and this song came out as a result

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Great, well here it is folks Oh Great God Oh Great God of highest heaven

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Occupy my lowly heart Own it all and reign supreme

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Conquer every rebel power Let no vice or sin remain

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That resists your holy war You have loved and purchased me

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Make me yours forevermore I was blinded by my sin

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Had no ears to hear your voice Did not know your love within Had no taste for heaven's joys

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Then your Spirit gave me life Opened up your word to me

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Through the gospel of your Son Gave me endless growth and peace

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Help me now to live a life That's dependent on your grace

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Keep my heart and guard my soul From the evils that I face

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You are worthy to be praised With my every thought and need

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Oh Great God of highest heaven Glorify your name through me

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Hallelujah, what a beautiful, beautiful song

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Amen, the prayer is called Regeneration Just looked it up Great We do have an anonymous listener and the anonymous listener says

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You were talking before about music in the church and that it should not be some kind of a talent show

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I have noticed in the church where I'm a member that sometimes people volunteer to provide music that have absolutely no talent at all and they are given free reign to perform during worship services

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Don't you think it is our duty as Christians to be honest and yet loving and tender and patient with people like this that do not have talent to somehow let them know that they do not have the gifts that they think they possess

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It is really disruptive, in my opinion, to the service and it robs you of the worship experience hearing someone with a totally horrible voice and no musical skills whatsoever and that is typically drowned out as far as the voice is concerned when the whole congregation is singing together there is something almost miraculous about how a group of people especially a large congregation when singing sounds so beautiful even though that many people, if not most of them have no training in singing but when somebody is up on a stage either alone or in a duet or a trio or a family it is very noticeable if they do not possess talent

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What is your opinion on this? That is a great question Well, certainly patience is required in all these situations

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We want to approach people lovingly and humbly and sometimes it's good to pray if there is a potential conflict pending

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I'd say there is a minimum standard for musicians in the church and that is that they not be distracting

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Now that is a subjective standard but I mean a vocalist who sings loud and is out of tune that would be distracting a drummer who can't keep time that would be distracting a guitar player who is always playing wrong chords that would be distracting or a piano player who is always playing wrong notes that would be distracting

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Those kinds of people should not lead a congregation in singing

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Now, if you are in a small church that may be the only person you have and so you exercise patience but what shouldn't happen is a situation where someone who clearly is not qualified to lead the church in singing has never been talked to about it because then we just kind of promote this sense that well, because I want to serve in this way

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I can and that's not how God distributes His gifts When the gifts are distributed they are meant to edify the body of Christ Paul says in 1

44:19

Corinthians 14 five times he talks about the building up of the church and that's what the gifts are supposed to do and music is a type of gift it can be a gift of encouragement it's used with words it can be a gift of teaching but if that gift is not being used in a way that edifies then something should be said and if it's not the person in the church maybe they could talk to a pastor and ask for their perspective

44:46

It's good not to go with this list of demands but rather with questions and just say would you agree with this perspective?

44:55

I'm not sure and then see what happens from there Yes, and you're really not doing anybody a favor by bolstering a false impression of themselves where they are going around thinking that they do have talent because they've been encouraged by family, friends, loved ones and congregation members and in the meantime they're constantly, repeatedly over and over and over again going places and making fools of themselves they're embarrassing themselves and I know that the old saying is true about God loving the crow as much as he loves the sound of I can't even remember the bird that's used in that analogy the bird with the beautiful the robin right, right, right but that is in reference

45:54

I believe to congregational worship because even somebody with no gifts at all with a horrible voice is still,

46:01

I believe, commanded to sing in corporate worship so, you know it goes with anything in life if you see somebody spending or dedicating a lot of time doing something that they think that they're very good at and people are basically lying to them and saying yeah, you're great it's really it's sin because you're being deceitful and you're also setting that person up for a much more embarrassing failure in the future where people in larger numbers are going to be honest about it yes, and we're just not fulfilling what

46:44

God's intentions are for the gifts he gives we're putting people's preferences people's desires even people's ambitions ahead of caring for Christ's church and while God does hear all our offerings through Jesus 1

47:00

Peter 2 talks about how our offerings have been made acceptable through Jesus Christ we hear what others are doing we have to see it horizontally and so what

47:12

I do affects others and if what I'm doing isn't building them up then

47:17

Paul says, God says don't do it well, I would like you since we are nearly out of time and we have to go to our midway break and conclude this interview

47:29

I'd like you to summarize in just a few minutes uninterrupted what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today when it comes to music that glorifies

47:38

God hmm oh, that's a great question I've repeated a phrase quite a bit over the last few years and it's that music is great

47:52

Jesus is greater and what I mean by that should be obvious but I'll unpack it a little bit you know,

48:00

God has given us the gift of music to encourage us to bless us music is pleasant

48:07

Psalm 147 I think says a song of praise is fitting and it's beautiful um but nothing is as beautiful as the

48:20

Savior Himself and all our music can do the best our music can do is point to the glory and the beauty and the greatness and the majesty of God as He's revealed

48:35

Himself to us in Jesus and our both so I'll speak to two groups of people you know, those who lead our job is to make sure that our music isn't a distraction to people from that that our music doesn't get in the way it doesn't rob glory from Jesus that we're not seeking to draw more attention to ourselves than we are to the one we're there to to worship so you know,

49:03

I I avoid doing that by not doing long instrumental solos and making sure that I don't overplay making sure the band's not too loud choosing songs that have that right balance of objective truth and subjective response you know, those kinds of things as a singer

49:23

I mean, I'm sorry as someone in the congregation my role is to not focus so much on how the music makes me feel as how these truths what these truths mean to me how these truths make me feel you know, we sing if I could sum up the purpose of singing in the church it would be

49:42

God's intention that we feel the truth we are meant to respond emotionally

49:48

God made us that way music moves our emotions but they have to be in response to the truth and not the sound of the organ or the guitar or the piano or the drums because the truth that we have and the fact that Jesus became a man lived a perfect life died a substitutionary death for us for our sins to pay for our sins and then rose from the dead and then he descended to his father's right hand and is interceding for us now and is coming one day to return for his bride that is the greatest news that we can sing about and that's what we want to focus on whenever we're singing with God's people

50:26

Amen well I want to thank you so much for being such an excellent guest today, Bob and I want to make sure that our listeners are reminded about how they can get in contact with your ministry if anybody wants to find out more about Sovereign Grace Music go to sovereigngracemusic .org

50:47

sovereigngracemusic .org and once again, don't forget that Sovereign Grace Music along with the

50:52

Photo Sisters will be providing the worship music at the

50:58

G3 Conference this September 30th through October 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia where over 20 very profound and powerful and gifted speakers are on the roster to preach and proclaim the glorious gospel of Sovereign Grace and to exalt

51:13

Christ to His Supreme over all go to g3conference .com g3conference .com

51:20

for more details that's September 30th through October 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia God bless you,

51:26

Bob I look forward to having you back on the show in the near future Thank you so much, Chris God bless and don't go away, folks because we are heading into our midway break right now and the midway break be patient with us, please because it's the longer than normal break in the show because Grace Life Radio 90 .1

51:45

FM in Lake City, Florida requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show because the FCC requires of them localizing geographically this and all of their programs to Lake City, Florida so they do so by airing their own public service announcements and other things while we simultaneously are airing our globally heard commercials so please use this time wisely write down as much of the information as you can from as many of our advertisers as you can so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers and of course hopefully that will at times mean purchasing their products using their services visiting their churches and supporting their parachurch organizations but sometimes it will just mean responding to them and thanking them for sponsoring this program that will go a long way to keep our advertisers happy to know that people really do value how they're spending their money on Iron Trip and Zion Radio so if you really do love the show and you do thank our advertisers for making the show possible please thank them by contacting them at the contact information that they provide and also send in questions for our guests the

52:57

Photo Sisters who are going to be our guests the second hour of the program also providing music at the

53:03

G3 conference this fall send in a question to chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com

53:10

we're going to be right back after these messages so don't go away Hi, I'm Phil Johnson host and executive director of Grace to You the media ministry of John MacArthur I hope you plan to join me and Chris Arnson host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio for the

53:37

G3 conference in Atlanta, Georgia Thursday, September 30th through Saturday, October 2nd the theme this year is

53:45

Christ is supreme over all my friend Chris Arnson and I will be joined by several of our other friends including

53:52

Votie Balcom Justin Peters Daryl Bernard Harrison Virgil Walker and James White more than 20 other speakers will be joining us and the lineup this year includes my pastor

54:03

John MacArthur for details visit g3conference .com that's g3conference .com

54:11

Chris Arnson and I hope to see you September 30th through October 2nd at G3 2021 this is

54:18

Phil Johnson reminding you that Christ is supreme over all we are excited to announce another new member of the

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio advertising family Banu Gadi owner of three

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New York pharmacies Lee's Drugs of Floral Park Long Beach Chemists and Prescription Center of Long Island in Hempstead Banu Gadi earned a doctorate in pharmacy degree and is very knowledgeable on the current coronavirus pandemic please contact

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Jesus Christ my name is Banu Gadi I'm a pharmacist in New York which is the epicenter of the latest crisis the world is going through in psalm 139 verse 14 the psalmist offers praise to the lord like this

55:50

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and wondrous are your works that my soul knows very well he saw

55:58

God's goodness and mercy kindness and the beauty in what God has designed and he has erupted into praise in any crisis or problem brothers and sisters our only fallback position is to trust

56:12

God's design and once we do there is nothing for us to do but to erupt in praise to him when the whole world is searching for a solution

56:22

God in his infinite mercy has given us what we need to address this illness which can be very serious such is the beauty of his design knowing that design how can we not erupt in praise to our great

56:35

God like the psalmist did may God bless you and give all of us wisdom to see greater things in his design thank you is

57:13

Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey pastored by Alan Dunn Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's

57:21

God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshipped and how he shall be represented in the world they believe churches need to turn to the

57:29

Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship God in spirit and truth

57:35

Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a God -centered focus reading, preaching and hearing the word of God singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs baptism and communion are the scriptural elements of their corporate worship performed with faith joy and sobriety discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace

58:02

.com that's gcbcnj .squarespace .com

58:09

or call them at 908 -996 -7654 that's 908 -996 -7654 tell

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That's liyfc .org When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005 the publishers of the

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And finally if you're looking to worship in a Reformed Church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham New York Again I'm Pastor Anthony Invinio and thanks for listening to these words of the

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from Chris Arntzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and we just have a few announcements before we are joined by the

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Photo Sisters who are our guests during the second hour of this program first of all you've been hearing the ads for the upcoming

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chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line and that's also the email address to send in a question for you for the photosisters who are our guests during the second hour of the program today the photosisters are going to be as I've been mentioning during the first half of this program they are going to be joining

01:13:09

Sovereign Grace music by providing music at the G3 conference coming up in Atlanta Georgia September 30th through October 2nd and I am so looking forward to that conference and I'm looking forward to hearing the

01:13:25

God glorifying music of Sovereign Grace music and Katie and Galen photo and it's my honor and privilege to welcome

01:13:33

Katie and Galen to Iron Trump and Zion radio for the very first time greetings sisters hi thank you so much for having us this afternoon oh it's my pleasure and what we like to do on this program if you heard during the first hour whenever we have first time guests on the program we have them give a summary of their salvation story beginning with what kind of religious atmosphere if any they were raised in and what kind of providential circumstances our

01:14:06

Sovereign Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and saved them and Katie why don't we start with you and if you could give us a summary of your salvation testimony absolutely that's a great question and I love that y 'all do that so I would say for me

01:14:21

I was I prayed the prayer when I was very young and after that for about 10 years

01:14:28

I constantly doubted my salvation going back and forth realizing and thinking in my heart

01:14:35

I understand the gospel more now than I did last time I prayed so maybe

01:14:41

I wasn't a believer last time so it was constant back and forth for me struggling with assurance until honestly the transformation and just the work that God did in our family's life of bringing us to the realization of the doctrines of grace and it was at that point understanding my total depravity and that it is

01:15:07

God who calls us it's not the actual prayer that saved and it was at that it's upon realizing that truth and that I would never be able to pray the prayer perfectly and that I would always be on a journey of understanding the gospel and who

01:15:33

I am as a sinner is a constant growing thing and I guess

01:15:42

I was about 20 years old I'm 26 now I guess it was about 20 years old that I realized that and understood that more fully so the actual time that God saved me is a little questionable but I know by the age of 20

01:16:00

I had no more doubts you know a lot of people tell me that my salvation is a bit questionable too no

01:16:06

I'm just kidding yeah so I don't know if any of that made sense but it's been a journey and our family hasn't always been of the reformed faith but I would say once he

01:16:21

I guess to use the jargon predestined us for that it has been life changing and yes

01:16:29

I've I'm a different person because of it understanding who

01:16:34

I am in Christ but who I am before Christ amen and if you could

01:16:40

Galen give us your story absolutely I think our stories will probably be similar because of course we were raised in the same home which was a very thankful to say

01:16:53

Christ centered godly home they were first generation Christians though our parents both of them were raised in very godless situations so we once they were saved they went to an assemblies of God church a

01:17:11

Methodist church they kind of hopped around but we were all born in a more independent fundamental

01:17:18

Baptist church which God used greatly in our lives but I think it did put a lot of emphasis as Katie said once you say the prayer once you are baptized that's it and I think it caused so much doubt because you continue to see the sin in your life and you feel like can a believer really continue in this way and continue to these sins and think these thoughts and so I prayed that prayer kind of like what they say walk down the aisle at 8 8 years old and you know

01:17:54

I always struggled with it because my two older sisters at this point I knew they were believers and I'm the youngest and I was the only one that wasn't so you kind of feel like oh goodness

01:18:02

I think I need to commit my life to the Lord because my sisters both have and I'm the only black sheep here you know and so I always struggled with that because I didn't know if it for the right reasons and I've already been baptized and was

01:18:16

I really even a believer once I was baptized and that was quite a struggle for a while but just as Katie said

01:18:23

I guess coming to the realization that the work is not our own and it's all completely the work of the Holy Spirit and once you realize that and are able to look back at the fruit that you see that he has produced in your life you realize that how arrogant of me is it to doubt the work that God has done if I truly know that I have believed a repentant of sin then

01:18:48

I have to believe in that work and trust that this is all part of the sanctification process so yeah

01:18:56

I'm sorry our stories aren't very drastically different from each other but that's kind of how it is in a nutshell and how old were you when you were saved?

01:19:06

8 years old oh wow and how old are you now? I'm 24 praise

01:19:14

God and in fact I believe I don't know if you are familiar with Dr. James R.

01:19:20

White of Alpha Omega Ministries absolutely yeah he's going to be at the

01:19:26

G3 conference but I believe he was 8 or younger when he is convinced with certainty he was saved and he got baptized not long after that which is a rarity in reformed

01:19:40

Baptist circles usually when you see a young person in the baptismal font they're usually in their teens at least but he was very young and of course he's a genius and was probably infinitely more intelligent than I am now at 59 years of old when he was 8 so I definitely know he was more intelligent than both of us combined he's one of our favorites every year at G3 that's great well how did you first get in touch or should

01:20:11

I say how did Josh Bice first get in touch with you and invite you to sing for the

01:20:18

G3 conference that's a great question I think you were right with the first order of saying how did we get in touch with Josh we had several people in our church

01:20:28

First Baptist Clinton Louisiana that went to G3 regularly and they would come back year after year just singing his praises raising about it and telling us you really should go so we were just interested in going to the conference as it was and then

01:20:48

I think somehow there were a couple of connections and our dad reached out to Josh Bice just more to say hey if you're needing any music help we'll be at the conference more type of deal and so we ended up just playing a couple of songs that first year and then have been back ever since and we love it really

01:21:10

G3 is an annual highlight for us and we count down the days as soon as the conference is over we start the 365 or whatever it is day countdown after that now you said

01:21:25

First Baptist Church of Clinton, Louisiana is that where Fred Malone is the pastor it is oh wow wow that's so cool what a small world yeah

01:21:35

I have interviewed Fred a couple of times I think we love brother

01:21:41

Fred and also Tom Hicks and Mitch Axum those are our three elders and just love all of them so much yeah his book on baptism is an absolute classic

01:21:58

I urge everyone whether you're a Baptist or a Pato Baptist to get that book because even if you're a

01:22:09

Pato Baptist you'll at least see the biblical argumentation that that Reformed Baptists use for our belief in credo baptism which is basically baptism of believers alone and I even loved before he even wrote that book his booklet that became his book

01:22:36

A String of Pearls Unstrung that was the precursor to his book and I'm really drawing a blank as far as the title of his current book the very massive book that he did but I'm sure that one of my listeners will remind me if you don't know the title of his

01:23:00

I'm afraid we're going blank as well but we are very honored and just feel so blessed to be able to be members of First Baptist Clinton and we've lived here for about 12 or no probably about 10 years we lived in Clinton Louisiana and passed that church multiple times and didn't start going to it until the last six years and it's a shepherding there and the care over your soul is incredible we wish we would have 10 years prior been going to this but God brought us on a journey six years ago and so that's how we're there now yes and just as I said a listener

01:23:49

BB in Cumberland County Pennsylvania let me know that the title of the book is of course

01:23:55

The Baptism of Disciples Alone yes that is the book and the the subtitle is

01:24:05

A Covenantal Argument for Credo Baptism vs. Paedo Baptism I urge everybody listening to get a hold of that book and you can get it at cvbbs .com

01:24:15

yes I do shamelessly plug my advertisers Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service cvbbs .com

01:24:22

you can get a hold of that book by Fred Malone now how did you both or when did you both growing up discover that you had this amazing talent to sing and I haven't even asked you yet if you perform the instruments in your music as well but how did you discover this musical ability well it kind of took us by surprise

01:24:46

I guess because we were home educated and mom and dad they are not musical

01:24:53

I can tell they could have been but they did not pursue it when they were young so as part of our home school education they put us in soccer, ballet and then a music class that just kind of fell at our doorstep they didn't even pursue it until we joined soccer fizzled out we were a bit emotional on the soccer field and then ballet also fizzled out but piano mom describes it as she had to actually tell us to stop practicing because we would literally just keep going and going for hours and so that just kind of started to domino and then some dear friends of ours that we were like our role models they were playing violin and so we wanted to play violin and anything to be like them was what our goal was and like even one of them broke her toe so we wanted to break our toe because it was so cool

01:25:56

I'm glad we didn't break our toes so we all started violin so now we were all doing piano and violin and our teacher at the time we were taking from really emphasized us playing together because then we started learning a lot of songs that we could all play together at the same time and then at that point our dad was working at leprosy hospital here in Louisiana and that's where he spent his whole career and so we would go and play for the leprosy patients there wow there's actually a leprosy hospital in the

01:26:33

United States there is a leprosy colony yeah a colony really and one of them is in Molokai Hawaii and the other one is here in Baton Rouge Louisiana wow both are government run but leprosy does have a cure now and so it's been retitled

01:26:53

Hansen's Disease after the doctor Dr. Hansen who discovered the cure for it because leprosy just kind of has a stigma people still kind of freak out when they hear it so they've kind of renamed it

01:27:05

Hansen's Disease but so we would go and play for the patients there and then our mom really had a heart for just the older generation so she would take us to nursing homes all the time and I guess at that point they really started just reminding us that it's never too late to share the gospel of Christ or never too young to share the gospel of all the ailments for someone to have what a biblical problem to bring the gospel to someone with that malady yeah so at that point everything just began to domino and someone would maybe be at the nursing home visiting their parent and they would hear us play and then they would invite us to come do something and other opportunities and doors would open and then

01:27:58

Galen started playing the cello and so then we kind of branched off into some other instruments and all our teachers were also involving us in different competitions and youth orchestra events and we were trained classically like we took from all classical teachers and trained in the whole symphony side of things but our heart all along was really to minister through music that had lyrics to it and so then we eventually started singing kind of after we had done the instruments for a while and so singing is the most recent thing for us but it's kind of where our heart is.

01:28:45

You know we love classical and it's great for technique but like Galen said there's nothing like a song with theology that speaks directly to the soul because a song sticks with you forever.

01:29:04

Even when it comes to scripture memory I know for me personally I have trouble remembering a lot of passages that I've memorized but if it's put to a song it'll stick and it sticks forever and so our true heart is in doctrinally sound songs that preach the gospel and encourage fellow believers.

01:29:28

Amen. Well I'm sorry you could continue what you were saying I interrupted you there. I was just adding to encourage believers to run the race and to be faithful to their calling.

01:29:41

Amen. Well I want to play the first song by you two and I understand that you used to be you three and one of your sisters got married.

01:29:52

She did. And now you're you two. Not the group you two.

01:30:00

The first song that I intend to play is

01:30:06

Sovereign Ruler of the Skies. Could you give us any background information before I play that song?

01:30:13

Oh sure. I was actually back in January of 2020. We were kind of going through a huge transition as you mentioned our oldest sister had just gotten married because she used to do this whole thing with us and she was leaving the group because she had twin boys on the way and knew she was her upper hands full.

01:30:37

And so we were kind of going through this big transition of whether or not we should continue going and both

01:30:42

Katie and I kind of felt like the Lord placed heavily on our hearts the message of Christ holding us fast and him keeping us to the end.

01:30:52

So basically in our minds perseverance, perseverance to saints was kind of what was on our hearts.

01:31:00

And at that point we started looking for songs that kind of had that theme, really encompassed what we were looking for.

01:31:07

To get back in the studio and record a new album. Right. And so then we're picking songs and then

01:31:13

March of 2020 hits and of course we all know what happened there for a while. And so it really gave us time to just sit and pray more about, okay

01:31:23

Lord specifically, even more specific, what are these songs? And we were scrolling

01:31:29

Facebook one day and we came across this lyric our pastor posted and it was of an old hymn written back in 1777 by Matt Ryland.

01:31:40

Or John Ryland. John Ryland, yes. And as soon as we heard it, it was kind of like, that's it, we have to do something with that one.

01:31:48

And it was the lyrics to Sovereign Ruler. So we took it and adjusted some of the lyrics to make them a little bit more singable and added a tune, added a chorus and it has just kind of been one of our favorites every day since.

01:32:02

So that's the short of the backstory to Sovereign Ruler. Amen. And here it is folks,

01:32:07

Sovereign Ruler of the Skies by the Photo Sisters. Sovereign Ruler of the

01:32:18

Skies Ever gracious Ever wise All my times are in your hands

01:32:29

All events at your command History has decreed who formed the earth

01:32:38

Fixed my first and second birth Now my life to Him I owe

01:32:47

Where He leads me I will go

01:32:52

Ever faithful Ever true Keep my heart to only you

01:33:02

Since I cannot part from thee Sovereign Ruler ever be

01:33:12

Plagues and deaths around me fly

01:33:18

Till He bids I cannot die

01:33:24

Not a single shot can hit Till the

01:33:30

God of love thinks fit Times the tempter's power to prove

01:33:37

Times to taste the Saviour's love

01:33:43

All must come and last to live

01:33:48

I shall please my Heavenly Friend Ever faithful Ever true

01:33:57

Keep my heart to only you Since I cannot part from thee

01:34:07

Sovereign Ruler ever be He that formed me in the womb

01:34:25

He shall guide me to the tomb All my time shall ever be

01:34:38

Ordered by His wise decree Ever faithful Ever true

01:34:48

Keep my heart to only you

01:34:54

Since I cannot part from thee Sovereign Ruler ever be

01:35:04

Ever faithful Ever true Keep my heart to only you

01:35:13

Since I cannot part from thee Sovereign Ruler ever be

01:35:23

Thee at all times will

01:35:29

I bless Having thee I all possess

01:35:36

Since I cannot part from thee Sovereign Ruler ever be

01:36:07

Ever true Keep my heart to only you I cannot part from thee

01:36:14

Sovereign Ruler ever be heart to only you Since I cannot part thee

01:36:31

Sovereign Ruler ever to I cannot from thee

01:36:37

Sovereign Ruler ever be

01:36:47

Ever true Keep my heart to only you

01:37:30

Sovereign Ruler ever

01:37:36

Ever true my ever be together.

01:38:14

Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman, and I invite you to come and join us here at Linbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.

01:38:20

Call Linbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402, that's 516 -599 -9402, or visit linbrookbaptist .org,

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That's hopereformedli .net. Or call 631 -696 -5711.

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That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York, that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.

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01:43:13

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01:44:36

Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen, and we are interviewing the Photo Sisters, who are going to be providing some of the music at the

01:44:45

G3 Conference, where I will be manning an exhibitor's booth once again, in Atlanta, Georgia, September 30th through October 2nd.

01:44:56

We are going to play a song, one of the songs that your father specifically selected for us to play.

01:45:04

If you could set us up with some information behind the instrumental that your dad wanted us to play called

01:45:10

Solid Rock. Yeah, that was arranged by a dear friend and producer of ours,

01:45:19

David Molina. He composed all of those, and I guess just a little technical behind it is each of us stacked three times.

01:45:27

So, Galen played three different cello parts, and then I played three different violin parts. But, along the theme of our most recent album called

01:45:37

Faithful, just being the theme of Christ holding us fast, we realized how fitting the

01:45:44

Solid Rock was to that message that we wanted to share through the songs.

01:45:52

So, people already know the general lyric of it, and so we realized we could just keep it instrumental and let people enjoy it that way.

01:46:01

But, I think especially part of the third verse is what stood out to us and made us decide it, because it says, when all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.

01:46:14

And so, the Solid Rock was an immediate for us, and we knew it needed to go on the new album.

01:46:20

And here it is, Solid Rock. Hallelujah!

01:49:40

What a beautiful song, as all of these songs have been. And, I just want to let you know that we have been getting emails from listeners who have no questions.

01:49:51

They just want to praise God for the gifts that you have been given.

01:49:58

And they want you to know we have Cindy in Findlay, Ohio, and Aaron in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and CJ in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, and Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York.

01:50:19

All of them have been sending in praise to our God because of the music they are hearing.

01:50:26

Well, praise the Lord. Yeah, that is the only place that praise can go to. We do have time for one question before we play our final song of the day.

01:50:38

We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who asks,

01:50:43

There are churches that hire musicians and singers that are not even regenerate to sing and perform, and I am purposely using the term perform instead of worship.

01:50:58

What is your opinion on unregenerate people being invited to a church or even being hired by a church to sing and perform music to the congregation?

01:51:09

Yeah, that is an amazing question. I know that you had Bob Coughlin on earlier, and I feel like he would be better equipped to answer something like that since he has written so much on that topic.

01:51:22

We have had many family discussions, believe it or not, on that because we have been in many situations where we are playing alongside of non -believers at a church or Sunday morning service.

01:51:33

And I think personally I just don't see any way around it being a wrong situation because if we are really boiling it down, what we are doing in worship or what should be is lifting up the beauty and glory of Christ.

01:51:50

So if an unbeliever, which we know an unbeliever cannot do that, so I do think it taints the purity of worship when that is involved.

01:52:04

I know many people kind of say the excuse of, well, use it as a chance to minister to those people, and we have even talked to people personally where they had a story where that was used kind of in the conversion of someone's life.

01:52:22

And you know, the Lord uses whatever means it takes to bring those to Himself.

01:52:29

But if you look at the truest definition of what a

01:52:35

Sunday morning church service is, it's the worship of the believers. It's not

01:52:41

God can use it to bring others to Himself through the preaching of the Word and the

01:52:46

Gospel and music that contains the Gospel, but the purpose being for the edification of the body.

01:52:53

And how can that happen if unbelievers are being used to attempt to edify believers?

01:53:00

I guess that was kind of a mouthful, but I believe personally, and I would love to hear other people's thoughts on the matter, but a

01:53:12

Sunday morning worship should be led by believers. Amen.

01:53:18

So glad that you gave that answer. Well, we are out of time, unfortunately, but we're going to close with your song that is titled,

01:53:31

He Will Hold Me Fast. And I want to make sure, first of all, that I give your website for any of our listeners who want to order your music, photosisters .com.

01:53:42

That's F -O -T -O, sisters .com. And don't forget about the G3 Conference this fall where they will be providing worship music along with Sovereign Grace music.

01:53:54

G3conference .com, that's September 30th through October 2nd. Do you want to give us any information about He Will Hold Me Fast?

01:54:06

Sure. I mean, at the beginning of our brainstorming process for our most recent album, that was a must.

01:54:14

That was the only song that we knew was going on there. We didn't know the four others, but that was the only one from the outset.

01:54:22

We were like, no matter what happens, this one is on there. So that's basically the gist of it.

01:54:27

And I think the very title of that song is what the entire album is wrapped around.

01:54:33

He, Christ, will hold us fast. And over and over does that song bring me to tears because it's just such a wonderful truth and we love it so much.

01:54:43

Praise God. And since this is the final song of the day, is this the photo finish? I've never heard that one before.

01:54:52

All right. Here it is. He Will Hold Me Fast. And thanks for listening, everybody.

01:54:59

And I hope you always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.

01:55:05

And if the photo sisters could hold on the line because I'd like to give you a proper goodbye over the phone.

01:55:11

Absolutely. We'll be right back with you. Here it is. He Will Hold Me Fast. He will hold me fast.

01:55:53

I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path.

01:56:04

For my love is soft and cold. He must hold me fast.

01:56:20

Those he saves are his delight. Christ will hold me fast.

01:56:30

Precious in his holy sight. He will hold me fast.

01:56:40

He'll not let my soul be lost. His promises shall last.

01:56:50

Brought by him at such a cost. He will hold me fast.

01:57:02

He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast.

01:57:10

For my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast.

01:57:39

He bled and died. Christ will hold me fast.

01:57:47

Justice has been satisfied. He will hold me fast.

01:57:57

Raised with him to win. He will hold me fast.

01:58:07

Till our fate. He will hold me fast.

01:58:32

He will hold me fast.

01:58:51

For my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast.

01:59:09

I learned to trust him. Precious Jesus, Savior, friend.

01:59:23

And I know he's with me.

01:59:35

With me to the end.